August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
2009
2008
Adjusting to Online Learning
All About Blogs
Balancing Life and School
Elements of Online Learning
Healthy Eating for Online Learners
Lifestyle
News
Online Resources
Paying for School
Productivity
Resources
Selecting Your School
Stress Relievers
Student/Graduate & Mentor Profiles
Teachers
Welcome!
WGU
Your Career
WGU on December 30, 2008
WGU was recently featured on CBS 2 in Chicago.
“So, you want to go to college, but don’t have the time or the money to attend a traditional campus? There’s a cheaper, more convenient option that’s gaining credibility and helping you stretch your dollar…….”
For the full story and video, click here.
WGU on December 19, 2008
***Disclaimer*** The Internet is a minefield. Travel at your own risk. ***
Sad, but true. I’m not sure what the ratio truly is, but it feels like the junk far outweighs the good stuff sometimes. But when you DO find the worthwhile sites it is a joy to sit there and soak it in. There are lots of ways to find blogs. Of course, we have the ubiquitous Google. (Google: How to do a blog search). Another good search engine to use is Best of the Web. This link focuses on Blogs and tends to weed out the junk. Wendy Boswell at About.com has written a great article about finding blogs that fit her interest. She lists a good number of starting places, such as Technorati. You won’t find everything you need at one particular site. ReadWriteWeb has put together a nice comparison of Pros and Cons for some of the main blog resources, such as Technorati and Del.icio.us.
You know the old chestnut about a journey of a 1000 miles beginning with a single step. The same can be said of looking for Blogs and RSS feeds (which often go hand in hand, but not always). All you usually need to do is find ONE good starting point. The best blogs will provide you with links to other worthwhile places on the web. In an earlier post, I shared a link to the Top 100 Education Blogs. I also urge you to check out the blog roll located on our own page. Take off running and enjoy the trip. Just remember to share your experiences with us.
WGU on December 9, 2008
Stress. We all have it. We all hate it. Thinking about it causes more stress. What can you do to get rid of it? Well, we all know that the answer is “nothing”. There will always be sources of stress in our lives. What can we do to RELIEVE it momentarily, though, is a better question.
There are all kinds of websites out there that will give you recommendations on how to relieve stress. Sites like 25 ways to relieve stress, 25 MORE ways to relieve stress, and even 99 ways to relieve stress. (That last one would have done me in.) I have taken the time to cull through some of these, increasing MY stress level, so that you don’t have to.
There were some common themes that I saw building as I read through them. The first dealt with time management. Get up early. Get organized. Don’t procrastinate. Getting control of your time will greatly reduce your stress level. I know that one of my most stressful times is getting my wife and 4 daughters to pull together and get out the door on time. If I can get things started early…diaper bag packed, snacks for in the car…and loaded in the car, my mornings can be much more relaxed.
Will Rodgers said, “Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.” And so, the second theme that jumped out at me was to start something new. Learn something new. Plant a garden. Try a new activity.
The third theme was to create a distraction for whatever is stressing you out. Listen to music. Write a journal. Write a story. Doodle! I love that one. I know that when I am just sitting with my 2 and 3 year olds and doodling mindlessly, it is VERY relaxing. Henri Matisse said, “Drawing is putting a line (a)round an idea.”
And so, I guess I can sum it up this way. Organize your time to get done what needs to be done. Get out and do something. After you’re done, take time to reflect on it. It’s in the reflection that I find my most relaxing moments.
