Studying finance isn’t that simple and is usually very boring also. The topic is considered to be really dry and hard as well. But with the assistance of the online finance school the situation doesn’t remain similar. Now individuals can simply understand finance and may be a specialist in the area. There are lots of sites that are functioning as an internet school that are offering web based classes in addition to the classes to folks to make them a specialist in the field.Individuals may get to understand about a lot of hard ideas with good ease and efficiency. You may take any training course which is associated with your area of interest. Even if you’re absolutely ignorant of the principles that are utilized in that topic, you can be a specialist by taking these web based courses. Your web finance training course can be very beneficial in making you comprehend about the conditions and ideas utilized in the area of finance. You can understand about numerous hard ideas without having problems. There can be several options for learning finance but the greatest results are noticed in the online courses.To be able to learn more about the loans and finances you may also take the online finance training course which can be very beneficial for you in numerous transactions of yours. If you’re a starter and have just began your learning in the market of finance then you mustn’t worry because there are a lot of fantastic online training courses for finance that are specially created for the rookies in order to assist them out by making their course of finance less difficult and better for them. Also the most challenging principles become quite simple as a result of the simple strategies and programs along with the classes that are supplied by the online institutions that want to make finance much easier for the individuals and in order to create more curiosity about individuals they’ve made the sign up method quite simple for them.There are additional lessons and trainings also available for many hard topics for example you may have the online economics classes as well as the online stock market training course which can be very useful for you in understanding about these fields. You may also have the classes and equipment that are associated with your area together with the lessons and will also obtain the certificate upon the conclusion of a specific training course.

Policymakers throughout all educational levels are wrestling with the cold, hard truth that the original funding of new equipment and software is the tip of the funding iceberg. In the ’80s we called this the “hidden costs.” In the ’90s we were so excited about all the new gadgets that we forgot to worry about anything else. Now, in the new century, we are wondering how we can afford to keep the tools our administrators, teachers, parents and students are finally putting to good use.As the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) states in their Total Cost of Ownership white paper, “While many government and private programs provide the means of obtaining the much-needed technology for schools, there are few provisions for the necessary ongoing support of these technologies. School districts, having installed much of the technologies needed for classroom, administrative and community communications functions, are fast becoming aware of the support problems and need to budget for the ongoing support costs.” These monies are often the last priority of any school entity.With the revolving threat of federal funds elimination for E-Rate and EETT (Enhancing Education Through Technology) funds, districts must find their own reliable and ongoing funding sources, and state and federal leadership would do well to help calculate and take into consideration total cost of ownership. Seeing the big picture is a necessity.General Budget Technology FundingTo compound the funding dilemma, many education leaders have yet to realize that technology is no longer a separate entity. Technology use is an everyday occurrence in every school in every district, at one level or another. Unfortunately, many education policy leaders have not revised their general budgets to support the proven ways technology improves the work and goals of the local education agencies (LEAs). Leaders who consider technology a “black hole” (as one administrator once told me) are burying their heads in the sand and should be made aware or trained.Those who set the general fund budget should be informed of the successes from districts that have recreated education budgeting and work practices. These districts take advantage of technology to increase business efficiency and advance student learning, thus saving money and truly educating students while helping meet No Child Left Behind mandates:
One of the strongest organizations of high performing school districts west of the Mississippi River is the Western States Benchmarking Consortium. These districts constantly score above the norm on tests, have high graduation rates, and have lower dropout rates when compared with similar and dissimilar demographics. All of these school districts were early adopters of technology and have used it to support teachers, students and their business teams.

Assistant Superintendent John Q. Porter of Montgomery County Public Schools, an outstanding school district on the East Coast, stated in the June issue of District Administration magazine, “Our enemy is time, and technology is the only way [to combat that]. Still, there are people who don’t understand the importance of technology because they fear it. One of the first things you realize in technology is that technology is change; those who fail in developing systems don’t understand the dynamic of change.”

Two years ago, Poway Unified School District was going to hire 32 new teachers. The technology department used their data warehousing tool to show district leaders they needed only 25 teachers. The leadership followed their advice instead of following old trends, and their estimation proved correct. The district saved approximately $350,000 in salaries — more than the cost of the data warehouse installation.

Student assessments have changed. Trish Williams and Michael Kirst, in their article “School Practices that Matter” (Leadership Magazine, March/April 2006), state high performing districts must have assessments that align with state standards and have the ability to quickly inform teachers of results. Online assessments give policymakers a choice of how to properly assess students to support learning, with 24 hours or quicker result reporting. This should be a common practice to support the students and meet NCLB mandates.
RELATED STORY: Find More Money for Budget and Technology [http://www.convergemag.com/summary.php?catid=418]All budgets, despite project or department, must be completely reviewed to see how technology can support and make the end product more successful. Additionally, policy leaders must continue to research what new innovations will be appearing in the near future and analyze how these new tools will impact education programs in their local education agencies. All must be in a continual learning mode and work together to envision how we can help put students on a path to continual intellectual growth. Following are some steps to start down the path toward properly utilizing general funds for the support of technology.Funding Where There was NoneStep 1: Evaluate and PrioritizeData-driven decision-making is a fundamental part of this first step. Generally, there are three areas from which data should be gathered: instructional and business demands, the infrastructure to support those demands, and the equipment and software needed to meet those demands.
Instructional and business demands: these demands are driven by district objectives, community expectations, state and federal mandates, funding constraints and labor union guidelines. Expectations are increasingly high for districts to produce students who perform well on standardized tests and exhibit good citizenship. The business side of education exists to support the learning activities that will meet these expectations.

The infrastructure to support those demands: LEAs’ infrastructure consists of multiple components. Every two to three years, structural components should be reviewed. Telephones, data, alarm, networks and general physical condition of buildings must be assessed to understand what repairs and upgrades are needed. Funding is available in many states under deferred maintenance, or in operational and maintenance restricted funds. If a comprehensive plan is developed and followed, districts can ensure this major building block for support of education will be set in place.

Equipment and software to meet those demands: with the first two areas in place, an intelligent decision can be made regarding the purchase of software, computers and other related equipment that will work with the existing infrastructure and meet the district’s instructional and business demands.
Attaining these goals may require more than one year. It is also highly probable that goals will change over time. It is wise, therefore, to create a multi-year plan that is agile and modifiable.Part of supporting technology is providing a maintenance, replacement or obsolescence fund, typically fed from districts’ general funds. Too often a majority of technology dollars are spent simply maintaining the status quo. The challenge is to meet the continual need for growth in the areas of technology for online assessments, home-to-school communication, 24/7 access to learning resources and virtual or distance learning.Step 2: PartnershipsLEAs can benefit from partnerships with local and national businesses in two major ways. First, businesses use general funds to support technology, and business leaders can share funding and maintenance best practices with educational policymakers. Second, business partners can donate equipment or money to support technology innovations in education.True partnerships support all parties involved. Such partnerships can be large or small, because any amount of funding will help. Large corporations often have several different funding sources. IBM, for instance, has the Academic Initiative and an alliance with the Computer Science Teachers Association to provide free software and curriculum planning. Intel offers multiple grant programs, as does Microsoft. Smaller companies, even the mom and pop donut shop, can and will support their neighborhood school.Step 3: Form FoundationsIf a community understands its local districts’ funding constraints, they are often willing to extend financial assistance by creating a foundation. While foundations are helpful overall, they should be avoided for individual school sites, as they generally increase inequities that already exist. Schools in more affluent neighborhoods may have foundations that raise $100,000 or more annually, while schools in less affluent areas may only raise $5,000 or have no foundation, and will obviously be unable to support their student learning projects.Step 4: New Uses for Old TechnologiesThin client (a network computer without a hard disk drive, which is designed to be especially small so that the bulk of the data processing occurs on the server) is one way to use old equipment to run new software, where old computers can become “dumb terminals” and run new applications from the server. This solution requires a sound network foundation and server structure, but can reduce replacement costs and decrease technology support staff needs.Step 5: Give Grants a ChanceWhere are the grants? Too many education decision-makers and leaders, especially at the high school level, do not realize that state and federal grants are much easier to obtain if their free and reduced lunch count is 40 percent or more. It is important for educators to have accurate data and a high percentage in this area for funding sources such as E-Rate, EETT, or other related sources. In addition, ferreting out grant money can augment general funds to support student learning with technology.The Road to Affording Ed Tech General budget funding must be realigned to match the needs of local education agencies. This will help both the learning and business aspects of a school. These funds may initially need supplemental support, but educators must be aware of the benefits of technology. We must intelligently commit funding for the educational growth of all our children.Leasing EquipmentLast year, the Poway Unified School District had to replace approximately 3,000 Windows 95 computers. These computers would not run the Web browser needed for their data reporting tool or the majority of teacher Web pages. The memory and speed of the computers were insufficient to run most of the enterprise-wide educational software available over their wide area network (WAN) and local area networks (LANs).The district had less than $1 million per year available for this project. Leasing was discussed. The amount the district had for support was ongoing, so the question was, could a lease agreement that guaranteed a vendor an ongoing fixed dollar amount for several years also guarantee the district a continuing flow of up-to-date technology equipment?The district obtained a four-year lease with three vendors, with an agreement at the end of four years to rotate the machines out with a new lease agreement. Additional cost savings included the maintenance agreement — vendor responsibility for all repairs during the lease period.Thin ClientDistricts throughout New York and New Jersey have discovered how to use thin client technology to make old computers new again. During the late 1990s, thin client was dismissed as too slow and too expensive to be useful in most school districts. This perception has changed in business, as in education, with greater network speed via WAN and LAN technologies, and tremendous server cost reductions.In a thin client environment, workstations do not store programs but rather receive everything from a system of servers (one server for about 20 workstations). When servers were $20,000 each, this was cost prohibitive. Today, servers that can support thin client cost about $3,500, allowing quick communication with workstations and a cost-saving solution.Total Cost of OwnershipHow can policy leaders find the true cost of supporting equipment? The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and the Gartner Group have an online tool that will assist in the estimation of this cost for various levels of technology.Published in the Fall 2006 issue of Converge [http://www.convergemag.com/story.php?catid=418&storyid=106722]

