End of an Era
The Trustees are sad to announce the death of Mildred Karten on 1st January 2013
Mildred in her beautiful garden, with 2 of the many dogs who were lucky enough to live with them
Since Ian’s death, Mildred had taken a more active role in Trustee’s meetings, and it will be very strange to have neither Ian nor Mildred present. We hope, however, that family involvement will continue.
We will all miss her enormously, and send our condolences to Mildred’s family and friends.
Ian Karten MBE, 1920 -2011
It is with deep regret that we have to announce that Ian Karten MBE passed away peacefully on Sunday 8th May.
Ian’s vision and commitment to changing the lives of disabled people has been – and will continue to be – an inspiration to us all. Only 3 weeks ago a lunch was held for Ian and his wife Mildred to celebrate the achievements of the Ian Karten Charitable Trust at Wisley Gardens – a lovely sunny day in beautiful surroundings, with lots of happy memories. So many people have sent moving tributes to Ian, so many comments on the legacy he leaves. And so many pledges to continue the work that Ian started.
We remember Mildred in our thoughts and prayers, and send her our most sincere condolences.
Karten Bloggers at Beaumont
In the Karten Centre at Beaumont College, learners are practicing their literacy skills in a way that engages their interest in a way that more traditional techniques sometimes fail to do. The College has implemented a safe, internally hosted blogging system – Powerful Voices. It is safe – only staff and learners can access it. The interface has been streamlined so that learners can access it directly. Each blog is stamped with the email address of the person posting it. But it means that learners can blog on issues that are of interest to them, and include pictures, videos and music. People are keen to log on and read the latest! And staff are taking every opportunity to embed numeracy and IT skills as well as literacy. The tutors monitor the posts, and pick up the issues that the learner needs to work on, and feed this back into learning objectives.
This innovation has been picked up by the Skills for Life Update, who are featuring it as one of their case studies in the summer edition.