fbpx
Home Blog Page 1055

What Really Motivates Technical Teams

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
What Really Motivates Technical Teams
What REALLY Motivates Technical Teams

What’s the difference between a leader and a manager?

It’s simple. Managers manage, and leaders inspire — and when you want to get the most from your team, you’ll need to do both. But how?

Keeping people motivated and inspired is tricky. Different teams require different approaches, and you’ll need to connect with each of your team members to figure out what really gets them going.

Still, there are a few general best practices that you can apply to get the ball rolling.

Technical training and growth opportunities

Research shows that training and development opportunities really pay off with technical teams — providing them boosts in motivation, engagement, and even retention. It makes sense. New tools and updates come out every day, and developers need continuing education to keep their skills sharp and progress in their careers.

Not sure how to make this a reality? Consider investing in resources like Codecademy Teams that’ll let your team dive deep into their preferred programming languages and libraries and their various functions. There’s also Teams+, which enables easy training management by allowing you to customize your team’s curriculum and assign content to individuals and groups to ensure they’re learning the right skills.

But there’s more to professional development than technical training. Soft skills like leadership, presentation, and effective communication are just as essential.

Try encouraging your team to find opportunities to practice their soft skills. Internally, this could look like lightning talks or brown bags. Externally, the programming community is always rife with opportunities to share new knowledge.

Professional events and conferences are a great way to hone soft skills, and contributing to one will also help the people on your team develop their personal brands. Plus, if your company offers stipends for professional development, they can be used to cover the cost of attendance.

Purpose and recognition

Another way to get your team excited about what they’re doing is to make sure they understand the purpose.

The first step? Be transparent. How well does your team understand your decision-making process? When communicating objectives, are you explaining the logic behind them or just disseminating information from the top down?

Then, try connecting each of your team members’ work to real, positive outcomes. Show them that they’re making a difference and that their work has value beyond profits and revenue.

On that note, you’ll also want to make sure they feel appropriately challenged with their day-to-day work. As your team progresses through their technical training, give them new and exciting projects that put their skills to good use. Repetitive tasks can be tedious, and people might explore other options if they feel undervalued or underutilized.

Even so, that doesn’t mean you should drop all of your most challenging projects in one person’s lap. Balance people’s workloads so they’re easy enough to grasp but challenging enough to put their skills to the test. Bonus points if you include enough time for passion projects — more on that below.

Public recognition also goes a long way toward keeping teams motivated. If you haven’t already, consider adding an extra 10 minutes to your weekly meetings to shout out individual and team accomplishments. Not only will this help them feel appreciated, but it might also inspire their teammates. Who doesn’t want a pat on the back for a job well done?

Autonomy and creativity

Studies show that autonomy can be quite the motivating factor. Giving your team a little ownership over their work can lead to improvements in everything from performance to job satisfaction. But what does autonomy actually look like?

In truth, it takes many forms. Remote and hybrid work have skyrocketed over the past two years, and giving your team the option to work from home can help boost engagement and productivity.

You can also try giving your team a little freedom. Showcase your trust in their capabilities and judgment.

On a small level, this might involve allowing them to take on any interesting tasks in the backlog between bigger projects. On a larger scale, you could give them more flexibility in their work. Instead of delegating each step of every project, try explaining its objectives and criteria and see what they come up with. Not only will this help give them more ownership over their work, but it’ll also give them the chance to innovate and be creative.

Creativity is another key to keeping your team motivated. People aren’t machines. Give them a little room to play.

This could include ensuring everyone has enough time for passion projects — projects that, while less essential for organizational objectives, are fun and exciting for your team. Or, you could even host a hackathon.

Fostering creativity in the workplace is an excellent motivator, and studies show that it can improve your team’s problem-solving ability and collaboration skills.

These tips will come in handy the next time you’re trying to find a way to inspire your team, but as we said earlier, different approaches work for different people. If you really want to light a fire under your team, connect with each member and identify their motivations, goals, and interests. You’ll have enough information to develop a more cohesive approach afterward, but just having the conversation is a great first step.

For Business Courses & Tutorials | Codecademy

From software development to data analysis—give your team the latest technical skills to tackle any business problem.

Other Selves

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
Other Selves

Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this illustration — or, tell us about a memory from your own life that this image makes you think of.

Post it in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.

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.

