I was invited recently to a roundtable discussion on technology in education, unfortunately I was unable to attend however they sent me this video and I’m pretty blown away with some of the content. If this is the future then I’m pretty glad that Erin is the age she is now. Well worth a look for any parents interested in education.

Open University

I’ve now completed the first section of study on the Open University course and submitted the first of four TMA’s (tutor marked assessment). The first TMA was only 500 words which I thought was a bit ridiculous, the first assessment for the social science course was 800 words. I completed the case study and submitted it for marking, the results came back and my first reaction was dissapointment, I did far better on my first TMA on the social science course, however the comments from the tutor were pretty good and friends (ex-students) have said that it was fine, it’s also only worth 10% of the overall mark. I got 66%.

I’m now working on the section covering human resource management, which has been hard going it’s not the most interesting (for me) topic, although I did enjoy the bit about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I’m now in the process of writing the second TMA.

The Degree

In November I applied for an entrepreneurship and marketing management degree at a university in Edinburgh. To help my chances I updated my application to include four other associated courses and last week I received a response – five unconditional offers.
To say I was flabbergasted was an understatement. I’ve accepted my first choice and look forward to enrolling in September

A few weeks ago a large box arrived. In the bottom right hand corner ‘Urgent: Educational Materials’ as in quickly, get this girl an education The box was of course from the Open University and carried five books, a study companion and a laptop style bag with the words ‘OU Business School’ on the front. This is what ?160 gets you from the Open University (well ?360 if you don’t get the ?200 grant).

I studied social science with the open university last year, this time it’s business studies, combined they’ll add up to an HNC which *should* be enough to get me into university. In fact I applied for university a few weeks ago to do a degree in entrepreneuship and marketing. I only applied for one course which I think may have been a bit of an error on my part. I’m considering looking into seeing if I can add extra choices, possibly business management or marketing and digital media.

Saturday was my first day school, last year the tutor days were only in the morning, this one was 10am-4pm. It was a good day mostly focused on an introduction to studying and a few small exercises. It was also the first time I’ve admitted to blogging in public, we had to reveal two interesting facts and one of mine was about this blog, it felt very strange!

Erin finally started nursery on Monday, she was due to start in April but the class was full so she was more than ready. On their first day they only stay for an hour which was a big dissappointment to her, it was difficult to drag her away, it was a beautiful day and she was happily playing in the garden. The teacher said she’d had a great time and that it was as if she’d been there for years! I couldn’t help but feel proud, it’s really important to me that she enjoys school, as I did.

Yesterday was her first full day, she kept checking with me that she’d be spending the whole afternoon there, I only hope she’s as keen in a few years time

We moved house a couple of years back and one of our main motivations was the excellent schools in the area and that’s really paying off now The nursery and primary school had excellent reports, with ‘above average’ results. We’ve been very lucky to be able to afford a house in an area with such good schools, even the high school has a good reputation. Ussually the priviledge of a good school comes at a price, but we seem to have stumbled across a well kept secret! Plus the fact we employed the ethos of ‘living in the worst house in the best street’

How’s everyonelse’s ‘back to school’ going?

The Daily Mail had a piece on the future changes to the national curriculum last week. The article was from the angle of children as young as eleven being taught about gay relationships.

Here is the new proposed curriculum;

Age 4 – 7

Age 9 – 11

Age 11 – 14

Source: Daily Mail

The Daily Mail has focused in on a perceived negative in their article when actually I think there’s a lot to be pleased about in this proposal. I particularly like the entrepreneurial theme that runs through the curriculum, including the ‘managing your money’ section, so many are in a dire situation at the moment and not all of it can be blamed on the economy. Poor money management has surely contributed to some of the issues many face. Formal teaching in this area is surely advantageous to us as a society.

I also appreciate the focus on health, perhaps we as parents need to be a little more accepting of the sex education bit. They may be our babies but they are future adult citizens who will be free to act in any way they please with only their knowledge and (hopefully) morals to guide them. More knowledge is better than less, no?

Finally, I don’t really get the big deal with learning about gay relationships at eleven anyway, am I on my own here?

My social science course with the Open University (OU) started in May. The first ‘package’ arrived late in April and included workbooks, cd’s, dvd’s, study pamphlets and the main course books. To be honest it all looked a little intimidating and I wondered where to start, until I found the most important document – the study calendar.

