Becoming a lusted-after internet heartthrob was never part of Ben Awad’s career plan — but more than 800,000 TikTok followers and 53 million likes later, that’s what happened to the 24-year-old software consultant. “I was not expecting this whatsoever,” he says.
Ben started a TikTok account in September 2020 for “pure tech content,” like explaining coding memes and talking about startup culture, he says. He catered to a very specific audience of other software engineers, and didn’t think his jokes would land with non-programmers.
Things escalated when one of Ben’s TikToks involving a pun about back-ends went viral. These days, his comments are flooded with enamored fans expressing their love, asking him to teach them to code, and even vowing to change their college majors to computer science.
As a self-proclaimed nerd, the thirst is surprising: “I’m literally just talking deadpan about coding; there’s nothing spicy about that,” Ben says. “But that just happened to strike a chord with some people, which is great. I’m glad they enjoyed the content.”
Despite all the attention, coding is still Ben’s true love. When he’s not making content for TikTok and YouTube, Ben is working on a project called Voidpet, a game about mental health that’s “like a Pokemon-esque Neopet,” he says.
Here, Ben shares his advice for finding a language you love, impressing people with your coding skills, and coping with rejection:
Why did you start learning to code?
“The O.G. thing that got me into programming was an AP computer science course I took when I was 16. I was homeschooled, so I was able to pick different classes that I was interested in. My dad was a software engineer, and he was like, ‘Yeah, you should try coding.’ It just clicked right away.
After that, they taught me Java, and right away, I was like, ‘What can I build with Java?’ Printing to the screen, ‘hello world’ is cool, but I want a thing I can actually use. You can build Android apps with Java — at the time, that was the main language, now it’s Kotlin. I started with some really basic stuff, like a to-do list and a shopping list. The best thing I created was a League of Legends tracker, because I was really into that game at the time. After I made those Android apps, I was like, ‘Let’s keep making stuff, because this is fun.’”
What do you love about coding?
“I’m a big fan of problem-solving. I just really enjoy crunching on a problem and thinking, ‘How are we going to actually go through this and get it done?’ I have a very logical brain, and coding is very logical. It’s not like art where it’s very subjective; your code runs or doesn’t. My brain was able to wrap around that really well.
I also like being able to actually make things that I can use. So that’s also why I like web dev programming and app development more than some other parts. It actually feels like I have a superpower that I can just build a thing and now other people can use it.”
Do you have a favorite programming language?
“TypeScript is absolutely my favorite language right now. I can use it pretty much for anything: I can build the front-end of the website, make it look pretty, or I can go to the back-end and build servers and whatnot. I am a big fan of statically-typed languages: When the compiler checks on me, I absolutely love that. I love spell checkers; I need that every time I code.”
“My favorite comments that I see are comments like, ‘I decided to try computer science because of you!’ Some of those are jokes — like, you don’t know how many people are learning for funsies — but at least I know some amount of the comments are people actually giving comp sci a chance because of something they saw, which is just great.”
What advice do you have for a beginner who just started coding?
“The first thing you need to ask yourself is, ‘Am I enjoying these programming basics to some degree?’ It’s okay if you didn’t like some of the things. Try some different programming: try web dev, try making a CLI application, do some data science, Python — try a bunch of different things until you see something you actually like.
Make sure you get started on a project that you’re interested in very early. For me, it was making Android apps. The number one thing people ask is, ‘Ben, what project should I build for my resume?’ What you should do is go ask your friend, or your parents who are not coders, because they have billion-dollar startup ideas that you can code.”
What’s your biggest coding flex?
“I feel like I can do an entire project now. Well, there’s one part I can’t do, and it’s just never going to get there, that’s design. I cannot make things look pretty. If you give me a picture, I can make it look like the picture, but I can’t tell you, ‘Alright, we’re going to line this button up here. And this is going to be this color.’ I can’t do that. I’m terrible at that.
