Issue number one hundred and twelve (April 2010) in a series of Signposts from WorldU3A International, sent once a month to any and all U3A members anywhere in the world.

Please send snippets of possible interest to the editor, Tom Holloway.
Feel free to copy any or all of this information in your newsletters.

Call for Mentors: After a full year of a project by a group of U3A members to provide mentoring to a school in a 'dalit' (untouchable) community outside Hyderabad using email and SKYPE, it has become evident that the difficulties lie in the confidence of the teachers and their willingness to use spoken English.

We are now restarting this project, but including six students from class 7 (aged 11/12) -- see http://msfoundationschool.org and press the 'Mentoring' button.

This will not be an onerous task. You will need SKYPE (microphone, webcam), slow and careful English and lots of patience. Online sessions will usually be once or twice each week, between 11AM and 1PM, or by arrangement with the project organiser Sandhya (sandhya@holloways.org) to whom enquiries and expressions of interest should be sent.

Art/History Groups: The site by Professor Christopher Witcombe at http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html is very well organised. It was recently selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for inclusion on EDSITEment as "one of the best online resources for education in the humanities." He is producing a series of podcasts called Art History in Just a Minute (through EwArt Productions; also available through iTunes).
Bookgroup Info - http://www.bookgroup.info - is an independent site providing information for readers, book groups, reading groups and book clubs. We aim to provide a book lovers' community where you can find unaffiliated book reviews, literary news, interviews with distinguished authors and keep up to date with literary festivals and events.

Language Groups: New French and Spanish games are available at http://www.bbcactivelanguages.com/LearningSupport.aspx
We have access to some new games for French and Spanish learners on the new Learning Support page on our website. There are ten games in each language, each one focussing on a different topic. This page is to support you in your language learning. From this page you can access a range of fun, interactive language games so you can practise what you've learnt.

At the Open Learning Initiative of Carnegie-Mellon University you can get free materials, activities and assessments for self-guided learning. These are mostly in Science and Technology. See http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/

Gardening Groups: The Entomology Department of The Royal Horticultural Society is currently investigating the biology and distribution of invasive non-native insect pests in gardens.

Research enables RHS entomologists to provide accurate and up-to-date advice on pest problems in the UK and as part of their research they carry out web surveys. Please help them to track four non-native pests at http://www.rhs.org.uk/Science/Plant-pests/Projects

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