Those greetings hinted at what surely bubbled beneath the surface for Masiello, who was fired by Manhattan on Oct. 25, less than two weeks before the start of his 12th season as the Jaspers’ head coach. He joined the staff of Pitino, his lifelong basketball guru, at Iona almost immediately.
… As volatile as the coaching profession can be, the timing of Masiello’s dismissal was stunning. October is not the firing season. On the rare occasion a coach is fired on the cusp of a new season, it’s often for something untoward — Jim Harrick getting dumped by U.C.L.A. for lying to his boss or Pitino being booted at Louisville in the wake of an F.B.I. corruption sting.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word untoward in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how untoward can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
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.
Has your mother (or someone who has played a mothering role for you) ever made the right call about your life, your friends, your romantic partners or a problem you were facing? Did she recognize a trait or a talent in you that other people — and maybe even you — overlooked? Did you find her advice annoying? Helpful? A little of both?
Tell us about a time when she was right, or list a few of the things she was correct about.
How does knowing she was right make you feel? Have you ever told her? Would you?
Post your thoughts in the comments, then read the related newsletter to see what others have said about what their mothers were right about.
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.
What do you think this image is saying? How does it relate to or comment on society? Can you relate to it personally? What is your opinion of its message?
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 word reverie has appeared in 57 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Dec. 20 in the book review “The Sound of Sonny” by Ben Ratliff:
Two images stay in the mind after finishing Aidan Levy’s long biography of the jazz musician Sonny Rollins, with a set of online endnotes half as long again ….
One is an image of Rollins apart: essentially Rollins practicing, or playing his tenor saxophone unaccompanied while not on the bandstand. Rollins (born in Harlem as Walter Theodore Rollins) is now 92, and had to give up playing altogether in 2014 because of pulmonary fibrosis; otherwise, for most of his waking life he seems to have had the saxophone in his mouth. Here is a Rollins boyhood memory: “I just loved to play and I would get in the closet and blow for hours — nine, 10 hours, and I would get lost in my own reverie, in the sound.” He is describing himself at around the age of 9.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word reverie in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how reverie can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
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.
Last fall we began the school year with 10 ideas for building community, all of which were inspired by Times features. Now, as the academic year comes to a close, we’re making another list, one both teachers and students can use — ideally working together. Below, 10 ways to reflect on the year that was, think about what you learned, note how you grew and changed — and consider what it all means for next year.
We are also publishing a companion writing prompt to which we invite both students and teachers to respond. The prompt echoes the exercises below, and we invite you to share any part of your thinking that you’d like to make public.
Happy almost-summer, and thank you again for teaching and learning with The New York Times.
Do you ever journal? According to this Times article, scientific studies have shown a regular practice can help with both physical and mental health:
There are the obvious benefits, like a boost in mindfulness, memory and communication skills. But studies have also found that writing in a journal can lead to better sleep, a stronger immune system, more self-confidence and a higher I.Q.
Even if it’s not a regular practice for you, you might use a journal as a private space to focus on these reflections, responding to any of the prompts or exercises that resonate with you.
Here are some of the questions we’re posting in our related forum that might help you get started:
What do you want to remember about this school year? Why?
What surprised you?
What challenged you?
What successes are you most proud of?
What did you learn, whether in or out of school?
How have you grown?
How could you build on that growth next year?
When you’re finished, reread your work. Are there pieces you’d like to make public, either to others in your school community or via our related forum? What did you learn about yourself from doing this exercise? What would be helpful to share with others?
Draw a More/Less List.
Though this idea for creating a More/Less list was published in early January 2021, as the world was still grappling with pandemic isolation, you can borrow the exercise to think back on this school year — and plan ahead for the next one.
First ask yourself, what do I want more of in my life? What would I like to drop?
Here’s what to do next:
Grab a piece of paper and draw a line down the center to create your drawing area. On the left, write the word “More” at the top. On the right, write the word “Less.” Now think of the things that you enjoyed this year (you can also imagine things that would bring you joy in the future). Once you have an idea, draw a simple icon to represent it and draw it in the More column. If you want more jogging in your life, maybe draw a sneaker. Do the same for the Less side: If you want less social media, maybe draw a phone.
These drawings don’t have to be realistic or well rendered; they just have to be recognizable to you. Think of them as secret symbols that remind you of your intention. If you worry you might forget what you meant, you can label them with a few letters to remind yourself. It’s OK to make your symbols simple (a heart, a plus sign) or abstract (a scribble, an x). This is the year ahead for you!
You might then share your lists in small groups, or display them gallery-style on the classroom wall. What ideas do you see on others’ lists that belong on your own?
Build from struggle.
