often

20Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BUSINESS, ENVIRONMENT

Look At Atari And Bitcoin – Innovative Products Lead To A Boom In Imitation And Often A Bust

Buried in a dusty landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, are more than 700,000 discarded Atari game cartridges, including E.T., the 1982 Atari game based on the blockbuster film. This bleak trove of artifacts symbolizes the video game crash of 1983, when consumer demand plummeted and companies like Atari literally dumped their cartridges in the trash. Why did the popularity of Atari video games rise exponentially only to collapse seemingly overnight? As soon as creative original Atari games like Centipede and Space Invaders hit store shelves, many, many imitations flooded the market. Lucrative ideas are often copied and replicated to capitalize on successes by the company that created the original, and by imitators. There are, for example, more than 20 movie sequels to Marvel’s “Avengers” a...

White Teachers Often Talk About Black Students In Racially Coded Ways

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, Journalism, VIDEO REELS

White Teachers Often Talk About Black Students In Racially Coded Ways

When a white Texas middle school teacher told his students in November 2022 that he was “ethnocentric” and thought his race was “superior,” he attempted to explain his position by arguing that he was hardly the only person who held such a view. “Let me finish …” the teacher is seen telling his students on a now-viral video as they began to push back against his remarks. “I think everybody thinks that; they’re just not honest about it.” Texas teacher tells his students he is racist. The teacher in question has since been fired. His termination is hardly surprising given that he was captured on video making blatantly racist remarks in a public school classroom. But as we discovered while performing a study at a predominantly Black school with mostly white teachers, many of them – whether co...

Children Of Color Often Omitted From Sci-fi Books From The Future For Young Readers

5Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, Journalism

Children Of Color Often Omitted From Sci-fi Books From The Future For Young Readers

While visiting an elementary school library in 2016 to count the fantasy books for a graduate class on fantasy literature, I noticed there were hardly any science fiction books for readers under 12. This discovery prompted me to spend the next five years researching the shortage of science fiction books for children in this age group. I reached two big conclusions. First, I found that adults often think that kids can’t understand science fiction – but they can. Second, I found that authors and illustrators are not depicting characters from diverse backgrounds in children’s stories about the future. As a researcher who specializes in children’s literature, these findings make me wonder if the reason there is so little diversity in children’s science fiction is because authors don’t believ...

The good-guy image police present to students often clashes with students’ reality

20Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

WORK

The good-guy image police present to students often clashes with students’ reality

Eight days after George Floyd was killed during an encounter with Minneapolis police in an incident that sparked protests around the world, Minneapolis Public Schools terminated its contract for the Minneapolis police to provide officers in schools. “I value people and education and life,” school board chairwoman Kim Ellison told a local newspaper. “Now I’m convinced, based on the actions of the Minneapolis Police Department, that we don’t have the same values.” On June 4, Guadalupe Guerrero, the superintendent of Portland Public Schools in Oregon, followed suit, saying: “We need to re-examine our relationship” with the Portland Police Bureau. “The time is now,” Guerrero tweeted. “With new proposed investments in direct student supports (social workers, counselors, culturally-specific p...

Americans Think They Know A Lot About Politics – And It’s Bad For Democracy That They’re So Often Wrong In Their Confidence

5Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

Americans Think They Know A Lot About Politics – And It’s Bad For Democracy That They’re So Often Wrong In Their Confidence

As statewide primaries continue through the summer, many Americans are beginning to think about which candidates they will support in the 2022 general election. This decision-making process is fraught with difficulties, especially for inexperienced voters. Voters must navigate angry, emotion-laden conversations about politics when trying to sort out whom to vote for. Americans are more likely than ever to view politics in moral terms, meaning their political conversations sometimes feel like epic battles between good and evil. But political conversations are also shaped by, obviously, what Americans know – and, less obviously, what they think they know – about politics. In recent research, I studied how Americans’ perceptions of their own political knowledge shape their political attit...

