MetaFilter posts tagged with education and UK

That's me in the corner

MuffinMan — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 05:37:34 -0800

The findings for England and Wales from the 2011 British Census have now been released. The BBC provides a handy guide to changes by area while The Guardian has a neat infographic and a set of Top 10 Charts. The headlines: The UK has more immigrants, especially from India, Poland and Pakistan and most clearly in London and the South East. In 2011 13% (7.5 million) residents of England and Wales were born outside the UK; in 2001 this was 9% (4.6 million). Data England and Wales have become more ethnically diverse. The White ethnic group accounted for 86.0% of the usual resident population in 2011, a decrease from 91.3% in 2001 and 94.1% in 1991. Data Fewer people describe themselves as Christians. Between 2001 and 2011 people who identify as Christian fell from 71.7% to 59.3% and an increase in those reporting no religion rose from 14.8% to 25.1%. Data Women have become more important in the labour market. The Census estimates that there are 602,000 more people who are employed than the Labour Force Survey (LFS) indicates. Most of the observed differences are for women, with the Census estimating that there are 538,000 more economically active women than the LFS and 272,000 fewer economically inactive women than the LFS. Data Notable points: The resident population in England and Wales was 56.1 million in 2011, a rise of 3.7 million from 52.4 million in 2001. Married people are now in the minority. The number of people renting from a private landlord has nearly doubled in 10 years. There are 8,259 Jedis in Wales and 176,632 across the UK. There are 1,893 Satanists, 2,400 Scientologists and 7,906 Rastafarians. Fewer than 1 in 5 people in Wales are Welsh speakers. Boston, Lincolnshire, has the highest proportion of Eastern Europeans. Oxford has the most agnostics. Four out of five people said they were in good or very good health. But Wales, where a quarter of adults are unqualified, dominates the poor health league. 84,000 people consider themselves Cornish, more than double the figure for 2001. More than 1m people identify as mixed race. Some quirks of the survey: Blackpool is the divorce capital. Kensington is a hub of miners. Rushmoor, Hampshire has the most Buddhists. More than a quarter of people in the Isles of Scilly do not have central heating, apparently. Islington has the most singletons. King's Lynn has a lot of caravans. People work hard in the Lake District. A third of people in Blaenau Gwent, southeast Wales do not travel abroad. Norwich is godless. People in South Buckinghamshire have the most cars.

Guardian feature on the future of computing education in UK

chapps — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:13:38 -0800

The Guardian has a feature today on computer science education in the UK It includes short interviews with teenagers who use coding (for fun or work), an article on encouraging girls to get involved in computer science, an editorial encouraging an overhaul of the UK's system of teaching computing, and some discussion of Young Rewired State, a group that offers "festivals of code" to help kids learn to "program the world around them", and also encouraging use of open data.

Learning Space at Open University

infini — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 07:34:37 -0800

Try one of over 600 courses available through the Open University's Learning Space. Get to know the meaning behind the making of kente cloth of Ghana or learn the mathematical modelling involved in analysing skid marks. Lose yourself in art and design or simply learn a new old language. All you need is a device with a browser and internet access. Bonus: OU on the BBC's Frozen Planet series

Oh, the humanity

reynir — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:18:17 -0800

Philosopher A C Grayling announces the establishment of a new force in Higher Education in England: the New College of the Humanities, with much trumpeting of its all-star line-up, and its promise to "inspire the next generation of lawyers, journalists, financiers, politicians, civil servants, writers and teachers" . Undeterred by the controversy over the increase in tuition fees to £9,000 for the public university sector in England, this private institution will inspire those of the next generation who can afford the £18,000 a year fees, and hope to offer one in five places as a scholarship. In return students will be taught by the likes of Grayling, Richard Dawkins, Niall Ferguson, Ronald Dworkin, Steve Jones(no, not that one) and Steven Pinker, in an environment with a staff-student ratio of better than one to ten, and guaranteed 12-13 hours a week contact, including intensive one to one tuition. The announcement has been tarnished by the small print though: the New College has no degree awarding powers, and so is simply teaching the syllabus for the University of London external programme, which is available for half that price - or less - at other institutions, and the one to one tuition and much of the teaching will not be with the star names. Accusations fly that the College has plagiarised those syllabuses, and statements are made disassociating existing universities and their facilities from the College. And all that aside, the business model that has seen Grayling joined as a shareholder by a number of private investors might be doomed to failure anyway.

Subtext

fearfulsymmetry — Sun, 15 May 2011 03:25:51 -0800

The Guardian has a new series of webchats with various people in the publishing industry starting with literary agent Karolina Sutton. Also various writers are asked: Can you teach creative writing?

50 Books Every Eleven-Year-Old Should Read

Halloween Jack — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:24:36 -0800

The Independent (UK) proposes a list of fifty books that every eleven-year-old should read. The list, created by a committee which includes Philip Pullman, comes in response to UK Education Secretary Michael Gove's proposal that every eleven-year-old should set a goal of reading fifty books in a year, an idea which he got from a charter school in Harlem. The Independent notes that the list makers are not uncritical of Gove making the suggestion at a time when hundreds of UK libraries are set to close (previously on the blue). Some wonder why the goal should be limited to schoolchildren; others at a rather notable omission from the list.

World Government Data

netbros — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:42:26 -0800

Governments around the globe are opening up their data vaults allowing us to check out the numbers for ourselves. This is the Guardian’s gateway to that information. Search for government data here from the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand — and look out for new countries and places as they are added. Read more about this on the Datablog. They have an API available. Even though all of these government data sites have enormous quantities of data, they are not in the same formats. What the Guardian has done is put them into a unified form, meaning developers have the opportunity to write applications that compare data between different countries. If you want the data in Atom or JSON just change the "/search" to "/search.atom" or "/search.json" in the url. Here are some sample visualizations that have already been created.

Do Not Try This At Home

The Whelk — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:30:12 -0800

You can see that things gradually become more terrifying : Five of the six alkali metals and their reactions to air and water. Learn more at the Periodic Table Of Videos. Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium, Cesium (Caesium), and the elusive Francium.

back in the day we had O-Levels and birching

Artw — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:52:26 -0800

Has the UKs GCSE Science exam been dumbed down too far? See how well you do for yourself.

Degree 2.0 mash-ups not advisable for computer games careers

Artw — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:11:45 -0800

95% of degree courses in video gaming at British universities leave graduates unfit to work in the industry, according to Games Up?, an organisation set up to address the UKs video games skills shortage. Maths skills are a particular weakness.

In China, it is a common thing to stumble over the bodies of dead babies in the streets.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:26:47 -0800

In the 19th century, English author Favell Mortimer wrote several books describing various countries to children. Apparently she didn't travel much. Favell Mortimer also wrote "The peep of day, or, A series of the earliest religious instruction the infant mind is capable of receiving" and "Reading without tears", a childrens' orthography primer. Wikipedia.

Mmm, church and state, mmmmmmm.

Pretty_Generic — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 13:27:13 -0800

Uhoh. Tony Blair's new Education Secretary Ruth Kelly is almost certainly a member of masochistic Catholic cult Opus Dei, as featured in The Da Vinci Code.

Clueless About History

Coop — Mon, 05 Apr 2004 09:13:16 -0800

Clueless about History Britain is a nation of history dunces with many even believing Adolf Hitler never existed, according to a new survey. A quarter of those interviewed were not sure if the Battle of Trafalgar was a real historic event, while one in seven did not know the Battle of Hastings really took place. Sadly, it gets worse. Apparently the Battle of Endor actually happened in some people's minds.

Teenagers find the internet very difficult to use ....

feelinglistless — Wed, 23 Jul 2003 15:22:38 -0800

Teenagers find the internet a frustrating experience A survey in the north east of England finds that teenagers are increasingly being alienated in their online experience because they aren't being given the skillsets to cope with finding or using the information. Seems to be the old story of schools buying computers but the kids not being engaged enough on how to use them (which has been the case since I was stuck in front of an Acorn Archimedes fifteen years go). Here is a similar article from Australia which describes how their eductation system is coping with the issue.

Girl to sue over detention

feelinglistless — Sat, 28 Dec 2002 03:57:10 -0800

Girl to sue over detention "The family, who want compensation, will argue that the detentions were unlawful because they took place in Freya's free time. " If you can't give kids detention, how else are they going to be punished for breaking school rules?

If being a student wasn't hard enough,

delboy_trotter — Mon, 04 Nov 2002 18:14:58 -0800

If being a student wasn't hard enough, now they want us to sit in a pub/bar, day and night, and all in the name of an education. Its a hard life, but someone has to do it!!!

UK Kids to Get £40 a Week to Stay in School.

ncurley — Sun, 02 Jun 2002 11:15:19 -0800

UK Kids to Get £40 a Week to Stay in School. Schoolchildren are to be paid £40 a week to stay on at school as part of a multi-billion-pound revolution in secondary schools in England and Wales.

Mother jailed for girls' truancy

dejah420 — Mon, 13 May 2002 08:15:35 -0800

Mother jailed for girls' truancy A question for our British gang, is truancy such a problem in the UK now that this is really necessary? When I went to school in England, lo those mumblemumble years ago, I don't remember it being this bad. For the rest of the world, do you think truancy in your country would justify locking up the primary caregiver or is this punishing the wrong person? Can parents be held responsible for everything a child does? And better said, should they? When should we grant children the priviledges and penalties of their own autonomous actions?

student sues school over poor results

m2bcubed — Mon, 01 Oct 2001 11:46:27 -0800

student sues school over poor results i could think of some of my teachers who sucked at the Univ! i wonder if any of our US schools (private high school or college/university) have been sued for poor teaching.

Over-educated, over here and overwhelmed

feelinglistless — Thu, 06 Sep 2001 16:03:13 -0800

Over-educated, over here and overwhelmed The teacher shortage in Britain is so acute, that talent from the four corners is being shipped in at double the cost. The irony is, that if our teachers were actually paid the salary this gentleman is getting, there would be more of them...

UK row as kids are told to adopt incorrect but 'international' spelling

nico — Sun, 26 Nov 2000 16:50:48 -0800

UK row as kids are told to adopt incorrect but 'international' spelling A row has broken out in the UK as the organisation in charge of school examinations told pupils to drop traditional spelling of scientific words in favour of Americanised (wrong) ones.
Surely Sulphur comes from a Greek word which involves the letter phi (not fi) and is therefore the correct spelling...

chelsea.clinton@ox.ac.uk?

holgate — Mon, 28 Aug 2000 22:27:09 -0800

chelsea.clinton@ox.ac.uk? The Times is reporting that Miss Clinton is planning to follow in her father's footsteps. Though probably not too closely... I'd imagine that it'll be easier for her to fit into the college environment once she doesn't have the Secret Service in tow, but I'm still intrigued how she'll get on here...