I’ve been considering best ways to develop practices that assist in collaborative digital edition production. Over on the Tarlton Project site I’ve started the ball rolling with some thoughts about crowdsourcing Tarlton’s Jests that might lead somewhere. Or not. Feedback requested.
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Review of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A gentle and sweet book about books and knowledge and secrets and computers (and computers!) and codes and … bookstores. I really enjoyed it as I read it, but unfortunately it was in fits and starts so I never really engaged with it. And sadly, two days later, I can’t remember that much about it other than that it featured books and secrets and computers. Even the characters have not stayed with me, and I’m kind of sad about that.
But still, if you like books and computers and secrets and codes do read it. And maybe you’ll be able to take the time to focus on it and make a more lasting impression than I have.
Illustration in Early Modern English Playtexts
Student Digital Edition: Observations & Reflections
I’ve written before about the final project I assigned to my students for this term’s ENGL1102: Shakespeare’s English Histories course. The assignment was an ambitious experiment to see how students would collaborate on a digital edition of the Queen’s Men play The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth. I haven’t yet assessed the students’ final artifacts, and before I see the results I thought I would take a moment to practice a form of self-evaluation and write some observations about what I’ve seen work and what I would do differently if I were to include a similar project in a future course.
The assignment objective was to teach students about the editorial process and test my hypothesis that scaffolded assignments with final group components strengthen the learning experience. Everything we’ve done this term has, in one way or another, built toward this assignment. Assignment components included rough and revised transcriptions of the 1598 facsimile edition with word definitions and glosses, contextual research projects pertaining to the medieval subject matter, its importance to Elizabethan culture and politics, and the relationship of the play to Shakespeare’s subsequent Henriad.
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A Thanksgiving Lego Battle for Middle Earth
One of the highlights of my Thanksgiving was playing through the Lego Lord of the Rings video game with my nine year-old nephew. I’ve been considering using the game as part of a module on interaction design for my spring course, and so tricked him into helping me field test it. It took us two days and about 12 hours (and several puzzled queries from the rest of the family about whether we would be joining them for Thanksgiving dinner) but we saved Middle Earth. [Read more…] about A Thanksgiving Lego Battle for Middle Earth