Preparing Your High School Student for a Career

Education Technology

Article | August 4, 2022

Two Years in Lockdown with Digital Boost, Growing Competition, and Easy Accessibility through the Self-Publishing Platforms, Traditional Publishing is facing a major fallback to keep up with the Trends and the Changes within India. publishing. Many people still prefer publishing a book in an old-fashioned traditional way, but this is certainly not the future. It seems to me that Traditional Publishing is something we’re all going to be working with while also considering other formats that might overpower it or co-exist with it – whether it's Self-Publishing, Hybrid Publishing &/or Audio Publishing (Podcasts). Introduction With Covid-19 and Lockdown, a lot of people shifted their attention to pursue their passion and started writing. In order to Leverage Authority and Build a Brand, a lot of Thought Leaders and Experts, Wrote and Published a Book in a specific Niche. In order to Start with the Writing Career, a ton of Amateur Writers, Wrote and Published their Content in an Anthology. Not to forget, many celebrities also took up the challenge of penning their autobiographies in the form of a Book like Priyanka Chopra Jonas. There were more than 1 Million, New Instagram Writing Accounts created, and over 2.2 Million books Published in 2020 itself. This solidifies the rising demand of The Writing and Publishing Industry. Self Publishing Rise Traditional book publishers were once known as the Titans of the Book Publishing Industry. During the 1970s, there was no such concept as Self-Publishing. Over time, Traditional Publishers gradually started to exploit Authors by offering Lower Royalties and seizing the Author's Publishing Rights. Fast forward to 2005, with the penetration of the Internet and Social Media, things started to speed up. The online Self-Publishing giant Amazon has had a huge impact on the Book-Selling Industry, driving many Brick-and-Mortar Bookstores out of Business. This marked the rise of Self-Publishing Books and the rapid growth of e-Books and Audio Books. Fall of Traditional Publishing There are various reasons why 97% of Writers avoid choosing a Traditional Publisher like: Complex Selection Process, Slow Marketing, Very Less to No Control of the Book, Limited Royalty, Huge Time Investment, Absolutely No Creative & Marketing Control Benefits of Self-Publishing There are various reasons 97% of Writers are choosing Self-Publishing like: Full ownership of Rights and Royalties, Speedy Marketing, No Start-Up Cost, Full Control of the Book, Completely Customizable Full Creative & Marketing Control, Control on Pricing, Complete Freedom, No-One telling You, what you can and cannot Do, Significantly High-Profit Potential, Pitch your Book Straight to the Readers, Publish any Niche Books and become the Expert of that Niche. Firstly the question arises, Who all should Write A Book? Well, Everyone, Business owners Consultants Entrepreneurs Business people C-level executives Financial planners Lawyers Doctors Coaches Anyone can Write and Publish a Book! Why should you write a book? 1 ) You can help others Writing about yourself, your life lessons, your experiences, how you have tackled some of the most traumatic situations, helps other people around the globe deal with the same problem as yours. Each one of us has unique life experiences, worth sharing with the world! 2 ) You become an authority Becoming an author sets you apart from the rest of the crowd. You become an expert in your niche. You gain that credibility and authority that lifts you up from the rest of the crowd. 3 ) Grow your business Writing a book can help grow your business, it can act as the new ‘Business Card’. Imagine, you going to a meeting, and instead of exchanging your business card, you give a copy of your book? Not only the person wouldn’t forget you but also keep the book copy securely with him, which otherwise your business card would have been long lost. 4 ) Recurring passive income Writing a book, and setting it up through a perfect step-by-step system, would allow you to gain recurring passive income, i.e. ‘royalties’, that are transferred every month into your bank account. 5 ) Learning New Skills By writing a book, you not only build credibility but also learn new skills in the entire process of writing and publishing your book. For example, skills like project management, writing, setting goals, planning, accountability, commitment, and many more! 6 ) Ripple Effect and Creates Value One book can create a ripple effect in the world. One book can entirely change the lives of thousands of people around the world. One book can create enormous value and a positive impact on the world. It only takes one book! 7) Our Time here is Finite When we write and publish a book, we leave behind our legacy, our footprints, our life lessons, our value system, and our teachings for generations and generations of people to learn from. We will die one day, but our teachings, morals, and lessons will be forever here in the form of our book. This reason is a huge answer to the ‘Why write a book.’ 8 ) You'll Gain more Knowledge While writing a book, research is a must. Through the complete process of research, you’ll learn more insights, gain more knowledge, and become an expert in that niche. 9 ) Impact beyond Yourself Writing a book is not only about gaining royalties and credibility, No! Your book can generate goodwill, your legacy, and most importantly, itcan help solve problems for people, creating a positive impact on their lives, and helping change their lives forever! It will create an impact greater and beyond yourself! 10 ) Sense of Accomplishment Imagine yourself holding the first copy of your own book. A sense of pride, confidence, and accomplishment. It doesn’t matter if your book is not a best seller or if you become famous, the bigger picture will be that it is your book! You created it! It will forever be something you can call as ‘Yours’, and be proud of! Believe me, the feeling of holding the first copy of my book was beyond amazing! 11 ) You'll Reignite a Passion If writing was your hobby, and in the time's course, you just couldn’t give any time or energy, here is your bright chance to reignite it! Paths to Publishing Your Book As discussed earlier, you are aware of the two paths of publishing, i.e. Traditional Publishing and Self-Publishing. There is one more way of publishing you can opt for! Assisted Self-Publishing Firms that charge fees for various publishing-related services such as Formatting, Cover Design, and Copyediting and help Indie Writers Professionally Self-Publish Their Work is Assisted Self-Publishing. Authors earn all of the royalties and retain full control over Editing and Cover Design and Title. WHRUTS also helps and provides these services. Conclusion Reading has become a part of our daily activities now. Book readership has increased by 30% since the Previous Year and People are routinely searching for new stories to capture their attention, With more writers being seen and heard, it’s no wonder readership is up. Self-Publishing is the future of publishing in a world where everyone can be a Writer.

