An Ed Tech Tragedy

The Virginia Tech is a story of tragedy.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, learners of all ages have had to quickly adapt to learning through digital media as traditional ways of teaching become obsolete. Educators did not have a clear digital strategy in mind before the COVID-19 pandemic as they primarily relied on these traditional ways of teaching and disseminating knowledge. As phygital learning opportunities are emerging thanks to the growing EdTech economy, educators now have the opportunity to reform the school system, bringing in more innovation while reducing costs, broadening access to resources, and improving the quality of the teaching provision. EdTech Economy and the Transformation of Education is a cutting-edge reference that examines successful digital transformation in educational settings as well as the tools available to do so and the competencies and skills needed for the future. The book paves the way for phygital or blended long-term solutions. Covering a range of topics such as online education, learning processes, and digital transformation, this reference work is ideal for researchers, administrators, policymakers, academicians, practitioners, scholars, instructors, and students.

Grassroots memorials have become major areas of focus during times of trauma, danger, and social unrest. These improvised memorial assemblages continue to display new and more dynamic ways of representing collective and individual identities and in doing so reveal the steps that shape the national memories of those who struggle to come to terms with traumatic loss. This volume focuses on the hybrid quality of these temporary memorials as both monuments of mourning and as focal points for protest and expression of discontent. The broad range of case studies in this volume include anti-mafia shrines, Theo van Gogh’s memorial, September 11th memorials, March 11th shrines in Madrid, and Carlo Giuliani memorials in Genoa.

Drawing on rich qualitative data, as well as theoretical and conceptual frameworks, this text explores how institutions of higher education in the US can effectively remember incidents of campus crisis through physical memorials and commemoration. Recognizing memorialization as a process of group and individual recovery, the book foregrounds the performative functions of physical memorials, and highlights their utility for the extended campus community. Profiling existing campus memorials in the US, and offering insights from students, faculty, community members, and the loved ones of those memorialized, the text illustrates how institutional decisions and long-term strategy can serve to effectively navigate the politics of memorialization, helping communities move beyond incidents of collective trauma. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in emergency management, student affairs practice and higher education administration, and commemorative literature more broadly. Those specifically interested in heritage studies, public history, and American history will also benefit from this book.

A journalist pieces together the mysteries surrounding her ex-husband’s descent into drug addiction while trying to rebuild a life for her family, taking readers on an intimate journey into the world of white-collar drug abuse. “A rare combination of journalistic rigor, personal courage, and writerly grace.”—Bill Clegg, author of Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man Something was wrong with Peter. Eilene Zimmerman noticed that her ex-husband looked thin, seemed distracted, and was frequently absent from activities with their children. She thought he looked sick and needed to see a doctor, and indeed, he told her he had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. Yet in many ways, Peter seemed to have it all: a beautiful house by the beach, expensive cars, and other luxuries that came with an affluent life. Eilene assumed his odd behavior was due to stress and overwork—he was a senior partner at a prominent law firm and had been working more than sixty hours a week for the last twenty years. Although they were divorced, Eilene and Peter had been partners and friends for decades, so when she and her children were unable to reach Peter for several days, Eilene went to his house to see if he was OK. So begins Smacked, a brilliant and moving memoir of Eilene’s shocking discovery, one that sets her on a journey to find out how a man she knew for nearly thirty years became a drug addict, hiding it so well that neither she nor anyone else in his life suspected what was happening. Eilene discovers that Peter led a secret life, one that started with pills and ended with opioids, cocaine, and methamphetamine. He was also addicted to work; the last call Peter ever made was to dial in to a conference call. Eilene is determined to learn all she can about Peter’s hidden life, and also about drug addiction among ambitious, high-achieving professionals like him. Through extensive research and interviews, she presents a picture of drug dependence today in that moneyed, upwardly mobile world. She also embarks on a journey to re-create her life in the wake of loss, both of the person—and the relationship—that profoundly defined the woman she had become.