How people learn and adapting our instructional materials to reflect this knowledge. Introduction show familiarity with learning/principles. Discuss constructivism and active learning techniques.
Example
Librarianship and teaching go hand in hand. For as long as libraries have existed, librarians have been in a position to teach people how to use libraries and information resources to effectively retrieve information. This process has come to be known by the term information literacy instruction (ILI).Grassian and Kaplowitz (2009) report that the term information literacy was coined by Zurkowski in 1974; he described an information literate individual as anyone who has learned to use a wide range of information sources in order to solve problems at work and in his or her daily life (quoted in Grassian & Kaplowitz, 2009, p. 3). Some classic components of ILI include library orientation, library instruction, and bibliographic instruction. In recent decades, with the explosive growth of computing and changes in the ways we use and access information throughout society, the need for ILI in libraries has grown; ILI now encompasses instruction in basic computer skills, online searching, social networking, blogging, and even in the use of digital media hardware (such as e-readers, tablets, smart phones, and MP3 players) and software (such as OverDrive Media Console, iTunes, and Adobe Digital Editions).

Familiarity with learning principles and theories is an important component of providing effective ILI. By knowing the theories behind the practice of teaching, we can improve not only our instructional materials but also our techniques. Many teaching techniques find their basis in the various learning theories, and familiarity with a wide array of theories and techniques allows us, as teachers, to respond to our students unique needs and to each situation appropriately and effectively. Theories of learning have been discussed throughout the centuries, and several theories have emerged from this ongoing debate. These theories are commonly discussed within the frameworks of behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and humanism (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2012, March). Grassian and Kaplowitz (2009) separate the various learning theories into three major categories or schools of thought: doing (the behaviorist model), thinking (the cognitive model??"including the constructivist approach), and feeling (the humanist model) (pp. 27-39), asserting that if we look at the theories this way, we not only have a way to organize them, but we can see what each category of theories has to contribute to the instructional endeavor (p. 27).

Behaviorism, the oldest of the theories, falls into the doing school of thought. As a theory of learning, Grassian and Kaplowitz explain, behaviorism [relies] on the links or associations between stimulus and response (p. 28). The individual who is known for linking behaviorist theory and practical classroom applications is B. F. Skinner, whose emphases on teaching to individual differences and allowing learners to progress at their own pacehave had great implications for the study of learning styles (Grassian & Kaplowitz, 2009, pp. 28-29). Some educational applications of behaviorism include active participation, programmed instruction, modeling, and behavior modification (pp. 29-30).

Cognitivism developed at least in part as a reaction to behaviorism and its theories, which were viewed by early cognitive psychologists as the mechanistic or simplistic view of learning (Grassian & Kaplowitz, 2009, p. 30). This set of theories falls into the thinking school of thought. Early cognitivists focused on the ways in which people perceive, organize, interact with, and respond to elements in their environment by determining how elements, ideas, concepts, and topics relate to one another (p. 30). One approach which Grassian and Kaplowitz discuss within the cognitive framework is the constructivist approach: To the constructivist change occurs solely as a result of interactions with the environment and can happen at any age or level of development. Knowledge is not viewed as simply passing from teacher to learner; knowledge is actually constructed in the learners mind (2009, p. 32). Some educational applications of cognitivism include Bruners discovery method, expository teaching, and advance organizers (pp. 34-36).

Finally, the humanist model of learning falls within the feeling school of thought. Humanism emphasizes the affective side of learning: The humanist emphasized that we must teach to the whole person and stressed the importance of recognizing that our learners emotional, affective, or feeling states influence their educational successes (Grassian & Kaplowitz, 2009, p. 36). What motivates people to learn is a key concern of humanist theories. Important contributors to the humanist school of thought include Maslow, Bandura, and Rogers. Some educational applications of humanism include self-directed or self-regulated learning and learner-centered teaching (Grassian & Kaplowitz, 2009, pp. 37-39).

As librarians charged with providing instruction, familiarity with these various theories and the teaching techniques they are associated with can make us more effective in facilitating learning for each and every student. Students approach learning from diverse backgrounds and viewpoints, and their preferred learning styles, mental models, and critical thinking skills can vary widely as well. In addition, many students experience anxiety and feelings of uncertainty as they approach learning about new subject areas. Therefore, the more flexible we are as instructors in drawing from the various learning theories and teaching techniques at our disposal, the more successful we and our students will be.

Read the following journal article "Gifted children with learning disabilities: Theoretical implications and instructional challenge", by Vaidya, Sheila R., Education,

Compose at least a one paragraph summary of the article.

Compose at least one paragraph describing your reactions, opinions, and/or beliefs about the article.

This paper addresses a specific group of children: the gifted children with learning disabilities. The paper describes innovative strategies for identifying such children, instructional approaches to address their strengths and weaknesses, and theoretical implications.

John W., a fifth grader in the learning support self contained class, sits in front of the room, his mind focusing on issues unrelated to the language arts lesson in the classroom. The teacher noticing his wandering look, asks him to focus on the task at hand. For awhile, he attends to the classroom lesson, only to drift back into his distraction. Whatever the cause of his in attention, he tends to spend a lot of time daydreaming, not engaged in the classroom and, is at risk for falling behind academically. However, in a one - to - one interaction with a peer or a teacher, he tends to be captured by ideas and demonstrates higher order thinking of a high quality.

Recent advances in our understanding of individual differences in learning make us aware of the importance of educational practices that consider how children learn while taking into consideration the quality of their thought. While educators have always noted differences among learners, and the current literature makes many references to learning differences and learning styles, classroom practices often assume that all children learn in similar ways. This assumption works out well for some students. However, there is a large group of students who may approach learning in ways that are so different that they do not mesh with the regular approaches. Some of these students are identified as "learning disabled." Others continue to function in the average range in the regular classroom. Those who are identified as learning disabled receive support for their learning disability, others are in the regular classroom and not quite motivated or highly involved in school work. Very few are in gifted programs. Because the learning disability may mask their giftedness, this is a group that is difficult to identify as gifted. Thus, although some of these students may receive instruction for their learning disability, they are rarely screened for giftedness.

Although the field has moved considerably from the point at which it was ten years ago when most professionals found it difficult to handle the idea that a child could be both gifted and learning disabled (Torrance, 1992) the concept is not yet universally clear and acceptable. Conventional methods of identification have been criticized as inappropriate for atypical gifted children (Minner, 1990). Baum and Owens (1988) conclude that while high ability/LD students seem to have characteristics in common with both learning disabled and the gifted populations, they may also have unique traits. They also conclude that high ability/LD students tend to have poor academic self-concepts and believe that they do not fit in well with their peers. Confusion about their mix of special abilities and sharp deficits may lead to feelings of helplessness and a general lack of motivation. Because of the limited research with these children, not much is known about such characteristics.

The paper will address a specific group of children: the gifted children with learning disabilities. Discussion will also include strategies for identifying such students, instructional approaches to address their strengths and weaknesses, and the theoretical implications.

How to Identify/Assess Gifted learning disabled Students
Underachievement in gifted children has many sources. However, systematic research involving the identification of and educational intervention with young gifted underachievers is scarce (Janos and Robinson, 1985). Often, the intelligence of creativity displayed by many of these children is noted in one-to-one learning situations with adults. The problem may be a mismatch between the school's curriculum and testing procedures and the children's learning styles, that is, a person - environment mismatch (Reading, 1989), or a mismatch between the teaching style and learning style. Failure to consider the relationship between the students' unique needs and the school environment has left learning disabled gifted underachievers misunderstood and poorly served within the educational system.

A typical gifted student with learning disabilities may suffer from an auditory processing problem, a visual perception problem or an attention deficit disorder or exhibit a deficit such as difficulty in following a sequence of verbal instructions. In any event, it is one of these disorders that has resulted in the learning "gaps" exhibited by the students in testing situations. Yet, many of these students may exhibit powerful imagination and higher order thinking or creativity as manifested in originality, novelty of thought or problem solving ability and motivation to learn, rarely measured by the tests. They may be described as potential which is buried treasure (Peterson, 1987) because their giftedness often goes unrecognized and uncherished.

Identification of the gifted students with learning disabilities might be accomplished better by portfolio type assessments and by creativity tests, supplemented by information from IQ and achievement tests. Additional supplementary information should be obtained from parents and teachers. Since awareness results in early identification, teacher preparation inservice and preservice programs should focus upon educating teachers about the gifted learning disabled. The following approaches to assessment are recommended.

1. Portfolio Assessments -


A portfolio consists of a student's assembled work. The steps or phases through which students pass in the course of developing a project are contained in the portfolio. The typical portfolio contains a record of ideas, drafts, critiques, journal entries, final drafts and teacher's suggestions, parent's suggestions or suggestions of those who influenced the project in a positive or negative way. Thus, portfolios provide an insight into the child's process of thought and uniqueness of ideas, from a developmental perspective.

2. Psychological Tests -


(1) We recommend the use of creativity tests which measure divergent thinking, such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Such a test measures divergent thinking areas such as originality , fluency, flexibility in thinking, and performance on such a test determines the nature of thinking rather than specific skills in performing at academic tasks. (2) IQ assessments should be used to determine learner's strengths and weaknesses, while achievement test scores may be used to determine giftedness in a specific subject area.

3. Information from parents and teachers.


(i) Parents- While many parents may recognize the high quality of their gifted child's intellectual ability, they may be focusing on addressing the difficulties posed by the child's learning disability and therefore, not nurture the giftedness. Hence, awareness on the part of the parents of such a combination of high quality talent and disability in their child, is necessary. Information obtained from parents should consist of behaviors such as the expression of curiosity, abstract thinking. Examples of these may consist of demonstration of the understanding of concepts such as time or the use of metaphors in language (ii) Teachers can be extensive sources of information with regard to school related performance of gifted learning disabled students. Some of this information is found in teacher's progress reports and anecdotal records about the children's learning and talents exhibited in the classroom.

How to Teach Gifted Students with Learning Disabilities
Two approaches exist in special education. They focus on the two extreme groups and are either designed to address a weakness or to develop superior abilities, such as giftedness. Typically, learning disabled gifted students are placed in classes to provide learning support. There are no enrichment programs to address their strengths. Because of the unusual mix of strengths and weaknesses within these children, the strategies typically used with the gifted or the learning disabled learner do not work. Although many educators have argued that gifted LD students require specialized programming to meet their unique needs (Baum, 1988; Whitmore & Maker, 1985) practical limitations make separate programming an unlikely administrative option, especially in the face of the move to integrate special education and regular education. Hence, the strategies recommended here are meant to address their needs in either a regular classroom, a learning support classroom or a classroom with gifted children.

We recommend that instructional needs be met along with psychological needs. What do theories of learning tell us about teaching gifted children with learning disabilities? To address children's instructional needs, it is recommended that the following aspects should be considered:

Theoretical Considerations
Individual Differences in Learning Styles
Understanding learning strategies used by gifted learning disabled students can help teachers improve effectiveness in all learners. An understanding of the child's style of learning, thinking and operating in the world, is essential. Children's styles of learning focus upon differences such as visual, auditory, kinesthetic-tactual (Dunn, 1984) or field dependent or field independent style (Witkin, 1977) or the many intelligences manifested by children (Gardner, 1990).

Styles of Attribution
Children's styles of attribution, (Seligman, 1990), used extensively in cognitive therapy approaches with adults and children, have not been studied with reference to their impact in the classroom. Attributional style is a habit of thinking that determines how people attribute success and failures in their lives. According to Seligman, the style of attribution often determines the degree of optimism or pessimism that characterizes an individual's personality. Typically, a person who attributes successful events in his/her life to their own abilities or effort while attributing failures to external circumstances, is likely to expect optimistic outcomes and therefore, operate in a more successful way. On the other hand, pessimistic or helpless persons attribute failure to their lack of ability or perseverance while attributing successful situations to events beyond their control. Hence, being "helpless" results in a style of operating in the world in which, events and situations are beyond a person's control. Seligman believes that a person's style of making attributions or explanatory style is a demonstrable risk factor for subsequent depression. Hence, cognitive therapy for depressed children is usually used to change their attributions. Attribution training emphasizes the direct relationships between strategies and effort, encouraging students to persist when they encounter failure.

When we meet a gifted learner who is confident of his capabilities, we may expect that such a child is well aware of his strengths and attributes his strengths and successes to himself and to his efforts. Attributional styles among learning disabled children are known to be outer directed, especially when they succeed, that is these children blame themselves for their failures and do not give themselves credit for their success. Therefore, awareness of their own strengths is minimal in such children. Because of failure experiences, they may pay more attention to their weaknesses, disregarding their strengths. Although gifted, they may be negatively affected and often confused by their mi of strengths and weaknesses. Hence, early awareness of the giftedness and nurturance of the giftedness is essential. Teaching approaches should focus upon making a child's attributions more "inner directed." This may be accomplished through metacognitive approaches, whereby children are instructed to pay attention to their success and consistent feedback from the teacher which draws attention to the success in a concrete manner, using approaches like written comments or verbal discussion.

Generic Influences on Learning
Reisman and Kauffman (1980) have proposed that there are generic factors that influence learning. They group these into four categories: Cognitive influences, psychomotor-influences, physical and sensory factors, social and emotional factors. Cognitive influences are described as those that relate to processing and retrieval of information such as, retention of information, ability to draw inferences, make decisions and judgments, ability to abstract and cope with complexity. Psychomotor influences are related to visual and auditory abilities such as visual perception, visual-sequential memory, auditory perception. Physical and sensory factors include those related to physical impairments or vitality versus fatigue. Social factors are related to an individual's ability to interact with others, using diplomacy, understanding another's point of view. Emotional factors relate to fears, moods such as happy or sad. (Reisman and Payne, 1987 p. 23, 23). The generic influences proposed by Reisman and Kaufman may be considered to be compatible with Garner's idea of multiple intelligences, implying that abilities vary along the dimensions of cognitive, emotional, social, physical and psychomotor aspects as do the different intelligences. This implies that if teachers become aware of the various factors that influence learning, in the extreme, these may represent handicaps or talents. Awareness through observations of these various factors and how they come into play with the learning situation is an important factor of consideration for teachers.

Personality Patterns and the Cultivation of the Gift
While most of the instructional approaches focus on the learning characteristics, personality characteristics are invaluable assets in developing intellectual talents. Personality characteristics such as a high level of competitiveness and a determination to do their best at all costs have begun to enter into the definitions of giftedness, especially as traits necessary to cultivate giftedness. Energy, enthusiasm, persistence, perseverance, striving are described as characteristics that are identified as especially important in the cultivation of early identified giftedness. The cultivation of the gift is a major concern when gifted children are handicapped because the handicapping condition or the disability interferes with the development of the gift.

Teaching Approaches
The teaching approaches should consider the cultivation of the gift and an awareness of the ways in which the disability interferes. There is no single approach that is likely to be satisfactory in meeting instructional needs with a wide disparity in giftedness and disability. However, a framework emerging from the above theoretical considerations and which considers psychological needs along with learning needs may specify direction for teachers and parents. Based on some of the described characteristics of gifted learning disabled children it appears that teaching approaches may emerge from a teacher's awareness of generic influences on the learner, multiple intelligences, learning style differences and differences in styles of attribution.

Learner Diversity
Diversity among learners should be considered, especially from the standpoint of generic influences and multiple intelligences. This awareness enables teachers to address specific weaknesses in specific ways. For example, if a child has a cognitive difficulty in sequencing, Reisman and Kauffman (1980) recommend presenting small amounts of the sequence to be learned in an organized format in order to facilitate retrieval. To combat distractibility, Reisman and Kauffman (1980) recommend a structured environment and metacognitive self-instruction.

While remediation efforts are important, the gifted LD student's instruction must also address strengths. Hence, in instances of exceptional oral language abilities or exceptional analytical abilities, problem-solving skills should be addressed with enrichment activities. The child's ideas, thoughts, knowledge or theories and intuitions should be considered in developing an educational program, accompanied by evaluating strengths and weaknesses. For example, emphasis should be on developing the learner's strengths and becoming self-directed learners.

Metacognitive Strategies
Emphasizing the motivation to achieve, Heckhausen (1982), emphasizes that the child should attend to the outcome in a way that leaves no doubt that the outcome is recognized as "self-produced." This concept relates to the idea of locus of control and attributional style and metacognition. Assisting students in the development of metacognitive strategies is a useful general approach. Metacognitive understanding about the value of effort may be an important determinant of performance, particularly for Gifted/LD children. Metacognitive approaches involving self-assessment and reflection are essential strategies for teaching gifted/LD students and need to be investigated further. Because teachers sometimes are not explicit or detailed in providing strategy instruction, children are often left to their own devices in deciding when and how to use a strategy.

Psychological Needs
Senf (1983) suggests that gifted LD children are more often referred for assessment not because of academic deficits but rather because of non-academic reasons, such as the psychological distress resulting from the discrepancy in their abilities. Thus, their social and emotional needs are of major concern. Counseling and one - to - one mentoring may be useful approaches to help the child cope and manage his/her learning disability. Through enrichment activities in areas where the child shows strengths, develops strengths, children should be encouraged to take pride in their accomplishments and strengths, thereby encouraging students to compensate for their weaknesses by developing strengths. Instruction should focus upon making the child's attributional style more inner directed and thereby improving student's motivation to learn by circumventing difficulties emerging from psychological issues.

Future Implications
The developmental perspective of how knowledge is constructed by a child within the framework of this or her own perspective and personality is important.

More research is needed to investigate successful techniques of teaching for the gifted learning disabled students to learn in spite of their disabilities. Torrance (1992) refers to the use of "right brain" learning techniques, especially, the use of music and dance as a facilitator in teaching. Innovative methods are necessary and many of these will possibly be invented by creative efforts by children, teachers and parents.

The need for collaborative interventions between parents, teachers and school psychologists, to meet the needs of the students is necessary. Mentorship programs provide gifted learning disabled students with an opportunity to learn and experiment, develop their potential skills and gain competencies. These benefits and learner outcomes are what makes a valuable part of education for the gifted student with learning disabilities.

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The effectiveness of using technology in the reading curriculum for low level students with special needs




Improving Reading Skills of Low-Level Special Needs Students through the use of Technology






















Irwin N Kellen


Concept Paper For: ARC: 8966 CRN: 58770




























July 30, 2007








--> Introduction[Author:T]


Technology and literacy have a very strong link and scholars have been keenly interested in discovering various aspects of their relationship. Fisher and Molebash (2003) in their study wrote that it was the Digital Divide, amongst many other things, that creates a division in learning. which has reminded --> us [Author:T] about They pointed out that the distance of accessibility that people in different parts of the world have when dealing with the latest advancement in information technologies. It is these reminders that --> make us face the fact that [Author:T] literacy, which is the main aim of a digital economy, is still not as accessible as it could or should be. This is one of the main reasons why organizations like the E-rate have devoted more and more time and effort into constructing a sound and efficient technical and informative setup of various schools in different parts of the world (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).


Most researchers and educationalists make the mistake to treat of treating literacy and technical proficiency on different scales. However, the truth of the matter is that one cannot exist or work efficiently without the success of the other. A good example of this is visibly present in the past decade: the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund of 1997 aimed to advance technical learning and skills of every student while the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 aimed to adopt a more technologically-driven structure to boost the overall literacy amongst students. However, both failed to realize that neither can obtain their objectives without understanding that technical proficiency and literacy go hand in hand.


The main focus of this paper, hence, will be to define literacy, in the context of reading, and also discuss its connection with technology as well as present the advancements in the department of literacy/reading in special education. --> We will draw attention [Author:T] to the scope of special education in the fields of literacy/reading. A secondary aim of this paper will be to evaluate ways that will allow provide teachers with a wide array of choices in teaching low level special-needs students to read/understand what they have read in order to and make them part of the literate society.


--> Literature Review[Author:T]


Fisher and Molebash (2003) have defined literacy/reading, as a whole, as purely a means to extract meaning and understanding from a form of information or knowledge database. What technological improvements --> has[Author:T] done is given the teachers and students a wide spectrum of choices to extract this information. At first all educational exchanges were mainly aural but with time the advent of books, libraries, the media, journalism, television, the Internet, video games; etc making teachers' the task of the teachers has gotten easier. --> and the accessibility of the students has increased[Author:T] . However, when dealing with the students who have special needs, mere accessibility is not the answer and all efforts on technology integration have to include the easier understanding and interpretation of the text available (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).


May (2003) found that even though technological improvements, even though, have made the job of the teacher easier; it has not actually decreased the workload. A teacher still has more than --> 2 [Author:T] dozen children in his/her class and there are various teaching/learning capabilities and methods that these teachers still have to understand. This difference in teaching/learning is even more enhanced amongst the special-needs students. A teacher cannot overlook a behavioral pattern or force a learning technique upon his/her students. This is one of the main ways that technology has helped the teachers. They can now use the everyday mechanisms to explain different educational theories with the help of other technological tools or interpretations. However, for technology to actually help in the long run, the teachers need to make sure that the students are giving their input and are involved in the utilization of the technology so as to ensure a higher success rate of education through technology (May, 2003).


--> Teale et al. [Author:T] (2002) concluded in their study that the use of technical advancements and proficiencies in the educational structure helped enhance the reading and writing skills of the special-needs students ( --> Teale et al. [Author:T] 2002). The main reason for this is that technology integration attracts the children motivates students and instigates engages them to learn more and more. However --> the[Author:T] teachers have to be careful that the technology being used does not hinder or slow down the process of learning for the special-needs students as their learning curves are very different form those of the normal students. Asselin (2001) in his study highlighted that The value of educational time spent on using technology to support students' literacy development rests on its ability to promote higher-level thinking, collaboration, constructivism, speed and information evaluation--i.e., those competencies required for the 21st century ( --> Asselin 2001[Author:T] ).


The 21st century looms with the need for great technological sense and knowledge for all its future businessmen and managers. This is one of the main reasons why the students of the 21st century need to get become accustomed to using these advancements and their implementations. and acquire knowledge of these advancements and their implementations. This is also what has led to the incorporation of technology in a classroom setting. All these technologies aim to increase the students' intensity of wisdom, cooperation and text assessment. A good and simple illustration of this could be is a book review, . This could which can be an individual task or even a group task and the child (or children) could be asked to use that uses software programs such as applications like Kidspiration and Timeliner. These applications could software programs help the students highlight visualize their thoughts and opinions as well as communicate them efficiently. Now literacy reading skills education is are very important not only for the reading skills of both normal students but also and special-needs students because they are not just exposed exposure to literacy is not only through books anymore. In fact, their the range of information is more vast and varied in accordance with the technical improvements; this is why the teaching of literacy/reading is far trickier then before. Teale et al. (2002) explained this: --> Technology profoundly affects the learning and teaching of literacy as well as the nature of literacy itself. It always has. The development of book technologies in the early 1500s set in motion the need for book literacies and many of the abilities we currently teach in our classrooms. Today, new literacies emerge as new technologies for information and communication demand new skills for their effective use. These include the literacies of word processors (e.g., using a spell checker or knowing how to format a paper), e-mail (e.g., managing a digital address book or effectively using an electronic mailing list) and the Web (e.g., using earch engines to locate information on the Internet or knowing effective strategies to critically evaluate Web site information). As a community of literacy educators, we are responding to the emergence of these new literacies in many ways [Author:T] (Teale et al. 2002).


--> [Author:T] Technology profoundly affects the learning and teaching of literacy as well as the nature of literacy itself. It always has. The development of book technologies in the early 1500s set in motion the need for book literacies and many of the abilities we currently teach in our classrooms. Today, new literacies emerge as new technologies for information and communication demand new skills for their effective use. These include the literacies of word processors (e.g., using a spell checker or knowing how to format a paper), e-mail (e.g., managing a digital address book or effectively using an electronic mailing list) and the Web (e.g., using search engines to locate information on the Internet or knowing effective strategies to critically evaluate Web site information). As a community of literacy educators, we are responding to the emergence of these new literacies in many ways. --> (Teale et al. 2002).[Author:T]




To improve the reading skills of special-needs students, the teachers are aiming to teachers use technology to improve student skills in the following spheres to make them: Making them (a) hear word tones, of the words, Making them (b) decipher and interpret words their use and interpretation, Making them (c) understand their overall expressions, Making them (d) understand the word span, of words, and (e) Making them become knowledgeable and confident with their reading style.


