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Word + Quiz: appliqué

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Word + Quiz: appliqué

noun: a decorative design made of one material sewn over another

verb: sew on as a decoration

_________

The word appliqué has appeared in 36 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Dec. 5 in “In Ireland, Making Lace for the Love of It” by Sandra Jordan:

To make the veil, Ms. Daly tacked a paper pattern onto a layer of organdy and a layer of net, the veil’s body. To outline flowers and leaves, she used an appliqué technique, holding a cotton thread in place on the patterns and sewing tiny, close stitches across it, through the entire paper-fabric sandwich. She then selected from among the 15 stitches used by Carrickmacross makers to fill in the outlines.

Finally, Ms. Daly carefully cut away the paper pattern and any unwanted organdy, revealing the design on the net.

Knowing her lace, Rebecca also had requested some guipure openwork. That involved cutting the net out of the center of an appliquéd outline and creating a delicate lattice of stitches across the gap so there was, as Ms. Daly said, “nothing in between them but daylight.”

_________

Where Would You Visit To Find Out More About Your Family’s Past?

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Where Would You Visit To Find Out More About Your Family’s Past?

Have you ever traveled to the places where your ancestors were originally from? Have you ever dreamed of doing so? What would you want to see, find or learn from such a trip?

What do you already know about your family’s heritage? Do you feel connected to your ancestral roots? Or do you feel distant or cut off from them?

In “The Trip I Hope All African-Americans Can Take,” Mercedes Bent writes about a trip she took to West Africa to learn more about her ancestral heritage:

At a naming ceremony in the home of my host family in Lagos, Nigeria, I wore brightly colored traditional clothing — a long, rectangular skirt tied tightly around my waist and an off-the-shoulder top with short, flared cuffs, all in a pink ankara pattern with a matching head wrap.

“Please stand,” said my host, who had graciously offered to tailor the ceremony — which is normally performed for babies — for me, her adult visitor from the United States. “I hereby give you the name Esosa; it means ‘God’s gift.’ You are now Esosa Oloke. Welcome to the family. You will always have a family here in Nigeria.”

I felt a surge of gratitude and belonging. For the first time in my life, I felt deeply connected to the African continent and to the people who live there.

The ceremony concluded a 10-day trip to Nigeria and Ghana this year, Ghana’s Year of the Return, that I organized for friends and classmates. To commemorate the 400-year anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to English North America in 1619, President Nana Akufo-Addo has encouraged descendants of Africans who were enslaved in the Americas to return to the country.

But my idea for a heritage-focused trip had been in the making for over a decade. The seeds were planted during my freshman year of college. At the first meeting of the Association of Black Harvard Women, several of the people who introduced themselves had names with African origins. I still remember my classmate Adora Izukanane Obianuju explaining that her middle name was chosen as a reminder of her place in the family and the bond her mother hoped she would have with her siblings.

Then it was my turn. “Hi, I’m Mercedes Bent. My name … well, it’s kind of like the car.”

It’s not that I don’t like my name — I do. I just wished I had a more intimate connection with my heritage.

The Opinion essay continues:

This year, I finally organized a trip for a group of my black friends and classmates and me to explore our own heritage. On that trip I learned to cook jollof, a rice dish that is a staple of West African diets. I learned about investment opportunities in Nigeria, including cashew farms and start-ups. I had my hair braided. I visited castles where enslaved people were kept in dungeons before they exited through the door of no return. We discussed Nigerian history over dinner and learned about the political turmoil and wealth of the country. One day in Accra, Ghana, we attended Afrochella, a Coachella-inspired festival featuring top African musical artists.

Through it all I reflected on what life would be like if I lived in a nation where I was part of the dominant racial group. In Nigeria or Ghana, I would be one drop in the sea of black people at every event I attended and in every social situation. I wouldn’t be subjected to as many off-color remarks and subtly bigoted insults. I wouldn’t have to question whether I should respond to those or stay quiet to avoid being judged through the lens of racist stereotypes. I wouldn’t wonder whether people would think I’d been hired as a token rather than for my potential.

The essay concludes:

Of course, not everyone can afford such a trip. I would love to see a philanthropist or foundation fund educational trips to Ghana, Nigeria and other African countries for black young adults from other parts of the diaspora, making this experience accessible to more people who could benefit from it as much as I did.

