This is a scene from a New York City block party, a tradition that goes back as far as the 1860s, in which residents across boroughs take to their streets with lawn chairs, pools, bouncy castles and tables full of food, to enjoy the summer together.
What kinds of parties or get-togethers does your neighborhood or community host? What do you like best about them?
Tell us in the comments, then take a look at the related photo essay that shows 65 block parties that took place this summer.
Find many more ways to use our Picture Prompt feature in this lesson plan. You can find all our Picture Prompts in this column.
The word galumph has appeared in five articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 7 in the exhibition review “T. Rex Like You Haven’t Seen Him: With Feathers” by Jason Farago:
Surprisingly cute in his youth, more intelligent than his peers, he eventually grew into a ruthless, bloodthirsty wrecker who made you want to run for your life. No, we’re not talking about a relationship gone wrong. This is a piece about tyrannosaurs, the undefeated bosses of the Cretaceous Period, stomping and chomping their way across earth’s northern supercontinent.
…. Though T. rex galumphed in what is now western North America, it has a New York pedigree, too; it was curators at this museum who first discovered this massive predator, and brought its bones from Hell Creek, Mont., to Central Park West. (“The prize fighter of antiquity,” tooted this newspaper when the skeleton first went on display in 1906.)
Are video games bad? Are they a negative force in society?
Until Eve Peyser began playing video games with her boyfriend, that’s what she thought:
When I reached my early college years and began to fancy myself an intellectual type, I adopted the familiar cerebral framework about why video games are bad: They’re culturally worthless and — while not the source of mass shootings, as conservatives argue — a drain on young men’s brains, maybe even their humanity, hobbling their ability to form real bonds.
But after she actually got the hang of how to play,she writes in her recent Op-Ed, she began to see video games in a completely different light:
It took a couple of months to crack me, but my view began to change with the first game my boyfriend persuaded me to play, Earth Defense Force: You get to be soldiers fighting aliens that look like massive bugs, horrific creatures dead set on total world invasion. They sprayed fatal toxins at us as we tried to kill as many of them as possible with guns and explosives.
Initially, I was terrible at it, hopelessly smashing the gazillion buttons on the controller. But for the first time, I was playing a video game with somebody who loved me, who wanted to teach me how it all worked. All so we could have more fun together. And we did.
My boyfriend’s gaming never actually put a strain on our relationship, but when I started playing with him, it went from being one of his boy hobbies I could never possibly understand to an experience we could share, something that highlighted why we worked so well together.
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
Are you a gamer? What do you like about playing video games?
If you’re not a gamer, why not?
Ms. Peyser used to think that video games were a “drain on young men’s brains” that hobbled “their ability to form real bonds.” What do you think? Do video games get in the way of forming real relationships? Or can they actually strengthen relationships and promote social interactions, like they did for Ms. Peyser? Have you ever had an experience where video games brought you closer to someone — or got in the way of a relationship?
By the end of her Op-Ed, Ms. Peyser argues that video games are “more stimulating than bingeing Netflix?” Do you agree? Are they “a whole new type of media” that even more of us should be exploring together?
Does gaming still have “a long way to go in connecting to women,” as Ms. Peyser writes? Ms. Peyser acknowledges the “problematic gender dynamics” in many video games, such as in Grand Theft Auto, but she was able to get past them simply because playing the game was so exciting. What’s your experience?
Students 13 and older 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.
Teachers: Register now to join our free webinar about teaching with photos — or watch it on demand. And if you love using “What’s Going On in This Picture?” with your students, please share your story. Email us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
Students
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?
• Want to make sure you never miss a photo? Add What’s Going On in This Picture? to your Google calendar to receive weekly reminders and see our full publishing schedule for the 2019-20 school year.
A recent Radio Times survey in the UK found that 18 per cent of participants had feigned illness (AKA chucked a sickie) to binge-watch TV. But besides leading you to skip work or study, is it actually bad for you?
We all know that being sedentary for too long is risky. So it should come as no surprise that doing so for an entire TV series carries the same dangers.
In fact, watching too much TV isn’t just bad for your health — it has a negative impact on just about everything.
Lynch, also a Principal Fellow in the Cancer Epidemiology Division of the Cancer Council, completed a PhD exploring the link between TV viewing time and its relation to health outcomes, specifically for people who have certain types of cancers.
“Over time, we saw that watching higher levels of TV correlated with a lower quality of life, looking at a range of different domains, including physical, social, emotional and functional wellbeing.” she says.
So, what counts as sedentary behaviour?
The technical definition of being sedentary is any seated or reclining behaviour that uses low-energy expenditure. So sadly, binge-watching TV sitting or lying prone on the couch definitely counts. And so does sitting and studying for long periods of time.
