Category Archives: Games

Posts about videogames, serious games, board games, teaching with games, gamification, and gamers.

Let’s solve the NYT Crossword Puzzle!

Do you like crosswords, but find them hard to crack? Do you wish you could get past the confusing clues and themes and finish a tough puzzle? Crosswords are an excellent way to flex your cognitive muscles in the name of fun!

I propose a session wherein we solve the NYT Crossword Puzzle as a group using the projection screen.  It’s a Friday, which is the second most difficult to solve (Saturday is hardest!). I’ll share tips and tricks for solving, and introduce participants to the wonderful analyzer that is Xword.info  If we have time, I’ll show you my own published NYT puzzle!

Choose Your Own Adventures: Simple Tools for Interactive Digital Writing

On this session, we will look at several examples of creative interactive (mostly-text-based) writing platforms. We will play a few examples, talk about applications, and explore the backend interfaces of tools like Tiny Choice & Twine, considering pedagogical and creative endeavors to undertake with each.

Participants will leave the session with the beginnings of a small, playable game written in Tiny Choice that can serve as a basis or model for future projects.