Until then I’ll continue spreading the word about the benefits I experienced, the power of exploring my ethnic-racial identity in the place where my ancestors lived and the most important lesson I learned on my journey: It really is possible to heal through heritage.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

— Where would you visit to find out more about your family’s past? What would you hope to learn or experience?

— How familiar are you with your family’s history? Does living in America ever make you feel disconnected from your family and cultural roots? Do you ever wish, like Ms. Bent, that you had a “more intimate connection” with your heritage? If yes, tell us why.

— Ms. Bent writes:

There are many ways to nurture a healthy cultural identity, but a journey “home” — to a place that makes you feel that you truly belong — is an especially effective one.

Do you agree? What aspects of her essay resonate with you most? Does reading Ms. Bent’s piece make you want to connect more with your own heritage?

— Have you ever created a family tree? If inspired, create a family tree and then try to plot where your ancestors lived on a map of the globe. (You can find free downloadable family tree templates here.)

Further Resources:

Why You Should Dig Up Your Family’s History — and How to Do It

Advice on How to Research Family History, Part 1

Learning With: ‘From Clay Tablets to Smartphones: 5,000 Years of Writing’

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Learning With: ‘From Clay Tablets to Smartphones: 5,000 Years of Writing’

6. The author writes:

The slow abatement of handwriting today feels like the severing of a historical tie. It relates us to the Mesopotamians, to Chaucer, to that struggling Egyptian student. Finland, for instance, has dropped its handwriting requirements in schools in favor of typing lessons. In the United States, in 2010, Common Core standards excluded cursive requirements in elementary schools, and most states no longer require students to learn it. (In some, however, there are signs of a cursive comeback.)

Do you agree that the decreasing role of handwriting is an important loss? How much do you write by hand? Which method of writing do you prefer and why?

Finally, tell us more about what you think:

— What did you learn about writing from the article? Does it make you more fully appreciate writing?

— Which historical object from the exhibition is most fascinating to you? If you had to curate the same exhibition but could only include five objects, what would they be and why?

— What are your experiences with writing? Are they mostly positive or negative? What do you like to write about, and why? Do you like to write in a journal, or a blog? Do you like to write poems, stories or songs? Do you think you are a good writer? Which of your own writing are you most proud of?

— Where would you rank writing on the list of human achievements? Look through these lists of human achievements (here and here), and then create your own “Top 10.” Justify your ranking for the invention of writing (whether it makes your top 10 or not).

— The article concludes:

Will the historical cycle of doubting writing before it proves itself again continue? On the one hand, we should have faith: Writing has resurged time and again. On the other, technology is advancing at a pace like never before. Will the future of written expression become so simple — a smattering of autocompleted sentences, emoji and GIFs — that it will lack any critical thought at all?

“I certainly do not expect writing to go away,” said Mr. Bostrom, of Oxford. At least, he added coyly, not within “the finite period of time remaining before machine intelligence makes human intelligence irrelevant.”

Do you think the future of writing is in danger? Will we one day give up pencils, pens and keyboards for videos and voice messages? What would be lost for us as a society and as individuals if writing were to disappear?

— Imagine you are curating an exhibition on human communication in the year 7,019. Will writing still exist then? What do you think will be the primary mode of human communication?

Further Resources:

I Didn’t Write This Column. I Spoke It.

Handwriting Just Doesn’t Matter

Has the Electronic Image Supplanted the Written Word?

This Is Your Brain on Writing

Ponder This in your LMS and LXP

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Ponder This in your LMS and LXP

I think people like to question the status quo. Well, some people do, and I readily admit I am one of those folks.

It’s not like I sit here staring out onto the sea of Cortez contemplating whether a shark the size of a whale is out there (rumors say yes), but, I do more often than not, look at what it taking place in the e-learning space and ponder.

Where are the markets heading? Why is anyone buying a desktop authoring tool?  Are adult coloring books really that stress-free?

As you can see, that is a lot to ponder.  So, let us ponder together on these follow items.

Buzz Words in the Learning System Space

You may remember that song “take out the trash..” and I can’t remember how it goes, but there are three buzz words making their impact felt, so much so, that the words that were originally in existence, need to head to the rubbish bin.