“It’s really when you’re sitting down very still and not doing anything particularly strenuous, like sitting at your computer typing, or watching television or Netflix on your device.”
“There’s also degrees of energy expenditure within this range—sitting up nice and straight typing at work is less sedentary than lying back on the bed with a laptop watching a show.”
Can you offset being sedentary with exercise?
Good news. The answer to this one is a resounding yes.
“There is evidence that suggests you can offset the harm of sitting if you’re doing a lot of exercise every day,” Lynch notes.
Get ready to ramp up your exercise quotient though.
“We’re talking over an hour a day of exercise, and we’re struggling to get most people to do 30 minutes at the moment,” she qualifies.
For those averse to the gym, brisk walking or cycling will count though.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be running or HIIT,” Lynch says.
The exercise can also be cumulative—so grab exercise breaks where you can.
“In the past there was this idea that you had to be exercising for at least 10 minutes before it counted, but we’ve learned that it doesn’t actually matter for a lot of health outcomes,” Lynch explains.
“There are benefits regardless of how you accumulate your exercise, whether it’s in one long block where you go for a walk or a run after work. But if you can’t do that, exercise in short bouts by going up and down the stairs at work throughout the day. That all counts and adds up too.”
Strategies for breaking up a Netflix session
Lynch, who confesses to occasionally binge-watching TV herself (“we all have our guilty pleasures—I just finished watching Killing Eve”) offers suggestions for moving us out of the danger zone.
“Like most things in life, it’s about moderation,” she says.
“On a cold rainy day, it’s nice to sit in and watch a great series, but it’s not something I do every day—it’s a weekend thing—and something I’ll do after going for a run in the morning.”
“If people are having those weekend binge-watching sessions, rather than stay snuggled on the couch for hours at a time, try to take those standing breaks every half an hour,” Lynch says.
“Hit pause, get up, make a cup of tea—anything to stand up and get moving for a minute or two before you watch again.”
For other types of sedentary behaviour, Lynch’s key tips also boil down to ramping up activity.
“Some of it is just getting into new habits, like when you’re using public transport,” Lynch says.
“It’s tempting to grab the last seat, but standing up reduces your cumulative sitting, especially if you’re sitting for most of the day. My other suggestions are things like not having waste-paper baskets under your desk, using apps or timers to set up a half-hour prompt to remind you to take a standing break.”
If you’re keen to take a break from binge-watching Netflix, but aren’t quite in the mood to take a walk, why not spend some time exploring courses from leading Australian universities?
OUA offers hundreds of courses, all of which are available to study online. You might just find something that inspires you to get out of the house and chase your dreams.
Author: Fiona Reay, Development Partnership Lead at FutureLearn
Alongside some of our Australian partners, FutureLearn attended the inaugural Times Higher Education Australian Universities Summit at The University of Sydney to learn more about securing a sustainable future for higher education and research. Here, Fiona Reay, Partnership Development Lead, unpacks three of the top talks that sparked discussion around recruitment, industry collaboration and contract cheating.
A call-to-arms to improve Australian university & industry collaboration
One of the main takeaways from the panel session at the THE Australian Universities Summit was that Australia remains relatively inexperienced in commercialising intellectual property that stems from the university sector, and needs to reposition its view to building longer-term relationships rather than pure transactions. While Australia ranks 23rd out of 35 OECD countries for industry engagement (and research and development spend appears to be tracking backwards), there are plenty of opportunities to bolster both discovery-led and mission-led collaborations.
There have been recent success stories in the burgeoning Australian space and robotics industries. For example, the University of Sydney is one of only four Microsoft quantum computing academies in the world with its Sydney Nanoscience Hub. The airline, Qantas, recently worked with the Charles Perkins Health Centre at the university on the nutrition science of non-stop flights to London and how this would affect both passengers and crew. And Rio Tinto, the global mining group, developed new innovations with robotics in automated docks and mines with university research.
Two key recommendations from the panel, to improve collaboration between Australian universities and industry were firstly to minimise ‘university speak’ and instead focus on sharp capabilities summaries, and secondly, to visibly open up the university to the public through glass-fronted “showcase windows” in high-traffic areas, and provide better digital maps, and driving instructions, so people can efficiently work out where they need to get to; the old campus map is not always fit for today’s modern world of Ubers and busy schedules and can result in lost CEOs trying to find the correct meeting room!
There are clear benefits of better collaboration. Researchers get to work on great questions and help to solve real-world problems from NGOs or industry partners, and it can create a better sense of community and wider engagement in society as a whole for the university. The Times Higher Education panel also reminded university leaders that even by releasing their intellectual property, by way of course content, to outside commercial organisations, they would likely see the return in the longer-term with future endowments and PR opportunities, whilst also seeing their research and ideas make an impact on the world.
