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Myths about distance learning

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There are a lot of rumors running riot when it comes to the subject of distance learning. People shy away from distance learning due to many reasons. The chiefest among them is the lack of recognition distance learning courses have by the industry.

Distance learning is also seen as a sign of mediocrity. Meritorious students study in the most expensive universities on scholarships. Bright students study in good colleges based on their scores. And even the poor ones get admission to good universities if they are bright students. So what about the mediocre? They take distance education?

Myth1
Online schools are fake and there for making moneyThis might be true for many universities, but not all. Before enrolling into an online university, prudence has it that you should check its credentials. Check your national government-sanctioned educational body to verify if the online school is legitimate.

Myth2
Learning is less and inefficientLearning depends for the most part on the learner. Online schools can give the same amount of interactivity that a regular school can. Most online schools use advanced video-conferencing technology to help achieve this. Students can ask questions online during a video-broadcasted lecture session. So where’s the difference?

Myth3
Employers don’t recognize distance educationIf you are from a good distance education institute, and your employer still does not recognize it, stop recognizing your employer! Good employers seek knowledge. They are more focused on what you can do. You might be from Harvard, but does that make you Einstein? By the way, Einstein was not from Harvard!

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Home Schooling For Your Child ? An Option Worth Considering

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How would you react if you were advised not to send your child to school? You would probably reject the advice outright because such a decision will be very bad for the future of your child. Further, your local government will be very interested in knowing why you have taken such a decision when education is such an important aspect of an individual is life.

Well, you always have the option of trying home schooling, right? Many persons are critical of home schooling because such a child will miss interacting with other children of his or her age. Well, there are many ways and means where you can achieve this goal. Do not make the mistake of dismissing home schooling outright.

If you have a spouse at home who is not doing any work, then you would do well to utilize his or her skills to educate your child. There are numerous online teaching resources that can help parents plan education properly. Your child may have a good grasp of certain subjects and may be weak in certain other subjects. In such a scenario, you can speed up the process of teaching and learning as far as the strong subjects are concerned. In the same way, you can slow down and focus on the minute details as far as the weak subjects are concerned.

You can use the money that you have saved to get the best educational resources for your child. You can organize visits to museums and sites of cultural importance on a regular basis to give the best education to your child.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Colleges & Courses, Online Education Tagged With: , ,

Prepare to Participate

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Perhaps you or someone you love is house-bound because of fear of crowds or another phobia. This person does not want to be limited in his or her opportunities by a low level of education, and yet the fear will not permit this person to leave the house to pursue an education. Happily, the digital age brings the classroom home with distance learning.

Dell has a number of student response system tools available for every conceivable user. The company’s “Interact and Assess” products provide a way for the distance learner to actively participate in class, with buttons that allow the user to answer and ask questions. Responses are not just limited to yes or no. These tools allow the student to enter short phrases in response to open-ended questions. These kinds of tools are even being adopted within classrooms. Students can even take exams and stu

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dy through these systems with the ExamView Learning Series. This tool can be selected to be specific for individual state testing standards, which is very useful in the increasingly evaluation-driven educational environment. It is obvious how Dell’s tools will be helpful for those suffering from school phobia.

The Promethean ActivExpression tool can also provide students with teacher feedback. While physical classrooms are now subject to budget cuts and teachers are rapidly being shed from the traditional education workforce, these technologies offer qualified teachers an important tool to reach a broader array of students without even needing to be based in an actual classroom. These tools truly are the wave of the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Back To School, Learning Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , ,

Virtual Support: Distance Learning

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Education is defined by more than ink, by more than the dust that comes clustering up when obscure texts are sought. It’s instead — you’re certain — shaped by interaction. Ideas are exchanged; relationships are formed; and questions are answered by peers and instructors. It’s the support that’s offered through conversations, and it’s necessary to obtain knowledge beyond mere statistics.

And you fear that distance learning won’t provide it, will instead keep you tucked from the rest of the collegiate world.

Your fears are unfounded, however.

Distance learning — despite involving extensive use of anonymous computers and technology — allows individuals to obtain the sense of camaraderie they crave through:

Social Networking: Follow the thoughts and trends of your fellow students through the use of social networking. Forums, blogs and more allow you to gain the insights you need.

