Friday, 11 October 2013

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. 

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