Yale reexamines role in online education
Posted: September 24, 2012 at 10:22 am
Several online education platforms that provide free course content from a host of partner universities, including Stanford, Harvard and Princeton, have exploded in global popularity over the past year. Even with its own long-established programs, Yale has refrained thus far from joining those new ventures.
Now, administrators plan to reexamine how the University approaches online course offerings. On Friday, Yale College Dean Mary Miller announced the formation of a committee on online education in an email to faculty members. Committee members will consider the future of Yales online courses by analyzing national trends and collecting feedback on the Universitys current offerings: Open Yale Courses and Yale Summer Session Online.
Given what is happening around the country, I hope that the committee can explore whether there are ways to continue to expand the number of students around the country and the world who could benefit from the outstanding teaching of Yale faculty without diminishing the experience for our matriculated Yale College students or diverting the efforts of the faculty, Miller wrote in the Friday email.
Psychology professor and committee co-chair Paul Bloom said he hopes its members, who met for the first time on Friday afternoon, can submit recommendations to Miller by the end of 2012. Music professor Craig Wright, Blooms fellow co-chair, said the committee will discuss a variety of new options for digital education at Yale, including partnerships with existing online education platforms and an expansion of online for-credit courses to the academic year.
Outgoing University President Richard Levin told the News in August that online education policy will be one of the biggest challenges faced by his successor. In advance of that transition, the new committee will attempt to determine what direction Yale will take moving forward.
Online teaching is getting very big and important, Bloom said. [The future of online education at Yale] is a hard problem and the answer is not obvious. We are considering everything we can consider.
NEW PLATFORMS EMERGE
One online education hub that has garnered significant media attention is Coursera, an interactive online education platform that offers free massive online open courses (MOOCs) from many universities and reached 1.3 million globally since launching six months ago. Coursera, which was named one of Time Magazines Best 50 Websites in 2012, announced last Wednesday an expansion from 16 international partner institutions to 33, including Brown, Columbia, Penn and Princeton.
Daphne Koller, Coursera co-founder and a computer science professor at Stanford, said the increasing demand for higher education worldwide and the sites ability to share technology among universities will help the start-up to keep growing. She said Courseras model provides benefits not possible through Yales individual school format, including the opportunity to collaborate with other universities about course content and technological advances in digital education.
We are at a point where the technology is really right and mature enough that we can provide a high quality education through an electronic medium, Koller explained. Universities gain a tremendous amount from the ability to interact with peer institutions in a changing [online space].
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Broga gets the guys involved in yoga class
Posted: at 10:22 am
Broga is yoga for men, a.k.a. bros, and it's now being offered in the Queen City at the recently opened Manchester Yoga Mill. Yes, Broga sounds hilarious, but Yoga Mill co-owner Johanna Tejada assured me it is a serious strength workout for men and women alike.
Oh, yeah. Girls can do broga, she said. Broga's really focused on the upper-body strength building.
Tejada, 27, opened Manchester Yoga Mill on the third floor of the Waumbec Mill less than three weeks ago. The studio offers more than 25 different classes for all levels. Broga, offered on Thursdays at 5:30 p.m., is more appealing to some men than more traditional yoga classes because it focuses on strength rather than flexibility.
Tejada, who has a degree in fashion design, said she came to New Hampshire from Philadelphia about three years ago to work as a designer for Eastern Mountain Sports. But after becoming entwined with the yoga community here, she decided it was time for a career change and opened the studio with her partner, Ryan Andrews, 32.
In addition to the regular classes, Manchester Yoga Mill has some interesting special monthly events. Last week they offered yoga accompanied by live music. In October, Tejada said she plans to offer a Halloween class where costumes are encouraged. Mommy and me yoga classes are also in the works.
You can see the studio's current offerings at http://www.ManchesterYogaNH.com. And be sure to keep an eye on http://www.UnionLeader.com for an upcoming Deal of the Day that offers four yoga classes for $20.
Religious response to hunger
Growing up in Manchester I was fortunate to have many Jewish friends who invited me to their synagogues and homes to celebrate various Jewish holidays and traditions. I secretly hoped my own family would convert to Judaism so that I could have eight days of presents during Hanukkah, an amazing Bat Mitzvah celebration when I turned 12, and two extra days off from school to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
My mother did agree to buy me matzah during Passover, but I never did get that Bat Mitzvah. Still I am happy for the opportunity to join with our city's Jewish community during their High Holy Days and to help fill the shelves at New Horizons Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen.
I'd like to thank Judith Jolton of Temple Adath Yeshurun for alerting me to this year's Religious Response to Hunger Food Drive. Jolton, chairman of the drive, said the synagogue has been holding this annual event during the High Holy Days for more than 30 years and today it is one of the biggest food drives to support New Horizons.