--> Making them hear tones of the words,


Making them decipher their use and interpretation,


Making them understand their overall expressions,


Making them understand the span of words,


Making them knowledgeable and confident with their reading style. [Author:T]


Numerous agencies are also involved to help the teachers and the special-needs students on the department of with reading/literacy. One of the many organizations involved is the Software & and Information Industry Association. Grogan (2002) analyze --> s[Author:T] one of the latest studies conducted by The Software & Information Industry Association and confirms that the use of technology helps develop the reading and speaking skills of the special-needs students through by boosting their spelling sense, plus span of words, expression and overall understanding of the text. He also proposed that to cater to the different learning curves of the special-needs students, teachers could employ a multimedia literacy program that incorporates text, acoustics, images and manipulatives (Grogan 2002).


May (2003) --> notes [Author:T] that one of the most successful ways with which that reading amongst the special-needs students has been enhanced by using technology has been in the is through group book reviews. The class is first given a list of books to choose form and then the students are divided in different groups based on their choice of book. There are prearranged meetings, and the pages that need to be read in each group are decided before students meet in groups. meetings are also decided from before. After this is done all special needs students are to During group meetings students engage in certain leaning task that involve the interpretation of the story, the characters and their choices, the plots, the twists, the climax, the main incidents and their denotations. etc. The whole idea is to make the children focus on what the story is about and how it has evolved through events and different interpretations (May, 2003).


May (2003) found that one of the most commonly used applications in this group book review task is the AlphaSmart mainly because of its simplicity and popularity among the special-needs students. The task would mainly involve the interpretation and rewriting of the story so that the teacher is aware of how well the student understands the plot and how much work he/she does. This also helps the teachers analyze the influence that the group opinions might have on the individuals within the group.


May (2003) notes that amongst other applications that are fast becoming part of the curriculum for improving the reading and understanding of the special-needs students are Kidspiration and Timeliner. The Kidspiration software program application helps the students recall the main events and characters of the story and their influence on the overall plot while the Timeliner application software program helps the students to analyze the timeline in which the major incidents in the storyline took place and their aftermath on the following timelines (May, 2003).


May (2003) writes that one other another technique that is now being used within a classroom of with special-needs students is the teacher reading the story out aloud . the whole story. After the story is completed the teacher asks the and then having the students to roam around their environment and take pictures that they feel relate to the story. that had been read out loud. They then come back and Then students use the AlphaSmart software application to paste their pictures and explain in a paragraph why, how, and where in the plot they feel that the pictures relates to the story. This tests three things: one, (a) the student concentration of the students, two their (b) student level of understanding of the general plot, and three, their (c) student imagination. This is an important implementation because it opens the students' horizons and allows them to see the general links and relations that their own lives might have with the stories that they read. The implementation of taking the pictures is one way that this has been successfully achieved. This use of a camera is a very flexible application and is being used in different ways for different special-needs students (May, 2003).


May (2003) found that cameras are being used to also expand the span of words or vocabulary amongst the special-needs students. The teacher hands out a set of words to the students and explains their use and different interpretations and then asks them to head out and take photographs in accordance to what they have understood. Any good reader will relay that the best part about reading is the expressions and vocabulary. Vocabulary is mainly an understanding of the use and interpretation of the words being used, and this process has helped the special-needs students in their reading skills when wherever it has been included in the curriculum (May, 2003).


There have been criticisms made on the use of technology and how it changes or lessens the expectations from for the students on a large scale. May (2003) argues that the truth of the matter is that with the increase in distractions that are present nowadays, the students need to be constantly engaged within a classroom setting and the use of technology does that extremely efficiently.


The misconception that exists amongst many still is that technology is the answer to all teaching hazards when dealing with the special-needs students; however, May (2003) notes that it is the proper incorporation of the technology available that makes the teacher's job easier. The use of technology is a fairly new concept and has been regularly used in the past decade or so, however, the results in the reading and comprehension skills of the special-needs students are undeniably better.


May (2003) notes that teachers have to analyze the technology that will be most useful for the student in accordance to, both, its implementation and the students' capabilities. If the incorrect technological tool is used it will hamper learning and decrease the level of confidence of the student. Also the teachers cannot expect the students to understand the use of the technological tool without initial instruction and explanation of its use.


--> Advancing Technologies [Author:T]


The three most successful applicationsthat have enhanced the literacy education over the years for the special-needs students are: --> (1) [Author:T] (a) voice detection software,


(2) (b) tele-cooperation operations of the Internet, and (3) (c) Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) and new portable processors or devices.


Fisher and Molebash (2003) in their study traced the track of technological advancements and point out that at the advent of the 21st century, all of the above applications were still being tested hypothetically on the drawing board. The speed at which these have been practically implemented and yielded successful result is simply astonishing. They said that Fisher and Molebash found that all technological advancements have followed the pattern that Gordon Moore had pointed out more then 4 decades ago. He had Moore said that in theory all microchips had the capacity to improve and enhance within a period of 18 months to --> two[Author:T] years. This statement, called the Moore's law, has held true since that day and stands true for the digitally driven society today. The alteration or adjustment in the to Moore's Law is that Moore had restricted the phenomenon of speedy advancements to the speed of microchips while in today's society this theory holds true to include everything from the speed, to power, to memory, and to the price (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).


This rapid increase in the advancements of technology is one of the main reasons for the incorporation of tools like computers and cameras and others in the school setting because without them the children students will not only be bored but also the educational setup would be backward and not up to the par of what is required in the developing societies. Computers, Nintendo, cell phones, e-mail and the World Wide Web have become such an integral part of the daily life that it is hard to imagine a time when they did not exist. The use of technology within a classroom setting of special-needs students makes these students more confident and comfortable in thinking that they can operate all these things and tools that the normal students operate. can, not to mention the improvement These technology tools also improve in their special needs students' reading and comprehension skills. that are also a direct result of the use of technology. This ubiquity of technology, like PDA, TVs, cell phones, video games, Walkmans, computers, and modern publishing resources, is why all types of students feel more accustomed and engaged in a classroom where technology is incorporated in the academic curriculum.


Prensky (2000), in answer to the criticism of the application of technology in educational structures, explains that the thought processes and attitudes have shifted dramatically between the past three generations and in correspondence to these changes in attitudes the teaching methods need to be altered as well. Fisher and Molebash (2003) agree that it seems extremely logical to analyze the patterns and learning curves of the current generation before completely discarding the use of technology in educational standards mainly because its seems too easy for the students (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).


One of the most useful applications to enhance the reading skills of the special-needs students, thus far, has been the tele-collaborative venture that uses the Internet as its main source of communication. The significant fact of the Tele-collaborative ventures is that it mainly incorporates some of the most commonly used mechanisms of telecommunications like the tools e-mail, debate mediums, synchronous chats, and videoconferencing. All of these tools and mechanisms are then use to communicate within and amongst classroom, schools, and universities as well as across borders to address the commonalities and difficulties faced by the special-needs students. Once these commonalities are identified then numerous organizations join hands to work on problem-solving techniques and structures. Judi Harris (1998), in her study on technology integration in the reading curriculum for low level students with special needs has divided the tele-collaborative based applications and implementations into three groups: (a) interpersonal exchange, (b) information collection and analysis, and (c) problem solving. -->


Interpersonal Exchange,


Information Collection and Analysis, and


Problem Solving. [Author:T]


She further divides these three categories into 18 different activities. The interpersonal exchange includes:


--> Tele-mentoring


Key-pals or pen-pals through the use of Internet


Electronic facades


Question-and-answer exchanges


International classrooms


Imitations or masquerades [Author:T]


The Information Collection and Analysis section includes:


--> Electronic printing


Date or knowledge-based communication


Mutual data investigations


Tele-outings or tele-fieldtrips


Knowledge catalog construction [Author:T]


The Problem Solving section includes:


--> Corresponding problem solving


Knowledge explorations


Contemporary response exchanges


Public interaction ventures


Tele-based problem solving


Replications


Chronological problem solving [Author:T]


Hawkes & and Good (2000), in their study highlight that one of the main reason for the improvements in the learning capabilities of K-12 special-needs students has been through is the result of the execution of the tele-collaborative ventures. They also go on to say said that the teachers' work is made a lot easier and less hectic because they have more options, outlooks, practices and encounters that they can learn from and employ when dealing with the different learning curves of the special-needs students. (Hawkes & Good, 2000). The tele-collaborative ventures have also shown flexibility and adaptability in genres beyond the reading and comprehension skills of special-needs students. One good example of the flexibility of tele-collaborative ventures is given in the study conducted by Dawson, Mason and Molebash (2000). In this study they analyzed the behavioral patterns and results achieved by teachers who were topographically apart but were tele-collaborating on issues that sparked mutual interest like example-based educational methods, internet forums, cross-border university alliance, and similarly patterned or dissimilarly patterned method of teaching. The researchers concluded that the level of tele-collaborative communication and ventures helped in the growth of teaching techniques and information, enhanced the similarities and difficulties that are faced by teachers of special-needs students irrespective of their geographical location, increased the span of learning techniques, encouraged feedbacks as well as helped understand the practical executions of numerous teaching theories.


Enough practical applications and evaluations have shown that the proper and informed execution of the tele-collaborative ventures can immensely benefit the K-12 special-needs students and encourage them to look for multiple interpretations, improve their reading skills and increase their span of knowledge as well as vocabulary (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).


--> The Personal Digital Assistants [Author:T]


The rise in the use and success of the Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) is one of the main reasons why it is now being used on such a large scale in the educational institutions as well. Even though the PDA was initially used as a storage device for the names, dates, reminders and/or addresses, it has now become versatile enough to provide the teachers with a sort of an electronic calculator and mobile computer that they can use to access the Internet, perform online tests and assessments, record results, and scores, and allow teachers to have the option of data keeping tools and keep grade books. The popularity of the PDA has forced the Education Committees in Florida to create an efficient software based on the PDA format that will help the special education teachers to document student activities and follow the aims and objectives of students' Individualized Education Plan (IEP) aims and objectives (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).


Fisher and Molebash (2003) pointed out that the PDA can also allow the teachers to manage or oversee a group of students and gather/record the facts in their ongoing discussions. This recording though was once believed to be painstaking, but with the use of PDA teachers can now collect this information is now done without much effort by using PDAs and teachers can then use the information gathered to analyze students' the comprehension abilities of the students and hence modify their teaching methods accordingly (Fisher and Molebash, 2003). They also asserted that the PDA beyond helping the with the compilation and evaluation of information could also can be used for marking as well i.e. the PDA can measuring and ranking the overall performance of the students in the class by analyzing whatever information has been entered by the teacher (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).


One of the most important features of the PDA is the accessibility to the --> i[Author:T] nternet and the online books. It is true that the generation gap makes some teachers want to carry on with the real books and the while students prefer the --> PDF[Author:T] format. The advantage of having a book stored in the PDA is that it can show the meaning, pronunciation and use of a word that the student did not recognize (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).


The downside with the use of PDA though, as Fisher and Molebash (2003) highlight, is that the overall monitoring by the teachers would have to increase. This simply means that the easy access to the email or internet for the students might be distracting and destructive if used inappropriately and the notes passing between students will become easier and difficult to control. Hence the monitoring and repercussions would have to be made stricter (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).


--> Voice Recognition Technology[Author:T]


Fisher and Molebash (2003) pointed out that the emphasis on learning how to type has grown in importance over the years and now students, along with learning how to read and write, are expected to learn how to type as well. Most of the time, teachers use the computer lab time to allow the students to type and increase their typing speed with time. However, when dealing with special-needs students, this is not always easy. The current format of the keyboard is based on the Sholes' QWERTY which was designed by Christopher Latham Sholes in the 1870s. Over the years, people have been reluctant to change the format as it was seen as too much of a hassle to teach the typists to type in an updated and more efficient keyboard (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).


--> Wetzel (1991) [Author:T] in his study had made predictions on some of the problems that the special education teachers might face with the passage of time in the advent of a technologically driven society. --> Dorsey (1994) [Author:T] explained how the implementation of the voice recognition technology was extremely helpful for the special-needs students to express their thought and philosophies particularly the one who suffered from dyslexic. Mitchell and Scigliano (2000) also experimented the use of Voice Recognition Technology (VRT) for the special-needs students although the students they focused on were those who had problems with their sight. --> Brown (1992) in his study also evaluated the usefulness of the VRT and the sample of special-needs students he utilized were the one who were mentally retarded and/or suffered from cruel physical perils. [Author:T] Myers (2000) in his study analyzed the use of VRT in the enhancing of language abilities for immigrant or non-native citizens (Myers, 2000). Fogg and Wightman (2000), in their study also pointed out that the use of VRT helped shorten the time span for conducting interviews or discussions. All these studies prove one thing: that VRT is an essential part of the society we live in and it is particularly important for the special-needs students (Fisher and & Molebash, 2003).


The most likely progress that is expected of the VRT module is that it will soon recognize our speech and convert it to text simultaneously. Fisher and Molebash (2003) recognized that the use of VRT will change the way the future generations will read and write, but they also highlighted that the challenge for most educators will be to incorporate the language capabilities such as like reading and writing in a way that is easy to adjust to and comprehend (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).


--> Conclusion[Author:T]


It is extremely hard to imagine what the future holds for us in terms of the technological advancements. , but keeping the Moore's Law and similar theories in mind we can use the assumptions to demonstrated the need to develop the instructional methods and techniques that incorporate technology. Fisher and Molebash (2003) explained that by keeping the Moore's law in mind, it is not absurd to assume that by the end of the first two decades of the 21st century the Intel projects will be able to develop and use microchips that will encompass nearly 1 billion transistors, which if continued, will make the human brain and intellect obsolete in comparison to the power and ability of the computer chips (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).


Even though the assumptions we make about the future can be wrong and inaccurate, the fact of the matter remains that they can still be of great use to the present. If the current special-needs educators are given targets and aims to achieve in accordance to with the technology being used, they will not only develop a more sound and efficient instructional structure but they will also be able to analyze and evaluate what needs to be done to keep up to pace with the computational advancements of the future. Fisher and Molebash (2003) suggested that to make literacy the only ultimate goal the special-needs instructors will need to construct a method have to incorporate technology that will make it simpler for the special-needs students to access, comprehend and transfer information and opinions so that they can participate in this world where information is everywhere (Fisher and Molebash, 2003).


--> References[Author:T]


Your references are not in the proper format. Below is an example of how they should appear in the reference list. Change to this format:




Angelides, P. (2004). Restructuring staff meetings. Journal of Staff Development, 24, 58. Retrieved January 22, 2006, from Wilson Web Database.




Black, S. (2003). Try, try again. Surgery's bumpy learning curve applies to teaching. Journal of Staff Development, 24, 8-32. Retrieved December 12, 2005 from Wilson Web Database.






Asselin, M. (2001). Literacy and Technology. Teacher Librarian 28 (3): 49.


--> Brown, C. (1992). The sound-to-speech translations utilizing graphics mediation interface for students with severe handicaps. [ERIC Document Number ED403727][Author:T]


Dawson, K. M., Mason, C. L., & Molebash, P. (2000). Results of a telecollaborative activity involving geographically disparate teachers. Educational Technology & Society, 3(3), 470-483.


--> Dorsey, R. C. (1994). Do what I say! Voice recognition makes major advances. Technos, 3(2), 15-17. E-Rate.[Author:T]


Fisher, D, Molebash, P. (2003). Teaching and Learning Literacy with Technology. Reading Improvement. 40: 2.


Fogg, T., & Wightman, C.W. (2000). Improving transcription of qualitative research interviews with speech recognition technology. [ERIC Document Number ED441854]


Grogan, D. (2002). Phonemic Awareness: Technology Lends a Hand. Principal 81 (4): 62-64.


Harris, J. (1998). Activity structures for curriculum-based telecollaboration. Learning and Leading With Technology, 26(1), 6-15.


Hawkes, M., & Good, K. (2000). Evaluating professional development outcomes of a telecollaborative technology curriculum. Rural Educator, 21(33), 5-11.


May, S.W. (2003). Integrating Technology into a Readig Program. T H E Journal. 30: 8.


Mitchell, D. P., & Scigliano, J. A. (2000). Moving beyond the white cane: Building an online learning environment for the visually impaired professional. Internet and Higher Education, 3, 117-124.


Myers, M. J. (2000). Voice recognition software and a hand-held translation machine for second-language learning. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 13(1), 29-41.


Prensky, M. (2000). Digital game-based learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.


Teale, W., L. Labbo, C. Kinzer and D. Leu Jr. (2002). Exploring Literacy on the Internet. The Reading Teacher 55 (7): 654.


--> Wetzel, K. (1991). Speaking to read and write: A report on the status of speech recognition. Computing Teacher, 19(1). 6-10.[Author:T]


















Special Education 1






No bold


You can't use personal pronouns or first person.


Can't use us


Can't use we


No bold


have


Clarify thisrewrite as a sentence.


Change to two (APA rule)


do not use et. al. here because it is the first time you are citing this research. See page 208 in the 5th ed. APA Manual


Since this is the same paragraph and no other research appears between this information, it is understood that this relates to Teale. Therefore, only the yr. is needed.


Delete the before teachers, students, children, etc.


Replace Asselin 2001 with the page number for this quote.


Not cited properlysee page 118 APA Manual. Quotes40 or more words are indented from left margin and single spaced with the page number at the end. I have shown the correct format.


Delete quotation mark


Delete quotation mark and Teale et al. 2002. Replace with page number in parentheses.


You can't use bullets in APA. I have changed to correct format.


Change to analyzedAPA rule. Always use past tense


Always use past tense


No bold


These were changed to the a, b, c format to comply with APA


Change to 2


Can't use bullets in APA


Change to the format used above - use the a, b, c format instead of bullets.


Change to a, b, c format


Cage to a, b, c to comply with APA format


No bold


Check to see if Interent should be capitalized


This is the first time you have used this term. Did you mean, PDAif so change to PDA. If you meant PDFspell out the term and then put PDF behind it in parentheses.


Do not bold any headings


Research can't be older than 10 years. Delete.


Delete - older than 10 years


Delete research too old


No bold


No bold


delete


Delete research too old


Delete research too old






Concept Paper Rubric




Student's Name: _________________ Committee Chair: __________________


Submission #: ________ Committee Member: __________________


Date: __________




Item

Comments




Overall


a) Approximate length is 12 pages, excluding title page and reference pages


b) Consistent with APA and Style Guide







a)




b)






Title Page


a) Is descriptive of AD study


b) Useful for keyword searches


c) Is within 10-12 words







a)


b)


c)






Introduction


a) Explains the setting of the study


b) Contains organizational profile


c) Includes other salient information







a)


b)


c)




Statement of the Problem


a) Actual problem indicated


b) Documented evidence of problem provided


c) Impact of problem is clearly stated


d) Stated as declarative sentence


e) Problem statement is concise and focused


f) Problem is in range of student's influence







a)


b)




c)


d)


e)




f)




Preliminary Literature Review


a) Provides contextual background


b) Reveals related issues


c) Reviews similar problems elsewhere


d) Provides significance to your approach to the study


e) Includes major/seminar research articles pertaining to study


f) Written in an integrated manner







a)


b)


c)


d)




e)




f)




Purpose of the Proposed Project


a) Intent of proposed project clearly explicated







a)








Initial Research Questions


a) Formulation based on theory, previous research, and professional experience


b) Stated in the form of a question


c) Focused and clear







a)




b)


c)




Brief Description of Methodology and Research Design


a) Presents an overview of the methods to be utilized to address research questions


b) Explains appropriateness of methods and provides rationale for selection









a)




b)






Anticipated Outcomes


a) Description of expected study results


b) Detail of the importance of conducting the study as well as possible impact on practice and theory







a)


b)




References


a) List consistent with citations in the text


b) Use of peer-reviewed research


c) Include retrieval dates if obtained from Internet







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2








There are faxes for this order.

This is a Portfolio Narrative, written to convey ten
years
of field work as a teacher of special ed students in an inclusion setting.
The
work should be written as a college freshman-soph. level.
I have been teaching at a private school for a decade. This is an essay to
award
college-level credit for my experience and knowledge learned while working
in
the field.
Two citations from a related text must be in the body and one citation
from a
current journal.

Report guidelines:
Students must convey they have learned lesson planning, questioning skills,
cooperative learning techniques, and ways of differentiating instruction.
Emphasis will be placed on strategies for teaching exceptional children in
the
regular classroom and resource room. They will also experience discovery
learning or constructivism. Adhering to State Curriculum Standards will be
emphasized, non-specific to any one state. Techniques for including art,
music
and technology in their teaching will be outlined.
DESIGNING LESSON PLANS is the focus, techniques must also be covered!
This must be written from your experiences as an educator in the classroom.
Do
not write from textbook examples only. Remeber that this is a portfolio
narrative of your EXPERIENCE! Write about your learning from other
teachers, as
mentors in an on-the-job setting.

PLEASE do not plagarize this paper. Thank you so much for the help

Write a two page paper summarizing your experience with teaching CDs 3 and 4 from the ACTION READING program. There must be enough detail about what activities were included in the CDs to satisfy the reader, and show your accountability in completing the CDs with a student. Information about phonics should be included throughout the paper describing what skills were being taught using the proper phonics vocabulary; http://www.atozphonics.com/phonicsdefinition.html. This paper should not have an introduction or conclusion.

this is some of the information:
As we continue our journey through the ACTION READING program with instructional DVD number two this week, the English language really takes shape and we begin to form new sounds. The main focus of this weeks DVD is 2:1 sounds, hard/soft sounds, the backbone of words, and triplets (sounds that are said the same but look three different ways. Of the many concepts covered this week, one that intrigued me was the technique of sliding letters together to form one sound such as -ch and ??"sh (2:1 sounds). (Eller, 2000). This technique is known as synthetic phonics or the process of synthesizing letters into new sounds. Synthetic phonics has won over the hearts of many educators, yet many still question its effectiveness and argue that the classic intrinsic phonics approach or approaches focused on letters rather than sounds are more effective (Villaume & Brabham, 2003). Thankfully though, research has shown that the use of synthetic phonics and decoding instruction in the classroom not only helps special needs students succeed but it also results in an increase in achievement levels (Villaume & Brabham, 2003) In my own opinion, especially after doing some research, there needs to be a balance between the many types of phonics and decoding skills taught rather than a sole focus on one more than the others. Along my research I actually found an article that presents that very program and discusses how we can teach a balanced phonetic approach. It has been said that by incorporating each type of phonics into your curriculum you present the student with clear explicit instruction in sound/symbol relations and also the opportunity to use the system themselves and then go on to create analogies between one relationship and another. (Dombey, pg. 56)

As part of the balanced phonetic approach Dombey suggests that students not just learn how to read but also how to achieve meaning from reading. The author discusses how simply focusing on letters and their sounds will definitely teach a student to read but in the long run they can ONLY read, they dont know what their reading and think that simply using their phonetic knowledge will pass as reading (Dombey, 1999). With the knowledge Dombey gave to me regarding a balanced approach I took a moment and reviewed the discs we covered with our students thus far in this class and was pleasantly surprised. Jeanie Eller clearly thought about exposing the students to all the aspects of phonics and ways to teach decoding skills when she designed this program and although it seems like we are solely focusing on synthetic phonics we are actually touching on all of the methods. Now that we have knowledge of each of the ways to teach decoding skills/phonics Im certain that not one way is better than the others and in honesty a balanced approach is the only way to go.

References:

Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program. Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.

