Cyber School Tips

Viruses aren’t the only problems potentially lurking in your computer. You may have tons of bacteria, germs, and actual viruses running around on your keyboard without even knowing it. Most people do not realize just how disgusting their computers are until they get sick from using them over and over again. If you are pursuing your pediatric nurse certification online or trying to make a living on the web, you probably spend more time with your computer than you spend away from it. Thus it is important to keep it germ free as much as possible. Here are some tips to help you clean your computer so you can stay healthy around it in the future.

Wash Your Hands

One of the best ways to keep your computer clean is to avoid putting germs on it in the first place. Before you sit down to type, wash your hands really well. That will prevent you from transferring your nastiness to your computer before you go to work. When you get done with the computer, wash your hands again. This will get rid of any germs that you may have picked up while you were typing. As silly as this sounds, it can do wonders for keeping you healthy on the computer. You really need to keep it in mind as you go about your work on the web.

Use Hand Sanitizer

If you don’t have a chance to wash your hands every time you use the computer, you should at least run through some hand sanitizer to get rid of the germs. I typically use Germ-X or Purell, but there are tons of other sanitizers on the market. You could pick one of them to get your hands as clean as possible after you use the computer. I actually keep a travel sized bottle of Germ-X in my car to use whenever I get out of a store or restaurant. It just helps me keep the nastiness in check. You could do the same and hopefully avoid the diseases floating in the air at the moment.

Wipe Everything Down

You can buy sanitizing wipes to use on surfaces, and those can help cut down on germs. I always keep a small set of Lysol or Clorox disinfecting wipes by my desk, and I wipe my keyboard, desk top, mouse, and speaker knobs about once a week with them. If I get sick and I still need to be on my computer, I wipe everything multiple times a day. Your hands are the direct transmitters for germs, so you have to avoid leaving them around your keyboards and stuff without cleaning everything off. A quick wipe could do wonders for germ mitigation.

Sneeze away from the Computer

If you have to sneeze or cough when you are on the computer, look away before you do that. This will prevent any germs that come flying out of your face from landing on your keyboard. If that happens, your fingers will run across the germs and eventually put them in your body. Try to plan out your sneezes so they are contained as possible. Either sneeze in your elbow or in your shirt. That will minimize your sneeze projection. Here is a clip from Mythbusters that explains how to sneeze without getting your snot all over the place.

Think about all of the germs that surround you throughout the day, and do whatever it takes to keep them away. That will keep you trucking through your online classes semester after semester.

Sometimes you have to do a little ass kissing to get the grade you want in a class. I hate to admit that, but it is the truth. If a professor doesn’t like you from the start, he or she is going to nitpick at your work until you get a bad grade. You need to suck up enough to prevent that from happening. I’m not saying that you have to be a teacher’s pet to get an A in class, but you should make an effort to connect with the professor if you want to have the best chance of getting a good grade.

Here are some tips to help you suck up to your professor without being too corny or obvious. The right technique can help you get a good grade every time.

Turn in Your Homework Early

I know the concept of turning your homework in early is practically unheard of in the procrastinating world that we live in, but it could help you secure a good grade in class. I am the biggest procrastinator of them all, but I found that professors gave me a bigger break when I turned in my work first because they reviewed my assignments before they figured out how sh*tty the grading process is. I’m serious! I got to catch them when their minds were fresh and their hearts were forgiving. If you do the same, you will have a much better chance of doing well in your college courses.

Ask Valid Questions

If you present valid questions to the professor, he or she will see that you are paying attention in class. That will go a lot further than you may think. All instructors want to see is that they are making a difference in the lives of others. If you are actually comprehending information enough to question it, your professor is going to respect you for the intellectual that you really are. Don’t ask something that is blatantly outlined in the book or the syllabus, but don’t be afraid to ask something important as well. With the right questions at the right times, you are sure to get on your professor’s good side.

Participate in Class Discussions

I realize that class discussions aren’t very frequent in web-based courses, but they do happen every now and then. Some professors actually require class discussions and grade students based on their participation in them. If you can weave yourself into the discussion process, your professor will have more opportunities to see just how smart you really are. You can use that to your advantage and hopefully milk a good grade out of it. It only takes an extra five or ten minutes to make a few comments on a discussion post, so you don’t need to spend a lot of time trying to make a good impression. You just have to vocalize a little more than you do right now.

Subtle Compliments

If you compliment your professor too much, he or she is going to know that you’re just trying to suck up. If you do this subtly though, you will be able to sweet talk him or her enough to get a good grade. Just send your professor an email saying that you have enjoyed the class thus far and that you appreciate the work he or she does. You don’t have to ramble about the professor being smarter than Stephen Hawking or better looking than Stephen Tyler. You just have to make him or her feel special. If you can do that successfully, your sucking up will work in your favor every time.

