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At home, Bryce (7) and Beck (5) Machacek officially begin the McFarland School Districts Distance Learning program, which was implemented in response to COVID-19 pandemic-related school closures, on Monday, March 23. Madison Metropolitan School District students are expected to begin a virtual learning program April 6.

STEVENS POINT A few items from a journal

As for many in these times, emails and phone calls have arrived from near and far. Family, friends, business associates and news sources over the years have reached out.

One came from Charles Wurster, a scientist who had a pivotal role in Wisconsins efforts to ban DDT in the 1960s. Wurster lives in Maryland, but Wisconsin is close to his heart. He was angered when we held an election during the pandemic, endangering lives and making a mockery of democracy. Trumpublicans want a Trumpublican dictatorship, he wrote. They want as few voters as possible, and the virus is helping them. I hope Charlie is wrong, but April 7's gruesome deed makes one wonder.

Up on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, Wisconsin native Patrick Herzog sends along his recipe for strengthening the immune system. Herzog, a wildlife biologist, author and educator who has spent most of his adult life in Canada, knows something about the topic. Twenty years ago, he was stricken with an aggressive form of leukemia, requiring a long-shot experimental treatment regime. He survived, and he told the story of how nature helped him heal in an inspiring 2017 book, Tiger, Tiger: A life Restored by Nature. He says folks in his rural setting have been quick to comply with Canadas stay-at-home advice. His own cancer regime required the same of him. I, of course, have been through the self-isolating gig before, one that was indeed a means to health and future life, he said in a recent message.

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Bill Berry: Online education, immune boosters and an election: More COVID-19 journal entries - Madison.com

The plan was solid, but its execution began as a dumpster fire.

Thats how Stefan Troutman, an instructional coach at Moses Lake School District, described it: plagued by tech glitches, his effort to host daily online check-ins for district staff went south quickly.

But in the weeks since schools closed statewide and at this rural school district 180 miles east of Seattle, Troutman and his colleagues began to figure it out. Every weekday morning, roughly 100 educators get online for a new ritual: to swap online learning tips and motivate each other to keep experimenting and finding new ways to serve their 8,700 students.

As school districts grapple with the fact that education wont resume in person this school year, Moses Lake and others across Washington are taking seriously their mandate to find creative virtual solutions. Getting students laptops and internet access were the first and easiest steps many made since school buildings have closed, though its unclear how many students still lack devices.

What districts do next to transform their curriculum will dictate whether children slide backward. Students already behind because of systemic inequities may slide the most.

While Washington requires school districts to teach remotely, districts arent mandated to track student attendance or individual teachers instructional plans so its hard to say, definitively, how its going. Some districts immediately distributed laptops and began online instruction, but others, such as Seattle Public Schools, first delivered devices weeks into the states mandated closure.

Students in low-income families and those who are homeless are less likely to have an internet connection, let alone basic needs such as food and shelter. And children who need extra attention, because theyre learning English or have a disability, for example, are fighting for the services schools promised them.

Online schooling has a mixed reputation. Its marked by the failures of several for-profit virtual schools and credit recovery programs. But experts say online education is now at an inflection point. Going online is no longer a choice, and schools have been thrust into a grand experiment that could transform forever how learning virtually is done.

In Moses Lake, the daily online meeting is an important part of that. At 9 a.m. on Monday, teachers and staff were getting pumped up.

No thumping music. No jumping jacks. Just pure, earnest praise to get hyped for the week. We are doing it, and were rocking it, a district instructional coach said. Troutman is the master of ceremonies. From his living room at home, Troutman casts to YouTube a livestream of these impromptu professional development sessions. The goal up until now has been survival, Troutman said. But the conversations were about to start having are, how do you redefine your lesson?

Teachers in Moses Lake and beyond are learning by trial and error: Many are teaching over video platforms, while others are sending students recorded lessons. Some are printing out materials to drop off at students homes.

Teachers are all being thrown into this, said Gary Miron, professor of education at Western Michigan University. It doesnt mean they are all going to act responsible and be totally prepared to switch and start testing ideas. But it gives us an opportunity right now with this crisis, if we can, to start considering new models for instruction.

Existing research on best practices in online learning will only get educators so far. When you are being asked to implement online learning in the way our research suggests you should, but you are being asked to do that in a 12-day period, thats nearly impossible, said Annalee Good, co-director of the Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

There is no single set of practices that will fit every school district, she added. What matters most, she said, is each districts context and preparedness.

The evidence machine

Its been a decade since anyone took a hard look at online education. Back then, researcher Barbara Means and her colleagues compiled studies from 1996 to 2008 at the request of the federal government, and compared how people fare when taught face-to-face, online only, or some combination of the two. A blended form of learning won out a model that cant work now. But perhaps more interestingly, Means found, very few studies looked at online K-12 education. Most focused on college.

A decade later, federal officials are launching a follow-up. And theyre in a big hurry.

