Schools are set for a Star Trek make-over thanks to the development of the world’s first interactive classroom by experts at Durham University.

Researchers at the University’s Technology-Enhanced Learning Research Group (TEL) are designing new learning environments using interactive multi-touch desks that look and act like a large version of an Apple iPhone.

The team observed how students and teachers interact in classes and how Information Communications technology (ICT) could improve collaboration. They then set about designing an interactive classroom solution called ‘SynergyNet’ to reflect TEL’s aims of achieving active student engagement and learning by sharing, problem-solving and creating.

Several students will be able to work together at a desk as the desks allow simultaneous screen contact by multiple users using fingers or pens. Durham researchers wanted to create a ‘natural way’ for students to use computers in class. The system encourages collaboration between students and teachers, and a move away from teacher-centric learning.

source: http://www.universitiesweek.org.uk

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Wales is called a “land of music” because many Welsh people can sing well. People often form choirs and sing together. Welsh folklore is also very beautiful. Every year, Wales organizes an Eisteddfod, the largest literature and music festival there. With Competitions in poetry, music and prose, this festival aims at preserving Welsh traditional culture.

English and Welsh are used at the same time in Wales (about 20% of the people in Wales speak Welsh). Welsh is a language of Celtic origin and the oldest living language of Britain. Generally, Welsh is spoken as the first language in rural areas in the north and the west but English is used in the industrial and urban southeast of Wales. The government and voluntary groups have been trying to encourage people to use Welsh. In 1967, the Welsh language Act was introduced guaranteeing the use of Welsh in courts and public administration. Another Welsh Language Act, passed in 1993, ensures that people can use Welsh when dealing with public authorities. Welsh and English are both seen on road signs all over Wales: television and radio have special programme in Welsh; and some newspaper are wholly or partly in Welsh. Chilren learn it in Welsh schools and bilingual education is encouraged.

Scotland is a beautiful mountainous area and is devided into three geographical regions: the Highlands (in the north and the west), the Lowlands (in the south and the east) and the Islands.

The Highlands is the place where Scots Gaelic, an ancient Celtic language, is widely spoken. The Highlands Scots are very proud of their tradition and their family unity. They traditionally lived in groups called clans. Clan in Gaelic means “family” or “descendants”.

The kilt is the traditional dress of a Scot. It looks like a pleated skirt of tartan cloth. Each clan has its own type of tartan that helps to distinguish this clan from another. Kilts are for both men and women, but kilts for men are often accompanied with a small bag in front once made of badger fur and silver known a sporran. Kilts are still popular in the Highlands. In other parts of the country they are worn only at festivals and on special occasions.

Scotland has expanses of countryside and a lot of lochs, the best known being Loch Ness, and the story of the monster, forests, seashores and islands. It is a place for sports. Golf originated in Scotland and is now considered the national game. Salmon fishing and skiing, especially in the Highlands, are popular as well. Scotlands is well known for a lot of ancient castles and bagpipes, a traditional musical instrument. Scotch whisky is also very special.

Edinburgh is the capital. Glasgow, the third largest city in Britain, is the chief industrial, commercial and cultural center of Scotland. Glasgow houses some of the finest museiums and galleries in Europe.

Full size of England map

The South

It is warmer in the South compared with other areas of England. There are beaches of various types, flats, sandy, and stony; so, many coastal holidays resorts are built there. Brighton is a seaside place notable for tourism. The Continent is not very far from here, just across the English Channel. Transport between Britain and the Continent is either by air, the Channel tunnel or by ferry across the Channel or the North Sea. The main industries are engineering, food manufacturing, import – export and distributive trades. Generally, the South is wealthier and life there is more expensive than other areas in Britain. If you are in the South, you can see the following places of interests:

Stonehenge: the remains of the prehistoric era. It is a mystical circle of stones on Salisbury Plain. It is famous because of its sense of mystery with a lot of different theories. Up till now, although equipped with modern methods of investigation, we do not know exactly how Stonehenge was built and  its purpose. Geologists believe that stones came far away Wales. How did people at that time manage to move them? Some think that it was a place where people could observe planets and stars, and that the position of the stones are associated with the movement of the sun and the moon. Therefore, Stonehenge severved as a calendar. Who built Stonehenge is still unknown. People just guess that it is related to a group of Celtic religious people called the Druids who had ceremonies there every year.

Canterbury: a historic city in Kent, surrounded by a wall. The city is famous for its ancient cathedral built from the 11th to 15th centuries. The bishop of Canterbury is also the head of the Church of England and is called the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Eton (College): one of the oldest and the most famous public schools on the River Thames. It was founded in 1440. The school is for boys only, usually from upper-class families. The school takes pride in its long-established tradition. Many Prime Ministers  of Britain and other well-known figures were educated there.

Oxford and Cambridge: the two oldest university towns in Britain.

Windsor: a town well known for Windsor Castle, an official residence of the sovereign. It was built in the 11th century by William the Conqueror. Nowadays, when the sovereign is not in residence, part of this famous royal palace is open to the public.

The Midlands

It is wetter and cooler in the Midlands than in the South. This is an industrial area where the Industrial Revolution began. Britain’s second largest city is Birmingham in the Midlands. The city and the surrounding area used to be a major engineering center producing lots of iron and steel goods. The Potteries, famous for china. Derby Nottingham and Leicester are other industrial areas in Midlands Grimsby is small but considered one of the most important fishing ports. Stratford-upon-Avon in the county of Warwickshire and Shakespeare’s birthplace, is a tourist attraction. Here, there is the Festival Theater where the Royal Shakespeare Company plays Shakespeare.

