What do you think this image is saying? How does it relate to or comment on society or current events? Do you think it could offer a message of some kind for you? If so, what is your opinion of that message?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, 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 and may appear in print.
The exhibition includes several models of invasive sea squirts, or tunicates, named for the leathery tunic-like sheath that protects their soft bodies. They tend to grow in clusters and create a slimy blanket that can befoul aquaculture and create drag on ship hulls. And then there are the living ecosystems they disturb.
“We generally don’t like to see invaders,” Carlton told me while watching recent video footage of some of the sea squirts swaying in the tidal surge in nearby Stonington Harbor, where they blanket docks and pilings. “They could replace or displace a native species. And it might have a cascade effect.” The most visible, lightbulb sea squirts, named for their translucent white tubelike forms that seem to glow, are native to Europe but were discovered in Long Island Sound in the early 2000s. The Blaschkas’ version is encased nearby and shows three colorless glass tubes sprouting from a base, each filled with tiny glass coils that seem like precursors of fluorescent light bulbs.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word aquaculture 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.
If you want a better idea of how aquaculture can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.
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.
Meet Professor Praveen Garimella, he serves as a Professor and Adjunct Faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University, having devoted nearly two decades of his career to IIIT Hyderabad’s MSIT community. During his tenure with the MSIT programme, Praveen pioneered the ‘learning by doing’ pedagogy and was kind enough to offer five tips to learners interested in the fields of IT and computer science.
Why are you studying?
First, it’s important to know why you’re learning. This reason helps you stay focused, especially when things get hard. It keeps you moving forward in your learning journey and helps you remember why you started.
Thinking for the future: Computational thinking
Computational thinking is important for jobs in the future. It means thinking about problems in a way where we can use computers to help solve them. It’s not just about coding, but also about solving problems in smart ways.
The Fun of coding: Seeing your work pay off
Coding is fun because you see results quickly. When you write code and it works, it feels great, especially after you’ve been working hard on it. In the MSIT courses, you get many chances to feel this excitement.
Keep going: The importance of grit
Grit means not giving up, even when things get tough. It helps you get through hard topics and big challenges. Grit is what makes you keep trying and learning, which is quite important in tech studies.
Learning and growing: Always getting better
Having a growth mindset means you believe you can always get better. It’s really helpful when learning tech, where you often have to teach yourself. It means you see every challenge as a chance to learn more.
A message for tech learners
Your journey in learning tech is your own. Remember why you started, enjoy coding, keep going even when it’s hard, and always be open to learning. These steps will help you not just in your studies, but in your future tech career too.
Technology is swiftly transforming the way individuals and organisations function, giving rise to domains, jobs, and skills that didn’t exist a few years ago. As per NASSCOM, the Indian IT industry is expected to grow to $500 billion by 2030. India will need nine times as many digital skilled workers by 2025 according to an Amazon Web Services study. Amidst these changes, the pursuit of advanced education in the field of Information Technology has become increasingly essential and rewarding.
Taking this into account, IIIT Hyderabad has launched an online Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) degree, exclusively available on Coursera. The programme builds on the success of their on-campus MSIT programme, which has been successfully helping students launch careers in IT for the last 20 years. With the online MSIT programme, you can earn a technology degree with little to no technical background and build a career in core and emerging IT domains.
IIIT Hyderabad, a NAAC (Grade A) accredited university recognised by UGC, ranks amongst the top technical institutions in India. Over its 20+ year history, IIIT Hyderabad has gained a reputation for its technology-centric research, boasting over 20 research centres and a cutting-edge curriculum. IIITH alumni have found impressive positions with leading organisations such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle.
Who is eligible for the programme?
To be eligible for the online MSIT programme, applicants must hold either a 4-year bachelor’s degree in any discipline or a 3-year bachelor’s degree combined with a 1-year master’s programme. The online MSIT degree is designed to accommodate individuals from diverse backgrounds, including IT/CS, business, science, law, medicine, and non-CS engineering.
What is the duration of the degree?
The online MSIT programme allows you the flexibility to earn a technology degree while maintaining your existing work and daily responsibilities. It is designed to suit a variety of individuals, including working professionals, stay-at-home parents, defence personnel, and business owners. The programme can be completed within a timeframe of two to four years.
How is the course content delivered in the online MSIT degree programme?
