Can you guess where something is based on the address or cross streets alone? If someone were to reference a local landmark, such as mountains, the ocean or a distinctive building, would that help to situate you? Or do you primarily depend on your smartphone map to get yourself places?
As a child in Chicago, Stephanie de Silva found that the city helped her get where she was going. Streets included directional names like “West” or “North,” and they often met at neat right angles. If all else failed, Lake Michigan could situate her.
But when Ms. de Silva, 23, moved to London, where she now studies cognitive science, she suddenly could not navigate to a restaurant two blocks from home without a smartphone map. The streets were often crooked. Sometimes, they seemed to lead nowhere.
“I don’t think the cardinal directions exist here,” she said. “I’ve lived here for six months now, and I don’t know which direction I’m facing.”
Scientists in Ms. de Silva’s lab at University College London, along with colleagues in Britain and France, have now arrived at an explanation: People who grow up in predictable, gridlike cities like Chicago or New York seem to struggle to navigate as easily as those who come from more rural areas or more intricate cities.
Those findings, published in Nature, suggest that people’s childhood surroundings influence not only their health and well-being but also their ability to get around later in life. Much like language, navigation is a skill that appears to be most malleable when people’s brains are developing, the researchers concluded.
The authors hope the findings eventually lead to navigation-based tests to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. Getting lost can sometimes occur earlier in the course of the illness than memory problems, they said.
Researchers have developed virtual navigation tests for cognitive decline, but they can interpret the results only if they know what other factors influence people’s way-finding abilities.
Among the forces shaping people’s navigation skills, the study suggested, was what kind of places they experienced as a child.
“The environment matters,” said Hugo Spiers, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London and one of the study’s lead authors. “The environment we’re exposed to has a knock-on effect, into the 70s, on cognition.”
Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, as well as 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.
This lesson is a part of our Accessible Activities feature, which aims to welcome a wider variety of learners to our site and to The Times in general. Learn more and tell us what you think here.
Pigeons are polarizing birds. Some people love them — feeding them or taking them in as pets — while others view them as “rats with wings.”
In this lesson, you will learn all about pigeons — their history, their behaviors and what makes them unique. Then, you will participate in a citizen science project to make observations about local birds in your town or city.
Warm-Up
Do you see pigeons where you live? How do you feel about them? Do you love them? Hate them? Or simply ignore them?
Make a K/W/ L chart and fill in everything you Know about pigeons — what they look like, how they behave, what they eat, the history of the species and so on — and at least two things you Want to know about them.
As you read today’s article, fill in the last column of your chart with anything else you Learn about these birds, including, if possible, the answers to some of your questions.
Vocabulary
The article you are about to read includes 12 words that might be new or unfamiliar to you. Look at the list below and define any of the words you know, or use them in a sentence.
Read the article, also available as a PDF, and then answer the following questions:
1. Why were pigeons domesticated, or tamed? What were their earlier uses?
2. When did pigeons become less popular? Why?
3. What are some of the genetic differences among pigeons? Of the various kinds of pigeons shown in the article, which ones have you seen before?
4. How can you learn more about pigeon predators through observation?
5. What are two things you learned about pigeon anatomy, mating or history that make these birds special? Add them to your K/W/L chart from the warm-up activity.
Going Further
Option 1: Participate in a citizen science project.
Before you take part in the experiment, reflect on the birds in your region: Are there certain species of birds you frequently see? Do you know what they’re called? If you do not see birds often, why do you think that is?
Next, follow the steps below to participate in the project. You can find more detailed instructions on the Celebrate Urban Birds website or in this printable worksheet.
2. Then, choose an area — approximately 50 feet by 50 feet — to conduct your bird watching.
3. Watch the area for 10 minutes and record if you see, or do not see, any birds. It is just as important to note if you do not see any birds as it is to note the birds you do see.
4. Repeat your bird watching in the same area an additional two to three times and share your results with Celebrate Urban Birds.
Finally, return to your notes from the beginning of the exercise: Are you surprised by your results? Why or why not?
Option 2: Learn even more about pigeons.
Watch this four-minute video from TED-Ed that dives deeper into the history of pigeons and what they contribute to the world today.
What else did you learn about pigeons? Do you see the birds in a different way than you did at the beginning of the lesson? Why or why not?
Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.
How often do you think about climate change and its impact on the planet? Does the crisis fill you with existential dread? Or do you have faith that humanity will be able to adapt?
They believe that focusing solely on terrible climate news can sow dread and paralysis, foster inaction and become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
With the war in Ukraine prompting a push for ramped up production of fossil fuels, they say it’s ever more pressing to concentrate on all the good climate work, especially locally, that is being done. “People are almost tired of hearing how bad it is; the narrative needs to move on to solutions,” said Alaina Wood, 25, a sustainability scientist who communicates much of her climate messaging on TikTok, the most popular social media platform among young Americans. “The science says things are bad. But it’s only going to get worse the longer it takes to act.”