Word of the Day: jostle

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
Word of the Day: jostle

verb: make one’s way by pushing or shoving

verb: come into rough contact with while moving

noun: the act of jostling (forcing your way by pushing)

_________

The word jostle has appeared in 28 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Feb. 23 in “The Pandemic Has Diminished Part of Athletes’ Jobs: Signing Autographs” by Gerald Narciso:

The pandemic has disrupted almost every aspect of sports culture, including fan attendance at games. Even where there are reduced-capacity crowds, buffers between spectators and players have largely prevented interactions, including one of professional athletes’ traditional responsibilities: giving autographs.

… In many stadiums and arenas worldwide, massive tarps now cover areas above the tunnels where athletes pass in and out of playing areas and where zealous fans with pens and sports memorabilia typically jostle for position around the railings.

Can you correctly use the word jostle 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 jostle can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try one of our monthly vocabulary challenges.

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.

When Have You Made the Best of a Difficult Situation?

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
When Have You Made the Best of a Difficult Situation?

Late last month, a snowstorm stranded guests, employees and an Oasis tribute band at a pub in Yorkshire, England. They were stuck in the pub, which is also an inn, for three days until the roads were cleared and it was safe for them to leave.

Though they were in a warm place with plenty of food, they couldn’t even go outside, as the exterior doors had up to three feet of snow piled against them. What do you think it was like to spend days in a building, unable to leave?

Has anything like that ever happened to you? In unusual circumstances, have you tried to make the best of things? How hard was that to do?

In “Snowstorm Leaves Dozens Stranded for Days in a Remote U.K. Pub,” Alyssa Lukpat tells the story, which begins:

Up on a hill in Yorkshire, England, a crowd filled a pub on Friday to listen to an Oasis tribute band. Inside the pub, the Tan Hill Inn, the beers were cold, the fires were warming and the musicians were electric.

But outside, the winds were howling and the snow was swirling. The pub patrons knew the forecast was dire, but not so much that piles of snow as high as three feet would block the pub’s exits, said Nicola Townsend, the inn’s general manager.

After the tribute band, Noasis, finished its set, the local authorities said it was not safe to drive home, Ms. Townsend said on Sunday night.

So the patrons, the band members and seven inn employees stayed the night.

And then another.

And on Sunday night, they stayed another.

The article goes on to give more details about the experience:

Guests were emotional as they said their goodbyes on Monday, she said, “because we’ve had such a good time meeting new friends, getting to know new people.”

To pass the time, they took pub quizzes, watched movies like “Grease” and “Mamma Mia!” and sang karaoke, she said on Sunday.

“Lots of Oasis at the moment,” she said, adding that the pub-goers have started calling the tribute band “Snowasis.”

Band members had to cancel a performance on Saturday night because they were snowed in. “We have no way of making it to our gig,” the band said on Facebook.

Those at the pub enjoyed a few beers, but no one was “getting loud and drunk,” Ms. Townsend said, because they wanted to be “respectful of each other.”

Some of those who were stranded already had rooms at the inn, while others had parked their motor homes outside. The rest crammed into the lounge, where they slept on sofas or on the floor. Employees supplied them with mattresses, blankets and pillows, and kept the fireplaces roaring.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

  • What surprises you most about the story of the people stranded at the pub? Why?

  • Have you ever faced something unexpected, inconvenient or perhaps even unpleasant (after all, most people stranded at the inn didn’t have their own rooms or even a change of clothes) and tried to make the best of the situation? How did you handle the experience? Did you learn anything about yourself, other people or even life itself?

  • How important do you think attitude is in an experience like this? How would you describe the attitude of the people who were stranded? How might things have ended differently if they had shown a different attitude?

  • The article notes that the people who were stranded came together, with the guests helping wash dishes and collecting money for the employees. Have you ever been in a difficult situation that brought people together? Conversely, have you been in one where people did not take care of, or even turned on, one another? What was that experience like? How did it affect the outcome of the situation?

  • Just for fun, make a list of places you wouldn’t mind being stranded. If you had to choose one, which would it be? What do you think it would be like to be stuck there? If you could choose a few people to be stranded with, who would they be? Why did you choose them?

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.

Weekly Accessible Learning Activities: Chance Encounters, Quitting and a Shower Bus

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
Weekly Accessible Learning Activities: Chance Encounters, Quitting and a Shower Bus

Each Wednesday we shine a spotlight on five student activities that support a broad range of learners. In this week’s roundup of accessible activities, we invite students to learn about how a shower bus helps those without access, share about a chance encounter, reflect on when it’s good to quit, look closely at an intriguing photograph and write a story based on an illustration of a park bench.

