The Big Picture !

       
     For the Capstone Project I chose to explain better ways for students and professors to communicate. Have you ever e-mailed a teacher an important question that you needed the answer back to as soon as possible ? It may have taken them days or maybe even weeks to write you back. I went about this project with the hope of finding new methods of communication that would help out my school and maybe other schools.
       As I started to do research I found that many of the things that were on websites were things that my school was already trying like email or blackboard. Although we are already doing these things I found new ways for us to go about using them. Using e-mail really isn't an effective way of communication because most of the time the student and the teachers are never on the same page. E-mails may not represent clear thought or analysis to go with the tone, organization, immediacy, and presentation of a message. When sending an e-mail if the student needs a fast answer back they should include the word “ urgent” in their subject line. Also, the professors should start a class page of the questions they have been asked with the answers just in case there are other students with the same problems. I also discovered that a good way to communicate is to actually have any understanding of each others needs, both teachers and students. Both students and professors should understand that's although their schedule may not be busy someone else's schedule can be.

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   I discovered that college education requires professors to train students in a variety of academic, social, professional, and behavioral situations. In "The Seven Principles of Collection", it had many ways to help the communication process. A reflection journal could be made by the students to reflect on their feelings and thoughts about the class sessions to give the professors a feel of the things that the students think are working and not working in their classroom, as a result of them writing the reflection journal the professor responds. This would also be a good time for students to include any questions about upcoming projects or assignments. Better office hours would also help the process of communication, students would have more time to ask their professors questions or just to meet face-to-face with them. Teachers should also use online chat hours to stay in touch with their students online.

 When I started to create my project I just wanted people to understand the communication levels they are using now, and see which ways they can improve them. I used a tri-fold and titled it communication. I then, broke the poster into two different section; one being the Students side and the other, being the Teacher's side. I displayed ways that the communication between the two could change to improve the communication methods. I designed the poster in an easy manner so it would be easy to understand and the purpose of the poster would be clear. I used big bright letters to grab someone's attention.

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Looking Back !

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                      Over the semester I feel like my writing has improved greatly. I started off my earlier blog posts with blogs that were very hard to understand and very unorganized, but as the posts went on I found that the organization, thesis, and examples of my blogs were getting better.
          In my blog," Is All of this Just a Big Waste of Time ?", I felt like the thesis of this blog was very up front and got a readers attention. I started the post off by asking a lot of questions that would pull readers into my blog and actually make them interact or become interested in what they were reading. I used personal experiences about what I thought about college to give the reader a feel of what I have experienced already and examples of why I feel the way I do. I stated, " That students always hear about how great college is, and all of the things they have to do to actually get a college degree." College is actually a test of endurance; a way to see if you are actually fit for the whole lifestyle of school and working.
       Also in, " Is College Worth it ? ", I gave personal examples of the way college has effected my life as a whole. I talked about all of the things I have been through so far, and also all of the things my family has been through since I've been here. I used strong examples of why I think college is very much worth the experience. I started off the post by stating, " Do you want to make something of yourself ?", because it was a question that I ask myself all the time and most days that's what gets me through. College is great, I can't lie, but there's also a lot of work that goes into it and sometimes I question myself.
       In, " Why College ? ", I explained why I thought it was a good choice for me to decide to come to college. College wasn't something that I really wanted to do, but I knew it was something that I had to do. I stated in this post, " That after I saw the look on my Mother's face when I graduated high school it was a "no-brainer" that I was going to come to college". My main focus then was just to make my mother proud of the things I was doing because I was her first child to graduate high school. I think these personal examples gave the reader a sense of who I really was, and many of them could relate.

 

 

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Is College Worth it ? Revised

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       Do you want to make something of yourself ? Sometimes I find myself asking this exact question. Although, college is very expensive and things always don't work out, I belive that if a person is a the right college for them, it will make enjoying college and college work a little bit easier. College gives its students a chance to step out and explore things that they may want to do in the future.

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   Ask yourself is college worth it to you ? Many of the people that answer that question will say no. When thinking about college many people just think about what you have to do to get through it. I see it as think more about what you will get out of it in the long run. People should think about things like, " where will I be in ten years ?" In " Value of College Beyond Paycheck", it states that college is " not just learning things to make a living, but also learning things to enable you to do things with your life, to enable you to find interests and pursuits that may in some way or another expand the way we see things".
    Succeeding in college is up to you. The way you handle the experience is what will truely benefit you in the long run. During your college experience, if all you think about is the bad things that will happen, or the thoughts of maybe not having a job after you finish than your experience may not be the best. You make the decision about if college is worth it or not and you determine that. You have a clear path that you have set for yourself, set the goals that you want to follow and achieve them. In, "Why we Have College", Louis Maynard states, "College is, essentially, a four-year intelligence test. Students have to demonstrate intellectual ability over time and across a range of subjects. If they’re sloppy or inflexible or obnoxious—no matter how smart they might be in the I.Q. sense—those negatives will get picked up in their grades. As an added service, college also sorts people according to aptitude."
    If you weren't the best student in high school, like me then college is a new way of proving yourself,  by making better decisions and just trying to succeed overall. In, " The Education Our Economy Needs", the author the author talks about how many people feel that memorization is more important than good critical thinking and good communication skills when it comes to job applicants, but as the author stated, “ A candidate who demonstrates capabilities in critical thinking, creative problem solving and communication has a far greater chance of being employed today than his or her counterpart without these skills”. That basically means if you take the time and effort to better yourself in certain skills then you have a better chance of succeeding after college.

