LIS 9763

…And that’s all, folks!

amanda — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 18:17:08 +0000

I can scarcely believe that 14 weeks have come and gone! Let me start with the administrative stuff:

Thank you all for submitting your final projects/papers — even with the weather disaster and closures this week, you all got your papers in in time! The next time you hear from me will be next week sometime, when I email you your final project marks and comments.
You have access to your blogs until the end of March 2011, after which I will be deleting your user accounts (logins & passwords). After March 2011, you will no longer have access to your blog content. Before that happens, here are some options for you to consider regarding the future of your blog:
1. Your blog can stay online forever if you’d like. While I delete your user accounts, your actual blogs don’t go anywhere. In the past, some students have chosen to leave their course blogs online and link to them as part of an online portfolio.
2. If you’d rather see your blog deleted, let me know and I can take care of it.
3. You might choose to export your blog content so you can save your work or to import your posts into a new blog. To export your blog posts login to your blog, click on the “Tools” menu on the left and click on “Export”. Then follow the instructions to export your blog content. You can easily import the file into another wordpress blog if you’d like to keep blogging elsewhere (like wordpress.com).
4. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll assume you want your blog to remain online, so I won’t touch it!

Thank you all, once again, for a thoroughly engaging term. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you all through your blog posts and our weekly chats and I’ve very much appreciated your energy and enthusiasm this term. Congratulations to those of you who are graduating — I wish you all the best for a successful (and speedy) job search! If there’s anything I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to ask. And if you’re back for a bit more FIMS/co-op goodness next term, enjoy!

I hope our paths cross again soon, if not in person, then at least online!

Week 14: our last week!

amanda — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 20:20:51 +0000

I can hardly believe this is our final week! I know you are all busy working on your final projects, so we’ll keep things fairly light this week:

There are no readings or case studies for this week, so the blogging assignment is a little different: I’d like you all to think about the educational journey you’ve been on for the past 13 weeks and answer the questions I’ve posted on the content page.
Your final projects are due this week, by noon on Wednesday, December 8. If you’re submitting a paper, please submit it via Google Docs (as you did with your proposals). If you’re creating a prototype and writing an accompanying blog post, just send me an email with the URIs.
We don’t have a scheduled chat this week, but I’m always reachable on IM & email, so feel free to ping me if you have any questions.

Enjoy our final week and good luck putting the finishing touches on your projects/papers!

Week 13: Social Software Literacies & Affordances

amanda — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 19:22:18 +0000

Welcome to week 13 — our second-last week together! This week’s slideshow is a quick one (04:13) that simply provides a couple of questions for you to think about this week. As usual, the readings for the week are on the content page.

One small change to point out for THIS week: our regular chat will be on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. We’re using the google doc again, so hope to see you there!

Happy week 13, everyone.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Week 12: Social Media Policies & Assessment

amanda — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 03:00:43 +0000

Welcome to week 12! I know last week was a little rough for some of you (lots of FIMS-y deadlines, plus mashups can be a little confounding, yes), so this week will hopefully provide some welcome relief! We’re looking at social media policies and assessment this week and, as usual, the slideshow is embedded below (9:34).

Also note the very last bullet point on the content page for this week — send me your gmail addresses to get invited to the Google Doc, where we will be having our chat again this week.

Have a great week, folks.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mashups & RSS Group Project

amanda — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:29:39 +0000

This week’s project comes to us courtesy of Doris and Joey. Head over to Doris’ blog to read all about it and check out their prototype. Thank you, Team Mashup!

Week 11: Infrastructure — RSS & Mashups

amanda — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 22:35:22 +0000

Welcome to week 11! This week we’re moving on to RSS and mashups and you’ll find this week’s lecture slideshow (11:10) embedded below, followed by the links I visited in the slideshow. Per usual, this week’s readings, case studies and other to-dos are on the content page for the week, so head over there once you’re done with this intro.

A couple of important notes this this week…

you should all be receiving end-of-term course evaluations for this class very soon (if you haven’t already). As you know, these are completely anonymous evaluations of your experience in this course and I’d like to encourage you all to please complete your evaluations. I take them very seriously and encourage honest feedback. I’ve made several changes to this course over the past 4 years, and many of those changes have resulted from comments made in the course evaluation. I appreciate your opinions, value your input, and hope to continue to make this course better as a result of both!
This week’s chat is on Tuesday at 20:00 instead of the usual Wednesday, on account of some mid-week travel. I’m also working on a new chat space and I will notify you all of the details as soon as it’s sorted (in the next 24 hours).
And finally, this week we have our last group project courtesy of Joey and Doris! I’ll post a link here when it’s up on friday.

Thanks & have a great week, everyone.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Links:

Week 10: Ubiquity & Mobility — Cloud Computing & the Mobile Web

amanda — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 23:52:09 +0000

On to week 10! This week we’re turning our attention to cloud computing and the mobile web and this week’s lecture/slideshow is embedded below (19:01). As usual, head to the content page for the week for all the readings, case studies and reminders.

Happy week 10, everyone!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Links:

Microblogging & Lifestreaming Group Project

amanda — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 14:15:49 +0000

Thank you to James, Natalie, Rebecca and Alannah for bringing us today’s group project! Check out their post and prototype right here.

Thanks Team Microblogging/Lifestreaming!

Back on track

amanda — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 23:46:30 +0000

Hi everyone — sorry for the delay in getting this up. As you probably heard, a tentative agreement was reached between the university and the Faculty Association, so there is no disruption in our course. We’re back on track and chatting this evening at 20:00, see you in the chat room!

In the event of a possible strike by UWOFA members…

amanda — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:06:27 +0000

Hi everyone,

A few of you have contacted me over the past 24 hours asking about the status of this course in the event of a strike by members of UWOFA. Dean Carmichael has posted an update on the FIMS homepage that states that all FIMS classes, seminars, tutorials and labs (including 9763) will be cancelled in the event of a strike. As you know, the strike deadline is midnight tonight (Tuesday, November 2nd), so classes might be cancelled starting as early as tomorrow.

Just so you know, I am almost finished marking your proposals, so I will try to have those back to you by the end of the day.

I’ll post an update here when I know more about the possible strike. Let me know if you have any questions.