Mark DuBois Weblog

Most of my classes are online (which you take at your own pace). However, from time to time, I am asked the following question:

I wasn’t in class last time. Did I miss anything?

Most of the “tongue in cheek” response originally came from “The astonishing weight of the dead,” Vancouver: Polestar. 1994. I have adapted it a bit for this weblog entry.

You may choose from any of the following responses (for my answer to the above question).

• You missed nothing. When we realized you weren’t here, we sat with our hands folded on our desks in silence, for the full three hours.
• You missed everything. I gave an exam worth 40% of the grade for this term and assigned some reading due today. I am about to hand out a quiz on that reading. That quiz will count for another 50% of the grade for this term.
• You missed nothing. None of the content of this course has value or meaning. Take as many days off as you like: any activities we undertake as a class, I assure you, will not matter to you or me and are without purpose.
• You missed everything. A few minutes after we began last time a shaft of light descended and an angel or heavenly body appeared and revealed to us what everyone must do to attain divine wisdom in this life and the hereafter. This is the last time the class will meet before we disperse to bring this good news to all people on earth.
• You missed nothing. When you are not present, how could anything significant occur?
• You missed everything. Contained in this classroom was a microcosm of human existence assembled for you to query and examine and ponder. This is not the only place such an opportunity has been gathered, but it was one place. And, you weren’t here.

I know everyone wants to earn an “A” in my classes. There is a secret. Let me share it.

1. Read the textbook(s) and come to class prepared. The schedule is listed in  the syllabus (linked in Moodle).
2. Do the work (weblog, discussion forum, assignments, quizzes).
3. Submit the work on time. Every time you ask for more than one extension on an assignment, you are really asking me for a lower grade. These classes move at a fast pace. If you don’t keep up, you will fall behind.
4. Ask questions. If you don’t understand something, ask (email me, or post something in the discussion forum). If you don’t understand the answer, ask again. Repeat until you do understand.

If you follow these recommendations, you will almost certainly do well in class. Recall that you can submit a lab, have it graded as unsatisfactory, then resubmit it within the week. You can take a quiz as many times as you want before the deadline. Yes, you have to post in the discussion and post your journal as a weblog entry (but you have over a week to do this each topic). Take these suggestions to heart and you will do fine.

The fall, 2010 semester starts Monday, August 23 at Illinois Central College. As we begin, I thought it appropriate to share a few thoughts with students taking my classes in the web curriculum.

First (very important)– welcome to class. I am here to help you better understand the material and apply it to real life situations. If you ever have a question about the material, contact me and I will do my best to help. I can employ a number of tools which I can employ to help you better understand the concepts and tools we will be using. If all the materials were easy, why would you need a teacher. Therefore, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Second (almost equally important) – you are responsible for your future. Since you are taking these classes, I make the assumption you aspire to be a web professional. You are encouraged to develop and enhance your professionalism as part of these classes. For example, do the absolute best you can on each assignment. Do not settle for second best. You may someday wish to include some of these as part of a portfolio of your work. Also, take responsibility for your actions. If you know you will miss a deadline, notify me in advance. As a general rule, I will provide you with extra time. However, if you do not notify me beforehand, you will receive a grade of “unsatisfactory” or a 0 for that assignment. The grade you receive in each class is the grade you earn.

Third – take time to enjoy the class experience. You have the opportunity to interact with your peers. In some courses, we will be working on group projects. In others, you will be working alone, but will still need to interact with others via the discussion forum. Everyone bring a different and unique experience to class. Learn from what others have to offer. I plan to add some social interactions this semester as well (for those who want to participate). I am even thinking of making this an extra credit part of selected courses. Yep, I tend to do something a little different each semester and this would be the first time I am considering extra credit in over a decade.

I hope you are looking forward to this semester as much as I am. For those who are in the East Peoria area, we do have an optional open lab for all CMWEB students on Tuesday and Wednesday nights (from 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. in TC 210 – ICC East Peoria campus). If you are able to make it – great. for those outside of the area (or who can not make it on the above nights, I am available via ConnectPro software (so we can share desktop applications). Just contact me to make an appointment.

In a nutshell – enjoy the semester and learn well.

Lastly – For those who are new to the web profession, there is some great advice for beginners at Smashing Magazine. If you are not a beginner, you might want to review the link as well.

I have been meaning to write this post for some time. Just too many things going on as summer draws to a close. At one point, I was considering purchasing an iPad. However, I realized that it doesn’t support Flash Player. That got me thinking – just how important is it for me to have access to Flash Player? I decided to conduct a day of observation. I chose yesterday to track all the sites I visited in the course of doing my job (professor at a community college). I recorded the URL (so each site would only count once if I visited it multiple times during the day). I also recorded whether Flash Player was needed to experience the content of the site. These are simply my observations for one day of my browsing habits. As a professor I am always looking at a variety of sites (since I teach web technologies). I had a fair number of meetings yesterday so I probably did not visit as large a number of sites as I typically would. The results are shown below for the 29 sites I visited during the day.

Personally, I was rather surprised at the results. The darker green slice (above) means that Flash Player was required to experience all the content of the site.  A full 69% of the all sites I visited yesterday required Flash Player to fully experience the site. Some would have been incredibly difficult to navigate without Flash Player (for example, Total Training). Others have alternatives to using Flash Player (such as Lynda.com), but I would have had to change my established player preferences at that site (which I chose not to do).

The bottom line (based on my single day of observation) is that today (August, 2010), I need Flash Player to effectively do my job (and fully experience the sites I visit on a daily basis). Unless a device supports Flash Player, it is highly unlikely that I will consider a purchase as I will be restricting my ability to get my job accomplished. I encourage others to make a similar observation for a day. Perhaps we can compare notes as to whether my observations are skewed or average for a typical professor.

A number of photos have been posted online from the AEL Summer Institute. Here are some of those.

These photos should convey some of the sessions I experienced during the AEL 2010 Summer Institute in San Jose. I had a great time and learned a lot.

As the AEL 2010 Summer Institute was coming to a close, we spent some time at the Technology Museum in San Jose. Most of us spent a fair amount of time riding Segway’s around an obstacle course. Yes, I did the entire course backwards at one point. I think there was a 2 drink minimum before we could ride those devices *grin*. We all had a great deal of fun.