I was lucky to have been taken to a masters’ student seminar by Tatiana Karaman yesterday ¹, to see some work on a number of her related neuroanatomy projects as part of the Computational Media Design Program at the University of Calgary.

Tatiana sat through a 45-minute MRI head scan in order to get high quality 3D data to work with. She took the data and made a series of slices, which she then fed into a 3D printer. The quality of the prints weren’t quite what she was looking for, so she massaged the data and fed it into a laser cutter to make more robust plastic pieces. And wrote software to let people scan QR codes on the physical slices to get more information. As one does.

Lozano, L., García-Cueto, E., & Muñiz, J. (2008). Effect of the Number of Response Categories on the Reliability and Validity of Rating Scales. Methodology.

Notes:

p.6: Our results permit the conclusion that, considering criteria of reliability and validity, the minimum number of response categories for items with Likert-type format should be al least of four. As regards the ideal number, the data indicate that from seven categories onwards the gains are scarce from a psychometric point of view, suggesting the use of between four and seven. — Highlighted Dec 13, 2015

Gibson, D., Kleinberg, J., & Raghavan, P. (1998). Inferring web communities from link topology. … Of the Ninth ACM Conference on ….

Notes:

p.2: Rather, our experimentation with hits shows that such communities of hubs and authorities are a recurring consequence of the way in which creators of pages on the www link to one another in the context of topics of widespread interest. — Highlighted Nov 29, 2015

p.2: hits hypermedia sources for broad-topic information discovery. — Highlighted Nov 29, 2015

Thomas, D. & Seely-Brown, J. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Self-published.p. 17: “Ironically, the relentless pace of change that is responsible for our disequilibrium is also our greatest hope. A growing digital, networked infrastructure is amplifying our ability to access and use nearly unlimited resources and incredible instruments while connecting with one another at the same time. However, the type of learning that is going on as a result looks so different from the kinds of learning described by most educational theorists that it is essentially invisible.” (tie to Connectivism as network-age learning theory?) (Toefler’s Future Shock)

A keynote presentation at the University of North Florida’s 3rd annual Academic Technology Innovation Symposium

Innovation and integration of learning technologies needs to be about more than automation and compliance.

Porter, W. W., Graham, C. R., Bodily, R. G., & Sandberg, D. S. (2016). A qualitative analysis of institutional drivers and barriers to blended learning adoption in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 28, 17–27. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2015.08.003 Retrieved from http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1096751615000469

Interesting paper, tying technology adoption stuff into professional development and support. This leads directly into our Learning Technologies Coaches program. Good timing.

Basically, more courses are going online or blended (LOTS of courses are getting shifted into blended format). Instructors are loosely described in broad categories: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Ugh. I hate the term laggards for those-who-seem-to-resist.

Porter, W. W., Graham, C. R., Bodily, R. G., & Sandberg, D. S. (2016). A qualitative analysis of institutional drivers and barriers to blended learning adoption in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 28, 17:27. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2015.08.003 Retrieved from http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1096751615000469

An article from the future! (it’s not 2016 here yet, but articles from next year are already showing up. Go go, Gibson!)

Interesting paper, tying technology adoption stuff into professional development and support. This leads directly into our Learning Technologies Coaches program. Good timing.

Stewart, B. (2015, April 17). Scholarship in Abundance: Influence, Engagement, and Attention in Scholarly Networks. Retrieved November 2, 2015, from http://bonstewart.com/Scholarship_in_Abundance.pdf

Notes:

p.19: Overall, the first paper suggests that networks enact and circulate broad intersecting patterns in what counts as influence, and that these depart from the codified terms of rank and bibliometric indexing on which conventional academic influence is judged. At the same time, in spite of meaningful distinctions between participant perceptions of networks and — Highlighted Nov 7, 2015

We have been doing a lot of work on ePortfolios within the Educational Development Unit. The most visible result of that work is the EDU’s in-development department ePortfolio. As we talked about what we wanted to do in order to document the activities of the department, and to connect these activities to our strategies and priorities, it became clear that an ePortfolio was the best way to do that. And it also became clear that we needed more flexibility than was possible in the D2L ePortfolio tool. So, we built it as a site on UCalgaryBlogs, which runs WordPress.

Roxå, T., & Martensson, K. (2015). How Effects from Teacher-training of Academic Teachers Propogate into the Meso Level and Beyond. In Teacher Development in Higher Education Existing Programs, Program Impact, and Future Trends (pp. 1–36).

“…causal link between training and development of teaching is not straightforward.”

“These difficulties can manifest themselves as a lack of support and interest from colleagues or supervisors or as conservative attitudes on behalf of the students (Ginns, Kitay, and Prosser 2010).”

Work

Our new Online Learning Environment Specialist started on Monday! We're now almost fully-staffed - I'm still looking to hire an AV/media/tech specialist to run the fancy stuff being installed in the shiny new Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning building.

I took some HR workshops this week, on "Enhancing a Culture of Respect and Engagement in the Workplace", and "Rewarding and Recognizing Employees". Some really good ideas - the workshops were interesting and I've got some ideas for how to improve as a manager.

Work

I was off for most of the week, but went in on Friday to wrap up some stuff. The whole "take a vacation but don't actually go anywhere" thing is actually kind of awesome. No pressure to get my money's worth out of a Big Fancy Vacation. It was the most relaxing 2 week vacation I've had (but I'd still rather have spent it in Kauai…)

Looks like I'm going to be presenting at the MIIETL 2015 Research on Teaching and Learning Conference at McMaster in December. I've never been, and am looking forward to visiting a new-to-me campus.