Introduction

[Birdiew]

HI, I am Sarah and I have interest in this project from 3 directions, firstly as a OU student,secondly as a Home Educating mum and thirdly as a philosphy/pyschology student

As an OU student who is currently studying overseas I am very interested in the concept of using applications such a Second Life to allow students such as myself the oppertunity to interact with outher students, and hopefully in the future attend online tutorials.

As a Home Educating mum I am interested in alternative options in education. I do not believe the current education system is by any means the best way to do things - far too much is 'accomplished' by fear and coersion, and little is taken into account of the needs of each individual learner. To my mind the concept that all students can be taught the same things in the same way is blatently flawed, as people have their own abilities, interests and learning styles. I really do not like the 'in or out' attitude of schools and colleges and would like to see somewhere that student can go to for the things they need, rather than having to sit through a curriculum devised for the 'average' person.

As a philosophy/psychology student I am very interested in the concepts of mind and reality, what consitutes 'reality', why is something real. Having been involved with online communities before I have experienced a certain degree of 'disrespect' for the online life, people  finding it hard to comprehend that relationships and activities in the 'virtual' or second life are just as important as those in the 'real' or first world. To me this seems a bizare situation, and I am interested to see if others have found the same thing, and to look at if and how this would need addressing before any form of virtual school would be widely accepted.

Well thats me, I hope to get to know some of you in the near furture, I'm a bit rubbish with using this sort of thing so please bear with me if I get things wrong or ask stupid questions

ttfn
Sarah

[Euphloozie Phlox]

Hi Sarah,

Welcome to the community. I've worked with some of the home educators group through Schome and really enjoyed the experience. Indeed, a whole bunch of the children and parents took part in one of my PhD pilot studies back in 2006 and that was really tremendous.

look forward to hearing more
cheers
Euph

[Topper Schomer]

Hi I'm topper one of the SParkers and am too interested in philosophy...

Topper

[Fox Phlox]

Yes, welcome to the community!

Would your child/ren be interested in joining as well? Several home educated children have their own pages in the Schome wiki.

http://www.schome.ac.uk/wiki/User:Cordyliz
http://www.schome.ac.uk/wiki/User:Alexrider
http://www.schome.ac.uk/wiki/User:Curls
http://www.schome.ac.uk/wiki/User:Lillbjorne

[Birdiew]

Thanks for your welcomes.

My elder daughter will probably really like to join, this is definatly her kind of thing. Can someone point me in the right direction of instructions on how she can set up her page etc.

Thanks in advance

Sarah

[Spiral Schomer]

Hello Sarah!

Welcome to Schome.

Someone with your backgrounds would be a benefit to the community, in terms of your 3 different backgrounds.
I would very much like to read things you post on your views on things here in Schome!

Nice to meet you,

Spiral.

[PeterT]

Hi Sarah - and thank you for your really informative introduction - it really helps to know where folk are coming from when they sign up with the Schommunity.

Re advice about how to set up a userpage - when you register for the forum you are automatically registered for the wiki at the same time (with the same username and password). If you then sign into the wiki you will see your username on the left of the horizontal menu that runs along near the top of the wiki page you are looking at. If you click on your username it will take you to your userpage which you can then edit (you may have to select the edit tab before you can edit). Then you can just type stuff in. You will quickly get to the point where you want to format the page and add pictures (remembering to think about copyright and child protection issues needless to say) - and can get more info from the help page which you can access from the Help option in the 'useful stuff' menu which is on the left of every wiki page. If that doesn't help then you can also ask for help in the Help with the website discussion in the forum (remembering to give as much info about the problem you want to solve as possible).

Looking forward to talking with you (and your daughter). You might want to run through the Acceptable Use Policy with your daughter - whilst this was developed specifically for the Schome Park Programme it provides a useful framework for everyone in the Schommunity - it is particularly important for young folk to be aware of the need to protect their personal data in the wiki and forum (which are open to anyone with access to the web).

PeterT 

[Amba SParker]

Welcome Sarah, I hope you will enjoy your involvement with the Schome community.

I'd wondered how you had come across the Schome initiative and how you were hoping to use this environment to help you with your work, but now understand that you heard about it at a meeting on SchomeBase and decided to join in. I am very glad. I also joined as an interested Mum after first learning about Schome on SchomeBase and the Schome Wiki. I’m still here, so it can’t be all that bad  (I was known as “Shri” on the forum initially).

I have interest in this project from 3 directions ...

The Schome Initiative covers a very wide range of research in a variety of different areas. Is there a particular project that you are interested in joining or something specific that you would like to do that you feel we could help with?

I have noticed your new wiki page and look forward to reading more