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Modern Ways to Learn

July 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Scientific literature

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Learning strategies have dramatically changed over the past 20 years. The Internet and new technologies have allowed students new ways to learn old material (and new material as well). Here are some modern ways that students learn.

Internet

The number one modern way to learn is online learning. Instead of just referencing books in research papers, many students are now referencing websites and online journals. Students also have the ability to search for articles in distinguished academic journals just by searching online databases through their school’s library. Many of these articles are available online so the student doesn’t even need to leave home to find research materials.

E-Readers

More and more textbooks are being made available electronically. Some publishers are including an electronic copy when a student purchases the hardcopy of the book while others are selling the book electronically, reducing the cost of the book because it doesn’t need to be printed or shipped. It also allows the publisher to correct mistakes in the book easily without having to print a new edition.

Online Colleges

Another way modern students are learning is through online colleges and universities. Lectures and class materials are made available online and students are able to complete the course without having to relocate to an area with a college and are able to work around their job schedule, allowing students to earn a bachelor degree at EarnMyDegree.com or other education sites.

With all the new, convenient ways for students to learn, it’s no wonder that more and more are going back to school.

 

Filed Under: Internet, Modern Education, Online Learning Tagged With: , ,

The Benefits of Online Colleges

May 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Distance education 

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Though many high school seniors envision themselves packing up their belongs and heading to college someplace far from their home, that decision may not be the right decision for all students. Still, that doesn’t mean they’ll have to miss out on getting a great education. More than 4 million students have registered with online colleges, and these schools continue to gain in popularity among tech-savvy students. There are many benefits that online colleges offer that traditional colleges simply can’t.

You’ll earn a high-quality education. The rise in popularity of online schools has also boosted the education quality. Any online college must meet accreditation standards from accrediting agencies. State and community colleges and universities are now offering online options.

You’ll have access to your classes from anywhere, at any time. For students who travel regularly or who don’t want to be tied down to a particular region, this is a major benefit of online courses. The course material is available 24 hours a day, so if you’re working a job or have other commitments, you can easily make your class schedule fit around your life.

Online colleges can be more affordable than traditional colleges. Students will save thousands in commuting costs, housing fees and textbook costs. Scholarships, loans and grants are also available to online college students

Online colleges will offer a no-intimidation classroom for shy students. A study by the National Survey of Student Engagement revealed that online students are more likely to participate in discussions about their major. If you’re the type of students who dislikes answering professors’ questions or speaking in front of a group, an online college can be your best option. You’ll still have the opportunity to make contributions through chat rooms, instant messages or emails.

 

Filed Under: Internet, Online Learning Tagged With: , ,

Limitations of E-Readers in Subject Breadth

March 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The spread of E-Readers has made information and material reach a wider audience, but there are several areas in which E-Readers might not be able to achieve this effect.  Here are the limitations of E-Readers in subject breadth.

  • Poetry
    While some poetry is becoming available on E-Readers and in the form of E-Books, many current poets are hesitant to publish their work with E-Readers.  The fact that poetry is already difficult to publish means that poets are very loyal to their publishers and agents.  Additionally, the aesthetic qualities of poetry, such as type size and font, line length, and spatial arrangement on the page, make it difficult to move from a paper to an electronic format.  Some poets do not like the idea that the reader will be able to control for these things, as it might remove some of the original artistic intent.
  • Experimental writing
    Many newer experimental novels, graphic novels, and artistic books will also be difficult to move into the electronic format.  The limited size of E-Readers and their customizability by the reader makes it difficult for these writers to convey the effects that they wanted to achieve in their work.
  • Textbooks and scholarly writing
    Scholarly writing and textbooks are other areas that might prove difficult to be made available to E-Readers.  Many of these books have detailed figures and graphs that would be hard to translate, and still others are in incredibly narrow niches.

Despite these current limitations, the continuous technological improvements to E-Readers might make them a popular format for writers in the near future.

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Reducing Internet Distractions in Class

February 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The spread of Wi-Fi technology to the classroom has both benefited and limited learning.  While there are numerous advantages to internet and laptop use during class, internet distractions can be an unfortunately common occurrence in some classes.  Here are several tips for reducing internet distractions among students.

