AU Blogspot

I had these in my first year of college and thought I would pass them along to my fellow classmates.

How do we find a proper balance that will allow us to excel in each aspect of our lives?

Tip #1
Family Meeting: Conduct a family meeting with the members of your household. Discuss how daily schedules, chores, and other responsibilities may shift now that you are in school working toward your degree. Delegate tasks to others so that you will have more time to complete your school work. Explain that it is a temporary situation and the resulting benefits to the family that a degree can provide will be worth the sacrifices.

Tip #2
Choose a satisfying career path. Finding and maintaining balance in your lifel means finding work that reflects who you are, and what you truly believe in. Simply stated, happiness requires a sense of purpose. Ask yourself, “What is most important to me? What occupation will give my work meaning?”

Tip #3
Save a day for yourself. You are busy working during the day, doing your schoolwork in the evenings, and spending time with your family on the weekends. Time for yourself is important for maintaining balance in your life, so try not to neglect yourself. Save at least one day a week to do the things you want to do instead of those things you need to do. You will feel refreshed and ready to conqure the world.

Tip #4
Let the housework go. Ask yourself, “What is the worst thing that could happen it I don’t vacuum the carpet today?” or “Is it possible I could the laundryon another day when I don’t have so much reading to do?” Save time and energy by ordering out for pizza on those nights when you have a lot of reading to do. Or better yet, delegate household chores to other family members, relieving you of these duties altogether. Keep the goal of GRADUATION firmly planted in your mind and do whatever it takes to make schoolwork a priority in your house.

Tip #5
Complete tasks right away. For example, whenever you receive an email, decide right then whether to respond to it or delete it. People who “do it now” are more efficient than people who wait till a later date to complete their daily tasks.

Tip #6
Get rid of unnecessary “stuff”. Clutter around the house and office makes demands on your life. If it does not serve a purpose get rid of it. With less “stuff” to take care of, you will feel more relaxed and you will focus on what is really important. For example, sort through papers sitting on or around your computer workstation to see what really needs to be there. If it’s not important, toss it.

Tip #7
Ask for help when you need it. You are not alone on your journey through life. There are people available to support you and guide you when you get lost or feel overwhelmed. Make sure to utilize your support system. Some who can help are family members, friends, co-workers, classmates, academic advisors, and even community services.

Tip #8
AVOID THE GUILT TRIP! Dont’ beat yourself up or feel guilty about not being able to spend as much time at work, or with family and friends as you used to. You made a decision to go to college to earn your degree. That’s important. Replace the guilt with pride that you are on a path to accomplish your goal of GRADUATION. Use your critical thinking skills to make decisions about how you choose to spend your time, and then stick with it! YOU CAN DO THIS!

Betty Ray-Mydland
Student
Ashworth Criminal Justice Program

                  Thanks to clspeace for permission to use this Photo. 

Megan Bowen is an Ashworth High School English Instructor.  You can read some of Megan’s blog posts by clicking here and scrolling to the bottom of the page.  As someone who is always thinking of new and dynamic ways to engage her students, it’s no surprise that Megan has begun hosting classroom discussions on the Ashworth Student Forum.  As an English major myself, I’ve personally enjoyed participating in these interactive discussions and have been very impressed by the insightul perspectives students have offered on their latest reading assignments. 

If you’re an Ashworth High School student or a parent of such a student, we encourage you to participate in one of Megan’s classroom discussions.  Our new student forum provides a terrific environment for students, parents, and faculty to interact—so be sure to join our Forum community today if you haven’t already. 

Megan and I hope to see you on the Forum soon!

Here are the links:

Ashworth University Student Forum

Megan’s Bowen Classroom Discussions

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University 

As pioneers in the online learning field, we here at Ashworth University are very excited to watch the online education format quickly becoming the preferred choice of thousands upon thousands of new students worldwide. With its’ superior convenience, flexibility, and customized learning features; the online learning model is increasingly being seen as the central way to educate and train oneself on your own terms as we move into the future. As our everyday tasks, communications, and experiences continue to move into the “virtual” world, it’s not hard to understand why the online learning revolution has literally transformed the lives of students everywhere.

If you’re interested in discussing your educational options, all you have to do is click here for more information. Our advisors are not sales people. They’re simply here to answer your questions and help you make informed decisions if you think online learning might be a viable option for you. We’ve also just launched the Ashworth University Forum, which is a great place for those interested in finding out what we’re all about to talk with Ashworth students, faculty, and alumni. You’ll find a lot of people just like yourself carrying on conversations there, so be sure to check it out. We look forward to hearing from you!

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University

The following article once again reinforces the importance of Web 2.0 technologies in a progressive educational environment, a message that we have been committed to carrying to our Ashworth University students through our own 2.0 applications such as MySpace, Facebook, Ashworth University Blog, and even our preliminary experiments in Second Life’s virtual world.  It’s nice to see the more “mainstream” educational community is finally beginning to recognize that today’s education is web-based, interactive, and network driven.  Here at Ashworth, we’re committed to these principles and encourage our students and their families to become as engaged as possible in the Web 2.0 revolution: where everyone is empowered to create, learn, and connect on their own terms.

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University 

                    Thanks to Olivia for permission to use this Photo. 

