Author Archives: Brian

About Brian

I am a Strategist and Discoordinator with UBC's Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology. My main blogging space is Abject Learning, and I sporadically update a short bio with publications and presentations over there as well...

Gardening the wiki, order in chaos

BANKSY shared CC by Troy Holden When thinking about how to use wikis, I’ve always thought there was a tension between chaos and order. Part of what appealed to me about this technology was that it was a relatively painless … Continue reading

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Break out the tinfoil… I need a new hat.

Exciting synergies abound: Exclusive: Google, CIA Invest in ‘Future’ of Web Monitoring The investment arms of the CIA and Google are both backing a company that monitors the web in real time — and says it uses that information to … Continue reading

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The Open…

This is my first day officially at work in weeks, so I only have time for a brief shout-out to the current issue of EDUCAUSE Review, which takes on open education as its defining theme, each feature article going into … Continue reading

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Modern scholarship is a race against its own obsolescence

Library card catalog shared CC by John Kannenberg I got my first experience of this reality when I was a graduate student of literature in the mid-1990’s. Back then [cue nostalgic music], if someone needed to assemble a list of … Continue reading

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Viva la wiki

Based on today’s buzz on Twitter, one might think there’s an emerging consensus that wikis in higher education are a dead end, or at least a bad fit. A big part of that perception would be drawn from the title … Continue reading

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Real Fun with Google

Via the most groovy Free Art and Technology (F.A.T) lab, detailed schematics and instructions on how to build your own (fake) Google Street View car. Once you are set up, the possibilities for dissonant diversion kind of become self-evident… Google … Continue reading

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Canada Day

We are the people. Another perspective.

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Learners as partners in tool selection

Andre Malan is someone with so much talent and smarts I don’t know how to introduce him. He’s done incredible work as a coder and thinker for our blog and wiki platforms at OLT and beyond (if you read The … Continue reading

Posted in Abject Learning | 2 Comments

Fair use is your right to call a lawyer when YouTube illegally deletes your video

I was heartened by the emergence of Critical Commons, a site and service dedicated to combating the fear, uncertainty, and doubt around fair use and copyright. Critical Commons also provides “an online tool for viewing, tagging, sharing, annotating and curating … Continue reading

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You can’t break the law if you own it

Let’s start this off with one of my favorite songs, a blast from New Orleans, “Don’t You Just Know It” by Huey “Piano” Smith: Huey ‘Piano’ Smith & His Clowns – Don’t You Just Know It Found at skreemr.com (BTW, … Continue reading

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