Grandparents are People
I was lucky to know three of my four grandparents. I didn’t know my mother’s father but that’s because she didn’t know him. She never met him. The man she…
Kid Fears
For my retirement/Christmas/birthday, my friend Lynne gave me Storyworth, a memoir writing tool that sends a weekly question for a year and then sends a bound, physical copy of the book…
Things We Believe
I received a great gift at the end of 2025 from my friend, Lynne. To celebrate my retirement, she gave me a Storyworth memoir. Each week for a year, Storyworth…
Turning in my Keys
I officially retired on Friday, January 2, 2026. I finished the last tasks of my "termination" that morning. I took the last load of stuff out of my office. I…
Why I Like Bluesky and You Should Too
How would you feel if the only people you could call or text using your phone were people who were using the same carrier as you? If you were on…
Casual Science in the Board Games of Elizabeth Hargrave
My sabbatical is coming to an end and my video game, Nebula Hunter, is not finished yet. Making a game by yourself takes a lot of time! I'll write an…
Nebula Hunter: Mid-Sabbatical Report
I am about half-way through my sabbatical and I estimate that my sabbatical project is a bit more than half done. But, of course, the last 20% of any project…
Creating Assets with nanDECK
It has been a while since I wrote a blog post. I'm on sabbatical this academic year and I am working on a game for my sabbatical project. I've been…
What is an “academic discpline”?
Integrated Capstone (INCAP) classes at Plymouth State University are supposed to engage students in the development of an interdisciplinary signature project. To understand what "interdisciplinary" means, we first have to…
A ChatGPT Assignment
When I last taught Media and Cultural Studies six years ago, students worked on an Open Education Resource (OER) for the class. I wrote about this experiment in our new…
Signal to Noise Ratio in Learning
I think those of us who are educators would agree that, since the start of the pandemic, our students are more distracted than ever. In fact, I think most of…
Memories: Online Games as Identity Performance Spaces
A Facebook memory popped up that twelve years ago today, I submitted a chapter to a forthcoming video game book. I shared the memory and pointed out that despite a…
Choosing Learning Materials
I started in astrophotography about 6 months ago. I have consulted a lot of different sources to learn all kinds of stuff during this time. One of the most interesting…
Experiencing Awe
We are in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime celestial event. Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF) is approaching Earth for the first time in 50,000 years. Astronomers discovered it in March 2022…
Making an Astrophotograph
Making an astrophotograph starts with equipment. For this image, I used a stock Canon 6D that I have had for years and a Canon 50mm f1.8 lens that I bought…
Obsession, Learning, and Teaching
I didn't write a single blog post during the Fall semester. My blog post from the end of July gives a little bit of a hint about the reason. In…
Ungrading and Learning
I taught the introductory class, called Game Design Principles, for our new Game Design major this Fall. I think this first offering went pretty well although there are some things…
Astrophotography and Teaching
I have been interested in photography for years. I have a good understanding of composition, the exposure triangle, depth of field, and many other photographic concepts as well as how…
Teaching, Learning, and Atomic Habits
I wrote earlier this year about using the book Atomic Habits by James Clear to think about how to help students develop good academic habits. This summer, group of faculty…
