How to Learn Online – Silver Surfer Style
It’s Silver Surfers’ Day on 21st May 2010, and our contribution is to open our mini-course, How To Learn Online for free. It will be available from 19th May 2010, and will be supported by a tutor. All you need to do is to complete the form on the page:
Supporting Silver Surfers at the NCS Online College
Where you will find out more about it.
There’s a 10% discount on any of our online courses for anyone who registers for this event.
The iPad – a real device for learning?
The iPad. At last: a bit of learning technology kit that won’t get in the way of learning. Finally, a device that will actually enhance learning, and in my particular interest, online learning at home.
Tae the Immortal Memory
Robert Burns
A happy Burns’ Nicht tae ane an’ a.’ We’re looking forward tae oor haggis and champit neeps and tatties and we hope you can join in too. If none of this makes any sense to you, may we recommend a visit to the online Scots dictionary. And if that rouses your interest in things Scottish, why not try a course of Scottish History with the New Curiosity Shop.
If tonight you are having your first Burns’ Supper, there are full instructions here at rabbie-burns.com. Have fun.
Universities Play Catch-up to the OU at 40
The Open University is forty years old this year and is still the world leader for distance learning. That the OU has been moving in the correct direction all this time is borne out by the number of online and distance learning courses offered by the traditional institutions as they learn how to do things the OU way.
At the New Curiosity Shop, we couldn’t agree more. Why travel to a bricks and mortar institution when you can learn in the comfort of your own home?
Space Probe Photographs Apollo Sites
What a way to celebrate 40 years since Apollo 11 landed on the Moon! The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been passing over the old Apollo landing sites and has sent back images in which you can just make out the descent stages of the old lunar modules.
The Apollo 11 Lunar Module Descent Stage
Activity at the Apollo 14 landing site
For full details about these images and higher resolution pictures, visit the LRO site.
New Season for Genealogy Show
The BBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are” begins a new series tonight, with an investigation into the family history of presenter Davina McCall. This series will guide celebrities through their family trees, delving into history as we go.
If it puts you in the mood for finding some ancestors, why not try our History and Genealogy courses like Family History Begins At Home?
England Running Out Of Student Places
Phil Willis, chairman of the Commons select committee covering higher education, says a cap on student places in England will result in thousands of teenagers going on the dole instead of continuing their education. Increased funding of student places is inadequate to keep track of the big increase in applications this year.
This seems to contradict the governments own policy of having 40% of all adults in England with a University education by 2020.
OU Call for Volunteers
Centre for Human Ecology
Centre for Human Ecology graduate Helen Jeans has been running an exciting new project which needs participants! Would you like to get involved?
Helen writes: “The Open University is developing a new Internet site to support collaborative learning called SocialLearn. The pilot version of SocialLearn is focused on climate change as part of the Open University’s Learning to Live with Climate Change Programme which facilitates social learning processes as a way of building understanding, consensus and concerted action on climate change. Both SocialLearn and Learning to Live with Climate Change are global programmes.”
Learn more at the Centre for Human Ecology.
Don’t Underestimate The Love Of Learning
Former Education Secretary David Blunkett has come out in defence of the adult need for learning. Writing in the Guardian on Tuesday, Blunkett cites the positive influence of adult learning on performance in the workplace and in the performance of children of adult learners in school as powerful arguments for the support of adults in education. The benefits do not just come from vocational training as all education, even recreational learning, motivate and develop people throughout their lives.
Space Station Crew Increases To Six
The first 6 strong crew of ISS
The International Space Station crew is awaiting the arrival of three new members that will usher in an era of six-person crews aboard the orbiting laboratory. Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Bob Thirsk launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft Wednesday morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Soyuz is scheduled to dock with the station today. The trio will join station Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Mike Barratt of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to form the Expedition 20 crew. It will mark the first time all five partner agencies are represented by astronauts on the station at the same time.
The expanded crew of the International Space Station will discuss the start of six-person operations in a news conference on Monday. The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the NASA Web site.
For full reports on the International Space Station, visit the ISS site.