Dombey, H. (1999). Towards a Balanced Approach to Phonics Teaching. Reading, 33(2), 52.

Villaume, S., & Brabham, E. (2003). Phonics instruction: Beyond the debate. Reading Teacher, 56(5), 478.


SOME more notes from the cds
This weeks DVD saw combinations such as SH, TH, and CH. However, the main point that was taught throughout the entire DVD was practice, practice, and practice. Anything we do in life takes practices and reading is no exception. I choose two specific topics, synthetic phonics and embedded phonics. Synthetic phonics are taught to children from the age of about five by showing them the sounds of the 40+ letters and how these sounds can be blended to run together to make short words. (Bradford) This means that without explaining to the students what each letter is; only the sound is taught for each letter. This allows children to write letters on the same day that they are introduced to the sound that each letter makes. A wall chart is usually used by teachers that have the entire alphabet on it that shows examples of words that start with that specific letter, such as c for cake. This method allows students to learn a combination of three-letter words, and as soon as they learn those combinations, they can begin to read simple books with a limited amount of words. Knowledge of the sounds that our alphabet makes is one of the best interpreters of victory in knowledge to read. (Bradford)

Embedded phonics does not usually start with the relation between sounds and symbols. It begins with a story for the students and incorporates phonics into the lesson that is being taught by the story. For example, Nancy Shaws Sheep novels keep students interested while they emphasize the repeated patterns that they need to learn; sheep in a jeep is an example of this. This specific type of phonics makes decoding an important aspect of reading and writing. A negative to this approach in phonics is that this method does not that the structure that other methods have that allow a student to fall behind easily. (Savage)

Despite what method a teacher uses to teach students using phonics, there is one thing that is constant, practice, practice, and practice. Without practice, a student will not be able to memorize the different sounds a letter makes. Without the memorization of sounds, they will not be able to read effectively.



Bradford, J. (n.d.). Systematic Phonics Teaching Methods. Retrieved from Systematic Phonics: http://www.systematic-phonics.com/phonics_methods.html

Savage, J. (n.d.). Three Approaches to Phonics. Retrieved from Educators Publishing Service: http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/downloads/articles/Three_Approaches_Phonics.pdf



MORE NOTES
We will use contextual clues (Improve Literacy), sound out the word (Eller, 2000), and look up the words definition. There are times when the students can act out the word as it relates to the story (Jones, 1999). I like to use what I refer to as chalk talks to help illustrate words and how they relate to a story. Chalk talks can be a great visual as the drawings not only show the word, but also place it in context with the story being read (Jones).


The DVD incorporates pictures and words to help students associate sounds to a picture (Eller). Getting the students out of their chairs to demonstrate the CH sound and the picture of the chair are all multisensory learning techniques that help the student comprehend and retain the sound that CH makes (Eller). When teaching a person to read, it is critical to find stories they like (Improve Literacy). This will encourage them to want to read so they learn the whole story about the subject they have chosen.


There are many ways to teach students comprehension. Explaining the words used in a story beforehand and showing pictures of the words will help the student identify the word or words as they come to them.



Eller, J. (2000). Fundamentals: A research-based, phonics tutorial learn to read program. Chandler Heights, AZ: Action Reading.


Improve Literacy. (nd). 10 Simple Reading Comprehension Strategies for Elementary School Children. Retrieved from http://www.improveliteracy.com/Reading_strat.aspx


Jones, S. (1999). Multisensory Vocabulary Guidelines and Activities. Retrieved from http://www.resourceroom.net/comprehension/vocabactivities.asp



MORE NOTES
In the DVD, listening and hearing sounds and words when learning to read is the beginning stages to what happens a students further develop their skills (Eller, 2000). Some good activities to practice reading comprehension are asking what happens, predicting what happens next and making connections to the story and their own experiences. Students who can retell a story understand the words and events. Choose materials that your reader will be interested in and vary the difficulty of the text. Teach a student to use the content of the other words and the picture to gain meaning of unknown words. This skill is an example of how Ms. Johnson showed her students how to decode unknown words by learning the sounds. Connecting phonemes to make words and these words become stories and those stories have meaning. This is what reading is about!

Research and comment on the following 4 separately.



1. Student success is a two-way endeavor. The student must give 100% as well as the instructor needs to provide the students with a 100%. The student must take the responsibility to be prepared to learn the material assigned, turn in assignments on time, pay attention to what is being taught or discussed, and ask questions when needed. The instructor needs to be responsible to present the information in a format that the student can understand, be willing and prepared to answer questions, and realize that all students do not learn in the same way and be willing to change styles when needed.

Using remediation until a student passes a course is an effective way to assist the student to become successful. If the student is unable to pass the course, they cannot move on to the next course in the program and be successful in learning the required material to earn their degree. Early intervention would be the best solution to aiding the student to be successful. I read an article that discussed the use of a remediation course to aid the senior BSN students to pass the NCLEX-RN exam. The course was for 15 weeks and included instruction in test-taking, including identification of common test-taking errors, pacing for a timed exam, how to identify the key elements of a question, narrowing options, and nursing process and communication questions. The course also addressed test anxiety and an overview of the NCLEX-RN exam (Sifford & McDaniel, 2007). A commercially prepared exit exam was given to the students at the beginning of the course and again at the end of the course. The results indicated that the use of the remediation course was successful in increasing the scores on the exit exam. According to Sifford and McDaniel (2007), ?current data appear to support the conclusion that remediation intervention targeting test-taking strategies, anxiety reduction, and time management is effective for enhancing student success? (para. 18).

Reference:

Sifford, S., & McDaniel D. M. (2007). Results of a remediation program for students at risk for failure on the NCLEX exam. Nursing Education Perspectives. Retrieved from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Results+of+a+remediation+program+for+students+at+risk+for+failure+on...-a0159534800


2. For the stated position of ?Teachers don?t fail students; students fail themselves.? I think I both agree and disagree. A student must make a certain amount of effort in their own learning in the way of reading the materials, doing required homework and/ or assignments, showing up for class, etc. In this the old addage of "You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink" applies. or "You get out what you put in." In this the teacher must also be prepared. You lead the horse but you also have water there for it to drink from. Knowing the presented course material isnt enough the instructor must also be able to put that material into words or examples that each student can learn from. Make it real to each of them in the way each of them learns best.
Learner-centered classrooms focus primarily on individual students' learning. The teacher's role is to facilitate growth by utilizing the interests and unique needs of students as a guide for meaningful instruction. Student-centered classrooms are by no means characterized by a free-for-all.These classrooms are goal-based. Students' learning is judged by whether they achieve predetermined, developmentally-oriented objectives. Basically meaning everyone can earn an A by mastering the material. Because people learn best when they hear, see, and manipulate variables, the method by which learning occurs is oftentimes experiential.A learner-centered teacher makes time to collaborate with others and problem solve as challenges evolve. This teacher spends his or her day researching new ideas and learning key concepts that students must acquire to gain competence. Evaluation is ongoing and done mostly in the context of students' learning.(TeacherVision, 2014).


TeacherVision (2014).Learner-Centered vs. Curriculum-Centered Teachers: Which Type Are You? Accedded May 7, 2014 from https://www.teachervision.com/teaching-methods-and-management/curriculum-planning/4786.html


3. According to an article written by Phillips (2005), ?visual learners learn by seeing pictures, may be fast-paced learners, and can be impatient. Auditory learners gain knowledge through listening and learning through steps, procedures, and sequence. They often struggle to remember verbal instructions because their minds wander when visual stimulation is present. Kinesthetic learners gain information through doing or walking through something. They may be laid back or nonchalant? (pp. 81-82). According to my results, I am a multi-sensory learner with a 6 for visual, a 5 for tactile/kinesthetic, and a 4 for auditory. I do best if I can not only hear and see what is being discussed, but put into action what is being taught. This was especially true in the lab setting when we were learning the nursing skills. It was easier for me to retain the information given if I was able to practice the skill after hearing how to perform it. I am not good at retaining lecture information especially if the information being presented is dry. There are times I need to review what I have read in order to fully grasp the information.

Online learning meets my learning style as I am able to review the assigned material without fear of missing information that I might miss in a lecture situation. If I need to, I can make notes on the material that I am having difficulty retaining. According to Thiele (2003), online students have been shown to be more independent and self-disciplined learners.

References:

Phillips, J. (2005). Strategies for active learning in online continuing education. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 36(2), 77-83.

Thiele, J. (2003). Learning patterns of online students. Journal of Nursing Education, 42(8), 364-366


4. McGillvray-Jones (2013) conveys that individual?s learning styles can influence what information they retain as well as how they translate it into practice. From the categories of visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic learning styles within the questionnaire provided by Thinkwell (2003), my dominant style was visual (10), following with tactile/kinesthetic (4), and finally auditory (1), subsequently this was not a surprise to me. With the difference in learning styles, it is imperative the educator encompasses a variety of learning approaches to address all styles (Nuzhat, Salem, Al Hamdan, & Ashour, 2013). Equally significant is one?s ability to understand their learning style so that effective learning strategies may be chosen (Bradshaw & Lowenstein, 2011). The majority of my professional education was provided through lectures only; which is appropriate for auditory learners but not so for visual learners. Further lectures encourage students to take a passive role in their education versus an active role (Romanelli, Bird, & Ryan, 2009). I recall in undergraduate classes reading the assignment before going to class and making notes based on what I read, recording the lectures and adding additional information to my notes, and then making a final copy of all notes but this time adding symbols and colors to help me in my studies for an exam. Fortunately this worked well for me but before I began this learning strategy, I attempted to highlight the pertinent information only in a text but this most often ended with the entire page being highlighted, thus it served as a poor learning technique for me. As technology continues to advance the use of a Smart board or a PowerPoint presentation would provide visual learners such as I, cues to the organization of the lecture as well as a visual representation. Other possible teaching techniques for the visual learner consist of the educator providing students with a copy of the speaker notes prior to the beginning of class, the use of graphs and pictures (Svinicki & McKeachie, 2011). As mentioned in our introduction, I teach girls ministry to first and second grade girls on Wednesday evenings. In attempts to reach as many children as I can, I allow the girls to use puppets to play the role of the characters while I read the lesson. I use wipe off boards for the girls to practice their memory verses, we shout the memory verse as loud as we can, and at the end of the evening we summarize what we learned and we make sure that everyone understands the concept of the lesson. Appreciating the unique needs and characteristics of individuals within a learning setting sets an education environment that will better enhance learning by all. While educators are challenged to use innovative teaching methods that recognize the needs of all students, variation in teaching approaches allows the needs of all students to be considered (Bradshaw & Lowenstein, 2011).

References

Bradshaw, M., & Lowenstein, A. (2011). Innovative teaching strategies in nursing and

related health professions (5th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

McGillvray-Jones, L. (2013). The learning partnership. Nursing Standard, 27(42), 64.

Nuzhat, A., Salem, RO., Al Hamdan, N., & Ashour, N. (2013). Gender differences in learning styles

and academic performance of medical students in Saudi Arabia. Medical Teacher, 35(1), 78-82.

doi:10.3109/0142159X.2013.765545

Romanelli, F., Bird, E., & Ryan, M. (2009). Learning styles: A review of theory, application, and

best practices. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 73(1), 9.


Svinicki, M., & McKeachie, W. (2011). McKeachie?s teaching tips (13th ed.).

Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Thinkwell. (2003). What is my learning style?

Retrieved from http://www.2learn.org/learningstyles.html

Students who employ a metacognitive perspective enjoy certain advantages. Define metacognition and explain how it enables a student to perform better. Make specific references to active learning techniques discussed in the course.

NB. It is an argumentative essay

I want the literature to be about Machine Learning Techniques (Approach) like Support Vector Machine, Naive Bayes, Maximum Enropy Classifier and Markove Blanket Classifier. Please no repeat of what has been written in the last order.

You are to write a full 3-page paper. Read the article below and answer the 3 discussion questions after reading the article. When quoting from the Readings Use APA format. State the question first and then continue to answer.

Discussion questions
1.What is flexible learning? How is flexible learning connected to larger societal trends?
2.What are some of the problems with the idea and reality of flexible learning?
3.How does or should the development of flexible learning programs differ from that of a more traditional programs?

