RSPB sources MyKnowledgeMap e-learning for adult education launch

PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 13, 2007 – Over the last few years, the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has seen an increased interest in birds and wildlife. Its new Learn Birds course (www.learnbirds.com) will help adults develop new skills and knowledge and guide them through the early stages of their interest.

This increased interest is reflected elsewhere with the growing popularity of TV nature programmes like BBC Springwatch.

This year the programme attracted an average of 4m viewers a night who tuned in to watch the daily lives of nesting birds, foxes and badgers. Its presenters, Kate Humble and Bill Oddie, are now household names.

LearnBirds is being launched by the RSPB to help fill a gap in adult education. The course is an introduction to birds and birdwatching and has been designed to appeal to a wide range of adults.

Mark Boyd, RSPB LearnBirds Coordinator, said: “We sought a means of providing recreational learners with a broad and thorough introduction to birds and birdwatching that they could dip in and out of and learn at their own pace.”

In MyKnowledgeMap the charity found a solution provider with a proven record in web-based learning for a wide range of audiences.

The York-based company provides e-learning content and delivery systems, skills analysis software and is the UK's leading supplier of infrastructure systems for national skill e-academies, with solutions established in UK food & drink manufacturing, sport & active leisure, care, and retail sectors.

For the RSPB, MKM has devised a 10-hour course that takes learners on a journey into and through the world of birds. The course begins with the fundamentals of bird watching, moving to bird anatomy before looking at conservation issues.

The course is broken into 20 topics that use a wide range of texts and images in online interactions and offline activities.

Online interactions include building habitats, quizzes and matching birds with sounds. Offline activities include field tracking, silhouette identification and bird hunts.

The course makes use of extensive and detailed bird illustrations, as well as bird call soundtracks within ambient sound backgrounds (sea, wind, trees, tractor) to provide a more authentic listening experience.

A&C Black, the third partner in LearnBirds, provided artwork from some of its hugely successful books and sourced authors for the project. Along with video clips from the RSPB film library, these help provide a rich and enjoyable learning experience.

Printable workbook and birdwatcher logbook are provided in the course. Each learner is assigned a mentor to answer questions, and has access to a community discussion forum. Learners can track their own progress through the course.

A book derived from Learn Birds is to be published by A&C Black in 2008. Autumnwatch returns to BBC TV this November (2007).

Web watch
www.myknowledgemap.com
www.rspb.org.uk
www.learnbirds.com
www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/springwatch/programmes

ends

About the RSPB

Working to secure a healthy environment for birds and other wildlife, the £50m turnover wildlife conservation charity has over a million members. Over 12,200 volunteers within a local network of 175 local groups and more than 110 youth groups support full-time staff working from headquarters near Bedford, three national offices and nine regional offices.

The charity additionally operates 200 nature reserves covering almost 130,000 hectares, home to 80% of our rarest or most threatened bird species.

Its latest initiative Learn Birds launches in summer 2007.

Further Information from:
Caroline Offord, RSPB Press Office, 01767 681577
Mark Boyd, LearnBirds Coordinator, 01767 680551

A&C Black’s RSPB Guide to Birdwatching Step-by-Step is published September 2008 (ISBN: 9780713679434)

Further Information from:
Vicky Atkins, A&C Black Publicity and Marketing Manager, 020 7758 0281


About MyKnowledgeMap
Founded in 2000, MyKnowledgeMap (often known as MKM) is a dynamic company delivering web-based knowledge systems designed by individuals, for the individual.
Operating in the corporate, public and education sectors, MKM's range of products and services includes:
•   Academies: MKM is the UK's leading supplier of infrastructure systems for national skill academies, including those in the UK for food & drink manufacturing, sport & active leisure, care, and retail. MKM's e-academy infrastructure helps learners and people with a stake in a particular skill to progress from entry to degree level. Working with the UK's national Sector Skills Councils (MKM's clients include Skillsmart Retail, Improve and SkillsActive), MKM has pioneered online academies that can help people with everything from day-to-day productivity to discovering and achieving relevant qualifications. MKM also offers e-academies tailored to the needs of organisations in the private and local government sectors.
•   Skills diagnostics: MKM's Skills Diagnostic suite allows clients to build their own system of skills diagnosis and training regimens. Its sophisticated software tools are designed to meet clients' specific needs, and to facilitate, not impose, the required solutions.
•   Learning: MKM's e-learning solutions, including e-learning content, delivery systems and teaching aids, are used by a worldwide and growing range of organisations from Lloyds TSB to the RSPB; from manufacturing to retailing; from the police to local authorities; from the University of York to colleges in Delhi, Bahrain and Nairobi. MKM produces inventive and versatile applications that are can be shaped and contextualised by their users to meet the rapidly-changing needs of contemporary work and training, either for use within an e-Academy environment or as stand-alone products.

Further Information from:
Rob Arntsen / Tom Holland, MyKnowledgeMap 00 44 (0) 1904 659465
Peter Muir / Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR 00 44 (0) 1727 860405/ (0) 1296 715228