The study calendar provides a week by week guide as to where you should be on the course and what you need to achieve to stay on target. I started at Week 1 and tentatively turned to the corresponding materials, in hindsight I needn’t have worried, the way the course is laid out is excellent – way beyond my expectations. Each stage leads onto the next, nurturing you from ‘headless chicken student’ into ‘I’m in control student’, and that’s after only 5 weeks!

The materials are varied as mentioned above and of excellent quality, each study period can involve a multi-medial approach which I find keeps the course fresh and interesting. My course is split into four sections divided as such by the Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA) due at the end of each “block”. The TMA is sent and returned with tutor notes to help you improve, I’ve just received my first back and was pleased to see a score of 80%, there’s a long way to go but at least it’s a start.

I’d highly recommend anyone who has ever considered doing something similar to look into it. I’ve found it easy to manage around other commitments and it’s worth mentioning again that this course hasn’t cost me anything as it was fully funded, the next will probably cost me a couple of hundred pounds but I definitely think it’s worth it.

I haven’t done a post for review me for ages, perhaps a year or more – however, this offer really caught my imagination.

LVUTV

It’s basically a website that has collated the information of colleges across America into an easy digestible format for prospective students. Students can study the wealth of information and make comparisons before settling on a shortlist.

You can search for colleges by a number of criteria, including rank, state and size. Each college website offers various other information including the basics such as address and phone number through to the average cost of supplies and selectivity. The site offers a dedicated facility to make college comparisons based on statistical data – this alone would be an invaluable tool.

But there’s more…perhaps the most exciting feature is the student reviews – short video clips of students providing the insider knowledge that can only be gleaned from those in the know, like what the classes are like, where the best bars are, and what the general atmosphere is like. This feature also has a search function, so you can type in anything you like and it will find the most appropriate video clips.

I think LVUTV is invaluable to someone considering their academical future. I’m already wondering if the UK has anything similar, because this is very impressive both in it’s conception and useability.

I’ve just been reading a news article on Raising Kids – Do Kids Start School too Early?

Well my view on that is yes, but what really caught my eye were the comments by Steve Sinnot of The National Union of Teachers and the Goverment respectively.

Uniquely, England is a country where testing is used to police schools and control what is taught. “I call on the government to initiate a full and independent review of the impact of the current testing system on schools and on children’s learning and to be prepared to dismantle a system which is long past its sell-by date. Steve Sinnot to Reuters

We make no apology for our focus on school standards…The reality is that children spend a very small percentage of their time in school being tested. The Government defending its current stance

I agree with Steve, the current set up is dissatisfactory for pupils, teachers and parents. Children may only spend a small percentage of their time being tested, but what about the preparation time for those tests. I’ve been to school (not that long ago) and I remember big chunks of the school year taken up with test preparation. In high school the whole year is geared around prelims, standard grades or higher exams.

Education, Education, Education they cried, well lets see some action then, because all is not right with the current setup.

As you know I have bought a new house exactly 9.15 miles from where I live now, which means a change of catchment area for both primary and secondary schools. I’ve done some research on the education in the area;

Is there anythingelse I should be checking out at this stage?

I’ve been fascinated and curious about homeschooling for a while, how it works, and why some parents choose to abandon the state system altogether.

A blog I found just today and am currently delving into provided me with a link to this article from the Guardian.

School’s out, for ever

For all the pitfalls and complaints we have about the education system the crux of the problem can be found in the following two qoutes;

She added that, “Common to all families involved was their flexible approach to education … Children benefited from the freedom to develop their skills at their own speed.”

“The choice of subjects they cover may be dictated by, well, anything. A key principle seems to be that the boys learn from what life presents to them rather than their lives being organised around a pre-determined programme.”

The teachers we have are (for the most) great, the problem is that class numbers and lack of resources prevent the somewhat tailored, child-led learning that I seem to be championing so often here. More money equals more teachers, smaller class sizes and better resources. My recent meeting with a teacher really opened my eyes to the challenges faced with managing the entire education of over 20 children. Smaller classes could easily facilitate a more open curricular with learning that could be led as a group, although the group would all need to be at a similar standard for it to work at it’s best.

I guess it comes down to money because some parents are already buying this kind of education, for the rest of us we must either make do or do it ourselves.

Food for thought on a Monday morning. What are you thinking?