But besides that, if you ask me to build a certain type of website, I can figure out how to orient the database, set up the servers, and build the website or the app. I think my biggest flex is I can do all those parts, which took a lot of learning. But I cannot design — that’s my kryptonite.”
Do you have pointers for going on job interviews in the tech world?
“For the most part, it sucks. What helped me when I was applying for internships was knowing it’s just a numbers game: The more you do, the better you’re going to get. I noticed I was really bad at interviewing at first, but they kind of ask you the same thing over and over. By the tenth interview, I kind of got it down.
Don’t get too hurt if you get rejected, because you might get rejected by companies for reasons that are kind of arbitrary — they didn’t look at your resume or they didn’t pick it up in their automatic keyword picker. It feels really random sometimes, and it just kind of be like that. The thing that’s reassuring is, if you actually put in the effort, you can easily switch jobs in tech and get to the place you want to be.”
If you’re single and swiping on a dating app, it’s romantic to think that fate will lead you to a potential partner — and while that might be true, it’s also a matter of code.
Since OkCupid and Tinder came on the scene in the early 2010s, using dating apps to find a partner has become the norm: Three in 10 U.S. adults say they’ve used a dating app, and 39% of online daters have landed a committed relationship or marriage through an app, according to a 2020 Pew survey. Put another way: There are a lot of dating app users out there. So how do these apps actually work?
At its core, a dating app is just a mobile messaging application that connects users who express mutual interest, according to Ben Stone, a senior curriculum developer at Codecademy. “That’s really the technological innovation that a dating app has: It essentially prevents spam messages from people that you’re not interested in,” he says.
The dating app’s proprietary matching algorithms determine how profiles are presented to users based on a variety of weighted metrics and preferences, like location, common interests, and even photos, Ben says. (In other words, that’s how the “magic” happens.)
Feeling inspired to make your own dating app? You’ll need to know a programming language for mobile apps, like Swift, Java, Kotlin, or React Native, Ben says. If you’re focused on iOS apps, check out our Build iOS Apps with SwiftUI skill path, which gives you the tools you need to build an app and publish it on the App Store.
In addition to a front-end that allows people to navigate the app on their phones, you also need a back-end to store messages and user profiles, Ben says. You can make your own database using PostGreSQL or MongoDB, and then use a server that connects to the database, like Node or Ruby on Rails. There are also existing services that connect the front-end and back-end, like Firebase. Our new course Connecting Front-End to Back-End covers how front-end and back-end technologies interact.
Last but not least, you need a unique idea that will get people to use your app. Today, there are tons of dating apps tailored to specific personalities and niches — from a dating app for cat lovers to ones for the LGBTQ+ community. For some inspiration, here’s how a handful of popular dating apps were developed.
Tinder
Back in 2012, Sean Rad and Justin Mateen won a hackathon with an idea for an app that would revolutionize the way people meet online, matching them based on location and mutual interests with just a swipe of a finger. Now, Tinder is one of the highest-grossing non-gaming apps in the world, with more than 430 million downloads.
Tinder made the swipe gesture a fixture in online dating: Swipe right on someone’s profile if you like them, or swipe left if you’re not interested. If both users swipe right, it’s a match, and you can start chatting. “We always saw Tinder, the interface, as a game,” Rad said in a 2014 interview with Time.
Bumble
Bumble is like Tinder’s woke younger sibling — in fact, it was launched by a Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolf Herd.
Wolf Herd doesn’t come from a computer science background, and has said she’s never written a line of code. But her idea for Bumble was intriguing: Empower women to “make the first move” and start a conversation, defying outdated heteronormative stereotypes about dating. Once there’s a mutual match between users, one person has “first move” privileges. If they don’t start a conversation, the match expires after 24 hours.
OkCupid is kind of the O.G. of dating apps. In 2003, four math majors at Harvard launched the website, and in 2011, OkCupid became the first major dating site to develop a mobile app.
“The tricky part in designing it was figuring out how to take something mysterious, human attraction, and break it into components that a computer can work with,” OkCupid co-founder Christian Rudder said in a TED-Ed Talk. “The first thing we needed to match people up was data, something for the algorithm to work with.”
