Disqus - Latest Comments for sleslie

Re: We Built the Technosphere. Now We Must Resist It

sleslie — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 19:19:12 -0000

Like both, their critiques pertain still, but the situation at hand changes regularly (for instance the Panoptican isn't a metaphor any longer.)

Re: We Built the Technosphere. Now We Must Resist It

sleslie — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 17:14:08 -0000

So Ellul, Postman...the references are starting to feel a bit dated (as someone who studied them in the 80s and 90s). I'm not questioning their analysis, but what would people point to as some of the more recent writings on how to resist the technosphere?

Re: Prototyping an atrium-sized theremin - D'Arcy Norman dot net

sleslie — Mon, 30 May 2022 14:38:23 -0000

very cool, I like this even more than my initial idea of a single-user controlled theremin to drive my sound wave visualizer, if it was visualizing sounds by all the people moving in a space that would be super cool!

Re: Prototyping an atrium-sized theremin - D'Arcy Norman dot net

sleslie — Mon, 30 May 2022 12:41:20 -0000

Love this - with the first one, is it possible to have the sound NOT arpeggiated? As in continuous waves? What would happen with multiple objects in fram, multiple tones?

Re: 20 Years - D'Arcy Norman

sleslie — Fri, 27 May 2022 21:58:08 -0000

And even still finding smart things to say! Congrats man, it was our blogs that brought us together those many years ago and I count you as a good friend all these years after.

Re: Seeking a Guilt-Free Green Investment? Introducing ‘CoPower Green Bonds’

sleslie — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 13:10:09 -0000

Dear Tyee, while I appreciate you noting on the page itself that it is an "advertorial," that was NOT noted in the email alert that brought me to the page, which made it look like an actual news item. In my mind this is NOT a good practice. I realize you need to find revenue sources, but allowing advertisers (even "good" green investment ones) to comingle in your news stream just takes you a step closer to mainstream corporate-owned media. I hope you'll reconsider the practice.

Re: Mindset Middleware

sleslie — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 13:53:58 -0000

So sure, there is no "one" solution. But there are some common elements that many people have been identifying for a long time that preserve "notyetness" (oh christ, another neologism, really?) I could catalogue them but instead I'll just point to Stephen's 2006 paper http://www.downes.ca/post/3... which does as good a job as any describing the necessary conditions.

BUT...incumbency. It's not forever, but it is real. Philosopher's live in an ideal world, software lives in a material, economic one. So yeah, don't expect a single solution to be the end all, but do realize that they are hard to displace once they become entrenched and entangled with other hard to change systems.

Re: Questions for the University of Guelph on its trademark of OpenEd ~ Stephen's Web

sleslie — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 14:05:31 -0000

Actually, we ran the OpenEd conference in Canada again in 2012, and it is coming back AGAIN this year, 2015, to Vancouver. 2009 was simply the first time the conference was in Canada. But a minor point - as you, Brian and Clint describe, "OpenEd" has been a term of art and a description of the field for a decade or more.

Re: Open Course Frameworks: Lowering the Barriers to OER Adoption

sleslie — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:15:22 -0000

I feel like I'm missing something - how do I create a copy of these courses or export them to another system. I logged in with the credentials provided on the front page of the courses but it wasn't obvious to me how I'd do this. I also got a Canvas account but wasn't clear how that gave me access to do anything on these framework courses. Sorry, am probably being dense (and I'm not really familiar with Canvas)

Re: Be Awesome Instead

sleslie — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:19:37 -0000

Talk about "straw men." Cole's piece conflates all critiques of xMOOCs as if they were the same, and argues unequivocally that they will make education more accessible. Personally, I see almost no one arguing against the new developments from a petty position of needing personal credit (though a number have made good arguments about the re-writing of history) but MANY arguing against the new developments as a symptom of the latest in a 40 year effort to undermine public education. It might be different if the upstarts were simply proposing to serve unserved populations, but they aren't; last I looked, Coursera was trying to get int the business of selling courseware to institutions. I'm not arguing for the preservation of the status quo, but is disingenuous to argue that this latest wave of xMOOCs share the same set of values as earlier efforts. It's all shits and giggles until the VCs start asking to see returns, then just wait. We have a long litany of "free" services that ended up doing some nefarious things to their users once the profit man cometh.

"Open" isn't an end, it's a means, but it's NOT simply a means to openning access, if in doing that we end up destroying the very pieces we are trying to open up access to.

Re: @Ignatia Webs: My eBook on MOOC and how to set up #MOOC yourself

sleslie — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:18:30 -0000

Is this available in any other formats? Kindle is a non-starter for me

Re: Click Here to Save Education: Evgeny Morozov and Ed-Tech Solutionism

sleslie — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 03:00:05 -0000

Did you listen to Bruce Sterling's closing talk from this year's SXSW? This piece brought it to mind. It's not that you & Morozov (or any of the other people who are critical of techno-libertarian-Utopianism, as I like to call it) are "wrong" per se. But as Sterling says - what's the point of writing books about it anymore when you could just ship code? He is and he isn't being ironic when he said this. Of course he writes books (& gives talks) about this, he just did! But of course that's useless when the next solution roles out that does actually make a specific act more efficient, a specific goal easier to reach, all of course only within narrowly defined contexts. And if you try to compete against that, well inevitably by trying to consider more than just that narrow context, your solution is less attractive, even more so b/c you succumbed to the solutions race. What to do, what to do?

