What You Need to Know About Online Education
Posted: September 29, 2018 at 1:46 am
Exploring Online Education:
Online education is often preferred by professionals, parents, and students who need a flexible school schedule. This article will help you understand the basics of online education, recognize its benefits and drawbacks, and choose an online education program that fits your needs.
What is Online Education?:
Online education is any type of learning that occurs through the internet. Online education is often called:
Is Online Education Right for You?:
Online education isnt for everyone. People who are most successful with online education tend to be self-motivated, skilled with scheduling their time, and capable of meeting deadlines. Advanced reading and writing skills are often required to excel in text-heavy online education courses. See: Is Online Learning Right for You?
Online education offers flexibility for people who have work or family responsibilities outside of school. Often, students enrolled in online education programs are able to work at their own pace, accelerating their studies if desired. Online education programs may also charge less than traditional programs.
Students involved in online education often complain that they miss the direct, face-to-face interaction found on traditional campuses. Since coursework is generally self-directed, it is difficult for some online education students to stay engaged and complete their assignments on time.
Types of Online Education Programs:
When choosing an online education program, youll need to decide between synchronous courses and asynchronous courses. Students taking online education courses synchronously are required to log on to their courses at the same time as their professors and peers. Students taking online education courses asynchronously may log on to the course website whenever they choose and do not have to participate in discussions or lectures at the same time as their peers.
Choosing an Online Education Program:
After surveying your online education options, choose a school that fits your personal goals and learning style. The About.com list of Online Education Program Profiles can help you make the right decision.
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What You Need to Know About Online Education
Online Education – Fort Valley State University
Posted: at 1:46 am
Fort Valley State University Online Learning provides the online information, tools, and support you need to become a virtual member of the FVSU family and stay connected as you enroll in courses and complete degrees online.
New features and resources at a glance:
State AuthorizationIf you are physically located in a state other than Georgia, please contact us to ensure that FVSU is authorized to offer distance education in your state.
Logging InIf you have been admitted and have paid your fees, you may enter into your online courses on the first day of class. Here is how to log in:
The D2L username is the same as your FVSU email ID before the @ sign. For example, jsmith1@wildcat.fvsu.edu would be jsmith1 for the D2L username.
If you do not have your FVSU Student Email account, you can retrieve it from Banner Web under the Personal Information Link.Once you have retrieved your user ID please click the Forgot Password Link and you will receive a password reset link to your student email.
If you forget your password, select the Forgot password link on the Brightspace by D2L page and then check their wildcat email for the password reset link.
Student tutorials for Brightspace by D2L
Fully online courses are charged at a rate of $189.00 per credit hour for undergraduate students and $219 per credit hour for graduate students. Courses that are offered through Georgia ONmyLINE (http://www.georgiaonmyline.org) are charged at a rate of $189.00 per credit hour. Students enrolled in all online courses are required to pay the Student Center/Multi-Use Fee and the Institutional Fee.
ContactLaQuata Sumter, Director of OnlineLearningOffice: (478) 827-3857E-mail: sumterl@fvsu.edu
Amanda D. Glover, Distance Learning Technical SupportOffice: (478) 825-6228E-mail: glovera@fvsu.edu
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Online Education - Fort Valley State University
Online Learning Benefits – ASCD
Posted: at 1:46 am
8 Benefits of Learning Online
1. Save Time
Scheduling and implementing online learning is much less time-consuming than planning and running inservice days and staff meetings.
2. Save Money
Eliminate travel expenses, registration costs, consultant fees, and other expenses associated with seminars and on-site meetings. And online learning can save school districts the expense of hiring substitute teachers.
3. Get CEU and College Credit
Online learning opportunities offer a way to earn professional development clock hours, which can be applied toward CEU or college credit.
4. Add Flexibility
You can access online learning opportunities anytime, any place you have access to the Internet, from the comfort of your own home and even during summer and holiday breaks.
5. Increase Accountability
Online learning can be even more accountable than traditional professional development because assignments, assessment scores, activities, course completions, and participant progress can be monitored online.
6. Bring Education Theory to Life
When online learning experiences take full advantage of the interactivity and multimedia power of the Internet, they can engage you with videotaped classroom scenes, interviews, and online demonstrations of concepts. This wide variety of activity and question formats offers a more valuable learning experience than a typical workshop or textbook-based courses.
7. Promote Transference of Learning to the Workplace
Instead of one-shot workshops, you can use the flexibility and lower costs of online learning to follow-up on learning activities with support that leads to implementation of new practices.