How can Australia remain competitive in international recruitment?
Three main ways the conference speakers suggested for Australian universities to remain competitive in international recruitment included promoting the quality of the student experience, strong employability outcomes, and building global connections.
Promoting the quality and modern student experience
Peter Varghese, Chancellor of The University of Queensland, reiterated Australian education’s reputation for quality and its forward-thinking student experience that prepares people for life-long learning, as it instills critical-thinking and entrepreneurship skills from the get-go. He highlighted the risk that the university business model is addicted to growth. He suggested revenue pathways will need to come from different source markets like India and Indonesia to diversify from the current reliance on Chinese student intakes. (UQ currently only gets a third of its budget from government funding.)
Strong employability outcomes
Alumni and word-of-mouth recommendations make a big difference for the reputation of Australian universities. Employability will always remain pivotal to international recruitment, and overseas students need their university experience, with real industry engagement and practical case studies, to be viable back home.
Building global connection
Today’s student expects to become a global citizen and 40% of University of Sydney domestic students speak another language at home, so they are trying to use this to their advantage.Tania Rhodes-Taylor, VP External Relations at The University of Sydney,recommended universities build the social aspects and inter-connectivity amongst their communities so people can learn from each others’ experiences. While universities worldwide are scaling up, Australia needs to invest in pedagogies to make ‘truly international experiences’ on campus and online. This requires leading from the front with strong cross-cultural competency in educators. Scaling ways to engineer social connection into the student experience is crucial, and if universities don’t, Rhodes-Taylor warned there is a real risk they are failing to prepare their students for the modern world.
Research on cheating from Turnitin & UNSW
The current trend of suggesting 6% of assessments are fraudulent shows its under-reported nature, as double that (12% of students) admit to cheating. While two out of three teachers know an assessment may not be a genuine submission, only 7% reported it as half of them believe it’s impossible to prove. Cath Ellis, Associate Dean (Education) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), called on the sector to work better as a community to reduce widespread cheating, and for universities themselves to provide more feedback to technology providers to improve our assessment tools. Specific recommendations from Ellis included placing guidance and warning messages throughout the assessment process, screening for ‘copy and paste’ style patterns or indeed different formatting patterns on a submission, and for course directors to talk to a student in the first instance of suspected cheating rather than feeling they need to make a formal allegation. Early intervention and informal discussion can go a long way in modelling the desired behaviour.
The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) represents technologists, academics, designers, researchers and policy makers from many organisations and sectors across the UK. All members have an interest in learning technology. ALT-C is the annual conference which is attended by around 500 members and has an impressive attendee to presenter ratio of about 2:1.
Like all conferences, there were plenty of chances to interact with practitioners and vendors, discover small projects, and be inspired. In this piece, I wanted to share some insights that arose around data and learning analytics and highlight some of the key platforms and tools on show.
Data and Learning Analytics
This year’s theme was Data, Dialogue & Doing and my goal was to discover more about what the sector is doing in the space of data and learning analytics. From the many sessions I attended, several related themes arose from the use of data and/or learning analytics – but to start, a quick definition taken from JISC:
“Every time a student interacts with their university – be that going to the library, logging into their virtual learning environment or submitting assessments online – they leave behind a digital footprint. Learning analytics is the process of using this data to improve learning and teaching.”
This is important; the field of learning analytics, and as the use of data grows, it can mean different things to many individuals. While broadly there is consensus, the minutiae of what analytics means, and how it can be used is still somewhat debated. This wasn’t the theme of the conference, but it was evident that the field is still emerging based on a variety of factors.
Predictors and indicators
The idea of using data to provide a dashboard or traffic light system to show students ‘at risk’ is still emerging and immature. There remains this goal (or unfilled potential) for learning analytics that it should be used to provide some level of support for students who may become lost in the system or drop-out. The goals of a predictor or indicator is to use data, interpreted by algorithms, and then into a human-readable format.
However, at this stage the data collected is not comprehensive because courses are not consistent. There is no design standard that can be used to model data-driven outputs for 100% accurate reporting. Therefore the indicators themselves are missing several important factors to make them reliable for reporting or offering any kind of comprehensive window into student’s learning or progress.
Humanising data
There was a strong call from different sessions that we should remain critical of our increasingly data-driven world. The use of analytics as a measurement for human performance needs to be scrutinised. Much like an individual who can’t take out a financial loan because the bank’s computer has decided ‘no’, we must also be sure that a human can intervene when the learning system shows a learner at risk. Learning is one of the most complex processes and set of actions that humans can take. Therefore; it’s highly risky to draw conclusions from data alone.
