ColdFusion 8 Developer Tutorial Review

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(More customer reviews)I really enjoyed reading most of this book. I say most, because I haven't gotten through it all - there's a lot of content here!
I was surprised by the range of material covered in one book. The CFC's section is excellent, AJAX, and such.
It looks like John Farrar spent quite a bit of time developing his content, and he delivers it in an easy-to-read fashion.
Thanks for a great ColdFusion book!

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Adobe ColdFusion is an application server, renowned for rapid development of dynamic websites, with a straightforward language (CFML), powerful methods for packaging and reusing your code, and AJAX support that will get developers deep into powerful web applications quickly.This book is the most intense guide to creating professional ColdFusion applications available. Packed with example code, and written in a friendly, easy-to-read style, this book is just want you need if you are serious about ColdFusion. This book will give you clear, concise and, of course, practical guidance to take you from the basics of ColdFusion 8 to the skills that will make you a ColdFusion developer to be reckoned with.ColdFusion expert John Farrar will teach you how about the basics of ColdFusion programming, application architecture, and object reuse, before showing you a range of topics including AJAX library integration, RESTful Web Services, PDF creation and manipulation, and dynamically generated presentation files that will make you the toast of your ColdFusion developer town.This book digs deep with the basics, with real-world examples of the how and whys, to get more done faster with ColdFusion 8.This book also covers the new features of ColdFusion 8 Update 1.

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Creating a Winning E-Business Review

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(More customer reviews)This book can open a person's mind to see how many opportunities actually exist out online. This book is general, which gives a broad view of what is needed in a online business, and what's recommended. But this book is a little out of date, published 2006. This book does not get into the technical aspects of online business, but it does provide enough knowledge to commence a business strategy.

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Creating a Winning E-Business, Second Edition illustrates the processes involved with planning, starting, and marketing a new e-business in today's environment. Four types of cases are used in this practical, entrepreneurial guide to provide a real-world approach, including a book-long running case study complimented by chapter specific real-world case studies that open and close each chapter. Additionally, case studies that feature both successful and unsuccessful ventures are found throughout the book enabling students to learn from the actions of others. A new chapter on Affiliation programs (such as Amazon.com's Associates program) is featured and all chapters are updated to reflect industry changes since the publication of the first edition.

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Brain-Based Teaching With Adolescent Learning in Mind Review

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(More customer reviews)Excellent book! A must have for anyone in the education of teens...from teachers to administrators. Although I am a parent of teenagers, I learned so much information on the physiology of an adolescent brain, and how it affects & influences learning during these developmentally important years. As an educator, it definitely changed, but also reaffirmed my approaches to teaching teens.

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Presents the newest research on the adolescent brain and offers a framework for linking brain-based teaching to students' social, emotional, and cognitive needs.

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Effective Online Teaching: Foundations and Strategies for Student Success (JOSSEY-BASS HIGHER & ADULT EDUCATION SERIES) Review

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(More customer reviews)I picked this textbook up at a conference, listened to the author speak about her book and her work, and cannot recommend this highly enough. Whether you are an academic administrator, an educator, a tenured faculty member with years of experience, or the new "adjunct on the block," this book was written with your needs in mind. The unique combination of a clear eyed view of the needs of the student and of faculty, along with a best practices educational psychology perspective makes this book an essential read for everyone whose decisions make a difference in the lives of students. A must read, period. No matter what page I turn to in this book, I find a perspective and a calm wisdom that has me nodding in agreement. There is a companion workbook that includes a cd-rom, also by the same author (I have not obtained that yet, but plan to). Start your semester, whether you are teaching online or not (the book is a handbook of pedagogy, not merely another book about online teaching) with this text... at once transformative and essential. (note to publisher--- change the cover, I saw this on a table at the conference in Madison WI this week, and passed it by specifically because of the cover... I picked it up because Tina's presentation sounded interesting, and was it ever!)

