Marriott's Autograph Collection is set to open a new hotel in summer 2020 in Lucca, Italy, a medieval walled city in the Tuscany region. Called the Grand Universe Lucca, Autograph Collection, the new property will be in a renovated 16th-century palazzo in the heart of the city's old town, overlooking the Piazza del Giglio and Piazza Napoleone. The official opening date is scheduled for June 1, 2020.

The Grand Universe Lucca will have 55 rooms and suites, a fine dining restaurant, a lounge area with a classical piano anchoring thee space, a rooftop bar with city views and a wine tasting cellar set among the remnants of an ancient fountain. The hotel's interiors will incorporate colorful silk textiles in earthy shades of grape red, pine green and Tuscan sun yellow to reflect the city's silk production heritage, while delicate wall tapestries will pay homage to the region's vineyard patterns. In the accommodations, suspended glass pendant lights will be a nod to the property's glassblowing history and, to reference the area's musical past, the name of each from type - from the Adagio room to the Maestro suite - will be music-themed.

Food and beverage outlets will include the Symphony Lounge at the ground hall, which will host live piano music, and the first-floor Legacy Restaurant, serving local cuisine accompanied by fine wines. The Sommit Rooftop Bar will offer craft cocktails and light bites against a backdrop of city views, with cocktail names inspired by the great personalities of the city, such as Elisa, Giacomo and Vittorio. Wine-tasting sessions will be held in the Eterno Wine Cellar alongside the remnants of an ancient fountain.

Recent findings show that the actual foundation of the hotel dates back to the roman period, circa 200 BC. A palazzo of the Paoli family during the Renaissance in the mid-18th century, the site was turned into a hotel - Hotel Universo e Tosca, opened in 1857 - that became a destination for artists, poets, philosophers and royalty from around the world. Opera composer Giacomo Puccini was said to be a frequent guest in between performances at Teatro del Giglio. The property closed in 2015 and has since undergone a restoration.

Lucca is in a valley northwest of Florence, at the foot of the Apuan Alps and less than half an hour from the coast of Versilia. Its heritage ranges from antiquity through to the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Enlightenment, and today it is known for the well-preserved Renaissance-era walls encircling its city center. (The broad, tree-lined wall-tops are popular for strolling and cycling.) Named "the City of 100 Churches," Lucca has many uniquely preserved churches of great historic importance, including its landmark, the Duomo San Martino. The city also has a unique wine and olive oil road named "Strada del Vino e dell."

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New Autograph Collection Hotel To Open In Tuscany - Hospitality Net

Each Friday, we share three topical longreads in our Weekend Reader newsletter. This week, Lions Roardeputy editor Andrea Miller tells the story of Siddhartha Gautama. Sign up hereto receive the Weekend Reader in your inbox.

For thirteen years, Ive worked as a journalist, interviewing writers, actors, activists, dharma teachers, and more. Recently, someone asked me whom Id interview if there were no limits and I could interview anyone I wanted.

This was not a question I had to think twice about. Beyond a doubt, I would zip back in time some 2,600 years and hoof it all over northern India until I found the Buddha. Then I would turn on my recorder and dive into my million and one questions.

Tradition has it that the Buddha was born a prince named Siddhartha Gautama. There was a prophecy that Siddhartha would either become a great king or a great spiritual master. Siddharthas father carefully sheltered his son from anything unpleasant so his son would choose the path of royalty.

Prince Siddhartha got married and had a son of his own. Then, at the age of twenty-nine, he saw suffering for the very first time: an old person, a sick person, and a corpse. He also encountered a spiritual seeker who was attempting to find freedom from suffering. Siddhartha was profoundly affected and, in the middle of the night, he slipped away from his worldly life in the palace.

For six years, Siddhartha lived as an acetic, eating almost nothing. Eventually he realized that if he continued to mistreat his body, he would die. If he wanted to reach enlightenment, he needed a middle way neither harsh asceticism nor indulgence. Siddhartha ate a bowl of milky rice, which gave him enough strength to sit under a tree until he understood the true nature of things, becoming the Buddha.

For the next forty-five years, the Buddha taught others how they too could reach enlightenment. Then at the age of eighty, he apparently died of food poisoning.