Some climate advocates refer to the stance taken by Ms. Wood and her allies as “OK Doomer,” a riff on “OK Boomer,” the Gen Z rebuttal to condescension from older folks.
If awareness about the climate crisis has never been greater, so, too, has been a mounting sense of dread about its unfolding effects, particularly among the young. Two-thirds of Americans thought the government was doing too little to fight climate change, according to a 2020 Pew study, while a survey last year of 10,000 teens and young adults in 10 countries found that three-quarters were frightened of the future.
There is also growing consensus that depression and eco-anxiety are perfectly natural responses to the steady barrage of scary environmental news. Stalled climate legislation in Congress along with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and its implications for the environmental crisis, has done little to help.
Yet people like Ms. Wood, and her thriving community of climate communicators, believe that staying stuck in climate doom only helps preserve a status quo reliant on consumerism and fossil fuels.
Via social media, Ms. Wood and her fellow “eco-creators” highlight positive climate news. They also encourage their followers to take environmental action in a variety of ways, from picking up trash and joining climate strikes to not losing hope:
Kristy Drutman, 26, began airing her frustration on social media under the handle @browngirl_green and soon concluded that many communities of color, already affected by climate change and environmental devastation, lack “the time or privilege to get lost on climate doom,” she said. “They have to focus on solutions,” she added, “because their survival is literally on the line.”
Philip Aiken, 29, who hosts the podcast “just to save the world,” said that privilege is also baked into the attitude of “it’s too late.”
“‘It’s too late’ means ‘I just want to be comfortable for as much of my life as possible because I’m already comfortable,’” Mr. Aiken said. “‘It’s too late’ means ‘I don’t have to do anything, and the responsibility is off me, and I can continue existing however I want.’”
To ward off his own sense of doom, Mr. Aiken monitors his intake of climate news. He came up with a metric: Focus 20 percent on problems and 80 percent on solutions. He has come to understand that there’s a lifetime of work ahead and concentrates on grass-roots movements and effecting local change. “That work fulfills me,” he said, “and keeps me optimistic about a future in which we can still survive and thrive.”
How concerned are you about the future of the planet? Do you have a nihilistic or optimistic outlook? If you experience “eco-anxiety,” how have you coped with it?
The article reported that Ms. Wood has created many TikTok videos debunking extreme examples of climate doomism. Was any of the information new to you? Did they offer a sense of reassurance?
The article states that people like Ms. Wood “believe that staying stuck in climate doom only helps preserve a status quo reliant on consumerism and fossil fuels.” Do you agree? Should we be more optimistic about efforts to combat climate change? Why or why not?
Have you taken any actions — big or small — to protect the environment and combat climate change? What were they? Have any of the young activists featured in the article motivated you to start? Which ones, if any, were most inspiring?
There is debate over what role individual actions play in the climate crisis, given that large corporations and world governments are responsible for the overwhelming majority of planet-heating carbon emissions. Do you believe that individuals canmake a difference? Have you witnessed an example? Can social media efforts like the ones described in the article lead to real change?
Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.
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.
We are excited to announce that we will be a sponsor of this year’s eLearning Africa conference. Our Founder and CEO, Mike Feerick, shares his vision for the company which has over 23 million learners, 4 million graduates and more than 4,000 courses and is having a positive impact on millions of lives across Africa.
MOOCs are having a moment, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. Massive Open Online Course platforms, like Alison, are breaking through the frontiers of education as we’ve always known it and creating a completely new landscape. In our case, that means empowering millions of learners worldwide to improve their lives through education – for free.
As you may know, we are a for-profit social enterprise founded by Mike in 2007. Mike, who is a keynote speaker at the conference, is as full of pioneering zeal as he was when he first launched Alison in Galway, Ireland. His vision for a platform where education is accessible to anyone, anywhere, any time, remains as revolutionary as ever. To date, over 23 million learners, including 7 million in Africa, have enjoyed equal access to education and skills development for free on our platform.
“If you are going to spend your professional life doing something, it’s most exciting if there is real soul to what you do and enabling and empowering people still excites me,” he said. “The big picture is addressing the issue of physical poverty worldwide. There is no doubt, if you make education freely available to everyone that basic levels of physical poverty can be addressed.”
In Alison’s case, that means providing a swathe of courses teaching everything from basic English to university standard courses along with practical, skills-based subjects and trades. This year, we have teamed up with the Mobile Education Alliance to create courses to support digital literacy in Africa and beyond.
“Only 8% of the world’s population have ever gone to traditional college. It is no wonder that we have skill shortages across the world,” says Mike. “However, traditional college is too slow, expensive and out of date today. People need to learn now, and they can. We at Alison can empower anyone at any time to learn valuable skills for the workplace for free, to enable them to get employment, be promoted, or start their own businesses. Education is no longer the domain of the wealthy, it is open to all, once you have the motivation and determination to spend the time learning. Improving digital literacy skill is one of the first steps in this journey.”
