UNCG Online Blog

It's a new year and for most folks, that means resolutions. So let's kick off 2012 with a roundup of links for self-improvement you can do online.

1. You can take music lessons online via Skype.

2. You can find a better job. 

3. You can take a few free classes online or better yet, go back to school.

4. You can pick up a new hobby. 

5. You can work on your personal fitness.

6. You can learn a foreign language.

7. You can get organized at work and at home.

   Did you make any new year's resolutions? Are you using any online tools to help you achieve them?

That’s changed. Now your dog might have his own social media accounts. And based on your search queries and shopping habits, the Internet has probably recorded his eating habits and preferences in toys, (or in the case of my cat, eagerness to play fetch like a dog).

Why would anyone want to earn a traditional 4-year college degree in only 3 years? You may ask yourself if all that acceleration is really worth it.

It's never been enough to just get a college degree then abandon formal education. You have to keep learning. Not only is it good for your brain, it's also good for your career. It's something an employer values. Why? Because continual learning demonstrates an eager, creative mind, an employee who's interested in the business and wants to stay on the cutting edge.

Finding graduate courses online can be daunting. Googling yields a confusing plethora of choices. How do you know which ones are right for you?

Are you someone who looks at the world around you and asks WHY? The social sciences can help you sharpen your questions and learn new tools for exploring your world.

Every two years, the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles. This trend has roughly held true for the past 50 years and is expected to continue for decades. It even has a name in computer science circles: Moore’s Law, coined by the Intel co-founder who predicted this staggering rate of innovation in the size, processing power, and storage capacity of computers.

I recently spent at weekend in Florida visiting my son. He's the regional internal sales manager for a large corporation and, not surprizingly, his home reflects his personal and professional focus on technology. I think I made some comment about his home looking like a call center or help desk operation for a computer company.  Two desks sported one laptop and two monitors each. A laptop and iPad sat on the coffee table, alongside an iPhone 4 (when he wasn't using it), and a huge Apple TV sat side-by-side with a second huge TV near the fireplace.

Despite the proliferation of online college degree programs and courses, there are very few teacher education programs or accreditation standards that specifically address the role of the online teacher and how that role differs from teaching in a face-to-face classroom.

Good educators engage with students outside of the classroom, usually through scheduled office hours. But now there's a simpler option for connecting with students in a virtual space most visit every day — Facebook.