Excel Benefits

Excel system MIS 241-001 NC A&T State University A. Define the competitive advantages of an Excel system in general. An Excel system is very useful in the business world allowing many tasks to be overcome more effortlessly.One advantage is calculations enabling issues to be solved with few errors when dealing with placement of numbers and topic in there needed category; along with number placement there is also so many tools and formulas that make finding an answer so much easier, instead of inputting the mathematical calculations for hours on a piece of paper or entering a formula over and over again an excel system allows this process to be done all at once cutting down on redundancy and error. B.Achieving competitive advantages using information systems. When a company is involved with technology that company is thus allowed to grow and change when change is needed. Information systems are achieving this task thought out the business world, helping to improve efficiency and cu tting down redundancy. This achievement over all allows many companies who are at the cutting edge and using technology to its full potential to have personal achievements of there own, a competitive advantage over there competitors.Technology for a company can be very helpful may it be cutting down cost, cutting down redundancy, improving efficiency and workflow or even allow visibility for improves about their competitors. C. Achieving competitive advantages using Excel. Excel has been in use for years within many businesses even still today; one main function of excel is it allows you to organize, manipulate, and change data that has been entered into excel. Over all for this reason excel can provided a competitive advantage if the data being recorded is used correctly in a way that can only improve business function.This data in turn can be produced into valuable information and used for business intelligence to improve on areas that are not preforming to levels need and really just getting down to the core of an issue by using valuable information. D. Providing three examples/areas of using IS/Excel to achieve competitive advantages and explaining how they are done. Excel allows the user to input data then take that recorded data and covert this recorded data into information that can be used to target, track, and understand the current status of a company, over all utilizing and creating business intelligence.However, on the other hand most company’s have no reason not to involve information systems into there company strategy Information systems in one way can allow a company to connect information from different departments, even using a server and multiple computers to cut down company cost and improve networking between different departments. Another asset of using information systems is that it can allow transitions and shipping to become more visible and even understandable making this process only more simple and effective.

Being Human

As we all know that we are all human beings with uniqueness. Each one of us has different and unique traits, personalities, features and is in total different from an animal or any creatures on the earth. This means to say that we as a human being cannot be like another animal or machine on earth. We have our own set of feelings, habits, likes and dislikes, etc. In fact it can be said that we are probably the only creatures on earth that give priority and importance to relationship and love. However, since these aspects are basically the study of mind we cannot claim that love does not exist among other creatures.Many of us who are used to having pets at home understand the extent to which an animal can express love. However, we cannot judge of the concepts of sin, reasoning, self-awareness, critical thinking, individuality, emotions, empathy, etc. in case of animals. Individuals with psychological problems, sadistic personality disorder, transgressive behavior, cannibals and murdere rs can therefore be considered as being inhuman. There are also instances when human beings under the effect of drugs, neuroscience, introspection, and experiences cause irreversible changes in their traits and characteristics.There are several literatures that talks about the stories of people who were inhuman. There are people who are more â€Å"humane† than the humans around them. This, perhaps, is what really the meaning of being human. There are many people today who are arguing that the present trends in science and technology has kept man and god together. For instance, technologies such as cloning and stem cells have brought in the capability to create a whole new organism. Human beings or for that matter any organism is a result of natures cloning.However, today manmade cloning is a subject of controversy and has raised several ethical questions. There are several arguments made for and against cloning. Some have put forth valid arguments stating the immorality of cl oning. Others use the religion argument saying it goes against God's intention (McCoy n. pag). For any technology to progress and produce beneficial results it is essential that we look at the positive impacts that these technologies may have on the society. There are several researchers who have tries to divine the word being human. For instance, â€Å"Rev. Mitsuo Aoki, Ph.D has said that â€Å"The greatness of aging is to enable you to realize for the first time the deeper meaning of that it means to be human. Not the religious, not that, but more human and it's only in this process of aging that this quality of being human is realizable. You begin to understand the nature of faith, the meaning of hope. And so hope is not about something you achieved, but the life that is always shining in front of you†¦ Is beckoning you. And you only understand that in the process of aging. It's amazing what has been manifested in this process. That beyond all these things is something we call love†¦love. † (KGMB9) Different group of people define this term differently. For instance, â€Å"the constructivists state that Human Nature is a simple cultural artifact†. Sociobiologists, however, are determinists. They consider that human nature – being the inevitable and inexorable outcome of the inhuman ancestry – cannot be the subject of moral judgment†. Human dignity is indeed used to indicate that all human beings have intrinsic worthiness. Every human deserves unconditional respect and is not related to any difference in age, sex, anthropological origin, health, political boundaries, religion, or personal history.In other words it can be said that these are exclusively human. According to the Catholic thought â€Å"human dignity† is linked to an array of human life issues. For instance, it includes health care ethics. In other words catholic moral thoughts are the basic tradition’s understanding of common justice, th e common good, and the right to life and the right to health care in all aspects (Ascension Health). We as human beings have the right to choice and can select what we want in our life. This is not true in the case of animals.Self organizing is another aspect of human beings that is rare in other animals. We live as a social being and participate in the political system. The term being human can be easily understood if we know the meaning of being inhuman. Inhuman means lacking kindness, pity, or compassion or being cruel to other human beings, nature, or any organism. These acts are easily recognizable and are to a greater extent disliked by the majority of us. Besides, the ability to communicate to each other using different languages, the educational background, the society and the impact of religion makes us more human.Morality and immorality is the term that is used to define if a human being can be considered being human or inhuman. Additionally, the concepts of mortality/immo rtality mirror on the promises of life and the predictability of death. It is throughout human development, even for early man called the Neanderthals, this concept has been dominant and in some cultures it is believed that life after death is a reality. The present state of knowledge of the human being is one which has been developed using the special skills and intelligence of human beings.However, it is more by the materialistic thinking of modern technological science. We as human beings need to be more compassionate towards other creatures, nature and think of the development in a sustainable manner. It is also important to realize that we are human beings and not machines. Often times, in today’s run for success and fame, people are not realizing the basic needs of self, family as well as other related organisms. Cooperate world is more like using humans as machines to make profit, to achieve targets and generally think of the human body as being merely an elaborate mac hine which is a real problem.It is essential to realize that we as human beings need to be human to ourselves and other fellow human being with all the non-material aspects of the human being- thinking, feeling, attitudes, emotions, mores, imagination, etc. Work cited Ascension Health. Principle of Human Dignity (2007) KGMB9. The Deeper Meaning of Being Human†¦ Love (2008) McCoy, L. Lloyd's pro cloning essay. (1998).

You can chocse name for topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

You can chocse name for topic - Essay Example The company develops a system that combines various password preferences and any other payment platform into one single click in the form of a button. Mae’s colleagues become active in the company’s social media platform and pressure mounts on her to join in (Eggers, Page 25-85). The company is more of a control freak as its quiet policy requires every member of the organization to join its social media platform on the basis of truth and transparency something it later envisions to do to all the U.S citizens. Everyone appears comfortable except Mae’s ex-boyfriend who is of the opinion that they should not record every single detail of their daily lives. The book brings to fore the argument as to whether it is right to expose every detail in our lives (Eggers, Page 36-96). According to Mae’s ex-boyfriend, some issues about our lives should never be let out for the whole world to know. Privacy is paramount and the whole world should not be aware of where we are and the things we do at every time. This amounts to privacy trading whereby we give every detail of our life with the hope that we will receive some kind of global connectedness which in the real sense is none existent. We end up losing our self-sovereignty as our privacy disappears the moment we expose every detail about our life to the whole world as it happens to Mae in the book The

Change Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Change Management - Essay Example The first stage involves creating a sense of urgency and advocating for change through strong leadership. Kotter advises organizations to hire new leaders or designate change champions who act as the driving force of change (Kotter, 1996, P. 125). The second stage is the engagement of senior managers in the implementation of change. Senior managers form a guiding coalition which is committed to excellence through renewal. This coalition exists outside normal hierarchy and is guided through efforts and the commitment of the top management. The next stage is the creation of a vision by the guiding coalition. The vision is a guiding strategy that clarifies the direction which the organisation intends to take. The ideal vision is brief and concise (Kotter, 1996, P. 125). The fourth step is communicating the vision through newsletters and speeches. If downsizing is part of the vision, new growth possibilities and commitment to fair treatment of those who are laid off is critical. Executives should constantly use the existing communication channels to broadcast the vision. The next stage involves removing of obstacles to change such obstacles include constraints in the compensation or performance appraisal systems and a rigid organizational structure. It is important for the appraisal and reward system to be consistent with the vision (Kotter, 1996, P. 125; (Wilson, 1999, P. 57)). The transformation process should accommodate short-term wins. As such, the process should set short-term goals to be met and celebrated. Managers should actively design ways to obtain performance improvements and to achieve objectives with the people involved being rewarded and celebrated. Victory is not attained until the changes are embedded in the organisation culture. Rather than declaring victory managers should use the milestones achieved by short-term gains to tackle bigger challenges (Kotter, 1996,

