Kettering University today officially opened its new Learning Commons, a $63 million, 105,000-square-foot building designed to facilitate optimum collaboration and transform the social and academic life for students and faculty.

We see the Learning Commons as a revolution in how universities conceptualize space, howthey fashion space to create and support behavior and a collaborative model, said Kettering University President Dr. Robert K. McMahan. To learn more about it and its purpose, you mustfirst suspend everything you think about university spaces. The Learning Commons is unique. There is no building on a college campus, or anywhere else, quite like this.

The one-of-a-kind building has spectacular collaborative and social spaces that bring togetherstudents, faculty and staff, and reflect Ketterings commitment to creating a campus that bestprepares students for future careers.

Featuring wide-open, technology-enriched spaces, the Learning Commons encouragescollaboration and innovation, attributes fundamental to Ketterings 103-year history and itsvalues as a cooperative learning model today and in the future.

The facility includes a digital library, a 200-seat auditorium described as a mini IMAX theater,dining facilities, media resource centers, outdoor patios with seating, multiple collaborationspaces and a suite for guest professors and lecturers. There is also a reflection space wherepeople can have privacy.

The natural light throughout the building is welcoming, which energizes people and makes themexcited to work. The study spaces have incredible views of the campus.

McMahan said the Learning Commons is the first new building on Ketterings campus in 20years and features architectural elements from numerous buildings hes visited.

I would pay close attention to a small area or aspect of a building and how people interactedwithin the space, he said. This building brings together a number of those aspects in an artfuland functional way that promotes collaboration among students and faculty. The open meetingspaces with comfortable furniture and meeting rooms with glass walls allow people to seewhats happening inside and encourage them to participate.

The building is designed so people can stand on one side and see through to the other side withunobstructed sightlines. In addition, stairways to each floor are not stacked, forcing people tomove laterally before they can move vertically, encouraging movement throughout the building.

This is a museum-caliber environment in terms of construction quality and systems, saidMcMahan. It can be modified and expanded and will last 50 to 60 years. The only thing you cando is build something thats flexible enough to let people define the building.

The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation granted $25 million to support construction of the building.

The Mott Foundation is pleased to support the Kettering Learning Commons, said MottFoundation President and CEO Ridgway White. We believe the building represents theingenuity that Kettering and its students embody, and we look forward to seeing future Ketteringgraduates learn and excel in new ways that will propel Flint and Michigan to be leaders in fieldsof work and study that have only begun to be imagined.

The Learning Commons was also the centerpiece for the Universitys Boldly Forward CapitalCampaign, which raised $155 million from July 2012 through December 2021. Of that total,$45.4 million went toward the facility. Kettering received funds from more than 6,000 donorsthrough the capital campaign, which will provide scholarships and upgrades to several buildings.

Many of us owe our success to what we learned at Kettering, and many alumni chose to giveback to the university through the Boldly Forward Capital Campaign, said Gary L. Cowger,chair of the Boldly Forward Capital Campaign and a graduate of General Motors Institute (nowKettering University). Along with alumni, many companies, foundations, and individuals viewKettering as a leader in co-op education that graduates students ready to enter the workforcewith years of experience. Their dollars will make a huge difference to the university and itsstudents today and in the future. We greatly appreciate the support of all donors.

Cowger retired from General Motors after a 45-year career as group vice president of globalmanufacturing and labor relations and was president of GM North America before taking overglobal operations. He is now chairman and CEO of GLC Ventures, LLC. He received abachelors degree in industrial engineering from the university in 1970 and an honorary Doctorof Engineering from Kettering in 2007.

The Learning Commons was designed by world-renowned architectural firm Stantec, which hasdesigned academic facilities in 37 states and provinces across North America.

The Learning Commons is expected to have a positive effect on Kettering students and facultyfor decades to come.

Officials broke ground on the Learning Commons on Feb. 5, 2020.

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Kettering University Opens State-of-the-Art Learning Commons on its Flint Campus - Kettering University

Mike Wolanin | The Republic The login screen for Tutor.com is seen on a computer at the Bartholomew County Library in Columbus, Ind., Friday, Aug. 5, 2022. Tyler Munn, collection and discovery services coordinator for the library, demonstrated how to log on and use the site. The library recently started offering the service.

The local library has added a new resource to help residents with academic improvement and job-seeking.

The Bartholomew County Public Library has entered a partnership with Tutor.com that allows library cardholders to access the websites services for free.

Tutor.com is an online business that partners with colleges, K-12 schools, libraries, employee benefits programs and the United States military to provide tutoring and homework help to individuals within these entities. It also has resources for career coaching, resume reviews and job seeking.

