Technology in higher education: learning with it instead of from it.

Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that activity - based learning, rather than lecture - based, imporves student creativity and learning by allowing students to use technology to     1     their own original ideas.

Isa Jahnke, associate professor in the MU College of Education's school of Information Science and Learning Technologies, collaborated with former doctoral student Julia Liebscher to study how higher education professors in Europe use mobile     2     in their classes. She found that student creativity was most enhanced by professors who allowed their students to use technology in a team setting to come up with an unusual product or     3    .

For example, one group of students in a history class developed an app that virtually teaches users about the history     4     the Berlin Wall. Rather than simply lecturing the material to the students, Jahnke found that allowing them to use technology in a collaborative way enhanced the students' creativity and     5     of the content.

"This research is useful for professors to rethink how they     6     their existing courses," Jahnke said. "We need to shift away from purely lecture-based learning where students are just consumers of information toward a more meaningful     7     approach with technology where students are able to come up with creative and new solutions in a team setting."

Jahnke added that there are resources at MU, such as the Teaching For Learning Center, to help professors     8     their course designs in the ever-changing educational landscape.

"If we have universities that are producing more creative-thinking students, then we have more people who can help come up with     9     for all of society's grand challenges," Jahnke said. "Creativity will lead to better inventors, managers and business owners, but first we need to ask ourselves as educators if we are using technology to put our students in positions to be     10     in the first place."

The Japan that can’t keep up

The spotlight has cost losses of Kobe Steel, Japan’s largest steelmaker, whose customers include Ford Motor and Boeing. Its market of $ 2.7 billion is about $ 1.7 billion less than before it admitted to the fake data. As the criticism over Kobe’s behavior     1    , Japan’s reputation for excellence may be the biggest loser.

Japanese manufactures were once held in awe (敬畏) for their mastery of     2     manufacturing and continuous improvement, which revolutionized business practices the world over. But an increasing number of companies in China, South Korea, and elsewhere are now capable of competing with — and often beating — Japan’s long-established enterprises, forcing them to scramble (争抢).

The latest     3     of just how desperate many Japanese companies have become to stay ahead of foreign rivals: Kobe Steel Ltd.     4     this month that for years it had faked data on the quality of its aluminum, copper, and steel products. Now Kobe Chief Executive Officer Hiroya Kawasaki is leading an internal committee to     5     quality issues. And the U.S. Department of Justice has requested Kobe Steel     6     documents related to the data, the company said, adding that it will cooperate.

Unfortunately for Japan Inc.’s reputation as a trusted supplier, such     7     have repeatedly commanded headlines. Japan obviously doesn’t have a monopoly on corporate shenanigans (诡计), but fraud is particularly     8     for the nation because its flagship manufactures have banked for years on a reputation for quality. “Japanese manufactures are very aware that their brand, their reputation, the     9     of their business rest on quality,” an expert says.

Two major factors seem to be pushing the nation’s manufactures to cross the line. First, Japanese companies face enormous pressure from upstart Chinese rivals. Secondly, a whistle blower protection law     10     in Japan in 2006 has increased the chance of wrongdoing coming to light — and the digitization of records and internal conversations has made it easier for incriminating data to be passed along to regulations or authorities.

Finding Comfort in War and Peace

Over the past 15 years, Yiyun Li, a Chinese-American author, has read War and Peace at least a dozen times. Her hardback copy of Leo Tolstoy's 1,200 - page saga bristles with colored notes, like some exotic lizard's spine. The novel is not just a masterclass in fiction, Ms. Li believes, but a cure for     1    . At the most difficult times in her life, she says, she has turned to it again and again, reassured by its "    2    " in the face of uncertainty.

War and Peace - originally     3     The Year 1805 - is widely considered the world's greatest novel. It is also among the most daunting(令人敬畏的), acknowledged Richard Pevear, one of its translators, "as     4     as Russia itself." Its huge canvas(画布)encompasses(包含)not just Napoleon's wars against the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires from 1805 to 1812, but a cast whose actions and emotions span the breath of human consciousness. As a literary critic has noted, Tolstoy is the supreme novelist of human conflicts. His epic(史诗)is a(n)     5     examination of how people respond to the pressure of both wars and ordinary life.

So large is Tolstoy's world, Ms. Li reckoned, that there could be no better companion for people     6     in isolation. She thought of virtual book club to sustain readers through the lockdown. Participants around the globe would plough through this book together and share their thoughts on social media. It would be an anchor in     7     times. To their amazement, when it began in mid-March 3,000 people on six continents signed up.

Other book clubs have     8     up to discuss great literature during the pandemic. But Tolstoy's novel reflects the atmosphere of life in quarantine better. Its     9     structure, shifting between battlefields and the salons of Russian high society, mirrors the disorienting split in readers' own attention - between their own personal, stilled states and the calamity(灾祸)    10     outside.