Digital Storytelling: an Efficient and Engaging Learning Activity

A digital story is essentially any combination of a spoken narrative and a number of visuals, perhaps with a soundtrack – along with new technologies to edit and share the story. Although the concept of digital storytelling is closely linked to the use of new technology, we shouldn’t forget that it is always the story…

Versu’s Epilogue: How an Interactive Fiction Pioneer’s 15 Year Project Ended Up in Limbo at Linden Lab

However there’s a particularly sad tale tied up in Versu’s fate (literally) and it’s why you won’t find me applauding this clean up any time soon. Versu was co-developed by acclaimed interactive fiction writer Emily Short, and for over a year most of the stories she’s made have been strictly for Versu. The unfortunate result…

DOJ Enters Into Landmark Web and Mobile App Consent Decree

Under the consent decree cite to http://www.ada.gov/hrb-cd.htm, H&R Block must undertake a number of stringent requirements including:Make its web content conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 2.0 level AA by January 2015.Make its mobile apps conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 2.0 level AA by January 2016.Appoint a Web Accessibility Coordinator…

xkcd: Types of Editors

xkcd: Types of Editors. Similar:A pleasant find: somebody left a painted rock by the side of the road.AestheticsUngrading after 11 weeksMathematics professor Robert Talbot repo…AcademiaThe cultural implications of the myth that English majors end up working permanently at St…Would you like facts with that? English …AcademiaSocial Media Companies Aren’t Liberal or Conservative. They’re capitalist.Facebook cares…

This is what an “umm” looks like

This image, of the audio waveform from a sound clip in Audacity, shows a little “umm” right in the center, surrounded by the larger waveforms of legitimate, fully-voiced words. One reason I enjoy working with audio is I can make myself sound very articulate by carefully snipping out all the vocalized pauses in my speech.…

Stanford to offer new undergraduate majors integrating humanities, computer science

Training humanists who can code like a techie and engineers who can dream like a poet. Well played, Stanford! “We’re also seeing students who want to balance their academic passions with pragmatic considerations about their career development, and this kind of program addresses that need. The intellectual landscape is changing, and the workplace landscape is…

Khan Academy Gets Rare Partnership To Close Wealth Gap In College Test Prep

“We think we can make the playing field more level by making the best-in-class tool and making it free. We hope that beyond individual students, these tools become adopted by after-school and college readiness programs.” With a huge influx of donations from Silicon Valley’s most notable philanthropists, Khan Academy quickly evolved from a YouTube lecture…

What my classroom looks like during today’s video journalism workshop

Within 3 minutes of being placed into groups, my students were out in the field, practicing news gathering. They have one hour to produce a 2.5 min segment. This is the first graded video project of term. (The other two in-class projects have been dry runs.) Similar:Memories of Toronto Yonge Street EncountersI arrived in Toronto…

Vulcans, The Secret Garden, and Venn Diagrams

  Similar:To DoTo Do (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) 5: …AcademiaAnd yes, that's her picture in the program (from the PPT Shakespeare contest).At PPT’s The Diary of Anne Frank. …CultureJournalists call out White House claims on terror reportingThe easily-disproved surface-level claim…CultureInteractive Adventure SongIt seems YouTube will soon discontinue t…AmusingGetting there.Getting there.PersonalWhat's next in game narrative, with Emily Short Something…

Facebook Puts a Downer on Upworthy

Facebook Inc. changed its newsfeed algorithm. You’ll never believe what happened to Upworthy’s traffic next. —Bloomberg. Similar:U.S. Public Wary of Biomedical Technologies to ‘Enhance’ Human AbilitiesAmericans are more worried than enthusia…CultureGoogle's AI could probably beat you at AtariWhat’s significant in this story is not …CybercultureVandal scratches Poe phrase into car at dealershipLanguage nerds will appreciate…