Class Procedures and Reminders
Call me Laura. As you've seen, I just sign my emails as Laura, and I hope you will feel comfortable being on a first-name basis. I'm not a professor (my official title is "lecturer" ... even though I don't ever lecture!), and I really feel like we are all just learning together (writing together, blogging together, etc.), so first names are good with me!
Blog network. Thanks to everybody who got their blogs started yesterday! The blog stream is very lively now, full of new posts. There's a "blog stream" link in the Canvas left-hand navigation menu, so you can take a look and see what people are posting. Then, starting in Week 2, you'll be commenting on each other's blog posts too!
My comments. My goal this week is to comment on all the favorite places posts, and also to comment on as many of the Introduction posts as I can. I really enjoy getting to know everybody, and I hope these Orientation week posts will help you feel confident about blogging and ready for next week's assignments.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Blogging for Learning. This graphic does a very nice job of describing the role blogs can play in learning; find out more at Langwitches.
Story of the Day. Today's story is about a debate between two birds in an Aesop's fable: The Crane and the Peacock. The peacock may be beautiful, but it is the crane who soars higher.
Video: The video for today is about the India-Pakistan Partition of 70 years ago; it's a beautiful story in the form of an ad for Google Search: Reunion. You can find out more about this ad campaign and how the video went viral at Wikipedia.
Event on Campus: Look for HASA and Aguas Frescas on the South Oval today at 10AM (details). Find out more about campus events at the Campus Calendar online.
Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day, or click here for past announcements.