The next part of the OU (Open University) course is all about mobile learning and its effects on educational value and on economic growth. I am facilitating a couple of seminars in which we are role-playing particular people who figure in the scenario. I am supposed to be the senior civil servant overseeing various projects. I can hear the wry laughter from those who know me well from here! Yes, it's not exactly my sphere of knowledge, so this is a steep learning curve. One of the things I really relish about working with the OU is the extent to which I am offered all sorts of learning-opportunities of my own. It goes without saying that in a course about Education for Development there are going to be a lot of areas in which I am not an expert at all. This current strand to name but one! However, apart from the obvious learning I have to do to facilitate the students are the courses I can take just about for free. They also have a lot of resources on iTunes as well, which I have gone through at some length and can really recommend. The ideas there are exhaustive – and rather exhausting. I am staggered by the proliferation of ideas out there. I am mindful, however, of the poet T.S. Eliot’s reminder: Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? And so on. I can honestly say that this venture is extremely challenging and that’s great. It seems, from the feedback I’m getting from a few of the students, that they are enjoying the course. Some students don’t participate in tutorials, either because where they are they don’t have reliable internet connection, or they don’t choose to. Either way all the tutorials are recorded either in our forum, or as Elluminate synchronous tutorial files, held centrally, to which all students have full access. I also like the way in which the written forums are organised. Students can add new topics and fully interact in the discussions. We have a “quarantine” facility for anything that goes against copyright, or is considered in any way inappropriate for such a forum. However, it feels like a free space, somewhere where people can come and say what they think and feel about the topics. It’s great to be involved. Love to you all, Moira xxx