Category Archives: Uncategorized

I know I’m not alone in grieving the impending death of Wimba Classroom. I like it’s sleek interface, it’s friendly, low-key interface (not too corporate) and its robustness. I’ve used it lots and pushed it hard and it’s rarely let … Continue reading →

Since the UBC MET Moodle server needs to be moved to a new box (i.e. server), we’re going to take the opportunity presented and upgrade to Moodle 2.0. On 17 October 2011. I’ll be posting a message on the MET … Continue reading →

A feed through a feed led me to this interesting blog posting. It caught my attention because: 1.) lecturecapture is a hot topic these days (UBC included), and 2.) it makes some pretty strong claims, including: 6. Improves pass rate … Continue reading →

Parking my concerns with their statement that “in an increasingly global economy, in which the benchmark for educational success is no longer improvement by national standards alone, but the best performing education systems internationally, the role of the OECD has … Continue reading →

Don’t believe everything you see on the internet: Hurricane Irene was not a non-event in New York City. This is my old neighbourhood: Rockaway Beach (specifically Belle Harbor) Queens last Sunday morning: This is B (as in Beach) 131st Street; … Continue reading →

My job requires me to read a lot of articles, mostly from academic journals almost entirely in Portable Document File (pdf) format. And until recently my way of managing this reading load has been surprisingly…analogue. This process—aggregating, mass printing, reading, … Continue reading →

39th PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION EDITED HANSARD:Vol 142 (110), House of Commons Debates: Last, but certainly not least, I do want to thank my colleague, the leader of the New Democratic Party. For the past year and a half, he has … Continue reading →

After a summer of teaching–ably assisted, I must add–it’s time to submit grades, clean up desktops (both my work and home computers’ are littered with pdfs of assignments with deficiencies that need to be documented), and try to stop logging … Continue reading →

I’ve got a Voki!

After several days of painful, heart-wrenching news, how about something inspiriing? Like a man who’s dedicated his life to getting brilliant poor Indian kids into India’s most presitigous post-secondary insitutions? And let’s stop circulating the text and multimedia of a … Continue reading →

Recently I got to fulfill a childhood dream–how often does that happen?  And I wanted to create a digital story that a friend who teached grade three could use in her class. For this age group, linking a story (or … Continue reading →

Dear Colleagues: We are holding an open consultation meeting for the following course proposal in the Master of Educational Technology (MET) program. ETEC 545 (3) – Learning Technologies: Selection, Design and Application Date:  Thursday, July 28, 2011 Time:  10:00-11:30am Location:   … Continue reading →

Like a lot of folks the announcement that Google was beta testing its latest kick at the social media can had my attention. And thanks to friends on the innerweb I landed an invite (eventually) and set myself up on … Continue reading →

I’ve just returned from Ottawa (yup, I had to fly back to Ottawa 2 days after flying Zagreb-Calgary-Vancouver–on the red-eye to boot) for the ultimate meeting of a community-based research team for which I’m a co-investigator. The project isn’t over–we’ll … Continue reading →

I am convinced that Dubrovnik is Croatian for “gouge”. I found and drink roughly twice the prices elsewhere in Croatia. Ditto taxis. And I didn’t feel the Dubrovnik card to be very good value, in hindsight. Don’t misconstrue what I’m … Continue reading →

OK, I’m sold on this whole Dalmatia thing: Hvar’s sealed the deal. I mean, what’s not to love? Clear turquoise waters. Lovely Mediterranean foliage. Lots of sexy Croatians (whatever your inclinations). Well it’s not perfect…there’s still the smoking. And a … Continue reading →

Sarajevo is a surprisingly difficult place to fly into/out of, without some heinous add-or flight routing. There’s basically three train routes from Sarajevo to Serbia (the one I took coming in) or Croatia (to Zagreb then on to Budapest, or … Continue reading →

Sarajevo All told I had 2.5 full days in Sarajevo. And the verdict? Two words: os some!! On Saturday morning I meandered around Baščarija (the old Turkish quarter). Sarajevo’s mélange of mosques, orthodox and catholic churches and a smudge of … Continue reading →

Bosna! On Friday morning it was time to say “dovidjene” to Belgrade (and Serbia) and “dobar dan” to Sarajevo (and Bosnia). I’d already purchased my train ticket for the 9 hour journey (a whopping $22): all I had to do … Continue reading →

Greetings from Novi Sad, in the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina. Which was rather autonomous pre-Milosevic, thanks to it’s exceedingly multi-cultural population. Ya got yer Serbs, yer Hungarians, yer Croats, yer Roma, yer Slovaks. And your Bokics.  😉 After a wicked … Continue reading →