What I learnt in week one!

So I have now finished my first week of lectures and seminars - how has it gone?

Well, it has been quite a shock in a number of ways. At the moment, more or less everyone is still "shopping around" the courses attending five or six before they have to select the three they want to focus on (by October 24th I think). So there is a high level of intensity at the moment from everyone as they rush around attending everything. I have much more flexibility as I have two years and so don't even need to make a decision this academic year!

The interplay between modern technology and the courses has been a very mixed area for me. This seems to be a period of rapid change for LSE with lots of material moving onto a new "learning module" with the rather strange name of "Moodle". Lecture notes, course guides, seminar schedules, papers to be read, etc all filter through Moodle to some degree (though some material remains on the so-called "Public Folders" - the previous system). So far, I have not got used to interacting with Moodle and on a couple of occasions have been lacking information that others have found. I am slowly getting better at this.

And these days, there is no hunting through the library for journal articles. Most of the course material is either available for download via Moodle or is prepared into a paper "course pack" which either the student union or the library have copied (typical price is £20 which seems a bit high, but they are big packs). Not sure whether I agree with this trend - it does mean that there is a much lower incentive to just look through the library. I intend to work my way through the Lakatos collection myself - who knows what interesting stuff might be lurking there which I wouldn't find otherwise?

LSE itself is not too dissimilar to how I remember it really. There are a few extra buildings (of which the main one is the very swanky "New Academic Building"). The library has been completely rebuilt inside and, to my mind, wastes an incredible amount of space with its huge spiral staircase (as does the NAB I think). Most students seem to work on the workstations in the basement - or at least these always seem to be taken. I haven't worked out that aspect of LSE IT yet and have no idea about how to use this stuff - indeed, it is not clear to me what kind of work they are doing. When I occasionally walk past such a workstation, it is usually Facebook that I see!

And the students still seem predominantly international (which was always one of the great attractions of LSE to my mind). The other day I was asked in the library whether I could help an African guy to take out some books from the Course Collection. His English wasn't very good but he seemed very pleased when it all worked out correctly. The single largest "ethnic group" seem to be Asian women - but I could easily be wrong about this!

For me personally, the age issue has loomed larger than it might have done. I had sometimes thought I'd be able to just "hang out" with some of my fellow course attendees but it has felt a little strange when I have done so. On the one hand, I do worry that they will feel negative about my presence on the course. On the other hand, at least my enthusiasm for my subjects is not looked on as really odd, as it is outside of college. In fact, that point is pretty important - one overriding feeling is just how "at home" I do feel in this sort of environment - in contrast to every other environment I find myself in.