OkCupid users answer questions — with topics ranging from political views to favorite pizza — that are then compared to other users’ responses to pair prospective matches.
Hinge
Hinge started off as a Facebook Canvas app built within the social network’s frame, that connected people based on their mutual friends.
“Computers are something I really threw myself into as a kid. I love to code,” Hinge founder Justin McLeod told Guy Raz on the podcast How I Built This. “So I decided to build an application that would allow people in the class [at Harvard Business School] to list their friends on Facebook. And if two people matched it would alert them.”
Raya
Often referred to as “Tinder for Celebrities,” you have to apply to join Raya, the exclusive, private dating app that launched on iOS in 2015. The reason for Raya’s strict vetting process is “to foster a community where all members feel comfortable and their privacy is protected,” according to Raya’s terms of service.
The app, which costs $9.99 a month, is intended for high-profile members who only want to mingle with a curated selection of single people. As Raya founder Daniel Gendelman put it in an interview with The New York Times: “I tried to solve a big problem for a small amount of people.”
The rise of remote work over the last couple of years means that there are way more remote coding internships out there. This is great news for people who may not live in areas with a lot of opportunities (not to mention, for the companies themselves who now can tap a more diverse talent pool). And while it might seem like a remote internship would be fairly different from an in-person one, the nuts and bolts are essentially the same: You’ll have a set of responsibilities and tasks with timelines and benchmarks to measure success.
That being said, there are some unique aspects to remote internships that you’ll want to be prepared for, especially if you’re used to in-person collaboration. Here’s what you can expect during a remote coding internship — and how to find one in the first place.
First things first: What will you do during a remote coding internship?
In a word: anything. As an intern, you’ll likely wear several hats. One day you might work on a research project for most of the day and the next you might be pair programming with a teammate. This variety of work is one of the biggest benefits of doing an internship. It exposes you to different types of projects and challenges, and you’ll have the opportunity to work with a lot of different people.
Some tasks you can expect to spend time on during a coding internship are writing code, debugging code, working with front- and back-end design elements, and providing input on user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) features.
If you’re new to coding and nervous about missing out on the experience of learning to code right next to someone who is an expert in a language you want to learn, don’t worry. Eva Sibinga, a Codecademy Data Science Curriculum Developer, says she probably learned more coding during her remote internship than she would’ve if it were in-person.
“I learned so much coding because it was remote,” Eva says. “Instead of standing over somebody’s shoulder watching them code, we were constantly screen-sharing, and that was honestly an amazing way to learn…[Code] is so much easier to read when it’s directly on your screen in front of you.”
And sure, you could get this kind of experience with a great mentor outside of a professional internship. But what makes an internship particularly valuable is how you’re solving real-world business problems, interacting with clients/consumers, working within budgetary constraints, and operating under the stakes of professional deadlines. Not to mention, you’ll get incredibly valuable networking opportunities as you work alongside your teammates. All of these aspects, by the way, are broadly similar between remote and in-person internships.
What does communication look like during a remote internship?
Where things will really differ is in communication. Ideally, you’ll have a set 1/1 meeting with your supervisor — if not, you should feel empowered to ask for one — and you’ll attend a regular team meeting, where you’ll get to learn a lot just by being there and listening in. With remote work, a lot of feedback happens asynchronously, so your supervisor may opt to add comments to a doc or Slack in lieu of talking it out. That said, don’t be afraid to ask for more clarity or context to the feedback — this is your opportunity to learn, and your supervisor is there to help.
Just remember: If you want to take advantage of networking opportunities during a remote internship, you’ll have to be much more proactive about it, since you won’t have opportunities to strike up a conversation as you, say, heat up your lunch in the office kitchen. This could look like attending a Zoom happy hour or asking someone at the company for a 30-minute remote coffee to hear about what they do and how they got there. (Don’t be shy about this! Most people love talking about themselves and will generally be impressed by your initiative.)
