Our Study Days are open to all Odiham District u3a members - you don't have to join a group to take part in a study day.
Does Artificial Intelligence bother you?
Did you know that AI has already changed your life?
- What is it and how will it affect us all?
- Is AI safe to use?
- Will my information be safe?
- Am I too old to use it?
Would you like to know more about AI and the way it will affect us all, whether we like it or not?
Our next study day will explore:
- What is AI, and who is using it?
- How will it affect your life, your health, the services we receive?
- How will it affect your children, grand-children’s lives?
- What are the benefits of AI as it is being used today?
- What are the risks, and how to avoid them?
We will look at some simple examples of where AI is being used today, and show you how you can use it in your everyday life.
There are no pre-requisites.
“Artificial Intelligence, Friend or Foe” is planned for Saturday 8th, November at the Cross Barn, Odiham.
Register your interest at study days by end of August.
(The above image was generated by an AI system. It was created by Google's Gemini using the command, 'generate a picture for "AI friend or foe"'. Try it yourself - search "Google Gemini" and go to the Gemini web page. Type in the above command, or another like, "generate a picture for a 70-year-old using AI".
Or, try another AI system - search for "ChatGPT" and ask it, "is AI my friend or foe?" and see what it says.
In fact, you could shortcut the entire study day by typing all the questions we have listed above into ChatGPT and/or Gemini and/or Claude. The only problem with this approach is that you would miss the company and the tea and biscuits!)
Health and Wellness (previous study day)
Our Health and Wellbeing Day was on, on Tuesday April 15th.
We had speakers on Eyes (from the Macular Society), and Ears (from Windsor ENT) and Other Essentials - from MIND, covering the Five Cores of Wellbeing.
Our facilitator was Dr Richard Franklin, the National U3A Health and Wellbeing Advisor.
Crosswords (previous study day)
This study day was in two parts. The first part was for beginners, and the second, for improvers.
- Morning session : ‘How to begin to Solve Cryptic Crosswords’: 11 am until 1 pm
- Afternoon session : 'Improvers': 2.30pm until 4.30pm.
Location : The Cross Barn, Odiham
All you had to bring was a pen, paper and a packed lunch if you were going to be here for the whole day. Tea and coffee were provided.
Shakespeare. 13th February, 2024
We were delighted to welcome Tiffany Stern to the Cross Barn on 13th February. Tiffany is Professor of Shakespeare and Early Drama at the Shakespeare Institute,University of Birmingham.
The morning focussed on Shakespeare’s First Folio, published in 1623 and is the closest thing we have to the plays as he wrote them. We learnt how it was made and even shown some of the error and blunders!
A lot of you will remember that u3a member John Markham appeared on the Antiques Roadshow a few years ago with a tiny notebook dating from around 1630. It was a cause of great excitement among academics that this rare book had come to light and since then, significant research and investigation has been undertaken by Tiffany Stern. In the afternoon session, Tiffany showed us the results of her findings so far. The notebook contains Shakespeare quotations taken directly from The First Folio and in some cases put into the own words of the writer. There was much lively discussion on who the writer might be and the reason for the notebook - the mystery is yet to be solved!
Tiffany was an excellent and humorous speaker and we all agreed that we had learnt a lot without even realising it.
Thanks to John Markham for suggesting that the topic and Tiffany would make a fascinating study day - you were right John!