Location, tuition costs, degree programs, financial aid… these are just a few of the factors you consider when evaluating a college or university. Here’s another suggestion: add technology to the list of criteria. At most of today’s leading colleges, students can manage their accounts online, interact via e-mail with faculty, submit assignments electronically, and gain access to a library’s entire collection online. There are chat rooms, online bookstores, and web-based wizards for resume building and career exploration. And this is just the beginning.
Technology is everywhere we live, work, socialize, and learn – it’s become part of our lives. We take new cars for a spin, try out new entertainment systems, and conduct trial periods on new software, so why not take a technology test-drive of your prospective college choices? Here are some factors to consider:
* Fluff or For Real—Is it just high-tech hype? A college or university may have a web site complete with bells, whistles, and the latest whirligigs, but it may stop there, so dig a little deeper. Successful colleges embrace the integration of technology with learning to ensure it permeates every activity, organization, and process on campus. Find out how widespread the technology is on campus. Are students, faculty and staff using the technology? Is technology accessible everywhere, including the classrooms, the library, study lounges, and resident halls?
* Future Commitment—Technology changes too rapidly for it not to be an integral part of any college’s vision or strategy for future success. Confirm that there is current—as well as future—ownership and commitment at the operational and leadership levels.
* Chevy or Cadillac—Determine if the technology at the college is up-to-date. Successful programs include access to e-mail, the Internet, the latest software programs, and other applications that enhance the learning process. Can you register for classes, pay bills, or buy books from a virtual bookstore? Can you access electronic copies of books, magazine articles, and class reserves? Can you participate in after-class discussions, check out your course syllabus, and view a presentation through the course web site?
* Support—The use of technology on a college campus is only as effective as those who support and maintain it. Check to see if your prospective colleges or universities incorporate a dedicated technical support staff and/or a computer-learning center that offers hardware/software upgrades and troubleshooting help.
* Mobility and Ubiquity—This is known as the icing on the cake. While some colleges offer desktop computers in labs or dorm rooms, other leading-edge institutions provide wireless laptops to incoming students, giving them access to the world around them from virtually any location.
The benefits of a tech-savvy college or university extend beyond the computer screen. Communication between students, faculty and staff is improved and new efficiencies in processes are quickly realized. Some students also feel that attending a highly wired campus enables the faculty and support staff to be even more accessible in many ways, including virtual office hours, online group discussions, and help with a project-in-progress via e-mail. Faculty members have discovered that technology enhances the learning process by offering new ways of learning and sharing information while improving timeliness, organization, and communication skills. From a staffing perspective, student data can be effectively compiled, stored and shared via Web-based, user-friendly tools.
Test-driving prospective colleges or universities for their use of technology should become part of your search process and selection criteria. It’s a wise move in today’s wired world, and it can be one of the key factors in determining the potential effectiveness and value of your higher education experience.
http://www.thehighschoolgraduate.com/editorial/CD/selecting.htm
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Higher Education in New York
From the majestic Adirondack mountains and breathtaking Niagara Falls to the bustle of the world financial capital of New York City, the state of New York offers visitors a spirit, energy, and beauty that’s hard to match. Similarly, the educational opportunities in “The Empire State” boast a rich and diverse array of possibilities.
Consider one of the 100+ private colleges and universities located in New York State. Each is unique. Some are large, some small. They enroll students from different ethnic and economic backgrounds, and from hundreds of foreign countries.
You can choose among more than 100 research universities, liberal arts colleges, technical institutes and specialized schools with nearly 150 campuses: 56 are in New York City; 39 are in the immediate suburbs of New York City; 35 are in “upstate” cities; and 18 are located throughout the state’s rural regions. These institutions are the focal points of their communities, providing learning and cultural opportunities.
The quality of your education matters. Quality is found in strong academic departments, small classes, caring professors, and outstanding career placement services. It’s found in how a college helps you to develop the skills to think critically, creatively, and analytically, and to express yourself effectively. You’ll want to look for low student-teacher ratios and personal attention, both in and out of the classroom. You’ll find quality at New York’s private colleges and universities.
World-class dedicated faculty, including many who are active researchers, will challenge and inspire. You’ll benefit from the experience and knowledge of alumni contacts. You’ll have opportunities to gain real-life experience and to build a personal network through internships, co-op experiences, research projects, study abroad, and exchange programs.