Luckily, companies are starting to catch on to this need for more opportunities for connection, and they’re offering regular virtual events for their team. “My company hosted lots of virtual events, like painting classes, cooking classes, and yoga sessions, which helped to maintain the great company culture,” Sylvana Santos, a Codecademy Software Engineer, says about her remote coding internship.
In terms of assignments, you might be more likely to work on a robust independent project instead of a cross-disciplinary team project. You also may find that you’re forced to be more self-reliant during a remote internship than an in-person one, since there’s less hand-holding — which actually may be to your benefit in the end, since self-reliance is an essential career skill. (Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t speak up if you need help or clarification!)
Another bonus? You’ll also be less likely to be asked to run “gopher” tasks since you can’t really get coffee for the team meeting if everyone’s remote.
What should you look for in a great intern company?
“Great people make great internships,” Sylvana says. “It’s important, especially early on in your career, to surround yourself with people who are knowledgeable, cooperative, and considerate.”
When you’re looking for an internship, she says to make sure you ask about how the company has set up systems to help ensure that interns are well supported. For example, do interns get paired with a mentor? Do interns get some sort of roadmap with individual goals? Do they get those aforementioned 1/1 meetings with a supervisor who can give them actionable feedback?
Also remember: Interviews are a two-way street. The hiring team is trying to decide whether you’ll be a good fit for the position, but you’re also trying to figure out if this is where you want to be. So ask your future employer questions and gauge whether the internship is right for you.
Danny Roberts, Senior Technical Recruiter at Codecademy, suggests trying to get an idea of the types of projects you might be working on, even just at a high level. That can help you determine if it’s the kind of work that sounds engaging and provides a path to growth. Plus, if the hiring manager has a decent sense of the work you’ll be doing, that’s a good sign that the company has a program that’s geared towards making sure interns have a positive experience. Also, if you’re hoping the internship will turn into a full-time role, Danny says don’t be afraid to explicitly ask if that’s a possibility.
What about blatant red flags? According to Sylvana, “If the engineer(s) that conduct your technical interview deliberately make you feel incompetent or unsupported, that is probably a good indicator that it’s not the right place for you to start your journey as a developer.”
Build in accountability check-points to get the most out of your remote coding internship
While there are several ways for a company to create a positive environment for a remote internship, there are things you can do to ensure your experience is a good one too. Something we hear often is how challenging the lack of accountability is that can come with remote work. Sylvana noticed this during her internship.
“I was so used to working at a desk where my managers and peers could encourage me and keep me accountable,” she says. “But in the remote world, the temptation of my bed and the lack of people around me made it easier for me to lose focus.”
One way to combat this is with the Pomodoro Technique, a time management system that can help you focus while also making sure you get breaks when you need them. Sylvana used another approach: “I set up frequent pair programming sessions with people and made sure that I communicated my progress to the team.”
Also, look out for burnout!
Interestingly, the complete opposite of the accountability issue can also be a challenge for people, and that’s what Eva experienced.
“Because it was all online, I felt like I had to be available all day, “ she says. ”I didn’t want to walk away from my computer because that was where the entire internship was happening…If it were in a building, I wouldn’t feel any qualms about popping out for 20 minutes to get a coffee in the middle of the day and take a break. But it was harder for me to take breaks in the remote environment.”
If you notice that you’re not getting breaks and feeling totally drained, you should absolutely bring this up with your manager. They can help you brainstorm a solution, like a mandatory 15-minute break every couple of hours.
How much do you get paid as an intern?
The majority of today’s tech internships are “qualified paid internships.” This means that, in the U.S., you’re considered an employee (meeting seven criteria outlined in the Fair Labor Standards Act, FLSA), and you legally have to be paid the federal minimum wage — at the very least. You also have to be paid overtime.
The federal minimum wage is $15/hour. So if your hourly rate is below this, you should bring it up with your manager. You can reference the Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act during your discussion if you need to. Remember: You’re legally entitled to at least $15/hour.
