Assessment is the most powerful tool for learning

Appraisal in assorted signifiers has been in usage for a long clip, Wainer & A ; Braun 1988 study that insistent appraisal was in usage within China from about 2200 B.C. These trials were organised harmonizing to the rule that a little set of personal accomplishments measurings could bespeak how a individual was traveling to execute. However, within instruction, there is limited grounds for execution of dependable and valid appraisals of pupil public presentation before the morning of the twentieth century. Dochy, F. , & A ; McDowell, L. ( 1997 ) , Newton, P. ( 2010 ) , Black, P, Harrison, C, Lee, C, Marshall, B & A ; Wiliam, D ( 2003 ) all agree that instruction is recognised across the universe as possibly the most critical public service of all, and that within instruction, appraisal is indispensable to let all pupils to be given the educational support they require, and to let the pedagogue to find the effectivity of different educational methods within the pupils larning procedu re. Summational and formative appraisals can be identified as the cardinal methods by which instructors and other educational professionals gather grounds of pupil acquisition. This does non connote that there should be a pick between appraisal for larning ( formative appraisal ) and appraisal of acquisition ( summational appraisal ) , as both have instruction maps that support pupil accomplishment. Assessment for larning explores the possibility for accomplishment for acquisition by the pupil, and indicates the following measure to be taken in order to advance larning through the kineticss of instruction and acquisition, whereas, appraisal of acquisition shows what has been already achieved, memorised, absorbed and displays merely a limited snapshot of the current scholastic state of affairs. With the usage of appraisal for acquisition, learning professionals are able to supply penetrations into advancement that a pupil has achieved, and how the school and its staff have contributed to this development. Wiliam, D. and Leahy, S. ( 2007 ) indicates that the compelling issue is guaranting that the chosen type of appraisal best suits the educational acquisition end and intent of the pupil. If the educational intent is to better acquisition, so of course, appraisal for larning would be best suited. However, if the educational intent is to describe on a current state of affairs and to compare students against pre-determined criterions or other pupils, so appraisal of acquisition should be used. Although some tools used for both signifiers of appraisal may be the same, for illustration verbal inquiring, the cardinal issues emerging from the feedback provided by educational professionals Black, P, Harrison, C, Lee, C, Marshall, B & A ; Wiliam, D 2003 indicates that it is imperative to maintain focused on the fact that appraisal for larning purposes at bettering acquisition, whereas appraisal of larning purposes at mensurating public presentation of the pupils. Summational appraisal besides ensures answerability of educational constitutions and the professionals working within those constitutions. Professionals and cons Black, P. , et Al, ( 2003 ) tells us that although appraisal today can be placed within these two countries of formative and summational appraisal, their definitions may hold become confused in the past few old ages, peculiarly the definition of formative appraisal. Harlen, W. ( 2004 ) Indicates that a instructors ‘ deficiency of apprehension of the cardinal differences between appraisal for acquisition and appraisal of larning can take to confusion within the category room, and hinder educational advancement of the pupil if appraisal is non used in the right manner. ( Harlen, W. ( 2004 ) . Appraisal of acquisition may be conducted by professionals who are external to the school, for illustration educational inspectors, who may be required to supply a snapshot of an educational constitution at a peculiar point in clip. However, they may non ever know or understand the school context and life in the necessary item in order to supply a balanced appraisal. As seen late with the debut of conference tabular arraies ( dcsf.gov.uk 2009 ) , there is a high hazard of the incorrect type of appraisal being used to rate instructors, pupils and educational installations as successes or failures. Short-run summational public presentation appraisals may neglect to take history of the scene in which pedagogues and scholars map, taking to a spiral of â€Å" Teach to prove † methods where the lives of pupils and everyone involved in their instruction, progressively revolve around trials. Teachers hence narrow their course of study to learn to the trial, and school decision makers and the general populace are going score-obsessed. Appraisal for Learning ( formative appraisal ) is concerned with roll uping grounds about larning that is used to accommodate instruction and program following educational stairss. Evidence about acquisition is important as it indicates if there has been a displacement, or non, in the procedure of larning for a given pupil. On the footing of such grounds, instructors can explicate targets/goals and are able to supply pupils with feedback about their acquisition ( Hattie and Timperly, 2007 ) , clearly bespeaking to pupils non merely what they need to larn, but besides giving them information on how best they can larn it, hence lending to pupils ‘ contemplation on their ain acquisition. Recent research on the topic of appraisal and acquisition ( Black and Wiliam, 1998 ; Black et al. , 2002 ) provides strong grounds that appraisal can be used to better academic degrees and criterions, in peculiar, formative appraisal where pupils have a common apprehension of the marks they are dr aw a bead oning to make and how to make them can be an effectual tool to better acquisition. Black and Wiliam ( 1998 ) , Boud, D ( 1995 ) to boot reported that significant betterments in overall public presentation, in peculiar with low-attainers, could be successfully achieved where self appraisal was used to promote larning within those pupils. ( It is normally agreed that appraisal is one of the most powerful educational tools for advancing effectual acquisition ) . Both are needed In a balanced appraisal system, both summational and formative appraisals are an built-in portion of any information assemblage procedure about any pupil. Therefore, if an pedagogue depends excessively much on one or the other, so it could be said that the world of pupil accomplishment in the schoolroom is inaccurate. Teachers find themselves transforming their instruction as on-going appraisal reveals how pupils approach undertakings, what helps them larn most efficaciously, and what schemes support their acquisition. The more instructors understand about what pupils know and how they think, the more capacity they have to reform their instruction, and the more chances they create for pupil success. In a reappraisal of research on appraisal and schoolroom acquisition, commissioned by the The Nuffield Foundation, Professors Paul Black and Dylan William carried out over 250 surveies associating appraisal and acquisition ( Black, P.J. and William, D1998 ) . the surveies showed that thoughts designed to heighten the manner appraisal is used by instructors in the schoolroom to promote acquisition, can well increase the pupil ‘s accomplishment. The survey besides found grounds that the addition was even more likely to be significant for low-achieving pupils. The research besides showed that bettering larning through assessment depends on cardinal factors such as: effectual feedback by the instructor to the pupils, active engagement of pupils in their ain acquisition, accommodation of learning manners to take history of the consequences of appraisal, and a acknowledgment by the instructor that assessment influences the self-esteem and motive of pupils. However, the research besid es identified several inhibiting factors: a inclination for instructors to measure measure and presentation of work instead than the quality of acquisition, excessively much focal point on marker and scaling, which tended to take down the self-pride of pupils, and instead than giving advice and counsel on betterment there was a strong focal point on comparing pupils which demotivated and demoralised the less successful pupils. In this instance it could be said that instructors ‘ feedback to pupils served societal and control intents instead than assisting the pupils to larn more efficaciously, possibly due to instructors non cognizing plenty about their pupils ‘ acquisition demands and motive. More by and large, on pupil motive, Harlen W. , & A ; Deakin Crick R. ( 2002 ) carried out the most extended reappraisal of research in recent old ages on the consequence of summational proving. They found that those trials that were seen as â€Å" high bets † de-motivated many pupils. However, it has been argued that some pupils thrive in the face of nerve-racking challenges and in fact, external trials and scrutinies do motivate pupils to take what they are larning earnestly. Additionally, DFES 2007 tells us that the UK authorities has late suggested this, when suggesting debut of new trials. ( Roach, P. 1999 ) besides promotes the usage of summational equal appraisal, but to boot stresses the troubles faced by instructors in larning to release control of the appraisal procedure. The thought of turning over summational appraisal to pupils could be seen as debatable, but it has the potency for back uping deep acquisition within those pupils. The value of both ego and peer app raisal is discussed in Brown and Glasner 1999, who province that pupils are required to larn by prosecuting in assessed undertakings. Assessment is non peripheral to the larning undertaking or a necessary immorality to be endured, It is cardinal to the whole acquisition procedure. Assessment, including contemplation on their ain work and that of their equals, is the larning itself. Assessment should supply an drift for pupil acquisition and to boot a accelerator for brooding instruction patterns. Teacher accomplishments Therefore, it is cardinal to the development of appropriate appraisal that there must be a direct nexus between what is being â€Å" taught † and what is being â€Å" learned. † Both instructor and pupil must be able to place this nexus. As described by Lorin, W. et.al 2001, the instructor needs to guarantee that the undertaking both in footings of the instructional procedure and the topic aims, is relevant and valid to guarantee that the larning experience of the pupil will ensue in the building of new cognition through a procedure that assembles personally identified content and accomplishments. Therefore, all farther appraisal may be reinforced by clear and concise categorization of larning results by the instructor to the pupil. Similar to pupils, instructors are besides scholars as they examine multiple measurings of pupil attitude and public presentation, every bit good as degrees of satisfaction. As modern instruction moves towards formative appraisal, and pupils are no longer being educated to execute rote undertakings focused on cognition and apprehension, there is a greater demand for instructors be supported as they get extra acquisition and learning accomplishments as Godheads and users of formative appraisal. Bullard, P. and Taylor B.O. ( 1994 ) suggest that all instructors who integrate appraisal into their instruction do so in order to place where their pupils are in their acquisition, and the stairss they need to take for betterment and advancement. However, historically instructors were frequently expected to be inactive Jesuss of course of study pre-packaged by a Government section and, or a distant text edition publication company. The turning motion towards instructors being shapers and users of assessment informations reflects the displacement from instructor as educational assembly line workers, to the facilitators of life-time scholar. Formative appraisal, for illustration, is assessment that is designed to back up larning. In recent old ages the importance of implementing appraisal in this signifier has come to the head, mostly because of Black and William ‘s ( 1998 ) often cited reappraisal of their research and evidentiary notes. Black and William ‘s grounds strongly supported the effectivity of formative appraisal and its publicity of larning. In acknowledgment of this fact, over a proportionally short period of clip their research has been recognized as the manner frontward by a assortment of educationists and non least by instructors themselves. This grass roots growing in acceptance by the instruction and educational sphere was bolstered by research-based rules designed to supply a principle for schoolroom pattern ( ARG, 2002 ; Gardner, 2006 ) . In â€Å" The Socrates Syndrome – Questions that should ne'er be Asked † Campbell ( 1995 ) suggests that true instruction is a â€Å" life-time of seamless experience, linking single episodes into an of all time spread outing web of significance, penetration and apprehension. † But Campbell besides acknowledges that inquiring the sorts of inquiries that make this true instruction possible is endangering. However, in the eyes of many of today ‘s educational professionals, an extraordinary assortment of classroom-targeted enterprises has been unleashed on schools over the past decennary and more, all with the same general purpose, that of the betterment of pupil acquisition. Appraisal by instructors, whether formative or summational, is one of these developments that is considered to offer important potency for bettering pupils ‘ acquisition ( Black and Wiliam, 1998 ; Harlen, 2007 ) . Darling Hammond, ( 1996 ) suggest that the focal point needs to be about assisting instructors use appraisal as portion of instruction and acquisition in ways that will raise pupils ‘ accomplishment. the usage of formative appraisal, Sadler, D.R. ( 1998 ) tells us that the most successful acquisition takes topographic point when pupils have ownership of their acquisition, understand the marks they are taking to accomplish, are motivated, and have the applicable accomplishments and tools in topographic point to assist them accomplish success. Therefore, non merely are these the most indispensable characteristics of effectual daily acquisition in any schoolroom, they are the basis of successful womb-to-tomb acquisition for all pupils. With this in head, it appears that the most of import message now facing the educational community is that appraisal, which is explicitly designed to advance acquisition, is the individual most powerful tool we have for both raising criterions and a uthorising womb-to-tomb scholars. The value that appraisal can hold in the procedure of acquisition every bit good as for rating work and entering accomplishment has been widely recognised ( TGAT 1998 ) . ( It is normally agreed that appraisal is one of the most powerful educational tools for advancing effectual acquisition ) . In decision Promoting kids ‘s acquisition is a chief purpose of schools and that appraisal lies at the bosom of that procedure. Additionally assessment should be seen as powerful tool for larning and non entirely a political solution to comprehend jobs over educational criterions and answerability. it can be said that appraisal is one of the most powerful educational tools for advancing effectual acquisition. It is an built-in portion in the instruction and larning procedure across all degrees of instruction. Therefore, due to assessment being one of the most important and of import parts in the hereafter of pupils, there can be perfectly no uncertainty that any assessment system now or in the hereafter will hold a major make up one's minding factor in what pupils learn and the manner in which they carry out that larning. Hence appraisal will besides find the manner in which instruction professionals teach and what they teach. But as antecedently stated, appraisal is non merely about rating and transporting out scrutinies. It is besides about constructing a instruction relationship with pupils and the quality of the pupils larning and with that, to utilize that cognition and apprehension to heighten the pupils larning experience. Therefore it can be said that appraisal is unamb iguously one of the chief constituents of the instruction and acquisition procedure. It is hence of the most importance that all instructors are familiar non merely with the proficient facets of the different signifiers of appraisal presently in usage but besides with their advantages and restrictions in the current instruction sphere.