At any of New York’s private colleges or universities, you’ll work hard and learn more than you can imagine. Upon graduation, you’ll be confident and ready fo your career or graduate school.
http://www.thehighschoolgraduate.com/editorial/NJ/NJnewyork.htm
Consider one of the 100+ private colleges and universities located in New York State. Each is unique. Some are large, some small. They enroll students from different ethnic and economic backgrounds, and from hundreds of foreign countries.
You can choose among more than 100 research universities, liberal arts colleges, technical institutes and specialized schools with nearly 150 campuses: 56 are in New York City; 39 are in the immediate suburbs of New York City; 35 are in “upstate” cities; and 18 are located throughout the state’s rural regions. These institutions are the focal points of their communities, providing learning and cultural opportunities.
The quality of your education matters. Quality is found in strong academic departments, small classes, caring professors, and outstanding career placement services. It’s found in how a college helps you to develop the skills to think critically, creatively, and analytically, and to express yourself effectively. You’ll want to look for low student-teacher ratios and personal attention, both in and out of the classroom. You’ll find quality at New York’s private colleges and universities.
World-class dedicated faculty, including many who are active researchers, will challenge and inspire. You’ll benefit from the experience and knowledge of alumni contacts. You’ll have opportunities to gain real-life experience and to build a personal network through internships, co-op experiences, research projects, study abroad, and exchange programs.
At any of New York’s private colleges or universities, you’ll work hard and learn more than you can imagine. Upon graduation, you’ll be confident and ready fo your career or graduate school.
http://www.thehighschoolgraduate.com/editorial/NJ/NJnewyork.htm
Liberal Arts Education
A Department of Labor report projects that 80 percent of the children beginning kindergarten will eventually enter jobs that don’t even exist today! This startling projection has the ring of truth when we consider all the changes that have taken place in the workplace over the past 10-15 years: e-mail and voice mail becoming essential work tools; the pervasive use of the Internet to complete business transactions ranging from advertising and shopping to banking; instantaneous Web-based access to information on almost any subject; and more.
If work continues to change as radically as it has in the recent past, then how do we prepare today’s students to enter the workforce and become productive citizens? For one thing, we are witnessing radical changes in the entry-level skills required for jobs as they evolve toward higher-level skills, especially the skills of analytical thinking, problem solving, communication, computation, and working in teams.
To be successful in the workplace of the future, individuals will need more than technical training; the essential core of education, what we often refer to as liberal arts education, will remain the most practical preparation for lifelong employment because it promotes intellectual and personal growth and equips the individual to cope with change by being able to adapt to the workplace as it continues to transform.
But the term “liberal arts education” has at best a fuzzy meaning for many people. For some, it means all those required classes that stand in the way of technical training, which some people feel is the only way to prepare for a job. But, upon closer inspection, the liberal arts can be understood as the key to survival in any field that is subject to change over time. The standard definition of liberal arts education implies a program of study designed to foster capacities of analysis, critical reflection, problem solving, communication, computation and synthesis of knowledge from different disciplines. Its goal is to provide students with an intellectual, historical, and social context for recognizing the continuity between the past and future and for drawing on the human capacity of reason to understand human experience, to question the values dimension of human enterprise, and to articulate the results of this process of thinking.
These are job skills, and any employer would be hard pressed to turn away a person who possesses them. However, this definition doesn’t fully capture the rich texture of this brand of education. First of all, liberal arts education puts the individual into the presence of the greatest ideas, most transforming concepts, and most powerful works of the imagination that human beings have produced. This is not important because it’s useful for making cocktail party conversation; it is requisite as an intellectual framework with which to understand and evaluate human events and interactions.
Second, liberal arts education is empowering; it provides rehearsal for life in the imagination; it liberates us from the limitations of our own experience and opinions by proffering alternative views, scenarios, and explanations. It helps us to appreciate the fact that neither the easiest nor the most complex solution is necessarily the correct one. We learn to think, marshal evidence, and weigh the relative merits of different factors before committing to a plan of action.