I don't actually know, but it keeps me up enough at nights to leave gainful employment to try and figure it out (though I'd be lying if I claimed that was the only reason.) The closest I've come so far to an answer is for myself is to a) really try to start listening to the people I'm proposing to help or serve to hear if they actually think there is a problem b) try to work on solutions that help people figure it out for themselves in a way that is locally relevant and c) only work on small-scales. It seems absolutely doomed to fail, yet everything else I've come up with so far seems like so much egotism.

P.s. please ditch discus, the absolute WORST comment eating solution out there ;-)

Re: Where I’ve Been; Where I’m Going

sleslie — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:58:48 -0000

"“openness facilitates the unexpected.” I may have to steal that. My awkward phrasings of this in the past have been "serendipity as an operating principle" and "while I can't guarantee happy accidents will happen for sure if you do things in the open, I CAN guarantee they won't happen if you don't." Yours is so much more succinct ;-)

Re: Learning Like the Web

sleslie — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:39:16 -0000

Amen. Yet never be surprised by the efforts incumbents will expend to forestall their obsolescence or displacement.

Re: Tuition is a Movie Ticket, OER are Popcorn

sleslie — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:42:10 -0000

While I generally agree with what you are saying, it does seem important to differentiate here between "textbooks" - materials, whether print or electronic, that are supplemental to the class (as you indicate, must be purchased or otherwise acquired _in addition_ to course tuition) and online course curriculum (e.g. a full online course or lesson), something that an instructor has imported into there LMS, in which case the access control of the LMS does seem to imply that paying tuition is the condition for getting access to the materials, contravening the NC license.

I *WANT* you to be right here and for this to be a non-issue, I just don't think it's quite so uncontentious.

Re: Movies, TV Shows, Songs, and Textbooks

sleslie — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:35:00 -0000

So I am no apologist for the textbook industry or their exorbitant prices, but if we are going to be fair, it seems like there should be at least two additional columns, average cost of production and total potential audience. This doesn't undercut your argument, but it feels like it would be more honest if we at least compared apple-like things.

Re: Saanich News - Hundreds expected for Occupy Victoria protest

sleslie — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:19:44 -0000

And please also feel free to also join us at the People's Assembly of Victoria/#occupyvictoria (permits not included ;-) at Centennial Square, Noon onwards on the same day, Saturday October 15th.

Re: Victoria News - Victoria and Saanich plan joint council meeting for September

sleslie — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:59:08 -0000

This sounds fascinating? Any idea if it is open to the public? Victoria's website lists September 8th as the next meeting of council, not the 7th, sonI am assuming this is some sort of special sitting? More details appreciated.

Re: Browser plugin request: Media tab

sleslie — Mon, 30 May 2011 20:28:47 -0000

Man, I have seen this request in different forms for the last 5 years, very surprised no one has addressed it yet but agree, would be super useful (and presumably not that difficult - different colour for tab that is calling any of the media helpers?)

Re: Employees See Death When You Change Their Routines

sleslie — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:14:57 -0000

Unlike Stephen above, I am not as resistant to the initial notion of "existential buffers" and the three you cite, but like him, would REALLY like to know what, specifically, you are citing? I mean at base, that idea is as old as the hills (read your Buddha - everything is impermanent, we construct all of these things to resist change) but to make the claim that these ideas are based on "studies" means you can actually point specifically to the contemporary work you are citing. So come on, a little more rigour please.

Re: major epiphany

sleslie — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:23:27 -0000

The You that is You has never changed and never will. You can reconnect with it at any time, whether they be times of joy or times of sorrow. It is just that most of us associate it only with feeling good, with times of joy, and think it is something we can loose.

Most people are good. Most suffering is caused by ignorance, not malfeasance. Having gone through what you have gone through, you may be wary, but trust and it will work out.

Re: Deja Vu All Over Again – Blackboard Still Stuck in the Innovator’s Dilemma

sleslie — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:11:43 -0000

"The fundamental dilemma with the CMS as we know it today is that it is largely a course-centric, lecture-model reinforcing technology with its center of gravity in institutional efficiency and convenience. As such, it is a technology that inclines instructors and students to 'automate the past'" - this would be the CMS' fatal flaw were it not for the fact that the business logic of higher ed institutions hasn't changed either, meaning the CMS perfectly fulfills an outdated business (and teaching) model. Hence why many of us in favour of alternatives to the CMS have also taken to trying to talk with institutions about the threats on their competitive landscape (as well as the new opportunities). But just as in the case of the Christensen book you so aptly refer to, the incumbents seem either unwilling or unable to see these threats until it will likely be too late, a problem exacerbated in my country because the vast majority of post-secondary education is publicly funded, by the same people who accredit it, making the threats seem even less apparent.