The idea that struggle is vital to learning is well-established, according to Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University and an expert on constructive learning mind-sets. Her ideas and those of other experts are part of this piece, about educational strategies built on the idea that challenge is something to embrace in the classroom.
All of us fail to meet our goals sometimes. (If you’re not failing occasionally, the goals you’re setting are too safe and easy.) That is not a problem. What is a problem is failing and not learning from your mistakes.
To help you do just that, here are some questions inspired by both pieces:
When did you leave your comfort zone this academic year? How did you stretch yourself? What happened when you did?
What did you struggle with, or even fail at, this year? What was hard about it?
What helped when you struggled? What did you do to get yourself “out of the pit” of frustration, anxiety or confusion?
What could you build on, if you were to confront a challenge like this again?
Looking back, what did you learn from struggle or failure this year? How might that help you in the future?
Write a gratitude letter.
Like journaling, a regular gratitude practice in which you consciously count your blessings has been shown to make people happier and healthier.What are you grateful for this school year? Make as long a list as you can.
Then, consider taking the exercise a bit further with a “gratitude letter”:
In one study, researchers recruited 300 adults, most of them college students seeking mental health counseling. All the volunteers received counseling, but one group added a writing exercise focused on bad experiences, while another group wrote a letter of gratitude to another person each week for three weeks. A month later, those who wrote gratitude letters reported significantly better mental health. And the effect appears to last. Three months later the researchers scanned the brains of students while they completed a different gratitude exercise. The students who had written gratitude letters earlier in the study showed greater activation in a part of the brain called the medial prefrontal cortex, believed to be related to both reward and higher-level cognition.
This year, the Well section ran a “happiness challenge,” and part of it involved writing this kind of letter. Whom would you choose to receive yours? Is there someone who made a real difference in your life this academic year, whether a teacher, student, coach, friend or relative?
Here is Well’s advice for getting started:
Consider what you would thank this person for if you thought you would never see them again. Take a few minutes and write down what you would tell them, with as many specific examples as possible. Don’t overthink it: It can be both dashed off and straight from the heart. Think of it as a eulogy for the living.
Then send it — by email, text, handwritten note, whatever. The medium doesn’t matter; sending it does.
Or, if you don’t want to send a letter to someone else, consider sending one to yourself. FutureMe is a website that allows you to write an email that will be delivered to you in six months, a year, three years, five years or even 10 years from now. What would you like to say to your future self? Why?
What music sums up this year for you? Make a list and explain your choices to others via short written annotations that express what’s notable or evocative about these songs, what they help you remember, and why they have been a meaningful part of your 2022-23soundtrack.
If you’d like an example for how to do this, take a look at Playlist, a weekly tour of notable new music and videos chosen by Times critics. With sharp and engaging commentary, they analyze each of the 10 or so tracks in their roundup — breaking down lyrics, dissecting the instrumentals and discussing where the songs fit in the current music landscape. Here’s one from April featuring Drake, Kaytraminé, Blondshell, Yaeji and others.
When you’re done, share what you have. Are there songs that appear on more than one person’s list? If so, perhaps you can compile a class playlist to listen to, while you do some of these reflection exercises.
Leave recommendations for future readers.
In November, the staff of The New York Times Book Review chose the 10 best fiction and nonfiction books of 2022 and wrote a paragraph about each.
For example, here is the description for “Stay True: A Memoir,” by Hua Hsu:
In this quietly wrenching memoir, Hsu recalls starting out at Berkeley in the mid-1990s as a watchful music snob, fastidiously curating his tastes and mercilessly judging the tastes of others. Then he met Ken, a Japanese American frat boy. Their friendship was intense, but brief. Less than three years later, Ken would be killed in a carjacking. Hsu traces the course of their relationship — one that seemed improbable at first but eventually became a fixture in his life, a trellis along which both young men could stretch and grow.
What were the best books you read this year, in or outside of school? What short descriptions could you write recommending at least one of those books to future readers? Who do you think would be the audience for that book, and why would they like it? Those descriptions can then be posted as “shelf talkers” in classroom or school libraries for next year’s students. Here’s an example of how one school used shelf talkers to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.
Graph some personal data.
Make a data visualization of some aspect of your academic or personal life this year.You might use our “What’s Going On in This Graph” feature as inspiration for both the type of data to represent and the kind of graph to best display it.
For example, what does a typical school day look like for you right now? How could you graph that to show the breakdown of time you spend going to classes, doing homework, participating in extracurriculars, relaxing or spending time with friends or family? What does your graph reveal to you? Or, as we ask students weekly in our “WGOITG?” feature: What do you notice? What do you wonder?
