Juggling online courses and wise words from Spock

Live long and prosper

As usual I have too many irons in the fire. I began two online courses a while ago, one on Forensic Psychology and one of Genealogy. The former is an eight week course, the latter six weeks. I have already let the Genealogy course slip and have now stopped at week three. I promise myself to go back to it when I have time....ha, ha. At the end of the day I do know a fair bit about family history research as I've been doing it for some years now, with back up from the hubby (all-knowing god of family history!). I thought I might pick up some hints about people that I have had difficulty finding by doing this course but on the whole I have found it boring. That's really because I know the basics, not a fault of the course. I have picked up a few websites worth a look and to be fair hubby is doing the same course and into it far more than me!

The Forensic Psychology course on the other hand is very me! I'm loving it. It looks at how witnesses see things and the difference certain types of questioning can make. This week (week 5) we are looking at the old Photo-Fit and E-Fit and an even newer version. It has been fun and interactive. There was a chap who was asked to look a picture, turn it over and then describe the person for an E-Fit. The picture was of Judi Dench and she came out looking like Jo Brand! The second version was a bit better but still unrecognizable. It's a sad fact that we are hopeless at describing faces because we do not have the vocabulary. No one would ever be arrested solely on an E-Fit, thank God!

This course as been an eye-opening in how the mind works, what we do to get a 'best fit', what we see, what we don't see even when it's right under our noses. Fascinating stuff. I'm loving it.

Next week another online course starts - Italian. Yes, I've had a go at this language before. If you read this blog regularly you will know I have the books, the tapes and even went to a class which was closed due to lack of students! As Spock said in The Journey Home I'll give it my best shot!