The MOOC Honeymoon is Over: Three Takeaways from the Coursera Calamity

The honeymoon with MOOCs is over. The reality check has finally arrived which was inevitable. MOOCs will not solve all the woes of higher education. It is unfortunate it had to be a class on how to design an online course; it was the Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application [FOE] offered through Coursera…

How Patriotic

Similar:Oregon Trail: How three Minnesotans forged its pathRawitsch, a lanky, bespectacled 21-year-…CultureWhy did I only blog 3 times in June 2001?What was I doing during the summer of Ju…CybercultureThe Minecraft GenerationIt’s a world of trial and error and cons…AestheticsTechnical and Literary Writing: What’s the difference? « DekonztruktschonIn an advanced new media class, I’m intr…AcademiaHow do…

Beatrice the Biologist: How the Brain Works

Beatrice the Biologist: How the Brain Works. Similar:More Evidence that Choosing a Typeface Is ImportantAestheticsOut for an April stroll.NatureObamacare's broken website cost more than LinkedIn, Spotify combinedMuch of the criticism of Healthcare.gov …CultureWaiting for a talk on preserving artifacts from NASA’s Apollo program So much to see at the Heinz History Ce…CultureAmbiguous language in journalism:…

A Wealth of Words

People with similar vocabulary sizes may vary significantly in their talent and in the depth of their understanding. Nonetheless, there’s no better index to accumulated knowledge and general competence than the size of a person’s vocabulary. Simply put: knowing more words makes you smarter. And between 1962 and the present, a big segment of the…

MSNBC Airs Un-Edited Sandy Hook Father’s Testimony After Critics Complain

NBC aired doctored versions of a 911 call in the Trayvon Martin case, which led to an apology and several people losing their jobs in April. On Monday, MSNBC aired a video that seemed to show a grief-stricken man being heckled by pro-gun lobbyists while talking about his recently murdered son. via The Hollywood Reporter Similar:What Does Children’s…

Pinkalicious — “Buzz Off”

My daughter plays the Bumblebee in “Buzz Off,” which both ended Act I and opened Act II in last weekend’s Stage Right! production of Pinkalicious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gr6jlrndSU Similar:National Dance DayIn the restaurant parking lot after dinn…CultureThings that have made me start singing "Tradition!" in my head so far todayAfter last night’s first rehearsal for “…AmusingSnarky Error…

Make Games in the Classroom with Inform 7

I’ll blog pretty much anything that has to do with Inform 7. Text-based games, or interactive fiction, have continued to evolve since the days of Zork. Many works can be powerful for play in the classroom: Emily Short’s “interactive epistolary” First Draft of the Revolution, Andrew Plotkin’s physics-grounded Dual Transform, Peter Nepstad’s historically grounded 1893: A…

Almost Flat Design

Apple, Google and Microsoft have very different design aesthetics. Almost Flat Design | Matthew Moore Design. Similar:The Article is Dead. Long Live the ArticleTake the background paragraph. It ill-se…CultureThomas Jefferson on "newspapers without government" vs "government without newspapers"Those darn founders with their darned re…CultureFacebook brands and organic reach: Why no one likes your self-promoting posts…