Recently, someone close to me, who is doing an Irish Diploma in UCD came to me quite worried and asking for my help… and not with their Gaeilge either!
It’s a night course once a week and seems to be very popular with everyone doing… up until the other day. It’s exam time and nothing strange there but what is odd is that University College Dublin announced to the unsuspecting diploma students that they would be required to not only do a written exam, but also give a Powerpoint presentation to the class… even though most of the class had never even heard of Powerpoint.
Like everything, Powerpoint is easy enough to use if someone has explained it and you’ve had a good bit of time to get used to using… but to give someone a week or two of notice and not only expect them to have their gaeilge correct but also expect them to magically acquire computer skills is crazy. Surely Microsoft Powerpoint would have more relevance on a computer diploma! Are UCD trying to turn what is essentially a great course into a very bad experience of Irish?
I mentioned this to a Gaeilgeoir friend of mine and their response was “we didn’t even have to do THAT for our Degree course . Powerpoint… Ta siad as a meabhair!”.
Hey Patrick,
Interesting post. Unusual why UCD would turn around so late in the course to look for something like that.
Either way if it needs to be done, it needs to be done.
If it’s any use to your readers and friends, TechRepublic have a page on converting MS Word document into Powerpoint 2007. It should be of use to those students who find it easy to use Word.
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/msoffice/?p=468
Kevin.
http://www.internetmoney.ie
Ouch. As an ex-pat UCD head I vouch for the fact that any ignorance on that sort of thing is due to the money being spent… elsewhere.
Thanks K8 for comment! It’s one of the strangest things I’ve ever heard! UCD are normally very cool as are the “leachtoiri” in the Irish department… It’s just a very odd end to a particularly good course (dioploma sa Ghaeilge Fheidhmeach)!