1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

1 - Essay Example Each of these will be explored in turn with examples but greater emphasis on the last two. Cost has always been an obstacle to having many computers in schools (Micromart, N.d.). Low cost computing was then pioneered by the British Sir Clive Sinclair although the Acorn’s BBC eventually became more popular in UK schools (Lee, 2009). The greatest influx of computers into UK schools thus began in the late 1980s when the educational authorities supported the move (Smith, n.d.). Generally, the affordability of computers has been improving (Reddy, 2006) resulting in more of them being present in schools today. This includes laptops, as their prices and maintenance costs have been falling steadily making cost less of an obstacle nowadays (Warschauer, 2008). The form factor refers to the physical size and configuration of the computer hardware, or the physical arrangement of its case or internal components (Tech Target, 2005). As far as the outward size is concerned, computers have generally become smaller in size making them more convenient and space saving including peripherals such as the monitor. Early computers were too large for schools (Eteokleous, 2008). They also lacked sound and graphics capabilities (Smith, n.d.). The latest major trend in computer design is the tablet form. This follows on from the attempt at making smaller and cheaper laptops called notebooks. This form is likely to be more successful than notebooks because it is less bulky. Apple has led the way with its iPad, described by the company itself as "a whole new kind of device" (Apple, 2010). It offers more functionality than e-readers such as Amazons kindle and is easier to carry around than a netbook. This kind of convenience in a new computer form and at a lower cost than the traditional computers makes it ideal in education. The iPad like all e-readers can contain many textbooks which is easier than carrying several real textbooks

Organizational Behavior Essay Example for Free

Organizational Behavior Essay 1. Does this case prove economic downturns and company layoffs fail to lead to workplace malfeasance? Why or why not? This case proves economic downturns and company layoffs lead to workplace malfeasance. According to dictionary.com malfeasance is the performance by a public official of an act that is legally unjustified, harmful, or contrary to law. It is also defined as wrongdoing (used especially of an act in violation of a public trust. According to the case incident â€Å"These companies often produce press releases, which then work their way into the media and presumably generate potential clients for the organizations† (Robbins Judge, 2010, pg. 35). This statement has led me to believe that companies use press releases to make their situation seem worse than it actually is in order to gain clients for their organization. 2. Does the case prove we can learn nothing from the business press? The case proves that we can learn something from the business press however we should not believe everything we read. According to the case, â€Å"MSN Money, under the headline â€Å"Businesses See Rise in Employee Theft,† reported the poll results as follows: â€Å"When asked if they had noticed a recent rise in monetary theft among employees, such as fraudulent transactions or missing cash, 18% said yes, 41% were unsure and the rest said they hadn’t† (Robbins Judge, 2010, pg. 35). However, put a different way 18% agreed that theft was up and 82% either disagreed or weren’t sure. Based on MSN Money’s report it sounds like theft really has increased however if you look at it another way most companies said they haven’t seen an increase or they just haven’t noticed a rise in theft. 3. Does this chapter provide any clues for how you can be an informed consumer of business news on OB issues? In some way’s this chapter provides clues for how you can be an informed consumer of business news on OB issues because it explains how managers stay informed. According to the text, â€Å"All managers, to some degree, collect information from outside organizations and institutions, typically by scanning the news media (including the internet) and talking with other people to learn of changes in the public’s tastes, what competitors may be planning, and the like† (Robbins Judge, 2010, pg. 6). 4. Some companies install surveillance equipment (cameras, computer software) to monitor their employees. Valenti Management, which owns and runs 117 Wendy’s and 17 Chili’s restaurants, has installed fingerprint scanners on all its cash registers. Do you think these measures infringe too much on individual privacy? Can a company take prevention too far? How do you strike a balance between prevention and intrusion? When you become an employee of a company you have in essence agreed to the monitoring that is taking place. Although fingerprint scanners on all cash registers sounds like pretty extreme measure it is a way for the company to be sure that the employee that is supposed to be working the register is actually the one working the register. If the company uses a clock in number such as the four digits of an employee’s social security number another employee could use that number, take money from the register and then the blame would go on the wrong person. I do believe a company can take prevention to far however, I don’t believe Valenti Management has done so in this case. Striking a balance between prevention and intrusion can be very difficult however I do believe it is possible, before a company implements a new prevention measure it should determine whether the measure is absolutely necessary to prevent employee theft.

Positive Psychology Theory And Core Concepts Psychology Essay

Positive Psychology Theory And Core Concepts Psychology Essay School bullying is a growing public concern as it can have detrimental effect on subjective well-being of children and adolescents worldwide. Bullying can be defined and refered to as intentional , oppresive behavior against another person that causes pysical and/psychological harm and can be classified into four categories: Physical bullying such as; hitting, pushing, kicking, spiting and punching. Verbal bullying such as; name-calling, teasing, insultting and verbal threats. Social exclusion behaviors behaviors such as; ignoring victims, spreading rumours about victims, exclusing from social groups by indirect threats to friends of victims. Acts of extortion such as; asking for money or other material objects. (Olweus, 1994). Bullying can have a negative effect on victims, bullies and bystanders and impact psychosocial and physical health as well as academic aspiration(Hui, Tsang Law, 2011).Several research studies show that students with poor interpersonal relationships to family, peers and teachers are more prone to be involved in peer victimization(Wong et al., 2008). Many of the victims of bullying suffer negative affects such as; anger,anxiety,decreased self-esteem or depression(Ng Tsang,. 2008; Fung Wong,. 2007). Some victims of bullying may as a result turn into bullies themselves(Lam Liu,. 2007) and contribute to the comlex social interactions that involve schools, homes, parents, peers, adults, victims and bullies(Vreeman Carroll,. 2007). Many of the most common types of classroom and/or school antibullying interventions target three key areas; training social skills, changing group norms and increasing self-efficacy((Hui, Tsang Law, 2011). .Egan Todorov (2009) found that implementing inte rventions across entire schools lead to higher rates of succes and implementing it into the regular curriculum would be most effective(Misha, 2008). Smith collegues(2004) found that several factors that affected the school climate such as interpersonal relationships and the quality of communication were not usually implemented in the school-wide interventions. The social context play a key role in promoting bullying behavior (Espelage Swearer,. 2003) and in creating a negative school climate. Implementing a positive psychology intervention might prove usefull as a positive school climate promote positive development in children and adolescents and reduce aggression.(MIshna,. 2008;Smith et al,. 2004; Whitted Dupper,. 2005; Orpinas Horne,. 2006) Positive Psychology Theory and Core Concepts should be applied to facilitate long-term well-being in School bullying Positive psychology is the scientific study to understand , test, discover and promote factors (e.g strengths and virtues) (Sheldon et. al. ,2000) that enable individuals and environments such as institutions and communities to thrive and flourish(Seligman Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). To Flourish means to live with an optimal range of human functioning which is characterized by four key components; Goodness, Generativity, Growth and Resilience(Frederickson Losada,. 2005). Studies supports the adaptive effects of positive affects(for a review, see Lyubomirsky, King, Diener, in press) such as having a positive affect on attention(Frederickson Branigan,. 2005; Rowe , Hirsch Anderson,. 2005), increased intuition(Bolte, Goschkey, Kuhl ,.2003), creativity and broaden behavioral repertoires(Frederickson Branigan,. 2005). Fredericksons (Frederickson, 2004). Positive emotions is a key component in intervention. The Broaden-and-build theory describes how positive emotions can broaden an individuals thought action patterns, and that although feeling good is a temporary experience, it can lead to a build up of enduring personal resources (social, intellectual, psychological and physical over time and this can produce an upward spiral towards increased subjective well-being(Frederikson, 2004). Hefferson Boniwell(2011) found that positive emotions not only mark or signal health and well-being, but also produce health and well-being this notion implies that th e positive emotions transform individuals for the better and can make them more knowledgeable, effective, resilient and socially integrated()Frederickson, 2004). Isens (1990, p. 89) research also supports the broaden-and-build theory that positive emotions produces broad , flexible