Most teams use incremental design and iterative processes interchangeably, and in practice, they often go hand-in-hand. But there is a difference between the two terms. In an iterative process, your team works to refine and improve your project based on feedback or new information. The key to the iterative process is trial and error: the project gets better over time as a result of these changes.  In incremental design—sometimes called incremental development—you will add new features and build better things on top of your first version or deliverable. To run an incremental design process, teams will purposefully produce a bare-bones version of their ultimate project deliverable in order to get it out the door as quickly as possible (like Facebook’s old mantra—move fast and break things). Then, the team will iterate and improve upon the initial version by creating increments that include more features than the initial version. They will continue to do so until their deliverable has all of the functionality it needs to have.  Most teams that use iterative processes use incremental design and vice versa. Good iterative processes are also incremental so that you can continuously improve on your original deliverable. Good incremental design is also iterative because you need to be able to respond to customer feedback and pivot if necessary. Read more

In a non-iterative process, you and your team would work together to come up with a final product without necessarily trying new ideas along the way. Typically, non-iterative processes require more time during the conceptualization and creation phase, so that everything works as intended during the testing phase.  Waterfall is the most common non-iterative process. In the waterfall model, you and your team will define project phases before the project starts. Each phase begins once a previous phase is completed in its entirety. Requirements and resources will typically be locked before a project begins, and the team avoids changing the project plan as much as possible.  For example, imagine you’re working with a design agency to create an ebook. You first need to provide all of the copy for the ebook. Then, the design agency will take that copy and create designs. Finally, your internal team will copyedit the designed ebook to make sure everything looks ok. This is an example of the waterfall model because each phase relies on the previous step (i.e. you can’t copyedit the designed ebook until it’s been designed). Depending on the team you’re on and the type of projects you run, non-iterative processes can be challenging because they don’t build in time for your team to iterate and continuously improve. Because there are so many unknowns and surprises in engineering, engineering teams in particular tend to use iterative processes instead of non-iterative ones, but any team can benefit.  Read more

Edited -- The iterative process is the practice of building, refining, and improving a project, product, or initiative. Teams that use the iterative development process create, test, and revise until they’re satisfied with the end result. You can think of an iterative process as a trial-and-error methodology that brings your project closer to its end goal.  Iterative processes are a fundamental part of lean methodologies and Agile project management—but these processes can be implemented by any team, not just Agile ones. During the iterative process, you will continually improve your design, product, or project until you and your team are satisfied with the final project deliverable. Read more

Social media and technology offer us greater convenience and connectivity: staying connected with family and friends worldwide via email, text, FaceTime, etc. quick access to information and research banking and bill pay at our fingertips online learning, job skills, content discovery (YouTube) involvement in civic engagement (fundraising, social awareness, provides a voice) great marketing tools opportunities for remote employment Social media can be a good thing, but if  teens ever feel uncomfortable about something they see or read on social, they should trust their own feelings and talk to someone – a parent, a teacher, or another trusted adult. Bullying, threats and cruelty on social media are all signs that the person doing those things needs help. Read more

Social media usage -- edited Back in 2005, when social media was still in its infancy, only about 5 percent of users in the United States were involved in social media. In 2019, that number grew to about 70 percent. Pew Research Center surveyed social media usage and popularity among US adults early in 2019. The survey found that while the most-used social platforms for adults are YouTube and Facebook; teens prefer SnapChat and Instagram, while TikTok is reportedly the fastest growing social network among younger users. Social media use is nearly universal among today’s teens. Pew Research Center reports 97 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds use at least one of seven major online platforms. The amount of time spent on social sites is astounding. One report indicates the average teen ages 13 to 18 spends about nine hours on social media each day; tweens ages 8 to 12 are on for about six hours a day. Like most things, using social media has its positives (the good), its cautionary tales (the bad), and dangers (the ugly) that lurk and impact the lives of many, but especially teens. Read more

ADHD Students and Classroom Considerations

smoke test opportunities

The significance of the Asian financial crisis is multifaceted. Though the crisis is generally characterized as a financial crisis or economic crisis, what happened in 1997 and 1998 can also be seen as a crisis of governance at all major levels of politics: national, global, and regional. Read more

State of Test Data Management Tools Test Data Needed Modern DevOps teams need high quality test data based on real production data sources for software testing early in the SDLC. This helps development teams bring high-quality applications to market at an increasingly competitive pace. Data for DevOps Though many organizations have adopted agile software development and DevOps methodologies, there has been an underinvestment in test data management tools—which has constrained innovation. Read more

As a result of the behaviors listed above, students with ADHD are at greater risk of academic difficulties, social/emotional issues, and limited educational outcomes. The degree to which attention impacts a student’s academic and social performance is related to the interactions between the student’s academic and behavioral needs and the environmental demands. Therefore, it is not unusual for the student to perform differently across settings. For example, a student with ADHD may experience academic success in elementary school; however, when he enters middle school, the increased academic and organizational demands may increase his need for additional academic and behavioral supports. Read more

The concept of the ZPD is widely used to study children's mental development as it relates to educational context. The ZPD concept is seen as a scaffolding, a structure of "support points" for performing an action.[14] This refers to the help or guidance received from an adult or more competent peer to permit the child to work within the ZPD.[15] Although Vygotsky himself never mentioned the term, scaffolding was first developed by Jerome Bruner, David Wood, and Gail Ross, while applying Vygotsky's concept of ZPD to various educational contexts.[4] According to Wass and Golding, giving students the hardest tasks they can do with scaffolding leads to the greatest learning gainsScaffolding is a process through which a teacher or a more competent peer helps a student in their ZPD as necessary and tapers off this aid as it becomes unnecessary—much as workers remove a scaffold from a building after they complete construction. "Scaffolding [is] the way the adult guides the child's learning via focused questions and positive interactions."[17] This concept has been further developed by Mercedes Chaves Jaime, Ann Brown, among others. Several instructional programs were developed based on this interpretation of the ZPD, including reciprocal teaching and dynamic assessment. For scaffolding to be effective, one must start at the child's level of knowledge and build from there Read more

Legal Requirements for Identification of and Educational Services for Children With ADHD Two important federal mandates protect the rights of eligible children with ADHD-the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504). The regulations implementing these laws are 34 CFR sections 300 and 104, respectively, which require school districts to provide a "free appropriate public education" to students who meet their eligibility criteria. Although a child with ADHD may not be eligible for services under IDEA, he or she may meet the requirements of Section 504. The requirements and qualifications for IDEA are more stringent than those of Section 504. IDEA provides funds to state education agencies for the purpose of providing special education and related services to children evaluated in accordance with IDEA and found to have at least one of the 13 specific categories of disabilities, and who thus need special education and related services. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder may be considered under the specific category of "Other Health Impairment" (OHI), if the disability results in limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment and that is due to chronic or acute health problems. Under IDEA, each public agency-that is, each school district-shall ensure that a full and individual evaluation is conducted for each child being considered for special education and related services. The child's individualized education program (IEP) team uses the results of the evaluation to determine the educational needs of the child. The results of a medical doctor's, psychologist's, or other qualified professional's assessment indicating a diagnosis of ADHD may be an important evaluation result, but the diagnosis does not automatically mean that a child is eligible for special education and related services. A group of qualified professionals and the parent of the child determine whether the child is an eligible child with a disability according to IDEA. Children with ADHD also may be eligible for services under the "Specific Learning Disability," "Emotional Read more