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In order to enable the widespread adoption of online education, faculty must be trained in the pedagogy of teaching in this medium. This book offers an understanding of how cognition and learning theory applies to an online learning environment. Through behaviorist, constructivist, and cognitive approaches it provides strategies for incorporating this knowledge into effective learner-centered teaching practice. Each chapter contains reflection and discussion questions and, with the use of the accompanying CD, can be used for self-directed learning. It is ideal for new instructors or those new to online teaching.

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Assessing Student Learning: A Common Sense Guide (The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book was required for one of my courses, but it's very easy to understand, and the tables are a great tool. It's not great for how to do program or services assessment, but is very good for assessing classroom learning.

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The first edition of Assessing Student Learning has become the standard reference for college faculty and administrators who are charged with the task of assessing student learning within their institutions. The second edition of this landmark book offers the same practical guidance and is designed to meet ever-increasing demands for improvement and accountability. This edition includes expanded coverage of vital assessment topics such as promoting an assessment culture, characteristics of good assessment, audiences for assessment, organizing and coordinating assessment, assessing attitudes and values, setting benchmarks and standards, and using results to inform and improve teaching, learning, planning, and decision making.Praise for the Second Edition of Assessing Student Learning"All of us engaged in assessing student learning will benefit from Linda Suskie's continued work to define and refine assessment concepts and strategies. She asks, and answers, the hard questions we all need to address to plan and implement a successful assessment program."?Randy L. Swing, executive director, Association for Institutional Research"Once again, Linda Suskie provides a clear and comprehensive guide to assessment. Her truly commonsense approach distills vast amounts of scholarship on the topic and provides excellent examples of good practice. This book will be an invaluable resource to faculty and administrators working on assessment."?Madeleine F. Green, vice president for international initiatives, American Council on Education"This book is a self-contained manual to assist anyone with the implementation of outcomes-based assessment. I highly recommend it to all of my students because Linda Suskie illustrates each step in great detail and answers common assessment questions clearly. I own two copies of the first edition, because one is always in use by one or more of my colleagues." ?Marilee J. Bresciani, associate professor, Administration, Rehabilitation, and Postsecondary Education, and codirector, Center for Educational Leadership, Innovation, and Policy, San Diego State University

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How to Tutor Your Own Child: Boost Grades and Inspire a Lifelong Love of Learning--Without Paying for a Professional Tutor Review

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(More customer reviews)I feel so lucky to have had this book put into my hands. My family has been having so much fun putting new learning activity ideas to work in our home. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to go above and beyond with the children in their lives.

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Tutoring today is a $4 billion industry (yes—billion) with companies like Sylvan LearningCenter and Kaplan Tutoring cashing in. What are parents of today's overextended students to do? If only there were a resource closer to home that was easy, free, and able to provide the same quality of service. But there is: you. Top professional tutor Marina Koestler Ruben empowers you to take a do-it-yourself approach to your child's after-school enrichment. As a parent-tutor, you will learn how provide holistic academic support for your children and create an intellectual environment in the home—strengthening your relationship and improving parent-child communication in the process. Ruben's accessible guide shows you how to balance big-picture curiosity with the academic nitty-gritties of homework assignments, organization, and electronic resources. Building on her proven "Six-Step Session" format, Ruben shares the secrets to tutoring children in any subject from kindergarten through high school—all with a warm, entertaining tone that will inspire you to inspire them.

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Building a Professional Learning Community at Work: A Guide to the First Year Review