This is one of the rare occasions where there has been a simultaneous crisis of this type where rigorous evidence is needed by everyone, all at once, said Matthew Soldner, commissioner at the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, an arm of the U.S. Department of Education. What is something we could do to fire up the evidence machine really, really quickly and see what can be done?

The answer: a meta-analysis similar to Means study. This time, officials are crowd-sourcing the studies they include. Theyre hoping to reduce the time it takes from the typical 18 months to roughly 2.5 to winnow and analyze research that meets a rigorous set of criteria. They hope outside research teams will be enticed to do a deeper dive into the studies and glean sets of best practices.

Techniques used by online-only schools might be appealing, but experts urge caution: Taking up the methods of such schools likely wont work for most public school districts. Online schools often employ too few teachers (sometimes 1 for several hundred students) and pay them poorly, Miron said. Students often dont get to know their teachers, and vice versa. Its failing because its geared toward profiteering, he said.

Many online schools have a poor track record. Kevin Huffman, former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education who tried to take down a virtual school run by a controversial company called K12 Inc., said that school had a high attrition rate. For those who stuck with it, their first-year results were abysmal compared to their typical public school peers, he said. Theres a massive learning curve, which we dont have time for right now, Huffman said.

Public school districts, in contrast, have a lot going for them. They typically have lower student-teacher ratios, and relationships between children and their teachers are already formed, Miron said.

While federal officials continue their research, experts such as Miron and Means suggest researchers and school districts collect data now.

If we knew some schools did A in the spring and some schools did B in the spring, then we could look at the aggregated data and try to tease out what were some of the more effective practices, said Means, who is now part of Digital Promise, an education nonprofit in Washington, D.C. We dont want to punish students or teachers because of what happened this spring. But we do want to learn from this experience.

Absent hard data on what works and what doesnt solutions are beginning to bubble up from inside online classrooms.

More than a device

Every weekday morning, Kathleen Claymore, a culinary teacher at Moses Lake High School, launches a Zoom room for her students. She mutes herself, but leaves the video on. Students can come and go as they wish, hang out and work together, or request help. Its just for them to see your face, she said.

Access to technology is an important first step, but its not everything Good said. Even having a laptop wont bridge the digital divide. In communities where most families live in poverty and many are learning English, as is the case in Moses Lake, teachers will need to find unique ways to keep students in attendance and engaged.

The type of regular, quality interaction that Claymore offers is important, experts say.

Moses Lake is well positioned relative to others across Washington: School officials gave Chromebooks to all students as school closed, and many teachers have some facility with digital learning tools. But about 65% of the districts students live in poverty. To acknowledge that many need extra help, administrators set up tech sites for students with broken or lost equipment. Staff deliver replacements to students without transportation. Teachers such as Claymore are finding ways to make lessons flexible.

Claymores assignments double as a way to ensure her students are eating regularly. If students need ingredients for a recipe, Claymore provides them. And instead of running her classes in real time, Claymore posts lessons to Google Classroom. Many students wouldnt show up if she hosted lessons live: Several assist their parents in nearby fields or spend their days caring for younger siblings. But Claymore said shes pleasantly surprised that about 65% of her 135 students have been handing in assignments.

Washington may also learn from other high-poverty districts that are further afield. In Milwaukee Public Schools, staff are considering how an online learning program they launched about five years ago, called Telepresence, could be used more broadly during coronavirus closures. High schools that cant offer a whole suite of Advanced Placement classes let students take them virtually from teachers at other Milwaukee high schools. A 2019 study of the program suggests that boosting teachers professional development, and providing ample resources for students without technology at home, are critical for making such online programs work.

These takeaways are particularly important for districts as they consider how to serve students with few resources or support at home, or those in special education. A few major school districts, including Los Angeles Unified are trying district-wide online learning programs, though early reports suggest many students are failing to participate.

Many Washington families report their children are not receiving special education services theyre entitled to; as of April 10, state officials had received at least five formal complaints about special education services.

Officials here could take notes from schools such as Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, which serve about 4,000 students with disabilities and offer several forms of remote instruction. One lesson: not everything can be accomplished online, but that doesnt mean you should give up.

Michael Berger, a teacher who works with visually impaired and blind students aged 3 to 5 there, filled green plastic bins with paper lesson plans and supplies for each of his students when he learned Utahs schools would close. He regularly swings by his students homes on a recent Friday, he donned a mask and spent three hours dropping off supplies on their porches. Batteries for one child whose assistive technology device went dead. For a student without internet at home, an iPad preloaded with videos of himself teaching new lessons.

Berger also teaches his students during brief, individual weekly online sessions.

His personal takeaway: Parent involvement is huge. How are [the children] going to engage with me over a camera and my voice? Parents have to be very hands on with them during the lesson, he said.

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There's no roadmap for teaching online, so Washington's teachers are creating their own - Seattle Times

DC DISPATCH-It was only a few weeks ago -- although it now seems like a different age -- that I began preparing my return to graduate school using an online distance learning platform rather than an in-person classroom.

At the time, I detected bias against Internet classes as being somehow lesser than in-person sessions, and even found myself explaining that there were also on-campus requirements and the entire educational world was headed toward a hybrid, campus-and-online future.

What a difference a few weeks has made, in so many ways. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the paradigm of how we think about online education, as millions of students from elementary school to graduate school have experimented and realized this is a viable alternative to crowded in-person classrooms. The pandemic threat has compelled hundreds of colleges and universities nationwide from USC to MIT to close their classroom doors and shift instead to online education.

The question is, when the age of COVID-19 passes, how many of these schools will shift back to in-person education after millions of students have seen firsthand the potential benefits of the online education alternative. Any lingering confusion or stigma about online classes is quickly being erased, as students from elementary school to medical school are now getting their education over the internet instead of in person.

Make no mistake, the virus has changed American education forever and the biggest misconception is that we are quickly transitioning into a temporary fix. College campuses will eventually re-open and students will return to mostly in-person instruction, but their distance learning experience willleave lasting impressions -- either good or bad, depending on how well they and their educational institutions adapted to the new model.

A recent story in The Washington Post, It Shouldnt Take a Pandemic: Coronavirus exposes Internet inequality among U.S. students as schools close their doors, illustrates the chaos. The Post reported on a teacher at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., who asked her liberal arts students, how they would feel if instruction next term shifted online. The Post reported that in response, she heard a wave of concerns from her class students didnt like message boards, they werent sure where they would live, they werent clear what they would eat, and they were concerned about issues of technology. She also noted also noted that some of the students use smartphones, not desktop computers, to access online assignments.

Yet, the use of smartphones is another reason the advances in distance learning will stick. It shows that, really, this future was already well on the way.

Even K-12 students were typically accessing some aspects of education online, albeit homework and school communications. Those systems were ill suited to adding classes, but they are being pressed into service. Indeed, even commercial workplace services like Zoom are being applied to education.

So now, millions of students and their families who would have given little thought to distance learning are arranging at-home desks and logging on. Even this most basic acceleration comes with a full measure of chaos, especially in K-12 where economic disparity and the digital divide more often collide, but this is a shared national experience like few others. Only weeks ago, distance learning was being marketed in terms of cost savings for prospective students, realistic mid-career alternatives for at-home parents who need to care for children, continuing careers while earning degrees online, and expanded access in under-served communities that lack on-campus educational opportunities at all.

Now in this time of pandemic, by giving millions of students a way to continue their education without classroom learning alongside dozens or hundreds of strangers, distance learning is saving lives.

The long-term distance learning future is easy to see, even if the timetable remains unclear. Just this month, the U.S. Department of Education announced it would allow schools to use online learning techniques without having to go through the usual approval process.

The next phase of the distance learning acceleration will be the migration away from the stop-gap chaotic systems adopted in haste and by necessity by educational institutions nationwide into organized, structured platforms designed to take advantage of online learnings upsides while minimizing the downsides.

In this respect, the colleges, universities, and programs that already have established online programs will have a clear head start and be best positioned to benefit from the heightened awareness of online educations potential advantages.

The program Ive applied for, the Masters of Science in Integrated Design, Business and Technology, already illustrated the hybrid dynamic, promising that students work closely with peers, professors and industry and field experts to apply the skills and knowledge they gain in real-world scenarios the online learning environment, as well as in-person residency experiences, allow us to facilitate this dynamic and engaging experience. I received my formal acceptance letter last week and am thrilled at the prospect of returning to my Alma Mater.

The USC online management partner for years has been 2U, a Maryland based company that has been partnering with colleges for more than a decade and counts more than 70 universities in its portfolio not the stuff of chaos hodgepodge and an example that the future was already here for some of us.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all of us to adapt in all kinds of ways but in rare instances, to learn and grow as well. Millions of students of all ages have had the enforced opportunity to discover the possibilities and alternatives that distance learning can present.

Its hard to see any silver linings when youre social distancing in your basement, but at least this is one.

(SaraCorcoran is publisher of the National Courts Monitor and writes for CityWatch, Daily Koz, and other news outlets.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

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Of Pandemics and Paradigms: How COVID-19 has Transformed Perspectives on Distance Learning - City Watch

GODFREY - Lewis and Clark Community College has been honored to serve and be a part of the communities that make up District 536 for the past 50 years. The college district was given the opportunity to purchase the historically significant Monticello College campus in 1970. The all-female college was established in 1838 and saw its last graduating class in 1971. The Monticello College Foundation continues to support Lewis and Clark today through financial contributions and scholarship support.

Although 2020 hasnt shaped up to be the 50th anniversary celebration we envisioned, were here to weather the storm alongside our communities, and were reinventing ourselves to serve our students and others in a time of great need.

The college is currently conducting instruction online, in lieu of face-to-face meetings, and preparing for online instruction through the summer. Weve added extra supports to help transition academic and student services to a virtual environment to keep our constituents safe and at the same time, empower students to overcome obstacles and achieve academic success.

Current students will soon be able to access more than $1 million in emergency federal aid to help with education and training at Lewis and Clark through the CARES Act. The Lewis and Clark Community College Foundation is also raising money to create a Student Emergency Relief Fund for additional support.

