Charities Newsletter
Issue 7

Do you wish you knew more about the technology you use everyday? Could your organisation be more efficient if you just knew the best tools for the job? If you’ve a specific IT training need then iT4C can probably find a volunteer to help you. Just login to your account and “Request a volunteer” and we’ll do our best to help.

But if you’d just like some general training information that you can dip into whenever you’ve a spare minute you may want to check out Open Learn. Open Learn provides free access to course materials from the Open University and is accessible via the Internet from anywhere in the world.
All of the units available on the site are from past or present Open University courses so you can be sure that the content has been created by professional educators (unlike much of the information on the web). Currently there are 27 units in the IT and Computing section. Difficulty ranges from “introductory” to “masters” and many of the “introductory” units will be of interest to the layman.

A couple of topics that caught my eye are:

• Computers: bits & bytes - If you have no idea how your computer works, then this unit is for you. You will learn the basic operating principles and what the various components do…
• Information on the web - The World Wide Web is a vast information resource. This unit will provide you with the foundation skills to use search engines confidently to locate both information and images on the Web…

All of the units are freely available via the website and you don’t even have to register to use them. If you do decide to register then you get access to a few extra features – forums, a messaging facility and a personal learning journal where you can record any information you find interesting or useful.

All introductory level units guide you gradually through the content with short activities to help you check your understanding. There are no tests or exams and you can’t pass or fail. You can simply learn more about something that interests you.

The Open Learn website is at http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/ and the IT and Computing units are listed at:http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/filter.php?grouping=topic&detail=7&order=level
If you do check out any of these units please let us know what you think. As ever we’d love to hear your thoughts at info@it4communities.org.uk

Anne Donnelly
iT4C Project Definer