October 5th 2007
Following up my post about research techniques, I would like to mention a great resource I’ve found, Questia. It’s an online academic library that contains over 67,000 digital books and 1.5 million articles, all available in full-text. They also have over 5,000 free books and an encyclopedia.
If your school doesn’t have an online database, which some of them don’t, but you still need access to academic sources for research, websites like Questia can help you. It isn’t free, but they do offer free trials, which is something I definitely would take advantage of. They have yearly, quarterly and monthly subscriptions, which might be helpful if you have only one paper to write, but for most college students, it’s not much of an option. I would suggest they use advertising to make more money so they can lower the subscription prices.
My favorite thing about Questia is the layout. My school’s library does offer an academic database, but the layout for it is very confusing. Questia’s organization is very simple and easy to use.
Another thing that’s great about Questia is the search feature. The relevance of articles in search results matches very well to what I’m actually looking for. My school’s database is so large that I have to sift through hundreds of irrelevant articles to finally get what I’m looking for. They have very nice categorical structure so it’s really easy to find exactly what you’re looking for.
Posted in Academic with 2 comments
October 3rd 2007
Online degrees are an upcoming trend that I’m not sure about. Usually, when taking a course online, it’s much easier. There’s not a teacher around you to watch and make sure you’re not cheating. I’ve seen more and more universities pop up that solely give online degrees, for example, Utica College offers Economic Crime Degrees.
For some people, online degrees might be the way to go. If you can’t afford or don’t have the time to go to a physical school, but still need a degree, it’s a nice choice to have. Utica College offers an intensive online cybersecurity degree and a masters in cybercrime investigation, which are subjects I’ve thought about before, but what with all the identity theft going on, wouldn’t be a bad field to get into.
One thing that you’d want to look for with an online university is accreditation. If I spend money and get a degree at this college, is it going to be good enough for an employer? Also, what would the classes be like? Utica College uses WebCT, which is something my university uses and is a nice course management system.
Getting a college education online could save you a lot of time, energy and money if you’re looking for that sort of environment. It may not be for eighteen year-olds, but it might be just the thing if you’re a little older and juggling a full-time job.
Readers, what are your opinions on this? Do you think they’re a waste or just what we need in the education field?
Posted in Academic with 5 comments
October 2nd 2007
We’ve all had to write one before and if you’re one of the very few who haven’t, then you will get there. Some of us are lucky enough (debatable) to have had a research paper assigned in high school where the teachers walk you through everything and some of us are even luckier when our college professors are actually grad students who will do the same thing for us poor little freshmen.
In Comp I, we have three writing portfolios for the semester. The first is an autobiography, the second and third are collaborative research assignments. In the first, we simply gather our research and write source reviews. We don’t actually write the paper until the third project is due, which is the end of the semester.
Point is, research is important and here’s my tips on how to do it successfully.
Most research needs to be academic and professors usually want those sources to be from some sort of scholarly journal and if anyone’s had the privilege of reading one, they’re boring. How to get through all that material without killing yourself? Read the abstract, which most of them have. If you can sit through that, you can sit through the rest of the article. Read it in chunks. A few pages at a time, highlighting important information so you don’t ever have to read it again.
Make sure to bookmark or print out a copy and do your citation now. I keep a text document of all my citations so I don’t have to go find them at the end. Citation Machine is your friend, your hero and your savior. Choose the format (MLA, APA, Chicago or Turabian and simply input the information and it prints out the citation for you.
Zotero is a Firefox extension to help collect, manage and cite your research. I personally haven’t used it, but have heard great reviews.
To sum it up
- Read the abstract or summary first
- Read in chunks, taking breaks
- Highlight
- Bookmark the article
- Make your citations now and keep a running bibliography
Other articles and resources
Posted in Academic with 2 comments
October 2nd 2007
One of the bigger trends that’s coming out is contests and I must say, I’m a fan. When That College Kid gets bigger, I’m planning on holding a few of my own. They’re a great way to win cool prizes by doing something easy (usually writing a blog post) and get some traffic.
Contest Blogger is exactly what it sounds like. He blogs about contests. Great resource and the author has a fun sense of humor.
The Prize Blog is the top two contest blog as far as ranking goes. The Prize Blog is currently holding a contest to win a custom logo from the SOS Factory.