To figure out what you’d like to visualize, first collect some data that interests you. Your phone might be a source of things, like the number of steps you take in a day, your regular appointments, or whom you text most often. You can also start collecting new data by noticing and measuring aspects of your life that interest you, whether about your physical or mental health, your habits, relationships, hobbies, goals, consumption of social media, or anything else, big or small.
Next, consider how to display it. This collection of over 60 graphs from The New York Times will show you maps and pie charts, scatter plots and bar graphs. You can also invent your own way to show what you’ve collected by experimenting with the expressive possibilities of shape, color and line. The Dear Data project, in which two information designers collected and hand-drew their personal data for a year, can offer inspiration.
What are the overlooked and unappreciated things in your school community that you might miss now that the year is over?A class or club or sport? A place you like to hang out? A particular food in the cafeteria? A tradition or ritual?
You might work with others to brainstorm a list, then each choose something and write a vivid paragraph or shoot a short, compelling video to celebrate what is overlooked and underappreciated. That work might then be published in your school newspaper or on your school’s website for others to appreciate your recommendation.
Teach others a new skill.
What unique, useful or interesting skills did you acquire this year, in or out of school? Could you teach them to others? Keep in mind that these new skills can be very small — more “I learned how to use a semicolon” than “I wrote a novel.”
A good model? The Tip column, which ran for years in the Times Magazine. As this summary explains, each bite-size entry gives a “slowed-down, step-by-step guide through the minutiae” of how to do something. Here are five examples:
How could you break down the skill you’d like to teach into steps that could help others master it too?
Change your mind.
Learning often means changing your mind. As you deepen your understanding of a topic, your thinking becomes more nuanced. Was there an important topic or issue about which you changed your mind this year? How did that happen?
Debating is what we do here at Times Opinion. Good-faith back-and-forth is at the core of our mission and our daily work. We give you arguments, you decide what to think. And so when we review the major events of the past year — which included a land war in Europe, the collapse of crypto and, yes, The Slap — it’s only natural for us to reflect on the debates: What can the United States do to try to end that war? Is crypto a reasonable thing to invest in? When is it appropriate to hit someone in the face for making a joke about your wife?
As 2022 nears its end, we are presenting 22 of the debates that defined the year, revisiting the ones you might remember (and reminding you of the ones you might have tried to forget) and asking the most important question of all: Did you change your mind?
The Times article is interactive, so it’s easy for you to record how you felt about the issues listed, then see how other readers voted. Do you remember discussing any of these topics in school?
Finally, think about what you learned from revising an opinion, whether it was about something in the news, an academic subject or an issue in your personal life. How could the process of rethinking your opinion help you in the future?
Teachers and students, don’t forget that we have a companion forum where we invite you to post your thoughts about any of the reflection exercises in this piece. We hope to hear from classrooms across the world, and we hope you’ll take some time not only to post your own thoughts but to comment on the responses of others.
The 2022-23 academic year is coming to a close, and we’ve created a post describing 10 ways to reflect on these last months and learn from them. But the 10 ways aren’t just for students — we also hope teachers can benefit from them. In fact, we would be delighted if teachers and students did some of the exercises together and told us what happened!
That’s why, for the first time ever, we’re opening one of our daily Student Opinion forums not just to teenagers around the world, but to their teachers, too. We invite you to post a comment reflecting on any aspect of this school year that you would like to make public, and we have provided some questions below to get you started.
We hope, too, that you will not only post your own reflections but also comment on the thoughts of others. As always, our staff will moderate comments, and we can’t wait to learn from you.
Students and teachers, read our related list of reflection ideas from which the questions below are drawn and then answer any of them that resonate with you. Please identify yourself as a teacher or a student when you post.
What do you want to remember about this school year? Why?
What are you especially grateful for this year? To whom would you most like to write a letter of gratitude if you could?
What surprised you?
What successes are you most proud of?
What challenged you? What helped you face or overcome those challenges?
What did you learn, whether in or out of school?
What new skills, however small, did you acquire?
How have you grown — as a student, a friend, a community or family member or a person?
How could you build on that growth next year?
What would you like more of in your life? What would you like less of? Why?
What music would be on a soundtrack of the 2022-23 school year for you? Why?
What books did you read this year that you would recommend to others? Why?
About what, if anything, did you change your mind? How did that happen?
If you were to collect and graph some data about your life this school year, what would you choose to graph, and what do you think it might show? What could you learn from it?
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.
If you’re a fan of subtle yet striking colors, you can’t go wrong with the dark pastel color palette. It includes shades of grey, pink, green, orange, and lavender, creating a beautiful and unique look. Whether you’re looking to decorate your home, create art, or design a website, this color palette is sure to make a statement. So why not try it and see how it can elevate your aesthetic?
