Bobby Maddex interviews Father Dragos Herescu who is the Principal of IOCS (Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies) in Cambridge, United Kingdom. For more information please visit their website @ https://www.iocs.cam.ac.uk

Bobby Maddex, Director of Digital Media for Ancient Faith Ministries interviews Zachary Waltz, the headmaster of Hagia Sophia Orthodox Classical Academy located in Indianapolis, Indiana. As well as Fr. David Wey, the rector of the Academy. Please visit https://www.hagiasophiaclassical.com for more information about the academy

Bobby Maddex, the Director of Digital Media for Ancient Faith Ministries, interviews Dr. John Burgess, the James Henry Snowden, professor of Systematic Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Bobby Maddex, Digital Media Director at Ancient Faith Ministries interview with Graham Sparkman, a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, arranger and composer. Please visit; www.grahamsparkman.com www.grahamsparkman.com/open.spotify.com

Bobby Maddox, the Director of Digital Media for Ancient Faith Ministries, interviews Fr.Patrick Viscuso, the president of the brand new Orthodox Canon Law Society of North America. Pleae visit www.oclsna.org to learn more about the Orthodox Canon Law Society of North America

It seems that our society is trying to walk on water without the power of God, and is consequently in the process of drowning in its many confusions. Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon reflects on our adhering to God’s revealed will vs. trying to make history.

Advent begins in just seven days! What are some books that would be great to read during the fast or to give as gifts? PLUS, a sweet little give away!

Join me as I review a few Orthodox toy items to consider for the children in your life this holiday season. AND since the last giveaway was so fun, I just have to do another. Make sure you watch to the end!

Sorry I'm a day or two late, but it's not too late to benefit from this AMAZING Lenten resource! Find out how this book/audio book/ebook can be a helpful companion on your family's Lenten journey!

In 2023, I fulfilled a long-term dream of learning to fly, bought my own airplane, started a new company, bought another company, captained a 50 foot sailboat in the Caribbean, took a sabbatical, added more than $7.5 million in annual revenue to ConvertKit, and had a whole ton of fun. Let’s dive in.  ConvertKit In […]

(screenshots) An official statement from Google says the site was designed to "provide content owners an easy way to give us access to their content". (more screenshots)

(official blog entry)

In a long New York Times piece, top Googlers speculate about the future of advertising, including Google selling TV ads, using more personalized information, and links to store inventory information.

You could also buy equipment to extend it into your house. (proposal)

James Yu has a screenshot of a new design Google has been testing lately.

I loved this Superorganizers interview with my friend, Josh Kaufman that dives into how Josh does research, reading, writing, and uses Ulysses. And how he has a separate computer that is only for doing focused work. ★

★

England's review of their last-gasp defeat by Australia was "brutal" but exactly what the squad needed, says wing Ollie Sleightholme.

Get daily news, stats, fans views and punditry from your Premiership club, all in one place.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd tells MPs David Anderson QC will oversee a review of the way recent attacks were handled. in a statement on the terror attacks in Manchester and London.

Ten of the intricately-carved pieces have been redisplayed in a case which allows visitors to see their backs for the first time.

Kirsty Young asks the author Irvine Welsh what advice he would give his younger self.

A DUP MP said flight cancellations between Belfast and London were "fast becoming a norm".

Policy and Resources will review infrastructure projects after deputies rejected income tax plans.

Despite raising £70,000, a group against second home planning permission cannot launch appeal.

The General Medical Council says there are interim conditions on the doctor's registration.

The plans will be re-examined after public support for keeping the school at its current site.

The move by Transport for Greater Manchester follows Saturday's crash, which injured 17 people.

However, a coroner says she was unable to conclude Amir Safi had intended to end his life.

Last week we attended the launch of Andrew Grill’s latest book, Digitally Curious, held in conjunction with SAP Concur at the firm’s London office. In the book, the futurist, speaker, […]

The post Interview: Andrew Grill, Author of Digitally Curious appeared first on Tech Digest.

Today our comment and review media lurch from Hot Takes to History without pausing for a moment to get a sense of what actually happened. The concept of the One Year Later Review was that we might be able to get a better understanding of what mattered and what effects it had with a little […]

The Telegraph have now printed an extract and the first interview about The Sex Myth. Positively chuffed to see "be an ally" in print. (Especially on Friday the 13th, which is fast becoming the date when sex work allies are urged to speak out.)

If you'd like to find out more about the book, and would like your copy of The Sex Myth signed, why not join me in London or Nottingham next week?

I’ve ditched the usual blurb about “not being a movies person, but anyway…” because since I started going to the cinema regularly in 2022 I’ve turned into the kind of guy who downloads the London Film Festival brochure and meticulously...

