Alive and well and swamped

In case anyone noticed, I have been a little more absent than usual lately. Call it the last minute push to get ready for the semester, teaching courses I have taught before but with materials that were brand new to me. Then imagine, the day before classes are to start, discovering you have to scrap most of that and start all over again. That has been the story of the last couple weeks of my life.

I will be back once I am more than a couple days ahead of the students!

Writely is open again!

Thanks to a post over at Assorted Stuff, I learned that Writely is open for new users again. A quick glance at it didn't show up anything that looked different from its pre-Google days. If you haven't' checked Writely out before, now would be a good time!

Fall, 2006

At the present time I am not planning to have my students blog this semester. I have mixed feelings about it. I think it would be cool to have a successful blogging project with my students, but I don't know that I have really had one.

I know a lot of it is that I never quite got the blogging assignments right. For this semester I think I have decent assignments. One is even "stolen" from The Year of the Hangman Book Blog. So why not do it as a blog myself? I don't know.

This semester I am focusing on using Moodle more. What would have been blog assignments will be discussion forum assignments. I hope that once my students become more accustomed to writing online on a regular basis and get the idea of commenting on each others' posts to the forum, they will have an easier transition to blogging. I also want them to take their online writing more seriously and do a better job of it.

Am I giving up too soon? Making excuses? Making a mistake?

I think that I am in some ways. And I am disappointed in myself.

Switching to Ubuntu

My husband has used Linux for a number of years and Ubuntu for the last couple. I have always said I wanted to do the same, but there was always some restriction on that -- like, I'll do it when the warranty on my computer runs out or when the semester is over or something. Well, I finally took the leap last weekend. Actually, I am dual booting Ubuntu and Windows until I get my wireless card working in Ubuntu. (I have one of those cards that doesn't like to work with Linux, but many people have gotten it to work, so it is just a question of time before I get it going.)

So what? Why post about this at all? This morning I was reading Miguel Guhlin's blog this morning and came across this post. Richard Stallman's comment, which forms the basis of Miguel's post, really made me think.

I have a long way to go before I reach that level of putting my money where my mouth is, I'm afraid. These little reminders are good for me!

Remember Pearlington

The Blogathon for Pearlington is underway. Check it out!

As we approach the one year anniversary of Katrina, there is much to be grateful for but also much to regret. Our 87 year old friend finally was able to move back into her condo 10 days ago. In the 11 months since the storm, she had lived in Illinois, Florida, 2 apartments in the New Orleans area, and her daughter's house here in St. Tammany Parish after she gave notice at her last apartment and then found she couldn't move into the condo yet -- despite promises to the contrary. She is one of the lucky ones; she has financial resources. Others are in much less pleasant circumstances.

If you haven't yet, please donate money or time or effort for Pearlington or anywhere else along the Gulf Coast that was hit by and still struggles with the effects of Katrina.