Out – Coaching

In – Mentoring

Do they mean the same thing? I guess it depends on your take, but “mentor” seems more easy-going – a helper if you will, whereas “coach” can be easy or tough.  The term coach in the business world is not the same as “coaching” in the learning system space.  As such, it would make sense that a new word is necessary.  That buzz word is now mentoring.

Speaking of mentoring, one vendor is about to launch in their mobile app, “live mentoring.”  I think it has potential, but there are a lot of unknowns.  While folks seem excited about it (the vendor’s customers), this approach is clearly for those who love OJT or wish for something that could be like OJT update 2.0.

Here are the challenges that I see with live mentoring

  • It’s peer to peer, which is fine, but who is going to be a mentor?  Top talent. Likely A-Star talent, which by the way, who is the OJT talent you line up with the new employee? Why.. it is your A-star talent.
  • Metrics are missing – as in how often does this mentor respond? How long does it take? What are the questions being asked? What are their responses? How often does that employee contact a mentor and/or other mentors? Comparison data between that mentor and all other mentors at the company and so forth.  Metrics will do wonders, and help strongly in skill gap analysis, development of the right content, and expanded engagement data.
  • What will be the times available for live mentoring?  Will the company allow their employees to contact anyone at any time or at a certain time?  Does the live mentoring work in the warehouses or at retail locations (where the net might be bad?)?  How will it work with hourly employees compared to full-time?
  • With the video be auto-detection fps too?  What happens if employee A does not have a smartphone? 

Solve these items and I see live mentoring as a possibility.  I’d prefer it as an AR angle with the “live mentor” more so, then what it will be for right now.   Even then, the metrics are essential, because without it, you just have two people experiencing “mentoring” as though they are on What’s App or Facebook Messenger.

Out – Machine Learning

In – AI

The problem here is that machine learning and A.I. are not the same thing, and in reality what vendors are doing is machine learning. The next tier from machine learning is deep learning, and as vendor that would be more apropos by say mid 2020, if things continue to go this route.   Stay the course with machine learning for now.   And as a consumer don’t buy into “we have A.I.” 

Out Competencies

In – Skills

I’d prefer the term skill management, because in 2019 – all the rage is “skills”.  This is how the industry rolls.

First it was mobile, then video, next up was micro-learning, then back to video management, then back to micro-learning and now it is skills.

Skill-based learning.  Skill Ratings. Skills to build and develop. Skills to attain and synthesis to occur (which you want, BTW).   Skills..Skills…Skills

Competencies sound scary.  I mean it sounds like I am at a lab deep in Siberia, and need to achieve these competencies or else I am off to digging a hole.  I never cared for the word, too much L&D in it.  Skills though that is something everyone can sink their teeth in.  Perfect word usage for training.  Very good for L&D.  Heck, even those HR folks can wrap their arms around “skills.”

The industry has as well.   Competencies in reality – what does that even mean?  I know what it means, but for the general worker?  Nah, skills though – easy to understand and I mean, when you read a book on how to write backwards, that is a skill you are trying to accomplish, which folks want (uh, to learn skills that is).

Heck, there is a growing movement for universities to focus on skills rather than theory, and you may have read recently there is an increase in hiring folks with specific skills rather than attaining a degree (i..e no need to attend college/university).   One tv ad shows that exact approach and the value of doing so.

They never mention the word competencies.  What do they mention? Skills.

What do you want in your Learning Environment?

Learning Environment – Ties into what is available for the learner.

Items include

  • Learning Path – now being called by some vendors as a learning journey (it is the same thing, albeit, a journey is more graphical and can be fun). Another term is curriculum path.
  • Individual Learning Profile
  • Search bar or search capability
  • Learner home dashboard
  • Learner can apply or ask to be accepted into a specific piece of content or course, they may or may not be accepted
  • Learner catalog
  • Transcripts
  • Progress bar or similar

The new HOT ones – coming to a vendor near you, okay plenty of vendors offer these (and they ones you want)

  • Deep linking allowing the ability to share a link directly to a training module via email (user will be led to log in page and then directly to the course/content/module)
  • Customizable home page that is a different look/appearance/theme based on the learner who logged into the system
  • Support for the hierarchy at the enterprise, business unit or other desired levels
  • Support for multiple catalogs (one could be fee-based, the other free or one is required where they pick and the other is all you can eat for free, err take)
  • Individualized learning plan (including required courses and optional courses selected), to-do list or similar appear on the same screen  – I’m not a fan of required courses, but I am a realist and many people have to take required.

