Mr Bates goes to Ottawa: or increasing access to post-secondary education

The context

OK, I’m not James Stewart, and it wasn’t Washington, and this posting’s a little late, due to other things, but this is a report on my presentation to the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology on June 9.

The committee was studying access to post‑secondary [...]

Evolution or revolution?

Another report from the B.C. Educational Technology Users Workshop in Victoria, June 5-6.

My keynote on strategic thinking about e-learning argued strongly for a ‘revolutionary’ approach to the use of learning technologies, arguing that merely adding technology to classroom teaching added cost without discernible benefits.

The conference organisers arranged a debate at the end [...]

Simulations in paramedical training

The Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC) offers a range of applied and academic programs that span the spectrum of safety – from prevention to response and recovery. The JIBC offers Canada’s only Bachelor’s Degree in Fire and Safety Studies, which had 80 students enrolled from across Canada and other countries in 2007/08. [...]

Hold the (Word) Press!

Got to get this !#$@ing book finished

Well, actually it’s been on hold for 10 days.

The last 10 days have been incredibly busy for a poor old pensioner. I spent two and a half days in Victoria at the ETUG conference, then headed off to Ottawa for a parliamentary committee, and also [...]

The future of instructional design - or my heart belongs to ADDIE

Victoria Harbour, BC

On Sunday, I attended a very interesting meeting of about 50 instructional designers (what is a good collective noun for instructional designers?) from across British Columbia, at Camosun College, Victoria. This was a pre-conference workshop before the Educational Technology Users Group of BC’s Spring Workshop (more on [...]