Tutor.com is a live online homework help and tutoring service for all ages, from elementary students to adult learners, the local library shared in a social media post. The tutors are experts in their subjects and include certified teachers, college professors, and qualified students. Tutor and student work one-to-one in a secure online classroom, and no personal information is exchanged between them.

Collection and Discovery Services Coordinator Tyler Munn said that the library believes this partnership to be a good use of their funds and hopes that both students and lifelong learners make good use of the resource.

He described Tutor.com as having two main pieces. One is live tutoring, which is available to library patrons from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. every day. Students can input their grade, the subject they need help with, and what kind of help they need. From there, they will be connected with an appropriate tutor.

Were told that the average connection time is less than a minute, so they shouldnt have much of a wait, said Munn. And then they have the option of having a chat-only tutoring session or chat with voice.

He added that hes been told that if a person were to sign on for a tutoring session as late at 10:59 p.m., they would still have access to live tutoring for as long as they need. Tutoring sessions typically last about half an hour.

The other half of the Tutor.com service is a suite of online resources that are available at any time. This includes submitting math problems, papers or resumes for feedback. There are also practice quizzes and study materials for different subjects, as well as test prep resources for the SAT, ACT, grad tests, AP tests and citizenship tests.

According to Munn, the library had considered working with Tutor.com in the past but has not partnered with them until now.

The budget allowed it this year, he said. There have been some shifts in the library budget. We have joined a group that has allowed us to save some money on purchasing digital books, so that has freed up some space for us to use some of our electronic resource funds on larger resources, like this Tutor.com.

The annual contract amount with Tutor.com is $7,950. In deciding on a contract, the library chose an option that included seven hours of live tutoring.

Library staff hope that the resource leads to lifelong learning and academic improvement for students.

We also know that there are various students who maybe have trouble maybe making connections with people, they maybe dont want to have in-person tutoring, Munn said. They maybe will like the sort of a little more anonymous style of tutoring that this product offers.

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Tutoring help: Library offers virtual connection for academic coaching - The Republic

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E-reader workshop at the library | Arts & Entertainment | paysonroundup.com - Payson Roundup

The authorities in the United Kingdom said on Sunday that they were investigatingan online threatagainstthe author J.K. Rowling aftershe offered support onsocial mediatoSalman Rushdie, the novelist who was attacked last week at an event in western New York.

Hours after the attack on Mr. Rushdie, who was stabbed roughly 10 times as he prepared to speak at the Chautauqua Institution, Ms. Rowling tweeted her condolences. She first wrote on Twitter, Horrifying news, then added: Feeling very sick right now. Let him be OK.

In response, a user with the handle@MeerAsifAziz1 replied: Dont worry you are next.

The tweet was later deleted, and the account was suspended by Sunday evening.

Aspokeswomanfor Police Scotlandsaid that the authorities had received a report of an online threatagainst Ms. Rowlingand that an investigationwasongoing.

On Saturday, Ms. Rowling, 57, whowrote the award-winningHarry Potter books,assailed Twitter for allowing the social media accountthat lodged the threatto remain active.

@TwitterSupportThese are your guidelines, right?she wrote. Violence: You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people. We also prohibit the glorification of violence

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Sunday, WarnerBros.Discovery, the entertainment company behind the Harry Potter film adaptations, offered a statement condemning the attack on Ms. Rowling.

We stand with her and all the authors, storytellers and creatorswho bravely express their creativity and opinions,thecompanysaid in a statement, which alsooffered condolences to Mr. Rushdie and his family.

The company strongly condemns any form of threat, violence or intimidation when opinions, beliefs and thoughts might differ, the statement said.

Mr. Rushdie went into hiding in 1989, shortly after the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses.The book, which contained fictionalized depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, offended many Muslims, and resulted in a fatwa, or religious edict, from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran, who urged Muslims to kill the author. In 1998, the countrys president said Iran no longer supported the edict.

As Mr. Rushdie prepared to speak at theChautauqua Institution, a man, later identified by the police as Hadi Matar, 24, of New Jersey, stormed the stage and stabbed him. Mr. Rushdie remains in a hospital in Erie, Pa., and his agent said on Sunday that he was recovering.

Mr. Matar has pleaded not guilty in the attack.

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U.K. Police Investigate Online Threat to J.K. Rowling - The New York Times

The Amazon Kindle is the most popular e-reader brand in the world and they also sell the most ebooks. When you buy an ebook you actually dont own it, instead you are merely licensing it from Amazon. If there is a publisher dispute or if Amazon loses the right to sell the book, they can remove it from your library. When you buy a book you cant easily loan it out to friends, unless the publisher makes it lending enabled, which most dont. You cant resell the book when you are done with it, instead it sits in perpetuity in the cloud. What if you can resell a Kindle book on a 3rd party marketplace or easily loan it out to a friend? There is new technology that might make this possible.

