No, not the planet. It’s cool. Mercury is the name for McGill’s online student course evaluation system. For most of my career as a teacher, there has been a day at the end of the term when students have filled out course evaluation forms, commenting on the instruction, their impressions of the course, and other …
Category Archives: Text
Quote of the Day (for yesterday)
Didier Delmas, from the preamble to his PhD comprehensive exam defence: The demands of everyday life conspire to hide the relevance of advanced knowledge.
Some Suggested Directions for Canadian Copyright Law
Israel recently reformed its copyright code, and given that it shares many of the same intellectual property issues as Canada, its path is instructive. Although there is much talk that Canada must adopt DMCA-like anti-circumvention measures (a provision that even authors of the DMCA now disown), it appears that small countries with big knowledge economies …
Continue reading “Some Suggested Directions for Canadian Copyright Law”
Quebec Alternative
Last night, I attended the vernissage for Quebec Alternative. The exhibit shows off some of the materials in Marc Raboy’s collection of alternative publications, which he dutifully stockpiled — eventually renting a storage locker until he was able to donate them to the McGill Library. For last night’s event, many key figures in Quebec’s alternative …
Shorthand Troubles
Shorthand Troubles, an Edison film that makes an appearance in chapter 4 of The Audible Past is now available online. Here’s a link to the place I found it (or rather, where google alerts found it for me).
More on Coverage
There are some excellent comments in the thread for my post on lecturing and retention. The question seems to be: is coverage more important in fields with strong canons, and what’s the alternative? My sense is this: Physics has as strong a “canon” as any humanities field, so the issues of core curriculum seem as …
How to Read a Book in Less than an Hour
Chris Kelty’s advice. I haven’t tried his method though I have my own “plowing” methods which I may detail at a later date if I decide there’s something original in it. I tend to real slowly and obsessively when I teach. Leaving aside dull and moralistic arguments about how much effort should be expended in …