Successful Distance Learning

To be successful at distance learning you really just need to be a good student. Yes, it is a different way of learning but just because you learn through the Internet versus sitting in a classroom, doesn’t change the principles of learning. You have to pay attention in class or when you are online. You have to study the material between classes. You have to complete all of your homework and assignments on time. And you have to ask questions or get extra help if you find yourself stuck or bewildered.

Paying attention online in a distance learning program is essential to your success. Normally you will have one online class per subject a week and during that period of time your instructor will try and guide you through the basic theory of a subject and give you a few examples to help you understand and comprehend it. Sometimes these online classes are archived for a period of time so that you can go back and take that class again if you didn’t get it the first time.

Doing your work in between classes is what really separates the women from the girls and the men from the boys. Sure you can slack off and coast, but no one but you will pay a price for that. Some programs require that you log into the program a number of set times between classes but even if you haven’t got that monitoring aspect you still need to study the material between your online classes.

In traditional learning programs students who develop and practice good study habits are often the most successful ones. With distance learning it will make the difference between virtual success and online failure.

Assignments are an important part of learning in distance learning programs. Other than your tests at the end of the year, these are one of the few ways that an instructor can judge both your progress and if you need help. Develop the discipline to get your assignments completed and submitted on time. Then after they are graded and reviewed take the time to not just check your mark, but carefully review any comments that your instructor may provide. This is one of the only ways that your instructor can give you feedback to improve your distance learning program.

Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help in you get stuck. Most distance learning programs have an e-mail response system to deal with your questions and concerns. Many offer online tutoring if you need it. Don’t just sit there befuddled. Ask for help.

Interactive Artificial Intelligence Robot

You have to be a bit jealous of the kids today. Their simple “toys” are probably more powerful than any government supercomputer from my youth. For example, as a wee tot I’m sure I talked to my teddy bear or had an imaginary friend, but not today’s kids, they have interactive artificially intelligent neural life form robots with attitudes like Brian The Brain. Yep, this mere toy is probably smarter and cooler than you.

Brian The Brain is a pretty advanced toy “brain in a jar” that can be interacted with using either the attached keyboard or by simply speaking to him. Brian’s advanced voice recognition, text-to-speech software and A.I. technology give him the ability to learn and speak with an almost unlimited vocabulary. He can tell jokes, play games and ask trivia questions or even help out with homework by utilizing his massive database of details from the concise enyclopedia from Britannica, dictionary or world history timeline.

Brian can also be used to initiate phone calls and be used as a speakerphone by plugging him into a phone line, play mp3 music, guard the room with motion sensors or be used as an alarm clock or personal calendar/organizer. He looks like a lot of fun, but unfortunately you’ll never be able to get the kids out of the house now. Check out the demonstration video below to see Brian the Brain in action.

Now, I know Brian the Brain is kinda for kids, but you just know it would be the talk of the cubicle farm back at the office. I’m actually tempted to get one just for myself. I also bet with enough tinkering, it could really be a hacker’s dream come true. If it could just be upgraded to work with a computer or go online, there’s endless possibilities… even a version of this technology for the car would be cool, ala Knight Rider or something. Let us know in the Comments what you think of Brian the Brain or if you know of any good ways to hack this thing.

How to Choose Your Online School For Your Career

A good education background is essential to ensure you get a smooth start on your career and online education can provides you with a fast track to achieve your career goal, but choosing a right online career school requires you to do litter homework. Your decision of selecting a right career school is important because getting a right degree from a right career school determines a smooth start on your career path. Here are some tips on choosing a right online career school that best fit you.

What You Want To Be?
Before you start searching for any of online career schools, you need to decide what you want to do upon graduation. What’s career field you want to involve? Are you want to involve in teaching, business, health care? Or any specific career field that you are dreaming for? You need to know what you want to be, only that you know what type of degree you are looking for.

Search for Your Degree Program
Next, you have to spend some time to search for online degree programs offer by various career schools. You can utilize the power of internet to search for all related online degree programs offer by online career schools. There are too many online career schools available. It would be very time consuming to search one by one. The best way to get the information fast and effective is getting free service help from various online school directories. What you need to do is fill up one simple form that includes the type of degree programs you are looking for.

Those online school directories are partnered with various online schools; with the information you provided, they will do a matching based on your requirement and within a short period of time, your requested information will be arrived at your mailbox. It’s easy and save you a lot of time and you can use your time to review those online degree program offered by your selected online career schools to ensure the courses offer in the programs are meeting your career goal.

Refining Your Search
As you begin to refine your career school search, you should be prepared to ask a lot of questions. A-must-ask questions include: whether the school is accredited, and which accreditation agency that perform the accreditation process? how the online classes being conducted? do you need any specific software to attend the online classes? who are the qualify instructors and what kind of a degree, certificate, license or job-placement assistance you will receive upon graduation? You will also want to know the total cost involve in order to completing the degree and the type of financial aids offer by the school to their students.

Once you prepared all your questions, get your questions answered by calling the admission offices of your selected career schools. Some career schools have their admission officer standby online to answer your enquiries. You must clear all your doubts and get your questions answered before you come to your final decision to choose the right online career school that best fit you.

In Summary
Although it takes time to do all online school search and contact the admission offers to get all your question answered, but it should be worth the efforts as you can be sure that the career school you choose will be exactly the right one for you.