Technology has transformed a host of industries since its creation, specifically education. Yahoo reports that the global EdTech market projects to reach $181.3 billion by 2025, with a 16.1% average growth year-over-year. The numbers used to be much smaller, but the pandemic has called for the rapid adoption of smart classrooms and eLearning solutions, fueling the need for new online teaching-learning models. Enabling distance learning The 2020’s pandemic has led to a global need for distance learning technologies. And luckily, many educational tech tools were already in place—their capacity just needed extra adjusting to accommodate the volume of users. Software like Google Classroom and Adobe Connect aims to emulate the traditional classroom experience, with screen sharing features, virtual whiteboards, and even a chat room...
Films with aliens are rarely about the aliens themselves. These interstellar visitors usually serve as metaphors for human nature, a reflection of our politics, or a means to discuss strange natural phenomena. As Stephen King explained in "Danse Macabre," his non-fiction exploration of the horror genre, the things that frighten or confuse us change shape with each generation. The aliens of the '50s and '60s were Cold War relics that played on social paranoia. The aliens of the '80s reflected conspiracy theories and economic fears. Today, aliens represent ecological or transfigurative themes, embodying our worries about social unrest and the planet's future.Although many movie aliens are created to talk about human problems, the aliens themselves often become memorable, too. The...
A research-based supplemental solution, Imagine Reading helps students in grades 3-8 become strong readers, critical thinkers, and confident communicators. Following a blended learning model, this solution includes teacher-led instruction, online student practice, facilitated classroom discussion, and group projects. It fits flexibly within the existing curriculum, with multidisciplinary content organized into thematic text sets to make complex, grade-level texts meaningful and relevant. The platform helps students develop academic language, beginning with a teacher-led lesson focused on deriving meaning at the sentence level. Students then read independently in the online program, where strategic scaffolding levels them up to rigorous, grade-level standards and texts. Students learn comprehension strategies through the embedded instructional videos and practice annotating texts as preparation for writing. Supported by...
It’s clear even from its earliest moments that having Suda51 back as director for the full continuation of Travis Touchdown’s story is nearly a necessity to make this series work. Perhaps emboldened by the experimentation that came with Travis Strikes Again, No More Heroes III wastes no time drawing you back into its warped perception of reality. Mech suits, retro games, bright colors, and about four classic sci-fi references all show up in the game’s earliest moments; and it all blends well. If the original NMH was Suda feeling comfortable in his own skin, III is a tapestry of tattoos and piercings that may seem disconnected until you look at the full, fleshy canvas. Every “piece” of No...
As I commemorated the second anniversary of my Poppy’s passing in April, and with the coronavirus and its emerging variants still ravaging a planet, I keep thinking about how prescient my dad, Jacob Breitstein, was about the spread of disease — and, even more so, about ways to prevent disease. Poppy was so passionate about the pursuit of health that on his gravestone the phrase “Founder of MIRF” is inscribed. Allow me to explain: My dad, who passed away at age 97 (or 96, it was never quite clear) had, over the course of his lifetime, developed a trove of “health secrets” which he dubbed “MIRF” — as in, “Multiple Infestations Removed Forever.” His biggest idea was, essentially, that “increased...
