Work
We did the interviews for the Technology Integration Specialist position - hoping to be able to make an announcement early next week. Super excited to get this role up and running, so the Learning Technologies Coaches Program can start ramping up.
One thing that surprised me - in filling out the paperwork, the form asked me the gender of the applicant. Not a difficult question, but my initial reaction was "no. that's a stupid question. I'm not filling that in." - and I thought about it, and couldn't think of a good reason why I should be providing that information about an employee. Anyway. I left that field blank just out of principle.
Our Online ISW project team met to plan things. We'll be adjusting our online ISW program, refining the content, and redeveloping it as an open online resource for others to use. We've got a lot to start with, and are working with some really fantastic grad students to get things rolling.
Had a quick Skype call with David Porter and his team, to discuss how we're using the Swivl robot camera mounts in the EDU. They're working out really well for us, and I'm planning to buy another six-pack (if I can find the Canadian source - Swivl Global HQ didn't respond, and buying directly through the Swivl website makes them rather more expensive, without specific Canadian shipping options. Free Trade and all that.)
Read
Edtech-ishness
- George Siemens: Adios Ed Tech. Hola something else. - yes, the technology matters, but this stuff is about so much more. If we settle for just talking about technology, we fall into the Rise of the Machine narrative, where Silicon Valley Venture Capitalists swoop in to "save education" through disruption for fun and profit (and then pull the ripcord and move on to the next shiny thing). George's post prompted a few responses around the Tubes.
- Geoff Cain: George Siemens and the Evolution of Ed Tech
- Audrey Watters: Existing Digitally
- Michael Feldstein: In Defense of the Lecture
- Phil Hill: Why Moodle Matters
- Tony Bates: Is there a future in online learning?
- Martin Weller
- Jon Kruithof.: D2L Badges (If I Designed the Badges In the Image of the Work I'm Doing)
- Clint Lalonde: How Open Works
- A new First Monday is out.
- Carolyn Samuel: Daring to try new teaching strategies in your course
- Will Richardson: Learning Isn't Changing
- Laura Blankenship: Someone else's job
- eLearning - Thompson Rivers University Open Learning a fantastic open online faculty development resource on eLearning, by TRU.
- Changes coming to Learning Portfolio - The Silhouette McMaster just dropped the horrible D2L ePortfolio tool, replacing it with a third party service. We're looking at doing something similar, but with a UofC-hosted instance of WordPress to potentially serve as an ePortfolio platform.
- Joel Dehlin: Kuali Curriculum Management Update
Miscellaneous-ishness
- Ben Werdmüller: Get over yourself: notes from a developer-founder-CEO - I think Ben has some great insights here, even for non-CEO-types…
- Rob Beschizza: Take a vacation, or die young
- Kerim: Embracing Impostor Syndrome
- Meeting Boy: "No one's ever busy any more, only "super busy "."
- A 3D printed Camera Slider for $10 worth of Aluminum - DIY Photography via Gerry Paille - a cool DIY camera slider for timelapse photography with camera motion and panning. very cool. must try this.
- Re/code: Twitter Bias: We Listen When Men Talk Tech and Women Talk Diversity The Twitter data suggests that the tech industry may have begrudgingly found a way to listen when women talk about their experiences as women in the industry, but hasn't yet afforded them equal attention in the broader conversation about technology and business.
Other
I rode 3 days this week. Felt great, but I'm not sure if I'll be trying to ride every day. Might try dialling things back a bit. But then I'd miss things like this on my commute…