What’s HOT in the LXP?  As in learning environment functions?

  • Netflix like experience (UI and UX)
  • Digital badging – But watch out, as vendors who offer this tend it have it with their own logo.  No offense, but having a digital badge for WidgetLXP on my Linkedin profile isn’t going to get me a gig, when the person looking at it, has no idea who WidgetLXP is or cares.   You need to have micro-credentialing tied to a university, organization, something with “juice”.  If I see that same badge from URI I will be impressed, much more so than one from yourvendorname system.

Ponder this

LXPs are starting to become more and more like an LMS. Feature overlap is continuing at a rapid pace.  Instead of trying to be something different than an LMS, it seems more are moving towards similar.  I get that some functions will be, and it makes sense from that standpoint, but there should be more than plenty that are not, and here is where the concern to me, is happening.

LXP vendors will argue that people do not want an LMS, yet for all the blather, they (many LXP vendors) are adding the exact functionality as the LMS.  Sure, they will note some differences – often the HCM vendors, but when you look at the market as a whole, that argument doesn’t hold up.

Heck,  I know for example, that the Netflix UI and UX is already appearing in a couple of those HCM vendors they note.  For example, SumTotal Learning Management has a Netflix UI on the learner home page.

I expected cross-over to occur between an LXP and an LMS, and even some learning platforms, which is happening to. Right now, the only platform that isn’t seeing that much crossover in comparison to an LXP, is an SEP (Sales Enablement Platform).  But I’m confident that by this time, next year, that will change to.

Again, it doesn’t have to, there are things that can be done, but…

Two other categories that are on the rapid fire mode are

Content and Curation

Oh how they are so similar. Okay, they are not, except curation occurs with content and yes, content is curated. But what you want in terms of functionality is different.

Here are the ones you will want for each area

Content

System includes  “Trending or Most Popular” Courses
System includes “Recommended courses” 
System shows content via Channels or Playlists 

I prefer the use of Playlists, but many vendors use channels.  They are one in the same, just different verbiage.

You also want

  • System can use job roles and/or skills to identify and present recommended or suggested courses to the end user
  • System uses ratings or voting from other end users to identify most popular or trending courses
  • Content excluding courses can be listed in the trending/Most Popular and/or Recommended

Watch for podcasts to make an appearance with some vendors.  Okay, they are in a few systems already, but to be seen in the trending, uh, haven’t see it yet, happen.

  • Client can create their own courses (via system or 3rd party) and sell them on vendor’s course marketplace – to other clients in the vendor’s system

A few systems can do this already, Talent LMS is one for example.  I’m a big fan of it.  And every LXP out there should offer it. And LMS for that matter too.   If folks want to give it away free, so be it.

Curation

It has hit stagnation.  In other words, most of the LXPs have the same curation options and many LMSs do as well.  Innovation needs to be re-charged here. Quickly.

Bottom Line

That’s a lot to ponder right now.

Or at least until we learn who will be

sitting on the iron throne.

And no, it won’t be your LXP, LMS or

any other learning system vendor.

Or will it?

E-Learning 24/7

 

 

 

 

 

2019 Conference Takeaways: A Partner Perspective

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2019 Conference Takeaways: A Partner Perspective
view of Big Ben and Thames in London

Several members of the Duke Learning Innovation team headed to London for the 2019 Coursera Partners Conference. The conference brings together educators and leaders representing over 180 global universities, organizations and companies. Here are some of our top takeaways from the conference.

MOOCs might be dead, but Coursera keeps growing

MOOCs are dead, you say? Coursera’s continued growth suggests otherwise. Coursera’s 190 university and industry partners now offer 3,200 courses, 300 Specializations, and 10 MasterTrack certificates to over 40 million registered learners. In total, Coursera launched more than 800 new courses over the past year.

At this year’s conference, Coursera announced two new degrees, bringing the total number of degrees offered on Coursera to 14. Coursera also announced it is expanding its pilot of Coursera for Partners to 20 additional universities/organizations. Duke was the first to pilot Coursera for Partners when it launched Coursera for Duke in December 2017. 

