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Open source software on campus: how faculty can encourage IT staff to install and support. Answering questions from Clancy Ratliff.

My calendar from last week. Student conferences in the house!

Mockup and commentary on the in-progress redesign of WIU’s webpage

I recently finished teaching our graduate program’s sole required course, ENG 500, formerly “Introduction to Graduate Studies,” now “Theory and the Practice of English Studies.” Most of us remember this kind of course. Its purpose: get students into the habit of doing English studies, providing an introduction to research methodologies, common issues, and graduate-level work in [...]

Let’s review:

Jan 5: Madelyn starts the Big Girl sleep plan. I’m happy to say this continues; the Bee is pretty easy to put to bed now.
Feb 21: I get an awful flu bug, missing classes and losing eight pounds in less than a week.
Mar 10: A misstep down the stairs, and I [...]

Using Google Docs for managing student work is great. Except when the power goes out. We had a pretty bad ice storm last Thu PM/Friday AM. Besides ice raining down on the house all night, the snapping tree limbs and exploding transformers woke me and/or Madelyn multiple times. Our power went out for good in [...]

The Center for Social Media releases best practices for fair use in media literacy education: a strong document with few problems.

News about our graduate program: new curriculum, colloquium, 500

I began the semester with 36 students in two courses. Grades go in today. Look at all the fours! Unfortunately, WIU doesn’t have plus/minus grading, or I would have assigned five B+ and two C+ grades.
A: 4
B: 11
C: 4
F: 5
U: 4
W: 4
early drops: 4
The “U” is a non-punitive grade assigned in composition courses, basically “failed [...]

Our graduate committee recently finished the paperwork for a comprehensive revision of our graduate program. “Update” is an understatement. The old curriculum was state of the art around 1970. Maybe 1870. Coursework covered three areas: British Literature, British Literature, and Other. The roster of courses long abandoned would be funny if it wasn’t pathetic.
We’re replacing [...]