Meet the Alison Team in Africa
Mike is looking forward to his visit to Rwanda and is planning a road trip through Eastern Africa doing one of his favourite things – meeting Alison learners!
“Over four weeks, I will be travelling by road across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. My goal is to hear as many stories as possible from Alison graduates about how they came to Alison, what they studied, and how free study helped empower them in the workplace or through personal development. I want to listen to their advice on how we might develop Alison services further, to assist them further in their careers, and also assist those in their community to upskill and develop themselves through our free online services. Hundreds of Alison graduates have responded to our call. I’ll endeavour to meet as many as possible, as I did on previous trips to Nigeria and South Africa.”
He is also interested in meeting with local educators, trainers, and policymakers relating to workplace skills training and empowerment.
The Alison team, including members from Africa and Ireland, will also be running workshops during the eLearning Africa conference in Kigali and are excited about meeting learners, instructors, schools and businesses and discussing the Diploma and Certificate courses, career development tools, how you can earn and learn with Alison or how you can empower your business.
If it’s anything like his recent trip to meet Alison’s team members and learners in Pakistan, there will be many new connections to celebrate.
“What amazes me about going to countries like Pakistan is how many bright and highly motivated people there are all around the world. As a wise person once said, talent is everywhere, it is just that opportunity is not. Alison is working on breaking down these barriers to opportunity,” Feerick added.
Empowering Millions from Across Continents
While our HQ remains in Ireland, we now employ more than 200 people across Africa, India, Pakistan, Europe and the USA who look after the technological needs of the platform, monitor standards, market the courses and so on. The courses are provided by subject matter experts who can choose to self-publish or take the assisted publisher route and pay a small fee to have their course created in-house. In each case, our team curate the courses, making sure that they are well-structured pedagogically and adhere to our high standards. We also provide marketing support.
While there are courses from major establishments, such as Stanford and Cambridge, among the 4,000 plus available on the platform, ex-Harvard man Mike believes in empowering individuals to step up and share their expertise too. “There must be millions of subject matter experts in the world who would love to create a course and tap into an income stream,” he says.
While traditional education is a slow-moving beast, in the world of eLearning, nothing stays the same for long. This past year has seen a number of exciting developments at Alison! We launched our app in May 2021 and have rapidly clocked up well over one million users and a 4.8-star rating. We also launched an app for our Workplace Personality Assessment. This popular psychometric test has been completed by over 100,000 users. More recently, we have also teamed up with healthcare provider Welliba to host the Welliba Workplace Wellbeing Assessment. Finally, just last month, our entire platform was rebranded and now boasts a streamlined, easy to navigate experience.
The focus on empowerment is reflected in the strong careers guidance on our platform, and new features in development include a resume builder, to further support learners to progress in their chosen field, and hubs where our learners can easily navigate interconnected courses and find out more about a given subject or get inspiration for new directions.
While it is gratifying to run a successful and growing business, Mike never loses sight of his vision of empowering people to achieve their full potential. Our YouTube channel is peppered with comments testifying to the difference our platform is making in the lives of people like musician Godfrey Ssentongo who wrote: “You’ve really helped us who lost our parents at 3yrs and couldn’t have any qualifications if it wasn’t for your initiative.”
Stay up to date with the Alison team’s travels through Eastern Africa as they meet learners along the way. Follow their journey on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and right here, on our blog.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has jumped off the movie screen and into our everyday lives. From facial recognition technology to ride-sharing apps to digital smart assistants like Siri, AI is now used in nearly every corner of our daily lives.
As these technologies advance and society adopts new technologies that use AI, the field is only going to continue to grow, which means there will likely be plenty of jobs to apply to for anyone interested in getting into this field. And it’s not just the job outlook that’s appealing. Working in AI means you’ll support the development of cutting-edge technology that directly impacts people and businesses on a daily basis. Not to mention, in the U.S., AI Engineers earn a comfortable average salary of $164,769, according to data from ZipRecruiter.
If you’re interested in a career in AI engineering, here’s advice on how to get started, plus tips on how to land your first AI Engineer role.
What does an AI Engineer do?
AI Engineers have specific skills that allow them to develop new technologies, tools, and systems that use AI to solve complex problems. For example, an AI Engineer might work on a project that uses natural language processing (NLP) to improve the integration of smart assistants in our daily lives, or they may be focused on decreasing the costs associated with product development to help their employer boost profits.
There are several subsets of AI, and as an AI Engineer, you may choose an area to focus your work on. These include machine learning, deep learning, robotics, machine vision, NLP, and speech recognition.You can read more about the role of an AI Engineer here.
What skills do you need to be an AI Engineer?
To be a successful AI Engineer, you’ll need to gain a variety of technical skills and soft skills. Your technical skills will span programming languages, data science, and mathematics; and since AI models are built using algorithms, understanding data structures and algorithms will be an essential skill you’ll need to develop as well. Although you may decide to specialize in a niche area of AI, which will likely require further education and training, you’ll still want to understand the basic concepts in these core areas.