Mobile Intelligent Tutoring Systems Education Essay

Mobile intelligent tutoring systems have the possible to present low-priced, one-to-one aid to scholars outside of the traditional schoolroom and computing machine lab scenes. The focal point of this paper is to sketch the usage of Mobile Intelligent Tutoring Systems in back uping the Mathematics human coachs in secondary schools and the function that nomadic devices can play in circulating and back uping the cognition gained by intelligent coachs. The paper reviews desktop Intelligent Tutoring Systems and how the same can be used in nomadic devices. The concluding portion of the paper examines the challenges faced in the development of Mobile Intelligent Tutoring Systems. The general public presentation in mathematics among secondary school pupils in Kenya has non been impressive for many old ages ( KNEC, 2000 ) . Much has been done and said with purposes of bettering public presentation with small success including debut of â€Å" Strengthening of Mathematics and Science in Secondary Education ( SMASSE ) Undertaking † , launched in Kenya in 1998 and funded by Japan authorities. It is aimed at the betterment of mathematics and scientific discipline instruction through In-service Training ( INSET ) for instructors ( Nancy, Alice, 2007 ) . Poor public presentation is attributed to several factors among them attitude of pupils and instructors, deficiency of learning installations such as books and unequal remedial or follow-up tutoring in most schools. Whereas there is demand to assist scholars develop a deeper conceptual apprehension through such techniques as tutoring when they are larning a new sphere ( Lane, 2006 ) , that is desiring. Mathematicss is a hard capable both to learn and larn. Mathematicss is besides a topic, which requires difficult work, and batch of pattern – the paramount facets for larning mathematics. Learning mathematics comprises foremost having facts, rules, and so larning how to use them ( Garry, 1996 ) . Teachers may desire to pass more clip with pupils but human resource is normally the chief restraint due to high student-to-teacher ratio witnessed in schools. The broad usage of cell phones in society has led research workers to look into methods to use nomadic devices in instruction ( Castells, 1999 ) . Presently, there are around 16 million cell phone endorsers in Kenya with the figure projected to travel up following licensing of 4th Mobile operator – YU ( Communication Commission of Kenya ) . Harmonizing to Brown ( 2003 ) and Kam etal ( 2009 ) , the nomadic device has been argued to be an appropriate tool for educational bringing in the development states. The statement behind this is that nomadic device is low-power device that can be used in topographic points without electricity. Although nomadic device such as cell phone is mostly purchased for voice communications – which users rely on for their societal and economic demands – it is besides able to run educational package that support visuals and voiceovers ( as cited in Kumar, 2009 ) . Most of all, the cell phone is the fastest turning engineering platform in the development states. There are 2.2 billion nomadic phones in developing parts like Africa and India, as compared to merely 11 million desktops ( CNN, 2009 ) . Teaching pupils on a one-to-one footing significantly influences the grade of cognition and accomplishment retained by the pupil. Bloom ( 1984 ) suggests that one-to-one tutoring is the most effectual scheme known, by and large giving two standard divergences better public presentation than traditional direction. For the intent of this paper, the term â€Å" nomadic device † comprise of criterion cell phones, smart phones ( those using an operating system supplying voice services every bit good as extra informations processing applications ) , and personal digital helpers ( PDAs ) – supplying informations treating without voice capablenesss. Whereas laptop computing machines are portable, users interact with them in ways that are more similar to desktop computing machines than they do with smaller devices e.g. usage of keyboard. Therefore, it does non fall under ‘mobile device ‘ class.Table 1.1 Comparisons of Desktop and Mobile Tutoring SystemsDescriptionDesktopMobile DeviceInterface Full size keyboard Multi-window design Small Keyboard Single-window design Display 14+ inch show 2-5 inch show Connectivity Ethernet, Wi-Fi Wi-Fi, Cellular Delivery Standalone Client merely Use Classrooms and computing machine labs Anywhere and anytime2. Intelligent Tutoring SystemHafner ( 2000 ) defined Intelligent Tutoring System ( ITS ) as â€Å" educational package incorporating an unreal intelligence constituent. The package tracks pupil ‘s work, orienting feedback and intimations along the manner. By roll uping information on a peculiar pupil ‘s public presentation, the package can do illations about strengths and failings, and can propose extra work. † ITSs have been used to help pupils with prep, trial pickings, and appraisal ( ISTE, 2007 ) . An ITS can be used to enable the pupils work independently, to better their apprehension of constructs within related sphere, and to take advancement of job work outing ability for each of them ( Martin, 2001 ) . On the other manus, an ITS can be able to help non merely the pupils but besides the instructors in developing and managing classs ( Shin, Norris and Soloway, 2006 ) . Harmonizing to Korhan ( 2006 ) , â€Å" Intelligence involves mental capablenesss such as the logical thinking ability, planning, work outing jobs, believing abstractly, groking thoughts, and larning † . Furthermore, it is related to creativeness and personality of the individual harmonizing to psychological science. Conversely, mathematics is as a incubus for many pupils. This may take to pupils doubting their creativeness, endowment, and motive when analyzing mathematics. In this sense, the tutoring systems must hold the capableness of existent instructors, and it must move like human coach in a categ ory. Information technologies can raise up the effectivity of learning mathematics in a category ( Kinshuk, 2002 ) and hence regarded as one of the topics in Artificial Intelligence ( AI )3. Background of ITSComputers have been used in instruction since 1960s ( Martin, 2001 ) . Intelligent Tutoring Systems are computing machine systems designed for support and betterment of acquisition and learning procedure in the sphere cognition. Even though Intelligent Tutoring Systems began with Computer-Aided Instruction ( CAI ) , they differ from them in some ways. First, the interfaces, in CAIs, are of all time inactive for each pupil and the information presented to each pupil is precisely the same for all the clip ( as cited in Mitrovic et al. , 2007 ) Harmonizing to Koedinger et Al. ( 1995 ) , ITSs use the cognition for pedagogical procedure so that the system tries to find what the pupil knows or does non cognize. Contrary to ITSs, CAIs have premises about what the pupil knows. Therefore, the same course of study is presented to pupils in CAIs, even though the predating cognition is necessity for a pupil. The other difference between them, harmonizing to Koedinger et Al. ( 1995 ) , is with the feedback system. Some CAIs have the capableness of inquiring inquiries to pupils. However the feedback system of them is limited to indicant of whether the pupil reply was right or incorrect, merely. ITSs, on the other manus, attempt to find the pupils ‘ failings on a subject utilizing the sphere and pupil theoretical account as shall be depicted in subdivision 4 below. Most Computer-Based Instructional ( CBI ) applications and systems, including ITS, still shack chiefly on the desktop. Harmonizing to Eamon ( 2004 ) , ITS have been shown to be extremely successful in bettering pupil acquisition in the schoolroom. When ITS is integrated into school course of study, pupils use the coachs during school hours in computing machine labs and schoolrooms. The enlargement of the desktop ITS to the nomadic learning universe of Mobile will, doubtless, supply great benefit for pupils and instructors likewise. A nomadic intelligent coach has the possible to present the important advantages of intelligent tutoring systems to a broad audience of scholars and spread out coach usage to exterior of computing machine labs and schoolrooms therefore supplying robust and flexible acquisition chances to pupils â€Å" anyplace † and â€Å" anytime † ( Farooq etal, 2002 ) . It will besides be of aid for pupils on the move such as nomads who may non acquire adequate human tutoring in category besides heightening student-centred acquisition.4. How Intelligent Tutoring Systems WorkITS for mathematical jobs was planned and designed to ease pupils in acquisition and name on pupil ‘s mistakes and efficaciously generate accounts for those mistakes ( Burns, Capps, 1988 ) and offer a pupil monitoring system that includes learning advancemen t and relevant statistical informations. The end of ITS is to supply the benefits of one-on one direction automatically and be efficaciously. Like any other preparation simulations, ITS enables participants to pattern their accomplishments by transporting out undertakings within extremely synergistic acquisition environments. However, ITS goes beyond developing simulations by replying user inquiries and supplying individualised aid. Unlike other computer-based preparation engineerings, ITS systems gauge each scholar ‘s actions within these synergistic environments and develop a theoretical account of their cognition, accomplishments, and expertness. Based on the scholar theoretical account, ITSs tailor instructional schemes, in footings of both the content and manner, and supply accounts, intimations, illustrations, presentations, and pattern jobs as needed ( James and Sowmya, 2007 )Intelligent Tutoring SystemStudent ModelExpert ModelEnvironmentInterfaceDirection ModelFigure 4.1 Intelligent Tutoring System ModelIntelligent tutoring systems have their foundation in the unreal intelligence, more specifically adept systems, and computing machine assisted direction subjects. Burns et Al. ( 1988 ) depict the â€Å" intelligence † of this package as the aggregation of the five subsystems shown in F igure 4.1 above. The first is an adept theoretical account stand foring the sphere cognition or capable affair expertness. This cognition comprises the apprehension of the capable affair that an expert has in the tutored country i.e. adept theoretical account merely represents the expert cognition and the ability to work out jobs within a sphere. The 2nd theoretical account is the pupil ‘s. This theoretical account represents the cognition, accomplishments, behavior and other properties of a pupil larning the sphere. This theoretical account let the ITS know who it ‘s learning ( James et al. , 2007 ) and tries to find pupil ‘s mental provinces. This faculty generates the pupil theoretical account with all information about the single scholar. It provides the information such that what the pupil knows or does non cognize, any misconceptions, grade of forgetfulness, concluding accomplishments etc. ( Korhan, 2006 ) The 3rd is the direction theoretical account, which is responsible for acknowledging pupil input and reacting to student actions