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(More customer reviews)Before I read this book, I have to admit I wasn't quite sure what a "professional learning community" was. I must confess that, even though I'm a fan of co-author Bill Ferriter's blog, I generally skipped over his posts about this topic.
Through his book, I've learned that it's basically about strategically and intentionally developing a "community of learners" among school staff. Bill and his co-author Parry Graham have put together a very accessible step-by-step guide on how to go about creating this kind of culture, including ways to trouble-shoot potential challenges. The questions that it encourages readers to ask themselves and their colleagues might be the most important parts of the book.
In many ways, the process is similar to doing good community organizing (I spent nineteen years as an organizer prior to becoming a teacher) -- identifying potential leaders, beginning with a vision and having others adapt it to make it their own, focusing on conversations and relationships. This book makes it all applicable and usable in a school situation. In fact, I think it would be a useful book for anyone who is trying to create a collegial learning culture in any type of organization or business.
I have taught in two schools. The school where I've been for the past six years has been lucky enough to have a principal who has worked with teachers to use these methods -- almost to a "tee" -- and develop a culture of collegiality and professionalism that has truly transformed our school.
The one where I taught for my first year had none of these elements, and I believe that it contributed to its being permanently closed-down.
As its epilogue says:
While the challenges of reculturing schools into professional learning communities are great, the rewards -- successful, empowered practitioners and students who are learning regardless of circumstance -- are worth the effort!

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Building a Professional Learning Community at WorkTM: A Guide to the First Year addresses the real-world critical questions that arise when schools begin their work to become professional learning communities. How can administrators and teachers take the promise of a PLC and turn it into reality? How can school leaders transform theories of collaboration into highly effective nuts-and-bolts practices? This book is set in the context of one year in the life of a PLC. It chronicles the efforts of a building principal, Steve, and his teachers to build a true PLC at Central Middle School by focusing on the successes and challenges inherent in the process. Each chapter includes four elements. An opening story highlights an important event in the growth of a learning community. Lessons From the Front Line spotlights the successful decisions and common mistakes made by the characters in the opening story. The Relevant Theory and Research section introduces the theories of experts and connects them to the work of PLCs to provide readers with an approachable framework for understanding and a language for describing the complex, yet predictable, changes that are inevitable when schools restructure as PLCs. The Recommendations section offers a collection of suggestions from which to draw while working through change in a building. The lessons in Building a Professional Learning Community at Work are drawn from the authors own experiences working as teachers, building administrators, consultants, and coaches at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. It emphasizes that powerful collaboration can happen anywhere, but it requires hard work, purposeful steps, and a deep understanding of the PLC model. The tools in this book have been tested time and again by real teachers and teams.

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Fun with Photoshop Elements 4: Foto Fakery for Everyone Review

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(More customer reviews)Most of the Photoshop Elements books are written using keyboard codes that are only for Windows. This book uses very few shortcut keys and the ones it does use are universal.
In addition it is very well organized into specific projects that teach how to use the Elements features. Rhoda Grossman's style of writing is easy to understand and entertaining. The book does not have a CD but refers you to the web site where you can download images to practice the exercises. It is filled with tips and information that makes Elements behave like Photoshop.

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Fun with Photoshop Elements 4: Foto Fakery for Everyone is a fun, cheeky approach to using Photoshop Elements 4 in exactly the way you want to use it - for fun! You'll be able to get your feet wet and your hands dirty while learning the key tools and tricks through objective-based lessons.You'll be able to quickly complete tasks, andby the end of the book, you will be able to combine elements of two photos into one image, perform "head transplants," makeover your clothes or face, edit people into and out of images, and graft images together to create giant, mystical creatures. Plus, you'll find out how to use these images ongreeting cards, T-shirts, personalized calendars, fake street sign, and more. You can even gain inspiration at the companion website from posted reader creations! The possibilities are endless. Let us help you reel them in!

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Cross-Media Communications: an Introduction to the Art of Creating Integrated Media Experiences Review

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(More customer reviews)THE GOOD:
Content in the book is quite accessible and easily understandable by anyone new to the cross-media concept. It is an attractive combination: A list of renowed "contributors" and useful appendix contents.