The college strives to be a good neighbor and community partner as well. We are working with our area healthcare providers to understand their needs at this time and to develop ways we can be a support for those on the front lines of COVID-19.

We are proud that many of those on the front lines are Lewis and Clark alumni nurses, EMTs, paramedics, law enforcement, firefighters and more all working harder than ever to keep our communities safe. Were beyond proud of their contributions and honored to call them fellow Trailblazers.

We know that many in our communities are struggling and perhaps rethinking their future in the wake of this pandemic. Lewis and Clark is here to help.

Students eager to retrain quickly or join the workforce sooner can earn a certificate or a degree and get started in a new career in just two years or less. Transfer students can save an average of $18,396 on their bachelors degree if they come to Lewis and Clark for two years before moving to a four-year institution.

In addition to numerous two-year transfer degree options, Lewis and Clark also offers more than 40 career and technical education programs from Dental Hygiene to Truck Driver Training. Many of our career programs offer students the opportunity to earn competitive salaries upon completion of their certificate or degree. Starting salaries for some programs can be as high as $50,000-100,000 annually. We also offer adult education programs and other non-credit continuing education offerings for everyone from infants to senior citizens.

April is Community College Month. Now more than ever, Lewis and Clark remains committed to making high quality education and career training opportunities not only affordable, but also accessible, to any and all students who wish to pursue their dreams or change their course in life.

Although our campuses remain physically closed, Lewis and Clark remains focused on providing our district residents with these valuable academic and training opportunities. We are here for you during these very challenging times, and reaffirm our commitment to helping our community heal during and beyond this pandemic.

We look forward to the day we can reopen our campuses and welcome everyone back. Until then, we encourage everyone to continue to stay home and stay well during this time.

On behalf of the entire Lewis and Clark Team, we thank the community for its continued support of Lewis and Clark. We look forward to serving you now and in the future.

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April is Community College Month and Lewis and Clark is Reinventing Itself in its 50th Year to Reach Students Through Online Education in the Face of...

Every student can excel in a distance education course, especially at a university with established infrastructure and experience. Source: Bay Ismoyo/AFP

Students pursuing distance education are turning to digital platforms more than ever before, surpassing its traditional correspondence methods.

Research has assessed the capability of online, or e-learning, against more traditional teaching mediums. The benefits of online education stretch far beyond student experience alone, producing graduates who are not only literate but fluent in the most cutting-edge technologies.

One of the most influential studies derives from the US Department of Education. In its report, the Department notes that students who took all or part of their courses online performed better than those who took the same course solely in a traditional face-to-face environment.

On top of this, distance education gives students the chance to sculpt their degree around existing work commitments and future aspirations for a much more affordable price.

Thats why, in the words of educational technology expert Elliot Masie, We need to bring learning to people instead of people to learning.

Here are three leading US providers of online and distance education for your consideration.

UNM online programmes promise flexibility without compromising quality, empowering students with the same graduate outcomes found on more traditional degrees. Courses are offered in a flexible eight-week format, five times per year. Attending UNM online means you have the freedom to earn your degree while you continue to manage the demands of work and family obligations.

At UNM Online you will access course content and interact with peers through a range of multimedia technologies. Every module is delivered in its own unique style, blending to create a study experience free from global boundaries and borders.

UOs Distance Education is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). Online courses are offered for a wide range of disciplines, giving students the chance to earn a degree from anywhere with an Internet connection.

The university employs powerful web-based tools to elevate the learning experience. Courses are presented via the Canvas course management system, while some require students to take in-person, proctored exams.

UOs Distance Education programmes stick to the same term schedule as on-campus courses, and credits are awarded in the very same way. One thing that sets UO apart from both regional and global competition is that there is truly no difference between the online curriculum when compared to a classroom-based course.

OSU Online, ranked as the top Online Undergraduate Programme by US News and World Report, prepares all student participants for lasting career success. Here, exceptional members of faculty prepare you to tackle some of the worlds most pressing issues, placing you among like-minded individuals whose potential knows no bounds.

5 major benefits of online learning

A day in the life of an online student

Originally posted here:
3 leading online and distance education providers in the US - Study International News

Universities should charge less for online education and weave collaborative learning into their virtual courses or risk dismal completion rates, according to the founder of a low-cost, online university.

Shai Reshef, president of the California-headquartered University of the People (UoPeople), said he feared that moving [education] online without the right systems and expertise may result in a similar outcome as massive open online courses (Moocs). A2013 studyfound that the average completion rate for Moocs was 6.8 per cent.

All universities are now moving online. But they dont really know what theyre doing, Mr Reshef said in an interview withTimes Higher Education. It reminds me of the Moocs era, where they videoed the professor and believed that was the answerI certainly hope that the experience the universities offer their students right now will not ruin it for them.

Mr Reshef added that some universities are already talking aboutpotentially not opening [their campuses]next year and UoPeople was the natural answer for any displaced students or any institutions that wished to enhance their online offering.

