Everybody says they are OK with change, right? Me too. Then my wonderful, wonderful, beloved Creative Zen V Plus plopped into the water while I was getting a pedicure. Now it's a wonderful, wonderful hunk of inert plastic. Dead plastic. I am sad.
I even have multiple backups -- my Droid phone serves the purpose, as does my big honking Zune (I AM ***NOT*** AN APPLE PERSON. NO IPOD, NO IPAD, STEVE JOBS CAN STICK IT.).
But I miss my Zen.
Now I'm bidding to replace it on eBay. These things have held their value!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Online college degrees -- expensive racket!
When I was 18, I was an orphan and on my own in the world. I didn't have enough cash to pay for college, and nobody to help me understand that I could have probably won grants, scholarships, etc -- broke, no mom and dad, and a high school top honors student with scorching hot SAT scores and a high GPA. But nobody told me, and I was too green/dumb/naive to figure it out on my own.
So I went to work.
Then I fell in love, started working with my soon-to-be-husband, who 25 years later is still far better geared to be a lone wolf entrepreneur than a robot employee.
And college... well, I sort of skipped that part.
I got busy! I got busy with life -- with running a business that did well and supported us beyond what we imagined, I got busy having two beautiful daughters and being their mom. Then I got busy rolling with the economy, going through a bunch of life changes, still being mom, still married.
I dabbled, twice, with working toward a degree. I'd add a few classes, bootstrap my way through the costs... never a student loan... and then couldn't afford it and stopped.
NOW, I'm serious about wanting to finish the damn bachelor's and move right into a master's. Because I know myself, and I think I'd be a really great instructor at some point. Plus in my field, a degree is pretty much expected -- it's the baseline you need to get in the door.
So, I signed up for a local university that only recently started an online program. I figured, I love start-ups, this should fit me. I thought, this should be challenging but good.
Now I'm six classes into it, and I am frustrated. My grades have been all A's with a couple of A-'s. The work is not hard. And I've realized that it all hangs on the instructor: if the instructor sucks, the class will be borderline unbearable. I thought that could only apply in a classroom setting, but not so!
My last class was taught by a guy who GETS IT for online education -- he rocked. He challenged. He joked. He prodded. He was thought-provoking and encouraging. I loved that class.
The class before it blew chunks. The current class, ditto. The content is LAME. By the end of the first day of class, I had completed every quiz for the entire course (100%). I'm currently running 3 weeks ahead of schedule on the work; I just won't turn it in until then. One of the two Big Assignments for the class had me read a 55-word "case study" and write 750 words. (I can write 750 words in my sleep, duh.)
The only thing that keeps going through my head is, "THIS is costing me $89&?!?!?!?!"
Because that's the per-class tuition -- $897. There are 13 students in my class (at least, per the Introductions that were posted as the first Discussion assignment) -- that's $11,661. For 8 weeks "work" how much does the instructor get -- maybe $750 per week? (I am totally guessing) that would be $6000 for 8 weeks. So, does he put in 10 hours of work per week @ $75 per hour? Or is he supposed to put in 20 hours per week @$37.50 per hour? Or, does he get paid more? Does he get a percentage of the class enrollment -- 30%? 40%? an even split?
So far, I've seen the instructor post two Announcements (about 1 - 2 paragraphs each) plus very short (1 - 3 brief sentences) comments to a select number of students. No grades posted yet -- though our deadline for the first wave was now two business days ago.
So... I keep coming back to... what the hell am *I* getting for $897? Simple -- I am getting the promise that I can hang a shiny degree attribution on my resume. That's it. The questions for the class have been lame -- the assignment for the next two weeks is to write a 200-word discussion posting on: "describe your company's drug testing policy."
$897. It is a racket.
(But hell, I should talk? I work for a MONEY LENDER. Hah!)
So I went to work.
Then I fell in love, started working with my soon-to-be-husband, who 25 years later is still far better geared to be a lone wolf entrepreneur than a robot employee.
And college... well, I sort of skipped that part.
I got busy! I got busy with life -- with running a business that did well and supported us beyond what we imagined, I got busy having two beautiful daughters and being their mom. Then I got busy rolling with the economy, going through a bunch of life changes, still being mom, still married.
I dabbled, twice, with working toward a degree. I'd add a few classes, bootstrap my way through the costs... never a student loan... and then couldn't afford it and stopped.
NOW, I'm serious about wanting to finish the damn bachelor's and move right into a master's. Because I know myself, and I think I'd be a really great instructor at some point. Plus in my field, a degree is pretty much expected -- it's the baseline you need to get in the door.
So, I signed up for a local university that only recently started an online program. I figured, I love start-ups, this should fit me. I thought, this should be challenging but good.
Now I'm six classes into it, and I am frustrated. My grades have been all A's with a couple of A-'s. The work is not hard. And I've realized that it all hangs on the instructor: if the instructor sucks, the class will be borderline unbearable. I thought that could only apply in a classroom setting, but not so!
My last class was taught by a guy who GETS IT for online education -- he rocked. He challenged. He joked. He prodded. He was thought-provoking and encouraging. I loved that class.
The class before it blew chunks. The current class, ditto. The content is LAME. By the end of the first day of class, I had completed every quiz for the entire course (100%). I'm currently running 3 weeks ahead of schedule on the work; I just won't turn it in until then. One of the two Big Assignments for the class had me read a 55-word "case study" and write 750 words. (I can write 750 words in my sleep, duh.)
The only thing that keeps going through my head is, "THIS is costing me $89&?!?!?!?!"
Because that's the per-class tuition -- $897. There are 13 students in my class (at least, per the Introductions that were posted as the first Discussion assignment) -- that's $11,661. For 8 weeks "work" how much does the instructor get -- maybe $750 per week? (I am totally guessing) that would be $6000 for 8 weeks. So, does he put in 10 hours of work per week @ $75 per hour? Or is he supposed to put in 20 hours per week @$37.50 per hour? Or, does he get paid more? Does he get a percentage of the class enrollment -- 30%? 40%? an even split?
So far, I've seen the instructor post two Announcements (about 1 - 2 paragraphs each) plus very short (1 - 3 brief sentences) comments to a select number of students. No grades posted yet -- though our deadline for the first wave was now two business days ago.
So... I keep coming back to... what the hell am *I* getting for $897? Simple -- I am getting the promise that I can hang a shiny degree attribution on my resume. That's it. The questions for the class have been lame -- the assignment for the next two weeks is to write a 200-word discussion posting on: "describe your company's drug testing policy."
$897. It is a racket.
(But hell, I should talk? I work for a MONEY LENDER. Hah!)
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