Dark Pastels Color Palette
Dark pastel colors offer a unique and sophisticated color palette that can add a moody yet stylish atmosphere to any design. If you decide to use those colors only as accents for the mostly white design, you will receive a beautiful fresh spring look perfect for all kinds of invitations, cards, or seasonal crafts.
As always, we have put together a mood board with some inspiration. It is in perfect Pinterest format, so feel free to pin it for later.
See our collection of other gorgeous color palettes by visiting our color palette section.
What do you think about this dark pastel color palette? Where would you use it? There are really no limits here. We would love to hear your thoughts. Share them in the comments below.
Lastly, learn about the power of color in blog design in our blog post to see how important colors are in all the projects you create.
If you like shades of yellow, you may want to check Free May Wallpaper which was made using today’s color palette.
And, of course, don’t forget to check the 2023 Ultimate Planners! Over 100 pages that will help you grow your blog and social media and plan your perfect year!
If you create something using today’s color palette, don’t forget to share it with us!
If you have seen a learning system, any system, at a trade show, such as LTUK, or ATD (coming up), or on the web, or in your dreams, you start to notice a retread. I saw it, and continue to see it. Not only is this retread around UI/UX, but the pitches, spin, approaches, reasons why, etc. It gets to the point where ad nauseam sets in. Or heartburn.
There are systems that do not follow this path, at least UI/UX wise, but the pitch, spin, reason why, and blah blah blah, is redundant.
Generative AI is going to slide into this bucket of blah blah. It’s new. It’s exciting, and if you start to ask a lot of questions, it will be sidestepped, OR the same blah blah of why will be placed in front of your eyes and ears. It wouldn’t surprise me if the majority of vendors who go with Gen-AI (and eventually, they all must, or they will be too far behind), use GPT (by OpenAI). Maybe today it is ChatGPT (cheaper token-wise). Or GPT4 (expensive token-wise) or the next version of GPT. With so many Gen-AI Learning Language models, including open source ones, you would think someone would be “let’s go this way,” rather than everyone else’s way. I’m already seeing the sidestep I wrote about just a week ago, in order for vendors to reduce cost (those tokens). No surprise there, and yes, some won’t, but how much can you eat, without paying for it (in the end)?
Have you heard this one before?
We created this system because we talked to people/people told us/we looked at the industry and saw that something needed to be done/changed. L&D needs and requirements weren’t being met. People hate their learning system (okay, they use the type, often LMS).
People want an LXP or whatever they spin here.
People (those folks again) want self-directed learning. Bite-sized learning.
Their system isn’t delivering what they need.
OR any of these?
We listened/talked to researchers/ experts from big-name universities that everyone oohs and ahhs about and found that their research showed that learning is best when it is blah blah.
We found that people do not have time to learn so we did this.. (whatever that is)
We added our learning models based on research from ABCD or a Kangaroo named Joey (actually, I would be impressed with the Kangaroo)
The above are the common blah blahs. There are far more, and if you walk around a show, or listen to a vendor’s salesperson, you will notice it all becomes white noise. It reminds me of the old Peanuts cartoons when the teacher talked and you couldn’t understand what they were saying.
The Systems Themselves
If I see one more “Grid,” “Netflix-like,” “block-format or widget format that appears as blocks,” I am going to scream to myself. It becomes a blur. Take a look the next time you check our systems, how many have the same UI for the learner. It is unbelievable how bad it has become. I can’t decide if people – looking to buy a system – aren’t paying attention, are indifferent, or think that this look is far different than that look.
Skills look the same too. Everything is becoming too commonplace.
The administration side is becoming a blur too. The same UI for graphs – bar charts, pie charts, trend lines that go up and down with little dots indicating whatever. You can barely read the information – no worry, it is data visualization if your idea of data visualization is 2000 or Excel 1996. Pie charts? Bar Graphs? If anybody with Excel can replicate your design, that isn’t something you want. I mean, if you do a bit of VBA or use some formulas, you can actually surpass some of these vendors’ data designs.
Overwhelmingly the back-end (admin side) is brutal. Yowsa, I get a headache just thinking about it. Easy to use? For who – Einstein? Simplified way more than needed? Yes, because G-D forbid, a design that delivers effectively and efficiently isn’t required, so let’s go with more of a pictograph look.
I’ll be upfront here, that some vendors do not fit the above categories around the systems section. The admin side is efficient and designed accordingly, without appearing irrelevant for the admin needs, just as the learner side doesn’t look like everyone else. Rather than be applauded for it, though, they can get zinged by folks because it doesn’t look like the usual design you see elsewhere.