Becoming Flexible: what does that mean?
In Australia and elsewhere the introduction of flexible learning reflects a more general transformation of higher education influenced by technological change, public accountability, increased competition, restrict funding, and catering for the needs of a semi-mass rather than semi-elite system. The growing trend for universities to focus attention and energies on the development of flexible learning and delivery has been given impetus by a range of factors including the rapid advances and electronic communications technology that introduce flexibility in production, distribution and interactivity and education and the consequent tendency toward globalization of education. Commentators of information technologies argued that flexibilitys offer education providers and effective means of responding to the needs of the new learner and hence are seen as a key to their survival. According to them the needs of consumers will drive the direction and demand for knowledge with legitimate of knowledge becoming largely a factor of its demand. To exit in such a climate educational institution will have to structure information and knowledge in flexible ways for example, offering courses in a different organizational and delivery modes, providing courses in a variety of locations including the workplace, modularizing existing courses, and providing continually updated information and just-in-time training. New technologies suggests different roles for universities. The growing range of information providers via the Internet offer an alternative source of knowledge creation and credentialing, challenge conventional models of teaching and learning offer by traditional education providers. In this context universities will have to compete with multinational information providers for market share of students. As a consequence of this globalization the traditional notion of scholarship are replaced by continual just-in-time learning. Teaching is seen as less place-bound, replaced by networked learning use and global connections. Strategically, flexibility of operation and flexible learning are seen as both a defense and an offense for educational institutions and their competition for students. Higher education institutions in Australia similarly to universities and other industrialized countries are engaged in competition for market shares of Australian and offshore markets especially at Post graduate level. Flexible delivery and flexible learning can be exploited to give the competitive edge in a number of ways. Flexible learning gives University the capacity to appeal to niche markets via approaches such as work based learning programs and to open up new, remote markets using communication technologies or distant learning modes. There is also a perception that institutions have to be seen to be doing flexible learning; that it is the sexy thing to do. By freeing up space place and time constraints of studying it can be used to attract students who previously may not have been able to attend class due to various life commitments. By providing alternate ways of accessing University education universities believe that they can attract more students.
This focus on alternative ways of delivering courses to students has also been in courage by a recognition of the changing needs of students, business interests and industry. There are a range of reasons of thinking about providing education in different ways. The more flexible offering and delivering of higher education may achieve the desirable social goals to increase access to education and democratizing teaching and learning process by giving greater control to the learner. However the relevant literature reflects a growing emphasis on to every aspect of education rather than thinking of ways of making student learning more flexible. This in turn may lead to the alienation of a significant number of students and members of the academic community not only due to the requirements for cultural trains especially the coach of teaching and learning but also due to the potential perceived or real loss of traditional academic values quality and scholarly rigor. In addition there are entrepreneurial considerations. The focus on delivery rather than learning will give rise to more intense competition for funding, resources and business among educational providers to turn flexible learning and flexible delivery implies an intention to increase learners access to and control over particular teaching and learning environments. Flexibility is a character was it that may satisfy many stakeholders and education. It can serve the interests of managers and politicians will focus on effectiveness, efficiency and budget solutions to delivery of a service. Many business interests groups and politicians have argued the scarcity of resources provided compelling argument to support the use of flexible learning. They argue that flexible learning is the answer to challenges, which have emerged in international, national and regional higher education and training sectors. For those marketing educational services flexible learning can mean the production of commodities, which can be used competitively in a global market. For students and teachers it can suggest a student centered approach to learning and democratize of process of learning and teaching. For those students will either cannot or choose not to attend a physical state it can mean the opportunity to engage in education as it is delivered to the home or workplace and ways in times that suits the circumstances. For the curriculum developers it may mean the availability of a range of services approach to suit students diversity. Similar it can imply the end of the suite of academic offices as staff conduct their teaching from places other than the institution. In intent, as well as form, it can mean different things to different stakeholders and have markedly different consequences and implications. The prevailing view in higher education has been and steel help strongly in many quarters the good teaching can only be face-to-face and that learning can only take place in specific environments and the presence of a teacher. The onus is on flexible learning to demonstrate how it can be traditional values and expectations. This creates potential tension in any educational institution, which is changes culture from tradition of face-to-face teaching -- learning to a flexible learning and deliberate culture.
What happened in one University?
In this chapter we will describe the way in which flexible learning was established in a metropolitan Australian University. Since any educational initiative will affect the staff and students involved we will also consider the responses of academic staff and explore the staff development implications of implementing flexible learning across a University. The University of technology, Sydney is a multiple campus Metropolitan University with a clearly identified student clientele, largely part-time and adult students. It has a strong reputation for professional and vocational education with good industry links and co-operative education programs. The university had not previously been involved in the provision of distance education but had recently entered into offshore delivery of educational programs. In 1996 University of technology identified flexible learning as one of the strategic initiatives describing it as developing the university's capacity to learning independent of space and tie. The term was initially loosely defined allowing individual faculties and academics within faculties to construct their own meaning in ways that were relevant to their current and future practices. A central committee was established to provide strategic guidance and support for flexible learning and to ensure a coordinated approach across the university. The university was keen to support early adopters of flexible learning in the first instance and funding was provided to support the establishment of teaching projects and administrative practices that would result in flexible learning. In the early stages of introduction of flexible learning it was not surprising that many academics that expressed concerned about the exact nature of this new approach and were eager to get some ideas of what might be involved. To provide some guidance for staff a discussion document featuring flexible learning case that he was developed. This document featured flexible innovations that were information technology base. Stat also drew conclusions about the former flexible learning that the university saw a valid and appropriate by looking at the type of projects that head been successful in the first round of funding. A large number of successful project bids involve the use of technology including the establishment of a web site the introduction of computer mediated conferencing and development of multimedia or web-based instruction. A second major thread was the development of distance education type materials and the conversation of traditional face-to-face teaching to remote learning. These projects were followed by the provision of competitive funding for strategic initiative projects from talkies. In an effort to increase the likelihood of lasting changes result from these projects preference was given to projects that were a team based. Again successful proposal focus mainly on the use of information technology. While there was a level of discomfort among many staff and the perceived lack of guidance from the top there was a high level of enthusiasm for the potential range of educational options created by the introduction of flexible learning. Every time funding to support flexible learning initiatives was advertised a large number of applications were received and the total value of funding request that far exceeds the amount available. In response to express concerns documents relating to flexible learning were issued by the office of Deputy Vice Chancellor academic which offered a broad definition of flexible learning and conferencing anything that increased students access to learning for example, offshore delivery, work based learning, the use of peer learning and assessment, take-home lamps, the use of web-based instruction, development of independent learning materials and the introduction of teaching periods that extended beyond the normal two semesters. An audit of existing flexible practices that had been Cary out as a part of funded project was made available on the flexible learning web site right interest academic staff with data about the range of activity that was occurring and to facilitate communications with and among staff involved in various projects. A range of activities were held throughout the university to support the idea of flexible learning and to provide information for interested staff. A flexible learning symposium provide an opportunity for expiration of possible practices with an emphasis on existing practices. In this part this was a response to criticism that the approach that had been adopted appeared to value only new practices and that many established teaching practices were already providing flexibility for the students. Not only did this symposium provide a forum for discussion and sharing the experience, it publicly valued existing and usually unfunded flexible learning practices. The central you did responsible for academic development offered University wide workshops on specific aspects or forms of flexible learning such as the design of independent learning materials. Staff development activities were also provided for specific projects or to support faculty level groups who were interested in exploring the possibilities offered by flexible learning. Funding was provided to support the involvement of academic staff developers and funded strategic initiative projects. Emerging discourses in the institution four clear representations of flexible learning emerged: flexible learning as efficient practice, flexible learning as the means of gaining the comparative edge, flexible learning as achieving equity, and flexible delivery, particularly the use of information technologies.
Flexible learning as efficiency
Performativity is the principle of optimizing performance by technical innovations. This notion of a performativity was clearly represented in the discourse of flexible learning as efficiency. The emphasis on the use of information technology is enabling flexible learning and the view that information technology will create a more efficient education system reflects Lyotards claims about the impact of information process on the transmission of quiet learning 1984: the result... will be the mercantilization of knowledge where knowledge will cease to be an end in itself. Increasing attention is being given to the input-output equation and accountability in higher education and flexibility is represented as a means of achieving greater efficiencies. There were no explicit statements the flexible learning was being introduced to save money although there was a groundswell of opinion among teaching academics that the primary reason for the university attention to the development of flexible learning was economic. The drive to implement more flexible strategies was interpreted by many teaching academics as an economic and political expedient. Implicit in this was a concern that the change is a short-term response reactive rather than proactive, only secondarily determined by educational considerations. Teachers will also concerned that performance would be judged against externally determined criteria which neither learners nor teachers would necessarily endorse. Public documents made it clear that although some money would be spent establishing projects ultimately course delivery should cost no more than it currently did. Many teaching academics express beliefs that flexible learning was all about doing more with less and that they would be seen as responsible and lacking in some way if they were not able to do this effectively. Flexible learning feature strongly in the university and faculty strategic goals and was reflected in planning documents. This managerial emphasis on flexible learning makes it increasingly difficult for individual academics to ignore the call for increased flexibility linking funding for initiatives and development to the demonstration of increased flexibility added pressure for individuals and groups to be seen to be involved and communicated the seriousness with which the idea is regarded by the university. In order to win much-needed resources most departments agreed to take on flexible learning and joining a desperate rush for funding. Not only did this requires that time and effort to develop proposals but it was frequently done with little or no consultation between managers and teaching academics, causing resistance from staff who had not been involved in the decision-making but were expected to implement these changes. Consequently a reasonable resistance in the introduction of different ways of teaching was heightened by filling up anger and the imposition of innovation to which some staff had not agreed. The perception that flexibility learning was being imposed on academic staff accompanied by a belief that accountability was being shifted down become more widespread. Certain high-profile flexible learning projects folk's very clearly on developing mechanisms for dealing efficiently with large numbers of students. In at least one faculty there was a stated intention to use flexible learningto make faculty teaching operations more efficient and there were over and cold for actions that support this. The notion that flexible learning could result in a more efficient teaching was viewed by some as providing an opportunity to use flexible learning to handle administrative and organizational aspects of teaching more efficiently for staff and students thus allowing more opportunity to teach and learn. These views were most commonly voiced by academics will had been involved in the project for some time and had develop familiarity with technologies and were able to look beyond them. Like most users of new technology it was not until they were comfortable with the routine use of technology that they could envisage of the ways of employing it. Many teaching academics saw a decrease in the amount of face-to-face contact between teachers and students as a negative consequence of flexible learning projects. While flexible learning may lower the cost of teaching a subject or course it removes an importance source of teacher satisfaction and was the subject of some resistance. There was even greater resistance to the possibility that the ultimate efficiency may result from the development of flexible learning approaches -- the redundancy of teaching academics resulting from the use of stand-alone teaching packages, workplace mentors or web-based instruction.
Flexible learning as the competitive edge
while flexible learning was represented as the means of creating a more efficient University there was a related discourse that portray flexible learning as providing the competitive edge. Flexibility was seen as the means by which the university could become more competitive and attracting students. This was betrayed in terms of the modes of delivery that were offered, creating courses for niche markets and offering them in ways that would be attractive to particular groups for example, work based learning qualifications. Much attention was directed at the marketability of various funded project outcomes. Flexible learning was seen as the means of preserving the university place in the current marketplace and of creating and consolidating niche markets. The discourse of competitive edge function at all levels within the university. In competition for scarce curriculum and development funding one faculty activity in the realm of flexible learning might give it the advantage over its rivals. The ability to develop courses that were more flexible and cater to the needs of particular potential student groups increased the faculty capacities to attract more students and hints a greater share of funding. The competitive edge also function among individuals. Flexible learning was strictly interpreted as something new or innovative. Individual teacher academics perceived pressure to be involved in the development of flexible learning and express concern as the university was placing so much importance on it they would be judged as somehow lacking if they were not involved and successful. The inclusion of flexible learning in guidelines for promotion provided for the reasons for academics to think that involvement in projects would put them ahead of the competition. This reinforced the perception that flexible learning something that staff needed to be seen to be doing. Just as University was seen to be engaging in flexible learning because its competitors were so too were individuals. Being involved in a flexible learning project was seen to be doing something that would give an academic the competitive edge over his or her colleagues and attracting internal funding, getting promoted, having his or her contract renewed and so on. Others all the inclusion of flexible learning in criteria for promotion as an appropriate reward, making extra effort worthwhile -- in necessary way of encouraging staff to adopt new projects. In a context of economic rejection and threats of job cuts be the performative function of flexible learning initiatives became significant in regulating the behavior of academic staff.
Flexible learning as equity and access
in order to promote the view of flexible learning as increased access University documents presented alternative interests in aerials and policies were altered to support a third teaching semester. Documents describing what flexible learning might be in the university made reference to increasing the access of students education through the use of alternative modes of delivery. Recognition of prior learning and the freeing up of entry and exit points can open higher education to students who would previously have been denied entry through traditional practices. This can suggest a student centered approach to learning and democratization of process of learning and teaching. The practice of flexible learning can support views about teaching, learning and access with a firm liberal and humanistic views of education. Flexible learning and delivery can be represented as the method of in fact a lifelong learning and student centered learning. At University of technology administrative procedures were review to facilitate more flexible student entry and a broad of studies were established to oversee the development of courses allowing nontraditional intrigue through work based programs. As equity and access flexible learning implied an intention to increase learners access and control over particular teaching and learning environments. The more flexible offering and delivery of higher education achieve the desirable social goals of increasing access to education and democratizing teaching and learning process by giving greater control to the learner. However this was contradicted in many instance by the restricted access created by the use of technology. Not all students have personal access to the necessary technology and the level of University support through laboratories was limited. Distance education the form of delivery which would increase the potential access of students by freeing up time, space and place, received some attention but little infrastructure support. A number of unfunded projects offered more freedom of access to the use of learning contracts, block teaching sessions, and the provision of independent study materials. For many project lead those on the fringes of flexible learning it was the funded projects which were more visible and hence seen as more privileged.
Flexible learning as information technologies
Despite policy documents reiterating official view of while flexible learning may mean teaching with technology this would not always be appropriate there was a widespread sentiment that flexible learning did not mean the use of technology. This is closely associated with the theme of flexible learning as the competitive edge. Early adopters of information technology specifically users of computer mediated conferencing and at least in the early stages web-based instruction received support for projects in which they had a special interests. This usually lead to a raising of the faculty level profile for people who were already seen as being associated with technological innovation. Many of these projects were not widely known or officially widely publicized but as word spread about what various people were doing a sense of some individual being in while others were seen to be excluded from a select group began to develop. Those who were working with funded projects were seen as the anointed ones those who do not only know what flexible learning meant but were actively engaged in it and being rewarded by the institution that is gaining the competitive edge in the university. The lack of a coherent method of circulating information about various projects and initiatives has several consequences; for example, it meant that there were duplications of effort and in some cases resource provision as staff introduced new approaches. There were several similar projects happening concurrently but with little communication between teams simply because they were unaware of each other. Staff involved in overlapping projects responded with frustration when they heard that others were working on similar areas and that they had missed opportunities to share in each other's learning those outside meanwhile showed cynicism. Some undeserved interpret the failure of communication is evidence of the university wanting to make teaching staff responsible for the direction and the subsequent success of the venture others view it as a deliberate ploy to keep information from staff. Measures to address this lack of communication such as information sharing sessions and the establishment of a web site and of support groups initiated the dissemination of information and open up space for discussion and exploration of experience and ideas. Although as we noted above policy documents data support for a broad view of flexible learning in conferencing the diversity of ways of increasing access to learning this was not the message received by staff. The large proportion of available funding was directed to technological driven approaches and individual interpreted this to mean that high-tech approaches were preferred. For many teaching academics flexible learning and delivering was the form of learning that was carried by the information technologies. Flexible learning initiatives were accompanied by substantial highly visible infrastructure with emphasize the messages that information technology was highly valuable. This was particular the case where most of the projects were funded related to the use of computer conferencing and resulted in the formation of large teams, trailing and purchase of software and investment in infrastructure. Some consideration was given to the teaching and learning implications of this but the focus was clearly on the means of delivery. The allocation of limited funding to purchase of high-cost items that demanded the time and attention indicated to staff that forms a flexible learning that the university saw was valid and valuable. While some funding was allocated for the development of distance education materials for provisions was made for the central in structure to support this. Projects that involve the development or implementation of practices that place the learner more centrally in the teaching and learning process would generally perceived as a part of existing teaching practices and were not seem to require funding to support the development. This was also associated with the notion that flex learning was about innovation and doing something different. Even in context or learning contracts, flexible assessment and so on were not part of existing practice they had a lower profile because such envisages did not require large amount of funding for visible infrastructure. These were not unfunded, small-scale, individual projects and as such they do not appear on the advertisements of successful projects. In a culture that judges value probably by calls these types of projects were seen as less valuable. This presents a dilemma for the university that is trying to encourage diverse practice how to acknowledge the value or projects that do not have a high price tag. This dilemma is deepened when the alternative route of rewarding involvement in such projects with promotion is viewed as either irrelevant, undesirable or coercive.
There were many unfunded projects and examples of teaching practice that could easily be understood of increasing flexibility of time and space. However in other words of one academic, well, I'm doing lots of things that could call flexible learning but they are things like flexible scheduling, self-study groups and choice of learning modules. And that is not what the university is calling flexible learning is it? For the university it is using computers, putting it on the web... Staff will believe that there existing practices constituted real flexible learning albeit not what they thought the university saw as flexible learning or perhaps complicit in marginalizing these other views. They acquiesced to what they saw as the official view often eventually seen themselves as not engaging in practices that represented flexible learning. In some counties were deans and managers publicly values staff involvement in these other forms of flexible learning there was a stronger association between the practices and the institutionalized term, although staff still expressed sentiment that they were currently engaged in and had been doing flexible learning for some time -- it is just not what the university wants it to be. This reinforced the technology driven view of flexible learning within the university. Consideration of projects that were initiated suggests that at this stage attention was focused very squarely on flexible delivery. This is reflected in much of the literature relating to the development of flexible learning in Australia which focuses on ways of delivering information all core systems. If technology used overcome space and time constraints then the focus onto the reading may well improve the student access to education providing opportunities to attend to ways of making learning more flexible. However in many cases as in many other Australian universities these projects featured a reconsideration or repackaging of existing materials which will often lock students into a more rigid ways of engaging in course content rather than offering greater flexibility. The emphasis on flexible learning projects that use computer mediated communications conflict with this course of access and equity. The use of computer mediated communications as an integral part of a subject may create attitudinal as well as resource barriers to the access of particular groups of students or restrict access to particular times. This was the case where students did not have appropriate technology at home or work and war reliant on gaining access to limited University computer laboratories. Even when students have access to appropriate technology at home there may be less rejections on the amount of access and they have or the times at which they can make use of those resources for study purposes. As universities increasingly expect students to be able to utilize the technology resources of their employers the possibility that employers will restrict access or change employees for private use of resources become very real. It does not seem reasonable for universities who themselves as employers are considering charging their staff or private use of the Internet to expect that other employers will be more generous. Regardless of the form of technology which was intended to support alternate modes of delivery this discourse was accompanied by concerns on the part of teaching academics about their lack of knowledge and skills in using the technology either in its own right or more specifically as a part of the teaching learning process. Individuals was concerned about their level of computer literacy as well as the most effective ways to use for example computer media conferencing to encourage student learning. Technologies used in distance education also cause problems for academic staff who were not experience in the design, preparation or production of independent learning materials. Extensive involvement in a trial and error development was time consuming ultimately expensive and the source of fresh ration for many academics that. For this was perceived as further evidence that responsibility for the success of flexible learning was being placed squarely on the shoulders of teaching academics. The university use of the term flexible learning became synonymous with technology-based flexible learning and included any strategies that would increase students access to learning freeing learners from constraints of time, space and place. This suggested that almost any past and present practices could be adapted to fulfill this aim. The intention to increase flexible and plied that there would be a particular demand on students administration in the area of enrollment procedures and entry and exit requirements. In the first instance this impacted most administratve systems but staff began to identify issues relating to the procedures of course approval as publications goals attempted to free up the way in which they offer their courses. This place additional pressures for change on administrative procedures.
Implications for academic practices discussion of the representation of flexible learning has already highlighted some of the effects on academics. Not surprising there was considerable variation in the reaction of academic staff depending on the extent of their involvement in the innovation and the role they have taken. My job won't change, this response emanated from staff will believe that their current teaching practices already incorporated flexibility for learners, so there was no need for change. Staff who were strongly resistant to flexible learning also had no intention of changing what they were doing. I can see it going to change what I'd do and I'm not looking forward to it. Some staff will concerned or disturbed that flexible learning practices would remove them from a primary source of academic pleasure or fulfillment: direct contact with students. Other staff were intimidated by technologies or by the demand of learning to use these and more reluctant to expose themselves to uncertainty. Professional identities are tied up with ones competency in performing one's job-teaching. The prospect of teaching in new ways raises the possibility that some may be less successful than in traditional, familiar teaching roles. Senior-level academics and managerial positions who had limited teaching responsibilities do not see that flexible learning will directly affect the nature of their jobs. This is a great learning opportunity for me and my students. Learning involved not just how to use the technology whether this meant computer mediated conferencing, developing learning materials and packages or new assessment techniques but more cynically finding out what worked, untoward circumstances and for whom and how. As staff became more familiar with the technologies they were able to explore their potential to support teaching and learning a new worries. This presented them with the option of re-conceptualizing their teaching and quite dramatically different ways. A number of staff were also enthusiastic about the potential that the flexible learning offer them for improving the quality of students learning experiences and meeting the needs of the students in more appropriate ways. Generally individuals were not able to focus on student learning aspects until they were comfortable with the strategies and techniques they were using even where their initial interest had been motivated by the desire to improve learning.
Providing support
The introduction of flexible learning has important implications for the culture of the university. It requires a changed culture in order to accept and implemented as well as developing a changed culture in response to it. In this section we will consider the support that the effective introduction of flexible learning requires. The introduction of more flexible learning approaches often requires sophisticated activities and technology technical backup and support structures. Attitudes and beliefs of staff can also up strong change and hence need to be supported. In this case that the attitudes and beliefs about the nature of value learning the real reasons for the introduction of flexible learning the contribution of flexible learning techniques to achieving specific learning outcomes and their own roles in the learning process all operated as barriers to change. Staff also expressed concern that they lacked knowledge, skills and pedagogic practices necessary to use flexible learning approaches effectively.
Providing a framework and clear direction
from our preceding discussion it is clear that the extent to which a central body such as the executive of a university defines the parameters of flexible learning is problematic. Rigid definitions of frameworks and limit creativity and restrict the breadth of possible initiatives reducing flexible learning to little more than a recipe book were rigidly defining sets of practices. However to little definition can have a negative effect on staff motivation as they expand time and energy attempting to define what is meant. Too little guidance can also discourage staff who may be reluctant to take responsibility for constructing a workable meaning of the concept Taylor 1996 argues that a definition of the scope of flex will education for meeting the extended mission of the University is a key feature of policy that will provide guidance about what is permitted and possible. The need to be a clearly understood and shared meaning rather than a prescriptive definition of terms. At the University, while flexible learning was cruelly associated with the university strategic initiatives there was no clear indication of the ways in which it was possible to contribute to achieve the broad goals of the university. The provisions of the case study in examples that illustrate the breadth of the meaning of flexible learning can provide additional direction for staff without being too prescriptive.
Development in knowledge and skills
There are powerful barriers to taking seriously the problematic concerns embedded in flexible learning and delivery. If academics are to embrace the shift in emphasis they need to develop in knowledge base which allows them to understand the pedagogy practices which underpin approaches to teaching and learning that allows for independent self-directed learners and lifelong learners. The use of the term flexible learning suggests the focus should be on the student learning rather than technologies. However when proficiency in the use of technologies whatever they may be is the primary concern of the individual who must use them in order to fulfill their teaching role and maintain a public and private image of competence in teaching it becomes difficult to direct attention to a focus on learning. University made an intentional decision to leave the term flexible learning as undefined as possible to allow for generations of locally relevant meanings. However when staff were asked to adopt them vigorously defined innovations there was an understandable feeling of disquiet. Well intentioned staff who wish to improve learning for the students want to know just what it is they should be doing. The initial stages of introduction there is a need for the provision of opportunity for the staff to explore possible ways in which flexible learning may be interpreted and what each interpretation would mean for teaching and learning. Once staff has developed some idea of the option from which they may select there is a need for training and development of the skills involved. Such development may be offered in a range of ways generic skills in instructional design may be appropriate although these may result in limited transfer of learning. Alternatively a range of introduction workshops presenting over you of the basic skills in facilitating flex learning can provide staff with the confidence to begin work on development. Followed workshops for project teams specifically focus on the development of a project allow staff to be supported in the course of learning about the best way to use various flexible learning and delivery strategies. In flexible learning approaches that involved the use of technology there is a need for basic training in the use of technology express the ones that are unfamiliar with them. Were software is about staff also need to become familiar with ways in which the software works and its capabilities. Until staff are comfortable using technologies such as computer mediated conferencing, video or teleconferencing they will not be able to consider the pedagogy demands of the new approach or the most effective ways to use it to enhance student learning. Attending the pedagogy dimensions of new approaches is of critical importance. Were flexible learning projects include the use of established approaches such as distance education materials, peer teaching, learning and assessments, videoconferencing, take-home labs and interactive multimedia one could draw on an established body of literature dealing with teaching and learning principles and issues. This provide a base from which staff development could begin in addition such literature provided a source of evidence to support the decisions that had made about selecting that approach as most appropriate for their context. However newer strategies such as the use of workplace based learning, web-based instruction or computer mediated conferencing have little empirical evidence suggesting best practice or supporting their use to facilitate learning. This adds yet another layer of learning to the staffs already heavy load not only do they have to learn how to use the technologies and a technical sense they have to learn how to use them effectively and instructional sense. This learning will provide further support for the recommendation that a range of opportunities are made available for staff to share their experiences. Once staff have develop familiarity with basic skills and technology attention needs to be given to exploring the pedagogy implications of using a specific approach in this may be done in generic workshops or carried out with project teams of faculty or sub-faulty groups. Ongoing work with teams on a specific project allow staff to reflect on their experiences on the guidance of a team leader or academic staff develop a who can draw on the experiences of other groups. Mentor schemes teaming more and less experienced user of specific flexible learning approaches have great potential for enhancing the learning process of academic staff adopting flexible approaches. The involvement of academic staff developers is ongoing project and development to work and for feel an important information dissemination function in addition to their more obvious educational development role.
Time
overwhelmingly the staff involved in developing flexible learning projects report that not only was the development time consuming it was consistently more time-consuming than they had expected. Even at the strategies or programs had been developed there were glitches in programs along the way. These not only took time to correct but often require development a fallback position so that teachers were not left without teaching materials when, for example, the server crashed or they lost vision from their videoconferencing. Provisions of adequate preparation time is a critical factor in supporting staff. Were staff were involved in the development of flexible learning approaches without some reduction in teaching or ministry of load flexible learning development made heavy claims or their time and on them personally. Most teaching staff was prepared to go beyond the call of duty but this can only sustain up to a point. The current educational environment were staff are facing heavier teaching loads larger classes and increase pressure to attract external funding and to publish challenging the commitment of most professionals. Of the greatest significance is that involved in flexible learning initiatives at the university will was the need for realistic acknowledgment of the time required to establish flexible learning.
Provisions of forums for discussion and dissemination of information
at all stages of introduction of flexible learning the provision of opportunities for staff engaged in discussions an exploration of ideas and possibility share experiences and critique their practice is essential. In the early stage it is important to provide adequate opportunities for staff to explore the implications of their teaching general academic practices and students. Later as staff become involved in projects they need opportunities to share their experiences with others providing a forum for displaying what they have done articulating the process that they have gone through and the decisions they have made. This also allows others especially those who may be reluctant to become involved to find out what is going on. Sharing experiences also allows individuals learn from each other's experience and to realize that others may be facing similar challenges. At the University of her writing of forms for sharing experience will held ranging from informal team discussions of formal University wide showcase of projects. A number of symposiums were held were staff involved in a range of flexible learning projects presented their experiences and shared the lessons they had learned. An unintended outcome of some of these discussions was troubleshooting as members of various teams work together to solve an individual staff members problem. These forums also facilitated exchange of ideas about teaching and learning between members of different faculties providing valuable cross-fertilization and establishing useful cross-collaboration of the sharing of expertise. There is also a need to provide opportunities for staff to discuss the affective consequences of adopting flexible approaches for many academics that it is the face-to-face interaction with students to define their teaching Celts; the use of forms of flexible learning which distance teachers from learners can unsettle these professional identities. Some staff view of the removal of this contact as undesirable or threatening an express feelings of loss and relation to view of themselves constructed through interpersonal interactions with students. Staff need to support to deal with these feelings and also to look forward and explore the possibilities for developing different relationships between teacher and learners. Similarly adopting new teaching and learning approaches that often contain little in the way of the established recommendation practice can be both challenging and intimidating. Good conventional teachers have will develop skills and enter acting with students in their classes. Studies of good teaching find it hard to go past personal interactive attributes when describing it is that makes a good teacher. Staff need opportunity to explore and conceivable what will constitute a teacher in Dee's more flexible learning environments. Individuals who were comfortable and competent in their previous teaching approaches will be trying out new and often untested teaching techniques opening of the possibility that teaching sessions may fail or at least be less successful than normal. In these circumstances the opportunity to hear others similar experiences and their responses and to receive collegial support provides encouragement and help sustain activity and morale. McInnis 1992 suggests that new university environments which include more flexible learning will be accompanied by a changing view of what constitutes academic work. Flexible learning will not miss surely result in flexible teaching or flexibility for the academic. Changed patterns to the academic year resulting from block-mode teaching summer school, short courses etc., will alter the autonomic me about the individual to self regulate their daily work practices. Flexible learning also challenges the direct and proportional relationship was some between teaching contact time and productivity and between teaching time and allocation of financial resources. If more flexible learning involves greater liaison with industry there will be a need for academic to develop skills in negotiating curricula and learning contact between student University and organization, developing links with industry and increasing their knowledge of the world out there.
Technologies have the potential to alter the nature of educational community controlled by teachers and university learning. Ideas of community discourse and power within conventional teaching and learning situations are changed by the new relationships between production and delivery. Technology alters the pattern of control and power that conventional education takes for granted in designing, delivering anybody waiting teaching and learning. Conceptions of teaching and curriculum contains the idea of order, structure and sequence: information is part of an intentional route to learning. Technology allows access to a radically different situation in which information is unscreened and unordered. The possibilities of electronically mediated learning make redundant the idea of self-contained classroom where teachers are the center of most of the control and structure of information and communications instead there is provider control. While it is important to look to developing new practices we must not lose sight of what was defective and valuable in our past practices. Suggesting that the flexible learning demands new practice devalues those activities which have comprised academic previous roles. A consequence of an emphasis on flexible learning as innovation is the abandonment of the past practices in flurry to become part of a new way. It also creates a perception that flexible learning must be something which has not been done before. Academics since of professional identity is also in part defined by institution in which they work. University's position themselves in the marketplace to develop a reputation for strengths in particular fields and in attracting particular types of students. Flexible learning has the potential to alter this. For a University which has a clearly described local student client group and which has historically refused involvement in any form of open and distance learning the introduction of flexible approaches opens up a whole new world of potential students. If universities and individual academics to find themselves in part by the nature of their students the changes in students and the nature of teaching and learning resulting from increased flexibility have significant implications for institutional and individual professional identities. And effect of and far-reaching method of communicating ideas among and between staff can provide support for staff who may feel isolated in their efforts and can capitalize on expertise that is developing and minimizing duplication of effort. If staff have plenty of opportunities for finding out about various projects that are being developed including project similar to their own the task of adopting a new approach is made easier. E-mail discussion groups, a web site, occasional symposium, featuring flexible learning projects and University newsletters can help to publicize initiatives and make information widely available. Building up a resource base public sizing available information and support and providing adequate resources to support staff learning are essential. Staff from central academic staff development or support you is working across the university can provide a breadth of vision and different perspective on what is occurring. They can act as a conduit linking members and projects across disciplines and can share learning experiences between teams. The development of flexible learning approaches does take time, and having a number of staff of pool are informed about what is happening in different projects can prevent replication of mistakes and duplications of efforts.
Acknowledging and rewarding efforts
there is always a dilemma that institutional effort to reward staff achievements may be interpreted as techniques for ensuring compliance. The staff involved in developing flexible learning approaches were is spending large amounts of their own time and placing themselves in risky situations. The issue of a knowledge meant of efforts was equally salient however for staff who had been working in ways that they regarded as flexible prior to the initiative and which they felt they had not been acknowledged. Involvement in the flexible learning was added to the criteria for promotion, offering a very real incentive and reward for those will work in a position to apply. However there was no equipment work available for those for whom promotion was not a viable option. The linking of promotions to involvement in flexible learning prisons University with a dilemma: while it is important to reward involvement in strategic directives, care needs to be taken that what is rewarded is good teaching and that the staff does not rush to embrace flexible learning for purely instrumental reasons. Linking promotion to involvement in flexible learning can also be read as punishing those who chose not to adopt flexible learning for educationally sound reasons. The university toward a limited number of annual teaching excellence awards Andy's provided an avenue for staff who were actively seeking some incentive. However it takes a certain amount of competence or collegial support to put oneself forward as an excellent teacher along with the significant time commitment preparing an application. As an alternative means of acknowledging staff efforts a week of special activities valuing teaching and learning in the university was hailed and staff involved in flexible learning were invited to participate in workshops, seminars, symposiums, panel discussions and poster sessions that showcased their work and provided public recognition.
Infrastructure support and technical assistance
The success of the information technology-based flexible approaches is independent on the provision of sufficient infrastructure to support hardware and delivery. Staffs and students at the University reported upheaval when technology failed them. If staff are to preserve with new developments they need to do so feeling secure that technology is more rather than less likely to work. Projects that involve student learning via web-based and structured or computer mediated conferencing also need to be supported by adequate resources for example access to computer laboratories. Lack of adequate computer access was a source of upheaval for many students and limited the success of several projects. The use of information technology to deliver teaching implies around-the-clock access which in turn demands readily available technical support. A number of projects focus on the development of materials that could centralize infrastructure to coordinate the production and distribution of this type of learning materials. This presented difficulty for teams involved in these projects and was not only resolved in a satisfactory manner. Academic managers and project teams need to be encouraged to give careful consideration to the implications and needs of projects before committing to themselves to action.
Conclusion
Flexible learning has evolved in response to a range of social, cultural and economic factors. Examination of the introduction of a flexible learning and one University identified the following dominant discourses: flexible learning as efficiency; flexible learning as technology; flexible learning as a means of improving student access; and flexible learning as innovation. These discourses both influence and represent what is valued in the university in terms of learning and teaching. Flexible learning has the potential to change significantly the way we teach and learn in universities, the role of academic, the nature of our learners and what is learned. It offers potential challenge and excitement for academics as they adapt to these new ways of being and doing. However unless the introduction of such a significant initiative is accompanied by appropriate support and staff development its effects are likely to be limited and disappointing. We have identified areas in which support and staff development unnecessary and have suggested strategies that have proved effective in the case of University of Technology, Sydney Australia.

This is a formal paper, use readings below to help aid on answering the discussion question. You must quote from the readings in order to substantiate your points. Use APA format when quoting from the readings. Do Not Use Outside Sources!

Question:
1.If you had to pick just one of these to talk about to a manager who was setting up a distance education program, which one would you choose and why?

