Monday, October 25

Today is Monday. Week 9 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 10 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get a head start!

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 8 a.m. or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and reply to the assignments in the order they were turned in.

Extra credit. For those of you who would like to finish the class early so that you have more time available for your finals and end-of-semester projects in other classes, you can work ahead AND you can take advantage of the extra credit! If you can do all the various extra credit options each week for the next few weeks, it will allow you to skip a week or two of this class and finish up early. We have a full week off for Thanksgiving Break in this class (November 19-November 28), and it is entirely possible to finish up by Thanksgiving (Fall 2010 calendar). For those of you who have big end-of-semester projects or really difficult final exams, I would highly recommend doing extra credit in this class and working ahead so that you can finish up early and concentrate on the end-of-semester demands in your other classes.

Microsoft Updates and Anti-Virus Software. Every semester, I hear from students who have run into serious problems with viruses on their computers. Although it really does not affect your work for this class (since the work you do here is browser-based), it can be a big problem to have your personal computer out of commission. If you use Windows as your computer operating system, and especially if you use Internet Explorer as your browser, it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that you update your Windows operating system with the latest security updates at the WindowsUpdate.Microsoft.com website. In addition, OU IT makes anti-virus software available to you FOR FREE. Just log on to the IT Store at ITStore.ou.edu, and after you log on, click on this Symantec Anti-Virus Software link to download and install the software for free. For additional help or if you have questions, call IT at 325-HELP.