Now the good news is that you’ll likely earn more than the federal minimum wage as an intern in the tech world. For example, the average hourly wage for a U.S.-based coding internship in 2022 is $30.86/hour, according to ZipRecruiter. And a cybersecurity intern makes an average of $30/hour.
On the flip side, not all internships are paid. More often than not, an unpaid internship is tied to a formal education program and the intern receives academic credit for their time. But there are other situations that qualify an internship as unpaid, and if you move forward with an unpaid internship, you can still explore other means of compensation.
While earning her Master’s Degree at CUNY, Eva applied for and got a grant that was open to students in her program who wanted to pursue an unpaid internship. “The grant meant that I didn’t have to worry about my rent all summer,” she says.“It’s a good reminder that applying for a grant feels like a really big thing. But some grants are just a matter of a thousand dollars here or there, or even hundreds that make an internship possible.”
If you’re interested in looking into a grant for an unpaid internship, reach out to the head of your program or check with the career center at your school. You can also explore grants and scholarships outside of the school setting, like ones for the BIPOC community or women in STEM.
How to find a coding internship
Now that you have a good idea of what to expect during a remote coding internship, it’s time to actually find one. There are a ton of online resources to find remote internships, as well as a few other ways to search for them. Here are some to start with:
Company websites
One of the best ways to find a coding internship is to check a company’s website or reach out to them directly and ask if there are any opportunities available. You can start by making a list of the top five to 10 companies you want to intern with and work your way through the list.
AngelList
AngelList is a platform for startups, angel investors, and job-seekers who want to work at startups. One of the benefits of interning at a startup is that you’ll learn a ton in a short amount of time. You’ll roll up your sleeves and help a new and emerging company get off the ground. (Keep in mind that one of the drawbacks of working in an early-stage startup is that there’s often a lack of structure and you’ll likely have less hand-holding.)
Handshake
Handshake connects recruiters with students and recent grads, giving them a chance to work with high-profile, fortune 500 organizations, as well as small businesses.
Built In
If you’re interested in working at a startup or tech company, Built In is a great resource, and they have a whole section dedicated to internships.
Indeed
While Indeed is known for its regular job listings, it also has opportunities for interns. The site features dedicated internship listings that you can search through, and their filtering options can help you match your preferences to an internship.
Glassdoor
Glassdoor is another powerful job search engine, and it lists internships. The site also provides reviews from past and current employees, so you can get an idea of the company culture and day-to-day working environment before applying for an internship.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a great way to connect with industry professionals, recruiters, and company executives. Not only do companies list internships on their accounts, but you can reach out to folks directly and see if they’d be interested in doing an informational interview with you. This is a great way to learn more about their position, company, and internship opportunities.
Don’t forget to think outside the box!
If you’re an undergrad, graduate student, or still in touch with your college professors, don’t hesitate to reach out for any leads on internships. That’s how Eva landed her internship. “I knew that my professor worked for this small data visualization firm in New York City, so I just emailed her and said, ‘Hey! I’m really enjoying this work. Any chance that you or somebody else would want an intern?’” Moral of the story? When in doubt, just send the email.
Landing a great internship is easier if you have a solid foundation in the technical area you’re pursuing. Maybe you took an extensive list of college courses. Maybe you have a really impressive portfolio to show off during the interview process. Even so, you might be looking for new skills to add to your resume or ways to advance your knowledge in a certain area, which is where an online course comes in.
If you’re feeling like you want to brush up on any coding skills, check out some of Codecademy’s most popular courses:
Looking for more? Here’s some extra internship advice from the Codecademy team. Good luck!
I was checking our seasonal printable library recently and noticed that we didn’t post any love-themed printable for a long time! It inspired me to create this ‘veni, vidi, amavi’ printable poster. Featured Latin quote can be translated to ‘I came, I saw, I loved’ what is a really cool text to have hanging on the wall not only for valentine’s day.
