Open University Blogs

     

The Open University’s Open2.net blog portal is a wealth of information and news on a huge range of subjects. Posts are topical, current and written by OU lecturing/teaching staff.

There are also links back to BBC OU programmes (some are even hosted on the BBC iPlayer if you missed them), with upcoming show lists and some free learning resources available.

Get Out and About - Prestatyn Walking Fesitval 9th-11th May

See more of your local area and keep fit at the same time with this years Prestatyn Walking Festival. Graded walks to suit all ages - see the remains of Roman Britain, take part in a 007 themed walk or try the three hills challenge. The ‘Healthy Prestatyn’ initiative site also provides information on walking routes in the town for everyone to enjoy.

Read more about this and other organised walks throughout the UK in the Guardian Travel section.

Find out more about this and other outdoor education activities in the Library at shelf numbers 372 and 796

New Intute Guides Online

Eight new Intute Subject Booklets have been published this month, each providing a “taster” of the Internet resources that can be found by using Intute. They can be downloaded directly from the site or viewed as a PDF.

The new subject include:

Environmental Science
Materials Engineering
Film and Theatre
Philosophy
Education
Olympic Studies
Biological Sciences
Pregnancy and Childbirth

Over 24 booklets have been published by Intute in recent years, and you are welcome to copy, re-purpose and distribute the printed or electronic versions for non-profit, educational use with suitable attribution, as the work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

 

Social Policy and Welfare Resources

 

What services are available? Check out the Dept. of Work and Pensions.

Intute host excellent tutorials, resources and links for Social Studies, which are freely available to students.

The British Library also provide a fantastic list organisations and freely available resources on the Internet for Social Welfare as part of its 21citizen.org.uk  set of pages (it also highlights resources that are only available in the library itself).  

      

The National Archives also has a section on the start of the Welfare Reforms in 1906 and breaks down the topics by group - older people, young people and working people. This part of a wider project called The Learning Curve, which enriches British historical research.  

Homeless Resource Centre (US) provides over 2000 articles and research papers in their Knowledge Base Centre.

Find a good basic Introduction to Social Policy provided by the Robert Gordon University.

The Higher Education Academy has a dedicated resource and links list for Social Policy & Social Work. This includes specific topics, organisations and learning approaches.  

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation supports programmes of research and development in housing, social care and social policy. Offers several hundred research summaries and information on publications and research programmes. It also has a useful links section to other similar organisations.

Find out more about this subject in the Library at shelf number 361.3

Red Cross NewsThink!

The real stories from behind the headlines

Tutors are encouraged to use these links as a “Thought for the Day” or to start a class discussion…..

Issue 21st March 2008

Relief of Discovery - The discovery of Shannon Matthews was met with relief and a praise for the local police operation. Children missing for more than 3 weeks are statistically unlikely to be found alive.

Iraq humanitarian Crisis continues - The crisis in Iraq shows no let-up, according to the Red Cross. Five years after the start of the war, millions of Iraqis do not have sufficient access to clean water, sanitation and health care. More than 2,200 doctors and nurses have been killed since 2003 and over 250 kidnapped.

Action on Discrimination- The government is considering proposals to change current laws that ban employers from taking race or sex into consideration when interviewing job candidates. Under the new proposals, if candidates were equal in other respects, it might be lawful to choose someone from an under-represented group on the basis of their race or sex.

Clocks spring forward - Summer time in Britain starts officially at the end of March. Losing an hour at 1am on Sunday 30 March marks the move from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) to British Summer Time (BST). An Energy Saving (Daylight) Bill which would move the clocks forward one additional hour all year was rejected by the government earlier in the year.

International Womens Day - 8th March 2008

 

Visit the official International Women’s Day site and listen to inspirational stories from around the world.

15,000 women marched through New York City in 1908 demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. 100 years on, the pertinence of this event is honored through IWD’s 2008 global theme ‘Shaping Progress’.

