Friday, May 09, 2008
E-College Boot Camp (December E-News from 2SS.Com)
[[Contact:26]]
[[Company:25]]
Dear [[Salutation:40]],
‘ [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ‘
‘ E – N E W S from ‘
‘ 2SS.Com ‘
‘ Compiled and Edited by ‘
‘ Mailed on: 12/01/2001 10:13 PM Number 36 ‘
‘ Int’l Standard Serial No. - ISSN: 1523-3537‘
‘ [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ‘
‘ Apologies. The subject of this issue E-College ‘
‘ Boot Camp was largely responsible for our ‘
‘ missing of your November E-News. In a moment ‘
‘ you can read why…
‘ Find E-News promoted at Excite, MSN, ‘
‘ Yahoo, E-Bay, Ziff-Davis University and more. ‘
‘ Please share E-News with others who might be ‘
‘ interested. It’s your FREE first-of-the-month, fast ‘
‘ read, update on technology that aims to make a ‘
‘ difference for your organization. ‘
‘ In this issue (5 Items): ‘
‘ ================ ‘
‘ 1--E-College Boot Camp ‘
‘ 2--QUESTIONS? ‘
‘ 3--PRODUCT WATCH ‘
‘ 4--STRATEGIC/USEFUL/INTERESTING LINKS ‘
‘ 5--WHY SUBSCRIBE? 2SS.Com & ‘
YOUR SUBSCRIPTION. ‘
‘ [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ‘
‘ --------------------------Item One---------------------- ‘
‘ E-College Boot Camp ‘
‘ For five (5) extraordinarily fast weeks in October ‘
‘ and November, I had the privilege to learn ‘
‘ first-hand what it’s like to be an Internet-based ‘
‘ student with the University of Phoenix (UOP). ‘
‘ The purpose of the class was to put aspiring ‘
‘ online instructors, like me, through the ropes to ‘
‘ see if we have what it takes to cope. And, it was ‘
‘ more interesting, useful and effective than I ‘
‘ imagined! ‘
‘ UOP’s well-developed online model for its ‘
‘ E-College uses several minimally-structured ‘
‘ Internet newsgroups to create a remarkably ‘
‘ effective classroom. In each course there are ‘
‘ locations (newsgroups) for The Main class, ‘
‘ chatting, small-group learning teams, the
‘ instructor’s materials (read but not write) and ‘
‘ assignments (write but not read). ‘
‘ Classes are led by instructors, that UOP’s ‘
‘ process turns into an ‘online facilitators’ (the ‘
‘ hopeful result of my just-completed training). ‘
‘ Each class has from 8 to 14 students and ‘
‘ typically lasts 5 weeks at the undergraduate ‘
‘ level, or as long as 8 weeks for some graduate ‘
‘ coursework. ‘
‘ When class begins (UOP weeks always start ‘
‘ on Wednesday), students find themselves ‘
‘ learning to cope with 9+ different streams of ‘
‘ thought (threads) on most every topic. If the ‘
‘ facilitator does his or her job well, the threads ‘
‘ converge along pre-defined topic lines that ‘
‘ create an uniquely intense, thorough, and ‘
‘ effective learning environment. ‘
‘ Remember when you last went to school? ‘
‘ Imagine if everything you said to anyone was in
’ writing and preserved online for everyone to ‘
‘ read, review and comment on. That’s the ‘
‘ special challenge, and maybe some of the magic, ‘
‘ that explains how and why UOP works. It’s not ‘
‘ traditional education, but it’s undeniably effective ‘
‘ for those willing to put their writing skills to the ‘
‘ test of such thorough scrutiny. ‘
‘ UOP insures commitment to its offerings by ‘
‘ requiring students and facilitators to be ‘
‘ “present” 5 or more of every 7 days. And there’s ‘
‘ no forgiveness. The computers keep track, and ‘
‘ you qualify or suffer the consequences. ‘
‘ Students with commitment problems are gone ‘
‘ quickly since fees are not refundable after the ‘
‘ first week. ‘
‘ Maybe best of all is the ‘Anytime – Anywhere’ ‘
‘ approach this brings to education. You can be ‘
‘ student (or facilitator) from virtually anywhere ‘
‘ that allows you to have access to the Internet. ‘
‘ Traveling on business with a PC and modem ‘
‘ makes you just as welcome and capable as ‘
‘ someone with immobilizing disabilities, ‘
‘ someone ‘who works at home in their ‘
‘ pajamas, or someone who chooses to live ‘
‘ in a geographically remote area. ‘
‘ This is the kind of revolutionary change in the ‘
‘ model of how to provide education that we ‘
‘ at 2SS.Com have been anticipating for years. ‘
‘ And after 5 weeks of E-College, I’m convinced ‘
‘ it’s here to stay in a very big way. Watch for ‘
‘ more on E-College at UOP as I continue next ‘
‘ to a mentorship (facilitate a class with an ‘
‘ experienced facilitator “watching” my every move). ‘
‘ Late update: As this issue is being finalized, I’m ‘
‘ advised that starting mid-January I’ll be teaching ‘
‘ in a ‘mentee’ (e.g. try-me-out) role with a yet to be
‘ assigned ‘mentor’. Wish me luck!
