I work now for 1 ˝ years at the European College of Business and Management (ECBM) , and I realised that some of the problems our students have with their computers are recurring.
Therefore I believe it is a good idea to write down a few of these problems, and how to solve them (usually they are very easy to solve once you know the problem).
Today I want to start with the situation if a student cannot connect his laptop to our network (and therefore cannot use the internet e.g.).
As most of our students are using Microsoft Windows on their laptops, this article is written under the assumption that you are using some version of Microsoft Windows. There can be other reasons under MacOS or Linux, but we will not answer them today. More...
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Usually there are only three reasons why you cannot connect to our Wi-Fi network:
Reason 1: The Wi-Fi adapter on your laptop is not switched on
This might sound silly, but very often this is already the solution.
Some laptops e.g. have a small switch on the front or at the side where you can switch it on or off. Or you can use a shortcut on your keyboard where you can do the same (usually you have to use the Function (Fn) key to do that.
So, if you have problems connecting to our network, check if your Wi-Fi adapter is really switched on.
This is often the case when Microsoft Windows cannot find any network at all.
Reason 2: You are using a static IP address
We are using a DHCP server in our network, which means that every computer is assigned an IP address automatically. If you are using a static IP address, instead of letting our network assign you one, you will not be able to access the internet.
To solve this problem you have to follow this step-by-step instruction:
1) Go to Start and click on Control Panel.
2) Control Panel window will appear. Double click on Network Connections.
3) Network Connections window will appear. Right click correct Local Area Connection by identifying correct network card and click Properties.
4) Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Click on Properties.
5) Select Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically.
6) Click OK.
Reason 3: Your web browser is using a Proxy server
This is very often the case if you are using your company’s laptop e.g.
In order to be able to access the internet at the ECBM you have to disable this setting in your web browser.
I will show you how to do this for the three most common web browsers:
Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome (the instructions might be similar for other browsers like Opera, Safari, Konqueror ...)
Internet Explorer
1) Go to Tools/Internet Options and choose the Connection Tab
2) Now click on LAN settings
3) Here you have to make that under Proxy server the option Use a proxy server for your LAN is not ticked. If yes, please un-tick it.
4) Click OK.
Mozilla Firefox
1) Go to Tools/Options and choose the Advanced Tab
2) On the Network Tab, under Connection, click on Settings
3) Here you have to make sure that the Option No proxy is selected
4) Click OK
Google Chrome
1) In Google Chrome you have to click on the blue wrench symbol in the right corner, and then choose Options
2) Choose the Details Tab and in Network click on Change Proxy settings
3) This will open the settings for Internet Explorer
4) Now click on LAN settings
5) Here you have to make that under Proxy server the option Use a proxy server for your LAN is not ticked. If yes, please un-tick it
6) Click OK
There might be other reasons, of course, why you cannot connect to our network (or the internet), but as I said before, these are the three most common ones I have experienced since I am here.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to leave a comment. I am always happy to help.
Posted By: Martina, Mar 09, 2010 05:51PMAdd Comment
Dear Patrick,
thank you for your nice and helpful blog-entry.
However, there is something I like to put into this virtual suggestions-box: what about some WLAN-amplifiers as some students are not able to get a signal everywhere in the building.
The Certificate in Management Studies group based in London were taught over the last weekend, the topic of the weekend’s teaching was ‘leadership’. Seventeen students took part, and these students are all aiming to continue onto the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Business and Management programme in the next academic year. The CMS is a perfect, flexible, way to start BA studies for Kaufleute who have Abitur and wish to climb the career ladder without joining university full-time. The students will be working hard on their coursework and we wish them all the best for their studies and future career.
This category contains valuable information about what is going on in London. Here you find which festivals are on at the moment, interesting exhibitions or other special events from the Chinese New Year celebrations to the Southbank Festival of Modern Brazil.
And equally interesting is what you can find in the “People and Places” category, where you get sub categories of Nature and Outdoors, History, Religion and Ethics, Arts and Culture and some others. In the Religion and Ethics category you can read about the Open Jewish Culture Festival or about London’s first state-funded Hindu school.
For six weeks I have been able to work at the ECBM in London and it was a great experience. My name is Dennis Wilken, I am 20 years old and actually from Germany and in the 2nd year of training for my apprenticeship at the Deutsche Telekom AG as an IT Technician.
At the end of the last year I had the opportunity to come to London and gain experience in working in a foreign country.
But I also took the chance to get to know London and its cultural site. During my stay at the ECBM, I was working as the Assistant of the IT-Coordinator. Setting up Laptops for the teachers or supporting the staff members was my main task here at the ECBM. But there were also several small projects, which made the work varied.
Fortunately, it was easy for me to work together with the staff members because everyone is very friendly and helpful.
And this of course makes u feel better during the whole abidance in London.
After work and at the weekend I spent most of my free time to get to know London and see most of the cultural highlights, for example London Eye, Big Ben, Tower Bridge or the scary London Bridge experience, just to mention a few.
Taking everything into consideration it was more than a good experience to come here. My host family was very friendly, exploring London and mingling with people was cool and working at the ECBM made a lot of fun and was very profitable for my own development.
The ARD correspondent, Annette Dittert, has a very charming way of explaining some of the British peculiarities from a German perspective.
I especially like the attention that is given to hidden, non-touristy areas in London which are definitely worthwhile a visit, like Broadway market or the Regent’s Canal. It is also very educational. I did not know anything about the Queen’s speech tradition for example, nor about the debutantes’ ball.
Although I have heard about fox hunting and war simulation camps, the London Calling video provides a deeper insight.
