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Word of the Day: jeopardy

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Word of the Day: jeopardy

: a source of danger; a possibility of incurring loss or misfortune

_________

The word jeopardy has appeared in 342 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 24 in “Miami Beach Opened Up and the Revelers Flocked In. Then Came the Crackdown.” by Michael Majchrowicz and Audra D. S. Burch:

After driving two hours from his home in Montgomery, Ala., to Atlanta to catch a flight to Miami with friends, TJ Ray, 32, learned their vacation trip to South Beach was suddenly in jeopardy.

News had reached them that city officials were cracking down — and hard — on large groups of tourists. They had shelled out hundreds on flights and an Airbnb, and now city officials were on national newscasts announcing they would be imposing a mandatory curfew.

Can you correctly use the word jeopardy 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 jeopardy 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.

Should White Writers Translate a Black Author’s Work?

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Should White Writers Translate a Black Author’s Work?

Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.

Do you ever read books, plays or short stories that have been translated from another language? Have you ever read a book for school that was translated, such as “The Stranger” by Albert Camus, “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank, “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes, “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert, “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse or “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen?

When reading translated works, have you ever thought about the choices the translator made about language and sentence structure, and how those might affect the message of the story, play or poem? Have you ever thought about the translator’s identity? How much do you think a translator’s race, ethnicity, nationality, gender or ability has to do with the translation?

In “Amanda Gorman’s Poetry United Critics. It’s Dividing Translators,” Alex Marshall writes about a debate in Europe about who should be asked to translate work by writers of color. (If you haven’t read Ms. Gorman’s poem, you can read the transcript here.)

Hadija Haruna-Oelker, a Black journalist, has just produced the German translation of Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb,” the poem about a “skinny Black girl” that for many people was the highlight of President Biden’s inauguration.

So has Kubra Gumusay, a German writer of Turkish descent.

As has Uda Strätling, a translator, who is white.

Literary translation is usually a solitary pursuit, but the poem’s German publisher went for a team of writers to ensure the poem — just 710 words — wasn’t just true to Gorman’s voice. The three were also asked to make its political and social significance clear, and to avoid anything that might exclude people of color, people with disabilities, women, or other marginalized groups.

For nearly two weeks, the team debated word choices, occasionally emailing Ms. Gorman for clarifications. But as they worked, an argument was brewing elsewhere in Europe about who has the right to translate the poet’s work — an international conversation about identity, language and diversity in a proud but often overlooked segment of the literary world.

“This whole debate started,” Gumusay said, with a sigh.

It began in February when Meulenhoff, a publisher in the Netherlands, said it had asked Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, a writer whose debut novel won last year’s Booker International Prize, to translate Gorman’s poem into Dutch.

Rijneveld, who uses the pronouns they and them, was the “ideal candidate,” Meulenhoff said in a statement. But many social media users disagreed, asking why a white writer had been chosen when Gorman’s reading at the inauguration had been a significant cultural moment for Black people.

Three days later, Rijneveld quit.

Then, the poem’s Catalan publisher dropped Victor Obiols, a white translator, who said in a phone interview his publisher told him his profile “was not suitable for the project.”

Literary figures and newspaper columnists across Europe have been arguing for weeks about what these decisions mean, turning Ms. Gorman’s poem of hope for “a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished” into the latest focus of debates about identity politics across the continent. The discussion has shone a light on the often unexamined world of literary translation and its lack of racial diversity.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

  • What is your reaction to the debate in Europe? Do you think white writers should translate a Black author’s work? How much does a translator’s racial identity matter? Should other aspects of identity beyond race — class, political views, ability, religion, nationality — be taken into account when publishers are deciding who should translate a written work?

  • How would you describe the work and responsibility of a translator? Is he or she obligated to stay true to the exact words, phrases, meanings and intentions of the original writer? Or do you think it is important for the translator to find ways for those same words and meanings to translate not only linguistically, but also culturally, to the audience he or she is writing for?

