The Freedom Of Online Education

As the information age rolls on we are finding more and more universities that are willing to invest in the education of students who may not necessarily be in a position to attend classes at that particular university. The offerings are still somewhat limited but there are opportunities to earn associates, bachelors, and even master's degrees strictly though online course work. This is something that was virtually unheard of even a few years ago.

Today's students truly do have more options available to them than ever before if they are willing to invest the time and effort into their studies, there are few limits to the level of education you can receive, even if it has been years since you last attended a university or community college. Even those colleges and universities that do not offer full fledged degree programs exclusively through online learning mediums are beginning to offer many courses online for students with busy schedules and lifestyles. This means that you now have the opportunity to combine distance or online learning with a few night or weekend courses in order to complete your degree even if you have a full time day job and family that needs to see you at home on occasion.

Even if a degree is not something you are necessarily seeking you might be amazed at the wide array of courses that are available for those interested in increasing their depth of knowledge on different issues from the comfort of their own homes. I know that the idea of self-directed online learning opportunities appeal to me on many levels. These opportunities however, are not necessarily a good idea for everyone. We all learn in different manners and some of us learn best by actually being in the classroom and hearing what has to be said or from hands on experience. This type of learning is not necessarily possible when it comes to distance learning in an email or bulletin board type of environment, which is how many Internet classrooms operate.

Online learning is also not a good idea for those who aren't perfectly willing, able, and capable of holding themselves responsible for their learning. Face it, for some of us it is much easier to get up and go to a classroom than it is to force ourselves to log on and pay attention at home. We all have areas in which our discipline is well in hand and others where we seem to have no discipline whatsoever. If you can't hold yourself on task or have difficulties not being distracted by the many other novel things there are to do online you might be best served through an actual classroom experience rather than a distance learning environment like those of online classes.

This is not meant to discourage you from distance learning or online classrooms. In fact, I think these are by far the best option for many working professionals who are seeking to advance their careers, knowledge, and/or earning potential. You will not need to feel as though you are choosing between the future needs of yourself and your family and the limited time you have with your family already. You can schedule around your family time and make the sacrifice when it comes to sleep.

With online classes it doesn't matter if you are in your pajamas or in a suit and tie you can still do the work you need to do online and no one will be the wiser. You also might find that you can squeeze your education into your lunch hour, particularly if you can type and chew at the same time. The truth is that online classes offer superior flexibility to those hoping to further their education. Whether you are hoping to earn a degree or simply wish to broaden your horizons by taking a few online classes, you just might find that the possibilities are limitless once you begin taking these courses from home.

The Truth Of A Two Year College Education

Higher education in this country is rapidly becoming a necessity in the business community rather than a luxury. There was a time when those who had a high school education still had the opportunity to build a better world for themselves and their families. Those days are rapidly becoming another dieing ember of the past. If you hope to have significant earning potential during your lifetime you are almost completely limited by your learning potential and the level of education you have received.

The good news is that you do not have to have an all or nothing approach when it comes to education. You can begin by taking baby steps when it comes to higher education. If you have a community college in your area, this is one of the greatest resources for beginning your college education at any stage in your life. Most community colleges offer classes at various times during the day and evening, even some on Saturday in order to accommodate students of different ages and backgrounds.

Community colleges also offer an excellent opportunity to begin your learning quest in a manner that is much more easily affordable to the average citizen than a full-blown university. These colleges are largely commuter colleges though there are several that allow students the experience of living on a college campus at a much lower price than most major universities charge for the same or very similar privileges.

Community colleges also allow you to explore your options if you aren't really sure what direction you wish for your education to take without paying such a high price for the process. If you know the career path you wish to take you might find a two-year degree program that can have you out of school and in a career much sooner than a four-year program will allow. If that isn't good enough news for you, many of the two-year programs of study that are offered at the community college level may very well transfer quite easily into bachelor degree programs at the university level.

Community colleges offer an excellent start for many people who are seeking higher education whether to further their careers or just to find fulfillment on a personal level in life. There are many wonderful programs in vocational fields as well as academic fields that can be explored and studies on the community college level.

For graduating high school students community colleges help students ease into the adjustment from high school to college without going through the culture shock that some universities can put students through. You will find that there are often many opportunities to meet educational as well as social needs on the community college level for students that are interested in pursuing a community college education.

You should also discover that community colleges are much easier to budget when it comes to setting aside funds and savings for either your personal college education or the educational expenses of your children. Having them attend a community college for two years then transferring to a University can save a great deal of money and provide you a little piece of mind that your children are still receiving an excellent level of education.

Seriously, if you are looking for an excellent value when it comes to education you would be doing yourself or your children a disservice if you do not check out the community college options in your area before taking the plunge and diving into the university lifestyle. You will find that community colleges often offer an equal level of education for the introductory classes that first and second year college students often take, they are a much better value for the money, and they are an outstanding values for those who are trying to juggle their education with family and work responsibilities.