This monthly series is probably more for my benefit than yours, but maybe your interest will be piqued by one of the reviews. Maybe you’ll scroll straight past. Maybe you’ll unsubscribe thinking what did I see in this blog in...

Have you ever reviewed a large file in SDL Trados Studio with numerous repetitions and struggled with confirmed segments not being propagated to the rest of the file? Here is what to do. Imagine you have a big file to … Continue reading →

This research explores vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) and their extensive applications, such as enhancing traffic efficiency, infotainment, and passenger safety. Despite significant study, widespread deployment of VANETs has been hindered by security and privacy concerns. Challenges in implementation, including scalability, flexibility, poor connection, and insufficient intelligence, have further complicated VANETs. This study proposes leveraging cloud computing to address these challenges, marking a paradigm shift. Cloud computing, recognised for its cost-efficiency and virtualisation, is integrated with VANETs. The paper details the nomenclature, architecture, models, services, applications, and challenges of VANET-based cloud computing. Three architectures for VANET clouds - vehicular clouds (VCs), vehicles utilising clouds (VuCs), and hybrid vehicular clouds (HVCs) - are discussed in detail. The research provides an overview, delves into related work, and explores VANET cloud computing's architectural frameworks, models, and cloud services. It concludes with insights into future work and a comprehensive conclusion.

The confluence of the internet of things (IoT) with smart grids has ushered in a paradigm shift in energy management, promising unparalleled efficiency, economic robustness and unwavering reliability. However, this integrative evolution has concurrently amplified the grid's susceptibility to cyber intrusions, casting shadows on its foundational security and structural integrity. Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) emerge as beacons in this landscape, offering robust methodologies to navigate the intricate cybersecurity labyrinth of IoT-infused smart grids. While ML excels at sifting through voluminous data to identify and classify looming threats, DL delves deeper, crafting sophisticated models equipped to counteract avant-garde cyber offensives. Both of these techniques are united in their objective of leveraging intricate data patterns to provide real-time, actionable security intelligence. Yet, despite the revolutionary potential of ML and DL, the battle against the ceaselessly morphing cyber threat landscape is relentless. The pursuit of an impervious smart grid continues to be a collective odyssey. In this review, we embark on a scholarly exploration of ML and DL's indispensable contributions to enhancing cybersecurity in IoT-centric smart grids. We meticulously dissect predominant cyber threats, critically assess extant security paradigms, and spotlight research frontiers yearning for deeper inquiry and innovation.

The video game industry (VGI) has evolved considerably, transitioning from a niche market to a substantial sector. The VGI's magnitude and the societal implications tied to video game consumption have naturally piqued the interest of scholars in marketing and consumer behaviour. This research serves a dual purpose: firstly, it consolidates existing VG literature by evaluating articles, concepts, and methodologies, systematically tracing their evolution; secondly, it outlines potential directions and implications for forthcoming research. Within this literature, a predominant focus lies on articles investigating purchase decisions concerning VGs, followed by those exploring the integration of video game consumption into broader social contexts. Notably, a limited number of articles delve into player-game interactions and experiences within gaming worlds. This imbalance can be attributed to the fact that such inquiries are often suited to psychology and multidisciplinary journals, while the marketing discipline has predominantly addressed the VGI from a marketing management standpoint.

Although artificial intelligence provides a new method to gather, process, analyse data, generate insights, and offer customised solutions, such methods could change how marketers deal with customers, and there is a lack of literature to portray the application of artificial intelligence in marketing. This study aims to recognise and portray the use of artificial intelligence from a marketing standpoint, as well as to provide a conceptual framework for the application of artificial intelligence in marketing. This study uses a systematic literature review analysis as a research method to achieve the aims. Data from 142 articles were extracted from the Scopus database using relevant search terms for artificial intelligence and marketing. The systematic review identified significant usage of artificial intelligence in conversational artificial intelligence, content creation, audience segmentation, predictive analytics, personalisation, paid ads, sales forecasting, dynamic pricing, and recommendation engines and the bibliometric analysis produced the trend in co-authorship, citation, bibliographic coupling, and co-citation analysis. Practitioners and academics may use this study to decide on the marketing area in which artificial intelligence can be invested and used.