There is value, however, when using data to make more informed decisions on which students may be more likely to need support. How the data is used, and the impact it can have is one that remains an open part of the dabate. A clear example came out of a session on improving student feedback at scale – using data-informed approaches but still being linked to learning design, educator support and personalised learning:
OnTask is a platform to send customised, personalised, emails to students based on data. The tool creates emails to send in bulk but includes segments of feedback based on logical decisions derived from both the course data and supporting feedback that educators want to send to their students. This may be based on participation, activities, assessments, content consumption, group work activity and more – broadly whatever data is collected can then be linked to the design and support from the course team. We’re exploring this tool and how it may be used to support FutureLearn learners.
There were several talks on using data which may be based on poorly, or non-existent learning designs. When there is unreliable or unstructured data, the resulting collection, or use of this data results in very poor capabilities for data-driven decisions and insight. While it’s more prevalent in blended and on-campus courses, it was recognised as a key challenge for organisations and their use of data generated by the platforms they use.
Student spaces
In addition, it was widely recognised that learners are in three spaces;
Institutional: the official and recognised tools and platforms as a part of student’s studies. Usually includes the VLE/LMS and other academic and scholarly platforms.
Personal: tools and platforms each student uses for their studies, could include social media, office tools, websites and physical technologies.
Invisible:more likely to include social media, informal learning environments and groups where content is shared and discussions take place.
Of these three spaces, only the institutional space is able to generate data that can be used for any kind of analytics. Students are active in all three spaces, each to a different amount. This reason alone is why it’s no easy challenge for the use of data in supporting students and using analytics to predict and support learning outcomes and success.
Stakeholder engagement
There are many stakeholders when it comes to data and according to a comprehensive EU-wide research project they have somewhat disjointed priorities:
Managers: improve student performance, teaching excellence, student satisfaction and retention.
Teachers: support students in self-regulated learning, make better decisions, student engagement and Program-level overall quality enhancement.
Students: personalised support, improved feedback and resource access
There were many other themes at the conference but with a focus on data and learning analytics, I focused, at least in this write-up, on the above themes as the core outcomes / takeaways. Data-driven innovation in education continues to show a need for further dialogue around the direction of data and learning analytics. From a FutureLearn perspective, my takeaways are to look at how we can use data to help our partners deliver on their KPIs and also to support learners in achieving their goals and outcomes.
As economic pressures prevent young couples from being able to afford marriage ceremonies, powerful benefactors have stepped in to sponsor mass weddings. What’s in it for them?
In this lesson, students consider the various factors that motivate groups to sponsor, and people to participate in, mass weddings.
Warm Up
Hosting a wedding can be costly — often too expensive for a young couple just getting started. In a growing social phenomenon across the Middle East, powerful benefactors have stepped in to sponsor large-scale ceremonies to make sure that young people get married.
What do you think might be the benefits and disadvantages for a young couple thinking about participating in a wedding ceremony that might include as many as dozens, hundreds or even thousands of couples? Make a list.
Now consider, what might motivate a group, organization or country to spend thousands, or even millions, of dollars sponsoring a mass wedding?
Questions for Writing and Discussion
Read the article, then answer the following questions:
1. The article explains how mass weddings are a growing social phenomenon, not just in Lebanon but across the Middle East. According to the article, why do many couples choose to take part in these mass weddings?
2. In general, what are reasons benefactors across the Middle East are paying for these mass weddings, and even giving the newlyweds monetary gifts?
3. What is it about the specific religious and ethnic makeup of Lebanon’s population that gives rise to benefactors there being willing to pay for mass weddings?
4. Not every couple is eligible to participate in a mass wedding. What are some of the requirements discussed in the article for the various groups sponsoring these weddings?
5. What is your reaction to this article and to the idea of a mass wedding?
Going Further
Revisit the first list you made in the warm up. What other pros and cons for participating in a mass wedding can you add to your list?
Now watch both of these one-minute videos of mass weddings discussed in the article:
In his new book, “Coders,” the longtime Wired magazine writer Clive Thompson works to describe those humans and exactly what their hands do. With an anthropologist’s eye, he outlines their different personality traits, their history and cultural touchstones. He explores how they live, what motivates them and what they fight about. By breaking down what the actual work of coding looks like — often pretty simple, rote, done in teams rather than by loner geniuses — he removes the mystery and brings it into the legible world for the rest of us to debate. Human beings and their foibles are the reason the internet is how it is — for better and often, as this book shows, for worse.
… Coders themselves like to buttress the idea that some among them are magical. There is the notion of a 10x coder, a genius who can do the work of 10. One of those famous in Silicon Valley is Max Levchin, who built PayPal. Thompson describes the brutal hours it took Levchin to build something that never existed before, the work and obsession it required to make a thing that now seems obvious. “Empyrean feats of coderly productivity,” he calls it.