Michael Moores Tips for Managers Setting up a Distance Education Program

In a recent meeting I was asked to give some tips and tricks and point out some traps for people in the organization that is thinking about setting up a distance education program, in this case within the training division of a very large multinational corporation. Such requests make me nervous, but I don't want people to underestimate what is involved in developing a good distance education program and the word trick suggest what is involved may be rather trivial. Trainers and teachers may learn techniques (the tricks), but they also need to learn principles, and they must then be organized in ways that allow them to apply those principles and addressing the learning needs of the organization. In the second point lies my concern. I fear that if we talk too much about techniques and technologies, we may reinforce the tendency of managers to avoid the more important issues involved in reorganizing their human and capital resources, a resort extremely damaging to interests of the organization. However, in this particular meeting I was able to use the very point as a tip, and then to make of the generalizations that I realized I make very frequently and that I have decided to share here. I suppose these points could be described as tips and tricks, although I think I can dignify at least a few of them as principles! Perhaps the main value of thinking about tips is that, by definition, they are short, without deep elaboration or explanation. (In listing the tips below I will use term trainer and trainees to reflect the audience I was addressing, but the terms are interchangeable with teacher for instructor and student.)
Tip One: Get the Support of Top Management
The survival and success of your organization in the information age will depend on on-the-job education and training; distance education can provide the key to this training. This fact should be impress upon your top management because you must have its support as you go about setting up your distance education program the support of top management does not guarantee a successful distance education program, but the lack of four, ongoing, and open support of management is a guarantee you will not be complete the successful. Before preceding you will have to assess how much support you have, and the end play and the type and extent of your distance education program accordingly you must not try to establish a full-scale system unless you are sure you have the unwavering support of top management.


Tip Two: Be Conservative, Focus on Specific Projects
Your challenge is to change the way people think about training, learning, and teaching. If top management decrees it, you may be able to set up a total distance education system; however, it is more likely that will have to restructure the existing system. Not try to do this all at once! Identify one content or subject area, one for which you can accept support from the trainers involved, and concentrate on developing a distance education program in that one area. Success there will demonstrate the effectiveness of distance education method and will demonstrate the non-threatening nature of the changes involved. The best advocates of the new approach will be the trainers and trainees in bulk, who will speak from experience. If the program is done well, other trainers will as to be involved. Everything hinges on good quality, which is another argument for progressing conservatively. It is better to take more time and do less -- but do it superbly -- than to try to do too much too quickly. You are not likely to have a second chance. There aren't too many doubters ready to say, I told you it wouldn't work here.
Tip Three: Take Time to Design
Since distance education uses technology and techniques (people who work with technology), the ratio of resources for design and course preparation compared to course implementation is higher than in conventional training. Probably the most common cause of failure is impatience on the part of managers as well as instructors to get into the implementation phase of the program -- to see the students and trainees at work -- before a proper foundation of course materials and strategies have been laid. While there can be no cookbook prescription of the time needed in design, I sometimes help managers appreciate the scale of what is desirable at pointing out that there are organizations that vote 50 hours of design for every hour of implementation. Such time spent in designing and producing high-quality materials, planning teaching strategies, training trainers will increase the chances of success. There is a direct relationship between the institutional the effectiveness of a program and the time and money spent in its design.
Tip Four: Choose Communication Media Carefully
It is surprising how many organizations install a training tool -- in other words a technology -- and then try to design their training programs around that particular tool. At different times the fashionable tool has been programmed text, videos, video by satellite, audiographics, seedy ROM, and today, the World Wide Web. These are other technologies are all valuable under some conditions, a virtual junk under others. Careful selection tools to meet specific needs critically important. Since learning depends on both reviewing new information and processing it, there has to be both presentation of information and interaction with it. Some media are better suited for the presentation role, others for interaction. Therefore, media must be mixed and matched to meet the needs of communicating particular content to particular learners in particular locations using various teaching processes. There is no magic medium, and a mixture of media will always be better than any single medium. You should always consider mixing at least one asynchronous medium to provide presentation of information and one synchronous medium to provide interaction. Always look for the most simple medium for a given content, teaching process, and clientele. There is no relationship between the cost of medium and its instructional effectiveness. For example, a text (asynchronous) supported by an audio-conference (synchronous), when both are well designed, may be a perfectly effective mix the media for a relatively small number of well motivated, well read students were able to meet occasionally in real-time. Be especially cautious about selecting video media; Mara ruled is to pass, for this content and these learners do we need pictures? If so, do we need moving pictures? If so, do we need moving pictures in real time? This simple test results in saving money by using for grabs is that of videotapes, or videotapes instead of full-motion, satellite-delivered program. More important than saving money, it means that the right medium was used for the educational purpose and that the program was better as a result of destroys.
Tip Five: Learners Support is as Important as Good Design
A good distance education system is one that provides a humane environment for learning. One goal of the media selection process is to identify those educational functions that can be delivered better by technology than by people and thus released people to do those things that people do better than technology. This trade-off usually mean providing support to individual learners and groups of learners as they enter at the subject matter delivered by technology. This role, that of the learning facilitator, is vitally important, and the organization should be systematic and setting up its learners support and in training personnel or this function, monitoring them, and rewarding them. In many Corporation, branch managers will have responsibility for training their staffs sense that training may be a little prayer achieve for their senior management. The branch managers are neither trained for nor rewarded for the training role. If this situation exist and is not changed, there may be no point in spending money on communication technologies or even on course design. Setting in place well-trained learners support network is essential for a successful distance education system. There is a direct relationship between the instructional effectiveness of the program and the time and money spent on learners support.
In summary, here are my five tips for managers who are thinking about distance education: and do all you can to obtain support from your top management, focus on specific projects and do them superbly, take time and resources to plan thoroughly and designed well, select media tools according to the needs of the program, and select, train, monitor, reward learners support personnel.
My last word is about getting help. Setting up a distance education program is more complex than it appears. You should probably seek expert help, and I suggest you might use the above five tips as a checking list to evaluate the experience of potential consultants. Do not be distracted by consultants knowledge about a particular communication technology. Knowing how to set up and running video, computer, and audio-graphic system is fairly system. There are more important questions to ask about the consultants: in June they have experience with setting up and training a learners support network? Do they have experience with putting together integrated media packages, or do they seem wedded to a particular technology? Can they demonstrate knowledge of techniques necessary to design in distance learning program? Have they, for example, written a successful study guide all worked in a course team? These are the areas that you will need most help in.

You are a school principal and the district has just developed or purchased a computer software program for math along with a complete lab. All students will be receiving help each day for 30 min. in the math lab. (You could substitute any curriculum change for the lab) It will require a school wide change (effort) to implement, and the district is holding you responsible to successfully implement it in your school.

Write a two page report on:
1) how you would "make it happen".
2) tell why a plan is necessary,
3) demonstrate that you understand the change process, how to deal with resistance, and other issues to consider.
4) Include citations from Ornstein & Hunkins (2003). Curriculum: Foundations, Principles, and Issues (4th ed). Boston: Allyn and Becon.and any online
5) I have two article further down on this page. Please quote at least from sources in the paper too and well as other sources you use.
6)Cite at least 3 references.

Read these articles and make reference to them in the paper

Successful curriculum implementation in a school depends on how effective the principal is.

The Necessary Principal

The Importance of Instructional Leadership

by John Franklin
Winter 2002
Curriculum Update


Kent Peterson remembers the time all too well: the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the future of the principalship was more uncertain than ever before. "People had actually begun questioning how essential principals were," he said.
"Many schools thought that they didn't need principals; they had this sense that any good reform project, if properly
implemented, would work when it came to improving schools. Now, they know that without an effective principal,
school reform efforts just aren't as successful."

Peterson, a University of Wisconsin researcher who has spent nearly 20 years studying the principalship, points out
the lesson that many successful schools have known all along: for schools to be effective centers of learning, strong principals are critical for shaping the culture and climate. Yet at a time when accountability and standards have brought significant changes, modern principals often find that they must develop new ways to connect with their staff.
How, they ask, can they find innovative ways to provide strong instructional leadership when so many other
responsibilities are competing for their attention?

Learning for All

That the responsibilities of the principalship are changing is no secret; however, the last few years have seen a change in the way principals are perceived. "In the last five years, there has been more focus on the instructional aspects of leadership for principals," says Peterson.

Those aspects, Peterson and others contend, are essential if the school is to become a place where learning can flourish. "You have to have vision as the leader," says Carolyn Repp, principal of Arcadia Neighborhood Learning
Center (ANLC) in Scottsdale, Ariz. "You have to visit and revisit that vision, and make sure that everyone is
working toward that as a common goal."

In Repp's school, for instance, this vision includes making sure that learning is emphasized not just to students but to everyone in the school. "We want all children to love to learn," she says. "But as principal, you can help, too. If you're doing an observation, you can take something from that observation that can be shared with other people.
You can put teachers together to help them learn from one another, or you can go to development classes with your teachers to talk with them, whatever you can do."

Highlighting learning's importance to both faculty and students is not a practice unique to ANLC. "We've opened
some of our seminars to both our teachers and our students," says Mary Joy Hurlburt, the principal of St. Mary's Ryken High School in Leonardtown, Md. "For instance, we have one program called Building Bridges. It's a seminar
on multiculturalism that helps participants understand different cultures, explore tolerance, and practice ways of
working together." Good instructional leaders, Hurlburt says, find the best practices for educating people, whether
those people are faculty, parents, students, or members of the community. "Keep talking about education and best
practices," she says. "Do that while people are learning at the same time."

Having an Overall Strategy

Although encouraging teachers through seminars and continuing education courses can be effective, many principals feel that having a far-reaching strategy that incorporates the latest research and techniques is also crucial for their teachers' success.

"We use a lot of the teaching strategies from Pat Wolfe's brain research in our school," says Barbara Moine,
principal of Dike Elementary School in Dike, Iowa. "We use a lot of visual imagery and motivational strategies to
make our lessons relevant." Elementary children may not readily be able to understand why math estimation exercises
are important, but framing estimation in the context of Mom and Dad giving the child $5 to spend at the grocery
store, Moine says, helps put the concepts in terms they can understand. "We want to use real-world references that
the children can relate to."

Moine also encourages self-evaluation for her teachers andsurprisinglyher teachers' students. "After I observe
teachers, I might ask them if they think they got their point across in the lesson and what evaluative steps they plan to take in order to find out. But I also ask if they've given their students a chance to reflect on what they did in the exercise. Have the students internalized what was being taught? That's important."

Implementing such critical-thinking approaches can be difficult, especially if teachers are not accustomed to
experimenting with new learning techniques. "It's tough getting started with new strategies in the classroom," admits Roark Horn, principal of Jesup High School in Jesup, Iowa. "But it's really worth it." When Horn noted that he
himself learned best by teaching, he extended the practice of learning-through-teaching to his students by permitting
them to work in groups and take turns teaching a mythology unit. "I encouraged them to move beyond just telling
what happened," he said. In response, his students acted out skits to illustrate the antics of ancient gods and
goddesses. Like Moine's students, Horn's classes also engaged in self-evaluation, asking their peers for feedback
and exercising important critical-thinking skills.

The success of the program led Horn to urge his staff to keep up with current instructional strategies. Those efforts, he and others say, help tie lesson plans to larger district goals of imparting the kinds of problem-solving skills and citizenship traits that many communities consider essential for their students to have when they graduate.

The Simplest Steps

By adopting different strategies and keeping up with current trends, experts assert, principals can go a long way toward establishing a healthy school climate that supports learning and experimentation.

"You should always keep trying new things," says Pat Murphy, the principal of Washington Irving Middle School in
Springfield, Va. "Some of them will work and some of them won't. But by experimenting, you can create a culture
where these things can thrive."

Such climates, Murphy and others point out, help everyone in the school become active learners. Rather than being seen as something just for students, learning becomes an activity that permeates the entire population of the school and allows education to flourish. In this way, the principal becomes more than simply a manager; he or she becomes a teacher of teachers as well. "My job is always to make everyone better at what they do," says Sigmund Boloz, the principal of Ganado Primary School in Ganado, Ariz. "I'm not about creating followersI create new laders instead."



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Implementing curriculum depends on the quality of teachers.
Honing the Tools of Instruction
How Research Can Improve Teaching for the 21st Century

by Rick Allen
Winter 2002
Curriculum Update


The world seems to divide good teachers into two categories. Some people see teaching as an art, where a teacher with innate talent develops her gift as if by some genetic predisposition. Other people place emphasis on knowledge of content, where any teacher can teachas long as he knows his subject area. These biases seem to leave little room for teachers to look closely at how they teach in the classroom.

"Discussions about research on instructional practices are not sought after and not well received," says Robert
Marzano, coauthor of the ASCD book Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for
Increasing Student Achievement.

But the definition of content standards and the public pressures of the accountability movement are encouraging more districts and teachers to take a closer look at research-based instructional practices that improve student motivation and achievement, say researchers.

Oddly enough, some of these teaching strategies don't seem particularly newidentifying similarities and differences, note taking, and homework and practice, for example. The cumulative knowledge of more than 30 years of research, however, is what "validates their usefulness," insists Marzano.

Converging Evidence

Professors of education like Michael Dickmann at Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee find that when teachers gain a deeper understanding of old and new instructional strategies, they tend to use them more.

"For a long time, teachers had the models of instruction, but they didn't know the 'why?'" says Dickmann, co-author with Nancy Stanford-Blair of Connecting Leadership to the Brain.

The evidence from neuroscience, cognitive science, and clinical studies as well as theoretical constructs from
evolutionary biology, archaeology, and philosophy converge in support of certain instructional practices, says
Dickmann. "You put all that together and the black box opens up," he suggests.

Dickmann points to cooperative learning as an example. "Hard research now enables educators to look through the lenses of physiological, social, emotional, constructive, reflective, and dispositional dimensions of the way the brain learns," he says.

Cooperative learning physiologically engages more of the brain's neural networks through the stimulation of sensory information from kinesthetic, visual, and auditory input. A teacher who studies the research would also better
understand how cooperative learning taps into students' "natural capacities to be engaged socially and emotionally" and supports their efforts to construct knowledge and apply it in problem solving, says Dickmann.

Ultimately, research on the subject can enlighten teachers about how cooperative learning can foster learning
dispositions or mental habits that can help students throughout their lives, he adds.

Dickmann likens the "breakthrough in knowledge" about instructional practices to the work of Louis Pasteur, the
microbiologist famed for his discovery in 1857 that infectious diseases are caused by germs. It is not enough for such new knowledge to be available, explains Dickmann; "there has to be a perceptual shift" so such discoveries might be practically applied. Often there is a lag time between great scientific theories and their application in everyday situations. For example, Pasteur's findings were not immediately used to prevent wounded soldiers from contracting fatal infections. Similarly, some teachers hesitate to tap into the practical benefits of research-based strategies.

Putting Research to Work

Although years of evidence points to certain instructional practices as keys to promoting student achievement, sustaining such strategies in the classroom is an arduous process that calls for commitment on every level. In northeast Iowa, a group of school districts serving 38,000 students has been hard at work for 10 years crafting and refining a plan that promotes the latest research-based instructional strategies. The districts use the strategies as a key component of a larger vision of well-planned curriculum alignment that can increase student achievement.

Administrators in the region wanted an alternative to the kind of professional development that entailed having a "big inspirational speaker" descend in Augustjust when teachers need to be preparing to teach, says Nancy Lockett,
staff development coordinator for Iowa's Area Education Agency 7. AEA7, which oversees 26 independent school
districts, including Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and surrounding rural areas, wanted to cultivate a "common language and
critical mass" of research-based best practices that would "hit all administrators, teachers, and counselors."

The plan calls for a sea change in how teachers approach classroom instruction, student engagement, and lesson planning. Over the years, staff in participating school districts have learned about the latest research on brain-based learning, student assessment, and standards and benchmarks. After taking all this information in, teachers complained that it was difficult to incorporate strategies into lesson planning because the information was never at hand, Lockett recalls. Looking up the right strategy in books, notebooks, binders, file folders, and old workshop handouts was too time consuming. To help solve the difficulty of a wealth of strategies, the agency created a 30-page booklet of strategies it called the "skinny book" to help teachers plan lessons.

Consultants also advised school districts to reduce the number of standards and benchmarks for each subject area, so teachers would concentrate lessons on what students needed to know most to be successful.

Finally, the area education agency developed the Linking Learning, Teaching and Curriculum (LLTC) program to
assist teachers with aligning the selection of strategies with curriculum, assessment, and broader educational goals.
This program also allowed teachers and administrators from different districts to coordinate professional
development that addressed common concerns.

Teachers from the 18 districts that have signed on to the agency's LLTC program set their own training agendas by
identifying the strategies they want to master. Lockett recently led a group of 60 middle school teachers who wanted to enhance their use of cooperative learning. Teachers arrived with baseline data about the current level of "engaged behavior" in their classrooms' cooperative learning groups, then experimented with a variety of strategies to improve their use of the groups. These teachers' ultimate goal, says Lockett, is "to help kids learn to think deeply, work
together better, and organize learning visually."

Tailoring Teaching

Over the years, teachers have been exposed to a variety of strategies from expertssuch as Marzano or Patricia Wolfe, who specializes in brain-compatible instructional practiceswho have developed strong professional relationships with the teaching staff, says Edward Redalen, director of educational services for AEA7.

"An external consultant with expertise and charisma can unlock things for you," says Redalen. "And experts say they like coming back because we follow up on using the strategies."

After an inservice session has given teachers the "basic chocolate cake recipe," they are encouraged to adapt a variety of strategies into a rich combination that meets their specific classroom needs, says Lockett.

Of the numerous instructional strategies available, lateral thinking expert Edward de Bono's Plus, Minus, Interesting approach (PMI) has worked well to open up brainstorming sessions n teacher Pattie Bailey's gifted and regular classrooms. PMI, which looks at pros, cons, and interesting aspects of an idea or proposal, has proved useful in Bailey's social studies classes and even in her reading curriculum.

"Students will often come up with a statement that begins, 'What if this happened . . .?' so we can apply PMI to foster discussion" about some line of thought that intrigues them, says Bailey.

Another strategy she has used with 4th graders is Consequences and Sequel (C&S), which prods students to focus on the immediate, short-term, medium-term, and long-term consequences of actions taken by a story character or
historical figure.

Bailey, who teaches math for 5th graders and gifted students at Reinbeck Elementary School and gifted students at Gladbrook-Reinbeck High School, advises that no single strategy is going to meet the needs of all students. Bailey
has to do "lots of pre-testing," she says, and work with students to get to know their optimum learning styles.

For example, some of Bailey's gifted high school students want to try out many scenarios when deciding what to write for a Future Problem Solving essay, an international program for creative thinking that involves a changing
roster of topicsfrom education to virtual corporations. Other students "need time to think the whole period," she
says. Recognizing such student differences, Bailey allows for a variety of approaches.

Dan Flaharty, who teaches math and health at Jesup High School in Jesup, Iowa, has found visual organizers, such as a table of rubrics, helpful. At the beginning of the year, Flaharty and students together develop a rubric about expectations and goals for class learning. In terms of content, for instance, he uses rubrics to help students monitor whether they've correctly carried out all the steps for solving an algebraic equation.

"They acquire higher-order thinking skills because they evaluate themselves. There's no doubt about it that those students who are using the algebra rubric are achieving at a higher level," notes Flaharty.

In geometry class, a kinesthetic learner would be given the option to construct different triangle models in wood, or an artistic student could create an art project to demonstrate her knowledge of geometric concepts.

Still, there are challenges. "We learn all of these strategies in an inservice, and try them the next day," says Flaharty. But then it can be easy to "fall back into the old ways of the lecture rut. It just takes a long time to change."

Learning Teams

To keep teachers from backsliding and to entice other districts into the program, the education agency's LLTC
Online at http://edservices.aea7.k12.ia.us/lltc/index.html offers detailed resources and guidelines to help them align
their teaching strategies to curriculum and assessment goals. Although avid users of research-based strategies,
Flaharty and Bailey have joined learning teams, which are cross-curricular groups of teachers from multiple grade
levels who meet periodically to monitor how specific instructional strategies are helping them reach achievement
goals.

For example, Flaharty wanted to improve his students' ability to solve math story problems, so he is giving them
strategies for analyzing common words that appear. Using a math word bank, Flaharty helps his students break these
words into prefixes, suffixes, and root words to better understand their meaning. So if a student sees "colinear" on a test, she'll already understand that the prefix "co-" means "together with" and will have applied the prefix in nonmath sentences using words such as "cooperate" or "coed." Flaharty tracks student assessments in the targeted area in the first year and makes adjustments in the following year. In monthly learning team meetings, teachers compare notes and exchange ideas about their successes and challenges.

Not surprisingly, the strategy of generating and testing hypotheses is an essential learning team strategy as teachers try out different instructional practices, explains school improvement consultant Denise Schares.

Schares is working with a team of elementary school teachers interested in helping students with reading problems. Having hypothesized that these students don't have a bank of strategiesrereading, questioning, and so onto get them through the sticking points, these teachers selected a handful of reading strategies to teach their struggling readers.

"I asked them to start small so they can get a sense of the process," says Schares. "The team will now observe
students and chart data for the rest of the year to determine whether their hypothesis was correct" and what revisions they'll make to improve their use of instructional strategies.

"Implementation is key to this business," says Redalen. "We can't just keep adding stuff but need to get deeper penetration, and learning teams are evidence that teachers want to sustain more and better use of these strategies."

Teachers Make the Difference

Marzano believes that even though research-based instructional strategies are not yet widely used, the scientific evidence about their effectiveness will mount so that more teachers will see their value.

In the current age of measuring achievement, some district administrators are taking notice of practices proven to show percentile gains of 2637 points in research studies. For example, students tend to flourish when a classroom atmosphere reinforces effort or a teacher encourages them to analyze their thinking and self-motivation.

Perhaps researchers' long-standing claims that even one teacher armed with effective strategieseven in a mediocre school environmentcan make a profound difference in a student's learning will end up becoming the one piece of research that ushers in a new era of teaching.

The final directed project report is typically structured as follows:


1) Introduction
2) Statement of the Problem
3) Significance of the Problem
4) Scope of the Study
5) Purpose of the Study
6) Research Question/Hypotheses (if applicable)
7) Definitions
8) Assumptions, Limitations & Delimitations
9) Review of literature
10) Procedures (instrumentation & data collection)
11) Data or Findings
12) Conclusions, discussions, and recommendations
13) References



1.0 Final Thesis Contents
The exact structure of a Thesis is subject to committee approved adaptations as long as the resulting document still meets the Graduate Schools requirements as outlined in the Thesis Manual. The typical Thesis consists of five chapters which are supplemented by some preliminary and appendix materials as shown in the outline below:

???? Chapter 1: Introduction
Statement of the Problem
Significance of the Problem
Scope of the Study
Purpose of the Study
Research Question/Hypotheses (if applicable)
Definition
Assumptions, Limitations & Delimitations
Summary


Chapter 2: Review of the Literature

Chapter 3: Procedures and Data Collection
The outline of this chapter is highly variable, but typically it includes sections describing:
The methods employed to conduct the study
Justification for selection of the chosen methods
Instrument and data collection process development and validation
Description of the data collection
???? Chapter 4: Presentation of Data & Findings
The outline of this chapter is highly variable, but typically it includes sections describing:
???? Description of data conditioning and analyses
???? Presentation of the data
???? Discussion as needed
???? Chapter 5: Conclusions, Discussion and Recommendations
Conclusions
Discussion
Recommendations
Summary
???? List of References


1.1 Introduction
The form of the introduction will vary with the nature of the proposed project, however it usually does not have a heading. Typically it ranges from one to two pages in length. It is important to remember that this is the sole chance to establish a frame of reference in the reader's mind. Appropriate introductions are brief and designed to establish the need for a study. There is no "right way" to write an introduction. There are, however, several possible ways to craft an introduction that will accomplish its intended goal. One common method is to identify the problem in a global way (without specifics). This approach creates an overall frame of reference that makes it much easier for the reader to focus on the more detailed portions of the proposal.