Virtual Chats: Immediacy is essential for an education. Virtual chats therefore become imperative. Distance learning classes are often shaped by these sessions, with questions offered rapidly and all students allowed to participate.

Email: The relationship between a student and his professor is one that must be carefully crafted. Being separated by miles can prove to be challenging, however, unless individuals take advantage of email. Private communication can be granted, with instructors able to respond directly and offer what is needed.

Through the use of these methods all students — including you — can gain the support they crave. Words may not be offered in person, but they can still provide clarity. Distance learning doesn’t have to be without relief. It instead tailors the notion to technology… and it succeeds.

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The Diligence Demanded From Distance

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Distance education 

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Perfection has been found: an education can finally be pursued; miles can be conquered; and obtaining a degree is no longer the challenge you once assumed it to be. Distance learning has instead offered you the chance to seek the university you always dreamed of (without demanding that you shove your life into cardboard boxes and trek across the country to attend classes). Knowledge can finally be gained. There are no more worries to consider. You are instead… happy.

That feeling fades, however, when you realize precisely how difficult the situation is.

The appeal of distance learning can’t be denied. Its advantages are many — offering endless choices, flexible hours and the ability to tailor classes to personal schedules. This makes it ideal for students who can’t find the time (or even the ability) to flee their obligations for even an afternoon. Its value is immense.

That value comes with a heightened sense of responsibility, however.

Individuals engaging in distance learning must understand the need for diligence. This isn’t an excuse for laziness. It instead demands persistence — with students being aware of all classes, even ones that are stationed purely online. Taped lectures, forum posts and social networking may appear deceptively simple; but they still demand participation, as well as an ability to overcome the temptation of the Internet and actually study. All who choose this form of education must develop a strong work ethic. The process won’t succeed without it.

It must be understood that distance learning is not easy. It instead requires determination — with its rewards earned through effort, not merely staring at a screen.

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Grandma Is Going Back To School

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When it comes to education the saying that it is “never too late” is so true.  There are so many people out there who put furthering their education on hold to raise families, help out their parents, or a myriad of other reasons.  It may be in the back of their minds for years, the fact that they never finished their education.  Years go by, jobs come and go, all the time thinking what could have been.

Colleges have never made it so easy to go back to school.  While college is an expensive investment, no one can put a dollar amount on fulfilling a lifetime dream.  There are on-line colleges, where the adult student would not even have to go to a classroom.  There are lots of programs for people re-entering the world of higher education.  There are different degrees, there is lots of financial aid.  There are scholarships that are targeted for those going back to school after a long break.  Some colleges today even award college credit for your life experience.  You can get credit towards your degree from what you have been doing all along.

If the time is right for you, college is there for you.  Do some research.  You will find exactly the degree you want to achieve, along with the right way to achieve it.

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Retaining Information

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Retaining Information

1. Retaining Information

The ability to retain information is helpful to everyone, especially to students.  The learning and education process require retention of information for success. One way to remember things is to use Mnemonic Devices.

2.  Mnemonic Devices

Mnemonic Devices are tricks that can help increase your skills to recall information. Being able to recall names with ease is a skill. Take the teacher who can recall the name so her new students by the end of the first class.

3.  Ways to Use Mnemonic Devices

Creative sentences, Acoustic are sentences that help us remember a series of letters that stand for something, “Every good boy does fine.” (E, G, B, D, and F) are musical notes/lines of the treble clef staff.

4.  Sing it

Rhymes and songs from commercials stick in our heads. Advertising works for adults and kids. Your kid will beg for the cereal she hears and sees advertised the most. She will have to have it once media tells her that she loves it.  Nursery rhymes show the up close image of retention through child’s play.

5. Word Play

Acronyms are words created form the initial letters of a series of words.  Examples: scuba (self- contained underwater breathing apparatus.  NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) You can also make up your own device to help. There are no limits and the goal is for you to learn a new technique in you quest for education. Nothing is worse than needing information and your brain freezes.

6. Finding and Using Tools

Building a tool box for your educational growth is a gift that keeps on giving. Finding the tools and maintaining them makes the difference between doers and wanna bees. The choice lives within each of us. Resources exist find them and watch the good happen.

