Posts filed under 'Product Reviews'
A favorite professor of mine will be instructing an online / distance course over the summer. One of the reasons I love this professor is that she always asks feedback from students so she can make the class better each semester. In preparation for instructing her first online / distance learning class, she assembled a panel of students that have taken online / distance learning classes to get an idea of what would work best. As I gathered my thoughts for the panel, I realized there may be others that would like to know the pros and cons of taking online courses. I have taken seven online courses for college credit and 12 online courses for certification, 3 distance learning college courses as well so I think I have a pretty good idea of what is out there.
Pros:
+ Online courses that are taken at another college and transfered do not count toward/against your GPA. For me, this was a way to bypass a professor that graded unfairly. It is also a way to take courses that you are weak in without hurting your overall GPA.
+ Open book learning. You really learn a lot by researching your answers instead of trying to memorize a book. I have a difficult time memorizing vocabulary. When I want to know what a word means I look it up (and never forget it after that). Online courses allow you to research answers and in the end I learned more than I would have in the cram session most students do before quizes and tests.
+ No classes to try to fit into a schedule. No need to try to adjust your work schedule to fit in that odd class. No more 8am classes…
+ The assignments are more busywork than difficult. The hardest part of an online course is figuring out what the professor wants in an assignment. A note to online instructors: show examples for every assignment.
Cons:
- The college credit online / distance learning courses were not “at your own pace” as advertised. This is my major pet peeve about online/distance learning courses. They advertise “work at your own pace” but I have never taken an online / distance learning course that allows you to access the next module/chapter assignments early and there are due dates on everything. There were times wanted to go on vacation or I got really busy but I still had to get everything done within a very restricted schedule. I would have liked to be able to get ahead on assignments if I can and requested early access on every online / distance learning course I took but I was never accomodated.
I did not mind the deadlines as much as the restriction on how much I could do at once. Sometimes I was just in the mood to get things done and it would have been nice to finish the course in 6 weeks instead of 8 if I could. Another note to online / distance learning course instructors: Open the entire course from the start and allow students to get ahead.
- Some courses may be too difficult to attempt to do online or from a distance. I would not want to try calculus online or from a distance as it is a subject that needs real time interaction to learn conceptual and abstract ideas. I recommend courses that usually rely on memorization to assess learning such as history, psychology, business classes, economics, etc.
- Many students are not capable of following directions. If you cannot read and figure out the assignment, then online learning is not for you. The directions are sometimes abstract and require you to identify exactly what is required for the assignment. For example, every online class I took required the students to participate in class discussions by asking a question about the chapter and then responding to at least two other questions in the forum for each chapter. If that does not make sense to you, don’t take an online course.
I hope this helps others decide and get a better idea of what they are up against with online courses. Anyone else ever taken online college courses? How did it go? Anything I missed?
Technorati tags: education, online, college, review, adult, course, learning, gpa, distance
June 24th, 2006
My best friend gave me an iPod Shuffle as college graduation gift and it is by far the best gift I have ever received.
Pros:
+ Unlike regular iPods, this gadget charges while connected to a USB port. So it charges while you are adding songs and arranging playlists. How cool is that? I have a cell phone charger, my laptop, a light, and a printer all plugged in near my desk; not having find another outlet for my iPod or buy and extra charger for work is a feature I am surprised other MP3 players have not latched onto.
+ The iPod Shuffle’s charge lasts up to 12 hours. I definitely get 12 hours and I’ve had it and used it regularly for over a year without any noticable reduction in charge time.
+ Apple definitely takes the cake in customer service. When I first opened my iPod Shuffle, it would not work. I thought it was something I did wrong so I read the manual cover to cover and still could not figure out how to get it charged or how to transfer songs to it. I went to the Apple website and found a live support chat at 2am! The very next day, I got a brand new iPod Shuffle delivered next day air rush delivery. The return envelope was pre-addressed and pre-paid. Doesn’t get any better than that.
+ The iPod Shuffle is so small and light (about the size of a pack of gum), it easily fits in the smallest of pockets (the normal iPods feel like a cell phone in your pocket). Just be sure not to wash the iPod which is easily done because its so small you can forget to take it out of your pocket before washing. Included is a cap that converts the iPod Shuffle into a lanyard making it perfect for all the ladies that don’t have pockets on their workout clothes.
Although the regular iPod has a few more features and more storage space, working out with a regular iPod is like working out with a cell phone in your pocket or worse carrying it. The iPod Shuffle, however is not even noticeable while working out you literally forget you have it on.