  • Think about the language or languages you speak: What are some of the nuances — vocabulary, dialect and grammar use — that could be changed or lost as a result of a translation? If you speak multiple languages, what are some of the limitations or differences in language that make translation difficult? The featured article uses gendered language as one example, but what are others that you can think of?

  • The American Literary Translators Association argued that the framing of this debate is false: Instead of “whether identity should be the deciding factor in who is allowed to translate,” the real problem is “the scarcity of Black translators.” Do you agree or disagree? Why?

  • Some countries have asked musicians or rappers to translate Ms. Gorman’s poem. What do you think about this approach? Do you think that people who are not necessarily professional translators could, or should, be invited to translate work? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of taking this route?

Lesson of the Day: ‘Listen to Five of the World’s Newest, Wildest Instruments

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Lesson of the Day: ‘Listen to Five of the World’s Newest, Wildest Instruments

Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.

Featured Article: “Listen to Five of the World’s Newest, Wildest Instruments” by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim (Please note there is also an option to listen to this article.)

A Lego guitar, an electromagnetic piano and a “war tuba” are among the highlights of the 2021 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, an annual contest for the invention of new musical instruments. What possesses someone to invent a new instrument? This year’s finalists will tell you: Boredom, curiosity and frustration.

In this lesson, you will get the chance to listen to five of these new instruments and read about the inventors’ creative processes. Then, we invite you to put your ingenuity to the test by inventing your own musical instrument.

Have you found refuge in art or creativity during the coronavirus pandemic? Have boredom, curiosity or frustration inspired you to invent something?

Think about something new you have created recently. It could be a piece of art, a new game to keep you and your siblings entertained, a tasty recipe, a TikTok video or anything else.

Then, take a few moments to reflect on your creative process, either in writing or discussion with a partner, using the following prompts as a guide:

  • What did you make? What spurred you to make it?

  • Where did you get inspiration for your creation?

  • What materials, skills and other resources did you need to bring it to life?

  • What benefit, if any, has it had for you and others?

Read or listen to the article, then answer the following questions:

1. What is the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition? With what criteria do judges select the winners?

2. Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim writes in the third paragraph that the “videos submitted by the contestants have allowed viewers to dip into a world teeming with ingenuity.” What does “ingenuity” mean in this sentence? What surrounding words and phrases give you clues to its meaning? Give an example of how one of the instruments featured in the article demonstrates “ingenuity.”

3. The article features five new instruments that won the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition: the segulharpa, the electromagnetic piano, the Lego microtonal guitar, the Evolano and the war tuba. Choose three of those instruments to analyze more closely by responding to the following questions for each:

  • What inspired the inventor to create this instrument?

  • What materials, skills and resources did the creator need to make this instrument?

  • Listen to at least 20 seconds of the instrument in the embedded video. Describe its sound using descriptive adjectives, strong verbs or literary devices, like similes and personification. What effect does the sound have on you as the listener?

  • What benefit, if any, does this instrument have for its inventor, other people or music over all?

  • In your opinion, does the instrument meet the judging criteria of the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition? Why or why not?

Now, imagine you have been invited to enter the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. What new musical instrument would you create?

To get ideas, you might draw on your own creative process, or those of the inventors you read about. Here are some prompts to get you thinking:

  • Study your surroundings. Tolgahan Cogulu was inspired to create his Lego multitonal guitar after watching his son play with Legos. What ideas for a new instrument can you get from everyday objects?

  • Start doodling. Ulfur Hansson based his segulharpa on a drawing he made in a computer graphics program. What images come to mind when you picture a new instrument?

  • Consider a problem you want to solve. The composer David Shea dreamed of an instrument that would turn any concert grand into an electromagnetic piano — and that was easily portable. What issues do you encounter with instruments that already exist? How could you improve upon them?

  • Ask a question. Many of these inventors’ creative impulses were spurred by a question: What if a piano could sing? How does a guitar learn to play microtones? Can a keyboard instrument be taught to swoop like a cello? What questions do you have about the music world? You might brainstorm with the sentence stem: What if a ____ could ____ like a ____?