Slide: Stackability is not just a marketing strategy, stackability is a learning strategy

In addition to learner and program growth, Coursera also shared a few new things happening with the platform itself:

  • experiments with machine learning and automation to a) help learners find learning experiences most relevant to them and b) encourage learners to persist in and complete courses.
  • Coursera Labs, a soon-to-be-released feature that will offer better integrated hosting of learning tools like Jupyter Notebooks.
Coursera's product strategy

Universities offering degrees on Coursera discuss benefits, challenges

At this year’s conference, Coursera was clearly focused on highlighting degrees above all their other educational products for higher ed. A couple of breakout sessions featured leaders from universities that are offering degrees on Coursera sharing what that experience has been like.

  • Some schools said they launched Coursera degrees to rapidly mature their online offerings. Others did it to engage audiences they didn’t otherwise know how to reach. A common goal was to reach a more global audience.
  • With Coursera, schools are rethinking how degrees work. The online MSc in Electrical Engineering offered by UC Boulder, for example, has no selective application process. The degree program is totally open and performance-based.
  • Schools with new Coursera degrees are figuring out how to offer student services to their new global student body. Many already have online students or a large student body, so there’s not a lot of new burden on services. But some services require outsourcing or new ideas. For example, how can you provide mental health services and career counseling to students online and all over the globe? Several schools have used surveys to determine what services online learners want most. The University of Pennsylvania surveys students before their program starts to get a sense of where students think their biggest needs are. Recent surveys found the largest demand for career services and for resources and help with time management.  

AI and machine learning on center stage and behind the scenes

Much of the conversation at the conference was related in some way to artificial intelligence and machine learning: how it will impact the future of work; what it means for educational institutions. Andrew Ng, a computer scientist and one of Coursera’s original co-founders, gave a keynote on AI and the future of learning. Ng said AI will be the new electricity, transforming the world. He also described AI as “automation on steroids.” He made a distinction between artificial narrow intelligence (like smart speakers and self-driving cars) and artificial general intelligence (which could do anything a human can do). According to Ng, we are nowhere close to having artificial general intelligence. Our fears about evil sentient robots, according to Ng, are overblown. 

Our fears about AI disrupting the world of work, however, are not. Anything a typical person can now do with less than a second of thought can probably be automated. There’s a global shortage of people with skills in AI. Ng sees potential in AI, though, for offering personalized career advice or sophisticated writing and editing help.

Andrew Ng's ideas on human-machine collaboration

Coursera shared about their many experiments leveraging machine learning to improve it’s own platform. One particularly interesting effort uses machine learning to reduce drop-off rates in Coursera courses. Coursera looked at its enormous cache of user data to analyze drop-off behavior. They found drop-off clusters early in a course and during graded assignments. They also identified three kinds of learners they primarily see dropping off in courses, which they call dabblers, explorers, and non-starters.

Types of pre-assignment drop-off in Coursera courses

Using these machine learning algorithms, Coursera can automatically identify learners who are at risk of dropping off and figure out how and when to intervene. These interventions are primarily messages like emails that get automatically sent to learners when they do something that suggests they are going to drop off in the course.

During their recent experiments, Coursera sent 1.5 million of these messages per month. One of the messages increased module completion by 10%. Coursera is continuing to experiment with these nudges by letting learners customize the messages they receive by adding goals (ex: I want to watch all the course videos; I want to complete the first assignment).

 

Udacity Doubles Prices, Relaunches 1-on-1 Mentorships & Career Coaching

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Udacity Doubles Prices, Relaunches 1-on-1 Mentorships & Career Coaching

Udacity's new $399 monthly price

Last week, Sebastian Thrun, CEO of the $1B e-learning startup Udacity, made three important announcements:

  • New Prices: Udacity is revamping its Nanodegree pricing scheme: fixed fees are replaced by a $399 monthly fee — amounting to a significant overall price hike.
  • New Mentors: Udacity is expanding its mentorship model to offer more individualized, end-to-end support to Nanodegree students.
  • New Scholarships: Udacity is launching two scholarships, sponsored by Facebook and Bertelsmann, that will allow selected learners to pursue a Nanodegree in an AI area.

The first two initiatives are the culmination of a restructuring plan initiated by Udacity in late 2018 to increase Nanodegree graduations and reach profitability by the end of 2019.

