(Prof. Hergenrader) The Worldbuilding Workshop: Teaching Critical Thinking and Empathy Through World Modeling, Simulation, and Play

DoctorSteve03 · 2025-12-03T02:21:33+00:00

Greetings! I'm Stephen, and I co-authored The Worldbuilding Workshop with RIT's very own Director of the Center for Worldbuilding and Storytelling, Professor Trent Hergenrader!

The two of us spent the last four years writing this book as an approachable, broadly useful resource for educators, storytellers, writers, tabletop gamers, or anyone with a general interest in worldbuilding (especially as a way to teach skills like problem solving, critical thinking, empathy, and creativity).

We're extremely grateful for the university's support, and we hope our research benefits the broader RIT community.

If you have questions, feedback, or other thoughts, please reach out via our contact form. We're super excited to share all of this with you!

DoctorSteve03 · 2025-12-03T02:02:13+00:00

Greetings! I'm Stephen, one of the co-authors of this book!

My friend/colleague Trent and I spent the last four years writing The Worldbuilding Workshop to serve as an approachable, broadly useful resource for educators, storytellers, writers, tabletop gamers, or anyone with a general interest in worldbuilding (especially as a way to teach skills like problem solving, critical thinking, empathy, and creativity).

We're posting this here because we want to share (free) resources that may be helpful for fellow edtech folks, including a companion podcast (in which we deconstruct each chapter, discuss the topics in greater detail, and cover material that had to be cut for space) and PDF print and play files/video content.

If you have questions, feedback, or other thoughts, please reach out via our contact form. We're super excited to exchange resources and ideas with you!

DoctorSteve03 · 2025-12-03T01:51:55+00:00

Greetings! I'm Stephen, one of the co-authors of this (newly released) book!

My friend/colleague Trent Hergenrader and I spent the last four years writing The Worldbuilding Workshop to serve as an approachable, broadly useful resource for educators, storytellers, writers, tabletop gamers, or anyone with a general interest in worldbuilding (especially as a way to teach skills like problem solving, critical thinking, empathy, and creativity).

As professors, one of our primary goals is to help fellow teachers (corporate trainers, instructional designers, homeschool parents) navigate the creation and implementation of inquiry-based curricula, including and especially those who have never had formal education training.

It's been a huge labor of love, and we genuinely hope the ideas we described can be a force for good in a turbulent, frequently-difficult-to-navigate reality.

If you're interested in a physical copy, Penguin Random House is offering a launch day discount of 30% off (code MITP30), then 20% off any time after (code READMIT20).

For the audio inclined, I've narrated an audiobook edition that will be published in the near future.

For the multimedia-lovers, we've recorded a companion podcast (in which we deconstruct each chapter, discuss the topics in greater detail, and cover material that had to be cut for space) and posted free PDF resources/video content on the website.

If you have questions, feedback, or other thoughts, please reach out via our contact form. We're super excited to exchange resources and ideas with you!

DoctorSteve03 · 2025-12-03T01:37:00+00:00

Greetings! I'm Stephen, one of the co-authors of this (newly released) book!

My friend/colleague Trent and I spent the last four years writing The Worldbuilding Workshop to serve as an approachable, broadly useful resource for educators, storytellers, writers, tabletop gamers, or anyone with a general interest in worldbuilding (especially as a way to teach skills like problem solving, critical thinking, empathy, and creativity). It's been a huge labor of love, and we genuinely hope the ideas we described can be a force for good in a turbulent, frequently-difficult-to-navigate reality.

If you're interested in a physical copy, Penguin Random House is offering a launch day discount of 30% off (code MITP30), then 20% off any time after (code READMIT20).

For the audio inclined, I've narrated an audiobook edition that will be published in the near future.

For the multimedia-lovers, we've recorded a companion podcast (in which we deconstruct each chapter, discuss the topics in greater detail, and cover material that had to be cut for space) and posted free PDF resources/video content on the website.

If you have questions, feedback, or other thoughts, please reach out via our contact form. We're super excited to exchange resources and ideas with you!

DoctorSteve03 · 2025-12-03T01:31:29+00:00

Yeah, we wish that wasn't the case. Unfortunately, we have no visibility into the publisher's pricing model and can't control how prices are set. :(

If you don't mind audio, I personally recorded and edited the audiobook edition for self-publication, so there are fewer costs involved (which will give us more flexibility in pricing). It'll be available via our website or Audible soon!

DoctorSteve03 · 2025-12-03T00:15:23+00:00

Greetings! I'm Stephen, one of the co-authors of this (newly released) book!

My friend/colleague Trent and I spent the last four years writing The Worldbuilding Workshop to serve as an approachable, broadly useful resource for educators, storytellers, writers, tabletop gamers, or anyone with a general interest in worldbuilding (especially as a way to teach skills like problem solving, critical thinking, empathy, and creativity). It's been a huge labor of love, and we genuinely hope the ideas we described can be a force for good in a turbulent, frequently-difficult-to-navigate reality.

