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Rock Band 3: This Time You Learn to Play Music

Rhythm game inches ever closer to ruining the game by making all your hours of playing result in the practical skill of actually learning how to play the musical instruments… First they made fans look silly playing miniature plastic instruments and now all of this might result in actually learning how to play music. Talk …

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Empty School – Student Created Video

One of the benefits of working at Full Sail University is getting to sit-in on conversations with amazing folks like Apple’s Don Henderson (Senior Manager, Creative Expression). This past Thursday night (5/13/2010) he shared several videos about student creatives and entrepreneurs who weren’t waiting for graduation to begin their creative lives. While shortsighted bean-counters cancel …

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Moodle is NOT a Verb, or is it?

This was my last week teaching Full Sail/emdtms’ LMO (Learning Management Systems) course and I couldn’t end our time together without a little conversation about Moodle. Enjoy. Moodle is not a verb, or is it? I’ve been hearing about Moodle at ed/tech conferences for longer than I can remember. In the early years it seemed …

pcburning

The Role of Technology in Education

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working with my Full Sail EMDT students teaching and learning more about online learning management systems. I’ve been using online tools for teaching and learning for over nine years and tech in my classrooms for over 15-years, so I generally don’t think twice about the role of tech …

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Change/Follows/Learning

Emdt student Kevin Hayes created this video with the catch phrase: “If what you learn doesn’t change what you do, then why you learnin’ it?” Kevin is a very committed believer and has shared the connection he feels between his beliefs and his actions. There’s something amazingly simple and powerful in this. And in his …

Shaking Hands with EcceRobot

Seminal Sci-fi author William Gibson retweeted the link to the following video and the comments of @twiliteminotaur: “Creepy-cool in that old Gigerian sense of cyberpunk. Terminator’s in the anatomical details.” Fellow fan and skeptic of all things robotic, Lisa Smith, wondered why they’d go to such lengths to make the robot so human-like in function …

sparkynmoi-senatebldg2009

Why Should We Let You Into Our Doctorate Club?

Last time I talked to Dr. Sparks (“Sparky”) we were enjoying a late night dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill following a week roaming the streets of DC and the halls of power with my Pepperdine cadremates. He wasn’t completely satisfied with my consultancy project and charged me with the assignment to get a better …

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Will Buying Heal Old Scares

One of my students commented in his blog that he’d just had a relaxing weekend, noting that he’d actually had time to do some yard work with his wife and how much better the experience was versus the typical weekend of continuous running around. Interesting. As I continue my own house-hunting adventure I wonder how …

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Roll Over Beethoven and Copy… Right!

Part of my course at Full Sail is about media issues, you know, stuff like Copyright, Fair Use and Creative Commons. The “M” in our program title (EMDT) is Media and my students, who are in their ninth month of a year long Masters degree program, are expected to stare down this huge subject and …

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Intellectualism and conservative religion

Is there a fundamental conflict for someone to be an intellectual and a believer in conservative religion? The recent Bill Maher film, Religulous, would have one believe that most people surrender their minds when they surrender their hearts to religion. Having attended four private Christian universities my impression has been that there are very smart …