Why Brinkster why?
Mood:  quizzical
A couple of students' Brinkster accounts are being cleared out. This did not happen to all the students or me, only a selected few. Don't know why. If you are the unfortunate few, to deal with this, sign up for another Yahoo email address or use your personal one if you like. Then using this new Yahoo email address, sign up for a new Brinkster account at http://www.brinkster.com/Hosting/Educational.aspx so Brinkster thinks you are a new customer.

Using this new Brinkster account, finish uploading your previous assignments such as Resume.htm, Groceries.htm, Diagram.htm and their associated folders, I can assist you with Slideshow.htm. If you need help uploading, be sure to have all your previous assignment in the U: drive so I can help you finish uploading on Friday. Please email me your Homepage.doc once you have written down your thoughts and reflections on the assignments you have done in IS101.

Students should focus on doing BA3 Database Development as it will serve as half of Quiz 7 and all of Bonus Quiz 3. Very curious to see how students will do on BA3. BA3, Quiz 7 and Bonus Quiz 3 add up to 15 points, half a letter grade. Decided to re-open BA1 Improved Slideshow Presentation for students to earn bonus points. Historically, students earned an average of 3 points from this bonus assignment.

I will be in and out of the computer lab during the evenings of this week. If you like to meet with me, let me konw.

To the last stretch of Spring 2006
Mood:  energetic
The sememster is drawing to its end. All assignments have been graded. Students know this is their last week before finals week and where they stand in the class. Will be at the computer lab Tuesday, May 9, 6:30 PM to help some students.

The significance of the last three weeks
Mood:  special
Almost done grading all the A5 Spreadsheet Analysis submissions and resubmissions. For A6 Mail Merge, six students took advantage of the opportunity to fix and resubmit for a higher grade. Will try to have them all graded by Thursday evening. Curious to see how many will submit BA2 Advance Mail Merge by Friday, May 5, 5:59 PM.

The Groceries spreadsheet from A5 served as the graphic and heart of Quiz 6. The object-linking-and-embedding (OLE) concept behind A6 contributed to the Bonus Quiz and produced BA2. During class this Friday, May 5, A7 Entity Relationship Diagram will be demonstrated. Unlike A5 and A6, there will be no second chance for A7.

Like OLE for A6, the concept behind A7, normalization, is not covered in the Dozer textbook. So be sure to pay attention during the in-class demonstration this Friday. A7 will serve as the basis for BA3 Database Development, which will be demonstrated on May 12. A7 and BA3 will serve as the graphic and the heart of Quiz 7 on May 19.

Curious...
Mood:  surprised
Of the nine students who saw the correct answers and methodologies to reach those answers, only three chose to fix their A5 Spreadsheet Analysis and resubmit. I wonder what happened to the other six.

Shift of required mentality and second chances
Mood:  sharp
With the Excel and Access projects, the required mentality has shifted from simply memorizing terms to applying learned concepts to similar and related scenarios. This shift of required mentality was not fully actualized by some students as they did not fulfill A5 completely and correctly. Gave them a second chance to practice applying what they have learned and seen to A5.

The average score on the Excel quiz is slightly lower than those from previous semesters. Many students only remembered how to start the AutoSum or Functions wizard but not understanding the anatomy of the actual formula produced by the AutoSum or Functions wizard. Many students also did not review or practice reproducing the #### error. Chuck Hurley did do a good job of demonstrating key concepts of Excel, but the importance of focusing on learning the Excel formulas was overshadowed by the use of wizards.

My oral surgery put me out of commission to set the necessary tone for Excel at the beginning. Yahoo's unexpected temporary change in their SpamGuard caused some students to miss the study guide for their PowerPoint quiz. I have adopted the CIT department's comprehensive exam as my Bonus Quiz 2 on May 12 to give students the opportunity to earn 5 bonus points, equivalent to half a letter grade.

Five more weeks and bonus assignments and quizzes
Mood:  a-ok
Still feeling the after effects of the surgery, but I'm handling it. This past week, almost all the students completed their outstanding assignments and are caught up with the semester timetable. Only five more weeks until the semester ends.