8. Create Excitement About Learning
The interactivity and multimedia delivery of online professional development makes learning more engaging and fun!
Why Choose ASCD for Online Learning?
As a membership organization of, by, and for educators, ASCD listens to educators around the world. We find out what's working in schools and classrooms, then we create powerful professional resources that help implement those ideasin a single classroom or systemwide.
That's what makes us the leading source of professional development in K12 education. A national survey from an independent research firm found that more educators name ASCD as the "industry leader" in providing programs and services for K12 professional development compared to any other organization.
Our approach to online learning divides the professional development experience into four levels of learner needs:
This differentiated approach to professional development is much more apt to ensure your online learning experience is a successwhether your goal is self-help or systemic improvement.
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Online Learning Benefits - ASCD
Online Learning | American University, Washington, DC
Posted: at 1:46 am
Accreditation
American University is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and authorized to offer online learning in most states. For further information, please consult thecurrent list of states in which American University is authorized to offer online learning.
Current AU students can select from over 100 online classes offered during the Fall, Spring and Summer sessions. AU undergraduate and graduate students can find many options to fulfill curriculum requirements, to explore special topics, or to work toward degree completion while studying or researching aboard. Online summer classes offer a great way to earn AU credits, even while you cannot be on campus!
Visiting Non-Degree (Non-AU) Students seeking to supplement the courses offered by their home institutions or to earn credits during the summer sessions may enroll in AU's online classes. Always consult with your academic advisor at your home institution to ensure that classes taken at American University will be accepted for credit, since the transfer of course and degree credits are determined by the receiving institution.
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Online Learning | American University, Washington, DC
Yoga | philosophy | Britannica.com
Posted: at 1:45 am
Yoga, (Sanskrit: Yoking or Union) one of the six systems (darshans) of Indian philosophy. Its influence has been widespread among many other schools of Indian thought. Its basic text is the Yoga-sutras by Patanjali (c. 2nd century bce or 5th century ce).
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Hinduism: Yoga
The initiate guided by a guru may practice Yoga (a methodic exertion of body and mind) in order to attain, through mortification, concentration, and meditation, a higher state of consciousness and thereby find supreme knowledge, achieve spiritual autonomy, and realize oneness with the Highest
The practical aspects of Yoga play a more important part than does its intellectual content, which is largely based on the philosophy of Samkhya, with the exception that Yoga assumes the existence of God, who is the model for the aspirant who seeks spiritual release. Yoga holds with Samkhya that the achievement of spiritual liberation (moksha) occurs when the spirit (purusha) is freed from the bondage of matter (prakriti) that has resulted from ignorance and illusion. The Samkhya view of the evolution of the world through identifiable stages leads Yoga to attempt to reverse this order, as it were, so that a person can increasingly dephenomenalize the self until it reenters its original state of purity and consciousness. An aspirant who has learned to control and suppress the obscuring activities of the mind and has succeeded in ending attachment to material objects will be able to enter samadhii.e., a state of deep concentration that results in a blissful ecstatic union with the ultimate reality.
Generally, the Yoga process is described in eight stages (ashtanga-yoga, eight-membered Yoga). The first two stages are ethical preparations. They are yama (restraint), which denotes abstinence from injury (see ahimsa), falsehood, stealing, lust, and avarice; and niyama (discipline), which denotes cleanliness of body, contentment, austerity, study, and devotion to God.
The next two stages are physical preparations. Asana (seat), a series of exercises in physical posture, is intended to condition the aspirants body and make it supple, flexible, and healthy. Mastery of the asanas is reckoned by ones ability to hold one of the prescribed postures for an extended period of time without involuntary movement or physical distractions. Pranayama (breath control) is a series of exercises intended to stabilize the rhythm of breathing in order to encourage complete respiratory relaxation.
The fifth stage, pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), involves control of the senses, or the ability to withdraw the attention of the senses from outward objects.
Whereas the first five stages are external aids to Yoga, the remaining three are purely mental or internal aids. Dharana (holding on) is the ability to hold and confine awareness of externals to one object for a long period of time (a common exercise is fixing the mind on an object of meditation, such as the tip of the nose or an image of the deity). Dhyana (concentrated meditation) is the uninterrupted contemplation of the object of meditation, beyond any memory of ego. Samadhi (total self-collectedness) is the final stage and is a precondition of attaining release from samsara, or the cycle of rebirth. In this stage the meditator perceives or experiences the object of his meditation and himself as one.
