Steading of the Hill Giant Chief

Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, died this morning, proving that death is the ultimate dungeon master. How many of us learned strategy, conflict resolution and gained experience navigating political and economic systems through D&D? How many students are learning these same skills through their online gaming experiences? How are our faculty “teaching” and what are students actually learning given particular teaching methods? If experience is the best teacher, then perhaps simulations are the best substitute teacher? Thank you for following your dreams, Gary.

3 Responses to “Steading of the Hill Giant Chief”

  1. Gahlord said:

    Mar 05, 08 at 6:51 pm

    Guess he failed his saving throw. Sorry, couldn’t resist. The open-ended “structure” of D&D and the in-the-moment decision-making situations were always a blast.

  2. aragorn said:

    Mar 06, 08 at 2:16 pm

    yes, using my D&D character to talk to elven maidens and drink tons of mead was a great way to prepare for the real thing :).

    it would be interesting to hear what the new CTO thinks about which technologies have the potential for the most impact on the learning process.

    thanks Gary for the hours of fun!

  3. admin said:

    Mar 06, 08 at 6:00 pm

    Well, I would guess that technologies which can simulate experience might have the most impact. So, hardware and software which can disseminate information in multiple modes: visual, oral, aural, tactile, olfactory, etc. and content which uses narrative (e.g. story) as the framework. Or maybe just a larnin’ stick. Kind of like a lart….


Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.