Update: The Week 1 Blog Commenting groups are set up and ready to go!
Class Procedures and Reminders
Comments. Now that everybody has a blog, I'll be setting up the first week's blog commenting groups today! So, that will be ready for you by 5PM at the latest today, and you have this evening, Friday, or the weekend to visit the blogs and leave your comments. The blogs are a fun way to get to know people in the class and to see their approaches to storytelling, which is also a good way to expand your own range of storytelling strategies.
Blog Posts. Blog posts are very different from printed documents that you write with a word processor like Word. So, please check on these items as you write your posts, and if there is anything you are not sure about, just ask!
- LINKS. Make sure you use link text instead of pasting in the raw http address. Here's how to make the links in Blogger: Creating Links.
- IMAGES. You need to upload the image instead of using remote linking or copying and pasting. You can find out more here: Uploading Images for a Post.
- IMAGE INFORMATION. Each image should have image information, which means a descriptive caption and source information: Citing Image Information.
- BIBLIOGRAPHY. For blog posts, the bibliography is simple. Don't try to use an automatic generator; just write the basic information and create the link yourself: Web Bibliography.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Quick Start Guide for Learning Online. You will find some useful tips here for time-management, project-management, and self-management, and those tips apply to all kinds of classes, not just online.
Words to Watch: Today's words to watch out for are DESERT and DESSERT. For details, see this blog post.
Free Book Online: The Fairy Mythology by Thomas Keightley. This blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book: it focuses on fairies from the Germanic and Celtic traditions, but it also includes fairy traditions from all around the world.
India Comic Book: Saraswati: Stories of the Goddess of Wisdom. This blog post provides additional information about the comic book which is on Reserve in Bizzell Library. You will find several stories here: The Birth of Saraswati, Saraswati Becomes a River, and River of Blood.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Those who can read and write have four eyes (an Albanian proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. As a fan of both reading and writing, I am naturally a fan of this proverb!
Today's Video: India is Not Chaotic. Those of you in the Indian Epics class may be reading books by Devdutt Pattanaik later in the semester, and I thought this TED talk might be of interest to people in Myth-Folklore also because Pattanaik is a scholar of mythology in general. He is a wonderful writer, and he is a captivating speaker too. You can see the video at YouTube:
Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat says, I love a challenge! Details at the blog — and you'll be finding out more about this whole growth mindset thing as you wrap up this week's assignments!
Event on Campus: It's International Student Game Night" in the Boren Lounge of Hester Hall, 6PM-8PM (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
August 27: Leon Theremin. Today marks the birthday of Leon Theremin, who was born in 1896; he died in 1993. He was the inventor of the Theremin, a remarkable electronic musical instrument. You can read about Leon Theremin at Wikipedia, and if you ever get a chance to see this documentary about Theremin's truly bizarre life, I highly recommend it: Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey. This YouTube video shows Theremin playing his instrument. Even if you have never heard about Theremin the person, I"m sure you will recognize the distinctive sound of Theremin the musical instrument.
Note: You can page back through the 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.