Some of our readers might know the British TV comedy series “The IT Crowd” which was shown on Channel 4 until recently (If you haven’t watched it yet, you can still do it online on the Channel 4 website).
It is about two IT guys, Roy and Moss, who work in the IT department of a fictional British corporation in central London dealing with their colleagues daily computer problems.
One of the reasons, why I personally like the series so much is because many situations can be directly related to real work situations in an IT department.
Two of Roy’s popular quotes are “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” and “Are you sure it is plugged in?”
And really, when working in the IT department of the European College of Business and Management the two sentences you probably use most are “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” and “Are you sure it is plugged in?”
Why is that? Well, because in most cases these two suggestions are the only ones which help.
Microsoft Outlook doesn’t send emails anymore? Well, have you tried turning it off and on again? And, oh wonder, it’s working again!
You can’t type anything with your keyboard anymore? Are you sure it’s plugged in? And if this doesn’t help, have you tried turning it off and on again?
Sometimes you ask yourself, what you did your apprenticeship for, if you can solve 80% of your IT problems with just two sentences. And I know that using these two sentences starts annoying my colleagues, but what can you do about it? If it works, it works.
Richard Bills has just been to Munich to meet students and discuss future plans with partners. The college is building its links up for next year in both Munich and Berlin, so there will be more to report soon we hope.
Timetabling is in the draft stage and we hope to have the published versions ready for April. We are already preparing for another very good academic year in 2010-11, but there are still places available on both our DMS/MBA and CMS/Bachelor programmes for this spring.
Contact Anna Schak (aschak(at)eurocollege.org.uk) or Juliana Schnell (jschnell(at)eurocollege.org.uk) at the College for further details.
The Learning Pyramid illustrates how much of the teaching content is retained by the students on average for each of the different teaching methodologies. Although the percentages should not be regarded as exact, I very much like this model as it ranks the different teaching strategies. Based on my personal experience, both as a student and as a lecturer, I regard this as a realistic hierarchy.
The old style traditional way of the teacher just lecturing and the students just listening results in the students remembering just 5% of what has been taught on average. If you believe in that, then it is a lot of work and effort for the teacher to fill his or her whole lecture with input and it is not even beneficial for the students who on average retain only very little from what has been said. Additionally students might come out of the lecture saying that it was really boring.
It is therefore a lose – lose situation. In my previous studies, before coming to ECBM, I experienced this learning style and it really is very inefficient. Some of my course mates preferred not to come to the lecture and read it up at home.
Supporting the lecture with reading materials and audio visuals brings the average retention rate up, but 20% is still not satisfactory.
You can see that the further down you go in the pyramid, the more the student’s get involved and the less is done by the teacher. If the teacher applies theory to practice (demonstration), 30% are retained on average. If the students do it themselves (practice by doing), the learning impact is more than doubled.
If the teacher manages to involve the students in a group discussion, the learning impact is five times as much as if he or she is just lecturing with no interaction.
And the most efficient of all teaching methodologies is have students explain to each others. Here the success rate is a 90%.
You can see that for that to happen the teacher has to take a step back and rather than taking on the main role as a lecturer, becomes the facilitator who enhances students to get involved and if possible take over the lecture. When preparing a lesson the teacher should therefore not answer the question, what he or she are going to do in this lesson, but what the students are going to do. This philosophy is also referred to as student centred learning. It is a very satisfying experience for students and lecturers.
In a typical lesson at ECBM this is what happens. At ECBM we try to foster group discussion, group work, short presentations during the lesson and the application of theory to practice.
There is a lot of interaction between students and teachers. Feedback from students is predominantly positive and for the teacher these methodologies facilitate to see that teaching has taken place. A real win-win situation!
What type of skills do you need to have a chance in today’s competitive working environment? If you just graduated from university you might find it difficult to find a job because of your lack of practical working experience, while if instead of having gone to university you started working straight away you lack the relevant academic qualifications for certain higher level jobs or careers.
In my opinion, a healthy balance of practical skills and academic skills is the golden formula for success.
ECBM students who are following one of our Business and Management Programmes are often working full time while attending our courses on weekends or sometimes on weekdays. More...
... Of course studies are not only happening in the classroom, a lot of preparation is required before the lessons starts, assignments need to be handed in on a regular basis, oral presentations and exams need to be prepared and so on. All this while working full time can be extremely busy at times. It is possible to tackle such a programme, as you can see from the great number of ECBM’s successful students. However, it requires discipline, organisation, time management, flexibility, adaptability, independence and many other soft skills.
These are exactly the skills I would want my employees to have. It depends on the job and on the employer of course, but in general as an ECBM graduate, you have a high market value!
While our programme is very practically orientated, you still achieve an academic qualification, such as for example the Bachelor qualification. Often you are required to refer to your organisations when writing assignments or you are given a case study to work with. So where is the academic part?
The academic requirements are linked to research and to business and economic theory which need to be applied to practical case studies. Furthermore you are encouraged (and on the Bachelor and MBA programme required) to reflect on your learning. For the Business Planning module for example, it is not sufficient to provide a practical business plan without making reference to relevant theory and appropriate research and reflection.
So if it is about preparing students for the real world why is the academic part so important?
Academic skills are all about you becoming more effective researchers, learners and practitioners. Encouraging a questioning attitude, developing an analytical and theoretical understanding and equipping you with research skills will enable you to cope in a rapidly changing business environment.
Through the practice of applying business-specific theoretical concepts of research, analysis, decision-making and evaluation to multifaceted business case studies, you learn to use relevant communication, planning, control and management techniques
Furthermore, ECBM prepares graduates for both a career in Business and Management or related areas and future research studies.
read this article on Wikipedia
