Blog Posts

how to repair all tables in all databases on a mysql server

This comes in handy, and I have to google it every time I need it12. So, here’s a copy for reference later…

mysqlcheck --repair --use-frm --all-databases

Run it as root, with MySQL running. It’ll repair every table in every database. Give it time to chew for awhile. It spews out the status of every table as it works. Here’s what it found with my FeverËš database tables (which now work just fine):

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on the napsterization of education

Another post on how education is undergoing (or will very soon be forced to undergo) a napster-like disruption/transformation/eruption.

But napster didn’t disrupt music. It disrupted the previous business model for distributing recorded music content. Musicians still exist. People still write/play/perform/record/buy/download music. The workflow has changed. The people who control the pipelines have changed.

Digital technologies are disrupting the current business model(s) for distributing educational content. And that’s a great thing. $500 worth of required textbooks for a single course is just plain messed up. Academic journals charging researchers hundreds or thousands of dollars to gain access to research funded by public institutions, also messed up.

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help (still) wanted: Director of Educational Development

We’re still looking for someone who will kick ass as the Director of Educational Development at the new Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning.

Apply yourself! From the posting:

The University of Calgary invites applications for a full-time tenure track academic position at the Director rank, commencing October 1, 2013 (or as soon as possible). The successful candidate will be appointed Director of the Educational Development Unit (EDU) of the Institute for Teaching and Learning. This position presents an exciting opportunity to take a leadership role in shaping a core element in a uniquely integrated approach to building teaching and learning capacity in an innovative and forward looking institution.

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Desire2Learn Fusion 2013 notes

Since we’re adopting Desire2Learn, the UofC sent a few folks to the annual Desire2Learn Fusion conference - the timing was extremely fortuitous, with the conference starting about a month after we signed the contract. I’d never been to a D2L conference before, so wasn’t sure really what to expect. Looking at the conference schedule ahead of time, it looked pretty interesting - and would have many sessions that promised to cover some of the extremely-rapid-deployment adoption cycle we’re faced with.

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the death of Google Reader has been greatly exaggerated

Using Marco Arment’s handy dandy RSS feed-subscribers apache access log processing script, here’s the current breakdown of accesses by known RSS reader applications to my blog since 8am today:

GReaderRIP

The big spike on the far left? Google Reader. Still counting for almost 77% of RSS-related accesses to my blog. Except no humans can see what it’s still indexing using GReader…

Marco found the same thing on his much-more-widely-read blog.

Google Reader appears to be a zombie process, obediently and tirelessly indexing RSS feeds, oblivious to the fact that nobody will be able to view the product of its work…

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syncing Desktop across multiple computers

I treat my Desktop as “stuff I’m working on right now” and file things away into project folders after I’m done actually working on them. I also use 3 different computers, and a couple of iOS devices. How to sync this active-work area across all? This would work with any other file sync tool1.

It’s an easy trick, based on one I found on Lifehacker2. It’s also not necessary - it’s trivial to just leave the active-work files in the Dropbox directory, but then you have to go digging every. single. time…3

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on migrating to desire2learn

So, we’re moving to Desire2Learn. Lots of things happening to get us there. Everything is being driven by a timeline leading to the decommissioning of our old LMS on May 31, 2014. Which means, when dealing with academic calendar years, and semester cycles, that we have 3 semesters to get from 0-100% adoption of D2L before we turn off the Blackboard servers.

I know. The timeline is kind of crazy. But, it’s totally doable. We’re going to have to be OK with noise and mess, and with not having all of the answers ahead of time. We’re going to be needing a lot of support from Desire2Learn (thankfully, they’re up to it), and from the UofC community as a whole.

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sharing LMS requirements

Jen suggested many (many) months ago that I post the requirements we used in the LMS RFP on github so people could use them, fork them, etc…. A starting point, so every institution doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel each time. Considering the amount of time and effort she put into helping craft them, how can I possibly refuse? I can’t, that’s how.

So.

Generic-ish LMS RFP requirements, ala github.

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on the new LMS

I’ve been working with people on campus for a long time to try to figure out what we need to do about our campus LMS. My oldest file for the endeavour was created on July 19, 2011. Seriously. Almost 2 years ago. We did a couple rounds of campus engagement1, ran an RFP, and wrote several reports. Provincial politics, budget crises and legal processes intervened, and here we are. The decision was formalized in the RFP system this afternoon, and it’s official: the University of Calgary has selected Desire2Learn as its next learning management system.

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