Session 3 - 24 October 2013

In preparation for this session we agreed that we would either bring our own headphones, or the tutor would obtain some speakers so that we can listen to music from our computers.
Also a number of MUSIC website links have been placed in the 'useful websites' section of this blog on the right of the page.
These should allow us to look at the history of musicians, singers & bands & also to sample their music.

During this session we looked at the Rock Band Kings of Leon.
David is particularly interested in pop music and a variety of heavy rock and rock pop bands. He wanted to share his love and knowledge of this type of music and the bands.
We logged on to the computers and we decided to investigate the band, its origins, its members, it's history and it's albums and singles.
Wikipedia was a good reference point and it provided us with plenty of opportunity for discussion and investigation.
Unfortunately we could not listen to any of their music during this session and the library computers would not load the bands own website.
This was essentially a fact-finding session.
We were able to look at images of the band and find out where their tours were in the past and currently.

Kings of Leon Band

Kings of Leon is an American rock band that formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Anthony Caleb Followill, Ivan Nathan Followill and Michael Jared Followill, with their cousin Cameron Matthew Followill. Wikipedia

Session 2 - 17 October 2013

We started today's session by discussing what we had negotiated about topics & we agreed to let Mervyn start with the topic that he had chosen.  Travel. 
Mervyn told us about his recent coach holiday to Spain. 

At 05.30am he left Doncaster interchange for a 2 day trip to the Costa Brava. 
Traveling by coach to the EuroTunnel & then onwards by coach, he stopped for an overnight rest at a hotel in France.  During the holiday he had some excursions to interesting Spanish Cities including Barcelona. 

Once we were logged onto the computers we entered the web address for our BLOG in the URL (web address) field at the top of the screen. We also placed GOOGLE into our FAVOURITES for ease of browsing & searching for information. Our web address is:
www.weagroup.blogspot.com

We looked at a website for tourist information about Barcelona & we found some interesting picture galleries. (See the Barcelona link on the right of this blog in the Useful Websites section). 

We discussed the Barcelona Football Club Stadium & it's 110 thousand capacity. This we compared with local stadia that we know well & visit occasionally in Doncaster & Rotherham. Their capacity is 15 thousand & 12 thousand. We tried to imagine the differences in the crowd sizes. 
Whilst looking at the Barcelona  Football Club Stadium website, we also found a paragraph that mentioned a tour of the stadium & it's museum. We tried to imagine what it would be like to stand in the middle of the pitch in an empty stadium & then to think what it would be like from the players' perspective as compared with that of the fans in the seats. We looked at photo galleries of the museum artefacts & found:
- Trophies & medals 
- Photos of players, managers & past presidents
- Football strips in Barcelona FC colours (Red & Blue)
- A roll of honour
- Articles about the History of Barcelona FC

We discussed the different methods of transport that Mervyn could have chosen to use instead of coach travel. These included:
- Car
- Train
- Ferry
- Plane

During this session we followed hyperlinks to other web pages - this is known as 'browsing' or 'surfing the web'.  We played some video clips & we practiced using video controls to view the video in Full Screen mode & again in Thumbnail mode. 

We had an interesting session & everyone contributed to the discussion that followed our research. 

TRAVEL

TRAVEL is a topic suggested by Mervyn. We all travel to a variety of places, be they local, national or International. Mervyn has recently been on a coach holiday to Spain & he would like us to dedicate a session to researching methods of travel & interesting locations. 

Session 1 - 10 October 2013

Today we met as the newly named WEAgroup at our brand new venue, Bentley Library.
Ben was the library staff member who welcomed us & introduced us to the facilities we have available in the library.
Our induction included a discussion about the computer suite & health & safety when using computers.
We saw where the toilets & kitchen & fire exits were situated.
We did our course paperwork - enrolment forms & register.
We noted our new login details & we logged onto the computers.
We negotiated the topics to study & our tutor explained that the course has a new title - 
USING COMPUTERS FOR RESEARCH & DISCUSSION
This should give us the freedom to look deeper into the topics & also to find out how each of us perceives different aspects of the topics & to examine the social purpose behind the topics. 
For example: if our topic was transport, we may have differing opinions on the best form of transport for our individual needs. 
Cycling, for example has benefits in terms of health & well being as well as in cost savings & elimination of pollution. It is a sustainable form of transport but it also has disadvantages. Some motorists have a negative attitude towards cyclists & their behaviour as road users. They may be resentful that cyclists don't pay 'road tax', even though no one pays road tax, it is actually vehicle tax, based on emissions & the capacity to pollute.  We hope to generate critical thinking through debate by introducing some controversial topics, such as discussing costs & the effects & impact of pollution on health & on the environment. 

Today, having logged onto the computers, we entered the web address of this BLOG in the URL bar & once the page had loaded, we discussed the introduction & the topics which are already on the BLOG. 

When we discussed Music, we mentioned our preferences for different genres. Some choices were:
Bob likes listening to Trax FM & the variety of music on the radio station. 
Dieter likes Neil Diamond & in particular his favourite song is Sweet Caroline. 
Mervyn likes music from the 60's & 70's. 
David wants to look into the group Kings of Leon, their new album & their history & background. 
Scott said he likes all types of music
Kevin likes ABBA & music for easy listening. 
Angela mentioned a music genre that's one else had thought of - Folk music. 

Our first session was quite productive & our time at the library passed very quickly.