Third, liberal arts education imparts a set of values that are necessary in order for human beings to live together in harmony. Society functions only as well as it produces good citizens, and the concept of good citizenship is embodied by individuals who understand and take their responsibilities seriously, who vote, who actively work for the betterment of society, especially by giving service to others. Civic responsibility is a cornerstone of liberal arts education.
Helping individuals to work together despite their differences, a liberal arts education embraces concepts of diversity and multiculturalism, which result in values and competencies needed so desperately in a pluralistic society like that of the U.S. It also prepares the individual to recognize the interdependency of all of our global partners and to appreciate the differences and similarities among world cultures. These are practical skills when viewed from the perspective of workplace diversity and the increasing emphasis on international business and trade.
Yes, technical skills might give one the “foot in the door” in terms of entry into the workforce, but a liberal arts education will provide the staying power, serve as a foundation for continuous growth and development, and lead to the professional success that we set our sights on. Viewed in this context, liberal arts education remains the most practical brand of education. Nothing else will equip us with the knowledge base, skills, habits of mind and values to function effectively and productively in the unknown world of the new century.
http://www.thehighschoolgraduate.com/editorial/USliberalarts.htm
If work continues to change as radically as it has in the recent past, then how do we prepare today’s students to enter the workforce and become productive citizens? For one thing, we are witnessing radical changes in the entry-level skills required for jobs as they evolve toward higher-level skills, especially the skills of analytical thinking, problem solving, communication, computation, and working in teams.
To be successful in the workplace of the future, individuals will need more than technical training; the essential core of education, what we often refer to as liberal arts education, will remain the most practical preparation for lifelong employment because it promotes intellectual and personal growth and equips the individual to cope with change by being able to adapt to the workplace as it continues to transform.
But the term “liberal arts education” has at best a fuzzy meaning for many people. For some, it means all those required classes that stand in the way of technical training, which some people feel is the only way to prepare for a job. But, upon closer inspection, the liberal arts can be understood as the key to survival in any field that is subject to change over time. The standard definition of liberal arts education implies a program of study designed to foster capacities of analysis, critical reflection, problem solving, communication, computation and synthesis of knowledge from different disciplines. Its goal is to provide students with an intellectual, historical, and social context for recognizing the continuity between the past and future and for drawing on the human capacity of reason to understand human experience, to question the values dimension of human enterprise, and to articulate the results of this process of thinking.
These are job skills, and any employer would be hard pressed to turn away a person who possesses them. However, this definition doesn’t fully capture the rich texture of this brand of education. First of all, liberal arts education puts the individual into the presence of the greatest ideas, most transforming concepts, and most powerful works of the imagination that human beings have produced. This is not important because it’s useful for making cocktail party conversation; it is requisite as an intellectual framework with which to understand and evaluate human events and interactions.
Second, liberal arts education is empowering; it provides rehearsal for life in the imagination; it liberates us from the limitations of our own experience and opinions by proffering alternative views, scenarios, and explanations. It helps us to appreciate the fact that neither the easiest nor the most complex solution is necessarily the correct one. We learn to think, marshal evidence, and weigh the relative merits of different factors before committing to a plan of action.
Third, liberal arts education imparts a set of values that are necessary in order for human beings to live together in harmony. Society functions only as well as it produces good citizens, and the concept of good citizenship is embodied by individuals who understand and take their responsibilities seriously, who vote, who actively work for the betterment of society, especially by giving service to others. Civic responsibility is a cornerstone of liberal arts education.
Helping individuals to work together despite their differences, a liberal arts education embraces concepts of diversity and multiculturalism, which result in values and competencies needed so desperately in a pluralistic society like that of the U.S. It also prepares the individual to recognize the interdependency of all of our global partners and to appreciate the differences and similarities among world cultures. These are practical skills when viewed from the perspective of workplace diversity and the increasing emphasis on international business and trade.
Yes, technical skills might give one the “foot in the door” in terms of entry into the workforce, but a liberal arts education will provide the staying power, serve as a foundation for continuous growth and development, and lead to the professional success that we set our sights on. Viewed in this context, liberal arts education remains the most practical brand of education. Nothing else will equip us with the knowledge base, skills, habits of mind and values to function effectively and productively in the unknown world of the new century.
http://www.thehighschoolgraduate.com/editorial/USliberalarts.htm
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