Fail: How NOT to do user experience design (II)

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Perhaps I should be more forgiving of people who really don’t know how to use “technology” yet. I try very hard to do that – when it is someone like my mother who’s never really had any need or use for it besides being able to surf the web and communicate with family.

BUT, we are rapidly getting to the point where NOT having access to the web and not having an email account is equivalent to living in North America in the 60’s and not having a telephone. Come ON.

I can also understand when someone who doesn’t really have any need to use the system in ways other than the ones described for my mom doesn’t know how to create and publish stuff online. Why should they? (Although I could also argue that this being the modern world and all, being able to do that is roughly equivalent to being able to write a traditional letter 40 years ago. So, get with it!)

These are mere annoyances. The ones that REALLY burn my toast are academics and administrative assistants who work in universities and colleges. I mean really. This isn’t rocket science. It’s been decades now since we started to be able to scan things, create and edit e-documents, and send emails (it’s been possible to do email at universities way longer than it’s been possible for the general public).

Here are a few items that top my list of bugs:

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Deconstruction and Takeaways (games)

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5 Lessons Professors Can Learn From Video Games –

Technology – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Nice article.

via 5 Lessons Professors Can Learn From Video Games – Technology – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The author suggests we might be in the “third level” of video games inside the ivory tower, one where people are

recognizing that games are often not the best tools in an educational setting, but when they are, they should carefully balance substance and sport.

At that level, it’s possible to deconstruct video games, looking for takeaways that professors can try in their own teaching, whether or not they ever pick up a joystick or click “play.”

I have some comment son each of those parts:

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Students fail at writing.

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Students failing because of Twitter, texting – Canada – Canoe.ca

“Thirty per cent of students who are admitted are not able to pass at a minimum level,” says Ann Barrett, managing director of the English language proficiency exam at Waterloo University.

“What has happened in high school that they cannot pass our simple test of written English, at a minimum?” she asks.

Even those with good marks out of Grade 12, so-called elite students, “still can’t pass our simple test,” she says.

via Students failing because of Twitter, texting – Canada – Canoe.ca.

I’m not really surprised. I’ve been teaching a technical writing course to 1st year engineers and many of them have poorer writing skills than my son did when he was 10. To be fair, some are quite good, but many (more than half, I’d say) are careless with their writing and proofreading.

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Fun with Google Docs (Part 1)

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OK, this is just too much fun.

It also has the potential to shift how we work together in some interesting and fundamental ways.
This is the first of a multi-part post outlining my experiences with Google Docs in the classroom and in my own academic publishing.
In late November, a colleague (Thanks Rod!) said he used Google docs for providing feedback to his students who were using Mahara to create learning portfolios. Initially I just assumed it was something like “OpenOfficeOnline” and when I first tried it out, I found it to be fairly limited as a word processor. Oh well, I thought. I don’t really like the idea of leaving my stuff “out there” anyways. I had used it to upload my CV, which it did without error but the formatting got messed up and, since I already maintain both a word version AND an online version of my CV I didn’t really fancy maintaining yet another. I kind of lost interest. But luckily, the story doesn’t end here.

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Global Game Jam is this weekend

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http://www.globalgamejam.org/

Live video can be found at http://www.globalgamejam.be/livewall/

The local Calgary site begins at about 4 PM today; others have started, of course, as the various time zones join up.

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Are You a FaceBook Tramp?

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I’m sure there are people who study this and publish about it. To them: forgive me. I am not really interested enough to track down and read the literature. I mean no offense. It’s just that I’ve noticed a few things that I find amusing…

I’ve been on FaceBook for about 2 1/2 years and it’s fun*. I catch wind of lots of interesting articles and news items through FB. I’ve noticed though that most people seem to approach FaceBook “friendship” in one of a few ways:

  1. They only friend actual RL friends and family.
    1. These are often the people who reveal a little TOO much. Perhaps they think FB is a private space. That anyone can see.
  2. They friend colleagues and professional contacts.
    • These people are the ones who tend to share news of a global or SIG nature. I hear about lots of interesting things from these folks.
    • They also tend not to say much about their personal lives.
  3. They friend ANYONE.
    • I call these FaceBook Tramps.

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My old alma mater confirms its rightful membership among the ranks of the despicable.

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It’s thoroughly disgusting when a University fires someone who has worked for them for more than 35 years. Their ‘crime’? Getting sick as a result of being abused at work. Despicable! (note: I am NOT talking about Mount Royal).

What will be done about it? Probably NOTHING. This is not new for this institution.

I quit a job there that I loved because the place is no longer safe for someone who is not willing to

  1. lie
  2. look the other way
  3. be abused
  4. admire the Emperor’s suit

I am teaching a course there this term as a favour. I really like the course. The students look like they will be interesting, and fun. The PLACE still makes me sick. Literally.

Why do they continue to do what they do? Because people let them. It REALLY is as simple as that.

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University of Calgary takes another lap around the metaphorical toilet bowl on its way down.

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I put this together some months ago, but in light of recent events, I felt like posting this now.
The U of C is going through another round of DEEP cuts.
The primary reason for the cuts, says Weingarten, is poor market performance caused by the economic downturn which has adversely affected return on endowment funds used to support various programs and the Universities Academic Pension Fund.
The endowment fund has shrunk by $40.4 million, since hitting a high last year of $411 million.

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