Jennifer (Reid) Jones
Formerly mentor for Shakespeare and His World with Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Now in the deepest darkest Scotland working for the National Trust for Scotland
Location Edinburgh
Activity
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Hello Sue, you might have seen this come up on the earlier weeks - sorry I missed this thread to reply to you. Please be assured that the assignment does not require a heavy piece of academic writing! It is also completely optional so you do not need to do one if you don't want to.
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Renee Tobin
Great resource Mark! We actually only use nitrile gloves - we use them once and throw them away. The white cotton gloves are only ever used by the tv people - they seem to like them for effect!
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
In fact the whole Birthplace used to be covered in graffiti, I wrote this blog last year when I discovered some photos of it before it was painted over:
http://findingshakespeare.co.uk/graffiti-shakespeares-birthroom
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Renee Tobin
I wondered how long this would take to come up! To glove or not to glove...!
To answer your first question is about the markers in the books. Of course they are made of archival paper! We are professionals you know :) They have identifying details - date, accession number, title, author etc - on them so that we do not have to handle the volumes as much,...
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That sounds fantastic Ken! Where was it? I was lucky enough to catch the live screening of the NT production last night, did anyone else see it?
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Dennis Garvey
Hello all,
If you would like to feedback directly to Futurelearn about their courses or their communication, you can do so by emailing them at feedback@futurelearn.com
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Paul Woods
Hello Paul,
Just to echo what the others have said and what i have said in response to other comments. Basically there are only 8 focus plays so we had to make a choice! You will see as you go one that we have used the plays as lens through which to explore and aspect of Shakespeare's world, and we chose the plays that best do that. There are other moocs...
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
Hello Jane,
How lovely to see you on here. I am a big fan of your work, it was a pleasure when we got it all in for photography. I had to put my hands in my pocket to stop from making off with a necklace ;)
I hope you enjoy the course.
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Caroline Hooker
In addition, if we could get DNA form it...what would we test it against?!
J
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Hahah thanks Richard! Hope you enjoy them, They are pretty low budget but great fun to make :)
J
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Hi Kate,
We have a number of copies of this edition of Gerard's Herbal in our collection, you can view some good photos of it on our...
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Caroline Harper
Hello Caroline, wow you are storming ahead! As we have said, the discussion boards and reading are completely optional, a good synopsis or reading the recommended scenes will do you just fine. The course is designed so that you can work through it at your own pace - as you have already discovered!) so you can dip in and out of it as you please. I think we...
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Now now! There are at least five books shops in Stratford - including our very popular Shakespeare bookshop. As far as I know there is only one ice cream parlour but i would be delighted to find out about another one! Lets not try to out do each other with knowledge of retailers in Stratford.
As for Jonathan's pronunciation, I think the point has been...
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Thanks Pat.
J
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Thank you for saying so, last year got a bit out of hand and we hope this video re-focuses everyone back to what we are discussing on this course, not what we aren't!
J
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Dear Trevor,
Thanks for your feedback. You can feedback directly to futurelearn via the "support" button on the bottom right of the page or via feedback@futurelearn.com.
Jennifer
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Hello Sylvia,
I suggest we all reserve judgement until next week :) We are all entitled to our opinions!
J
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Sorry you are displeased Emanuela! We only have eight weeks of focus plays and we couldn't include them all. Hamlet is so well known, it will be good for everyone to study some of the lesser known plays too. I hope you enjoy the course and manage to overcome your displeasure!
J
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Oh John, this question comes up every run of this course! Frankly, there are eight weeks and we had to make a decision! I hope you enjoy our choices.
J
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Thanks for clarifying David :)
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Karen Foley
Welcome to a fellow Scot!
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Ann Bednall
Ann, perhaps we have different understandings of the word "Interesting"!
Please see section 8 of week one for Jonathan and my's stance on the authorship question as well as some guidance should you choose to discuss it with other learners.
We will not be indulging in any more "debate" about this in the course.
J
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Hi Koichi, ah but it is so fun to speculate on his love life!
You might be interested in a podcast I did on this subjest a couple of years ago:
https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/podcast/did-shakespeare-love-his-wife/
J
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Joan,
I am pleased you've brought this up. That email was a bit of a surprise to all of us at the SBT too! It is my understanding that this this rule will not apply to this course or retrospectively to the previous runs, which is why there is not mention of it here. However it may apply in the future if we decide we want to run this course again.
I will...
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to D W
Hi Hazel,
It has been dated at c.1600. To echo what Janet says, there are three links in the text under the video, all of them will give you further information on the ring and its provenance.