The North

The North is colder with snowy winters. The landscapes is rather distinctive with lots of grass-covered land called moors. Manchester is a big city once known for making textiles, cotton goods, and for engineering. Coal is abundant here. The Roman Hadrian’s Wall was built in the second century along the Scottish border from Solway Firth to the River Tyne to the Scots out of England. It took six years to complete this 120-kilometer-long wall. York, a place related to the Roman, is in the North. Among the remains are the city walls and medieval buildings, which are very impressive. The Lake District, a place of lakes and mountains, is well known for its romantic and beautiful scenery. This is where William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey, three famous  poets of Britain, lived and wrote poems. They are known as Lake Poets who formed the Lake School. The Lake District is now a well protected national park which attracts lots of tourists and artists.

Off the northwest coast of mainland Europe between latitude 50 degree North and 61 degree North is a group of about 5,000 big and small islands collectively called British Isles. Among them are two large islands. The larger is Great Britain, which is made up of Scotland, England, and Wales. The other is Ireland, consisting of North Ireland (Ulster) and Irish Republic (Eire). The United Kingdom of Great Britain and North Ireland (The United Kingdom or The U.K for short) is the name given to Great Britain and North Ireland. Such islands as the Scilly Isles, the Isle of Wight, the Orkney Islands, the Outer Hebrides and the Shetlands, belong to the U.K. However, the Isle of Man and the Channel Island are self-governing with their own parliaments, although they do recognize the Queen. Britain is a unitary state but the four constituent countries have distinctive national identities, some minor different physical characteristrics and variations in culture and tradition.

Britain is rather small, only 242,000 sq km. It is 500 km wide and nearly 1000 km long. Great Britain is the largest island in Europe and the eighth largest in the world. Although Britain is an industrialized country, much of the land is under cultivation. National Parks and conservation areas cover 20% of the land.

Geographically, Britain can be divided into two parts, Highland Britain and Lowland Britain. The highest mountain of Britain is Ben Nevis in Scotland, one of the mountainous regions of the U.K. It is 1,343 m high. The Pennine Range is called the “backbones of England”, and extends 224 km. The longest river are the Severn (354km), which flows from northeast Wales into the Bristol Channel, and the Thames (338km), rising in the southwest England and flowing out into the North Sea. The largest lake is Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland (388sq km).

The vast majority of Britons live in urban areas. The largest cities in Britain are London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leads, and Glasgow. A large part of the population is English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish, but there are also Indians, West Indians, Africans, Bangladashis, Pakistanis, and Chinese. People emigrated from their homelands to Britain for different reasons. Some wanted to escape religious persecution, poverty, wars or natural disasters. Others went in search of jobs and a better life; and still others came as political refugees.

Britain is rich in energy resources, especially oil and natural gas. Coall played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. Lots of coal has been mined in Britain and it was cheapest source of energy. Formerly, oil was imported from Middle East but after oil and natural gas were discovered in the North Sea, Britain became self sufficient. Nuclear power stations provide a large part of the electricity supply. Nowadays, with the increasing concern about environmental pollution, the British government is encouraging people to look for other energy sources that are cleaner, safer and renewable.

Great Britain is an industrial and commercial country. It was the first industrialized country of the world in the mid 19th century. The manufacturing sector has been developing and still plays a very important role in the economy. Britain especially excels in high-technology industries like electronics, pharmaceuticals, aerospace and offshore equipment. Other industries such as transportation, petroleum, coal, gas, steel and communications, are also well developed. Crude oil has always been a primary source of power and Britain ranks among the largest oil producers in the world. Nowadays, with the fast growth of the service sector, such branches as finance, tourism, retailing, and other business services contribute considerably to gross domestic product and employ a great part of the workforce. Britain is also a world leader in international trade. Britain is just a small country, but it is considered the fifth largest trading nation and an influential member of the European Union. Britain exports include oil, manufactured goods, machinery, electrical and electronic equipment, chemicals and aerospace equipment and pharmaceuticals.

Conservation is one of the top priorities of the British and the government has initiated many important policies and laws to protect the natural environment. Among measures taken are declaring particular areas National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natutal Beauty (AONBs) which are carefully protected. Global environmental concerns like “greenhouse effect” and ozone depletion are given priority. Many sites all over britain, both natural and historic, are recognized by World Heritage Convention and listed in the World Heritage List including Canterbury Cathedral, Averbury, Hadrian’s Wall, the Giant’s Causeway, the Palace of Westminster, Stonehenge, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and so on.

English, developed from Anglo-Saxon, is the official language in Britain. With a long history of invasion, the laguage as influenced and changed. Although virtually all the people in Britain speak English, the separate counties have their own accents and dialects. Sometimes people can not understand one another well due to this variety of accents and dialects. However, home counties English is accepted as Standard English and is understood more easily all over Britain.

Britain is devided into 53 counties. The counties around the capital London are called the Home Counties. Britain is an influential member of the Commonwealth, the European Nations and the European Union.

The major religion is Christianity, represented predominantly by the Church of England (Anglican Church) Roman Catholism, and the Presbyterian and Methodist churches. Besides, there exist Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism.