Work

We've been adapting to life in a shared, open workspace environment. Most of us in the Taylor Institute are in pods, trying to balance productivity, collaboration, distractions, competing demands for attention. It's hard to describe what it's like, but it adds overhead on top of everything. Quincy describes it well, from the perspective of s programmer, but I think it applies to the rest of us as well.

Let's talk a bit about how us humans get work done. Is it four hours of crushing it, a lunch break, then four more hours of crushing it? No. It's more like coffee, email, coffee, meeting, coffee, lunch with coworkers, coffee — OK finally time to get some work done!

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Wordfence automatically blocks IP addresses that repeatedly attempt to brute-force logins on UCalgaryBlogs. After a few attempts, they aren't able to try again for a few minutes (in case it's a legitimate person trying to log in, it doesn't banish them entirely right away). If they knock it off, the ban gets lifted. If they keep hammering, the ban gets escalated, eventually putting them in a permanent penalty box (identified by their IP address - not perfect, but it's all we have).

The Taylor Institute has 5 learning studios, designed for active and collaborative learning. People who are using the space have access to some great technology to support their work, including 37 “collaboration stations” (we really need to come up with a better name for those…).

Here’s a quick-ish demo of the basic functionality provided by the stations, recorded using the lecture capture system built into the learning studios.

Technologies mentioned and/or used in the video:

A student practiced in the gallery for a bit today. Not bad. Love the acoustics of the gallery/loft/atrium space.

[audio m4a="https://darcynorman.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/student-practicing.m4a"][/audio]

I’m still amazed at how intense the last several months have been. The Taylor Institute construction was completed, the AV systems were installed and integrated, and an seemingly endless series of high profile events have taken place. The past 6 months have been by far the most intense, high stress, high energy, high profile, and chaotic that I’ve ever experienced. And we’re currently on the last major event for awhile.

I’ve been without work email for almost a week, as a result of a rather large-scale malware incident that took many systems on campus offline. Many folks in IT have been working around the clock to restore hundreds of computers and systems, and I’m thankful for their efforts. It’s a heroic, thankless task, and they are likely getting some steam from people despite the fact that they’re working flat-out to resolve this.

The forum in the Taylor Institute converts from a gymnasium-sized flat-floor active learning classroom into a 336-seat theatre for keynotes and special events.

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Poster sessions are an important part of any academic conference - providing a way for researchers (including both faculty and students) to share their research in a format that supports describing methods, discussion, and results as well as fostering discussion about the project. Normally, these posters are printed on large format printers, carefully rolled into tubes for travel, and hung from poster boards or walls in a conference venue. It works, but requires the posters to be completed days (or weeks) ahead of time to allow for layout and printing (and any revisions to fix typos or omissions). It also requires a the content to be static - it’s a printed poster - and the format usually involves a 4’x6’ sheet of paper packed with dense micro-print and footnotes.

It’s been a long process, but the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning opened this morning. The last 4 years have been an intensive planning/collaboration/development/implementation process, with people from many organizations coming together to build on the vision of the Institute. From the Institute’s website:

The Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning is dedicated to better understanding and improving student learning. It is both a building and a community that extends well beyond the building’s walls. The Taylor Institute brings together teaching development, teaching and learning research, and undergraduate inquiry learning under one roof. The institute supports building and sharing teaching expertise; integrating technologies to enhance learning; and conducting inquiry to improve student learning. Through the College of Discovery and Innovation, the Taylor Institute offers undergraduate students opportunities for inquiry-based learning, experiential learning and interdisciplinary research.

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We’re setting up a bunch¹ of “collaboration carts” in the new building. They’ll be used to do a bunch of things (videoconferencing, wireless collaborative displays via Mersive Solstice Pod, Google Docs, Office 365) - when someone plugs one into a floor box, it fires up and asks them what they want it to be. One of the things we want it to be able to become is a digital whiteboard - as much as people love digital stuff, they really love whiteboards.

We're looking for a rare combination of technical skills and strength in collaboration and consultation on the use and integration of a wide array of technologies in the new Taylor Institute building. It's going to be an extremely important role, working with everyone in the Taylor Institute, and from across campus, to effectively use the shiny new stuff that's being installed in the building (literally - right now, installation is under way!). Mobile collaboration huddle stations. High end audiovisual systems - with laser powered projectors! Working with folks who are making cool stuff in the Faculty Design Studio. And lots of other stuff that we'll all be figuring out together once the building opens in April 2016.

In late 2013, our Provost struck a Learning Technologies Task Force, to develop a plan to sustainably implement and support learning technologies across all faculties at the University. The result of that task force was the production of the Strategic Framework for Learning Technologies in the summer of 2014 - a document that lays out some high level priorities and specific strategies to address them. Much of the document directly guides the work of my team (the Technology Integration Group in the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, Educational Development Unit) - I keep a copy of it handy, and have a poster version of the priorities and strategies pinned to the wall in my office. One of the interesting aspects of the Framework is the emphasis on combinations of learning technologies and spaces - that we need to consider the physical as well as digital aspects of the learning environment.