From James O’Hearn… There’s a well known eLearning advocate I follow, named Scott McLeod (no relation to the comic book scholar…as far as I know!) who writes a blog called Dangerously Irrelevant. Scott has spoken at Tedx conferences, and regularly presents on eLearning related topics, and one of his main pet peeves, that I have noticed, [...]

From James O’Hearn… I still buy paper books…indeed I find myself drawn to the enormous Kinokuniya Book World in the Dubai Mall every time I pass by, and the new cherry wood writing desk I got for myself when we moved to a new flat is already a bit overfull with paperbacks. This summer I’ve [...]

From James O’Hearn… In a recent story in The National, there is a story about a UAE Naval Officer in court in the US over a civil and criminal matter. The charge is that he held an unpaid Filipina worker in the United States. At some point the maid escaped, reached the authorities, and brought [...]

From James O’Hearn… In Ottawa, they recently held the National Research Council’s 2011 Biotalent Challenge Awards. In essence, it’s an ordinary high school science competition, but the competitors in this particular competition were anything but ordinary. Here’s what the top 5 competitors did: 1st Place – Found a cure for cystic fibrosis. Did this on [...]

From James O’Hearn… An old Harvard entrance exam is circulating around the interwebs lately, and curious as I always am to peek into the schoolroom of the past, I thought I’d take a look. After reading through it, I found I had learned something, or at least come to alter my way of thinking about [...]

Is school going well dear?” My grandmother asked, smiling at me. I didn’t reply at first, so she asked again. “Sorry Grandma. Yeah it is. It’s going good. I finish grade twelve soon and I’m gonna hear about universities in a month or so.” I tried to smile, but it was hard, and instead of [...]

From Dubai Corespondent James O’Hearn… You know, I find it really hard to explain to my wife exactly why I not only need time to write, but that our separate understandings of what “time” means, are very different. To her forty five minutes means I’ve been writing for long enough. “Isn’t that enough time?” To [...]

Fro Dubai Corespondent James O’Hearn… Back when I studied creative writing at York University, one of my profs, Richard Teleky, told us that he felt Nino Ricci was a good writer, but not necessarily a great writer*. The reason why he felt this was that Ricci’s debut novel, “Lives of the Saints” was by far [...]

From Dubai Corespondent James O’Hearn… Growing up, I was so attracted to books, to the idea of sitting in a far off room by myself, getting lost in a story that having to put my book down and do something else, anything else, always seemed like a punishment. Especially being required to work with my [...]

From Dubai Correspondent James O’Hearn… Just in the Gulf News, out of that den of tolerance and wisdom known as Ras Al Khamiah, a couple has been arrested for having sex in their car. A Bangladeshi man and an Indian woman have been sentenced to a year in jail followed by deportation. So far, so [...]