In the online MSIT programme, you will learn through a combination of readings, live sessions, recorded videos, and mentorship sessions. You will collaborate and apply learnings through projects, lab work, assessments, and a team capstone project. As you gain industry-ready skills through certifications, you will also get a chance to participate in expert sessions and other networking opportunities. Furthermore, you will develop connections with your peers, collaborating within a global learning community utilising Coursera’s Zoom and Slack platforms.
What makes the online MSIT curriculum unique?
The online MSIT programme curriculum is carefully curated to help you build strong technical foundations and gain industry-relevant skills that will prepare you for a rewarding career in IT/CS. The curriculum structure is defined by the following principles:
Learning-by-doing approach: Apply theoretical learning to real-life scenarios through projects, lab work, assessments, and a capstone project.
Customisable degree: Choose one of three high-demand domains offered, based on your interest and career plan.
Industry relevance: Supplement the institute’s courses with industry certifications from IBM, Meta, Deep Learning.AI as well as masterclasses by industry experts.
Academic mentorship: The onlineMSIT has academic mentors who are subject matter experts to ensure student success in the programme.
Do I get the same degree as the on-campus programme?
Absolutely, upon completing the programme, the degree you earn will be the same as the one awarded to on-campus students.
How will this degree enhance my career prospects?
The online MSIT programme prepares you for a diverse range of roles in core and emerging IT domains and provides you access to career service workshops to support your transition into the industry. You will also get networking opportunities with IIITH alumni and industry professionals. Upon completion, you will join an exclusive network of 3,000+ IIITH alumni.
How do I know if the online MSIT degree is right for me? Who can I talk to if I am interested in applying?
If you’re unsure about how to apply, whether you meet the eligibility criteria, or if you have questions about the programme, we’ve got you covered. You can register and attend live office hours every week to get immediate answers to your questions. You can also schedule a meeting with an enrollment counsellor for a dedicated counselling session. For any other inquiries or concerns that you might have, you can always send an email to admissions@msit.ac.in.
No matter where you stand on the whole “new year, new me” thing, the start of a new year always provides a bit of momentum and enthusiasm. And if your 2024 vision board has some career and coding goals on it, we are here for you every step of the way.
We know that it takes a lot to stay committed to learning to code, whether you’re working towards a new job or just want to develop some useful life tools. It helps to have a strong support system, a clear objective, and some organizational tools to guide you along the way.
Ahead are the desktop and mobile apps that developers and people learning to code in our community use to stay organized and inspired at work and in their daily lives. (Some of these apps are free to use, while others require a paid subscription.) Who knows? Downloading these apps could inspire you to code the next game-changing productivity tool on your own.
Learn something new for free
Notion
Best for: Maintaining a knowledge base.
Lots of devs use Notion to organize and share documentation. It’s particularly useful for storing code snippets, best practices, project requirements, and troubleshooting guides. You can also use Notion to jot down organized notes during meetings and collaborate in real time with your team members.
Never used Notion before? There is a Codecademy Notion template that you can start using to keep track of the resources you need to support your learning journey. This is great prep if you eventually land a job where the team uses Notion in its workflow.
Unroll.me
Best for: Taking control of your inbox.
Declutter your inbox and instantly unsubscribe from all those automated email lists using Unroll.me. You’ll be amazed how much mental energy you get back just from streamlining your email inbox.
Akiflow
Best for: Integrating other dev tools like GitHub and Jira.
Create one inbox to rule them all with Akiflow. You can integrate all the organizational apps your team uses on the regular, like GitHub, Jira, and Zoom, so you don’t have to switch between multiple apps to stay up to date on your tasks and meetings.
Structured
Best for: Visualizing your to-do list and calendar.
A sleek interface and intuitive design can go a long way in making you feel more organized. Structured is an app that presents your schedule in a linear format, making task tracking a breeze. With features like time-based scheduling, customizable reminders, and visually appealing widgets, it seamlessly integrates with calendars and reminders, simplifying the management of various tasks in one convenient place.
Routinery
Best for: Building learning habits.
If you’re determined to make learning a part of your daily routine in 2024, consider trying the app Routinery. You can set up your morning or evening routine, and the app will set a timer for you, nudge you to move to the next task, and help you stay consistent. For example, maybe your ideal routine includes 10 minutes of learning with Codecademy after reading your morning newsletters — you can set it all up in Routinery and over time it’ll become second nature.