The aim of the study is to examine the determinants of digitalisation in public sector. This research is particularly relevant as digital transformation has become a crucial factor in modernising public sector and enhancing service delivery to citizens. The method of the systematic literature review (SLR) was implemented by searching documents on the Scopus database. The initial research reached the 7902 documents and after specifying the keywords the authors found 207 relevant documents. Finally; after the careful read of their abstracts and the use of inclusion and exclusion criteria; the most cited and relevant 32 papers constituted the final sample. Findings highlighted the focus of the literature on technological factors such as the sense of trust and safety as well as the ease of use in the adoption of digital governance; emphasising the need for effective; trustworthy and user-friendly digital services. The most discussed internal factors were leadership and organisational culture. The study offers a deeper understanding of the factors that shape the successful implementation of digital governance initiatives.

Aim/Purpose: To encourage students’ engagement in peer assessments and provide students with better-quality feedback, this paper describes a technique for author-reviewer matching in peer assessment systems – a Balanced Allocation algorithm. Background: Peer assessment concerns evaluating the work of colleagues and providing feedback on their work. This process is widely applied as a learning method to involve students in the progress of their learning. However, as students have different ability levels, the efficacy of the peer feedback differs from case to case. Thus, peer assessment may not provide satisfactory results for students. In order to mitigate this issue, this paper explains and evaluates an algorithm that matches the author to a set of reviewers. The technique matches authors and reviewers based on how difficult the authors perceived the assignment to be, and the algorithm then matches the selected author to a group of reviewers who may meet the author’s needs in regard to the selected assignment. Methodology: This study used the Multiple Criteria Decision-Making methodology (MCDM) to determine a set of reviewers from among the many available options. The weighted sum method was used because the data that have been collected in user profiles are expressed in the same unit. This study produced an experimental result, examining the algorithm with a real collected dataset and mock-up dataset. In total, there were 240 students in the real dataset, and it contained self-assessment scores, peer scores, and instructor scores for the same assignment. The mock-up dataset created 1000 records for self-assessment scores. The algorithm was evaluated using focus group discussions with 29 programming students and interviews with seven programming instructors. Contribution: This paper contributes to the field in the following two ways. First, an algorithm using a MCDM methodology was proposed to match authors and reviewers in order to facilitate the peer assessment process. In addition, the algorithm used self-assessment as an initial data source to match users, rather than randomly creating reviewer – author pairs. Findings: The findings show the accurate results of the algorithm in matching three reviewers for each author. Furthermore, the algorithm was evaluated based on students’ and instructors’ perspectives. The results are very promising, as they depict a high level of satisfaction for the Balanced Allocation algorithm. Recommendations for Practitioners: We recommend instructors to consider using the Balanced Allocation algorithm to match students in peer assessments, and consequently to benefit from personalizing peer assessment based on students' needs. Recommendation for Researchers: Several MCDM methods could be expanded upon, such as the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) if different attributes are collected, or the artificial neural network (ANN) if fuzzy data is available in the user profile. Each method is suitable for special cases depending on the data available for decision-making. Impact on Society: Suitable pairing in peer assessment would increase the credibility of the peer assessment process and encourage students’ engagement in peer assessments. Future Research: The Balanced Allocation algorithm could be applied using a single group, and a peer assessment with random matching with another group may also be conducted, followed by performing a t-test to determine the impact of matching on students’ performances in the peer assessment activity.

Aim/Purpose: The teaching of appropriate problem-solving techniques to novice learners in undergraduate software development education is often poorly defined when compared to the delivery of programming techniques. Given the global need for qualified designers of information technology, the purpose of this research is to produce a foundational template for an educational software development methodology grounded in the established literature. This template can be used by third-level educators and researchers to develop robust educational methodologies to cultivate structured problem solving and software development habits in their students while systematically teaching the intricacies of software creation. Background: While software development methodologies are a standard approach to structured and traceable problem solving in commercial software development, educational methodologies for inexperienced learners remain a neglected area of research due to their assumption of prior programming knowledge. This research aims to address this deficit by conducting an integrative review to produce a template for such a methodology. Methodology: An integrative review was conducted on the key components of Teaching Software Development Education, Problem Solving, Threshold Concepts, and Computational Thinking. Systematic reviews were conducted on Computational Thinking and Software Development Education by employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) process. Narrative reviews were conducted on Problem Solving and Threshold Concepts. Contribution: This research provides a comprehensive analysis of problem solving, software development education, computational thinking, and threshold concepts in computing in the context of undergraduate software development education. It also synthesizes review findings from these four areas and combines them to form a research-based foundational template methodology for use by educators and researchers interested in software development undergraduate education. Findings: This review identifies seven skills and four concepts required by novice learners. The skills include the ability to perform abstraction, data representation, decomposition, evaluation, mental modeling, pattern recognition, and writing algorithms. The concepts include state and sequential flow, non-sequential flow control, modularity, and object interaction. The teaching of these skills and concepts is combined into a spiral learning framework and is joined by four development stages to guide software problem solving: understanding the problem, breaking into tasks, designing, coding, testing, and integrating, and final evaluation and reflection. This produces the principal finding, which is a research-based foundational template for educational software development methodologies. Recommendations for Practitioners: Focusing introductory undergraduate computing courses on a programming syllabus without giving adequate support to problem solving may hinder students in their attainment of development skills. Therefore, providing a structured methodology is necessary as it equips students with essential problem-solving skills and ensures they develop good development practices from the start, which is crucial to ensuring undergraduate success in their studies and beyond. Recommendation for Researchers: The creation of educational software development methodologies with tool support is an under-researched area in undergraduate education. The template produced by this research can serve as a foundational conceptual model for researchers to create concrete tools to better support computing undergraduates. Impact on Society: Improving the educational value and experience of software development undergraduates is crucial for society once they graduate. They drive innovation and economic growth by creating new technologies, improving efficiency in various industries, and solving complex problems. Future Research: Future research should concentrate on using the template produced by this research to create a concrete educational methodology adapted to suit a specific programming paradigm, with an associated learning tool that can be used with first-year computing undergraduates.

