The Copyright Board painstakingly reviewed copy after copy to ensure that they were all fairly compensated. As had been readily apparent for years, the problem facing Access Copyright is not that copies are not valued, but rather that its licence is not valuable. The Board’s analysis makes it clear that the licence only applies in a tiny number of circumstances given a reasonable reading of fair dealing, insubstantial copying, alternative licensing, and a repertoire that has limits. It is a big loss for Access Copyright that foreshadows an even bigger loss when the education issues are resolved.
We hadn’t planned to record the keynote, but Dee asked us if we would, so we set something up that morning. The video is usable, but we’ll be producing higher quality recordings for future events…
This has been a project within the Technology Integration Group for the last several months - redesigning the elearn.ucalgary.ca support website so that it can be more useful to instructors and students who are integrating technology into their teaching and learning. The previous site was nearly a decade old, and had been designed by accretion - full of links, documents, links to documents, etc… but difficult to actually find things that are important. So, the redesign.
Social learning was one the major bets we made at HBX. It also yielded some of our most profound learnings. When students asked a question on the platform, we resisted the urge to jump in, instead leaving it to peers to do so. When students struggled with a concept, we resisted (even more) the urge to jump in and correct the group, but relied on peers to do so. The results were remarkable (and somewhat humbling if you’re an expert): in more than 90% of cases, questions were precisely and accurately answered by the peer group. One of our HBX CORe students had previously been the head teaching assistant (TA) for one of the most popular MOOCs (massive open online courses). He noted that a typical approach to intervention in online courses was to amass larger numbers of TAs, so that some “expert” was ready to intervene quickly on any question as it arose. One unintended consequence? “Soon, everyone expected the TA’s to answer questions. No one took it upon themselves to do so.”
Absolutely fantastic video project by a UCalgary business student. I love that a student can produce something like this as a personal/indie/small-scale project. Fast, cheap, out of control!
The Reusability Paradox typically leads designers of learning objects to attempt to “strike a balance” between effectiveness and reusability. This generally results in materials that are neither particularly effective NOR particularly reusable across contexts.
I’ve had an SSL certificate installed on my website for awhile now, but it only kicked in if someone manually typed in HTTPS (which I’ve been using when I login to the site to do stuff). I’m trying to reduce ways in which my activities online expose privacy (for both myself and the 3 people who read my blog), so it’s time to throw the switch for the default to be encrypted HTTPS SSL access to this site. I’d held off because I wasn’t entirely comfortable that my SSL certificate would be accepted by all browsers, but it seems to be working. I’ll be switching to the new Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS system as soon as it’s up and running. Hopefully this summer.
I’ve felt creeped out by the pervasive tracking networks online - analytics, ad networks, cookies, super-cookies, browser fingerprinting, etc…. This surveillance ecosystem is the end result of an arms race to find out about people reading web pages online. There are a few reasons, but my gut says it boils down to 2:
Pearson is apparently monitoring social media, to detect signs of cheating during exams. That’s insanely creepy, and a horrible violation.
“And for those who think “Well, its Twitter, its public”, remember this: So is walking down the street. But is it OK for the government to monitor us with street surveillance cameras and send us fines for not crossing with the crosswalk?”
As an institution, we design learning spaces and select learning technologies, and implement them in ways to make them available to enable and enhance student learning. But, the design decisions made in the development, selection, and implementation of these resources shape what is perceived to be possible. The resources may not be technically restrictive to specific usage patterns and pedagogies, but through design decisions there are paths of least resistance that will naturally be found.
I did my BSc in zoology, and wound up focusing on invertebrates. There’s an amazing diversity and beauty in them. There’s just something about radial symmetry that still mesmerizes me.