In today’s world of just-in-time learning, where it’s perfectly possible to get a degree-level education without needing to spend tens of thousands on an actual degree, a lot of what we need to learn can be had for free. It can also be had when we need it, rather than forming part of a three or four-year program and being forgotten by the time we come round to needing to use it.
Sometimes at school students miss something important due to absence, inattention, teacher sickness or sporting commitments. Alternatively they might struggle with the subject in general and need extra support to get them through the year with good grades. Conversely, some students may be particularly fascinated by a subject and wish to deepen their knowledge. In the case of geometry, which forms the foundation for many disciplines and, ultimately, careers, taking extra online classes from an expert can help students to really nail down this fundamental subject.
Cuddly Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is the figurehead of a new educational enterprise aimed at training the next generation of tech wizards and fast-tracking the most promising ones.
A virtual reality simulation of a nuclear facility is one of the new training tools presented at the 61st IAEA General Conference in September. Training specialists will be using it to navigate through realistic scenarios, threats and risks. The 3D tool is focused on preventative and protective measures against insider threats, and there are plans to cover other areas of nuclear security in the future.
It’s official. We now live in the future. Why? Because we have self-driving cars. We even have a few flying cars, that long-fantasised-about sci-fi staple. Pretty soon autonomous vehicles will be mainstream, and the industry will need armies of young boffins to design and engineer them. So it’s about time there were courses that introduced smart young people to the autonomous vehicle industry and prepared them for careers in it.
High spec, hardware-intensive PCs like gaming PCs can cost thousands if you buy them ready-built. But the skills needed to put one together are not as impenetrable as some may think. You don’t need a degree in computer science, and you shouldn’t even need a soldering iron.
TSTI (Teaching Science and Technology) are a training, coaching and consulting company specialising in Space and other domains. They are the go-to people for training in Space Systems Engineering. Their short courses provide the processes, tools, and information necessary to jump-start new hires to the space business or improve the performance of mid-to senior-level engineers, systems engineers, and technical program managers.
Firstly, it can be chilly out there. It can also be scalding hot, full of midges and gnats, snake-ridden and hornet-infested. Apart from that, it’s the beautiful outdoors, and budding Nature Park Managers can train in the skills and knowledge necessary to manage natural parks, keep the ecosystems thriving (apart from the hornets, perhaps) and make them accessible and appealing to visitors.
Won’t it be great when we can plug ourselves into the Matrix and learn Kung Fu in 30 seconds? While we’re waiting for the boffins work that out, though, we still need to teach each other how to do things by explaining. Learning technologies which facilitate explaining in the modern classroom include things like social networking, wikis and game-based learning. These take us one step closer to Matrix-style learning by putting our brains in virtual worlds from which they can download information. So we’re not quite Neo and Trinity yet, but it’s a start.
Sometimes the Earth bites. Some would say ‘sometimes the Earth bites back,’ with climate change and rising incidents of flooding in mind. But most natural disasters are not man-made. There’s very little we can do at the moment about earthquakes and volcanoes, for example. And hurricanes and typhoons were around long before we started filling the atmosphere with CO2. So studying natural disasters and preparing for them shouldn’t be undertaken with a sense of guilt about self-inflicted damage. It should be done with a simple sense of self-preservation.
Bad games can either make you throw your controller at the screen or inspire you to design better ones. If you think you can do better or are just interested in making games, a game design course like that offered by School of Game Design is one way to go to acquire the necessary skills. Game design isn’t producing a polished product, but sketching out the rules and strategies of games at the pre-production stage.
