A groundbreaking initiative for the Honors program, this project fits in line with some of the fundamental values of university leadership.  Along with active learning courses designed to put into practice theory and experience, Honors College students are part of smaller classes which emphasize more interaction with professors. By providing tablets and sharing the same operating system, students and educators can easily share video, audio and other content that can take education beyond the classroom.

The tablets are pre-loaded with Blackboard Mobile which contains course syllabi, references, schedules, contact information, class message boards, e-textbooks and more. These tablets provide the tools necessary to having a centralized platform where ideas can be shared and students can gather all the information needed to not only complete the course, but excel in it as well.

University President Dr. Martha D. Saunders took office in 2007 and stresses creating a climate for academic success. By launching this initiative in the Honors program, Southern Miss is leading the way in implementing a learning model using the latest technology to engage students to learn more efficiently.

Not only is Saunders a forward-thinking president, but she has experience to back it up with a 30-year career in higher education. She is a role model for students and is a campus leader for her use of social media with an active blog and Twitter (@MarthaSaunders).  Additionally, Saunders is considered a leader among women university presidents and is recognized for her expertise in public relations and branding and is an APR (Accredited Public Relations) professional.

The new millennium generation is seemingly born with social media and computing as an inherent trait. There’s no doubt that arming them with cloud computing through a versatile tablet will create and sustain a culture more perceptive to critical thinking and lifelong learning. This initiative is a great first step for this campus and is a wonderful model for other campuses to follow.

Author, educator and public speaker John Corcoran known specifically for his work to prevent and eradicate illiteracy in America, teamed up with Scientici Learning, makers of the Fast ForWord® and Reading Assistant™ family of products, to make a presentation in Nashville, Tenn. Discussing the fight against literacy with education leaders from the Southeast. The Brain Summit, held from Feb. 22 through Feb. 24, focused on how brain fitness addresses literacy challenges facing most American school districts today.

John Corcoran, who serves as the current president of the nonprofit John stCorcoran Foundation, is a critically acclaimed author of “The Teacher Who Couldn’t Read” and “The Bridge to Literacy”. Corcoran was a functional illiterate for almost 50 years, successfully building a career and even graduating at a university level with a bachelor’s degree in education and business administration. Now a proponent of literacy in students, Corcoran helped explain how utilizing scientifically proven methods of instructions will help prevent another generation of failure. He intends to prevent students from slipping through the crack as he did. John believes that increasing resources for programs for older students, dropouts and adult learners will eradicate an epidemic that threatens America’s economic and social well-being.

Scientific Learning also gave a follow-up presentation about the importance of brain fitness in education. Sherrelle Walker, chief education officer of Scientific Learning, demonstrated how schools can increase student achievement by combining good teaching, good content and brain fitness exercises designed to stimulate the brain and expand learning capacity. These methods have definitely helped turn around the performance of struggling readers and school districts all over the United States.

Illiteracy is a key factor in escalating high school dropout rates. In South Carolina, almost 45 students drop out of school every day, which increases their likelihood of going to jail by almost 8 times. The more encouraging statistic is that there is almost a 100% rate of high school graduation if a student can be developed to be literate and proficient by 8^th grade. That’s the goal of nonprofit group promoting early literacy, Ready 4 Reading.

Ready 4 Reading hosted a two-day event in March in South Carolina highlighting the improving reading skills in South Carolina. The even was sponsored by Scientific Learning, makes of the Fast ForWord® and Reading Assistant™ family of products designed to promote brain fitness for reading and learning success.

With school districts nationwide feeling the pressure to turn out graduates with critical thinking skills capable of benefiting US companies at younger and younger ages and improve upon educational practices and curriculums that are slipping behind the world’s standards, the Ready By 8 project series being implemented by Ready 4 Reading and Scientific Learning couldn’t come at a more fortuitous time.

Scientific Learning firmly believes that particular core and cognitive skills needs to be in place before foundational learning skills can be established. The brain must be prepped and Scientific Learning, through 30 years of research, has developed the technology to provide us with the tools to make this happen with students grades K-12. With over 3 million students that have used the Fast ForWord family of products to find success in the classroom, Scientific Learning is making a strong case to the benefit of their comprehensive brain fitness programs.

Listed below are some of the very imaginative and perhaps even useful ways to start recycling items you didn’t even know could be recycled.

1. Recycle Your Books…. but turn them into a hiding place. I know you don’t read all those old books sitting on your shelf, and you may be thinking about throwing them out, but instead you could make a very cool hiding place for valuables. Here is a great tutorial on how to hollow out books.

2. If you’re one of the few people left still reading the old fashion newspapers, please recycle them… by insulating your house! I don’t know how well this works, but it sure looks cool.

3. Recycle old shoes and ride your bike to work. This is how you save the world!

4. Did you know that is takes a Cork Oak Tree around 9 – 12 years before it can be harvested for cork to be used in a wine bottle? So don’t throw away your corks, use them for something creative.

5. Do you have a massive VHS Tape collection, but only watch DVDs now? Then take all that tape and make something functional, like a purse or handbag. Here’s a photo for some inspiration.

6. Depending on how old you are, you might have a few old records collection dust, you could always make a “sound wave”

7. VHS Tapes, Used Books, Old Shoes, and anything else you might consider worthless trash could actually be worth something to someone. Don’t throw it away but give it away, or better yet, exchange it for something better and NEW.

You may think the stuff in your garage is worthless, but it’s not, and the people on Freecycle or Listia.com want it. On Listia you can get rid of the stuff you don’t want, and get new stuff you need for free. It’s done using an auction system, that uses credits, instead of money.  The more stuff you give away, the more stuff you get for free. Listia costs nothing, like Freecycle, but instead of just giving, you get free stuff in return too.

Take all your books, vhs tapes or anything you think is worthless, and put it on Listia… you could end up with a new cell phone, DVDs, or a brand new purse not made out of VHS tapes.

Freecycle has groups located in hundreds of cities, but you must be accepted by the local groups before you can get or give anything. Both Freecycle and  Listia offer a great alternative to passing on or reusing items that were once thought useless. Before throwing anything out, I suggest looking at one of these alternatives.

Elected by a panel of her peers, Linda will help institute legislation that will affect all aspects of pharmacy operations in the upcoming annual seminar from October 1 through October 4th held at The Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center in San Diego. The role of the pharmacy tech has expanded and the role Linda has to play on the future of the career as a member of the Board of Delegate could mean even more exciting opportunities in the future. If you’re looking for a job in a growing job market with a rewarding salary and flexible hours, consider a career as a pharmacy technician. CNI College, with its respected and dedicated faculty and in-depth training, can provide you the necessary schooling to pass all of your certification exams and get you on the right track, and the beach-side campus in Orange certainly doesn’t hurt the cause.

You wouldn’t think it absolutely necessary for a massage therapy licensing program at a vocational school, but CNI College can’t be faulted for lack of thoroughness in taking their Anatomy 200 students to visit a local plastination and cadaver lab. The students are able to gain a deeper understanding of the bones, muscles and joints of the body through the unforgettable experience. The plastination lab let the students view organs in a preserved state similar to how they see it in their textbooks, with the difference being that the real world models never really look exactly like the textbook models. The cadaver lab helps the students see internal organs and muscle structures up close and personal. The whole experience is designed to internalize an understanding of what is really going on under the skin, an invaluable experience for a prospective massage professional.

Plus, it’s pretty damn cool. Not many people get to say they’ve spent time in a plastination or cadaver lab.