Posted by Dan on June 17th, 2009
When most people think of a career in education, they immediately think “teacher”. There are a variety of career positions for those interested in pursuing a career in education. Superintendent, Principal, Professor, Dean, CEO even can be an obtainable title when you earn a college degree in education. Careers in Demand examines how returning to school via an online college and earning a degree in education is a sure fire way to open new career paths for those in today’s tough job market.
A career in education has been identified by the Wall Street Journal and Yahoo News as one of the fastest growing career fields in the US. The demand for teachers currently is at an all time high. An online education offers the convenience and flexibility that many busy adults need to complete their college degree program. Some adults have selected to pursue an online bachelor’s degree in education despite being currently employed in a non related career field. Employees and job seekers are searching for stability and growth opportunities. Education and Teaching offers both of those to you if you are interested.
Current teachers understand the importance of education and their career demands that they continue to take certificate and seminar programs to help keep their teaching skills fresh and sharp. it should be no surprise then that the rise in online masters degrees in education has outpaced the past two years in the first 6 months of 2009. Working as a teacher demands long work weeks often involving bringing your work home with you after the final school bell has rung. Online Colleges offer current working teachers the flexibility to build their Master’s Degree curriculum around their schedule. There is no hassle of driving to a campus, finding parking, sitting in a class, and then driving home.
While many may find that their career in education starts as a teacher, the ability to continue their education and learning, allows for the potential of a promotion or more senior positions. You may decide that post-secondary education is important to you, so you pursue your online Ph.D and earn a tenured faculty position at a local college. Salary for a college professor often starts at $70,000 according to Payscale.com. As you continue your career, the opportunity to join the Adminstrative Board of a College or be promoted to a Dean position are all available for the motivated individual.
A career in education can be very rewarding. Many who choose to enter this profession have a profound love for knowledge and sharing that knowledge with students. They embody mentor qualities and can often be very creative in their teaching approaches. Those who choose to do so can aspire to high career positions with large six figure salaries. Most educators will enjoy a work year that consists of 200 days or less. Compared to those working in Accounting, Marketing, Communications, Print Media, and other career fields at 337 days a year (4 weeks vacation). Earning an online degree in education offers the potential for a tremendous career filled with great opportunity.
When I was selecting a school, I did consider whether the school had a local presence or not. In my area, there weren’t a lot of options for PhD programs. I could choose to do a face-to-face program at our public universities - one was close by, the other was about 90 miles away. Neither school had exactly the program I was looking for. The online schools I was considering had no local campus presence anywhere, they were fully online. So my options were somewhat limited, but that made the decision easier.
I know that it can be reassuring to have a local campus nearby. Several of the schools I teach for have online and face-to-face components. The students do feel a benefit from being able to go to a campus, see real people, and get the help they need.
In my situation, that wasn’t the case. That’s not to say that having some resources close by wouldn’t be helpful, but we’re so accustomed to doing correspondence via the phone or the web, that in-person contact seems to be a thing of the past.
I actually treasure the fact that my school is fully online and has no local campuses. It puts everyone on the same playing field. We all have access to the same resources. Knowing what I know now, I would still choose Capella.
Our world has flattened, so to speak, thanks to the internet, and I’ve had opportunities to talk with people from around the globe. Some of these people have become quite dear to me. One such person is Srini from India. He was complimentary of the slideshows I posted on Slideshare.net and an email friendship developed.
Srini connected me with a young woman from the Netherlands, and the three of us created an inspirational slide show and posted it collaboratively. We never sat down face to face, but together we created a project thousands of miles apart. When I viewed the recent violence India I emailed Srini to make sure he was okay. He said he was safe and that many others from Slideshare had also expressed concern. I feel like he is “local” just as all my online classes and communities feel local. Columbus never found India, but I did!
Two of my first online classes were not local, and one was. In all three, I developed intellectual relationships. I have been keeping in touch via email with one teacher I met in a since 2001 non-local class. Since the class, I haven’t had contact with any of the students from my local class. After my experiences I have no preference as to whether the classes are local or not.
What is important to me is content. I want classes that specifically help me improve my skills as a teacher. As technology changes, I find it important to stay ahead of my students, many of whom are learning on their own. Interestingly enough, I am looking at a progam in e-learning offered through a state university system here in Wisconsin. The consideration of this program has nothing to do with the location of the university. So far, it’s the program that piques my interest. I have read all the course descriptions and what fascinates me is that many of the skills I already learned through online classes were provided by my very own school district.
Posted by Pamela Gustafson on December 17th, 2008
My search for online classes was not about getting a degree; it was more like a fishing expedition. It was about finding courses that would help improve my skills as a teacher. Computers and technology were quickly expanding on the education scene and I wanted to be ready. Having watched my son’s intense interest in computers, I knew computers were a venue to reach unmotivated students (which he was at times). During this time I also switched school districts and found out the new district was ahead of my former district in purchasing computers. I looked for practical courses to enhance my teaching with computers, so I chose courses from different universities.
The search started in 2001. The pond of online courses was smaller then,unlike the sea of online classes available today. The University of Northern Iowa had the biggest lake of online classes for teachers. They understood how many K-12 teachers already had masters degrees and needed courses to improve their skills in the classroom. The two classes I took from UNI were “Excel with Excel” and “Using the Internet for Staff Development”
From a flyer I received in the mail from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, I found an online course titled “Using Computers to Teach Reading in Early Childhood.” This course required two on-site meetings; the rest of the class was online. In all three courses I felt much closer to the instructors than I had ever felt in an on-site college class. Instead of a once a week intense three-hour session, I received feedback and messages in smaller sound bites. I felt like I was able to converse more with my professors, thereby enhancing my learning experience.
At the same time I was taking these classes I had a classroom with five computers. I could immediately apply information I was learning in my classes. In addition, I created other learning experiences using computers for small groups of students. I discussed this with other teachers in my online classes.
So, I went fishing and I was hooked on the quality of my own online classroom experiences and the power of computers as a motivating tool in the classroom. The classes paid big dividends.