The prehistory of Yoga is not clear. The early Vedic texts speak of ecstatics, who may well have been predecessors of the later yogis (followers of Yoga). Although Yoga has been made into a separate school, its influence and many of its practices have been felt in other schools.
In the course of time, certain stages of Yoga became ends in themselvesnotably, the breathing exercises and sitting postures, as in the Yoga school of Hatha Yoga. Patanjalis Yoga is sometimes known as Raja (Royal) Yoga, to distinguish it from the other schools.
Yoga, in a less technical sense of achieving union with God, is also used, as in the Bhagavadgita, to distinguish the alternate paths (margas) to such a union.
Beginning in the early 20th century, the philosophy and practice of Yoga became increasingly popular in the West. The first important organization for practitioners in the United States was the Self-Realization Fellowship, founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1920. Within 50 years, instruction emphasizing both the physical and spiritual benefits of Yogic techniques was available through a wide variety of sectarian Yoga organizations, nonsectarian classes, and television programs in the United States and Europe.
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Yoga | philosophy | Britannica.com
Yoga as exercise – Wikipedia
Posted: at 1:45 am
For the family of spiritual practices that originated in India, see Hatha yoga and Asana.
Yoga as exercise is a modern exercise practice influenced by hatha yoga. It involves holding stretches as a kind of low-impact physical exercise, and is often used for therapeutic purposes.[1] Yoga in this sense often occurs in a class and may involve meditation, imagery, breath work and music.[2][3]
Yoga has roots in India. The foundational text for yoga is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Yoga came to the attention of the western public in the mid 19th century along with other topics of Hindu philosophy. The first Hindu teacher to actively advocate and disseminate aspects of yoga to a western audience was Swami Vivekananda, who toured Europe and the United States in the 1890s.[4][5]
Nearly all types of hatha yoga practices include asana, pranayama and savasana.[6] The physical asanas of hatha yoga have a tradition that goes back to at least the 15th century, but they were not widely practiced in India prior to the early 20th century.
A hatha "yoga boom" occurred in the 1980s, as unconnected to a religious denomination.[4] Since then, hatha yoga has been used as a supplementary exercise practice.[7]
The more classical approaches of hatha yoga, such as iyengar yoga, move at a more deliberate pace, emphasize proper alignment and execution and hold asanas for a longer time. They aim to gradually improve flexibility, balance, and strength. Other approaches, such as Ashtanga or power yoga, shift between asanas quickly and energetically. Contemporary approaches to yoga invite students to become their own authority in yoga practice by offering principle-based approaches to yoga that can be applied to any form.
Much of the research on hatha yoga has been in the form of preliminary studies or clinical trials of low methodological quality, including small sample sizes, inadequate blinding, lack of randomization, and high risk of bias.[8][9] Hatha yoga does not have specific standardization of its practice.
A 2010 literature review stated, "although the results from these trials are encouraging, they should be viewed as very preliminary because the trials, as a group, suffered from substantial methodological limitations."[10] A 2015 systematic review on the effect of yoga on mood and the brain concluded that "yoga is associated with better regulation of the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system, as well as a decrease in depressive and anxious symptoms in a range of populations."[11] The same review recommended more methodological rigor be applied to future clinical trials.
One review found little evidence that yoga helps people with dementia perform their daily activities,[12] while another showed there were no effects on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.[8] There was weak evidence supporting yoga as an alternative treatment for insomnia, with no evidence that yoga was better than general relaxation.[13]
Only weak evidence was found to support the use of hatha yoga as a complementary therapy for rheumatic diseases, with no evidence of its safety.[14] Although one study found a small effect of yoga to lower high blood pressure, overall this evidence was too weak for any recommendation to be made, and provided no information about safety.[15] There was no evidence of benefit in treatment of epilepsy or menopause-related symptoms.[16][17] Practice of yoga had no effect on the underlying mechanisms of cancer.[18]
Although relatively safe, yoga is not risk free. Sensible precautions can usefully be taken for example beginners should avoid advanced moves, yoga should not be combined with psychoactive drug use, and competitive yoga should be avoided.[19]
A small percentage of yoga practitioners each year suffer physical injuries analogous to sports injuries.[20] The practice of yoga has been cited as a cause of hyperextension or rotation of the neck, which may be a precipitating factor in cervical artery dissection.[21]
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Yoga as exercise - Wikipedia
Transhumanism: The Next Evolution of Man w. Zoltan Istvan (Video Interview)
Posted: at 1:44 am
The question of the day is.... Will technology go too far? We've seen it in countless Hollywood movies; man builds robots, robots get too smart, man gets wiped out. With the ever increasing speed of technological advances where technology builds technology, will we allow it to get to that point?