i.e. enables the ITS to cognize how to learn, by encoding instructional schemes used by the tutoring system. The teacher theoretical account selects the most appropriate instructional intercession based on the cognition of a pupil ‘s accomplishments, strengths and failings, participant expertness degrees, and pupil acquisition manners. Additionally, the teacher theoretical account may besides take subjects, simulations, and examples that address the pupil ‘s competency spreads. It is besides known as pedagogical or coach faculty ( Martin, 2001 ) The 4th is the instructional environment or sphere that provides support to the scholar. It consists of the activity and tools, and to some widen the state of affairs, provided by the system to ease acquisition. The last constituent is the interface, an indispensable constituent that provides the agencies by which the user can pass on with the system. It is the integrating of the theoretical accounts that separate ITS engineering from other signifiers of computer-aided direction ( Heffernan, Koedinger and Aleven, 2003 ) . Harmonizing to Trojahn et Al. ( 2002 ) , ITS have the informative attack in which direction is understood to be the transmittal of cognition necessitating the teacher/instructor to supervise the pupil invariably, particularly in the job work outing procedures. It takes into history the capacity for acquisition and the cognition of the pupil in that topic. ITS ‘s are adapted to each pupil by agencies of their diagnostic accomplishments which examine the pupil ‘s cognition and the structuring and presentation of cognition. They besides make usage of a assortment of techniques to keep the user ‘s attending ( equated to human coach motive ) and ease the transmittal of the coveted cognition. Intelligent developing systems besides portion this attack, although in these instances the procedures are aimed more towards specific job resolution activities. The coach guides the direction procedure harmonizing to traditional patterns ( UPGRADE, 2002 ) . Knowledge is a cardinal to intelligent behaviour and, hence, ITSs are said to be knowledge-based because they have: ( I ) sphere cognition, ( two ) cognition about learning rules and about methods for using those rules, and ( three ) cognition about methods and techniques for pupil mold ( S. Stankov et al. , 2007 ) It is of import to observe that ITS is an interdisciplinary field that investigates how to invent educational systems that provide direction tailored to the demands of single scholars, as many good instructors do ( Conati et al. , 2002 ) There are three types of cognition that an intelligent coach ( human or unreal ) needs to hold to be able to help pupil acquisition: ( I ) cognition about the mark instructional sphere, ( two ) cognition about the pupil, and ( three ) cognition about the relevant pedagogical/instructional schemes.5. Mobile Intelligent Tutoring SystemHarmonizing to Brown ( 2009 ) , Mobile ITSs have non received extended research. There has been small research aimed at placing how to accommodate the desktop coachs and which facets of the coach to alter, as facets of desktop coachs require alteration for nomadic device content bringing. The bringing of ITSs on nomadic devices in Kenya has the possible to supply the important advantages of intelligent tutoring systems to a wider audience of scholars therefore assisting in bridging the digital divide. Some secondary schools provide Internet and computing machine entree to pupils but a deeper appraisal reveals that the presence of engineering does non compare to effectual usage of the engineering ( Yong et al, 2006 ) . Among the several factors impeding usage is the student-to-computer ratio in schools. For those schools with computing machines, it is reported that no school has one computing machine for each pupil with the lowest computer-to-student ratio being about 3-to-1 ( Christopher et al, 2007 ) . On the other manus, about all pupils can entree the nomadic phones doing it possible for schools to do usage of handheld calculating to organize engineering usage between place and school for the pupils. This tendency is besides nailing of the possible that nomadic and hand-held devices have to present a one-to-one calculating solution to the instruction community ( Quinn, 2000 ) . By utilizing nomadic devices, schools without the fiscal resources to put in and keep big computing machine labs can hold the ability to supply scholars with ITS engineering. One singular virtue is that pupils can easy transport the coachs between place and school besides sharing the nomadic ITSs between pupils in the same school therefore enabling ‘everywhere ‘ and ‘anytime ‘ acquisition ( Facer, Faux, McFarlane, 2005 ) . The portability of nomadic ITSs extends coach usage to exterior of computing machine labs and traditional schoolrooms, thereby supplying flexible larning chances to pupils at place, after school, and in other locations ( Vahey et Al, 2004 ) . With the promotion of nomadic device engineering, there is besides the possibility for nomadic ITSs to put to death as standalone applications, as opposed to client-server web based, thereby extinguishing the demand for an Internet connexion, either wired or radio. Harmonizing to the research conducted by Brown ( 2009 ) to find whether nomadic intelligent tutoring system provide larning additions greater than standard instructional activities, it was found out that pupils utilizing the tutoring status did see an addition in post-test public presentation greater than pupils that did non utilize the coach ( utilizing paper and pencil ) . As a consequence, it can be concluded that a nomadic ITS can supply larning additions greater than standard direction.6. Related WorkIn the early 1970s a few research workers defined a new end for computer-based direction. They adopted the human coach as their educational theoretical account and sought to use unreal intelligence techniques to recognize this theoretical account in â€Å" intelligent † computer- based direction. Personal human coachs provide a extremely efficient larning environment ( Cohen and Kulik, 1982 ) and have been estimated to increase average achievement results by every bit much as two Intelligent Tutoring Systems standard divergences ( Bloom, 1984 ) . The end of ITSs would be to prosecute the pupils in sustained logical thinking activity and to interact with the pupil based on a deep apprehension of the pupils ‘ behaviour. From 1990s, research on teaching method in the mathematics recognized that pupils learn mathematics more efficaciously, if the traditional acquisition of expressions and processs is supplemented with the possibility to research a wide scope of jobs and job state of affairss through ITS ( Schoenfeld, 1990 ) . In peculiar, the international comparative survey of mathematics learning ( Baumert et al. , 1997 ) , has shown that learning with an orientation towards active job work outing outputs better larning consequences in the sense that the acquired cognition is more readily available and applicable particularly in new contexts and that a contemplation about the job work outing activities and methods outputs a deeper apprehension and better public presentation. Harmonizing to James and Sowmya ( 2006 ) , Carnegie Learning developed a suite of ITSbased â€Å" cognitive coachs † in secondary-level mathematics. The systems, based on earlier research carried out by John Anderson and Ken Koedinger at Carnegie Mellon University, were tested in selected secondary school and pupils showed 50- to 100-percent betterment in job resolution and usage of equations, tabular arraies, and graphs. Eric and Jorg ( 2003 ) developed ActiveMath ITS used in job resolution, rule-based systems, cognition representation, user mold, adaptative systems and adaptative hyper-media, and diagnosing. ALEKS ( Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces ) is an on-line ITS aimed at tutoring Geometry and Business Mathematics classs ( Anderson, Reder, Simon, 1996 ) . It is web based and therefore requires Internet connexion for it to be accessed. MathITS ( Korhan, 2006 ) is an Intelligent Tutoring System for mathematics instruction at undergraduate and graduate degree and employs the conceptual map mold technique ( Hwang, 2003 ) . It is a student-centred system, which supports synergistic acquisition.7. Challenges Faced in Developing Mobile ITS Applications for Mathematics TutoringIt is easier said than done for teachers, school decision makers, and even parents to see nomadic devices as being utile for educational intents because they have been predominately used for societal intents including phone communicating and text messaging. The current educational system produces lesson programs, larning activities, and appraisals based upon traditional educational theoretical accounts. However, the debut of nomadic devices enables pupils to interact and join forces with one another in ways non antecedently realized. Therefore, teachers must now find how to plan lessons and activities structured around this mobility and accurately q uantify the consequences of the usage of the engineering. The usage of nomadic devices besides raises inquiries that relate to the execution of the engineering, viz. the hardware and package. Previous tests of nomadic larning applications reveal that concerns sing device ownership, battery life, and web connectivity can greatly impact the acquisition results of pupils ( Facer, Faux, and McFarlane, 2005 ) . While these issues may be viewed by some as policy instead than research, it can be argued that an apprehension of these issues could supply information to inform the design of the applications themselves. For illustration, cognizing that pupils may non hold dependable Internet connexions may do a interior decorator to make a standalone application or one that requires periodic synchronism for it to work decently. Interestingly, research workers implementing and proving nomadic larning applications have noted that there is possible for nomadic larning applications to be alongside traditional instructional tools ( Vahey et al. , 2004 ) . While the usage of nomadic larning applications can be transformative, it is necessary to understand and see the bing acquisition environment in which it is intended. While there are surely cases in which a Mobile larning application can supply an experience non possible without the engineering ( Chen, Kao and Sheu, 2003 ) , it seems sensible, and even likely, that this engineering can co-exist and back up traditional paper-based methods. Representation of diagrams and limited sum of text poses a challenge. As a consequence, the teachers should make up one's mind on which content could best be presented in nomadic device. The diagrams representation is limited by screen size.8. DecisionMobile ITS execution will assist to better mathematics public presentation in Kenya Secondary schools. However, certain research countries such as its development, statute law issues, interface, instruction and acquisition schemes and architecture ( hardware and package ) should be addressed in order to recognize the benefits of Mobile ITS. By so making, Kenya will tout of m-Learning and therefore will make more pupils assisting to bridge the digital divide spread.