Veni, Vidi, Amavi Printable Poster
I like designing posters because I think they are really universal decorations. They are perfect both for a seasonal office accent and the house party knick-knack. This Valentine’s Day poster is easy to print and available in two different sizes – A4 and A5. This way you can use it even as a divider for your planner.
For Personal Use Only.
What types of decorations are your favorites? If you like posters do you prefer them to be minimalistic or would you like us to have some colorful full-print posters from time to time? I would love to hear your thought so make sure to let me know in the comments below.
Looking for something specific?
If you have an idea for a printable, let us know in the comments! We are always looking for inspiration. If you decide to print today’s Veni, Vidi, Amavi Printable Poster, make sure to share photos of your decorated room with us via Instagram or Twitter.
The 2022 Winter Olympic Games kicked off its opening ceremony last Friday night in Beijing. Did you tune in to watch the technicolor spectacle? How closely do you follow the Winter Olympics? What events have you been paying attention to? Which Olympic sports or athletes are your favorites?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more about the opening ceremony.
Want more Picture Prompts? Find them all in this column.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
The word coherent has appeared in 225 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Jan. 29 in “Buy GameStop, Fight Injustice. Just Don’t Sell.” by Tara Siegel Bernard, Emily Flitter and Anupreeta Das:
The Superstonk discourse shows how the gospel of meme stocks has taken hold among a wide range of investors — from those who no longer buy into it, like Mr. Fritz, to others who accept it without question.
“I can’t explain it all,” said Ben Pomeroy, 38, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, and works for a manufacturing company. “I read it, and I was like, ‘OK, that makes sense,’ but if you asked me to explain it I don’t think I could give you a very coherent answer as to why these synthetic shares exist.” He has continued to add to his GameStop position.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word coherent in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how coherent can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
Please note: Our Student Opinion questions specifically invite the voices of young people. We ask that adults respect the intent of this forum and refrain from posting here.
Across the United States, parents, activists and lawmakers are arguing that some books, especially those about sexual and racial identity, do not belong in school libraries.
Have you witnessed these book challenges in your school? What do you think about them?
In Wyoming, a county prosecutor’s office considered charges against library employees for stocking books like “Sex Is a Funny Word” and “This Book Is Gay.”
In Oklahoma, a bill was introduced in the State Senate that would prohibit public school libraries from keeping books on hand that focus on sexual activity, sexual identity or gender identity.
In Tennessee, the McMinn County Board of Education voted to remove the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus” from an eighth-grade module on the Holocaust because of nudity and curse words.
Parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers around the country are challenging books at a pace not seen in decades. The American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received an “unprecedented” 330 reports of book challenges, each of which can include multiple books, last fall.
“It’s a pretty startling phenomenon here in the United States to see book bans back in style, to see efforts to press criminal charges against school librarians,” said Suzanne Nossel, the chief executive of the free-speech organization PEN America, even if efforts to press charges have so far failed.
Such challenges have long been a staple of school board meetings, but it isn’t just their frequency that has changed, according to educators, librarians and free-speech advocates — it is also the tactics behind them and the venues where they play out. Conservative groups in particular, fueled by social media, are now pushing the challenges into statehouses, law enforcement and political races.
“The politicalization of the topic is what’s different than what I’ve seen in the past,” said Britten Follett, the chief executive of content at Follett School Solutions, one of the country’s largest providers of books to K-12 schools. “It’s being driven by legislation, it’s being driven by politicians aligning with one side or the other. And in the end, the librarian, teacher or educator is getting caught in the middle.”
Among the most frequent targets are books about race, gender and sexuality, like George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” and Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.”
The article continues with a student’s perspective on a ban in his school:
Jack Petocz, a 17-year-old student at Flagler Palm Coast High School who organized the protest against the book ban, said that removing books about L.G.B.T.Q. characters and books about racism was discriminatory, and harmful to students who may already feel that they are in the minority and that their experiences are rarely represented in literature.
