An Authentic Curriculum

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I am working hard to develop a curriculum that “Get[s] Past Teaching Apps [and helping students] Build and Use a Student Technology Toolbelt“ (Cool Cat).  This focus is defined in my curriculum in terms of  students’ technology fluency, which is defined in Cool Cat’s post as:

the ability to determine and use the appropriate technology tool(s) for the task at hand in a manner that allows seamless transfer of created objects and documents to flow easily between the selected tools without outside intervention.

I also want students to be able to think critically and solve problems within a computing environment since things keep changing. As Cool Cat notes and Karl Fisch supports, “We cannot fathom what the future holds for them but we know what it won’t hold: It won’t hold the software that we taught them this year in its present fashion.”

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Okay, having realized that most of the known world is probably browsing this thing using Bill’s big “e“, I decided to try a new theme that actually renders my sidebars correctly in that particular browser.  I was able to keep all of my widgets and my header so I’m pretty satisfied.

Good Reads

In other news, you’ll notice my new Good Reads widget.  I’ve recently joined that site.  If you’re a good reader and want to check out my profile, just follow the link on the book montage widget.

A great man has died today.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87901434

Gygax, ‘Dungeons and Dragons’

Co-Creator, Dies

Listen Now [3 min 55 sec]

With co-creator Dave Arneson, E. Gary Gygax developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. Gygax died Monday at age 69. AP/Family photo

All Things Considered, March 4, 2008 · Imagine a mournful horn echoing across thousands of fantasy worlds: E. Gary Gygax, the co-creator of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, died Wednesday morning. He was 69.

Gary Gygax was an icon to fans of the game, many of whom would show up at his home in Lake Geneva, Wis.

What began as a fantasy game published in book form in the early 1970s, eventually morphed and tumbled onto kitchen tables and dorm room floors. Players assumed the character of elves and dwarves, magicians and swordsmen, and confronted the primal conflict between good and evil.

“D&D,” as fans call it, is the granddaddy of popular online games that attract hundreds of thousands of gamers to the Internet today.

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