Control Systems – Rendell Company Report

T6Rendell Company * Divisional controllers report to general managers from 1985 onwards * 7 Distinct business units with their own profits, sales * 1980 corporate controllers responsible for 1) financial accounting 2) internal auditing 3) analysis of capital budget * Reports went directly to top management from divisions * Mr.Hodgkin wanted to play a more active role in establishing budgets and analyasing performance (would personally review budgets and study divisional performance and hired analysts to help) * Divisional managers discussed their budget with top management with divisional controller present * Divisional controllers primary responsibility was to divisional managers as opposed to corporate controllers so Bevins thought he wasn’t getting enough clear info on performance of units * Harrigan: Divisional controllers shouldn’t be â€Å"front office spies† if they want to have good working relationships with managers and help them with the control functi ons * Corporate controllers shouldn’t put divisional controllers in awkward positions regarding more data/opinions on financials. Questions: 1. What is the organizational philosophy of Martex with respect to the controller function? What do you think of it? Should Rendell adopt this philosophy? * Divisional controllers report to corporate controllers Responsible for establishing cost and profit standards and ensure follow through * Not intended to take initiative away from DMs * More formal line relationships as controllers work physically separate from division managers * Set of formal policies, goals, practices that employees (managers) are aware of before beginning in the orgnization * Accounting system controlled by controller division so systems are not tailored to each BU * Divisional managers at Martex like this system because it gives them an unbiased partner with relevant information, controller can do better analysis and there is little argument about cost reports I think this model works for Martex because of the existing culture that has been developed around this model.People in the organization are comfortable with this type of hierarchy. At Rendell the firm culture gives more power to divisional managers and gives them dedicated staff working under them. The feelings towards corporate are more adversarial so any change in the controller function will feel like a corporate spy as opposed to better communication. This philosophy will not work with Rendell’s culture. It will lead to more reliance on informal organization and poorer communication with corporate. 2. Who should the divisional controllers report to in the Rendell Company? Divisional controllers should report to both management and corporate controllers while ensuring DM are aware of this responsibility. 3.What should the relationship be between the corporate controller and the divisional controllers. DC should report to CC to the extent that it ensures corporate directive s are implemented properly without harming DCs and DMs. DCs should communicate that corporate initiatives are being followed/met within their divisions. 4. Would you recommend major changes in the basic responsibilities of either the corporate controller or the divisional controller? Divisional controllers need to play a stronger role as opposed to being a staff like assistant to DMs. However, having them as a direct report to CCs would conflict with the existing culture between DMs and DCs.

GWST 400 Assignment 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

GWST 400 Assignment 1 - Essay Example It deals with fighting for the right of women. Its ideology is to have the same opportunities in the political, economic, social and cultural sectors. 1This right includes voting rights, contract rights and owning of properties. The activist of the ideology fights for the women’s rights against sexual harassment, domestic violence, and sexual assault in homes and industries. This section will look at different aspects of feminism as they are seen throughout. It will take a look on the weaknesses and strengths of feminism. As from the book, there seems to be more advantages/strengths of feminism than its weaknesses. This gives a conclusion that the feminism is a more important issue in the society. The first strength is that the program has changed the society without questioning. The initiative by the activist has changed the society automatically without problems. Women mainstreaming is one of the issues the initiative have been complaining about. For sure, women in the society have been empowered. This has gone automatically without negative attitudes from the society. Secondly, feminism is a transformative than just theoretical. From the author, one understands that the feminism issue has not been said but already done practically. There a lot that has improved in the women position in the society. Women have become a pillar in the society. The issue of feminism is already seen but not just heard theoretically. The third strength as from the definition is that, it has integrated a very important thing in the society. It has come out to be a voice for women. It is clear that through this campaign, women have found a very good way of airing their issues. It is good to not that the above point that has talked of the initiative being practical because it shows that the initiative have already been used to air grievances and

Web presence review. Evaluating web design Assignment

Web presence review. Evaluating web design - Assignment Example This paper will try to review the web design of Monsoon and demonstrate understanding of the theory and processes involved in the initiation, design and use of web sites in a business environment. It will evaluate and identify examples of best practice in the industry and apply them. Discussion Web Presence Web Presence is defined as the overall performance of a website and its programs or adopted strategies to sustain as well as maximize internet popularity and usefulness (Balwani, 2010). It is an indication of the maintenance and sustainability of an online business, shop, or an e-commerce entity. Monsoon (www.monsoon.co.uk) Monsoon claims to have about 600 Monsoon and Accessorize stores around the world. It was started in 1973 by a vendor named Peter Simon who sold shaggy woollen coats and block printed clothes from Rajasthan on the Portobello Road. The company background and history is short but the website provides a comprehensive detail about their store location, CSR program, terms and conditions of site use, complete and updated listing of products, online shopping, delivery information promo and free return policy, among others (Appendix B). Evaluating Web Design The Management Centre International Limited (2011) or MCIL provided 10 criteria or checklist in evaluating a website. While these criteria will not determine the overall web presence of a product, service or company, it provides the user with important information about how a company sustains web presence in its domain. It should be understood that a firm’s website is the â€Å"most important piece of the business’ web presence† (Balwani, 2010, P 1). The checklist of evaluating the Monsoon website is as follows: 1. First Impressions. The first impression encompasses the intuitive choice for URL or uniform resource locator or web address which should be short and simple that fits perfectly on the characteristic of the firm. It should consider download time, thereby the capa bility of its host and size of homepage in order to minimize time in opening the page, or quick to download (Negrino, 2006; MCIL, 2011). The look and feel of the site is determined with its readability: clear and easy to understand with text and images in harmony (England & Finney, 2001). It should not be demanding such as asking for the viewer to download a program that will allow the reader to view the page. The page should be compact and fits the screen. The homepage should indicate immediately to the user its â€Å"unique selling point† or value proposition in order for the user to determine what is in store for him or her at the site. It should contain highly visible direct links to key action points or KAP in order to engage the user but at the same time, impart a feeling of â€Å"wanting more† so that the user will either stay at the page or site to explore, or come back again. Contact details are an important part of all websites to convey approachability, open ness, and a welcome feeling for the user (Mandell, 1997; MCIL, 2011). Many users will feel comfortable to establish trust, thereby, the site should indicate credential validation through certifications or associations. A statement from the management will provide the user an opportunity to know the vision and values of the company. It should not force users to register or subscribe in order to navigate as this will scare users away. After navigation, they will feel free to subscribe or register (MCIL, 2011, 2). Monsoon was able to accomplish majority of the first impression requirements although failed to immediately impart its message of unique selling poin

Soil orders and their associated environmental elements Essay

Soil orders and their associated environmental elements - Essay Example Gley tundra soils are formed in the conditions of permanent water saturation and low temperatures. They are typical for landscape-geographical zones of the tundra, and located on plains illustrative of eternal frost. Another characteristic feature of tundra soils is their formation without great influence of the vegetation. â€Å"The exact character of these soils depends on the ground ice position, slope and the vegetation. If the slope is stable, peaty soils are formed due to slow organic and chemical action. In case of steep slopes, thin soils result† (Pujari). Considering the shallow depth of melting in summer ground, and below it the beginning of a frozen horizon, even a seasonal thawing layer is characterized by low temperature and is over-soppy with water, which cannot seep into the deeper land layers. All this slows down the activity of micro-organisms, decomposition cause of plant residues, and the formation of soils. For inhibit access of oxygen, tundra soils are fea tured with a bluish-grey gley horizon. The surface of tundra soils is often complicated with hummocky micro-relief. They are acid, poor in grounds, with scanty reserves of nutrients. Consequently, fertility of tundra soils is low. This is due to their relative youthful age and lack of activity of biological processes. As for the associated climate of gley tundra soils, it is subarctic with extremely long-lasting winter. As most of the tundra lies within the Arctic Circle, it experiences winter polar night. The severity of winter depends on the continentality. As a rule, the tundra practically has no climatic summer, or the latter comes for short time. The average temperature of the warmest month (July or August) is 50-59  °F. In summer all vegetation rises with the polar day oncoming (or the white nights in those parts of the tundra, where the polar day does not reach). May and September is spring and autumn. Tundra soils are characterized

How to Refinish Hardwood Floors Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