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Broga gets the guys involved in yoga class
Tigers skipped on Stuart to keep Sheens
Posted: September 23, 2012 at 8:13 pm
With Tim Sheens' coaching career at Wests Tigers on life support, former board member Ben Elias revealed the club could have had Ricky Stuart take over for 2012.
Sheens survived the first board meeting over his future, but it appears increasingly unlikely that he will be in charge by Monday night.
He will face another board meeting where his performance and future will be discussed on Monday, and Elias suggested on Sunday it was time for Sheens to move on and called on the veteran mentor to step down 'for his own credibility'.
Elias revealed that when Sheens was deciding whether to re-sign with the Tigers last year or take up a lucrative offer from Penrith, the club had a contingency plan in place to recruit then-NSW coach Stuart, who will coach Parramatta in 2013, to replace him.
'At the time when we re-signed him it was very controversial,' the Balmain legend told ABC Radio's Grandstand.
'We had another coach in the shadows ready to go.
'Ricky Stuart was going to coach the Tigers if (Sheens) hadn't signed.
'He decided to coach and we came to an agreement of three years.
'That situation, obviously, we continued for the next 12 months and here we are today.'
How it has unravelled so quickly is unclear, although an underwhelming performance in 2012 that resulted in the Tigers missing the finals for the seventh time under Sheens' reign seems the tipping point.
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Tigers skipped on Stuart to keep Sheens
Still coaching: Slocum takes bow at Kyle Field for Hall of Fame honor
Posted: at 8:13 pm
Texas A&M coaching legend and Hall of Famer R.C. Slocum was honored during Saturdays game at Kyle Field.
Perhaps R.C. Slocums success as a coach can be linked back to his high school football playbook.
Woe be unto the boy who is disrespectful of his parents, reads tattered and yellowed page three. You may think you know it all and that they do not know anything, but you are only looking for a means of escape if this is your attitude.
Slocum chuckled as he flipped through the orange-bound 1960s notebook from Stark High School.
Be ashamed of yourself if you call your father My Old Man or your mother My Old Lady when talking to someone about them, Slocum read aloud, straining to make out the faded blue print. If you are this kind of boy and continue on this road, you will not be a good athlete, and we do not have a place on the team for you.
Slocum, Texas A&Ms winningest football coach in the history of Aggie football, said it was his upbringing that led him to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame in May.
Saturday at Texas A&Ms game against South Carolina State, Slocum stepped onto Kyle Field for the first time since earning the award. He was greeted with a loud and warm welcome by thousands of spectators.
This is so special because of the Aggie fans, the 12th Man, along with players, assistant coaches and so many more, Slocum said. Recognition of this type is one you dont do by yourself.
Slocum was born and raised in Orange and said he grew up in a poor, working-class family but never knew it.
I was taught that we were privileged, and even though neither of my parents went to school, I was taught that education was a valuable tool of getting ahead. My coaches reinforced all that.
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Still coaching: Slocum takes bow at Kyle Field for Hall of Fame honor
Health and Fitness PSA – Video
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How To Lose Weight Fast! – Video
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Harvey Creativity and June-Marie Raw Food and Fitness Health Speed Cleaning video – Video
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How to Do an Overhead Press
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Web Wealth: Delaying retirement
Posted: at 8:12 pm
Everybody should plan for retirement, but if you are working, there are good reasons not to actually retire if your health allows - at least not yet.
About 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day, according to this post at bankrate.com, which lists seven "signs" that retirement might not be the best idea for each of them. In addition to financial reasons, the list includes warnings that you shouldn't retire just because of your age and certainly not if you don't know what you'll do with time on your hands. In addition, be careful if you figure you'll be getting a part-time job in this era of persistent high unemployment.
Retirement doesn't always improve quality of life, writes Emily Brandon in this article at usnews.com. Chances are good that you'll find yourself on a strict budget in retirement, Brandon writes, and your life that revolved around work will be gone. Liking your job may be the best reason of all for not leaving it for as long as you can do it well.
Do retiring boomers threaten the economy? Yes, suggests this post at investorguide.com. "The strain of a greater number of retiring and aging citizens on an economic system that is very tenuous in terms of safety-nets could be catastrophic for the working class generations who are coming up behind them and who are going to have to somehow keep the economy propped up on increasingly shaky legs," it says.
In a video on "Why you should not retire," career-design coach Marc Miller says that our jobs provide intellectual stimulation, socialization and other ego rewards that could go missing in retirement.
Age-discrimination warnings pepper this article for small business employers titled, "How to dismiss an employee who will not retire." This is a minefield for companies that are, in most circumstances, legally barred from dismissing workers over 40 for age alone. Reading it could help you understand what you are up against if you decide to stay at the office instead of retiring.
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Web Wealth: Delaying retirement