Finalized the bonus assignments and quizzes. The three bonus assignments are: BA 1 - Improved Slideshow Presentation (only for those who presented A4 Slideshow Presentation on March 31); BA2 - Advance Query Options for Mail Merge (an extension on A6 Mail Merge) and BA 3 - Database Development (an extension on A7 Entity Relationship Diagram). The two bonus quizzes are both comprehensive review, except for Access, in nature. The first is on April 28 and the second is on May 12. Study guides will be available just like the regular quizzes.

At five points each, the bonus assignments and quizzes total 25 points. In order for students to have time for these bonus assignments and quizzes, they need to not only keep up with the semester timetable, but to be proactive and jump ahead of it to create time and energy for the bonus assignments and quizzes.

Wisdom teeth are out, ouch! Email woes...
Mood:  blue
Had surgery this past Friday to remove wisdom teeth. It hurts.... Asked Chuck Hurley to sub for me. Glad to see he did an excellent job. Some students are doing a wonderful job of updating their blog, some are not. Need to have a talk with them...

Was just informed by CCSN that they've having hardware issues with their email servers. This was confirmed by Brian as his one of his email bounced back to him. Students, please check your Yahoo email Inbox for any returned/undeliverable mail that you may have sent to me.

To further deal the previous issue of Yahoo treating my class emails as spam, please do this:

After you have turned the SpamGuard OFF (see my April 5th entry below), please create a folder in your Yahoo email account named IS101-819. On the left column, look for Folders [Add - Edit] and click on Add. On the prompt box, type IS101-819. Be sure it is IS101-819 exactly with no spaces.

Next, create a filter to direct all incoming emails from me and your classmates to this newly created folder. Click on Options toward the upper right corner of the webpage. Look for a link that says Filters and click it. On the next webpage, click Add. On the next webpage, for the Filter Name textbox and Body: textbox, type IS101-819. On the Move the message to: dropdown box, click and select IS101-819. Toward the lower left corner of the webpage, find and click Add Filter.

Finally, create a signature for all your outgoing Yahoo emails. Click on Options toward the upper right corner of the webpage. Look for a link that says Signature and click it. In the composing window, type:

IS101-819 Spring Semester 2006
Community College of Southern Nevada

Make sure the Add signature to all outgoing messages checkbox is checked. Toward the lower left corner of the webpage, find and click Save.

On my CCSN email, I have added the same signature. So from this point forward, assuming you have turned your Yahoo SpamGuard off and did the three tasks above, your Yahoo email will always filter and direct my and your classmates' emails to the folder IS101-819 leaving any spam in the Inbox for you to delete.

My class emails are now being treated as spam, stupid Yahoo
Mood:  irritated
While helping Larry, I discovered that Yahoo's spam filter now treats my class announcement emails as spam. Even when Larry sends out an A3 email to me and carbon copies himself, that email is being treated as spam and went directly to his BULK mail folder. Why did Yahoo suddenly change its spam filter rules? Need to find out from students when was last class announcement email they received from me.

To remedies this: in your Yahoo account, click on OPTIONS (upper right corner of the webpage). In the MAIL OPTIONS webpage, click on SPAM PROTECTION. On the SPAM PROTECTION page, under SPAM FILTER, if SpamGuard is ON, click on [Turn SpamGuard OFF - What's this?]

Semester midpoint and catching up
Mood:  silly
Excellent slideshows and presentations. Some did not present. Hope they will incorporate what they saw to their make up presentation at the end of the semester. Most students are nearly caught up with their outstanding assignments. The rest will soon. We embark on the second half of the semester with a new outlook and mindset. Students will focus on assignments instead of quizzes. Excel and Access are more analytical than simple memorization. The students will adapt.

New strategy and Spring Break
Mood:  loud
Students' sense of ownership to the Resume Publishing assignment is eclipsed by the mechanical rhythm of step-by-step assignment instructions and the textbook projects. Next time, will focus equal amount of time to promote the cover letter and more importantly, how a cover letter and resume fit into the job hunting process. The new title for the assignment will be Cover Letter and Resume Publishing. Demonstrated the Slideshow Presentation assignment. Looking forward to see everyone's presentation of their slideshows after the Spring Break.