Adult Learners' Week #1

As promised a selection (ragbag) of sites which may (or may not be) of some interest to adult learners. All free and all come with the Phantom Engineer's seal of approval.

OpenLearn
The Open University's OpenLearn offers a number of free online study units related to the themes of Adult Learners' Week.
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=1217

BBC Adult Learning
OK, so it's a bit obvious but the BBC still produces the goods, from basic skills to IT and much more.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/subjects/adult_learning.shtml

Mi Vida Loca
BBC again, but this is new. Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life) is a Spanish course for beginners. There will be 22 episodes, themed according to language topics such as directions, shopping, etc. Each episode is a combination of real-action video with language teaching and practice, focused on developing communicative skills. First 5 episodes are avalable now.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca/

Annenberg Media
Very, very American. Very, very good. A series of series of educational broadcasts on the arts, history, literature, economics, etc. etc. For example, The Western Tradition is a series of 52 half-hour programmes on the rise of western civilisation or, rather, civilization. You have to register to stream the videos but worth the effort. Like having the Discovery Channel on tap.
http://www.learner.org/

Interesting though that in this Web 2.0 age of collaboration (wikis, blogs, CMS, social bookmarking, etc.) collaboration still means, for some, allowing others to do their collaborating for them. I was (probably) much too far out all my life, And not waving but drowning.