Once you have your idea, create a sketch of your instrument or write a short paragraph describing it and the sound it would create. If you have more time, respond to the following questions:

  • What inspired you to create this instrument?

  • What effect would you want the sound to have on listeners?

  • What materials, skills, resources and experts would you need to bring this instrument to life?

  • What benefit will it have for you, others and the music world?

And if musical instruments aren’t your thing, consider how you can apply this creative process to another invention of your choice.

About Lesson of the Day

• Find all our Lessons of the Day in this column.
• Teachers, watch our on-demand webinar to learn how to use this feature in your classroom.

What Would You Recommend That Is ‘Overlooked and Underappreciated’?

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What Would You Recommend That Is ‘Overlooked and Underappreciated’?

Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.

In the weekly Times Magazine, you can find a column called Letter of Recommendation, in which writers celebrate things they believe to be “overlooked and underappreciated,” whether squirrels, dollhouses, head wraps, Garfield, eavesdropping, memewear, floating, Arby’s, semicolons, Duolingo, chips or gum.

If you were invited to contribute to this column, what would you write about? Nothing is too small — it just needs to be a thing you’re enthusiastic about that you would like to share with others. Think about something that makes you happy and why, and that you feel connects with who you are.

For instance, in the latest edition of the Magazine, Daniel Peña writes about “The Joys of Biking at Night.” Here is how he begins:

“I’m going for a ride,” I told my wife one night in early November, as a second Covid wave was sweeping through Berlin. We were living in a basement apartment on Solmstrasse in Kreuzberg, a former punk neighborhood turned hipster haven. We had come to Germany on account of her mother’s surgery. Mortality was on everyone’s mind, and we seldom left the apartment. Still, my friend suggested I get a bike with two locks. “Bikes are like gold now,” he said. Soon mass-transit rides could be superspreading events. I’d need a way to move around.

As I was heading out, my wife threw me a scarf and a skullcap to wear beneath my helmet. No one wears a helmet in Berlin, but I did even if the roads were mostly empty. The spätkaufs — late-night convenience stores with cheap beer and welcoming benches — had long been shuttered by government order, along with bars and clubs. A rare blanket of silence fell over everything. After midnight, I had the city mostly to myself. Just me and the odd taxi driver cruising the streets.

The joys of the night ride were the joys of feeling present in my body again, orienting myself amid the disorientation of pandemic life, which has a tendency to erase the body even as it threatens it, even as it demands of it endless productivity. Pedaling felt like a celebration of kinetic energy, of blood, cartilage and bone. A reminder that my body was still healthy and functioning despite the pandemic, despite the two heart operations I had as a kid to correct my tachycardia, which took me out of sports entirely. I remember the doctor’s orders: no football, no physical education.

They told me I was fragile, and so I became fragile. I was in middle school then. It felt as if my body had been taken away from me. They put me in a combination swing-dance-and-painting-class instead. I did terrible still lifes in low light with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy on a loop. It was the turn of the millennium, and the post-dotcom years in Austin were full of foreclosures and wide streets with few cars. Lance Armstrong was still a legend then. The doctors never said no cycling, and for a brief moment in central Texas, biking became more popular than football, which salvaged my social life. I still believe that the speed, the wind, the blood in your ears on a silent street can do that to a body — manifest it into existence once again.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

  • Could you relate to Daniel Peña’s enthusiasm for biking at night? Even if you don’t love that specific activity, were there aspects of his essay that made you understand why it is so meaningful to him? Did it make you want to try it?

  • When we first posed the question about what you would recommend, what ideas came to you immediately? What “overlooked and underappreciated” thing, whether a food, place, hobby, form of exercise, article of clothing, TV show, punctuation mark, animal or anything else, would you enjoy telling others about?

  • Why would you recommend it? To help, you might ask yourself questions like: How and when do I enjoy this thing? How does it make me feel? How does it connect to who I am? Why might others like it, too? What should people know about it that they might not?

  • What stories or images come to mind when you think of this thing? How could you describe those so others might understand some of your appreciation?

  • Notice how Mr. Peña connects his adult love of biking at night in Berlin to his middle school experience of biking in Texas. Does whatever you’re recommending connect to your childhood somehow?

