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Tools that Help Online Learners

July 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Benq laptop

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Education is important, but not everyone is able to go away to college to learn. This could be because they can’t afford the costs of living away from home. Or it could be because they can’t afford to quit their job and so they need something that is flexible. Whatever the reason, there are now ways for students to attend college online. Here are some tools needed by these online learners:

Computers

The first thing that is needed is a computer. Many students choose to purchase laptops because they are portable, allowing the student to take them to work, the library, and home. They’ve also become very affordable in the past few years, making it easy for students to purchase them. It’s standard now for laptops to come with Wi-Fi, allowing students to connect anywhere where there’s a hotspot. This makes doing homework very convenient.

E-Readers

With so many programs now available online, including getting a master degree at EarnMyDegree.com, textbooks are also becoming virtual. This is a great advantage to the students because it allows them to carry their “books” without breaking their backs. It also allows them to search for keywords, making studying for tests easier.

Going to college has never been easier. It used to be that students had to rearrange their whole schedules in order to attend classes. Now students just have to go online, which makes getting a degree very convenient, whether for a bachelor’s degree or beyond.

 

Filed Under: Education, Online Learning, Reading Tagged With: , ,

Online Libraries

March 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Online libraries are new resource for not just students, but for the public. There has been a big push to eliminate printing, and paper usage, and the newest way to make sure that is occurring is by digitizing everything that is printed. For instance, this article, news papers, flyers, and books are all primarily on digital formats. The days of paper advertising are quickly fading away. This means that the face of libraries has changed as well, and there is both good and bad with this process. For those that are going to miss the smell of paper, the feel of the page between your fingers, and delight of having your own library on your shelves, you are not alone. Many people are already missing those aspects of reading and books. However, it has been said though, that a child born in the year 2011 will not understand the concept of a card catalogue, checking out books, or even a library card.

For students however, this is an amazing development, as it saves time and money, and those are two things that many students just do not have enough of. People can go to a library, sit in a digital feed room, and look up books via WIFI. Then download them. That is of course if that student wants to take the time to go to the library. Most online libraries are just that, online. A student can access all the books via the internet, download from home, and not just have a book, but also have the works cited that comes with the book in APA format, MLA, Turabian, and Chicago. This makes citing sources that much easier to do, and many students are wondering how students of days past even survived using bulky reference manuals, and type writers. The new technology is allowing students to quickly access information without the hassle of leaving their home.

Aside from this, education is now also more digitized. There are educational systems online like earnmydegree.com that provide distance learning through a computer to those interested. With the fast advancement of technology, we can only wait for what’s in store in the future.

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

Creative Writing

February 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Creative writing is a process that many students need to learn so that they can begin to use vital critical thinking skills. The actual skill of writing is taught simultaneously with reading, and is a key element in the fundamentals of learned material in the beginning years of schooling. By expanding on that knowledge and then incorporating learned material, students can begin to write down their thoughts, and begin to piece together coherent thoughts that exhibit critical thinking. Creative writing is a great way to have students exercise critical thinking. Tasks like finishing the following sentence, “I went to the beach, and I…” allows students to imagine what they would be doing at the beach. This type of creative skill is a fantastic way to teach students to incorporate things that the know of the beach, as well as independent thoughts that they may have regarding their feelings toward the beach, or something they remember or a detail that was interesting.

Teachers are now able to post children’s writing that they complete and e-publish their work. There is nothing better than receiving a published piece of work from your child. With technology advancing the way it has in the last few years, e-books, e-readers, and e-publishing are a feasible and possible aspect for a students classroom. This means that creative writing, and the use of much needed critical thinking skills are rewarded by having a public display forum. This could potentially be a massive encourager for students to continue writing and exercising that skill of being creative, and parents and the public can enjoy reading the works of art published by children. There is always a little author waiting to be discovered, and if encouraged properly, it could be your little student.

Filed Under: General, Writing Tagged With: , ,

Reading Education

February 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It is vital for students to learn how to read as soon as possible. It is this function that is the most important out of all of the educational goals. In order for children to begin reading they need to have a good foundation for symbol recognition. This means that children need to understand what the letter “a” looks like, and sounds like. These skills are usually taught at the preschool level, or at home. Children that have not been taught these skills prior to entering Kindergarten have a 60 percent chance of failure in that grade. Reading is the key fundamental to all education, as all education is based on presenting material in written format for comprehension. Students must be able to take instructions and they must be able to apply those instructions for their assignments. If a student is unable to read, he or she will be destined for failure in school.

