Janice and I went for a walk at Glenbow Ranch, and wound up along the frozen Bow River.
⚙️ Work
I had the opportunity to be involved with adjudication for the University of Calgary Teaching Awards. We have some really amazing teachers here. What an honour to be part of that process.
Looking into options for online exam proctoring.
🤔 PhD
Worked out which candidacy plan to use for my program, and made progress in translating themes/topics into questions to guide me as I develop my thesis proposal. Now, to try to find a way of describing 25 years worth of projects in a framework that a) makes sense b) is internally consistent and c) can be used to describe future work… Have a thesis proposal preliminary outline draft to start with.
I’m starting to get concerned about finding a pattern of working on this. Evenings are shot - there’s not enough left after working all day. Fridays are cleared for PhD work, and whatever I can take from weekends. Is that enough time to be productive, without half-assing this? Hopefully.
📚 Reading
- UToronto’s Academic Toolbox website - looks like a great and mature process for requesting and evaluating new learning technologies, and for reviewing existing ones.
- Martin Weller: 25 Years of Ed Tech (Eduglu lives!)
- CBC Radio Spark: Is the dream of an ‘open’ internet dead?
- Indiana University: Keep Teaching During Prolonged Campus Or Building Closures - could be a handy resource, depending on how COVID-19 plays out…
- Mojo Vision Reveals XR Contact Lens - amazing. but, where does the power come from?
🧺 Other
- Provincial investment in oil and gas may be needed in changing investment climate, Kenney says - awesome, considering the SoB just took over public pension funds in the province. And, my pension fund will be used to bankroll tar sands development in 3… 2…
- RCMP pensions weaponized against pipeline protests - so… the RCMP is responsible for managing the pipeline protests, but now their pensions are dependent on the protests ending asap. Surely, nothing sketchy there…
- UCalgary will continue to respond to challenging budget situation - provincial budget came down yesterday. UCalgary gets another 6% cut this year. Awesome. On top of a 6.9% cut in 2019. And a likely further 6% cut in 2021. As long as we can continue to give tax credits to oil companies, it’s all worth it.
- UofC President anticipates job losses following UCP budget cuts to post-secondary institutions - “This comes after cuts in last fall’s inaugural UCP budget left the U of C facing a $32.9-million deficit. The university responded by eliminating 250 positions.” Budget Cut Bloodbath Part 2 should be interesting…
- SAIT announces 230 positions will be lost because of budget cuts
If we survive these cuts, it’s going to take decades to recover.
🗓️ Focus for next week
- Develop questions and working title for thesis proposal
- Strategy discussion re: learning technologies
- LTG and LTDT team meetings
- Presentation/chat with library-folk re: learning technologies
- Getting back on the ice as many times as possible for lunch skates