By Stanford Report staff

From left, Peter DeMarzo, business, Bernd Girod, engineering, and Charles Prober, medicine.

Three of Stanford's schools engineering, medicine and business have announced appointments of associate deans to lead their respective online education initiatives. The appointments will complement the university's continuing commitment to online learning.

Bernd Girod, professor of electrical engineering and a key figure in the type of multimedia technology that has revolutionized online education, has been named to the new position of senior associate dean for online learning and professional development in the School of Engineering.

"Bernd's appointment recognizes the rapidly growing importance of online learning in engineering education," said Dean James D. Plummer, who announced Girod's appointment.

At the School of Medicine, Charles Prober, senior associate dean for medical education, will take the lead in the school's commitment to interactive education. A professor of pediatrics, microbiology and immunology, Prober is a champion of what he calls interactive education, or the classroom experience that is made possible once lectures are put on video. He also is the driving force behind Stanford Medicine Interactive Learning Initiatives, which will guide the Medical School toward a new era in medical pedagogy.

"I have yet to meet a student who doesn't think classroom education has to change," Prober said. "Pushing facts at people isn't learning. The learning is the embedding of the facts to create rich, interactive sessions." Prober and a team of education technology specialists, physicians, faculty members and students are working to adapt the existing medical curriculum to new formats and to explore partnerships with other institutions of medical learning.

At the Graduate School of Business (GSB), meanwhile, Dean Garth Saloner appointed Peter DeMarzo, senior associate dean for academic affairs, to lead the initiative there. Like his colleagues at the other schools, DeMarzo, the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance, is working with faculty to re-envision their courses with a full suite of educational technology solutions. At the Business School, these include a new Real-Time Analysis and Investment Lab (RAIL), which allows students to work with market data in real time.

For the time being, GSB online courses are aimed at enrolled students, but the school aspires to share modules of management content with a broader audience in the future, Saloner said.

"The GSB provides a personalized, transformational experience for our students," said Saloner. "Educational technology is a crucial factor in our ability to further deepen the learning that happens here on campus. It will also enable us to reach high-potential and high-achieving people around the world, many of whom would not otherwise have the opportunity to study under GSB faculty on campus."

Originally posted here:
Stanford's professional schools commit to online learning

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire - Sep 14, 2012) - WeVideo (www.WeVideo.com), the world's most powerful and easy-to-use online video editing platform, today announced a new line-up of education pricing plans and discounts for its service, further underlining its leadership in the education market. WeVideo's collaborative video-editing technology has its roots in the education market in Europe and has seen rapid adoption in classrooms across the U.S. over the last year as a significant number of teachers embrace the drag-and-drop system to incorporate video in their classrooms.

"In the past year, we've seen several hundred thousand educators and students use WeVideo's online, collaborative video editing software to bring dynamic storytelling into the classroom," said Jostein Svendsen, WeVideo's CEO. "Every day we are amazed to hear about the creative ways educators are using WeVideo to enhance the learning environment."

Examples of exciting ways educators are putting WeVideo to use include:

Michael J. Curtin, Director of Curriculum and Instructional Technology at Edgemont Union Free School District, NY, said: "For a long time, we've understood that producing video is a highly engaging activity that helps students to develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration skills. In recent years, the availability of inexpensive video cameras and video-enabled cell phones has helped to make it easier for students to capture video at the front end of the process. Unfortunately, the cost and complexity of desktop video editing software have prevented many schools, including ours, from rolling it out to teachers and students on a wide scale. Additionally, storing and sharing the large files associated with video editing has made it difficult to implement and manage traditional video editing solutions on school networks. An inexpensive, web-based solution that can be accessed from school or home, supports collaborative editing, and relegates file storage to the cloud is exactly what we have been looking for."