About Student Opinion

• Find all of our Student Opinion questions in this column.
• Have an idea for a Student Opinion question? Tell us about it.
• Learn more about how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning.

Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, 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.

Fashion Predictions

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Fashion Predictions

Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.

Fashion designers are looking into the post-pandemic future and predicting what we’ll want to wear when we no longer have to spend most of our time at home.

Before you read the related article, make your own predictions. Do you think fancy fashions will return, and we’ll all want to dress up? Or, do you think many of us will try to bring the cozy clothes we wore at home into our new work, school and social lives?

How do you want to dress when the world opens back up?

Tell us in as much detail as you can in the comments, then read the related article to see what designers have to say.

About Picture Prompts

• Find all our Picture Prompts in this column.
• Have an idea for a Picture Prompt? Tell us about it.
• Teachers, discover more ways to teach with our Picture Prompts and learn how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning.

Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, 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.

Where the Corporate LMS Market is Heading (2022 and up)

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Where the Corporate LMS Market is Heading (2022 and up)

Do you ever sit there and think to yourself, okay, I have to write this, I’m not sure where to start, where to begin, but I know in my heart, this is where it is going. You say to yourself, I have mixed feelings about this, but the trend lines, the data is all pointing this way – the systems, the business environment is all aiming this way.

And yet, you know what you will write, will not be all rosy for everyone. You know that it is a time to reflect and ask yourself, “will it change?”, “is there something that can be done?”, “Why do people like Coke Zero. Anyone who says it tastes like it has sugar in it, clearly has never had a Coke, with sugar in it.”

By now, you are thinking, “Oh, he is about to say the LMS market is finished, OR that they are dinosaurs doomed, and thus us naysayers have been right all along,” sorry to disappoint, but no, no, and no.

I’m saying none of that. Nor is this post about any such thing as that. LMSs are not disappearing. LMSs are not becoming performance support systems, nor performance management/talent management systems, nor heavily focused on HR, nor heavily focused on compliance (unless folks want a system focused on compliance – then yes, you can find quite a few – and not all our LMSs).

What is everyone talking about these days?

Skills. Skill identification. Skill development. Skill building. Skill gaps. Skills tied to job roles. Skills tied to career mapping. Skills around strengths. Skills around weaknesses. Skill validation. Skills tied to your interests. Interests tapped to skills. Skill libraries. Competency model for skills. 3rd party integrations with skill-specific solutions such as EMSI and Burning Glass. Scrubbing LinkedIn for the identification of job roles and skills. Looking at job boards to pull out data for jobs (thus roles/titles) and skills needed.

Skills tied to content. Skills tied courses. Skills tied to webinars. Skills assigned. Buying 3rd party content that aligns to skills.

You might think to yourself, this must be a fad, at some point, people will focus on something else, and this skill drive will follow so many other “hot” then not so “hot” angles.

The Year Of

2012- Mobile Learning. Who can forget how hot this was? It went on for a few years as “mobile this, mobile that, mobile first, mobile responsive”

2017 – Micro-Learning. The darling. Micro learning this. Micro-learning content does that. Micro, micro, micro.

2018 – Video – Video reigned supreme.

2019 – Machine Learning, which vendors nowadays spin as A.I. It is all about machine learning. This is the key to learning and training success. A.I. this, A.I. that.

2020- Playlists/Channels – Looks like this, hey Netflix like that. We can do this, we can make it look like that.

2021- The real kickoff around skills.

Are those previous hot items being seen in systems today? Absolutely. Are they getting better and better? Well, depends on the vendor, some are, some are not. Some vendors tapped into this capabilities way before the masses, some didn’t. You would buy an LMS, even in 2000, and it could help you identify skill gaps – so that isn’t new. You assigned courses to folks to acquire skills or provided them an opportunity for personal and professional development – ala acquiring new skills.

So the skills in general isn’t new.

What is new, is the way skills drives everything, and feature sets, capabilities and so forth is tapped into skills, which leads to what will become of the LMS market specifically.

