Information Resources

This page is a developing resource of information that can be used for researching themes in WEA courses.  If anybody knows of any more, please contact Andy Holland. 

  • A to Z list of data and research from the Guardian website
     
  • Guardian App - The Guardian are introducing a new app for an app to be used with Google TV. 
     
  • The Society for All Artists has many useful resources, including a data-base of art-teachers, classes etc.  Here is a link to the site: http://www.saa.co.uk
     
  • http://onlinephd.org/resources/tips-for-teachers  - A fantastic resource for those in the teaching profession or for those seeking such a career, this website also includes links to to research materials examining the broader aspects of education. 
     
  • ICT Magic - Wiki Spaces:  This is a fantastic resource for teaching with the use of technology.  Many of the links are for teaching in schools but there are lots that would be especially ideal for adult learners. 
     
  • Edudemic: Connecting Education and Technology - This is an excellent resource for educators, with an emphasis on technological approaches to learners, for instance using apps, social media, and so on.  There are plenty of video resources from educators all over the world and advice about the best products to use and new developments. 
     
  • ERIC - the Education Resources Information Center - is a US online digital library of education research and information. ERIC provides ready access to education literature to support the use of educational research and information to improve practice in learning, teaching, educational decision-making, and research. 
     
  • UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning - This website has a wealth of information about the Lifelong Learning debate on it from all over the world.  Certainly worth investing some time into exploring it. 
     
  • Policy Watch - The Pearson Centre for Policy and Learning publish weekly updates which keep you up to date with the latest news about goverment education policy and its effects.  This is vital resource for those working in education as well as those studying/researching for a qualification in it and cannot be recommended highly enough. 
     
  • How to present with Twitter and other backchannels by Olivia Mitchell - This free Ebook is useful for those who want to make better use of social media. 
     
  • grayharriman.com - eLeaning and more - Informative website about electronic learning with many innovative ideas. 
     
  • Transitions in Adult Education Research Network - TEARN have an excellent web resource available of useful links for adult educational research.  It is in PDF form. 
     
  • iBerry - A US website which describes itself thus: "iBerry provides information and resources for learners, educators, researchers and anyone else with an interest in adult education.   The focus is on connection rather than content - we see iBerry as one small part of an emerging and Open Global Education Network that one day will bring inexpensive education to any adult, anywhere in the world, regardless of their circumstances."
     
  • The Transformation Fund Legacy; Community Participation and Citizenship - A government website, partnered with BIS and NIACE, gatheirng together links, reports and resources focused on strengthening democracy. 
     
  • The Equality Trust - The Equality Trust are an excellent organisation and it if you are interesting in fighting inequality you should join.  This is a link to their resources page (there are short films, essays, PowerPoint presentations and written materials. 
     
  • A World Atlas of Gender Equity in education.
     
  • Equality Resources and Tools - This resource was assembled by NHS Northwest to help improve equality and diversity in public sector organisations.  It has lots of useful stuff here. 
     
  • Adult Care Blog - This link is a blog that focuses on elderly people, the disabled and others in social care.  The overall website is very informative too: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Home/  
     
  • BFI Screenonline - This is a link to the British Film Institute's Screenonline resource which includes an education section with useful software tools for learning, as well as video and essays. 
     
  • AL - Adult Learning Web Resources  This is self-described as 'the most comprehensive gateway to free education sites on the web'. 
     
  • Skilled To Go - Excellent resource for tutors teaching literacy, numeracy and ESOL courses. 
     
  • Voluntary Sector Northwest - "VSNW (Voluntary Sector North West) is the regional voluntary sector network for the North West. The purpose of VSNW is to ensure that the voluntary and community sector (VCS), in all its diversity, takes its full part in shaping the future of the North West."  This website features responses to government policy as well as lots of other free-to-download information resources.
     
  • British Library - Sounds - A fascinating website featuring a wide variety of audio resources, including oral histories. 
     
  • British Film Council - Lots of films of historical interest here, available to view online (powered by Vimeo). 
     
  • Oral History Society - The Oral History Society promotes the collection, preservation and use of recorded memories of the past.
     

  • Andrew Stanton – The clues to a great story

     

 

  • This video requires the free Flash plugin.

 

 

 

  • This video requires the free Flash plugin.

