digital thoughts

Education is big business, and this is why we find colleges and schools mushrooming all over the country. Most of them are not accredited, while some are just diploma mills that sell degrees to those who are willing to pay for them. So when it comes to degrees that are being taught online, the question of authenticity and value comes to fore. There are some schools however, that offer online degrees that are accredited and of good quality. But, even though the quality of education that is offered is good, can students really learn anything worthwhile from online degrees?

Yes, they can, but only if:

Students choose the right school and degree: Most online schools don’t bother to provide their students challenging curricula that are taught by good teachers. There are some however, that are the best in the business. They stand for excellence in the world of online education, and it is these schools that a student must choose if they are to really learn something from their degree.

Students are dedicated: Any degree requires some amount of dedication from the student, and when it comes to online education, the level of dedication must be stepped up because there is no direct competition from fellow students or other incentives from teachers to spur them on. They need to be able to do things on their own, no matter how hard it is or how boring the work is.

Students can manage their time well: When someone studies online, they probably have more than one thing on their plate. So when they’re juggling too many balls, it stands to reason that they must be able to manage their time well or they’re going to end up dropping a ball or more. Online students must find time to set aside to complete their lessons and assignments, preferably on a daily basis, and not put off work till the last minute or until the eve of exams.

Students are determined to earn more than just a degree: The learning process involves so much more than just gaining a degree, and this is why online students must choose schools that are not diploma mills. Accredited schools offer opportunities that a student must make use of if they want to actually learn something valuable and gain more knowledge than just what is taught in their lessons. Online students who go on to taste success in their careers are generally thirsty for knowledge and learn more than they must simply because they want to.

Online or not, it’s not the degree that determines the amount of learning that takes place, but the attitude and determination of the student who enrolls in the degree.

This guest article was written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of accredited online degrees . Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: adrienne.carlson1 at gmail.com

Related Link: How to Manage Time Effectively?

I write this article based on my true life searching and finding for what is a QTM (Quality Time Management) for me to make use it as my APQTM (A Personal Quality Time Management) and absolutely it is a type of writing which is characteristic apart from any other writers specific ideas in presenting and publishing their own personal thoughts.

1. Introduction

As a reader, listener, and observer many times we heard about QTM already been defined, meant, and outlined by qualified and professional speakers. Things which a layman in banal couldn’t catch up the details of explanations made and finally they accept it as too ’systematic’ for them to apply in their daily life and they have to forget about it.

Whereas, nature already provides ample time and space for a human to gets from lesson and learn about time which is an important factor in building up human life’s prosperity in all aspects. This is the thing that makes a human so special in this world, where, they can take and use time for their own learning pattern and formation completely with the learning process.

2. Personal definition

A person is freely to define each word spoken, written, expressed (body language) for what is time to reach the level of APQTM and to be their systematic QTM as good results spoken itself and not the theory alone. Human want to see the proven output and in less bother how it was done.

Time is an intangible space in one’s mind, where, its property can be designed by one’s brain to contemplate in creating its schedules to be called as scheduled time. What is a scheduled time? A scheduled time is a brain task to shift free time to spare time which is can be easily illustrated in the form of flowchart explanation, the five levels or stages;

Free time > Spare time > Schedule time > Quality time > Prosper time

From the above flowchart, it’s very obvious for a person to has ’schedule time’ as its position is in the middle of the beginning point of time (Free time) and the apogee point of time for ‘Prosper time’. Observe carefully, the bridging levels or stages are spare time, schedule time, and quality time. Which means how important for a person must learn what is spare time, schedule time, and quality time.

From my above explanations, it’s all about the proves for why a person must use free time to think about the important part for why to has own definition in structuring the meaning of each level of time in constructing their own prosperity life.

3. Quality state in time

As we have learned the five levels or stages of time in the Item 4, now we must learn what are the driven factors in a person which is imperative to be included as a non-stop practice in reaching quality state in time, regardless of its levels or stages. The driven factors in a person are the four; confident, effective detailed planner, networking, and diligent or assiduous.