Continuing Education

Article | November 15, 2022

On average, prospective students engage with more than 1,000 digital touchpoints while researching programs in a 6-week period before filling out a lead form. With prospective students moving through different stages of their research funnel and using multiple platforms in the process, understanding the type of audience categories that Google Ads has to offer will provide the clarity you need to make smarter strategic decisions that will help you increase digital engagement. This also allows you to better anticipate your prospects’ interests and preferences while delivering the right marketing message at exactly the right time, whether you’re using Search, Display, or YouTube.

Education Technology

Article | July 15, 2022

Jeffrey Lee Funk and Gary Smith Americans once believed that science was on our side. Radar, microwaves, penicillin, helicopters, magnetrons, and nuclear weapons helped win World War II and fight the Cold War against the Soviet Union. Vaccines for polio, smallpox, tetanus, measles, mumps, and rubella literally wiped out diseases that once killed millions. Televisions, polymers, radial tires, Velcro, vinyl, and freezers made our lives more comfortable. Nuclear power promised us energy too cheap to meter. We celebrated the space program that sent astronauts walking on the moon and splashing back home again. The annual meetings of the American Association for Advances in Science were regularly covered by the media. New electronic products and medical technologies continued to astonish in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. How things have changed! The last blockbuster technologies were the iPhone and iPad more than ten years ago and they are, at best, indirectly linked to scientific advances. Nanotechnology, superconductors, quantum computers, and fusion still seem far away as do replacements for integrated circuits, silicon solar cells, and lithium-ion batteries. A week before the 1980 presidential election, President Jimmy Carter and challenger Ronald Reagan held their only debate—and Reagan sealed the deal by asking Americans, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” Nowadays, too many Americans don’t feel better off than they were 10 or even 20 years ago and the elite are tempting targets. Millions of jobs left the country while economists proclaimed that it was all for the best. Now experts predict that robots and AI will eliminate millions of more jobs—not just blue-collar workers, but accountants, journalists, lawyers, architects, doctors, and nurses. The predictions sound like boasts and make the ruling elite look like the enemy. Bill Gates tells us to stop eating meat while he flies around the world in his private jet. Politicians tell us to wear face masks while they party in McMansions inside gated communities. Universities say they need more government funding while professors are paid more money for doing less work then most taxpayers. Scientists say they need more largesse while they live among the elite and well-connected. The rapid development of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in less than 11 months was an absolutely stunning achievement, done with real science applied to a promising but unproven type of vaccine called messenger RNA (or mRNA). Instead of nationwide celebrations, there was fear and paranoia. Here are some comments in response to a March 2021, CNBC news story on government guidelines for COVID-19 vaccinations: I still haven’t gotten one, never will and no one is going to tell me what I can and can’t do vaccinated or not!! Flu shots are proven to make you 38% more likely to catch another respiratory virus like Covid. Easy way to target the elderly. Don't be fooled people. Biggest scam in our lifetime. I won’t vax I won’t mask I won’t follow mandates or guidelines and I’m armed. Millions believe that 5G is being used to spread COVID-19 (and they have burned down cell towers to stop it) and that COVID vaccines are a nefarious plot (and they refuse