3 . In the past few years, online learning has become a significant part of the university and college experience.     1     But are all online courses created equal? How can you be sure that digital learning is right for you?     2    

We interviewed students and professors to get their advice about online courses, The most obvious advantage of online learning is that you can study anywhere and anytime.     3     “I think a point that many people lose sight of is how easy it can be to fall behind schedule,” says graduate student Amanda Bindman. Before choosing to study online, consider whether you’re a self-motivated learner and if the material seems interesting enough to keep you going.

The tip that comes up most often is simple: build online courses into your weekly schedule, just like what you would do with in person courses.     4     He noted that his online students usually end up with lower grades. It is so easy to let an online course slide, but your grades will suffer as a result. Be sure to schedule set times to watch your lectures, read materials and contribute to online discussion boards.

    5     A social connection is often a big part of learning. There are things you can do to ease this problem. Jessica Pink, an undergraduate student, suggests taking online courses with a friend, so you can motivate each other to stay on track. You can also find students on the class discussion board to organize a study group, or schedule in-person meeting s with your professor to discuss course concepts.

4 . When was the last time you used a telephone box? I mean to make an actual phone call — not to shelter from the rain. Ages ago, right? The last time I used a phone box for its intended purpose was…2006. I was conducting auditions (试演) for my play in my tiny old shared house in London. Hoping to impress some talented actors to come and work for me for nothing, I spread some throws over the sofas and lit candles to make it seem a bit more ”young professional”.

As I rushed outdoors to empty the wastepaper baskets, the door swung shut behind me. Suddenly I was locked outside. My mobile phone was inside, but luckily there was a telephone box across the street. So, I called Directory Assistance, got put through to our landlady’s managing agent, and had a spare key sent to me with just enough time to get back in before the actors arrived.

As it has been many years since I last used one, I should hardly be surprised that then are no longer any public telephones near my house. The last one standing has just been turn into a “mini community library”: any passer-by can “borrow” a book from its shelves return it later, or replace it with another title from their own collection.

For a few months after the “library” opened, I didn’t bother taking a look, as I had assumed that it would be stuffed full of cheese love stories. Then I noticed fork conducting spring cleans dropping boxes of voluminous books on various subjects there. And these books were free. This unbeatable price-point encouraged me to experiment with dozens of titles that I would never normally consider buying. And I’ve discovered some great books!

If I ever get trapped outside my house again, my local telephone box will, sadly no longer be able to connect me with my keys. But it can certainly keep me entertained while I wait for my wife to rescue me.

5 . Tom Sawyer Play Is an Adventure

A 35-minute hand-clapping, foot-stomping musical version of a Mark Twain favorite returns with this Tall Stacks festival.

“Tom Sawyer: A River Adventure” has all the good stuff, including the fence painting, the graveyard, the island and the cave. It is adapted by Joe McDonough, with music by David Kisor. That’s the local stage writing team that creates many of the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati’s original musicals, along with the holiday family musicals at Ensemble Theatre.

This year Nathan Turner of Burlington is Tom Sawyer, and Robbie McMath of Fort Mitchell is Huck Finn.

Tumer, a 10th-grader at School for Creative and Performing Arts, is a familiar presence on Cincinnati’s stages. He is a star act or of Children’s Theatre, having played leading roles in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “The Wizard of Oz,” and is fresh from Jersey Production “Ragtime”.

McMath is a junior at Beechwood High School. He was in the cast of “Tom Sawyer” when it was first performed and is a Children’s Theatre regular, with five shows to his credit. This summer he attended Kentucky’s Governor’s School for the Arts in Musical Theatre.

Note to teachers: Children’s Theatre has a study guide demonstrating how math and science can be taught through “Tom Sawyer.” For downloadable lessons, visit the official website of Children’s Theatre.

7 . I have a drawer full of letters to Santa. Each year my children would write up their Christmas wish lists. They were polite requests for the latest game or toy. As the children got older, they would give Santa some hints(提示)on where to buy their presents.     1    

Those letters taught my children a valuable lesson about writing: It has a purpose. Sometimes our purpose is to achieve something;other times it may be to entertain, inform, or persuade.     2     And when writing doesn’t seem to have any purpose or get any kind of meaningful response, then it can be hard to get excited about doing it.

Christmas is a great time of year for children to communicate with others through writing. When children write for real audiences and real purposes, they can learn to choose their words accordingly.     3     You write “Dear Santa” because you don’t know him personally and you want to show him respect.

