Further education on a boat

Nostrodamus

Nostrodamus

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Joined
7 Mar 2011
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www.cygnus3.com
This year we have already had one son abandon ship but the other would like to stay aboard and do "A" levels by distance learning.
I have looked at various web sites and they do distance learning but each "A" level course is about £500.

As we are on a very strict budget and unable to get any financial help for him because we are not in the UK we just cannot afford these courses.
Is it possible to learn "A" levels just from books and the web or is there any other way of doing it?

It is ironic that should we sail back to the UK we could all claim benefit and education would be free costing the country a fortune but because we are abroad no one wants to know.

Any suggestions are more than welcome.
 
Yes, a real revolution is taking place in learning. Websites like https://www.khanacademy.org/ are offering first class videos on-line in most of the basic A-level subjects and other sites like www.brainbench.com are beginning to offer credible certification. More generally the whole of higher education is in turmoil as graduate level courses from top universities now become available on line on sites like https://www.coursera.org, all universities seem to be rushing to catch up by offering their free open courses too.

We often download courses that interest us to watch and listen to when on long passages, had a good one from Yale crossing the Atlantic this time on Political Philosophy!
 
Thank you for that Gerry and I will check the courses out,
Do Americans have a course on Political Philosophy or was it just a video of "Shock and Awe" over Bagdad?
 
NO! The lecture is brilliant and it goes right back to Plato to explore what we mean by a regime! But the conclusion is interesting;that we probably don't want world states like the United Nations or the EU. Each country values it's distinctiveness.
 
Nostrodamus said:
This year we have already had one son abandon ship but the other would like to stay aboard and do "A" levels by distance learning.
I have looked at various web sites and they do distance learning but each "A" level course is about £500.

As we are on a very strict budget and unable to get any financial help for him because we are not in the UK we just cannot afford these courses.
Is it possible to learn "A" levels just from books and the web or is there any other way of doing it?

It is ironic that should we sail back to the UK we could all claim benefit and education would be free costing the country a fortune but because we are abroad no one wants to know.

Any suggestions are more than welcome.
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My recent background is Higher Education, Mrs M is a secondary teacher up to A Level

It sounds like the whole family is willing and able to learn, so our advice is to buy study guides and text books in the chosen subjects and everybody do the courses, mark each others work BRUTALLY - but no falling out.

online resources are often very good and often very bad so mix it up.

sit examinations in a recognised centre not on-line - on-line qualifications are a bit suspect - exactly who sat the exam? lots of cases of imposters will devalue all the effort you put in so keep that bit "old fashioned".
 
Marsupial said:
My recent background is Higher Education, Mrs M is a secondary teacher up to A Level

It sounds like the whole family is willing and able to learn, so our advice is to buy study guides and text books in the chosen subjects and everybody do the courses, mark each others work BRUTALLY - but no falling out.

online resources are often very good and often very bad so mix it up.

sit examinations in a recognised centre not on-line - on-line qualifications are a bit suspect - exactly who sat the exam? lots of cases of imposters will devalue all the effort you put in so keep that bit "old fashioned".
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Thank you Marsupial.
I think that is the only option open to us with the prices involved and to be honest I am looking forward to a bit of studying myself.
The other option was to apply for an eastern European passport and then no doubt everything would be funded out of the taxes I still have to pay.
 
Nostrodamus said:
This year we have already had one son abandon ship but the other would like to stay aboard and do "A" levels by distance learning.
I have looked at various web sites and they do distance learning but each "A" level course is about £500.

As we are on a very strict budget and unable to get any financial help for him because we are not in the UK we just cannot afford these courses..
Click to expand...

um, 500 quid doesn't sound too bad really? It's 5quid a week for a 2 year a-level course? Coiuld he praps get part time job to help pay or summing? Flippin money, always an issue...
 
tcm said:
um, 500 quid doesn't sound too bad really? It's 5quid a week for a 2 year a-level course? Coiuld he praps get part time job to help pay or summing? Flippin money, always an issue...
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TCM,
not too bad if he only wanted to do one but when he wants to do several it soon adds up. Looks like I am going back to school as well so I can do them as well to help him or rather he can help me.
Unfortunately he cannot work as we will be on the move but if any of us can find a job we will.
 
