Don's diary

Monday

Mixed feelings about my lot. The usual news of traffic jams and bad weather to delight the heart of the home worker but irritation that the "server is down" and therefore my virtual existence is extinguished at Milton Keynes. Knowledge working has many advantages over the conventional model but it does depend upon the Internet running smoothly.

In January 1996 when I had just joined the Open University as an Instill lecturer (Integrate New Systems and Technologies Into Lifelong Learning), I could not see how the Internet could be a substitute for face-to-face relationships. Following a difficult first year of feeling isolated, rudderless and (sometimes) forgotten, I have become a convert and now seek every opportunity to move meetings etc into cyberspace and thus reduce my need to make the 100-mile journey to "work". So much conventional dialogue is actually wasted time. I am furious when I make the journey to OU to find the meeting of no formative or informative value. I am getting more skilful at recognising these at a distance. Today should have been an administration day connecting various courses and course managers to make sure deadlines are being met but, without email, I shall instead return to the rewrite of my book, although not without a sense of unease about the loss of communication. What is building up for me out there?

Tuesday

A bleak day. The Internet is back but with it comes a mountain of messages and a tidal wave of demands. Suddenly I feel attacked from all sides and, without the chance to go and have a whinge to colleagues about problems and opportunities, this leaves me feeling vulnerable and shaky - the office has come roaring into my home. The worst thing is the personality-less nature of email. Is a remark intended to be barbed? Do I need to build bridges and mend fences or is it just that my chum has written "in haste"? The only response is to send out pleasant notes and hope the storm will pass. I wish people would not send out enormous file attachments without warning, it took my machine about 20 minutes to download a file which, having glanced at, I binned! Put down Piaget and pick up Winnie the Pooh, my son is off nursery school.

Wednesday

Working on my new management information systems course all day. The course manager and I have a chat on the phone and exchange versions of Block two via email. The block is just about up-to-speed but I am still new at this game and worry about the material being adequate for distance learning. All those years teaching first years have not prepared me for the rigour and discipline required for good distance teaching. It looks fine to me, bite the bullet and sign it off for editing and production.

Thursday

Every cloud . . . Today is a day to build off. As usual I turn on the Mac at 6.30am and set the off-line reader to download the email that has developed since 9pm yesterday - usually stuff from American colleagues and friends. The hour's work before breakfast and the school-run is often the best hour of the day. Looking out of the window at the sun shining on the Norfolk countryside one can really appreciate the appeal of this lifestyle. It is the reverse image of Tuesday. All seems in order, the routing of messages around colleagues in Milton Keynes, Plymouth and Manchester seems sound and I feel in control, remote but in control. A jog at lunchtime and reading through drafts in the afternoon, great. By 7pm I can begin again with a late burst. It's the day for it . . . sometimes you feel inspired to work late by the ease of the system; sometimes you feel flat and dispirited by the one-dimensional quality of cyber-relationships.

Friday

Best day of the week usually. A time for tying up loose ends and working out any relationship issues. Often my time is spent on the phone talking people through the various ventures we share. All my work is in cyberspace: co-authoring books, receiving and sending materials concerning external examining, drafts for journals as well as the usual work issues such as course development and administration. In all there are hundreds of people to maintain a relationship with and it has to be achieved via email and phone. I dread the day I need to work with a technophobe.

Saturday

Kids, gardening, swimming and, of course, email. Work never goes away and I usually take time over the weekend to make some quality inputs on my course monitoring. I monitor one course for third-level students which means I look in on the student and tutor and try to be helpful. Sometimes I just add an endorsement to a tutor comment or pass on some information, sometimes I need to let people know quietly that bad behaviour (flaming as we call it) is not acceptable. The amazing thing is that the email coffee shop works well. Students chat and share ideas, tutors make some interesting comments and the sense of community is very powerful. The way of things to come? I hope so.

Simon Bell is an Instill lecturer in the systems department, Open University, s.g.bell@open.ac.uk.