1.2 Statement of the Problem
There is no section of a proposal that gives beginning proposal writers more challenge than the "Statement of the Problem" section. Too often early drafts present either a restatement of the introduction, a detailed description of the methods to be used,
or a suggested solution. None of these are appropriate statements of the problem. A problem is something that is wrong. Therefore, the statement of the problem is merely a brief description of what is wrong, written in specific enough terms that the reader cansee the problem and not simply a problem space. One test of the quality of a problem statement is always, "Could the problem be recognized if the statement were being read for the first time?"

1.3 Research Question/Hypotheses
Once the statement of the problem is generated, where applicable, the research question and hypotheses follow. The research question is a testable statement of the problem. For example, maybe the statement of the problem acknowledges that a new method of learning is needed within a particular class. The research question would then be phrased, What is the effect of learning technique X on scores in class Y? This statement would be used to generate hypotheses that could then be tested statistically.
Another example might be that a new algorithm is needed to solve a problem on in some computer domain. The research question might be, Can an algorithm be developed to solve computer security in educational environments? In this example, rather than statistics being used, the student might create the algorithm, test it, to see if it works or does not work.
A final example might be that company X needs to solve a workflow issue in a manufacturing process. The research question might be, Can software X be used to make the workflow in company ABC more efficient and effective? In this example, maybe the student will implement the software and then report on the effect related to efficiency and effectiveness. While these are merely examples (and should not be assumed to fully define the wide range of technology thesis or directed projects), nearly all projects should have a defined research question that is derived from the statement of the problem. Such a question should also be testable. Whether a thesis or directed project has hypotheses will depend on the type of research being conducted (quantitative or qualitative).

1.4 Significance of the Problem
Once the problem has been stated, the significance of the problem must be established. The significance section should be drafted in a manner that removes any question of the importance of the proposed study. This is the part of the proposal in which the proposed project can be tied to the student's overall plan of study and career goals. Generally, this section should "sell" the project as being worthy of doing in the business/industry and/or academic/disciplinary context. Often students will also deal with how or why this is important beyond the confines of Purdue. What contribution will be made to industry, academia or the world at large as a result?
One of the effective methods of strengthening this section is to highlight key citations from credible sources that indicate that the problem is real and that things would be better if it were solved. However, this should not be overdone. Selection of two or three major supporting pieces of literature is sufficient.

1.5 Statement of the Purpose/Scope
Once the problem and its significance have been stated, the purpose of the project must be described. Here is where the student indicates what they propose to do about the problem, that is, what part of it they wish to address and what the deliverables of their work will be. Often this section will also be used to define and limit (generally) the scope of the project. Typically the nouns and verbs that are a part of the statement of the problem or research question will be clarified and bounded. Later in the proposal the assumptions, limitations and delimitations provide further insight related to the scope and outline specific details related to scope limitation.

1.6 Definitions
Definitions must be included in a proposal whenever it is necessary to inform the reader of the unique way in which the terms are to be used in the proposed research. For example, if learning is to be defined as "a change in behavior", both the entering and terminal behaviors must be defined. But, when terms are used in standard ways, it is not necessary to include the definitions.
An important issue to remember related to definitions is that each definition should have an associated citation. The students use (and definition) of terms should be based upon the academic or industrial literature. As such, because definitions usually use the words of others, most definitions are typically directly quoted source material. When this is the case, the citation should include source, date as well as page number where the material occurs. Definitions lists usually also include acronyms and abbreviations. Be sure to spell out all acronyms or abbreviations not only in the definitions list, but also in the first instance of their use in the body text of the proposal. The sample paragraph below is what you should NOT do.

What would happen if the president of the BBB requested the assistance of the FTC in order to convince the DOC that it should investigate the effect of WSJ interfeence with NAFTA signatories regarding concerns about the impact of UL standards on GATT?

The preceding paragraph demonstrates the inappropriate and excessive use of acronyms. If acronyms are used to reduce volume/repetition in a proposal, convention requires the term to be spelled out in full the first time it is used and then followed by the acronym in parentheses. Thereafter, the acronym may be used in lieu of the full term. Even when spelled out on first use, abbreviations or acronyms should appear in the definition list.

1.7 Assumptions
Every study requires some assumptions; they will vary with the type of problem. Typically assumptions are things that could affect the results of the project, but are beyond the researchers control. For example, one assumption could be that all members of the group being studied know Windows-based operating systems. Another assumption may be that employees will be willing to participate in the training exercise being proposed. Assumptions, of course, must be established as part of the proposal writing stage and they must be approved by the major professor and committee.

1.8 Limitations
Limitations are descriptions of potential weaknesses of a study. If the student knows about these at the time of generating the proposal they are advised to reveal them explicitly in advance. Often, however, in addition to any weaknesses known in advance of conducting a project, some invariably arise during the course of project execution.
When this occurs, these new limitations are to be added to the limitations section of the final project report and they must be taken into account when discussing the project conclusions.


1.9 Delimitations
Delimitations are restrictions in the scope of a project, that is, specific statements about things that you will NOT address. There are always constraining factors in a study. This is particularly true of projects in which time, money, and other resources are limited to those that the individual student can bring to the study.
A delimitation is a factor that will narrow the scope of the study being proposed. This is a factor that is known about before the study is performed. For example, one delimitation may be that time does not allow a follow-up after the initial treatment or evaluation. Will the study be limited to a single facility of Corporation X, or will it be conducted at multiple sites? Clearly, a multiple-site study is more generalizable than a study at a single location. However students must strike appropriate balance between generalizability and resource limits.

NOTE: Delimitations are distinctly different from limitations. A limitation is a potential weakness in a study. A delimitation is a specific, conscious limit in scope. Limits affect inference; delimits affect breadth of study.

Delimitations and Limitations
During the proposal process, the delimiting factors were noted. These are variables or dimensions used to restrict the scope of the project, that is, to clarify what will be excluded from consideration in a given study.
Limitations, on the other hand, are factors that potentially weaken a study or that reduce its generalizability. Generally, these are factors that are out of the control of the researcher or are mistakes that occurred and could not be corrected. Occasionally these are known at the time of the proposal but more frequently they arise only during the conduct of the actual project/study.
For example, if one planned to survey a particular segment of a population, e.g., new students at University, this would be a delimitation. On the other hand, if this surveys response rate was only 13% and if it could not be raised by any methods, this would cast doubts on the reliability and validity of the survey data. Since this occurred during the performance of the project, it was an unanticipated factor that results in a significant weakness in the project. It will be up to the committee members to decide whether the overall project was conducted well enough to be acceptable or whether the limitation is so serious that it renders the study unacceptable. Academic integrity and the students commitment to ethical principles require the presentation of all known limitations regardless of possible consequences.

1.10 Literature/Prior Work/Review of Literature
The review of literature serves several important functions. First, it is a method to indicate that the problem is more universal than the specific proposal. Second, it serves as a justification for the proposed study in that others have addressed related problems. Third, it positions the work in the field giving context to what has and has not been done and where this project/thesis is positioned therein. Fourth, it identifies possible methods for the conduct of the study by identifying possible data collection strategies, statistical procedures, or sources of other procedural information.
There are three principle justifications for additional investigation of a problem. One justification is that there are plausible alternative hypotheses to conclusions reported in existing studies. That is, there may be another possible variable that is influencing the results of existing studies. The second reason for proposing a new study is to determine if the reported study can be duplicated (replicated) in a new environment. A third reason for conducting a study accounts for the introduction of new data or procedures that have become available. In this case, the review of literature serves to demonstrate that no examples of the use of new techniques could be found.
Typically reviews of the literature sections include some appropriate description of four sections:

1. A description of the problem and its significance
2. A description of the methodology and terms employed to conduct the review of
3. the literature itself
4. A description of the literature pertinent to choices of data collection and analysis
5. A summary of the review of the literature section

For the purposes of a proposal, the review of literature should focus on the key studies. These cannot be determined without extensive review of the literature prior to the preparation of the proposal. The review must be sufficiently extensive to insure that all sides of an issue have been researched and that a balanced evaluation of the problem area has been accomplished. Only the most germane or seminal studies should be included.
Committee members will typically ask discipline- and literature-based questions regarding the problem, significance, purpose and procedure sections. While it is imperative that the proposals literature review be summarized, it is equally important that extensive literature review be done before undertaking the writing of the proposal. It is infinitely easier to do a thorough research review prior to the writing of the proposal for another reason: the more the problem is studied, the more possible solutions will be discovered. Also, it should be noted that reviewing of the literature does not cease after a proposal is accepted. Typically, effective researchers/developers continue to review the most pertinent literature throughout their conduct of the study. Subsequently, all appropriate literature will be integrated into the final report/thesis, so the time and effort will not be lost.
The review should generally concentrate on the current literature. For example, if the student is interested in a "Hawthorne effect" study, reference to the original work is only appropriate in a historical context. Failure to review the current literature can fatally flaw the proposal. A study that has recently been conducted may inadvertently be proposed.

1.11 Procedures/Methodology
All procedures to be used in the proposed study should be defined. Whenever possible, the proposed procedure should be justified by reference to other published studies that were used and recommend the steps defined. This will insure that the advisory committee understands the steps the student wishes to take and establishes those steps as appropriate in other published studies.
Directed rojects and theses in the College of Engineering and Technology typically include the
creation of something and an assessment of it. The something might be an intervention to be used on humans, an apparatus, a new process, a new technology and so forth. However, this alone is not sufficient for a directed project or thesis. The thing created must also be assessed or evaluated. This assessment could be a physical test (such a testing the new thing to see how it performs), a statistical test (such as comparing measures before and after and executing statistics on it to evaluate how it performs).

Most directed projects and theses can be classified along multiple dimensions as to the type of research being done. Projects can fall in to the following classifications:
Quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods
Clinical or technical
Human subjects or things and stuff
Theoretical or applied
Chapter 4: Presentation of the Data and Findings

Chapter 4 of the thesis provides a presentation of the data. Typically chapter 4 does not include interpretations or conclusions; it simply presents the facts of what the data say. In quantitative research, this may be elaboration on the results of statistical tests, or the results of tests of an apparatus or new device. In qualitative research, this chapter typically presents the narratives from interviews, raw documents or other artifacts discovered. Interpretation of what the data mean, that is, conclusions made from the data are typically reserved for chapter 5 of the thesis.
1) Findings
In this section, the results of the project are reported and discussed. When reporting findings, simply report factual information. This might be test scores, changes observed in lab performance, etc. If useful, these findings can be followed by discussion which interprets or explains the significance of the findings. Students are reminded that the directed project is the capstone of the Master's degree program. Regardless of the data analysis outcomes of the project, it is a success. Often there is a preconceived notion of what the results should be. What is important is what the results really are. Important information can be obtained from any project, even if the results are not what were expected.

Chapter 5: Conclusions, Discussion, and Recommendations

Chapter 5 of the thesis focuses on the conclusions that can be drawn from the data, as well as discussion (where the conclusions are typically tied back or compared to the literature in the field and the existing findings in the field). At the end of this chapter are recommendations; usually this is a discussion of parts of the thesis that could be expanded to form entire studies in their own right. Recommendation may also include things the researcher would have done differently in the current study.
There are different ways to structure chapter 5. Sometimes the writer will take each research question and its associated hypotheses and deal with them in turn (in the conclusions). At other times, other structures can be used.

Conclusions, Discussion, and Recommendations
Based on the findings obtained, conclusions can be drawn. Such conclusions must always be interpreted and considered within the context established by the studys delimitations and limitations. Often conclusions are made in relation to the research question and/or hypotheses. Alternatively, one can link the conclusions to key findings from the literature review. Either way, the conclusions form the basis for the final evaluation of the project. Once the conclusions are drawn and the effect of the study determined, final recommendations for further work and or research may be made.
For example, assume that a new laboratory activity is developed. This activity was implemented in one laboratory section. During post-testing, the laboratory scores were higher in the section that utilized the activity. However, the activity required twice as much laboratory, compared to the normal activities. It might be concluded that the instruction was effective, as evidenced by the test scores. A recommendation might be that the instruction should take less time. A second recommendation might be to track students who received this instruction and note if improvement in related areas was found, compared to students who did not receive the special instruction.
NOTE: There are times when a thesis might have more than five chapters. Depending on the scope or breadth of the study, more chapters may be necessary. Typically chapters 1 thru 3 are standardized in the contents they contain. However subsequent chapters vary in title and contents depending on the research being conducted.

Appendices

The appendices of a thesis are used to provide supporting materials to the work. There is no set number of appendices, nor is there a common structure. Related to structure, appendices are usually ordered in the manner in which they are referenced in the body of the material (and, indeed, all appendices should be referenced in the text body that occurs in the chapters). Some examples of items that might be included in the appendix of a dissertation include:
IRB or other approval documents that establish the ability to conduct the research or conduct it in a legal manor.
Tests, surveys, or other instruments used in the study.
Examples of code, programs or images used in the study.
Transcripts of interviews, focus groups or other qualitative data.
Raw quantitative data gathered during the study.
NOTE: With anything included in the thesis, the writer must insure that they maintain anonymity (where applicable) and do not break copyright agreements (for example, most tests are copyrighted).
With all of these items, the goal is to provide enough detail in the thesis that someone else could take the thesis and replicate it.

Plagiarism, Falsification, and Fabrication
University maintains the highest academic and ethical standards research
1.12 References/List of References
The reference list should include only the publications cited in the body of the proposal. All reference citations within the body of the proposal and the reference list must comply with the standards of the most recent edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (thesis) or the style guide selected by your advisor (directed project). If your advisor does not specify a format for a directed project, it is recommended that you use the IEEE format.

There are faxes for this order.

Customer is requesting that (Aristotle) completes this order.

Choose one question from part one and one question from part 2. (each essay should be about 2 pages)
PART I: CHOOSE ONE QUESTION,
PART II: ANSWER QUESTION #1 or #2
You will answer a total of two questions.
(the articles that you need for this assignment are included after the instruction. )
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PART I-
Answer the following question.
(Please specifically answer the question. And follow the instruction bellow and apply the 2 theories )

1- Read article #1 (Cherrie Moraga). then Use a feminist theory of your choice (radical, liberal, socialist, multicultural, and postmodern) to explain the impact of homophobia and intolerance on the life of Cherrie Moraga and on the lives of gays and lesbians in general. Discuss how you would develop a research plan to ?test? this theory using feminist methodology. (Be sure to include how you would incorporate the assumptions of the methodology into a study of the effects of homophobia)
___________________________________________________________

PART II
Choose one of the following essay questions.
1. Read articles # 2 and #3 and then discuss the concerns of hooks and Dyson regarding misogyny and gangster rap. In your discussion, incorporate one feminist theory (radical, liberal, socialist, multicultural, and postmodern) and one theory of development (cognitive theory, social learning theory and schema theory) to explain both the causes of and solutions for the problem. Be sure that any solutions flow logically from the theory.
______________OR

2. Read article # 4 and then Discuss some of the problems for boys that are at the heart of the educational process (as defined by Sadker). Which theory of development (cognitive theory, social learning theory and schema theory) best addresses these problems? Why? Which sociological theory (Functionalist, conflict, symbolic interactionist) best addresses them? Why? Incorporate both explanations and solutions from each perspective in your discussion.

___________________________________________________________

Article #1 Cherrie Moraga and Chicana Lesbianism
By Tomas Almaguer

(Cherrie Moraga was born in Los Angeles in 1952. She is of Chicana/Anglo descent, which has influenced her experiences as a lesbian poet, playwright, essayist, editor, teacher, and activist. Almaguer argues that her writings offer a lucid and complex analysis of the predicament of many Chicano/Chicana gay and lesbian members of society face. The quotes in his analysis are from Loving in the War Years by Cherrie Moraga)

An essential point of departure in assessing Cherrie Moraga's work is an appreciation of the way Chicano family life severely constrains the Chicana' s ability to define her life outside of its stifling gender and sexual prescriptions. As a number of Chicana feminist scholars have clearly documented, Chicano family life remains rigidly structured along patriarchal lines that privilege men over women and children. Any violation of these norms is undertaken at great personal risk because Chicanos draw upon the family to resist racism and the ravages of class inequality .Chicano men and women are drawn together in the face of these onslaughts and are closely bound into a family structure that exaggerates unequal gender roles and suppresses sexual non-conformity . Therefore, any deviation from the sacred link binding husband, wife, and child not only threatens the very existence of la familia but also potentially undermines the mainstay of resistance to Anglo racism and class exploitation. "The family, then, becomes all the more ardently protected by oppressed people and the sanctity of this institution is infused like blood into the veins of the Chicano. At all costs, la familia must be preserved," writes Moraga. Thus, "we fight back... with our families-with our women pregnant, and our men as indispensable heads. We believe the more severely we protect the sex roles within the family, the stronger we will be as a unit in opposition to the anglo threat" (Loving 110).

These cultural prescriptions do not, however, curb the sexually non-conforming behavior of certain Chicanos. As in the case of Mexican homosexual men in Mexico, there exists a modicum of freedom for the Chicano homosexual who retains a masculine gender identity while secretly engaging in the active homosexual role. Moraga has perceptively noted that the Latin cultural norm inflects the sexual behavior of homosexual Chicanos: "Male homosexuality has always been a 'tolerated' aspect of Mexican/Chicano society, as long as it remains 'fringe' ...But lesbianism, in any form, and male homosexuality which openly avows both the sexual and the emotional elements of the bond, challenge the very foundation of la familia?. The openly effeminate Chicano gay man's rejection of heterosexuality is typically seen as a fundamental betrayal of Chicano patriarchal cultural norms. He is viewed as having turned his back on the male role that privileges Chicano men and entitles them to sexual access to women, minors, and even other men. Those who reject these male prerogatives are viewed as non-men, as the cultural equivalents of women. Moraga astutely assesses the situation as one in which "the 'faggot' is the object of Chicano/Mexicano's contempt because he is consciously choosing a role his culture tells him to despise. That of a woman.?

The constraints that Chicano family life imposed on Moraga herself are candidly discussed in her provocative autobiographical essays "La Guera" and "A Long Line of Vendidas" in Loving in the War Years. In recounting her childhood in Southern California, Moraga describes how she was routinely required to make her brother's bed, iron his shirts, lend him money, and even serve him cold drinks when his friends came to visit their home. The privileged position of men in the Chicano family places women in a secondary, subordinate status. She resentfully acknowledges that "to this day in my mother's home, my brother and father are waited on, including by me" (90). Chicano men have always thought of themselves as superior to Chicanas, she asserts in unambiguous terms: "I have never met any kind of Latino who...did not subscribe to the basic belief that men are better" (101). The insidiousness of the patriarchal ideology permeating Chicano family life even shapes the way a mother defines her relationships with her children: "The daughter must constantly earn the mother's love, prove her fidelity to her. The son-he gets her love for free" (102).

Moraga realized early in life that she would find it virtually impossible to attain any meaningful autonomy in that cultural context. It was only in the Anglo world that freedom from oppressive gender and sexual strictures was remotely possible. In order to secure this latitude, she made a necessary choice: to embrace the white world and reject crucial aspects of her Chicana upbringing. In painfully honest terms, she states:
I gradually became anglocized because I thought it was the only option available to me toward gaining autonomy as a person without being sexually stigmatized. ...I instinctively made choices which I thought would allow me greater freedom of movement in the future. This meant resisting sex roles as much as I could safely manage and that was far easier in an anglo context than in a Chicano one. (99)
Born to a Chicana mother and an Anglo father, Moraga discovered that being fair-complexioned facilitated her integration into the Anglo social world and contributed immensely to her academic achievement. "My mother's desire to protect her children from poverty and illiteracy" led to their being "anglocized," she writes; "the more effectively we could pass in the white world, the better guaranteed our future" (51). Consequently her life in Southern California during the 1950s and 1960s is described as one in which she "identified with and aspired toward white values" (58). In the process, she "rode the wave of that Southern California privilege as far as conscience would let me" (58).

The price initially exacted by anglicization was estrangement from family and a partial loss of the nurturing and love she found therein. In reflecting on this experience, Moraga acknowledges that "I have had to confront that much of what I value about being Chicana, about my family, has been subverted by anglo culture and my cooperation with it. ...I realized the major reason for my total alienation from and fear of my class- mates was rooted in class and culture" (54). She poignantly concedes that, in the process, "I had disavowed the language I knew best-ignored the words and rhythms that were closest to me. The sounds of my mother and aunts gossiping- half in English, half in Spanish-while drinking cerveza in the kitchen" (55). What she gained, on the other hand, was the greater autonomy that her middle-class white classmates had in defining their emergent sexuality and in circumventing burdensome gender prescriptions. Her movement into the white world, however, was viewed by Chicanos as a great betrayal. By gaining control of her life, Moraga became one of a "long line of vendidas," traitors or "sell-outs," as self-determined women are seen in the sexist cultural fantasy of patriarchal Chicano society. This is the accusation that "hangs above the heads and beats in the hearts of most Chicanas, seeking to develop our own autonomous sense of ourselves, particularly our sexuality" (103).

Patriarchal Chicano culture, with its deep roots in "the institution of heterosexuality , " requires Chicanas to commit themselves to Chicano men and subordinate to them their own sexual desires. "[The Chicano] too, like any other man," Moraga writes, "wants to be able to determine how, when, and with whom his women-mother , wife, and daughter-are sexual" (110-111). But "the Chicana's sexual commitment to the Chicano male [is taken as] proof of her fidelity to her people" (105). "It is no wonder," she adds, that most "Chicanas often divorce ourselves from conscious recognition of our own sexuality" (119). In order to claim the identity of a Chicana lesbian, Moraga had to take "a radical stand in direct contradiction to, and in violation of, the women [sic] I was raised to be" (117); and yet she also drew upon themes and images ofter Mexican Catholic background. Of its impact on her sexuality Mor-aga writes:
I always knew that I felt the greatest emotional ties with women, but suddenly I was beginning to consciously identify those feelings as sexual. The more potent my dreams and fantasies became and the more I sensed my own exploding sexual power, the more I retreated from my body's messages and into the region of religion. By giving definition and meaning to my desires, religion became the discipline to control my sexuality. Sexual fantasy and rebellion became "impure thoughts" and "sinful acts." (119)
These "contrary feelings," which initially surfaced around the age of twelve, unleashed feelings of guilt and moral transgression. She found it impossible to leave behind the Catholic Church's prohibitions regarding homosexuality, and religious themes found their way into how she initially came to define herself as a sexual subject-in a devil-like form. "I wrote poems describing my- self as a centaur: half-animal/half-human, hairy-rumped and cloven-hoofed, como el diablo. The images emerged from a deeply Mexican and Catholic place" (124).

As her earliest sexual feelings were laden with religious images, so too were they shaped by images of herself in a male-like form. This is understandable in light of the fact that only men in Chicano culture are granted sexual subjectivity . Consequently, Moraga instinctively gravitated toward a butch persona and assumed a male-like stance toward other women.
In the effort to avoid embodying la chingada, I became the ching?n. In the effort not to feel fucked, I became the fucker, even with women. ...The fact of the matter was that all those power struggles of "having" and "being had" were played out in my own bedroom. And in my psyche, they held a particular Mexican twist. (126)
In a candid and courageously outspoken conversation with lesbian activist Amber Hollibaugh, Moraga recounts that:
what turned me on sexually, at a very early age, had to do with the fantasy of capture, taking a woman, and my identification was with the man. ...The truth is, I do have some real gut-level misgivings about my sexual connection with capture. It might feel very sexy to imagine "taking" a woman, but it has sometimes occurred at the expense of my feeling, sexually, like I can surrender myself to a woman; that is, always needing to be the one in control, calling the shots. It's a very butch trip and I feel like this can keep me private and protected and can prevent me from fully being able to express myself. (Moraga and Hollibaugh 396)
Moraga's adult lesbian sexuality defined itself along the traditional butch/femme lines characteristic of lesbian relationships in the post-war period. It is likely that such an identity formation was also largely an expression of the highly gender-coded sexuality imparted through Chicano family life. In order to define herself as an autonomous sexual subject, she embraced a butch, or more masculine, gender persona, and crystallized a sexual desire for feminine, or femme, lovers.