“As a gay student myself, those books are so critical for youth, for feeling there are resources for them,” he said, noting that books that portray heterosexual romances are rarely challenged. “I felt it was very discriminatory.”
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
What do you think about efforts across the nation to remove books — especially ones that address race, gender and sexuality — from school libraries?
How do you think these bans affect students, teachers and librarians?
In your opinion, what makes a book “appropriate” or “inappropriate” for inclusion in a school library? If you were a school librarian, what criteria would you use to determine whether a certain book should be included in the library?
What’s the best way to address parents’ concerns that a book in a school library is inappropriate for their child? Should the library remove the book? Should a library have a policy in place to stop individual students from checking out a book if their parents disapprove of it? Or are there better solutions that don’t involve changing what books are available in a library?
Jack Petocz, a student who protested a book ban in his school, argued that removing books about racism and L.G.B.T.Q. issues was discriminatory. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Do you think the books in your school library represent a diverse range of perspectives and experiences? What subjects are adequately covered? What kinds of books would you like to see more of?
Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
3. How does Webb compare with the Hubble Space Telescope? How was it designed to probe a crucial stretch of early cosmic history, known to astronomers as the dark ages? What role will infrared light play?
4. What is your reaction to the article? What did you find most fascinating, surprising or significant? Do you think the Webb telescope is worth 25 years of development and the cost of $10 billion? Does learning about its launch and mission make you more interested in space?
5. Make a prediction (or two): What do you think the Webb telescope will find? Do you think it will find evidence of life on other planets? The origin of black holes? The secrets to the birth of the Milky Way and the cosmos? Be bold — make some $10 billion predictions!
Going Further
Option 1: What questions do you have about the universe?
How are stars formed? How do they die? Do galaxies ever collide? Is the universe finite or infinite, and what would either mean? What is dark matter? Is it as sinister as it sounds? Are there multiple universes, like ones we’ve seen in “Spider-Man: Far From Home”? What questions do you still have about the universe? What else do you want to know?
You might begin by looking at The Times’s Space and Astronomy topic page or one of the stories below about the Milky Way and beyond: Then, write or discuss with a partner: What is your reaction to the article? How did it add to or change your understanding of the beauty and mystery of the universe? What was the most fascinating, provocative or memorable thing you learned? What questions do you still have about our cosmos?
If you have more time …
Want an additional challenge? Use your question and research as the basis for an entry to our Third Annual STEM Writing Contest, in which we challenge students to choose an issue or question in science, technology, engineering, math or health and write an engaging 500-word explanation of it. The contest runs from Feb. 2 to March 9.
Option 2: Why does the James Webb Space Telescope matter to the world — and you?
There was no military or economic advantage in devoting 25 years and $10 billion of national treasure to build a telescope, of all things, devoted not to looking down at our enemies, but out across time and space, trying to decipher the nature and condition of our origins. We all share the quest even if we all don’t get the time and chance to obsess about it.
And later:
We stagger upward under the weight of our knowledge of our own mortality. In the face of the ultimate abyss that is destiny, we can find honor and dignity in the fact that we played the cosmic game to win, trying to know and feel as much as we can in the brief centuries allotted to us.
Read the entire essay. Then, respond to the following questions in writing or through discussion with a partner: Do you agree with Mr. Overbye that “We all share the quest”? How important to you is it to search for answers about the nature and conditions of our origins? Does it matter if there is no military or economic advantage to be gained through the Webb telescope’s mission? In your opinion, what will humanity gain if we are able to answer many of our long-awaited questions about the universe?
Anthony Tattersall is vice president of the EMEA sales team at Coursera. His role gives him unique insights on how businesses, governments, and higher education can work together to build our future workforce and how data can be used to support this effort. The Emerge Education team interviewed Tattersall for a joint report with Coursera on “Developing Skills and Evaluating Pathways Into Jobs: A Vision for 2030.” Here is what Tattersall had to say:
What trends are you seeing around skills from your users?
