Happiness U...Wait what?

Recently, Win Straube made an interesting suggestion regarding a school located in Honolulu, Hawaii that educates its students on non-traditional academic topics. Their mission is to, "teach that which was not taught in a traditional classroom about how to live a heart-centered life". In addition to this, they want to teach their students that finding happiness is completely within their control by accepting life. To find their full mission statement, click here.

Happiness U offers both online and in-person courses, so don't worry if you're not based in Hawaii! Below is a short overview of some of the online courses that they provide.

Click here to view online courses.

I did actually find a few especially interesting classes at Happiness U, such as: 

• Western Astrology and Chinese Astrology Combined!
• Life Purpose 101
• Healthy Money Mindset 101  

Click here for a full menu of classes offered at Happiness U.

I do believe that these classes are important to both full-time students and those who are already working full-time. You've heard it a million times, but life really is about finding a balance. Too much work and too little life management can lead to negative mindsets and fatigue. On the other hand, too much leisure and too little work can also lead to anxiety and stress. I hope that with this post, readers can utilize this excellent tool to find balance and happiness!

Ways To Reduce College Tuition

There is a great contest for individual economic opportunity as well as a desire for America’s economic prosperity. As a result, the job market has become grossly competitive, making the attainment of a postsecondary credential essentially a necessity. And while having a college degree has become more important than ever, the cost of attending college has become higher than ever. This creates the dilemma that haunts a majority of American citizens; go to college and receive a degree along with thousands of dollars of debt, or skip out and risk the inability to secure a steady stream of income and security. Since both of these options only offer extremes and neither seems to suggest a win-win situation, I have put together a list that can propose some sort of middle ground. It turns out there are many ways to reduce the cost of attending college so that you are able to earn that bachelor’s degree without drowning yourself in a heap of debt. Here are four ways to lower college tuition:

Legacy Scholarships: Having family members who graduated from a school makes you a “legacy”, and while many people think this only sometimes comes into play during the admissions process, it can actually play a role in reducing tuition as well. Some schools offer special scholarships and programs to legacies, such as the Legacy Program at Pittsburgh State University, or even children of faculty and staff that can cut some expenses. Make sure you are aware of and take advantage of the scholarships that are available to you.

Attend a “no-tuition” college: There are up to 12 schools in the United States that cover the full tuition for every student that enrolls (Forbes). Some examples are Barclay College and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Take courses over the summer: This is becoming a very popular course of action for many college students. Courses generally do not cost as much over the summer as they do during the regular school year. In addition, it is a good way to expedite the college process in order to graduate a semester or two early; further reducing the amount of tuition to be paid.

Attend college overseas: Many countries offer a great quality of education at a much lower price than the U.S. Additionally countries such as Norway and Germany do not charge tuition to college students—international students included.

For even more ways to reduce college tuition, visit: https://www.forbes.com/sites/vanessamcgrady/2015/09/25/23ways/#599d678b791d

By Chizbel Oham

Recommended Read: As K-12 virtual reality use grows, researchers consider impact on children

In a day and age of technology, where education has inevitably crossed roads, schools are slowly implementing more and more types of gadgets. Virtual reality is a gadget that has risen in popularity over the last few years. It involves a user wearing a headset that covers both eyes completely. In this, an immersive experience is provided and the user may feel as though they are in a different world. In fact, there are even more advanced virtual reality systems that incorporate the entire body so that the experience can be even more involved, such as a game that simulates riding a roller coaster.

However, schools are now slowly incorporating the use of virtual reality devices in classrooms and many parents and researchers are concerned that this device can affect a child's development because it may be over-stimulating. One may ask why schools would take the risk on a child's development for such a device. The answer is that this device has brought many educational benefits to a child's learning. Instead of learning from a dry, boring textbook, kids are put in an environment where they can see what they are learning. In fact, students who are learning English benefit the most because they can see the words that they are learning and easily understand what it is. Another example is that a virtual reality set can bring students on a class trip to some extent. When the students strap on a headset, they can be taken to Antarctica and be given a visual understanding of a setting. Obviously, a real-life Antarctica trip with elementary school students is not plausible.

The benefits of virtual reality for students are rich, however, the number of possible consequences that it brings along for a child's development is also a serious matter. In this day and age, it is important for educators to not be shy from testing out new technologies, but also be observant and cautious of potential harmful signs.

To read the full article: https://www.educationdive.com/news/as-vr-use-grows-in-k-12-researchers-consider-its-impact-on-children/555085/

Evaluating Taking Online Courses while Enrolled in College

A recent Education Dive article, "Community college students more likely to take, prefer online classes", dug into how online courses have become an alternative for in-person classes. For example, students in community colleges were four times more likely than four-year college students to have recently taken an online course. In addition, researchers found that "Community college students who prefer entirely or mostly online classes tend to be those who are women, work, are married or in a domestic partnership, or have dependents". In other words, those who carry significant life responsibilities in addition to academic work prefer to enroll in online courses.

While the article was subjective and did not carry any sort of viewpoints, I do want to provide some student opinions in this posting regarding the two facts stated in the above paragraph.