As a real estate agent, often I am requested to find my clients specific types of homes and home sites for building.  These specifics typically include: Bay front, Lake front, water view, specific number of bedrooms and baths etc.  If you’ve ever purchased a home, then you know exactly what I am referring to…In recent months however, I’ve been increasingly asked to locate homes or home building sites in gated communities around my service area of Bay County: more importantly, the Panama City – Lynn Haven metro area of Florida. I believe we are all well aware of what a gated community is, but if not let’s identify some characteristics of these communities…”A gated community is a type of residential community which offers controlled access and entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, and may feature a closed perimeter of walls and fences.”While gated communities are not a new form of residence, they are often misunderstood. In today’s real estate market there remains a common misunderstanding that gated communities are only for the wealthy and beyond the means of the average home owner. This of course is not entirely true. While there are some upscale communities that cater to a more costly living style, there are also many gated communities that offer similar life styles and amenities for the average home buyer. In my area there are many of these types of communities all offering various amenities and benefits.  From master planned gated lake communities such as Lake Merial or Wild Heron, to master planned gated bay front communities such as Bay Point.Each gated community may offer unique living and investment potential.  For the consumer interested in these types of communities, there may also be additional benefits. When speaking with my customers regarding their desire to own a home in a gated community, an over-riding factor seems prevalent: Gated communities are perceived safer for children and families and offer unique living styles for those that so desire them.  They are also perceived as maintaining their home values and appreciation.While gated communities may not be for everyone, they do offer features many find attractive for their choice of style and quality of living. Features such as private and semi-private marinas, on-site fitness clubs, golf courses and child day care are being required by home buyers more and more in today’s real estate market. These features and amenities tend to be prevalent in many gated communities and fulfill the wants and needs of these types of home buyers.In addition, I’ve recently been made aware of another unique style of gated community which caters to the racing fan!  These communities offer residents race tracks for their amusement.  From oval stock car style tracks to 1/8 mile drag racing tracks as well as motocross racing.  How’s that for a unique recreation and living style!!!A retired couple I am currently working with would like to find an Active Adult 55+ Community.  Both husband and wife workout daily, own a boat and are avid golfers. Naturally, they would like to purchase a home within a gated community, which is either on or very close to the golf course.  The community must offer dock space for their boat and have a club house or community club with an exercise room or fitness center.As I show this couple the available communities, a few items are of particular interest to them:  Some gated communities offer limited or no “through traffic” to the residents, which they value.  The limited trough traffic value is for their grand children whom visit with them several times a year. Homes within gated communities often exhibit a strong pride of ownership.  I’ve yet to find within a gated community a home with an unkempt lawn or debris scattered about the property. In large part this is due to the homeowners’ associations’ rules, or covenants and restrictions which govern many of these communities. Homeowner association rules often include restrictions such as:
No overnight street parking
No boats, campers or RVs allowed in driveways
Houses must be painted only certain colors
Landscaping must be pre-approved by an appointed committee
Additionally, residents of these communities take pride in their community and self-monitor and maintain their properties. To some these rules may seem excessively restrictive, while to others they are a necessity to maintain their style and quality of living. Many of these communities have what I refer to as “spot light homes”.  These homes are the “premier” homes of the community.  Often, they are built for specific owners or for events such as the Panama City Parade of Homes.They will feature the highest quality construction materials and fixtures, and often are the highest priced homes in the community. While many gated communities offer luxury homes, vacation homes, and luxury condos there are also those that offer affordable homes, condos and home sites. These communities may not have the full amenities of the more luxurious communities, but still manage to offer safety, community spirit and modest community pools and club houses.   Many of these practical communities are specifically and conveniently constructed near schools and local recreation venues.SummaryNot all master planned gated communities have uniformed security guards and cameras, but all offer unique living opportunities for those that desire the features and amenities the gate community has to offer.From retirement communities to equestrian communities, from waterfront communities to forested secluded communities, gated communities are sought out by many of today’s home buyer looking for that little something “special” for their investment.  Gated communities work for everyone, not just for the wealthy.