Macs Money Blog is holding a contest to win a $50 Amazon gift certificate for simply posting about the contest. Another way to enter is to submit articles to FinanceFavorites.com
Posted in Misc with 3 comments
October 1st 2007
Mint.com is a new online budgeting tool. You input your bank and credit card logins for their websites and it gathers the data and pulls all of your financial information together. It simplifies everything because it’s all in one place. You don’t have to login to six different websites to pull up your balances. They also have an alert system to notify you when your balances become low so you don’t overdraft.
I tried it out and was actually very impressed. If you’re not sure how to budget or don’t want to bother, Mint is a great way to keep track of your money. I personally found it a little too simple for me. I have an exact image of the way I want my budget to be and I’ve just had to keep using a spreadsheet do so.
I really like how it breaks down spending and shows trends. It doesn’t always recognize certain charges, but for the most part, it puts them in the right categories. It compares cash and debt, which is nice since apparently it thinks I have more cash than debt (it doesn’t know my poor “cash” is really all debt in student loans.) It does know, however, that my most frequent stop is at HEB (grocery store).
The feature that shows ways you can save money by switching accounts is nice, but doesn’t really apply to a college student with little credit. Mint thinks I could save $424 by switching checking accounts and credit cards, but what it doesn’t know is that I can’t just get another credit card because mine has too high of an interest rate.
Of course, there are some drawbacks to a website like this, the most important being that they have your bank information. As a paranoid person, I just don’t like giving other people my passwords to anything, much less my bank accounts. What with all the security leaks recently, I’m even more paranoid. It doesn’t take much to hack a website and steal all of this information. Other than that, sometimes it seems too simple for me. I have a pretty complicated plan for my budget and have yet to find a program that does what I want.
Posted in Money, Reviews with no comments
September 29th 2007
Sometimes I have trouble concentrating when I should be writing a paper or reading a particularly boring chapter about C++. A common solution is to listen to music, but if you’re anything like me, it just distracts you. Instead, I’ve been listening to soothing sounds on a website, iSerenity, which offers environments with a photo and soothing sounds. They have over thirty to choose from, including the ocean, a cat’s purring and rain.
Another choice is to do some meditation. And I don’t mean the stereotypical kind that makes people laugh. You can meditate and relax yourself without sitting cross-legged and without making the “Ohm” sounds. I’ve been taking Tai Chi and part of what the instructor is having us do is Chigong, which is breathing exercises to promote inner healing. There are techniques, but really, to relax yourself, you can simply close your eyes, and breath deeply. One thing I like to do is imagine where my breath is going and I can even pop my back by imagining the air expanding behind my ribs.
Even taking a simple five minute break can refresh you enough to finish your task. Sometimes I’ll take my dog for a quick walk around the apartment complex and then be ready to tackle a six page paper.
Also, not getting enough exercise (or any at all) can contribute to stress. Exercising is a natural process that helps us deal with things and keep our bodies healthy. I’m not talking about running five miles a day, but even parking further away from class and walking helps. I always park in a further lot just so I can get a little exercise on the way to class. Carrying a twenty-pound backpack does the body good.
Zen Habits has many articles about relaxation, a newer one being How to Use Mini-Meditations to Relax and Find Focus. Here is a another article by Help-Guide.org, Stress Relief: Yoga, Meditation, and Other Relaxation Techniques. It talks a little about yoga, meditation, Tai Chi, and different breathing exercises that anyone can easily do to relax.
Posted in Misc with 1 comment
September 28th 2007
Finding good, reliable software is hard sometimes, especially after being spoiled by programs like Photoshop or Coda. But spending precious money on software is not the smartest thing to do when you can find equally good (and sometimes better) programs for free. Almost all of the programs on my computer were free, with the exception of Illustrator, Photoshop and Coda.
Software for Starving Students is a great resource for both Mac and PC users. (Again, sorry Linux) Their collection of freeware is geared toward students, although anyone could find most of the programs useful. They have a version for both Mac and PC. There is a good number of programs (30+ in both packages) and I have most of them. Unfortunately, you have to download the file and burn it to a CD that will install everything. If you don’t want to do that, they have a list of all the included software and you can pick and choose which to install.
Two other great websites are Open Source Windows and its Mac equivalent, Open Source Mac. They list the essential types of software, including browsers, word processors, graphic programs, and instant messengers.
For Mac users, FreeMacWare is a great resource for free software. They have almost every free program that’s available. If you’re looking for programs not offered at the above websites or just want to clutter up your Applications folder, this website will help you.
Posted in Money, Software with no comments
Chipie
Casino
Research Writing
Sell my Annuity
Athletic shoes
Address stamp
Home Loans
Maytag Parts
Low-Priced Appliance Parts
GPS tracking
