Helen Shephard
Lots of interests, lots to learn! I’m also Helen King, and coordinated the creation of this MOOC before I retired in Jan 2017. Now Professor Emerita at the OU.
Location England
Activity
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Helen Shephard made a comment
I recently ran an event informing older people about social media. As part of this we had two 17 year olds from the local secondary school talking about how they use social media. A question from the audience was ‘How many hours a week do you spend on social media?’ (As opposed to using the Internet for homework etc) The young people reckoned they use social...
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Helen Shephard made a comment
I used to work with a young person who binged on chocolate when really low - enormous quantities of it. She eventually was persuaded by the senior tutor to bring him all her chocolate when she’d got to the stage of buying it but hadn’t yet eaten it! He then put it in a drawer in his filing cabinet. This was a way of supporting her in taking control of her...
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Well done, Pauline - I’m sorry that the bullying wasn’t addressed.
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I’d resist any tendency to say that “good parenting would result in self-worth in the teenager”. I’ve seen excellent, supporting parenting alongside a teenager with depression - and I don’t think working mothers should be blamed either!
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Helen Shephard replied to Frances Ryan
I know one person with a stoma - he is very upbeat about it, very open, makes jokes. I think that is a pretty good way of coping with something that is so very un-natural. I've also heard that with some bowel conditions, a stoma gives you a real ability to control what was previously an out of control situation.
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Helen Shephard made a comment
I did some reading on diverticulitis, not least because I've had it twice and was treated successfully with the hideous drug Flagyl (hideous in its side effects)! I was interested to see if knowledge has improved.
By the time you are 50, you have a 50% chance of having developed these little pouches in the large intestine. They are mostly no problem but...
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Helen Shephard made a comment
The most interesting thing for me was seeing just how close things are to each other - heart to oesophagus, spleen to large intestine - which explains why it can be difficult to work out which part is causing pain.
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Helen Shephard made a comment
My OWL has arrived and it's excellent! I am finding the landscape and building shots far more impressive than the people, which surprises me. Maybe it's because they encourage me to do the 'focusing on the distance' thing as recommended on the OWL instructions.
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Helen Shephard made a comment
So how far can you train your stomach to feel full a long time before it gets near that scary 4 litres?
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Helen Shephard replied to Haley Cummings
I rather like the skeleton... The strong, silent type!
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Helen Shephard made a comment
I work on Ancient Greek and Roman medicine but from time to time it's good to catch up with modern views!
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Helen Shephard made a comment
There's still something about 'being there'. On my last trip to Pisa there were so many people doing that thing where you are photographed as if you are holding up the Leaning Tower... It must be the least original pose you can do, yet so many people want to have a photo of them doing it.
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Helen Shephard made a comment
I think it's the 3D effect. As for the interesting comments on how long people spent on one image, it reminds me of when we were living near a major art museum and bought the annual ticket so we could go in as many times as we liked - because we had all the time in the world, we would sit in front of a single painting for maybe 15-20 minutes and really get to...
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Helen Shephard made a comment
My first tape recorder - OK, it was sound not images, but it seemed like magic to be able to record songs off the TV rather than buying the record, and it still seems like magic when hearing the voices of those family members who're no longer with us.
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Helen Shephard made a comment
I was interested in the geometric one, http://www.nms.ac.uk/explore/collection-search-results/?item_id=20029182
I've not seen any simple images like this before and wondered if they were used in.a stage in the production of other images or as an end in themselves? -
Ooh, Library of Alexandria! Fascinating example of not knowing the facts even now: there's a great little OpenLearn unit you may like on http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/library-alexandria/content-section-0
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I'm not convinced that being 4 nations makes us in any way stronger. If nationalism is on the up, and as the 4 don't agree on the EU, isn't there a risk that we'll use up all our energies on fighting among ourselves? And other nations may be 'one' on paper but they contain different ethnic or language groups that aren't happy with the current situation - e.g....
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Helen Shephard made a comment
Fair point in the course materials that we are (even if about to be 'were') the EU - talking about "the EU" as if it is separate from its members is an odd thing to do. So it is up to the members to decide what sort of union they want. However, looks like we won't be in that debate...