UoPeople, which launched in 2009 and relies on volunteer instructors, is a non-profit online university aimed at disadvantaged students from around the world. Tuition is free but students pay $100 (81) for each exam they sit, taking the total cost of an undergraduate degree to $4,000.

The institution has 31,000 students, 7,000 of whom started this month, and is recruiting 1,000 volunteer instructors. Mr Reshef said that it had seen unprecedented growth from students in China, Japan, South Korea and Italy, many of whom have been laid off and are pursuing degrees to aid future job searches. He expected enrolment to grow to 40,000 by September and 80,000 a year later.

Mr Reshef said that the success of his institution was partly down to pedagogy centred on peer-to-peer, interactive learning. He also recommended that traditional universities charge less for their online courses because the cost of online is a fraction of the cost of traditional face-to-face teaching and were going to have an economic crisis following coronavirus.

Almost every university in the Western world has some courses online, if not full degrees. The challenge, though, is that many of them charge the same amount if you go online or if you do it face to face, he said.

It may be that some universities will say: every year you take x courses, 30 per cent of them will be online, and well reduce tuition by 25 per cent. I think some will go even further and say: study the first two years online and then come to campus for the final two years. Others will just do what we do and go all the way online.

Mr Reshef added that UoPeople had opened up its courses to students at other institutions and offered to train academics on how to deliver their courses online.

Im somewhat worried about the future of online, because if [universities] do it wrong the students will suffer, they will all hate it and then they will decide online doesnt work. My interest is to show them that online is great, but do it right, he said.

Is Mr Reshef concerned that the rapid shift to online education will threaten the USP of his own institution?

If one day I wake up and see that our model worked and all the universities of the world opened their gates to everyone and all the students in the world are being served, I will wake up that morning with a big smile, go back to sleep and probably wake up with another dream, he said.

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com

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Online university head fears students will 'suffer' from shift online - Times Higher Education (THE)

Make It Scream, Make It Burn, Leslie Jamison

Leslie Jamison knows how to write a good personal essay because she doesn't assume you want to read about her personally. This was true in her first collection, Empathy Exams, and it is true in her second, Make It Scream, Make It Burn, which pieces together the things that interest Jamison most. In "Sim Life," Jamison examines our e-companions, those virtual characters we find ourselves strangely invested in. In "The Quickening," she reflects on the anxieties of pregnancy, at times addressing her unborn daughter directly, drawing the reader into the most private spaces of pre-parenthood. Each essay is an exercise in thoughtful restraint, never allowing itself to be confused for the work of a diarist.

On its most superficial level, Black Is the Body is a collection about storytelling within the familyas Bernard lays out in the subtitle, these are 12 stories from her grandmother's time, her mother's time, and her own. Beneath that, Black Is the Body is an expertly crafted collection about blackness in America, as only Bernard has lived it. One essay, "Interstates," documents the time when Bernard, her parents, and her white fianc pulled over to change a flat tire, exposing the family to every prejudice that may pass them on the highway. Other stories examine the relationship between white and black life in the American South, two experiences "ensnared in the same historical drama."

There are some writers who leave the worlds of devout religionworlds that are at once large, and impossibly smalland spare no second thoughts, rejecting both the baby and the bathwater. Meghan O'Gieblyn's debut collection leaves no thoughts behind, turning to her upbringing of conservative evangelicalism for a series of essays offering razor-sharp cultural criticism on the state of American life. "Ghost in the Cloud," a particular strong point, sews together the parallel theologies of transhumanism (technology that works to avoid death) and Christian millennialism (salvation that works to avoid death). O'Gieblyn is unapologetic in her takes, producing wholly original commentary slated for these times.

Mary-Kay Wilmers, one of the founders of the London Review of Books and its sole editor since 1979, has a lot to say about writing, and women, and the ways women write for themselves and for men. Human Relations and Other Difficulties is the product of a veteran career in book reviewing, and it showsthe essays are clever, frank and delightfully readable. Some provide the literary commentary that Wilmer is known foron Joan Didion, Alice James and Jean Rhyswhile others turn inward, looking to Wilmer's own life as a child and a parent. "There's nothing magical about a mother's relationship with her baby," Wilmer writes of early motherhood. "Like most others, it takes two to get it going."

If there were ever a time to renew your love for the natural world, as the late poet Mary Oliver did throughout her career, it's now. Upstream, a collection of essays published three years before Oliver's death, is the author in her purest formreflecting on the beauty of codfish, grass, and seagulls on the beach. Life, as she writes about it, is precious in all things, without ever dipping into sentimentality. Oliver's meditation on her literary counterparts, including Walt Whitman, a childhood "friend," gives rare insight into the making of the poet, while other essays invite the reader to observe the outdoors with new eyes.

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Five Essay Collections to Read in Quarantine - Willamette Week

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Is there anything that can be done to escape the death cult we seem trapped in?

