In previous years, the awards were only open to support staff and full-time central academic staff which is reflected in the headline for the article of “AL’s honoured at last.” Alas, while I am mentioned by name in the article, they don’t say very much about any of us. For example, about me. all they said is “Winnings [sic] ALs pictured are … TT280 and TT281 tutor Michelle Hoyle.” Yep, that’s it. We all had a few words in the article.

The cheque arrived in the most recent pay advice and I’m busy plotting what “personal” and “professional” self-development use I can put it to. I’ve started with a new pedometer and a new scale (waiting for the bank transfer to clear and that to be shipped still), and am trying to justify one of those new AirPort Express portable wireless stations with support for streaming to my stereo. I was also considering retroactively including the cost of my rather expensive Rosetta Stone language learning software for German; that’s definitely personal development.

Oh, the agony of deciding!

A part-time DPhil student in the Informatics department has won a national Associate Lecturer Teaching Award from the Open University (OU). Michelle Hoyle started teaching in the OU’s Faculty of Technology in May 2000 and delivers internet technology courses, primarily online. The award will be presented on 20 April at a ceremony in Milton Keynes and comes with £1,000 to be used for personal and/or professional development.

It’s also on the front page of the Informatics web site at the university. It’s my 15 minutes of fame this year. (-:

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That still left the hundred words to be written. I reviewed my original award application material and put together the following:

Michelle focuses on Internet technology courses delivered primarily on-line. In TT280/TT281 (Design, Development, and Management/Client-Side Scripting), she provides extensive guidance through the development of supplementary course materials, in-depth FAQs, and a strong breadth of knowledge. She is a passionate communicator about technology, believing technology is sometimes only as difficult as people make it. Therefore, demonstrating a belief that students can achieve is a key to student success. In computing and technology, where women are scarce, she is a visible role model that women can succeed well in these traditionally male-dominated fields even if they have tangible weaknesses to overcome.

Once I had that out of the way, I decided I might as well go whole hog and e-mail the The Bulletin as suggested by Thufir. Not being familiar with the publication and what information they might require, I probably went overboard.

Greetings and Felicitations.

I’m a part-time D.Phil. student in the IDEAs Lab in Informatics. My supervisor suggested that I contact The Bulletin as I’ve just won (or will shortly be awarded) an Associate Lecturer Teaching Award for excellence in teaching at the Open University, one of two awards to be given out at the national faculty level in my faculty.

In order to win the award, I was competing against all associate lecturers in the Faculty of Technology at the Open University across the United Kingdom. While I’m not sure how many ALs that is in total, I do know that my own region has about 50-60 ALs alone in Technology. The award will be presented on the 20th of April in a ceremony at Milton Keynes and comes with a �1000 to be used for personal/professional development.

Here’s a personal statement I wrote for the OU about myself with respect to the things I’ve done to win this award:

Michelle focuses on Internet technology courses delivered primarily on-line. In TT280/TT281 (Design, Development, and Management/Client-Side Scripting), she provides extensive guidance through the development of supplementary course materials, in-depth FAQs, and a strong breadth of knowledge. She is a passionate communicator about technology, believing technology is sometimes only as difficult as people make it. Therefore, demonstrating a belief that students can achieve is a key to student success. In computing and technology, where women are scarce, she is a visible role model that women can succeed well in these traditionally male-dominated fields even if they have tangible weaknesses to overcome.

I started at the Open University in May of 2000. During my tenure, I’ve taught:

M150 Feb 2004
T171 Feb 2003, Feb 2002, Feb 2001, May 2000
TT280 Oct 2002, May 2002
TT281 Oct 2003, May 2003
TU170 Feb 2002
Course Team Work TT280/TT281 Feb 2003

M150 is Data, Computing and Information
T171 is You, Your Computer, and the Net
TU170 is Learning Online: Computing with Confidence
TT280 is Web Basics: Design, Development & Management
TT281 is The Client Side of Application of Development

The award is for my efforts over the span of my OU career so far and not just the last year.

I’m not sure what else I can tell you that might be helpful or interesting. If you have any questions, please do ask. E-mail is the best way to contact me. I can provide a photo if you need one.

OK. I did get a bit unfocused and go overboard, but I find it so difficult to write positive things about myself. Whatever hapened to the adage “the Rabbi who praises himself has a
congregation of one”?