(But first: All das Beste zum Geburtstag (and always) to my littlest cousin!) Planning murder mysteries can be an educational experience. You learn how your friends deal with competition, who likes to dress up in costumes, and how to cook for fifteen people. You also learn things that are a little more…
(Unless otherwise noted, all photos are from Sarah and JB. Thanks, you two!) My dear friend, (the letter said) What a long time it has been since we saw each other face-to-face. You have not forgotten me, I’m sure; I know I have not forgotten you. Let us reminisce about…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that it is impossible to tell how striking a particular piece of writing is until you’ve read several dozen examples of that genre. This applies to genres of novel as much as it applies to essays and cover letters. Purely in the interests of…
In my last entry on MOOCs, Massive Online Open Courses, I mentioned that one of the reasons I felt that some MOOCs didn’t offer an educational experience as high in quality as traditional, in-person university courses is because qualitatively evaluating the work of thousands of students poses a huge problem…
(Apparently one pronounces the acronym for Massive Online Open Course “mook.” I did not know this until hearing them discussed at a teaching workshop on distance learning.) As a post-secondary instructor and someone who loves taking classes, I’ve been fascinated by the MOOC model of learning, in which universities and experts…
Third entry in my process notes on developing a murder-mystery weekend! If you missed it, you can also check out the second installment. When I first started planning this hunt, I wanted to solve what seemed to me to be the main problem with all the murder mysteries I’d played in…
Second entry in my process notes on developing a murder-mystery weekend! At one friend’s murder mystery party, players could kill each other using in-game weapons. I thought this was a lot of fun, so I wanted to include a similar mechanic in my murder mystery weekend. (Besides, it would help…
So I’m planning a murder mystery weekend this May. Before I say anything about it, let me note: there is nothing in this blog entry that will spoil the game for any of the players or give anyone an unfair advantage. So feel free to keep reading no matter who…
I’m over sacrifice. In fiction, that is. I’m not quite as excited as I used to be about climaxes where Mr. Spock gasps out his last words on the other side of the radioactivity-shielding glass or Harry Potter whips off his Invisibility Cloak in the middle of a Death Eater…
(otherwise entitled: “Grangers in a Strange Land”) The first confession is, I’m not sure if “former” is an accurate description. What’s she trying to do, you’re thinking, make it clear that she’s still smart? Or is she deluded enough to think she’s still a kid? Well, I’m definitely no longer…