In the USA, March is also National Women’s History Month and the Nat.Women’s History Project is at the forefront of “Recognizing the achievements of women in all facets of life has a huge impact on the development of self-respect and new opportunities for girls and young women.”

Test your knowledge of Women’s Rights during the Victorian era - how do they compare to now? Learn more about some of the women who lead to fight for women’s rights! Celebrate Women’s History at the HERstory Archive.

Find out more in the Women’s Library and the GENESIS project. Did you know about the Women’s History Network? The International Information Centre and Archives for the Women’s Movement works to try and ensure that “answers to questions about women’s history and the position of women in society are available and accessible to all”.  

                                           

Today in the UK, the Women’s National Commission is the body giving the views of women to the Government. It aims to ensure that women’s views are taken into account by the Government and are heard in public debate.

Unifem -the UN Development Fund for Women works towards worldwide gender equality and produces excellent fact sheets on issues effecting women. The UN Women Watch provides resources for gender equality and empowerment and with the UN Division for the Advancement of Women supports the current Commission of the Status of Women running until the 7th March 2008.

Int.Women’s Day is also being supported by the Welsh Assembly Government.   Do you think that women and men now have equal roles in today’s society? Take the Equal Opportunities Commission Gender Agenda MOT.

Find out more about Women’s Rights and the Feminist Movement in the Library at 305.4

“Spilling the Beans” - Which? magazine Feb 2008

 

BBC Health website reports on the growing number of hidden calories in your daily coffee fix …… in fact you may be drinking up to a third of your calorie in-take for the day in one cup!

See the original article on page 30 of the Feb 08 Which? magazine and todays (24th Jan) edition of the Daily Mail, both available in the library. The highlights of the article are available (for free) on the Which? website. 

Which? reports that “a black coffee with no sugar has practically zero calories and fat. But start adding milk, sugar (about 16 calories a teaspoon), whipped cream or chocolate, and the calories shoot up”.

Learn more about your recommended calorie intake and healthy eating at NHS Direct , Dept. Of Health  , Rowett Institute and Equip.

Find out more in the library at shelf number 613.2  

Citizenship Test - How well would you do?

            

How well do you know the country you live in? Can you carry your British passport with pride?

See if you can answer the questions below taken from the actual Citizenship test itself ! Answers posted at the end of the week………………

 

1) Why did the Protestant Huguenots come from France to the UK in the 16th & 17th centuries?

2) By what percentage is the average hourly pay of women lower than men’s?

3) What does GCSE stand for?

4) What number of potential first time voters (? out of ten) actually cast their vote in the 2001 general election?

5) The UK has grown by what percentage since 1951?

6) When will the next census be carried out?

7) How wide is the widest part of the UK?

8 ) Where are the origins of the Father Christmas character said to come from?

9) How often does the UK government Cabinet meet?

10) How many members of the National Assembly for Wales are there and how frequently are elections held?

11) The Official title of the heir to the throne is:
                            a) The Prince of Tides
                            b) The Prince of Wales 
                            c) The artist formerly known as Prince
                            d) The Prince of Britain

IRN - Internet Resources Newletter - Issue 158

The free, monthly, newsletter for academics, students, engineers, scientists and social scientists edited by Heriot-Watt University Library.

View the A-Z of new and notable websites, interesting blog, book reviews and more ……

Subject Finder - FE Online Resources

 

Subject Finder (developed by Lambeth College) provides access to high-quality web resources for academics, teachers, lectures and students categorised by subject areas across many FE disciplines. It is designed to search only educational websites, without users being overwhelmed with a huge number of search results.

Find Online Resources for:

Construction             Carpentry            Engineering             Electronics         Sports  

Travel & Tourism          Accounting            Beauty Therapy        Social Care

     Sign Language            Sociology           Arts & Crafts          Charities        Performing

 and many more………

Previous posts on these subjects can be found by clicking the links on the left of the LibeRaCe home page.