Asana
Best for: Setting goals (and sticking to them).
Asana is well-established work management tool that’s used by lots of organizations and tech teams. It’s great for managing project timelines and collaborating cross-functionally. As an individual, you can use Asana to set time-based goals for your projects or learning journey. Need some inspiration for 2024 coding goals? Check out this blog for some ideas that’ll motivate you to take your coding journey far this year.
Todoist
Best for: Establishing work-life balance.
Folks like Todoist because you can see and organize all of your tasks — from remembering to water your desk plants to following up with that recruiter who contacted you — in one place. Todoist stands out as a top-tier to-do list app because it has a user-friendly experience and a rich set of features, like progress tracking, unlimited reminders, and efficient project management tools.
Taiga
Best for: Managing a project.
This free and open-source project management tool can be used to keep track of bugs, issues, and tasks. A cool thing about Taiga is it uses terms and best practices from the Agile framework, like “epics” and “user story.” If your team follows the Agile approach, or you’re just curious about this methodology, Taiga’s a great place to familiarize yourself with the framework.
Motion
Best for: Outsourcing your schedule.
This app is kind of like if you had an assistant who was in charge of scheduling all your meetings and making time for you to complete tasks. Motion’s AI system makes a schedule for you to work on assignments during free time in your calendar, and the app can determine your priorities and reschedule work that you don’t get around to finishing.
I tried to give one student some advice, but he stood up and said, “Mr. Ziebarth, I don’t find this advice helpful, so I’m not going to listen.” He walked away.
At times, teaching feels like this — lessons don’t land, students tune out. It’s just that they don’t often say it to your face. But when they do, it stings.
Later that day a student stopped by my room and gave me a thank you card, the one you see in this photo.
It read, in part, “You are one of the most inviting yet unconventional teachers I’ve ever had … you are the only teacher I can say that I’ve truly liked, whose class I’ve truly enjoyed, and whose words and advice I’ve truly taken to heart.”
Teaching can feel like this too — it’s just that students don’t often say it to your face. But when they do, it makes you want to sing!
That’s why I keep a file folder stuffed-to-bursting with student notes and thank-you cards. I treasure them as an antidote for those days when the stings really smart.
I made this photo to be a balm for my fellow teachers who may be wincing from the bumps and bruises inflicted on them by our current cultural climate, a hostility stemming, at times, from their own communities and school boards.
Teachers of America, thank you! Keep going! Keep going for all those students you mean the world to. They may not tell you, but every day they take your words and advice to heart. And remember: You’re not alone.
Which pieces are most interesting to you? Why? What would you like to say to these artists?
Which do you relate to most? Which reflect your own experiences of or emotions about being a student — or teacher?
Which pieces show you something new, or make you think about an aspect of school life in a way you haven’t before? Why?
What’s missing from this collection? What additional experiences have you, or others you know, had that could be added to make this portrait of life in school more complete?
If you had submitted to this challenge, what aspect of being in school might you have documented?
How does the story these students and educators tell about being in high school compare with the stories about students and teachers you often hear from the news media or adults? What do you think our larger society needs to know about what it’s really like to be a student or teacher in 2023?
We ran this challenge in part to celebrate our 25th anniversary as a site. If we had asked teachers and students to submit work about what high school was like in 1998, when The Learning Network began, how might the collection have been different? What if we run this challenge again 25 years from now, in 2048? What aspects of high school life do you think will stay the same, and which will change?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, 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 and may appear in print.
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?
The Reveal
We’ll post more information here on the afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 11. Stay tuned!
Students 13 and older in the United States and the Britain, 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.
Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this illustration — or tell us about a memory from your own life that this image makes you think of.
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, 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 and may appear in print.
The Yiddish word tsimmes, or tzimmes, means to make a big fuss over something. It’s also the name of an Ashkenazi dish of sweet potatoes, carrots, dried fruit and sometimes flanken or brisket, traditionally served at Jewish holidays.
… Tsimmes recipes vary greatly, but the version I grew up with included honey and orange juice to nudge the natural sweetness of the root vegetables and dried fruit. For this main-course version, I decided to nix the honey and use only orange juice, which reduces during simmering to a vibrant, tangy glaze.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word nix 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.
If you want a better idea of how nix can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.
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.