One of the more radical visions for how to organize human society begins with a simple goal: lets resurrect everyone who has ever lived. Nikolai Fedorov, a nineteenth-century librarian and Russian Orthodoxy philosopher, went so far as to call this project the common task of humanity, calling for the living to be rejuvenated, the dead to be resurrected, and space to be colonized specifically to house them. From the 1860s to the 1930s, Fedorovs influence was present throughout the culturehe influenced a generation of Marxists ahead of the Russian Revolution, as well as literary writers like Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, whose novel, The Brothers Karamazov, directly engaged with Federov's ideas about resurrection.

After his death, Federovs acolytes consolidated his ideas into a single text, A Philosophy of the Common Task, and created Cosmism, the movement based on his anti-death eschatology. Federov left the technical details to those who would someday create the prerequisite technology, but this did not stop his disciples: Alexander Bogdanov, who founded the Bolsheviks with Lenin, was an early pioneer of blood transfusions in hopes of rejuvenating humanity; Konstantin Tsiolkvosky, an astrophysicist who was the progenitor of Russia's space program, sought to colonize space to house the resurrected dead; and Alexander Chizhevsky, a biophysicist who sought to map out the effects of solar activity on Earth life and behavior, thought his research might help design the ideal society for the dead to return to.

The vast majority of cosmists were, by the 1930s, either murdered or purged by Stalin, muting the influence of their ambitious project but also leaving us with an incomplete body of work about what type of society resurrection requires or will result in, and whether that wouldas some cosmists believe nowbring us closer to the liberation of the species. Now, I think it is obvious thatdespite what todays transhumanists might tell youwe are in no position, now or anytime soon, to resurrect anyone let alone bring back to life the untold billions that have existed across human history and past it into the eons before civilizations dawn.

To be clear, I think cosmism is absolute madness, but I also find it fascinating. With an introduction to Cosmism and its implications, maybe we can further explore the arbitrary and calculated parts of our social and political order that prioritize capital instead of humanity, often for sinister ends.

**

What? Who gets resurrected? And how?

At its core, the Common Task calls for the subordination of all social relations, productive forces, and civilization itself to the single-minded goal of achieving immortality for the living and resurrection for the dead. Cosmists see this as a necessarily universal project for either everyone or no one at all. That constraint means that their fundamental overhaul of society must go a step further in securing a place where evil or ill-intentioned people cant hurt anyone, but also where immortality is freely accessible for everyone.

Its hard to imagine how that worldwhere resources are pooled together for this project, where humans cannot hurt one another, and where immortality is freeis compatible with the accumulation and exploitation that sit at the heart of capitalism. The crisis heightened by coronavirus should make painfully clear to us all that, as J.W. Masonan economist at CUNYrecently put it, we have a system organized around the threat of withholding people's subsistence, and it "will deeply resist measures to guarantee it, even when the particular circumstances make that necessary for the survival of the system itself." Universal immortality, already an optimistic vision, simply cannot happen in a system that relies on perpetual commodification.

Take one small front of the original cosmist project: blood transfusions. In the 1920s, after being pushed out of the Bolshevik party, Bogdanov focused on experimenting with blood transfusions to create a rejuvenation process for humans (theres little evidence they do this). He tried and failed to set up blood banks across the Soviet Union for the universal rejuvenation of the public, dying from complications of a transfusion himself. Today, young blood is offered for transfusion by industrious start-ups, largely to wealthy and eccentric clientsmost notably (and allegedly) Peter Thiel.

In a book of conversations on cosmism published in 2017 titled Art Without Death, the first dialogue between Anton Vidokle and Hito Steyerl, living artists and writers in Berlin, drives home this same point. Vidokle tells Steyerl that he believes Death is capital quite literally, because everything we accumulatefood, energy, raw material, etc.these are all products of death. For him, it is no surprise were in a capitalist death cult given that he sees value as created through perpetual acts of extraction or exhaustion.

Steyerl echoes these concerns in the conversation, comparing the resurrected dead to artificial general intelligences (AGIs), which oligarch billionaires warn pose an existential threat to humanity. Both groups anticipate fundamental reorganizations of human society, but capitalists diverge sharply from cosmists in that their reorganization necessitates more extraction, more exhaustion, and more death. In their conversation, Steyerl tells Vidokle:

Within the AGI Debate, several solutions have been suggested: first to program the AGI so it will not harm humans, or, on the alt-right/fascist end of the spectrum, to just accelerate extreme capitalisms tendency to exterminate humans and resurrect rich people as some sort of high-net-worth robot race.

These eugenicist ideas are already being implemented: cryogenics and blood transfusions for the rich get the headlines, but the breakdown of healthcare in particularand sustenance in generalfor poor people is literally shortening the lives of millions ... In the present reactionary backlash, oligarchic and neoreactionary eugenics are in full swing, with few attempts being made to contain or limit the impact on the living. The consequences of this are clear: the focus needs to be on the living first and foremost. Because if we dont sort out societycreate noncapitalist abundance and so forththe dead cannot be resurrected safely (or, by extension, AGI cannot be implemented without exterminating humankind or only preserving its most privileged parts).

