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Category: Learning
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computing
Courses tagged with "computing"
Systems thinking can help give some soft answers to hard questions
Category: Leadership & Management
Reduce, reuse, recycle. Reduce means reducing your use of items that lead to waste. Since 2000, amounts of e-waste have grown from 20 million to 50 million tonnes per year.
Category: Nature & Environment
The development of the climateprediction.net climate model was almost as involved and intricate as the climate it sought to map. Bob Spicer recalls the inspirations and frustrations of getting the model created and reveals exactly what the number crunching is for
Category: Environmental Studies
Everything we wear, every product we use, every building we see is a design defined by a certain shape. The Design with Vision project illustrates how eye tracking technology can be combined with shape generation software to create a radically new type of computer aided design. As you sketch ideas for product shape the system detects what you are looking at and offers you a range of on-screen alternative shapes. This is computing that works with your own creativity rather than replacing it – this research, a collaboration between the OU and the University of Leeds is aimed at stimulating and generating ideas for designers, the result could have a global effect on the industries of the future.
Category: Science, Maths & Technology
To what extent did Alan Turing influence the evolution of modern computing? The 20th Century mathematician is considered by many to be the father of computer science and many would argue that it is largely due to his research that we are able to read this text on a PC, laptop or smart phone. Aside from his contribution to maths and computing however, Turing’s influence impacted on a variety of fields including cryptanalysis and deciphering Nazi codes which helped to end World War 2. This collection examines Turing’s troubled personal life, the significance of his role at Bletchley Park, his ideas on artificial intelligence and finally examines what his legacy should be.
Category: Science, Maths & Technology
Educating the next generation of business talent with free online learning.
Category: Science, Maths & Technology
As part of a review of content, this course will be deleted from OpenLearn on 18 May 2017. It has been replaced by the new course 'Information security'.
Headline news scares about stolen or missing data are becoming a frequent occurrence. This free course, An introduction to information security, discusses the importance of protecting information. Organisations are relying more and more heavily on computers to store sensitive corporate and customer information and this OpenLearn course gives an overview of information security management systems.
Headline news scares about stolen or missing data are becoming a frequent occurrence. This free course, An introduction to information security, discusses the importance of protecting information. Organisations are relying more and more heavily on computers to store sensitive corporate and customer information and this OpenLearn course gives an overview of information security management systems.
Category: Science, Maths & Technology
This free course, Approaches to software development, presents an engineering approach to the development of software systems – a software engineering approach. The course pays particular attention to issues of software quality, in terms of both product (what is built) and process (how we build it).
Category: Science, Maths & Technology
This free course will teach you how to write your own computer programs, one line of code at a time. You'll learn how to access open data, clean it and analyse it and to produce visualisations. You will also learn how to write up and share your analyses, privately or publicly.
Category: Science, Maths & Technology
What have computers got to do with cows? Can a wooden mirror help us understand the computing behind digital image capture? Neil Rowse is the first dairy farmer in the UK to use a computerised system that gives cows control over when they are milked, and allows him to remotely monitor the welfare of individual animals. Daniel Rozin has created an computer operated mirror made from 835 tilting wooden tiles. With the help of a digital camera and a computer programme, the wooden tiles mimic the digital pixel information and tilt themselves into a ‘reflection’. This material is taken from The Open University course T224 Computers and processors.
Category: Computing & ICT
The Linux Operating System is 20 years old. This podcast series, presented by the Senior Lecturer in Computing at The Open University, Blaine Price, tells the story of an extraordinary operating system that in two short decades has grown from a students’ project to the foundation of the internet. Linux runs on everything from your wireless router and Android Smartphone to CERN's most powerful computer. It has championed a whole new philosophy of collaboration and freedom in the software development community. We will hear from its users, its innovators and its originators. This is the story of Linux. For an entry level approach to learning Linux, try The Open University course T155 Linux: an introduction.
Category: Computing & ICT
Have you ever been told that you spend so much time playing computer games, you should get paid to do it? Well, maybe you should consider a career in designing them!
Category: Engineering & Technology
Computers play a huge part in almost all of our lives, but how did these machines become so powerful and important? And what were some of the earliest models like? This collection of videos takes us through the Four Generations of computers, starting with Colossus, the world's first electronic computer (launched in 1944), and finishing with the BBC Micro (launched in 1981) and Fourth Generation Computers, looking at how technology changed throughout these years. Visiting locations such as The National Museum of Computing in Milton Keynes and The Centre for Computing History in Haverhill, we see an array of fascinating machines and learn about them along the way.
This material forms part of The Open University course TU100 My digital life.
This material forms part of The Open University course TU100 My digital life.
Category: Engineering & Technology
The Wannacry malware attack which locked down vital systems throughout much of the NHS on Friday was preventable, explains Conor Deane-McKenna.
Category: Engineering & Technology
Although many of the electrical goods and gadgets we buy today come in pre-sealed boxes, which makes it hard to take them apart and look inside, it's still possible to tinker in a hands on way with a lot of today's technology. The Maker Faires are celebrations of this sort of hands-on activity: have a look at the following slideshow to see what sort of things were on show at the UK's first Maker Faire in Newcastle in March 2009.
Category: Engineering & Technology
Tony Hirst looks at how our Global Positioning Systems can contribute to collaborative map making
Category: Engineering & Technology
Understanding the ebbs and flows of the coastline is not just about observation but also about analysing data. Data is one of those words we use everyday, but what does it actually mean?
Category: Mathematics & Statistics
The 15th September 2009 edition of Digital Planet looked at Kenya's growing animation industry. Here we explain how you can try your hand at animation from the comfort of your computer.
Category: Design & Innovation
How - and why - would you build a machine 10,000 times thinner than a human hair? This album features experts discussing the paradigm shift that is occurring in science. Scientists are learning to manipulate atoms on the scale of a billionth of a metre and control them to perform specific tasks. They can emulate biological and chemical systems to fabricate machines that will destroy cancer cells in the body, giving us nano-drugs of the future; and IBM is using nano-technology for information storage on a molecular scale. There are many other applications which will have a significant impact on the way we live. This album also provides an introduction to quantum computing and quantum mechanics. The material forms part of The Open University course S250 Science in context.
Category: Physics