Making the Decision to Go Online

Walden University has recently come out with a report that Hispanics in the United States are attending their university in droves.

The Hispanic population in the United States is greatly underrepresented when it comes to higher education. Schools such as Walden University give underrepresented groups the opportunity to still obtain higher education and to improve their chances in the workforce when other more traditional institutions may not. There are some good and bad points to this kind of thing.

Walden University is an accredited online university, however does not have the same kind of credibility as a school such as Harvard, Cornell or Columbia. Sometimes in academic circles and in the world of work, the school you graduated from is just as important as the degree you receive. Do schools like Walden University actually make it possible for underrepresented groups to get a foothold in the world of work?

Well, apparently it seems as though it does. Many Hispanics are choosing schools such as Walden because it is giving them a greater advantage in the workforce. As online universities such as Walden become increasingly more credible over time, which is likely to happen, the stigma of studying online will start to go away and schools such as Walden will be seen as a viable alternative to schools such as Harvard.

Managing a Classroom

It is sometimes rare to get a classroom that behaves perfectly. There are always those few students that are having side conversations while the professor is speaking. These are some of the things you can do to make sure you are managing your classroom well.

Sometimes the hard line approach actually can work. By letting students know you will not put up with their disruptive behaviour, this makes the classroom a better learning environment for all students.

Some ways of dealing with the noise levels are the stop speaking until the room has quieted down. This tends to be an effective method that works, without the professor needing to shout.

Another method that tends to work is let the students know that if they are going to make noise in the class...you would prefer they do not show up. If they are going to be disruptive, perhaps they should not show up to class at all if they would rather chat about such things as Facebook.

Another method to ensure that your classroom is orderly is to make sure that you have a participation or a professional conduct mark as part of your class. Make sure to keep track of those students who seem to constantly be the noise makers and make sure you penalize them at the end of the class for being so disruptive. Make sure at the same time that reward those students to actually come to class to learn.

Marking Guidelines for the College Level

Marking can be one of the toughest things that a professor has to do. I have some guidelines that I go by that have been suggested to me by other professors:

You cannot mark all levels of different subjects the same. In general I stick to some basic rules that help depending on the level I am teaching.

If it is a first year class, I generally allow about three to five errors in a written document before I start to deduct marks for grammar, spelling errors and punctuation. Especially at the beginning of the course when many of the students may have come out of high school, I try to make allowances that they are still learning how to write. I do not tend to completely re-write their text, unless there are some major problems. I try to keep in mind that not everyone writes the way I do and that I should let their individuality and creativity shine through their assignments. They are not in school to learn how to write like me, they are there to learn how to write their best.

If it is a second year class, I generally allow only three errors at a maximum before I start deducting marks.

If it is a third year class, I allow about two errors. For a fourth year class I allow one. If the class is a post-graduate certificate class, I expect flawless copy and will start deducting marks at the slightest error of spelling, punctuation and grammar.

I find this to be a fair way to do my marking. Other things I keep in mind when marking is to make sure I am really impressed with the work. If I am really impressed with what the student has done, generally they will receive A standing. If I think they could have put a lot more work into the story or written work, or audio assignment...they receive lower marks.

Technology Tips for Professors to Students

To get students set up on a blog, these are the sites I would suggest:

http://www.wordpress.com
http://typepad.com
http://eblogger.com
http://blogger.com
http://www.squarespace.com
http://www.thoughts.com
http://livejournal.com
http://blogcrowds.com
http://www.vox.com/

These are just a few. There are many, many more.

Podcast Instructions:

A podcast is an audio file sent to the web. You probably already know this. Here are some sites where students can get podcasts going:

http://www.wordpress.com - students may need to pay extra to upload really large files, such as documentaries
****The same goes for all of the ones above

There are other sites that will allow you to upload large files for free:

www.podbean.com
www.podomatic.com

This one may be for a fee:

www.podcast.com
www.podango.com

There are podcasts for just about every major mainstream radio station from the BBC, NPR, CBC, RCI, FAN590, CHFI, etc…

Video Blogs or Video Podcasts:

Video blogs are when students would do a commentary piece, a talk show that is more casual – anything appropriate for student work and/or the nature of the web. Every site I have listed at the top will give a student the ability to upload video onto their blog. As I have mentioned before, there may be an added fee to support the high megabyte size of these files.