cognitive organization and ability to integrate diverse material. Negative emotions such as anxiety and depression can lead to a more narrow attention(Frederickson, 2004). An important question that arises when implementing the broaden-and-build theory is, how much positivity is needed to flourish(Frederickson, 2004). Negative emotions have always been the focus of traditional psychology and Baumeister, et al(2001) concluded that Bad is stronger than good and to be able to overcome the overwhelming effect of negative emotions, Fredericks needed to found out how much positivity was enough to make a difference. With the help of Losada (1999) and other researchers (Losada Heaphy, 2004) Frederickson found t he positivity ratio, stating that three positive emotions or more would negate one negative. This positivity ratio also has an upper limit where the effect decreases.It can be difficult to cultivate positivity as an individual, but there are several methods that Fredrickson Kurtz suggest might help, such as changing ones outlook from being positive to being open, appreciative.., curious and kind(2011. p. 44) but also that creating high quality relationships can prove valuable to increasing positive emotions. An evidence based intervention plan tailored to case. The first part of my intervention(Gratitude Intervention) will focus on positive emotions in the PERMA model of well-being and the intervention method used will be to make the students keep a journal to count blessings for 2 weeks time. Froh, Sefick Emmons(2008) found that making students count blessings were associated with higher levels of optimism, life-satisfaction and lowered negative emotions. The second part of my intervention will focus on building positive relationships by using the VIA-test from www.Viacharacter.org. VIA stands for values in action and is a self-report test that consist of 240 questions that will help individuals to identify their top character strengths out of the 24 strenghts in the VIA Classification. They will then form groups of in class based on the indentified strengths.Character strengths can then be implemented in a positive psychology intervention where the students are asked to apply one of their top character strengths in a new way, every day for one week. This is also congruent with the three pillars of positive psychology wich consist of positive experiences, strength based character and positive institutions. The PERMA model is a model of well-being and consist of five important elements: positive emotions, engagement, meaning, accomplishment and positive relationships. The 24 character strengths underpin all 5 elements in the PERMA mode l of well-being and using your highest strengths can lead to more postive emotions, more engagement, more accomplishment and to better relationships(Seligman, 2011 ; Hefferson Boniwell, 2011). The character strengths are divided up into 6 virtues. Wisdom and Knowledge: creativity,curiosity,open-mindedness,love of learning,perspective, innovation Courage: bravery,persistence, integrity,vitality Humanity:love,kindness, social intelligence Justice: citizenship, fairness, leadership Temperance:forgivenessandmercy,humility,prudence,self control Transcendence:appreciation of beauty and excellence,gratitude,hope,humor,spirituality Critical reflections about your intervention plan: What might the pitfalls be? One of the main pitfalls of my intervention plan is positive psychology relies heavily on the notion that there are only negative or positive emotions, but Larsen et al.(2001,2004) concluded that this view is too simplistic as feelings are often mixed. Hefferon Boniwell (2011, p22-223) also argues that hope on one hand can be positive, but also lead to negative emotions like anxiety. Other researchers critize that positive psychology focuses to much on positivity and thus negating the potential of benifits of negative moods, such as bonding over negative complaints and events(Kowalski, 2002). Positive psychology interventions does not come with a one-size fits all as individuals, institutions and countries might have similar values or strengths but different ways of expressing them. Defensive pessimism might be another way of expressing this for certain individuals. The body of research being conducted on children and adolescents is growing. The interventions might also come of as b eing some kind of overt mind control when we try to make individuals focus on only the positive aspects of life.

