Mark J
penguinhermit.bsky.social
Mark J
@penguinhermit.bsky.social
Gardener, maker, story gamer, TESOL educator. EN/JP.

I'm academically interested in spoken language development, peer interaction, analog games, oral storytelling, and the intersection of those things = learning through collaborative storytelling games.
@tabletopaudio.com I don't have access to the article, so you may not either, but this is a link to some research about what you do! I thought you might be interested.

online.ucpress.edu/jsmg/article...
Dungeons, Dragons, and MusicThe Immersive Qualities of Sound in Dungeons & Dragons
Since 1974, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) has existed on the fringes of popular culture alongside many other tabletop roleplaying games. In recent years, however, D&D and other RPGs have emerged at the for...
online.ucpress.edu
June 11, 2025 at 10:38 PM
June 6, 2025 at 11:26 AM
April 27, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Reposted by Mark J
every SINGLE day, I wake up more and more of a luddite, and just filled with a growing contempt for AI fetishists in academia, like the author of this piece
Nothing to see here, just Nature advocating LLM peer review.

“Feed your dictated notes into an offline large language model (LLM) to clarify and organize your feedback. A simple prompt such as “Write a critical reviewer letter based on the following notes. Maintain a professional tone throughout”
Three AI-powered steps to faster, smarter peer review
Tired of spending countless hours on peer reviews? An AI-assisted workflow could help.
www.nature.com
March 5, 2025 at 1:01 PM
An excellent online research symposium coming up in March. Free for all to join. I'll be presenting about my own approach to playful pedagogy as well as a simple online tool for storytelling games.

#Ludic #Language #Pedagogy
#EduSky #AcademicSky
February 22, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Mark J
Very happy to find Tabletop Audio here on Bluesky! I love Tim's work. I often play these tracks when I'm playing board games with my kids. If you haven't encountered this beautiful corner of the Internet yet, you're in for a treat.

#TTRPG #TRPG #BoardGame #Ambience
"Orb of Doom" is now out of sneak-peek mode and waiting for your stories on tabletopaudio.com.

Patreon patrons receive 4 additional versions of this track. Thank you all, for your support! - Tim

#ttrpg #rpg #dnd #boardgames
February 15, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Getting the garden ready feels wonderful. Materials assembled: trimmed branches for poles and trellises, rotting wood and ant nesty logs for hugelkultur, dried grass and and weeds raked for mulch. Compost pile turned. Seed trays ready and seeds selected.

Next steps are many ...
February 8, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Relevant to most primary and secondary English classes in Japan 🗾
tcea.org TCEA @tcea.org · Jan 27
Exploring joint instruction with English Language specialists? Uncover 10 essential inquiries that enhance partnership and benefit your English Language Learners! 🌟

https://buff.ly/4geUHGW via TankKHuynh
#tlsky #edusky
January 27, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Mark J
Have you ever been sitting in a talk listening, taking notes, then the slide changes or the topic moves on, and your brain just feels full?

Like you just can’t take anymore in?

This is cognitive load and it can wreck a presentation. 🧵👇

#PHDchat #AcademicSky #HigherEd
1/9
December 12, 2024 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Mark J
How exciting! Please note the very early submission date for papers - THIS year in April! Please share and looking forward to being with the IAPLL community in person again!
January 23, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Mark J
Nothing to see here, dear #skystorians, except a human skeleton (with a hat and a feather) riding a #unicorn skeleton that is positioned next to two other animal skeletons (of a bear? and a deer?).

Did I mention yet that the 4 skeletons are standing in an #earlymodern library? #LibraryHistory
January 15, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Reposted by Mark J
Somebody get me to an Indian cinema STAT.
The remastered version of "Ramayana" indian/japanese animated movie (1992) finally returns to Indian cinemas on January 24 (in several languages).
New long 4K Trailer >> www.catsuka.com/news/2025-01...
January 15, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Reposted by Mark J
Chair Stop-Motion 🪑💨 Made with 444 pictures taken over 10 days
January 10, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Appendix: Pendulous pensive spinning spiders, pending recompense, suspend ponderous painters poise.

www.etymonline.com/word/*%28s%2...