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So that is quite a lot of information about the Buddha and, trust me, there is a mountain more but is it true? Nothing, apparently, was written down about him neither his teachings nor his life story until the end of the first century BCE. Passed down orally for hundreds of years, parts of his biography were surely misremembered and maybe even fabricated.

Since I cant actually get that interview with the Buddha, each of us will just have to decide for ourselves what we believe is factual and what we believe is myth. But in the end Im not convinced it matters so much. Whats important is whether or not we feel the basic tenets of the teachings attributed to the Buddha, such as the four noble truths and the practice of mindfulness, are deeply true and helpful to our lives, however they originated.

Here are three articles from theLions RoarandBuddhadharmaarchivesabout Siddhartha Gautama.

Andrea Miller, deputy editor,Lions Roar

The Buddha was a real historical person who ate, slept, sweated, and got tired. Yet he was also an extraordinary person who developed inspiring qualities that we are all capable of developing. If you find some of the details of the developed hagiography of the Buddha an off-putting burden, look to him as a great human teacher of the path beyond human limitation.

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I approached him, the twenty-fifth buddha, knowing that something new and marvelous had happened in the forest that night. Instead of going where the path might lead, he had gone instead where there was no path and left a trail for all of us. I asked him:

Are you a god now?

Quietly, he made answer. No.

Well, are you an angel?

No.

Then what are you?

Awake.

Read More

Like the Stoics, Epicureans, and Platonists in ancient Greece and Rome, Gautama instructed in the manner of a philosopher, a lover of wisdom. He taught and modeled a viable way to human flourishing, and did so rooted firmly in everyday life. With precision, care, and intelligence, Gautama articulated for us the categories and practices through which we may clearly understand our lives and, doing so, know for ourselves the simple happiness of existing, in difficult as well as trouble-free times. And all of his advice onthesematters stands in full view conspicuous, open to scrutiny, testable.

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Lions Roar is a nonprofit. Our mission is to share the wisdom of the Buddhas teachingsto inspire, comfort, support, and enlighten readers around the world. Our aspiration is to keep LionsRoar.com available to everyone, providing a supportive, inspiring Buddhist community that anyone can access, from curious beginners to committed meditators. Do you share our aspiration? We cant do this without your help.

Lions Roar reaches more readers like you than ever before. Unfortunately, advertising and other revenues are falling for print and online media. We know we have something deeply precious to share with the world, and we want to continue this important work. Can you help support our efforts now?

Lions Roar is independent, unbiased, not-for-profit, and supported by readers like you. Please donate today and help the lions roar echo for readers around the world.

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Who Was the Buddha? - Lion's Roar

Viv Lynch: Mother Earth: The Legend of Aataentsic / flickr

When not dealing with dogmatic issues, the Christian faith allows for a great diversity of thought. This is why there are a variety of theological schools of thought, each which promote the basics of the faith, but otherwise differ radically from each other in various different ways.[1]

Christians can differ with each other on many of the characteristics which they predicate to creation as a whole, as well as to each particular object within creation. What might seem to be absolutely absurd to one Christian can seem to be perfectly true to another. Thus, for example, Christians can believe in the existence of alien life, but they are also free to deny it[2]. Each person will have their reasons for their beliefs, and each can be a perfectly orthodox Christian thinker despite the differences of their beliefs. Indeed, they can be wrong about such secondary things and still be perfectly sound in their Christian faith.

We find some medieval Christians believed that God has given intellectual life not only to humanity, but to the planets and stars in the heavens. Likewise, no one less than St. Augustine himself considered it possible that the Earth itself was alive, that is, that it had a soul of its own, allowing it to be treated as another sentient being of God. To be sure, Augustine was not certain, and left the question open, as to whether or not the Earth should be seen as having such life, but in his early works, there are indications that he accepted the notion of the world-soul, granting the Earth life. Thus, in his Immortality of the Soul, he said Hence, the body subsists through the soul and exists by the very fact that it is animated, whether universally, as is the world, or individually, as is each and everything that has life within the world.[3] When he reflected upon the matter further, he did not deny the possibility, but only came out agnostic about it:

But if this same beauty be understood as applying to all bodies, this opinion compels one to believe that this world itself is an animate being so that what in it imitates constancy is also transmitted to it through the soul by the supreme God. But that this world is an animate being, as Plato and numerous other philosophers thought, I have not been able to investigate by solid reasoning, nor have I found that I accept this idea on the authority of the Sacred Scriptures. Hence, something said by me, too, in the book, On the Immortality of the Soul, which can be interpreted in this way, I have noted was said rashly not because I maintain that this is false, but because I do not understand that it is true that the world is an animate being. For, assuredly, I do not doubt that it must be firmly maintained that this world is not God for us, whether it has any soul or no soul, because if it has a soul, He who created it is Our God; if it is not animated, it cannot be the God of anyone much less ours. [4]

What Augustine makes clear is that if someone were to believe the world is alive, that it has a soul, and so designed by a title like Mother Earth, this did not mean the Christian saw in it a replacement for God. They understood it to be a creature of God, though one worthy of respect because of the greatness God gave to it in its creation. Indeed, like Origen, they said we could consider the Earth itself to be an animal with some level of self-government:

Although the whole world is arranged into offices of different kinds, its condition, nevertheless, is not to be supposed as one of internal discrepancies and discordances; but as our one body is provided with many members, and is held together by one soul, so I am of opinion that the whole world also ought to be regarded as some huge and immense animal, which is kept together by the power and reason of God as by one soul.[5]

Later generations would take up similar ideas with the notion of a personified form of Nature, Natura, which could be (but does not have to be) seen as something separate from Mother Earth. Indeed, it is often through the notion of some world-soul, or Natura, that many Christians used to explain away any and all sense of rational activity from animals, for it would be said that such rational behavior came from the world-soul directing the actions of animals in the world.[6]

Looking beyond the Earth, St. Thomas Aquinas, looking upon the stars, suggested some intelligence existed behind the stars and their movement in the sky

Nor does it make any difference, as far as our present purpose is concerned, whether a heavenly body is moved by a conjoined intellectual substance which is its soul, or by a separate substance; nor whether each celestial body is moved immediately by God, or whether none is so moved, because all are moved through intermediary, created, intellectual substances; nor whether the first body alone is immediately moved by God, and the others through the mediation of created substancesprovided it is granted that celestial motion comes from intellectual substance. [7]

We might think it strange to consider the stars (and planets) to be living things, with wills and intellects of their own, but to the medieval mind, as well as to the ancient Christian mind, as well as to many of the philosophers, it seemed to be the most natural explanation for their movement. They were more connected with their natural good, being in the heavens, so their actions were more stable, more predictable. They loved God, and circled around in the heavens just as a holy soul will circle around God in eternity. Christians, then, could accept a cosmology which allowed for a great diversity of beings, indeed, of a great variety of intellectual beings, in the universe, some of which were far more stable in their relationship with God than humanity. But, as C.S. Lewis pointed out, this did not turn such creatures into gods to be worshiped in place of God. Indeed, they rarely were looked upon and invoked by the ordinary Christian, while the saints were:

We might expect that a universe so filled with shining superhuman creatures would be a danger to monotheism. Yet the danger to monotheism in the Middle Ages clearly came not from a cult of angels but from the cult of the Saints. Men when they prayed were not usually thinking of the Hierarchies and Intelligences. There was, not (I think) an opposition, but a dissociation between their religious life and all that. [8]

Now, it might seem strange to some Christians today to hear that many Christians believed in the existence of a spiritual substance lying behind the stars, or the Earth itself. This is because of the change of perspective which happened as a result of the Enlightenment. Many principles and beliefs which came after the Enlightenment have been so normative that many Christians today assume not only that they are true, but they are normative for the Christian faith. For with the Enlightenment has come the notion that animals do not have souls, a notion which many think is a Christian teaching, despite the fact it has been normative in the Christian tradition to teach they do. If animals do not have souls, then it is not hard to understand how and why the rest of the universe became dead, treated as if it were not alive. Anyone says contrary to this are treated as insane, if they come from the developed world, are as people holding non-Christian pagan beliefs, if they do not.