Marsupial said:
My recent background is Higher Education, Mrs M is a secondary teacher up to A Level

It sounds like the whole family is willing and able to learn, so our advice is to buy study guides and text books in the chosen subjects and everybody do the courses, mark each others work BRUTALLY - but no falling out.

online resources are often very good and often very bad so mix it up.

sit examinations in a recognised centre not on-line - on-line qualifications are a bit suspect - exactly who sat the exam? lots of cases of imposters will devalue all the effort you put in so keep that bit "old fashioned".
Click to expand...

This is something that is changing very quickly, even MIT http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/edx-faq-050212.html are now offering online certification for some of their online courses. Sure there are 'cowboys' out there but also a growing number of highly reputable organizations that are recognizing that the old style education system is being greatly shaken by the internet.

What A levels does your son want to study?
 
Gerry said:
This is something that is changing very quickly, even MIT http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/edx-faq-050212.html are now offering online certification for some of their online courses. Sure there are 'cowboys' out there but also a growing number of highly reputable organizations that are recognizing that the old style education system is being greatly shaken by the internet.

What A levels does your son want to study?
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yes many are jumping on the band waggon but the fact remains its not the organisations that are cowboys its the students. Online encourages many to plagurise essays and imposters or tutors are completing online assignments on behalf of the student and in some cases even sitting exams (I have been asked to do this on a number of occassions), its a big problem let no one suggest otherwise. Online learning has a lot to offer for some students in some subjects but the full richness of a learning experience that includes interaction with other students is lost to the detriment of the learning, online webcam tutorials are no substitue (yet). If only learning was something that was done to you, an injection or a pill, life would be so simple (ref: see The Matrix) sadly this is not the case and humans still learn in the old same way despite the internet; immersion in a subject with like minded students is essential at HE level for mastery of many subjects. Which is why I suggested that the whole family participates in the learning process and the examination is conducted in a real accreditted establishment such as the British Council.
 
Yes, many are jumping on the bandwagon and the new model of education is yet to emerge. However, there is no argument that the old model is seriously flawed or that a vast amount of constructive interaction can't take place on the internet, This is sometimes called 'peeragogy' and even the long established Open University is including annotation tools to let students mark up web pages and exchange their thinking.

Four very good talks are Jef Staes 'Do diplomas kill passion and talent?' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6JGYRodNeA,
the debate between Dan Ariely and Jef Staes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG-OC_qVoKw,
and Sir Ken Robinson saying 'Bring on the learning revolution'] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LelXa3U_I.

Finally you should take a look at Jerry Michalski 'What if we trusted you?' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0fgtvbMT7k

All fascinating views on this fast changing subject.If you only have time to watch one do listen to Sir Ken Robinson...
 
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Marsupial said:
yes many are jumping on the band waggon but the fact remains its not the organisations that are cowboys its the students. Online encourages many to plagurise essays and imposters or tutors are completing online assignments on behalf of the student and in some cases even sitting exams (I have been asked to do this on a number of occassions), its a big problem let no one suggest otherwise. Online learning has a lot to offer for some students in some subjects but the full richness of a learning experience that includes interaction with other students is lost to the detriment of the learning, online webcam tutorials are no substitue (yet). If only learning was something that was done to you, an injection or a pill, life would be so simple (ref: see The Matrix) sadly this is not the case and humans still learn in the old same way despite the internet; immersion in a subject with like minded students is essential at HE level for mastery of many subjects. Which is why I suggested that the whole family participates in the learning process and the examination is conducted in a real accreditted establishment such as the British Council.
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Plagiarism is getting to be less of a problem - there is excellent software out there that detects plagiarism. I think that many HEIs use it for "normal" course-work assessments, so using it for remotely taken exams is a no-brainer.

Imposters are another matter. However, at degree level, getting an imposter who could reliably pass the examination would probably be too costly. I doubt I could pass the examination in my degree subject, for two reasons: first, I have specialized and forgotten a lot of the wider coverage I once knew and second, what I learnt outside areas I have studied since then is way out of date! So, if I took my degree exams again, I probably couldn't answer a wide enough range of questions, and in the ones I could answer would possibly be seen to know more than could be expected of an undergraduate. Also, the same software used for plagiarism detection might have a role in looking at your course-work and comparing it with your exam answers - it would soon spot if it wasn't written by the same person.
 
One of the problems with higher education can be that the lecturers have never been out of the system itself and lived in the real world. They have a cradle to grave existence within the education system and all their thinking is from books. Even the students they lecture too have not been outside the system in most cases. My nephew has a masters in criminology and some of his beliefs stemming from what he was taught are so far off the mark it was scary.
 
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