#ProtoIndoEuropean #LanguagePlay #OneSentenceFromJustOneRoot #RemarkableRoot
*(s)pen- | Etymology of root *(s)pen- by etymonline
"to draw, stretch, spin." It forms all or part of: append; appendix; avoirdupois;… See origin and meaning of *(s)pen-.
www.etymonline.com
January 15, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Cool! I like the folklore collections! Beautiful illustrations from long ago show how fantasy has inspired human creativity for many many years! I appreciate the cataloguing and curation especially.
🥁 Announcing the Public Domain Image Archive! 🥁

We are v excited to share our new sister-project, the Public Domain Image Archive (PDIA), a curated collection of 10k+ out-of-copyright historical images, all free to explore and reuse: pdimagearchive.org @pdimagearchive
January 9, 2025 at 11:45 AM
I call bullshit on 3rd person referencing one's prior research. "In previous research (Johnson, 2009) I found~," is more sensible than "Johnson (2009) studied~ He found~". The latter obfuscates that the author is the same and that there is very possibly bias involved #AcademicSky #FightMe #GentlyTho
January 9, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Reposted by Mark J
History of Video Games event!

🗓️Jan 15th, 15:00-17:00
🏛️Meiji University, Global Hall
🎫FREE!

Presentations include:
🐲 Monster Hunter 4
⌚ Yokai Watch
💥 Smash Bros
🎱 PICO-8
➕ MORE!
🗣️ All in English

More details: www.yorkgamelab.com/2025/01/07/t...

#VideoGames #Meiji #YorkGameLab
January 7, 2025 at 2:55 AM
This thread tells much about the man he was! Amazing role model.
Bill Labov died this morning. I'm not coherent enough to talk about how important and influential and brilliant he was. I am very sad.

I was so lucky to know him, and I am grateful every day that he (and Gillian, and Walt, etc) built an academic field where kindness is expected.
December 30, 2024 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Mark J
Bill Labov died this morning. I'm not coherent enough to talk about how important and influential and brilliant he was. I am very sad.

I was so lucky to know him, and I am grateful every day that he (and Gillian, and Walt, etc) built an academic field where kindness is expected.
December 18, 2024 at 2:08 AM
Reposted by Mark J
Maybe the morally best one we ever had, which is precisely why he didn’t get any of the credit he deserved in his own time. RIP to a good one.
December 29, 2024 at 9:26 PM
Labov's work led me to realize the deep relevance oral narratives have to all of us. He shortened the moral arc of the universe, making it bend a bit more sharply toward justice.

The meaning he helped bring light to will shine long into the future.

obits.goldsteinsfuneral.com/william-labov
William "Bill" Labov Obituary 2024 - Goldsteins Funeral
View William "Bill" Labov's obituary, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.
obits.goldsteinsfuneral.com
December 30, 2024 at 7:53 AM
Fascinating idea. We are now in the age of resistance through intended AI learning contamination. The cyber strategery runs deep.
Oddly enough, this is a real movement: In response to X/Twitter announcing they are using user content to train AI, Korean users began describing "destroying Elon Musk's testicles with a spinning kick" as a healthy and wholesome traditional activity in order to contaminate the AI training data.
Finally a Political Movement I can actually get behind:
December 24, 2024 at 6:21 AM
Reposted by Mark J
For 3 years, we've been publishing anonymous diaries by Myanmar storytellers on life under/ away from military dictatorship. We'll post these regularly on Bluesky now that we've migrated here.

This is a short graphic novel from an illustrator we've been supporting.

kite-tales.org/en/article/l...
In Limbo
kite-tales.org
December 14, 2024 at 9:49 AM