Welcome Back to School…Taking Online Classes
by scarez on Dec.03, 2010, under Personal, School
After a very long time away from higher education, I decided to get the education ball rolling again. I will be honest when I graduated high school a few years ago, a few being 15 years ago, the last thing I wanted to do was to be back in a classroom. In my mind I was done with school, I wanted to get out in the world and have some fun.
Of course I went ahead and enrolled in classes at the local community college anyway. At first it was exciting, as I was in a new location, and I was learning new things. I was able to take computer classes which I was very interested in at the time. If I recall correctly I took an introductory C++ programming class, I had the desire to learn the language, but I was not motivated. I think I finished that class with a D maybe a C (no pun intended). And slowly but surely I started the GPA nosedive, which mostly involved me not getting out of bed for that 8 AM class, or just deciding that there were other things I would rather do than go to school. This all continued for a few semesters, I would occasionally take a class that captured my attention enough to make me want to be there, but they were few and far between. So after a few semesters of basically throwing my money away I decided to forgo the higher education thing for a little while.
Well after several failed attempts at taking college classes, I decided if this was going to work for me I would need to either take classes at night or online. With me being a techie it kind of made sense for me to look into online classes. Of course leave it to me to pick a school that costs more than 10 times what the other two schools cost me. I enrolled at the University of Phoenix in their online program. I must say that so far the classes seem fairly easy, however as I have only taken two classes so far I cannot really state that as fact. What I can say is that some people really have no business taking college classes online. Some of the people in my classes so far seem to have a difficult time dealing with the English language, at least the written portion of it. Every time I read some of their posts to the classroom, I am reminded that if they can do this so can I. I will actually be amazed if some of these people even pass their classes. This is not some school where the cost of 12 credit hours is around $500, here a 3 credit hour class will cost you close to $1700. So I would think that the people going to school there would be heavily invested in making sure they actually do good. However, I can truthfully say that is not the case, some of these people treat school as if it is a burden that has been placed on them. None of this would be so bad if I did not have to actually work with some of these people in what they call a Learning Team. Basically in every class that one takes at the University of Phoenix, the class is broken down into several Learning Teams. So far I have had a class where the facilitator (weird name for a teacher) split the class into 3 randomly selected teams, and another class where we were first given the choice to group up how we saw fit. Once everyone had a chance to pick their teams the facilitator stepped in and split the remaining people up.
From what I have seen so far, the online classroom is really a wonderful thing in terms of allowing people who do not have the most flexible schedules in the world to still get an education. I personally like being able to pretty much work at my own pace, and the way the classes are formatted is really right up my alley. Online schooling is certainly not for everyone, and in fact some people should clearly avoid even trying to take classes in that way. However, if you are one of those types who can actually excel in an environment like that then there is no reason not to, I would actually recommend it. I have completed two classes so far, and I have been nothing but impressed with the way it all works. To date I have been through a General Education class which was kind of like a “Welcome back to School” type of class to kind of get you ready for the way things work there. My second class that I just finished up last week was an Economics class. I learned that I have little to no interest in becoming an economist, but I was able to get an A out of the class so I can’t complain. As my schooling there will be an on-going thing I am thinking that this might be a series type of post, where I revisit where I am in the process.
For now I am happy with my choice to return to school, I just hope that I am able to do as good in the rest of my classes as I have been doing so far. Online schooling has captured my attention and focus in a way that attending a physical school never could. So I have faith that this time around I will actually be able to complete this learning experience and earn myself a degree. More to come later.
