Ilumina Public Library: El Paso County's All-Digital Library

The Human Race is a compelling adventure documentary set in the Kimberley Region - an ancient, remote and spectacular landscape in North Western Australia. Three men from different continents begin the race on the rim of Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater, the second largest meteorite crater in the world, and finish in the small coastal town of Wyndham.. Australian Aboriginal elder, 72 year old Jack Jugarie, travels with little more than his Dreamtime knowledge...

Arguing the World is the story of four brilliant and engaging men caught up in the central struggles of our time. This enthralling film creates a vivid picture of intellectual life in the 20th century. For more than half a century, Irving Howe, Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer and Irving Kristol have all passionately believed that ideas can change the world-especially their ideas. And they have been fighting over those ideas ever since they entered New...

Émile Durkheim is often referred to as the father of sociology. Along with Karl Marx and Max Weber he was a principal architect of modern social science and whose contribution helped established it as an academic discipline. "The Division of Labor in Society", published in 1893, was his first major contribution to the field and arguably one his most important. In this work Durkheim discusses the construction of social order in modern societies, which...

Borrowing or benchmarking one national education system against another is not necessarily a remedy or the most useful analytical tool for educational reform, yet these are among the most common approaches. Begin to understand why this approach falls short as Professor Wiseman lays out his general thesis for the course..

Five leading psychologists (Barbara Fredrickson, Roy Baumeister, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Carol Dweck, Philip Zimbardo) present aspects of the life and work of a professional social psychologist, and discuss some current issues in the field of social psychology.

A member of the Oprah Winfrey Documentary Club, the film Sons of Perdition follows three teenagers who escape from the chokehold of the secretive and unconventional polygamist FLDS religion and find themselves without family or money, struggling to make a future outside the constraints of the only existence they've ever known. Utilizing secret religious sermons and haunting testimony, the film also details the plight of the tyrannical prophet Warren...

Why are educational comparisons so popular? Should educational reform be driven by economic competition? Think critically about these questions as you examine which countries and cultures are and aren’t comparable, and consider the United Arab Emirates’ unique strategy of importing 50 Finnish teachers to reform two schools based on the Finnish model..

Do the achievement rankings paint an accurate picture of what’s happening in schools, or is the crisis politically manufactured? Get answers as you analyze common criticisms of national education systems through the lens of three recurring phenomena—achievement envy, the accountability expectation, and access entitlement—and look at approaches to shifting school culture..

Using the story of the most successful commercial brand in world history, The Cola Conquest is a revealing examination of popular culture in America and the exportation of American commercialism around the globe. Beginning its inquiry in 1895, The Cola Conquest traces the evolution of commercial supply and demand, and how this dynamic was birthed and shaped through a century of mass urbanization and industrialization. An eye opening critique of the...

Which is more important—gaining knowledge or new skills? Is standardized testing the best measure of what someone knows? What is the purpose of going to school—to prepare for college or a career? Address such questions as you probe Americans’ views on education and how it can be improved using internationally comparable information..