Nonetheless, as tradition shows, it is not Christianity which says we must reject the notion of Mother Earth. And though the Enlightenment might have at one time led to the ridicule of that notion, scientists are now considering the possibility that the interdependent relationship of all that exists on the Earth itself demonstrates some sort of life which can be attributed to it (via the Gaia hypothesis). Obviously what the scientists consider is not exactly the same thing as Christian metaphysicians, as science in general knows nothing of the notion of soul, and so what a scientist looks for to determine whether or not something is alive will differ from the metaphysical standard. But if science can determine something is alive, then, by that fact, it should be said to have a soul, for the most elementary notion of the soul (metaphysically) is that it is the life-force which makes something alive. So, what once was believed, then became ridiculed, now can be believed again, with greater reason than before. The radical metaphysical notion which was normalized by the Enlightenment has been brought into question, and so Christians, taking seriously the new insights of science can take seriously once again the question of Mother Earth and accept that there is some truth to the notion. In doing so, then, they can find themselves bridging the gap between themselves and indigenous societies which never lost sight of Mother Earth. Inculturation allows for Christianity thought to grow beyond the dead-ends of the past because it allows Christians to come in contact with those who did not follow those dead-ends, and so who were not corrupted by the implications they gave. Non-Western societies which did not fall for the worst parts of the Enlightenment, far from being primitive and worthy of ridicule, actually can help give back to Christianity a spirituality it lost due to modernity.

The Western tradition has dishonored, indeed, defiled the Earth. Those who have continued to hold the Earth in honor are spiritually more astute than those who have dishonored it. Now, it is time to recognize that we are called to honor the Earth, perhaps even to recognize Mother Earth (either as a symbol, or if we want, as a reality) and do so in a way which does not dishonor the creator, but instead, as a way to honor him as well. Those who would dismiss such a response to the Earth and call it idolatrous are only trying to justify their own sins against creation, and through creation, against God. Would they call it idolatrous if people honored them, showed them respect instead of abused them? Obviously not. Therefore, they know full well honoring something in creation, respecting it, does not go against God. It is clear that their argument is pure sophistry, the kind used to justify the unjustifiable.

The Christian faith allows for diverse opinions. We might not come to it with the same world view. We do not have to. Even if what someone else believes is odd and silly, so long as it does not contradict the faith itself, it is permissible. And if history has shown us anything, what some at one time think is silly and indefensible, ends up being the truth. Common sense more often than not is a cultural construct which often impedes the discernment of the truth. We do not have to agree with others, if we think they are wrong, but likewise, we must be careful and not condemn them for their beliefs if there is nothing in them which runs contrary to Christian teaching on faith or morals. For we must try to ascertain the view of others in the best light possible.

[1] Obvious examples include, but are not limited to, Augustinians, Thomists, Bonaventurians, and Scotists.

[2] So long as such life has not been encountered, obviously. Once it has, then it will be silly to deny its existence, just as it is now silly to accept a flat Earth.

[3] St. Augustine, The Immortality of the Soul in Writings of St. Augustine. Volume 2. Trans. Ludwig Schopp (New York: CIMA Publishing Company, 1947), 43-44.

[4] Saint Augustine, The Retractions. Trans, Mary Inez Bogan, RSM (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 1968), 47-48.

[5] Origen, De Principii in ANF(4):269.

[6] Nonetheless, belief in Mother Earth, or Natura, or the world-soul does not require this interpretation, that is, it does not necessitate we deny reason to animals, just as we do not deny it for ourselves.

[7] Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles. Book Three: Providence. Part I. trans. Vernon J. Bourke (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1956), 93 [chapter 23].

[8] C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964; repr. 1988), 120.

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The World-Soul, Natura and Mother Earth - Patheos

Barbara Marx Hubbard Dec. 22, 1929 - Apr. 10, 2019

founder of The Foundation for Conscious Evolution, hasauthored nine books, a social innovator, speaker and teacher of many thousand students on the theme of the New Evolutionary Story and The Sacred Journey of the Conscious Evolutionary.

She helped introduce the worldview of conscious evolution into the world, calling this an epic evolutionary shift from Homo sapiens sapiens toward Homo universalis, a new human and a new world.

She was the co-Chair of The Center for Integral Wisdom as well of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution. Together these two sister organizations are working to develop a Great Library of books, including teachings and works that evolve the source code of our culture. They co-created the first Church of Evolutionary Love to enhance the evolution of love in the world, available every Saturday from 9- 10 Pacific Time.

She was a co-founder of the World Future Society, the Association for

Global New Thought, The Club of Budapest, the Evolutionary Leaders, and is co-chair of The Foundation for Conscious Evolution.