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    Also in, "Don't Miss The College Forest For the Career Trees", Bobby Fong explains "College can't serve you well without challenging you to integrate information and skills in ways you haven't before, and to apply the results to problems that may not yield clear and simple answers." I feel as though I always have to push myself to complete things, like assignments. I want to see can I really go through with this independent life. To prove to myself that I am capable of making it. I do this just to see if I made the right decision to go to college, or if I'm at the college I want to be at.
      I believe that yes college is worth the experience if you make it worth it. People have to stay positive and try to explore new things that will help them further themselves, or help them to stand out from the rest; like trying to overcome the things that they may have trouble with like writing, math, or even history.

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Sharing Is Caring

"Sharing is a big deal these days. Sharing is a growth industry, a new field of study and of practice; it presents a realm of career opportunities, a new way of life, and a concept around which we are restructing our world."

-Janelle Orsi, co-author of The Sharing Solution

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   In the book "Share or Die:Voices of the Get Lost Generation in the age of Crisis", I read about the ten ways the world is becoming more shareable. Sharing techniques, lifestyles, and businesses may be what is best for everyone, by reading about the rough experiences they have gone through. It would cut down on the amount of debt that is happening now, and also educate others. Sharing may be a good way to give other people a new way of thinking about things or a new prespective of life. Sharing experiences could prevent others from making the same mistakes to just keep worsening the state that cities are in now, like people going through identity fraud due to the information that they put on the internet. I believe that sharing, not only information, but knowledge about personal experiences will have a large impact on our generation and the world overall. I have noticed that many of the sharing methods in this essay are very useful. Social media and the internet are both things that I am familiar with and they both have advantages from a positive and negative side.

   From the social media point of view I have seen that Facebook is a large sharing site. It can be used as a way to share information with people to find lost family members. I have put my own personal information into the site just to find family members that I haven't spoken to in years. I also used facebook to locate my God mother that I was separated from at a young age. Social media and the internet can also keep people from doing things that may harm them. The right information in the hands of the wrong person can teach someone a quick lesson. These websites have no filter so people become careless, and will put information about their social security numbers and other things into sites that are not protected. This could be an example to educate people about the correct ways to use the internet and many social media sites.Youtube is also another way I have seen social media and the internet being used. Many of my professors this semester have used it to post study guides, feedback on certain assignments, and also to show instructional videos.

       " If Facebook was a country, it would be the fourth largest country in the world by population with over 800 million users."







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Is All of This Just A Big Waste of Time ?

            Is college even anything like it used to be ? Is college enough to make it in the 21st century ? Will people even be as worried about college as we are now ? I honestly have no way of answering this question, but what I can say is there are possibly three reasons college won't be as affective to people in later years as it is to people now. The first reason would be that mostly half of the people that start off going to college just drop out after a while. The second, as technology is increasing the need to actually go to college to learn new skills will probably decrease. The third, college degrees are not as promising as they have always been.

 

 

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"About thirty precent of college and university students drop out of school before they even get to their second year. Fifty precent of those students that start off at college never graduate." , as seen in "College in America", an infographic. Students hear many times in their lives about how fabulous college is, and also about how many things they can accomplish with a college degree. Once many of them get to college they soon start to realize that college is not just fun and games. College actually requires a lot of self-determination and a lot of self-motivation. High school and high school teachers often talk about how good college is and how it will help you succeed in life, but is that even the case anymore ? Is college really going to get you ahead in life? I see it as yes, you can go to college and get a degree, but a job is not guaranteed; especially not in the kind of economy we live in today. In an article written by Jordan Weissmann, "Why Do So Many Americans Drop Out of College ?", he clearly explains that unprepared students sign up for school because they think a degree is their passport to middle class. He also says that students should have other options. I am guilty of thinking of college in that way. I have stated in many of my past blogs that I came to college to get a degree in nursing to be successful. That statement was me, thinking that college is just going to lead the way for my success and that I would have nothing else to do. My thinking process was totally off.

