The Open Organization by Jim Whitehurst describes the open source software company Red Hat. It does a great job introducing Red Hat's unusual culture, but it was also written by the CEO so the stories and ideas are mind-numbingly positive. If you can get past its repetitious optimism then it's …
What's the longest journey you've ever taken through university bureaucracy? Mine is probably longer. After five months of appeals, I'm finally able to register at Concordia as a McGill student for an equivalent course. Just like the comic above - I was arbitrarily denied for no good reason after getting approval …
That's right, this guy:
A year ago I wrote a post called Nomination for Worst Professor. I highly recommend it if you're interested in how bad professors can possibly be. Here's a reminder if you need it though. First, the usual "merely bad professor" stuff:
There's a lot of serious and legitimate concern lately about the development of autonomous weapons.
Humanity nearly has the technology to mass produce machines which can target and choose to kill humans, all without human intervention. So a factory worker turns on a machine, and then it …
Prepare to be amused and blown away. If you're a university student you may think your department is bad, but McGill's education department is worse. For several years now McGill education students report having the most boring, most random, most tuition-wasting, and most impossible-to-fail courses. This makes me really sad …
This post gives more details on the surveys and methodology, if you're interested. I decided it was too boring for a general audience so I cut it out of my original post. But you are an eager beaver! So here you go. And feel free to send me a message …
I recently got an email from the dean of education. Essentially he says that I'm annoying:
Dear Mr. Spencer
It has come to my attention that you have written repeatedly to our Associate Dean, among others across the university, about technology issues in the Faculty of Education, and also about …
Have you ever noticed that for-profit companies often advertise free or cheap software licenses to students, teachers, and schools?
Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, and countless others all offer deals on their software and services to schools. Why do they do that?
This post is written for educators, not tech experts …
In my previous post I talked about the McGill education students that cannot calculate an average, but I glossed over talking about the lecturer for that course. We've all heard about bad professors, but I have proof this professor was beyond merely bad. This story also includes what happened when …
This is a story about McGill education students that cannot calculate an average, and the professor who admitted he didn't care. Finally, I explain why this is important.
I hope that by telling this embarrassing story I will contribute to raising the standards at McGill and for Quebec teacher certification …
I'm a computer scientist and educator. Creator of ChessCraft. Senior computer scientist at Environment Canada.
I'm open to IT leadership job opportunities. I'm also available as a consultant or to provide training.