‘ [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ‘
‘ --------------------------Item Two----------------------- ‘
‘ QUESTIONS? ‘
‘ ------------------------------------------------------------- ‘
‘ BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA? ‘
‘ We love to find, collect and especially make ‘
‘ use of good ‘rules-of-thumb’ as some long-time ‘
‘ readers know. Here’s one on digital cameras ‘
‘ that may be very valuable if you’re in the market… ‘
‘ To post small pictures on the web almost any
‘ camera is OK. For 8” X 10” images be sure to get ‘
‘ at least a 3 megapixel camera. And, for better ‘
‘ quality 8X10’s or larger, you need at least a 4 ‘
‘ megapixel camera. ‘ (PC Magazine – ‘
‘ Forward Thinking 11-17-01) ‘
‘ ANYTHING NEW ABOUT WINDOWS XP? ‘
‘ NOPE! Our advice remains the same. If you’re ‘
‘ buying a new PC consider it. Otherwise don’t’ ‘
‘ upgrade unless you are upgrading from
’ Windows 95, 98 or ME. ‘
‘ In different terms, if you have Windows 2000 ‘
‘ hold on for Windows - Next! ‘
‘ If you own (\|/ see below) you can or can’t… ‘
‘ XP XP ‘
‘ Home Prof‘
‘ ======================== ==== ====‘
‘ Windows 3.1 NO NO ‘
‘ Any Evaluation Vers. NO NO ‘
‘ Any Server Version NO NO ‘
‘ Windows 95 NO NO ‘
‘ Windows 98/Win. 98 SE YES YES ‘
‘ Windows Me YES YES ‘
‘ Windows NT® Wrkstat. 3.51 NO NO ‘
‘ Windows 2000 Prof. NO YES ‘
‘ Windows XP Home Ed. n/a YES ‘
‘ Windows XP Prof.l NO n/a
‘ USE AT&T BROADBAND CABLE? ‘
‘ Some of our 2SS.Com clients are just coming ‘
‘ out of the Excite at Home and AT&T Broadband ‘
‘ services (formerly Comcast) debacle. It was ‘
‘ getting ugly on the day before when we ‘
‘ contacted AT&T to see what was up and the ‘
‘ support folks were re-assuring (e.g. they had ‘
‘ NO IDEA). Then service was knocked out and, ‘
‘ fortunately, our clients had a dial-up alternative ‘
‘ in place. About 3 days later, AT&T was getting ‘
‘ things going again despite some media ‘
‘ warnings to the contrary .‘
‘ The final result seems to be the death of ‘
‘ Excite@Home, and a take-over that AT&T was ‘
‘ more ready to implement than, apparently, the ‘
‘ now-dying company realized. ‘
‘ As for our customers, their service is restored-if ‘
‘ a little spotty. We suspect that with a little ‘
‘ time, AT&T will get it all right again and they’ll ‘
‘ make a little more than before, too! ‘
‘ [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ‘
‘ ---------------------Item Three------------------------- ‘
‘ PRODUCT WATCH ‘
‘ $16.04 on a LABTEC MICROPHONE?