In Udacity’s Year in Review, Dhawal Shah, Class Central CEO, noted that 2018 had been a difficult year for Udacity. The company registered lackluster growth, forcing it to take drastic measures. Vishal Makhijani stepped down as CEO and Sebastian Thrun, Udacity founder, stepped in. The company closed or downscaled several of its offices around the world. And in three rounds of layoffs, Udacity parted with over 40% of its employees.

Alluding to the need for restructuring, Thrun simply explained: “our trajectory was not long-term tenable.” He later added that through these initiatives, he was confident Udacity could “continue to grow […] while achieving a break-even position.”

Conveniently nested amid the two earlier, seemingly positive announcements, Udacity also revealed an important change to its Nanodegree pricing.

Since the company completed its switch to term-based scheduling in June 2018, as originally reported by Class Central, Nanodegrees have had a fixed price (between $600 and $2,400) that gave learners access to the Nanodegree content for a predetermined amount of time (between 3 and 8 months).

Going forward, all Nanodegrees will cost $399 per month, with estimated completion times ranging from 3 to 6 months. According to Udacity, these time estimates are data-driven: “The suggestions are based on data we collect on what is a realistic time frame to fully get the most out of our Nanodegree programs.”

Therefore, in light of Udacity’s own time estimates, students can expect to pay between $1,200 and $2,400 for their Nanodegree. So although the cost of the longer, more expensive Nanodegrees remains the same, the cost of the shorter, more affordables ones — that is, the vast majority of Udacity’s catalog — has effectively doubled.

Udacity argues that its new pricing scheme is more flexible. And, of course, all Nanodegrees now include the extended Mentor and Career support. But whether students will be willing to pay a premium for these features remains to be seen — particularly considering that:

  • Last year, Udacity already increased Nanodegree prices by as much as 300% — these used to cost $200 per month at launch.
  • Two years ago, Udacity stopped promising Nanodegree graduates a job and 50% of their tuition back if their graduated in less than a year.

For the better part of the past year, Udacity has been using a community-centered approach to learner support: Nanodegree students would ask questions on the Student Hub — a Slack-like communication tool built into the Udacity platform — and receive help from Mentors and students alike. This form of support will continue to be available.

Udacity Student Hub

But moving forward, each Nanodegree student will also be paired with a dedicated Mentor who will offer one-on-one support via chat or video calls, and present webinars on technical subjects. Besides answering questions, Mentors will provide students with a sense of accountability by helping them set weekly learning goals.

In addition, Nanodegree students will receive support from Career Coaches. According to Udacity, half of their students are job seekers. Career Coaches will assist them through their job search, notably by offering personalized resume feedback and interview advice.

In a sense, Udacity is reverting back to its old ways: up until mid-2018, they used to match students with dedicated Mentors in some Nanodegrees. However, their new approach strengthens the bond between Mentors and Mentees with a view to building a community that isn’t just large, but also cohesive. The approach reminds us of other e-learning companies, such as Springboard, which also includes one-on-one technical and career assistance for an end-to-end support experience.

Through this new mentorship model, Udacity hopes to raise Nanodegree graduation rates from 34% to 60%.

Udacity announced the launch of two new scholarship programs. These involve a two-step selection process. Students that make it to the end will get the chance to complete a Nanodegree in an AI-related subject, free of cost.

The first scholarship is offered by Facebook and is a continuation of last year’s PyTorch Scholarship. This year’s scholarship is centered around AI, privacy, and data security, and will allow top-performing students to pursue a Computer Vision or Deep Learning Nanodegree.

The second is offered by Bertelsmann — one of Udacity’s largest shareholders — and is a continuation of last year’s Data Science Scholarship. The scholarship is centered around cloud computing, data, and AI.

Applications for Facebook’s scholarship have already opened; the deadline is on May 21st. Applications for Bertelsmann’s scholarship will open in summer.

Learning With: ‘While Enes Kanter is Observing Ramadan, the World Will Be Watching Him’

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Learning With: ‘While Enes Kanter is Observing Ramadan, the World Will Be Watching Him’

Before reading the article:

What do you know about Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that began on Sunday?

Read the short article “Ramadan Is Here. What Islam’s Holiest Month Is About.” Or watch this three-minute video from history.com to learn more about Ramadan. Then respond to the following questions:

• What does Ramadan commemorate?

• How is it observed? What is the spiritual significance of this observation?

