Fun Reading!

Yeah right: who has time to read for pleasure during a semester? But should you find yourself shiftlessly searching for an enjoyable reading encounter, let me recommend The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss.

If you're not into fantasy as a rule, I think that you will find these novels to confound your expectations of the genre (which are, I admit, all too frequently borne out). The first two books are  available (published 2007 and 2011), with a third in the works.

I'm not a very good reviewer, more's the pity. Let me simply say: the appeal of these books does not lie in any typical genre conventions. Rather, I am so very enthralled by them (and have re-read them a ridiculous number of times so far) because I am a language geek. Mr. Rothfuss treats the cadences of language with such care, such craftsmanship, such subtle playfulness, and such erudition as I have rarely seen in combination with each other. I absolutely refuse to give any spoilers, because I want any of you who do go on to read these books to discover their sheer delightfulness on your own.

There you go. You're welcome.

"Oh, that's adorable": Required Textbooks

Who saw this piece in yesterday's Chronicle of Higher Education? Students - from a range of majors and backgrounds, traditional and nontrad - speak honestly about their options when buying textbooks for their courses. It's enlightening - go, read it. I'll be here when you get back.

Did you know that there were so many options - legal and not-so? Have you mostly just assumed that your students either buy the book(s) you require here at the campus bookstore, or maybe on Amazon.com? Have you ever thought, "That doesn't really affect what I do in my classroom - it's the students' problem"?

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you shocking news. Are you sitting down? Our students are buying textbooks as a last resort. In many cases, it's a rational trade-off to try passing without the textbook instead of getting into even more credit-card debt.

Can you do anything? Yes. There are plenty of high-quality, legal, and free options you can present to your students - instead of continuing to play the traditional dead-tree textbook game.

Far too many of us still think of online resources as a free-for-all of random websites of academically dubious value. This view carried some weight early on - I remember the mid-90s too! - but the medium has matured. 

Often, tech tools are presented as gee-whiz gadgets which may or may not last - overhead projectors, anyone? - but with no underlying conversation about how they might effect structural change in the methods and aims of our teaching. Some of my future posts will try, incrementally, to engage this broader conversation, and to move beyond the slightly tired rhetoric of technological determinism. :-)

Keeping Track of What Goes On...

Hey y'all - I have great expectations for this blog, intending to accomplish at least a few different things for a few different audiences. Some people might read this for the thoughts of a philosopher/classical languages guy; others might be interested in my ideas about gaming in education; still others might come to this blog because you know me from work. (Some small percentage of you might care about the occasional random musings on fiction, popular culture, and other [off-]topics.)

I'll be thematically labeling my various posts to reflect the main target demographic in each case...but, somewhat optimistically, I encourage you to browse any category - I think they'll all be interesting.

The broader world and issue of education and technology. Thinking about trends, possibilities, applications, thought experiments, and what-ifs of all sorts. Critiques and enthusiasms. Conversations with peers, students, colleagues, and random thoughtful people.

Protips for my colleagues at MCLA! As Coordinator of Academic Technology, I'll post about interesting/useful ideas and tools for making the life of the mind in my little corner of the world a little more tech-savvy.

It's dangerous to go alone...into the world of antiquity. Posts about ancient philosophy and classical language/literature.

Stuff I love! Books I'd recommend, music, other unclassified musings.

Gaming. Mostly in the context of social and educational applications, with a fairly likely recurrence of news about Dungeons & Discourse, my Intro to Philosophy game-based curriculum.

Hello.

This blog will ultimately serve many purposes, but its current final cause is to serve as a space/platform for musing about MOOCMOOC v. 2.0, in which I'm participating this week. Huzzah!