WGU on December 5, 2008
What is RSS? You see it on a lot of web pages these days. It’s even on this one. Take a look up at the top right hand corner. Do you see the icon that looks like little soundwaves radiating out? That indicates that this web page has an RSS feed. Real Simple Syndication. It is a way of aggregating your news information into a useable format. There are a number of ways to handle this. Firefox and Internet Explorer handle them differently. Internet Explorer will put it in your favorites under feeds. Firefox creates what it calls “Live Feeds”, which allows you to add them as buttons to your toolbar for easy access. Another option for Firefox is to use an add-on like Sage or NewsFox. These add-ons turn your browser into a newsreader. Visually this makes it easy to read. The real benefit, though, is that it will automatically add new blog posts or news items to your list to read. There are two other browsers out there that are worth mentioning, as they both handle RSS very well. The first is Opera. This had long been my browser of choice. From its Speed Dial front page to the RSS reader built in, this browser is fast and has a lot of customizable options going for it. The second one is a new one to me called Lunascape. This one has some pretty neat options, as well. The first thing that jumps out about it is that it is the only browser that I know of that uses the Trident Engine (IE), Gecko Engine (Firefox), and the Webkit Engine (Google Chrome). It probably can handle any web page that you can throw at it. As far as RSS goes, it allows you to create a scrolling ticker tape of your RSS feeds on the toolbar. You can also go the stand alone route by using programs such as Feed Demon or KlipFolio. If you use Vista and you use the sidebar, there are also RSS feed gadgets for you to add. Of course, Google has an online reader service.
So now that you have got yourself set up to receive news and blog posts on a daily basis, get busy. Read up on what’s happening. Participate in the discussions and get involved. Online education. Online communication. Social Networking. It’s not the future. It’s now. If you use RSS feeds regularly, what do YOU use? Do you have any great suggestions for me about some that I have missed?
WGU on December 2, 2008
First, let’s set aside the insanely inefficient circling want ads in the newspaper, and carpet bombing every employer within a 5-10 mile radius with your résumé. That’s about getting a job, any job, and purely expedient when you’re between everything flowing out in monthly bills and day to day expenses and next to nothing flowing back into your bank accounts (plural, as in checking and savings).
Instead, let’s do a little ’strategery’ – like mapping out the next 50 years or so of your life! There’s nothing on the boob-tube worth watching anyhow with all the reruns, and you cannot do anything about the news – or the apocalyptic terms in which it is always presented. With the late fall and early winter changes forcing you inside, this is a great way to spend an otherwise dreary afternoon, and it just might change your life for the better. We’ll assume that you know and can do what your college degree indicates – unfortunatly, that is NOT always the case, so if the shoe fits…
Not to be maudlin, but the best place to begin is at your funeral way, way off in the distant future. How to you want your obituary to read? What do you want to accomplish? Then simply plan backward, with each step practically screaming what had to obviously come before that, until you reach where you are today.
If you want to be rich and successful, you either have to born into a wealthy family, win the lottery, or somehow earn it. My guess is that most of us will have to settle for the latter.
For the traditional student, with a thin résumé, I recommend Alexandra Levit’s They don’t teach corporate in college, and for all for all entering freshmen, regardless of your major or the delivery mode for the instruction, Bill Coplin’s 10 things employers want you to learn in college. These will tell you in detail I simply don’t have the space for here the knowledge and skills you will need along the way:
If you need inspiration or guidance, it’s all around you – all you have to do is check the perennially popular ’self-help’ books at your local library or bookstore. Obviously, some are better than others, but I have no reservations about recommending classics that have stood the tests of time like Napoleon Hill’s Think and grow rich and Dale Carnegie’s How to win friends and influence people, or Anthony Robbins’ Awaken the giant within and Unlimited power. Achieve your dreams: Six steps to accomplish your goals and resolutions by Susan M. Heathfield is also an excellent place to get started online. You can follow the links there, or Google to your hearts content.
The key is that this is an ongoing process, not an event; you’ve got to put it in writing. You’ve got to keep revising and updating it. You’ve got to keep moving forward, adding to your knowledge and experience, adding and improving your skills. You’ve also got to be honest with yourself, not choose goals and careers to please mom and dad or impress your friends. That’s the whole point of starting at the end and working backward. Was this the life you really wanted? You can change any of that now, but you won’t be able to then.
A Student’s Experience of Western Governors University
Chronicle Review
Education Nation Higher Education
eLearners.com Online Education Blogs
Guide To Online Schools
Online Business Degree
Online IT Degree
Online Nursing Degree
Online Teaching Degree
Western Governors University
Log in
Valid XHTML
XFN
WordPress