• Have you ever fasted, or abstained from something, for religious reasons? What was the experience like? What, if anything, did you learn from it?

Now, read the article, “While Enes Kanter is Observing Ramadan, the World Will Be Watching Him,” and answer the following questions:

1. Enes Kanter has fasted for Ramadan many times. Why is his fast this year different?

2. What is fasting like for Kanter, who has spent Ramadan around the world, often as the only Muslim on his basketball team?

3. Why does Kanter make it a point of telling the teams he plays for about his duties of faith?

4. How do his coaches and teammates make an effort to accommodate these duties?

5. What has Kanter learned from fasting?

6. According to Dr. Richard Bloomer, how might fasting affect an athlete’s performance? What is the most important factor in determining whether fasting helps or hurts a player?

7. According to Kanter and the former football player Tareq Azim, how has fasting affected their performances?

Finally, tell us more about what you think:

Kanter has made it a point to inform his teams about the duties of Islam, like eating halal, praying five times a day and observing Ramadan. His coaches and teammates have made an effort to ask questions, educate themselves and even partake in some of these religious practices.

Can you recall a time when someone took the time to learn about your religion, beliefs or culture? How did it make you feel and why? Have you ever tried to learn about someone else’s religion or beliefs? What did you find out that you didn’t know before?

How important do you think it is to learn about religions and beliefs other than your own? Why?

Custom Design Feature | Ashleigh’s Education Journey

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Custom Design Feature | Ashleigh’s Education Journey

Todays featured design is a website created for the awesome Ashleigh of Ashleigh’s Education Journey. Our designer, Kate, worked with her at the beginning of the year on some reworks of her original custom design. Here’s what her site originally looked like:

She really liked her overall branding, however, her site had more of blog feel and she wanted to step it up to look more like a website.

Finding the perfect style

Ashleigh knew she wanted to keep her original color palette with only a few small changes to the green and blue shades. She was also open to new logo suggestions. The main focus of her new design was a menu. She wanted it to be the focal point and full of fun & colorful icons.

Kate decided to create three different mood boards which would feature Ashleigh’s favorite colors (in slightly different shades for option #2) and different icons and coordinating logo styles. Option #2 and #3 can be seen below:

Option #1 was based on a logo Ashleigh already had and was the option she ended up going with in the end, with new clean and colorful menu bar icons. Sometimes it takes seeing other options to confirm your original decision.

Creating the website design

Creating a custom website design usually takes longer than creating a blog. Website homepages are much more advanced and include sections that feature different areas of the site. Ashleigh was really great at communicating her needs so the whole process went really smoothly. We made sure that all of her opt-in boxes were properly set up and that her post images were displayed correctly.

Here is a full-length view of the final website design:

Click here to view larger

Final thoughts

It took about a month to create Ashleigh’s new site from start to finish. We love the finished product and would love to hear your thoughts on it!

We asked Ashleigh about her opinion and it is what she told us:

How well was the vision you had in mind for your blog design implemented by your designer? Extremely well! I love my design! It turned out better than I expected.

Ashleigh S.
Ashleigh’s Education Journey

If you are looking for a custom blog or website design, visit our Custom Design Services page to request a quote.

Word + Quiz: acrimony

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onlinefreecourse
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Word + Quiz: acrimony

1. anger and bitterness

2. a rough and bitter manner

_________

The word acrimony has appeared in 94 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 21 in “‘We Have to Get this Right.’ A Conversation With U.S.C.’s Incoming President, Carol Folt” by Jill Cowan:

Her first jobs as a professor and university administrator were at Dartmouth. But her time at U.N.C. has drawn the most attention until now.

During her tenure there, Ms. Folt grappled with two controversies that drew national scrutiny: an academic scandal involving student-athletes, and the fate of the Confederate monument known as “Silent Sam.” (The athletics controversy began before Ms. Folt’s stint as chancellor, but the university faced the fallout while she was in office.)

The monument provoked years of acrimony at U.N.C., where protesters toppled part of it last August. She later announced her resignation — and the removal of the monument’s remnants.

_________

Emojis

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onlinefreecourse
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Emojis

What do you think this image is saying? How does it relate to or comment on society or our world today? 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 what this illustration is all about.

Find many more ways to use our Picture Prompt feature in this lesson plan.

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