That First Blog Post…And How It Can Define Your Blog
by scarez on Nov.13, 2010, under Opinion
While I may not be the most knowledgeable blog author, I do know that first impressions can mean a lot. So what I am looking for here is a post that will make people who visit the blog want to come back for more. Well let me just start by saying that I am committing blasphemy by even writing this post. Not because of the topic, but because I am writing it from an Apple Mackbook Air that I just purchased the other day. I have always been a PC guy, and in all honesty I still am a PC guy, but I must say that so far this little Mac has blown me away. I was always that guy who said they would never own an Apple product, that’s right I buckled, I gave in to the hype. And from what I have seen so far the Air has lived up to the hype, in fact in my opinion it has actually exceeded it. For those people out there who know me, that is saying a lot, lets just say I have never been a big fan of Apple products. Although in all actuality I have no good reason to not like them, from what I can tell they are very well built machines, and are more than capable of handling the majority of tasks that one might throw at them.
Another recent technology purchase that I made was an Amazon Kindle, which they just released the generation 3 model a few months ago. I was never a big book reader, on occasion I would read portions of books that I had laying around. Once I got my Kindle I started reading more than ever before. The Kindle makes it super easy to grab a new book to read whenever and pretty much where ever I am at the time. In fact I have liked my Kindle so much that I am working on getting some as gifts for family at Christmas. One of the 1st books I read on my Kindle was Tim Ferriss’s “The Four Hour Workweek”, which I highly recommend checking out, it was a really good read.
So for this post I would like to kind of talk about technology and how it can play a part in our lives, and in some cases maybe even improve our lives in some way. Technology is everywhere and is used by pretty much everyone in the world in some way, shape or form. What exactly makes it so important that so many people use it? Why is that $1500 laptop something that a guy like me living paycheck to paycheck is willing to spend the money on. What causes people like me (techies) to want that latest and greatest piece of tech? Well it used to be because they were toys for adults, but anymore they are actually functional pieces of our day-to-day lives.
Take for example a persons cell phone, in more and more cases now simple cell phones are being replaced with “smart” phones. People are basically walking around with miniature computers in their pockets, which means they have the world at their finger tips no matter where they are. If you ask me that is a very good thing, but the problem here is that not many people actually ask me. As part of the “smart” phone craze we are starting to see more of the location aware applications. At first I was hesitant to enable or allow those kinds of apps to run on my phone, you know the whole big brother is watching you thing. But now I see that location aware has all kinds of potential benefits and uses. My Droid is fully location aware, and while I am not one of those “broadcaster” types of people who runs apps like Google Latitude, I do allow the apps that I run to know where I am so they can give me more localized data.
Laptops have started to be replaced with netbooks because for the normal user out there, having the ability to email, browse the web and perform lightweight document editing are really all they need a mobile computer for. I actually have a small Asus EeePC netbook that I will soon be giving to my parents. Since I picked up the Mac, I have no reason to continue to try to use the netbook and its 10.1 inch screen. The small screen size is what prompted me to decide to invest in a new laptop in the first place. I still have a Sony 15.4″ laptop, but the battery in that one is toast, it may hold a charge for 5 minutes if I am lucky. I do much prefer something a little more substantial over the average netbook, and the Air actually fits that bill just nicely.
I have not ventured into the tablet realm yet, and as far as I am concerned I have no intention to either. A tablet to me is really just a toy, sure some people may say that this Air is a toy, but my argument there is that I am using it for school. The tablets that are available including the iPad seem to be very targeted devices that only make sense to a certain group of people. I am simply not in that group of people right now, and I am not sure that I ever will be. For me a laptop can perform all the same tasks that one could use a tablet for, and it can perform them better than any tablet.
So what I am seeing is more and more technology being used by all kinds of people. And I think that while technology can certainly do good things for people, it can also cause problems for them. It is really up to each person to do what they can to take advantage of the benefits offered by the recent advances in technology. And while we are not there yet, I am looking forward to the day when technologies seen in Hollywood movies like Minority Report are readily available to everyone. We are getting closer to that, as Microsoft just recently released their Kinect device for the Xbox 360, which is the next advancement in motion based gaming. Myself personally I would like to have one not really for the games but for the menu navigation and communication possibilities that it offers.
Well that’s all I got for now, what kinds of technology do you use in your daily life, and what advancements would you like to see? What was the most recent piece of tech that you purchased? Please keep your comments civil or they will be removed.