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to D W
Thanks for the tip Chris!
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to D W
Hi Hazel, not from the gold content, only stylistically.
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to D W
That is is made of gold! It is 22 carat gold.
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to D W
Hi Hazel,
We recently sent the ring to the assay office to have the gold content tested and we were able to find out detail of the material make up of the ring.
Jennifer
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Hello Bret,
Have you seen Shakespeare Documented: http://www.shakespearedocumented.org/
It is a great resource for further information about Shakespeare documents and documents relating the Shakespeare's family, you might find some more clues in there.
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones made a comment
Hello Learners - new and old! It is nice to see some familiar faces are joining us again for this 5th romp through Shakespeare's World.
Welcome to week one, I hope this article set's out in a bit more detail the structure of the course and what we are aiming for with it. I wanted to reiterate that the reading is not compulsory - I know I couldn't find the...
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It is a pleasure to work with Catherine!
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Hi Jeanne,
Well spotted, it is not a coincidence, we definitely planned it that way :)
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to nyree Whalley
Hello Nyree, I am planning a trip to Adelaide next year! Welcome aboard :)
J
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Christine! Please, you should know better than post comments like that!
I think that is quite enough on this thread please learners, you have all made your points.
Jennifer
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HI Deedee,
Thanks for your comment. I dont think Nina is here to cause trouble, she is just expressing her opinion and all opinions are welcomed here as long as they are relevant and do not offend anyone. Nina's posts are full of great information (even if we do have very different beliefs on the WS front!)
Please can we end this course on a pleasant...
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Hello Jennifer,
That is quite right, some are enormous! But other are really rather small and they had this very annoying habit of folding things up into little bundles, which means as time has passed the vellum has hardened and they are nigh on impossible to be unfolded!
J
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Mary, I can assure you that we keep an eye on the feedback given, but if you are given inappropriate feedback we can arrange for your assignment to be reassessed by another learner.
J
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Hello All,
Just jumping in here to address some of the concerns.
First of all about the moderators being asleep. I can assure you it is quite the opposite! We made the decision to take a more hands off approach on this run, partially because we are all so very busy this year and to test whether we can run this course more often in the future....
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Mixed emotions perhaps Joan :P
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I always like to think that Quiney found another way out of the sticky money situation he was in and no longer needed the loan, hence why it was never sent!
J
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Hi Kate,
Why do you think she would not have cared? I expect she would have cared very much! I image if she had seen her father publish his quartos then the production of the folio, she would have been very excited to see her husbands work immortalised!
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Sue W
I wonder if there was a concept of patient privacy in those days? Does anyone know? Or of privacy in general
His notes were published from 22 years after his death so one must assume he didn't write them with the intention of sharing his wife's digestive problems with the world!
J
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Tina I often think that same thing! Poor Elizabeth, remembered only as being the daughter of Shakespeare and for having indigestion!
J
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Thanks for sharing this Wendy, it's a great series!
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Rushi Bakshi
Rushi,
Thank you for pointing out Maqbool, I saw this film shortly after starting form the SBT, and it made me quite excited about what people could do with Shakespeare!
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Jenny Williams
Hello jenny, was this the production where the children were lowered in form the roof? I have heard lots of people were spooked by that one!
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Wanda Bergamasco
Oh No! Perhaps it was better in the cinema. Though I have to say when I saw it there was a fair ground on outside and in the quiet moments we had a chorus of whoops and screams. I have heard lots of people moan about the mumbling, i didn't have a problem with that but that's probably because I am a Scot!
I have never actually seen Macbeth on stage but hope...
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to JACKI HART
HI Jackie,
Thanks that's great, could you let me know who got in touch with you from SBT? I'd just like to follow this up.
Thanks
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to JACKI HART
Hello Jacki,
Thank you for your comment, I wonder if you can give a bit more detail about that is wrong? Perhaps an example would be helpful? What information are you trying to access? We are working on both our websites at the moment, the main site and the collections catalogue. Previous runs of this course have not given you direct links to items as that...
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Nina Green
Hello Guys,
Ok, enough, I am pulling rank here. This is not the way to carry out an sensible, adult debate about a topic that we all clearly feel very strongly about. While we welcome conversation, we do not welcome bickering, personal attacks and petty digs at each other. This sort of conversation is off putting for other learners and is not conducive to...
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Sandra Sparks
Hello All,
AH, you've busted us filming these in advance! When this mooc was first created it wasn't planned ot run as often as we are running it, and to get Jonathan and I in the same place every week - with working technology - and the impact on the team at WBS to edit the videos every week is just a bit much for us. You will remember the quirks of our...