+ The iPod Shuffle can also be used as a USB thumbdrive allowing you to save files on it and transfer it to another PC.
Cons:
- You will need to install iTunes to manage the song list on the iPod Shuffle. This would not be a problem except if you try to load songs from another PC with iTunes you lose all the songs you already had on it. I think this is Apple’s way of saying don’t use this to transfer songs from one PC to another.
- The iPod Shuffle does not have a display on the unit. Your options are Rewind , Fast Forward, Volume Up, Volume Down, Play/Pause, On/Off/Shuffle. You will need to memorize your playlist to be able find a specific song. I personally don’t find this as a problem because I never stop working out to look for a song. I just don’t put songs on it that I don’t like and let it shuffle through them. I listed this as a con because most other MP3 players have some form of display.
- I found the headphones to be uncomfortable. I felt like my ears were bruised from them so I bought a regular pair of headphones for instead. I think the headphones should come with ear piece size choices.
Overall rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Vote for this post on Associated Content.com
You can get paid for reviewing products and services just like I did for this post! Click here to start getting paid for your opinions by AssociatedContent.com.
June 10th, 2006
MySpace has been in the headlines a lot lately. Kids are getting kicked off sports teams, and out of school, arrests have been made, families are being evicted. I am always amazed at the things I see on mySpace pages. Apparently, I am not the only one that peruses the site for pages of people I know. It appears that some school districts and colleges have a task force to keep tabs on the mySpace pages related to the local communities. Of course, I have seen teens getting other teens in trouble for content but they take particular offense when an adult stalks them.
I basically troll the four mySpace like sites that my college friends use including facebook, webshots community, xanga, and excite. I find all my friends and see who has who in their friend list and how they met and any interaction they’ve had through the site. I have so many friends that these kinds of pages allow me to make sure all of my friends know what I’m up to and keep tabs on them even if I don’t get a chance to see them that often. Most of my friends do a better job keeping their sites updated than I do but it is pretty cool to be able to see who knows who and how we all seem to be linked in some way or another.
Unfortunately, since I live in a small town I inevitably end up looping through friendlists and end up on my step-kids pages. They HATE that. Even though I have always told them never to post anything on the internet that they don’t want me (or the rest of the family) to know about, they still act like I am intruding on their “privacy” if I actually read what they have posted.
That definitely has to go in the WTF? category. They are putting photo’s and stories of themselves on the WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW). How the heck is that private? For some reason, it is all the rage to put the most outrageous things you have ever done, and in some cases have not done but want others to think you have done, onto a mySpace page.
Things have definitely changed since I was a teen. When I did something illegal or morally questionable, I HID it from people. As long as no one knew about it, I did not have to beat myself up about it. When I was caught, I beat myself up about not doing a good enough job hiding it. My “space” was a hand written diary that always ended up in the worng hands somehow, no matter where I hid it or how I tried to lock it. I very quickly learned not to but any real dirt in my easily accessed diary.
Nowadays, it seems to be the exact opposite. Like you can do anything you want as long as you make a public display of it on a mySpace like site. Parents, teachers, and law enforcement, however should ignore these public posts because… because the publisher did not intend for anyone in authority to read it? Rather ignorant for a group that grew up in the internet age. I am of the opinion that if your caught, you pay the price. Then next time you might think twice and think its not worth the price.
There is no way to ensure that something you post on the internet today and take down tomorrow won’t resurface somewhere at the most inopportune times. Even if you take down your content, someone might have copied it on their site and it will probably resurface sometime down the road. I would not be surprised if mySpace like sites are now included in background checks that companies use when they hire people. If it is not already a standard, it soon will be. I guarantee most law enforcement agencies do this on a regular basis. It’s so easy to convict someone that admits it in a public forum.
For all those that are documenting their adventures on mySpace like sites, I offer the following guidelines:
1.) Crimes that are documented on the internet are elevated to the FEDERAL level of the judicial system. This is because the WWW is…. say it with me… worldwide and not under the jurisdiction of city or state municipalites. Skip the pictures and comments about illegal activities. If someone gets pissed about it, you will have a felony record.
2.) Stupid is as stupid does, Forrest. And stupid lasts forever. Your stupid stories and pictures will come back to haunt you.
3.) ANYTHING PUBLISHED ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB IS NOT PRIVATE. People will see it. Everyone can see it. That’s why it is called the WORLD WIDE… oh never mind.
Technorati tags: MySpace, Webshots Community, Xanga, Excite, privacy, World Wide Web, morality, troll
June 8th, 2006