As a student at a four-year college, we enroll in courses for the next semester a few months before the end of the current semester. During enrollment last semester, I realized that for the five classes I was prescribed to enroll in, three of those had an online option. It was actually mind-boggling because my "potential class schedule" looked like I only had classes 2 days a week. While having this flexible option is excellent for students who work concurrently with their studies, I opted to take all 5 of my courses with in-person instruction.

Points that led to my decision

1. Online courses require a great deal of self-discipline. Since it has greater flexibility, students often find themselves falling behind in online courses. 
2. The level of difficulty and quantity of coursework are similar to an in-person class (at least it should be). While many students do try to take online courses as an "easier, or less work" option, this is usually a fallacy. For example, many online courses still require students to write the same essays as the in-person class. The difference is that an instructor grades your work remotely.
3. The quality of education is lower. Like I stated above, an instructor grades your work remotely, meaning that students lose many opportunities for academic advising. 
4. The cost is similar to an in-person class if you are already enrolled in a community or four-year college. Many schools simply charge you a full-time semester fee or on a per-credit basis. Since online courses are supposed to be a legitimate/accredited alternative to in-person courses, the workload and credits must be identical. My opinion is that if I am paying tens of thousands to attend college already, I might as well get my money's worth by sitting in a classroom.
5. Less networking opportunities. Simply put, online courses have less student-professor interactions. These interactions can prove to be extremely valuable networking opportunities. 

While I did list many points against online courses above, I do recognize that sometimes the benefits of having more flexibility may be more important than the reasons above. The purpose of this article is to hopefully educate students to make more sound decisions in choosing an online course and not to just take it cause it is an easier course. Before making any rash course decisions, I highly recommend speaking to an academic advisor first.

Cheers!

Article URL: https://www.educationdive.com/news/community-college-students-more-likely-to-take-prefer-online-classes/556491/

The Flipped Classroom

Numerous teachers are constantly looking for new ways to teach and engage their students in order to enhance their learning experience. One of the techniques that resulted from this search is a concept known as “the flipped classroom.” This concept came about when Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann, chemistry teachers at Woodland Park High School at the time, were looking for a way to keep absent students up to date in class without having to reteach lessons. They decided to record their lessons, include annotations, and then post them online. This way, students who were absent in class on a particular day could see what they had missed online. Bergmann and Sams later noticed that even students who had attended class found the online material useful, and used this to discover a new way of teaching.

Several teachers around the world have since adopted the “flipped classroom” technique. While not all use an identical approach, the common principle is for students to learn what would previously have been taught in class at home through lesson videos the teacher creates. Then class time would be used to work through problems pertaining to the topic covered in the videos as well as concepts people had difficulty understanding. Students are able to work with the teacher or with their peers, creating a more active and engaging learning environment.

My experience with this form of learning came in the 10th grade when my chemistry teacher decided to test it out during the second semester. She, along with the other teachers in the chemistry department, created a work packet that had practice problems for all the topics we would cover that semester. Each night, we were assigned videos to watch and take notes on that her fellow teacher had created and uploaded to YouTube. These videos, similar to those found on Khan Academy, were of a black screen where the instructor would write down important points, formulas, or examples as she taught. The next day in class, the teacher would briefly go over any area there seemed to be general confusion in. Then each student would work on the section in their packet that correlated to the videos we had watched the night before, while asking each other or the teacher for help when needed.

I really enjoyed that semester of learning in the class. The “flipped classroom” method allowed me to have a deeper encoding of the material I was learning because it was almost like I was teaching myself the material. It did pose its challenges, such as when the lesson video was difficult to follow, but since I had access to the Internet while watching it, I was able to search the web for clarifications and take my own time until I understood. This method was not a success with all students, however. This is due to the fact that some students work better with the freedom and independence the flipped classroom offers, while some students are more successful under a more structured learning environment. It is also not appropriate for all subjects, suiting subjects like mathematics and science more. While the “flipped classroom” is not for everyone, there are students that can greatly benefit from it. If there can be a structured way to implement it into the learning environment of the students it is effective for, then their learning experience could be vastly improved.


Read more on the “flipped classroom” here: https://www.educationnext.org/the-flipped-classroom/.

To read more on the "flipped classroom" in our blog:

https://straube.blogspot.com/2012/08/khan-academy-enters-next-era-with-ipad.html

http://straube.blogspot.com/2018/05/flipping-classroom.html

Contribution by Chizbel Oham

"Computers in the Classroom May Do More Harm Than Good-- If They Are Overused" by Tom Jacobs

New research finds that computers are most effective as teaching tools when used sparingly, and to teach kids at certain ages specific subjects.

Initiatives to provide every schoolchild with a laptop or tablet computer have, to date, been well-publicized failures. And perhaps they were bad ideas to begin with.

Computers can certainly be effective tools for teaching children of certain ages specific subjects. But a large new study suggests their presence in the classroom is far from universally positive.

"Students worldwide appear to perform best on tests when they report a low-to-moderate use of school computers," Helen Lee Bouygues, president of the Paris-based Reboot Foundation, argues in a just-released report.

