To textbook or not to textbook....that is the question

While out of the office, Debby, CTL Office Coordinator, happened to assist one of my students. The student came to my office wanting to borrow a textbook for the course. Unfortunately, there isn't a program on campus that allows for borrowing textbooks. Student may go to the library and use the textbook, but cannot check them out. The problem with this is that my courses are online and students often take these courses so they DON'T have to come to campus....so going to the library to read a book kind of defeats the purpose! I completely understand the issues our students encounter trying to pay for books after they have already spent upwards of $852 to be a full time student. Our English 102 textbook is $102 dollars! Luckily students can use it for both 101 and 102. Anyways, that's a lot rambling to get to the point of -- I feel like we need to be good stewards of learning. We should make our courses more accessible and this includes textbooks. Students should have an option of e-books, used books, rented books, purchasing online, etc..... I'm really interested in mobile learning and how 24/7 access to course content on a mobile device (think iPod Touch or smartphone) has the ability to improve learning. After all, who really wants to lug around a textbook everywhere they go? Wouldn't it be great to sit at a doctor's office and read course content, interact in the course management system, or even listen to a lecture via pod/vodcast? So, please tell me what you think by responding to this poll:

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Making an Avatar for Course Announcements

Well, it's about time! I swear, why is it the Instructional Technologist has the hardest time making HER online courses techy? I help everyone else add glamour and style to their online or hybrid courses and I never have time to experiment with my own! Well enough! I've had it! I have vowed to add an avatar to my course announcements section every week. Currently I podcast announcements for my Mesa CC English course. The students actual listen to them! For my GateWay course, I thought I would take it a bit further and do a 1 minute announcement each week with an avatar. Maybe this will be motivational for my students? Heck, it can't hurt! I am also going to send them voice emails in conjunction with their text feedback for papers. I will let you know how it goes at any rate, here is my first avatar announcement: Enjoy!