Work

Big week on campus:

• Natasha Kenny: Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement
• Michael Ullyot: Job Opportunity: Learning Technologies Coach - UofC is hiring a bunch of grad students to act as learning technologies coaches, supporting innovation in integration of learning technologies in courses.
• University of Calgary - Community Report an impressive update on the transformation of the UofC leading up to the 50th anniversary next year.
• Drew Scherban: University of Calgary celebrates year of successes on Eyes High journey
• Drew Scherban: University of Calgary to hire 100 new professors
• Sean Willett: Assignments should be free for students - UofC student paper, ranting (rightly) about needing to be able to complete assignments without having to buy additional stuff. The UofC has a policy that forbids requiring students to buy/lease/rent/subscribe to things for assessment that is used for grading. The publishers have to provide free access to their online resources through the libraries - sounds like access is still not ideal, though.

Read

Edtechnorati

• via Stephen Downes: The internet is eating your memory, but something better is taking its place
• Mark Drechsler: The MOOC as a network broker
• Campus Technology: U of Arizona Experiments With Multiple Classroom Configurations
• Jon Kruithoff: First Week of Using PebblePad - McMaster is using Pebblepad in conjunction with D2L ePortfolio. We’re prepping a new WordPress installation (integrated with CAS and D2L), because the D2L eP tool has many opportunities for refinement and enhancement.¹
• Wendy Chan: Learning Technology Hub Launches New Website and New Location - really nice learning technologies website at UBC
  • UBC - Learning Technology Hub
• Samuel Buemi: Taking the Tech Out of Technology
• Maryellen Weimer: Nine Ways to Improve Class Discussions
• Brian Lamb: It happens - we’re looking into media hosting platforms. Mediacore was one of the 2 strong contenders. I’m guessing options have narrowed since the acquisition. Awesome.
• Edsurge: Workday Announces Workday Learning, Acquires MediaCore
• Western University - Teaching with Technology Workshops Hosted by Dr. John Doerksen, Vice-Provost (Academic Programs), and the Teaching Support Centre (TSC), the Teaching with Technology – eLearning Lunch and Learn Series focuses on the nexus between innovative uses of new and emerging technologies, and best practices in teaching and learning. These sessions (lunch will be provided) are intended to foster campus-wide collaboration, communication, and resource sharing about varied technology issues
• Patrick Dunleavy - Impact of Social Sciences – Shorter, better, faster, free: Blogging changes the nature of academic research, not just how it is communicated

Miscellaneanity

• Max Nisen: Inside Chipotle’s extremely intense, 39-point checklist for good management
• John Gruber: User Interface of the Week
• CBC News: Ski resorts brace for warmer temperatures in Western Canada
• Jason Kottke: Histography, an interactive timeline of all history
• Apple - Privacy statement “We believe in telling you up front exactly what’s going to happen to your personal information and asking for your permission before you share it with us. And if you change your mind later, we make it easy to stop sharing with us. Every Apple product is designed around those principles. When we do ask to use your data, it’s to provide you with a better user experience.”
• DiskMaker X Makes USB install disk for MacOSX, so you don’t have to download 6GB on every single computer you use.
• Histography - Timeline of History interface to explore history timelines, from big bang to 2015, based on wikipedia data.

Other

It was bound to happen. The Boy™ is now The Teen™. Holy. He was born after I started working at the Learning Commons (then Teaching and Learning Centre, now Educational Development Unit of the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning). I’ve made a teenager in the time I’ve worked on edtech at UCalgary. Yowza.