Category: E-Learning

I have been watching many old documentaries on catch up tv on my ipad.  This is a constant pleasure and all the more because I never know what’s going to pop up on screen at any one time.  There is one series based around London, made between 1965 and 1991.  Just odd sequences of black and white film showing all kinds of London areas.  Covent Garden fruit market costa mongers, then it might jump to Borough Market or Petticoat Lane market.  These social history documentaries are a truly inspiration lesson to all generations – take pictures, videos and keep records of how we live now.   Learning how to read the history behind the lens is vital for all kinds of subjects.  When you take up a software training package, knowing how to read properly what you see in front of you is not something we always appreciate at the time.  Learning to learn is the key.

We are hearing all the time about the changes in secondary age education in the uk.  There have been many changes  with local education authorities being swept away with their school responsibilities replaced by government funded academies and free schools.   Teaching schemes and new style methods of learning were intended to free up the beaurocracies that stifled so much of the education system – apparently preventing the free thinking and learning that is needed.  What is more of a problem is the very limited curiculum that only teaches children to complete exams to a very high level, but completely misses out everything that isn’t on this very rigid proscriptive method.  For a youngster to get a fully rounded education in all subjects and to enter university fully equipped for a career focused degree course, they can help themselves with online courses and more robust teaching of the missing elements.

I always find it quite a challenge to learn a new skill or task without having it demonstrated clearly, preferably by another human being, or very often these days, on video.  Some folk find learning and all educational schemes in book form to be perfectly easy to follow and enjoy – the more academic amongst us I feel.  I’m not sure if my seriously left handed bias, causing a lifelong lack of co-ordination and balance could have something to do with a constant struggle to get the gist when trying to read instructions and carry out the required or desired activity.  For me then, the advent of e-learning and other means of online educational facilities would have been an absolute boon when I was at school – it’s too late for me to take any of the fantastic choice of career focused online courses but for younger colleagues – life is for grabbing and e-education gets you there quicker.