Man Men Principles Can Build School Culture

You really have to be excited about possibility to work in education. You really have to be excited about possibility to work in marketing and branding. That's not a misprint. There's not an echo. Contrary to what business and education once thought, these two systems have a lot in common. It's really exciting to think about that in today's new economy. Can Mad Men PRINCIPLES of marketing and branding inform school PRINCIPALS, the men and women who are the CEO's of school culture and Identity?

It's not the sixities anymore, but "admen madmen" are flexing their practiced Madison Avenue muscle in 21st century schools, and not just through a popular TV show. And their stylized tenets can become power tools in the hands of school leaders who want to create powerful conversations about the branding and selling of the brand to school customers: kids, teachers, administrators, school board members, parents and the community.

Whether we like it or not, teachers, students, parents and community members are all subject to the influences of BRANDING in modern society, and making use of these subtle but powerful forces can positively impact school culture. Contrary to what educators once imagined, good business and good education can and should mix. What works in business can make for better education, and skillful use of the Madmen principles can create or strengthen a school wide identity, and can make all the stakeholders in your school more willing participants in a common cause. Branding is not new in business, but it has now, in the current vernacular, "gone viral." And why? BRANDING is "the implied promise of quality"... And quality is what school customers naturally seek. A quality education, after all, is what promises access to the American Dream, and more so today, than ever before. So here's an ESSENTIAL QUESTION to ask yourself if you are an educational leader: Can a "Madman" Principal or Central Office Leader bring new energy, language and thinking to a district culture through using BRANDING principles? If you want to be a Madman Principal ask yourself... Do I care how my school/district is perceived by parents, school board, teachers, students, businesses and community at large? Do I want new ways to communicate core messages, especially for budgeting and referendums?

Understanding the need to bring BRANDING conversations to the school organization may be new thinking for public school educators. Its time has come. Universities and private schools have gotten on the branding train, knowing that BRANDING is "the sum of all user experiences with a product/service, building both reputation and future expectations of benefit" according to brand expert, Jason Miletsky. Logos and taglines only scratch the surface of developing an emotional connection to consumers.

Step One in the Conversation is the Understanding of what branding is and its value to building school identity. It's time for schools who are part of a global society of social media --and who educate students in navigating life through building educational skills...building a personal brand--to think about how Madison Ave Mad Men strategies can help schools. Mad Man Principles for Principals?...you'd be crazy not to begin the conversation.

Caution! Public Schools Are Teaching & Breeding Failure

With all due respect to those educational administrators that are trying desperately to make a difference, I believe that if we are not teaching success in our schools, we are teaching failure through negligence. On the bright side, educational philosophy has always been about teaching our children math, science, reading, writing, social studies, history, and so on. We all know the basic subjects taught in our public schools, and we generally agree on the importance of these matters. More "specialized" curriculum - like "life skills" - are typically elective classes, and instruct children on the basics of financial management, and the like (life skills that deal in the linear, the exact, the non-abstract are generally regarded as teachable on an elective basis).

On the negative side, however, we do not teach our children lifelong accomplishment - to succeed - and how to create abundance in all areas of living. We do not instruct kids on the commonly accepted elements of success, and therefore what it means to be a contented, productive, accomplished, or happy person, if you will. Any adult of reasonable intelligence and caring should be interested in why we do not teach such skills to our children, and indeed what those "hard skills" of success, achievement, and abundance would be/could be. I would argue that the core components of success have not changed (and are in fact readily teachable), but it is the terms of measurement - or what constitutes the actual acquisition of success - that is relative, inconsistent, and ever changing. If teaching these success elements were compulsory, we might repair many homes, create better professionals, reduce crime rates, and simply spread more hope.

The prevalent educational philosophy is that success skills are left to the parent(s) in the home (or arguably 'the streets', or the child's peers); it is not the responsibility of our educational system to teach abundance and success. The skills needed to enjoy a successful life deal in the realm of the inexact, the intangible, and the arbitrary or capricious, as opposed to the realm of letters, numbers, empirical data, scientific hypothesis, and events in history. We can readily teach "uniform subjects" that are widely accepted as truths, proven, de facto empirical, but teaching essential emotional management skills, effective and realistic goal setting, and across the board abundance acquisition is messy, highly subjective, relative, and inconsistent. It appears that to our educators and those who determine proper educational curriculum, our school agenda and teachers cannot be adequately "equipped" to teach such controversial and "inconsistent" (non-uniform) subject matter. They cannot conceive of a universally acceptable curriculum to teach lifelong success skills. And beyond the educational philosophical matter, perhaps, is the political aspect. To enter into the responsibility of teaching "success" is intrinsically perceived as politically impossible; we cannot all "universally" agree on exactly what those skills to be taught would be - or what would be overwhelmingly acceptable - and conceivably it borders on the spiritual, or perchance the individual belief system, and therefore laissez faire.

Let's take a peek at the murky waters of the subject of success (and why it is not taught in school). So much has been written about success. So many success programs, books, CDs, and other media exist on the subject. A Google search (conducted on 10/21/2009) on the keyword "success" returns over 312-million results. The term is like one tiny star in the cosmos. I think it's safe to say that 'success' is/has been an over-used word throughout our human world and throughout (recorded) history. It's also fair to say that success means something different for each and every person, and yet most would agree that a simple and accurate definition might be: to obtain a desired result (or results).

