Best in Online Schools

Get your school in the book!

I am in the final stages of creating the database that will be used for the second edition of our online high schools book. If you are an online school, high school or not, please send us an email for possible inclusion in this book or other books to be published in 2012.

Take the Megan Pledge!

Along with the great part of online schooling, there come other things. Like Cyberbullying. Yes, it does happen. Yes, it can have horrific consequences. Take the case of Megan Meier. The cyberbullying was so devastating to her that she committed suicide.

A major component of this year's Wired Kids Summit was a focus on what is becoming a real problem. Here is a piece of the response to Megan's death from one group of students:

The tweens have initiated the Megan Pledge, a three part campaign to help stop cyberbullying. There are three parts of The Megan Pledge, a signed individual pledge, a group banner and a black and white polka-dot ribbons to wear and share. The pledge itself contains both statements and a set of promises. It is signed and witnessed and given to WiredSafety’s Megan Pledge volunteer team and sent back to WiredSafety where the pledges will be recorded and entered in a data base with the objective of getting one million signatures by the end of the year.

Found: One article, like new.

Occasionally, I will come across an article that I have written that I have forgotten that I have written. As it happens, last year I wrote an article for Next Step Magazine, the premier magazine for high school-into-college students.

There is what appears to be an excerpt here that I discovered by accident yesterday. Not surprisingly, it is about online high schools.

By the way, I received an email today from a friend asking if they only thing I did now was online high schools. While it might seem that I am writing about it quite a bit these days, I am also spending significant energy on how to earn a cheap college degree. And, as always, the whole distance learning thing.

Sometimes what drives some of this, though, are the vagaries of publishing schedules and website needs. Rest assured, I still plan to do all those things I do.

Resource reminder

Since it has been a while since I have mentioned it here, I decided it is time to do it again. In addition to a couple of blogs, I also have two websites:

BestOnlineHighSchools.com is a directory of online high schools. In addition to the directory, it includes a blog and a forum, both of which I attempt to update regularly. I also put up articles on the topic.

CollegeAdvocates.com is a directory of various services and resources for pre-college and college students. In addition to that, I put up articles on college-related topics.

Ask Tom

I would like to introduce a semi-regular program here at ThomasNixon.com called "Ask Tom." Feel free to send me questions and I will answer them here (time permitting; no guarantees!). The only questions that I won't answer here are about online high schools. I will answer those here.

Ask Tom #1

I am maxed out on my financial aid and I want to continue to my Ph.D., but I only have $27,000 left that I can get from federal loans. Is there a business management Ph.D. that will cost me under $30,000? I have been searching, but I have not found any so far. NorthCentral University cost $27,000, but I have to get a private student loan and I was denied for it.

If I had a dollar for every time I have been asked this question. As background for readers, students who use federal loans do eventually hit a ceiling; a point where you can no longer get more cash from student loans.

Let me first tell you that this writer has significant loanage. That ceiling is really quite high, but you can reach it if you get students loans to pay for your entire bachelor's degree and master's degree. The other way is to select really expensive options.

In her case, I believe she has only one option. After she goes out and buys a copy of Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning </shameless plug>, she should look in the section on business administration. She is looking for nothing in the United States. Instead she will want to look at Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. All three of those places offer instruction in English through distance learning, but at a drastically lower price than you will find in the United States. And I do mean drastically lower price.

You will need to ask the specific universities if they are allowed to accept U.S. student loans.

Looking for an introduction to distance learning?

If you are looking for a general introduction to the topic of distance learning as well as information on accreditation and financial aid, I would encourage you to look at this page from Newsweek magazine. It provides most of the basics to get you started and then you can graduate to something like Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning.

John Bear reviews Complete Guide to Online High Schools. Film at 11:00.

Dr. John Bear has been described as the grandfather of distance learning. While there are pretenders to the throne, he is the real deal. His Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning is the seminal work in the field. If you are in distance learning and you have not heard of him, you are really not in distance learning.

Dr. Bear graciously agreed to write a review of my latest book, Complete Guide to Online High Schools. It is a five-starred review over on About.com's Adult Education site. I would consider it an honor to get three stars from him. To get five stars is humbling.