In 1984 her name was placed in nomination for the Vice Presidency on the Democratic ticket proposing an Office for the Future to map, track, connect and communicate what is working and a Peace Room as sophisticated as a war room in the office of the vice presidency.

In the early 80s she was an active Soviet-American Citizen Diplomat, working with Rama Vernon to hold Soviet-American Citizen conferences in Moscow and in Washington D.C. using the SYNCON conference format.

In the 1970s she formed the Committee for the Future in Washington D.C. and she co-invented the SYNCON PROCESS developing a new social process moving towarda more synergistic democracy to seek common goals and match needs with resources The SYNCONS were held, with many different types of groups, including gang leaders from Los Angeles, space scientists from Huntsville, and students at Southern Illinois University to examine a new global goal to build new worlds on Earth, new worlds in Space, new worlds in the Human Mind.

She has worked closely with Catholic sisters to bring forth her view of the evolutionary approach to the New Testament, recorded in her book The Evolutionary Testament: The Promise will be Kept. She is advocating the rise of Evolutionary Women and Evolutionary Men joining genius to evolve each other and the world.Born in 1929 she has five children, eight grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

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About | barbaramarxhubbard

The University of Michigan began creating online learning content over a decade ago. Since then, over six million students have enrolled for these courses, a tenth from India.

Coursera, the US-based edtech platform that Michigan University partners with, has 4.8 million users in India. The universitys Programming for everyone is the most popular course in the country after Stanfords Machine Learning module.

Hundreds of Michigans 3,000-plus professors have taught, or are teaching, online courses. The top professors in this area have a million students that have taken their classes. They can reach out to more people in a single online course than in their 30-year career of teaching at a university, said University of Michigan president Mark Schlissel.

Meanwhile, Indias colleges and universities are plagued by a plethora of problems: alack of educators,teacher absenteeism, poor faculty-student ratio, and low-quality research. More and more people are, therefore, logging in online.

As internet penetration goes up, learning is bound to become more democratised, Schlissel believes. Below are the edited excerpts from a conversation with him about online education in India:

Why is online learning gaining traction?

Earlier, youd judge a university by how many books it had in the library, but now you own a library with 10 million books, which youre carrying around in your pocket. These devices give you access to information from all over the world. You just need to know how to find information online and how to judge the quality of information youre receiving from peer-reviewed journal articles, blog posts, or tweets.

How did universities like Michigan get into e-learning?

MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) was very early to put the content of classes online but what they did was just lecture capture. Weve (University of Michigan) gotten way better at turning content into engaging videos. Weve invested in production studios and the technology to put together videos. Weve created a new profession (at our university) called instructional designers. They work with professors to convert it (lectures) into 12-minute blocks with mixed media to keep people engaged.

Since were producing content anyway, packing it up and giving it out for free does social good

The online content that we generate has many purposes. One is to make courses better at Michigan. And since were producing content anyway, packing it up and giving it out for free does social good.

How have you allocated resources for online teaching?

Were investing about $50 million in this (online learning) over the next five years. We have to figure out how to teach in an age where information is no longer limited or proprietary. Were trying to take into account new technologies that can enhance teaching. For example, were exploring how to use augmented and virtual reality. Were considering the ease of real-time online communication to enrich learning.

How has the reception in India been? What are people studying?

The top things Indians are studying are computer programming languages, data science, and business science. Maybe because they can be taught through online modules without much in-person discussion.

The top things Indians are studying are computer programming languages, data science, and business science.

What we do a lot in India is executive education, where working people with degrees need to get their skills refreshed. Either a Michigan professor comes here or, more often, employees from big companies come to our campus in Ann Arbor and study for two weeks.

What were starting to do now is mixing in-person and online learning. Its called blended learning. A lot of content can be learnt any time, any place, and then you get together for a week or two and do things you can do better in-person.

Ed-tech is still a nascent concept in India. How can people choose the right courses?

Initially, Coursera was highly selective about universities they would partner with. As theyve become a company thats trying to make money, theyve become a little less selective. They want to put as much content out there as possible to monetise their investments.

I dont have a sense of how a student in India, who may have never heard of these universities, can know if there is quality in the courses. There is so much information on the internet, without much editorialising of whats most valuable and correct. Thats a problem were yet to confront.