Today's episode is my conversation with entrepreneur, politician, and transhumanist, Zoltan Istvan about what the future holds for mankind and their relationship with machines.
Zoltan is a big proponent of the merging of man with tech and as an optimist, he believes that the future is bright with endless possibilities of exoskeletons, superhuman abilities, and potentially immortality.
All that and much more on today's episode of The System is Down, "Transhumanism: The Next Evolution of Man w. Zoltan Istvan".
Question Everything and Stay Uncomfortable
Let's get weird!
Zoltan Istvan: http://zoltanistvan.com
The System is Down: http://tsidpod.com
The Downers Club: http://patreon.com/thesystemisdown
AntiNews: http://antinewslive.com
Open Discussion: http://tsidpod.com/forum
Buy Some SWAG: http://tsidpod.com/shop
Facebook: http://facebook.com/thesystemisdown
Twitter: http://twitter.com/tsidpod
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Transhumanism: The Next Evolution of Man w. Zoltan Istvan (Video Interview)
Investment and Retirement Calculator | DaveRamsey.com
Posted: September 28, 2018 at 6:46 am
Calculate your estimated retirement savings with our investment calculator and connect with a local investment professional to help you reach your goal.
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Investment and Retirement Calculator | DaveRamsey.com
SparkNotes: The Enlightenment (16501800): Brief Overview
Posted: at 6:44 am
Causes
On the surface, the most apparent cause of the Enlightenmentwas the Thirty Years War. This horribly destructivewar, which lasted from 1618 to 1648,compelled German writers to pen harsh criticisms regarding the ideasof nationalism and warfare. These authors, such as HugoGrotius and John Comenius, were some of thefirst Enlightenment minds to go against tradition and propose bettersolutions.
At the same time, European thinkers interest in the tangible worlddeveloped into scientific study, while greater exploration of theworld exposed Europe to other cultures and philosophies. Finally,centuries of mistreatment at the hands of monarchies and the churchbrought average citizens in Europe to a breaking point, and themost intelligent and vocal finally decided to speak out.
The Enlightenment developed through a snowball effect:small advances triggered larger ones, and before Europe and theworld knew it, almost two centuries of philosophizing and innovationhad ensued. These studies generally began in the fields of earthscience and astronomy, as notables such as Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei tookthe old, beloved truths of Aristotle and disproved them. Thinkerssuch as Ren Descartes and Francis Bacon revisedthe scientific method, setting the stage for Isaac Newton andhis landmark discoveries in physics.
From these discoveries emerged a system for observingthe world and making testable hypotheses based on thoseobservations. At the same time, however, scientists faced ever-increasingscorn and skepticism from people in the religious community, whofelt threatened by science and its attempts to explain matters offaith. Nevertheless, the progressive, rebellious spirit of thesescientists would inspire a centurys worth of thinkers.
The first major Enlightenment figure in Englandwas Thomas Hobbes, who caused great controversywith the release of his provocative treatise Leviathan (1651).Taking a sociological perspective, Hobbes felt that by nature, peoplewere self-serving and preoccupied with the gathering of a limitednumber of resources. To keep balance, Hobbes continued, it was essentialto have a single intimidating ruler. A half century later, JohnLocke came into the picture, promoting the opposite typeof governmenta representative governmentin his Two Treatisesof Government (1690).
Although Hobbes would be more influential among his contemporaries,it was clear that Lockes message was closer to the English peopleshearts and minds. Just before the turn of the century, in 1688,English Protestants helped overthrow the Catholic king JamesII and installed the Protestant monarchs William andMary. In the aftermath of this Glorious Revolution,the English government ratified a new Bill of Rights that grantedmore personal freedoms.
Many of the major French Enlightenment thinkers, or philosophes, wereborn in the years after the Glorious Revolution, so Frances Enlightenmentcame a bit later, in the mid-1700s.The philosophes, though varying in style and area of particularconcern, generally emphasized the power of reason and sought todiscover the natural laws governing human society. The Baronde Montesquieu tackled politics by elaborating upon Locke'swork, solidifying concepts such as the separation of power bymeans of divisions in government. Voltaire took a morecaustic approach, choosing to incite social and political changeby means of satire and criticism. Although Voltaires satires arguablysparked little in the way of concrete change, Voltaire neverthelesswas adept at exposing injustices and appealed to a wide range ofreaders. His short novel Candide is regarded as oneof the seminal works in history.