For Poor Performance Abusive Bosses Often Blame A Worker’s Lack Of Effort Or Care When It’s Their Own Biases That May Be The Problem

17Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IMPACT, TOP FOUR

For Poor Performance Abusive Bosses Often Blame A Worker’s Lack Of Effort Or Care When It’s Their Own Biases That May Be The Problem

Managers may mistreat employees who perform poorly because they assume it results from a lack of diligence rather than other factors, according to research we published in September 2021. Surveys show that about 1 in 7 U.S. workers feel that their manager engages in hostile behaviors toward them. Abusive supervision may range from relatively mild behaviors such as lying or not giving credit for work to more severe actions, such as insults or ridicule. While past research has suggested that it’s the poor performance of workers provoking managers’ abusive reactions, we wanted to examine whether the faulty perception of the supervisor deserves at least some of the blame. So we conducted two studies, drawing on research showing that people are prone to perceptual errors when judging negativ...

Supreme Court Rulings Often Exclude Viewpoints Of Black And Latina Justices – But Always Include The Perspective Of White Males

28Oct

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

Supreme Court Rulings Often Exclude Viewpoints Of Black And Latina Justices – But Always Include The Perspective Of White Males

David Orentlicher, University of Nevada, Las Vegas In recent decades, much progress has been made in diversifying the Supreme Court. While only white males served as justices for more than 175 years, the court now includes three female justices, one Black and one Latina justice. Despite the increased diversity, however, the court’s voting rules often exclude minority viewpoints. Like most other courts, the Supreme Court decides its cases by a majority vote. If at least five of the nine justices agree on a resolution, they are able to determine the court’s decision and impose their preferred outcome. If other justices disagree, they cannot ensure that their views are taken into account by the majority. They can only write a dissenting opinion to express their disagreement with the major...

Choice Programs In The Best Schools Often Out Of Reach For Disadvantaged Students

5Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION

Choice Programs In The Best Schools Often Out Of Reach For Disadvantaged Students

The big idea Although school choice policies are often presented as a way to let families select the best schools for their children, my research found that few students using school choice can access high-achieving schools far from home. In my peer-reviewed study – recently published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis – I examine who uses school choice and whether most families enroll their kids in schools with high test scores and graduation rates in Detroit. Ninety percent of Detroit students are economically disadvantaged. Thanks to state laws passed in the mid-1990s, Detroit students can attend charter schools, various Detroit public schools and schools in nearby districts. Over 30% attend Detroit charter schools and 20% attend schools outside Detroit. The schools that ar...

It’s Designed To Encourage But The Patent System Often Stifles Innovation

17Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BUSINESS

It’s Designed To Encourage But The Patent System Often Stifles Innovation

Over his career Thomas Edison garnered more U.S. patents than anyone in his time. Edison profited from his patents, but he was also exposed to the dark side of the patent system. He had to contend with lawsuits by other patentees who sought – and sometimes won – a piece of his success. While the patent system is designed to spur innovation like Edison’s, it also hampers it. Easy copying and imitation discourage innovation, because why make the effort if someone else will profit from it? The patent system works by enabling inventors to block unauthorized use of patented technology. Most technologies are developed by many inventors over many years, a process called “cumulative” innovation. Too often, however, early inventors get a patent on a small and perhaps insignificant piece of the te...

Future teachers often think memorization is the best way to teach math and science – until they learn a different way

18Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION

Future teachers often think memorization is the best way to teach math and science – until they learn a different way

I found that college students who are taking courses to become teachers can change their beliefs of how science and mathematics should be taught to and learned by K-12 students. Most of these future teachers tell me when they start my course, they believe that K-12 students must memorize science and mathematics knowledge to learn it. They also believe that students cannot acquire knowledge through a process used by scientists and mathematicians called problem-solving. Problem-solving asks students to solve engaging and challenging problems that are provided without a strategy or solution. It also involves group work and a time to present and justify their strategies and solutions to the class. To challenge my students’ beliefs, I ask future teachers to teach science and mathematics to st...