How to Refinish Hardwood Floors - Research Paper Example Some floors become thin when they have been refinished a lot of times because after numerous refinishing, there is no layer left on it to be removed. So, before refinishing, consider whether your floor is in good condition to sand. 2. Arrange the Equipment. Get a belt sander if you can because it is easier to handle. Drum sander is not only heavier to carry but also it is apt to create grooves on the wood which are hard to remove. An edge sander must also be readily available so as to reach in nooks and corners of the room where a belt sander does not reach easily. Other equipment that you need is a putty knife, scraper, buffer, safety masks, eye protection, brush, and foam applicators. 3. Prepare the floor for sanding by removing all furniture, heat grates, carpets, and old nails. Mop the floor because it must be dust cleaned before sanding. Do not go for wood putty on soft floors because deep gouges and cracks in soft woods would need replacing whole planks. 5. Start sanding from the least noticeable area to get easy with the sander. Concentrate. Place the sander forward and sand along with the floor’s grain. Start sanding close to the walls, sanding both forwards and backwards. Initial sanding will only remove the layer of old finish. Use the edge sander to reach the areas the belt sander had not reached. A drum sander will have a 20-36 grit paper in it at this point. 6. Sand again, moving in backward, forward, left and right motion. It will remove the scratches that the first sanding left on the floor. This time, a drum sander should have an 80 grit paper. Select an appropriate direction depending upon the look and feel. The edge sander must also have an 80 grit paper in it. 8. Choose a finish. Polyurethane stain which is either water-based or oil-based, or Osmo Hard Wax Oil, is used normally. The finish can be glossy or matte. Satin finish is preferred because it is known to hide the blemishes

Toyota's Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Toyota's Economy - Essay Example Most of the banking institutions have closed or merged their operations with the existing other institution in order to facilitate uninterrupted service to their customers. The financial institutions were not the only ones affected by the crisis, as other manufacturing and service sector companies like General Motors, Satyam Computers and so on were also affected. The recession has done bad things, but also good things to bring out some of the malpractices to the light of the stakeholders and government taking place within the organization of the company that resulted in bankruptcy. Additionally, there are companies that faced the past and present crises and are still going strong. This paper intends to study the impact of the crisis on Toyota’s economy, while assessing its strategies for future development. Growth of Toyota Motor Corporation Toyota Motor was the second step taken by its founder Sakichi Toyoda, when he first started the Toyoda Automatic Loom Company, which was supported by the Japanese Government due to its military application. In December 1945, Toyoda was permitted to start up a peacetime production by the U.S. military and by 1947 made the SA Model, called ‘Toyopet’. ... Apart form manufacturing, Toyota was involved in many mergers and acquisitions which included the acquisition of Hino, Daihatsu and Denso, which were once Toyota’s electrical component that broke up after WWII (Toyota History, 2009). Presently, the current investment of Toyota Motors stands at 1.9 bn, with 6,850 employees. As per the 2007 FY Report, consolidated net sales valued at 1,651.2 bn yens, current income at -0.5 bn yens and net income -1.0 bn yens (Economic Report). However, the financial crisis has a definite impact on the development of Toyota in certain parts of the world. Effects of Financial Crisis Toyota suffered its worst slowdown since its inception in the year 1937, reduced the production, and cut back on investments to combat falling sales and increasing yen. It is reported that Toyota Motors will be incurring a loss of around 1.2 billion euros (rfi.fr). The recent financial crisis had a drastic effect on the business of Toyota Motor Corporation. According t o the Economic Report in FY 2008, despite the increase of net sales, the company incurred huge operating losses, which resulted in the value of assets and shareholder equity. Mreg Marco (2008) reports that Toyota experienced a downslide of 32% in U. S. sales alone. Moreover, experts warned more doom and gloom in the coming years despite frantic measures being taken by the government to stem the tide of bad data (AFP, 2009). These financial losses and net decrease in sales has resulted in DBRS downgrading the long-term ratings of Toyota and its subsidiaries from AAA to AA. DBRS also reported that recent fiscal reports were far below the expectations with total revenues dropping to 20.5 trillion yen, a decline of 22% and an operation loss of 461 billion yen, despite cost cutting

Conway Inn - Conway, TX Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Conway Inn - Conway, TX - Research Paper Example In this paper, the focus will be on some deficient areas that need to be taken care of by the hotel’s management in order to improve the levels of customer satisfaction and organizational productivity. Customer service quality raises many issues for almost every company related to hospitality industry in some way or other. Although the management of Conway Inn hotel takes good care of every business process to meet the required standards of quality, but there is an area which still needs some focus in order to bring it in line with the quality of all other business process. The area which needs improvement is the customer service area the quality of which has gone down a little in the past couple of years. Customers have made complaints about the behavior, food serving, and room service of the employees of the hotel. The management of the hotel needs to resolve these customer service quality issues in order win the trust of the precious customers and protect the customer base from shortening because of the customer service issues. It is essential for a company from the hospitality industry to implement a well-developed quality management system because it helps in attracting and retaining customers, as well as in gaining competitive advantage in the market. Quality management system is implemented in a company to ensure that the quality of the products and services meet the standards. It acts as the foundation for an organization’s success because without the implementation of an effective quality management system, an organization cannot become able to ensure the optimum level of quality in its business processes. Quality management in hotel industry improves overall business performance. In our case, decreasing customer satisfaction due to low quality customer service is causing problems for the company. A quality management system will be needed to improve this area and get the trust of the

The effect of usury on our lives Research Paper

The effect of usury on our lives - Research Paper Example The old way was an endeavor to shield the poor and less fortunate from exploitation, but the current American economic system charges higher interests to the poor (Long, 1996). Despite the fact that usury-based economic systems are a common practice by all banks in the world today, people should resist it because of its enormous disadvantages to the society. Different schools of thought have been advanced towards the concept of usury. The traditional view perceives usury has a practice of seeking a payment for a loan advanced to another individual. This definition was development at the scholarly works of Aristotle and was embraced by other people of the times. The concept advancement by Aristotle was that money was barren; the medieval schoolmen accepted this view. Later on, changes stared emerging on the definition (Persky, 2007). The modern view of usury relates to charging of unethical interest that is exploitative to the borrower. However, some faiths have continued to uphold th e concept of charging any form of interest as an act of usury. The banks have developed due to the demand to satisfy the market needs, laws that regulate their activities have been developed. It is an act of usury for a bank or any other financial lending institution or a person to charge more than the set percentages. In my view usury is a relative concept that relates to interest charged on loans, if the interest is unreasonable to the poor in the society and does not reflect the needs in the society that is tantamount to usury (Lewison, 1999). Usury based economy relates to the charging of favorable interests. The modern view started taking its shape around 1571 when Elizabeth I allowed an interest of 10% to be charged, this aspect led to enactment of some ethics to safeguard the interests of the loanees. At the initial stages, a lot of resistance was encountered since the interest was seen as a way of exploiting people (Steel, 1993). To further upgrade usury, came reforms that f acilitated the enactment of ethics. Coincidentally, the activity led to an increase in the prices and consequently economies started growing. A lot of productivity and prosperity was evident in the process. In 1854, the usury laws were reformed further allowing the justice system to prosecute those that were charging exorbitant interests. The laws have continued to change in order to take care of the borrowers, as it stands the Consumer Credit act protects the borrowers against any form of modern usury (Steel, 1993). Human needs are many and unsatiable, in an effort to control the economy of the world by the giant economies they use their financial muscle to benefit themselves more. People in all societies need to invest their money in one way or another in order to live a secure and decent life. Money is the backbone of anyone’s life; however, people have very limited options to choose where to invest their money. Banks are the only winning side from this unequal equation (M ews & Ibrahim, 2007). They take people’s money to make as much profit as they can for the sake of themselves and the rich people. On the other hand, poor and middle class people will find themselves drowning in debt day after day. To simplify this lets take an average college graduate student as an example. If he wanted to satisfy the basic need of his life on his won, from getting married to finding a place to live, he will surely be in debt for at least 30 coming

Feelings Of Sadness Essay Example for Free

Feelings Of Sadness Essay This question is about feelings of sadness. Look at the Burial of St John Moore choose one more where there are feelings of sadness. With close reference to the way the poems are written compare and contrast how each speaker conveys his or her feelings of sadness. Show which poem has the more powerful appeal to you emotions. The two poems I am going to use are `The Burial of Sir John Moore` at Corunna by Charles Wolfe and `Remembrance` by Emily Brontà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½. The poem, The Burial of Sir John Moore is a soldiers-eye-view of what initially appears to be the hurried and rather undignified burial at night of Sir John Moore in an unmarked grave and immediately prior to the retreat of his surviving forces by sea. The clear sadness in this poem is of a death, just what Remembrance deals with. Although Brontà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ is writing about a death of a lover her use of first person narration, presents the reader with a very powerful description of the emotions surrounding the loss. In the poem, The Burial of Sir John Moore, the funeral they have for the major still respected even though its in silence and nothing of what a man of his standards or any soldier should be having. The funeral differs a lot from what a funeral would be if the body was brought back home properly. Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note If that was back home, there would be the complete opposite from that line, all the soldiers would drum and there would be tunes. Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot But on the battlefield they couldnt make any noise what so ever, therefore the funeral was done in silence. The whole way through the poem you still see how much respect the soldiers have for Sir John Moore, even after hes dead. They still look up to him as the hero that he is. In the poem The Remembrance, Bronte is talking about her partner that has passed away. Her use of first person narration presents the reader of very powerful descriptions about her love and emotions. The month of December is a very cold and miserable season at times. Cold in the earth and fifteen wild Decembers So imagining fifteen of them is what life is like for her without her lover. She is never going to find no one like him, No later light has lightened up my heaven; No second morn has ever shone for me. The form of, The Burial of Sir John Moore, is Eight four-line stanzas. The tone is mainly sadness at the loss of a war hero. The reader also senses the loneliness and fear of the soldiers and their guilty haste and nervousness in burying their hero without any form of ceremony. It has a regular rhyming scheme. It creates a sombre and solemn beat which might remind the reader of a military funeral march. The language is simple throughout the whole poem. The imagery creates a sense of their loneliness and fear and also of their pride and courage. The form of Remembrance is a lyric poem or lament written in eight four line verses. The tone at first questioning, doubting, then certain and passionately resolved. The mood is one of despair and grief. It is a regular rhyming scheme. It has the regular beat of a hymn, with the emphasis tending to fall at the beginning and half way through each line. There is also a lot of repetition cold, severed, forget, hopes, my lifes bliss to emphasise the effect the death has on the speaker. The bird metaphor in stanza two reflects the flightiness, and inconstancy of human thought. The change of tense in the second half of the poem heralds a change of thought and tone and answers the query raised. She does remember, only too well. Fifteen wild Decembers have not succeeded in dulling the rapturous pain of memory. The hard, unfeeling words of the first half, expressing the coldness of grief such as cold, wrong, sever, hover, suffering, wild obscure give way in the second half to softer words, hymn-like words (not surprising considering her Methodist background) such as bliss, golden, joy, cherished, yearning, burning rapturous, anguish. These words inject the poem with a passion, which reflects the depth of her emotions when she allows herself the luxury of remembrance. Out of both poems I think The Burial of Sir John Moore would come across as the saddest, even though it shows fewer emotions than Remembrance. However, the poem isnt a depressing one to read, it has a kind of excitement to it, to find out what is going to happen. But the actual story line to both poems are very sad, which is clear as they both are about death.

