Work

• Budget announcements on campus. Hooray for cuts. Our province has squandered billions of dollars in oil revenues, and we’re still cutting education.
• Updated ucalgaryblogs to WordPress 4.2. One-click updates are nice. I wish we could keep all of our campus elearning kit updated so efficiently…
• Thanks to a donation from our Students Union, we set up a campus license to Magna Publications for all instructors and grad students (and we could probably set up access for undergrads as well, if they want it). Boatloads of PD videos and resources, and a bunch of key newsletter/publications (and archives).
• I’m planning on hiring 2 students in the next week to work on projects for the summer - primarily to help with collecting data about learning technologies and spaces - to help build a clearer picture of what we currently do on campus.
• We used 4 Swivl robot camera mounts to record mini-lessons as part of our Instructional Skills Workshop. It worked great - much less intrusive than the bulky video carts we had been using, and the auto-tracking rotating camera mount makes it so much more useful (and the audio from the wireless remote is much better, too). We basically slap a Swivl on a tripod, drop an iPod Touch into the cradle to act as HD video recorder, and then upload the files to a password-protected album on our Vimeo account for access by the participants.¹

• Kevin put the finishing touches on an app to be used as part of our 2015 Post-Secondary Conference on Learning and Teaching. It looks fantastic. Coming soon, to an app store near you.
• Looks like we’re on track to upgrade our D2L environment to the shiny new 10.4 “continuous delivery” line in late August.

Read

• Cannondale Synapse HI MOD - the bike lust is strong with this one. I have 2 kidneys. for now.
• How to 3D Print Your MRI Data - this is going to be huge in the next few years. Printing out 3D models of medical scans to help visualize structures.
• Calgary ‘bring your own device' strategy for schools could ‘create poverty' - using BYOD as a primary strategy creates a strong dichotomy between “haves” and “have-nots” - those with the means and surplus cash will have access to resources. Those without will have to make do with second- or third-tier resources.
• Audrey Watters: The Invented History of ‘The Factory Model of Education’ - my take on the “factory model” of education is that anyone who uses that has likely never worked in a factory. Superficial similarities, maybe, but education is nothing like a factory.

Other

Construction on the Taylor Institute building is really coming along nicely - they’re working on the interior walls etc. and the exterior cladding is going up now. Can’t wait to get inside to check it out.