Pearson is the largest educational publisher in the world and they are experimenting with blockchain technology, which is the underlaying system that cryptocurrency is based on. They are incorporating NFTS into ebooks, so they can be resold and Pearson can take a small cut out of each transaction. When a student buys a print textbook, and uses it for a semester and then resells it to another student, Pearson makes nothing. So it makes sense for not only Pearson, but other companies to convert ebooks to make money on the secondary market, maybe Amazon, B&N or Kobo?

What exactly is a NFT? It stands for Non-fungible tokens, which are cryptographic assets on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other. When you buy a NFT, there is a clear path of ownership in the public record. You might have heard about NFT images being the big thing last year, where some were selling for millions of dollars and then the market crashed.

I believe ebooks as a NFT is the future of digital publishing. If I can buy an ebook of some bestseller that I will only read once, I can sell it for whatever I want to the next person, maybe half the price. The ebook retailer and publisher would both get a cut of the resell value, so they would make money too. I also think that if ebooks can legitimately be resold, it would cut down on book piracy. Publishers could start making serious money directly by converting their backlist and older titles to NFT and sell them to users directly. Some publishers already do this, but they normally have Digital Rights Management, so most people just buy the ebook from Amazon.

In order for NFT ebooks to gain traction, it will likely be spearheaded by independent or hybrid-authors. These are authors that self-publish their system digital content themselves or through third party digital distributors such as Lulu, Smashwords, Bookbaby or Draft2Digital. One of the big advantages of using these companies is that they will be sending the ebook out to all of the major online retailers, such as Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple, Google and others. All of the sales and payouts can be viewed on a single page. I think these companies are the best suited to convert existing ebooks to NFTS and sell them in their own stores and give authors the freedom to also sell them themselves on social media and their own websites. I might be hard at first to develop a system like this and to build up author and publisher awareness of what an NFT really is and how they can make money on it.

If Pearson can make NFT ebooks work and prove over time that this is a viable alternative revenue stream, this will prompt Amazon to give authors an option to sell books as NFT in Kindle Direct Publishing and Amazon can leverage their own imprints to also use NFT. Even if NFTS cost more, we will finally be able own our ebooks instead of just lisensing them. Currently, the only way to truly own an ebook is to download a royalty free one, download a free ebook from a company like TOR, pirate them only or buy the book and strip the DRM using software. We need a better option.

Michael Kozlowski has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past twelve years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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Amazon Kindle Books should be loaned out and resold - Good e-Reader

The countdown is on to the beginning of Fall Term and the Brock University Library is ready to offer strategic course instruction support through a new department and request process.

For the past several years, faculty members have consulted with individual liaison librarians through the Librarys former Liaison Services Department. With the development of a new Brock Library organizational structure, this model was replaced with a multi-functional team-based approach.

Now, each Faculty has a team of librarians who act as points of contact and draw upon expertise from across three library departments: Collections Services, Research Lifecycle, and Teaching and Learning.

With a focus on instruction, the Teaching and Learning Department works with academic departments to strategically integrate information literacy, digital fluency and research skills into their courses.

The goal is to scaffold library instruction throughout a program structure to support students at the most appropriate time in their degrees, says Department Head Jennifer Thiessen. Were interested in working directly with programs to identify key courses in which students would benefit from research skill development.

The Librarys Teaching and Learning Department can provide instruction on critical research skills in a variety of ways, including:

Faculty interested in library instruction or course support are asked to review the information literacy instruction guidelines and fill out a new online request form.

In addition to offering instruction on information literacy, the Brock Library also offers course instruction on several other research-related topics and skills, including archival research; creative and emerging technologies; data visualization and analysis; digital scholarship; maps and GIS; and scholarly communication.

Faculty members are encouraged to explore the Librarys instruction support offerings to learn more about how the Library can support their teaching and student research needs.

Questions and comments can be directed to the Library Team assigned to each respective Faculty.

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Library's new Teaching and Learning Department ready to support faculty - Brock University

GUILDFORD, United Kingdom This new study is definitely a page turner. Researchers from the University of Surrey say augmented reality could soon be the future of paper books.

Researchers have unveiled the third generation (3G) version of its Next Generation Paper project. It allows the reader to consume information on the printed paper and screen side-by-side. This might allow printed books to make a comeback against the popularity of e-books.

