iBook textbook saves students $74,000
Students in the Core Teaching Skills and Lab course will be saving $216 each with an iBook co-developed by Thomas Vontz, professor of curriculum and instruction, and Lori Goodson, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction.
As part of a technology initiative in the College of Education, Vontz and Goodson created the iBook, “Core Teaching Skills,” that according to Vontz, “not only explores the big ideas of our class but also utilized a variety of media and resources.”
“One criterion was that we would focus on big ideas and not attempt to merely cover everything that might be important,” Vontz said.
Students can access the iBook on an iPad provided by the college. Vontz said that he intends to use and update this textbook every semester.
“Usually you are at the mercy of the textbook publisher to make revisions,” Vontz said. “We are already thinking about changes we would like to make for next semester.”
Conrow family K-State’s Family of the Year
Saturday, in the spirit of Family Day, Chimes Junior Honorary announced that the Conrow family was its 2014 K-State Family of the Year.
Ciara Chambers, senior in political science and Chimes co-chair of events, told K-State Today that the Conrow family was chosen based on their extreme dedication to K-State.
“We loved that in their application they stressed how their family lived out every part of the alma mater in their everyday life,” Chambers said to K-State today.
Nine Conrow siblings attended the Agricultural College in 1913. More than 100 years and four generations later, the Conrow family remains a K-State family. Over the years, the Conrows have been huge supporters of K-State academics and athletics; Ida Conrow McGehee, one of the first of the nine siblings, was honored back in 2001 when one of the rowing team’s boats was named after her.
Several generations of the Conrows from all over Kansas and Oklahoma were present at Chimes’ ceremony.
BTK’s daughter breaks family’s silence over new movie
Kerri Rawson, the daughter of BTK serial killer Dennis Rader, has finally broken the family’s silence after hearing about Stephen King’s new movie “A Good Marriage.” The movie was based on one of King’s short stories that was inspired by Rader and his family.
“(King is) exploiting my father’s 10 victims and their families,” Rawson said to the Wichita Eagle.
Rawson said she and her family had no idea what Rader was doing until the FBI arrested him in 2005. She said she feels that her family is being exploited by King’s upcoming movie and criticizes him for giving “my father a big head.”
Rawson also said she believes that King’s novels might have influenced her father in some of his killings. She has suggested that any money that King makes off of this movie should be donated to programs that support domestic abuse or the police.