 

 

  • Child Maintanence and Child Poverty: A Comparative Analysis (Mia Hakovirta) -  This open-source paper uses the Luxembourg Income Study datasets from 2004 and 2005 to analyse the contribution that child maintenance makes to the reduction of child poverty. The countries compared are Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US), representing countries with different child maintenance schemes. Results show that the contribution that child maintenance makes in reducing overall child poverty is modest. However, it has a relatively large impact in reducing child poverty for those who do receive it. Child maintenance reduces the income poverty gap to the greatest extent in the UK and lifts most poor children out of poverty in Denmark and Sweden.
     
  • Webbs On The Web - The manuscript and printed works of Sidney and Beatrice Webb are among the founding collections of the Library at LSE. To this day their works are regularly requested by researchers and Beatrice Webb's extensive diary is a key resource for research into a wide range of subjects, including late 19th and 20th century politics, industrial relations, and the role of women in society and family relationships.
     
  • Declining health-care productivity in England: the making of a myth (Nick Black – The Lancet 13th February 2012)  - The Lancet publishes many useful resources which are free to access if you register with them (which is also free).
     
  • CIVITAS - Institute for the Study of Civil Society.   Liberal-leaning website of an independent think-tank, useful for purposes of research and study.  Contains many useful resources along with free ebook downloads. 
     
  • TED - Ideas Worth Spreading  - The acronym stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design but in reality the scope is far wider than that.  The TED website is a fantastic resource of thought-provoking ideas - any of the videos on it could make a great discussion topic and much more.  Here's one example:

 

  • This video requires the free Flash plugin.

 

 

This video requires the free Flash plugin.

 

 

 

  • If you liked the video above (and why wouldn't you?) there are numerous other RSA Animate videos on these pages: Page One, Page Two and Page Three. 
     
  • The Educator - Sir Ken Robinson has spent his life grappling with the fundamental question: what is creativity? In this interview he gives Think Quarterly vital insights into the answer. 
     
  • Schoolduggery Blog - This promises "Free schools and disadvantaged children: the data"
     
  • Skills Workshop - Magnificent resource for adult learning. 
     
  • Manybooks.org  Lots of classic literature available here, free-of-charge.  For example, click on the link and you can download R.H. Tawney's The Acquisitive Society (available in many formats) - a compelling book anyway, and of particular historical interest to anyone involved in the WEA, but it now reads - more than ever - like a prediction of what is happening today (it was published in 1920!). 
     
  • Professor Danny Dorling works in human geography was recently interviewed in the Guardian about the research he and his team have compliled to expose inequality throughout the world.  There are many shocking conclusions, not least the amount of inequality in the UK.  The maps on Dorling's own website are very revealing: http://sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/   Here's two videos featuring Danny Dorling:

 

  • This video requires the free Flash plugin.

 

  • This video requires the free Flash plugin.

 

  • Gapminder is a fantastic resource; it supplies statistics, maps and data about the whole of the world. There also many useful downloads available, including a desktop gadget which doesn't require active internet access.
     
  • Tackling Inequality - a nef (new economics foundation) eletter which contains two free to download reports (click on titles); 10 Reasons to Care About Economic Inequality and Why The Rich Are Getting Richer (both PDFs) and much more on the topic of inequality. 
     
  • The Economic and Social Data Service This is an excellent archive and dissemination service.  Vital for any form of research.
     
  • Demos Publications " Demos publishes a wide variety of pamphlets, reports, collections and papers." Everything published by Demos can be downloaded free of charge.
     
  • Susan George is a political scientist has been an outspoken critic of inequality, neoliberalism, war, US hegemony, patriarchy and many important issues for most of her life (click on here to read her blog).  She established herself as a leader in the anti-hunger movement at a time when women were still being sidelined by political movements and overlooked.  Amongst her manifold achievements (just see the Wikipedia profile of her for example) she has written a great many books, many of which have become source texts.  George's last book Whose Crisis, Whose Future inspired Compass to bring her to Liverpool Thursday 17th March of this year to speak and debate.  This was a very interesting event and many discussions and ideas sprung out of it.  We would also like to draw attention to her excellent and informative website: http://podularity.com/polity-podcasts/susan-george-whose-crisis-whose-future/, which includes articles, blogs, podcasts and much more.  Watch this video for an example of her work (further parts of this lecture are available on YouTube):

 

  • This video requires the free Flash plugin.
  •  

 

 

  • This video requires the free Flash plugin.