Those vendors who pitch “LXP” are consumed with the idea that a grid, playlist, or combo, and a content/course marketplace constitute an LXP. The reality is far from that, but no matter because many people looking for an LXP are unaware of the specs – of how it was designed and what it entailed, and find it comforting that it shows and does that. The vendor, in turn, some that are, I question whether they even cared to know what an LXP is (or was), and instead just went this way because “If I don’t know, who is going to ask?” – A funny aspect, since many vendors do not add functionality because their clients or prospects never ask. What’s good for the goose doesn’t apply to the gander.
What should be done then, you ask?
Refresh your UI and UX
Yes it is daunting. Yes, it will cost you money, but you are in the business to make money – at least you should be. But it has to be done.
If your Learner UI/UX has not been refreshed in the last three years, it must be. SaaS offers advantages; the last thing you want is the disadvantage of dated look and appearance. There are vendors that do touch-ups on the learner side. Touch up the catalog. Touch-up this screen or that screen, but never a full revamp. I often hear that their clients aren’t asking for it (that again), or that by going piece by piece it won’t shock people or impact them too much.
Will some people freak out due to a total new revamp? Absolutely, but if you notify them ahead of time with the rollout, schedule training sessions for the admins and those in L&D, Training, or wherever the system sits (a lot for customer training are appearing in Marketing – I wasn’t aware any of those folks have an L&D or Training background). Yet, overwhelmingly, people like new looks and appearances.
If you doubt it, take a look at anyone who has a new car or does upgrading to their flat or house or yard or some other design decision. If you change the paint of your residence or add some new flair, it’s because you want a new look. If you purchased a home from the ’80s or even the 90’s, I surmise you did some updating. It’s funny how many homes from that timeframe look so dated—even homes built in the early 2000s. I have even seen people change up their Halloween decorations or Christmas lights. People, in this instance, like change – something new and refreshing. So, why are learning system vendors avoiding it when many of those employees behind the scenes are doing the same thing many of us are doing this week or next month, or in the coming year with our place, decorations, or even our car?
The majority of your user base will like the new refresh; heck, some will love it. You can’t please everyone. On the admin side, ditto. Restructure it, reformat, redesign, and create an effective yet efficient look pleasing to the eyes. Avoid the following pitfalls when you are changing your design for the learner/admin side:
Talk to the power users – i.e., clients. They are going to like whatever, and many will want pie in the sky, which you know won’t happen anyway or if you do, then you will go down the rabbit hole. They love your system to begin with. Rarely do they talk to those clients who are not using the system as often as expected.
The Focus Group. There is data out there that state Focus groups are ineffective. Plus, who are these people anyway? Oh wait, typically, the most prominent clients you have (by user base or by name), and if they are lucky, some smaller-size clients. Usually, just like the power users, they slide into the very Large Enterprise.
Ignoring your expertise. When you reach out to your clients for your new refresh, this tells me you lack confidence in your design ideas. I cannot recall a car designer ever reaching out to folks who own that car, asking them what the design should look like or what features they want or need. For those who need to do the latter, around the functionality, you can wait – because you do it anyway when it comes to your roadmap – plus, I thought you were the experts here. Or are the clients, usually the very large or mid-sized enterprises, the experts? I get this is uncharted territory here, but you are afraid to take the risk – what are you doing selling a solution or implying that the people you have hired are the experts but not experts when it comes to a refreshed design?
Who has a design that is different from everyone else?
There are quite a few out there, but the ones that stand out by far are
Biz Skills
Cognota (Albeit they are a learning operations system, so it should be different)
Odilo (but that is mainly the main screen, after that, it gets brutal)
Fuse (some refreshing is needed)
NovoEd
Cornerstone (a new look on the learner side and some on the admin side)
Eurekos (and more is coming)
Learn Amp
Degreed (but some refreshing is needed)
This is just a partial list and by no means extensive. From the metrics standpoint, though, the best one I have seen so far is Pluralsight. It looks sharp, it tells me the story around my learning/training of my employees, and it is fresh (although it also needs an update, just a slight bit). CrossKnowledge has a nice and slick metrics look, too, and ditto with Fuse. Biz Skills, that vendor again (Biz Library) metrics tell me part of the story, but the content to the job role to skills mapping ahead of time really sets it apart from everyone else. And it still baffles me why more vendors are not doing this – especially with their content marketplace providers.
Two Examples of Fresh Look around Metrics
Biz Skills
Pluralsight – Around Skills (it is actually on the learner side, but still, the UI is impressive
Granted, there is some data they need to add, but overall, still clear, concise, and visual, and the Skill IQ design clearly shows where the end-user is with their Skill IQ compared to being an “Expert.” There isn’t confusion there.
Both show off a stunning look. The dark design on Pluralsight, is not common in the space, although some vendors will offer it by early next year (giving the admin the option). Biz Skills, just is appealing. Pluralsight is very expensive. Biz Skills is affordable. Yet, each went with a different appearance, UI and UX.
