Molleindustria: radical video games you can play in your browser

As some regular readers of this blog already know, I have an interest in using video games as civic education tools. One especially radical and interesting possibility in this regard is to use video games to highlight critical social questions, and this has been the path taken by Molleindustria, an Italian collective that "aims to reappropriate video games as a popular form of mass communication."

Molleindustria has released two flash-based games that I think you should go play RIGHT NOW (video gaming in the office is legit if it is for academic purposes, and I'm giving you a free pass)! The games are free to play, and you can run them in your internet browser.

Tough questions: new teachers and free speech

In life, most of us (save those, perhaps, that adopt an unabashed go-with-your-gut philosophy) experience the occasional moment of internal conflict and indecision. Usually, these happen to me at the store, when I'm trying to choose between Oat Flakes and Oat Clusters. Difficult waters to navigate--ingredient lists that extend far beyond oats, stunning illustrations of the magic of food chemistry, and so on. This is why it sometimes takes me a while to emerge from the supermarket.

But, once in a while, conflicted moments happen in the professional context. Last week, I was invited to appear on a panel at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI). The topic of the panel was dealing controversial issues in the classroom, and I had been invited because the students had read my article on the Morin case.