"When students report having access to classroom computers and using these devices on an infrequent basis, they show better performance," Bouygues writes. "But when students report using these devices every day, and for several hours during the school day, performance lowers dramatically."

The Reboot Foundation is a non-profit devoted to "cultivating a capacity for critical thinking." Its new report suggests that, while computers can sometimes help children grasp certain concepts, their overuse is highly worrisome.

Bouygues analyzed data from two sources: the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which provided math and reading scores for American fourth- and eighth-graders, and the Program for International Student Assessment, which provided data from 30 nations.

After taking into account various factors that could affect student achievement, including household income, teacher training on the use of computers in education, and (for the international students) the size of the nation's economy, she identified several disturbing trends.

"Across most countries, a low to moderate use of school technology was generally associated with better performance, relative to students reporting no computer use at all," Bouygues writes. "But students who reported a high use of school technology trailed behind peers who reported moderate use."

For instance, students in France who reported using the Internet at school for a few minutes to a half-hour every day scored 13 points higher on the PISA reading assessment than students who reported spending no time on the Internet at school. Meanwhile, French students who were online in school for more than 30 minutes per day consistently scored lower than their peers on that same test.
A similar pattern was found for American youngsters. "Fourth-grade students who reported using laptops or desktop computers in more than half or all of their classes scored 10 points higher than students who reported never using those devices in class," the report states.

But the overuse of computers seems to have produced diminishing, and finally counterproductive, results.

"We found evidence of a learning-technology 'ceiling effect' in some areas, with low to moderate usage showing a positive relationship, while high usage showed a negative relationship [with student achievement]," Bouygues writes. "The results regarding tablet use in fourth-grade classes were particularly worrisome. Fourth-grade students who reported using tablets in all or almost all classes scored 14 points lower on the reading exam than students who reported never using classroom tablets. This difference in scores is equivalent to a full grade level, or a year's worth of teaching."

These results do not prove causation, but they're certainly cautionary.

"While there's clear evidence that technology can improve learning outcomes," the report concludes, "our data suggests that technology may not always be used in a way that prompts richer forms of learning. Our findings indicate schools and teachers should be more careful about when—and how—education technology is employed in classrooms."

So by all means bring an apple for the teacher. But that Apple for the student should spend the bulk of the school day switched off.

Shared by Michele Straube
Article by Tom Jacobs


URL: https://psmag.com/education/computers-in-the-classroom-may-do-more-harm-than-good?omhide

A Practical Experience Versus Textbook Learning

I recently stumbled across an interesting article, "Take STEM lessons outside of the box with these 3 approaches", by Lauren Barack of Education Dive, which talked about a few ways educators have become more creative in teaching practical skills to middle and high school students. Before I delve into some of my views and experiences of learning by "experience", here is a summary of the three approaches given in the article.

The first example asks for fourth graders to work in groups of eight to build a vertical freestanding ring with Pringles. During the class, some students finished before other students and ended up going around the classrooms helping other students. By the end of the class, all students were able to finish the project in the end but all with different methods. According to a teacher, a key lesson that students learn from this is that there are multiple ways of solving a problem in STEM. 

In the second example, an elementary school in Georgia asked their students to build a replica of Berlin, Germany, with a focus on the Cold War Era which included the Berlin Wall. Students were asked to incorporate mathematics in this replica by finding the volume of buildings. This project reinforces the lessons the students learned from both mathematics and the Cold War era.

In the final example, a K-8 public school in Ontario started a rock curling competition and a halfpipe competition. Students in the rock curling competition coded robots to throw rocks at a target. Their main goal was to get the rock closest to the center of the target. In the halfpipe competition, students applied their engineering skills to build ramps for robots to launch.

In my opinion, all these examples are fabulous ways educators have revolutionized learning because students simply remember experiences much better than words in a book. In the future, they will remember the cool project they made a few years ago that included the Berlin Wall and be able to recall what happened during the Cold War. Another way these projects are great is because it demonstrates that innovative and effective learning absolutely does not have to be expensive. The two examples with the Pringles and the replica of Berlin were certainly low-budget projects.

In addition, these projects evoke practical skills and experiences students will eventually need one day for a job. Problem-solving skills or the ability to communicate effectively with other group members are required skills in many jobs. Like training any muscle for a sport, these things also requires constant practice to improve.

The sad truth is that many schools nowadays are too focused on test results and hound their students with textbook after textbook. Even though having the textbook knowledge to any subject is essential, not having the practical skills such as problem-solving, leads to the inability to apply the material to real-world usages. Instead of chasing for the best school ranks, schools should attempt to prepare their students to be the most effective workers in the labor force. To do this, schools need to make the three examples listed above to be a norm, where we don't need to be reporting on these "special cases" because every school does it frequently. With this, I encourage educators to take their classes to the next level with more hands-on experiences and less lecturing. Even though this will be more work, I am quite certain your students will reap the benefits of more effective learning while at the same time enjoy school better. Remember, interactive and effective does not mean expensive!

Link to the article: https://www.educationdive.com/news/take-stem-lessons-outside-of-the-box-with-these-3-approaches/555142/