Some of the most popular programming languages in AI are Python, Java, R, and C++, so mastering one or more of these languages will support your career in AI. Python is particularly popular because its libraries are designed to optimize the AI development process, and because it’s a top choice for NLP. Java is a top language for machine learning, a subset of the AI field, and it’s a go-to language for mobile app development as well. If you want to focus on statistical software development, data analysis, and/or data visualization in AI, then learning R would be a great option for you. And C++ is known for its very fast processing speed, which is essential to the performance of complex machine learning models.
As far as math skills go, a solid understanding of linear algebra, probability, and statistics will help you create and use algorithms, as well as interact with common machine learning models, including Hidden Markov, Gaussian mixture, and Naive Bayes models.
While you’re learning new programming languages and mathematical skills to grow in your professional role, you’ll also want to focus on developing your soft skills. These skills are harder to quantify, but they’ll be crucial to your success in any technical role.
Some of the soft skills that AI Engineers need include collaboration, problem-solving, communication, leadership, time management, and understanding how high-level objectives influence outcomes. These skills will enable you to communicate your ideas and solutions with your team, and also help you be a better team member.
Do I need a degree in AI to become an AI Engineer?
When you’re researching jobs in AI, you’ll most likely see a minimum education requirement of a Bachelor’s Degree. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that you need a specific AI degree. In fact, since AI is a relatively new field, there aren’t that many colleges and universities that offer AI degrees in the first place.
What hiring managers are looking for is some formal education in a related field. This could be computer science, data science, IT, statistics, or math. And then you can highlight any additional courses related to AI that you took in college or online that supported your learning.
Prepare for the job search
Once you have the skills you’ll need to become an AI Engineer, it’s time to begin your job search. Hiring managers will generally expect to see a resume highlighting your technical skills, as well as your soft skills. Check out this advice on how to create a technical resume that’ll get you noticed, as well as these tips on how to showcase your soft skills.
Remember to include keywords related to AI on your resume. Some keywords you should consider including if they apply to you are the names of programming languages (such as Java, C++, Python, and R), computer vision, machine learning algorithms, machine learning libraries, robotics, data science, dynamic programming, statistics, and probability.
You may also want to create a portfolio that highlights your best work to include with your applications. You could use your Github or create a personal website for your portfolio. Here are some tips on how to use Github to strengthen your resume. Remember: Your portfolio is an added bonus during the hiring process, so look for AI-related projects and skills to present that will give the hiring team extra insight into why you’re the best fit for the job.
Prepare for the interview
When interviewing for AI Engineer roles, you can expect to be asked both technical and behavioral interview questions. The interview process often kicks off with a phone screening where you’ll be asked general questions about your interest in the position, as well as any clarifying questions related to the information on your resume. You should also be given time to ask any general questions you have for the recruiter. If the phone screening goes well, the next step is usually a technical interview.
During a technical interview, it’s common to be given a challenging scenario and asked how you’d solve it. Hiring teams want to hear how you’d approach the problem and apply your skills to begin to solve it. In the AI field, it’s all about the problem-solving process, so explaining why you’re making certain decisions and how you’d go about implementing your solution is crucial. Don’t hesitate to give those extra details that back up your decisions.
It’s also a good idea to have a few examples from your past work that you can talk about during your interview. Ideally, these examples would include AI-related work so you can further highlight how your skill set will benefit their team. Spend some time memorizing important details from these examples so you’re prepared to talk through them during your interview.
With new research and daily advancements in technology, there’s always something new to learn in the ever-changing field of artificial intelligence. Whether you’re looking to learn a new software library for machine learning or a new programming language to support your work, our courses can help.
Question: What is a blog post called that nobody ever sees? Answer: A huge waste of your time!
Don’t be someone who wastes time creating blog posts nobody ever sees. Creating successful blog posts takes time and requires you to do certain things to get your posts noticed. Blog posts don’t magically become successful without conscientious effort. If you want your impressively crafted posts seen and loved by the world, then keep reading because this post is for you.
In this post, I’ll be sharing 15 essential things to do before and after you publish a post that will give your blog posts the absolute best chance of becoming successful. Our Weekly Post Planner printable (example at bottom of post) from our FREE Ultimate Blog Planner includes these steps so you can make sure each post you create is at the top of its game.
Before You Publish the Post
1. Write an Attention-Grabbing Post Title
Your post title is what is going to sell your content to the world, so it’s essential that it is well thought out and effectively written. Blog post titles should be focused and yet descriptive. Your post title should describe in one short, powerful phrase the overall message of your post. For tips on writing attention-grabbing post titles and for 48 post title templates that really work, be sure to check out:
The first thing most readers do when first landing on a post is they quickly scan the post to see if it looks interesting and/or contains the information they need. Putting up a single wall of unorganized text is going to make it very difficult for your readers to find what they need. Sections and headings divide your post into easily readable paragraphs. Adding headings, subheadings, bullets, lists, quotes & images are all things that add interest and organization to your post. Adding headings and subheadings that contain your focus keyword is also an important step in making your post SEO-fabulous.
