- My name is Katrin Becker. This is my blog. It is about Digital Games, Educational Technology, Computer Science, Academia, and sometimes Rural Life and other notions. Comments are welcome but will be edited as necessary to maintain relevance.
Quote for the Day
“I used to think it was terrible that life was so unfair. And then I thought, “Wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair; and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them.”
And so now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the Universe.”
by Marcus Cole Ranger, Babylon 5: A Late Delivery from Avalon [3.13]Posts Gone By
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- Gamasutra – Features – Jerked Around by the Magic Circle – Clearing the Air Ten Years Later
- Choose: Education OR Fun. Apparently, you can’t have both.
- » Top Ten Ways to Annoy a Gifted Child giftedguru.com
- Interesting Take on Gender Stereotyping in Comic Characters
- Why Education Publishing Is Big Business | Epicenter | Wired.com
- The dark side of Apple’s digital textbook utopia | VentureBeat
- Learning Outside the Box: Sweden debuts first classroom-less school | SmartPlanet
- SOPA Supporters
- Note to Faculty: Don’t Be Such a Know-It-All – Teaching – The Chronicle of Higher Education
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- Gamasutra – Features – 7 Things To Know About HTML5
- Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives (Forbes)
- The Value of the Designer Who Codes | Inc.com
- Janice Harper: Top Ten Reasons to Rethink Anti-Bully Hysteria
- My Wish for 2012
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Category Archives: Instructional Design
Why Education Research Is Failing Us: Begley – Sharon Begley – Newsweek.com
Why Education Research Is Failing Us: Begley – Sharon Begley – Newsweek.com. Synopsis: This article reports on a meta study comparing inquiry methods against a more trditional approach. What was found is that: “There is a dearth of carefully crafted, … Continue reading
I am an Ed Tech heretic.
Thank you Freeman Dyson. http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge219.html#dysonf “In the modern world, science and society often interact in a perverse way. We live in a technological society, and technology causes political problems. The politicians and the public expect science to provide answers to … Continue reading
Take That, R.E.Clark….
Among the points highlighted in Clark’s recent article trashing serious games are that “…the research shows no instructional advantages of games over the other instructional approaches (such as lectures)…” and that “only poorly designed studies find learning benefits from games“. … Continue reading
R.E.Clark is at it again….
Clark, R. E. (2007). Learning from Serious Games? Arguments, Evidence, and Research Suggestions. EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, May-June 2007, 56-59. Richard E. Clark says, “My goal in this column is to offer a brief view of the current state of the evidence … Continue reading
Software Ethology, a new approach to design and analysis
I have recently been working on a new methodology for the analysis of commercial video games in order to uncover mechanisms used to support learning. I am calling this new approach Instructional Ethology. It combines structural analysis based on black … Continue reading
The ID / AI Connection
I’ve noticed that quite a few big names in ID (Instructional Design: Papert, Schank, Merrill,..) have backgrounds in AI (Artificial Intelligence, rather than the other AI) I find this a little disconcerting. In some sense the application of concepts from … Continue reading
Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction
I have seriously misjudged M. David Merrill. His Component Display Theory was very computer sciencey, and unwieldy, and really turned me off; but First Principles is *really* good. Thank you Gail for pointing me at it! I’ve had this notion … Continue reading

