{"id":406,"date":"2015-08-07T07:58:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T07:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marendeepwell.wordpress.com\/?p=406"},"modified":"2015-08-07T07:58:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-07T07:58:00","slug":"fictional-learning-places-blimage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marendeepwell.com\/?p=406","title":{"rendered":"Fictional learning places #blimage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"#blimage\"<\/a>It\u2019s been inspiring to follow people\u2019s thoughts #blimage and with some encouragement for which I am grateful, I\u2019m using this opportunity to make a contribution of my own. If you\u2019re new to what\u2019s happening #blimage I\u2019ve included more info at the end of this post.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve not chosen an image for my inspiration, I have ended up choosing stories instead. I hope that still counts and for me the pictures stories conjured up in my mind have been a powerful force for shaping my perspective on education. So here I am sharing some of my favourite fictional places\/stories about places of learning:<\/p>\n

First up, the Unseen University from the Discworld universe Terry Pratchett created. Over time, this university has been a fertile battleground for tradition and innovation, from the admission of women wizards to participating in community activities and its uneasy relationship with its home city and the world at large – the Unseen University for me is one of the richest reflections of Higher Education.<\/p>\n

More traditional and still more peculiarly British is the Oxbridge of for example Evelyn Waugh in Brideshead Revisited, where sun-dappled quads are over-looked by student lodgings – or the stories of university life chronicled by Stephen Fry echoing Oscar Wilde. Or the starting point for the adventures of Philip Pullman\u2019s Northern Lights. The setting of so many myths and stories of learning and living in an era which still comes to life at times in the Oxford I work in today when the streets fill with undergraduates in black gowns. Growing up and later when I was at university myself, the image of yellow stone and ancient libraries, of tutorials and essay writing, has always coloured my image of what a university can be.<\/p>\n

Neil Gaiman\u2019s The Graveyard Book meanwhile creates a tutorial system staffed largely by the undead for a human boy living in a cemetery. In this story he learns about the world, history, maths and how to survive his adventures guided by a vampire.<\/p>\n

My most recent favourite discovery however is The University as imagined by Patrick Rothfuss in his ongoing series starting with the Name of the Wind. Not only does it contain the wonderfully expansive Archives (complete with a story arc about the competing classification systems used to catalogue its various collections) but it becomes one of the main sites for the adventures of the main protagonist, its rooftops, surrounds and not least its population of students and staff. It\u2019s interesting that in order to learn what he must know, the main character ends up travelling in the world – seeking what he can\u2019t find in books or lectures.<\/p>\n

There are so many more stories that I haven\u2019t mentioned that I think this thread may continue – but if nothing else I must carefully plan my own reading for the weekend. Suggestions for further reading always welcome \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

#blimage from the blog of David Hopkins<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“…if this is the first time you\u2019ve come across #blimage, here\u2019s a brief summary of what it is. In short, Steve Wheeler (@timbuckteeth), in conversations Amy Burvall (@amyburvall) and Simon Ensor (@sensor63), started the #blimage challenge, which is:<\/p>\n

\u201ca confection of Blog-Image. (Yes, we are now in the age of blim!) You send an image or photograph to a colleague with the challenge that they have to write a learning related blog post based on it. Just make sure the images aren\u2019t too rude. The permutations are blimmin\u2019 endless.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

– See more at: http:\/\/www.dontwasteyourtime.co.uk\/#sthash.VYrW98Qj.dpuf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been inspiring to follow people\u2019s thoughts #blimage and with some encouragement for which I am grateful, I\u2019m using this opportunity to make a contribution of my own. If you\u2019re new to what\u2019s happening #blimage I\u2019ve included more info at the end of this post. I\u2019ve not chosen an image for my inspiration, I have ended up choosing stories instead. I hope that still counts and for me the pictures stories conjured up in my…<\/p>\n

Read moreFictional learning places #blimage<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,26,28],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-stories","category-things-i-like","tag-blimage","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7wa4N-6y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marendeepwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marendeepwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marendeepwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marendeepwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marendeepwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marendeepwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marendeepwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marendeepwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marendeepwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}