One of the major problems of todays transhumanist movement is that we are currently unable to equally distribute even basic life-extension technology such as nutrition, medicine, and medical care. At least initially, transhumanists vision of a world in which people live forever is one in which the rich live forever, using the wealth theyve built by extracting value from the poor. Todays transhumanism exists largely within a capitalist framework, and the countrys foremost transhumanist, Zoltan Istvan, a Libertarian candidate for president, is currently campaigning on a platform that shutdown orders intended to preserve human life during the coronavirus pandemic are overblown and are causing irrevocable damage to the capitalist economy (Istvan has in the past written extensively for Motherboard, and has also in the past advocated for the abolition of money).

Cosmists were clear in explaining what resurrection would look like in their idealized version of society, even though they were thin on what the technological details would be. Some argue we must not only restructure our civilization, but our bodies so that we can acquire regenerative abilities, alter our metabolic activity so food or shelter are optional, and thus overcome the natural, social, sexual, and other limitations of the species as Arseny Zhilyaev puts it in a later conversation within the book.

Zhilyaev also invokes Federovs conception of a universal museum, a radicalized, expanded, and more inclusive version of the museums we have now as the site of resurrection. In our world, the closest example of this universal museum is the digital world which also doubles as an enormous data collector used for anything from commerce to government surveillance. The prospect of being resurrected because of government/corporate surveillance records or Mormon genealogy databases is sinister at best, but Zhilyaevs argumentand the larger one advanced by other cosmistsis that our world is already full of and defined by absurd and oppressive institutions that are hostile to our collective interests, yet still manage to thrive. The options for our digital worlds development have been defined by advertisers, state authorities, telecom companies, deep-pocketed investors, and the likewhat might it look like if we decided to focus instead on literally any other task?

All this brings us to the question of where the immortal and resurrected would go. The answer, for cosmists, is space. In the cosmist vision, space colonization must happen so that we can properly honor our ethical responsibility to take care of the resurrected by housing them on museum planets. If the universal museum looks like a digital world emancipated from the demands of capital returns, then the museum planet is a space saved from the whims of our knock-off Willy Wonkasthe Elon Musks and Jeff Bezos of the world. I am not saying it is a good or fair idea to segregate resurrected dead people to museum planets in space, but this is what cosmists suggested, and its a quainter, more peaceful vision for space than what todays capitalists believe we should do.

For Musk, Mars and other future worlds will become colonies that require space mortgages, are used for resource extraction, or, in some cases, be used as landing spots for the rich once we have completely destroyed the Earth. Bezos, the worlds richest man, says we will have "gigantic chip factories in space where heavy industry is kept off-planet. Beyond Earth, Bezos anticipates humanity will be contained to O'Neill cylinder space colonies. One might stop and consider the fact that while the cosmist vision calls for improving human civilization on Earth before resurrecting the dead and colonizing space, the capitalist vision sees space as the next frontier to colonize and extract stupendous returns fromtrillions of dollars of resource extraction is the goal. Even in space, they cannot imagine humanity without the same growth that demands the sort of material extraction and environmental degradation already despoiling the world. Better to export it to another place (another country, planet, etc.) than fix the underlying system.

Why?

Ostensibly, the why behind cosmism is a belief that we have an ethical responsibility to resurrect the dead, much like we have one to care for the sick or infirm. At a deeper level, however, cosmists not only see noncapitalist abundance as a virtue in of itself, but believe the process of realizing it would offer chances to challenge deep-seated assumptions about humanity that might aid political and cultural forms hostile to the better future cosmists seek.

Vidokle tells Steyerl in their conversation that he sees the path towards resurrection involving expanding the rights of the dead in ways that undermine certain political and cultural forms,

The dead ... dont have any rights in our society: they dont communicate, consume, or vote and so they are not political subjects. Their remains are removed further and further from the cities, where most of the living reside. Culturally, the dead are now largely pathetical comical figures: zombies in movies, he said. Financial capitalism does not care about the dead because they do not produce or consume. Fascism only uses them as a mythical proof of sacrifice. Communism is also indifferent to the dead because only the generation that achieves communism will benefit from it; everyone who died on the way gets nothing.

In another part of their conversation, Steyerl suggests that failing to pursue the cosmist project might cede ground to the right-wing accelerationism already killing millions:

There is another aspect to this: the maintenance and reproduction of life is of course a very gendered technologyand control of this is on a social battleground. Reactionaries try to grab control over lifes production and reproduction by any means: religious, economic, legal, and scientific. This affects womens rights on the one hand, and, on the other, it spawns fantasies of reproduction wrested from female control: in labs, via genetic engineering, etc.

In other words, the failure to imagine and pursue some alternative to this oligarchic project has real-world consequences that not only kill human beings, but undermine the collective agency of the majority of humanity. In order for this narrow minority to rejuvenate and resurrect themselves in a way that preserves their own privilege and power, they will have to sharply curtail the rights and agency of almost every other human being in every other sphere of society.