My initial thoughts I wrote about where I stated that the LMS market will still be the biggest segment by 2025, and that will still be true.

And I noted that Talent Development Platforms would be the second biggest segment, followed by skills platforms, I realized the third “skills platforms” are already bouncing into the other types of learning systems – LMSs, LXPs, and so forth around content, with minor exceptions.

In the skills platform segment, you will find two types of systems

  • Skills measurement – No content here. Total skills validation – self-ratings, manager ratings, generally speaking the UI/UX is not great. But the folks who want it, aren’t buying it for fancy. They are buying it for metrics that they believe will identify skill patterns (S/W).
  • Skills platforms tied around content. Generally speaking, the UI/UX is far better than anything you will find with the first bucket. Feature sets seem pretty similar to one another (a separate post will cover this, in May), but there are some interesting items. Pluralsight for example is all about technical skills. Some skill platforms focus only on soft skills. Some try to mix. Some have virtual labs, some don’t.

Many of the higher-rated skills platforms focus specifically on technical skills. Some are trying to do both, technical and professional/workplace skills. Features ubiquitous in the LMS market are appearing as well. For many, it is too early to see a true mesh, but the functionality is slowing heading that way.

It has already begun…

As you can see, getting to the point (you need some background first – i.e. what is above), is not so simple, but here it is

The LMS will change. Learning once at the forefront – you know those bogus terms that it was all formal (not true) and not informal (not true, it always was a feature), are not the key takeaways here, because assigned learning and self-selected learning will stay, and grow – depending on how the client wants to use the system.

But LMSs will splinter into three groups. A one size fits all for learning/training will change.

Group One (aka G1C) – Customer Education

These systems are over 80% focused on customer education (aka customer training), partner training, B2B/B2C. They may do some business with an internal/external (this means employees and customers are on the system, separated by tenets – parent/child) but the core is still customer focused. Some will even accept employees only (internal) but we are talking less than 15%. The feature sets will adapt to this specific segment. Today, that is partially true, but so much more has to be done, especially around metrics and segmentation of data/sales/capabilities of each tenet and so forth. If you are an association, these will be the systems you want. Skills exist – solely because of market demand, but interests weigh equally. Select a skill or interest and here is some content. But the core is content tied around whatever the company (i.e. the client) is selling/providing to its customers and partners (i.e. products, services, ideas, whatever). Today it is proprietary-based specific, but down the road, as 3rd party content providers see the revenue potential, some systems will allow you – the client – to sell said 3rd party content – to your customer base. Of course, you can provide your customers, free content and even 3rd party – you just can’t charge.

Of the three groups, from a vendor perspective, this segment has the most potential revenue-wise, the highest loyalty, and the greatest growth (especially if you find a company that has customers, and still wants to provide learning/training to their employees, but customers are the keys – and trust me, there are plenty out there). Content curation exists here too. Machine Learning is a bit behind, for the most part, Digital Coaching/Video Skills Validation/Scenarios though will be high in the coming years. As the systems skew further and further towards customer education, it will be clearer and clearer for consumers. Gamification still plays, and a whole mantra of sharing the knowledge and discovery will play into it.

Group Two (aka G2S) – Skills Tied Around Job Roles/Career Mapping – Employee heavy focused.

They exist today, and while they are not as big as group three, they will eventually become a TDP (whether they promote this externally or not, is the unknown).

I listed them second, only because vendors in group 1 can play in a smaller pond, then say where everyone tends to head to – employees. The segmentation will break, of course, you will have systems more tuned in with the small business market or Enterprise or Large Enterprise. Some will try to play in all three, that exists today and won’t change.

But they will become more along the lines of what a talent development will be – that is to say, learning + Skill Mapping and Job Roles + 3rd party content. Right now, they are not fully there yet, but so many have crossed the boundary and pushed a heavy dose of skills tied around job roles as the key – the big takeaway. The missing part overall is the lack of extensive skill functionality – only a few have what I consider the skills capabilities essentials, and the 3rd party content marketplace (uh, the client buys it and gives it to their learners for free). Content curation is a mixed bag for right now, some do a great job, most don’t. A.I. is all over the board. Gamification and the usual stuff exists. A few will go into specific “learning insights” to delve further into the whole skills tied around those job roles or job opportunities if you will. The systems will not add recruiting, nor other HCM functionality.

