Important Info about the Physical Disabilities Workshop

One of the highpoints of each semester is the physical disabilities simulation workshop. This is especially important for you online students, as it is the only time we have a chance to get together in person, instead of online.

Our class is scheduled to have the workshop on Wed, Nov 13, from 7:00-8:30 pm at DesPlaines campus in room 1610.

If you have any way of arranging to be there, I highly recommend it. I've given you a lot of advance notice in case you need to change your usual schedule to attend. Come and meet your fellow classmates (and your instructor!) and participate in this workshop that can teach you about physical disabilities in a way that reading a text or watching a movie never could.

I think this is so important, that I've built in a few incentives to entice you to come. First, if you attend the workshop and participate in our discussion, you will not have to write a journal entry or do the discussion for week 12. You will get full points for the journal and the online discussion in return for your participation in the on-campus workshop. Secondly, you get 2 bonus points just for showing up. Have I convinced you yet?

Do you have an unbreakable commitment that night that is standing in your way? If you absolutely can't make it Nov 13, you do have one other avenue for participating in the workshop. The on-campus, Monday night class taught by Dedee Goldsmith is doing the workshop about 10 days from now. You can participate with her class on Monday, Oct 28, at 7:30 pm at DesPlaines campus in the Presidential offices across from the cafeteria.

Remember to wear comfortable clothes and shoes for the workshop. You will be sitting on the floor and doing very physical activities. They are not so strenuous, but also not something you'd want to do in a short skirt or platform shoes.

I need to hear from each of you what you intend to do about attending or not. I need to know how many people are coming to our group on Nov 13, so I can set up for the correct number. I also need to know if you are going to Dedee's class, because then I need to be there to help out and to meet you.

Please email or call me with your questions or RSVPs. I hope to see all of you at the workshop. It's really a lot of fun.

Attention Internet Explorer Users: Free Spellcheck Program for your Discussions and Journals!

I just found out about a program you can download for free that will spellcheck your discussions and journals. It can be downloaded for free from http://www.iespell.com/. This will only work if you use Internet Explorer as your browser.

The download is free, but if you are not computer savvy, have someone who is do it for you. It's not that difficult, just a little confusing, since it doesn't tell you step-by-step what to do, and doesn't really tell you when it's done. It's kind of a figure-it-out-yourself, free program.

I have just downloaded it after one false start, and it works well. It adds a button to your main tool-bar in Internet Explorer that you can click on to spellcheck your work when using those message boxes for discussions. The button doesn't appear on the message box, but on the main screen behind it.

It works well, but as I said, you might want to have your kid, or your younger computer-nerd sibling help you, if computers aren't your strong point. It's worth the effort, because it can significantly improve the appearance of your work. What a great piece of software for online students (and faculty)!