Online Buyology Essay Example for Free

Online Buyology Essay Descriptions of China’s economy are often paired with the best of accolades: promising, miraculous and meteoric, to name a few. But observers rarely use the words â€Å"fair† and â€Å"transparent† to describe the country’s business environment. One need not look far to see why: rampant corruption, preferential policies for state-owned companies, and copious red tape all prevent private enterprises from thriving. Yet out of this unequal playing field, e-commerce giant Alibaba and web portal Sina have created two of the fairest and most transparent business platforms in China. Alibaba allows individuals and companies to sell goods on its Taobao platform, giving vendors a set of standards and leaving everything else to their discretion. Weibo is similarly a free-for-all of Chinese expression, with the notable exception of controversial political topics. Both Taobao and Weibo have exploded since their founding and have maintained commanding leads in their respective fields. Taobao sales were US$58. 7 billion (RMB370 billion) in 2010 while Tmall, a site aimed at more developed brands spun off of Taobao in 2008, currently has about 55,000 vendors. And in the two years since Sina Weibo’s founding, the Twitter-like service has racked up 250 million users. â€Å"If you ask people, ‘Why you want to shop online? ’ I think many people will say that it gives transparency of pricing†¦ people look for convenience, people like more information,† said Phil Wei, China CEO of Export Now, a startup that allows US-based companies to list products on Tmall. â€Å"One thing [Alibaba founder] Jack Ma did is offer freedom to all these consumers and all these business units. † The free market The freedom to compete is giving rise to third-party service providers that could become some of the most dynamic companies in the Chinese economy. As has been the case with US tech giants Twitter and Ebay, Taobao and Weibo have both spawned an eco-system of third-party companies that provide related services, making the platforms practically an economy unto themselves. The type of third-party service providers surrounding the two platforms reflects the different aims of Taobao and Weibo. â€Å"Taobao is doing usiness transaction[s] while Weibo is media spreading information,† said Deco You, a Beijing-based analyst at iResearch, an online market research company. This discrepancy results in very different growth rates, said You. â€Å"The number of Taobao-related companies will increase much faster than those Weibo-related ones. † In addition to opportunities to sell goods, Taobao and Tmall offer business opportunities for subcontractors that provide services to vendors , such as store design, customer service, logistics and marketing. As a media platform, Weibo naturally lends itself to marketing companies, which began to emerge about a year after Weibo’s founding. Yang Xin, founder of marketing firm Weichuanbo, said he knows of at least 10 start-up companies that also specialize in Weibo, not to mention traditional marketing firms which have entered the arena. Despite these differences, doing business centered on either Taobao or Weibo is remarkably similar. The short lead times and relatively limited barriers to entry have resulted in fierce competition among many similar companies. Many of these third-party companies are quick to copy each other’s successes, a common tactic in China where enforcement of intellectual property rights is not as strong as in the West. But instead of knock-offs, the competition seems to foster flexibility. Weichuanbo has upgraded its software platform three times in attempt to stay ahead of copycats, Yang said. The companies also compete for the best online real estate on Weibo and Taobao. Taobao and Tmall sell ad spaces to the right of search results, although search results themselves are organic and depend on sales and consumer ratings. Weibo marketing companies commonly pay influential users to promote their products. Weichuanbo compensates about 200,000 users for their help, and Yang hopes that number will someday grow to 2-3 million. The instant feedback of web analytics also means that companies know immediately if they are falling behind the competition. If a user doesn’t like an attempt at viral marketing on Weibo, they are likely to say so or ignore it altogether. Shoppers on Taobao are just as quick to pass judgment. â€Å"Online, if a client comes to your store, if they stay longer than five seconds your store is not bad,† said Wei of Export Now. That means the chances they become frequent visitors will be significantly higher. But if [they stay] less than five seconds, they probably will not come back again. † Taobao- and Weibo-related companies also compete for unbridled optimism. Weichuanbo aims to have more than 300% in annual revenue growth within the next two years. Export Now expects to have some 300 US manufacturers selling through its service and US$1. 59-3. 18 million (RMB10-20 million) in revenue by the end of the year, up from virtually nothing at the present. The market will keep growing and the trend will continue in the next five to 10 years, and the expansion brings about more opportunities for third-party companies,† said Dong Xu, an analyst at research firm Analysys International. Yet growth in the Weibo community may not be sustainable. The government-led research center China Internet Network Information Center issued a report last month stating that new signups for Weibo began to slow in the second half of 2011. Weibo users nearly quadrupled from the end of 2010 to 250 million. With only 500 million internet users in China, however, continuing at that pace will be impossible. Although user growth will slow, there is still much money to be made. Spending on internet marketing is projected to grow to US$12. 5 billion (RMB79. 1 billion) in 2012, up from an estimated US$8. 1 billion in 2011 and US$5. 2 billion in 2010, according to iResearch. Marketing revenue in China is likely to continue growing quickly, said You of iResearch. Advertisers have only recently begun to shift online, attracted by ad space that is often more targeted and cost-effective than traditional print and TV advertising. Marketing and analytics companies can strive to grab more of that revenue by improving on underdeveloped technology and becoming more efficient, said You. Foreign companies with better technology and efficient operations could also enter the market, though they will still be limited by cultural barriers. Taobao and Weibo could also begin providing additional marketing services themselves. Taobao launched an internet marketing division in April 2010 called the Taobao Alliance, which quickly grew to have US$238 million (RMB1. 5 billion) in revenue, according to iResearch. This potential for new entrants means the market for third-party services is likely to remain highly competitive. Many companies that fail to keep up with the pace of innovation will undoubtedly be pushed out of business or be acquired by more successful competitors. But those that do innovate and survive will probably be among the most dynamic companies in China’s internet sector, regardless of the platform. As Wang Weili of Taobao marketing firm Shenzhen Fangwei E-Commerce puts it: â€Å"There might be other websites driving our business in the future. But where there are clients is where we will be. †