    4     Texting, online messaging, live chats while playing video games all mean that they are constantly producing written messages. However, because they are usually writing to family and friends, they use informal language most of the time.

There is nothing wrong with this kind of writing. It suits the audience and the purpose and gets the job done.     5     This type of writing won’t be rewarded by the school examiner, nor by a future employer or a potential client. The very best communicators are those who know how to adjust their language to match their audience.

8 . Many people believe that working to the maximum is the secret to success, but research has found that moderation(适度) also gets results on the job.

In a study led by Ellen Langer of Harvard University, researchers asked people to translate sentences into a new made-up language. Subjects who practiced the language moderately beforehand made fewer errors than those who practiced extensively or not at all. High levels of knowledge can make people too attached to traditional ways of viewing problems across fields the arts, sciences, and politics. High conscientiousness is related to lower job performance, especially in simple jobs where it doesn’t pay to be a perfectionist.

How long we stay on the clock and how we spend that time are under careful examination in many workplaces. The young banker who eats lunch at his desk is probably seen as a go-getter, while his colleagues who chat over a relaxed conference-room meal get dirty looks from the corner office. “People from cultures that value relationships more than ours does are shocked by the thought of eating alone in front of a computer”, says Art Markman, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, Austin. Social interaction has been shown to lift mood(情绪) and get people thinking in new directions and in ways that could help improve any post-lunch effort.

Markman also promotes off-task time. “Part of being a good thinker is experiencing things that are seemingly unrelated to what you are working on at the moment but give you fresh ideas about your work,” he says. “Also, there is a lot of research showing that a positive mood leads to higher levels of productivity and creativity. So, when people do things to increase their life satisfaction, they also make themselves more effective at work.”

9 . All around the world, there are small changes taking place. At the side of roads, behind school playgrounds and on all kinds of unloved pieces of land across towns and cities, tiny forests barely the size of tennis courts are appearing, making a great place for both wildlife and local people who may not normally have easy access to nature. This is the Tiny Forest movement, which aims to prove that the best things in life really do come in small packages.

Tiny forests were first pioneered as a concept in the 1970s by Dr Miyawaki, a Japanese botanist. As he went on to share his concept with others, the idea soon took off in India and other countries before eventually reaching Europe, where it became popular in places like France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

So how does it work? Louise Hartley, who is leading the Tiny Forest project in the UK, explains that the process begins by identifying areas in which a tiny forest could have the biggest influence. “We focus on urban areas where access to nature is often not that easy”, says Hartley. “We see it as a chance to try to break the growing disconnect between people and nature.”

In a Tiny Forest, there must be a minimum of 600 trees, and the trees are planted much closer together and without chemicals or fertilisers (肥料). There are usually around 30 different kinds of all-native tree species (物种). This variety, coupled with the fact that tiny forests grow up to ten times faster than standard forests, means they attract a rich abundance of wildlife. It’s also thought that these places could help reduce the risk of flooding, remove carbon from the atmosphere and fight climate change, as well as improving the mental health of those living locally.

10 . Pasta and pizza were on everyone’s lunch menu in my native land of Italy. Everyone who had such a lunch was fair-skinned and spoke Italian. A few years later, as I stood in the lunch line with my kindergarten class in a school in Brooklyn, I realized things were no longer that simple. My classmates ranged from those kids with pale skin and large blue eyes to those with rich brown skin and dark hair. The food choices were almost as diverse as the students. In front of me was an array of foods I couldn’t even name in my native language. Fearing that I would pick out something awful, I desperately tried to ask the boy ahead of me for a recommendation. Unfortunately, between us stood the barrier of language.

Although my kindergarten experience feels like a century ago, the lessons I learned will stick in my mind forever. For the past three summers, I have worked in a government agency in New York. New immigrants much like the little girl in the lunch line flooded our office seeking help. I often had to be an interpreter for the Italian-speaking ones. As I served the role of vital communication link, I was reminded of my desperate struggle to converse before I learned English. I watched with great sympathy as elderly Italians tried to hold a conversation in Italian with people who did not speak the language. It suddenly became very clear to me how lucky I was to be fluent in two languages.

In New York, a multicultural city, students like me are blessed with a chance to work with a diverse population. In my English to Italian translations, I’ve learned about social programs that I didn’t know existed. This work expanded my mind in ways that are impossible inside the four walls of a classroom. Walking through the streets of Brooklyn today, I am no longer confused by this city’s sounds and smells. Instead, enjoy its diversity.