The basic approaches for teaching reading to young students is by starting with the basics. This includes teaching letters and sounds. After the letters and sounds have been mastered, teachers are able to put letters together and begin to form sounds. This is when students can have word recognition with words like “mom” or “dad” or “cat.” These are basic words that students learn to read that follow consistent rules and guidelines. This is also a good way to approach short sounds and long sounds. The next step is to begin to integrate blends, followed by sight words and silent vowel rules. It will take a child up until the third grade to master the key blends that they are taught, and by then they should be working on expanding their vocabulary and not just basic reading skills. Teachers have been provided a prescribed method on how to teach reading, and each student should be able to follow the basic routine without any stress.

Filed Under: Education, Reading Tagged With: , ,

E-Books

February 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

E-books, or Electronic books, are the newest technological advancement that is taking over one of America’s past times, reading. In fact, the trend has become so popular that a Florida public high school has insisted that students use an electronic reading tablet as opposed to text books. This has become a major cost saver for many educational institutions, and in fact so popular that even the environmentalist groups are in full support. With the new gadgets that are supported by Nook, or Kindle, students are able to enjoy their reading materials, academic materials, and even have internet access for scholarly writings, all from the convenience of a small tablet. The public school that is supporting this innovation has recently stated that the Kindle used in the classroom has saved the school district thousands of dollars. The Kindle, which costs around $140.00 is less than what it would cost for one chemistry text book for a student. The text book publishers sell bulk licensing for schools for e-book downloads, and they are pennies on the dollar.

The nice aspect to the Kindle and e-books is that they allow readers to have a quick on-site index. This is especially convenient if a student or reader is looking for a particular topic in a book. The days of endless page flipping to get to a section, only to find that you were mistaken are over. Now a student can click on a book icon, type in a word, and the find option will seek out the sections that offer that word or words. This has the potential of saving students hours during studying time, and readers are able to find out specific details in a hurry because they no longer need to worry about the scavenger hunt of finding particular items. This has revolutionized the way people buy books, read books, and even review books. The only thing missing now is the smell of the book, and the feeling of turning pages.

Filed Under: E-Readers/E-Books, Education Tagged With: , ,

Teaching Good Word Choice

January 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Word choice is a skill that many young writers lack. As easy as it may sound to a teacher, students may not understand how to make good word choice. There are may ways in which you can teach a student good word choice, but one idea includes reading a piece with a variety of examples of good word choice, having students mark good word choice, and reviewing the results with the entire class.

Find a piece of writing with many examples of word choice contained in the writing. Try to decide on a piece that your students would enjoy such as a funny poem or story. There are thousands of great examples of great word choice, so it shouldn’t be hard to find one.

Before you begin the lesson, review what good word choice means. Hand out sheets with the piece you have decided on to each student and read the piece together as a class. While you are reading, have each student circle or underline each example of good word choice they find within the piece.

As a class, discuss words or phrases that they have found and compare whether their answers are similar. If they have similar answers, you are probably doing a great job of teaching them.

You can try mixing this assignment up a little by having them circle examples of bad word choice within a piece as well. This will help them get familiar with good and bad word choice. Perhaps you will then have them come up with a word or phrase to replace the one they have circled.

After your students have completed this activity, have them write their own example of good word choice, which can simply be a paragraph in length. This way you can make sure that they don’t only understand how to recognize great word choice, but that they can actually write a piece containing good word choice.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With:

The Importance of Reading Specialists

January 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Reading specialists are very valuable members of the teaching team. They work with students who have trouble either writing or reading, and they help those students find a way to learn more easily so that they can catch up with their peers. While the job of a reading specialist can be difficult at times, it’s also one that’s very rewarding and can provide a lot of joy when you see your students doing better and really ‘getting it’ when it comes to reading. Many students can learn to read well and catch up to where they should be, but they need someone to help them and work with them. That’s where a reading specialist comes in, and it shows how much of a difference you can make in the life of a student.

If you want to become a reading specialist, the good news is that there are options. One of them is to get a degree online. That’s perfect for teachers because they can continue teaching their students during the day and then they can go to school online in their spare time. It doesn’t take anything away from their students, since they don’t miss time in the classroom, but it can help their students out a lot in the future, as they’ll be better able to help them learn to read.

By jumping over the hurdles of reading, children can learn more in the long run with the help of a reading specialist that’s focused on them and what they need in order to succeed. For a teacher wanting to become a reading specialist, checking out sites that offer online degrees is important. That way, he or she can get the information needed to make an informed choice when looking for a college. That’s the best way to decide which one is right for you.

Filed Under: Education, General, Online Learning Tagged With: , , , , , , ,