It's time for the annual holiday party at work. I did not see any invitations to submit entries for the gingerbread house competition (something that was done before the pandemic), so I suspect no gingerbread houses this year.  Maybe next year ;-)

 Well, to be fair, I was never gone, but my "daily driver" for the past 3 years (during the early days of COVID) has been an aging Dell Optiplex 9010, which was a hand-me-down. When my work-issued Surface Pro 3 died an untimely death in 2017 (and wasn't replaced), I refurbished the Optiplex which I had saved in our equipment closet for just such an emergency occasion. The original use case was

 Got this ad on facebook recently. Greece is trying to woo back Greeks living abroad with jobs that exist in Greece (😂LOL).  I ain't gonna lie.  I would be tempted to move if the right job came along, but I seriously doubt they can match salaries. Some video ads I've seen tend to focus on the way of life as a perk of being in Greece, but no one mentions how difficult it is to get

 While I technically received my degree last September, the actual convocation day for Athabasca is today for all graduates who completed their degrees between June 2021 and May 2022. The ceremony is virtual and I am curious to see how it will be implemented.  I am certainly taking notes for my own work ;-)AU sent us a care package with various festive items, some physical goods (cap, tassel,

It's been a  while since I've paid attention to the school's seal. I used to see it all the time when I worked for Media Services (in front of podiums, and often engraved in wood), but today I noticed that we have a new design, with our school colors, and our school emblem (the beacon, which is a lighthouse). The previous seals seemed to have been based on the Commonwealth's flag.

Mind Meld: Micro Collaboration Between E Learning Designers And Instructor Experts by Jon D. Aleckson My rating: 2 of 5 stars A bit conflicted about this book. On the one hand there are some elements of sage advice in here, but the book has a few failings for my liking: 1. There is barely any cited evidence here (the references list is just 2 pages), and most 'evidence' seems to

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier My rating: 5 of 5 stars I rather enjoyed this book. The video game industry has been getting a lot of attention lately, and this book contributes to shedding some light into the working practices of this billion dollar industry. While I am not familiar with some of the game,

Learning Together and Alone: Cooperative, Competitive, and Individualistic Learning by David W. Johnson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Interesting book looking at individual, competitive, and collaborative learning. The framing of the book is more K-12, but I can see applications to higher education. Definitely worth at least a quick look through both by instructors and instructional

Engaging Students Through Social Media: Evidence-Based Practices for Use in Student Affairs by Reynol Junco My rating: 4 of 5 stars I picked this up when it first came out, and I have thumbed through specific sections over the years (as needed for work), but this is the first time I've read from cover-to-cover. While some technologies may be dead already (I'm looking at you, vine!)

Swarm really hammers in the point that I basically spend a lot of time at work and traveling to work haha.  In 2017 I spent most of my places at train-stations and universities. Although it did surprise me that I checked in to 85 new places. Wonder what 2018 will bring? (other than a mostly done dissertation...I hope :p )