21 Feb 12 Learning French With an Online French Course – Get the Best of Both Worlds
An online French course is a great approach for learning French and these are becoming more popular all the time. There are great reasons why an online French course makes sense for learning French, but it is important to understand both the advantages and disadvantages before you make a commitment to this approach.
The best way of learning French is to move to a French-speaking area to achieve total immersion in French conversation by essentially living your life through French as a means of learning French to a confident conversational level.
This is a much better approach than a classroom approach or an approach which is based on text books or written lessons.
A classroom approach has some benefits, because there is direct interaction with the teacher. Also, there is essentially a community of fellow-students who are learning at the same time. This can work for you or work against you, depending on the quality and motivation of your classmates. There are also structured text-based lessons which can have value to get you up to speed with some of the nuances of verb rules, tenses, and grammar.
Where a classroom approach falls down is that the frequency of the classes, usually once or twice a week, works against you. That is simply not enough time to be devoting to structured learning if you are serious about learning French.
While an online French course is not the same as moving to a French-speaking area, it can have some of the immersion benefits. it can also incorporate many of the advantages of a classroom approach without dragging you down with the weaknesses.
To that extent, the right online French course can provide many of the benefits of both the immersion benefit of moving to a French-speaking area and also the classroom benefits. a well-structured online French course can provide almost the best of both worlds.
The critical element which can make all of the difference between a great and a terrible online French course as an approach for learning French is the quality and breadth of the audio immersion modules or components which it incorporates. You need to spend some time understanding what you are getting as you evaluate your online French course.
Make the right choice and it is entirely possible to be learning French immediately and to be at a competent conversational level in French in about eight to ten weeks. That is the power of an online French course
20 Feb 12 Student Loans, Grants Benefit From Proposed Ed. Dept. Budget Increase
College students who rely on federal financial aid to pay for school, including federal grants and federal student loans, may be able to benefit form a proposed expansion of federal education funding.
President Barak Obama announced his annual budget last week, which requests a 2.5 percent increase for the U.S. Department of Education while cutting back funding for other agencies. Obama’s proposal would bring education spending to $70 billion for 2013.
The announcement of the proposed budget, which includes cuts to the Defense, Agriculture, and Justice departments, comes amid calls by Republican presidential candidates to shrink or even abolish the Education Department. however, according to Obama, education and job training remain high priorities in the administration. “Education and lifelong learning will be critical for anyone trying to compete for the jobs of the future,” Obama said. “That is why I will continue to make education a national mission.”
Increased funding for the Education Department notably targets three programs, including Pell Grants for low-income students, federal student loans, and a plan to shore up career programs at community colleges.
According to the budget proposal, the additional funding will allow the annual maximum Pell Grant award for low-income students to be maintained at $5,635 through the 2014–15 academic year. Additionally, interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans for undergraduate students, which are set to double this summer, will be kept at 3.4 percent. and an $8 billion program will be co-administered by the Education and Labor departments to establish training courses for skilled careers at community colleges, help the two-year schools develop partnerships with employers, and help state and local governments attract businesses (“Obama Proposes 2.5% Increase in Spending on Education,” Bloomberg Businessweek, Feb. 17, 2012).
Karen Stout, president of Montgomery County Community College in Pennsylvania, praised the idea of assisting two-year colleges, which typically lack funds for buildings and equipment needed to teach the specialized courses necessary for highly-skilled jobs. Stout said that her college’s budget was cut 10 percent last year and it hasn’t had funds to expand programs for health-care workers and nuclear-engineer technicians in four years, but that Obama’s proposal looked like it would match her school’s needs.
The Coalition for Educational Success, a for-profit college lobby, characterized Obama’s community college plan as a step in the right direction but lamented that the plan didn’t apply to proprietary schools. “Career colleges have more students enrolled in high-growth fields” than both public and private not-for-profit schools, the Coalition said. The Coalition also suggested that for-profit schools were a good investment for federal dollars because the schools return some of the money in the form of millions of dollars in taxes each year.
20 Feb 12 A new digital reality enters the MBA classroom
Facing the future: Richard Swanborg (left) and Venkat Venkatraman
On a chilly, sun-splotched Monday morning earlier this month, 16 MBA students at Boston University School of Management ambled into Room 326, known internally as “the studio”, to discuss the topic of the day: cars and cloud computing.
As the class began, the students, already divided into two teams – one portraying Google, the other Microsoft – bent over laptops and iPads to prepare their PowerPoint slides. then two executives, one an expert in cloud computing located in a suburb of Boston, the other a former head of digital innovation at Volkswagen based in Detroit, were beamed in via TelePresence to the giant LCD screen at the head of the room.
As the students’ slides appeared on the six smaller LCD screens around the room, the teams took turns to present their ideas. Their professors, Venkat Venkatraman and Richard Swanborg, hardly spoke at all. Periodically, they would solicit a reaction from the experts or write a key phrase from the class discussion on the interactive Mondopad, an oversize tablet with a digital whiteboard.
Welcome to the future of management education. as business schools try to infuse more reality into their classrooms, the old “sage on the stage” model, where a professor lectures a class and interaction is limited to case debate, is going the way of text books.