Comparison of Joint Family and Nuclear Family

Comparison of Joint Family and Nuclear Family A classic definition of family, according to anthropologist George Murdock, is a social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation, and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults. The U.S. Bureau of the Census has defined a family as two or more persons related by birth, marriage, or adoption, who reside together. Thus a family can be two or more adult siblings living together, a parent and child or children, two adults who are related by marriage but have no children, or adults who adopt a child.† A family is a set of human being related to each other in a non- professional manner, giving rise to a concrete cohesion within the family. Love, care, and affection are the most prominent human values, which are responsible for maintaining these bonds of relationships within a family. (Agarwal, V, 2005), not only these bu t a family also gives strength to an individual and because of its strength an individual can overcome from different kinds of problems too. A family gives strength to an individual; it is not only the strongest point but also the weakest point of an individual. A person learns different things from his/her family, but learning different things also varies from family to family. There are two basic kinds of family in our society Joint Family and Nuclear Family. A Joint Family (or extended family) is also known as a complex family, parents and their childrens families often live under a single roof, which means that Joint family consist of two or multiple generations. In some cases Joint family can be said as a family where a collection of more then one nuclear families are interconnected either by blood relation or marital relation reside under the same roof. All the members, regardless of which particular nuclear family (within that joint family) they belong to, live together and share happiness, grief, and virtually every kind of problem and joy together. The joint family in itself simulates a typical view of our multi-cultural, multi-lingual society in India and as well as in Bangladesh. (Agarwal, V.2005) Joint Families are mostly found in Asia. The term nuclear family developed in the western world to distinguish the family group and is considered as the simplest type of a family which consist of a married man and a woman with their offspring ‘.Nuclear Family can also be referred to as a conjugal family because of the accent is of the husband wife relationship and the nuclear family is the basic unit of all more complex forms’. (Nimkoff, F.M. Middleton, R. 1960) Family in the Western country like the United States have become more diverse with no particular household arrangement representing half of the United States population. The different types of families occur in a wide variety of settings, and their specific functions and meanings depend largely on their relationship to other social institutions. Non-scholars, especially in the United States and Europe, use the term nuclear family to refer to conjugal families. Non-scholars, especially in the United States and Europe, also use the term . Extended Family’ this term has two distinct meanings. First, it serves as a synonym of consanguine family .Second, in societies dominated by the conjugal family, it refers to kindred’ (Retrieved April 7, 2007) The behavior, lifestyle, thinking everything varies from family to family .i.e. a person from a joint family behaves, thinks in a different way then that of a nuclear family. People from joint family comes a cross many different things and by facing those different things they mostly learn how to meet the social challenges of the real world. Living in a joint family in itself is a beautiful experience and among the two basic kinds of family, joint family is the one where a person gets different kinds of advantages such as a person learns to love and earn respect which is the key to have harmonious and never ending relationship. Mutual respect and love are biggest values a joint family can offer. Not only a person to learns love and earn respect but also an individual can share his/her joys and grieves; in joint family there are many people to enjoy about a particular delightful occasion and as well as provide support at the time of family problems. (i.e., incase if some one is ill).When a person lives in a joint family he/she can share many secrets with someone of his/her age (cousins), which he/ she cannot share with his/her elders or younger but cannot do the same when in a nuclear family. Another advantage of living in a joint family is of safety and development of children, in joint families a child can be nurtured p roperly and perfectly. The chances of a child to get spoilt are lesser than that of a nuclear family. For example, in many cases we have seen that the working women leave their child at home along with their servant or baby sitter and their company spoil the child, whereas in joint family the cases are reverse; there are enough people (such as grandmother, aunts etc) to look after the child. Despite of all these advantages the concept of joint family is disappearing day by day from our society; and the reason behind it is the mentality of people are changing, they don’t want to be dependent on anyone and don’t want anyone to object them as in some cases it has been seen that the elders are objecting the younger for not doing any specific thing. One of the disadvantages of living in a joint family is the unequal distribution of shares in home- economy. For example many families we have seen that there is a single point of income, such as a common shop, a single earning hand, or some revenue periodically generated from fixed assets like rents and royalties. In such cases, the eldest member (or the earner) is usually the one, who takes after the economic power and responsibility to manage home funds, divide the share of each nuclear family (within the joint family) rationally. Most of the times, his inability in doing so, becomes the reason for family-partitions. This is inability however arise due to various factor including dishonesty of himself (or his own nuclear family) or some other family member inappropriate distribution of responsibilities and rights for each nuclear family, for expenditure. Share of each nuclear family within the joint family must be decided setting up the balance among the needs (education, clothing , and special preferences), number of dependents, contribution to funds, and the special eventual expenditures. This balance is really pivoted on a very sensitive fulcrum, which should be the result of a healthy exchange of honest thoughts of each responsible person in the joint family. Each individual’s equal recognition is very important and also very important for not allowing any inferiority or superiority complex to creep into anyone’s mind. This particularly must be avoided at the level where, parents start expecting their child to be as bright as children of other couple in the same joint family, for instance. This sometimes, gives rise to silent bitter feelings and these feelings may end up causing differences. Differences in opinion create a barrier among the family members and this is one of the important things which should be taken care of, by all the responsible members of the joint family in a matured fashion. The healthy brainstorming over the issue in question may give rise to an even healthier environment of living. The other way to conquering this problem is having a heated altercation, which makes conditions bad to worse, ultimately resulting in separations. â€Å"(Agarwal, V. 2005) So these are the most common problems which are the reasons behind partition or separation or for avoiding for living in a joint family, but on the other hand, by doing so a person is getting away from his/her loved ones and accepting different kind of risk by living in a nuclear family and are also forgetting their responsibilities towards their loved ones and towards their whole family. Living in a joint family can lesser pressure financially or can be advantageous for an individual as the members contribute according to their income but it can also create problems among the family members for not contributing equally or due to less amount of money. People prefer to live in joint families but because of their misunderstanding (i.e. differences in opinion,) among the family members an individual might avoid to live in it. But by taking its advantages into consideration, people do like living in joint families too. Living in a joint family is financially advantageous for all the members of the family. As by living together the members contribute according to their capability and in this way they lesser pressure from each other. People in our society face a lot of problems; financial ones, social ones, family ones. One of the biggest problems is the decline of the family. In advantageous thoughts of nuclear family, two parents mean double the chances of a good income, over a single parent. It means twice the chance that a parent is home to teach the kids, be a good role model. It means less stress for both the adult and the kids. It means more diverse influences. A child needs a mothers perspective and a fathers perspective, not just once, its not as balanced. Through most of our history and most civilizations, we have had extended families. Mom and dad lived with, or near, grandmother and grandfather, aunts and uncles, cousins; it was like having a gigantic family instead of a nuclear one. No strangers raising the kids, no worry of bankruptcy if someone loses a job, always someone there when you need them. The nuclear, isolated or restricted family is not a recent phenomenon, but has existed in many cultures throughout human history. Indeed, the extended family of several generations is found mostly in relatively advanced, stable, and affluent, but not yet industrialized societies. Very primitive and very sophisticated societies seem to prefer the nuclear family model. However, nuclear families can vary in the degree of their isolation and restrictedness. For example, before the Industrial Revolution the Western nuclear family was often embedded in a larger social unit, such as a farm or estate, an aristocratic court, or a village populated by relatives. Many older city neighborhoods also kept kinship ties strong, and thus even very small families remained open to the community. Family visits might be frequent and extended; children might freely circulate and feel at home in several households. On the other hand, we have seen that, beginning in the late 17th century; a trend toward closeness reduced the size of many larger households and changed the relationships between the remaining family members. They became more concerned about each other. They needed each other more. The idyllic home of the bourgeois became an island of serenity in the gathering storm of modernization, a haven secure from the world out there, from aggressiveness, competition, and class warfare. We have also seen how this home sheltered women and protected the children from sexual and other temptations. Other nasty social realities were also kept safely at bay. The family income was no longer earned inside, but rather outside the house. The division of labor between the sexes became more pronounced as men spent more and more time away from their families as wage earners in factories, shops, and offices. Their wives became almost the only companions of their small children whose care and education was n ow their main responsibility. (Formerly, these tasks had been divided between mothers, grandmothers, nurses, and servants.) Virtually the only middle-class men who still worked at home were doctors and lawyers in private practice. As a rule, however, the bourgeois family saw its head and breadwinner only when he returned from his work at night. This work itself remained an abstraction to both his wife and his children. In a typical nuclear family, there are two parents, and either one or both have jobs. So if someone loses their job, either the family has no income, or only half of what it had. But imagine a family with three or more parents, some of whom work. A lost job is less of a disaster to the family then. One of the biggest problems families face today is that nobody can stay home to care for the kids. It is a statistical fact that the second parent usually has to go out and work just to bring home about the same amount of money that the first parent is paying in taxes. This hurts the children, who end up being raised by random babysitters and day-care centers. But in an extended family, its much easier to be sure that someones always around to care for the kids, provide a good role model. Perhaps two adults work and one stays home, or each works at different times. In a nuclear family there will be less scope for children to get advice and encouragement from the experienced elders. There will be problems in bringing up the children and absence of care and affection of the elders to the children. It is another question whether the nuclear family itself, even when complete, is still the best available option. Many people today are convinced that small, single households are uneconomical and wasteful, that they are still emotionally unhealthy, that they perpetuate outmoded stereotypical sex roles, and that they produce competitive, egotistical children in an age when universal cooperation seems the only hope of mankind. It is also argued that the modern family no longer has any other function than to provide love and intimacy, and that this is by no means enough to justify its existence. Indeed, since families have been largely relieved of their economic, educational, and protective functions by the state, sexual attachment has become the nearly e xclusive basis of marriage, and this basis is notoriously weak. Frequent divorce and remarriage, however, while perhaps practical for the adults, hardly seem in the best interest of the children. Under the circumstances, it is only fitting that a number of thoughtful men and women should continue to search for more stable, new and improved family models. Living in a joint family not only is advantageous but also has disadvantages as well, but in order to achieve something one has to lose something too. The same is the case for joint families, by thinking about the advantages that a joint family provides one might to give up the idea of living in a nuclear family and unite with their loved ones. Living in a joint family is advantageous. In order to live happily and peacefully in a joint family an individual should not lose his temper and should overlook each others mistakes and also should understand each other. The family members should have good communication among themselves in order to ensure free flow of money around the family.

Andrew :: essays research papers

Andrew Jackson and his policies strengthened the new American nationalism. Through his actions during his presidency, he changed the nation into a more nationalistic country. Jackson was a man of the people, and he strongly felt that the common man was the power behind government. There were many different aspects that mirrored Jackson and American nationalism. Many factors, including his personality, his policies, his actions, and the way he mirrored American nationalism changed America into what become less of an aristocracy and more of a democracy to benefit the common man. Jackson was a man of humble background. In his time, a man that was born in a cabin was looked upon highly, and some of those with more noble upbringings actually apologized for not being born in more humble surroundings. Jackson was a brash, strong-willed man. He first got his fame in 1815 when he defeated the British Army at New Orleans with his untrained militia. Then in 1818, he violated Spanish territory without any authorization and hung 2 Spanish subjects for supposedly aiding some of the Indians that were being hunted. He lost the election for presidency in 1824, and claimed it was done so by a "corrupt bargain: between Adams and Clay. He finally got his presidency in 1828. Most of his votes came from the West and South. When he was in office, he made it clear that he would get his way. He was labeled "King Jackson the First" by some and he expanded the power of the President. He supported a strong national government and used his power to get what he wanted. He vetoed 12 times in his 2 terms in office. His presidency was one of violence, and a sort of monarchy rule. The second main point that Jackson strengthened nationalism is his policies while in office. Jackson firmly believed that the government should be restricted to become the "simple machine which the Constitution created". He was truly a man of the people. He also ignored many of the decisions made by the Supreme Court. Another thing was the Jackson had a strong personality and was well liked. However, I feel that many of Jackson's supporters didn't know where he stood on the views, but they supported him because he was a man of the people. He didn't make his view clear many times, but still received support from the people.

