Saturday, September 29, 2012

Technology Enriched Online Education

Are you aspiring for a better education or a better future? Are you tired of attending classes of your college or university? Here comes the solution. With the progress of technology, online education has taken its birth and it is of immense help to young adults and working people. It should always be remembered that education is not a compulsive duty. It should rather be taken with enthusiasm and joyful mood. It is only through education that people get employed in different sectors and make a bright future.
All these years you have been using the internet for shopping, downloading songs or videos, booking travel tickets and so on. Google, the most important search engine is of great help and with the help of this; you can educate yourself with the fast growth of technology. Most men choose their career path in online degrees or diplomas.
School or college education is discouraging
To some people, education from a regular institute can appear to be boring. The monotony of attending lectures, facing of punishments given by teachers or professors is really discouraging. When a student fails to complete his assignments, he gets rebuked by his teacher and harsh words are showered upon him. In this way his dream to fulfill his academic goal gets shattered.
There are many suicidal attempts that a school going kid often makes. Often you will find such shocking news of a student's suicidal acts in the morning newspaper. An online education ensures total independence and there is a lot of fun involved in it. So do you want to make your child?-a nagging school or college goer or a competent online learner?
YouTube has showered blessings on educational arena
There are different YouTube channels coming up which will help you in educating yourself. These are TED talks, Biography Channel, The Nobel Prize, PBS, Discovery Channel and many more. These serve as free lectures on various subjects and you can gain a lot of knowledge.
How can online MBA be advantageous?
MBA or Master in Business Administration is a post graduate degree or diploma in management studies. When a student applies to a regular B-school, he cannot afford the high fees involved in such education. Hence online MBA is very demanding and you need not submit huge fees to pursue such a degree. Also, this type of MBA comprises the same courses as offered by a regular institution. An individual can also continue a job along with his studies and can shoulder social responsibilities.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Will Mobile Education Replace The Classroom?

Android is not a substitute for school, yet. It is unfortunate that digital technology is incorporated least in the area it is needed most: education. However, no one had foreseen the computer would replace conventional form of learning either.
Considered more a luxurious distraction, parents raise concern about their little toddlers going to school holding a Smartphone. Alternatively, a survey revealed that a quarter of the parents plan to gift their own devices to their children, and installing educational apps into them. The medium of instruction should not be the cause to restrict learning, but rather encourage it, and android smartphones are doing exactly that. Those who let their children experiment would not deny the increased interest in learning, for instance, through a math game or a social studies quiz on the mobile OS that enhance skill and memory.
Teachers, like parents, find the open based application a challenge. Referring to the Android tablet Kindle Fire, one reviewer aptly put it this way: "Although I'm hesitant to predict that the Kindle Fire will radically change education, I do think that the popularity of this device will lead to more development of educational Android apps that are optimized for tablets."
The Android has invaded the education arena in the smartest possible way, with Android television introduced in hospitals for providing entertainment as well as education to patient. Within a span of four years, Android educational apps, either free or paid, have managed to cover a broad range of subjects from the elementary level to adult education, as well as for professional skills improvement.
Amazon Appstore and Android Market app is developed exclusively for the android platform by Google has over 400,000 active apps and more than half are free. Shapes Five Pumpkins app are flashcards designed for infants, with the option to customize it with one's own voice. Tracing ABC is a free app that teaches toddlers to write by tracing alphabets or numbers using the cursor. iStoryBooks are interactive books that can either be read aloud or heard. Besides this, there are foreign language dictionaries for the older lot, art and craft activities such as Doodledroid, educational games and quizzes, skill based tutorials such as Photoshop, science research through arXiv mobile, Google Sky Map, the ASL sign language for the hearing impaired, to name a few. Encouraging teenagers to read the newspaper is no longer a challenge. Installing the Pulse news app saves stories for reading later offline or sharing it with others. The Fortune magazine has called as "the king of apps."
A director of information technology expressed that the teaching staff need to be trained in order to keep up with technology trends and to optimize their use and thereby prevent the overuse and harmful effects such 'openness' can cause to the education system. He suggested that the staff should hold more restrictions for the younger students and for the teachers to look toward finding administrative support and collaborate with parents to properly utilize and handle access via information technology.
The apps continue to reap from the harvest. In a matter of time, classes will become condensed apps. For now, faith exists in the physical presence of teachers.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