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Fiona, I totally agree that we should all have done a lot more research before voting (which is why I joined this MOOC). However some of the questions we now need to answer couldn't have been predicted before the results were out. For me, the big shock has been how this result has unleashed some disgusting racism. I was well aware of the suppressed racism...
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Interesting point, Vijay. Indeed, look at Renaissance Italy, with all those small states each with their ruler! I'm still trying to visualiise it for London, though. Just the City of London? But where would the borders and border controls be? On the Underground and in the streets? Or would it be Greater London? But where does London stop, and the suburbs...
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Helen Shephard made a comment
Carol, I saw (but can't find now...) a pie chart showing about a quarter of those in the UK voted Leave, a quarter voted Remain, a quarter were eligible to vote but didn't, and a quarter live here but weren't eligible to vote.
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Helen Shephard made a comment
I was very surprised that the idea that cities which were pro-Remain could stay in the EU didn't simply get the answer 'Don't be daft!!' Scotland, maybe - but surely not London!
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Helen Shephard made a comment
I'd also recommend http://www.perc.org.uk/project_posts/thoughts-on-the-sociology-of-brexit/ which is the best analysis I've found of why many people voted Leave in areas where I'd have expected them to be pro-EU because of receiving funding. It's also brilliant on the appeal of 'take back control'.
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Helen Shephard made a comment
Only just found out about Nicola Sturgeon’s suggestion that the referendum contain a lock to protect the voice of the constituent parts of the UK (requiring majority votes in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland).
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The age profile figures are being widely shared, and on Facebook I've seen them used several times to say the older generation have ruined it for the younger ones. As someone of nearly 60 who voted Remain I find it annoying to be classed with the older generation here! I also wonder about the figures. The poll I keep seeing shared (from YouGov) is based on...
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Sitting with my cuppa now.
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Oxford, Remain 70.3%... Despite every banner except one, across the countryside, being a Leave one
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Helen Shephard made a comment
Had some sleep, woke up to see what's happening, but this is so close I'm not going back to bed until I've waited for some more results...
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Hi Linda - I don't live in Oxford itself but the list of councillors shows a lot of Tories. Not sure how many of them are for the city and how many for the rest of the county, but if I've got this right, most for the city are Labour or Green
http://mycouncil.oxfordshire.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?VW=TABLE&PIC=1&bcr=1 -
Helen Shephard made a comment
I voted by post. Friends tell me there were queues when they turned up to vote in Oxford, but that could be the normal peaks and troughs of voting times. Or it could be Oxford! I was disturbed to see that some people on a local interest Facebook group were still asking questions like 'Where's my polling station?' and 'Do I need my polling card to vote?' But...
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Helen Shephard made a comment
For me it's peace and understanding of each other - if you feel like a citizen of Europe as well as of your nation, doesn't that make war less likely to break out?
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Helen Shephard made a comment
I really don't get all this antagonism to Twitter. I use it all the time and by following journals, writers and organizations which interest me, I can keep up to date with my subject.
But... There's the problem. It's the usual social media thing - we follow those who think like us and so we get a skewed picture of the world. So I was very surprised that 80%...
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Helen Shephard replied to Mike Fulford
Go on, then, Anita! It would be interesting to hear your perspective!
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Helen Shephard made a comment
Erasmus is something of which I've a bit of experience. When I worked at a standard UK University, it was interesting how few of the U.K. students wanted to spend time at another university, and part of that was simply that they hadn't got the language skills. So Erasmus students came to us, but we didn't 'export' many.
I had a 3-month job at the University... -
A neighbour who is German, married to a Briton, lived here for many years and paid taxes for 14 years realised she wouldn't be allowed to vote (although she has the vote in local elections) but was surprised to receive a letter officially telling her she can't vote. Wonder how much it cost to send out these letters?
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Helen Shephard made a comment
I find it alarming that I didn't already know all this. Thanks for informing me!
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You could compare this with the Church of England, where major changes require a two-thirds majority... !
As the referendum approaches I am getting more and more interested in whether a high turnout favours one or the other position. The theory that Leave people are more motivated to vote, and that Remain, being about the status quo, doesn't have the same...