Rake’s Progress: Bedlam in Bethlam Essay -- British History, Mental He

Rake’s Progress: Bedlam in Bethlam The human brain is a vast, unexplainable, and unpredictable organ. This is the way that many modern physicians view the mind. Imagine what physicians three hundred years ago understood about the way their patients thought. The treatment of the mentally ill in the eighteenth century was appalling. The understanding of mental illness was very small, but the animalistic treatment of patients was disgusting. William Hogarth depicts Bethlam, the largest mental illness hospital in Britain, in his 1733 painting The Madhouse1. The public’s view of mental illness was very poor and many people underestimated how mentally ill some patients were. The public and the doctors’ view on insanity was changing constantly, making it difficult to treat those who were hospitalized2. â€Å"Madhouses† became a dumping ground for people in society that could not be handled by the criminal justice system. People who refused to work, single mothers, and children who refused to follow orde rs were being sent to mental illness hospitals3. A lack of understanding was the main reason for the ineptness of the health system to deal with the mentally ill, but the treatment of the patients was cruel and inhumane. The British’s handling of mentally ill patients was in disarray. The knowledge of mental illness was very small. Doctors did not understand how to diagnosis or treat mental disorders. They did not understand how the brain functioned and what to expect from people in certain situations. Many symptoms of physical illness today were considered mental illness in the eighteenth century. The constant shaking due to Parkinson’s disease was misinterpreted as a mental condition and treated as such4. These patients were placed into... ...glish Madness. 55. 18. Scull, â€Å"Moral Treatment Reconsidered.† 107. 19. Scull, â€Å"Psychiatry in the Victorian Era.† 11. 20. Scull, â€Å"Psychiatry in the Victorian Era.† 11. 21. Scull, â€Å"Psychiatry in the Victorian Era.† 14. Bibliography Hogarth, William. The Madhouse. 1733. Scull, Andrew. â€Å"Moral Treatment Reconsidered: Some Sociological Comments on an Episode in the History of British Psychiatry.† In Madhouses, Mad-doctors and Madmen, edited by Andrew Scull. 105-121. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981). Scull, Andrew. â€Å"The Social History of Psychiatry in the Victorian Era.† In Madhouses, Mad-doctors and Madmen, edited by Andrew Scull, 5-35. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981. Skultans, Vieda. English Madness: Ideas on Insanity 1580-1890. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. 1979. Rake’s Progress: Bedlam in Bethlam Essay -- British History, Mental He Rake’s Progress: Bedlam in Bethlam The human brain is a vast, unexplainable, and unpredictable organ. This is the way that many modern physicians view the mind. Imagine what physicians three hundred years ago understood about the way their patients thought. The treatment of the mentally ill in the eighteenth century was appalling. The understanding of mental illness was very small, but the animalistic treatment of patients was disgusting. William Hogarth depicts Bethlam, the largest mental illness hospital in Britain, in his 1733 painting The Madhouse1. The public’s view of mental illness was very poor and many people underestimated how mentally ill some patients were. The public and the doctors’ view on insanity was changing constantly, making it difficult to treat those who were hospitalized2. â€Å"Madhouses† became a dumping ground for people in society that could not be handled by the criminal justice system. People who refused to work, single mothers, and children who refused to follow orde rs were being sent to mental illness hospitals3. A lack of understanding was the main reason for the ineptness of the health system to deal with the mentally ill, but the treatment of the patients was cruel and inhumane. The British’s handling of mentally ill patients was in disarray. The knowledge of mental illness was very small. Doctors did not understand how to diagnosis or treat mental disorders. They did not understand how the brain functioned and what to expect from people in certain situations. Many symptoms of physical illness today were considered mental illness in the eighteenth century. The constant shaking due to Parkinson’s disease was misinterpreted as a mental condition and treated as such4. These patients were placed into... ...glish Madness. 55. 18. Scull, â€Å"Moral Treatment Reconsidered.† 107. 19. Scull, â€Å"Psychiatry in the Victorian Era.† 11. 20. Scull, â€Å"Psychiatry in the Victorian Era.† 11. 21. Scull, â€Å"Psychiatry in the Victorian Era.† 14. Bibliography Hogarth, William. The Madhouse. 1733. Scull, Andrew. â€Å"Moral Treatment Reconsidered: Some Sociological Comments on an Episode in the History of British Psychiatry.† In Madhouses, Mad-doctors and Madmen, edited by Andrew Scull. 105-121. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981). Scull, Andrew. â€Å"The Social History of Psychiatry in the Victorian Era.† In Madhouses, Mad-doctors and Madmen, edited by Andrew Scull, 5-35. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981. Skultans, Vieda. English Madness: Ideas on Insanity 1580-1890. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. 1979.

Capital Punishment :: essays research papers

How often have we heard the statement â€Å"Two wrongs don’t make a right†? Yet, is this saying ever really applied to our lives? When do we ever turn the other cheek? As far as history is concerned, the human race has never felt the sting of a hand consecutively on both sides. Evidence to this can be found anywhere. Soldiers kill the enemy to win the war. Athletes become violent in order to obtain a trophy. And, in the judicial system, the ultimate crime of murder is dealt with the ultimate punishment of death. Yet, it poses the question does the end really justify the means? Can society’s practice of the death penalty be considered a moral disgrace? Justice is not without faults. Canadians Guy Paul Morin and David Milgaard were both wrongfully accused of murder. Both men spent many years serving out a penalty which should have never been bestowed upon them. Although, if the death penalty was common practice in Canada, these innocent victims may have been executed. They may have been killed. Murdered. All because of a guilty verdict and society’s desire to extinguish the flame of violence. The desire to have revenge. Yet, does the elimination of an offender bring back their victims or heal the wounds of the families? Should we consent to causing pain for another family by killing their child? If the offender was your child, would you want to watch them die? Of course, there is always the argument that the threat of death acts as a deterrent to threatening offenders. However, the claim that this act really does deter violent crime is inconclusive, not proven, and extremely difficult to disprove. For every set of statistics saying that it lowers the amount of violent crime, there is another to say it doesn’t and another that states it does both. Using such an ambiguous argument to support a controversial act is not only unacceptable, but it is irresponsible. If there is any validity to this argument, it is negated by the actual amount of time an offender spends on death row. Endless appeals, delays, technicalities, and retrials keep those condemned to death waiting for execution for years on end. If the majority of death row residents live to an old age anyway, why would anyone be afraid of capital punishment? It would be just as easy to sentence offenders to life of captivity and work in a prison.

River Road Community

We re all going to have to learn how to walk again. After a nuclear holocaust devastates the country of the United States, the people of the River Road Community have to work through adversity and strive for the survival of every family. Households have to do without the things they would usually have taken for granted. They have to bond together to fight the trials of learning to walk. Frank s quote demonstrates his understanding of the task ahead of them as they start to learn to live again. They would have to begin by crawling before they can once more stand-up on both feet. Frank s quote is manifested throughout the story by the observed changes in the lifestyle of the community, the ways in which the diminishment of supplies are dealt with, and how the loss of community members forces others to take on new roles. After the nuclear holocaust, the lifestyle of the River Road community changed drastically. Before The Day, many residents of the community were wastrels. These rejects of society lived each day to eat, drink, and sleep. They lacked the drive to succeed in everyday life. After the bomb drop, everything changed. These blots on modern society crawled out of their shells in order to contribute something to a struggling society. They worked hard on construction and other things that would help the community. This strenuous work gave these once slobs a new outlook on life as well as the regular exercise they lacked. But, this sudden increase in work was not the only variable playing a role on them. After the bomb, anarchy broke out among community and surrounding towns. Highwaymen robbed the innocent, and people were taken advantage of. They had to start over. Randy gained leadership for the community. The next part was to gain control. He and other community members formulated a plan in which to regain control. Once it was obtained, laws were made that would govern the growing community. The government had started all over again. Another lifestyle serve was in the economy. The US currency no longer had value. With no gold to back up the paper money, it was worthless (except as toilet paper). Instead, the River Road community relied on the barter system. Trades were made for the items that were needed. If one person needed a spoon, they could trade some honey for it. Because of the nuclear holocaust, the lifestyle of the River Road community changed. Another way in which the community had to learn how to walk again, arose from the lack of supplies. Before The Day, many residents live on a diet of beer and nuts. After the bomb incident, many of the foods found in the pre-bombed world were no longer available. During chapter 666, the food supply runs terribly low. Helen and Lib create a new salad using leaves and other greenery found around the house. This new salad would never have been attempted had it not been for the lack of food due to the holocaust. The nutritional value of this green salad, compared to the beer and nuts, shows a positive improvement in nutritional content of their diet. Another loss came as a result of the loss of running water after the nuclear holocaust. Not long after the water was cut off the tub supplies and other rations of water, which had been stored up, were running out. The community had to limit its use of water and cut back on things that on a pre-bomb day would have seemed natural (like flushing the toilet or taking a bath). The community adapted the Artesian water to use as their source for water. This water was not as nice as the purified water they had previously had, but it was water none-the-less. The harnessing of this water required the help of many. LALALAALA. Also, when medical supplies ran low, things had to be improvised. With just the aid of a billiard table, steak knives, darning needles, hair curlers, and nylon line, Dan operated on Ben Franklin, removing his appendix. This is just one example where things had to be invented due to a lack of supplies. They also decided to use hypnotism as a form of anesthesia. Dan could speak a few sentences, and they would fall into malleable trance. He would then be able to operate without the patient feeling the procedure. Another example of the River Road community having to learn to walk again would be with food preservation. Without the use of refrigerators and other systems for keeping food fresh, there was a great need for salt. The salt could be used to preserve most meats. An animal could be slaughtered, and part eaten for a meal. The remaining portions of the animal could be salted and kept for a while. Towards the end of July, Randy noticed the salt supplies running dangerously low. He and many other members of the community had to set sail in search of a source for salt. They did return triumphantly with many bags of salt. These are all ways in which the community has adapted to a loss of supplies and had to work through the adversity and learn to walk again. The last way in which the River Road community had to learn to walk again was how the loss of community members forces the others to take on new jobs. When the towns were bombed, many skilled people were lost. Jobs needed to be filled and the residents of the River Road community rose to the challenge. Helen served as the barber for the group, cutting everyone s hair. Randy was the leader. He took control of the group and returned order to an anarchical society. Dan took over as the full time doctor, and Lib took over most of the cooking. Many Frank s quote, we re all going to have to learn how to walk again†¦, is manifested throughout the story by the observed changes in the lifestyle of the community, the ways in which the diminishment of supplies are dealt with, and how the loss of community members forces others to take on new roles. The great disaster affected everyone, and everyone pulled together to strive through the hard times. The community, crippled by the nuclear blast, regained strength and managed to walk again. The road there was filled with hardship and pain, but the path made them stronger. The River Road Community survived the nuclear holocaust, even though they had to learn how to walk all over again.