Although some will eventually offer a streamlined tied to you applying for opportunities at your company, from within the LMS – going to your HCM – which handles all of that. In fact, a few systems already offer this (included, uh, except you pay for the HCM or whatever other SaaS recruiting solution, etc.). The “interests” i.e. folks who are interested in learning a skill not tied to the job role, will be the wild card. Some systems will offer this as a wide across feature (an option for administrators) and push the split approach in a manner of speaking. Others will push the skills tied to the specific job role, and if you want to learn skills not tied to the role – it’s an option, but most of their clients do not use it for that.

E-Commerce will still exist for those that have it today, but if its not a need, then it’s not there. There isn’t anything stopping a client from using Group 2, for their customers. But those folks who buy systems in group two, are not buying it for their customers. These systems will be 90%+ for employees (internal).

Skill platforms will be in Group two. The measurement ones are totally employee focused.

Group Three (aka G3)

Similar to group two, but they will try to play 50/50. This will be a struggle I believe, because in the end, as it relates to R&D, they will need to make a decision on which way they want the system to skew or slide to – I mean yes, you can be general enough for everyone, but with skills there are limitations.

This group is what I see as the wildcard, depending on how well they can straddle the two groups. A vendor such as Schoox for example, which skews heavily towards employees, does offer e-commerce and has multi-tenant. They haven’t reached an extensive e-commerce capability as of yet. Let’s say they do by end of 2022. And let’s say they continue heavy with the talent development platform side. Then yes, they would be in this third group.

Of all the groups, the third group will have the most vendors. And some will do a far better job than others. The challenge is trying to dip their toes into group two, without pushing so heavily, that they lose out deals to group one, and fail to maintain enough of a balance to stay within-group three. I think the more realistic number of percentages will be 70-30 or 60-40 for group three. They will eventually have enough on skills that warrant interest, and not wane interest, as well as sort of the “one size” tries to fit all.

From the LMS Side where do they fit today

Let’s be clear, this is a forecast of where the LMSs are heading. It will not be tomorrow. Or next week. Or even by the end of this year, showing the clarity, but you will see it – if you look close enough.

Looking wide though, you won’t see it. By the end of 2022, it will come into more of a sharper focus.

2023 – Total focus.

That isn’t to say, that a vendor will think they are not any of the three groups, but when you dive into the details, you will see, and yes, they will be in one of them.

Each of the three groups, can have the LXP layer (although honestly, Group 1, it will be less so – they will need to add it, to compete against group three – especially when it comes to 3rd party content – but the Netflix or playlist look is already appearing in group one systems.

Who plays in Group 1 today

The top two are Thought Industries and Intellium. Eurekos will rumble in there shortly.

Group Two

The funny thing here is that many former LXP vendors are actually sliding into this group. Skill platforms are here already. Degreed of course stands out here. As of right now, Schoox is here too (But they are a wild card, my gut says they will stay more in Group two). Cornerstone Learning likely will end up here, although with Cornerstone Develop and if they wanted to – they could slide into Group three (hence another wildcard).

Group Three

SAP Litmos. Docebo. Absorb. EdCast Spark. EdCast XP (Wildcard, because today, they are truly more on group two, with the career mapping add-on, but they have customer academy for extended enterprise aka B2B/B2C, customer education). Fuse is here too. Brightspace by D2L (Corporate) is here.

The wildcards like EdCast for example, may look at having an edition that is solely for customers, and then another version that aligns more with Group two. To me, that is the right move. The same with Cornerstone.

If a vendor is still an LXP, then yes, they are still an LXP. This is after all talking about LMSs (including those who left LXP but have many features similar to an LMS – just not all).

Will there be outliers?