From ?Chicano Men: A Cartography O Homosexual Identify and Behavior.? Men?s Lives. Kimmel and Messner. Allyn and Bacon. 2004
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article #2 Sexism and Misogyny: Who Takes the Rap?

By bell hooks
From: about.com
Original title: Sexism and Misogyny: Who Takes the Rap? Misogyny, gangsta rap, and The Piano________
For the past several months white mainstream media has been calling me to hear my views on gangsta rap. Whether major television networks, or small independent radio shows, they seek me out for the black and feminist "take" on the issue. After I have my say, I am never called back, never invited to do the television shows or the radio spots. I suspect they call, confident that when we talk they will hear the hardcore "feminist" trash of gangsta rap. When they encounter instead the hardcore feminist critique of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, they lose interest. To white dominated mass media, the controversy over gangsta rap makes great spectacle. Besides the exploitation of these issues to attract audiences, a central motivation for highlighting gangsta rap continues to be the sensationalist drama of demonizing black youth culture in general and the contributions of young black men in particular. It is a contemporary remake of "Birth of a Nation" only this time we are encouraged to believe it is not just vulnerable white womanhood that risks destruction by black hands but everyone. When I counter this demonization of black males by insisting that gangsta rap does not appear in a cultural vacuum, but, rather, is expressive of the cultural crossing, mixings, and engagement of black youth culture with the values, attitudes, and concerns of the white majority, some folks stop listening.
The sexist, misogynist, patriarchal ways of thinking and behaving that are glorified in gangsta rap are a reflection of the prevailing values in our society, values created and sustained by white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. As the crudest and most brutal expression of sexism, misogynistic attitudes tend to be portrayed by the dominant culture as an expression of male deviance. In reality they are part of a sexist continuum, necessary for the maintenance of patriarchal social order. While patriarchy and sexism continue to be the political and cultural norm in our society, feminist movement has created a climate where crude expressions of male domination are called into question, especially if they are made by men in power. It is useful to think of misogyny as a field that must be labored in and maintained both to sustain patriarchy but also to serve as an ideological anti-feminist backlash. And what better group to labor on this "plantation" than young black men.
To see gangsta rap as a reflection of dominant values in our culture rather than as an aberrant "pathological" standpoint does not mean that a rigorous feminist critique of the sexist and misogyny expressed in this music is not needed. Without a doubt black males, young and old, must be held politically accountable for their sexism. Yet this critique must always be contextualized or we risk making it appear that the behaviors this thinking supports and condones,--rape, male violence against women, etc.-- is a black male thing. And this is what is happening. Young black males are forced to take the "heat" for encouraging, via their music, the hatred of and violence against women that is a central core of patriarchy.
Witness the recent piece by Brent Staples in the "New York Times" titled "The Politics of Gangster Rap: A Music Celebrating Murder and Misogyny." Defining the turf Staples writes: "For those who haven't caught up, gangster rap is that wildly successful music in which all women are `bitches' and `whores' and young men kill each other for sport." No mention of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy in this piece, not a word about the cultural context that would need to exist for young males to be socialized to think differently about gender. Staples assumes that black males are writing their lyrics off in the "jungle," away from the impact of mainstream socialization and desire. At no point in his piece does he ask why huge audiences, especially young white male consumers, are so turned on by this music, by the misogyny and sexism, by the brutality? Where is the anger and rage at females expressed in this music coming from, the glorification of all acts of violence? These are the difficult questions that Staples feels no need to answer.
One cannot answer them honestly without placing accountability on larger structures of domination and the individuals (often white, usually male but not always) who are hierarchically placed to maintain and perpetuate the values that uphold these exploitative and oppressive systems. That means taking a critical looking at the politics of hedonistic consumerism, the values of the men and women who produce gangsta rap. It would mean considering the seduction of young black males who find that they can make more money producing lyrics that promote violence, sexism, and misogyny than with any other content. How many disenfranchised black males would not surrender to expressing virulent forms of sexism, if they knew the rewards would be unprecedented material power and fame?
More than anything gangsta rap celebrates the world of the "material, " the dog-eat-dog world where you do what you gotta do to make it. In this world view killing is necessary for survival. Significantly, the logic here is a crude expression of the logic of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. In his new book "Sexy Dressing, Etc." privileged white male law professor Duncan Kennedy gives what he calls "a set of general characterizations of U. S. culture" explaining that, "It is individual (cowboys), material (gangsters) and philistine." Using this general description of mainstream culture would lead us to place "gangsta rap" not on the margins of what this nation is about, but at the center. Rather than being viewed as a subversion or disruption of the norm we would need to see it as an embodiment of the norm.
That viewpoint was graphically highlighted in the film "Menace To Society" which dramatized not only young black males killing for sport, but also mass audiences voyeuristically watching and, in many cases, "enjoying" the kill. Significantly, at one point in the movie we see that the young black males have learned their "gangsta" values from watching television and movies--shows where white male gangsters are center stage. This scene undermines any notion of "essentialist" blackness that would have viewers believe the gangsterism these young black males embraced emerged from some unique black cultural experience.
When I interviewed rap artist Ice Cube for "Spin" magazine last year, he talked about the importance of respecting black women and communication across gender. He spoke against male violence against women, even as he lapsed into a justification for anti- woman rap lyrics by insisting on the madonna/whore split where some females "carry" themselves in a manner that determines how they will be treated. When this interview was published, it was cut to nothing. It was a mass media set-up. Folks (mostly white and male) had thought if the hardcore feminist talked with the hardened black man, sparks would fly; there would be a knock-down drag out spectacle. When Brother Cube and I talked to each other with respect about the political, spiritual, and emotional self- determination of black people, it did not make good copy. Clearly folks at the magazine did not get the darky show they were looking for.
After this conversation, and talking with rappers and folks who listen to rap, it became clear that while black male sexism is a serious problem in our communities and in black music, some of the more misogynist lyrics were there to stir up controversy and appeal to audiences. Nowhere is this more evident that in Snoop Doggy Dogg's record "Doggystyle". A black male music and cultural critic called me to ask if I had checked this image out; to share that for one of the first times in his music buying life he felt he was seeing an image so offensive in its sexism and misogyny that he did not want to take that image home. That image (complete with doghouse, beware the dog sign, with a naked black female head in a doghouse, naked butt sticking out) was reproduced, "uncritically," in the November 29, 1993 issue of "Time" magazine. The positive music review of this album, written by Christopher John Farley, is titled "Gangsta Rap, Doggystyle" makes no mention of sexism and misogyny, makes no reference to the cover. I wonder if a naked white female body had been inside the doghouse, presumably waiting to be fucked from behind, if "Time" would have reproduced an image of the cover along with their review. When I see the pornographic cartoon that graces the cover of "Doggystyle," I do not think simply about the sexism and misogyny of young black men, I think about the sexist and misogynist politics of the powerful white adult men and women (and folks of color) who helped produce and market this album.
In her book "Misogynies" Joan Smith shares her sense that while most folks are willing to acknowledge unfair treatment of women, discrimination on the basis of gender, they are usually reluctant to admit that hatred of women is encouraged because it helps maintain the structure of male dominance. Smith suggests: "Misogyny wears many guises, reveals itself in different forms which are dictated by class, wealth, education, race, religion and other factors, but its chief characteristic is its pervasiveness." *

Contrary to a racist white imagination which assumes that most young black males, especially those who are poor, live in a self- created cultural vacuum, uninfluenced by mainstream, cultural values, it is the application of those values, largely learned through passive uncritical consumption of mass media, that is revealed in "gangsta rap." Brent Staples is willing to challenge the notion that "urban primitivism is romantic" when it suggests that black males become "real men" by displaying the will to do violence, yet he remains resolutely silent about that world of privileged white culture that has historically romanticized primitivism, and eroticized male violence. Contemporary films like "Reservoir Dogs" and "The Bad Lieutenant" celebrate urban primitivism and many less well done films ("Trespass, Rising Sun") create and/or exploit the cultural demand for depictions of hardcore blacks who are willing to kill for sport.
To take "gangsta rap" to task for its sexism and misogyny while critically accepting and perpetuating those expressions of that ideology which reflect bourgeois standards (no rawness, no vulgarity) is not to call for a transformation of the culture of patriarchy. Ironically, many black male ministers, themselves sexist and misogynist, are leading the attacks against gangsta rap. Like the mainstream world that supports white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, they are most concerned with calling attention to the vulgar obscene portrayals of women to advance the cause of censorship. For them, rethinking and challenging sexism, both in the dominant culture and in black life, is not the issue.
Mainstream white culture is not concerned about black male sexism and misogyny, particularly when it is unleashed against black women and children. It is concerned when young white consumers utilize black popular culture to disrupt bourgeois values. Whether it be the young white boy who expresses his rage at his mother by aping black male vernacular speech (a true story) or the masses of young white males (and middle class men of color) seeking to throw off the constraints of bourgeois bondage who actively assert in their domestic households via acts of aggression their rejection of the call to be "civilized. " These are the audiences who feel such a desperate need for gangsta rap. It is much easier to attack gangsta rap than to confront the culture that produces that need.
Gangsta rap is part of the anti-feminist backlash that is the rage right now. When young black males labor in the plantations of misogyny and sexism to produce gangsta rap, their right to speak this violence and be materially rewarded is extended to them by white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. Far from being an expression of their "manhood," it is an expression of their own subjugation and humiliation by more powerful, less visible forces of patriarchal gangsterism. They give voice to the brutal raw anger and rage against women that it is taboo for "civilized" adult men to speak. No wonder then that they have the task of tutoring the young, teaching them to eroticize and enjoy the brutal expressions of that rage (teaching them language and acts) before they learn to cloak it in middle-class decorum or Robert Bly style reclaimings of lost manhood. The tragedy for young black males is that they are so easily dunned by a vision of manhood that can only lead to their destruction.
Feminist critiques of the sexism and misogyny in gangsta rap, and in all aspects of popular culture, must continue to be bold and fierce. Black females must not be duped into supporting shit that hurts us under the guise of standing beside our men. If black men are betraying us through acts of male violence, we save ourselves and the race by resisting. Yet, our feminist critiques of black male sexism fail as meaningful political intervention if they seek to demonize black males, and do not recognize that our revolutionary work is to transform white supremacist capitalist patriarchy in the multiple areas of our lives where it is made manifest, whether in gangsta rap, the black church, or the Clinton administration.
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Article# 3- DO WE HATE OUR WOMEN?

By Michael Eric Dyson

From: Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. Basic Civitas Books. 2001.


In many ways it appears too easy, and just downright sexist, to blame women for the
hateful sentiments that pass for gender commentary in hip-hop. Most rappers inherit their beliefs about women long before they find fame and fortune in hip-hop. Still, it is undeniable that they encounter young women whose chief goal is to bring pleasure to rap stars and to procure, in Snoop Dogg's term, "superstar dick." Groupies are a staple not just of hip-hop but all forms of masculine endeavor, from the dugout to the pulpit, from the blues hall to the boardroom. It is one thing to cast aspersions on women deemed to be loose and destructive in their sexual demeanor. It is another to judge all women as bitches or whores or to defend oneself, as rappers often do, by claiming, "I'm not talking about all women, just the ones I meet who act like bitches and hos."

The problem is, they never seem to meet or describe any other women besides"bitches" or "hos." (But the hypocrisy of the double standard must not be missed. Groupie sexual culture attempts, however desperately and self-destructively, to right the imbalance in the circulation of sexual pleasures that allows men to be promiscuous as a condition of their maturing masculinity, whereas women bear the stigma of "ho" for their equally aggressive erotic experimentation.) Neither does such a judgment take into account the political economy of the "ho." If social empathy for young black males is largely absent in public opinion and public policies, the lack of understanding and compassion for the difficulties faced by poor young black females is even more deplorable.

There exists within quarters of black life a range of justifications for black male behavior. Even if they are not wholly accepted by other blacks or by the larger culture, such justifications have a history and possess social resonance. Young black males hustle because they are poor. They become pimps and playas because the only role models they had are pimps and playas. Black males rob because they are hungry. They have babies because they seek to prove their masculinity in desultory paternity. They rap about violence because they came to maturity in enclaves of civic horror where violence is the norm. Black males do poorly in school because they are deprived of opportunity and ambition.

Yet there are few comparable justifications for the black female's beleaguered status. The lack of accepted social justifications for black women's plight would lead one to assume that black women do not confront incest, father deprivation, economic misery, social dislocation, domestic abuse, maternal abandonment, and a host of other ills. If they do, these factors apparently have nothing to do with their crippling lack of self-esteem that leads to self-defeating actions. Neither do these factors have anything to do with the sexually compensatory behavior in which these young girls might participate. Obviously, these young women were not seduced into becoming seducers by the messages of a culture addicted to sexual stimulation.

And perhaps there's no excuse for poor young black women believing that their bodies are their tickets to pleasure - besides, that is all the cues they get from pimps, playas, teachers, preachers, daddies, hustlers, and mentors. Apparently, there are no cultural influences-no magazines or television shows-that lead them to believe that their sexuality might suspend their misery, if even for a few gilded moments at the end of the night in the backseat of a car on the edge of town-and perhaps their sanity. The factors that might contribute to a young woman's behaving ?promiscuously,? or recklessly or even daringly are rarely considered in hip-hop, since the political economy of the "ho" is severely undervalued. (Of course it must be conceded that the definition of "ho" for many men is infamously slippery. If women give sex easily, they're "hos." If they don't, they're "bitches.')

In its punishing hypocrisy, hip-hop at once deplores and craves the exuded, paraded sexuality of the "ho." As it is with most masculine cultures, many of the males in hip-hop seek promiscuous sex while resenting the women with whom they share it. This variety of femiphobia turns on the stylish dishonesty that is transmuted into masculine wisdom: Never love or partner with the women you sleep with. Such logic imbues the male psyche with a toleration of split affinities that keep it from being fatally (as opposed to usefully) divided - the male can enjoy the very thing he despises, as long as it assumes its "proper" place. In order for "it" - promiscuous sex - to assume its proper place in male lives, women must assume their proper places. They must occupy their assigned roles with an eye to fulfilling their function as determined by men. If they are "hos," they are to give unlimited, uncontested sex. If they are girlfriends or wives, they are to provide a stable domestic environment where sex is dutiful and proper. The entire arrangement is meant to maximize male sexual autonomy while limiting female sexuality, even if by dividing it into acceptable and un-acceptable categories. The thought that a girlfriend or wife might be an ex-ho is a painful thought in such circles. The hip-hop credo can be summed up in this way: I want to chase women, but I want my woman to be chaste.

Hip-hop culture has helped to reduce the female form to its bare essence. Black women appear in rap videos in increasing stages of undress as a way for black men to bond in masculine solidarity. Even the ostensible perks of the rap video - it features black women's bodies, which are usually degraded by the larger culture, especially the black derriere, and it provides a launching pad for a career in "the industry" - fail to make men into the advocates of female opportunity that some claim to be. Praising the rump, while certainly praiseworthy on some scores, is not a feminist or particularly liberating gesture in itself, though it might be if it figured in a larger scheme to tell the complete story of black female identity.

Instead, the degraded black female body is revictimized when it is eyed primarily to satisfy the male sexual appetite. Hip-hop reflects the intent of the entire culture: to reduce black female sexuality to its crudest, most stereotypical common denominator. As Sonia Sanchez says, the country tries to "asphyxiate our daughters in a state of undress, and convince them that they're hos. Even in college they [try to make them] hos. Any place [young women] walk, the country says, 'I'm going to take you back to hoedom."' I am not arguing that there are not interesting ways that explicit sexuality is engaged in hip-hop that appeal to signifying traditions in black culture. I am addressing some brutal sexual beliefs within hip-hop that reflect the sadistic sexism of the larger culture. If hip-hop has any virtue in this regard, it is that it uncovers what the larger culture attempts to mask.

The bitch-ho nexus in hip-hop is but the visible extension of mainstream society's complicated, and often troubling, gender beliefs

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Article#4 -THE MISEDUCATION OF BOYS Changing the Script *
MYRA SADKER AND DAVID SADKER
Boys confront frozen boundaries of the male role at every turn of school life. They grow up practicing lines and learning moves from a time worn script: Be cool, don't show emotion, repress feelings, be aggressive, compete and win. As the script is internalized, boys learn to look down on girls and to distance themselves from any activity considered feminine. Dutifully they follow the lines of the script, but now changes are being made in the plot. Today's schoolboys are learning lines for a play that is closing. Consider these statistics:
? From elementary school through high school, boys receive lower report card grades. By middle school they are far more likely to be grade repeaters and dropouts (1)
? Boys experience more difficulty adjusting to school. They are nine times more likely to suffer from hyperactivity and higher levels of academic stress. (2)
? The majority of students identified for special education programs are boys. They represent 58 percent of those in classes for the mentally retarded, 71 percent of the learning disabled, and 80 percent of those in programs for the emotionally disturbed. (3)
? In school, boys' misbehavior results in more frequent penalties, including corporal punishment. Boys comprise 71 percent of all school suspensions. (4)
Beyond academic problems, conforming to a stereotypic role takes a psychological toll:
? Boys are three times more likely to become alcohol dependent and 50 percent more likely to use illicit drugs. Men account for more than 90 percent of alcohol- and drug-related arrests. (5)
? Risk-taking behavior goes beyond drug and alcohol abuse. The leading cause of death among fifteen- to twenty-four-year-old white males is accidents. Teenage boys are more likely to die from gunshot wounds than from all natural causes combined. (6)

? Many boys are encouraged to pursue unrealistically high career goals. When these are not attained, males often feel like failures, and a life- long sense of frustration may follow. (7)
? Males commit suicide two to three times more frequently than females. (8)
The problems for minority males are more devastating:
? Approximately one in every three black male teenagers is unemployed, and those who are working take home paychecks with 30 percent less salary than white workers. (9)
? It is estimated that 25 percent of black youths' income results directly from crime and that one in every six African-American males is arrested by age nineteen. (10)
? The odds of a young white woman being a murder victim are one in 369; for a young white man, one in 131; for an African-American woman, one in 104; and for an African -American man, a shocking one in 21. Homicide is the leading cause of death for young black men. (11)
City by city, the statistics are even more alarming. In New York City, about three out of four black males never make it to graduation, and in Milwaukee, 94 percent of all expelled students are African-American boys. (12) Milwaukee, Detroit, and Chicago consider black males an " endangered academic species" and have resorted to some radical solutions.
Milwaukee was one of the first cities to create black male academies, public schools that serve only African-American boys. The idea spread to other metropolitan areas, along with the notion that the best teachers for black boys are black men. At Matthew Henson Elementary School in a poor, drug- infested section of Baltimore, Richard Boynton teaches a class of young black students. Most of them grew up without fathers, so Boynton's responsibilities go beyond the classroom. "There are three things I enforce," he said, " three things I want them to know in that room: responsibility, respect, and self- control. I feel that these three things will not only carry you through school, they'll carry you through life." (13) So Boynton checks to make sure that all the boys have library cards. On weekends he takes them to the Smithsonian or to play ball in the park. "It's almost as if I have twenty-seven sons," he said. Boynton tries to create a school that will turn each of his " sons" on to education. But not everyone is convinced that teaching black males separately is the best approach.
"I read these things, and I can't believe that we're actually regressing like this," said African-American psychologist Kenneth Clark. "Why are we talking about segregating and stigmatizing black males?" (14) Oark's stinging observations are particularly potent since his research paved the way for the 1954 Brown decision that desegregated America's schools. Other critics charge that black male academies are little more than a return to the cries of "woman peril," scapegoating female teachers, criticizing black mothers, and ignoring the needs of African-American girls. NOW, the ACLU, and several courts have found separate black male education to be an example of sex discrimination and a violation of the law.
Morningside Elementary School in Prince Georges County, Maryland, is not a black male academy, but its students take special pride in their school team, the Master Knights. Tuesdays and Thursdays are team days, and the members, wearing blue pants and white shirts, devote recess and afternoons to practice. But the Knights, the majority of whom are young black boys, differ from other school teams. Their practices take place in the school library, and the arena in which they compete is chess.
The idea for the team originated in the office of Beulah McManus, the guidance counselor. When children, most often African-American boys, were referred to her as behavior problems, she pulled out a worn chess set. Some- how the game got boys talking, and eventually they found out they enjoyed chess, with its emphasis on tactics and skill, and the chance to compete on a field where size and strength mattered less than brains. As Gregory Bridges, the twelve-year-old president of the Master Knights, said, "When you see someone who is big and bad on the streets, you hardly see anyone who plays chess. ...You have to have patience and a cool head, and that patience carries outside the chess club." (15) While Morningside emphasizes the importance of getting African-American boys excited about education, girls are not excluded, says principal Elsie Neely. In fact, the school is trying to recruit more female players for next year.
While Morningside stresses extracurricular activities in order to involve boys, some teachers are bringing lessons that challenge the male sex role stereotype directly into the classroom. Often they use the growing number of children's books that show boys expanding their roles. In a fourth-grade class we watched a teacher encouraging boys to push the borders of the male stereotype. As we observed her lesson, we were struck by how much effort it took to stretch outmoded attitudes. She began by writing a letter on the board.

Dear Adviser:
My seven-year-old son wants me to buy him a doll. I don't know what to do. Should I go ahead and get it for him? Is this normal, or is my son sick? Please help!
Waiting for your answer,
Concerned

"Suppose you were an advice columnist, like Ann Landers," the teacher said to the class, " and you received a letter like this. What would you tell this parent? Write a letter answering 'Concerned,? and then we'll talk about your recommendations."
For the next twenty minutes she walked around the room and gave suggestions about format and spelling. When she invited the students to read their letters, Andy volunteered.

