UPDATE. Apparently something is wrong with the OU network: as of about 9AM on Sunday morning, I was not able to access any university websites from off campus (not even the main university website), and there's no news at Twitter from OU IT about what is happening. I'll update these announcements when I find out more!
10:15PM Update. I just got into D2L for the first time today, although I am guessing some of you may still be having trouble with D2L and/or email. Don't worry: we'll get everything all sorted out on Monday. Hopefully everybody will have access to D2L and OU email by Monday!
6:00PM Update. Wow. What a long outage. I am surprised that OU IT has no information to share with us about timeframe to restore services; you can follow OU IT at Twitter. Apparently some people can access OU email but I cannot. So, if you want to contact me, use laurakgibbs@gmail.com or tweet me: OnlineCrsLady or OnlineMythIndia — both work... unlike OU email, ha ha.
3:00PM Update. Still no D2L, still no email. IT has not provided any explanation or information about when things will be up. Feel free to email me directly at laurakgibbs@gmail.com. You can turn in your Storybook/Portfolio that way, and you can send me any Declaration you want to do so that I can record the points for you manually when I am able to get into D2L. If you are writing me from your non-OU email address, make sure to include your name so I know who you are. If you need me to send you past comments on Storybook/Portfolio, I can do that too; just let me know. My apologies for this big inconvenience!
1:25PM Update. I spoke too soon! Many sites still not functioning, but hopefully they will be soon. Still no D2L.
Today is Sunday of Week 14. The Week 14 blog commenting assignment, along with the Internet assignment and the Storybook/Portfolio assignment, are due today. So, if you have not finished those up already, now is the time! And if you missed them, here's a link to all the announcements so far this week (which extended over Thanksgiving break).
Class Procedures and Reminders
Week 14 and Week 15. Today is the last day of Week 14, so any remaining Week 14 assignments are due now, with the usual grace period on Monday, December 1. The schedule for Week 15 is compressed because of finals. Instead of lasting over the weekend, Week 15 will end at NOON on FRIDAY, December 5. So, please make sure you get your assignments all turned in by that time. Week 15 is a review week with no new reading; here are the Week 15 assignments if you are ready to work on those this weekend!
Storybook/Portfolio Stack. (repeat announcement) Some of you are still planning to turn in a Storybook assignment for Week 14. Please make sure you turn that in today or during the Monday morning grace period at the latest. Because of the compressed schedule for Week 15, there can be no late Week 15 Storybook/Portfolio assignments; you have to get that turned in this weekend or during the grace period so that I can get comments back to you in time to complete the Week 15 assignment. You can check the stack to make sure I received your assignment.
Finishing the class. (repeat announcement) You should now 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.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Fly to Paradise with the Virtual Choir. I thought you might enjoy thie video of Eric Whitacre's virtual choice, composed of thousands of voices singing together to tell a beautiful story: Fly to Paradise.
Mythology Words in English: Today's mythology word in English is CHIMERA. For details, see this blog post.
Featured Storybook: The Mermaid Diaries: Tales of the Sea. This mysterious collection of mermaid diaries contains some of the most dramatic and even tragic mermaid stories you could ever read.
FREE Kindle eBook: Stories from Virgil by Alfred Church. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book which is a prose retelling of Vergil's epic, The Aeneid.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Every man has in his heart a lion that sleeps (an Armenian proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. Sooner or later, though, the lion is bound to wake up!
Mahabharata Image: Today's Mahabharata image is Kamadhenu, the wish-granting cow.
November 30: Mark Twain. Today, November 30, marks the birthday of Mark Twain in the year 1835. As the author of Huckleberry Finn, Twain is one of the most important authors in the American literary tradition - and also one of the funniest. My favorite of Twain's books is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which you can read online here - with illustrations, too! The image below shows Twain accepting an honorary degree at Oxford University in 1907:
Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed, and you can check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day.
