Friday, December 5 - Sunday December 7

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 14! The Week 14 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 14 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon.

Storybook ballot results! You can see the results here on the ballot pages: World Literature, MythFolklore, and Indian Epics. Thanks to all of you who took the time to cast your ballot, and congratulations to the winners, to all the nominees, and to EVERYBODY who learned how to make your own website this semester: I hope that is a skill that will turn out to be useful to you in the future! :-)

SUNDAY DEADLINE: Course evaluation at eval.ou.edu. You all should have received an email from the College of Arts & Sciences about the course evaluations for all the online courses available at the eval.ou.edu website. Your feedback is incredibly helpful to me in making improvements to these courses, and it is also a big help to the College in general as they continue to develop the online course program. This Sunday night, at midnight, is the deadline to complete the course evaluation. For more details, check the email you received from the College (subject line: "Fall 2008 Course and Instructor Evaluations").

Storybook stack. As of Friday at noon, I had read and replied to all the Storybook assignments that had been turned in! I will be updating the contents of the stack on Monday, which is when I will start reading and replying to assignments turned in on Friday afternoon and over the weekend.

SATURDAY-SUNDAY: JOYEUX NOEL. Twice this weekend - on Saturday at 4PM and again on Sunday at 2PM, there will be a free screening in Meacham Auditorium of the film Joyeux Noel. This is a truly AMAZING film about a "Christmas truce" spontaneously declared by troops in the trenches during World War I - and it is one of the best films I have seen in the past few years. You can read more about the film at Wikipedia and in this OUDaily article (which bizarrely does not list date and time; I had to find that out at the Union website...). If you are looking for something to see this weekend, I can highly recommend it!

Indian Epics Book Exchange

This is a place where those of you who have Indian Epics books you want to sell to next semester's students can list your books, the price you will see them for, and your contact information. To do that, just LEAVE a comment at this blog post; make sure you include information about which book(s) you are selling, your preferred price AND your contact information. You might also mention just when you will have the books available for pick-up, whether you live in Norman to do that, etc.

Then, if/when you sell your books, remember to come back here and delete your comment (or you can contact me directly and I will delete the comment for you if you are not sure how to do that).

Thursday, December 4

Today is Thursday of WEEK 14 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 13 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore or World Lit, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday. (Indian Epics has no Wednesday assignments, so there is no Thursday morning grace period.)

Storybook Ballots: FINAL DAY. Today, Thursday, is your last chance to vote for your favorite Storybooks. Just like every semester, because all the Storybooks are so good, the votes are VERY close - so, if you haven't voted yet, please take a minute to do that: your vote could make the difference. You can see the nominees here for World Literature, MythFolklore, and Indian Epics. The Ballot is available until midnight tonight, and I'll announce the results on Friday.

Storybook stack. The Storybook stack is still pretty big, and I have been trying to keep up with the folks who needed their Storybook points to finish up the class. If that is your situation, please let me know. I plan to get through all the rest of the items in the stack on Thursday; meanwhile, you can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If you are turning in a late Week 13 Storybook assignment, remember that the final chance to do that for partial credit will be on Friday at noon.

Desire2Learn: Friday morning outage. There will be a scheduled maintenance outage on Friday, from 7AM to 8AM. Since you do not have any assignments due on Friday, this should not be a problem - but if you have gotten in the habit of using the Friday morning grace period, you should be aware that Desire2Learn will be unavailable from 7AM to 8AM. Normally, IT is very good about getting the system up and running at the scheduled time, but if there are delays, you can check the alerts.ou.edu website for the latest information.

December 4: Omar Khayyam. Today marks the death in the year 1122 of the great Persian poet and scholar, Omar Khayyam. He is best known today for his collection of poems called the "Rubaiyat" (quatrains), but in his day he was renowned as a mathematician and also as an astronomer. Here is one of the quatrains in the famous translation by Edward FitzGerald:

With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand labour'd it to grow:
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd -
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."

You can read more about Omar Khayyam's remarkable life and career in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image of Omar Khayam's tomb in Neishapur, Iran.

Wednesday, December 3

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 14 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 13 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

My Wednesday schedule. I'm on my usual schedule this week, doing most of my work during regular business hours on Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday, while scheduling my out-of-office commitments on Wednesdays. That means I may be a bit more slow to respond to your emails on Wednesday than on the other days of the week - but if you send me an email during the day on Wednesday, I'll definitely get back to you by the end of the day.

Storybook stack. The Storybook stack is still pretty big, but I made a lot of progress on Tuesday! I've been working through the assignments with a focus on those people whose Storybook assignment points will allow them to finish up the class - so if you find yourself in that situation, let me know and I'll move your assignment(s) up to the top of the stack. This week I get kind of overwhelmed by all the assignments that are coming in, so please be patient and I'll be sure to get comments back to everybody by the end of the week - meanwhile, you can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment.

Storybook Ballots. For more information about the Storybook Ballots in World Literature, MythFolklore, and Indian Epics, see yesterday's announcements. The Ballot is available today, Wednesday, and on Thursday. I'll announce the results on Friday.

Course evaluation at eval.ou.edu. You all should have received an email from the College of Arts & Sciences about the course evaluations for all the online courses available at the eval.ou.edu website. For more information about this, see yesterday's announcements.

December 3: International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The United Nations has declared December 3 to mark the observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities - the theme for 2008 is: "Dignity and justice for all of us" (you can also read about the themes for this day of observance over the past 10 years). You can learn more about the disability rights movement in this wikipedia article, which also lists additional resources.

