Distance Education: Is a virtual classroom for you? Part 4 of 4

Emphasis on the Written Word

Most of the communication, as well as the course work, in the distance-learning classes are written. That’s a plus, because the focus on the written word give you the opportunity to develop as a writer--and strong writing skills are essential to academic success. However, if writing is a serious weakness for you, virtual learning may not be the best educational option until you improve your skills. Your penmanship needs to be excellent, spelling great, sentence structure above average, vocabulary extraordinary. You need to have online access with reliable equipment. If your Internet communications at home isn't working, you can’t do online education from home and will need to go to someplace where you do have access to the internet.

Decide Whether It’s Right for you

Distance education isn't for everyone, but it just might be for you. You really should seek it out and give it a try. You never know until you try. You might even fall in love with distance education. While distance education may be the perfect alternative for some students, it’s not the right choice for everyone. So carefully consider your unique need and interest and give distance education a try; then decide if it’s right for you.

Choose the Right!!!

7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens (Habit 5)

5. Seek first to understand, and then to be Understood

Because most people don’t listen very well, one of the great frustrations in life is that many don’t feel understood. This habit will ensure your teen learns the most important communication skill there is: active listening.

Why is this habit the key to communication? It’s because the deepest need of human heart is to be understood. Everyone wants to be respected and valued for who they are--a unique, one-of-kind, never-to-be-cloned individual. People won’t expose their top middles unless they feel it, however, they will tell you more than you may want to hear. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Listen with your eyes, heart, and ears. 7 percent of communication is contained in the words we use. The rest comes from body language (53 percent) and how we say words, or the tone and feeling reflected in our voice (40 percent).

Most people are eager to talk and had rather talk than listen. We have one mouth and two ears. This means we should listen twice as much as we talk. We actually learn more while listening rather than we talk. Learn to listen and listen to learn.

Listen. Really listen, for understanding.

Seek first to understand then to be understood--LISTEN.

Choose the Right!!!