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Learn Amp Product Review

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Learn Amp Product Review

Learn Amp is a learning system that is somewhat a challenge to describe, and this is by no means in a bad way. At one time it was an LXP, but it has (as many others in this segment have done) expanded out by adding LMS functionality, along with additional feature sets for folks wanting a bit of talent development, but not a full-blown talent development platform (which as noted in a previous post requires three key items). Thus, they are not a TDP. Nor are they an LMS or an LXP.

Rather they are a learning ecosystem.

An ecosystem requires the following:

  • Learning capabilities – nowadays these would include playlists/channels, beyond the usual learning paths, assigning content to a person or a group/team or everyone or a certain location, and so forth (which most systems do BTW).
  • Metrics beyond the basics. I refer to this as advanced tier metrics. Learn Amp has this. Not at a level of BI though (which for right now, isn’t a necessary requirement)
  • Lots of integrations – Ability to add whatever to your learning system. You need more than 10 to qualify. If a vendor uses Zapier for example as their key integration (it has hundreds of connectors), yeah, they qualify here.
  • 3rd Party content marketplace – A vendor might call it something else, but basically it is partnerships with 3rd party providers whereas the client buys the content and assigns to their learners. A solid marketplace is one that offers free content (via the web or the vendor themselves) and fee-based (most 3rd party). Your own content is uploaded into the system, although there are a few vendors that offer the ability for you to upload your content into their marketplace and sell it.
  • Ability to record yourself, and upload it – as the learner. They can also do other items, upload audio files, web cam, etc.
  • Coaching/Mentoring capability – Even at the early stages, whereas folks can be assigned as an expert and learners can select them is a good start.
  • Skills building and development – The chunk of the market lacks even the basics, but as they continue to develop (and they will), you are going to see a big uptick in capabilities. Think this way, you are seeing the beginning.
  • Make it a hub or not
  • Additional items as developed tied to expound the capabilities of learning/training
  • Video skills validation with scenario-based (available today, but rare in the space), can be tied and often is to coaching/role-playing. This component includes speech indices and metrics.

Learn Amp has 99% of these capabilities, with only video skills validation missing (but coming soon). Some of their areas are stronger than others.

The Review

Due to an on-going hand injury, this is a combo of text and video. If you ever wondered what is it like to have a bratwurst as a finger, let me know. I do not recommend it, unless you are planning on snacking throughout the day.

Learner Homepage

With the Learn Amp system, you – as the administrator can create as many learning home pages as you want, and give a lot of options to the learner to do things that they want in the system. For example, you can assign a certain look with capabilities by learner, group, team, division and so forth. While this is a feature you see in some other systems, what you really find, is the learner being able to click and pick the various dashboards right from the home.

In this example, the default is assigned learning, and then I went ahead and created one called “Choice”, and selected my own widgets that the learner will see.

The learner then at anytime, switch between the learner home pages. (There is no audio for this video)

Example of switching between home pages. You can add or remove the widgets for each learner home pages, referred to as “dashboards”

The Learner Home – Top of the Header

Header on the Learner Home page

Regardless of the learner home page view you choose, there are listings on the top of each page. Again, as the administrator you can choose to keep or remove any of them (although at the present time, Learn Amp assists here when you setup the system, my preference is the admin does it). Thus if you do not want your learners to view a member directory, you can remove it Or decide to change “Assess” to “Validate” you can do this as well.

I liked the member directory angle, simply because if you plan to find ‘experts’, this is a perfect way to do it within the Learn Amp platform.

One item that I would love to see on the learner header is the word “Home” which takes me back to my learner home page. At the present time, getting there is a bit cumbersome, because your only options are

a. Click your logo on each page – It’s visible on the left side

b. Hit the back button on your browser

Drill into the Options on the Header

There is quite a bit you can do as the learner. And as previously noted as the client, you can change the vernacular of each header item, or remove them if you so desire.

The default though is what you see above.