Note: To learn more about this new weekly feature, read our introductory post. Please share your thoughts in the comments section or by emailing us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.

1. Learn about a community-supported shower bus.

In this Lesson of the Day, students learn about a shuttle bus that has been converted into a shower bus to serve people who do not have consistent access to showering. Then, they use a photograph to reflect on how people in their community support each other.

2. Reflect on a chance encounter.

Our Student Opinion prompt asks students respond to the question: Have you ever had a memorable encounter in your city or community? Inspired by a Metropolitan Diary about an exchange with a stranger, students will share a story of a surprising, inspiring or delightful meeting with a stranger in their community. They can share their stories with their classmates, or in the comments section of the prompt.

3. Watch a film about quitting.

Can quitting ever be a good thing? Should perseverance be a choice versus a default? These are some of the questions explored in the film featured in our Film Club. After watching the five-minute Opinion video, students will respond to the questions: Is quitting a sign of weakness or strength? When, if ever, is it good to quit?

4. Try to figure out what is happening in a photograph.

In this week’s What’s Going On In This Picture, students will look closely at a black and white photograph and make observations. As they study the image, they can read what other students have noticed in the comments section, and share what they think is happening in the photograph.

5. Tell a story based on an image.

In this Picture Prompt, students will look at the image and then tell a story, real or made up, about what they think is happening. After using their imagination to come up with a story, they can share their writing — and read the writing of other students — in the comments section.

Lesson of the Day: ‘Training for Double Dutch at the Apollo’

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
Lesson of the Day: ‘Training for Double Dutch at the Apollo’

Featured Article: “Training for Double Dutch at the Apollo” by James Thomas

For young people in New York City who participate in competitive double Dutch — a rope-jumping sport — the annual Double Dutch Holiday Classic at the Apollo Theater is an important event. Double Dutch is played with a pair of jump ropes that are turned by two people as at least one jumper seamlessly slips in between the ropes to bounce in perfect time.

In this lesson, you will learn about two teams preparing for the Double Dutch Holiday Classic. Then, you will think about a game that you love to play and share about it in a creative project.

Have you ever done double Dutch before? Or have you ever watched people playing double Dutch, either for fun or in a competition?

To learn more about the sport, watch this three-minute video from TED about the history of the jumping rope and its evolution to present-day double Dutch.

Then answer the following questions:

Here are seven words that might be new or unfamiliar to you. Take a look at this list: What words do you know the meanings of? What words are new?

1. whirling
2. irresistible
3. percussion
4. drills
5. average
6. shift
7. represents
8. eke out

To learn and practice the meanings of each word, use this list on Vocabulary.com.

Read the article, or print out the PDF. Then answer the following questions:

1. Why do you think the Stan’s Pepper Steppers team was practicing one-leg drills? How might this help them in a competition?

2. On average, how many jumps do jumpers do in two minutes? What is your reaction to this fact? Do you think you could keep up?

3. According to Lauren Walker, president of the National Double Dutch League, what is significant about the competition taking place at the Apollo Theater?

4. Stanley Brown, head coach of the Pepper Steppers, said that there is competition, but that everyone is still family. Do you have this kind of relationship with other teams in a sport you play?

5. Why did Kimberly Prince-Sylla help start the Jump4Jerry team?

6. What did you notice about the sport when watching the videos in the article?

What is a sport or game that you love playing with friends or family members? It could be something competitive or just for fun. For example, it might be a school team sport like soccer, basketball or football, or a playground game like hand-clapping, kickball or four square.

Once you’ve selected a game, respond to the following questions:

  • Why is the game important to you?

  • When did you first learn how to play it?

  • Whom do you normally play with?

  • How do you play?

Then, choose a creative project to share the answer to one ore more of those questions. Here are a few ideas:

  • Write a poem in honor of the game.

  • Create a short video, like those featured in the article, that shows what the game or sport looks like and whom you play with.

  • Make a “How to Play __” poster with instructions and visuals to teach someone how to play the game.

Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.

What is a DDoS Attack?

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
What is a DDoS Attack?
What is a DDoS attack?

Hackers use many methods to infiltrate systems, steal data, and create general havoc with devices and networks connected to the Internet. Below, we’ll look at one of the most common disruptive weapons in a cyber attacker’s arsenal — the DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attack.

Attackers don’t even have to get access to a system in order to disrupt services or even take the whole thing down when they use a DDoS attack. So, what’s a DDoS attack, and how does it work?

How does a DDoS attack work?