Your computer is an extension of who you are, and it needs to reflect that. Most people do not realize just how many customization options they have on their computers until they start playing around with them a bit. You don’t have to become a software developer to mess around with the computer. You just need to know what your options are. You can customize the look of your computer inside and out, and that will help you keep it looking like your own. My husband and I always do this with our computers, and that keeps us feeling more connected with them. Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can tailor your computer to fit your personality.

Laptop Skins

Some computer companies now offer special “skins” that you can use on the outside of your laptop. I know you can do this with a lot of Dell computers because my husband has a laptop with a skin on it. You could buy one with some cool art on it or you could get one that is just a solid color. That is up to you. Just keep the skins in mind because they are cheap and easy to work with.

Browser Personas

If you want to customize the look of your web browser, you should see if you could download a persona for it. This is definitely an option in Firefox, but it may be an option in other browsers as well. A persona is just an image that goes at the top of a web browser. It provides a cool background for the space behind the address bar, and it may change the overall color scheme of the browser. You can download a persona for free, so you might as well install one and see what you think.

Computer Backgrounds

Most people know by now that they can change their computer backgrounds, but I don’t think a lot of people realize what all that could involve. You no longer have to put a static image up on your background. You can have the backgrounds switch between several different images if they are all in the same folder. This is a fun way to cycle through memories because you can use pictures of your family on your background. I usually have a folder with pictures of the men in my life – my husband and my cat. Seeing them makes me happy to be on the computer, and it could do the same for you.

Gmail

If you use Gmail, you could get a new theme for your inbox. Just go into the settings and select a theme that you would like to see. Then the background of your inbox will change to whatever you want it to be. My husband and I usually get pictures of the ocean or the mountains for our background, but you can pick anything in the world. Signing into a customized Gmail account makes checking your email almost…exciting? Ya, I guess that’s the word for it. Try it out for yourself and see what you think.

Conclusion

There are tons of other ways that you can make your computer your own, so think outside the box. Whether you decide to draw all over it with a Sharpie or you just change out the screen saver, you can spruce up your computer to be a true extension of who you are. As long as you think about what you like to look at and do, you can make your computer into the machine you have always wanted it to be.

As a college student, you are inevitably going to be asked to write an essay or two for class. This is especially true for English classes, but it can apply to any courses that you may take in college. I have a whole blog devoted to college writing tips because I know how much writing is a part of the educational process. Over the past three years that I have worked as a writer online, I have learned some quick tricks to speed up writing times considerably. I can write a 1,000 word college essay in a half hour if I don’t have to research it, and I can finish it in an hour if I have to cite my resources. How do I do it? Follow the tips below and you’ll find out.

Use Keyboard Shortcuts

One of the easiest ways to save time when you write is to get familiar with your keyboard. There are tons of little shortcuts you can use with your keyboard alone, and every one of them can shave seconds off your essay writing time. I use keyboard shortcuts every hour of the day, and I know they help me cut off at least an hour in my day because of how much I write. Who knows how much time they could save you? Here are some of my favorite keyboard shortcuts:

• Backspace: Go back to previous page on web browsers
• Ctrl+A: Select all
• Ctrl+Alt+Delete: Shuts down computer or pulls up task bar
• Ctrl+B: Bold in text editors, bookmark in web browsers
• Ctrl+C: Copy
• Ctrl+F: Find
• Ctrl+H: Replace in MS Word and other text editors, history in web browsers
• Ctrl+I: Italicize
• Ctrl+N: New window
• Ctrl+S: Save
• Ctrl+T: New tab in web browser
• Ctrl+U: Underline
• Ctrl+V: Paste
• Ctrl+X: Cut
• Ctrl+Z: Undo
• Tab: Go to the next section of a form on a web browser

There are tons of others out there to choose from, but those are the ones I find myself using most often. You can test them out for yourself, and you will soon see how much easier they are to use than any other writing option.

Write Everything at Once

Rather than writing part of an essay, reading it, and editing it before you start on the next part, you need to get all of your thoughts out at once. I am writing this entire article in one swoop, and then I will go back to checking for typos and whatnot when I’m done. I’m about nine minutes into it now without stopping, and I know I would have spent twice that amount of time or longer if I had to stop to edit while I wrote. If you get all of your thoughts out at once, you can allow your brain to pump out information like it would for a conversation. That is going to save you a ton of thinking time in the end, which is half the battle of writing essays.

Use Autocorrect

The autocorrect option on Microsoft Word can be your best friend when you want to save time in your writing. It can correct typos that you make on a regular basis so you don’t have to worry about editing them every time. You can either manually set your autocorrect options or you can right click on a red, misspelled word to set the options from there. With the right amount of corrections built in, you can easily shave hours off your writing time in the future. Explore your computer thoroughly and learn how to use it to your advantage. You’ll have a much easier time writing that way in the future.