Parents 'buy essays' for students

From BBC News:

Parents are paying hundreds of pounds for degree-course essays for their children studying at university, claims an essay-writing service.

BBC NEWS | Education | Parents 'buy essays' for students

Noooo!  That's so bad!!  The quote later on in this where it says "The students will talk about the essay they want and then they put their parents on the phone to give the credit card details"... well... grief!  What on earth is anyone learning when people do that sort of thing?!

Some articles make me turn into a ranty grumpy old woman.  This is one of them.  I sense a day of chuntering about slipping standards, lack of morals and parental weakness coming on.

I may be some time...  :o)

Flickr in 'has humans involved behind the scenes' shocker!

Flickr was down earlier... and the following appeared:

Since when did error messages get funny?! Could... gasp... there be people behind the programming?!! Nooooo! It's almost as if they've realised that speaking in Geek-ish isn't going to get them anywhere with their average punter.

The old new

Dork talk | Technology | The Guardian:

"But let the rise of social networking alert you to the possibility that, even in the futuristic world of the net, the next big thing might just be a return to a made-over old thing."

Lovely quote from Stephen Fry's 'Dork Talk'. He's right too. Isn't it so often the way that the next big thing isn't really the next or big either. It's the same old same old wearing this year's fashions. After all, social networking is just the same networking we've been doing for centuries... just wearing electronic clothing this time out. Next time out? Who knows? When was the last time something really was 'new'? Isn't most stuff just responding to the basic needs of human beings? Is anything truly innovative? Or is it all a continuum of evolution where you can't quite pick out 'new' from 'old' as they're really all the same?

Life is one long tweak of all past lives. But it sure is fun finding those different ways of tweaking!

1973: First Open University degrees awarded

1973: First Open University degrees awarded:

"Dr Perry said: 'The qualities of our students are often very different, in the first place they are adult, experienced in life and jobs, not just straight out of school. They have achieved their degree by the most difficult method of getting a degree yet devised by the wit of man.

'Therefore they have qualities of determination and staying power that are quite unusual and I think will come to be recognised by industry as very important qualities for employers.'"

Just noticed the above on the BBC's website - it's been 35 years since the first OU degrees were awarded... and the above quote still holds strong. Good feeling to have been part of that ongoing struggle and pride in what's been achieved. It's another of those 'wish I could bottle it and share it with others' sorta feelings, and an outcome that can't be quantified when weighing up who should or shouldn't get funding in HE in the UK...

Second degree cut survives vote

BBC NEWS | Education | Second degree cut survives vote:

"The government has survived a vote trying to block its plans to cut funding from students taking a second undergraduate degree.

A Tory motion in the House of Commons opposing the withdrawal of funding was defeated by a majority of 53.

But a number of prominent Labour MPs also spoke against the plan and called on the government to re-consider."

Hmmmm... chances of this not ultimately happening? Not looking good...

Wonder if I'd have started a second undergrad degree if the funding issue hadn't existed? Honestly? I probably would although it's less certain especially since I had to ask my employer for sponsorship initially and even asking for a few hundred pounds several years ago seemed like a big ask at the time. Maybe I would have been part sponsored, part-self-funded... but it's not as easy as it once was. Would I have found an interest in elearning if I hadn't started that second degree? Doubt it. Would I have started my Masters if I hadn't been able to take that second degree? Very very doubtful. Would I have been able to do a second Masters degree? Not a chance...

It may not affect me now as I'm out virtually of the system, but this sort of policy decision has far reaching consequences that extend way beyond 'give everyone a fair go first time round' and negates the aspects of education which can't be quantified by a simple test of 'have they got a first undergrad degree or not'. Why is it so hard to grasp that education does not have a single, quantifiable, across-the-board benefit? That lifelong learning should be lifeline and the doors shouldn't slam shut because one arbitrary measure no longer applies.

I despair.

Mexico boy tries to stick at home

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Mexico boy tries to stick at home: "Mexico boy tries to stick at home

"A Mexican boy glued his hand to his bed because he did not want to go back to school after the Christmas break."

Online learning... that's where it's at. Glue yourself to the bed? Here's your laptop and a wireless connection! Pah to skiving!!

PS...

Happy New Year!!

New Year's Resolutions:  None

Hopes for the coming year:  Learn stuff, enjoy life, think about new things, move forwards... be happy.  Carry on feeding my curiosity.  The normal woolly bits an' bobs really!

Goals for the year:  Finish my MA and take a big chunk out of my MEd.

Other stuff:  Ermmm... untangle some of life's little challenges which have cropped up of late.

Gratuitous pleasure!

Four months ago I got my second degree and a postgrad certificate into the bargain... and today my certificates arrived.  Cue daft Cheshire Cat style grinning and tingly pleasure every time I think about them and all they represent.

If only you could bottle moments like these and share them with the students you're working with and say 'this is coming... hang in there... you'll love the moment where it all comes together'.  I have the Ready Brek glow of happiness.  I wonder if anyone else can see it?  You know what?  I don't care!!!  I'm going to bask in it for a while longer and the rest of the world can wait for a minute or two!

Navigator bites the dust

Web icon set to be discontinued: "The browser that helped kick-start the commercial web is to cease development because of lack of users.

Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1 February 2008, the company has said.

In the mid-1990s the browser was used by more than 90% of the web population, but numbers have slipped to just 0.6%."

Not really that sorry to say goodbye to something which kind of got its legs tangled in the web of the late 1990s and never quite moved on... but it was the first browser I used and was my first experience of the web. I definitely don't use the web in the same way I did back when Navigator effectively was the web for many people (I no longer have to go make a cuppa cha and pile my way through other work while a 1 meg file downloads for a start!) and it's interesting to think how rapidly and how far it's come. And how relatively easily a hu-u-u-u-uge name can become a blast from the past. And no-one even really notices it's gone.

The web's a strange old place, isn't it?

Power of Facebook affects law

Much to the surprise of sceptics who paint government as unable or unwilling to listen to public concerns, those voices had an immediate impact. Ten days after the Facebook group's launch, Jim Prentice delayed introducing the new copyright reforms, seemingly struck by the rapid formation of concerned citizens who were writing letters and raising awareness.

Not only had tools like Facebook had an immediate effect on the government's legislative agenda, but the community that developed around the group also led to a "crowdsourcing" of knowledge. Canadians from coast to coast shared information, posed questions, posted their letters to politicians, and started a national conversation on copyright law in Canada.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Power of Facebook affects law


Interesting example of how potentially powerful Facebook can be.  You definitely have to pick the right topic to get people interested (obviously!), but there's an additional factor as well.  Grabbing a little piece of zeitgeist and getting in with the 'right' people early.  The article also has some useful clues as to why this group had the impact it did.  Sowing the seed of awareness is important and making links to appropriate places too.  I guess some of this treatment of a political issue can be translated into an educational context.  If you want students to adopt a tool for their learning, you either have to give them ownership and let them run with it or tap into something they can run with.  Facebook groups aren't challenging to belong to.  There's very little barrier to entry once you've got a Facebook account.  Search for a particular topic of interest, and join in.

The potential of this stuff is pretty huge - but it does seem to be that things are 'hot or not' in very brief spans of time and I wonder if the lumbering beast that is education can move quick enough to keep up...