 

 

  • SSRN-Crossroads and Blind Alleys: A Critical Examination of Recent Writing About Race by Richard Delgado An enlightening dissertation.  "In recent years, idealist approaches and discourse analysis have moved to the fore. Perhaps inspired by Continental philosophers such as Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, and by trends in literary criticism and theory, many contemporary critical race theorists work almost entirely in the realm of discourse. Although the occasional realist work does make an appearance, Critical Race Theory today is almost entirely dominated by the analysis of text, discourse, and mindset. The study of "race" has supplanted the study of race."
     
  • The Economic Social Data Service (ESDS)   "The Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) is a national data service providing access and support for an extensive range of key economic and social data, both quantitative and qualitative, spanning many disciplines and themes. ESDS provides an integrated service offering enhanced support for the secondary use of data across the research, learning and teaching communities."
     
  • The future for lifelong learning: a national strategy The Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning's website (IFLL).  Featuring news about their publication " Learning Through Life, the main report of the independent Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning. It has already sold over 2500 copies and has been positively received in many quarters."
     
  • National Equalities Panel Research, facts and figures This is link to Home Office's Equalities page which contains many resources relating to issues of Equality.
     
  • Publications | the new economics foundation Publications The New Economics Foundatiion (nef) research and campaign for a new form of economics "as if people and the planet mattered".  This link takes you to the publications part of their website, all of which can be downloaded free of charge.  Here's a video of a nef lecture:

 

  • This video requires the free Flash plugin.

 

  •  Jane Hart's Blog has recently been named as the number-one most influential blog by the E-Learning Council.  In it she "writes regular postings featuring news, links and other resources about learning and performance in the social workplace".  Unlike most bloggers Jane Hart updates her blog daily.  Anybody interested in developments in E-Learning should definitely check this one out.
     
  • http://www.infed.org/   Great stuff on here – it’s the encyclopaedia of informal education. 
     
  • http://www.talent.ac.uk/  "talent offers impartial advice on Initial Teacher Training (ITT) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for new and existing teachers and their employers, working in a range of teaching and learning contexts within the lifelong learning sector." 
     
  • http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/   Ideas, concepts and downloadable materials for teaching English.  A BBC site with lots of excellent resources. 
     
     
  • http://www.learning-theories.com/   "This knowledge base features learning theories that address how people learn. A resource useful for scholars of various fields such as educational psychology, instructional design, and human-computer interaction."  Wish I'd know about this one when I was doing my teaching qualification! 
     
  • http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/welcome/start.htm  Similar to the idea behind the UK Online tutorial but less flash-heavy, this is website designed to teach newbies how to use the internet with the support of a Tutor (does use pdf worksheets). Admittedly this doesn't have the benefit of accreditation but anybody teaching the basics in using a computer may find this useful. 
     

 

  • This video requires the free Flash plugin.

 

 

 

  • This video requires the free Flash plugin.

 

  • Old Bailey Online - The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 - Central Criminal Court A fantastic archive on information about trials at the Old Bailey which shed a great deal of light on the shifting attitudes to race, gender, sexuality, migration, class and much more.  Those interested in law and criminology would obviously be drawn to this site but it would also be invaluable to those studying the social sciences, history and much more.
     
  • PISA (OECD Programme for International Student Assessment) "Are students well prepared for future challenges? Can they analyse, reason and communicate effectively? Do they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life? The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) answers these questions and more, through its surveys of 15-year-olds in the principal industrialised countries. Every three years, it assesses how far students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills essential for full participation in society." 
     
  • Human Development Reports (HDR) | United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) A wealth of information is available on this site about the international scene, with reliable data, diagrams, maps and charts.  Would be an excellent tool for teaching and learning.    
     
  • Z Communications  "I hesitate to call ZCom the leading samizdat of our age, because it is also one of the great newspapers of the internet, print, and video. You get more in one visit than hours of thumbing through voluminous newspaper voices of rapacious power. The range of good journalism, writing and scholarship on ZCom is astonishing: from the pen of the well-known to eyewitness reporting of 'citizen journalists'."  John Pilger

 

 

  • This video requires the free Flash plugin.