A DDoS attack is the big brother of a DoS (Denial-of-Service) attack. In a standard DoS attack, the attacker attempts to make a machine or network unavailable to its regular users by disrupting services connected to the internet. This is done by overwhelming these services with fake packets, connection requests, and incoming messages.

This is done from only one machine, and in today’s digital landscape, where cloud services can scale dynamically to handle changes in load, standard DoS attacks aren’t as effective as they once were. Also, a cyberattack coming from one IP address can be blocked easily.

So, hackers have evolved to start using botnets. Essentially, this involves gaining control of remote computers by using phishing schemes and other tactics to get users to download and install malicious software on their computers.

These computers then become “zombie computers,” which hackers can control from anywhere in the world. Sometimes they don’t even have to use phishing — they can just exploit known vulnerabilities in a system to gain access.

This brings us to DDoS attacks. In DDoS attacks, hackers use networks of machines from locations around the globe to launch the same type of attack. The resulting disruption is even worse because there are hundreds (or even thousands) of machines doing the same DoS attack at once.

Eventually, services will be disrupted, and the systems will become overloaded, making it impossible for the standard users of the service to access them. And because the attack is coming from multiple machines, system overload can happen quickly, and stopping the attack isn’t as simple as just blocking one IP address.

Common types of DDoS attacks

There are different types of DDoS attacks, defined by which components in the network are being targeted and what tactics the attacker uses. An attacker could also use more than one of these attacks at the same time.

Application layer attacks

In this type of DDoS attack, the hacker targets the layer of the application that generates the web pages on the server.

A client can send a request for a web page without using many resources. But, on the server-side, one request may require loading multiple files, running server-side code, and connecting to one or more databases.

In an application layer attack, sometimes called a Layer 7 attack, the attacker will use a botnet to send traffic to a specific web application simultaneously from each of the bots. They’ll also use random IP addresses, spoofed referrer data, and target random URLs to hide their tracks and keep from getting blocked.

Protocol attacks

Protocol attacks target the network and transport layer of web applications. They’re also known as state-exhaustion attacks. These attacks attempt to disrupt service by using up the network’s resources, like load balancers and firewalls.

An example of this type of attack is a syn flood. Using a syn flood, the attacker sends a massive amount of TCP initial connection requests to the targeted system with spoofed IP addresses. The system targeted will then wait on the final step of the TCP handshake for all of these requests, but this step will never happen, and eventually, all resources will be used up waiting on connections.

Volumetric attacks

This type of DDoS attack attempts to use up all the available bandwidth of a system or network. But, instead of taking down or using up the resources on the target system, this type of attack prevents any legitimate traffic from getting through.

An example of this type of attack is DNS reflection. In a DNS reflection attack, the attacker sends small requests to a DNS server masquerading as the targeted computer and using its IP address. These small requests are quick and easy to send but result in very large responses that are then sent to the targeted computer and eventually overwhelm it.

What is a DDoS defense strategy?

Protecting a network or system from a DDoS attack can take some work since it’s not something that can just be blocked with anti-virus software. The attack comes from the outside, so you must take different measures.

Here are some of the cybersecurity measures taken to protect networks and systems from DDoS attacks:

  • Rate limiting. Limiting the rate at which a specific client can access a system can prevent some DDoS attacks, though this alone may not be enough for a large or complex attack.
  • Blackhole routing. A blackhole route is a route that goes nowhere. If they’re experiencing a DDoS attack, Network Admins can funnel traffic to a blackhole route where it can do no harm. This method will prevent damage to a system but also has the same result of making the network inaccessible.
  • Web application firewalls. A web application firewall can prevent application layer attacks with rules to identify and block DDoS attacks.
  • Anycast network diffusion. This approach scatters the traffic from the attack across a large network of servers, so it gets absorbed.

Note that cybersecurity practices also include anti-malware and anti-virus software. While they won’t protect a network from a DDoS attack, they will protect devices from becoming a bot in the botnet.

Learn more about cybersecurity

The internet isn’t the safest place for data and networks. Hackers are always on the lookout for new systems and networks to target. DDoS attacks are just one of the many kinds of attacks they use, but you can protect yourself from them with the right type of preparation.

The best way to protect yourself from hackers and cyberattacks is through education. If you know what types of cyber threats are out there, how they occur, and how to prevent them, then there isn’t much an attacker can do to your system.

Check out our Introduction to Cybersecurity course to get started. You’ll learn more about common cyberattacks and how to prevent them, along with the basics of network security, securing personal devices, cryptography, and authentication and authorization.