Understanding that budgets are tight and school districts are watching every penny, WeVideo is introducing a free offering that will get teachers and students creating and exporting up to 15 minutes of videos per month and comes with 5 GB of storage. If more usage is needed, WeVideo has introduced heavily discounted subscriptions of its Plus version which offers 60 minutes of 720p HD video exports per month and 10 GB of storage, for $19.99 per year (regular price is $49.99 per year); and its Ultra version which offers 120 minutes of 720p HD video exports per month and 20 GB of storage at $29.99 per year (regular price is $99.99 per year). The price drops even further for volume licenses for a class, school or district.

"Today's students have grown up with technology, and video remains the most engaging medium for them," said Svendsen. "We want to enable them to use their skills in the classroom by removing any price barriers that are limiting schools from access to collaborative video editing."

WeVideo is also available on Google ChromeBooks as part of a partnership between Google and select software providers, and is included in the Google Back to School Collection available on theGoogle Chrome Web Store.

More information on WeVideo is available at http://www.wevideo.com. For volume license pricing inquiries, please contactsales@wevideo.com.

About WeVideo Based in Palo Alto, CA, WeVideo eliminates the cost and complexity of online video creation with powerful, easy to use web-based tools. Founded in 2011, WeVideo is built upon market-proven technology that originated in Scandinavia. The company raised $19.2M in a series A funding round in April 2012. WeVideo is available in any browser or as an integrated video editor within YouTube and Google Drive. To learn more, please visit http://www.wevideo.com.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

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WeVideo Offers Deep Discounts to Education

New Jersey legislators got a crash course in online education this week, from virtual schools to "blended" ones, and how far other states and countries have gone with the technology.

The committee held the special session Wednesday to discuss the various models, as the Christie administration has moved ahead in approving charter schools employing the technology in levels not seen before in the state.

Two charter schools have been approved that would be entirely online, with students taking class from home or other remote locations. They have been postponed a year.

Two other "blended" schools, which opened this fall in Newark, have students come to a school every day and work with teachers both face-to-face and online.

The arrival of the new schools has sparked considerable debate among education and community advocates, with the state's dominant teachers union legally challenging the administration on the schools already approved.

This caught the legislators' attention once again and prompted the joint committee's plans for four hearings to explore the subject further.

The next hearing is scheduled on Nov. 28 to hear from the state's major education organizations. Two more will be held next year.

On Wednesday, legislators invited three national advocates who brought perspective, pointing out that New Jersey is in the clear minority in not providing programs dedicated to the online technologies.

Thirty states have some form of virtual or blended programs, including Florida, Michigan, and Alabama.

Advocates pointed to the benefits for at least some students, saying it provides access and opportunity for those who struggle to find it in traditional schools.

See more here:
N.J. lawmakers study up on online education

BATAVIA Aldermen hope a proposed yoga studio will add to the revitalization of downtown Batavia.

The City Councils Community Development Committee on Tuesday recommended approval of a $25,000 downtown improvement grant for Kay Eck of Wheaton, who wants to open a yoga studio in the building at 5 and 7 N. River St. The full City Council is set to vote on the recommendation at its meeting Monday.

Eck wants to renovate a 2,500-square-foot space into a retail area and yoga studio. The project is expected to cost $121,251.

The City Council in 2009 established the downtown improvement grant program, which provides building owners with up to 50 percent of actual improvement costs.

The project also includes a coffee/tea bar. Eck said she eventually wants to open a full cafe. She also will sell yoga clothing and activewear.

Seventh Ward Alderman Dave Brown, chairman of the Community Development Committee, sees the yoga studio as generating interest in the downtown and bringing people to the area.

Hopefully, they will help out other businesses on the street, like The Rhino Room, Brown said of the downtown restaurant. It will bring people to the downtown. Thats why I am in favor of it.

Eck said she wants to tap into the growing interest in yoga. Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke said he thought a yoga studio will be a good fit for the downtown.

I appreciate the applicant for wanting to come into this community and make an investment, Schielke said.