Many faculty members are embracing digital technologies that enable them to include industry professionals as guest lecturers in the classroom, real-time case study discussions, as clients in immersive consulting projects, or as virtual tour-guides at labs and factories. Rather than lecture, professors guide students and guest speakers through a debate.
“Every class discussion is much richer and more engaging,” says Prof Venkatraman, who specialises in information systems. “The payback is deeper learning.”
The studio at Boston University, which was recently refitted with new software and circuitry to the tune of $1m, is typically booked from morning until night, six days a week. the room’s technology is used mainly in full-time MBA courses, though it is also being rolled out in undergraduate courses and executive education.
The technology has not impressed all teaching staff, however. “It’s difficult to get all of our faculty members to rethink how they want to teach. they have to develop an entirely new method and it requires a lot of effort,” says Prof Venkatraman.
But many do believe that the increased emphasis on technology has important benefits, such as a better use of precious classroom time.
Prof Swanborg, an executive-in-residence at the school who teaches IT strategy, says he now spends very little time lecturing. instead he records presentations for students to watch on their phones or computers whenever they choose; classroom time is devoted to interactive simulations or guest speakers enabled by technology.
“It’s pushing academics to become expert facilitators,” he says.
The technology is not perfect, and hiccups and glitches are a common occurrence, but officials say the greater use of video conferencing appeals to a generation weaned on Facebook and digital gadgetry.
“It’s changing the experience of what business school is,” says Abram Guerra, a student enrolled in Boston University’s joint MBA/Masters, of the Information Systems programme.
“It’s a whole new level of engagement and participation, and [the inclusion of executives] makes it current.”
Of course, busy executives often make guest appearances on campuses, but those visits often require considerable planning and logistics. With TelePresence, the high-end conference system, as well as other more mainstream technologies such as Apple’s FaceTime, YouTube and Skype video call, these kinds of speaking engagements are much easier to co-ordinate, according to Tony O’Driscoll, a professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business in North Carolina, which has one of the largest TelePresence systems in the world.
“To get a Silicon Valley executive to come to Durham for a one-hour keynote address and discussion is a two-day opportunity cost [for that executive],” says Prof O’Driscoll, executive director at Fuqua’s Center for Technology, Media and Entertainment.
“I hear all the time from people: ‘I’d love to do it, but …’ this technology allows us to get higher profile business people to participate more often. To them, it’s just another slot in the calendar.”
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Not all courses are cut out for hi-tech updates or outside speakers enabled by technology, of course. In quantitative areas, such as accounting, there is content that is perhaps better suited to memory and drill. In courses in strategy, competitive analysis, innovation and pricing, however, the live inclusion of industry input is sup-erior to the traditional case method.
“No matter how well the case is written, to hear from someone who was in the trenches and had to make a decision – there’s no comparison,” says Ellen Rubin, vice-president at Terremark, a Verizon company, who recently spoke to students at BU.
“It’s unbelievably powerful and it sticks with you the rest of your career.”
17 Feb 12 English Teacher Requirements in the United States – How to Teach English
It is said that English is the universal language. It is the official language of over 70 countries and the national language of the U.S. with over 96% of the population claiming to have the ability to speak English well or better. With that said, English is still a subject that is taught in US schools from Kindergarten through High School and there is always a demand for teachers who are qualified to teach English.
English teacher requirements include paths to certification similar to that of other teachers. a bachelor’s degree and teaching certification is required if you plan on teaching at the elementary, middle, or secondary level. It is recommended that you choose a major in an English related field. For example, in Arizona and other states, many universities offer Secondary and Elementary Language Arts bachelor’s degree programs. other possibilities include an Interdisciplinary Studies program with English as a major. You will find that many schools offer bridged degrees for hopeful teachers. if you are considering pursuing an English teaching position at a college or university, a doctorate degree in an English discipline is usually required unless you are applying at a two year school where candidates with only master’s degrees are also considered.
A popular program to pursue for aspiring English teachers is a degree in English Education. These programs usually include courses such as Creative Writing, Literature, Cultural Studies, and Analytical Writing. In addition to these core classes, you will also be required to obtain real-world teaching experience through either student or practice teacher or by acquiring actual field experience. Many universities also offer accelerated Master degree programs where you can complete your undergraduate and graduate courses in 5 years. With most states requiring that all teachers obtain a master’s degree within so many years of being certified, these types of programs can be ideal for many aspiring teachers.
In order for you to be accepted into a teacher education program, you will likely need to meet minimum GPA requirements and pass university admissions screening exams. Many colleges offer alternative routes to a teaching certification for students that already possess a bachelor’s degree but would like to obtain a certification to teach English. Usually, this will entail enrolling in education courses and acquiring the required number of core English courses. You will also be required to pass either the national or PRAXIS series of teaching exams. Specific requirements vary slightly by state, so it is always a good idea to make direct contact with the state education department to make sure you meet all prerequisites and qualify.
Teachers outside of the United States may also find jobs as English teachers as long as they have degrees that are equivalent and can pass the required proficiency examinations. Foreign aspiring teachers may be required to pass IELTS or TOEFL exams and provide a working visa. other than that, the requirements to become an English teacher for those not currently living in the States are the same as the process that current US citizens have to follow.
Learning how to speak English and being able to teach it are two entirely different things. Depending on the native tongue of the student, English can be a difficult language to learn. As an English teacher, you will play an important role in developing the creative and language skills of your students.
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