3. Add Tags & Categories
Adding tags and categories to your posts adds structure to your blog and makes it easier for your readers to find specific content. Categories are like the table of contents or chapters of your blog. They are the broad topics you want to write about. While categories are broad, tags are very specific. If categories serve as the table of contents, tags are like the index or keywords of your site. For more information about tags vs. categories and to learn how to add them to each of your posts, be sure to visit the following post:
Adding alt text to your images is not only important for SEO, but it’s also important for Pinterest. What you add as your alt text, is what Pinterest will automatically pull as the description for the photo when someone pins your image to Pinterest, so make it descriptive and enticing. You can even add a call to action! For detailed instructions on how to add alt text to your images in WordPress or in Blogger, you can visit this post:
Your featured image is like the cover of a book and is the image that will be used to represent your post on social media, recent post suggestion boxes, Bloglovin’, StumbleUpon, etc. Your featured image can either be an image straight from your post or you can create a separate image to upload as your featured image. It’s best to use vertical images with text on them as they draw more attention in feeds.
To add a featured image to a post in WordPress, navigate in your dashboard to Posts > Add New. Then scroll down the screen until you find the Featured Image box on the right sidebar of your screen. Click the Set featured image link. Upload the image you wish you use from your computer or you can select a photo from your media library. Then click the blue Set featured image button and that will set your selected image as your featured image.
6. Deep Link to Old Posts
Adding links to older posts within a new post not only provides your readers with further reading about a given topic but also keeps people on your site longer. I’ve deep linked to older posts several times throughout this post. I’ve done this as a way of offering additional information and tutorials rather than repeating all of the information and tutorials contained in those posts here. Deep linking also helps increase your site’s page views because it encourages readers to visit more pages. This results in them spending more time on your site.
7. Proofread
I’ll be honest here. I hate proofreading! It takes time to read and re-read a post (especially a long one like this one), but it is so essential! If you are anything like me, you can proofread a post ten times, publish and then a few days later still find errors. I’m sure you’ll even find some in this post…ha! One tool that has helped me a ton when writing posts is a tool called Grammarly. Grammarly is a browser extension that will help you find and then fix common grammatical errors. As you are creating your post, it automatically underlines anything you need to take a second look at. It is constantly helping me find and fix errors within my posts that I would have otherwise overlooked. I highly recommend using this tool to help you perfect your posts.
8. SEO Optimize the Post
Search Engine Optimization (aka SEO) is essential if you want your post to be noticed by search engines. Search engines help drive traffic to your website and are a powerful means of growing your site. SEO optimizing your posts is an absolute must do if you want your posts to be successful. In our post How to Unlock Yoast SEO to Grow Your Traffic, we break down exactly how to go about optimizing each of your posts, so be sure to check that out if you haven’t already. I also recommend you check out these posts for additional SEO tips:
Adding a call to action means that you add something at the end of your post that gets your readers to act. It might be something as simple as ending your post with a question that motivates your readers to leave a comment. Or maybe you could offer a related freebie that helps you gain new email subscribers. Another idea would be to leave your readers with some type of challenge and then encourage them to return and share in a comment their experience fulfilling the challenge. When readers act on a post, they will remember that post far longer than a post without a call to action. Creating posts your readers remember means they will be far more likely to return to your site in the future.
After You Publish the Post
1. Promote Your Post on Social Media
Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule? It’s said that you should spend 20% of your time writing new content and 80% promoting it. After you hit publish it’s important to get your post in front of as many eyes as possible. Social media is the best tool for doing this, so be sure to share your post on all of your social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Don’t be afraid to share your post multiple times on each social platform during the week. If you only post about it once, only a small percentage of your followers will see it, so posting about it a few times in different ways and/or using varying images, will allow it to be seen by more eyes.
2. Pin & Repin Your Post to Pinterest
Pinterest is a HUGE traffic source for most blogs. For Designer Blogs, it’s our #1 traffic source! Using Pinterest is key to getting your post in front of A LOT of eyes. Over the course of few days, pin your post to relevant boards on your Pinterest account. You will also want to share your post on any group boards you might be a part of.
Using a Pinterest scheduling tool like Tailwind, Ahalogy, or BoardBooster will make your life a ton easier as you can use them to schedule your post to several boards over the course of a couple of days rather than having to remember to do it manually. A few months after you publish your post, don’t be afraid to repin your post again to several boards on your account. This will keep it in front of your follower’s eyes and in constant rotation.
3. Link It Within Old Posts
Another way to get your post in front of more eyes is to go through all of your existing posts and link your new post within related posts. You can do this by editing the content to include information and a link to your new post or if you don’t want to spend time editing content, you can simply mention the post at the bottom of a related paragraph similar to the following example:
Like mentioned previously, deep linking to other posts within your site is a great way to give your posts more exposure and increase your page views.
