Posts

I'm Hiring - Learning Technologies Specialist

April 21, 2021 | 1 minutes | 199 words

We have an open position in the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, as part of my team. I think it’s a pretty great place to work, with an amazing group of people, doing important work that has the potential to transform the university and improve the teaching and learning experience for the entire campus community. This is a Learning Technologies Specialist position, with a strong focus on “program innovation” - working with instructors on the development and implementation of new academic programs, providing consultation and expertise on the design and integration of learning technologies to support the pedagogical goals of each program. Read More

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In Media: WSJ Experience Report: Online Proctoring

April 15, 2021 | 4 minutes | 836 words

I was interviewed recently (via email) by Katie Deighton, from the Wall Street Journal’s Experience Report. She was writing an article on online exam proctoring, and wanted to follow up with me about the categories of proctoring software and to get a university learning technologies perspective. The article was published yesterday. I’m officially a critic. She wasn’t able to use the entire response, so I’m putting the rest of it here: Read More

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Fixing the Black Box When Sharing Content in Zoom

January 12, 2021 | 2 minutes | 334 words

When I use my MacBook Pro1 to share content in a Zoom meeting, it occasionally seems to get stuck. Sharing the screen works fine, for a bit, then it freezes, and then it gets replaced by a black box. I don’t find out until a minute later, when people politely cough and say “so… we can’t see what you’re doing anymore…” The first time, I figured something just got crosswired somewhere, with Zoom and YuJa and Sidecar all trying to do things with my display. Read More

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2020 media log

December 31, 2020 | 4 minutes | 653 words

Trying to track major media consumption throughout the year. I’ve done this for a few years now, but it’s kind of a chore.

Anyway. Here’s most of the media I consumed in 2020.¹

A Letter From Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse, as Read by Benedict Cumberbatch

October 29, 2020 | 1 minutes | 94 words

This amazing letter written by Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse, read by Benedict Cumberbatch. Hesse was frustrated by a creative block and self-doubt1. LeWitt would have none of it. I’ve had it on playing on loop. Get out of your head. Just DOOOOOOO. you are not responsible for the world. you’re only responsible for your work, so just. do. it. (via BoingBoing) which is me, in a nutshell, with my dissertation. Read More

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What's the ROI on a SLAPP Lawsuit Against Your Users?

October 20, 2020 | 3 minutes | 570 words

Awhile back, Ian Linkletter shared links to videos that Proctorio published to their corporate YouTube account. Proctorio apparently wasn’t aware of how the internet works, nor about what YouTube is for, nor how to manage confidential resources (which may be an interesting tell regarding internet security awareness and infosec practices in the company?). It’s a platform for sharing videos. If you have confidential videos, don’t publish them to YouTube. Anyway. Proctorio could have said “oops. Read More

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Zoom Features Wishlist

September 16, 2020 | 7 minutes | 1419 words

We’ve been using Zoom at scale since March, and have learned how to use it well for everything from 1:1 meetings up to classes of 500+ students. Since we launched in March 2020, to prepare for the COVID Rapid Pivot to Remote Teaching™, we’ve hosted 304,776 meetings in our campus Zoom environment. We’ve held 379 webinars. We’ve created over 4 TB of recordings. In that time, we’ve realized there are a few features that would make life simpler for instructors, especially in these large-enrolment classes. Read More

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Territorial Acknowledgement in Online Learning Spaces

September 1, 2020 | 2 minutes | 256 words

The University of Calgary has been developing a strategy, ii' taa’poh’to’p, to help guide the university toward reconciliation. This is incredibly important and we are all working to understand and to learn. One of the first steps involves acknowledging that indigenous peoples have been living on this land long before european settlers arrived. We make the territorial acknowledgement in ceremonies and large gatherings - but now that we are all participating from our own homes it has become more important for us all to acknowledge the First Nations, and the treaty that we are all part of. Read More

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Candidate

August 30, 2020 | 2 minutes | 332 words

On Friday, I finished my PhD candidacy exams with an oral exam of my thesis proposal. It was an incredible discussion, with a group of people who I admire as much for their approach to their work as for the work itself. Each committee member was recruited because they are the best person at our university in their respective field. I mean, to the point that if I blew it, I’d been half-joking about having to quit my day job because I work regularly with many of them in other committees and projects. Read More

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Resources for Podcasting in Courses in 2020

July 16, 2020 | 2 minutes | 391 words

I’d explored podcasting several years ago - looking at educational uses of podcasts and making my first attempt back in 2004 when the term was first coined - but, everything about “podcasting” has changed since then, and the term has become a genericized label for “I want to share some media”. We’ve been getting requests from instructors who are interested in using podcasts (or “podcasts”) in their courses - whether as part of the instructional materials, or for students to produce media as part of their learning. Read More

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