NCS News

The iPad. At last: a bit of learning technology kit that won’t get in the way learning. Finally, a device that will actually enhance learning, and in my particular interest, online learning at home.
The iPad - just slip it out from under the pile of newspapers, or brush off the toast crumbs, and switch it [...]

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A happy Burns’ Nicht tae ane an’ a.’ We’re looking forward tae oor haggis and champit neeps and tatties and we hope you can join in too. If none of this makes any sense to you, may we recommend a visit to the online Scots dictionary. And if that rouses your interest in things Scottish, [...]

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What a way to celebrate 40 years since Apollo 11 landed on the Moon! The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been passing over the old Apollo landing sites and has sent back images in which you can just make out the descent stages of the old lunar modules.
For full details about these images and higher resolution [...]

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The BBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are” begins a new series tonight, with an investigation into the family history of presenter Davina McCall. This series will guide celebrities through their family trees, delving into history as we go.
If it puts you in the mood for finding some ancestors, why not try our History and [...]

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The International Space Station crew is awaiting the arrival of three new members that will usher in an era of six-person crews aboard the orbiting laboratory. Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Bob Thirsk launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft Wednesday morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome [...]

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You can learn all about researching your family history with Kathryn Senior on the NCS course Family History Begins at Home. Now, here’s another facet of your family’s history, researching the history of your house.
 
Using a combination of census records, old maps and other documents, you can find out all about the previous residents and owners [...]

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Adult Learners’ Week runs from 9th to 15th May this year and NCS is doing its bit to support it. You can try some course snippets and a complete free course over at the NCS ALW page. Try a course on Archaeology, Health Care or Herbology. It’s all free for Adult Learners’ Week.

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Today, President Barack Hussein Obama starts the job of leading the western world. A great deal of hope has been invested in this man and, clearly, one man cannot save the world. However, a good leader can inspire the rest of us to pull together and then, just maybe, we can all try to save [...]

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The popular Skype Internet phone system has found another job - broadcasting the news. Janie Porter of WSTP-TV used a Skype video-phone connection from her laptop to send her story live to the television studio. The quality was good enough to go straight to the public and allowed Porter to set up her own outside [...]

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Life is full of risks and uncertainties and, if you worried about every little potential problem, you would never get out of bed in the morning. So which risks should you avoid and which should you take? How do you weigh up the relative dangers?
Now there is a web site which makes it all clear: [...]

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