Yes, but within three years, I believe they will slide into one of the three groups. I mean you can be in group two and be streamlined, just as you can be in group three and be robust. Robust and streamlined are based on what the vendor wants to build/do, and customer demand or interest. Therefore, in Group two for example, you will have robust and you will have streamlined. You will have pricey and not.

The same for group one and group three.

Bottom Line

This may not be the forecast that folks want to read or hear (podcast version coming next week), but it is coming.

A seismic shift.

Tectonic plates tapped by skills. Customers. Employees.

Earthquake?

No, Evolution.

E-Learning 24/7

5 tips for keeping your team engaged with online learning

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5 tips for keeping your team engaged with online learning

Learning a new skill online is a great way for your team to stay on top of industry trends and feel empowered to innovate. But we know motivation can be a challenge, especially when life and work get in the way. We’ve put together some helpful tips for ensuring your team stays motivated and engaged while learning with Codecademy for Teams.

Keeping your team engaged: 5 tips

1. Make sure coursework is relevant

The best way to keep employees engaged is to make sure that what they’re learning ties into their work and aligns with their career goals.

If there’s a certain skill they want to acquire — such as analyzing data with Python or SQL — they can follow a Skill Path in Codecademy. Skill Paths string together a series of courses that take a learner through everything they need to know to build a specific skill.

Or, if a team member wants to develop in-depth foundational knowledge for a specific job, like Data Scientist or Full-Stack Engineer, Career Paths provide a curated list of lessons, quizzes, videos, and projects to help them learn and practice real-world skills.

Once your team starts applying their new skills in the workplace and experiences the professional benefits of learning to code, they’ll be more motivated to keep learning.

For team members that aren’t sure what to learn, we’ve put together some recommendations for what to learn for different teams and roles.

2. Break large goals into manageable ones

When a goal feels overwhelming, we’re more likely to give up on it altogether. That’s why it’s important to encourage your team to break their larger goals into smaller, bite-sized goals. For example, rather than focus on building a chat bot, have your team commit to learning to code one hour a week for 6 months.

Codecademy makes this easy. Learners can set weekly targets by going to “My Home” in their Codecademy account, selecting “Update Weekly Target” in the top right corner of the screen, and entering how many days a week they want to learn. Each week, we’ll show them how many days they’ve logged into Codecademy and how many weeks in a row they’ve met their target.

3. Carve out quality time for learning

Between emails, Slack messages, meetings, and deadlines, your team might feel like it’s impossible to take on learning a new skill. Try designating meeting-free code time. You may even want to encourage them to sign out of email and set their chat status to “do not disturb” so that their learning time is quality time.

Not only will this help your team manage their schedule, it also sends the message that learning a new skill is valuable enough to be prioritized alongside their day-to-day work.

Create a dedicated communication channel for learners to share tips, exchange resources, and ask questions. But don’t just limit your channel to those enrolled in Codecademy. Invite people within the company who have knowledge and experience in the areas your team is learning.

At The Motley Fool, experienced developers participate in the team’s Slack channel by answering questions and cheering learners on to the finish line. Johnnie Weathersby, BI Team Lead at The Motley Fool, explains:

“Our devs know a lot and they love talking about what they do and teaching people.”

Building a community keeps the excitement up and reminds learners that they have support. Your team is more likely to stay committed to learning if they know others are invested in their success.

5. Set a weekly check-in

Creating some structure and accountability can go a long way when it comes to ensuring your team stays committed. One way to do this is to designate a specific time each week where learners review the course content and troubleshoot problems together.

The team at The Motley Fool follows a common schedule so everyone is learning the same topics at the same time. Then, they meet every Wednesday at 5:00 to discuss the current lesson and share feedback.

Everyone is expected to come to the meeting having completed the assigned material, which has kept  Gary Taylor, a BI Analyst at The Motley Fool, on his toes. He tells us:

“The nice thing about [learning] in a group is there’s some accountability. You don’t want to let the group down. You don’t want to show up being the guy that doesn’t know what’s going on or didn’t finish that day. The group was a strong motivator.”

Learning together can help your team set a pace for working through the material and gives everyone more incentive to follow the program through to the end.