First Ward Alderman Michael OBrien noted Eck is coming in with the proposal before the streetscape improvements on North River Street are complete. The street is set to reopen to pedestrians and cars Oct. 19.

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Yoga studio may head to downtown Batavia

Jennie Pearl calls out instructions to her 17 high school yoga students, "... plank pose, inhale, cobra, exhale, down dog ..."

The students are going through the "sun salutation," a series of yoga poses. In their T-shirts, tights and sweats, students stretched out parallel to the ground, then looked up.

Pearl watches their movements as she calls out poses, occasionally asking them to reach further.

This was the beginning of one of two Flagstaff High School's yoga classes.

Pearl's FHS yoga classes were set to be cut from this school year's class schedule. When Sinagua was still a high school, all three high schools had yoga classes. Last year, Pearl had 120 students in her FHS classes, with a waiting list.

The cuts were for budgetary reasons, said FHS Principal Tony Cullen. In order to keep her classes going, Pearl, with help from the community, started fundraising.

They raised $6,000 -- enough to hold two classes.

"I don't know if this has been done before," Pearl said. "Hopefully, this inspires people: If it doesn't go your way, what can you do?"

GONG MEDITATIONS

Community members told Pearl they wished they had yoga in high school when they were growing up. That was part of the reason fundraising was successful.

The rest is here:
Yoga classes survive at Flagstaff High

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Performance coach Erin Owen; who has consulted with and coached hundreds of entrepreneurs, business leaders, and private individuals from more than 10 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia; has released her first book: Refuel, Recharge, and Re-energize: The Conscious Entrepreneur's Guide to Taking Back Control of Your Time and Energy.

Refuel, Recharge, and Re-energize shares the Eastern-inspired performance techniques Owen uses with private clients, all aimed at helping self-employed professionals and entrepreneurs achieve more by doing less. The wisdom of ancient practices such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, Yoga, Reiki, Ayurveda, and Buddhism informs her work and helps her clients eliminate sources of stress and reenergize their personal and professional lives.

By applying the principles of Yin and Yang to our Western lives, Owen shows how to:

With an MBA and over a decade as a leadership and organizational consultant, Owen works with professionals to align their thoughts and action with a greater sense of purpose, ease, and confidence. "Working harder is not the answer," she notes. "The professionals I work with are spending extraordinary amounts of time and the energy, expecting to be rewarded with better results, but they're getting diminishing returns. That burning-the-candle-at-both-ends mentality is old school. You end up overworked and undernourished, wondering where the excitement disappeared to."

Refuel, Recharge, and Re-energize guides the reader through seven techniques ranging from quick meditation and yoga-based exercises to nutrition and time management. Her simple, flexible, portable, and free approaches, with an emphasis on becoming a "single-tasker," are supported by additional materials, including guided audio meditations, recipes, and organizational principles on her website (www.yourperformancebreakthrough.com).

"The new way of working," explains Owen, "is to be really clear about the life you want to live, take care of yourself first and then and only then build your business around that. In this way, you'll actually see much greater productivity and performance in your business and be able to reach your goals of making an incredible impact on the world, not to mention living a life that makes it all worth it."

About Erin Owen

Erin Owen, MBA, has been coaching professionals to achieve greater personal performance since 2003. With a background in Chinese Studies, holistic health (including alternative nutrition), Reiki, Mind/Body/Spirit Medicine, Comparative Eastern Religions and Philosophy,Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction, Ayurveda, and Yoga, her unique expertise is in applying the wisdom of ancient Eastern practices to the Western idea of performance.