Strategic Corporate Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Strategic Corporate Finance - Essay Example An investor must be paid some price for this sacrifice (Brigham & Weston, 2009). So the future value of the dollar-assuming a positive rate of interest-will always be higher than its present value. Another reason for interest being charged on capital is that capital is one of the factors of production that can give access to men, materials and machinery, help automate and speed up processes and productivity in a short time and this is why the demand for capital attracts a price called the interest rate (Rao, 2011). Why is it Important for Financial Managers to Understand the Concept of Time Value of Money? Finance is the lifeblood of business and industry. Everything from running the day to day operations of an enterprise to meeting financial needs for future plans requires money. In fact investing surplus funds to get the best possible returns as well as keeping sufficient liquidity in the asset and liability mix is a key function of financial managers. They look at both present and future plans of the business and consider how to achieve these in the light of financial requirements (Crosson & Needles, 2008). This is why an understanding of the time value of money is of key importance to financial managers. They can match the funding and investment portfolios of the enterprise to get the best returns (Mathur, 1979). Calculations of the Future Value: a. $54,298 if invested for five years at a 7% interest rate FV= PV (1 + r)t FV= 52948(1 + 0.07)5 FV= 52948(1.07)5 FV= 52948 x 1.225 FV = $ 64,861. b. $99,112 if invested for three years at a 4% interest rate FV= PV (1 + r)t FV= 99112(1 + 0.04)3 FV= 99112(1.04)3 FV= 99112 x 1.125 FV = $ 111,501. c. $121,124 if invested for seven years at an 2% interest rate FV= PV (1 + r)t FV= 121124(1 + 0.02)7 FV= 112124(1.02)7 FV= 112124 x 1.149 FV = $128,830. d. $929,129 if invested for ten years with a 0.9% interest rate FV= PV (1 + r)t FV= 929129(1 + 0.009)10 FV= 929129(1.009)10 FV= 929129 x 1.09373 FV = $1,016,216. Calculation s of the Present Value: a. $455,126 to be received three years from now with a 4% Interest rate PV= FV/(1 + r)t PV= 455126/(1 + 0.04)3 PV= 455126/(1.04)3 PV= 455126 x 0.889 PV = $404,607. b. $289,231 to be received five years from now with a 5% interest rate PV= FV/(1 + r)t PV= 289231/(1 + 0.05)5 PV= 289231/(1.05)5 PV= 289231 x 0.864 PV = $249,896. c. $921,000 to received two years from now with a 12% interest rate PV= FV/(1 + r)t PV= 921000/(1 + 0.12)2 PV= 921000/(1.12)2 PV= 921000 x 0.797 PV = $734,037. d. $278,111 to be received eight years from now with a 1% interest rate. PV= FV/(1 + r)t PV= 278111/(1 + 0.01)8 PV= 278111/(1.01)8 PV= 278111 x 0.923 PV = $256,696. Suppose you are to receive a stream of annual payments (also called an "annuity") of $309,723 every year for three years starting this year. The interest rate is 4%. What is the present value of these three payments? PV of Annuity= PVA= A(PVFA)i,n PVA=309723(PVFA).04,3 PVA=309723 x 2.775 PVA=$859,481.32 Suppose you are to receive a payment of $239,201 every year for three years. You are depositing these payments in a bank account that pays 2% interest. Given these three payments and this interest rate, how much will be in your bank account in three years? FV of Annuity= FVAn=A(FVFA)i,n FVA=239201(FVFA).02,3 FVA=239201 x 3.060 FVA=$731,955. Evaluation of Module 2 Case Assignment The Module 2 case assignment gave me an opportunity to learn about the time value of

Winslow Homer and his Eight bells Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Winslow Homer and his Eight bells - Essay Example The essay "Winslow Homer and his Eight bells" explores Eight bells of Winslow Homer. Some major artists create popular stereotypes that last for decades; others never reach into popular culture at all. Winslow Homer was a painter of the first kind. Even today, 150 years after his birth, one sees his echoes on half the magazine racks of America. Homer was not, of course, the first ‘sporting artist’ in America, but he was the undisputed master of the genre, and he brought to it both intense observation and a sense of identification with the landscape — just at the cultural moment when the religious Wilderness of the nineteenth century, the church of nature, was shifting into the secular Outdoors, the theater of manly enjoyment. If you want to see Thoreau's America turning into Teddy Roosevelt’s, Homer the watercolorist is the man to consult. That’s perhaps the most apt description of the man who have been a sincere chronicler of natural life in fin de sià ¨cle eighteenth century America, almost in a similar way that Thomas Hardy’s Edwardian poems related to that of England. But Homer was also in elements when he drew the sea, especially how humans react and relate to it when the water universe is at its most fierce. Homer’s place in Amercian art is secured though he was largely a self-taught artist who in the beginning of his career worked as a commercial illustrator. â€Å"†¦(Homer) received little instruction from masters or in art schools. He has studied nature faithfully and he has found his way.

Fieldwork observation report - Math summary Essay

Fieldwork observation report - Math summary - Essay Example The teacher informed the students of the main aim of the lesson before giving explanations of the content. The teacher would explain the learning outcome before introducing the new concept in the lesson. In order to maintain the smooth flow of the content, the teacher reminded the students of what they learnt in their previous lessons (Hewitt, 2013). The student would participate actively by giving answers to the questions as ks and the teacher would accept the correct answer through applauding the. After the interactive session of the previous lesson the teacher then engaged the students to learn the new ideas in the lesson. The central focus of the lesson was on the two digit multiplication. The students were given the examples from the word equations and were expected to solve the two sums each at the individual level before they proceeded to the next session of group discussion. The two digit multiplication required previous skills on solving the place value units together with single multiplication. The place value of numbers for tens and ones were necessary for the students because they formed the foundation of the next lesson which based on the two digits multiplications. The knowledge of the previous lesson guided the teacher into the main objective of the lesson which was to use word equation to do multiplication of two digit multiplication. The teacher explained two examples using the word equations to solve two digit multiplications. The students at individual levels were given two sums to solve after which the teacher marked their exercise books. The students were given their feedback which they later shared amongst themselves. The teacher explained the vocabularies used such the double digit number to mean that a number that has two digits and the meaning of the place values of tens once and multiplication by. The students got familiar with the terms and were able to use them in the group discussions

Truth and Senses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Truth and Senses - Essay Example When we attempt to find out the possibility of understanding the truth through our sensory organs, there are two stumbling blocks we should be aware of. First, can we be absolutely certain that our sense organs will always provide us with objective and reliable information Second, can we be absolutely certain that all information; the entire truth so to say, can be grasped by our sensory organs It is obvious that sensations can be inconsistent and contradictory and are as likely to lead one astray as they are to lead one towards the objective truth. Bertrand Russell provides a fine example of this in "The problems of philosophy", when referring to a table he says, Although I believe that the table is 'really' of the same color all over, the parts that reflect light look much brighter than the other parts, and some parts look white because of reflected light it follows that if several people are looking at the table at the same moment, no two of them will see exactly the same distribution of colors. (Russell, Bertrand 4) It would be pertinent to observe here that, had our senses given us the objective truth, then the sensation of color would have been identical for everyone. To further illustrate this point, take the example of sound. Our ears perceive certain wavelengths, which are interpreted by our brains as sound. There are supersonic and subsonic wavelengths that our ears cannot perceive. At the same time there exist creatures like bats which can easily perceive such wavelengths. Again, earthworms have no auditory perception at all. They pick up vibrations from their surroundings through their sensitive skin, and these vibrations help them navigate and find food. If we were earthworms we would argue that there is no such thing as sound! A simple experiment can easily be arranged here to judge the correctness of senses. We can take two buckets full of water, one ice cold and the other hot and dip one hand in each of these. After a while, take a bucket full of lukewarm water, and dip both hands in it. The hand which was earlier placed in the hot water bucket will feel cold and the other will feel warm. It is apparent from this small experiment that even in a limited way, our sensory organs don't provide reliable data. There are other, more insidious ways of tricking the senses, drugs being one. Senses can also lead us astray under conditions of extreme emotional duress. Keeping the above in mind, we can conclude that we can't always bank on our senses to provide us with correct and reliable information. Similarly there is reason to believe that our senses are often unable of providing us with complete information - so to say "the whole truth". In recent years, scientists have discovered that 95% of the contents of the universe are invisible to our current methods of direct detection. Observable universe, which can be perceived by the senses comprises of 5% of the mass of the actual universe. The rest is dark matter and dark energy. There exist realities that our senses can't perceive! There is a hilarious, but thought provoking episode in the third book of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. During a trial, one of the witnesses, "a strange and difficult man" called Prak is administered a drug to force him to tell the truth. Inadvertently or deliberately, the amount administered to him is excessive. The journalist

The Impacts of Managerialism on Human Service in Hong Kong Essay

The Impacts of Managerialism on Human Service in Hong Kong - Essay Example The paper tells that the public sector adopted different strategies like quality audit, strategic management, quality assurance, internal audit, and performance pledges linking performance with outputs in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of working institutions in Hong Kong. For the past few years, the management system on human service in Hong Kong underwent unprecedented transitions due to the challenges presented by the worldwide tides of human resource management and market trends. Analytical suggestions depict that, these transitions have negatively affected the quality of human service management and given rise to the increasing consumerism as well as intense institutional competition. Worst of all, these changes have led to the diluted sense of commitment and purpose of employees towards their working ideas. With this sense, management on human service and marketing trends has presented advent opportunities for organizations to use these experiences and encoun ters to demonstrate how they can turn crises and threats in this sector to positive opportunities for development and growth. With reference to this journal, Hong Kong institutions can use good management positive perspectives to increase choices and opportunities to motivate human service, increase employee efficiency, enhance performance, generate additional resources for experimentation and innovation. It should be borne in mind that, as people must be cautious about the negative impacts of management on human service in Hong Kong, they must also conceive this as an opportunity to strengthen organizational capabilities of human service in order to revitalize the core values of good management and strive for social justice and betterment. A review of education and market reform in Hong Kong From the year 2009 to 2010, the government of Hong Kong had presented a review of implementing a new system of senior secondary education. This section will give a review of educational and soc ial service organizations reforms and discuss issues arising from good management approach incorporated in the reform. The growing impact of globalization affected educational development worldwide. Due to the need to maintain the countries’ competitiveness in the global marketplace, governments around the globe start reviewing their systems of education and policies and initiated different educational reforms in order to enhance the global capacity of their countries’ manpower and thus improve their competitiveness. Such reforms affected Hong Kong’s educational system due to economic rationalism and management. The economic rationalism focused on promoting productivity and growth of the economy and pursued greater efficiency as well as the development of a competitive production culture. On the other hand, the managerial approach focused on objectives of achieving maximum efficiency in educational reform by creating impacts of change that required the governmen t of Hong Kong to bear the costs of good management within the education sector.

Gmos and Organic Food Essay Example for Free

Gmos and Organic Food Essay Why spend more money on organic food? Why are GMO products lasting longer? These are commonly asked questions which will be explained. By the definition of GMO products, they encompass alimentary products grown from seeds that have been genetically altered. Organic products are those that are grown under the traditional way, without any intervention of Bio-engineering, and also without the usage of chemicals, known as pesticides. The Author, Michael Pollan in both, â€Å"Omnivore’s Dilemma† and â€Å"In Defense of Food† makes an extensive and detailed analyzation of the production of food now days. The big corporations (farms) are now known as manufacturing factories; where practically all the elements of their production process are strictly controlled. This highly technological system reduces the nutritional value of their products and in many cases their flavor as well, but it guarantees high volumes and longer shelf life of the products. An example of a food that would be known as a GMO would be tomatoes, which would be less healthy and again it wouldn’t taste the same as an organic one. Organic products are grown by small farmers according to old farming techniques. These products do not need the addition of micronutrients like GMOs; they maintain all the nutritional values and the original taste. Unfortunately, small farmers can not satisfy the demand that the market needs, let alone, the prices are higher. For example, if you were to sell organic tomatoes, you would have to need to sell them locally. If a company such as organic valley were to be ship organic products from California to New York, with them having shorter expiration date, they would end up going bad. It would be hard for everyone to have the budget to buy and eat organic food; even expensive restaurants don’t use organic food. So, what is better? Feeding a large growing population with GMO products; or to go back to square one, and run the risk of not having enough supply and have the prices skyrocket. At the end of the day, people will eat more GMO food for not everyone has money to buy organic food.

Analysing The Age Of Global Tribes Philosophy Essay

Analysing The Age Of Global Tribes Philosophy Essay In The age of global tribes, Amin Maalouf presents two themes; religion as the main identifier in now a days and globalization. He discusses these in parallel, demonstrating how they affect and shape one another. He approaches the issue of religion by attempting to analyze how it came to be that specific aspect of identity that everyone seems to be holding on to presently through a series of questions resonating around the source or reason for this global drive back to religion. He provides some probable answers attributing this phenomenon, as he calls it, for example to the fall of Communism and Marxism and how their goal of obliterating religion back fired, hence making religion the sole refuge for the oppressed. The authors position is clear through out this chapter, for although, hes personally not against religious affiliation and he believes that religion is always going to be a present factor no matter how dynamic the equation of life got, he still stands against religious affiliation being the primary or sole form of identification and declares that we are in a need for an other aspect of association He calls upon a separation of church and identity and states that if religious affiliation were to be replaced, it ought to be with something more humane and not the opposite. When addressing the issue of globalization, Maalouf describes its power of propagation and how in the face of such a strong phenomenon, religion is being chosen as the shield and sought as a refuge since it seems to be comforting and fulfilling both urging needs of spirituality and identity. This is a very interesting chapter from his book, as it discusses an extremely real and present phenomena, the battle between identity and globalization. One could take such a dilemma lightly dismissing it as a natural reaction to change, but what one must realize is that like any battle ever fought, its the lessons that one learns while fighting that are more valuable than the outcome itself. We, as individuals should be concerned about this ongoing conflict, one that we are involved in without even being aware of. We take it for granted that we know who we are and where we stand but when faced with a crisis, things shift drastically and we surprisingly find ourselves on sides we might not have known even existed. Thats what this excerpt invoked in me, while reading it, especially when the author presents the idea of how one is in fact closer to his contemporaries than to his ancestors, elaborating this through the two types of heritages that he calls vertical and horizontal. Our ho rizontal heritages seem to affect us more than we realize, this is something to seriously reflect upon and understand since we do by habit or denial tend to hold ourselves in regards primarily if not solely of the verticals level point of view. For this battle to end, we all should find a way to mingle these two phases of our heritages within us in order to achieve inner peace. This should be taken on an individual level; every part should heal itself in order for the whole to be able to achieve harmony. Globalization like any other phenomenon is a medium; it has both good and bad in it. Why do we take it as a habit to scorn upon the objects, means or mediums rather than the persons who use them to do bad? These mediums are not bad or good by nature but they hold the potentiality of being one or the other, depending on whos using them. They are in a state of neutrality until used, and hence the outcome if bad should therefore be attributed to the person and not vice versa. The author in this chapter tries to show the potential good that globalization can bring in that it can in fact help direct the worlds attention to a global identity. The only aspect that we all should hold as primary of our identities, is our humanity, thats the type of lineage that we should strongly identify with, thats what we all have in common , thats what we all are no matter what . Admitting that common bond will in no way make us less of the individuals that we are. How did union come to mean loss? Why is it ok to belong to a certain group but suddenly its threatening if its on a universal level? On the contrary, I find it personally to be inspiring and strengthening to belong to such a universal lineage, especially one that is as certain and as real as humanity. Because coming to think of it, anything else in the world is taken now a days by words or actions, making it a complex and unstable foundation for intentions and motives are involved and one can never manage to know these for sure but humanity is the only aspect of ourselves that is undisputed; one cannot pretend to be a human being! Of course, history is full of examples of certain characters that lacked humanity in them as shown by their actions and thoughts but these I insist remain an exception. I find myself standing on Maaloufs side in his call for a universal identity , one that we all belong to by the virtue of our humanity and through which we all enjoy our fundamental rights and one in which our dignity is revered and preserved. For universality cannot exist without such concepts. Human dignity should be maintained above all. Unfortunately, realistically speaking we stand in a world very far from achieving this view any time soon whether it is due to political systems, materialistic notions or simply apathy , I honestly dont know. But I do hold conviction to one thing and that is in order for us to embody such a vision, we will have to start with ourselves first, this has to be fought on an individual level and once weve all dealt with it ,well realize that the battle is already won.

Pursuasion Essay :: essays research papers

There he stands atop the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial, in the nations’ capital, at a podium, speaking to the world. The crowds faces full of hope. Ears opened wide and clear, for the Dr. is speaking today. He is speaking from the heart and telling the nation that he has a â€Å"DREAM.† Dr. King had a dream and as most people think that it is geared towards blacks and whites, it’s not. Dr. King wanted equality between everybody. He wanted freedom from racism and prejudice throughout the nation. He was very good in getting the emotional perspective of persuasion across to his audience. King was a very inspirational man; his words were so true and full of meaning. He spoke to everyone and got everybody involved. This is why people followed him and why I think this is the most persuasive piece we have read. He not only implies his wants but he carries along with him the wants and needs of every man or woman ever treated poorly because of the color of their skin or their beliefs. There is a certain unexplainable meaning and feeling when a man like King steps up in front of the world and says, â€Å"I have a Dream.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I chose King’s speech because it has so much more meaning and history behind it than the others. He pulled me into his world and showed me the way God intended it to be. His constant uses of virtually every form of persuasive writings are some of the best that can be used to pull an audience in. It has a greater meaning to it than say, Ginsberg and/or Shakespeare, these are more or less poetic displays of writing and in Shakespeare’s case this is a fictional story. King has grown up in a society that has been raised to hate anything that isn’t the same color as them. King exclaimed it wonderfully when he said, â€Å"I have a dream one that one day my children will not be judged be the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.† These are such powerful words that really make a person think. They make you think about how you’re conducting your life right now. Are you treating everybody with the same courtesy and re spect, or are you singling out certain races because for some reason or another you have a negative view towards them?

An Introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorder Essay -- Diseases/Disorder

Introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorder Autism spectrum disorder has become the most common neurological and developmental disorder diagnosed in children today. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012) estimate that 1 out of every 88 American children have been properly diagnosed. There is no known cure for autism, and the inconsistencies of the symptoms of autism in each case make it difficult to target a particular set of effective treatments. However some behavior management therapies, specifically physical therapy, may help to significantly control the unwanted symptoms in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Symptoms. Children begin showing symptoms of autism as early as twelve months of life, making two to three years old the typical age of diagnosis. The symptoms of autism are truly of a spectrum, hence the name, meaning no child is affected by the disorder in quite the same way. However, symptoms of autism are generally categorized into three basic areas of impairment, the first of these being sociability. Most children with autism have trouble comprehending basic social situations. A child with autism likely makes little eye contact, fails respond to other people in their environment, and reacts inappropriately when others show extreme emotion. It is common for children with autism to misread emotional cues because they focus on a person’s mouth while speaking instead of their eyes as would an unaffected person. Likewise, people may have difficulties understanding the emotions of an autistic child. Many times their body language or tone of voice will not match the emoti on that they are trying to express. The second area of impairment is communication. Children with autism ... ...#pub12 Nicholson, H., Kehle, TJ., Bray, MA., & Heest, J. (2011). The Effects of Antecedent Physical Activity on the Academic Engagement of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Psychology in the Schools, 48(2), 198-213. Ospina, MB., Krebs, SJ., Clark, B., Karkhaneh, M., Hartling, L., et al. (2008). Behavioural and Developmental Interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Clinical Systematic Review. PLoS ONE, 3(11). Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19015734 Petrus, C., Adamson, SR., Block, L., Einarson, SJ., Sharifnejad, M., & Harris, SR. (2008) Effects of Exercise Interventions on Stereotypic Behaviours in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Physiotherapy Canada, 60(2), 134-145. United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2012) Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html

The Effects of Violence in the Media Essay -- essays research papers

The Effects of Violence In the Media â€Å"Someone just got shoot on the streets due to the violence in the media.† That is what some people are saying that violence in the media is the cause of that. The controversy of the effects that violence has on people has been going on for a long time. This paper is going to prove both sides of the controversy and let one decide which side is right. Violence is on the news and on everyday action shows. Theses everyday shows are targeted for the kids of the world who are in the stages which are important for their lives. At this point in their lives the kids can make life changing decisions the violence on TV has some effects on that decision. One might watch a scene from â€Å"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles† which may show them betting up a bad guy for trying to hurt someone. â€Å"The consequences of killing, especially by the "good guys," are seldom shown.† It doesn’t show the turtles getting in trouble for hurting someone it shows them as being the good guys. In real life you won’t be going around betting people up with out getting into trouble as well. It’s not like the kids won’t see so act of violence on TV for there is 50-60 times more violent commercial TV for the children then for the adult’s prime-time programs. Do you try to stop that by putting up parental controls on your TV? If you do that you have the protection on your TV but what about the TVs at their friend’s houses? â€Å"The typical American child watches 28 hours of television a week, and by the age of 18 will have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence.† With all of that violence on TV there is a good chance of a child thinking that violence is the answer to all their questions. Yet it isn’t just the TV that brings us the violence there are other factors. â€Å"Girls who watched more than an average amount of violence tended to throw things at their husbands. Boys who grew up watching violent TV shows were more likely to be violent with their wives.† This is true but what if you didn’t watch the violent TV shows but your parents acted that way to each other? Would you turn into a wife better or would you turn into a caring person? This hasn’t been proven so I can’t give you an exact answer. What I do believe is that children look up to their parents ... ...eed to be able to perform your best when you are in reality. One bad thing about thinking you are in the dream world is that you might think that you are in that dream world all the time. â€Å"He was blaming the doctors and nurses for his pain, since on TV getting shot didn't seem to be all that big of a deal.† This is showing that some people can’t realize when they are out of that dream world. If they don’t realize that they are out of the dream world then they might act the same way as they see on TV. They might just go and bet someone up because they were doing something that they didn’t like or they were doing something wrong. â€Å"Children who watched one to three hours of television each day when they were 14 to 16 years old were 60 per cent more likely to be involved in assaults and fights as adults.† This is saying that people might act like the people in the TV shows that they might watch in real life. Take for instance someone just watched â€Å"Fight Club† they might turn around and start fighting each other for sport and think that they can get away with it. If you are doing that in your own home that is ok but when you bring it out onto the streets you could be arrested for it.

A paper about Apollo 13 Essay

On April 11, 1970, three men were scheduled to fly to and land on the moon. The mission labeled Apollo 13. Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell made-up the original crew members of Apollo 13, but because of an inner-ear surgery, Alan Shepard felt unprepared to fly Apollo13. Jim Lovell, the commander of Apollo 14, was then approached and asked if he would mind switching flights with Shepard. Jim did not think there would be a great difference between the two flights and wanted to get back to the moon. He agreed and his crew began training. (Lovell and Kluger, 60-61) Jim’s crew included Fred Haise, Ken Mattingly, and himself. They gladly accepted their mission. Little did these men know, however, their flight was going to be riddled with problems and be forever remembered for them. The three men should have known that their mission was fated for mishaps when at the last minute Ken Mattingly was removed from the crew because of an accidental exposure to German measles. He was replaced by the â€Å"playboy† Jack Swigert. Jack, who was not taken very seriously by the public, became a huge asset to the crew of Apollo 13. The chosen men of Apollo 13 were to become the second group of men launched towards the moon. Their mission was clear: Get to the moon. Apollo 13 planned to land in the Fra Mauro Formation, an extensive geologic unit covering large portions of the moon. The men were to exit the spacecraft and perform numerous experiments for NASA. These experiments would give information on the composition of the moon’s surface and its formation. Age dating would have been done when the samples returned to earth. This shows the age of the formations and provides an idea of where the moon falls on the geologic time scale. (Godwin, 63) Ken Mattingly, Jim Lovell, and Fred Haise were ready for their mission. This is what they had trained their whole lives for. Devastatingly, Ken Mattingly was not allowed to fly with the crew of Apollo 13 to the moon. Seventy-two hours before the flight launched into space, NASA informed Ken that he had been exposed to the German measles and would not be able to continue with the mission. (JSC) The entire crew including the back-up crew was exposed to the disease. Back-up LEM pilot, Charlie Duke, became sick after being exposed to the disease because of his son.  Even though the entire crew, including the back-up crew had been exposed, Ken Mattingly had not been immunized and would endanger the flight if he were to become sick while in space. (Lovell and Kluger, 88) NASA has strict rules about such things and knew that a sick crew member could not be trusted completely as an operator of a spacecraft. Ken’s crew rallied behind him and fought NASA so that Ken could join them on this mission. Unfortunately, NASA disregarded the crew’s arguments. Jim Lovell became Mattingly’s number one supporter, however. He wanted his friend with him and did not understand why Ken could not go into space. He asked the flight surgeon, â€Å"How long is the incubation period for this thing?† The surgeon replied, â€Å"About ten days to two weeks?† After more discussion about the fact that during lift-off Ken would be fine and when they reached the moon Ken would be healthy, Lovell asked, â€Å"Then what’s the problem? If he starts running a fever when Fred and I are down on the surface (of the moon), he can have that whole time to get over it. If he’s not better by then, he can just sweat if out on the flight home. I can’t think of a better place to have the measles than in a nice cozy spaceship.† (Lovell and Kluger, 89) When Lovell finished ranting, the surgeon still bumped Mattingly from the flight. Jack Swigert replaced Ken for the April 11th launch. Jack Swigert took the place of Ken Mattingly as Command Module pilot. Jack had a reputation as a rambunctious bachelor and had an energetic social life. The public knew of his behavior and during the flight, instead of watching late-breaking news, they watched talk shows that belittled him for such behavior. On April 13th, two days after the launch, ABC was showing The Dick Cavett Show. Dick had one comment about the space flight. He said, â€Å"And speaking of girl watching, did you know our first bachelor astronaut is on his way to the moon? It’s Swigert, right? He’s the kind of guy who they say has a girl in every port. Well, that may be, but I think he’s kinda foolishly optimistic taking nylons and Hershey bars to the moon† (Lovell and Kluger, 4). America knew him as â€Å"the bachelor.† Swigert, however, was quiet, unassuming, and hard-working. The only astronaut unmarried in NASA’s history, Swigert knew this was bad for his image in the 1960’s, but NASA kept him on because he was such a good pilot. Swigert and NASA knew that he was a good pilot, but his lifestyle not his qualifications had been publicized for the public to judge him by. Swigert served in the Air Force after graduating from the University of Colorado. During this time he was a fighter pilot in both Japan and Korea. After earning a Masters of Science from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1965, Swigert was selected by NASA in 1966 along with Ken Mattingly, Fred Haise, and nineteen other astronauts. (Godwin) The crew had trained for a good year before the flight was to be launched. During this year, the crew became so close that Lovell and Haise could interpret the nuances and inflections in Mattingly’s voice. This would become valuable when Mattingly would only be shouting commands at the two men while they tried to steer their lander. (Lovell and Kluger, 89-90) So it wasn’t that the crew of Apollo 13 did not believe in Swigert’s abilities, but they had trained with Ken Mattingly for so many months that they were afraid they would not be as successful. To their surprise, Swigert fit into the crew nicely. Forty-eight hours before they were to launch, NASA certified Jack to fly. (Lovell and Kluger, 89-90) With Mattingly left behind in Mission Control, Apollo 13 launched on April 11, 1970 with full faith it would make it to the moon. NASA launched Apollo 13 from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:13 p.m. (Godwin, 81) The launch went well. The only problems the crew encountered were with fuel cells and the fact that Swigert had not filed his tax returns yet. The Capcom, Joe Kerwin, asked the guys if they had completed their income tax forms. Swigert replied, â€Å"How do I apply for an extension?† Joe laughed. â€Å"Joe, it ain’t too funny. Things happened kinda fast down there and I do need an extension. I may be spending time in another quarantine when we get back, besides the medical one they’re planning for us.† After cracking up the entire mission control, Joe came back on saying, â€Å"We’ll see what we can do, Jack† (Lovell and Kluger, 92). The crew continued with regular business. Little did they know they would be dealing with much bigger problems than Jack’s taxes, but they would also be glad that they had him along. â€Å"Houston, we have a problem† (History Channel). Most people know this saying  well. They’ve said it when things go wrong in their own lives, but for the three men of Apollo 13 and the world it was the scariest phrase they had ever uttered or heard. Quickly after the ship was launched, a NASA technician discovered higher pressure on a helium tank than there was supposed to be. Nothing was done. After liftoff, Apollo 13’s second engine cut off two minutes early. To make up for this, the astronauts â€Å"burned the other four engines an additional 34.† (Space Exploration History) This resulted in a 1.2 feet per second speed gain. On April 13, 1970 after a television broadcast, the men were sent this message from mission control, â€Å"We’d like you to err, stir up you cryo tanks. In addition err, have a shaft and trunnion, for a look at the comet Bennett if you need it.† Jack Swigert did as he was told. (Space Exploration History) This le d to his now infamous phrase, â€Å"Houston, we have a problem† (History Channel). Jim Lovell described the explosion like this, † Fred was still in the lunar module. Jack was back in the command module, in the left-hand seat, and I was half way in between, in the lower equipment bay, wrestling with TV wires and a camera, watching Fred come on down, when all three of us heard a rather large bang – just one bang.† (Compton) All the men thought that the explosion was a joke being played by Fred Haise, but they quickly realized something was seriously wrong. Jim continues to describe his feelings by saying, â€Å"I guess it’s the kind of interesting to know what the feelings of the crew are when something like this happens. When you first hear this explosion or bang†¦you don’t know what it is. We’ve heard similar sounds in the spacecraft before that were for nothing†¦my concern was increasing all the time. It went from â€Å"I wonder what this is going to do to the landing† to â€Å"I wonder if we can get back home.† (Compton) The â€Å"bang† came from oxygen tank #2. The tank supplied oxygen used in the fuel cells, the primary energy source for Apollo 13. The astronauts were eighty-seven hours from home with only ten hours of back-up battery power. The battery power had to be saved for reentry into earth’s atmosphere. (Compton) With the help of mission control on the ground, the crew of Apollo 13 devised a plan to get back to earth safely. In 1968, NASA commissioned twenty-one panels to research aspects of the  Apollo spacecrafts. One of these panels included Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert. Their particular panel was to investigate in-flight fire emergency procedures. (Lovell and Kluger, 31) Jack had even written the procedures for malfunctions in case of such for the Command Module. (CD-ROM) So he and Lovell knew somewhat they way to get them back home safely. They planned to use the Lunar Module to survive. The LM was designed to separate from the Command and Space Module, land two astronauts on the moon, sustain them while they were on the moon, and carry them back to the ship in orbit. (Compton) The Command Module had to be shut down to save the batteries for reentry. Aquarius, the Lunar Module equipped for two men for two days now would have to contain three men for four days. Another problem that arose was the oxygen supply and the falling temperature. If the men continued to breathe normally, they would start breathing in their own carbon dioxide. This would kill them after a period of time. The men had to devise a plan to rid the ship of CO2. The next obstacle they had to tackle was the temperature. It ended up dropping to thirty-eight degrees in the Command Module. As all this was happening, the crew had to maneuver Apollo 13 around the moon, not to the moon, and towards earth. Once the crew was headed toward earth, the men in mission control were in complete control of the crew’s fate. Not only did NASA bring in the normal members of mission control to get the men back safely, but the Apollo 14 crew was there and so was Fred and Jim’s good pal Ken Mattingly. Together they all came up with a way to make an air filter that the crew could use to take away the carbon dioxide. While mission control and the others were hoping to get the men home, Marilyn Lovell and the other wives met at the Lovell home to pray for the crew. Even Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin watched coverage of the tragedy with Marilyn Lovell in her home. (Lovell and Kluger) All of the watchers on were glad when the men finally arrived home safely. The three men trapped in Apollo 13 were on their way home, but first they had to help Fred survive and say goodbye to a friend. Two days before the crew was to say goodbye to Aquarius and the service module, Fred Haise came down with a serious fever. His fever was due to a kidney infection he had  acquired from the lack of liquid intake the crew had been facing. During the time that Fred was battling his fever, the astronauts separated from the Service Module and the Lunar Module, powered up the Command Module, which they would use to return home, and Mission Control said its goodbyes with the famous quote, â€Å"Farewell, Aquarius, and we thank you.† Luckily, the power did return when the crew powered up the Command Module. (Space Exploration History) This had been a worry for the men and everyone at home. Two hours before splash down, Fred Haise reached a peak in his sickness. Jim glanced over at him and he had his eyes closed, hugging himself trying to stop from shivering. At this point Lovell wrapped Haise in a huge bear hug to warm him up. The shivering subsided and they all looked forward to the eighty degree weather in the South Pacific. (Lovell and Kluger) After being held captive in space for eighty-six hours and fifty-seven minutes with no idea if the would ever return home, the crew of Apollo 13 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. They landed only three miles from the recovery ship, Iwo Jima. (Compton) The landing is the most accurate landing in the history of manned space flight. Apollo 13 wasn’t the last flight to the moon, there were four others, but none of the men who had flown with 13 ever went back into space. Ken Mattingly was the closest astronaut to Apollo 13 to ever fly. He was part of the Apollo 16 mission. The men of Apollo 13 all retired from NASA shortly after their fated mission. Jim left in 1973 and went on to work in telecommunications. Fred’s Apollo 19 mission was cancelled and he left the agency in the late 70’s. Jack, the surprise hero of the mission, left the agency immediately after splashdown. He returned to Colorado and entered politics. (Lovell and Kluger, 366-367) In November 1982, he was elected to the U.S House of Representatives. Unfortunately, Jack Swigert died of bone cancer days before he was to be sworn in. For three men who were not supposed to fly to the moon together, the crew of Apollo 13 became closer than any other flight crew before and showed a courage never shown by astronauts. They never copped o ut. When thoughts of â€Å"poison pills† and suicide starting entering their minds, they kept their efforts focused on getting the spacecraft back home. (Lovell and Kluger, 1) They had a pride to up hold. They had the pride of NASA and the United States. All of the men  had been soldiers. Jack Swigert fought in Japan. He knew what it was all about. The mission clearly was to get to the moon, but after the explosion of the oxygen tank the mission became life. It became teamwork. When Fred Haise became ill, the other two crew members made sure they took care of him and brought him home. (Lovell and Kluger) And in return he made sure he got them at the correct angle so that they would not catch on fire or bounce off the earth when reentering the atmosphere. Everyone pulled together in space and on the ground to get these heroes home. They came together like a family in a time of need. For this, they will always be remembered and looked at as heroes of the United States Space Program. For a mission that was forced to be labeled a failure, Apollo 13 was a great success for humanity and NASA.

A Museum Trip

uMuseum trip 1) How have my field trip enriched my understanding of being a Singaporean? -The trip to the museum brought about an indelible experience. I understood the great history of Singapore and how our forefathers survived and fought through the World War 2. Being a Singaporean meant much more than just living a beautiful lion city, instead it is one with great history and commendable spirit of our forefathers that make us, Singaporeans proud of our country. ) What have I learnt from this visit? -I learnt that the success of Singapore was brought about by many of our ancestors/forefathers/great leaders, and the peace and stability in our country cannot be taken for granted. Regardless of race, language or religion, everyone must work together to build a conducive society for ourselves and the future generation. 3) What are the highlights and key observations of my visit? The highlights of the visit was the world war 2 exhibition where we saw the stages of the war, which include s the downfall and the rise of Singapore. Another highlight was how life was like, in the past, and it was an eye opening experience as it was what I never imagined. Little India trip 1) How have my field trip enriched my understanding of being a Singaporean? -Being a Singaporean Chinese, I hardly went to other cultural places except for Chinatown.However, a trip to little India helped me to understand the cultural values of another race in Singapore. It helped me to understand what their iconic places for common visiting were. 2) What have I learnt from this visit? I learnt the Indian Culture, when we had our meals at a famous Indian eatery, where the bare right hand is used to consume food without a use of cutlery. I also learnt that flower garlands were a common item used when worshipping their gods.Lastly, I also understood the Indian tradition by speaking to the owners of the flower garland shops. 3) What are the highlights and key observations of my visit? -The highlights incl ude a visit to the Tekka Market, where all the common Indian food were. It also includes visits to the Indian temples, small shops which sells accessories such as Indian bangles and others which specializes in selling flowers and garlands.

British Philosophy

The European Philosophy that was witnessed in the early to late seventeenth century is generally regarded as the period of enlightenment when the reaction of the empiricists replaced the Rationalists of the early seventeenth century Europe. Introduction The word philosophy has its origins from the Greek language, which means â€Å"love for wisdom†. When first used the word used to integrate all forms of love for education. It is only recently that it started being used to refer to a â€Å"special branch of inquiry† which is distinct from other sciences.(Conway, A. 122) The British philosophy is part of the Western philosophy that was in rise during the seventeenth century Europe that was characterized by a peculiar mode of living called â€Å"bourgeois society†. (John S. 237) The mode of living was also characterized by various forms of thinking that distinctly reflected the existent living lifestyles. The lifestyle and the thinking there-in is what gave rise to what is ailing the whole of humanity today.It gave rise to modern-day capitalism or what was referred to as the ‘bourgeois society. † (Conway, A. 123) Open social environment that existed in the pre-Revolutionary England heralded the beginnings of the British philosophy. During this period the social conditions were greatly influenced by various Empiricists from Britain who included Thomas Hobbes and Francis Bacon and later John Locke who played a significant role during the Restoration Period.The development of Bourgeois thinking in Britain was greatly influenced by the growth of natural science which saw the likes of Isaac Newton the father of modern physics (1642-1727) being one of the most prominent natural scientists from Britain, influenced its growth prior to the nineteenth century before the growth of the industrial revolution. (John S. 235) British Empire is generally credited with the development of a bourgeois revolution and was the first to â€Å"make an ind ustrial revolution.† This being the case the British rather than facing the challenges of working through theory saw the need to â€Å"accumulate material for theory to work upon instead. †(J. H. Muirhead 88) To achieve the revolution, the British realized the only way to challenge the existent of the feudal wisdom that was characteristic amongst the ruling class and achieve political and economic freedom, the only way out was via exploration, science technological advancement, industrial growth and profiteering. (Julian B & Jeremy S 69)The British bourgeois is strongly interrelated with the Empiricist philosophy of the seventeenth century and because it is credited with the great changes that were accomplished by the industrial revolution in Europe, it has the tendency to distrust all other theories and instead, depend so much on accumulated observation and experience. (Francois D L 23) Because of this reason the British have not featured prominently amongst the great names in the philosophy history. â€Å"British philosophy has not traditionally taken much of an interest in the lives of its great figures †¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"(Julian B & Jeremy S 70) The only notable British philosophers are Alan Turing and Bertrand Russell who were Mathematicians others include Adela Pankhurst Juliet Mitchell and Sheila Rowbothan who were British feminists. Conclusion British philosophy therefore did not churn out great philosophers as witnessed in other parts of Europe. Nevertheless, it is credited for the development of modern day capitalism that started of during the period of the Enlightenment paving way to the Industrial revolution.Works Cited Conway, Anne: The Principles of the most ancient and modern philosophy. Loptson. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1982. P122-123 Francois De Larrard: British Philosophy in the 17th and 18th Centuries: Thoemmes Press, 1992 p23-45 J. H. Muirhead: Contemporary British Philosophy: 1953 p 88 John Stuart Brown: British Philosophy in the Age of Enlightenment: Arnold Publishers. 2003 p234-237 Julian Baggini, Jeremy Stangroom: New British Philosophy: The Interviews: Routledge (1 May 2002) p69-70

Managing resources and controlling budget costs Essay

Managing resources of a business can be hard for the business they have to maintain the resources by doing various checks over the years. For example maintaining a physical resource like a building, can be challenging, but in order to maintain it, a business has to insurance the building and the contents need to be in place, if the building needs repairs then they need to be repaired in time, the building needs to have security systems in place such as, entry codes, cctv, gated areas and areas maintained regularly; the person in charge to manage this resource can be the site manager, it’s his responsibility, to keep everything in order; if he doesn’t the do anything about the repairs, install security etc. The building can be in serious danger since the business will have to pay more in order to maintain it. Another resource the business should manage is ICT, a business, e.g. Paapapii’s in order to maintain resources they need to purchase the appropriate software package, in order to work efficiently, they also have to provide training of computer software to employer’s in order to facilitate the work for them, and also the have to safe storage their data, if anything bad happens they can get their work back so they don’t slow down their sales. The person responsible to maintain this resource is the ICT manager. Furthermore businesses should manage their human resources, in order to recruit people that are qualified for the job, some people might have the right qualifications but they don’t have the right experience, by improving the human resources, your business will develop a recruitment and hiring process that engages the manager and makes them responsible for the right hire, they can develop an employee performance process to evaluate and fairly reward employees for their work and create an employee file checklist for retaining the proper documentation for all employees. This will make the business work more efficiently so they can achieve their goals. Managing the resources of an organisation and looking closely at its  budgetary control is absolutely vital in business. It improves performance over every department and gives the business management team a clear view on where they can expand and develop in the future. Every public limited company that allows people to buy shares within their business must publish their accounts so that investors can see how well they are doing and judge whether or not to buy their shares on the stock exchange. All the multinational companies have a clear view on their resources and budgets; this is evident from Tesco who have lists of all their resources and a clear cash flow all on one financial statement. They made profits of over  £2 billion in 2005 and this tells us that managing budgets and resources well really does improve businesses performance. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4435339.stm- BBC News. Managing the budgetary control effectively helps improve the performance of an organisation as, if you can mark up the break-even point on a chart of business, you can identify the point where your business has sold enough products or service in order to cover your expenses. This is crucial information for any business trying to avoid losses, knowing the point that you break even is a good target to reach and keeps everyone in your organisation focused and therefore improves performance. Furthermore, the margin of safety can also be found in order to allow the business to work out the amount of units by which sales can fall before the business starts to make a loss. This improves the businesses performance in hard times such as the current recession as the management team know how much security they have until they start making a loss. An example of the margin of safety could be when John Lewis has 65 units and a break-even point of 50 units. This gives them 15 units of lee way until they start making a loss. Another example of how managing the budgetary control and resources within a business helps improve performance is the effect of changes in fixed costs. When running a business there is fixed costs that are always the same, these include costs such as rent, insurance and road tax. Knowing the changes of your ‘fixed’ costs could save a lot of time and keep a more clearly  financial statement and management decisions. For example the government orders all insurance on cars to increase by 15%, this used to be a fixed cost however on the odd occasion it can change. Applying close attention to changes within ‘fixed’ costs can be crucial and will improve the performance of management decisions in the future as you have valid data to hand. The pricing in times like the recession for rent could always be changing and product prices can go up or down according to competitors within the marketing environment, using invalid information for predictions on what will happen with the business is suicidal and managing resources and budgets can cover this problem and in turn improve the company’s performance by making accurate marketing decisions that will benefit the company. Also, in any recession businesses need to insure their safety by keeping reserves from the cash flow cycle for emergencies. An emergency could render anything from a downturn in the market to an offensive attack on your business premises, keeping reservations will help soften the effects of these situations. Business analysts recommend that reserves should be maintained which will allow the business to continue for at least three months in the event of an emergency. Also having a high liquidity figure helps, this is the ability to turn assets or stock into cash to be able to pay bills. Making reservations and emergency funds will improve performance in the long run in poor economic times and help see your business through, giving each department a limited budget to handle and giving limits on resources. The importance of costs and budgets is extremely high within any organisation that wants to do well. The advantages of managing your costs and budgets are that it is easier to have a constant cash flow, cash flow is vitally important within all businesses as it helps pay the bills whilst you await debtors to pay for your services. Another advantage of managing your costs and budgets is that it helps you avoid getting into debt as you always know how much you have to spend and whether you can afford certain assets or advertisements. If the costs and budgets are not monitored the company could be working at a loss, with the information in hand that you are losing money and not even making enough profit to cover costs you could, as a result,  start dropping staff and maybe selling assets such as computers and vehicles that are, not necessarily not needed, but aren’t useful without the staff operating them. The business value will eventually decrease significantly as a result of an unmonitored financial system not checking the costs and budgets effectively. An example of a company that manages its costs well is John Lewis. They manage their costs and budgets effectively by having a whole department of finance and numerous staff working under their command. Their job is to look at all the costs and budgets of the store that they are allocated to and to see whether an investment of new advertising or a new product is financially viable with their budget. This way they can avoid spending large amounts of money that the company doesn’t have. Also, it is clear that they manage their costs well as their financial statement for the half year leading up to August 2009 saw a profit of  £86.3 million profit. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/sep/17/john-lewis-profits-drop- Guardian. Conclusion To sum up, the management of costs, budgets and resources all work co-ordinately to improve overall business performance. This is done in many ways but mainly in that it increases the break-even point, the margin of safety and can reduce overheads significantly, this all results to greater profits which is the core of all non-charitable organisations therefore making the management of resources and budgets vitally important. In my opinion anyone who starts up a business is to make sure that right from the start you have an effective budgetary control and a well-managed resource department. Make sure that you stay up to date with your marketing environment that is relevant to your niche market to ensure you gather correct information in order to make accurate marketing decisions. Any business that doesn’t have a good budgetary and resource control system is deemed to fail sooner or later and, if this is relevant to you, then I would re-design your business before it starts maki ng a gaping loss and you’re  left wondering why, without any accurate information to go by.

Technology plan Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Technology plan - Assignment Example echnology, therefore, assists the teacher and the students to develop a more personalized relationship, which helps both to learn from one another and to achieve their specific objectives as a unit and in a way, that both enjoy. Teacherkit is a technology developed to enhance classroom management and organization, assisting in the achievement of learning objectives. This paper will provide information concerning the technology and outline a plan through which the technology can be implemented in the learning activities. In any situation, change is always common and inevitable. Conditions that warrant change is from within and outside the main environment. In the education sector, changes in the environment especially the job market and the technological changes have always guided improvements in the way teaching and learning are practiced. Adoption of a change is however not easy. This is because the change involves the introduction of a new aspect, which requires the users to adopt a new method (Pitler, Hubbell & Kuhn 2012). This report will focus on the implementation of the teacherkit technology in the organization and management of the classroom. The features of this technology allow the teacher and students to interact through their individual devices in one platform. Having been a teacher for more than ten years, my experience with classroom management makes me feel that the adoption of the teacherkit technology will be an important milestone in enhancing organization and management of the classroom. My experience with adoption of change especially related to technology allows me to identify the various barriers to implementation of this technology and hence develop a plan for implementation that will minimize these barriers. This report, therefore, guides on the implementation of teacherkit technology in classroom management. The advantages of using technology in the classroom are many and cannot be ignored. Educators regard the adoption and

Impacts of Sarbanes-Oxley Act on UK Companies Essay

Impacts of Sarbanes-Oxley Act on UK Companies - Essay Example The law has eleven sections, each with a varying amount of subsections. Each title has tremendous effect on the business and legal environment, with titles ranging from auditing, inspection of registered public accounting firms, accounting standards, establishment of an accounting oversight board, auditor partner rotation, corporate responsibility for financial reports, and probation to personal loans to executives, among others. Sarbanes - President George W. Bush signed Oxley in July 2002. The authors of the law are Paul Sarbanes and Michael Oxley. Sarbanes is the longest serving U. S. senator in Maryland history, having won his fifth term in 2000. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, and a Harvard law degree. Sarbanes is the senior Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. Representative Michael Oxley was elected to the Ohio House in 1972 at the age of twenty - eight. Oxley has his undergraduate degree from University of Miami in Oxford, Ohio, and received a law degree from the University of Ohio. He is now the chairman of the House Committee of Financial Affairs. The largest part of the Sarbanes - Oxley Act is not all the sections that it covers in the law, not who signed it, or even authored it; it is how corporations will comply to this extensive piece of legislation. Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom all were under much scrutiny in the last couple of years because of personal loans given to executives for personal use. SOX bans the use of nearly all personal loans. These loans that corporations would give out to their executives were not really loans at all, but large sums of money, not expected to be paid back. Â  

Australian economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Australian economy - Essay Example It has also been volatile. The high rate of the terms of trade plays its part in increasing the real income level. The rate also acts in keeping the rate of inflation at lower levels. The ratio between the prices of exports and the imports is defined to be the terms of trade. If the terms of trade rise Australia will have the potential to buy more imports with smaller amounts of exports. The volatility in the terms of trade can be used to define the ups and down in the expending capacity of the consumers. The terms of trade has been less volatile for Australia since the period of 1980s.The variety of goods that are offered to the consumers and the global prices for the exports as well as the imports comprises the two main components of terms of trade. The developments within the environment outside the geographical boundary of Australia can influence the terms of trade. The terms of trade can rise if the price of coal raises more steeply than the price other ICT goods since Australia is a net exporter of coal. The exchange rates and the terms of trade shares close relation. The nominal exchange rates got reduced after the financial crisis of 1990s. The volatility of the import prices can be influenced by the regional influences but changes in the global prices can affect to change the prices of exports. ... Over the last decade and a half Australia turned away from comparatively price impulsive properties and took the initiative towards moving towards exports of goods whose prices can be more predictable in the global market (Australian Government Productivity Commission, 2012). The rural goods now consist of a major proportion of goods that are exported. The wide ranges of exports that are practiced by Australia consist of rural goods like vegetables and dairy products. It can be experienced that the exports of such goods has grown in the recent months and can be thought as one of the reasons for Australia experiencing a high rate of terms of trade. In due course of time the exports of the rural goods have risen. The following graph will show the terms of trade for Australia over the period under consideration. (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2011, p. 5) Question b Economic growth is related with terms of trade. It can be witnessed that term of trade rises when an economy is experiencing economic growth while the terms of trade falls when the economy is stagnated and is not witnessing any growth. Under such cases the terms of trade will fall (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2011). Therefore in order to analyze the terms of trade of Australia it is necessary to judge the economic growth of the country for the period under consideration. The factors that have the potential to influence the terms of trade have been discussed below in bullet format. The shifts in the demand level on the global arena The commodity market shocks Globalization shocks The prices of exports are raised by the joint influence of fluctuations in global demand and commodity shocks in the market. The prices of imports are reduced

How Global Warming and Hurricane are related Essay

How Global Warming and Hurricane are related - Essay Example Continuation of historical trends of greenhouse gas emissions will result in additional warming over the 21 century, with current projections of a global increase of 2.5F to 10.4F by 2100, with warming in the U.S. expected to be even higher. Hurricanes, tropical cyclones or typhoons, which can be defined as closed-circulation, warm-cored, low-pressure systems with maximum sustained surface wind speeds (1-minute mean) of at least 39 mph, are intense tropical storms with sustained winds above 74 miles/hour (Ahrens, C. Donald. Meteorology Today1) and are conventionally divided into two intensity classes: tropical storms (with maximum winds of 39-73 mph) and hurricanes (with maximum winds of at least 74 mph). Hurricanes have been subdivided into five potential damage classes depending on their maximum wind speed, minimum central pressure and storm surge magnitude. Sea level is rising and will continue to rise as oceans warm and glaciers melt. Rising sea levels means higher storm surges, even from relatively minor storms, causing coastal flooding and erosion and damaging coastal properties. In a distressing new development, scientific evidence now suggests a link between hurricane strength and duration and global warming. Understanding the relationship between hurricanes and global warming is essential if we are to preserve healthy and prosperous coastal communities. Storm intensity and duration increases as global warming emissions increase in our atmosphere. Rising sea levels, also caused in part by rising global temperatures, intensify storm damage along coasts. For hurricanes to occur, surface ocean temperatures must exceed or retain 80 degrees Fahrenheit. To understand how global warming can affect ocean storms, it's important to understand how these storms develop in the first place. Seasonal shifts in global wind patterns cause atmospheric disturbances in the tropics, leading to a local drop in pressure at sea level and forcing air to rise over warm ocean waters. As warm, moist air rises, it further lowers air pressure at sea level and draws surrounding air inward and upward in a rotating pattern called a vortex. When the water vapor-laden air rises to higher altitudes, it cools and releases heat as it condenses to rain. This cycle of evaporation and condensation brings the ocean's thermal energy into the vortex, powering the storm. Depen ding on the severity, meteorologists call these tropical storms or hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. Natural cycles alone cannot explain recent ocean warming. Because of human activities such as burning fossil fuels and clearing forests, today's carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere are significantly higher than at any time during the past 400,000 years. CO2 and other heat-trapping emissions act like insulation in the lower atmosphere, warming land and ocean surface temperatures. Oceans have absorbed most of this excess heat, raising sea temperatures by almost one degree Fahrenheit since 1970. September sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic over the past decade have risen far above levels documented since 1930. (Global Warming, Hurricanes and climate change) By examining the number of tropical cyclones and cyclone days as well as

An empirical analysis of manufacturing overhead cost drivers Essay

An empirical analysis of manufacturing overhead cost drivers - Essay Example According to a Cornell University website, Gordon Potter is still with the School of Hotel Administration of the Cornell University. The same website revealed that Cornell has a PhD in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.S. in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and a B.A. Economics from Rutgers College-Rutgers University. The economics background of Gordon Potter may partly explain why the research methodology employed by Banker et al. (1995) are similar to those used in economics or in econometrics. In Cornell University, Potter has been an Associate Professor since 1993 until today. However, Potter has taught at the University of Wisconsin from 1982 to 1986. His resume in the Cornell University website does not reflect a job description entry from 1986 to 1993, possibly indicating that he took his PhD schooling during the period. Potter’s 5-page resume in the Cornell University website indicates Potter’s numerous achievements that included authorship of several papers.Roger Schroeder is a distinguished author in a textbook called Operations Management. According to the website of the Sage Publication, the ISI has classified him as the most highly cited scholar in the world in the field of Operations Management. The Sage Publication also reported that he holds the Frank A. Donaldson Chair in Operations Management at the Carlson University School of Management of the University of Minnesota.... (1995) are similar to those used in economics or in econometrics. In Cornell University, Potter has been an Associate Professor since 1993 until today (no indication in the Cornell University website that he was promoted in the University of Cornell since 1993). However, Potter has taught in the University of Wisconsin from 1982 to 1986. His resume in the Cornell University website does not reflect a job description entry from 1986 to 1993, possibly indicating that he took his PhD schooling during the period. Potter’s 5-page resume in the Cornell University website indicates Potter’s numerous achievements that included authorship of several papers. Roger Schroeder is a distinguished author in a textbook called Operations Management. According to the website of the Sage Publication, the ISI has classified him as the most highly cited scholar in the world in the field of Operations Management. The Sage Publication also reported that he holds the Frank A. Donaldson Chair i n Operations Management at the Carlson University School of Management of the University of Minnesota. The Sage Publication website identified Schroeder as the author of over 100 articles in academic journals. The topic addressed by the work of Banker et al. (1995), overhead costs, is an important issue for manufacturers. This is indicated by the abundance of internet entries on the concern. A quick check on the internet indicates that there are at least 3.6 million entries on the worldwide web on the importance of reducing overhead costs for manufacturers. In 1995, during which the Banker et al. (1995) was published, overhead costs is one of the primary concern of manufacturers and manufacturers had

Western Cultures. Loss Of Centerdness In The Early 20th Century Essay

Western Cultures. Loss Of Centerdness In The Early 20th Century - Essay Example The political power exerted by the colonizer made it easy for them to establish that they were culturally superior as well. The establishment of the cultural superiority of the colonizer has been a step by stem process by which first of all, the colonizer’s culture is imposed, then the culture of the colonized is replaced with a new culture that is still inferior to, but imitative of the colonizer’s culture. The result of this phenomenon is that slowly the colonized cultures and people belonging to them loose their self-esteem and abandon their culture out of an inferiority complex. The tragedy of this situation is that even when colonization ends, this sense of inferiority of one’s own culture will remain for a long time in the minds of the colonized. Introduction Culture is a phenomenon that embeds all human being, gives meaning and purpose to their lives and provides them a sense of belonging and connection. Once culture is disintegrated, a whole society can a lso get disintegrated. In the history of humanity, nothing else than colonialism had made such an impact on specific cultures as to disintegrate them partially or completely. As the colonizers were mostly the westerners and the colonized being the non-western cultures, the result was an imposition of the cultural hegemony of all western values. The non-western cultures faced a complex identity crisis in the face of this cultural invasion. In the later nineteenth and early twentieth century, colonialism emerged as an extension of western political and cultural imperialism, to such an extent that â€Å"the self-proclaimed â€Å"superiority† of â€Å"Western culture†, functioned as the rationale and mandate for colonialism† (Narayan and Harding, 2000, p.83). The result was that whichever cultures colonized by the western world, began to feel themselves as inferior cultures to the western culture and lost their sense of centeredness. For example, David (2011) has in vestigated the colonial experience of Philippines and showed that the Americans settled in Philippines as part of the colonial legacy, still view Filipino culture as inferior to western and American culture (p.13). Sonnenburg (2003) has pointed to how the British colonization of Australia treated the indigenous people of Australia as some animal or cattle and forcefully separated children belonging to these aborigines from their mothers, â€Å"a practice that continued into the mid-twentieth century† (p.1). Similarly, the English colonial experience in Ireland resulted in the Anglicization of Ireland and suppression of Irish language and culture (Sonnenburg, 2003, p.280). All the colonized cultures had experienced this kind of cultural oppression and this experience was described as, â€Å"loss of centeredness,† by many scholars (Kebede, 2004;Sayre, 2012). What is meant by this expression is that the colonized cultures that were self-reliant and centered around their o wn culture were forced to feel that their cultures were no more the center of the universe they knew. Instead they began to feel that their cultures were inferior to the cultures that colonized them. The most serious consequence of this loss of centeredness has been that even after the colonial rule was withdrawn, the people continue to experience this loss of centerednedd (Kebede, 2004). Rightfully calling colonialism, â€Å"a cultural project of control†, Dirk (1992) has described the complex experience of colonialism from the point of view of culture (p.7). He (Dirk, 1992) has tried to describe this complexity by saying that â€Å"not only did colonial rulers align themselves with the universal and inexorable forces of science, progress, rationality and modernity, they displaced many of the disruptions and excesses of rule

Small and medium enterprises Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Small and medium enterprises - Essay Example An SME should give the primary importance to alliance and strategic partnerships at both local and global levels in order to increase the productivity. This will give a huge boost to the yield to cost ration which is the most decisive factor in any SME as they are required to fulfill some business rules and rules to survive in the emerging economic world of today (Nelson & Prescott, 2003). The paramount reason behind these success criteria is the fact that in the ever increasing global economic scale, the SME finds itself being in some tightened conditions thus experiencing jeopardy and limiting factors in the economic growth. Alliances with some partners will not only give them important horizons and resources to get a global exposure but it will also expand the business opportunities to increase the profit and lifetime of the business initiative. A very famous concept in business studies known as transaction-cost theory should be followed in order to increase the certainty level of the success of the partnership (Yasuda, 2005). This theory illustrates and suggests that the SME should make alliance with a partner that can minimize the sum of the fixed and continual costs throughout the business process. The famous example in this case can be taken that of Austria economy which enjoys almost 99 percent of the SME initiative which were at the start partnership based. (OECD, 2005). Similarly, the other success criteria are limited target marketing because e increasing the target market at the start.

