![[University of Waterloo]](/images/logobars/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Friday, February 18, 2005
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[A sea of white branches]](/images/2005/0218ice.jpg)
Winter
galleon: the Dana Porter Library rises above the ice-laden treetops
of campus. Computer science graduate student Herman Li took the
photo Wednesday morning from the Graduate Apartments at St. Paul's.
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Ali Ahmed, of electrical and computer engineering, submitted a brief paper on "Learning Object Repositories and Systems as Effective E-Learning Tools", based on work he has done both in E&CE's PAMI (Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence) research group and in LT3 (the Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology).
"The success of education through e-learning," Ahmed says in his paper, "depends in large part on developing innovative pedagogical techniques and combining these with the latest technology available for public use, including multimedia and Internet technology."
He brings his audience up to date on the concepts of "learning objects" ("small digital instructional components that are reusable") and "learning object repositories", or collections of such tools that make them available online and allow "learners with similar interests" to connect.
"The next level in harnessing the e-learning potential of LOs and LORs," he writes, "is networking multiple repositories." An example is LORNET, a collaboration among six Canadian universities -- including UW, where faculty member Mohamed Kamel of the PAMI group is heading a research project on "object mining and knowledge extraction". Kamel, Ahmed and other researchers are working towards a product that will be called TELOS -- TeleLearning Operating system -- that makes it easy to search large collections of learning objects, assess their suitability and use them in effective ways.
"Universities, colleges and other institutions of higher education are ideally placed to embrace and spearhead technological development in the field of LO/LOR-related e-learning," Ahmed says in his conclusion. "Governments and the private sector should get involved in sustained long term effort to assist these institutions."
The three-day conference in Abu Dhabi brings together more than 500 students from some 70 different nations "to discuss how information technology is affecting and changing education," its web site says, and "provides the opportunity for students in all academic fields to make their voices heard on various issues concerning the applications of electronic technology in education."
| WHEN AND WHERE |
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Pension and benefits committee 8:30 to 12, needles Hall room 3004.
Co-op job rankings open today; to be completed by midnight Sunday night. Haptics technology: "A New Design Paradigm for the Rapid Development of Sense-of-Touch Applications over Networks", presented by Handshake VR, 2:00, Davis Centre room 1304. Introduction of ProSense Virtual Touch Toolbox; discussion of a possible working group on haptic and telehaptic applications. "Ain't Misbehavin'" presented by Caribbean Canadian Association of Waterloo, tonight and Saturday 7 p.m., Humanities Theatre, tickets 888-4908. Val O'Donovan, local industrialist, Member of the Order of Canada, and former chancellor of UW, memorial event Sunday 2 to 6 p.m., Galt Country Club (e-mail celebration@odonovan.ca or call 653-6412 for details). |
The lecture is offered through the St. Jerome's Centre for Catholic Experience. Admission is free (although a free-will offering is collected, and space is limited).
"Building on Values" was the name Romanow gave his Royal Commission report on the future of health care. He observed that universal health care was created for the public good of all Canadians on the basis of fairness, equality and equity. He has defined medicare as "the quintessential Canadian program that is the convergence point where so many of our values come together. Medicare demonstrates that as a community we can accomplish so much more than we could ever dream of doing as individuals."
Romanow served in the Saskatchewan legislature from 1967 to 2001, with service as attorney-general and deputy premier, and then as premier from 1991 to 2001. He was one of the key players in the federal-provincial negotiations which resulted in the Constitutional Accord of November 1981 and co-authored a book on that process, Canada Notwithstanding (1984). In addition he established a provincial legal aid plan, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission and the Provincial Ombudsman's Office. His government introduced a number of reforms dealing with children, families and the provincial health-care system.
Retiring from politics in 2001, he was appointed a Senior Fellow in Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina, and is also a visiting Fellow in the school of policy studies at Queen's University. In 2003, he was granted the Atkinson Charitable Foundation's Economic Justice Award and the Pan American Health Organization Award for Leadership in Inter-American Health. Romanow is continuing his work to promote universal health care in Canada.
The John Sweeney Lecture in Current Issues in Health Care was established by the St. Mary's General Hospital Foundation and the St. Joseph's Health Care System to honour John Sweeney, who served on the hospital's board of trustees 1991-2001 and was chancellor of St. Jerome's.
The St. Jerome's Centre lecture series was due to continue on March 4 with a lecture by Douglas John Hall, Montréal theologian and, four decades ago, founding principal of UW's St. Paul's United College. The Centre announced this week that the March 4 event has been cancelled because Hall is ill. Also cancelled is a talk that was to be given March 18 by Hans-Christof Graf von Sponeck, former United Nations coordinator for humanitarian aid to Iraq.
![[Hot Night in the City, firemen with fashions, Thursday night]](/images/2005/0220hotnight.gif)
The folks at the UW Shop want everybody to remember: as you travel -- perhaps to exotic climes, perhaps home to see Grandma -- this reading week, take your "UW Wear" and your camera along. They're running a photo contest, with prizes for pictures of UW people wearing UW clothes in surprising places ("creativity counts"). Details are on the shop's web site, and the deadline is March 11.
Now how about a somewhat longer trip? The international programs office has sent a memo to deans, with the hope that the information will trickle down to others around campus, about programs offered by the new "Canada Corps University Partnership Program". CCUPP (wonder how you pronounce that?) is offering three-to-four-month student internships in developing countries "in governance-related areas (broadly defined)" as well as team projects (at least three students, led by a faculty member) to "carry out initiatives to enhance the governance capacity of developing partners". In case it needs some explaining, there's a web site.
The Daily Bulletin has rarely said anything about Pat Bow, my colleague in communications and public affairs, who's also a successful author of children's stories. Here's my chance to mention her, as Bow will be taking part this weekend in the Mosaic Live Arts Series at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in central Waterloo. She'll be at the gallery Sunday from 2:00 to 3:00 (admission $5 per person or $20 per family), and copies of her book The Bone Flute, published by Orca last year, will be for sale. The book tells the story of Camrose Ferguson, a perfectly normal 12-year-old living an ordinary life in a small Ontario town. Extraordinarily, she has inherited responsibility for an ancient bone flute, an object of quest for two time-wandering rivals. Says a review: "The Bone Flute is about the very thin wall that separates our everyday world from an equally real world of wonders and terrors. Above all, it's an adventure, meant to be read for the pleasure of the story alone."
Here's a last-minute chance to a previously announced PhD oral defence. The student involved is Lubomir Stanchev of the school of computer science, who was to defend his thesis on Tuesday morning; the defence has been rescheduled for Monday, February 21, at 2 p.m. in Davis Centre room 1331.
The women's basketball Warriors have advanced to the OUA West final playoffs with a victory over Windsor, 51-42, on Wednesday night -- a game that I'm told was "a nail-biter to the very end". I'm further told that "Katie Tucker from the Warriors was on fire" (now that would be cause for nail-biting) and led the team defensively, not to mention scoring 14 points, while Kim Dillon had 16. With the victory, the Warriors are now scheduled to face McMaster in a quarter-final game Saturday night in Hamilton.
Other sports this weekend: men's hockey tonight vs. Windsor at the Icefield (7:30), tomorrow night at Windsor. Women's hockey Saturday night vs. Guelph at the Icefield (7:30). Men's basketball at Laurier tomorrow afternoon. Curling, the OUA championships over the weekend at the East York Curling Club in Toronto. Track and field, the McGill Invitational tomorrow. As always, there's sports news on the athletics department web site.
CAR