Here is Pluralsight’s Metrics Design – Notice how it tells you, the admin, the person overseeing L&D or Training a story around your end-user’s learning?
Generative AI and The Admin Side
To me, the holy grail for Generative-AI and The Admin side goes like this:
a. The person overseeing L&D, Training or whatever department they come from enters in their use case(s). They can do one or many – but it has to be very detailed and to the point (essential for Gen-AI)
b. The learning system then identifies the administration functionality they will need to achieve and meet each use case(s) and the metrics that align directly with the use case(s). If the admin or whoever wants to update or go deeper, they identify what else would achieve that, and the system identifies it. The system can even offer recommendations around metrics or other functionality on the admin side that achieves the goals but from a different perspective. For me, this latter part would be around the metrics – specifically.
Why does it matter?
Most admins will never use all the functionality on your admin side, even if it benefits them. The reason is pretty simple – they aren’t aware of it. Thus, they call you (the vendor) and ask how I do this or that (and if it is in the system, you tell them). Others never call and privately grumble to themselves.
I know that overwhelmingly the vendors will eye Gen-AI around the learners. I get it, and they should, of course. But, the admin side, especially with those use case(s), can really impact in a way that has never been done before. When you consider that more and more folks want full automation or pretty darn close to it (always include a human here), the Holy Grail makes complete sense.
The Coaches
This is already in play with some systems and will continue. While I prefer the mentoring angle (which is different than coaching), especially with cohort-based learning – which if your UI/UX doesn’t show it off, then seriously, you are in the wrong business – the coaching side, is just in blah and yuck and tells me what it exactly?
You can do what I am going to provide with the mentors, too (since it is applicable)
Too many systems focus only on selecting the coach/mentor. Sure, you can see their skills, maybe job role, and their profile too.
After that, it is everywhere and nowhere
I have yet to see one that tells me the real story behind the success or lack thereof of these people.
Okay, they are an expert, but so what? Are they effective? Do the people who choose them feel as though they are really helping them, whether it is mentoring (mentors) or coaching around a specific or series of skills (coaching)? Can the learner rate them? Is the scale or rating clear and defines what each rating means for the learner? Can others see the ratings under the coach/mentor profile or somewhere in the system?
On the Admin side – with those metrics
Where is the info about the coach/mentor? If I am running L&D, Training, or whatever department – whether it is for customer training, association members, students, employees – office or blue-collar, I would want to know the following – because it is the difference between legit success or failure.
The most popular questions learners ask coaches/mentors.
The most popular topics that coaches/mentors cover or provide to the learners.
Ratings of each coach/mentor – Around Response time (pretty crucial), Feedback or Assistance (which can be tracked from the learner rating – if they can pick a few), Rating from each learner who selected that a coach/mentor and overall rating, comparison data between each coach/mentor tied to the topic(s), with response time too.
Other data that tells you the story – the real one around each coach/mentor
Down the road, if people hire a coach/mentor, then a financial number of cost versus rating and success or failure. Pretty relevant here.
Why those metrics?
The reason learning systems were created was because ILT (a prominent form of learning/training) did not tell those overseeing L&D and Training what their people knew or didn’t know. What they really were interested in or not. In other words, metrics. They used to go really deep, including what pages someone was going into, how often – relevant data. Not just that they entered the course or piece of content. Those Likert Scale evaluations were worthless. The comments angle was brutal – “I hated the food,” “I didn’t like the person’s tie,” “Why wasn’t there more food,” “It was too hot or cold in there.” Relevant? No. Insightful? No.
When I think of coaches/mentors, I often think of speakers who present at shows. Each of them is identified as an expert in whatever. And yet, if you polled people afterward or listen to feedback as they are walking around, inevitably you will hear that the person didn’t know the topic, that they were boring, that the information relayed didn’t help the attendee, it was a waste of time, and so forth.
But why praytell, when you have coaches/mentors in your system, does that information you clearly present not at play? An expert means they are an expert. Nothing more. It doesn’t say how effective they are, how well they present the information to the end-user, how well they follow up or whether or not they have empathy (something that should be tracked, by the way, using data points), and so on.
Nobody seems to care, yet, you should. Your learners are selecting these people, and thus, the expectation bar is set high. This refers to where I press that your metrics must tell you the story of your learning/training.
Oh, and ignore the Quora angle here, which some vendors go with coaches. Coaching or Mentoring is meant to be one on one. Not one on everyone in the system.
Bottom Line
There are going to be people who say, “Well he is saying refresh, but his blog isn’t updated.” And you are right, but it is in the works (already being developed) My RFP template major overhaul and design approach (in the works).
Do I need to do this? No. Not really, nobody is asking can you do this, or why haven’t you done it.
