Brian Lamb is Director of Innovation at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. Previously, he was at The University of British Columbia for more than a decade, founding some of the earliest blog and wiki services in higher education. His introduction to online learning came during his sojourn in Mexico as an instructor with the Tec de Monterrey system. He has an MA in English from McGill University, and a BA from the University of Saskatchewan. He is also a noise farmer (sounds like alchemy to me!). (“I’m trying for a set-up that allows for immediate and mixed access to as many electronic goodies as possible: guitars, theremin, flue-flugers, stylophone, and the usual digital devices.)
Brenna Clarke Gray is Coordinator of Educational Technologies at Thompson Rivers University. With a Ph.D. in English from the University of New Brunswick, and research interest in comic books, and visual & popular culture, she is also a #netnarr kindred-spirit. Brenna organized the #againstsurveillance teach-in event which was an important moment for educational technology & ethics in Fall 2020. To quote esteemed ed-tech colleague and podcaster extraordinaire Terry Greene: “Brenna began work in the ed-tech space a short seven or eight months ago. She is already killing it as a staunch advocate for thoughtful, ethical, and student centred approaches to using technology in learning experiences.”
The original date for this Studio Visit was booked for Thursday February 18th at 5:00pm ET but this was unfortunately cancelled due to a Snow Day, so a new date will be announced soon.
We will gather in order to chat about TRU Digital Detox, and discuss this elusive idea of the Post-Pandemic University! To quote Brenna about the Digital Detox project:
“If you’re used to thinking of a digital detox in terms of abstinence, this isn’t that.
Talking about a “detox” is loaded language, to be sure. But so much of the technology we use everyday has toxicity baked in at the design level — issues like exploitation, inaccessibility, and inequity are features, not bugs. So without getting hysterical about the state of the world (okay, maybe a little bit), we’re going to talk frankly about the problems with the way we use technology and, more often, the way technology uses us.”
– Brenna Clarke Gray, About THE TRU DIGITAL DETOX
