Blogs

Instructure announced today that it’s launching a new service called Canvas Network. The service is being positioned as an alternative to existing MOOC vendors or platforms (such as Coursera or EdX) to allow schools to teach open online courses on the Canvas platform.

The Girl dressed as a Tootsie Roll, and The Boy as a Jawa from Star Wars. They were endearing, but not scary. I had front door duty.

I’m not sure if this blog has ever acknowledged how close the emotions attached to raising a pet are to raising children, even though I would venture a guess that there are just as many academics with pets as kids. Universities do, in fact, offer insurance for animals (even before domestic partner benefits), and a $7.6 million donation was recently made in a cat’s name to UC Davis’s School of Veterinary Medicine, but it doesn’t seem politically correct for pet owners to insist that their animals are loved and return affection every bit as much as human dependents. As someone who has raised both, though, I think I can safely say that my cat seems to love me with more dependability than my teenagers.

Or does it present a risk to making decisions in the long-term interest of the institution?

Like most colleges, mine was born before IT became a fact of life. IT had to be grafted onto a pre-existing culture, or, more accurately, set of micro-cultures. Different departments and support programs have their own ways of doing things; some have welcomed technology, some have grudgingly adapted, and some have shoved it over in a corner, hoping it would eventually go away.

Halloween on a college campus is a wonderful time of year. Free candy can be found in bowls on every secretary's desk, normal clothing can be eschewed for fun t-shirts and costumes, and we're all given a short break from reality. However, the tricks and treats of this day can be found throughout the year for grad students. Sometimes it can be hard to identify the goblins and ghouls that haunt you when they aren't dressed up, but they're still there.

One month. 50,000 words. As long as they don't all have to be spelled properly, I'll be fine.

I'm betting that there is a strong overlap between our IHE community and fans of Steven Johnson. If you are like me you got hooked on Steven Johnson's Everything Bad is Good for You, and have loved his subsequent books (like The Ghost Map, The Invention of Air, and Where Good Ideas Come From).