Can an app contain the pandemic? Interest is growing in smartphone technology as a potential key to ending lockdowns and reopening economies around the world.

Interesting question. Before I answer, let me ask one: What keeps Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, up at night? You know Amazon, the trillion-dollar corporation that delivers something like a 5 billion packages a year. I’m at a professional meeting. The chair asks what “levers” we have for improving reading achievement in the U.S. It’s an easy question. There are so many possibilities. The first one most folks think of is, the teacher. If teachers did better, kids would do better.

Confession I always had students who entered my fourth grade class reading significantly below grade level. And each year, when I passed them on to fifth grade, those students were still behind. I did everything I knew how to do — I taught Guided Reading lessons, provided independent reading time, found them books to love, replied to readers’ response journals- but no matter what I tried in my Balanced Literacy classroom, the achievement gap persisted.

Teacher question: When working with state educational standards are the expectations for the student to be able to accomplish each of the standards with grade level text. Some of us believe that if a fourth-grade student can determine the main idea in a second-grade text that the student has mastered that standard. Please help us settle this argument. Shanahan's response:

Teacher question: Everyone says reading and writing are connected. But our school focuses on only reading. We have a reading program (we don’t have a writing program). We test the students three times a year in reading, but never in writing. Writing isn’t even on our report card, though I guess it is part of Language Arts. What should we be doing with writing? Shanahan's response: You came to the right place. I think your school is making a big mistake not giving sufficient attention to writing.

Teacher question: You wrote recently that it was a good idea to teach comprehension skills, but our school district says we shouldn’t, that it’s prior knowledge that matters. Do you know the baseball study? Have you read Natalie Wexler’s research? It is really difficult to trust research when everyone tells us something different. Shanahan's response:  I feel your pain.

Teaching students to read is the first job of our schools. How can we help all students become strong, confident readers? Literacy for All: Equitable Practices for Reading and Dyslexia was held on February 20, 2020 in Annapolis, Maryland. The event was hosted by National Center on Improving Literacy (NCIL), Decoding Dyslexia Maryland (DD-MD), and community partners. Reading experts from NCIL shared best practices in early screening and interventions supported by decades of reading research.

Teacher’s question: Our school psychologist tests all of our boy and girls for RAN. He says it is the best predictor of reading ability. How can I improve my students’ RAN performance? Shanahan’s response: If someone tells you that you can teach RAN, run!

NAR Examines Nation's Flood Disclosure Policies

According to Ascend2, 71% of businesses use marketing automation. The benefits of marketing automation are significant across all industries, including real estate. Even better, marketing isn’t the only process that real estate agents can automate in their business.  Managing a real estate business can be time-consuming. Numerous, repetitive tasks can prevent agents from maximizing their […]

The post The Challenges and Opportunities for Automation in the Real Estate Industry appeared first on ReadWrite.

For building owners and managers, data is the fuel behind their smart building operations. Leveraging the surplus of data that is readily available to them, owners and managers are making informed decisions for their facility that can create long-term performance enhancements and help them achieve goals such as improved efficiency and occupant comfort. Here is […]

The post How to Ensure Your Data is Providing Trustworthy Insights appeared first on ReadWrite.

Assuredly, IoT (Internet of Things) has the potential to improve customer experience. The rapid expansion of technology has impacted businesses in many ways. Besides, IoT enables data sharing, inventory management, security, and increased efficiency and productivity. But, what is IoT? Well, in simple words, IoT is the network of interconnected devices that embedded with sensors, software, […]

The post Why You Need to Consider IoT in Improving Customer Experience appeared first on ReadWrite.

Did you know that, on average, 51% of companies are currently using marketing automation, and more than half of B2B companies (58%) plan to adopt the technology? The statistic may be mind-boggling, but it is very much justified. Companies and marketers are always in search of ways that make things easy and convenient for them. Automating […]

The post Marketing Automation and Customer Service: How are they Connected? appeared first on ReadWrite.

Narrowing your list of options to speakers within your industry is a great way to ensure your keynote session will pack a punch.

The post 7 Keynote Leadership Speakers Bringing Fresh Insights to Their Industries appeared first on ReadWrite.

“Breathing would be delightful,” the director of products told me in our kickoff. His startup was growing fast. It had a bunch of new funding, the pressure was on to ship, and the team was underwater. I was there to help and take the pressure off so they could breathe. “Let’s begin to think strategically […]

The post Successful Scaling: How to Grow Without Tumbling Back Down appeared first on ReadWrite.

Nowadays most companies are doing SEO, PPC, and Content Marketing. Yet sometimes the company’s are not getting the leads they need. Some businesses get leads — but not quality leads, or they don’t get the leads that fit their expectations. The main reason a company doesn’t get the leads they need is that they are […]

The post Secret to Getting Leads with Digital Marketing Technology appeared first on ReadWrite.

Paper is an essential commodity for office operations. Most conventional offices rely on paper for completing the simplest tasks. Even after digitization, the dream of a completely paperless office is far from reality. Humans are used to a standard form of note-taking and documentation. Here is how to achieve paperless operations and document automation with […]

The post Achieving Paperless Operations and Document Automation with AI and ML appeared first on ReadWrite.

The popularity of wedding drone photography is constantly rising. It’s not surprising because these flying machines can take really amazing photos and videos. But many people still aren’t sure about the necessity of aerial photography at weddings or different events. We’ve gathered for you the most important information you need to know about drones if […]

The post What You Need to Know to Use Drones for Your Wedding appeared first on ReadWrite.

We live in an increasingly connected world. It’s estimated that there will be about 260 million internet-connected devices in the U.S. by 2020, and the next wave of these devices will push our data demand even further. New Bluetooth advancements, for instance, enable devices to perform within a range that’s four times greater, twice the speed, and eight times the […]

The post The Automation Boom is Coming. Will the Internet Be Ready? appeared first on ReadWrite.

Local news publishers have struggled to monetize spike in consumer interest.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Despite numerous unknowns and continued challenges, many agencies and advertisers say they have shifted gears for the next phase.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

‘The idea that what’s happening with searcher behavior is not causing these shifts means that Google is in there writing that code for every intent, every day, and I can’t believe that’s what’s happening,’ said Dr. Pete Meyers on Live with Search Engine Land.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

We want to know how your thoughts on attending live person events through the end of this year.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

SEO is one of the best channels to invest in right now to attract new customers and reinforce the loyalty of your existing client base.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

If you are having indexing issues with your HTML or JavaScript-based website then you won’t want to miss this chat.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

The suggestions surface for multiple intents for logged-in users.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

This is the first time Google says it has provided this kind of data to the public.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

A Shopping ad is accompanied by a clickable text unit.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Politicians, celebrities and people speaking out on social media are angrily demanding the arrest of two white men in the shooting death of an unarmed black jogger in Georgia.

All the latest Covid-19 news from around the world.

All the latest Covid-19 news from around the world.

A father and son have been arrested and charged with murder in the US state of Georgia over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot dead while he was out for a run.

Major social advances have often emerged from the depths of disaster: the Black Death brought an end to serfdom, and Britain's welfare state emerged from the ruins of World War II.

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis.

All the latest Covid-19 updates from around the world.

Looking for ways to snack smarter? Follow these tips and easy, delicious, snack-satisfying recipes to help you (and your kids) through those mid-day cravings.

Continue reading "12 Recipes and Tips for Healthier Snacking" »

Got potatoes? Going to cook them? Here’s what you need to know for prepping them.

Continue reading "How to Clean and Prep Potatoes for Cooking" »

Music sharing pioneer Audiogalaxy returned this week, but not with the features its former users — or its founder — hoped to offer. The former Napster competitor found that, even with music-industry support, a legal file-sharing service is a long way from becoming reality. Continue reading on GigaOm.com.