Video Podcasts – these are more professional pieces of work put to the web. Either check out or show these two websites are doing Internet TV, and essentially on-going video podcasts:

www.dex.tv
www.therealnews.com/t/

If you would like to see a multimedia online magazine that I have created through Wordpress.com, check out http://kakonged.wordpress.com. There you will find blogging stories, pictures, podcasts, video blogs and video podcasts. I highly recommend you start one yourself if you can find the time so you can show it to your students. It is tremendous fun and I know you would really enjoy it.

More on multimedia magazines...to create an online .pdf copy of a magazine here are some sites:

http://www.joomla.org/
http://drupal.org/
www.xanga.com
http://www.uniflip.com/

Design Information:

If you want a really unique design for your site…here are some sources where if you have some money…you can get it done:

http://www.doodlebuddesign.blogspot.com/
http://wp-design.org/
http://www.wpdesigner.com/2007/02/19/so-you-want-to-create-wordpress-themes-huh/
http://wp-design.net/
http://wpdesignblog.com/
http://wpdesignpro.com/
http://fleuron.com/?gclid=COaX3_W9npsCFSgYagodyRJ3Bg

This list is always developing and growing.

Key to Teaching is Organization

When it comes down to planning a course in education, the key is organization. Here are some tips to make sure you are ready for the upcoming academic year:

The first step in keeping organized when it comes to teaching is to make sure you have read the course textbook. If you are finding you are really crunched for time and perhaps have only found out that you can teach the course at the last minute, try to at least read the first five or six chapters of the book. Chances are you are teaching the course because you are already familiar with the course topic. Once the course has started, you can concentrate on making sure that you read the entire textbook. I find this to be helpful because when you are using the textbook as a discussion point in class, you will be knowledgeable of what it covers.

Once you have done that, you can start planning the course outline for the class. In some cases, you may already receive a course outline from the coordinator of your program. If not, then make sure you follow the guidelines of the school to plan out your week by week breakdown of what your classes will entail. This will help you to be really organized and to know what to plan for. As well, if you do this early enough and would like to have a special guest speaker come to class, or plan a class trip, you will be organized enough to make sure this happens.

The next step is start planning your individual lesson plans, week by week. I do recommend you do this all before the class starts. This will allow you to have more time to mark during the semester, as well as to take on more teaching projects if the opportunity arises. If you have a full-time job and are only teaching one course, preparing your lesson plans in advance will help you to manage your workload. If you are a full-time professor, planning your lesson plans in advance could give you more time to work on outside projects, such as publishing, attending conferences and professional development that are also important to the academic working experience.

Using the News as a Discussion Point in Lectures

Sometimes for a professor it can be hard to find a way to bridge the gap between the theory of a textbook and the reality that goes on around us. The news is one way to do this.

Finding a way to tie in current events to a lecture and interesting points of reference is a wonderful to get discussion going in classrooms. Most students would keep up to date on things that are going on. This is a collective knowledge that can be used to stimulate discussion.

Some of things that are really hot topics right now include Barack Obama winning the democratic nomination in the United States. This historical event is something that really should be discussed in classrooms. In general, the United States is better at discussing such points in the classroom, whereas in Canada, professors tend to shy away from discussing politics, with the exception of political science courses and classes.

Journalism classes are another arena where important current events are discussed are often tested as part of the curriculum. Another way to make sure students are aware of current events is to have them do assignments linked to real-life situations that are occurring in the news. This will help them to understand that the world around them does count in the classroom, plus as citizens it is their duty to be aware of the news.

Educating Yourself With Music

Music is such a marvelous thing that there are so many ways to educate yourself about it.

Outside of taking a music appreciation class in your high school, college or university...the first step to educating yourself about music is just by listening to the radio. This is something that many people start out with when they are young and they start to develop a sense of what they like and do not like about music.

Many times our musical tastes can also be influenced by our parents. The kinds of music they play in the home will always have lasting memories for us.

Once you get older and if you would like to save money on acquiring a musical collection...a great way to do so is to borrow CDs from the library. The library will tend to have some of the best music you can find. Sometimes the rare music you enjoy that you would like to have, you would need to buy that...however this would still lower your costs.

Now a days, many people are also downloading music. This is definitely an option too since some sites are legal so that you can actually pay per song.

Getting an understanding of music, even getting to the point where you take advantage of music classes to learn how to play an instrument, or continue to play music through private lessons is so important. A very important reason why understanding music is good for educational purposes is because those people who have a firm grasp of music tend to do better in their math, science and even language abilities. This will help any student to be well-rounded. If you are looking to enter university or college...this can also help you to receive the highest grades to get into the school of your choice.