Aim/Purpose: This review’s main objective was to examine the existing literature on the use of 3D printers in primary education, covering students aged six to twelve across general, special, and inclusive educational environments. Background: A review of the literature indicated a significant oversight – prior reviews insufficiently distinguish the application of 3D printing in primary education from its utilization at higher educational tiers or focused on particular subject areas and learning domains. Considering the distinct nature and critical role of primary education in developing young students’ cognitive abilities and skills, it is essential to concentrate on this specific educational stage. Methodology: The scoping review was selected as the preferred research method. The methodological robustness was augmented through the utilization of the backward snowballing technique. Consequently, a total of 50 papers were identified and subjected to thorough analysis. Contribution: This review has methodically compiled and analyzed the literature on 3D printing use among elementary students, offering a substantial addition to academic conversations. It consolidated and organized research on 3D printers’ educational uses, applying robust and credible criteria. Findings: Many studies featured small sample sizes and limited research on inclusive and special education. The analysis revealed 82 distinct research goals and 13 educational fields, with STEM being the predominant focus. Scholars showed considerable interest in how 3D printers influence skills like creativity and problem-solving, as well as emotions such as engagement and motivation. The majority of studies indicated positive outcomes, enhancing academic achievement, engagement, collaboration, creativity, interest, and motivation. Nonetheless, challenges were noted, highlighting the necessity for teacher training, the expense of equipment, technical difficulties, and the complexities of blending new methods with traditional curricula. Recommendations for Practitioners: To capitalize on the benefits that 3D printers bring, curriculum planners are urged to weave them into their programs, ensuring alignment with educational standards and skill development. The critical role educators play in the effective implementation of this technology necessitates targeted professional development programs to equip them with the expertise for successful integration. Moreover, 3D printing presents a unique opportunity to advance inclusive education for students with disabilities, offering tailored learning experiences and aiding in creating assistive technologies. In recognizing the disparities in access to 3D printing, educational leaders must address the financial and logistical barriers highlighted in the literature. Strategic initiatives are essential to democratize 3D printing access, ensuring all students benefit from this educational tool. Recommendation for Researchers: Comparative studies are critical to elucidate the specific advantages and limitations of 3D printing technology due to the scarcity of research contrasting it with other tools. The variability in reporting durations of interventions and research environments underscores the necessity for uniform methodologies and benchmarks. Because research has predominantly focused on STEM/STEAM education, expanding into different educational areas could provide a comprehensive understanding of 3D printing’s capabilities. The existence of neutral and negative findings signals an opportunity for further investigation. Exploring the factors that impede the successful integration of 3D printing will inform the creation of superior pedagogical approaches and technological refinements. Future Research: As the review confirmed the significant promise of 3D printing technology in enriching education, especially in the context of primary education, the imperative for continued research to refine its application in primary education settings is highlighted.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability are gaining worldwide recognition. The question of whether CSR and sustainability programs benefit an organisation's financial success is still being debated. This study aims to verify this phenomenon by examining the current literature pattern on this relationship using bibliometric and systematic review analysis. It further provides a taxonomy for understanding this association. VOSviewer is used to obtain comprehensive dataset mapping and clustering in the field. The manuscript offers promising insights regarding academia by assessing the pattern of publication trends, the most influential author in the area, and analysing the methodological and theoretical underpinnings of CSR, sustainability and firm performance linkage. The outcome of this study provides exploratory insights into research gaps and avenues for future research.