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When I first began my teacher training, I had a pretty simple idea of what the job was going to entail. I had never even thought of such issues as teaching research before. For me, teaching seemed like a simple and straightforward affair. I had been explaining math to my younger brother for several years, and if I could help him out why couldn’t I help out a classroom full of students? What I learned in my teaching school both surprised and fascinated me. Teaching was much harder than I had thought, but it was also more rewarding for the work that I had to put into it. It wasn’t a simple matter of explaining the subject matter that I had mastered. If teaching was that simple, anyone could teach! Instead, teaching involves the mastery of a great many strategies to help different students learn.

In the program that I attended, much of the curriculum is dedicated to research in teaching. Our teacher training involved many different theories, both traditional and new on what it meant to be a teacher. Theories such as Gardner’s multiple intelligences, and of course inquiry-based education, served as touchstones that we came back to again and again. We would have to gear teaching lesson plans to different students – this one will be for visual learners, that one would be for auditory learners, and a third one would be for kinesthetic learners – people who needed to work with their hands. All of the current teacher research indicated that each style of learning required a different style of teaching. The challenge for the modern teacher is to incorporate all of these different styles into a coherent lesson plan.

The great things about teaching research is that it doesn’t only teach you how to become a better teacher, but how to be a better learner as well. You see, teaching research is ultimately about understanding how the mind works. By understanding the different strategies that people use to learn and organize information, you can incorporate new strategies for yourself and develop the ones that you already have. I apply the facts that I have learned in teaching research to my life in all kinds of situations – not just in teaching. Every time I am trying to learn something new, I think about how best to organize the information. Who would guess that you could learn so much in the process of teaching middle schoolers?

I had what I would consider a specialized education as a kid. You see, I went to a high school of technology. It was a pretty great program, but it was definitely not your usual school. In most high schools, reading, writing, and history are stressed above all else. In America, our math skills tend to languish, as do our science skills. At the technology school, however, things were different. If anything, literature was deemphasized. Don’t get me wrong – we still had an excellent English-language education program, but the main emphasis was on science, high technology, and shop skills.

Because of this, I was ready to continue on to a professional school of technology when I was done with high school. I was actually more prepared than most kids are. You see, we learned so many different subjects in school that other students don’t have the opportunity to pursue. We were instructed in Power Point, we received classes in advanced mathematics and engineering, and we even had a shop elected where we could work on cars or other machinery. Rather than making you sit in a seat all day, learning whatever the professor feels like lecturing on, schools of technology gives you somewhat of a choice. The emphasis is on exploring your own interests rather than pursuing a set curriculum.

The school of technology was perfect for me. You see, I was fascinated with technology from the time I was young. I really couldn’t have gone to a better program. I even went to school of technology summer camps where we got to study robotics. I also read science journals, and I even had my dad – a physicist – start explaining the fundamentals of relativity to me – at least as well as he could to a high school kid. I can only hope that this program is still around when I have my own kids. The school of technology has been such an excellent opportunity to me, and I would love to be able to pass it on.

Picking out the right school to go onto once I was done with high school was pretty difficult. I knew that I wanted to study something in high technology, but I had no idea how to go about it. I didn’t know if it would make more sense to go to a normal University, or to a technical school. In the end, I did it all. At the technical school, I got hands on training in auto mechanics, but after that I couldn’t resist going on to a more classical college education.

Many people have found online colleges to be the best solution for continuing education. The class schedules are more flexible and many times the tuition is more affordable because there are not as many (if any) physical campuses and facilities that need to be maintained.

That said, getting an online degree isn’t for everybody and not all online colleges are equal. It depends a lot on the type of career you’re interested in pursuing. For many technical trades and lower level white collar professions, an online degree may suit these individuals perfectly. For these people it’s a matter of finding which online school is going to best meet their needs.

Choosing a college, whether one with a physical campus or a cyber campus, is certainly an involved process where you must take many different factors under consideration. However, choosing from a selection of online colleges can be somewhat trickier for a number of reasons.

First of all, it may be more difficult to get a feel for how a school is run and what you can expect while attending classes if you cannot tour the campus and talk with representatives in person. You may find that online classes are just not for you. Talking with prospective online colleges will give you a god idea of how well you’ll mesh with an online learning environment.

If you’re good at time management and setting your own goals then an online degree can be the perfect solution. If, however, you find it difficult to keep track of ‘regular’ class schedules chances are you will quickly become overwhelmed trying to manage time and work deadlines in a cyber learning environment.

While there are many top notch online colleges, there are at least as many shady operations out there. If at all possible, enroll in online classes offered by your local community or technical college. This is a way to sidestep the questionable online schools altogether.

If you do decide to pursue a completely online college, there are some things to look for. First of all, I’d stay away from online schools that don’t allow you to browse curriculum and schedules online before talking with a representative. If you visit a school’s website and the furthest you can get is to fill out a contact form, you may as well keep looking at other schools. This is one of the first signs that the school is a degree mill.

When you are contacted by an online school’s representative, be wary of pushy salesmanship type behavior. I‘ve run into too many people that were coerced into submitting outrageous pre-enrollment or other types of so-called deposits to secure a place in classes. No credible college is going to make you feel like there’s a rush to send them money. If you feel pressured to send in vaguely labeled funds, hang up and look at other schools.

There are many reputable online colleges, but the best ones are still online classes offered by traditional educational institutions. If you’re going to enroll in a completely online school, do your homework. Search for discussion forums and find out what other people have experienced with particular online degree institutions, as well as online learning in general.

As an English teacher and native English speaker, I have been a bit skeptical about the learning to speak English programs. You cannot learn to speak English from just staring at a computer screen, or so I assumed. English language learning requires intensive study. You have to immerse yourself in a classroom in an English-speaking country where you can learn both the grammar and the conversational forms of the language. 

Ever since I tried using one of the learn to speak English programs with my English foreign language class, however, I have been less convinced. I only started using it because the young students in the class wanted to integrate computers into their language program. They thought that they could learn to speak English more easily if they could do it online in their spare times, while talking with English-speaking friends. I saw no harm in this approach, so I let them use the learn to speak English software. I have to admit that, although most of the progress came from their English foreign language classes, the programs helped as well.

Whether you want to learn to speak Japanese, learn to speak English, or some other language altogether, you can not do it with a computer program and nothing else. Learning a language requires having conversation partners, and a computer program can never help you with that. However for many learning styles, a computer program can help to teach the basics. A learn to speaking English program can help you to review grammar, punctuation, and even pronunciation in your spare time. It should never be a substitution for an English class, but it can be a valuable addition for some people.

The very best learn to speak English programs are built with the knowledge that they are not sufficient. Almost any leading-edge learn to speak English program will be built as a supplement to an existing curriculum. That way, it fits in flawlessly with the classroom work. Many teachers will even integrate their learn to speak English program with the English language classroom environment. Provided that the students have access to a computer, this is as good an approach as any. It works especially well with business minded students who want to get as much computer experience in English as possible. That way, they will be able to practice applying their English language skills to a computer user environment.