Thus I could sit by and do nothing. Be happy with what and where it is at.
But, then, why would I want to?
Refresh is needed. Retread is not.
And BTW, the self-directed, bite-sized learning piece so many vendors pitch as though this is what folks want – WBT back in the late 90s was created specifically for that – self-paced was the term, bite-sized was called micro-learning, and metrics told a story (for most systems).
It was new. It was different.
And it was risky.
Yet it worked.
As your new refresh, new approach and perspective will.
And if you are leery about doing it, then tell you what
Have you ever been around animals in need of adoption? If so, was it at an animal shelter, a cat cafe, a pop-up event at a place like a farmers’ market or community fair, a store that sells pet food and other supplies, a storefront in a shopping center or anywhere else? What was the experience like?
If you haven’t, would you like to go to one of those places? Why or why not?
In “Can Actual Rats Save the Mall?,” Claudia Rosenbaum writes about the growing number of animal shelters that have opened in vacant storefronts in shopping malls. The article begins:
When Alia Mahmud visited Westfield Annapolis Mall in February 2022, she didn’t go to buy clothes, or to watch a movie or to even meet up with her girlfriends. She was looking for rats.
A week earlier, Ms. Mahmud saw a post online about a pack of rodents at the SPCA of Anne Arundel County, whose shelter opened an outpost at the mall in September 2020. When she arrived at the new location and approached the rat enclosure, she saw Snoofles, Algernon and Ikit, 5-month-old sisters who perked up and pressed their pink noses through their crate to get a better look at Ms. Mahmud and her boyfriend.
“They kind of ran up to us and said hi,” said Ms. Mahmud, 32, a school therapist in Alexandria, Va. “They melted our hearts with how little, affectionate and outgoing they were from the beginning.”
But it wasn’t until a meet-and-greet days later when Ms. Mahmud finally decided to take them home, where Snoofles proceeded to run down her shirt.
“At that point, I was like, Well all right, I guess they’ve chosen,” Ms. Mahmud said.
Snoofles, Algernon and Ikit are just some of the thousands of pets that have been adopted from animal shelters sprouting up in malls across the country in the past three years. A growing number of shopping centers are offering animal rescue groups empty storefronts for free or at a significant discount, sometimes as much as 90 percent. According to Shelter Animals Count, an animal welfare national database, shelters reported that intakes increased 4 percent in 2022, leaving them overburdened with animals that were once hard to obtain during quarantine.
With collaborations like the one between the SPCA and Westfield Annapolis gaining popularity, malls and animal havens are hoping to attract more pet owners and customers to these retail spaces that were already struggling before the pandemic forced temporary closures.
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
Has your family ever adopted or fostered a pet? If so, what was the experience like? What did that pet bring to your life, or the life of your family? Would you recommend adoption or fostering to others?
Have you ever visited an animal shelter or rescue, or volunteered at one? If so, what was it like? What, if anything, did you gain or learn from the experience? If not, would you like to do something like this someday?
Have you ever been to a mall or other shopping center that had a designated area for animal adoption? If so, what are your thoughts about it? What might be some pros and cons of this idea?
The article’s author discusses the decline in popularity of malls over the past few decades. Do you visit malls regularly? Do you notice empty storefronts and a lack of crowds, or are the malls thriving?
Other than animal centers, how else can empty spaces in malls be used? Suppose you are a consultant for a mall that has many closed storefronts and little foot traffic. What strategies would you recommend for getting people of your generation to visit? What sorts of companies or organizations would you approach about renting space in the mall? How would the relationship benefit the mall as well as the renter?
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.
When the Biden administration allowed the coronavirus public health emergency declaration to expire on May 11, Title 42, a section of the Public Health Service Act of 1944, effectively ended. The rule, enacted during the pandemic, allows the government to halt the entry of people and imports into the United States to prevent the spread of disease.
For three years, Title 42 has meant that border officials could immediately expel millions of people, including those seeking asylum, upon arrival to the United States without going through the time-consuming steps typically needed to process migrants.
Over the past few years, illegal border crossings have been historically high — part of what the United Nations has identified as a global migration trend. Now, with the end of this Covid-era policy, U.S. officials expect the numbers of migrants at the southern border to grow even higher.
In this lesson, you will learn more about the end of Title 42 and what is driving the record levels of migration to the United States. In one Going Further activity, we ask you to explore the stories of immigrants seeking asylum. In another, we invite you to imagine that you are an adviser to President Biden and to make a recommendation on the current border situation.
Warm-Up
Part 1: Explore push and pull factors that affect immigration and migration.
