Tuesday, October 24

Marilyn is getting fed-up with me moping around the house so suggested I take on some study.  It seems like a good idea and there is so much on-line nowadays, I don't have to leave the comfort of my lounge-room.  I certainly don't have the energy to travel into the University in Launceston every day but the computer gives me instant access to universities right around the world.

Open2study, run by Open Universities Australia, was my first port of call and there happened to be a number of courses starting immediately so I've enrolled in an Anthropolpgy course called Becoming Human.  It's run through Macquarie University and runs over four weeks.  It seems there are 503 students around the world doing this course.  I'm into my second week and it's fascinating. 

I've also found a cluster called FutureLearn which has even more choices: the sky seems to be limit.

I'm amazed at the process the University goes through in an attempt to keep their students motivated. No sooner had I enrolled than I started receiving 'badges' - a Bronze Quill of Knowledge badge for participating in a forum, a Slingshot' for asking for a hint, a Camper Van for completing my profile, and so on.  I even got a Papyrus Map for earning the other Bronze badges!  It beggars belief.

I'm 74 years old and the lure of badges doesn't work for me. They're not even real badges so I can't even stick them on my old scout shirt.

Anyway, there's years of work ahead of me.  The University of Wollongong has a course on Homo Floriensis starting in a fortnight, the University of Glasgow can tell me all I want to know about Robert Burns and the University of Groningen can help me understand the Scientific Revolution.