Work
Our new Online Learning Environment Specialist started on Monday! We’re now almost fully-staffed – I’m still looking to hire an AV/media/tech specialist to run the fancy stuff being installed in the shiny new Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning building.
I took some HR workshops this week, on “Enhancing a Culture of Respect and Engagement in the Workplace”, and “Rewarding and Recognizing Employees”. Some really good ideas – the workshops were interesting and I’ve got some ideas for how to improve as a manager.
It looks like progress toward having a campus media hosting platform is starting to happen – it’s now an Official Project™ in IT. I’m really looking forward to having a stable place to have people host the content they produce, without having to worry about YouTube inserting ads or privacy-intrusion tracking codes (or changing the terms of the service unilaterally), or having to pay for individual Vimeo Pro accounts. I don’t know anything about timelines for launch, though.
We did a soft launch of the new UCalgary ePorfolio platform. It’s a streamlined WordPress multisite server, tied to D2L and CAS for authentication. So, anyone with a campus account can create as many ePortfolio sites as they want, using WordPress as a simple-but-powerful website management tool. We’re really looking forward to seeing what people do with it – lots of people came to us, looking for viable alternatives to the D2L ePortfolio tool. As a result, Kevin put this together. And I have to say – what a beautiful site. I want to build stuff on it. That’s a completely different vibe than the other ePortfolio platform we have on campus. I’m putting together a demo ePortfolio myself. My new ePortfolio still needs lots of work, but as a demo it’s a good start.
The campus announcement about the Provost Star Awards went out, and my inbox did the kaboom thing. blush
I finally gave up on using Apple Mail and Calendar with our campus Exchange server. It mostly works, but there have been enough funky wierdnesses that I’ve gone back to Outlook. Thankfully, Outlook 2016 is actually pretty decent.
The construction fence around the Taylor Institute was removed this week. Construction is done! Now, Matrix is going to be busy installing the AV and tech in the building, to prep for our move-in date of April 2. Which is coming up REALLY quickly.
Read
Edtech
- Cheryl Jeffs: Taking the time to reflect: Reflections on a reflective practice workshop
- Audrey Watters: My Latest Book: Claim Your Domain
- Martin Weller: Lessons from the MOOC investment gold rush
- Harold Jarche: you are only as good as your network
- Jim Groom: The Indie EdTech Movement
- Mike Caulfield
- Tom Woodward
- Wikipedia:Education program – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The end of throwaway assignments and the beginning of real-world impact for student editors
- Bryan Ollendyke: Ending Disruption
- via Stephen Downes: Personal Learning Environment (PLE)
- Campus Technology
Misc
- Sam Machkovech: After receiving threats, SXSW cancels panel about online harassment
- Kenneth Howah: Fatal error: why we don’t fully trust technology
- Judy Wajcman: How time-saving technology has completely backfired
- stuff to get my sedentary self back into some semblance of shape before dying on the slopes this winter
- via Paul Pival: ToolDatabase < Digital Methods Initiative – a list of handy tools for doing stuff with other stuff.
Other
My mom turned 75 yesterday. My dad turned 80 in August. Holy. We went out to celebrate at Tony Roma’s, as 75- and 80-year-olds are wont to do. They had a coupon, of course.
I spent a good chunk of the week thinking about what I might want to do for a PhD, and how I might contribute. Lots of ideas. Lots of doubt about if any of them are PhD-worthy.