ticonf2017

Dr. Märtensson's research formed much of the foundation of the plan for the Taylor Institute. Specifically, the macro/meso/micro layers within an organization, and working with each layer in various ways to draw people into the community. Her keynote at the 2017 University of Calgary Conference on Post-secondary Learning and Teaching was great, and nicely connected many of the threads of the conference.

We tried something new (for us) this year, and had an Ignite session during the Taylor Institute's annual conference. It was a risk, as we had never hosted that format before, and none of the 6 presenters (for 5 presentations) had ever done an Ignite. Nevertheless, we persisted. I got talked into being the (humble) host for the event, introducing the format and acting as emcee between presenters. Each presenter provided their slides earlier in the week, so I had time to smush them all into one master presentation file and apply the automatic slide progression for their decks. [Read More]

Work The first week back after Christmas break - simultaneously slow and quiet, and intensely busy and productive. TI Learning Spaces We're working on improving the tech in the active learning studios in the TI - the biggest visible change is the addition of power bars (3 AC plugs and 3 USB plugs) on each station, so students don't have to engage in creative engineering to access the plugs in the floor boxes. [Read More]

Our annual conference is coming up quickly - the call for proposals is open now (closing Feb 3, 2017 - less than a month away!). This is one of the things I'm most proud about. This conference has grown from a small, mostly-internal thing, to an incredible and deep conference with an amazing community vibe. It's now drawing participants and presenters from across Canada, and has a surprising number of international participants as well. [Read More]