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Hello Jean,
I hope you mean "debate" as bickering is definitely not welcome here! While we want conversations, we all need to be mindful of others opinions and realise that in the case of authorship we are unlikely to turn someone's view if it not the same as ours.
Jennifer
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Hello All,
I am just jumping in here - while we welcome debate and discussion on this course we do not welcome the kind of discussion that this thread has turned into. This authorship debate has a tendency to bring out the nastiness in people - it's obviously something we all feel strongly - and often differently! - about, so please agree to disagree, and...
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Mark Nedza
Hello all,
May I suggest No Fear Shakespeare if you are struggling with the language:
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Camilla Johansson
Hi Camilla,
Throughout the runs of SAHW we get questions about why we have chosen the plays we have. We had a lot to chose from! The plays are chosen to illustrate the part of Shakespeare's life and world that we are focusing on at that point. MWW is definitely the best play to illustrate Stratford as you will see as the week goes on.
I know some...
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Thank you Kate. I notice you're background is in textiles, my first degree is in textile design and there are some cracking pieces in the SBT collection to keep me happy for hours!
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones made a comment
Hello Everyone,
Shakespeare and His World tries to show how Shakespeare lived through his plays and through the fantastic collections we have at the SBT. For the past 18 months I have been working on a project to redesign how we manage our collection behind the scenes and how we present it to the public online. This came to a head today with the soft launch...
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Ps over the next week we will be updating the links on all the pages to the new catalogue records, so please be patient, this is rather a busy week for everyone :)
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones made a comment
Hello Everyone,
Shakespeare and His World tries to show how Shakespeare lived through his plays and through the fantastic collections we have at the SBT. For the past 18 months I have been working on a project to redesign how we manage our collection behind the scenes and how we present it to the public online. This came to a head today with the soft...
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Isla White
Hello Isla,
I am afraid this wont be covered by Jonathan or I, we are pretty clear on our stance that Williams Shakespeare from Stratford wrote the plays, and there is no evidence to suggest otherwise - after all we have both committed our professional lives to this fact! So we wont commenting on it much.
In previous runs of this course the authorship...
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It's a good article! Thanks for sharing.
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to R. Fisher
HI R. FIsher,
IF you are having a problem please report it to futurelearn or use the question mark button at the bottom right of this page to start a conversation, I am afraid I am not sure what is up as it is working perfectly for me.
Thanks
Jennifer
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I agree Margarite, whether is is THE ring or not, it is a symbol of the endless need for people to find an attachment to Shakespeare's personal life.
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to kenneth andrews
Hello Richard and Sandra, nice to see you here again, and delighted to have you help to answer everyone's questions and kick off the discussions!
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Trina Grant
Hi Trina,
You are a woman after my own heart, I love opening a book and finding marginalia. Did you see this story a few years ago?
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/mar/22/revealed-moaning-miserable-medieval-monks
Jennifer
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Hi Theresa, welcome aboard and you are in exactly the right place! We will be looking at Shakespeare's world through the lens of one of his plays each week, so hopefully you will learn all you are looking for.
Jennifer
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Hi Peter, we will be focusing on Venus and Adonis in week 1, so no escaping it quite yet!
Jennifer
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Hello Staci,
Not to worry, Burbage and the first folio appears a great deal in alter weeks, you will notice this is just a summary of his life and mostly relates to his family.
Jennifer -
Hello Brooke, Sadly no one knows. It doesn't look like the plague was in Stratford when Hamnet died according to the records of the time, but it is always a possibility. They didn't record what people died of - it's the same reason we don't know what killed Shakespeare.
Jennifer
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Hi Tony,
Just do what you can. If you find you cant keep up we will be making suggestions for key scenes to read from each play. Remember you can also work through the course at your own speed so if you fall behind don't worry!
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones made a comment
hello everyone! Well you've picked a great week to be joining us in this journey through Shakespeare's world. This is our fourth run through the course, and I am sure I will see a few familiar faces as the course continues.
I am Jennifer and I am the course mentor, so you will see me popping up on the comment threads trying to help with any questions or...
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Karen May
HI Karen! Nice ot see a familiar face on here :) Glad you enjoyed it.
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
Hello Rebecca,
Like I have said in a couple of comments, we have plans to run it again next year commencing 18th April, though it may be slightly different as I am sure you can imagine we have rather a lot on in April next year! Hope to see you again.
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
Hi Joan,
it's a good question, but I should point out that I don't have access to the "behind the scenes" side of the course like the guys at WBS and FL, I have the same access as you learner so unless it's flagged or I spot them myself me I don't see them.