The whole book in plain text is available online for free at the Carnegie Mellon Research Showcase.
THE BAD:
If you go for the Kindle version, you'll pay a small amount. Surprisingly, it is actually the same as the free version online from the Carnegie Mellon Research Showcase (plain text, no hyperlinks, no figures nor additional features available).
Printed version is different from the one at the "look inside" mode (the Taxonomy of Entertainment Technologies from the ETC figure -preface, page x- appears in color, while in the printed version everything in black and white). No proofreading work reflects in continuous typographical errors along the book.
Image quality in printed edition is very poor (like a printed gif image). Original figures were designed to be in color, so being in a black and white printed version, there is an extremely wide range of gray levels which are nearly impossible to distinguish as color codes. Pages 56 and 57 are left in blank without reason.
THE UGLY:
Author and ETC Press state that while there is a separate Cross-media DVD ROM available, it is not necessary to follow the exercises suggested along the book. Unfortunately, the truth is that the book is actually based on the DVD ROM contents. If this wasn't enough, every black and white figure in the printed version reads: "(full color version on the DVD ROM)", so the "optional" status of the DVD ROM is very questionable.
CONCLUSION:
In theory this book is a good starting point to understand the basics behind the cross-media communications concept. However, some of the contributors texts feel quite low in "substance" compared to their regular writings and interviews in other spaces. It has a bit of the "Aldrich Factor" in his book "Learning Online with Games, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds" where contents remain quite low to what the title and "authorities" recommendations at the front and back covers say it should be.

Ironically, in practice "Cross-Media communications: an introduction th the art of creating integrated media experiences" is an awful example of a cross-media implementation. Neither printed, nor Kindle or DVD ROM versions are designed to take profit of their real potential or even to make it useful.
LAST UPDATE (May 2011)
Browsing in Amazon recently, it seems that this titlte is being re-published by Thomson / Delmar Learning with an approx. retail price of USD $64.95. Expected publishing date was announced March 2011, but no information about the book release date is currently available (at least in Amazon). On "product details", it seems to have about a hundred more pages than the edition I have now (I'm not sure if this means more content).
If this new release means a quality updated (and revised) version of the edition I have now (which, for the suggested retail, it should be a "must"), great news for you all. As for me, It would mean an abuse in what seems has been the selling of a careless "draft version", in pieces (the "printed version" and the separated "DVD ROM"), before a decent publishing release.

Not a good experience.
Hope the author and the editor get this comments.


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This text is an introduction to the future of mass media and mass communications - cross-media communications. Cross-media is explained through the presentation and analysis of contemporary examples and project-based tutorials in cross-media development. The text introduces fundamental terms and concepts, and provides a solid overview of cross-media communications, one that builds from a general introduction to a specific examination of media and genres to a discussion of the concepts involved in designing and developing cross-media communications. There is also an accompanying DVD-ROM full of hands-on exercises that shows how cross-media can be applied. For the DVD-ROM: http://www.lulu.com/content/8179270

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Doctor, Your Patient Will See You Now: Gaining the Upper Hand in Your Medical Care Review

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(More customer reviews)As a Medical Librarian, I have the privilege of speaking to community groups on preparing for your next doctors appointment and navigating the internet safely. "Doctor, Your Patient Will See You Now: Gaining the Upper Hand in Your Medical Care" guides us through the highway maze of healthcare. This valuable resource should be among the tools we gather to educate and inform ourselves. Dr. Kussin's book is an atlas of information that will protect us, guide us, and help us reach the best decision for our medical care. No home or library should be without a copy!

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The state of health care in this country is routinely discussed in the media, at the office, and around the kitchen table. Yet as consumers of medical care, Americans often blindly accept medical advice that may or may not be relevant or even appropriate. Doctor, Your Patient Will See You Now is meant to turn on its head the old notion that medical care is dictated by the doctors who offer advice. Today, it's all about the patients who receive it. Bias, financial incentives, and preventable medical error are common to the point of inevitability and have proven resistant to reform. Patients increasingly and correctly feel that they are on their own in a large, bewildering, impersonal, and dangerous medical system. Offering an insider's perspective, Dr. Kussin provides the tools readers need to make informed decisions about their care, as well as the confidence to question their doctor's advice, seek out additional information, and discern the best path for their care. With this book, readers learn how to maintain a professional approach that, rather than straining the doctor-patient relationship, makes it stronger and more cooperative.

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