Magical Thinking
You probably haven't noticed that I've been away for awhile. But I have. In fact, this is my first post of 2012. I have no excuse other than to say…
The Problem with Educational Technology
I don't think anyone would accuse me of being a Luddite. I began to learn to program in the late 1970's when I was in high school, majored in computer…
Software Development and the User
I've been thinking about software usability a lot lately, mostly because I encounter so much software that isn't particularly usable. There are two pieces of software that I use a…
Play, Standardized Testing and Wall Street
A student from my Creating Games class came to my office today to talk about the keynote speech from a conference he had recently attended. The speaker was lamenting the…
Qwikster Part II
Although it is not a personal email written by founder and President of Netflix Reed Hastings, I was happy to receive the following email this morning. Perhaps "the Netflix team"…
Quikster
Like all Netflix subscribers, I received an email from Netflix founder Reed Hastings this morning. I will post my comments on their blog but I also decided to post the…
Technology in Education
I just got back from a three day workshop on academic technology. As a computer scientist, I was intrigued by the idea of this workshop but I was worried that…
Tumblr Review–Part 2
It has taken me more than a month and a half to write the second part of this review. I think it's because I said in my last post that…
Tumblr Review-Part 1
As I wrote in a previous post, I have been testing Tumblr as a way of consolidating my web contributions in one place. After using the site for a couple…
New Tumblr Site
Because I spend my time thinking and writing about today's online media, I have a fairly significant web presence. I write this blog. I have a web site and a…
Games and Lessons for Life
I am a sucker for stories about the relationship between games and life. When I was a graduate student, a story in the Tallahassee Democrat about the life of Warrick…
Amazon’s Android App Store
I received this open letter from the International Game Developer's Association. I think it's a very reasoned, educational letter and points to a dominant theme of our times. Corporations are…
We Are STILL Playing a Game
I recently wrote a blog entry in response to Caroline Bender's question about the Scrabble game we were playing online. Since we have different motivations for playing Scrabble, Ms. Bender…
3D Eye Surgery (or I am a Fool)
Media outlets of all types see April 1st of each year as a time to play with their audiences. These stories rarely "catch" me because they typically have to be…
Moving to Apple
I got a new "toy" today. It's an 11.6 inch Mac Book Air. I have never owned an Apple computer although in the last few years, I've become a fan…
We Are Playing a Game
One of my blog buddies, the fabulous Caroline Bender (she of Drawing In fame), wrote an entry yesterday about the "game" she and I have been playing on Facebook. I…
Northern Pass–Weeding Through the Hype
There is a huge controversy raging in NH this year involving the Northern Pass Project. According to the project's web site, the Northern Pass is "a transmission project designed to deliver…
Game Design Education
I belong to the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) which has a fairly active listserv. The most recent discussion on the listserv was prompted by Brenda Brathwaite's rant at the most recent…
Facebook Security
Robin pointed out an article about Facebook security today that made me think about some things that everyone who browses the web should know about but which the article unfortunately neglects to…
iTunes Annoyance
I bought a 3rd generation iPod Touch awhile ago and have been an enthusiastic supporter of Apple's various music players ever since. I had owned another brand of mp3 player…