Media contact:

Erin Owen Email: info@yourperformancebreakthrough.com Telephone: 215-771-8968 Website: http://www.yourperformancebreakthrough.com

The rest is here:
New Book Reveals Utilizing Wisdom of Ancient Practices Improves Professional Performance

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., Sept. 13,2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Tablets are transforming the way content is consumed and challenging the usage patterns for personal computers, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 U.S. Tablet Satisfaction StudySM released today.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20050527/LAF028LOGO-a)

The inaugural Tablet Satisfaction Study finds that tablet owners spend 7.5 hours per week browsing the Internet, watching videos, listening to music, and reading books on their device, compared with spending 9.6 hours per week on a personal computer for the same activities. Overall satisfaction is 857 (on a 1,000-point scale) among owners who view three or more hours of video per week on their tablet, which is 45 points higher than among those who do not. In addition, those who spend three or more hours viewing video content are more likely to purchase another tablet from their current manufacturer in the future than are those who do not watch as much video content (90% vs. 81%, respectively).

"As tablet computing, multimedia, display, and application offerings continue to evolve, their impact on usage patterns will continue to grow," said Dr. Uma S. Jha, senior director of mobile devices at J.D. Power and Associates. "Tablets are a force in the marketplace that offer a great alternative to laptops and netbooks."

The study measures tablet owner satisfaction among those who have owned their tablet for less than two years. Satisfaction is measured across five key factors. In order of importance, they are: performance (26%), ease of operation (22%), styling and design (19%), features (17%), and price (16%).

Apple ranks highest, achieving a score of 848, and performs well in four factors: performance; ease of operation; styling and design; and features. Amazon (842) closely follows Apple in the rankings and performs particularly well in the price factor.

The study also finds the following key tablet usage patterns and purchase trends:

The 2012 U.S. Tablet Satisfaction Study is based on experiences reported by 1,985 tablet owners. The study was fielded in July 2012.

Overall Tablet Index Rankings

(Based on a 1,000-point scale)

Read more from the original source:
J.D. Power and Associates Reports: Tablets Challenge Personal Computers for Top Position in Content Consumption

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ST. PETERSBURG - SEPTEMBER 07: Pitcher Derek Holland #45 of the Texas Rangers pitches against the Tampa Bay Rays during the game at Tropicana Field on September 7, 2012 in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images)

Over his career, there hasn't been a team, other than the Boston Red Sox, that Derek Holland has owned as much as the Cleveland Indlans.

The lefty from Newark,Ohio about 130 miles from Cleveland has had some of the best starts of his career in Cleveland with his friends and family in attendance and in his five career starts against the Indians he has given up just 11 runs, which ties the Tribe with the Red Sox for the fewest runs scored off Holland in at least five career games.

He'll have a chance to keep that streak going tonight when the Texas Rangers finish off a three-game home set with the Indians, looking to pull off the three-game sweep.

Holland has pitched very well in his last four starts, including his last time out which was an 8-inning loss to Tampa Bay when he gave up just one run on two hits and had 11 strikeouts. Holland, who was one of the best pitchers in the game over the second half of last season, had a rough start to the year and a trip to the disabled list after a weird stomach virus led to him losing a bunch of weight and consequently hurting his arm. But he's starting to resemble the pitcher we saw over the second half last season, when he ended up making the best postseason start in club history in Game 4 of the World Series.

If Holland continues this trend upward, it will only give the Rangers more confidence in him heading into the postseason, where he could realistically finish anywhere from No. 2 to No. 4 in the postseason pitching rotation pecking order.

More:
Holland Hoping to Continue Run of Success

ST. PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Its called the Operations Re-engineering Initiative and its all about improving employee collaboration and productivity, resulting in a positive impact on earnings.

This was one of the projects that earned Securian and its IT department a place on the InformationWeek 500 Top Technology Innovators award for the fourteenth consecutive year.

This honor recognizes our commitment to our vision of providing innovative information technology solutions to our business units, helping them become more strategic and efficient while providing a superior customer experience, said Jean Delaney Nelson, senior vice president and CIO, Securian Financial Group.