‘ What’s interesting about that is not the micro- ‘
‘ phone--it’s the money I saved talking with my ‘
’ friend in Jakarta, Indonesia. Last January, I ‘
‘ spent about 45 minutes on the phone with him ‘
‘ via MCI. The bill was over $100, and I vowed to ‘
‘ change my ways. Recently, we needed to talk, ‘
‘ and he suggested using Microsoft NetMeeting ‘
‘ via the Internet. $16.04 later, we were having ‘
‘ a very acceptable conversation at the pre- ‘
‘ arranged via E-mail time. The choppiness ‘
‘ of the switchovers prompted us to begin (like ‘
‘ old-time radio operators) to routinely say ‘Over’. ‘
‘ But once we did, the conversation was clear ‘
‘ and understandable. And for a one-time invest- ’
‘ ment of $16.04, I can put up with injecting a ‘
‘ few otherwise un-natural ‘Overs’ into my ‘
‘ conversation. ‘
‘ STAYING IN TOUCH VIA PHONE OR? ‘
‘ My Indonesian friend’s son stayed with us a ‘
‘ few months ago for several weeks. I was only ‘
‘ a little surprised that, while he was here and his ‘
‘ girlfriend remained in Indonesia (14,000 miles ‘
‘ is my idea of geographically undesirable!), it ‘
‘ didn’t stop them from being ‘in-touch’. In fact, ‘
‘ they communicated most every day via Instant ‘
‘ messages, or remarkably cheap prepaid phone
‘ cards, enabling them to use the normal telephone ‘
‘ system for literally pennies a minute. ‘
‘ PC PRICES ARE UNBELIEVABLE ‘
‘ If you have any plans to acquire new PCs, it’s a ‘
‘ great time. We have one client that was going ‘
‘ to acquire one new device but decided to, ‘
‘ essentially, get two for just over the eight- ‘
‘ months-ago price of one. That’s a 1,000MHz ‘
‘ PC with 256 MB RAM and 40GB hard disk ‘
‘ for $600 (no monitor). ‘
‘ WOW! ‘
‘ [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ‘
‘ ----------------------Item Four-------------------------- ‘
‘ STRATEGIC/USEFUL/INTERESTING LINKS ‘
‘ ------------------------------------------------------------- ‘
‘ 1. http://beamed3.hypermart.net/beamedstats/
‘ BeamedStats monitors your web site to tell ‘
‘ you a lot about what’s going on there for FREE. ’
‘ The hard part of using the service is getting the ‘
‘ following code correctly entered into your www ‘
‘ pages. ‘
‘ <!--Start Copying Here--> ‘
‘ <a href="http://www.beamed.com"> ‘
‘ <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> ‘
‘ <!--var refer='<img src="http://beamed3.hypermart.net/beamedstats/stats.cgi?name=beamed_(Your Beamed ID)' ‘
‘ var data=document.referrer+document.location.search
document.writeln(refer+'&'+data+'" BORDER="0">')
‘ //--> ‘
’ </SCRIPT></a> ‘
‘ <!--End Copying Here--> ‘
‘ But when you do, you get the easy and we ‘
‘ think good part including data on:…
‘ * Visiting Hosts ‘
‘ * Visiting Countries ‘
‘ * Visiting IP Addresses ‘
‘ * Screen Resolutions ‘
‘ * Screen Colors ‘
‘ * Hourly Traffic Graph ‘
‘ * Stats in YOUR Timezone ‘
‘ * Search Engine Breakdown ‘
‘ * Javascript Compatibility ‘
‘ * Most Popular Day of Week ‘
‘ * Graphical Counters ‘
‘ * Referring Web Pages/URLs ‘
‘ * Average Load Time Of Site ‘
‘ * Average Visit Length ‘
‘ * Keeps Stats For A Full Week ‘
‘ * Graphical Browser Breakdown ‘
‘ * Operating Systems ‘
‘ * Total Visitors by Day/Month ‘
‘ * and more!!! ‘
‘ 2. http://www.atwebo.com/emoticons.htm
‘ Is a place to get tools to enhance ‘
‘ www pages and E-mails. They have all ‘
‘ of: ‘
‘ Webdings
‘ 3. http://alerts.microsoft.com/Alerts/ is at the ‘
‘ leading edge of Microsoft’s new ‘.NET’ strategy ‘
‘ ‘.NET’s been getting a lot of press in the ‘
‘ technical world. If you go there you can to ‘
‘ send weather updates, reminders, news and ‘
‘ more to your portable device. We get the ‘
‘ weather every morning at 9:00am followed ‘
‘ by news headlines right on a portable ‘
‘ Motorola StarTac phone. ‘
‘ 4. www.Yodlee.Com will manage and remember ‘
‘ your growing database of user names and ‘
‘ passwords to access Internet sites. Just log on ‘
‘ to your Yodlee account and go wherever you ‘