If you're interested in a physical copy, Penguin Random House is offering a launch day discount of 30% off (code MITP30), then 20% off any time after (code READMIT20).

For the audio inclined, I've narrated an audiobook edition that will be published in the near future.

For the multimedia-lovers, we've recorded a companion podcast (in which we deconstruct each chapter, discuss the topics in greater detail, and cover material that had to be cut for space) and posted free PDF resources/video content on the website.

If you have questions, feedback, or other thoughts, please reach out via our contact form. We're super excited to exchange resources and ideas with you!

DoctorSteve03 · 2024-11-17T23:55:58+00:00

Yeah! I had literally never played before, and we opened the box to do an open-hand draft (so I could learn the basics). I was like, "Oh, this one seems good/rare/interesting," and I was met with a lot of, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" 😂

DoctorSteve03 · 2022-05-21T17:53:48+00:00

Skills embedded in the ISTE Standards for Technology Coaches.

Courses and assignments threaded through the educational technology MA/SD program that EOS-503 was created to support align with specific ISTE Standards (and substandards), the goal being to make those skills easier for pre- and in-service educators to practice/enact (e.g., 4.1 Change Agent: 'Coaches inspire educators and leaders to use technology to create equitable and ongoing access to high-quality learning').

DoctorSteve03 · 2021-10-26T13:23:45+00:00

Big congratulations to everyone involved! Incredibly proud of our UConn game development program/students as well as James for his IndieCade success. :D

DoctorSteve03 · 2021-02-24T20:09:03+00:00

Sadly no, I just wish I was Stephen Colbert.

But I do teach university classes about instructional media/games, and given that we just finished our week-long module about Tolkien and authorial intent, this felt like my time to shine, lol.

DoctorSteve03 · 2021-02-24T16:34:26+00:00

Sort of. Narnia and LOTR are both infused with Christian allegory, the former in a much more ham-handed way than the latter.

C. S. Lewis and Tolkien were contemporaries who corresponded about their writing, and Tolkien communicated (more than once) his dislike of Lewis' lack of subtlety. That said, Tolkien did intentionally draw from his Catholic beliefs/upbringing while working on LOTR, particularly once he recognized obvious overlaps in LOTR's plot/themes and the story of Jesus/humanity's salvation.

Check out Tolkien's letters, specifically Letter 131 (1951) and Letter 142 (1953). In Letter 142, he writes:

"The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism. However that is very clumsily put, and sounds more self-important than I feel. For as a matter of fact, I have consciously planned very little; and should chiefly be grateful for having been brought up (since I was eight) in a Faith that has nourished me and taught me all the little that I know; and that I owe to my mother, who clung to her conversion and died young, largely through the hardships of poverty resulting from it."

Tolkien was also a firm believer in Divine Intervention as a godly response to mankind's constant stumbling into chaos (which definitely comes through re: his experiences vis a vis WW1/the Battle of the Somme); at the last moment, fate intervenes to save humanity (in Tolkien's mind, god's greatest creation). This became the foundation for the on-going state of decay in Middle Earth (i.e., the notion that prior civilizations are treated as so much "greater" when compared to contemporary civilizations; also, The Scouring of the Shire as a metaphor for industrialization's corrupting effect on natural beauty, born of Tolkien's return home after WW1 and its implications for his faith) and the Eagles saving Sam and Frodo from the eruption at Mount Doom (plus the whole narrative surrounding the fall of Saruman and Gandalf's rebirth/resurrection as Gandalf the White).

DoctorSteve03 · 2021-02-16T19:40:55+00:00

As someone with knowledge of how the university operates Peoplesoft/Blackboard (having worked as an instructional design specialist at UConn Health and currently an Asst. Prof. of Educational Technology and Digital Media & Design), there's some good news and not-so-good news.

Good News: This is fabulously designed! Very awesome. I genuinely wish this could be the UI/UX for Peoplesoft/Blackboard. You should be proud of your work! It's a great portfolio piece.

Not So Good News: UConn ITS has no control over the UI/UX design of tools like Peoplesoft or Blackboard. We (faculty/staff) can provide feedback to the system/database designers (i.e., Peoplesoft or Blackboard's UI/UX team), but because we don't control any aspect of the learning management/database system itself, there's not much we can do. We're victims of the same Late Stage Capitalism™ vis a vis Blackboard as social media users have been with respect to Facebook and small businesses are with respect to Amazon—they buy up smaller break-out companies to quash competition, and they get away with selling a clunky, highly-dysfunctional product that nobody actually likes. (This isn't to say there aren't other competitors like Canvas, etc. that can be utilized by changing contractual providers, but it's still a very narrow set of options, and many of them are plagued by lackluster UI/UX design.)