The Importance of Babylon :: essays research papers

The name Babylon means â€Å"Gate of God†. The location of the ancient city was along the Euphrates River and today is marked by a long stretch of ruins east of the river. Which is ninety kilometres south of Baghdad, Iraq. This was one of the main trading points of the ancient world because of its central location. Some important events that happened there are things that have shaped the way we live today and we still use the 24 hour day they created this form of counting has survived for four thousand years. Another important event that happened there was the building of the tower of Babel the people built this tower to try and reach Heaven. It was most likely that the tower was used as a place of worship and to create a common religious centre, Gods only merciful alternative was to separate the people into different languages and countries to disable there plans. Because he had also promised himself never to destroy the earth with floods again because of the disobedience of mankind. So the punishment was quite mild compared to the global flood. Archaeologists have dreamed of finding the ruins of the tower but have been unsuccessful. There maybe biblical evidence as to why they have not found this tower of extreme significance. The story is much more than God simply interrupting a building pro ject but it marks the origins of the languages and nations of the earth. Babylon is even home to one of the Seven Wonders of the World, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. They are in the plalace of Nebuchadnezzar II. The gardens were built on 23 metre tall and being water by a very complicated watering system, the water being provided by The Euphrates River. They were a mountain like series of planted terraces. Excavations have found the elaborate pully system watering the gardens right up to the top terrace.

Ketcham

At the opening of his essay â€Å"A Rational for Civic Education.†Ã‚   Ralph Ketcham cites America’s forefather Thomas Jefferson who noted that to understand their rights, to maintain them, and to exercise with intelligence their parts in self-government (Ketcham 145).   Jefferson understood the great travails that people had to undertake in order to become free. He truly felt that each person to come had a civic duty to preserve this great freedom.   I am in complete agreement with Ketcham that civic education is important, but it is a harder task to accomplish than one might think.   This attitude is embodied by many adults today, but it is harder and harder to make younger people understand its relevance.Unfortunately, over the centuries, people have forgotten the original concept of freedom as a privilege and see themselves as entitled to all the rights they can claim.   How many court cases have involved some sort of rights violation, as if everybody had a right to have everything he wanted? Civic education is important for people to learn to give back to the country what the country has given to them. Instead of the country owing them, they owe the country, which was poignantly noted in John F. Kennedy’s famous words â€Å"ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.†   Decades after Jefferson’s speech, President Truman sadly noted that college graduates often fell short of the human wholeness and civic conscience which the cooperative activities of citizenship require† (Ketcham 146).Basically, Ketcham argues that this trend occurred as colleges and secondary schools began to see more and more diversity in their populations of students and faculty members and higher degrees of specialization in the teachers.   Because of all this difference, the general â€Å"one-size-fits-all† course of Civics became many course offerings at the college level to suit diverse in terests and to, perhaps, not offend one of the many subsets of citizens in the process (146-147).Civics in many high schools is taught to students as young as fourteen and fifteen years old; these individuals are too young to drive a car, vote in an election, or even to conceptualize their roles as a citizen, let alone practice civic responsibility and self-government.In his essay, Ketcham spends a lot of time discussing the mass accumulation of data that political and social science now demands and concludes that its intended purpose is political agenda, not self-governing.   Fact seeking is a safe activity, and most educated individuals know that statistics can be made to say whatever a person wants, or needs, them to say.However, another plausible explanation is that individuals are no longer learning how to serve government, but instead they are learning how to avoid serving, how to find miniscule violations of supposed rights, to keep from having to do anything they donâ€⠄¢t want to do.   It seems that many of these courses don’t teach citizenship, but teach how to avoid it.   The operate on the idea that â€Å"your rights are violated if†¦Ã¢â‚¬  rather than â€Å"for your rights, you should do this†¦.†Ketcham acknowledges that teaching the public to serve the government is difficult because of differing opinions on what â€Å"right† is.   The natural law may still be intact, but the different religions and cultures that make up the United States can make agreement difficult.   Add to that the inclination for human beings to be selfish and self-serving and the process is muddied further (148-149).Ketcham cited Reinhold Nieuhr who says that â€Å"man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary† (151).   While some people do take civic-minded responsibility very seriously, many others do not.   It seems that Ketcham does not really trust people to undertake their civic roles independently and that he is probably correct in his hesitation.Basically, Ketcham is arguing that individuals, left to their own devices, will not automatically mold into self-governing entities.   The problem is that he doesn’t really explain how a civic education will accomplish this.   While most people agree that a civic education is important, few really know how to turn that into a positive populace.   Even those civic duties that are extremely well-understood are severely underutilized.   In this fast-paced society, people just don’t want to take the time.For example, one civic duty that is actually the source of much bloodshed around the world right now is voting.   While the recent presidential elections have been more exciting than most, the average percentage of people voting during non-Presidential election years in my state is between 12 and 18%.   These people all know that they are allow ed, even compelled, to vote, but still more than four-fifths of the state does not do so.   These numbers are similar for most states, especially among young people.   How do we convince these people to vote?   They have to know that their individual vote matters.   Most people do not really believe that.Next, another civic duty that I have had more than my fair share of is jury duty.   Jury duty is a disruptive irritation to most people.   Unless a juror is lucky (or unlucky) enough to be placed on the O.J. or Paris Hilton trial, most cases are dull and boring.   At my most recent summons, I watched as one person after another attempted to weasel out of doing the duty.   In fact, over a third of the jury pool did not show up.The bailiff assured those of us remaining that they would be subpoenaed to the judge, but few of us believed it.   The running joke is that the only members of a jury are those too stupid to get out of jury duty.   If this is the case, peopl e seem to be actively seeking ways to avoid self-government.   To make matters worse, I got a parking ticket for parking where I was told to park.   It seems that the government is actually repelling people from becoming active citizens.Unfortunately, many people will still gripe and groan.   Perhaps the best civic education would be to teach silence to those who don’t intend to participate.   Those who do participate can then assemble and appeal all they want to.   Unfortunately, it seems that only the most extreme groups have the motivation to organize pickets, sit-ins and the like.   The rest of the citizens are just too busy.   What about writing letters to the governor or congressmen?   Well, America has seen enough shows like West Wing to know that those letters barely make it to a third of fourth string aide.   If we are to be self-governing, we must be certain that our government will listen.Ketcham makes a valid argument that people should all be in troduced to a general civics course at some point during their education.   Certainly every citizen should be well versed in what it takes to be a civic-minded individual.   However, he seems at a loss about how to go from the esoteric and ideal concept of a self-governing populace to the pragmatics of actually making that happen.   If this push toward the more civic-minded citizen is to happen, the obstacles that the government and individuals have created will have to be identified, addressed, and overcome.