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Education: Learning From Mistakes

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Education: Learning From Mistakes

1. Mistakes are Lessons

Mistakes are life lessons that offer us grace and the chance to learn something. When we make a mistake and take the time to investigate our errors we make acknowledge that we messed up. Fixing the mistake by correcting it teaches us that taking responsibility is better than hiding from something we need to acknowledge.

2. Everyone Makes Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes once we understand this it takes the pressure off to be perfect and reminds us we’re human. Understanding this frees us setting unattainable goals ones we really don’t need if we are comfortable with who we are. Understanding that we are not the only person that makes mistakes helps connect the dots.

3. Moving Past Mistakes

Acknowledging our mistakes is part of self-care.  When we do this it frees us from unnecessary worry, guilt and stress. Living in a mistake can have the end result of depression and other medical conditions.

4. Commitment

If you want to make something work you have to be willing to try different solutions to the fix the problem. Sometimes we bomb out. It happens. It isn’t how we fall down, but how we get up that makes the difference.

5. Mistakes and Risks
Mistakes show us that we are willing to take risk this is an education in self growth.. Having to drop a class and repeat it isn’t a bad thing if you make advantage of the learning opportunity. Some people never take a risk they are not comfortable with the idea of failure. No one does. A person who makes a mistake tried something that didn’t work. The harm comes in not recognizing the error.

4. Follow up

You will have an opportunity to correct the mistake at least in your head, for your peace of mind. Acknowledging your error and fixing it is an educational bonus for you.

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Managing Time as an Adult Student

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Remember when you were a kid and you wanted to grow up so badly? You wanted to drive, to make your own decisions and be your own person.

How little we all realized there would be work, relationship problems and the myriad of complexities which complicate and dull the adventure we thought we were on. Somewhere along the way it’s very easy to get sidetracked. That’s why so many adults find themselves taking classes these days, working toward degrees and other goals.

But how do you juggle studying, writing papers and the endless reading with children, work and a spouse? What if you are involved in some other activity as well? There go the last few free seconds you though you had.

The trick is so simple, and many people have employed it to great success throughout the ages. Compromise. That’s the great secret. A savvy student will know what to equate three credit hours of work to, in terms of time away from other things. Take into consideration the weight of the subject matter, and your individual level of experience and interest in the subject. Subtract that from your schedule the way it is before the work, and start there.

Some people can go without sleep. Most of us can not, and will turn into unmanageable zombies if we don’t get a full eight. Be sure to make school a priority amongst other things. It might mean less hanging out with friends, less time for hobbies or whatever seems enjoyable, but managing the time to get the grades will pay dividends.

And don’t forget; every extra class is weighted a little more. Two classes is often more than twice the work, and half the sanity.

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A Study Tip: Leave Your House to Hit the Books

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For the adult education candidate, there are so many things that can distract study time.  Work gets in the way, day to day chores get in the way, the kids and the spouse get in the way, and then there are televisions, telephones, and computers to distract the student.  Don’t forget about the dog.  He can be a pain, too.  Here’s a study tip.  Leave your house to hit the books.

Leaving home to hit the books might seem like an impractical study tip, but it isn’t.  You don’t have to go far.  Just find a nice quiet park or coffee shop near your home.  Instruct your family and friends not to bother you during your chosen times of study.  Make sure everyone involved understands what a big decision it was for you to pursue adult education.  They need to know that you need their cooperation to succeed.

That will work for awhile, but inevitably, the kids will start to interrupt you.  The dog never will comply.  The television will get too loud and distracting, and you’ll distract yourself by jumping up to finish that laundry you forgot about.  It’s time to leave home for a study break.  If there isn’t a suitable park or coffee shop, try the nearest library.  They are usually very quiet, and you will also be surrounded by valuable resources that will enhance your adult education goals.

If leaving your house to hit the books isn’t a study tip that will work for you, then you’ll have to set some serious guidelines and boundaries within your household.  Don’t be afraid to bribe the kids.  Tell them you’ll take them to the movies on the weekend if they can leave you alone all week.  Stick to your guns on this.  The first time you cave in, you’ll never get control of your study time.  Make sure your spouse knows the rules so he or she can help run interference.

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