Library

Library View

Personally, I’d prefer to use the term “catalog”, since library tends to have a different connotation in the L&D and Training space (think more of an asset repository). As seen above, you can search by “items”, “learnlists”, and “events”. The default lists Price as an item, but at the present time, Learn Amp does not come with an e-commerce component, thus I’d recommend you remove this as your widget option, unless you are able to integrate or add an e-commerce piece.

I found it pretty easy to move around, although I must admit, the term ELearning was well, varied. In some places on the system it was written correctly as e-learning. Other times, it was ELearning or eLearning. Vendors nowadays across the board, have taken the e-learning term which is an umbrella term and morphed it to refer to “online course”. IMO, you should just say “course” or “online course”. Anyone, it is a peeve, and nothing more.

One area I did like was the separation of CPD away from the catalog itself. You find it at the bottom of the page. As with any page in the Learn Amp system, you can modify it in terms of where items are located, and would do so as the admin for the library.

CPD Section

The more accurate term is “hours or credits”. You can change points to “hours” on the admin side. I did like you could search by number of “points” to reduce down the size. However, what is missing is the visual banner or something that tells me immediately how many “points” that content is worth.

Roll the Video – CPD

The Library – Focused on CPD Capabilities

Events

Events shows the events the learner has signed up for been assigned, as well as events that are open to anyone (and that the learner can sign up for).

One area I did like was the amount of details and options you can show when there is an event. The big winner though was the ability to have a Q/A, discussion, ratings and review.

I’ll skip Tasks, which is exactly what you think it is, uh, assigned tasks to folks.

Activity

Two options here –

  1. My activity – You, the learner
  2. My Team – If you are in a team, you can see the entire team’s learning – with lots of nice metrics.
Activity Options

Assess

Identifies the various “assessment” (my preference is validation) capabilities that are available to the learner. Again, this can be for all learners, just this learner, team, group, division, customers, and so forth, so that they will only see what you want them to see.

Member Directory

If used correctly it can be a very valuable resource for any learner. The directory allows folks to search by a specific name or team or even by expertise, which is to me, the key value takeaway, if you are doing coaching or mentoring.

You can specify the expertise, thus for example, if you wanted someone who is an expert in Marketing, you search by this filter and will pull up the ‘experts”.

By far to me, the most powerful feature on the learner side exists in their profile, which I wish was one of the visible options on the header bar, rather than where it is today – clicking on your profile.

While you can view all these details within the member directory, which is the big win here, as for yourself, and what are your metrics, and data info, currently it sits when you click your image on the header. It is not under “Profile/Preferences”

Profile Power

Overview of You

To me, this is the power of the learner side that is hidden, well, hard to find. Thus it needs to be more visible and prominent in the header, and heck even on every learner home page.

All the data you see above, exists in each profile on the system, dependent obviously on what is selected to be seen by the administrator.

Big wins

  • Coached By – Awesome, although at the present, I cannot click to learn more about the “Coach”. If I was doing a search in the member directory and came across folks, I may want to know more about Donna here, and just click her name, rather than having to search by her name.
  • Similar Expertise – Perfect. As skills are brought more into this, it would be great to see what expertise level by skills, for example, top three over 90% per se.
  • Expertise – Very clear. I surmise at some point, skills will be listed on the main page as well. Always remember that skills is not the same thing as expertise. You may have a graphic design skill, but that doesn’t mean you are an expert in image manipulation.

Other Capabilities

Other Learner Options

Please note there is no audio narration

Other Options a Learner can do in the system

Administration

Normally I would go thru an extensive administration review, but uh remember when I noted my hand injury?

Thus this admin side will be in a series of videos only.

Admin Dashboards

All the dashboards available as an administrator, plus creating a learner page dash

Other Admin Features

You can do quite a bit

Bottom Line

Learn Amp has come a long way. Each release gets better than the last. And while you can say, “Well, that is what every system does,” I can actually honestly tell you, that I have seen plenty that go in the wrong direction.

Thankfully, Learn Amp isn’t one such system.

They are headed in the right direction.

With a metric driven approach to learning acquisition that retains the keys to a successful impact. Results-oriented on all sides, learners and administrators and managers too.

It is a system that is complex enough, yet simple enough.

I know that sounds like an oxymoron.

But, with the Learn Amp system,

They have shown you can be both

And deliver it well.

E-Learning 24/7

Learn Amp is an ideal system for employees, but will work for customer education too.

Word of the Day: squalid

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Word of the Day: squalid

: filthy, run-down and repulsive, caused by neglect or poverty

_________

The word squalid has appeared in 90 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Dec. 15 in “Trapped at Home in the Pandemic With Mold and a Leaky Roof” by Winnie Hu and Nate Schweber:

Aida Corporan has avoided the coronavirus by hunkering down in her apartment at the Bailey Houses, a public housing complex in the Bronx.

But she cannot get away from the health threat inside her own home: mold.

Ms. Corporan, who suffers from artery and kidney problems, said heavy rains have leaked into her bathroom from her building’s dilapidated roof and left behind mold on the walls that cannot be scrubbed away.

… Public housing tenants routinely complain about squalid living conditions, including frequent hot water outages, broken elevators, lead paint and rats. The problems have worsened in recent decades as the housing authority has struggled to get adequate federal funding to maintain its more than 300 developments.

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

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try using multiple Words of the Day in a 50-word story that you submit to our Monthly Vocabulary Challenge.

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.

The Word of the Day has been provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column.

Film Club: ‘Love Factory’

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Film Club: ‘Love Factory’

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

“Love Factory” is a 13-minute film that touches on themes of fame, privacy, technology and the blurring between what is a real, authentic life and a what is a manufactured one.

In this week’s film, we enter the world of two livestreaming agencies in China whose work is to scout promising newcomers and mold them into high-earning stars. But what’s it like working for a company that engineers every aspect of your life — and then requires you to livestream it all day long?

What happens when all you show the world is a manufactured life?

Students

1. Watch the short film above. While you watch, you might take notes using our Film Club Double-Entry Journal (PDF) to help you remember specific moments.

2. After watching, think about these questions:

  • What questions do you still have?

  • What connections can you make between this film and your own life or experience? Why? Does this film remind you of anything else you’ve read or seen? If so, how and why?

3. An additional challenge | Respond to the essential question at the top of this post: In China, livestreaming your life is big business. What happens when all you show the world is a manufactured life?

4. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)

5. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.

Want More Film Club?

• See all the films in this series.

• Read our list of practical teaching ideas, along with responses from students and teachers, for how you can use these documentaries in the classroom.

Should We Cancel Student Debt?

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Should We Cancel Student Debt?

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

President Biden’s call to forgive $10,000 in student debt per borrower has reinvigorated a debate over the $1.7 trillion that Americans owe for student loans.

Do you believe that canceling some or all student debt is a matter of economic and racial justice? Or would it be unfair to those who have already paid off their loans, not to mention those who did not attend college at all?

In “Should Biden Cancel Student Debt?,” Spencer Bokat-Lindell examines arguments for and against canceling student debt:

Whenever I think about student loan debt, one of the first things I think about — besides my own — is a 2018 essay by my colleague M.H. Miller. As one of the 45 million Americans who collectively owe $1.71 trillion for student loans, Mr. Miller wrote about what it is like to have debt — more than $100,000 worth in his case — become the organizing principle of your life, to be incapacitated by it, suspended, at age 30, “in a state of perpetual childishness.”

A lot has changed since Mr. Miller wrote that essay. For one thing, the national student debt increased by a couple of hundred billion dollars. But the most striking difference is how quickly calls for the president to cancel that debt, a vast majority of which the federal government owns, have migrated from the margins to the center of the national policy debate, from a radical demand chanted by activists to a proposal championed by the top Democrat in the Senate.