Tuesday, December 2

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 14 of the class. For those of you who are working ahead, Week 15 is also available! If you have not turned in your Week 13 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Storybook Ballots. I've tallied up the nominations that people turned in (thanks to everybody who participated in that part of the process!), and you can see the top nominations for each class here: World Literature, MythFolklore, and Indian Epics. For each class, you will find the actual ballot for voting in Desire2Learn at the top of the quiz list. This is just for fun - not for points or a grade or anything. If you have a few minutes to spare, please vote for your own personal favorites! The ballot will be available till midnight on Thursday and I'll announce the results Friday.

Course evaluation at eval.ou.edu. You all should have received an email from the College of Arts & Sciences about the course evaluations for all the online courses available at the eval.ou.edu website. I hope you will take a few minutes to complete the evaluation - your feedback is incredibly helpful to me in making improvements to these courses, and it is also a big help to the College in general as they continue to develop the online course program. The online course program exists because students find it valuable to be able to take courses online, and any ideas you have for how the program can be improved will be very useful to the College as they continue (hopefully!) to offer these online courses.

Storybook stack. The Storybook stack is still FULL of assignments. I've been working through the assignments with a focus on those people whose Storybook assignment points will allow them to finish up the class - so if you find yourself in that situation, let me know and I'll move your assignment(s) up to the top of the stack. This week I get kind of overwhelmed by all the assignments that are coming in, so please be patient and I'll be sure to get comments back to everybody by the end of the week - meanwhile, you can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment.

December 2: Ivan Illich. Today, December 2, marks the anniversary of the death in 2002 of the visionary educator, Ivan Illich. Already back in the 1970s, Illich realized that the personal networks made possible by digital computing could completely change the face of education, so that education could be centered on the learners themselves, rather than forcing learners to conform to the regime of the school (I hope that you can see from the format of my classes that I would love to see a world of learning but without any schools at all...). I still keep hoping that Illich's vision of "educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment of his living into one of learning, sharing, and caring" will someday come true. You can find out more about Ivan Illich's life and work in this wikipedia article, which is also the source of this image:

Monday, December 1

Today is Monday, and I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving break! Week 13 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Week 14 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. The Week 15 assignments are also available now, too!

Storybook stack. As you can imagine, the Storybook stack is HUGE because of all the people who took advantage of the week-long break in order to work ahead on their Storybook, in addition to the Week 13 assignment that was due. I've updated the contents of the stack, and I will begin working my way through the stack based on the order in which things were turned in - but it is definitely going to take me a while to work through the stack, so please be patient! You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment.

Week 14 Internet assignment. For the Week 14 Internet assignment, you'll be doing an online course evaluation of this class, just as you do course evaluations using the "bubble forms" in your regular classroom classes. The online evaluation will take place at the eval.ou.edu website, but the Spring evaluations are not available yet. I'll be sure to let you know as soon as the evaluation is available and you should also be receiving an email directly from the College of Arts & Sciences with specific information about how to log on and complete the evaluation form.

December: Latin Christmas Carols. As one of my Latin hobbies, I collect Christmas carols and holiday songs in Latin, and I've got a special blog - Gaudium-Mundo.blogspot.com - where you can find a different Latin Christmas carol or holiday song for each day of the month of December... beginning with Rudolphus on December 1 (with no less than FIVE, count 'em, FIVE different versions of Rudolphus in Latin!). So, if you have taken Latin or are taking Latin now, you might want to check out the Gaudium-Mundo blog for a Classical Christmas! If you are interested in Rudolph in particular, here's the page about Rudolphus rubrinasus.

(image source)

Fall 2009: Storybook Ballot

Here are the results of the nominations - and thanks to all of you who shared your input! As you can imagine, with so many great Storybooks to choose from, the nominations were all over the place. I sorted out the most frequently nominated Storybooks to place on this ballot, and you can cast your vote for the Storybooks in your class at Desire2Learn (look in Week 14) between now and Thursday, December 3, at 5PM. I'll announce the results in the Friday announcements!

Meanwhile, I hope you might even want to take a few minutes to look at some of the top-nominated Storybooks in the other classes too. It's so exciting to see the wonderful new projects people come up with each and every semester! :-)

Myth-Folklore

Best Overall Storybook
Cassie - Fairy Tales in the City
Stephen - Mysterious Rock Star Deaths

Best Written Storybook
Dori - Oklahoma Ghost Stories
Kathleen - Heroes of the United Kingdom

Most Creative Storytelling Style
PJ - Italian Fairy Tale Gossip
Shannon - Fairy Tale Villains Today

Best Storybook Design Overall
Kelcey - Looking Back to Wonderland
Kerry - Cailleach: Scottish Goddess

Best Storybook Topic
Steven - Medal of Honor: WWII Heroes
Wes - One Man's Misery: Dating Disasters


Indian Epics

Best Overall Storybook
Jeff - Secret Journal of Thomas Hobbes
Lynette - Age of Innocence: Mother's Stories

Best Written Storybook
Bruce - Vishnu and His Avatars
Nate - Loyal Retainers: Campfire Tales

Most Creative Storytelling Style
Jesus - Hanuman and Detective Avila
Lindsay - Love is in the Hair

Best Storybook Design Overall
Megan Hose - Ganges Gazette: Birth Stories
Sarah Wiley - Ravana's Secrets


World Literature

Best Overall Storybook
Crystal - Modern-Day Saints
Heather - Celtic Chronicles: Inside Ireland

Best Written Storybook
Ashley - Boundless Love: Cupid & Psyche
Hjorny - Mother Goose: Behind Closed Doors

Most Creative Storytelling Style
Anna - Brothers Grimm for a Modern Age
Sarah - Dragons in Gypsy Tales