There are only 2 words to describe the finale. Holy. Frak.
I’m not going to put any spoilers in here, because this finale would be worth watching the miniseries, and all of seasons 1 and 2 just to get to the point that you’re ready to watch this. It’s that amazing. I can’t remember a series that took such a gamble with rethinking the show so completely.
Ronald Moore described the finale as an attempt to roll hard sixes. I think he’s pulled it off. BSG wasn’t stale - yet - but was beginning to fall into the usual
Helen Chen posted a notice about an upcoming webcast by Jude Higdon for ADCE about the nature of ePortfolios in an environment where people are already using blogs and social software. The session will be a quasi-interactive Elluminate production.
Who needs an ePortfolio? All my coursework is on my blog…
EPortfolios have been defined in various ways by vendors, professional organizations, and institutions of higher education. With emerging technologies such as social software that include the ability to freetag and syndicate across multiple resources and environments, the need for standalone ePortfolio “software” is perhaps called into question. This discussion will raise issues regarding the NetGen student, and how she is already using technology that has natural affordances that allow her to collect, aggregate, and syndicate content into portfolio views that can be useful to herself, other students, faculty, departments, colleges and universities, accreditation agencies, funding bodies, and potential employers.
I just saw the PodPress plugin mentioned in the WordPress dashboard feed, so checked it out quickly. What a kick-ass plugin! Totally manages podcast publishing, enclosures, web players, iTunes integration. Handles files uploaded to the blog, as well as remote files (absolute urls). Presents mp3, m4a, mov, mp4, pdf, etc… files. Very nice.
I’ve updated the most recent 2 entries in my podcast section, to see how it works. Pretty slick.
wiki.ucalgary.ca has been under a sustained spam attack all day. What started out as a minor irritation has grown into something that is impossible to ignore. The spammer is somehow getting around both Bad Behavior and Spam Blacklist extensions (I’ve blacklisted their URLs, but they keep getting edits into the system). This is one of the more frustrating aspects of trying to do things in an open manner. If there is the slightest possibility that something will be subverted for spamilicious purposes, it will be. And most likely it will happen before more than a handful of legitimate users are able to take advantage of a service.
Here’s the set of modules that I use as part of the Learning Commons’ typical Drupal load for our various projects. They aren’t enabled on every project, but it’s the basic toolbox that I’m using. What I’m doing is setting up a “template” site that can be configured pretty well, and then cloning that database and using the “sites” hosting feature of Drupal to make it easy to roll out new sites.
WARNING: Rambling, stream-of-consciousness, thinking-out-loud (hopefully not navel-gazing) ahead! Just trying to start framing some thoughts so I can make sense and move on.
It’s one of the weird paradoxes of the last few years for me - I’m much more involved with external (off campus) groups and online communities than I am with local ones. I’m more well-known off-campus than on. I’m more linked to individuals spread around the globe than those at my own institution.
OK, maybe not really. But at least I know I’m not alone in thinking about rethinking my approach to this whole blogging/always-on thing. First Stephen dropped his H-Bomb (hiatus, not hydrogen, but the effect on the edublogosphere would have been the same either way), then I see that others are thinking about this (with more clarity than I can muster).
Part of the problem is simply that those who burn the candle brightest are likely not leading full rounded lives but instead getting so absorbed in the moment and the possibilities that may exist that they are inadvertently putting themselves on an emotional roller coaster with little reserve left over for dealing with the tough but pragmatic issues that emerge from “day job” part of their lives. Periodically, I’m in that boat.
I just did a test upgrade of a backup of weblogs.ucalgary.ca to the latest Drupal 4.7 beta 5 - and it appears to be working just fine. I’ll have to be doing some serious poking around to make sure everything is still hooked up and working properly. But’ it’s looking good - can’t wait to move to 4.7…
Stephen Downes is taking a hiatus from publishing his awesome OLDaily resource. Stephen - I have no idea how you’ve managed to keep up the volume and quality of publishing you have done so far! You definitely deserve a break. I’ll miss OLDaily while it’s gone.
I’m feeling a bit like Rob - our Gandalf has just disappeared into the depths of Moria, and we’re now left to stumble through on our own. Hopefully his hiatus is a bit more relaxing, but I’m looking forward to meeting Stephen The White…
The University of Calgary will be the first university in the country to introduce podcasting on a large scale when it launches four courses in the summer and fall featuring portable MP3 technology as a teaching tool.
and
The U of C will introduce podcasting in four courses that involve about 700 students: iCOMS 201, Introduction to Communications Studies, summer 06; iENGL 231, Introduction to Fiction, winter 07; iCHEM 351, Organic Chemistry I, Fall 06; and iSOCI 201, Introduction to Sociology, Fall 06.