Looks like mass lawsuits aren't just for Germans anymore: The Electronic Frontier Foundation is estimating that some 75,000 people have been sued for allegedly sharing pornographic movies in the US. This revelation comes as part of a new amicus brief (PDF) the civil liberties group just filed on behalf of 500 file sharers, asking an Illinois judge to squash a lawsuit against people accues of sharing videos from First Time Videos LLC, better known under the porn brand FTVGirls. A footnote of the amicus brief states:

"As of January 14, 2011, by an informal count, well (over) 75,000 people have been sued in similar (in some cases nearly identical) complaints arising from the alleged infringement of pornographic movies. This includes 4507 individuals sued in the Northern District of Illinois alone, in nine separate lawsuits. In addition, mass copyright complaints based on non-pornographic movies have also been brought against over 13,500 people in the District of Columbia."

I just wrote a story about lawsuits like these on NewTeeVee, explaining how German rights holders have filed more than half a million of such lawsuits in 2010. It looks like U.S. rights holders are well on their way to repeat these numbers, unless courts step in - which is of course exactly what the EFF wants. The group blogged on Monday:

"Friday's brief is the latest of EFF's efforts to stop copyright trolls -- content owners and lawyers who team up to extract settlements from thousands of defendants at a time. Tactics include improperly lumping defendants together in one case and filing it in a court far away from most of the accused people's homes and Internet connections. When adult film companies file these predatory lawsuits, there is the added pressure of embarrassment associated with pornography. All of these factors can convince those ensnared in the suits to quickly pay what's demanded of them instead of arguing the merits of their case in court."

It's worth noting that not everyone in the porn biz ready to sue the file sharing masses. Pink Visual's Allison Vivas told me recently that she has no intention to sue individuals, and Private CEO Berth Milton even said that piracy is promotion. Watch the entire interview with him embedded below:

The controversial file hoster RapidShare has taken a first step towards entering the digital content business: The company launched a download store for video games last week, and it is promising its end users to enable the sale of any kind of file soon. Continue reading on Newteevee.com

BitTorrent’s new Project Chrysalis client now makes it possible to share files of unlimited size with your friends even when you’re not online. The company is caching files and using a revamped UI to make the facilitation of BitTorrent downloads much easier than before. Continue reading on NewTeeVee.

Warner Bros. systematically abused an automated takedown system provided by Hotfile, the file host claims in a countersuit against the studio. The claims made by Hotfile include information on the behind-the-scenes actions taken by Hollywood to enforce its rights against file sharing on cloud file hosts. Continue reading on NewTeeVee.

BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen and his company are moving forward with its P2P live streaming project, expanding field trials and courting indie bands to stress test Cohen’s algorithms. However, it could still take months before BitTorrent Live is ready for prime time. Continue reading on NewTeeVee.

Introducing tenthings.me What started off as a bit of fun on a long New Year’s day weekend, has launched as TenThings.me: … a place to share (up to) ten things about yourself that your friends and co-workers might not know. It’s in part inspired by the recent viral hit threewords.me but also an old blogging [...]

I’m not entirely sure who the Samsung Galaxy Note is aimed at, but as somebody who gets to observe from the sidelines, this is one fun, functional and loveable device — although it comes at an out of contract price of around £450-500 upwards, give or take. The biggest talking point of the Galaxy Note is its [...]

This week has been a tough one.  It has just become more and more clear that the global travel situation isn’t going to clear up until at least early in the fall.  So while we’re still very hopeful that our Namibia trips starting in September will still happen, we’ve sadly had to cancel or postpone […]

The post Cancelling/Postponing Photography Trips appeared first on Brendan van Son Photography.

With many of us in isolation, we’re spending more time streaming our webcams.  We’re actually finding that we can be highly functional via web meetings in places like Zoom.  The only problem is: the webcam quality is terrible for streaming.  Thankfully, Canon announced this week that you can now turn nearly any Canon interchangeable lens […]

The post Best Webcam Set Up for Streaming or Zoom Meetings appeared first on Brendan van Son Photography.

velocityconf: Free webcast w/ @jon lives http://t.co/TxL60Oagos 'Michelin Starred Cooking with Chef at Etsy' starting NOW. #velocityconf #devops

velocityconf: @rkustner Congrats, thank you, and good luck!