Scriveners' Trappings

Date: 15–16 June 2013

Venue: Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, USA

Preliminary Congress Program

The second international Global Future 2045 congress will take place on 15-16 June 2013 at the Lincoln Center in New York, and will be focused on discussion of a new evolutionary strategy for humanity aimed at overcoming the 21st century’s civilization challenges. The strategy is based on carrying out two revolutions: spiritual and sci-tech. We believe this is the only way to overcome existing crises.

At the congress, a vision will be presented for the spiritual transformation of humanity, and new technologies will be demonstrated which are likely to form the basis of the sci-tech revolution. The congress will also showcase our Avatar science mega-project, aimed at accelerating the creation of technologies enabling a gradual transition from our biological bodies to an increasingly advanced artificial carrier of the human self.

10 great student blogs to inspire students and schools to start blogging. Use blogging to build ongoing writing, design and technology skills!

Description by Karen Fraker

"Laura Bates shares ten exemplary student blogs to guide and inspire new student bloggers."

From the website

"Narrative Arc and the prototypical “Plot Diagram” are key learning tools for building literature comprehension and appreciation. Plot diagrams allowsstudents to pick out major themes in the text, track changes to major characters over the course of the narrative, and hone their understanding of literary structure, meeting many Common Core Standards for English Language Arts (CCSS.ELA-Literacy). In addition, these concepts give students a fuller understanding of classroom texts as well as stories present in their favorite books and movies. Below is the basic structure of a plot diagram."

Randy Astle:  "Transmedia by definition requires producers to work in more than one medium; the fun, most of the time, is in devising ways to carry a narrative (or narrative world) across different platforms" ...

By Maria Popova

"Manners today are often seen as a quaint subject that belongs in Lord Chesterfield’s outlandish advice on the art of pleasing or Esquire‘s dated guide to dating. But in a culture where we regularly do online what we’d never do in person and behave offline in ways our grandparents wouldn’t have dared dream of even in their most defiant fantasies, there’s something to be said for the lost art of, if not “manners,” politeness and simple respect in communication. Though originally published in 1866, Martine’s Hand-book of Etiquette, and Guide to True Politeness(public library; public domain; free Kindle download) by Arthur Martine contains a treasure trove of timeless — and increasingly timely — pointers on the necessary art of living up to our social-animal destiny."

By Lauren Barack

"Most games feature some simplistic narrative, such as rescuing a commando force from enemy fire. But writing narrative code as an English assignment—as opposed to writing code to create a narrative game—not only allows greater creativity in the game design process, but also enhances writing skills and text comprehension in a different genre—an aspect of the new Common Core State Standards.

“What Jason is doing is giving them more tools to create games as producers and not just as consumers,” says Paul Oh, senior program associate for the National Writing Project (NWP). “They’re being given the opportunity to understand the narrative of the game and how to construct their own narrative.”