Perhaps Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993) was among the first of the modern-day success gurus with his "Power of Positive Thinking" work (circa 1956). And today we have success consultants, coaches, lecturers, and millions more people who make their living in one fashion or another from/on the subject of success (I wonder if there would be fewer of these private instructors if success were a scholastic subject?). In just my amazing lifespan (I'm 47), the technology boom has contributed (information) so overwhelmingly that it has made our world smaller in many senses, and yet so much more confusing because of all the voices that are now heard, increasing sensory overload. But success has not changed, in and of itself; as mentioned, only the "terms of measurement" are ever changing.

I remember thinking as a teenager in school: why is there no 'owner's manual' for living a successful life? I would ponder being alone in a cold world; born unto inadequate role models, cloned teachers, and empty influencers, and realizing that ultimately we must invent our own 'success manual' for living. An extension of much of my early thoughts was to be in awe of the humility of life; the more I learned, the more I realized how little I truly knew. As time progressed I studied the success gurus and motivational experts. It was then that a 'success manual' did emerge from my thoughts, and I committed it to book format; the content would easily serve as course curriculum.

As I've noted, the body of work on the subject of success is nearly limitless. Therefore it must be hubris to suggest that I have something of value to add to the issue of human success, right? No, I do not believe that to be true. I believe that I have conceived something of extreme value. At the risk of being perceived as turning this article into a promotional piece, what I have developed and refined is a six-step system that virtually guarantees success and abundance in all areas of life, and the ability to maintain success over a lifetime. It is only recently that I understand how effortlessly these materials could be hugely useful in our schools. In brevity, the six steps are these: 1) Motives/Motivation, 2) Preparation (emotional/mental/physical), 3) Goal Setting (workshops), 4) Research and Development (of a plan or vehicle for attaining goals), 5) Consistent Action, and 6) Flexibility (in order to account for the human element).

Every once in a while something special and unexpected comes along. True, not very often does something new appear on the scene, but it certainly happens. Yes, even though it might seem that success is an exhausted, and exalted subject - and thus far academically or scholastically taboo - I have assembled in detail the exact six steps that are necessary to achieve lifelong success.

The book is entitled: "Lifetime Success in 6 Simple Steps". It is my sincere promise - as the result of decades of study - that this is a brand new approach, encompassing the very best of what is known about the components of success, and combining that knowledge into teachable, logical, and progressive steps that ensure sustained, lifelong success. I invite you to check it out for yourself. If this work helps a pondering teen, makes our educational system take notice, or helps any of the millions of unemployed to a new, successful life then I am thrilled! Here is the link for the book: http://success-dude.com/lifelong-success/. Let's teach our children to be a success!

The Truth Of A Two Year College Education

Higher education in this country is rapidly becoming a necessity in the business community rather than a luxury. There was a time when those who had a high school education still had the opportunity to build a better world for themselves and their families. Those days are rapidly becoming another dieing ember of the past. If you hope to have significant earning potential during your lifetime you are almost completely limited by your learning potential and the level of education you have received.

The good news is that you do not have to have an all or nothing approach when it comes to education. You can begin by taking baby steps when it comes to higher education. If you have a community college in your area, this is one of the greatest resources for beginning your college education at any stage in your life. Most community colleges offer classes at various times during the day and evening, even some on Saturday in order to accommodate students of different ages and backgrounds.

Community colleges also offer an excellent opportunity to begin your learning quest in a manner that is much more easily affordable to the average citizen than a full-blown university. These colleges are largely commuter colleges though there are several that allow students the experience of living on a college campus at a much lower price than most major universities charge for the same or very similar privileges.

Community colleges also allow you to explore your options if you aren't really sure what direction you wish for your education to take without paying such a high price for the process. If you know the career path you wish to take you might find a two-year degree program that can have you out of school and in a career much sooner than a four-year program will allow. If that isn't good enough news for you, many of the two-year programs of study that are offered at the community college level may very well transfer quite easily into bachelor degree programs at the university level.

Community colleges offer an excellent start for many people who are seeking higher education whether to further their careers or just to find fulfillment on a personal level in life. There are many wonderful programs in vocational fields as well as academic fields that can be explored and studies on the community college level.
For graduating high school students community colleges help students ease into the adjustment from high school to college without going through the culture shock that some universities can put students through. You will find that there are often many opportunities to meet educational as well as social needs on the community college level for students that are interested in pursuing a community college education.
You should also discover that community colleges are much easier to budget when it comes to setting aside funds and savings for either your personal college education or the educational expenses of your children. Having them attend a community college for two years then transferring to a University can save a great deal of money and provide you a little piece of mind that your children are still receiving an excellent level of education.
Seriously, if you are looking for an excellent value when it comes to education you would be doing yourself or your children a disservice if you do not check out the community college options in your area before taking the plunge and diving into the university lifestyle. You will find that community colleges often offer an equal level of education for the introductory classes that first and second year college students often take, they are a much better value for the money, and they are an outstanding values for those who are trying to juggle their education with family and work responsibilities.