‘ want with their secure service opening all the ‘
‘ doors you usually stop remembering names ‘
‘ and passwords for. ‘
‘ 5. E-Books? If you have MS reader, there is an ‘
‘ amazing and growing library of FREE classics ‘
‘ and not-so-classics available in E-Book format. ‘
‘ Get MS Reader at: http://www.microsoft.com/catalog/display.asp?subid=22&site=11171&x=29&y=20 . This 2.0 version will even ‘
‘ read to you on your multi-media equipped PC. ‘
‘ Adobe has a reader, too, at: ‘
http://www.adobe.com/products/ebookreader/main.html ‘
‘ Then get Reader compatible books at: ‘
‘ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/556968/103-8496916-3452614
http://ebooks.barnesandnoble.com/ms_reader/download.asp ‘
‘ http://www.ebookmall.com/microsoftreader/ ‘
‘ http://esspc-ebooks.com/default.htm ‘
‘ http://www.free-ebooks.net/index.html ‘
‘ http://scorpiusdigital.com/freebooks/index.html ‘
‘ http://tech-two.mit.edu/Shakespeare/ ‘
‘ [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ‘
‘ -------------------------Item Five----------------------- ‘
‘ WHY SUBSCRIBE? ‘
‘ 2SS.Com & YOUR SUBSCRIPTION ‘
‘ ------------------------------------------------------------- ‘
‘ Maybe the best reason to subscribe is ‘
‘ the ‘E-News Strategic Technology ‘
‘ Advisory Panel’, a group of profess- ‘
‘ ionals in a variety of disciplines, who ‘
‘ have agreed to: ‘
‘ 1--Review each month’s issue in ‘
‘ advance of its release. ‘
‘ 2--Contribute year-round from their ‘
‘ respective areas of specialization. ‘
‘ 3--Accept your strategic systems ‘
‘ technology questions. (This is a free ‘
‘ EXTRAORDINARILY CONVENIENT, ‘
‘ multi-discipline resource available to you.) ‘
‘ Computer Hardware and Software ‘
‘ Acquisition, Service and Repair by ‘
‘ Ron Ellis of 2SS.Com. ‘
‘ Accounting and Financial expertise inclu- ‘
‘ ding Audit, Tax and General Business ‘
‘ Consulting by David Ljung, Principal at ‘
‘ Gilbert Accountancy Corporation. Visit ‘
‘ them at www.GilbertCPA.com. ‘
‘ Perspectives from a long-tenured, technically ‘
‘ savvy and top-notch MIS Director Morris ‘
‘ Slocum of Emergency Physician Billing ‘
‘ located in Oklahoma City, OK. ‘
‘ Human Resources expertise, including ‘
‘ problem employees, policy and procedures, ‘
‘ and customized training by B.J. Flora of . ‘
‘ B.J. Flora Associates. ‘
‘ Computer network design, implementation, ‘
‘ maintenance and support by Ron Ellis, ‘
‘ Managing Director of 2SS.Com. ‘
‘ Computer and printer rentals of all ‘
‘ types by Rick Randall, President of ‘
‘ RenTech Computers. Visit them at ‘
‘ Corporate and professional skill training ‘
‘ by Ann McCandless, Owner and founder ‘
‘ of Computer Assistance. Visit them at ‘
‘ Strategic Planning, turnarounds, marketing ‘
‘ analysis, and litigation support by Peter H. ‘
‘ Michael, President of The Michael Consulting ‘
‘ Group. Visit them at www.mcgmcg.com. ‘
‘ It’s FREE to SUBSCRIBE / UN-SUBSCRIBE? ‘
‘ E-News from 2SS.Com aims to provide ‘
‘ you with timely and interesting ideas ‘
‘ that help you identify and implement ‘
‘ strategic systems. You can SUBSCRIBE FREE ‘
‘ by sending a message to ‘
‘ [email protected] with the subject ‘
‘ ‘Subscribe’. To un-Subscribe, enter the ‘
‘ subject ‘Un-Subscribe’ or ‘Remove’. ‘
‘ Our commitment to subscribers is to ‘
‘ not waste your time. If you have ‘
‘ questions, comments, or suggestions ‘
‘ for technologies that interest you, please ‘
‘ send a message to [email protected] . ‘
‘ (A sample issue is available by fax or by mail ‘
‘ upon request. Please fax requests to ‘
‘ 916-966-1962 or send a stamped self- ‘
‘ addressed envelope to 2SS.Com at P.O. Box ‘
‘ 163391 - Sacramento, CA 95816.) ‘
‘ Please advise us of any changes to our ‘
‘ current contact data for you. It is: ‘
‘ Contact: [[Contact:26]] ‘
‘ Company: [[Company:25]] ‘
‘ Title: [[Title:46]] ‘
‘ Address: [[Address 1:27]] [[Address 2:28]] ‘
‘ City: [[City:30]], State: [[State:31]] Zip: [[Zip:32]] ‘
‘ Phone: [[Phone:35]] Fax: [[Fax:36]] ‘