Denis Diderot, unlike Montesquieu and Voltaire,had no revolutionary aspirations; he was interested merely in collectingas much knowledge as possible for his mammoth Encyclopdie.The Encyclopdie, which ultimately weighed in atthirty-five volumes, would go on to spread Enlightenment knowledgeto other countries around the world.
In reaction to the rather empirical philosophiesof Voltaire and others, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote TheSocial Contract (1762),a work championing a form of government based on small, direct democracy thatdirectly reflects the will of the population. Later, at the endof his career, he would write Confessions, a deeplypersonal reflection on his life. The unprecedented intimate perspectivethat Rousseau provided contributed to a burgeoning Romantic erathat would be defined by an emphasis on emotion and instinct insteadof reason.
Another undercurrent that threatened the prevailing principlesof the Enlightenment was skepticism. Skeptics questionedwhether human society could really be perfected through the useof reason and denied the ability of rational thought to reveal universaltruths. Their philosophies revolved around the idea that the perceived worldis relative to the beholder and, as such, no one can be sure whetherany truths actually exist.
Immanuel Kant, working in Germany duringthe late eighteenth century, took skepticism to its greatest lengths,arguing that man could truly know neither observed objects nor metaphysicalconcepts; rather, the experience of such things depends upon thepsyche of the observer, thus rendering universal truths impossible. Thetheories of Kant, along with those of other skeptics such as DavidHume, were influential enough to change the nature of European thoughtand effectively end the Enlightenment.
Ultimately, the Enlightenment fell victim to competingideas from several sources. Romanticism was more appealing to less-educated commonfolk and pulled them away from the empirical, scientific ideas ofearlier Enlightenment philosophers. Similarly, the theories of skepticismcame into direct conflict with the reason-based assertions of theEnlightenment and gained a following of their own.
What ultimately and abruptly killed the Enlightenment,however, was the French Revolution. Begun with thebest intentions by French citizens inspired by Enlightenment thought,the revolution attempted to implement orderly representative assembliesbut quickly degraded into chaos and violence. Many people citedthe Enlightenment-induced breakdown of norms as the root cause of theinstability and saw the violence as proof that the masses could notbe trusted to govern themselves. Nonetheless, the discoveries andtheories of the Enlightenment philosophers continued to influenceWestern society for centuries.
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SparkNotes: The Enlightenment (16501800): Brief Overview
Amazon.com: The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern …
Posted: September 26, 2018 at 8:43 pm
Anthony Gottliebs landmark The Dream of Reason and its sequel challenge Bertrand Russells classic as the definitive history of Western philosophy.
Western philosophy is now two and a half millennia old, but much of it came in just two staccato bursts, each lasting only about 150 years. In his landmark survey of Western philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance, The Dream of Reason, Anthony Gottlieb documented the first burst, which came in the Athens of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Now, in his sequel, The Dream of Enlightenment, Gottlieb expertly navigates a second great explosion of thought, taking us to northern Europe in the wake of its wars of religion and the rise of Galilean science. In a relatively short periodfrom the early 1640s to the eve of the French RevolutionDescartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume all made their mark. The Dream of Enlightenment tells their story and that of the birth of modern philosophy.
As Gottlieb explains, all these men were amateurs: none had much to do with any university. They tried to fathom the implications of the new science and of religious upheaval, which led them to question traditional teachings and attitudes. What does the advance of science entail for our understanding of ourselves and for our ideas of God? How should a government deal with religious diversityand what, actually, is government for? Such questions remain our questions, which is why Descartes, Hobbes, and the others are still pondered today.
Yet it is because we still want to hear them that we can easily get these philosophers wrong. It is tempting to think they speak our language and live in our world; but to understand them properly, we must step back into their shoes. Gottlieb puts readers in the minds of these frequently misinterpreted figures, elucidating the history of their times and the development of scientific ideas while engagingly explaining their arguments and assessing their legacy in lively prose.
With chapters focusing on Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Pierre Bayle, Leibniz, Hume, Rousseau, and Voltaireand many walk-on partsThe Dream of Enlightenment creates a sweeping account of what the Enlightenment amounted to, and why we are still in its debt.
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Amazon.com: The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern ...