The number of new coronavirus cases in the United States is surging once again after growth slowed in late summer. While the geography of the pandemic is now shifting to the Midwest and to more rural areas, cases are trending upward in most states, many of which are setting weekly records for new cases.
In your opinion, should the United States do more to bring this current surge down? If so, what? How has your area handled the pandemic? What are you and your family and friends doing to protect yourselves and others?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article and check out the graphs that can help explain what’s happening now.
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.
The word voluble has appeared in 37 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on May 7 in the movie review “‘How to Build a Girl’ Review: Write On” by Jeannette Catsoulis:
Bursting at the seams with plot and patter, Coky Giedroyc’s coming-of-age comedy, “How to Build a Girl,” gives you a whole lot for your money. Sometimes almost too much: This brisk, breathless story of a socially inept high schooler in the 1990s who finds notoriety as a rock critic (adapted by Caitlin Moran from her semi-autobiographical novel) has so many peaks and valleys that on paper it would look like Joe Exotic’s polygraph.
It’s just as well, then, that it stars the supremely game Beanie Feldstein (playing a more mettlesome version of her “Booksmart” character) as Johanna, 16, an aspiring writer who craves being cool. Voluble and nerdy, Johanna lives in council-housing ignominy in the British Midlands with a feckless father (an overlooked Paddy Considine), a postnatally depressed mother (Sarah Solemani) and a mess of brothers. Constantly stirring a caldron of wants, Johanna has little going for her except cheek, ambition and — crucially — a vocabulary.
Think of a task you have to do: perhaps study for a test, practice the guitar, clean your room — or complete this writing prompt.
Is it easy for you to stay focused and concentrate, or does your mind drift and wander? Do you quickly begin to daydream, check your social media feed, think about a snack or the news? Are you distracted by constant dings and alerts from your phone or the sound of your siblings arguing in the background? In short, do you find yourself thinking about everything but the task at hand?
Do you wish you could improve your focus and learn to avoid distractions? If so, you are not alone.
The average person’s mind wanders 47 percent of the time, according to a 2010 Harvard study, so nearly half the time you’re doing one thing, you’re thinking about something else. Add the 24-hour news cycle, the barrage of social media and the countless distractions for those working from their bedrooms, backyards and walk-in closets — a number that has more than quadrupled from 8.2 percent in February 2020 to 35.2 percent in May 2020, according to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas — and it’s no surprise that people are struggling to focus.
“Some would argue that human attention, not money, is the most valuable commodity there is,” said Angela Duckworth, the author of “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance,” and the founder and scientific director of Character Lab, a nonprofit that connects researchers with educators. “It’s the ultimate scarce resource.”
Ms. Osten Gerszberg presents several techniques to cultivate and improve focus and to learn to ignore distractions. Here are three excerpts:
Disengage from distractions
For at-home workers struggling with distraction, a recent survey revealed that social media is the leading cause — many reported wasting up to two hours a day — with children coming in second.
You can reduce those distracting dings, tweets and rings coming from your social media feeds, emails and text messages by simply turning off the notifications. That’s right, just turn them off.
If that feels radical, you can attempt turning away from technology using self-control, but as Dr. Duckworth said, “willpower is a limiting resource, it’s unpleasant and we’re not willing to do it for very long, so the best thing to do is create a situation where it’s just harder to be distracted.” In her research on self-control in teenagers, data showed that the farther away students placed their phone while studying, the higher their grades. “If you’re trying to control your attention, don’t just try to do it with willpower,” she said. “You literally need to hack your physical space.”
When your focus wanes and you feel the urge to online shop or grab a game of 2048, there are tech tools to prevent your giving in. The Freedom app blocks websites from your computer and smartphone; Forest has you set a timer encircling the image of a tree; if you pick up your phone before the time is completed, the tree withers and dies.
Exercise
Allotting time for exercise is a proven way to improve focus, memory and productivity. A British study found that workers experienced a 21 percent increase in concentration and a 41 percent increase in motivation on the days they worked out.
Check in with yourself
The state of the world is enough to fog anyone’s brain. “The reason we lose focus most of the time is because we are looking to escape some kind of discomfort, such as stress, anxiety, loneliness or boredom,” said Nir Eyal, the author of the book “Indistractable.” If watching or reading the news increases your anxiety, limit the time you spend doing it. If you feel lonely or disconnected, schedule time in your day to speak with family or friends. If you’re bored, take a break and pursue a new hobby.
Mindfulness meditation involves paying attention to the present moment — your thoughts, emotions and sensations — whatever is happening. Research has shown that mindfulness practices improve working memory and focus, training the mind to let go of distractions. “The digital world has been engineered for distraction, and with quick hits from social media, we don’t see how unrewarding these distractions are,” said Judson Brewer, the director of research and innovation at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center and associate professor of psychiatry at the university’s medical school. Dr. Brewer suggests experimenting by leaving on all your phone’s dings and tweets for 20 minutes and asking yourself: “How focused can I get? What does it feel like?” Then turn off all the notification sounds for 20 minutes and ask the same questions.
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
How well can you concentrate when you have a task to do? Do you find yourself easily distracted?
If you struggle with focus and attention, how big a problem is it for you? How does it affect your life and your performance in school? Tell us about a specific time you couldn’t focus on an important task at hand, along with any repercussions. What do you think were the causes of your distraction?
If you are able to focus well, does it come naturally to you? Or did you have to work at it? Tell us any strategies that you use to concentrate effectively.
What do you think about Ms. Osten Gerszberg’s advice? Which of the strategies that she recommends — like reducing those distracting dings, tweets and rings coming from your social media feeds or placing your phone at a far distance — are you most likely to try? Why? Are there any other strategies you have used to reduce distractions?
Dr. Duckworth says, “Some would argue that human attention, not money, is the most valuable commodity there is.” Do you agree? How important is the ability to focus for you? What aspects of your life might be different if you had a greater ability to focus?
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.
By Shwetabh Mittal, Senior Director, Product Management
The great lockdown caused by COVID-19 has accelerated the need for digital skills. Companies are reallocating their digital talent to stay competitive and dedicating more time and resources to helping their employees learn about digital technologies. The pandemic has had an even bigger impact on higher education: around 1.6 billion learners have been affected by school and campus closures. The growth of enrollments in online learning has gone up by 644 percent.
COVID-19 is severely affecting the way our jobs are evolving, and it’s estimated that 149 million new digital jobs will be created within the next five years. The majority will be software development, cloud technology, data analysis, machine learning, and AI. Many workers now worry they lack the skills that will be most sought after when the economy starts back up. It’s our goal to enhance the Coursera platform in response and cater to the most in-demand skills.
We recently touched on this in our Q3 update, where we explored the current skills landscape and how our latest content and product features will help you improve both skill development and measurement. Read on for all the details.
The current skills landscape: The backbone of the Fourth Industrial Revolution remains strong
At Coursera, we constantly analyze the data we get from our 70 million learners in more than 60 countries and match them to around 40,000 tagged skills. We use the insights we learn to help guide our customers and adapt our platform to reflect the skills landscape.
In our latest Global Skills Index, we found that industries with higher skill proficiencies, especially in technology, are seeing higher stock returns and less disruption from COVID-19. Investment in skills is crucial to remain relevant in today’s environment.
The most popular areas on Coursera are still data science, business, and technology – the backbone of the fourth industrial revolution. Python remains the number one skill, while there’s an increase in HTML, CSS, other web technologies, and the Internet of Things. On the data side, Microsoft Excel and SQL are on the rise. We’re seeing a decrease in general statistics, TensorFlow, and R programming because companies are increasingly focusing on basic data analysis. Finally, business skills that are going up are communication skills like negotiation and writing, and managing a supply chain. At the same time, Excel, project management, and leadership continue to dominate the top.
For a deeper dive into talent transformation, download our Essential Skills Playbook as well as the Global Skills Index, and contact us to learn more about Coursera’s enterprise learning platform.
New content launches to drive skills development
We now have more than 4,500 courses on our platform, and four new ones launch every day. Our focus is on the most critical skills, and we are monitoring emerging and trending skills all the time.
On the business side, for example, we’re investing in remote work, data-driven decision-making, and automation. In data science, we have a great data literacy course coming up, and in tech we’ll be expanding content in particular in cybersecurity and web development, covering the ever-evolving landscape of tools and programming languages. We’re also increasing our cloud computing content with a particular focus on certification prep, AWS, and Azure.
Here’s a quick overview of a few recent content launches:
By the end of 2020, we’ll have about 1,000 Guided Projects – hands-on learning experiences designed to be completed in less than two hours – on our platform.
Introducing SkillSets, an intuitive way to build critical learning plans
In our conversations with companies about upskilling their employees, we’ve heard about four main challenges: it can be hard to build a learning plan that accurately reflects their needs, to find the right content and make it easily accessible, to maintain a high level of engagement after launch and foster a culture of learning, and finally to measure the value or ROI to know whether the program was successful.
To help you solve these challenges, we’ve created a new exciting Coursera feature called SkillSets – job-based learning programs that build critical skills proficiency.
SkillSets, currently in beta, enable learners and their employers to discover the future skills they need by role. Select from over 100 pre-made SkillSets that help develop critical and evergreen skills for key roles in your organization, so you can reskill and upskill team members efficiently. Alternatively, simply customize SkillSets or create them from scratch.
This new SkillSets functionality is live on the Data Science, Cloud, and Software Engineering academies, with Leadership, Marketing, and Finance coming soon. To participate in the beta program, just talk to your customer success manager, and we’ll help you get set up.
Streamlined Guided Projects authoring
We’ve also made it easier for businesses and universities to create their own Guided Projects. These are great opportunities for learners to practice their skills right in the browser. They don’t need to set up anything and just follow visual instructions in real-time.
The authoring experience has recently been improved to be much more seamless and intuitive for enterprise subject matter experts to tailor projects to their organization’s needs with minimal effort.
Making the most out of Guided Projects drives deeper mastery of the material and ensures learners really understand how they can apply their new skills within the context of the organization.
If you are interested in trying out our improved Guided Projects authoring, contact your Customer Success Manager for access.
Transformative skills-first learning
Our latest enhancements to the Coursera platform will help you improve both skill development and measurement. Whether you’re looking to reskill or upskill your team, we’re giving you the tools to discover the content you need to achieve your learning goals, so you no longer need to worry about what the constantly evolving business landscape means for your organization. Our skills-first experience motivates learners and helps them boost their skills, while managers can ensure it’s tailored to their organization, plan learning objectives, and measure progress.
The world is going through constant change and disruption, which has resulted in a challenging transition for millions of workers. The good news is that online learning is easier and ever before. We’re excited about helping you plan for the skills of tomorrow, develop cutting-edge skills to stay competitive, and hire candidates with the right skill.
To find out more about SkillSets, the streamlined Guided Projects authoring process, and everything else that’s now, watch our quarterly release webinar. Happy learning!
By Leah Belsky, Chief Enterprise Officer, Coursera
Coursera’s enterprise learning platform is now available for purchase in Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace. Starting today, technical teams using Amazon Web Services (AWS) can easily search and deploy online learning for their organizations using Coursera. Coursera’s robust enterprise offering includes access to courses from the world’s leading university and industry educators as well as an unmatched technology platform to manage skills development and derive insights.
Being listed in the AWS Marketplace, which streamlines adoption of online learning, makes it easier for companies to take advantage of Coursera’s world-class online learning offerings and align learning and business goals for improved outcomes.
Accelerated digital transformation caused by the global pandemic has only heightened demand for reskilling in critical business, technology, and data science skills. Coursera’s 2020 Global Skills Index found that organizations effectively navigating COVID-19 are prioritizing training their workforces in critical technology and data science skills.
Coursera equips thousands of leading organizations like Novartis, Capgemini, and Exelon with high-quality content and insights to drive lasting skills development. Our catalog of 4,300 courses taught by world-class educators like Yale University, AWS, and Google teach a range of job-relevant skills, including cloud computing, Python, neural networks, and web development. We also offer job-based learning programs for technical functions and teams like the Data Science, Cloud, and Software Engineering Academies.
We are grateful to AWS Marketplace for collaborating with Coursera to help organizations reskill their workforce for a competitive future.
Coursera’s enterprise offering can be purchased directly on AWS Marketplace here. Learn more about Coursera for Business here.
“My name is Rose-Carlette Aurélien. I’m a medical technologist. I’ve been working in medical laboratories since 2013. I like to read and to acquire knowledge.”
How did you learn about Alison?
I learned about Alison online.
What was your first course on Alison, and why did you choose it?
What’s next for you, in terms of education or work?
I would like to study for a master’s in Health Science.
If you could learn absolutely anything in the world from an Alison course, what would it be?
It would be how to treat people who are suicidal or violent.
What would you say to someone if they asked you about Alison? Would you recommend it and why?
I have already recommended Alison to many friends. I told them that Alison is very interesting and helpful and that they could learn many things from it. Alison is known all over the world and has a good reputation. People who got a diploma or a certificate from Alison will be able to work anywhere.
“My name is Aurelia Faustina S. I am a college student with good communication skills in English. However, I wanted to teach non-native speakers English and hence I thought learning an extra language would help me towards my goal. I heard about the various courses Alison offered and so I started learning French with Alison.”
What was your first course on Alison, and why did you choose it?
“My name is Sarah Gyenge. I’m a health care assistant. I’ve worked in hospitals, care and nursing homes, and in mental health. I have National Vocational Qualifications in a number of areas, including Health and Social Care. I have Diplomas in Care and Nursing, End of Life Therapy, First Aid and Primary Nursing. At present, I do voluntary work at my local hospital doing ward work and end of life care.”
How did you learn about Alison?
I learned about Alison through facebook. My first courses were in health care.
What’s your favourite way to relax from studying?
I enjoy drawing, writing and gardening.
Where are you working and what are you studying now?
I’m doing my voluntary work at the hospital and also doing my End of Life training.
What’s next for you, in terms of education or work?
I’d like to do more care courses to help me with my job as a health care assistant.
If you could learn absolutely anything in the world from an Alison course, what would it be?
Note, APA now has two separate title page formats: one for students and one for professionals. These templates reflect the format for students. For professional papers, a running head needs to be added (though the first page does not need to say “Running head” anymore… thank goodness!) as well as an author note.
When creating the reference page, you can have Microsoft Word create the hanging first line for you. I explain in the reference section, but below is a screenshot showing you how to do this (taken from my mac).
“The Lonely Goalkeeper” is a four-minute film that touches on themes of competition, fear and self-belief. It profiles the British soccer legend Bob Wilson as he reflects on the “desperate courage” required to be a goalie.
What makes you feel most alone? Have you ever felt alone when you were with others? Are you surprised that a professional athlete would describe their job as lonely?
What gives you strength to withstand feelings of loneliness?
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: Have you ever felt all alone — even when you were with others?
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.
Is there any lonelier position in sports than goalie?
In the film above, the legendary goalkeeper Bob Wilson reflects on the “desperate courage” required to serve as the last resort against an onslaught of unpredictable shots from his opponents. Originally a teacher who played as an amateur, Wilson moved up to professional soccer later than his peers — but spent 1963 to 1974 playing for Arsenal, a storied club in the English Premier League. In 1971, Arsenal honored him with player of the year following the historic season when it won both the league title and the FA Cup. He ranks among their 50 greatest players.
As Premier League clubs compete in empty stadiums this summer after a 100-day pause, Wilson’s memories take on new resonance. They remind us that even though their work is often undersung, those on the last line of defense can be the greatest heroes of all.
• Read our list of practical teaching ideas, along with responses from students and teachers, for how you can use these documentaries in the classroom.