At every five levels of time, a person must highly confident to be in the own world of ‘quality state in time’ by providing one’s own feasible, pragmatic, and effective short, middle, and long term goals by building up the details of vision, missions, and objectives in their weekly, monthly, and yearly planner (the written diary/organizer complete with future tasks to be accomplished). Which means every bit and beat of the clock really making a person merely working towards fruitful goals and at this moment a person understand how important a unit value for ’second’ in time counting, very valuable in daily life just from a planner it does generate blissful networking.

Diligently or assiduously working with the tasks written in a planner now be a must thing to do when we fully understood the meaning of a ‘quality state in time’ and how to work for it to shift oneself from Free time > Spare time > Schedule time > Quality time > Prosper time. At every level of it one person always hopes for the best while at the same time expecting worst. During this time, if one plan failed, as diligent or assiduous is concerned, a person can accept a failure is the right beginning to enjoy the future success. Why a person already able to accept failure? Very simple answer, work diligently or assiduously is a priority.

4. Time category

Time category divided into two categories; loss and profit in time. When is a person in ‘loss in time’ category? When a person does not want to learn the definition of time and practice ‘Quality state in time’. When is a person in ‘profit in time’ category? When a person practically apply practice makes perfect from learning the definition of time and practice ‘Quality state in time’.

5. Time management skills

Time management skills indicates the progress data of achievement versus time, by graph. Where, if we draw a vertical line (Y-axis) it represent by marking the value of achievement made and by drawing a horizontal line (X-axis) it represent period of time. The Y-axis and X-axis intercept each other at the point of zero value.

From the above paragraph, learning about ‘Time management skills’ it’s much easier to work with the all details of tasks listed in our planner versus time by building up one master graph for it, as shown below. Y-axis represent percentage of achievement and X-axis of period if time. Each task shown by dot or pin point.

Time Management Skills – Graph, is one of the control tools for quick learning about what is actually ‘Time management skills instead of learning through texts explanations. I mean, I give direct method how test our own ‘Time management skills’. That is why I used the words of ‘quick learning’.

6. Smart Integration

Smart integration means we integrate the Item 5, Item 6, and Item 7 in our network by means of outsourcing all of our tasks listed in the planner to the relevant efficient group or party or person, so that our time management will develop and growth incessantly with time.

7. Compendium

Mastering the learning process of the Item 2 (Personal definition), Item 3 (Quality state in time), and Item 5 (Time management skills) means professing APQTM and QTM. A life a system, a system is a calculation. Which means taking wrong calculation is using wrong system and wrong system is possessing wrong life, I mean wrong life is wrong life’s patter and formation.

S. Chandrasekar will receive his M. Tech degree today from IIT Madras. He is only 17.

He was born on September 25, 1990. At the age of 11, Chandrasekar became the youngest Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Cisco Certified Network Associate.

In 2002, an Anna University committee, headed by Vice-Chancellor Dr Balaguruswamy, assessed the boy’s capabilities and decided to admit him into the BE program, which he cleared when he was just 15!. He then took the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering and scored 99.32 percentile, which left no room for academics at IIT-M to have second thoughts about admitting him into the MTech course.

I am sure the boy has gone thru substantial psychological stress in the class rooms. In the end, it’s all worth it. India created another Chandrasekar it can be very proud of. You can read about other Chandrasekar here. He received the Nobel prize for physics in 1983.

I have seen many U.S. teenagers exposing butts when they walk. Even some old guys don’t want to pull their pants up, they want to show what they got. Disgusting, isn’t it? Parents are not taking action to discipline their kids, so government is trying to do that.

Florida government passed a bill that could mean suspensions for students with droopy pants. More details are here.