4. Reply to Comments
Be sure to take the time to reply to any comments that may come in. Replying to comments builds a rapport with your readers and helps them feel valued. Answering questions your readers may have will not only be beneficial to the reader asking the question, but to future readers as well.
5. Mention the post in an email to your subscribers
Your email subscribers are some of your biggest fans! They’ve subscribed to you because they love the content you produce. However, rather than bombarding your subscribers with emails every time you publish a new post, consider sending out a weekly roundup of the week’s posts, events or news. Your subscribers have subscribed to you because they are excited to hear and learn more from you, so don’t be afraid to share your posts with your most enthusiastic fans.
6. Study Your Analytics for the Post
Studying your analytics is a great way to learn which posts your readers are loving and which posts aren’t quite working for you. After publishing a post if you find that after a few months it hasn’t performed well, try re-promoting it, changing the title to something more click-worthy, and/or improving the images used within the post. All of these things can help breathe new life into your posts. Learn more about how to read Google Analytics here:
Our Weekly Post Planner, which you can download for free with The Ultimate Blog Planner, is a great tool for making sure you’ve covered each of the items listed above.
Ana Menendez, 15, a visitor from Mexico City, admires Rachel’s grit. “When the show had its premiere, she was a little spoiled,” Ms. Menendez said. “But with the help of her friends she learned how to become a better person.”
Among her young followers, Ms. Aniston’s apparent fallibility may well be a trump card, said Jonathan Gray, a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin.
“We can’t just see women succeeding all the time,” Dr. Gray said. “A good feminist image needs to show us women struggling and sometimes making bad decisions. Jennifer Aniston often occupies that role. People connect. It’s ‘Yeah, she doesn’t know what she’s doing and neither do I.’”
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word fallibility 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 fallibility 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.
According to a recent article in The Times, battery-powered cars are having a breakthrough moment and will enter the mainstream this year.The article continues:
Their arrival represents the biggest upheaval in the auto industry since Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908 and could have far-reaching consequences for factory workers, businesses and the environment. Tailpipe emissions are among the largest contributors to climate change.
Do you know anyone with an electric vehicle? Would you want one yourself? Why or why not? Imagine that sometime in the near future the majority of vehicles on the road are battery-powered. What effects can you predict that might have — on the auto industry, the environment, and everyday life where you live? Why?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.
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I was trying to think of a title for this post, because it isn’t your typical post. I thought first around something like the Truth they don’t want you to know, then realized that some vendors would push back and say that isn’t true, which gets back to the original statement.
Then there would be clients of some systems that would say, “That’s not true”, despite myself providing specifics because they haven’t had that experience or issue. Even though plenty of others did.
A conundrum.
Lately I’ve heard that two popular words are being used in the business lexicon – anecdotal being one. I was trying to think why this would be even in the business lexicon which a word such as a vernacular would be better – yes, a word I like.
Words are funny that way. One word or two can mean this in our industry, and mean something completely else to clients or prospects.
Words can be interpreted by “experts” in our space, without anyone questioning the “expert” and whether they truly know the industry, because there are a lot of experts in our industry on LinkedIn, apparently. Who knew?
When folks start heading to trade shows in May in our industry, a lot of words will be tossed around by salespeople in those booths, again with them assuming you know the meaning. I have found that many salespeople themselves have no idea what those words actually mean, let alone why e-learning was created in the first place or an LMS or even what machine learning (which vendors dub as AI) is only as the data sets it was trained on.
I get why some folks just nod and agree with whatever the salesperson is saying – after all, nobody wants to appear as though “they do not know”, a common worry among all of us.
There are going to be salespeople who do not even work for the vendor. That’s right, the vendor has hired them to be at the booth taking information done and lead info especially.
You are going to have the famous we need to “Scan your badge” or can we “scan your badge”, and even if you are a prospect or interested in the system, expect less than 50% to ever contact you. For vendors, the number of lead opportunities are going to be a large number, however, two key facts do play out here. One – the average time to close a lead from a trade show, pre-COVID was 12 to 18 months. Now? Six to 12 months, with large enterprises who need mass configuration, exceeding 12 months. Two, vendors on the whole are lucky if they close one lead from a trade show, let alone two.
Are there exceptions absolutely. Just as there are exceptions to hearing crickets after a vendor does reach out.
Some vendors will qualify a prospect quickly in the booth, eyeing that badge of yours – seeing your title and where you work. I never liked that approach, because you never know who really is the decision maker, and you never know whether the person without the fancy title is the one who may be driving the whole thing.
There will be vendor salespeople who are more interested in their smartphone or chatting with other salespeople to help you. I think the word for that is indifference, although I know of another nasty word that is equally sums it up.
I like trade shows, but it always comes down to me on the following factors
Are there vendors, who have a slick booth, but a crummy system? Too many folks eye the slick looking booth, ignoring the booth that is so-so. Placement makes all the difference in the world at trade shows. The better traffic routes cost more (with repeaters getting first choice). It also costs more for the vendor, the same with the size of the booth. There are booths worthy of checking out, that are near the back of the room, with foot traffic being underwhelming.