Cultural Norms, Fair & Lovely and Advertising Essay

2. Is it ethical to exploit cultural norms and values to promote a product? Discuss. It is ethical to utilize cultural diversity and values of a community to promote a product. However, such promotion should only be done in a way that there are not demanding to a particular group or cultural norms. Considering the case of Fair and Lovely, promoting the product using the dark and fair skin is divisive and portrays people with dark color as inferior to those with lighter color. In addition to that, the advertising identifies people with lighter color as people who have more opportunities in life, something that is likely to demean people with dark color. To this extent, the promotion is unethical. 3. Is the advertising of Fair and Lovely demeaning to women, or is it promoting the fairness cream in a way not too dissimilar from how much cosmetics are promoted? Advertising of Fair and Lovely are demeaning to women with dark color. Fair and Lovely portray women with light color as the only group that have opportunities. These advertisements offend people with dark color, considering that character, abilities, and opportunities are not defined by color. The advertisement should concentrate on its effectiveness and not describe the difference between light skin and dark people. 5. In light of AIDWA’s charges, how would you suggest Fair & Lovely promote its product? Discuss. Would your response be different if Fairever continued to use â€Å"fairness† as a theme of its promotion? Discuss. I would suggest that Fair and Lovely reconsider the cultural impact of their advertisements. AIDWA should demand that HLL answer a few questions in the respect of their issues. The questions include: Does the Fair & Lovely advertisement depict racism?