Alice and Kev

Robin Burkinshaw has finished Alice and Kev, an interesting exercise in computer-assisted storytelling, using screen shots from The Sims 3 to tell the story of a homeless father and daughter. Originally the story was told serially, with a few posts a week; then there were a few very long gaps, but the story is finished…

Insidious pedagogy: How course managment systems impact teaching

Course management systems (CMSs), used throughout colleges and universities for presenting online or technology-enhanced classes, are not pedagogically neutral shells for course content. They influence pedagogy by presenting default formats designed to guide the instructor toward creating a course in a certain way. This is particularly true of integrated systems (such as Blackboard/WebCT), but is…

The Simpsons on Classroom Technology

Full episode. “Text ‘uncle’! Text ‘uncle’!!” “But why talk… when I could text?” “That text was totally worth the 15 cents it cost to receive it!” “Then Zach Skyped us, liveblogged our spelling bee, and friended us on Facebook!”“Faculty lounge talk out in the halls?” Similar:US regulators demand clamp down on Apple e-book contractsI made…

Walkthrough (Zork Funk)

Walkthrough pifieErrol Download this MP3 Directly Similar:The Homecoming (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 1) War hero rescued by Kira has …Rewatching ST:DS9 Quark receives a Ba…CultureFlorida Woman Bites CamelIdentifying her as a “Florida woman,” as…AestheticsElmo? Yes, I do mind. I learned far more from Bert.Like plenty of people my age, I grew up …AestheticsDissecting…

The Fiction Generator

All kinds of awesome metatronics going on here. Similar:The Hut Where the Internet Began – Atlantic MobileLet’s start at the end point: what you’r…CybercultureBranding Essentials for the English Major: 4 Examples of How to Re-package Your Skills for…It seems every week some “expert” publis…AcademiaMy Student Calls Out a Mental Health Stigma in a Biased Headline…

Federal Judge Rules Video Games are Protected "Expressive Works"

On Wednesday, a federal district court in Los Angeles dismissed Brown’s claim against Electronic Arts for the use of his image in its Madden NFL series. Judge Florence Marie-Cooper essentially found that video games are “expressive works, akin to an expressive painting that depicts celebrity athletes of past and present in a realistic sporting environment.”…

Online Books, Poems, Short Stories – Read Print Library

A good collection, on a well-designed page. www.readprint.com Thanks for the suggestion, Josh. Similar:Real or Fake? (News Game)Real or fake? At a time when the reading…EthicsAs if 2021 wasn't already bad enough, it managed to get Betty White. Beloved actress, comedian and American…Current_Events35% of my site visitors right now are using mobile devicesThis year I…

The 15th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition

>get text games Similar:3-Year-Old's Birthday Party Theme: 'NewsHour'When a young St. Paul boy got to pick th…HumanitiesAmLit Rescue — Scratch GameA student in my “American Literature: 19…AcademiaThe crying Honduran girl on the cover of Time was not separated from her mother, father sa…The original was a stunning image, which…Current_EventsI actually don't mind Canvas — it…

Everyone Appreciates a Little Boost

I just got a phone call from the parent of a prospective student I spoke with on a campus visit over the summer.  The student has decided to come to Seton Hill, and the parent told me that the time I spent talking with the family over the summer was a major factor. (I’m sure…

Clockwords – Unique Word Game

A fun, free steampunk word game. Too bad I have to work today… Similar:Soldiers and Sailors Memorial and Museum Another visit to Pittsburgh with my his…CultureOnline dating is a method of virus controlI first met my wife in person, but we we…UncategorizedAnnoyed and Bored by Lazy Anachronisms in The Great Gatsby MovieI just watched the…

Transcendentalism Today: Echoes of Walden, online and in the classroom

Our students are transcendentalists, but they don’t know it. Speaking metaphorically, Thoreau writes “I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.”  Rather than treating children as wild creatures that needed to be tamed and civilized, Thoreau seesorder and meaning in nature, which is threatened, worn down, and buried by civilization.…

The New-Media Crisis of 1949

Old joke… when’s the best time to air a radio drama? 1937.  Radio is still around, but the salary of TV personality Katie Couric ” is more than the entire annual budgets of NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered combined.” (so says Michael Massing).  If you knew nothing about the internet beyond what you…

Princeton Students: Kindle 'Disappointing, Difficult to Use'

When the University announced its Kindle e-reader pilot program last May, administrators seemed cautiously optimistic that the e-readers would both be sustainable and serve as a valuable academic tool. But less than two weeks after 50 students received the free Kindle DX e-readers, many of them said they were dissatisfied and uncomfortable with the devices.…

Library 'scissor ban is absurd'

Ms Watts, from Islington, north London, said: “I asked why I couldn’t borrow a pair of scissors and she said, ‘they are sharp, you might stab me’. “I then asked to borrow a guillotine to cut up my leaflets but she refused again – because she said I could hit her over the head with…

Videogames now outperform Hollywood movies

Videogames may be economically formidable, but they remain a byword for crass, shallow thrills. A game, it’s understood, can look spectacular, but it will have little to offer its audience in the way of values, insights or craftsmanship. It’s a curious and increasingly untenable situation, given that, to the increasingly large percentage of the population…