Random Emails

Today the Senate Exec received an interesting email. It looked like Spam and not having anything to blog about I decided to do a google search. I hope nobody responded to this guys email. This is what I found.

Email to Senate Exec

Twitter post on this

Some website that does not like this guy!

Rio Hondo Spams?

Everyday I arrive to class 5 to 10 minutes before class begins.  I sit there watching and/or listening  to students' conversations.This way I get the pulse of the class. Today  I overheard an interesting conversation regarding the Rio Hondo email system. The students were complaining about the MyRioHondo email system. These students have set up the emails they receive at their myriohondo.edu account to be forwarded to the email that they can check on their smart phones. One of them was considering marking all Rio Hondo emails as spam so these emails would go to his junk mail folder. Another student agreed with the first. However, a third pointed out that they can stop forwarding these emails and as he put it allow them "to rot in the My Rio Hondo in box!" At this point I could not stop myself and jumped into the conversation. I pointed out that the waitlist in Access Rio emails most students at their My Rio Hondo email address, and they should not mark emails from this account as spam.
I asked to see the emails they were complaining about. One student had 5 emails in his junk mail folder from Rio.  They were "Petition to Graduate Today", "Transfer Conference", "Meet the Candidates", "Correction Off-site parking" and one more.
Two of the emails solicited additional criticism. They made fun of the "Correction" email. They read the email in a funny voice stressing " Sorry for the confusion".
Another student said "yeah they are confused!"
I said "Now lets be nice. Things change and it is hard to keep up."
They replied "If things change then do not spam us!"
Their anger was slowly turning toward me and I assured them that I have nothing to do with the email system.  Another email that they pointed out was the email titled "meet the candidates". They pointed out that opening attachments is not wise. I asked them to forward it to me and I opened it for them. It was the following image which met with a sigh followed by "Why couldn't they just type that out?"

This is the image that students would not download

After class the same student came up and thanked me for pointing out the importance of Rio Hondo Email at the beginning of the semester.
NOTE to Administration: If you are reading this blog post and come to me for information on who these students were do not expect any cooperation from me to identify them. My classroom is a "Safe Zone" and I will defend their right to free speech. Remember my motto: "We find comfort in those who agree with us and learn from those who disagree!"

Update your email in Blackboard

As many of you have heard students are getting their Rio Hondo Email account. The problem is that less than 50% of them know they have a Rio email address (as of last report only 9000 students know).
Blackboard has a cool function which allow students to enter their preferred email address so you contact them at their preferred email address.
This will help you with contacting your students in blackboard. Feel free to use this video in your blackboard course.


If you need help in embeding the video into your blackboard site Read This Post!

Organizing Students' Email

In this video I attempt to show how I use outlook to sort out emails from my students.

1. I ask students to follow some easy rules.
2. I create folders for these classes in Outlook
3. I create rules which is the topic of the video below:

Feel Free to Use This in Your Blackboard Course

I just created a video that you will need in your online classes. I have posted in two different places. I have it on my website which you can link to on blackboard. Also I have it on Youtube which you can use to put it on your announcement page.
All you have to do is to complete the following steps:

In YouTube:

You can enlarge any of these images by clicking on them!

Within Blackboard


Here is the video you would get. I know my voice is not the greatest. But I hope you will enjoy my voice filled with Enthusiasm!

You can also do this with videos welcoming students to your class: