At the University of North Carolina at Asheville, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute offers a "Paths to Creative Retirement" weekend workshop to help people deal with identity changes in retirement, figure out how to find purpose and investigate new work opportunities.

WSJ: Are Retirement Conferences Worth It? | WSJ.Money Summer 2013

Tinkering and learning spaces invites visitors to build their own creations, such as animations or elaborate paths for marbles, while teenage employees in orange vests circulate around the floor to offer guidance.

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Adaptive learning is a method of education that seeks to personalize learning by using sophisticated algorithmic technology to continually assess students' knowledge, skill and confidence levels and design targeted study paths based on the resulting data to bolster students' understanding in the areas where they need to improve the most.

ENGADGET: McGraw-Hill reveals the SmartBook: an 'adaptive' e-book for students