How do you make sure learners are authentic and they arent cheating?

Most of the people taking online courses are taking it for fun and are not getting graded or assessed. Or if they are, its for their own use. When we give credit for a course that can lead to a certificate, or a degree, then weve started to take advantage of testing centres. Testers have to provide the same documents I have to provide, say, when I fly in an airplane,to make sure I am who I say I am. In the current era, if you want to cheat badly enough, you can find a way to do it but we try to make the integrity as high as we can.

Can online education replace physical institutions?

When online education started becoming popular, people said: Aha! This is the disruptive technology that will put schools like Michigan out of business. I dont think it will, because there are aspects of education that cant easily be replaced. The obvious one is sitting around a table with other smart people and having a conversation. The human interaction and the things we learn from each other in a classroom is difficult to replicate at scale, in the online space. Theres no way a professor can individually engage with 60,000 people. They have to use some mode of AI (artificial intelligence), or something, to answer questions online and then you lose the human engagement piece. If youre studying literature and youre trying to discuss a complex novel, trying to do it two sentences at a time in a chat is hard. In-person education has yet to be disrupted.

A lot of the learning that happens is outside of the classroom

The other reason is that many universities in the US, including Michigan, are residential. A lot of the learning that happens is outside of the classroomstudents form organisations, get together to volunteer, go to special talks that are not part of the curriculum, listen to concerts, and see performances. Learning from people who are completely different from you helps you understand the world, and yourself, better.

Do you think online education can grow Indias small college-going population and introduce more skilled labour?

For a country this size, only to have a couple of million college students is way too small. The government officials Ive met tell me they have a goal of getting up to 10 million people in school and even that in a country of 1.3 billion is small, but theres a commitment. The strategic thinking of different categories of universities is good. Not every institute needs to be research-oriented. And theyre being spread geographically so more people can access education.

However, while I think online education can provide individual skills, theres more to an education than a set of skills. The problem with skills in the modern era is they go stale quickly. Having a foundation of learning how to learn is the best prep a student can have for the future.

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University of Michigan president on online education in India - Quartz India

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The online education market in India is expected to post a CAGR of nearly 20% during the period 2018-2022, according to the latest market research report by Technavio. Request a free sample report

India has witnessed a significant rise in the adoption of the internet and smartphones over recent years. The high penetration of internet is allowing players in the e-learning market to expand their consumer base and improve their revenue. Moreover, the growing preference toward e-learning among the prospective learners in the country is providing significant growth opportunities for market players. Thus, the increased penetration of the internet and smartphones is one of the key factors driving the growth of the online education market in India.

To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR21121

As per Technavio, the emergence of cloud computing will have a positive impact on the market and contribute to its growth significantly over the forecast period. This research report also analyzes other important trends and market drivers that will affect market growth over 2018-2022.

Online Education Market in India: Emergence of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing enables organizations to save a significant amount of content, data, and information on a single platform. It also enables users and providers to access, process, procure, and manage information from anywhere at any time. Owing to such benefits, educational institutions are increasingly adopting cloud-based solutions such as ERP and LMS. The Indian government has also taken many initiatives such as the National Digital Library and the National Academic Repository to encourage the growth of e-learning institutes. The increasing adoption of cloud-based learning platforms is expected to further boost the growth of the market during the forecast period.

The increasing use of big data and learning analytics and the inclusion of gamification to drive engagement levels will further boost market growth during the forecast period, says a senior analyst at Technavio.

Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports.

Technavios SUBSCRIPTION platform

Online Education Market in India: Segmentation Analysis

This market report segments the online education market in India by product (content and services) and end-users (higher education segment and K-12 segment).

The content segment led the market in 2017, followed by the services segment. During the forecast period, the content segment is expected to maintain its dominance over the global market.

Technavios sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report, such as the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more.

Request a free sample report

Some of the key topics covered in the report include:

Market Landscape

Market Sizing

Five Forces Analysis

Market Segmentation

Customer Landscape

Geographical Segmentation

Market Drivers

Market Challenges

Market Trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendor Analysis

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavios report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavios comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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Online Education Market in India 2018-2022 | Emergence of Cloud Computing to Boost Growth | Technavio - Business Wire

What is the purpose of education? Why do we spend enormous amounts of money to attend school? What is the point of sitting in a classroom for hours on end? Why are we even here?

You will get a different answer to these questions from everyone you ask, and that, in itself, is the beauty of education. It does not serve one goal nor is it uniform in any manner. However, after reflecting on our current system, I can confidently say that we have misconstrued our purpose. While this critique of objectives can apply to all educational levels from pre-k to post-secondary institutions I will focus my attention on higher education.

It is evident that we have a student population that puts a greater emphasis on grades, test scores and performance rather than actual knowledge and personal growth. This does not just exist at Chapman, nor is it unique to higher education; this is a problem everywhere.

To illustrate, we can look at the mentality of a student preparing for an exam. Is this student focused on truly understanding the material and using it to better their life? Or is this student more worried about what grade they will receive and how it will impact their grade point average? I would argue the latter.

Moreover, we can focus on the student with a reading assignment for the class they have the next day. Is this student motivated to dissect the text, make meaning of the work and use the reading to further their intellect? Or is this student more fixed on simply completing the reading so they feel prepared for the potential quiz or questions during the following class? Again, I would argue the latter. While this is not the case for everyone and is most certainly not the desired mindset of any student, I do believe it has become the norm. Students are essentially coerced into this mentality and its this idea that Im attempting to address.

This reality is no ones fault. We are born into this system and, as a result, hold ourselves to the same standards as those who came before us. So where does the blame fall? I believe it does not fall on any specific person or group. It falls on the students and instructors to bring about change. In no way am I saying that teachers do not like to teach and students do not like to learn; I am claiming that we have adopted the wrong trajectory and as a result, lost sight of why we are here in the first place.

The major question remains: how do we fix this? Both students and instructors have a responsibility to modify their methods so that we can solve this problem.

To the student: we need to enhance our desire to learn by caring less about the score on the test and more about the content we are studying. We must put in the proper time and effort in all that we do, while shying away from viewing class as a dreaded task. Yes, life can be stressful and challenging, but we ought to be here because we want to learn, not because we feel it is an obligation. Once we begin changing our own views, we will slowly begin to see a change in the overall system.

To the instructor: you need to adapt your pedagogy so that your classroom can transform from that of a teacher-centered class to one that is student-centered. Yes, the traditional method of teaching via lecture, midterm and final is quite simple and works to a certain extent, but students do not learn to their fullest potential. Do not teach a course to simply check an item off a list, such as a chapter, exam or assignment. Teach because you want to change the lives of your students and do this with discussion, tailored curriculum and unique modes of professing which undoubtedly will further students critical thinking abilities.

Education should not be about a letter on a test, a number on a transcript or a title on a diploma; education should be about knowledge, empowerment, understanding and growth. If we continue in our ways, we will restrict our ability to take advantage of all that our educational system has to offer. We need to redefine our purpose.

Excerpt from:
Opinion | Redefining our purpose of education - The Panther

Press Release

MondayNov18,2019at10:30AM

John and Lynn Farrell, owners of John Farrell Real Estate Company, were presented the Award of Distinction by the Missouri Community College Association (MCCA) in Kansas City last week. The Osage Beach couple were honored for their continued support of State Fair Community College at Lake of the Ozarks.

John and Lynn Farrell, owners of John Farrell Real Estate Company, were presented the Award of Distinction by the Missouri Community College Association (MCCA) in Kansas City last week. The Osage Beach couple were honored for their continued support of State Fair Community College at Lake of the Ozarks.

John and Lynn are two of the colleges most dedicated supporters, said Dr. Joanna Anderson SFCC president. We are proud to call them friends, and their contributions truly do improve the lives of students here at the lake.

The Farrells have organized the Genuine Country Music Associations (GCMA) Classic Country Jamboree at the Lake of the Ozarks for seven years. A portion of the proceeds from the Jamboree fund scholarships for lake area students who attend SFCC at the lake.

Neither John nor I attended college, said Lynn Farrell during her acceptance speech. So we are committed to providing that opportunity to students in the area.

Since 2013, the Farrells have raised over $84,000 for scholarships at the jamboree. That figure does not include the money raised at this years jamboree held last month at the Lodge of the Four Seasons. Those scholarships are specifically designated for students around the Lake of the Ozarks to attend SFCC.

