It feels great to actually finish something!

All of your Notebooks are “graded,” if you can call it that.  They all look fine.

This “assignment” was a good get-going task.  It was also a good logistical test.  So, if I didn’t like the way you named your file I said so.

Now for your part of the logistical test: see if you can access your feedback file from the dropbox.  Theoretically, you should be able to pull it down and see any comments that I might have made. Let me know if you can’t.

You can always tell if I’ve commented in one of your files because I add my initials to the filename.

Here are a couple of questions from my inbox regarding the Annotated Bib assignment. (It is unfortunate that those of you in both of my classes have to deal with confusion between two different Bib assignments! This was unintended.)

Q. For the “type” of the article, do I need to differentiate between research and what you called “research lite?” Are both considered “research” so as to meet the 50% research document requirement?

A. It is a good idea to differentiate between “research” and “research lite.” (We are referring to my research taxonomy, described here.) In a perfect world, you would use all research articles and avoid the “lite” ones. In our more practical world, I just want you to be able to distinguish between them - in case you have to deal with research purists who may pick apart arguments based on anything less than top-drawer “research.”

For our purposes, you may count both types within the 50% proportion.

Q. Is it appropriate for me to use “codes” for the portion about how it relates to my topic? …[paraphrased]: I want to use abbreviations for these codes that are based on my research questions.

A. You may use any code that makes sense to you. Some people will use concept words, while others might create abbreviations or numbers.

Q: May I use a higher proportion of research articles than 50%?

A: Yes. Actually, the more research articles, the better. One half seems like a realistic compromise, because some of you will be challenged to find that many.

Thanks for a pleasant class Saturday. So far,  there have been no lectures about food rules.

I added all of your due dates to the SLM Calendar.  Thanks for pointing out that oversight.

I see that most of you are ahead of the curve and have submitted your Notebooks.  I’m seeing several Ideas as well.  Most of you have found your private discussion board.  I didn’t take the time yet to check each one in case your message is not about the Notebook - send me a yell if I need to look again.

I have the GLMA Summer Institute this week, along with a funeral today - so I will be slow to respond and grade for a few days. Bear with me.

Thanks to a couple of people pointing this out, here is an additional clarification about the Notebook:

• Submit to 3 places (sorry about this, there is a purpose for each one): the dropbox; your private discussion board; and to Heather.
• Dropbox version contains the rubric (URL plus rubric in a Word doc.)
• Discussion board: all that you need here is the URL in a plain post.  The purpose of this is: when the two of us “talk” about your project, the context will be right there, linked at the top of the discussion board.
• Heather’s email: I added it to the assignment description just now, and I wrote it in the Dropbox description.

See you tomorrow!

Saturday will be a busy day.  Check the agenda; does it have everything you need to get you going over the next few weeks?

We will meet at the new Intellicenter in Room 119.  The address is 2530 Sever Rd., Lawrenceville.  If you have misplaced the directions Janette sent, and can’t get GoogleMaps to work for you, let me know.

All assignments are now complete. I finished the last one today.

I created your private discussion boards in WebCT. Theoretically, only you and I have access to this. Check to see if yours looks right. Make sure you can’t see somebody else’s - please let me know if this is not correct.

I’m not sure if I’ll blog again til class - I hope we all find it, and I’ll see you there!

Thank you all for a nice class on Saturday - and your tolerance of me talking all day. I enjoyed listening to your fresh ideas.

I’ve tackled several high priorities for the class.

I set up the class roll in WebCT. You should be able to access the course on your WebCT menu. I did a bit of renovation while I was in there looking around - if you see a link back to something from years ago, let me know. This is a course of long standing, and who knows what antiques might be hiding in the closets.

I made all the dropboxes and made each assignment active if it’s been developed. You should have plenty to do for the present, and the proper places to post them now.

I made a significant clarification on the Notebook assignment. I did not change anything, but I tried to clarify my vision for this semester’s work, and how it relates to the overall shell for the AP. You will now see a suggested long-term outline, but also with a clear statement of the minimal elements needed this semester. No need to build this thing twice - it’s ok with me if you have inactive links on this shell.

Finally, I installed subscription feeds (email-based and RSS reader-based, your choice) for this blog on the course home page. I will assume that you are receiving these blog entries - so you need either an automatic notification set up via one of these feeds, or to have the discipline to check it each day. I plan to post as needed, which will result in an irregular posting schedule, but probably 1x to 4x per week.

Please try the feed out and let me know if it works or not!

The agenda is ready for Saturday!

For this class, “jobs” will also be very important - even more so, because we have half the number of people. The first person I need to “hire” is a Job Coordinator.  See the list here. Email me if you want the Coordinator job.

Also ready: the syllabus (nearly so; a couple of late-semester assignments are not yet made).  Go ahead and look at the first few assignments.  Carefully consider the due dates - in this class, pacing is needed. (That is, unlike in Cataloging, it’s no good to plan to turn several assignments in at once, because they build on each other.) We will discuss and ratify all due dates on Saturday.

I hope to get WebCT squared away in the next few days. Don’t be concerned if you can’t “see” this class on your menu yet.

If you don’t hear from me again (you might, who knows) - I will see you at 9am at the old GUC in room A1920.

With this post, it’s time to say goodbye to the Cohort 6 Ed.S. students and bid hello to the Cohort 7 Ed.S. students.

I am so proud of Cohort 6 Ed.S. people.  Never has the entire group graduated en masse.  I hope you guys will hang around just a little longer on this blog - and indefinitely if you like. You may have comments, etc. - but more important, I will probably think of a few more things that I forgot to tell you.

The final Applied Projects from Cohort 6 are indexed on the Portfolio Page (scroll down).  Cohort 7: bookmark this page.  These are great examples for you to follow throughout the Applied Project (AP) process.

Now a few notes for the “newbies” of C7 (EDIT 7320):

• Class will meet on May 31 at the old GUC, A1920, 9am.  More announcements to follow.
• I’m not aware of any lunch plans made so far. If no one wants to head this up, then brown bags will be the order of the day.  This will be a smaller group, which could be either good or bad for covered dishes. Pizza is always an option …
• I published the preliminary syllabus around May 8.  If you’re anxious, you can see the Evolving Syllabus here.  I did make some changes to the assignment list. A big priority for the next few days is getting these written - Backwards Planning and all of that.
• The best thing you can be doing for the moment is reading the Farmer textbook.
• The next best thing you can be doing is daydreaming and brainstorming about some sort of project idea. Browsing through past projects, thinking about problems you’ve observed … these are good ways.  You’re not expected to have The Idea on Day 1 of class, but the quicker you can settle on an area, the better.  Any SLM topic or educational problem is fair game, almost.
• I’ll install an RSS link and an email subscription form soon.  Check every few days until you see that.

As of this morning, everything is done for this class.  I’ve yet to submit the grades officially, but I will do that Monday or so.  In the meantime, you should be able to see everything in the WebCT gradebook.

Very soon, I’ll be changing this blog over to the Cohort 7 Ed.S. folks. (Not quite yet, in case there are a few last details to take care of for you.)  After the switchover, you are welcome to keep “watching” if you like!

Just a quick note as a reminder - about half of you have grades viewable in WebCT now.

For the other half, in most cases, the only thing holding you up is the e-permission.  (It doesn’t matter if you decline/accept, this is just a “received.”)  No, I won’t hold up your grade on this - but I will finish you up early if you go ahead and clear this up.

And, remember - there is no A+.  The highest grade we can give is A.