On Compulsory Education

In the United States we benefit from many freedoms: of religion, of press, of arms, etc. These liberties are one of the central philosophies our country was founded on, and are not to be taken for granted.
One of the freedoms Americans do not have, however, is freedom of education. The government has deliberately positioned itself as sole provider of education, making it near impossible for anybody to be educated otherwise.
Education is also compulsory in the United States, and in many countries of the world. Children must attend school, and families will be punished for not enrolling in the state-mandated school system.
I think this set-up is extremely problematic, for a number of reasons:
1. It is not news that when we force people to do something, that thing loses its perceived value, and ultimately its real value. Children will not enjoy going to school if they are forced to do it.
2. The government is not intimately involved in the lives of the millions of children in the country, and therefore does not know how to make a system that will meet the specific needs of each child. For education to work, it must be arranged at the local level.
3. Parents should be able to choose how to educate their children. They should be able to send them to whichever public school they wish, not just the one closest by. Private schools should be widely available. Homeschooling should be widely accepted.
How can we say we live in a democracy, when we do not give freedom to our people? It is time to restore democracy in the United States.
I suggest that we remove the requirement for mandatory attendance in schools. I believe that this will have the utmost positive effect on our children; not a negative effect, as some would believe.
Some will say, "We need compulsory education. How will our children learn if we don't force them to go to school?"
I have a few answers to this:
1. Most children will still attend school, despite the fact that the requirement is no longer there, because education is something that is inherently valued by most people.
2. For children who choose not to attend school, all democratic educators know that education is happening constantly, in and out of the classroom. Being outside of school will not stop a child from learning.
3. Compulsory education has only been in effect in the United States for less than a century. Surely, children were capable of going to school, gaining education, and becoming capable adults before the government forced them to.
It is time to give our citizens freedom in education. We can begin by ending compulsory education.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Nurse Practitioner Education

If you're looking into a nursing occupation, you already know that you want to care for people, but how do you decide if nurse practitioner education is right for you? The first thing to do is look at all the possibilities for training, economics, and occupational outlook.
Becoming a nurse practitioner is a step up in education and responsibility from an LPN or an RN. While the wide variety of occupational areas is still there, you are now boosting your profession to the level of diagnostician. These professionals work in hospitals, health clinics, and doctor's offices, but diagnose their own patients, write prescriptions, and order patient care.
Depending on whether you are in a hospital, clinic, or specialty area of medical practice, as a nurse practitioner you might be called upon to regularly perform many of the following duties:
  • Ordering routine tests and taking case history information for diagnosis
  • Performing routine incisions and sutures, drainage and wound care, and tissue biopsies
  • Executing nasal intubations into the stomach, and gastric analysis
  • Testing for insulin and glucose tolerance
  • Ordering lab studies and prescribing routine medications
There is a rigorous standard for training to accompany this higher level of responsibility, but if caring for people is your gift, it's worth it to get the extra one- or two-year master's degree training required to be able to serve your chosen community more comprehensively.
So, what's involved in nurse practitioner education that differs from LPN or RN training? Most programs require prospective students to have registered nurse licensure and to have practiced as an RN for about two years.
Master's level programs add several hours of advanced pharmacology to the RN base of knowledge, along with intensive practice each semester in different areas. There is practicum in pediatric care, adult care, child health, and care of at-risk populations. All courses are progressively more complex than those offered in registered nurse training.
Some good news for prospective students is that some or all of a master nurse practitioner education may be attained online while continuing to work as an RN. There are an abundance of approved quality online MSN programs, which can be worked at part time or full time.
Upon completion of the master's degree in nursing, national certification by exam is required. There are several national nursing organizations approved to certify nurse practitioners. Two such organizations are the American Nurses' Association and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.
Some associations are specialty certifying organizations for neonatal, pediatric, obstetric, and gynecological practice certification. Certification exams are administered throughout the country and cost around $300.
According to the Department of Labor, the median hourly wage of an RN is about $31, and when you become a nurse practitioner it can jump to $45. Of course, the bump up to master's level in any profession offers a higher earning potential.
One of the most compelling things about pursuing nurse practitioner education, aside from the value of working with patients directly, is the economic advantage it offers. By acquiring advanced education, registered nurses can re-invent themselves and open new and exciting pathways.