Dear all,

I am not in a position to comment on research - but do wonder about the extent to which responsibilities for the care of elderly relatives impacts on access to learning?

Gwen Chaney
Academic Development and Field Chair HCSC,
Faculty of Sport, Health and Social Care,
University of Gloucestershire,
Oxstalls Campus,
Oxstalls Lane,
Longlevans,
Gloucester,
GL2 9HW
01242 715225
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of mature learning for leisure, health, or work [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of William Klemm
Sent: 19 August 2007 16:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: non accredited learning

Recent research shows there are three main reasons older people have trouble learning:

1. lack of exercise
2. stress, both in the present and in the past 3. lowered ability to concentrate and focus

see my summaries of this research and my book on improving memory at http://thankyoubrain.com/PracticalMemoryResearch.htm

Bill Klemm


W. R. (Bill) Klemm, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Professor of Neuroscience
College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Texas A&M University, VMA BLDG., Room 107
4458 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-4458

Phone: 979-845-4201, FAX 979-847-8981
Webs: 
www.cvm.tamu.edu/wklemm (personal site)
peer.tamu.edu (site for middle-school educational outreach) thankyoubrain.com (site for book on memory improvement) http://thankyoubrain.blogspot.com (memory research blog)





>>> Martin Allinson <[log in to unmask]> 08/19/07 1:27 AM >>>
Lina Fajerman wrote:

ôI am put out by the description of non accredited learning as "infotainment
"- a very perjorative
description of a vital activity in many peoples lives.ö, and David Wilson
wrote: ôYes, I agree.ö

I surmise that Lina was triggered to write this by my reference to ôedutainmentö in my posting where I said:

ôThere is a need for research into how the 'old, but not over-the-hill'
can
be induced to 'stay in harness', even though they have the wherewithal to 'shed the saddle, bridle, reins and bit'.
However it is not the sort of research endeavour that is within the expertise of middle-aged academics supervising raw graduates.
It should however suit some of us third and fourth generation (grandparent and greatgrandparent) studiers and learners. Such conjecturing about the

fairly-immediate future seems to be something that particularly interests those of the third and fourth generation that 'return to college'.

But such research is very different from the 'not for credit edu-tainment' 
provision of Institutes of Learning in Later Life. (I am not decrying that provision. It has great value. I am just saying that research that requires postgraduate competencies and considerable life experience is something different).

Lately, I have been wondering just how many well-heeled retiree baby-boomers will wish to get into postgraduate research, and how it will work out.
Will it require the invention of the Master of Arts Emeritus and Doctorate of Philosophy Emeritus, or can universities fit it in within the rules of their Graduate Schools for the present MA and PhD awards?ö

I would suggest that æinfotainmentÆ and æedutainmentÆ are no more, and no less, pejorative than æbiophysicsÆ and æbiochemistryÆ; because they (like all words) are at the centre zero on the scale that runs from pejorative-to-adulatory. We have to do things like putting æmerelyÆ in front of them to shift them towards the pejorative end of the scale; or æadvancedÆ to shift them to towards the adulatory end.

I am an engineer, not a linguist/semanticist, so I may be wrong in my belief that it is how we use a word (by context, or with tone of voice or
accent)
that decides where we are placing the word, at that time, in the range from pejorative to adulatory. But that is my belief.

For instance, æprofessionÆ is only pejorative if we indicate that we have its Shavian definition of ôa conspiracy against a laityö in mind.
And æhigherÆ is only pejorative when it occurs in phrase-constructions such as ôFurther and Higher Educationö, and if we are talking of effects on our sense of smell.

We need our taxonomy of the various activities that have their roles in the studying and learning processes, and æinfotainmentÆ and æedutainmentÆ seem to me to be useful recent additions.

David Wilson, in his posting, went on to give a helpful exposition of how some activities in the academic world carry credits with them, but that those credits will usually be irrelevant for the older clients of the educational establishments.
My point, as for David in his language acquisition, is that we have to manage to fit within the present framework or negotiate some suitable extensions of the framework.
To get the services of academics that I felt I needed for my self-development meant enrolling for an MA-by-research at my local university in NE Thailand, and so I had to accept those æartificial deadlines of accredited learningÆ that David mentions.
Within that MA process, I found that I needed to catch up on where Futures Studies had progressed to in the last quarter century and enrolled for an on-line course with the University of Hawaii. As I didnÆt want the three

credits, they enrolled me in an æungraded-and-not-for-creditÆ category that cost me a few less dollars. I was impressed that they have extended their framework in this way. (I attach the report of that on-line learning experience that I did for the Strathclyde Conference.)

Looking at how some universities in America are marketing themselves to us oldies and making income from real estate for which they expect soon to be unable to attract young clients, it is clear that provision for mature studying and learning is going to be big business for academics, as well as for the crews of cruise liners. We will live in interesting times, and modifying the framework of accreditation will be an interesting process.

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