Does the booth have a monitor where I can actually see the system or product – that is “live” and not a pre-filled loop? WiFi is notoriously awful at trade shows, so that plays a role, but with hot spots it can be resolved.
Do I have to get someone’s attention, or will the salesperson make a B-line to me? I like the latter as long as they are not aggressive or assertive. An item that turns me right off is when a salesperson stands at the front end of the booth as though they are a gate keeper. It is intimidating.
I like shows where navigation to vendors is easy to follow and find. LTUK for example, is always awful. This is not a one time issue either, it is every year. Geo-location with the app would resolve a lot, but ignoring that, they just can’t seem to figure out how to layout the floor with the signs for each aisle. Plus they always stick the big map at the back of the floor. ATD does a much better job, their app is awful – a trade show theme apparently, but the pathways are easy to navigate.
I like it when shows give folks lunch for free. I don’t like that they forget that many people today are going all plant-based or vegan or have dairy allergies or lactose intolerance.
I like the variety of vendors at a trade show, you will quickly pick up a theme when you look around, focus on the keywords or words they are pushing on their booths. My vibe says it will be skills (in some manner) first and foremost. AI will be there too, or NexGen. Third-party publishers will push skills, skills for the future and other items. Then there will be vendors who you wonder, whether or not they even know who is walking around these shows. I once say a vendor still pitching on-site F2F training, another – a board game. Great.
Learning Systems – I like this, but that?
I like Cornerstone LMS, but I do not like the data visualization of the metrics. It appears dated and something I’d see if Excel. Nor do I like the administration side, simply because it is not user-friendly, and can be overwhelming.
I like the Docebo Learn solution, but I do not like that Discover, Coach and Share – which is heavily promoted on their site is a yearly additional cost to Docebo Learn. Nor do I like that the metrics that come out of the box with Docebo Learn are poor and the visualization bad. Thus you need to purchase either Learning Impacts which has a far better visualization and metrics compared to what comes with Learn or pay for Learning Analytics which is vastly superior to all of them. I do not like that you want this? You pay extra for it. You want that? Oh, pay extra and everything is a yearly fee, not one-time.
Speaking of all included – I like that. Nobody knows what future business disrupts will be appear, after all, nobody saw COVID-19, let alone it’s business impact then, and even now with the supply chain and inflation (yes, components due to the pandemic and an economy going from zero to full throttle). Nobody say the Great resignation ahead of time, and yet here it is. Nobody foresaw not just every day workers but also execs who will only work remote – which changes the way people can be trained. Hybrid equally so.
Let’s say you the person overseeing L&D or Training or whatever department oversees learning and training for your employees, customers, members, whomever. The next person comes in, and wants this or that, which isn’t there, because you chose a system that didn’t come with everything. Then you go to your new place, and the same issue appears and you wish it had this, but sorry that is an additional cost.
I like Elucidat, the SaaS authoring tool, for folks new to authoring courses/content and those with limited experience. I really like that they have templates for folks who are providing customer education (many authoring tools do not). I don’t like that they lack an extensive set of digital assets including stock photos as part of their solution.
I like domiKnow the SaaS authoring tool. It is quite robust and beginners to experts in ID can use it. I don’t like that it can be cumbersome to use, the UI/UX is challenging IMO for some folks, the newbies more so. Sure you can do less, but if you are getting this thing, why go basic?
If I was an Instructional Designer and I was choosing between Storyline or Captivate, I’d go Storyline. Captivate is so yesterday.
I like third party course/content providers who can explain their curation process, what they remove and what are the factors, what data they capture they can provide to a client. I like publishers who keep up with the trends, not from design wise (although some still think a Table of Contents should be optional), but from subjects and titles. I do not like content that is nothing more than a talking head in front of a green screen. Nor do I like the constant pitch of micro-learning, as something recent – it is not. I was doing it in 2000 and so were others. I do not like outdated courses, including those where everyone at the company is wearing a suit and formal business wear. Unless I am working at IBM from the 70s, I see no value here. If you say, well for FS it is different. Let’s not forget that isn’t always the case in the summer, and some FS places are going hybrid. Speaking of which, how many courses have you seen recently, where the “worker(s)” are shown at home working?
I like learning system vendors who skill map ahead of time to any off-the shelf content/courses they sell or come with the system. It saves massive time, and says “you are the experts on this”, rather than relying solely on the admin who may not know, or the folks overseeing the system who may not know or even someone in L&D or Training who do not know.
I like learning system vendors who offer Managed Services. D2L does. 95% of the industry, doesn’t.
I like vendors who provide formal proposals tailored to the prospect and not just a cut and paste job. I like formal proposals that itemized all the pricing and clearly show the discount (for a three-year deal). I do not like getting a proposal that looks as though they just learned how to use crayons. Nor receiving any that are do not use spell-check.
I like vendors who constantly train their salespeople. And who have an actual training department at their company. This may come as a shock but it is not common in the industry – the training department. As for on-going training? A mixed bag.
