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 Digital Corner: Stay home and earn your degree By TOM NELSON Digital Corner Prospective students demanded and educators responded. People want to study and earn their degrees from home. And for some people it works. But hucksters have joined the ranks of legitimate educators. Degree.net reports that e-mail users over the past year have been getting messages offering degrees based on “life experiences.” Just send in several thousand dollars by Western Union and back will come your degree from the University of San Moritz, the University of Palmers Green or Harrington University. Not one of these universities exist. All of the money eventually gets sent to Cyprus. Enough people have fallen for the scam to make Cyprus one of Western Union’s largest customers, Degree.net reports. Degree.net says that its goal is to be the No. 1 source of honest, unbiased information on degree granting institutions worldwide. Distance learning is the site’s primary focus. The site is run by John Bear, author of “Bear’s Guide to Earning Degrees Nontraditionally.” Bear warns that while it is possible to earn a good degree without setting foot on a college campus, “it can also be a baffling field, fraught with misinformation, false expectations, complexities such as accreditation, and outright dangers such as diploma mills.” While Bear would love for you to buy one of his books, he includes a great deal of information on his Web site to get you started. Check out his “Bear approved” list of 100 schools offering degrees by mail or Internet. Each school’s Web site and telephone number is listed, along with a brief description of what type of distance learning is available. If you are truly interested in long-distance learning, check out the FAQ (frequently asked questions) and the glossary under the Guides section. There are also many distance learning links. Despite the frequent sales pitches, this is a good site to see if you are really cut out for getting educated without sitting in a classroom – http://www.degree.net/ Browser woesYou gave us such a good site in quickbrowse.com. It appears to no longer work. What can we use to replace it?Another question – if I want to view a newspaper in a particular town how, do I find the name of the newspaper? – Jack “QB.com” is indeed an excellent site. And, it has gotten better since I last mentioned it. It’s still there at http://www.quickbrowse.com/index_regular.cgi There are three main modules on Quickbrowse: The site also allows you to set up the site so that what you want to see daily can be accessed from your e-mail client. This site is very useful and easy to use. Definitely worth a look. To find newspapers in a particular town, go to http://www.newsdirectory.com/ “NewsDirectory” will help you find newspapers, TV stations and magazines from all over the world. You can even find college newspapers. Another good site for links to media is “Hotinks” – www.newsdirectory.com This nice site is operated by the Newspaper Association of America. Crosswords with the kidsCrossword puzzles for some people are a relaxing way to use personal time. Maybe it’s time to get the kids interested. You can find instructional crossword puzzles for children, courtesy of the New York Times, at www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/xwordsTwice a month the newspaper comes out with a new themed puzzle for youngsters. You can print them out or play them online. Since you have already missed some of the puzzles, you can access past puzzles by clicking on “additional puzzles.” Another puzzle site for kids is aptly named “Kid Crosswords and Other Puzzles” – http://www.kidcrosswords.com/ It’s all in the nameThe prune industry figures it needs an image reconfiguration. Prunes, so it is said, are associated with elderly people with certain intestinal problems. They are not associated with you vigorous people of any age with good dietary habits. So the industry has decided that prunes will henceforth be known as “dried plums.” That’s an appropriate name because that’s what they are. Many other products with less than catchy, attractive names have reinvigorated their market life by acquiring new names.Hiring a company to name or rename your product can cost many thousands of dollars. Or, you could try the amateur wordsmiths at “WordLab.” Enter your request on the “Word Board,” and soon you will get a response. Some of the responses aren’t worth a hoot, but you might just get what you want. If you can’t get what you want off the Word Board, try entering a word into the search box and see what comes back. Even if you don’t have a product, but just love words, there’s fun and games here for wordsmiths – http://www.wordlab.com/ Questions or comments are welcome. E-mail messages included in this column are edited for brevity and clarity. You can e-mail Tom Nelson atmailto:tnelson@billingsgazette.com– fax: 406-657-1208. Please put Digital Corner in the subject line. Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.   |
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