 

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Technology is taking over the way students learn completely. Homework assignments can be done over the internet and many class projects require internet now. The way technology is evolving is great, but is it all for the good ? In " The Crisis in Higher Education", the opening sentence caught my eye. The opening sentence said, "Online courses are attracting hundreds of thousands of students, millions of dollars in funding, and accolades from university administrators. Is this a fad, or is higher education about to get the overhaul it needs ?" The passage goes on to talk about the internet is raising new hopes in education. All of the work that needs to be done can be done from your dorm room or even your own home. Many teachers have started to put the lessons for the day on an online website that can be reached by their students. Teachers also put videos of the things they covered that day in class online too. What's the point of even having class ? Give your students a reason to come to class, other than the fact that they are paying for you class and don't want their money to go to waste; give them something to look forward to. In the article, "Is Technology Ruining Children ?", the article talks about how technology is creating a generation of students that are unable to do anything themselves. I am one of those type people that if I need to figure something out, I will just type it into google because it's so much easier than doing it myself. I can say that technology has turned me into one of those lazy children.

 

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 In the article " College Education, Good Jobs: Why Degrees are Overrated ", by Ramesh Ponnuru, he talks about how ridiculous it is that people how have college degrees work as hotel management and accounting. It's sad to say, but there are people out there with college degrees that are just stuck with nothing to do. The way the economy is now there are not many job openings at all. This puts the people with college degrees at a disadvantage. Those people have to take any job option possible just to make ends meet.
      These are my reasons as to why I can't say that college is or isn't good enough for anyone. Yes, it helps you succeed, but what does college do to you in the long run; how does it damage you ? Will the drop out rates, technology, or non-promising careers hold college students back ? You tell me.

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Is College Worth it ?

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   Do you want to make something of yourself ? Sometimes I find myself asking this exact question. Although college is making a HUGE dent in my wallet and my parent's wallet, I can't say that I see myself anywhere else. I view this as an opportunity to strengthen my learning skills and teach me at least some of what it will be like when I'm on my own. College not only expands your knowledge further than what you have learned in high school, but it also creates a path for better career decisions. I would like to become a nurse so I know my only way to further that dream would be to actually finish college. It may seem as though your whole reasoning for being there is pointless or maybe even a waste of time. In "Professor: Value of College Extends Beyond Paycheck" by NPR staff, it states,

          "Rose, the author of Why School? and other books, cites the idea of intellectual growth — "not just learning things to make a living, but also learning things to enable you to do things with      your life, to enable you to find interests and pursuits that may in some way or another expand the way we see things."

 



        

       College gives students a chance to really make something of themselves. To actually see what they are capable of doing. It will also challenge the thoughts that they had during high school the dreams that they set for themselves years earlier. It could be looked at as a big test of endurance.

 

 

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In "Live and Learn: Why We Have College", Louis Maynard states, "College is, essentially, a four-year intelligence test. Students have to demonstrate intellectual ability over time and across a range of subjects. If they’re sloppy or inflexible or obnoxious—no matter how smart they might be in the I.Q. sense—those negatives will get picked up in their grades. As an added service, college also sorts people according to aptitude." I, myself, wasn't the best student in high school so I can see this as my opportunity to try and make something better of myself. To prove that not every student comes to college just to party or just to waste their parent's money. In " Don't Miss The College Forest for the Career Trees", Bobby Fong explains "College can't serve you well without challenging you to integrate information and skills in ways you haven't before, and to apply the results to problems that may not yield clear and simple answers." I feel as though I always have to push myself to complete things, like assignments. I want to see can I really go through with this independent life. To prove to myself that I am capable of making it.

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In the article,"Actually, College is Very Much Worth it", it basically tells you that college graduates are more likely to be in jobs with better benefits, further widening the gap between graduates and non-graduates. I don't want to spend years in college and end up with an underpaid, unappreciated job. I don't want the time and pain that I have invested into school to go to waste, so it's almost a priority for me to finish college and do something better, something great with my life. This will show that all my hard work actually paid off somehow. This is what college is good for !!!!!!

Why college ?

Well at first coming to college was never a "serious" thought of mine. Yes, I wanted to come but I never thought I could have the determination or self-motivation to complete assignments on time. Once I saw the look on my mother's face after being the first one of her children to actually graduate high school, I knew the decision to come to college was a "no brainer". This is when alot of thought into what I wanted to be or what I was even interested in. I knew nursing was something that I was interested in, and children was another one of my interests.

Also, another reason of mine to go to college was just to get out of my house; prove to people that I was actually independent and capable to doing things on my own. Being the only girl of four boys I found that having to prove myself became sort of a ritual. I guess really my choice to come to college was to mainly make my mother and family proud or course, but to also prove to them and others that I didnt need everything done for me. That at some point of time in my life I was going to actually have to grown up and start the whole living on my own process with or without them.