to be vaccinated). A recent survey found that 44 percent of Republicans, 24 percent of independents, and 19 percent of Democrats believe that Bill Gates is developing a COVID-19 vaccine that will implant microchips in us so that our movements can be monitored. Science was supposed to replace superstition and rumours with logic, reason, and empirical evidence. It still can. How do we collectively resurrect the reputation of science? A starting point is better science education. Memorizing the names of the parts of a cell and then forgetting them after a test is not scientific understanding. Nor is deciphering the periodic table or memorizing trigonometric formulas. Science is fundamentally about being curious—about how things work and why they sometimes don’t work. Richard Feynman’s journey to Nobel laureate began with a boyhood curiosity about how radios work. He tinkered with them, took them apart, and put them back together. He fixed other people’s radios. He loved it. He later wrote about his life-long curiosity: When I was in high school, I’d see water running out of a faucet growing narrower, and wonder if I could figure out what determines that curve. I found it was rather easy to do. I didn’t have to do it; it wasn’t important for the future of science; somebody else had already done it. That didn’t make any difference: I’d invent things and play with things for my own entertainment. Kids don’t have to become Nobel laureates to appreciate how science can satisfy their curiosity. Kids who appreciate science can grow up to respect science and become scientists. Another part of the problem is that far too many superbly intelligent, voraciously hard-working scientists devote so much of their time to generating the papers and citations that are now required for promotion and funding. Anirban Maitra, a physician and scientific director at MD Anderson Cancer Centre, wryly observed that, “Everyone recognizes it’s a hamster-in-a-wheel situation, and we are all hamsters.” The public wants to see technologies that improve our lives, not long CVs filled with papers no one reads. We need scientific advances that are useful and affordable. We also want stable jobs with decent pay. Semiconductor factories once provided good jobs but these were shipped overseas and new ones haven’t been created from new commercialized science-based technologies. Where are the American factories producing products based on nanotechnology, superconductors, fusion, quantum computers and new forms of semiconductors, displays, and solar cells? American scientists are the best in the world and real science can produce useful innovation and good jobs, but these need to become our priorities. Jeffrey Funk is a retired Associate Professor, most recently from the National University of Singapore and now an independent technology consultant. He received the NTT DoCoMo Mobile Science Award for lifetime contributions to the social science aspects of mobile communications. His research has been reported in the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. Gary N. Smith is the Fletcher Jones Professor of Economics at Pomona College. His research on financial markets, statistical reasoning, and data mining often involves stock market anomalies, statistical fallacies, and the misuse of data. He is the author of The AI Delusion, (Oxford, 2018) and co-author (with Jay Cordes) of The 9 Pitfalls of Data Science (Oxford 2019), which won the Association of American Publishers 2020 Prose Award for Popular Science & Popular Mathematics, and The Phantom Pattern Problem (Oxford 2020).

Article | July 29, 2020

Like many districts and schools this summer, Kansas-based Shawnee Mission School District is making back to school plans and gearing up for the possibility of continued virtual learning. To prepare for their new normal, Shawnee Mission is adjusting their district calendar for more professional learning, installing sanitizing stations in schools, and purchasing a filtering solution to facilitate safe learning—on and off campus.