Middle class American students find it hard to join elite institutions because of prohibitive fee structure. Universities like Stanford, Harvard, MIT and many others charge hefty tuition fees even for undergraduate courses. Stanford charges $47,000 per year for undergraduate courses. Ironically, these institutions have billions of dollars in endowments. Stanford took $832 million in charitable contributions in 2007 alone.

Good politicians of U.S. put pressure on these universities to give some life to middle class students. Sen. Charles Grassley, senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has suggested requiring large college endowments to spend 5% of their assets annually, the same amount private foundations are required to spend in order to maintain their nonprofit tax status. He and Sen. Max Baucus, the committee chairman, wrote to 136 colleges with endowments of $500 million or more, asking them to respond to a series of questions about payouts and financial aid.

That kind of did it, I guess. Harvard University, with a $35 billion endowment announced an overhaul of its financial-aid program that would result in more help for middle- and upper-middle-income families. Under Harvard’s new policy, families earning up to $60,000 aren’t expected to contribute to college costs, including room and board, and those with earnings up to $180,000 pay an amount equal to 10% or less of their income.

Yale and Stanford Universities joined the race to boost financial aid to middle- and upper-middle-class families. Stanford said it will no longer require parents earning less than $100,000 to pay tuition. It said it also will not ask families earning below $60,000 to contribute at all to the cost of their child’s education, including expenses for room and board.

“I hope we’re seeing a trend and a shift in thinking,” Sen. Grassley said of Stanford’s announcement, though he indicated he still intends to gather and review information from the well-endowed colleges and universities.

I am glad that the universities are getting some sense about the need of the students and doing something about it.

Karen Cooper, Stanford’s director of financial aid, said it was “hard to say” whether Stanford would have made the same financial-aid changes if it weren’t for the congressional scrutiny.

Well, we know whether Stanford would have made these changes if there is no pressure from Congress!

It happened again. Eight Indian American kids made to the finals of Intel Science competition. The competition is generally described as “Junior Nobel Prize”. Out of eight, five are girls. Great job kids!

Avanthi Raghavan, Shravani Mikkilineni, Hamsa Sridhar, Shivani Sud, Isha Jain, Vinay Venkatesh Ramasesh, Ashok Chandran and Ayon Sen are named among the 40 finalists for the Intel Science contest. Each finalist gets at least $5,000 in scholarships and a laptop.

“A high proportion of Indian American finalists speaks well for the community” said Rick Bates, spokesperson for the organizers.

Do you have young genius in your house too? Check out these programs by Davidson Institute.

Related Link: List of all Finalists

In a major initiative, the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) today started telecasting its lectures free of cost to engineering colleges around the country. “These lectures are being telecast live through EduSat.

Students can avail real-time access to IIT-B tutoring and also interact with the resident faculty,” Arvind Patil, project coordinator for IIT-B, told reporters. So far, more than 100 engineering colleges have purchased receivers from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to access IIT-B classrooms. On the first day, 34 colleges participated in the interactive sessions. The 12-hour telecast started on January 2nd morning at 8.30 am.

The joint initiative of IIT-B and ISRO includes broadcasting regular lectures in 13 courses, including software engineering, computation fluid dynamics, embedded systems, instrumentation control and fibre optic communication. “Apart from the faculty, subject experts will also be coming to deliver these lectures, offering value addition for the students in the remotest parts of India,” said Patil, Project Coordinator.

If this works as promised, it is definitely a great gift to the engineering college students.

You might have heard about the sixth-grade female teacher kidnapping a 13-year old boy in U.S. What if the same thing happened in India?

Let us rename Kelsey Peterson to Kelsey Yadav. Also assume that she works as a sixth-standard teacher in a government high school in Patna.

Kelsey corrupts the mind of a young boy. She seduces him after the school. The boy won’t tell much about this to his parents, if the teacher asked him not to. Every kid in Indian schools is totally terrorized by the teachers. Many school teachers don’t have a basic clue about how to deal with young minds.

