My Norwich University Experience : Tools

Cap and Gown

WheelCipher — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:26:00 GMT

UPS delivered my cap and gown this week. It is very cool! When I go to Norwich next weekend for graduation, it will mark the first time I have ever worn a cap and gown. I skipped my high school graduation because I was not into that kind of thing when I was 18 years old. I was just happy to get out of high school.

I did not go to my undergrad ceremony when I graduated from Kaplan University a couple of years back. It was “somewhat” important to me, but I could not get the time off from work. I was not too disappointed about it. I would not miss this graduation for anything. I not only look at it as graduating with my MBA, but the culmination of six years of work.

In other news, in looking for online resources that might help distance education students, I came across a nice set of tools from Google. Google Books has over 10 million resources to browse. In addition, there are millions of articles that can be used as reference material. I have used some of these resources in the past, but did not write about them.

In closing, I will be spending the next week packing and getting everything ready for my trip to Vermont. I am really looking forward to it. The only drawback is the flight there. I have to drive to Dallas, go through Atlanta, and then on to Vermont. Sounds like it might be easy, but the downtime between flights turn this into a 12-hour trip.

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iTunes University

WheelCipher — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:02:00 GMT

I have mentioned in the past how much I really love my iPod Touch. I bought it a few months ago at the same time I bought my iPhone. I also mentioned what a great tool it is for learning. I currently have the following podcasts archived on the iPod:

The Thomas Jefferson Hour (http://www.jeffersonhour.com)
Big Ideas (http://podcast.com/show/2799/Big-Ideas/)
Career Tools (http://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts/career-tools)
Manager Tools (http://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts/manager-tools)
The Invisible Hand (http://invisiblehandwriting.typepad.com/)

…and many more

Now there is an article from New Scientist Magazine about how awesome this whole educational podcasting thing really is.

Students have been handed another excuse to skip class from an unusual quarter. New psychological research suggests that university students who download a podcast lecture achieve substantially higher exam results than those who attend the lecture in person.

Podcasted lectures offer students the chance to replay difficult parts of a lecture and therefore take better notes, says Dani McKinney, a psychologist at the State University of New York in Fredonia, who led the study.

"It isn't so much that you have a podcast, it's what you do with it," she says

One of the major “issues” with distance learning is the lack of interaction between students and instructors. Some deal well with it and others not so much. I have always believed that if instructors would create an audio or video podcast of the lectures, it would greatly enhance the online learning experience.

I hope that this trend continues. The educational potential of podcasts, mixing traditional lecture with technology seems like a wonderful idea that everyone should adopt. It’s quite inexpensive and the payback for the student is tremendous.

While I am not a part of these classes that are offered at iTunes University, I listen just for the fun of it. It’s a great experience.

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Need a School Loan? Not so fast!

WheelCipher — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:55:00 GMT

I was going to write a list of predictions for 2009 regarding the growth of distance education. It might have been an easy prediction to believe that more people will be going to school with the economy in its current state. More people out of work should normally result in an increase in people looking to upgrade their skills and knowledge.

But not so fast! Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you know that a lot of the problems we’re facing now have caused the lending institutions to be very tight with their money.

What this means is that if you were looking to take out a loan for school, this is just as bad of a time to do that as it is to buy a house, car, or anything else. When Congress passed the last stimulus bill, it was supposed to go toward buying bad mortgages and covering for other bad decisions that people and banks made. Instead, it seems to me that the billions of dollars that were injected into the markets went to executive bonuses and extravagant perks for people that (in my opinion) should be in jail.

The result of this mismanagement by Congress, the banks, and anyone else who got the cash (and Congress won’t tell us who got the cash) is that money for education loans are very limited.

I found a great article that outlines all this at:

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/01/24/2350276-college-financial-aid-system-facing-stiff-test

"The financing system for college is in real crisis," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers. "Every one of the participants in the system is experiencing hardship — higher education institutions, states, aid donors and families all are cash-strapped."

I also found another article that will help you if you are looking for financial help:

Diligence, speed will help secure 2009 college aid

Good luck to all!

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My Newest Gadget

WheelCipher — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:29:00 GMT

I took delivery of my newest “educational tool” this morning. I bought myself a new HP Mini 1000 laptop. I tracked it through FedEx from the manufacturing plant in China, through Alaska, to Tennessee, and then to Texas. I was promised delivery “before 10:30am” today so I stayed at home from work until it arrived. It came at 10:29am … exactly. How’s that for timing?

My initial impression is that this little thing will be very good for writing school papers. The keyboard is outstanding for a small laptop. The screen is a 10.2” wonder that is clear as a bell. This is a great upgrade from the HP Mini 2133 that I purchased a while back. That little laptop was great. It still works, too! My daughter will be happy to get it. At 4-years old, she will love it.

The computer comes with a decent hard drive. I installed MS Word, Firefox, and all the tools I will need for various productivity tasks related to school. The only drawback was that it shipped with 512k or RAM. Luckily HP made it very easy to upgrade. I got a 2 gig stick of RAM from Crucial.com for a mere $30.00. The laptop itself was only $499.00. I am quite happy with my investment.

My two-week break from school started today. I will be soaking in the free time. One thing I have noticed thus far compared to other terms --- In the past, I have always been ready to jump right back into class whenever I would have a break. This time is completely different. I am very happy to have this break and actually wish it were longer. But when school does start back, I will only have two online classes left. It’s all downhill from here.

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Discounts for Students

WheelCipher — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:00:00 GMT

There is a really great deal going on right now. If you use Microsoft Office (and if you are a distance learning student, you probably do), Microsoft is offering Office 2007 Ultimate for 91% off. The normal price for this product is almost $700.00 retail. If you can show you have an e-mail address ending with the .edu suffix, you can have this package for $59.00.

Also, you must be a student at a U.S. educational institution and must be actively enrolled in at least 0.5 course credit and be able to provide proof of enrollment upon request.

The Office 2007 package includes the following applications:

Access® 2007
Accounting Express 2008
Excel® 2007
InfoPath® 2007
Groove® 2007
OneNote® 2007
Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager
PowerPoint® 2007
Publisher 2007
Word 2007

Take advantage of this great deal by clicking on the link below:

http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx

In addition to that, Dell has some great deals. Here is a page with coupon codes for Dell laptops. Also, you might want to check with your school to see if they have a code to use at Dell when purchasing computers. I recently saw the list of eligible schools and it is a very long list. I have used school coupons before and received great discounts because of it.

If you’re more of an Apple fan, you can check out their student discounts at http://www.apple.com/education/hed/students/

I like to see big companies like Microsoft, Dell and Apple offering discounts to students. This is especially true for Microsoft. Their software products are not the cheapest and to have a 91% discount on a product that costs almost $700.00 is a tremendous deal.

Do you have any questions about distance education
or anything in this post? Feel free to contact Scott anytime!

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