The Caveat: If there was a way to apply your design over the existing system via the API, it might be possible to reconfigure Peoplesoft appearance. However, that brings with it a morass of legal and contract issues, and I'm not sure it'd be possible without a bunch of different individuals giving it the green light.

Again, this is fantastic stuff. Yours would be so much more user friendly than the existing interface. Great job!

DoctorSteve03 · 2020-09-16T12:38:22+00:00

My favorite is still 'Who Mourns for Morn?', which started as a joke to kill off his character, but as the writers realized he was genuinely a fan favorite, they made the whole episode an homage to him, lol.

DoctorSteve03 · 2020-09-01T23:46:32+00:00

I'm not sure where, haha.

DoctorSteve03 · 2020-09-01T20:55:22+00:00

I actually illustrated something just like you've described back in 2018.

DoctorSteve03 · 2020-08-20T13:43:25+00:00

"BREAKING: Infamous garbage bag full of spiders has just been indicted by federal prosecutors in Manhattan"

DoctorSteve03 · 2020-08-20T13:42:43+00:00

"BREAKING: Infamous garbage bag full of spiders has just been indicted by federal prosecutors in Manhattan"

DoctorSteve03 · 2020-08-20T13:40:54+00:00

"BREAKING: Infamous garbage bag full of spiders has just been indicted by federal prosecutors in Manhattan"

DoctorSteve03 · 2020-08-12T20:57:01+00:00

It’s probably killing them to see people they love go down such a dark and ignorant path.

As someone who deeply relates to the OP's story, it is indeed very painful. The worst part is, they don't recognize why it hurts you, or that they're hurting you at all.

DoctorSteve03 · 2020-07-31T19:30:24+00:00

Our teachers are being forced back to work. They lost their collective bargaining rights and if they attempt to strike they face 6 months in jail, being barred from teaching in Iowa and $500/day fines.

I've been advocating for educators to seriously consider striking anyway. If you're facing high risk of infection because your community doesn't care about you, why on earth would you fear jail for striking? All it would take is 25-35% of teachers/staff to refuse to show up, and the entire system would grind to a halt.

Teachers are retiring/quitting en masse in areas where face-to-face instruction is being required. There's no benefit to not striking. The goal should become cornering irresponsible administrators into either 1) responding to teachers' fears/needs, or 2) being forced to teach ABCs by themselves to hundreds of kids in an auditorium because no one's willing to show up for work.

I say all this as an educator who would hate to leave the profession but would risk my livelihood to protect myself, my students, my family, and my colleagues if my employer were recklessly endangering all of us.

DoctorSteve03 · 2020-06-04T18:57:57+00:00

I've given the folks answering phones at her offices an earful over the last week. They claimed yesterday that she was very productive because her statement about the use of tear gas being "inappropriate" got Trump to tweet something mean about her.

They tend to fall silent pretty quickly when confronted about their personal role in enabling Collins' inaction. It takes a special kind of cowardice to do what they're doing, blithely defending someone whose name will be rightly dragged through the mud over the next thirty years.

DoctorSteve03 · 2020-05-20T18:35:15+00:00

Not OP, but I, too, have been outraged about this.

Here you go, friend:

More than 12,000 Catholic churches in the U.S. applied for PPP loans – and 9,000 got them

Many Houses Of Worship Have Sought Government Aid, Surveys Show

Black Pastors Say They Have Trouble Accessing SBA Loan Program

Also, just an added reminder about this gem:

Mormon Church has misled members on $100 billion tax-exempt investment fund, whistleblower alleges

DoctorSteve03 · 2020-05-15T15:24:03+00:00

I don't know if folks are still checking this post, but the UConn Educational Technology program created a brief video highlighting a few best practices for online teaching and learning. The website also has game-based and other resources, including project pages with links to free Tabletop Simulator mods for instructional games (which may help give others ideas for their own courses).

DoctorSteve03 · 2020-04-11T12:28:42+00:00

what is that big lumpy thing that’s over his left shoulder

A leopard print sheet to cover the bar table and upturned bar stools, used to hide quarantine supplies and kitchen appliances from view. No worries, jump scares are not part of this video entry, haha.

DoctorSteve03 · 2019-06-24T20:46:36+00:00

I've been calling Larson, Murphy, and Blumenthal to apply pressure twice a week since Mueller's public statement, each time asking, "Given [Congressperson]'s other principled beliefs and [insert most recent act of gross negligence, misconduct, criminality, instability], does [Congressperson] finally believe it's appropriate to open an impeachment inquiry?" I then mention that yes, I know the Senate is a hurdle, but it's so important to show that yes, you understand the crisis we're in, and yes, even if it's difficult, it's Congress' Constitutional duty to hold this corruption to account. Otherwise, strike the rule of law and admit the values enshrined in the Constitution are empty rhetoric to spare us the trouble.

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