  • Don’t allow headphones
    Headphones during class will be used to listen to music or watch videos online.  Allowing them will almost definitely encourage students to cave into internet distractions.  Videos are some of the worst distractions, as they can distract other students sitting within view of the laptop screen.  By forbidding headphone use, instructors can help limit the likelihood of video distractions during class.
  • Require Wi-Fi to be turned off at times
    Another rule to reduce internet distractions is to require Wi-Fi technology to be turned off during class.  This will still allow students to use their laptops for note taking, but it will prevent them from logging into Facebook or surfing the net during class.
  • Engage student participation
    Walking around the classroom, soliciting student input during lectures, and posing questions to the class are all ways to encourage students to participate and pay attention in class.  If students are actively engaged, then they are much less likely to turn towards internet distractions to alleviate boredom.
  • Be clear about the rules
    On the first day of any class, instructors should be prepared to provide an overview of the course as well as clear expectations for student behavior during class.  Internet use should be covered during this time, and instructors should clearly communicate the rules for when the internet can and cannot be used.  This will reduce the temptation for students to use the internet for personal purposes during class.

These strategies can help ensure that the internet is used for educational purposes during class.  Students will be better able to focus with a decreased risk of distraction.

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Getting Further in Life

February 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Some people think that without a degree, you don’t have much of a future.  Honestly, though, there are plenty of people who never got one who have done fine.  Think of Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Oprah Winfrey, and a whole host of other people throughout history.  If Andrew Carnegie had gotten his degree, he may not have had time to basically create the American steel industry.  It isn’t every day when a person can say, “Yeah, that industry pretty much only exists because I built it.”  However, most of the people in the world are not good enough at business to actually create entire industries.  People like Bill Gates, John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie only come around so often.

For most of the world’s population, just getting a great job working in one of these great companies (or building a company that works on the technologies these industrial titans founded) is about the best one can do.  And in order to get further in those kinds of pursuits (as well as life in general), you need to consider taking your education to another level.  A master’s degree may yet be in your future.  But of course, not just anybody can simply walk up and ask a university to let them in.

Technically you could do that, but you still have to take entrance examinations and be accepted before much will come of it.  This is why some wise person (who is probably now wealthy) invented GMAT class online.  Without these kinds of courses, getting into a good MBA program (and getting further in life) would be even more difficult than it already is.  And since it isn’t exactly easy on its best day, we should all be pretty grateful that we have these options to make it a little bit less of an ordeal.

Filed Under: E-Readers, Online Learning Tagged With: , ,

Class Twitter Accounts Promote Learning

February 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Twitter doesn’t have to be all about celebrity gossip!  Creating a class Twitter account can help students connect course concepts to the wider world through a simple format, and it can get them thinking about the class material as they’re logging into social networking sites at home or at the library.

  • Benefits of class Twitter accounts
    Twitter helps connect both students and instructors to the rest of the world.  Not only can they make connections with other classes, organizations, or academic institutions, but they can also discover new online resources that pertain to the class.  Often, classes using Twitter will discover new articles or websites that can be incorporated into the course syllabus the following year.  Instructors can also use Twitter to receive the most up-to-date information on their subject.
  • Twitter assignments
    Twitter makes it easy to create short, relevant assignments for students.  Requiring one to two Tweets per week from each student is a good place to start.  Many times, this will simply involve posting a link to another article, or posing a question to the rest of the class.  From there, students can look into other interesting users to follow, leading them to more information.  The convenience of these assignments will likely be a huge benefit to students, as they will be able to complete the assignment from virtually anywhere–including on their cell phones.  The short character limit forces students to be concise; this will limit the amount of stress experienced and increase the time that they spend researching when compared to the time they spend writing.

Twitter accounts can be a great way for one class to reach new information, or even connect with another class following a similar educational format.  Signing up is simple and can be done in class, allowing the students to help pick the name of the account.

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Segregation and Local Education

February 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The negative effects of segregation, seen in its various manifestations, have devastated local education and school zones in certain areas. White flight and gentrification, among others, are specific examples of the mechanisms that can work in this manner. Follow along as these elements are approached in search of positive ways to fight them.

A couple of these terms serve as examples of segregation, in some form. Gentrification is seen where wealthier people acquire property in low-income areas, which can have negative effects on other individuals. White flight refers to the moving out of Caucasians when minority population increases in an area.

The effects can undermine the area in various ways. Specifically in regards to local education, changes in the socioeconomic status of the population can leave out certain population areas. For instance, in cases of gentrification, lower-income individuals can become stressed – in a number of senses, including economically – causing negative effects.

In any of these types of segregation, a common factor is that the local school district is unable to keep a diverse population. When certain populations dwindle as a result of these effects, local education suffers. Without a diverse population, the system can become segregated, which gives way to a number of difficulties in the school district.

Proper planning can significantly help. Charter schools, school choice, and planning in the area (to avoid these sociological concepts) can positively affect the local school area. As seen in a Mesa property management firm, these types of companies can help in the design and operations of a school, which can help maintain a diverse school population.

