Sure, Marty McFly Day is interesting and all that, but Oct 25, 2015 marks the 600 year anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, the occasion for Henry V’s famous St. Crispin’s Day Speech, which, as Shakespeare rendered it around 1599, ends thus: This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er…
All instructors have to assemble their own pedagogical toolkit from the many resources out there and restock it (and recreate it) as necessary. There is no one single way of being effective. There is no magic spell (previous post on this blog to the contrary) that will make all pedagogical techniques effective all the time.…
In my “News Writing” class, I first warned students about doxing — the troll technique of harassing people by posting personal details (which enables pranks like ordering unwanted pizza deliveries or serious crimes like reporting fake hostage situations in order to send SWAT teams to the addresses of people you want to harass). I warned…
Most arguments for “saving” the humanities focus on the fact that employers prize the critical thinking and communication skills that undergraduate students develop. Although that may be true, such arguments highlight the value of classroom study, not the value of research.But humanities research teaches us about the world beyond the classroom, and beyond a job.…
Deciding against the coonskin cap, Goldenberger put on the vest, hoisted her hair up into intentionally dorky pigtails—she never wore them like that otherwise—brandished the chosen books, and pulled an intentionally hideous face for the camera. Normally, she hardly ever wore her retainer like she was supposed to, but it felt right for the character:…
Similar:In Defense of Liking ThingsIt used to bother me that people got all…CultureTrump’s war on the media is driving students to journalismTwenty-one-year-old political science st…AcademiaWeaponizing Empathy: You reacted to the outrageous claim that I crafted specifically to ou…NRATV host Collins Idehen Jr (who goes b…CultureConsciousness: Where Are Words?Words, words, words. With the advent of …CultureAnother…
Someone who thought Twitter was da bomb, and who apparently has very little historical awareness of previous forms of social media, now realizes that, human nature being what it is, this is why we can’t have nice things. We once glorified Twitter as a great global town square, a shining agora where everyone could come…
80 Days was my go-to game over the summer, though lately I have switched back to Faster Than Light. I haven’t had the chance to play the updated game, though I have installed it on my iOS devices. This paragraph, from Christian Donian’s review on Eurogamer.net, really impressed me. Great writing, and a great explanation…
Deanna Van Buren writes: I wonder why do we not see more collaboration between experienced architects, landscape architects, and video game developers. From the architect’s side, I know that we like to make stuff in the real world, and perhaps don’t think it will be rewarding. Architects often don’t play games or see how they…
“There’s nothing left to say,” said a science major in my writing class. I had called on her during a classroom discussion of a peer-review activity. “Everyone’s already said everything.” “You can at least provide a new example from your own paper, or express an idea in your own words,” I said. The student looked skeptical.…
It’s a common sight on Japanese mass transit: Children troop through train cars, singly or in small groups, looking for seats. They wear knee socks, polished patent-leather shoes, and plaid jumpers, with wide-brimmed hats fastened under the chin and train passes pinned to their backpacks. The kids are as young as 6 or 7, on…
At PPT’s The Diary of Anne Frank. Similar:To Learn More, This High-Schooler Left The ClassroomNick Bain, 17, was in class one day when…CultureLetter to the editor: Why our English department deserves more respectI came very close to accepting an offer …AcademiaDesiderata (Nerdy Inspiration)This is a little story about an inspirat…CultureThe Homecoming (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season…
It seemed the labs were using an outdated protocol for calculating the probability of DNA matches in “mixtures”; that is, crime scene samples that contain genetic material from several people. It may have affected thousands of cases going back to 1999. At first, they assumed the update wouldn’t make a big difference — just a…
Similar:Beautiful day for a walk.PersonalMade it to the closing performance @quantumtheatreDramaGame night at our local library.GamesThis morning I awoke to YouTube’s live footage of crowds circling a mosque in Mecca. For m… CultureA pleasant find: somebody left a painted rock by the side of the road.AestheticsWith actor Ken Bolden, who appears in Quantum Theatre's gripping…
I passed along to my geeklings an appreciation for hammy sci-fi overacting. Similar:Again with the @shu.pippinPersonalThe Other 21st Century Skills User Generated Education.AcademiaSummer project: learning the Unity gaming engine.One bedtime about 11 years ago, my 5yo d…PersonalThere is a thing in literature, theme X.I’m very happy that several students in …AcademiaHandshakes Really Do MatterMonday…
This whole item applies very well to one of my children. Me: Put your shoes on. Child: Did you know that we don’t actually vote for president, we vote for people who vote for president? Me: I don’t care, put your shoes on. Child: I am. Me: You’re not. Put your shoes on. Child: Why do we have shoes anyway? Me: Just put your…
I still blog, because I want control over my own archives, so that I can link back to my own posts to provide context (such as this 2004 post on the emerging SHU blogging community, or this 2011 post on the switch from MovableType to WordPress). Your past pretty much doesn’t exist if you post it…
Electronic Book Review just published an article I wrote with Dave Thomas, on cave space in video game ecology. Parts of this article are a companion to my 2007 Digital Humanities Quarterly article on the 1970s text computer game Colossal Cave Adventure. Crowther’s translation of real world caving experience into the digital medium provides a…
My daughter Carolyn, Matthew Hommel, Vinny Tresco, and my wife are in this show. (My wife is also the director.) The show runs Oct 1-3 (Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 at the Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottsdale, Pa.) Geyer production ‘Dani Girl’ offers inspiration to those touched by cancer. –Tribune Review Similar:"The plain fact is…
Mars is the only [other] place where we have solid evidence for liquid [water]. —The Washington Post –– Similar:Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, dies aged 89Harper Lee, whose 1961 novel To Kill a M…BooksSeriously, Fuck You, "Kindle Unlimited"I’m just quoting the f-bomb in the link,…BooksTwo classes will turn in final revisions at midnight…