The core things that drive an organization’s capabilities are the skills people have and their ability to exploit technology. Where businesses are really switched on to this, they’re focused on understanding skill requirements for roles right now and in the immediate future, and finding the best way to address that gap. The challenges are how to make learning happen within their flow of work, and how to use reskilling to create roles internally where hiring is not easy, such as tech, data science, cybersecurity, and so on.
In our work with governments, we see lots of countries struggling with graduate unemployment, partly related to the pandemic and partly because businesses want to hire people who already have the skills they need. There are many countries with large numbers of people based in industries at high risk of being automated out, and these are often lower-paid jobs — if those individuals aren’t given access to learning opportunities to develop new skill sets, there simply won’t be enough jobs to serve those people.
For universities, it’s not just about getting someone that first job after graduating, it’s also about all the moments of career transition that people will experience over their lifetimes. Most people entering the workforce now will go through four or five major career shifts involving significant upskilling, and universities have an increasingly important role to play. But they are also experiencing challenges — there is a big focus on employability outcomes, and workplace skills are a fast-moving target, so learning content ages quickly. And how do you work with a higher expectation of blended learning programs?
What is Coursera’s approach to skills development?
At our core we’re a skills transformation platform, so we’re trying to enable people to learn anywhere in the world, at a time of their choosing, with access to the very best content from major universities and industry partners. The goal is to use applied learning to improve skills, whether upskilling (improving current skills in your area of expertise), reskilling (getting you into a completely new area of expertise), or deep skilling (to really develop a level of mastery).
The second thing we do is work with organizations to define the skill sets required for each role, and at what level of capability. Then we can take individuals, look at where they are, and help them understand their skills gaps so they can develop. All of our content is assessed, in some cases multiple times as you’re progressing through it, so individuals can see how well they’re progressing towards those skills goals and so organizations can build a landscape of their skills, at specific levels of mastery.
How does Coursera use data to improve outcomes for learners and organizations?
We have 87 million learners on the platform globally, across all age ranges, personalities, demographics; some people in work, some people out of work, and so on. The size of that dataset makes it very robust. We can see what skills people are working on and what jobs they’re doing to understand the underlying skill sets for those roles, and we can also see what their career trajectory is over time, so we understand how those skill sets lead to role changes. Feedback loops ensure all those data aggregation insights resonate with individuals actually taking our courses, who can reflect on the skills they think they are learning.
All this has helped us build a detailed skills taxonomy, with tens of thousands of skills, which we can correlate with third-party data sources, such as the World Economic Forum, to map at a very granular level what we think future skills requirements will be.
We also have a team of skills transformation consultants who work with businesses, governments, and institutions to build programs specific to their goals. Around 10% of the organizations we work with are big enough to invest in this, so if they already know exactly what they want to achieve, we can map our catalog to those specific skills development needs. But the vast majority recognize that the world of skills is rapidly changing and they don’t have a clear view of exactly what needs to be done over the next 2-3 years, on a per role basis, so they come to us for that guidance.
What should skills development look like in 2030 to create alternative pathways into jobs?
Someone once said to me that we overestimate the level of change we’ll see in 5 years and underestimate the change we’ll see in 10. Ten years is long enough for something no one saw coming to totally disrupt the marketplace. Education is one of the last bastions that hasn’t been disrupted and while the pandemic has accelerated change, I still think we’re at the very, very early stages.
I would love to see the education system become a lifelong learning partner, rather than a discrete point in time at the earliest stage of your career. That will involve more partnerships between governments, businesses, and education organizations — and I think the focus for universities then becomes more about accrediting programs, contextualizing to local needs, and curating a range of content that creates opportunities for people to develop skills they need. I hope we’ll see more democratization of access and ways to evaluate people’s capabilities beyond a degree: more professional certifications, more corporate universities, and more professional organizations offering alternative learning paths.
And I hope that by 2030 it’s a normal expectation that whatever your job, a percentage of your time is dedicated to learning, so managers are empowered to support it and all company processes are wrapped around that.