Elena Shaposhnikova, another artist who appears later in the book, wonders whether the end of deathor the arrival of a project promising to abolish itmight help us better imagine and pursue lives beyond capitalism:

It seems to me that most of us tend to sublimate our current life conditions and all its problems, tragedies, and inequalities, and project this into future scenarios, she said. So while its easy to imagine and represent life in a society without money and with intergalactic travel, the plot invariably defaults to essentialist conflicts of power, heroism, betrayal, revenge, or something along these lines.

In a conversation with Shaposhnikova, Zhilyaev offers that cosmism might help fight the general fear of socialism as he understands it:

According to Marx, or even Lenin, socialism as a goal is associated with something elsewith opportunities of unlimited plurality and playful creativity, wider than those offered by capitalism. ... the universal museum producing eternal life and resurrection for all as the last necessary step for establishing social justice.

In the conversations that this book, cosmism emerges not simply as an ambition to resurrect the dead but to create, for the first time in human history, a civilization committed to egalitarianism and justice. So committed, in fact, that no part of the human experienceincluding deathwould escape the frenzied wake of our restructuring.

Its a nice thought, and something worth thinking about. Ours is not that world but in fact, one that is committed, above all else, to capital accumulation. There will be no resurrection for the deadthere isnt even healthcare for most of the living, after all. Even in the Citadel of Capital, the heart of the World Empire, the belly of the beast, the richest country in human history, most are expected to fend for themselves as massive wealth transfers drain the public treasuries that mightve funded some measure of protection from the pandemic, the economic meltdown, and every disaster lurking just out of sight. And yet, for all our plumage, our death cult still holds true to Adam Smith's observation in The Wealth of Nations: "All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind."

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The Proto-Communist Plan to Resurrect Everyone Who Ever Lived - VICE UK

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Global Sales Training Market Segmentation

This market was divided into types, applications and regions. The growth of each segment provides an accurate calculation and forecast of sales by type and application in terms of volume and value for the period between 2020 and 2026. This analysis can help you develop your business by targeting niche markets. Market share data are available at global and regional levels. The regions covered by the report are North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, and Africa and Latin America. Research analysts understand the competitive forces and provide competitive analysis for each competitor separately.

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Global Sales Training Market Regions and Countries Level Analysis

The regional analysis is a very complete part of this report. This segmentation highlights Sales Training sales at regional and national levels. This data provides a detailed and accurate analysis of volume by country and an analysis of market size by region of the world market.

The report provides an in-depth assessment of growth and other aspects of the market in key countries such as the United States, Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and the United States Italy, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. The chapter on the competitive landscape of the global market report contains important information on market participants such as business overview, total sales (financial data), market potential, global presence, Sales Training sales and earnings, market share, prices, production locations and facilities, products offered and applied strategies. This study provides Sales Training sales, revenue, and market share for each player covered in this report for a period between 2016 and 2020.

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Table of Contents:

Study Coverage: It includes study objectives, years considered for the research study, growth rate and Sales Training market size of type and application segments, key manufacturers covered, product scope, and highlights of segmental analysis.

Executive Summary: In this section, the report focuses on analysis of macroscopic indicators, market issues, drivers, and trends, competitive landscape, CAGR of the global Sales Training market, and global production. Under the global production chapter, the authors of the report have included market pricing and trends, global capacity, global production, and global revenue forecasts.

Sales Training Market Size by Manufacturer: Here, the report concentrates on revenue and production shares of manufacturers for all the years of the forecast period. It also focuses on price by manufacturer and expansion plans and mergers and acquisitions of companies.

Production by Region: It shows how the revenue and production in the global market are distributed among different regions. Each regional market is extensively studied here on the basis of import and export, key players, revenue, and production.

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Tags: Sales Training Market Size, Sales Training Market Growth, Sales Training Market Forecast, Sales Training Market Analysis

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Sales Training Market Analysis by Size, Share, Top Key Manufacturers, Demand Overview, Regional Outlook And Growth Forecast to 2026 - Cole of Duty

The Global Product-based Sales Training Market report is aimed at highlighting a firsthand documentation of all the best practices in the Product-based Sales Training industry that subsequently set the growth course active. These vital market oriented details are highly crucial to overcome cut throat competition and all the growth oriented practices typically embraced by frontline players in the Product-based Sales Training market. Various factors and touch points that the research highlights in the report is a holistic, composite amalgamation of product portfolios of market participants, growth multiplying practices and solutions, sales gateways as well as transaction modes that coherently reflect a favorable growth prospect scenario of the Product-based Sales Training market.

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Major companies of this report:

ASLAN Training and Development, DoubleDigit Sales, GP Strategies, Miller Heiman Group, Altify, CommLab India, Cohen Brown Management Group, Carew International, Janek Performance Group, Kurlan & Assoc

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Segmentation by Type:

Blended Training Online Training Instructor-Led Training

Segmentation by Application:

Consumer Goods Automotive BFSI

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Global Product-based Sales Training Market 2020 Delivers Key Players Analysis, Regions and Applications, Forecast to 2024 - Cole of Duty