I would also caution against taking this so personally, this is the sort of behaviour that you see...
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Toni Lewendon
Hi Toni,
We have over 100 learners in this round that are joining us for a third time! We will be running it again next year so perhaps you will be a return learner next time :)
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Paul Benard
Thank you for joining us Paul, have a lovely Christmas.
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Thomas C
Hi Thomas,
Final numbers of registrations are just under 13,000. A little less than previous runs but still pretty good going I think!
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Janine McNally
Well Janine the good news is we will be running it again next year in April so keep your eyes peeled!
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Charlotte Marek
Hello Charlotte,
Well I am slightly biased being an east coaster that Edinburgh is quite probably the best place in the entire world! I have to recommend the National Museums of Scotland as I worked there before making the move down south to Stratford. There are many wonderful galleries and museums to check out, I love the surgeons hall but it can be a bit...
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Janine McNally
Hello Janine,
Unfortunately Jonathan and I just this afternoon filmed the final round up video for this course (will eb up shortly) so we wont be able to answer this in the next one!
It is my understanding that there were no such things as royalties in the sense that we recognise them today. There was money to be made in selling as script but not a...
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
Exactly Richard, your diligent reporting has had the required effect and they are doing their job :)
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
Hi Guys,
Thanks for flagging this, the guys over at futuerlearn are on top of it so let's not go back to making any accusations that we can't back up! Let's all end this course on a friendly note :)
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
Hi Arti,
It's been pointed out that you have got a bit of a habit of copying other learners posts. Please cut this out, it is not a very nice thing to do and completely pointless -we would much rather hear your own thoughts!
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Maura Coleman
Hi Arti and Maura, somehow your comments seem to be the exact same! Not sure if this is by accident or on purpose but just a gentle reminder not to copy other peoples comments :)
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
Hi Arti and Maura, somehow your comments seem to be the exact same! Not sure if this is by accident or on purpose but just a gentle reminder not to copy other peoples comments :)
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Zelin Ma
Good question Zelin, thouhg not sure who you mean by ordinary people!
I've answered this a few times over the last ten weeks but quite simply, there are so many great plays to chose from that we couldn't include them all! As you will have seen we have tried to select plays through which we can tell stories about Shakespeare's life and the world he lives...
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Hi Pamela,
Like all previous videos, the transcript is available by clicking on the "view transcript" button a the bottom left of the video.
Thanks
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Bernie Davis
Hello Bernie,
Please call me Jennifer - i think we are all friends by now!
Warwick business school have lots of fantastic experience and knowledge when it comes to creating educational resources and courses which they brought to this Mooc, and Jonathan was able to supply all the Shakespeare knowledge, a perfect match!
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Bernie Davis
HI Bernie,
Thanks for your question - though I am not sure I have understood it fully! That is quite a selection of words. With regards to Warwick Business School, the SBT and WBS partnered up to create this mooc, it is requirement of hosting a mooc on Futurelearn that there is a university partner.
Jennifer
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You beat us to is Susan! We talk about this window in step 10.11
Jennifer
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It was lovely to meet you Keith! I realised I never got your name after you left so I am pleased you have identified yourself. Hopefully I will get to meet some other learners soon, it also nice to know you all exist in real life!
Jennifer
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Hello Carole,
There is no deadline for submission, however as it is peer reviewed you probably want to submit it before the end of the course (Sunday 13th not 7th, must be a typo in the email) . Even though the course content stays up on after the 13th, there may not be anyone around to review your submission.
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Dr. Reena Mittal
HI Guys,
I think this is quite enough thank you. The problem at the route of this comment thread has been dealt with by the moderators but somehow this conversation has continued with an unpleasant tone. I must ask you to please end this conversation.
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Christine V.
Hello Fiona,
As we emphasised in the video, the assignments ARE optional, so there is no requirement to complete it to finish the course.
Jennifer
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Ian Todd
What lovely memories ot share, the Minack theatre is a fantastic venue and I would love to see the Tempest there.
J
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Great share Margarita! My plans for this evening are to watch this version again, so this is a great accompaniment. I have to admit that the Tempest is my favourite play - I'm not sure I am supposed to have favourites but there we are!
Jennifer
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Hi Kathleen, The round up video will be available later this morning, hope you enjoy it when it is available.
Jennifer
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Can I recommend this flickr set of images of Cleopatra from our collection:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/shakespearebt/albums/72157624425386215
J
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Jennifer (Reid) Jones replied to Linda LLOYD
Good question Linda! Will try to bring it up in the round up video.
J
