Planning for the Unexpected

It is always good to have a backup plan (Plan B) when devising your face-to-face or online courses.  Whether it is hurricane season, a surprise snowstorm, or your learning management system that has crashed, things happen. Think about adding something like "Emergency Preparedness Instructions" to your syllabus.  Examples can include: possible assignment/tests date changes, possibility of altering meeting dates, how can the instructor and students contact each other (Facebook, phone, Blackboard), announcement, posting short Jing videos on content, etc.  It also is a good idea to get students's email address and phone number in a secure location besides Blackboard. One of the main things is communication with the students. The world is so connected and they will probably be concerned that this event/emergency will cause them to make a bad grade. Soothe their minds and yours by planning ahead for the event that might happen.

The Google Art Project

The Google Art Project has been launched.  http://www.googleartproject.com/ This is really a wonderful resource for learners everywhere.  Students and faculty can explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share their own collection of masterpieces.  Many academic disciplines could incorporate assignments using this resource.

One of my favorite assignments for the freshman University 101 class is to have my students visit the Columbia Museum of Art, find a particular piece of artwork (any type) that evokes feelings for them and write an essay on that piece.  Student usually complain at first that the "museum will be boring" or "I have never been to a museum", but the course evaluations and commentaries suggest that they learned a lot about themselves while learning to appreciate art.  I want my students to be productive members of civilized society and while they don't have to be connoisseurs of all art forms, there is bound to be something that moves them.

The Rise of Kindles, NookBooks and the Like

Having gone through the mass marketing/consumer frenzy that was the 2010 Holiday season, I was wondering about the rise of ebooks, Kindles, NookBooks, and the like. From the media coverage and commercials, it would seem that they were in the hands of everyone in the U.S.   However, not many people that I know have one.  I could be in a vacuum though.  How many of you have an ebook?  How often do you use it?  Has it encouraged you to read even more?
My main thought about this digital reading proliferation is that anything that gets people to read more is a good thing. But are people really reading more now? What are they reading?  Oprah Winfrey's book club has certainly spurred the US reading circles but her last entry, Charles Dickens' classics Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities wasn't a success. http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2010/1220/Oprah-s-book-club-picks-falling-short  It seem that the "Oprah Effect" hasn't really worked with the classics.
I would love to hear your opinions.