A little planning goes a long way

Technology is constantly evolving and we all have to evolve with it. As learning new languages and tools becomes the norm, be sure your team has the systems and support in place to succeed.

Ready to put some of these ideas to the test? Sign up for a free 14-day trial of Codecademy for Teams and see how much your team can learn together in 2 weeks.

Home-Schooling

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Home-Schooling

Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.

A recent Times article profiled nine families who have been happily home-schooling their children since before the pandemic began.

Now that you’ve likely had a taste of learning from home, do you wish your family had always home-schooled you? What do you think the advantages of learning outside the traditional system would be? The disadvantages? How do you imagine you might be different today if you had been home-schooled since early childhood? (And for those readers who were, what can you tell us about it? Are you glad to have been educated this way?)

Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn about families that find “freedom and fulfillment” in the practice.

About Picture Prompts

• Find all our Picture Prompts in this column.
• Have an idea for a Picture Prompt? Tell us about it.
• Teachers, discover more ways to teach with our Picture Prompts and learn how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning.

Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, 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: stringent

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Word of the Day: stringent

: demanding strict attention to rules and procedures

_________

The word stringent has appeared in 558 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:

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.

In the N.H.L., players cannot socialize with teammates on the road, much less interact with fans. Claude Giroux, the Philadelphia Flyers’ captain, said he couldn’t remember the last time he had autographed an item.

… In England, the Premier League has set similarly stringent policies in its soccer stadiums. Fans began being allowed back into the stands in December, but contact between them and players is not permitted.

Can you correctly use the word stringent 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 stringent 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.

Lesson of the Day: ‘Suez Canal Blocked After Giant Container Ship Gets Stuck’

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Lesson of the Day: ‘Suez Canal Blocked After Giant Container Ship Gets Stuck’

6. What is your reaction to the article? Are you surprised that one ship (albeit, a very large one) could disrupt the flow of international trade? What do the events of the past week say about the interconnectedness and precariousness of our global trade system? What questions do you still have about the grounded ship and the efforts to free it? From what you learned, how hard will it be to free the Ever Given?

Option 1: Learn more about the Suez Canal and its role in the global economy.

What more do you want to learn about the Ever Given, the Suez Canal or global trade? What questions do you still have about the current situation? For instance, why does the Suez Canal play such a pivotal role in world trade? What are the costs of closing of one of the world’s most vital maritime arteries? What alternate routes will ships have to take if they cannot go through the 150-year-old canal? How have other large ships that have run ashore been freed?

You can keep up with the unfolding story in the Suez Canal by reading Live Updates or one of these articles from The Times’s extensive coverage:

Why the Suez Canal Is So Important

With the Suez Canal Blocked, Shippers Go Around Africa

In Suez Canal, Stuck Ship Is a Warning About Excessive Globalization

How Giant Ships Are Built

How did reading more on this topic add to your understanding? Did it change your perspective on the featured article? Share three takeaways from what you learned with your class.

Option 2: Offer a rescue solution for the Ever Given.

With the ship stretching about 1,300 feet long and weighing around 200,000 metric tons, dislodging the Ever Given has proved challenging. How was it eventually freed? The Times reports:

Together, the armada of tugboats — their engines churning with the combined power of tens of thousands of horses — have been pushing and pulling at the Ever Given for days.

Then, before dawn on Monday, the ship broke free from the shore and was partially refloated — a moment both shipping and Egyptian officials hoped marked the beginning of the end of the saga.

Once fully afloat, the ship can be easily controlled by tugboats and safely pushed out of the way.

Read the entire article detailing the rescue efforts, then tell us your reaction. What aspects of the efforts do you find most fascinating, surprising or memorable?

Over the past six days, as the ship remained stuck in the canal, people across the globe offered their own solutions. If you were asked by Suez Canal authorities to help free the Ever Given, what practical or out-of-the-box ideas would you recommend? Feel free to include drawings or diagrams to explain your ideas.

For inspiration, read this article in Slate or watch this video from CNN in which young children were asked what they would do to free the ship in the Suez Canal.

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