Cybersecurity Courses & Tutorials | Codecademy

Cybersecurity is a fast-growing field that addresses the security risks of our increasingly connected digital world. Learn cybersecurity, and you will learn how users, companies, and even governments protect themselves and recover from, cyber threats and attacks. Start defending yourself, or your or…

Crossed-Out Words

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
Crossed-Out Words

What do you think this image is saying? How does it relate to or comment on society or current events? Can you relate to it personally? What is your opinion of its message?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related Opinion essay to learn more.

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.

Word of the Day: copious

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
Word of the Day: copious

1. large in number or quantity (especially of information)

2. affording an abundant supply

_________

The word copious has appeared in 118 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Oct. 9 in “At Rwanda’s Favorite Bars, Forget the Beer: Milk Is What’s on Tap” by Abdi Latif Dahir:

Some patrons drink it hot, others like it cold. Some — respecting an old custom of finishing your cup at once — chug it down quickly, while others sip it slowly while eating snacks like cakes, chapatis and bananas.

However they take their glass, everyone comes to socialize and unwind. But first and foremost, they drink milk. Lots of it.

… As milk production increased in this landlocked nation, so did the number of people who moved to urban areas for education and employment. And so were born the milk bars, which allowed farmers to sell their surplus milk and let customers drink copious amounts of it to be reminded of home. Most milk bars are in Kigali, the country’s most-populous city, with 1.2 million people.

Can you correctly use the word copious 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 copious can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try one of our monthly vocabulary challenges.

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.

Should Parents Ever Be Held Responsible for a School Shooting?

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
Should Parents Ever Be Held Responsible for a School Shooting?

Last week, a Michigan teenager killed four of his classmates and wounded seven other people in the halls of his suburban Detroit high school, according to the police. He was arrested and charged with terrorism, four counts of first-degree murder and an array of other crimes.

Then, the county prosecutor took the rare step of filing involuntary manslaughter charges against the suspect’s parents. The prosecutor argued that the parents shared legal responsibility because they had allowed their son access to a handgun while ignoring glaring warnings that he was on the brink of violence.

Should parents ever be held responsible for a child who commits a school shooting? And if so, under what circumstances?

In “Behind the Charges Faced by the Parents of the Michigan Shooting Suspect,” Jack Healy reports:

The gun was an early Christmas gift from his parents: a semiautomatic 9-millimeter Sig Sauer handgun. “My new beauty,” Ethan Crumbley, 15, called it.

The day after Thanksgiving, he and his father had gone together to a Michigan gun shop to buy it. He and his mother spent a day testing out the gun, which was stored unlocked in the parents’ bedroom. On Monday, when a teacher reported seeing their son searching online for ammunition, his mother did not seem alarmed.

“LOL I’m not mad at you,” Jennifer Crumbley texted her son. “You have to learn not to get caught.”

A day later, the authorities say the teenager fatally shot four classmates in the halls of Oxford High School in suburban Detroit, using the handgun his parents had bought for him.

On Friday, Karen D. McDonald, the Oakland County prosecutor, laid out those and other chilling details as she took the rare step of filing involuntary manslaughter charges against the suspect’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley.

Students, read the entire article, then consider the following:

  • The parents of children who commit school shootings are rarely held criminally responsible, even though many underage attackers use guns from home. Do you think parents should be held responsible more often when their child gets a gun from home? Why or why not?

  • Many states, including Michigan, do not have laws requiring guns to be locked away. However, according to the article, “gun control advocates say that lax gun storage leads to suicides, accidental deaths and intentional school shootings.” Should there be more state laws that regulate gun storage and children’s access to weapons across the U.S.? Why or why not?

  • Based on the details you read in the article, do you think the parents of the 15-year-old who is accused in the school shooting at Oxford High School should have been charged with involuntary manslaughter? (Involuntary manslaughter usually refers to the crime of unintentionally killing another human out of criminal negligence or recklessness.) Why or why not?

  • Do you think the charges that the prosecution filed against the parents — and the media attention this case has received — might prevent school shootings in the future? Why or why not?

  • Before the shooting, officials at Oxford High School met with the 15-year-old and his parents, informing them that he needed to begin counseling within 48 hours. But his parents resisted bringing him home, and administrators allowed him to stay in school. Shortly after, the student fatally shot four students, according to the prosecutor. To what degree, if any, should the school be held legally responsible for the tragedy?

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.

1...1,0541,0551,056...1,540Page 1,055 of 1,540

Recent Posts