State Fair Community College has served the Lake of the Ozarks for 36 years and offers academic and technical programs including Missouris highest ranked nursing program at Lake of the Ozarks.

Here is the original post:
Farrells honored for commitment to higher education at the lake - Lakenewsonline.com

The College of Education is creating two tenure-track faculty positions to make progress toward interdisciplinary education practices.

The new faculty positions in bilingual education and prevention science will be hired from within the college and allow professors with these expertise to work in multiple departments, according to the colleges website.

Were really excited about these new job hires because they will provide us the opportunity to increase research activity across the disciplines in our departments in unique ways that are not typical in a university setting, Alexandra Loukas, the colleges interim associate dean for research and graduate studies, said in a statement.

According to the colleges website, the two positions will work toward the colleges three signature impact areas: eliminating educational and health disparities, addressing the effects of home and community on well-being and supporting student adaptability through lifes transitions.

Nataly Lim, a special education graduate student, said faculty with knowledge in multiple disciplines can address cross sections between majors.

Working with kids with autism, often times they also need speech, language or occupational services that arent just specific to special education, Lim said. To have faculty that are engaged in this kind of interdisciplinary research is really important.

According to UTs 2017-2018 impact report, English was the second language for 679 UT students. Ramiro De Los Santos, a journalism and European studies freshman, grew up with Spanish as his first language and said people who learn English as a second language are at a disadvantage in higher education or employment.

Effective bilingual education allows people to be more competitive academically, De Los Santos said. Im in Moody and Liberal Arts Honors and all I do is write. That wouldnt have been possible without bilingual education.

Lim said those with more severe disabilities are often not supported in their heritage language.

Special education policies stipulate that individuals with disabilities should be provided with equal opportunities, Lim said. But a lot of the time what we see reflected in practice is not aligned with this policy.

In addition to bilingual education, Lim said the prevention science faculty members expertise will be important when helping identify and treat individuals who are at risk for poor health or education outcomes.

Prevention is key, Lim said. We learn so much about early identification and how that really impacts child outcomes.

Follow this link:
College of Education seeks two faculty members to advance goals interdisciplinary scholarship goals - UT The Daily Texan

We invite entries from UK universities and university professionals across 14 categories, which are shortlisted and evaluated by an expert panel. An ideas bank of all winning and shortlisted entries will be published on the Guardian website after the ceremony.

Click here to enter now

Judges will assess each entry for:

Innovation what makes it new, unique and inspiring?

Delivery does it offer excellence in planning, teamwork, partnerships and value?

Impact what difference has it made, within the university and beyond?

Evidence are the claims made in the submission supported by evidence?

The winners will be announced at the award ceremony on Thursday 2 April 2020.

1 Outline the project, its place within your universitys strategy and what makes it innovative and inspiring (max 300 words).

2 Detail how the project was delivered, from the planning stage through to its successful conclusion (max 300 words), including details of timing* and funding.

3 Outline the projects outcome(s) within the university and beyond with relevant supporting evidence**, metrics or testimony (max 400 words).

* Project must have started in past 18 months but need not have finished if outcomes can be proven.

* For the Sustainable buildings that inspire category, the capital project must have been completed within the past 24 months, but need not have started in that timeframe.

* For the Research impact category, projects must have finished in past 24 months.

** Evidence must be provided in the text of the application except for the Sustainable buildings that inspire category where photographic evidence is required. Please send photographs to GUA@theguardian.com. Any appendices sent in for other categories will not be considered.

Entry fees:Early bird from 21 November to 31 January: One entry 225 + VATEarly bird multiple entries (after first entry): 125 + VATFull rate after early bird offer expires: One entry 275 + VATMultiple entries (after first entry): 175 + VAT

Please note that a booking fee will also apply.

If you have any questions please contact us on GUA@theguardian.com

Timeline: 18 November: Awards launch online18 November - 31 January: Early bird period7 February: Applications close9-13 March: Shortlisted applicants will be notified after the judging lunch this week2 April: Ceremony in central London

If you have any other questions, please email: GUA@theguardian.com. Good luck!

Join Guardian Universities for more comment, analysis and job opportunities, direct to your inbox. Follow us on Twitter @GdnUniversities.

Originally posted here:
How to enter - is your university a beacon of hope? - The Guardian