I would like your opinion and critiques

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by friendorfoe, Dec 21, 2009.

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  1. friendorfoe

    friendorfoe Active Member

    Hi guys, I have never done this before but I felt this was a special circumstance. Recently there was an article written by a Mr. David Golden on for profit schools and their recruitment practices in the military, among other things. Now the article was so targeted in tone, so misleading that I felt it was necassary to blog on it using my highly sarcastic yet disrespectful tone, but at least I like my facts straight. Being that I cranked this out in the heat of passion and do not consider myself to be at the level of expertise as some of the gentlemen (and ladies) here, I thought I'd toss in the link to get your input on my facts...


    http://community.elearners.com/blogs/bellevue_university/default.aspx

    The offending article is here http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2009/db20091215_144443_page_7.htm

    Note: I am not shilling for my blog but would appreciate your feedback. Thanks, and mods if I'm violating any TOS feel free to just delete my post (as I'm certain you otherwise would :) )
     
  2. Go_Fishy

    Go_Fishy New Member

    Hm, the passionate rage certainly shows. ;) If the comment is longer than the original text, we are either dealing with a literature class or with something that can be expressed in fewer words. I had the best intentions, but gave up reading after a few paragraphs. Rather than ranting, which gets you entangled in details, you should attack the main idea in general terms with precise facts supporting your attack.

    I'm not criticizing your writing in general. I enjoyed reading the other articles. on your page. Just make this entry look like the others. And use some more block paragraphs. Reading huge blocks on a computer screen is hard for most people.Oh, and: one alumnus/alumna, many alumni


    I can't help but throwing out one remark regarding the Business Week article: Dear military, you are complaining about questionable recruiting practices? You? Really? Awww.
     
  3. friendorfoe

    friendorfoe Active Member

    Thanks Go Fishy, actually I was trying to take apart his 7 page article concept by concept. It was a bit rambling, (says the pot to the kettle) and for some reason the software on elearners site keeps dumping a portion of my formatting, really annoying. I've already tried to clean it up twice and just gave up. Oh well, now that it's out of my system I don't think I'm going to waste yet more time on it.
     
  4. Glor1295

    Glor1295 New Member

    Nice.

    As for me, I couldn't take the BW article seriously after he cited Payscale.com as a source. Why not just cite "the cousin of this guy I knew" or maybe a website of equal repute, possibly the comments section of IMDB.

    This article is what I've come to expect from BW and most other media outlets that rank education. They refuse to believe that learning can take place anywhere that isn't a landscaped campus, M-F between the hours of 8am-4pm, on semester and trimester schedules. They don't even bother to rank the distance programs when there is an obvious market and an ever-growing number of reputable providers. They sure do rank those executive programs, though.

    The thing that bothers me the most about this kind of journalism is that it shines a negative light on all online, for-profit schools that are providing an education for soldiers. Sure, some are bad, but those that are legit are providing a service to meet a very real need: extremely flexible education. Existing providers just couldn't meet that need because they continue to use the same broken model (that's right, I said it) for education. I'm an excellent example. As a military student, I looked at local programs but found nothing that met my needs. So, I eventually started a flexible, online masters degree from a school accredited by the same "lower standards" accrediting body that the article said approved AMU. Oh how will I ever find a job with the University of Arkansas on my resume.

    Cajun, your blog was interesting as always. I'm sorry that he lumped your alma mater in with the other for-profits. I've heard very good things about that school and I've personally seen the effort that one of my coworkers puts into his Ashford assignments.
     
  5. friendorfoe

    friendorfoe Active Member

    One of his testimonials talked about hiring grads from a "real school" which I can only assume he lumps for profit and non-profits together, such as APUS or WGU or anyone else who is a virtual college. Who knows, the article jumped all over teh map. It was almost every cliche against DL, NA vs. RA and for profit schools all lumped into one mess on paper.
     
  6. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    It's all about "supply and demand." If the U.S. DOE will pay $1200 per lug nut, then that's what will be supplied by the U.S. DOE.

    Is that right? No. Then why does the U.S. DOE continue to pay $1200 for a lug nut? You figure it out!
     

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