Beta Test Site Closed - Wayne Turner

Guess what!! We’ve been listening, and every email, every comment and every chat session suggesting alterations and improvements made by our beta testers has been considered.  Many of these suggestions have already been applied, and many planned to be implemented before, and rolled out during the launch of learnsom.  Thank you very much to all the beta testers and users for your input, together we are building a secure environment where we can all go to share our personal experiences and knowledge on any given subject.

Those of you who have used the service will be aware that by logging in you are presented with a wide range of tools to help you in your learning experience.  Being part of the learnsom community doesn’t demand you upload video content, we found that during beta testing many of you were sharing personal experiences and advice freely in our social chat rooms, which proved invaluable to some learners.

Don’t forget that Learnsom is a free educational resource for everyone; its intuitive design makes it easy to use, even for those who are not computer literate.  In fact, if there are areas of the computer that seems a little daunting there are some great videos showing you how to maintain, upgrade and use your computer!

Security and privacy is paramount on Learnsom, we want you to be confident that other users will only be able to view what you want them to view from your personal profile.  All users can be confident that while you are using the site you will not be exposed to any anti-social behaviour, so you are all free to learn from one-another in a secure environment.

We will be in touch very soon to let you know when we are going live with the site, and I look forward to seeing you there when we launch.

I’m very excited to announce that the beta site for Learnsom has now closed.  It was a great success with users logging in, socialising and interacting with one-another from across the world…

Workplace Familiarisation - Wayne Turer

Have you ever driven to work in the morning, only to get there and think.. ‘oh, am I here already’.  You stop and think... how did I get here!!!!??  Well you of course drove yourself, but you remember very little of your journey.  It doesn’t have to be a journey you take very often, but your familiarity with your car allows you to relax, and as a result your concentration suffers.

Last night I was driving to get my hair cut.  I was already late, so I was pushing on a bit.  There was a long stretch of wide road with parking cones down the centre with two lanes, one lane for cars to take part in a Driving Census (all signposted), and one lane for those who chose to not take part.  I headed straight for the census lane, and when I stopped next to the chap carrying out the survey I questioned myself ‘how did I get here??’.  This particular evening the last thing I wanted to be doing was answering questions on where I had been, and where I was going.

This lack of concentration when driving is concerning really if you consider how every time you step into your car you can potentially change your life forever, as well as anyone else’s in your path.

I made a conscious effort following this to give the remainder of my journey the attention it needed.

The annoyance I had with myself about driving straight for the Census lane, when it was clearly marked, and I certainly didn’t have time, got me thinking about how many Workplace Safety issues are overlooked through familiarity or lack of concentration. 

Are we providing a workplace that encourages over familiarisation, therefore leading to incidents should the smallest thing change?

There seems to be many views out there on this matter and I would be very interested on yours, whether you are a student or in the workplace.

http://www.learnsom.com/

I posted this article on the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health website with some very interesting replies.. Check it out..
http://forum.iosh.co.uk/default.aspx?g=posts&t=100853