Most of the teachers come to school just for the sake of it. Read some books aloud, chat with fellow teachers, threaten few students, then go home. It’s just the routine. Teachers in rural schools don’t even come to schools. They do money-lending business instead.

Ok, there are some good teachers. I agree. But, they are exceptions.

In this kind of environment, people like Kelsey can easily have inappropriate relationship with young boys. The boy won’t tell anything either because of the fear or because he likes the things he does with Kelsey.

Kelsey of USA caught by school authorities mainly because of the love letters in the school issued laptop. Bihar school authorities can’t even provide proper tables and chairs to the school, let alone the laptop. So, school authorities have no way of knowing about Kelsey’s fantasy.

Even if the school authorities find out about it, Kelsey can use her political influence and transfer few school officials. Kelsey can hire some thugs to beat up the school principal. Kelsey can sleep with local MLA to get promoted quickly. Once she becomes principal, no one can dare to challenge her relationship with the young boys. She can literally convert her office room as a bed room.

Kelsey of USA ran away to Mexico because she was afraid that FBI will catch her. Kelsey of Bihar need not worry about that. She can buy local police or she can offer other favours. Either way, Bihar police won’t even file FIR even if the boy’s parents complained about that.

Few years ago, a teacher raped a ninth-standard girl in a rural school in Tamilnadu. He easily got away using his political influence. That’s for raping. Even for the crimes like this, crooks easily get away.

Kelsey didn’t rape. She seduced the boy and had sex with him with his consent. The boy was even ready to run away with her. If the news leaked about Kelsey of Bihar, it could have been masala news for many newspapers, not crime news.

Kelsey of Bihar won’t go to prison. At the worst case, she may be transferred to some other school. She will prey on new victims.

Panchafula Khandare, an illiterate woman from Parbhani district, Maharashtra, is a daily wage labourer. She travels wherever her work takes her, her young daughter in tow. Her struggle for daily survival compelled Panchafula to ignore her daughter’s education. However, now she is determined to enroll her daughter back in school. How did this transformation happen?

Thanks to the members of Meena Manch, a group of adolescent school girls from the village, who convinced Panchafula on the importance of educating of her daughter. “The girls from Meena Manch visited me frequently and urged me to send my daughter to school. When I saw how confident and well turned out they were, I decided I wanted my daughter to be just like them. Now she regularly attends the classes,” says Panchafula gladly.

Meena Manch is a forum of school girls, inspired from the loveable cartoon icon Meena that is produced by UNICEF to promote the values and rights of the girl child. These forums have been formed in all public schools and are engaged in socially meaningful activities within their community. This year the forums took up the issue of out-of-school girls to complement the government’s school enrollment drives in Gujarat and Maharashtra during the second fortnight of June.

School teachers admit that the Meena Campaign has been quite a hit with the village girls who remain ever inspired by her stories of educating girls, practicing good hygiene behaviour like using soap for washing hands, giving ORS to children suffering from diarrhoea, etc.

They also agree with one of the Meena stories that both boys and girls need the same type and level of nutrition.

Good Job Meena Manch!

Related Links:
UNICEF | A platform for empowerment | Download Meena Comic books

If you are going to interview for MBA admission in Columbia University, this post might help you.

My friend recently has gone thru the interview process. Here are some tips from him.

In Columbia the Admission committee does not conduct interviews. This is done only by alumni at various locations. The interview is blind to a certain extent as the person who is interviewing you has not seen any part of your application except your resume, which you are required to upload when you schedule your interview.

The questions went like this:

Why Finance?
Describe your current role and responsibilities.
Why MBA, and why now?
Why Columbia, and why New York in particular?
What other schools have you applied to?
Describe your leadership style.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Give an example of a situation in which you’ve worked effectively in a team.
Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
What do you have to offer to Columbia?
Do you have any questions for me?

If you are going for an interview do your homework on Columbia and be prepared.