The way we consume literature has changed over time with so many more options than just paper books. Multiple electronic solutions currently exist, including e-readers and smart devices, but no hybrid solution which is sustainable on a commercial scale, says Dr. Radu Sporea, senior lecturer at the Advanced Technology Institute, in a university release.

Augmented books, or a-books, can be the future of many book genres, from travel and tourism to education. This technology exists to assist the reader in a deeper understanding of the written topic and get more through digital means without ruining the experience of reading a paper book.

To use augmented reality books, all you need to do is swipe your finger or turn the page. The information will then be displayed on a nearby device.

These a-books are able to be manufactured on a semi-industrial scale thanks to new features like power efficiency and pre-printed conductive paper.

The original research was carried out to enrich travel experiences by creating augmented travel guides. This upgraded 3G model allows for the possibility of using augmented books for different areas such as education. In addition, the new model disturbs the reader less by automatically recognizing the open page and triggering the multimedia content, explains George Bairaktaris, a postgraduate researcher at the University of Surrey and member of the Next Generation Paper project team.

What started as an augmented book project, evolved further into scalable user interfaces. The techniques and knowledge from the project led us into exploring organic materials and printing techniques to fabricate scalable sensors for interfaces beyond the a-book.

Now, you might be wondering whats the difference between augmented reality and virtual reality. Tulane University researchers broke it down like this:

The study is published in the journal IEEE Pervasive Computing magazine.

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So long e-books? Augmented reality is the future of hybrid paper books, researchers say - Study Finds

One minute, a teenager could be in the West Charleston Library in Las Vegas. The next minute, that same teenager could be working at a virtual reality hotel reception desk, greeting customers, taking payments and learning about the hospitality industry.

Getting a glimpse of career fields through a virtual reality lens is just one of the unique components of the Employ NV Youth Hub and Teen Zone located inside the library. Clark County commissioners and various Nevada elected officials attended the hubs grand opening ceremony earlier this month.

The new Employ NV Youth Hub will provide additional entry points into the workforce for our young people by providing access to internships, pre-apprenticeships, mentoring, pay training, and yes, J-O-B-S, jobs, said Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV).

In Clark County alone, there are almost 46,000 young adults ages 16 to 24 who are considered disconnected youth meaning they are not enrolled in school or working a job. Nevada unemployment rates for this age group continue to be higher than the national average and above any other age group in the state, according to a Guinn Center report. Its even higher among minority populations who have access to fewer resources.

With the help of the hub, which is across the street from the College of Southern Nevadas Charleston campus, young adults can access resume-crafting support, interview practice, internships, educational programs, virtual reality simulations and other career-building opportunities. For those 12 to 18 in need of a place to study or simply hang out, the Teen Zone offers television, video games, board games and a lounge area.

We need to do right by our kids. We need to make sure that we are providing the appropriate support systems, the mentoring, the coaching, to help remove the barriers that often hinder their success, Democratic Lt. Gov. Lisa Cano Burkhead, a former high school principal, said at the opening ceremony.

Economic and mental well-being

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many activities and events to transition online, but also created a barrier for those on the verge of entering the workforce.

The national unemployment rate for 16 to 24 year olds in 2020 was 14.9 percent, but it was 23 percent in Nevada. Pre-pandemic in 2019, youth unemployment was only 10 percent, according to the Guinn Center study.

Unemployment rates in families and young adults are interconnected to mental health, according to the 2022 Kids Count Data Book.

Being anxious or depressed can affect a young persons ability to apply for, interview for, accept and retain a job, Lisa Hamilton, president and chief executive officer at Annie E. Casey Foundation, said in the report.

An estimated 9 percent of Nevada children ages 12 to 17 have anxiety or depression and the state ranks 47th in the nation for overall child well-being a metric that accounts for economic well-being, education, health, family and community.

Nevada in particular has higher rates of poverty, substance abuse, depression and mental health issues in young adults and teenagers, according to the Guinn Center report.

Let's continue to promote our youth, Las Vegas City Councilwoman Olivia Diaz said at the event. They need us especially after the pandemic and the state of mental health in our community.

A virtual world

The West Charleston Library is one of the first public entities in Southern Nevada to harness the power of virtual reality for career development among young adults. By using headsets, library patrons can immerse themselves in real-world job scenarios, find which ones interest them and gather further information and resources from staff regarding that job position.

While giving users a glimpse into career fields, it also provides young adults with real-world scenarios. Whether playing as a garbage man or a firefighter, they can gain valuable experiences and skills that can be applied to various aspects of life such as learning how to use a fire extinguisher.

Virtual reality offers some job training, but the career coaches, who staff the hub, can provide in-person experience and paid training opportunities as well.

