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...

Get me a brain transfusion, STAT!

Posted on August 24, 2005 by Brian

In the course of one of those meetings that makes me feel so damn lucky to be working at a university, I got turned on to txtkit. Checking out the site itself induced a case of cognitive vertigo, spinning more … Continue reading →

Posted in Textuality | 6 Comments

If you don’t build it, they’ll build their own…

Posted on August 23, 2005 by Brian

I was pleasantly surprised when a friend sent me a link to a Livejournal site run by UBC students. Websnob that I am, I’ve never spent much time with Livejournal, but judging by the activity on the site it’s more … Continue reading →

Posted in Webloggia | 4 Comments

Could this be possible? A successful weblog migration and upgrade.

Posted on August 20, 2005 by Brian

I’m sure that we’ll be finding some small bugs over the next week or so, but based on my initial pass the transition to new system and server seems to have gone better than I could have hoped. A long, … Continue reading →

Posted in Webloggia | 1 Comment

Server Upgrade (and Service Interruption) for Webloggers@UBC

Posted on August 18, 2005 by Brian

This post is for people who use the Weblogs@UBC service. Hello again, UBC bloggers! This is a reminder for the upgrade to MT3.1 scheduled on August 19th/20th. Starting at 10pm PST on Friday, Aug. 19th, you will NOT be able … Continue reading →

Posted in Abject Learning, Administrivia, Webloggia | Comments Off on Server Upgrade (and Service Interruption) for Webloggers@UBC

I am not worthy

Posted on August 18, 2005 by Brian

Some fairly pedestrian posts have prompted some amazing comments. I find myself unable to offer these welcome visitors the appropriate hospitality (in part due to other pressures, mostly because I’m not quite sure how to respond adequately), but I wanted … Continue reading →

Posted in Abject Learning, XML/RSS | 2 Comments

A wee bit more on ‘the new digital divide’…

Posted on August 18, 2005 by Brian

A quick follow-up to yesterday’s meandering post… Jeff McClurken commented that it’s a bit too easy to posit all students as comfortable with social software, when an apparent majority of them are not embracing these technologies. My experience with students … Continue reading →

Posted in Abject Learning, Emergence, Webloggia | Tagged | 6 Comments

The Conversation

Posted on August 17, 2005 by Brian

A throwaway line in one of yesterday’s posts (“There’s an unmistakable energy out in the community right now, and I feel sorry for the people in our field who have yet to jack into it”), prompted a couple of comments … Continue reading →

Posted in Abject Learning, Emergence, tech/tools/standards, Textuality, Webloggia, XML/RSS | Tagged | 5 Comments

Diving back into text technologies

Posted on August 16, 2005 by Brian

One of the best pieces of personal news I received over the past month was re-appointment as instructor for Text Technologies: The Changing Spaces of Reading and Writing, a course offered as part of UBC’s Master of Educational Technology program. … Continue reading →

Posted in Textuality | Tagged | 3 Comments

Edublog Hero

Posted on August 16, 2005 by Brian

Gotta give some serious kudos to James Farmer for his stellar work with the edublogs.org project. Open source goodness, community-based support, and an ongoing conversation among educators. It only takes a few seconds to be up and blogging with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Webloggia | 6 Comments

Gonna wash that blogger-funk right outta my hair…

Posted on August 16, 2005 by Brian

Wow. One whiny post making excuses for my pathetic output and I get a nice whack of supportive comments and emails for my self-indulgent troubles. Slight embarrassment aside, sincere thanks to everyone for the kind thoughts — I could never … Continue reading →

Posted in Abject Learning | 4 Comments