The Operations Re-engineering Initiative implements improvements that make it easier for individual life insurance distributors to work with Securians Life Product Manufacturing (LPM) unit while growing sales and improving retention of existing life insurance business. The project yielded several intangible benefits in 2011, such as improved tracking, reduced turnaround times, and higher productivity. The tangible benefit was an 11 percent improvement in operational efficiency with the expectation of additional improvements in 2012.

This initiative yielded significant business value and positioned LPM for future process improvement, such as quickly adjusting business processes with minimal impact and helping us identify opportunities to become more efficient, said Delaney Nelson.

The InformationWeek 500 has recognized the most innovative users of business technology for 24 years. The editors look for unconventional approaches to maximizing business opportunities and solving complex business problems with information technology.

Securians string of appearances on Computerworld list of the Best Places to Work in IT also remains unbroken. Securian ranked tenth in 2012 and is one of the smaller employers with 2,400 associates in St. Paul and 425 IT employees. The company has made 17 consecutive appearances on the Computerworld list.

Since 1880, Securian Financial Group and its affiliates have provided financial security for individuals and businesses in the form of insurance, investments and retirement plans. Now one of the nations largest financial services providers, it is the holding company parent of a group of companies that include Minnesota Life Insurance Company, Advantus Capital Management, Allied Solutions, Capital Financial Group, Cherokee National Life Insurance Company, CNL/Insurance America, Personal Finance Company, Securian Trust Company, Securian Financial Services, Inc., Securian Casualty Company, and Securian Life Insurance Company, both are New York admitted insurers.

DOFU 09-2012 A03491-0912

Original post:
Securian IT Success with Business Process Management Earns Award

Westlake Village, California (PRWEB) September 13, 2012

On June 11, 2012, Tools 2 SUCCEED announced that they will donate $5 of every online e-Learning package sale to The SUCCESS Foundation. In the first 3 months of this program, they have proudly donated $2230. As Tools 2 SUCCEED is gearing up for their busy fall and winter HRCI recertification season, they are looking forward to donating even more in the next 2 quarters.

Through their contributions, Tools 2 SUCCEED is helping to distribute the SUCCESS for Teens program to youth organizations and schools in communities across the U.S. Sheryl Tuchman, Founder and CEO of Tools 2 Succeed, Inc., said, "The missions of each of our organizations are very similar. We train adults to develop personal and leadership skills, and The SUCCESS Foundation helps teens to learn similar skills. We are proud to be able to help such a worthwhile cause."

About Tools 2 SUCCEED, Inc.

Tools 2 Succeed focuses on creating high-performance organizations in which every employee feels and acts like a partner in the business and is excited to contribute to its success. Services include onsite employee development training, leadership workshops, sexual harassment prevention training, outplacement services, behavioral assessments, and an extensive offering of more than 2000 e-learning courses. The company is based in Southern California and has a worldwide team of facilitators who can provide onsite training and consulting onsite or in public venues.

Tools 2 Succeed is an Approved Provider of the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI), offering fun and interactive public workshops, webinars, and online e-Learning courses for HRCI recertification credit.

The Tools 2 Succeed Vision Statement is: "At Tools 2 Succeed, our vision is to build brand awareness and be sought after for creating high-performance work environments in which all employees feel and act like partners in the business. We will build value by delivering innovative and enjoyable employee development training, management consulting, and coaching services. We strive to be a forward-looking company, always anticipating our clients future needs. Our vision is supported by our core values of honesty, integrity, respect, compassion and exceptional service."

For more information about Tools 2 SUCCEED, please visit http://tools2succeed.com.

About The SUCCESS Foundation

Today's teens face innumerable challenges. The SUCCESS Foundation believes our youth can better meet those challenges by using the principles of personal-development-enhancing skills like goal-setting, dream-building, self-motivation, time management, and creating high self-esteem and a sense of purpose. The SUCCESS Foundation's mission is to help teens develop these skills so they can reach their full potential.

Original post:
Tools 2 SUCCEED, Inc., a Training and Development Company, Donates $2230 to The SUCCESS Foundation®