Resources for home improvement

Josef Davies-Coates, founder of United Diversity has kindly let us know his top places to learn green skills.

There are lots of good courses being run at 3 of my favourite places:
http://www.ragmans.co.uk/ (many, including the one I'm doing now run
by http://patrickwhitefield.co.uk/)
http://www.radfordmillfarm.co.uk/
http://www.embercombe.co.uk/

Been told they do really great stuff at: http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/

In London there is: http://www.naturewise.org.uk

Graham Burnett does lots of courses too: http://www.spiralseed.co.uk/

Another great article from Seth Godin who talks about how we should all have a super power, particularly in business. The example he gives is the Wasp
“I’m the Wasp. I have the ability to shrink to a height of several centimeters, fly by means of insectoid wings and fire energy blasts.”
Some fancy marketers might call this a positioning statement or a unique selling proposition. Of course, it’s not that. It’s just her super power.

One in three children do not know what chips are made from! This is more than a little worrying to me.

We're very pleased to announce a new round of investment for School of Everything.

Tim Jackson, founder of QXL.com and LendAround, has become an investor and joined the board of the company. Channel 4 has followed up its initial investment through its new innovation fund 4iP and Sean Park and Geoff Mulgan join existing investors Rocco Pellegrinelli and the Young Foundation in this round.

We're very excited because it means we'll be able to continue to grow School of Everything both in the UK and internationally, helping more people find new things to learn near them.

This is a digest (if you'll pardon the pun) of information on the gap between the typical modern Western diet and what our bodies are adapted for. There's certainly a big gap between what I eat and Ran Prieur's recommendations, but there's a lot of food for thought here.

I was into email about a decade ago. These days I prefer to avoid communication forms that demand my attention. I can definitely recommend ending an email (and twitter) (and RSS) addiction.

I wish I had learned to touch type.

Keyboard skills are so valueable now.

I think it is time touch typing was considered to be an essential learning skill and included on the National Curriculum for primary schools.

Another essential learning skill that should be taught is how to ask questions. That sounds daft, I know , but children are not given sufficient opportunities to ask questions.

Research continues to show that the avereage number of questions asked in a school year per pupil is one a month!

I watch hours of telly each day. But I was once told that I'm allowed to watch anything I like as I'm productive at the same time.

Just to explain...I'm a knitter. It's what I do for a living. But once the pattern writing bit is done, there are hours of repetitive knitting, during which I need to be kept entertained and awake.

I know lots of knitters who listen to the radio, but I need something to look at - I'm one of those annoying knitters who can watch subtitled films whilst knitting (sorry!)

I know that it is only just past Christmas, but thought that you would want to be the first to know that our latest 2009 information brochure is available.

A "must have" for any serious business student or corporate training manager.

email - [email protected] - today & we will be delighted to send you a copy

Happy New Year!

How does your Mistletoe grow?

Mistletoe is a bit weird but kissing under it is quite nice. Learn about mistletoe myths and growing tips here. If you’re more interested in the kissing and would like some lessons in love, say hello to our (very) friendly Flirting Teacher Kitty Stryker.

"It's natural for organizations to learn from mistakes. The problem is, people who propose new checks almost never consider that the check itself has a cost."
....

One of the things I really like about Folksy.com (the UK-based crafts marketplace) is the cool stuff they make to promote the site. Looking through their Flickr stream, there are plenty of other examples of them getting involved with the community of people who make and sell stuff through the site.

There's lots of inspiration there for us at School of Everything - and for any other startup that's trying to find playful ways to spread the word about a useful service.

Probably the smartest piece of advice to any growing organisation.

This week a couple of friends of mine asked me to teach them how the web works, and the basics of what they'd need to know to commission their own websites. So I found myself in the strange position of being their teacher for the evening. I think I did okay, so here's what I did, and what I learnt:

1. I asked them what they wanted to learn. (Easy to miss this one.) They basically had enough questions to build a clear map of the lesson, and it meant I could use examples from their lives to illustrate my points.

A not at all boring article that's full of genuinely good advice on what not to do if you find yourself writing a scientific paper.

Nice piece by respected VC Fred Wilson on how the web is giving 'power to the people' and what this could mean for education.

I noticed recently how much new stuff I'm learning these days. In fact, it feels like I give myself more homework now than I ever used to do when I was at school or university. For example, in the past week I've been:

- teaching myself to transcribe 17th century manuscripts
- helping a friend rewrite a research report on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (which meant getting my head round enough of the science not to mess up the meaning of what I was editing)
- editing a magazine about "commons" and "common sense"
- taking part in an extended email discussion about copyright and ethics

We don't really have a clue, but so far, it looks like it might be ok.