Mr. Bokat-Lindell supplies two arguments for canceling student debt:

The economic injustice argument frames education as an investment that has increasingly become faulty or even fraudulent: Generations of Americans were told that a higher degree was the path to financial security and upward mobility. In recent decades, however, as administrative expenses ballooned and public education budgets were slashed, schools shifted their rising costs to students, causing tuition to skyrocket. Still, people held on to the promise that the investment would eventually break even — after all, the federal government was lending them the money to pay for it.

… The enlightened society argument frames higher education as a public good, much as it’s treated in other wealthy countries and as K-12 education is already treated in the United States: It should be free or cheap for all, financed by taxes that can be raised on the rich, and no one should have to go into debt to get it.

Mr. Bokat-Lindell also raises two arguments against student debt cancellation:

Skeptics of all these plans argue that there are better ways for the government to spend its money. First, debt cancellation of any kind is arguably unfair to borrowers who have already paid off their loans, raising the question of whether they would be owed reparations.

Second, mass cancellation “boosts the balance sheets of people who attended college while doing nothing for people who did not attend college, even though the latter is, on average, worse off in many respects,” as Mr. Bruenig writes. “If the government is going to sprinkle $1+ trillion of net worth onto household balance sheets, should it really do so in a way that leaves out those without college educations?”

In the Opinion essay “What Canceling Student Debt Would Do for the Racial Wealth Gap,” Naomi Zewde and Darrick Hamilton situate the debate about student debt cancellation within the history of discriminatory policies affecting Black Americans:

The 20th-century government programs that built and supported the white middle class were explicitly exclusionary, and that helped create a wealth gap in which the median white household has eight times the assets of the median Black family. Less wealth means that Black students, particularly Black women, take on more debt when they attempt to go to school.

The problem is compounded by employment and wage discrimination. Black families earn just 80 percent of what white families with the same education level do, and Black women earn just 63 cents on every dollar paid to white men with the same degree. So Black people need to obtain more credentials to obtain incomes equal to white people’s, and additional education costs them more because of the extra debt and accruing interest that lead many to struggle with repayment.

… But a full cancellation would provide the best outcome of all, and would protect young Black people who sought to use education as a tool for social mobility rather than punish them for pursuing the very credentials they need just to obtain the income of less-educated white people. Because Black graduates have more debt than their classmates, a full cancellation would even the playing field instead of leaving more Black graduates mired in the educational debt trap.

Students, read the first article, then tell us:

  • Should student loan debt be canceled? Do you support partial or full debt cancellation — or none at all? Why or why not?

  • Are you considering attending college? How has the possibility of taking on student debt influenced your decision-making, if at all?

  • Which of the arguments in favor of canceling student debt do you find most persuasive? Are you most swayed by the economic injustice argument, the enlightened society argument or the argument that student debt cancellation would begin to address the racial wealth gap? Why?

  • Which of the arguments against canceling student debt do you find most compelling? Is debt cancellation unfair to those who have paid off their loans? Do you think that it makes sense to make a major investment that leaves out those who do not attend college? Why?

  • Do you think that student debt cancellation is the right place to focus efforts on making higher education more affordable? Why or why not? What other reforms do you think would make a difference?

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.

How Has the Pandemic Changed Your Relationship to Your Body?

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How Has the Pandemic Changed Your Relationship to Your Body?

In “What Is a Ballet Body?” Gia Kourlas writes about how the pandemic has made many dancers rethink their relationship to weight:

Like many ballet dancers, Lauren Lovette has had some questions during the pandemic. One keeps rising to the top of her list. What is a ballet body? And a corollary: What does healthy look like? “Am I really working on being a better dancer?” Lovette said. “Or am I just trying to starve and get skinnier, so now I have the line?”

In ballet, line isn’t just about the body’s shape on a stage. It has to do with the body’s overall harmonious outline: how, from head to toe, limbs and torso create the illusion of continuous reach and length. Weight, with its bulk and bulges — including, yes, breasts — plays its part and can interfere with a seamless, sculptural quality.

For Lovette, a member of New York City Ballet since 2010, this pause from performance has brought some clarity. “I’m not going to be dancing at 94 pounds anymore,” she said. “That’s not going to be me.”

Since the pandemic began nearly a year ago, similar questions have been spinning in my mind: How can body image, a fraught topic for any female dancer, no matter her size, be a source of strength rather than agony? Could this pause in live performance be an opening for the aesthetic requirements of ballet — especially extreme thinness — to change?

Ballet is an elite art form. Certain physical attributes are necessary — good turnout, along with flexible ankles and feet — but there is no single standard. It really comes down to how a body moves through space: with dynamism, musicality and athleticism.

Ballet is subjective; what looks good, what becomes a kind of standard, is set by the company director — typically a man, and a white one at that. Many think that change is overdue. Benjamin Millepied, the former artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet who now leads the contemporary company L.A. Dance Project, said: “We’ve gone through a longtime trend of this idea of the skinny body, and I’m really against this. I want to see dancers who have their individuality.”

Before the pandemic, female dancers were embracing their athleticism by incorporating strength training into their regimen. While they seemed less frail — a good thing — the overall look of a ballet company remained Twiggy thin.

Right now, many dancers — like the rest of us — are living with slightly different bodies. Marika Molnar, a physical therapist and director of health and wellness at New York City Ballet, said she thinks the dancers she works with look great at the moment. “Maybe they’ve gained five pounds, but they look fantastic,” she said. “I don’t know how that’s going to translate onto the stage and a tutu, but they all look terrific now, very healthy.”

The article continues, examining the intersection of race and body image in dance:

Another thing that female bodies in ballet have historically been is white. For Black dancers, body image and racism are inextricably linked, and it’s about more than thinness. Black women especially have long dealt with stereotypes that they are too muscular, too athletic.

“We accept that the white body can be anything and everything,” said Theresa Ruth Howard, a former dancer who writes and speaks about equity in ballet. “For a white ballet dancer, physical shortcomings — bad feet, a little bit tight, a little bit turned in — they get to be that.”

Erica Lall, a member of American Ballet Theater, recalled that as a student in Texas, when she was 13 or 14, her mother was told in a meeting that she had bulging muscles. “I was just kind of like, how?” she said. Lall, who aptly described herself as a “string bean,” is naturally slim with a short torso and long legs — what many would consider an ideal ballet body.

Quarantine, along with the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer, gave her a chance “to think and feel what I hadn’t allowed myself to feel in the ballet world for a long time,” she said. “I was preventing myself from strengthening my quads and my hamstrings and even my rotator muscles, because I was worried that I would just bulge too much.”

She focused on building strength, realigning her body with Gyrotonic training. “You need those muscles,” she said.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

  • What is your reaction to the stories that the dancers shared? Did any of their experiences, revelations or insights resonate with anything you have thought about or felt during the pandemic?

  • How have sports, the arts, social media or your peers affected your perception of an “ideal” body type? What outside influences most affect your body image and your beliefs about what a body “should” or “could” look like?

  • How has the pandemic shifted your relationship to your body? Has your body changed at all during this time? Have you begun to think differently about your body? For example, do you pay less or more attention to how you feel physically? Do you feel grateful for your health or do you constantly worry about it? Do you feel less or more pressure to have a “perfect body” right now?

  • The article examines body image through the lenses of gender and race. What role do you think identity — race, gender, gender presentation, class, ability and so on — plays in body image? What kinds of bodies are typically celebrated in mainstream media and social media? What kinds of bodies are valued in the communities you belong to? How do these standards influence how you think about your body? Have you pushed back against them in any way?

  • How comfortable do you feel in your body? When do you feel most appreciative of your body? When does your body feel strongest and healthiest? What does having a positive relationship with your body look and feel like for you?

  • Have you heard, or are you a part, of the body positivity movement, which aims to accept and affirm bodies of all shapes and sizes? Do you feel like this mind-set could be helpful in your understanding, acceptance and appreciation of your own body?

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.

What’s Going On in This Picture? | March 22, 2021

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What’s Going On in This Picture? | March 22, 2021

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

1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:

2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)

3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.

Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.

4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?

Java vs. JavaScript: Which is right for you?

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Java vs. JavaScript: Which is right for you?

Java and JavaScript are two of the most popular programming languages. Because they both have “Java” in their names, you may think they’re related. But they’re actually very different.

As Brendan, a full-stack developer, shares in the video below, it’s kind of like the difference between donuts and Doritos. Both are snacks, and both start with “do,” but that’s where the similarities end. Brendan goes on to explain the differences between Java and JavaScript. He touches on their origins, defining features, applications, and associated career paths.

If you’re interested in learning more about the differences — or trying to figure out which is the best language to learn — watch the video or read on to learn more about whether Java or JavaScript is right for you.

Java vs. JavaScript: History and development

Let’s start at the beginning. Sun Microsystems first released Java in 1996. At first, they intended to implement Java into televisions to enable interactivity, but these plans fell through. Instead, Java found its niche in server-side programming — the invisible background workings of applications.

In 1995, Netscape created a programming language called Mocha. Later renamed JavaScript, Mocha was designed with simplicity in mind. Like CSS, it was meant to be embedded into a website’s HTML. But whereas CSS adds style, JavaScript adds interactivity.

Later, in response to the rising popularity of Internet Explorer (a major Netscape competitor), Netscape and Sun Microsystems struck a deal. Netscape offered Sun the opportunity to run Java apps in web browsers, which allowed them to benefit from the language’s popularity. In return, Netscape changed Mocha’s name to JavaScript.

Java vs. JavaScript: Differences and applications

Interested in learning a new programming language and not sure whether to start with Java or JavaScript?  In a conversation about this very topic in the Codecademy Forums, Codecademy learner LeChuck shares:

“It depends entirely on what you want to do.

In general, if you want to develop for the web then choose JavaScript. If you’re thinking you might like to make Android apps, then Java would be better.

What is it that you want to do with your programming knowledge? Answering that questions will likely steer your answer to which language(s) you want to learn…”

In this section, we’ll take a look at the applications of Java and JavaScript to help you figure out which one is best for you.

Java

Java is a statically typed programming language with rigid syntax around declaring variables. With Java, you have to specify the types of values you’ll be saving to a specific variable. Once you declare a variable as a particular type of data (like a String), it must remain such for its entire lifetime.

Java is also class-based. Classes serve as reusable templates to produce objects. Objects are data structures used to store information. When programming in Java, you’ll use classes and objects to model real-life situations in code. Here’s an example:

public class CheeseCurls {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println("Here's a bag of Cheese curls");
  }
}

As you can see, Java requires a lot of code, even for something as simple as printing out “Here’s a bag of Cheese curls.” First, we write the class declaration, illustrated by the first line of code in the example above. Within the class declaration, we create the main method, which is a method that automatically gets called when the code runs. Lastly, we specify what we want to happen.

Because of its capacity for stability and data handling, Java is used for:

  • Large-scale projects by big enterprises within the financial, trade, and automotive industries
  • Android app development
  • Back-end development
  • Scientific computing
  • Hardware and Internet of Things (e.g., Raspberry Pi, Sonos speakers, and Smart Refrigerators)

Java takes a while to learn, but its demand, versatility, and earning power speak to its value. You’ll also find that there’s a satisfaction that comes with building a big project from the ground up — especially when it’s your code that makes it all run smoothly.

If you’re interested in computer science or see yourself building the next hot Android app, learning Java is a great first step.

JavaScript

Maybe you’re more interested in building interactive websites or game development. In that case, you might be better off learning JavaScript.

JavaScript is a dynamically typed programming language with less rigid syntax around declaring variables. With JavaScript, you don’t have to specify what type of data you’re saving to a variable. You can also reassign variables to values with different data types.

Unlike Java, JavaScript is prototype-based and isn’t bound to a code pattern. Recent updates to JavaScript have enabled class construction, but it’s not a requirement. Here’s an example:

console.log("Here's a bag of Cheese curls");

With JavaScript, there’s no need to add classes or functions — you just write what you want to happen in one line.

Due to its lack of rigidity, JavaScript is easier to build and get off the ground. However, Java’s rigid structure is less prone to bugs. While it takes longer to get off the ground, it’s much more stable.

Known as “the language of the web,” JavaScript dominates web development. Its uses include front-end development and web-based projects. However, years of open-sourced development have led to huge libraries and APIs that can extend JavaScript’s capabilities.

While initially limited to the web browser, JavaScript’s recent breakout framework Node.js allows it to be used for back-end development, too. In a survey of professional developers, Stack Overflow found that over half of them use Node.js.

Even if you’re not looking for a new career, learning to code can still benefit you in your current position. One of our learners recently shared a post about how they were able to build a script to improve time management after only learning JavaScript for a couple weeks.

Getting started

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Learn 10 Commonly Confused Words With TikTok and The Times

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Learn 10 Commonly Confused Words With TikTok and The Times

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

Many of us, whether at school or in the workplace, puzzle over how to use commonly confused words like affect and effect, farther and further, and capitol and capital.

We were excited to discover that Claudine James, an English teacher who is a member of the first-ever class of The New York Times Teaching Project, has helped students tackle many of these tricky words through an engaging, accessible platform: TikTok.

Ms. James wanted to find a creative way to reach her students remotely during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I started posting grammar lessons on TikTok because my students who were virtual learners weren’t watching my YouTube videos,” she said. “I asked my students what would they like for me to do to get them to watch the videos, and their answer was TikTok. I started the account that day.”

Using the handle @iamthatenglishteacher, she brings the topics she covers with her eighth-grade English classes in Malvern, Ark., to a much wider audience. Her account now has more than one million followers.

We have paired five of Ms. James’s videos with examples of how commonly confused words have been used in The Times. We hope that this piece serves not only as a learning tool, but as a reminder to students that their English lessons can be relevant everywhere — from social media to The New York Times.

Use farther for describing physical distance and further for non-measurable or metaphorical distance or advancement.

You can see these words in action in the Upshot article “The Typical American Lives Only 18 Miles From Mom.” The writers Quoctrung Bui and Claire Cain Miller use further to describe points on the socioeconomic scale and farther to describe physical distance:

“It speaks to a class divide in the population,” Mr. Pollak said. “Particularly as you go further down the socioeconomic scale, people are living pretty close to their parents, and this means they’re able to provide help.”

Families live closest in the Northeast and the South, and farthest apart on the West Coast and in the Mountain States. Part of the reason is probably cultural — Western families have historically been the least rooted — but a large part is geographical: People live farther apart in rural areas.

Most of the time, affect is a verb and effect is a noun. Vocabulary.com explains the few exceptions.

In “Color Has a Powerful Effect on Behavior, Researchers Assert,” Lindsey Gruson uses effect as a noun to describe the impact of color on psychology, and affect as a verb to describe how mood influences health:

Color therapists themselves disagree about why and how color acts as they believe it does. Mr. Birren, who has concentrated on the psychological effects of color, said he does not believe those effects are directly physiological. As designers and interior decorators have discovered, color sets a mood; this in turn, Mr. Birren said, affects health because as many as half of modern man’s diseases may have a psychosomatic component.

The U.S. Capitol is the building where Congress meets, but a capital is the city that’s the seat, or location, of government. Capital also has a few other meanings, such as an uppercase letter.

In the article “By the People, for the People, but Not Necessarily Open to the People,” Emily Badger uses capital when talking about a city and capitol when talking about a building:

The seven-foot-tall metal fencing that has sealed the perimeter of the U.S. Capitol grounds and fortified the Supreme Court across the street is temporary. But it portends lasting change likely to come: In the capital city, there will be more hardening, more barriers, less openness, less access.

Use accept when something is being received. Use except when something is being left out.

In the Real Estate article “A Bed-Stuy Apartment: Well-Known Terrain,” Joyce Cohen uses accept to say that an apartment hunter received a new job, but uses except to exclude a period of time.

Except for her years in college and graduate school, Patrice Fenton always lived in Brooklyn.

… Last December, the family, which now included a daughter, Haile Masani, came home for the holidays. Ms. Fenton, her coursework done, accepted another job at the school where she had worked, Fort Greene Preparatory Academy. While they apartment-hunted, they stayed with Ms. Fenton’s parents in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

Use access when talking about the ability to enter or use something. Use excess to say there is too much or more than is necessary.

In “From Example to Excess in Silicon Valley,” Jenna Wortham uses access when talking about the ability to use the internet and excess to describe an over-the-top wedding:

Then there is Facebook. Over the last few years, the company has been accused of valuing profits over privacy and the public good. So last month, when its chief, Mark Zuckerberg, announced an effort called Internet.org to expand Web access in the developing world, some contended that the plan was motivated mainly by self-interest.

… If there was a single event this summer that symbolized the perceived excess of Silicon Valley, it was the wedding of Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster. He threw a multimillion-dollar “Lord of the Rings”-themed wedding in the redwoods of Big Sur, complete with a nine-foot-high cake and custom-made costumes for the attendees.

  • Which of these words do you already use correctly? Which are the most difficult? What strategies did you learn for remembering definitions for the most challenging words?

  • Do you think that TikTok is an effective way to teach short lessons about spelling and grammar? Do you plan to delve further into “GrammarTok?”

  • What other words do you frequently confuse? What topics do you hope Ms. James covers next?

Increasing Academic Performance Through Mark Withholding

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Increasing Academic Performance Through Mark Withholding

By Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel

I have recently published a paper (with co-author Paul Gardner) on the effects of temporary mark withholding on academic performance and feedback views in university students (1). Temporary mark withholding is a feedback strategy whereby on assignments students are provided with the feedback first without their marks – then, a few days later, the marks are released to them. The idea behind temporary mark withholding is to provide students with time to engage and process the feedback before releasing the grades. Students tend to focus on grades at the expense of written feedback – which may be detrimental to increasing future performance. The exciting part about our paper is that we report two experiments that we ran in authentic learning environments where students worked on credit-bearing assignments. Thus, the conclusions that we can draw from our findings are highly relevant for real-world learning settings. In this post, I give a brief overview of the paper highlighting the findings and practical implications.

 

What did we do?

The experiments were run at two Scottish universities. The first experiment involved second-year Psychology students who worked on a report in their first semester. Half of the cohort was randomly assigned to the Grade-before-feedback condition – receiving their grades three days before their feedback – and the other half was assigned to the Feedback-before-grade condition – receiving their feedback three days before their grades. We were interested whether this manipulation would affect a similar future assignment in the second semester.

The second experiment used a bit of a different approach. We assigned an entire student cohort of third-year Psychology students to the temporary mark withholding condition for their report assignment in semester 1 and measured their performance in a similar assignment in semester 2. However, it was important to have a control condition to compare any changes in performance between the two semesters to. We used a historical control for that purpose: As historical control we took the third-year students from the previous year who did not experience mark withholding (marks and individual feedback were released at the same time) and looked at their semester 1 to semester 2 report performance change. In addition to academic performance, we were also able to look at whether students viewed their feedback in semester 1 or not.

Looking Out

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Looking Out

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

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 article to learn more.

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.

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