“Biometrics,” or the use of pattern recognition and algorithms to identify people based on physical characteristics often in a range of security programs, is all the rage in technology this year as people grow increasingly concerned about threats of hacking and identity theft. The newest trend is iris recognition, much more sophisticated than its fingerprint predecessor, as irises are even more complex and [...]
What would you do if you were able to see into your child’s classroom? Many school districts around the country are conducting surveys of teachers, students and their parents to gather more insight on day-to-day happenings behind school doors. The state of Illinois began conducting one such survey, the first statewide education survey, in early 2013. The survey was taken by over one million [...]
Many upcoming films are adaptations of popular books, a large portion of which are based on young adult literature. From 2013 to 2014, at least a dozen movies coming out are adaptations of novels, both new and old. Based on popular books, the films will be sure to have fans of the original novels filling up seats. One highly anticipated film adaptation is [...]
Teachers, administrators and students are using social media in all new ways. How can public schools use social media? Schools have often relied on traditional ways of disseminating information such as town hall meetings or newsletters. But more and more opportunities are arising for public schools to get their message out using social media. There are many different ways educators and administrators are [...]
An article in Publishers Weekly posed the question of whether publishing seasons are dead, reasoning that print books now have to compete with ebooks, which are essentially seasonless. Originally determined by the physical shipping schedule of books, publishing seasons may not be relevant anymore. However, this change in publishing seasons concerns mostly trade cycles—educational and academic publishers, regardless of the format they are publishing, still [...]
Revivals and film adaptations of the immortal Bard’s work have always been staples of the entertainment industry. With a Romeo & Juliet movie, directed by Carlo Carlei, released in October 2013, it’s time again to look back at other famous Shakespeare works that made the transition from stage to film. Modern or modernized film adaptations make Shakespeare more accessible, not only logistically in terms of [...]
The cost of higher education is always on the rise. The main concern for many students looking into college is the rate of tuition. When considering their academic future, students’ considerations no longer focus mainly on educational offerings, but also on the need for scholarships and student loans. According to the American Association of Community Colleges, the average cost of public community colleges [...]
The use of electronic formats of things we read is on the rise. The population of Americans aged 16 and older who read e-books has grown from 16 percent to 23 percent over the past year. More and more people are now buying e-book readers and tablets. Universities, following this trend of electronic information, are developing ways of replacing the textbook with more interactive ways of learning, such as [...]
Colleges are now better able to engage past, current and prospective students through new social video trends like Vine and Instagram. Vine is a mobile application that gives users the capacity to create and share six-second looping video clips. Released in January 2013 and operated by Twitter, maven of micro—social media sharing, Vine “inspires creativity” through “the brevity of videos,” according to Twitter’s official [...]
In May 2013, Penguin Group (USA) unveiled their first mobile bookstore, the Penguin Book Truck. Combining the book carts of old with the ever-popular food trucks, Penguin hopes the truck will be “bringing the writer to the reader.” The truck planned appearances at several literary events across the country, such as Shakespeare in the Park in New York City and Tom Sawyer Day in Hartford, [...]