learning and education | Frances Bell

Failing gently but travelling hopefully at #western106 #ds106

Confession time: This is the second time I have tried to join in with a DS106 class and it’s not going much better than the first time when I sank without trace. I have tried to follow the guidance but am not doing very well at ‘keeping up’. I am determined not to be downbeat…

Bowie and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy #DS106 #Western106

Two things happened today: one momentous, one not so. First, David Bowie died, unexpectedly for us but not for him and his family. Like many other people stunned by his loss, I started to root around the Internet and found lots of gems, some that sparked memories and others that were new. The less momentous…

Articles – reading, annotating, summarising

Jeffrey Keefer has inspired me to join in his little adventure in reading more articles in the company of others. I am going to try to contribute to Jeffrey’s and others’ experiences whilst making it work in some way for me. My contributions will have a thinkaloud element to aid reflection, and I hope to…

Stars in the playground and hearts in the factory

This week the switching of the star/favorite for the heart/like has been a source of a little sadness for many in my slice of Twitter. Laura Gogia and Maha Bali supplied interesting commentaries on views expressed in ‘academic Twitter’ but I felt a little distant from the angst. Although I don’t have active plans to…

Openness in Cultural Heritage and Education – open standards, open access and open software

When I attended the DCDC15 Conference – DISCOVERING COLLECTION DISCOVERING COMMUNITIES in October, I was struck by the potential for the Cultural Heritage and Open Education communities to learn from each other. I was particularly interested to hear about the Digital Bodleian Library that uses the IIIF standard and is based on open standards, open…

Measuring and Correction

I attended my first quilting class today at the Quilting Box and this is what I achieved. I have done some quilting over the years, and been quite pleased with what I have achieved but I knew I had a lot more to learn – I just didn’t quite know what. Textile crafts have so…

A moment of optimism

This blog post has been in gestation for some time and while the ideas have been tossing around in my mind, I have encountered a few conversations that have helped me to turn this from a gloomy to an optimistic idea. I have been experiencing increasing disenchantment with (hyper)connection and its implications in my life….

Libraries in my life

I have always loved libraries. The first one that I remember is Withington Library from when I lived in Withington in Manchester as a child. It’s great to see it is still there and operating as a community hub. When we moved to Middlesbrough, I became very excited that I could join two different libraries…

A story of connection and disconnection around #ALTC

I was very aware of the ALT-C conference on 8-10 September even though I was not a registered delegate. For a start, it was in Manchester, just down the road from me. I used to be a regular attender at ALT-C and over the years have given workshops, organised symposia, reviewed abstracts and research papers…

Connection and Locus of Control

These are some very half-formed thoughts that I want to capture so I can re-connect and learn more later. I have just read a post by Laura Goglia about an experience she had in school from reading part of a textbook when she was supposed to be reading Beowulf. She saw a picture that fascinated…