I like vendors who will show me a full demo, where I can ask a lot of questions. I do not like vendors who think sending a pre-recorded video demo they recorded will suffice. Microsoft Viva Learning feels this is acceptable. I keep telling them it isn’t. I am always concerned when a vendor plays this game. What are they afraid of? Me? Mr. Sensitive?
Like what?
I like SuccessFactors – no wait, I’m kidding. Please tell me why someone would want this system? If you loved Plateau learning I can see the excitement for this solution. Okay, I do not like SuccessFactors. Could explain why SAP never sends me a birthday card. I also do not understand why a SAP salesperson has to be on a call with a SAP Litmos salesperson, if you are only interested in SAP Litmos? Which is a vastly superior system (learning wise) to SuccessFactors?
I do not like ERP systems or HCM platforms who tell you that if you buy their learning system it will be a smooth integration and transition, then if you go elsewhere. I can tell you that isn’t always the case, plus, where is that R&D going exactly? If I sell a lot of modules which all ERPs do, and plenty of HCMs do too, Learning isn’t the primary.
A Final Like
I like that after two years from concept to actualization the first platform of FindContent – the course platform is now live and you can use it. FindContent is two platforms in one, the first to launch is our course platform, the other a search engine directory with filters, favorites, comparisons and yes a built-in course player, launches next later next month.
To start with FindContent Course Platform, please do the following
Register, it will require dual-authentication – this is for your protection.
After logging in, go to How to Guides – A series of videos I created to help you with using the platform, getting the maximum benefits of it.
You will see full courses/content – that’s right, go in as often as you want, 24/7, no limitations
You will see playlists (within containers – our term) from a variety of publishers. You will be able to go directly to their site to sign up from demos/trials right within our platform; view course catalogs, even ask questions or leave comments – and the publisher will respond.
There is no FEE for using the FindContent Course Platform – no charge to you whatsoever.
Did I mention you can share the courses/content in Microsoft Teams? Or via E-Mail? Save favorites, subscribe to playlists or specific courses/content?
A few other items when you use the CoursePlatform
We are in a soft launch, which means we are doing some finishing touches on the back-end. If you find a bug or have an issue – please check first to see if the answer is in the How To Guides.
Because we are in soft launch we currently have only a few publishers on the course platform, but I can tell you we will be adding more in the coming month and months. We are in a lot of talks with a lot of different publishers. The Course Platform is a brand new concept to the 3rd party publishing space, and with anything that hasn’t been done before in the corporate let alone edTech market, its not surprising to see , some early adopters and some hold and wait.
The Publishers on the platform today are OpenSesame, Biz Library, Mind Channel and Intellezy. GO1 will be coming on-board in the next week or so – so you will see their “container” but nothing is in it at the moment.
What is the FindContent Course Platform?
It’s best to say what it is not. We are not a Udemy or Coursera or anything like that.
We do not sell courses or content from any publishers. We are not an affiliate, or partner or reseller.
What I love
I developed FindContent because I was seeing over and over again, folks – just like you, who wanted off-the-shelf courses/content (aka as third-party publishers) but did not know where to go, how to find the publishers (beyond the ones who do extensive marketing), or what to search for on the web (it’s a jumbled mess).
I wanted a solution, whereas you could on your time, check out publishers, their courses/content, full and samples, and get a real feel if to them. If you liked what you saw, then reach out to the vendor via their site, without leaving the platform. I wanted to give people the power to make an informed decision, to ask the publisher(s) questions and know that they will respond – even in the specific course or content you are checking out.
I felt that as a community, folks would see the benefits of taking courses from the publishers, rather than being limited to just samples (each vendor has full courses in the platform, and yes, samples, but not 100% samples only).
Vendors love to talk about learner-centric. I can tell you that FindContent – the course platform, and eventually the other platform – are 100% YOU-Centric. As I said on LinkedIn, you are in full control, you are the driver, us? We are just along for the journey.
Actual Screens
Bottom Line
What I like.
Three words, that are clear, concise and right to the point.
Details that expand these three words – with data points you can trust.
The Romantics once said, “What I like about you..”
Secretly they were thinking about e-learning, learning systems, A cool course platform, training and learning and oh yeah,
Tree rings are a year-by-year measure of growth — wider in wet years, thinner in dry ones. Using observational climate data over the last century, researchers have been able to closely link tree ring width to moisture content in the soil, which is a common measure of drought. Then they have applied that width-moisture relationship to data from much older trees. The result “is an almost perfect record of soil moisture” over 12 centuries in the Southwest, Dr. Williams said.
Using that record, the researchers determined that last summer was the second driest in the last 300 years, with only 2002, in the early years of the current drought, being drier.
Monsoon rains in the desert Southwest last summer had offered hope that the drought might come to an end, as did heavy rain and snow in California from the fall into December.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word monsoon 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 monsoon 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.
Meet the Alison Team in Africa