When historians and sociologists discuss immigration, they sometimes point to push and pull factors to explain why groups of people move from one place to another. Push factors are the reasons people decide to leave their homelands, and pull factors are the reasons people choose to move to a particular place.
Use your knowledge of history and current events to make a list of various push and pull factors to describe why people might leave their homelands to move to another country.
Part 2: Look at photos of scenes from the U.S. southern border, as Title 42 expired.
As Title 42 restrictions expires, New York Times photographers are documenting the experience on both sides of the border, from San Diego on the West Coast to Matamoros, Mexico, near the Gulf of Mexico.
Scroll through the images in this collection. Then, in writing or through discussion with a partner, respond to the following questions:
What do you notice? What can you learn from the photographs from the U.S. southern border since the end of Title 42?
What do you wonder? What questions do you have about these images, the people and the scenes they depict?
Taken as a whole, what do these images tell you about the situation at the southern border? If you had to create a headline for the collection, what would it be?
1. According to the article, why have there been widespread fears that the end of Title 42 on May 11 would set off a stampede of migrants from Mexico? What, in fact, has happened before and after the expiration of the pandemic-era policy?
2. What new restrictions has the Biden administration put into place to address a possible surge in migrants following the end of Title 42? How are those new restrictions being challenged by immigrant advocacy groups and by federal judges?
3. What did you learn about the push and pull factors driving migration to the United States? Compare them to your list from the warm-up activity. What else can you add?
4. Wayne Cornelius, an immigration scholar and emeritus professor at the University of California, San Diego, said, “There has never been a better moment for migrants to seek work in the U.S.” What evidence from the article supports his claim?
5. The article notes that a renewed surge in migrants at the border could deepen political headaches for the Biden administration and that Republicans are hoping to make immigration central to their 2024 election campaigns. Why do you think the issue of immigration is such a polarizing one today? How does the issue or the debate around it affect you and your community?
6. What are your three biggest takeaways from the article? What details, quotes, statistics or images stand out most? What questions do you still have about migrants, the end of Title 42 or about U.S. immigration policy in general?
Going Further
Option 1: Learn more about the lives of the immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S.
Who are the migrants seeking asylum in the United States? What conditions do they face at home? What has been their journey to get to the U.S.? What have they discovered at the U.S. border?
Watch the video above, or read one of the recent Times articles below. Then, in writing or through discussion with a partner, respond to the following prompts: What new things did you learn about the story of migrants at the U.S. border? How did the perspectives of the migrants themselves affect your understanding of the issue? What quotes and details stood out and why? What new questions arose?
Option 2: Make a recommendation to President Biden on U.S. immigration policy.
In “The New Surge at the Border,” David Leonhardt writes that immigration, like so many other political subjects today, has become highly polarized. And, as a result, he argues, the issue’s complexities and trade-offs sometimes get obscured:
Donald Trump was the most anti-immigration president in decades, promising to build a border wall and demeaning immigrants with racist language. Joe Biden ran for president in 2020 promising a more welcoming approach — and after he won the election, the number of people trying to enter the country without permission spiked.
He continues:
Democrats have not engaged in anything as hateful as the white nationalist conspiracy theories that are common on Fox News. But Democrats have sometimes brushed aside the hard questions of immigration policy.
A relatively lax approach to border security does have downsides. Early in Biden’s presidency, thousands of people in Latin America left their homes and headed north, often taking enormous risks. Some made it to the U.S. and have given themselves a chance at a better future. Others have languished in crowded and dangerous conditions in northern Mexico — a sign that a porous border creates its own humanitarian problems.
The migration surge of the past few years has also caused problems in the U.S. Social services and shelters in Texas and Arizona cities have been overwhelmed, mayors say. Even some cities far from the border, like Chicago and New York, have struggled to handle the influx. “The president and the White House have failed New York City on this issue,” Mayor Eric Adams of New York, a Democrat, said last month. “Why are you doing this to New York?”
In response, the Biden administration has changed its approach. In early January, Biden announced a tougher policy meant to keep out migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua who did not have a good claim of political oppression. The policy also provided new opportunities to come to the U.S. legally.
Read the rest of the article: What are the challenges and trade-offs facing Mr. Biden as he tries to address the humanitarian crisis at the border, along with pressures from his political left and right?
Imagine you are an adviser to the president. What approach would you recommend he take on immigration? What should he do to address the current situation at the southern U.S. border with Mexico?
For example, should the Biden administration push for greater border security? Allow for more asylum seekers to enter the U.S. each year, especially from troubled countries in the Western Hemisphere, such as Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti? Provide more federal support for cities, districts and states to better handle the influx of migrants? Or, perhaps, would you advise Mr. Biden to step back from the current crisis and push Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform?
To help formulate your recommendation, you might read one or more of the Times articles and Opinion essays below:
