Category: VLE Software

I’ve been happily taking interest in my neighbour’s son who seems to be a complete whizz-kid where computer games is concerned.  He knows all the titles – of the ones appropriate for his age group, of course.  He was born into the computer world – nothing seems odd or diffiuclt for him to attempt.  In fact, he is absolutely fearless and will have a go at any game scenario etc.  This is very good because it opens his eyes to all kinds of opportunities of learning in other ways.  He is definitely not one for hours of copying out lesson plans, comprehensive ‘work schedules’ for each subject.  He can literally log on, look at the game and know instinctively how to operate those hand gizmos and get stuck into the game without a seconds thought.   To help him achieve greater academic stability, his parents have invested in several online tutoring courses so he is comfortable with all aspects of the national testing programme for his age group.

When you get to a certain age, there is a tendency to panic at the thought of anything more challenging than learning to play scrabble or sudoko it seems.  I go to healthy walking group regularly and the rest of our group is mixed but mostly over 60s – it being a weekday.  I have made it a point to engage lots of the walkers in general conversation regarding their past careers, and what made them do this and that.  They don’t seem to mind.  I am fascinated by how each person has reached any particular pinnacle of success and how they did so.  What is obvious is so many miss the discipline of going to work and the training courses they may have attended in latter years.   Many of my pals have taken up a real variety of training opportunities with U3A for example – and the world is very much their oyster.

There is such a lot of talk these days about the need for further education, going to university seems to be the be all and end all of the upper school education system.   Sometimes there are good reasons why not to take up a university place – maybe an apprenticeship opportunity comes along – that offers first class on the job training and a small paypacket.  After the 5 or 7 years, the candidate becomes a proud and fully trained motor mechanic, plumber or other vital trade.

As with all of life’s conundrums, careful thought has to be given to the benefits that might come from a specific career focused degree course.  For example, nursing – at one time a student nurse did training in the nursing school, then weeks on the ward and then back to the school for finals.  They were paid as working student nurses.   All these career based courses rely on continual top up training, usually online to keep development going.