I think roughly about in the next 20 or so years, we'll be doing a lot of things virtually simply because technology is on the rise and individuals definitely need to know how to work these types of systems to actually navigate through the workforce system, said Christopher Williams, a business liaison at Employ NV Youth Hub.

According to a 2022 study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, a business advisory and accounting firm, almost 82 percent of employers nationwide expect that within the next three years, theyll be using the metaverse a virtual world that imitates aspects of real settings and situations, such as attending staff meetings and trainings, but without leaving the vicinity.

Additionally, employees learn soft skills, such as communication and time management, four times faster with virtual reality than in a classroom setting, according to the study. Training that would take two hours in a classroom setting can be completed in a half hour in the virtual world since users are found to be more confident and engaged in the virtual setting.

The Employ NV Youth Hub is working to help provide resources for the youth in Las Vegas by working directly with employers. The hub is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and the Teen Zone is open during regular library hours.

With their proximity to the College of Southern Nevada, Employ NV Youth Hub is hoping that teenagers and young adults spread information and participate in the hub. The addition of virtual reality will also help further engage the younger community.

This extended partnership that we have with the Las-Vegas Clark County Library District is going to help our young people identify their untapped potential, Clark County Commissioner William McCurdy said. We all have potential. We know that we all have something to contribute in this lifetime.

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Career hub in Vegas seeks to tackle high youth unemployment with virtual reality The Nevada Independent - The Nevada Independent

When it was banned in 1988 in several countries, The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie faced government censorship. Today, cancel culture is empowered in every hand that holds a cell phone. Also, today, the entire text of Satanic Verses is available on various websites, openly accessible for anyone to read.

Be it obscenity, religious blasphemy, offensive portrayals of personalities, businesses or organisations, or national security, finding a reason for banning of books has never been difficult. Even the Bible has been censored in various instances.

Rushdie himself questioned the relevance of bans on books in an age when they could be easily downloaded anywhere. Also, with a host of platforms enabling self-publishing, beside blogs, personal websites or even social media for that matter, attempts to muffle any voice seem rather ironical. Despite this, a simple internet search reveals a list of over 40 books banned nationwide in India alone. Withdrawals and sanitisation of books is another matter altogether.

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Take Wendy Donigers The Hindus: An Alternative History, all copies of which were recalled and destroyed in 2014. The Red Sari by Javier Moro, thought to be based on Sonia Gandhis life, was published five years late in 2015.

The Polyester Prince by Hamish McDonald did not even go to print as the publisher, HarperCollins, feared legal action from the Ambani family. The stories of banned writers Taslima Nasreen, Perumal Murugan and Tehmina Durrani in more recent times, and the likes of Saadat Hasan Manto and Ismat Chugtai are well known, if one recounts writers from the subcontinent alone.

So what makes a book more liable to be questioned? As Meru Gokhale, publisher, Penguin Press, Penguin Random House India, points out, While it is correct that content can now be posted online on any platform, a book from a mainstream publisher will have a permanence that a social media post likely does not, so books generally face a higher level of scrutiny.

Geetanjali Shrees book Ret Samadhi was published in 2018, but it was in 2022, after it won the International Booker, that someone found objectionable content in it, forcing cancellation of an event in Agra where she was to speak. Subsequently, a tweet in her support asked: What next for her?

After the shocking attack on Rushdie, Congress leader and author Shashi Tharoor tweeted: A sad day, worse if creative expression can no longer be free & open. Controversial writer Taslima Nasreens tweet said: If he is attacked, anyone who is critical of Islam can be attacked. I am worried.

It was fearing such attacks that Malayalam novelist S Hareesh had withdrawn his novel Meesha (Moustache) in 2018 after receiving threats to his life, saying he was too weak to take on the powerful. Author Perumal Murugan had reacted by saying that he didnt think protests and retaliations were a result of writers crossing their line, but targeting authors was politically motivated instead. Murugan had himself given up writing after being targeted for his Tamil novel Mathorubhagan.

On their part, publishers are playing it safe too. As Gokhale of Penguin India says, There is a balance we are always seeking to strike, we are mindful of the laws of a particular country, while at the same time respecting the rights of freedom of expression of our authors.

This signals a trend. As author and TMC MLA Manoranjan Byapari told FE in a recent interview: At one time, artists undertook an important job to wake up the people. Now they are all silent. It is a matter of grave concern. Clearly, while much has changed in the 34 years since Rushdie wrote The Satanic Verses, the attack on him shows that things remain the same when it comes to taking offence over written words.

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Intolerance vs free speech: Dichotomy of the internet age - The Financial Express