George Siemens is acknowledged as being one of the most innovative minds in the education field.  Through his groundbreaking analyses of how educators can use technology to their advantage rather than fearing its’ radical capabilities, Siemens has had a major impact on how teachers, students, and just about anyone involved in the education field perceives how our traditional learning models must evolve in order to effectively provide the knowledge and skills most vital in tomorrow’s “connected” world.  In the following slideshow presentation, Siemens outlines some of his main thoughts on what tomorrow may look like if we begin taking the necessary steps to reform our educational system today.  This presentation is a solid introduction to George’s theories.  We’d like to thank him for being an Ashworth University contributing blogger and would like to encourage everyone to check out his amazing elearnspace Blog.  Thanks George!

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University

Making students accountable for test scores works well on a bumper sticker and it allows many politicians to look good by saying that they will not tolerate failure. But it represents a hollow promise. Far from improving education, high- stakes testing marks a major retreat from fairness, from accuracy, from quality, and from equity.
- Sen. Paul Wellstone (1944-2002)

Standardized testing is quite the hot topic, to say the least. I remember spending pretty much the entire semester of Tests & Measures in college debating the validity of standardized tests.

A lot of educational institutions are being accused of “teaching to the test”. If you have to teach to a test, then obviously the test isn’t really testing what it should be, right?

Standardized tests are used for different purposes. We won’t get into the political purposes right now, but we all know that those exist. In elementary, middle, and high schools, they are used to make sure that students are performing at an appropriate level, and they are used to place students in appropriate courses at the appropriate level. These tests should be testing grade-level knowledge, reasoning and problem solving ability, writing skills, etc. A well constructed test does just that – it tests whether or not the test taker has certain knowledge and skills and can apply that knowledge and those skills.

Special thanks to SideLong for permission to use this photo.

I have seen student records where a student is earning decent grades in math courses like Algebra and Geometry, but then they are unable to pass a state exit exam in math. What is the problem here? Is it that the students are not actually learning the material? Are grades being “given” to students? I find it impossible to believe that a student can earn a B in Algebra I and Geometry and then fail a math exit exam that most likely only skims the surface of basic Algebra and Geometry. Is the test bad or are the courses bad?

The only thing I really have to go on to answer that question is that the tests are standardized while the courses are not. We see students across counties and states performing at or above level in their high school courses and then failing exit exams. What are these tests actually testing? I’m not saying the courses themselves are perfect, I doubt they are. Improvements on these courses that are being made are based on how students are performing on these tests though, and that is a little scary. Courses should be designed so that the student learns and understands the material, and the tests should be designed to make sure they have done just that.

If we are teaching to tests, especially bad tests, we are really failing our students.

Nicole Burris
Associate Registrar
Ashworth University

 
               Thanks to Kafkaesque for permission to use this Photo.

Forbes magazine recently featured a commentary piece by Bill Gates on expanding educational opportunities.  Gates speaks very candidly about his concerns for education– which include a lack of skills based training, a shortage of qualified teachers, and his overarching belief that our education model/system suffers from what he terms a “problem of scale.”  Fortunately, Gates’ feels confident that technology and all its’ potential applications can be the most effective tool in balancing issues of scale.  Many of us often overlook the philanthropic contributions of the world’s richest man.  We must note that he has literally invested billions of dollars in educational incentive programs.  Let us know what you think about Gates’ prescription for change.  You may be surprised how inspiring his vision for education turns out to be.

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University

Special thanks to Shahram_Sharif for permission to use this photo.

The “Google generation” isn’t great at googling, writes Nate Anderson at Ars Technica, pointing to a study by the British Library. It’s a “dangerous myth” that those born after 1993 are “expert researchers,” the report concludes. Young people’s information skills haven’t improved over the last several decades. “Choosing good search terms is a special problem for younger users.” He summarizes the study’s conclusions about the Google generation.

* They like to cut-and-paste. “There is a lot of anecdotal evidence and plagiarism is a serious issue.”
* They prefer visual information over text. “But text is still important… For library interfaces, there is evidence that multimedia can quickly lose its appeal, providing short-term novelty.”
* They multitask all the time. “It is likely that being exposed to online media early in life may help to develop good parallel processing skills.”

The report also warns librarians against opening MySpace and Facebook pages to “make their servicers hipper to students.”

. . . “there is a considerable danger that younger users will resent the library invading what they regard as their space.” (more…)

     
              Thanks to Joline Anthea for permission to use this Photo.

I wrote a blog post yesterday on the brilliance of wi-fi access in the car.  I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but an added detail won’t hurt.  To make a long story short, as wireless router technology advances, so are the spaces, from airplanes to hotel bathrooms, where we can connect to the Internet.  Subsequently, the following story about wi-fi enabled school buses in Arkansas, never a state at the top of the educational charts, struck me as a surprisingly timely and positive educational adoption of web based applications.  The students profiled are mainly classified as “gifted”; I must confess to a slight cynicism when school systems seem to “test” such technologies on their highest performers rather than the crowd at large, so-called “average” students whose’ participation will arguably be a more accurate indication of general acceptance than the gifted or “exception” student body.  I shouldn’t be cynical though; this initiative will open up more doors than it will close.  From this perspective, education is a numbers game.    Are the school buses in your area equipped with wi-fi?  If so, please let our home school community know how it’s working out. 

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University