With the dangerous consequences of segregated areas, school systems and other elements of the community must take action. The aforementioned forces can certainly help to maintain a diverse and healthy population and a good school environment.

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Advantages of Using Laptops in Class

February 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Laptop use has become a common occurrence in most college level classes, and it’s even beginning to appear in high school classes.  Here are some of the benefits of allowing and promoting the use of laptops during class to improve learning.

  • Convenience for the students and instructors
    Laptops not only offer a faster method of note taking, but also a more convenient method for integrating and storing these notes.  Students can type much faster than they can write, so taking notes in a word processor can allow them to record more information at faster speeds, improving their studying capabilities and the amount of material they are able to learn from the course.  Similarly, instructors can take advantage of this increased speed and convenience as they lead their classes, providing more information to the students, or spending more time reviewing the same information.
  • Integration with PowerPoint presentations
    Laptops also allow for easy integration with PowerPoint presentations and lectures, as many students are now able to download the PowerPoint document directly onto their laptop during class.  This allows them to take notes on or near the document, and read fine print more easily than on a large screen.  Taking notes on the slides also helps students organize their thoughts and questions based on where they are in the lecture; they can note any questions on the particular slide.
  • Interactive learning with computer programs
    Many instructors are now encouraging laptop usage during their classes, as it allows them to teach with new programs.  They can hold tutorials to demonstrate how to use these programs, as well as implement in-class learning activities using these programs on the student laptops.  This feature is incredibly helpful for math and science classes, as well as engineering classes, in which students will need to build or observe structures in three dimensions.

These advantages of laptop use during class can help students more fully take advantage of their education if they are able to avoid the common distractions associated with laptop use.  Instructors can also benefit from laptops, as they can expand their lectures to include interactive technology.

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The Changes in Learning

January 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As technology improves, many industries experience improvements as well. The fields of learning, education, and research are also changing due to improvements in technologies. The ways that students research their papers have changed now that the Internet provides a myriad of new resources for information, for example. Technology has changed and continues to change the face of education as we know it, and this is really only the beginning. As technology sees improvements, education as a whole is only going to see vast improvements as well.

The surge in online degree programs from sites like elearners.com is another example of how technology has greatly changed the education landscape. It’s a phenomenon how more and more people are relying on the internet for all aspects of their education, not only when researching topics for assignments but also for their actual education as well. There are many things to consider when it comes to how technology impacts education though. For example, the Internet has made plagiarism easier, and so instructors must keep up with the changing face of education technology in order to keep students honest.

For the most part, technology is definitely benefiting learning. Now that every student has such a vast array of resources at his or her disposal, students can find the things that they are interested in at any moment and can learn about any topic that they are interested in on their own time. Online references come in many different styles and types, and so there is no shortage of information available for students to peruse. The Internet has made it significantly easier for students of all ages to find the information that they need, whether they need it for a school assignment, a paper, or personal interests. The Internet has made learning easier and even more enjoyable in a wide variety of ways.

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Benefits of Online Paper Submission

January 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Online paper submission has become increasingly common for classes at all levels, as it promotes unique, original writing and offers a convenient platform for both students and instructors.  Here are the main benefits of using online paper submission.

  • Reduction in Plagiarism
    Collecting papers through an online platform makes it easy to submit them to plagiarism detection sites.  As a result, students who know that they will be turning a paper in online are much less likely to plagiarize material, which increases the quality of their papers.
  • Ease for the Student
    Many students do not own printers, and printing at the library can be costly and inconvenient late at night.  Online paper submission gives students the ease and flexibility to submit their papers on their own time from their own computers, without having to worry about printing issues.
  • Convenience for the Instructor
    Instructors have also found that collecting papers online offers considerable convenience.  Not only does it allow teachers to access papers easily at any time and from any location, but it also allows them to effectively enforce deadlines.  Online submissions can be controlled so that the platform closes at the time of the deadline, creating a fair way to ensure on-time submissions.  Moreover, instructors are able to download the documents and review the font size, margins, and word count to make the grading process fairer for all students.
  • Benefit to the Environment
    Online submissions reduce unnecessary paper consumption and provide another way for schools to stay environmentally friendly.
  • Low Cost
    Many universities and colleges offer either free or subsidized online platforms for paper submission.  The low cost for plagiarism websites and software make this technology available for a wide range of classes.
  • Database Storage
    Plagiarism websites as well as universities will sometimes store student papers to check for plagiarism in future years.  Moreover, some of the papers can be made available to other students in future years for more information about certain research topics.

While some instructors still prefer reviewing hard copies of papers, many enjoy the benefits of collecting and reading student assignments online.

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