ABC is developing the steampunk adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Yes, really.

As gimmicky as “steampunk Huck and Tom” sounds, the characters actually may be quite well suited for steampunk. Twain’s novel Tom Sawyer Abroad was a play on Jules Verne-style adventure stories, and featured a mad professor and his absurd, futuristic airship. And Tom Sawyer had his own mystery story with Tom Sawyer, Detective. However, Twain…

Vote for Carolyn’s Headshot — Round 2

Vote for Carolyn’s Headshot — Round 2. Similar:More #Blender3D practice. Making many objects to liven up a #steampunk environment.PersonalSpace:1999 design aesthetic merged detailed miniatures with curvy Euro-futurist interior d…Clearly influenced by Kubrick’s 1969 fil…AestheticsThe Anatomy of a Shakespeare Play: King Lear (Free video lecture from Pict, 2pm Friday)PersonalMore modular low-poly background buildings. I’ll do some…

Mars Panorama — 10yo with iPad Pretends Her Bed Is NASA Rover

Mars Panorama — My 10yo Pretends Her Bed Is NASAs Curiosi – YouTube. Similar:You have 20 minutes before the sun blows upThis charming game focuses on exploring …AestheticsAcademics want to preserve video games. The game industry is fighting them in court.For decades, champions of the video game…BusinessCaptain Gearhart found some stairwell problems on his latest…

Choosing Carolyn’s Headshot

Which of these headshots do you like best? Let me know on Facebook. Carolyn Headshots. Similar:Yesterday my wife took this last known picture of our two teenagers. The boy is 20 today. Personal5 tips for choosing the right typefaceWhen it comes to picking a typeface, you…AestheticsKindle App Vs. iBooks. (Spoiler: They’re Virtually Identical Now!)I noticed with…

Dozens of Plagiarism Incidents Are Reported in Coursera’s Free Online Courses

“If we really are trying to teach the world, including people from other cultures, we have to take a responsibility to educate people about plagiarism, not just vaporize people for it,” said Mr. Severance, who is also a clinical associate professor of information at Michigan, in an interview on Wednesday. —The Chronicle of Higher Education.…

Dennis G. Jerz | Associate Professor of English -- New Media Journalism, Seton Hill University | jerz.setonhill.edu

If in question, have more GOOD than BAD? University of Georgia Student Journalists Walk Out

My students and colleagues sometimes wonder why I don’t approve the Seton Hill student paper before it’s published, or give students grades on their published work. Student journalists at the University of Georgia resigned en masse rather than relinquish editorial control to an “editorial director” and nonstudent staff. In a draft outlining the “expectations of editorial…

Stage Right Water Sprite

Last week my daughter and I were a little too early to see the Westmoreland Museum of American Art’s new exhibit, so we revisited some of our favorite items in the permanent collection. Similar:I've Stopped Creating Syllabi. Now I Create Syllabuses.At some point, using “syllabi” as the pl…AcademiaPerchance to Dream: LARPing Hamlet at Castle ElsinoreThis…

SCUBA Diving at the Pool

Because a beautiful sunny day at the pool apparently by itself isn’t enough, we upped the ante with SCUBA gear. Similar:Digital Storytelling: Empower the Multimodal Writing Classroom with Scratch How can the busy writing teacher interes…AestheticsWitness Accounts in Midtown Hammer Attack Show the Power of False Memory Two people who saw a police encounte…Current_EventsRemember Who…

Official Rules to Nanofictionary

I was at a youth car wash today, watching my son and the other the kids spray each other (and sometimes the cars). One of the customers happened to be carrying an anthology of dystopian science fiction. We got to chatting, and he told me about this parlor game — which sadly seems to be…