Class Procedures and Reminders:
WEEK 14 STORYBOOK: If you are turning in a Week 14 Storybook assignment, you need to do that on time - that is, by noon today, Monday. You cannot turn in a late Storybook assignment for Week 14. If you do not get your Storybook turned in by noon on Monday, you can turn it in instead as your Week 15 assignment - but if you want to turn in BOTH a Week 14 AND a Week 15 assignment, make sure you get the Week 14 assignment in on time, by noon Monday at the latest. You can see the Storybook assignments that I have in the stack here. See the announcement below for more information about the Week 15 schedule.
Week 15 schedule. (repeat announcement) The schedule for Week 15 is compressed because of finals. Instead of lasting for the whole week and the weekend, Week 15 will end at NOON on FRIDAY, December 6. So, please make sure you get your assignments all turned in by that time. All the Week 15 assignments are available at this time, with the exception of the Responding assignment.
Finishing the class. (repeat announcement) For those of you who are not done with the class yet, I hope you have a specific plan in place for the assignments that you will complete in order to get the points you need, and I would urge you not to put any of those assignments off until the last minute. As you reach the points you need for your final grade in this class - 410 points for an A, 360 points for a B, 320 points for a C - let me know, and I'll record the letter grade for you there in the Desire2Learn Gradebook.
Featured Resource: To Persuade People, Tell Them a Story. This wonderful little article in the Wall Street Journal advocates storytelling... NOT Powerpoint!
Featured Storybook: Indian Horror Story: The Lingering Souls. Hoang's Storybook from this semester re-imagines stories from the Indian epics taking place in a haunted house presided over by Yama, the god of death. Intense!
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is The darkest hour is just before the dawn (an English proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. This is a metaphor of light and darkness that can apply to many situations in life!
Mahabharata Image: Today's Mahabharata image is Ganesha and Saraswati. Saraswati is the goddess of learning and wisdom; she rides a peacock, as you can see.
Monday Event on Campus: You can get free Blue Books in the Union first floor lobby from 11:30AM - 12:30PM, courtesy of the Union Programming Board (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
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 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 the image below:
Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.
