The Changing Face of Radio

So, as some folks know, I do a weekly 10 minute program over on Radio Dead Air entitled Epic Background Fail (a slightly out of date archive of which can be found over at my repository blog, The One Truth...which will get turned into something useful some day).

Well, Nash has found a glorious new way of broadcasting his show: Video! He has finally brought RDA into the 21st century, and I shall soon be joining him on that veritable virtual stage.

I'm still looking at getting the software together, but I have all the equipment I actually need to produce some relatively low quality videos of me for EBF segments. The advantage is that once I actually get all everything working, I can do *OTHER* v-logs...such as the previously mentioned "Beware the Leopard" (or whatever it'll end up being called), where I mercilessly rib on nonsensical works of fiction.

One other segment that will be appearing on RDA hopefully starting next week will be the audio adventures of Clint Corona (SPACE ADVENTURER!). I've dug back into science fiction lately with Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!) novels, so I'm in the mood of the strange. With how Part 13 shaped up, you're in for some actual adventure in the coming episodes, as Clint Corona goes on a quest to gather his five man band (well, three men, one alien, and the Friendly Peanut) and hunt down Dirk Gradient.

Exciting things on the way. I will have to find some sort of costume to wear when presenting the Clint Corona stories. Or I may just read them off while flashing pictures of me, in costume, in humorous poses sit upon the screen. We'll see. As I said: still need to sort out the software.

That being said, if any readers actually know of decent (and free) software for video editing...please let me know. It would be very helpful.

Cheers.

Domain library

As a corollary (almost said "coronary") to my last post, I've been voted in as domain librarian. The Camarilla has yet again given me something to add to my resume.

I am now the librarian of a member-donated library for the Toronto chapter of an international not-for-profit organization. Did I mention we donate tens of thousands of dollars to charity every year?

I'm excited about the prospect of a domain library from an academic level, as much as I'm happy that people will stop asking me for books from my own, personal collection. I need to get a few more book shelves in to store them, I need to get them cataloged, organized, and then I need to set up a system for lending and returns. Which will probably involve me liasing with our Domain Coordinator, as we don't have the legal recourse of a normal library.

A fully set up system also means, when I eventually step down and pass things over to a new domain librarian, I'll be able to just hand them a few files, and possible a Googledoc or something like that, and they'll be all good to go. Hurrah, engineering office continuity!

...now for people to just start donating books. I'm tempted to see if I can find a bunch for discount on eBay or gaming stores that carry used books or something like that.

Thoughts with the changes to White Wolf's marketing strategy

We're discussing in class right now the idea of Open Book Delivery Services. Building cheap and low-budget book presses to service aboriginal libraries who might not otherwise have access to larger collections.

I'm taking this idea towards the Camarilla and White Wolf. Guerilla printing. The move towards PDF publishing of WW books does not prescribe the use of physical books. Instead, it offers the possibility for personalizing the publishing experience. Distribute a printing press system throughout the club. Domain librarians and domain archivists become domain binders; members will inevitably print off PDF books...so use the concept of the domain-level library to distribute these products.

Random thought of the day. Plus I'd love to create Cam business cards "Derek Burrow: Domain Librarian and Guerilla Print Specialist".

NEW VENUE for Town Hall Meeting

Dear First Year MI Students,



I have heard a rumour that second year students would like also to have a chance to attend tomorrow's meeting between 5-6pm. Given their interest I wanted to write to the Student Council President to offer her the opportunity to invite them to attend. Because I do not know how many students will wish to attend from either the first or second year and fire regulations would only have allowed around 250 students to come into the room my colleagues had booked we have found another room with a higher capacity.



So the Faculty of Information town meeting will now be held at

Mechanical Engineering Bldg

5 King's College Road

Room 102 (MC 102)



In case those of you who will be speaking want to get an appreciation of the space, something that I have always found helpful, I include a link to a picture of the room (http://www.osm.utoronto.ca/room_pics/MC-102.html ).



For those of you trying to find the meeting room you can find a map at (http://rrs.osm.utoronto.ca/map/f?p=110:1:5760345334091742552)



So I look forward to seeing as many of you as can make it tomorrow, 28 October, at 5 pm.



Yours,



Seamus Ross

A little debate

There's been a debate going on in the comments section of the "Glorious Five Year Plan" post about the theoretical vs. practical aspects of our course, and how its being taught. I had an epiphany last night.

Several of our professors have admitted that they have no experience teaching classes of the current size, and I think therein lies the problem with the teaching styles that we've been seeing. Reading off slides, speaking entirely in jargon...these are the actions not of incompetent professors, because talking with them one-on-one they know their stuff, but rather of workman trying to make due with substandard tools.

Most of these people are used to lecturing small groups of students, engaging them in direct discourse, and being able to explain the things they say. They are used to discussing examples, talking about theory, expanding on ideas. But how do you do that with 270 students? You can't. You have to use something that everyone can see, and make it as elementary as possible.

I think we scare them. On some basic, academic, primal level, we scare them. To use a kitchen example, its like staring down the gullet of a 250 person rush in a restaurant that normally never tops 70 covers a night. Full house, two or three sitting, night of full-bore crazy. And that's us.

The administration brought in more students than it could handle and shackled these professors down to classes bigger than many of my first year lectures. What do the professors do? They try to find some way to cope. Unfortunately, I get the impression that most of them aren't good group lecturers. They don't lecture crowds well without prepared speeches. They're used to a graduate level of teaching, wherein lecture is a two way street, and the students are looking to understand the information rather than simply absorb it as rote fact. They had to set up a course so that it could reach the lowest common denominator, because they couldn't afford to take the personal time to work with their students, resulting in days which are essentially first year pablum, whereas others are high theory that is actually applicable all around. You can really tell the content from the filler.

Simple fact of the matter is that none of our courses have exams. We don't need to absorb all of this rote information for future course use. Much of what we're learning is basic history as a filler for the professors not being able to instead fill the time the way it should be filled: in dialogue with the class.

We can see this in the INF100X series, where TAs, and sometimes profs, run up and down the aisles with microphones like we're on the set of Jerry Springer. That's no way to hold a dialogue with students. They cut off attempts at dialogue because the class is so big and everyone has to have a chance to ask their question. Asking questions of the Dean was like trying to ask a question in the White House press room: Everybody wanted to speak, only a few were allowed to.

That's the problem. The course size has sabotaged the professors as much as it has us. And I think we'd get many many times more out of the educational experience with smaller class sizes.

This doesn't make all the professors blameless. There are a few who, without a doubt, had a say in how this new program design came about. They confuse me greatly. But I have a hard time imagining that certain members of the faculty would have backed a plan for class sizes and teaching styles that seems so at odds with their own.

It feels sometimes like the Faculty itself is schizophrenic. It is inconsistent. It has little nagging voices in its head and pushes forwards with an irrational and illogical course of action because of them. It is internally conflicted, liable to just sit down in the gutter and argue with itself for hours while the student body watches on helplessly, trying to figure out what's going on. It cannot decide what it wants to be.

5 years of Chasing the Muse

On October 31st, this blog will celebrate its 5th anniversary.

Wow.

Best grad school subject line received so far

"please don't feed the creatures"

Apparently they've seen mice around the library. But still. I got that and wondered if someone was sending me Cam email at the wrong address again.