bellblog | Frances Bell

If ‘open’ is the answer, what is the question? #OER16

Catherine Cronin’s keynote was the first session at the OER16 conference and was live streamed with a video recording here in case you missed it, and an audio recording here, if you like to multi-task. Catherine started a conversation around the subject of the keynote more than a month before at her blog and #OER16…

Institutional fragility and resilience?

Individuals, networks and institutions – in their impossible triangle of resilience My very lovely slice of the Interwebz has thrown up lots of interesting ideas about how all of us can (and can’t) take care of ourselves and each other, and how institutions respond to the idea that there might be a problem in caring…

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…

Elise’s Christmas Soup

My dear mother Elise Crampsey (later Richardson) 1916-1990 was named Elizabeth (a family name) that was adapted to a French variant in recognition of what was happening in France in 1916 around the time of her birth in Grangemouth, Scotland. She was the oldest of 7 children born into in a working class family whose…

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….