Assessment and Students Essay Example for Free

Assessment and Students Essay Journal assessment Conclusion Reccomendation III. INTRODUCTION: Why do Assessment? Are you asking too little of your class? Are your students approaching your course as hurdlers, barely clearing required levels of performance? Or are they approaching your course like high jumpers, pushing themselves under your guidance to increasingly more challenging heights? If your students arent high jumpers, maybe its because you arent asking them to high jump. By using appropriate assessment techniques, you can encourage your students to raise the height of the bar. There is considerable evidence showing that assessment drives student learning. More than anything else, our assessment tools tell students what we consider to be important. They will learn what we guide them to learn through our assessments. Traditional testing methods have been limited measures of student learning, and equally importantly, of limited value for guiding student learning. These methods are often inconsistent with the increasing emphasis being placed on the ability of students to think analytically, to understand and communicate at both detailed and big picture levels, and to acquire lifelong skills that permit continuous adaptation to workplaces that are in constant flux. Moreover, because assessment is in many respects the glue that links the components of a course its content, instructional methods, and skills development changes in the structure of a course require coordinated changes in assessment. IV. RESEARCH (CONTENT) What is Assessment? Assessment is a systematic process of gathering, interpreting, and acting upon data related to student learning and experience for the purpose of developing a deep understanding of what students know, understand, and can do with their knowledge as a result of their educational experience; the process culminates when assessment results are used to improve subsequent learning. Huba and Freed, 2000 Key Points Assessment is an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning Multiple methods Criteria and standards Evidence Students know, can do and understand It’s more than just collecting data Sequence in Preparing Instructionally Relevant Assessment INSTRUCTION Indicates the learning outcomes to be attained by students LEARNING TASK Specifies the particular set of learning task(s) to be assessed. ASSESSMENT Provides a procedure designed to measure a representative sample of the instructionally relevant learning tasks. Is there close agreement? What is the Assessment Process? AIMS ASSESSMENT ACTION ADJUSTMENT Importance of Assessment To find out what the students know (knowledge) To find out what the students can do, and how well they can do it (skill; performance) To find out how students go about the task of doing their work (process) To find out how students feel about their work (motivation, effort) What is Student Assessment for? *To help us design and modify programs to better promote learning and student success. To provide common definitions and benchmarks for student abilities that will enable us to act more coherently and effectively to promote student learning. *To provide feedback, guidance, and mentoring to students so as to help them better plan and execute their educational programs. *To provide improved feedback about student learning to support faculty in their work. Functions of Assessment Diagnostic: tell us what the student needs to learn Formative: tell us how well the student is doing as work progresses Summative: tell us how well the student did at the end of a unit/task What can be assessed? Student learning characteristics -Ability differences -Learning styles Student motivational characteristics -Interest -Self-efficacy -goal orientation Learning Content knowledge Ability to apply content knowledge Skills Dispositions and attitudes Performances Direct and Indirect Assessment Measures Direct methods ask students to demonstrate their learning while indirect methods ask them to reflect on their learning. Direct methods include objective tests, essays, case studies, problem solving exercises, presentations and classroom assignments. Indirect methods include surveys, interviews and student reflection and/or self-assessment essays. It is useful to include both direct and indirect assessment measures in your assessments. How should we assess? True –False Item Multiple Choice Completion Short Answer Essay Practical Exam Papers/Reports Projects Questionnaires Inventories Checklist Peer Rating Self Rating Journal Portfolio Observations Discussions Interviews Criteria In Choosing an Assessment Method It should be reliable. It should be valid. It should be simple to operate, and should not be too costly. It should be seen by students and society in general. It should benefit all students. Who should be involved in assessment? The teacher The student The student’s peer Administrator Parents What should we do with the information from our assessment? Use it to improve the focus of our teaching (diagnosis) Use it to focus student attention of strengths and weaknesses (motivation) Use it to improve program planning (program assessment) Use it for reporting to parents Classroom Assessment Paper and pencil assessments: Ask students to respond in writing to questions or problem -Item level: Assessing lower vs. higher skills -Knowledge vs. application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation -Authentic tasks e. . multiple choice, T/F, matching (recognition), short answer, essay (recall) Paper and Pencil Assessment Strengths -Can cover a lot of material reasonably well -Fair -Effective in assessing declarative knowledge of content Easier to construct and administer than performance assessments Weaknesses -Require forethought and skill -Less effective in assessing procedural knowledge and creative thinking -Con struction of good higher level recognition items is difficult -Recall items that do a good job of assessing higher level thinking (essay questions) are difficult to score. Performance Assessments assessment that elicits and evaluates actual student performances Types of Performances: Products: drawings, science experiments, term papers, poems, solution to authentic problems Behavior: time trial for running a mile, reciting a poem, acting tryouts, dancing Performance assessments Strengths – Effective for assessing higher level thinking and authentic learning -Effective for assessing skill and procedural learning -Interesting and motivating for students Weaknesses -Emphasize depth at the expense of breadth Difficult to construct -Time consuming to administer -Hard to score fairly How can we assess student learning? Traditional assessment: assess student knowledge and skills in relative isolation from real world context. Traditional assessment practices reflect what students are able to recall from memory through various means, such as, multiple choice, true/false, fill in the blank, and matching questions. Authentic assessment: assess studentsâ⠂¬â„¢ ability to use what they’ve learning in tasks similar to those in the outside world. Occurs when the authenticity of student learning has been observed. It requires information from a variety of source such as content work samples, observation during class activities, and conferences with students. Classroom Assessment Informal Assessment: teachers’ spontaneous, day to day observations of student performances. Examples Verbal -Asking questions -Listening to student discussions -Conducting student conferences Nonverbal -Observing -Task performances -On-and off-task behavior -student choices -student body language Informal Assessment Strengths -Facilitates responsive teaching -Can be done during teaching -Easy to individualize Weaknesses -Requires high level of teacher skill -Is vulnerable to -Bias -Inequities –Mistakes Classroom Assessment Formal assessment : assessment that is planned in advance and used to assess a predetermined content and/or skill domain. Strengths -allows the teacher to evaluate all students systematically on the important skills and concepts -helps teachers determine how well students are progressing over the entire year -provides useful information to parents and administrators. Portfolios A collection of student samples representing or demonstrating student academic growth. It can include formative and summative assessment. It may contain written work, journals, maps, charts, survey, group reports, peer reviews and other such items. Portfolios are systematic, purposeful, and meaningful collections of students’ work in one or more subject areas. Importance of Portfolios For Students Shows growth over time Displays student’s accomplishment Helps students make choices Encourages them to take responsibility for their work Demonstrates how students think Importance of Portfolios For Teachers Highlights performance-based activities over year Provides a framework for organizing student’s work Encourages collaboration with students, parents, and teachers Showcases an ongoing curriculum Facilitates student information for decision making Importance of Portfolios For Parents Offer insight into what their children do in school Facilitates communication between home and school Gives the parents an opportunity to react to what their child is doing in school and to their development Shows parents how to make a portfolio so they may do one at home at the same time Importance of Portfolios For Administrators Provides evidence that teacher/school goals are being met Shows growth of students and teachers Provides data from various sources What do portfolios contain? Three basic models: Showcase model, consisting of work samples chosen by the student. Descriptive model, consisting of representative work of the student, with no attempt at evaluation. Evaluative model, consisting of representative products that have been evaluated by criteria. Disadvantages of Portfolio Require more time for faculty to evaluate than test or simple-sample assessment. Require students to compile their own work, usually outside of class. Do not easily demonstrate lower-level thinking, such as recall of knowledge. May threaten students who limit their learning to cramming for doing it at the last minute. Rubric It is a scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a student’s performance based on the sum of a full range of criteria rather than a single numerical score. It is a working guide for students and teachers, usually handed out before the assignment begins in order to get students to think about the criteria on which their work will be judged. Rubrics are scoring criteria for Free-response Questions Scientific reports Oral or Power point presentations Reflections/Journals Essay Laboratory-based performance tests Article review or reactions Portfolios Many others Open-ended Question Concept Mapping It requires students to explore links between two or more related concepts. When making concept maps, they clarify in their minds the links they have made of the concepts and having visual representation of these links, they are better able to rearrange of form new links when new concepts are introduced. Laboratory Performance In this format students and teachers know the requirements in advance and prepare them. The teacher judges the student performance within a specific time frame and setting. Students are rated on appropriate and effective use of laboratory equipment, measuring tools, and safety laboratory procedures as well as a hands-on designing of an investigation. Inventories Diagnostic Inventories: Student responses to a series of questions or statements in any field, either verbally or in writing. These responses may indicate an ability or interest in a particular field. Interest Inventories: student responses to questions designed to find out past experience and or current interest in a topic, subject or activity. Classroom Assessment Presentation : a presentation by one student or by a group of students to demonstrate the skills used in the completion of an activity or the acquisition of curricular outcomes/expectations. The presentation can take the form of a skit, lecture, lab presentation, debate etc. Computers can also be used for presentation when using such software as Hyperstudio, Powerpoint or Corel presentations. Peer Evaluation : judgments by students about one another’s performance relative to stated criteria and program outcomes Journal Assessment This refer to student’s ongoing record of expressions experiences and reflections on a given topic. There are two types: one in which students write with minimal direction what he/she is thinking and or feeling and the other requires students to compete a specific written assignment and establishes restrictions and guidelines necessary to accurately accomplish the assignment. Journals can evolve different types of reflecting writing, drawing, painting, and role playing. REFLECTIVE JOURNAL What did I learn? How do I feel about it? What happened? SYNTHESIS JOURNAL How I can Use It? What I learned? What I Did? SPECULATION ABOUT EFFECTS JOURNAL What could happen because of this? What happened? V. CONCLUSION A fair assessment is one in which students are given equitable opportunities to demonstrate what they know and can do. Classroom assessment is not only for grading or ranking purposes. Its goal is to inform instruction by providing teachers with information to help them make good educational decisions. Assessment is integrated with student’s day-to-day learning experiences rather than a series of an end-of-course tests. Why link assessment with instruction? Better assessment means better teaching. Better teaching means better learning . Better learning means better students. Better students mean better opportunities for a better life. VI. RECCOMENDATION Specific assessment tools, listed below, are strongly recommended to faculty and department heads for their ability to provide useful information for accountability and, more importantly, to foster dialogue to improve student learning within courses. These three assessment tools are strongly recommended because they are concise and effective direct evaluations as opposed to indirect evaluations. Direct evaluations can be both formative (the gathering of information about student learning during the progression of a course or program, usually repeatedly, to improve the learning of those students) and summative (the gathering of information at the conclusion of the course, program or undergraduate career to improve learning or to meet accountability demands. ) 1. Rubrics:  These are the most flexible types of direct assessments and can be used to score any product or performance such as essays, portfolios, skill performances, oral exams, debates, project/product creation, oral presentations or a student’s body of work over the course of a semester. Since we are talking about assessing â€Å"official† course learning outcomes that are stated in course documents, all faculty teaching that course must agree on a detailed scoring system that delineates criteria used to discriminate among levels and is used for scoring a common assignment, product or performance or set of assignments, products or performances. Information can be obtained from the course document’s assignment and evaluation pages to help guide the creation of the rubric. Pros: †¢ Defines clear expectations. †¢ Can be used to score many kinds of assignments or exams †¢ Faculty define standards and criteria and how they will be applied Cons: †¢ Faculty must agree on how to define standards and criteria and how they will be applied 2. Common Final Exam or Common Capstone Project:  These direct assessment methods integrate knowledge, concepts and skills associated with an entire sequence of study in a course. Either use the same final exam for all sections offered in a course (commercially produced/standardized test or locally developed final exam) or require a culminating final project that is similar (using the same grading rubric to evaluate). Pros: †¢ Good method to measure growth over time with regard to a course †¢ Cumulative †¢ The data is more robust if all students complete the same assessment †¢ Provides an additional buffer between student learning performance and an individual instructor’s teaching performance Cons: Focus and breadth of assessment are important †¢ Understanding all of the variables to produce assessment results is also important †¢ May result in additional course requirements †¢ Requires coordination and agreement on standards 3. Embedded Test Questions:  Embed the same agreed upon questions that relate to the course’s student learning outcomes into the final exam for all sections of the course and analyze tho se results and/or embed the same agreed-upon requirements into the final project/assignment for all sections of the course and analyze those results. Pros: †¢ Good method to measure growth over time with regards to a course †¢ Cumulative †¢ The data is more robust if all students complete the same assessment †¢ Provides an additional buffer between student learning performance and an individual instructor’s teaching performance †¢ Embedded questions can be reported as an aggregate Cons: †¢ May result in additional course requirements †¢ Requires coordination and agreement on standards If some instructors embed and others do not, the data will be difficult to compare and analyze †¢ Separate analysis of embedded set of questions is required VII. REFERENCES https://www. google. com. ph/search? q=ASSESSMENT+TOOLS+PPT;rlz=2C1GTPM_enPH0537PH0537;aq=f;oq=assessment+tools+;aqs=chrome. 0. 59j57j61j60l2j0. 3437j0;sourceid=chrome;ie=UTF-8 http://www. slideshare. net/armovil/assessment-of-student-learning? from_search=2 Fulks, Janet, â€Å"Assessing Student Learning in Community Colleges†, Bakersfield College, 2004