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Student days

I am a graduate of the DCU distance education programme.  I took the Introductory Module for IT in 1989 and began the Diploma course in 1990.  I decided with some fellow students on the course to take six years to do the course - three for the Diploma and three for the Degree. When I started the course, I was thirty three, had three children, a wife, a full time job and a reasonably busy social life!  Because of this, I felt it was better to go for a longer term and hoped to get a good degree without completely destroying my life.  My fellow students were of like mind, which helped greatly.  We formed a small study group and made sure to take the same modules at the same time - this enabled us to help each other throughout the course.  The plan worked and I gained my Diploma (with distinction) in 1994 and was conferred with my Degree (a first!) in March 1997. And, believe it or not, I still had a wife, three children, a full time job and a slightly less hectic social life at the end of it all!  Unfortunately, I was seven years older and had the scars, lines and grey hairs to prove it.

Riding the Celtic Tiger

When I started my third level studies (I completed my second level education in 1975), I was working in the Computer Department of a large public organisation.  My motivation in pursuing the degree was mainly to improve my knowledge and understanding of technology; I really had no greater ambitions.  However, as the course progressed and I began to achieve good results, I felt that the course might offer me more.  By the time I completed the Degree and was conferred in 1997, I was already under consideration for a number of jobs in the public and private sectors.  Eventually, I accepted a position with one of the Big 5 accountancy firms, where I am now a Director.  There is no doubt that the degree helped me to gain employment in the private sector and enabled me to become part of the success story that is the Celtic Tiger.

I believe firmly that success on this course can improve anybody's prospects of advancement, whether in existing or potential jobs.  Equally, the course might simply help you to understand the all-pervasive technology that is so much a part of our lives today.  With its breadth of coverage, I feel that the course really contributes to our understanding of technology in its application and in its effects on society and the workplace.

Tutor days

I began teaching the Introductory Module in 1997 and the Computing Level 1 Module in 1998 and have taken classes in all semesters since then.  Just as when I was studying for the Degree, I threaten each year to give up tutoring because of the time it takes out of my already-squeezed leisure time.  But for some reason - and I assure you it is not financial - I always go back to it.  I suppose it is the thought of all those bright, receptive minds - just like sponges - waiting to soak up the knowledge I can impart ---------------- NOT!!!!!!!!!!!