Dear Concerned:
You are in big trouble. Your son is sick, sick, sick! Get him to a psychiatrist fast. And if he keeps asking for a doll, get him bats and balls and guns and other toys boys should play with.
Hope this helps,
Andy

Several other students also read their letters, and most, like Andy, recommended that the son be denied a doll. Then the teacher read Charlotte Zolotow's William's Doll, the story of a boy who is ridiculed by other children when he says he wants a doll. Not until his grandmother visits does he get his wish so that, as the wise woman says, he can learn to be a father one day.
As the teacher was reading, several students began to fidget, laugh, and whisper to one another. When she asked the fourth graders how they liked the book, one group of boys, the most popular clique in the class, acted as if the story was a personal insult. Their reaction was so hostile; the teacher had trouble keeping order. We heard their comments:
"He's a fag."
"He'd better learn how boys are supposed to behave, or he'll never get to be a man."
"If I saw him playing with that baby doll, I' d take it away. Maybe a good kick in the pants would teach him."
"Dolls are dumb. It's a girly thing to do."
Next the teacher played the song "William Wants a Doll" from the Free to Be You and Me album. Several boys began to sing along in a mocking tone, dragging out the word doll until it became two syllables: "William wants a do-oll, William wants a do-oll." As they chanted, they pointed to Bill, the star athlete of the class. Both boys and girls whispered and laughed as Bill, slumped in his chair, looked ready to explode.
Belatedly the teacher realized the problem of the name coincidence; she assured the class that there was nothing wrong with playing with dolls, that it teaches both girls and boys how to become parents when they grow up. When the students began to settle down, she gave them her next instructions: "I'd like you to reread your letters and make any last-minute corrections. If you want to change your advice, you may, but you don't have to."
Later we read the students' letters. Most of them said a seven-year-old boy should not get a doll. But after listening to William?s story, six modified their advice, having reached a similar conclusion: "Oh, all right. Give him a doll if you have to. But no baby dolls or girl dolls. Make sure it' s a Turtle or a G. I. Joe."
For some nontraditional programs, reading William's Doll is just a first step. At Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, parenting classes begin in elementary school, where children learn to observe, study, and interact with infants. By the sixth grade both boys and girls are in charge of caring for babies at school. Programs that make child-rearing a central and required part of school life find that boys become more nurturant and caring in their relationships with others.
Schools in New York City and other communities are downplaying aggression and encouraging cooperation through programs in conflict resolution. In these courses students learn how to negotiate and compromise while they avoid attitudes and actions that lead to violence. Students learn techniques in how to control anger, to listen carefully to others, and to seek common ground.
These innovative courses are rare. Most schools are locked in a more traditional model, one that promotes competition over cooperation, aggression over nurturing, and sports victories rather than athletic participation. Some boys thrive on this traditional male menu, and most students derive some benefit. But the school program is far from balanced, and the education served to boys is not always healthy despite the extra portions they receive.
From their earliest days at school, boys learn a destructive form of division-- how to separate themselves from girls. Once the school world is divided, boys can strive to climb to the top of the male domain, thinking that even if they fall short, they still are ahead of the game because they are not girls. Boys learn in the classroom that they can demean girls at will. Schools that do not permit racist, ethnic, or religious slights still tolerate sexism as a harmless bigotry.
In American Manhood, Athony Rotundo writes that men need to regain ? access to stigmatized parts of themselves--tenderness, nurturance, the desire for connection, the skills of cooperation--that are helpful in personal situations and needed for the social good." (16) Studies support Rotundo's contention: Males who can call on a range of qualities, tenderness as well as toughness, are viewed by others as more intelligent, likable, and mentally healthy than rigidly stereotyped men. (17) But boys cannot develop these repressed parts of themselves without abandoning attitudes that degrade girls. Until gender equity becomes a value promoted in every aspect of school, boys, as victims of their own miseducation, will grow up to be troubled men; they will be saddened by unmet expectations, unable to communicate with women as equals, and unprepared for modem life.
____________________________________________________________

Learning organisation on leadership and management (you can decide the specific tittle)
Contents should Include the characteristics of good learning organisation and how to build a good learning organisation.

The focus is on leadership and management

The structure should be clear and well organised and have good sub-tittles.


You can write literature review. Please use simple and easy-understanding words. Do not use difficult words.


Please only use academic published books, journals and other reliable sources. No unreliable web source is allowed, except the well-established academic organization or government websites(no more than 3).


The style should be formal. format should be used with a table of contents, clear sections with headings, and appendices as appropriate.

Learning and reinforcement chapter 4

Please write The questions above each answer

1. What is meant by 'social learning theory'? Describe how self-management strategies may be used to enhance self-efficacy and the worker's feeling of self-control
2. Compare skill-based pay and gain-sharing plans and discuss how they might act as rewards to reinforce behavior.
3. Explain 'organizational behavior modification'. Describe how one or more reinforcement strategies could be used to deal with an employee who is consistently late for work but very productive when present.
4. Explain the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment and explain their link to the concept of extinction.

Give examples on each question if possible

Learning from Failure

The interesting thing about science - even when everything goes unpredictably wrong ??" is that we still learn something. Sometimes in formal science, what we learn from failure is more important than what we'd have gained from a success Select one of the following topics: Nuclear Fusion, Biosphere 2, or The Aether Wind. Write a three- to five-page paper on the nature of the experiment and what we might have learned as a result of its failure. Include scholarly references.

Required Texts
Erickson, M. (2005). Science, culture and society: Understanding science in the 21st century. Malden: Wiley.

Learning team Creative Problem-Solving Demonstration: Topic is "Coming late and leaving early" Please use the Nominal Group Technique

Discuss and choose the technique that will best help them solve the problem.- Nominal Group Technique

Explain why the technique was chosen and briefly summarize how this technique can be conducted in a virtual team environment.

Discuss which of the three techniques offers the most promise to help solve the problem. The three techniques: Brainstorming, Nominal Group Technique, or Decreasing Option Technique are found in Ch. 10 of Working in Groups.

Decide on a problem-solving technique-Nominal Group Technique

Provide a brief overview explaining why this technique was chosen.

Explain which technology or technologies work best with this method and for your group.

Learning outcomes and pass attainment level:
On completion of the course of study, students should be able to:
1. Evaluate international sources of finance and the risks associated with them
2. Critically appraise investment decisions at national and international level
3. Critically appraise financial aspects of domestic and international merger & acquisition.


COURSEWORK INSTRUCTIONS
This is an individually assessed assignment. There is no objection to students discussing the content and approaches to be adopted but the final submission must be 100% your OWN work. PLAGIARISM WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
Please ensure that all your calculations are supported by relevant workings.
Please attribute any references you make to published work of others using Harvard Referencing.
There are two questions in the assignment. You should attempt both questions and every part of each question. The word limit is 3,000 words.
When determining the amount of effort for each section of the assignment you should take notice of the mark allocation included in this pack.

Mark Content
70+
Excellent
Excellent work which demonstrates authoritative grasp of the concepts, methodology and content appropriate to the subject discipline. Indication of originality in the application of ideas, in synthesis of material or in performance; personal insights reflecting depth and confidence of understanding and real critical analysis. Work is well structured and presented with full referencing.
60-69

Good
Very good work which demonstrates sound level of understanding based on a grasp of relevant concepts, methodology and content; displays skill in interpreting and analysing complex material. The material is well organised and referenced
50-59

Acceptable
Recognisable awareness of the requirements of the coursework. There is evidence of some understanding. It uses relevant source material and demonstrates some understanding of the concepts. There is an attempt to draw relevant conclusions.
45-49 Unacceptable
Marginal fail. Unsatisfactory but showing some understanding. May be condonable is stronger performance on one aspect of the work compensates for weaker work elsewhere.
0-44 Unacceptable
A poor attempt Little evidence of understanding or application.

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Submission date:
Students are required to undertake this one coursework assignment which will represent 100% of the final mark.
You are encouraged to work together throughout this module and that that includes discussions about the assignment. However, it is essential that the work you finally submit is exclusively your own.
My advice to you is that once you start writing you should keep your work to yourself and you should not use work produced by other students.
Examples of acceptable activities are:
Sharing details of websites or articles you have found useful.
Discussing your views on what you have read with other students.

Examples of unacceptable activities are:
Working on calculations with another student or using another students calculations.
Sharing the quotes you are going to use in your work.
Sharing your conclusions.
Sharing your bibliography.
Showing anyone else any of your written work.

As part of the submission requirement for this work you must upload an electronic copy of your work to Turnitin as well as submitting a hard copy in the normal way. Instructions for doing this are on the Moodle site.
Good luck with your assignment







Case Study
Pormind plc is a small capitalised UK resident manufacturing company which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Pormind plc suffered three years of loses following the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and is seeing many of its traditional customers seeking supplies from new growing markets.
The new Finance Director believes that Pormind must prepare itself for the changing global economy by expanding operations into a number of emerging markets. He proposes that Pormind seeks to undertake a series of takeovers of private companies in countries which have been identified as suitable for Pormind to seek takeover targets in. The Finance Director proposes that Pormind undertakes five acquisitions within the next ten years. The Finance Director is proposing that calculating the Net Present Value of any proposed takeover should form the basis for deciding if a local business would make a suitable target for Pormind.

In order to undertake the kind of expansion activity envisaged by the Finance Director it will be necessary for the company to raise a very significant amount of new capital. The Finance Director believes that where possible new capital should be raised in the country in which the takeover is taking place.
You have been retained as a consultant by the Board who want you to undertake an initial study into the feasibility of the Finance Directors proposal.

Required:

You are required to prepare a report addressing the following issues:
a) A critical assessment of the proposal to raise capital locally rather than in the UK. You should consider the costs, the risks and any benefits or disadvantages of the proposal. (15 marks)
b) A review of the literature to identify factors which academics consider to be fundamental to an analysis of country risk. You should conclude your review with a list of factors which you consider to be fundamental together with some attempt to rank them for importance. (30 marks)
Guidance:
You can find examples of country risk analysis at these websites:
http://www.euromoney.com/poll/10683/pollsandawards/country-risk.html?Type=Polls&PageID=10683

http://www.eiu.com/site_info.asp?info_name=sovereign_ratings

http://www.oecd.org/trade/exportcredits/crc.htm

You are not required to identify the factors used by the above websites. You should use the library and the electronic journals to source your articles. While popular sites such as wikipedia and investopedia may prove useful starting points for your learning they do not constitute academic articles and should not be included in your review.

c) Use the factors you identified in Part b) to undertake a country risk analysis of your allocated country. It is not necessary to undertake a statistical analysis.
(30 marks)
d) The senior management is not sure what cost of capital should be used to estimate Net Present Value. One of the directors attended a short course on finance recently and came across the term Capital Asset Pricing Model that can be used to estimate cost of equity. Obtain financial data for a company of your choice from 250 listed companies, using their published beta, estimate its cost of equity and weighted cost of capital as an example to explain to senior management how the cost of capital is determined.. Furthermore provide a critical evaluation of the suitability of the net present value and the capital asset pricing model techniques for assessing potential target companies in the manner proposed by the Finance Director.
Note that the total return for investors in UK equities was around 13% in 2012 and the risk free rate is 2%.
(25 marks)

The country analysis that was given is chad republic and the company to use is Dixon retail plc

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Learning outcomes and pass attainment level:

Creatively and critically apply branding and marketing communication theories.
Critically evaluate and apply appropriate marketing communications method(s) to given business scenarios.
Develop and justify effective brand and communications plans

In order to gain a good pass for this assignment at this level students are expected to pay attention to the following:

Structure and clarity of expression
The fundamental features of well-structured work are expected as the norm at this level. There will be proper attention to the type and style of the assignment ??" a marketing communications analysis and plan - and the work should remain clearly focused, follow a logical sequence and clear sense of direction even though multiple complex issues are addressed and be produced to a high professional standard.

Content and understanding
Extensive knowledge and detailed understanding is expected, but it is how this knowledge is used in analysis which is equally, if not more important. Capable students will demonstrate an authoritative, comprehensive awareness of the current level of performance of the chosen organisation and an equal appreciation of the relevant contemporary marketing communications issues they face. It is expected that students will demonstrate the significance of these particular issues and how they contribute to an informed, critical review of the present situation of the case.

Analysis/Evaluation
Students should demonstrate an ability to identify and critically evaluate the key issues which are most relevant to the successful development of a future marketing communications strategy for the organisation. It is expected that students will show their ability to appraise and evaluate the current market situation for their chosen organisation, including the challenges it faces and the suitability of prospective strategies to fit those conditioning factors and be inclusive of the needs of the range of stakeholders involved using appropriate concepts, theories or frameworks.

Reading/Research and Referencing
Reading should extend beyond essential texts and / or general texts and encompass specialist texts as well as the extensive use of journal articles, periodicals including professional/industry publications in order to demonstrate a detailed and systematic knowledge base, depth of understanding and practical professional insights. It is expected that reading and research will reflect the contemporary nature of the module and the case context. The proper, accurate presentation of quotations and references and research data is expected and inaccuracies will be penalised, as will the over-reliance on a single source, poor quality and unreliable sources or limited sources of information.

Application to industry
Students should demonstrate the ability to integrate theory into practice and increasing abilities to suggest viable solutions to the challenges of the case organisation within the reality of the sector and the marketing communications environment in which it operates also demonstrating the ability to develop a realistic and viable strategic vision in the industry context.

Synthesis and Originality
Students should be developing the ability to demonstrate the advanced skills of synthesis, providing solutions to unpredictable professional situations when necessary and offering both creativity and originality whenever possible to meet that challenges presented by the case study.

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Title
Case study: Communicating credentials


Objective

This assignment has been designed to allow students the opportunity to explore the numerous marketing communications issues of the contemporary business environment by applying their knowledge gained on this module over the term to a specific case.

Learning outcomes

On completion of the assignment students should be able to demonstrate their ability to:
o Creatively and critically apply branding and marketing communication theories.
o Critically evaluate and apply appropriate marketing communications method(s) to given business scenarios.
o Develop and justify effective brand and communications plans


Hand-in procedure

Please follow University policy regarding the handing in of assignments and ensure that your assignment is handed in on time and that you retain a copy of the assignment for yourself together with the receipt.

Mode of working

This is an individual assignment and University policy will apply in all cases of copying, plagiarism or any other methods by which students have obtained an unfair advantage.

Task

Read the case Communicating credentials included with this assignment brief.

As can be seen from case information provided, the case provides a snapshot of certain aspects of the Fairtade organisation and Fairtrade certified goods and of the issues related to goods that carry some sort of sustainability certification. You work for the Divine chocolate brand. You have been asked by your marketing manager to evaluate the current state of the marketing communications of the Divine chocolate brand including an assessment of its brand image/equity, its relative position in its market sector and the influence and use of Fairtrade certification on its communications. Building on the results of your analysis, propose a new viable communications plan including an appropriate aim and feasible objectives for the Divine brand, indicating the relevant strategic and tactical communications considerations required for the implementation of your communications plan.

In order to complete this task students are expected to demonstrate their depth of knowledge and understanding via:

their ability to evaluate relevant marketing communications issues
their ability to critically apply their understanding of marketing communications to their case context
their ability to concisely convey relevant information within the required format
the quality and variety of their reading and research to support their case analysis
their ability to propose a credible and viable marketing communications plan

In order to prepare effectively for the assessment it is expected that students will attend all the lecture sessions and pay particular attention to the advice and guidance given at the assignment launch and feedforward sessions as indicated in the module guide.



Format for the submitted work

The assignment will be submitted as a marketing communications plan and be presented in polished professional manner complete with a contents page, and with each section clearly identified and a final references section. The standard conventions of the required writing style will be followed, including the overall presentation of the work and the use and inclusion of supporting references and quotations within the text when appropriate. University policy regarding the presentation of the final references section must be followed. The maximum word count will be 3000 words +/- 10%. No appendices should be included.

Weighting

This assignment carries a weighting of 100% for the Brand and Communications module.


Assessment criteria

In order to gain a good pass for this assignment at this level students are expected to pay attention to the following:

Structure and clarity of expression
The fundamental features of well-structured work are expected as the norm at this level. There will be proper attention to the type and style of the assignment ??" a marketing communications analysis and plan - and the work should remain clearly focused, follow a logical sequence and clear sense of direction even though multiple complex issues are addressed and be produced to a high professional standard.

Content and understanding
Extensive knowledge and detailed understanding is expected, but it is how this knowledge is used in analysis which is equally, if not more important. Capable students will demonstrate an authoritative, comprehensive awareness of the current level of performance of the chosen organisation and an equal appreciatin of the relevant contemporary marketing communications issues they face. It is expected that students will demonstrate the significance of these particular issues and how they contribute to an informed, critical review of the present situation of the case.

Analysis/Evaluation
Students should demonstrate an ability to identify and critically evaluate the key issues which are most relevant to the successful development of a future marketing communications strategy for the organisation. It is expected that students will show their ability to appraise and evaluate the current market situation for their chosen organisation, including the challenges it faces and the suitability of prospective strategies to fit those conditioning factors and be inclusive of the needs of the range of stakeholders involved using appropriate concepts, theories or frameworks.

Reading/Research and Referencing
Reading should extend beyond essential texts and / or general texts and encompass specialist texts as well as the extensive use of journal articles, periodicals including professional/industry publications in order to demonstrate a detailed and systematic knowledge base, depth of understanding and practical professional insights. It is expected that reading and research will reflect the contemporary nature of the module and the case context. The proper, accurate presentation of quotations and references and research data is expected and inaccuracies will be penalised, as will the over-reliance on a single source, poor quality and unreliable sources or limited sources of information.

Application to industry
Students should demonstrate the ability to integrate theory into practice and increasing abilities to suggest viable solutions to the challenges of the case organisation within the reality of the sector and the marketing communications environment in which it operates also demonstrating the ability to develop a realistic and viable strategic vision in the industry context.

Synthesis and Originality
Students should be developing the ability to demonstrate the advanced skills of synthesis, providing solutions to unpredictable professional situations when necessary and offering both creativity and originality whenever possible to meet that challenges presented by the case study.

In order to obtain higher grades students should consider the following:

the ability to demonstrate creativity and critical analysis in the provision of original solutions
the ability to demonstrate greater depth of knowledge and understanding through wide reading and varied research activities and the appropriateness of theory for understanding and developing feasible responses to real sector-based scenarios and problems


Case: Communicating credentials

There are at least 100 different eco-labelling schemes in the EU each competing for the attention of the consumer while serving to validate the sustainability credentials of the products they endorse. Yet such a proliferation of certification schemes, while emphasising the growing importance of sustainability claims as a part of the consumer decision-making process, may only result in confusing the prospective consumer and reducing any potential competitive advantage that the brand could have enjoyed.

Among the many competing accreditation schemes the FAIRTRADE Mark stands out as a cut above the rest. Some consumers believe there are no real differences between the certification schemes, while other consumers perceive that some schemes concentrate more on improving welfare for farmers and supply chain stakeholders in general while other schemes appear to have a more environmental bias. These perceptions are only partly accurate and a reflection of the marketing communications of each of the organisations and their participants.

Despite the confusion between the leading certification brands, the FAIRTRADE mark would still be considered by many to be the market leader with currently over 1 billion in sales, which are growing year on year, and a number of major brand names have been added to its increasing portfolio. Although the figures are encouraging there is still much room for improvement and growth of Fairtrade as fairly traded goods still only represents less than 1% of global trade.

In March 2010 Sainsburys supermarket announced it was the worlds largest Fairtrade retailer, claiming to have sold 218 million worth of Fairtrade goods during 2009. In December 2006 when Sainsburys declared that all its banana supplies would be Fairtrade certified, it was biggest ever commitment to date by a single company anywhere in the world. In 2007 Sainsburys set up the Fair Development Fund to enable more producers from developing countries to become Fairtrade certified. The fund is run in partnership with Comic Relief and has already helped producers in Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. The impact of just buying a single Fairtrade product can be significant. Now Sainsburys sells 1,200 Fairtrade bananas a minute creating 4 million in Fairtrade premiums each year. Besides bananas, many of Sainsburys own label products are Fairtrade such as, roast and ground coffee, sugar and tea. Sainsburys Red label tea generates around 1.4 million in Fairtrade premiums each year benefitting communities in Malawi, Kenya and Southern India. However, consumers are still more likely to identify the Co-operative supermarket as the most ethical supermarket despite Sainsburys outselling them and their other ethically positioned rivals Waitrose and Marks and Spencer.

Different certification schemes have different aims and objectives and may not be equally attuned to all aspects of sustainable business practice. A close inspection of schemes reveals key differences exist between the rival certifications regarding pricing of commodities and the interpretation of fairer economics in the supply chain, environmental policy, promotion of social policies, working conditions and workers rights including union membership, qualifying percentage of certified ingredients in products, inspection regimes and overall level of required compliance with regulations.

Another important aspect worth considering is the degree of independence of the certifying body. A certification scheme with industry domination of the standard setting body and in its membership and finance can be expected to have more industry-friendly standards. In contrast, standards can be expected to be stricter where a certification scheme is dominated by an independent environmental and socially responsible organisation.

Consumers now have a range of well-known brands to choose from, which show allegiance to certifying schemes and no doubt they feel they can offset the food miles of many fairly traded products in the knowledge that they are contributing to social change and environmental protection in those places that most need it.

To a certain extent the proliferation of certified labels has left consumers to make their own decisions regarding which organisation assures the fairest supply chains. Although the FAIRTRADE mark offers the most stringent guarantees; the organisation runs the risk of losing out to brands being attracted to less expensive, less demanding schemes which will give them a short-cut to the image of certified, accredited respectability needed for their marketing communications.

There are some long-standing difficulties facing Fairtrade and Fairtrade certified brands:

o Consumers have tended to focus on tea and coffee
o Smaller brands are often less well-known
o Fairtrade is still not brand of choice and consumers will not make a special trip to obtain a Fairtrade product outside their normal shopping routine
o Few consumers are aware of the diversity of Fairtrade products e.g. cotton, flowers, beauty products, gold
o Consumers do not always distinguish whole products (coffee) from ingredients within finished products (cotton in a garment)
o Price may be perceived to be high

If consumers think all certifications provide the same level sustainable performance then brands ill miss out on the opportunity to differentiate themselves from competitors with similar sustainability badges. Who bears the responsibility for communicating the credentials of schemes to the final consumer to ensure differentiation can take place ??" the accrediting organisation or the brand that uses the badge? As consumers become more aware of the differences between competing sustainable certifications but also more aware of the related, competing sustainability issues such as the choice between fairer economics and the carbon footprint of food miles ??" how will the consumer decision-making process be affected?

Sources:
Fridell, M. et al (2008) With friends like these: The Corporate Response to Fair Trade Coffee Review of Radical Political Economics 40, 1, pp. 8-34. Fairtrade Foundation (2006) available at: http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/press_office/press_releases_and_statements/archive_2006/dec_2006/sainsburys_banana_switch_is_the_worlds_biggest_ever_commitment_to_fairtrade.aspx accessed 12th April 2010. Reynolds, J. (2010) Brands divided over fairtrade certification Marketing 24th February 2010 page 4. Batsell, J. Bumper crop of Coffee Labels Seattle Times Monday 20th September 2004. Trauben, J. (2009) Fair Expectations: Rainforest Alliance v. Fairtrade Organic Consumers Association 23rd June 2009 available at: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18372.cfm accessed 10th April 2010. Siegle, L. (2009) Is buying fair trade a waste of money? The Observer Magazine 22nd February 2009, page 59.

Case adapted from Emery, B. P. (2012) Sustainable Marketing Harlow: Pearson


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Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this unit you should be able to:
Assessment Criteria
To achieve the learning outcome you must demonstrate the ability to:
- Recognise and analyse the main organisational sectors within urban areas and their relationship to sport tourism.
Evaluate to what extent a variety of stakeholders contribute in sport tourism-related urban development programmes.
- Evaluate and apply theoretical and practical techniques to a range of urban sport tourism situations.
Analyse and evaluate a range of data and urban strategies connected to the development and promotion of sport and tourism
-Critically apply appropriate academic literature and theory to produce creative and realistic solutions to case/problem work.
Prepare an individual report that outlines a sport related strategy that will contribute to positive and sustainable urban renewal and/or regeneration

Task
You are required to prepare a report comparing and critiquing the impacts and issues in relation to two specific sporting events. You are free to choose any events you wish, within any sport, but these events must not be from the same category of events. Therefore, you must pick one from two of the following events:
? Mega/Major Events
? Hallmark Events
? A special one off sport event
? A sport festival
It is expected that your report will cover as a minimum the impacts and issues in relation to the following areas:-
? Socio/cultural
? Environmental
? Economic
Your report must relate specifically to the destination that your events have taken place in and the impacts or issues resulting from your chosen events. In addition, you will be expected to identify the interested parties/stakeholders for each of your events and to assess whether their legacies have been met, and if not why.
The main body of the report should investigate the different impacts that have resulted due to holding your events, with as much evidence as possible to back up your claims, and should include a critical analysis of the different impacts and issues between the two types of events. The conclusion to your report should sum up the impacts and issues that were a result of your chosen events, and whether overall you believe the positive impacts outweighed the negative impacts, or vice versa. You are expected to end your report with a Recommendation section covering suggestions that future, similar events can operationalise to alleviate any similar negative impacts, again this should be supported by theoretical knowledge.
You are expected to make reference to a wide variety of sources, and that you acknowledge and reference them correctly. You can use newspaper articles, if appropriate as long as they link to academic theory to support your work.

Learning by Doing

A nice aspect of a course in business communication is that you can learn by doing. In business communication, you can actually create real communications (such as emails, letters, memos, etc.) and see how they work out in real life. In the TUI tradition of creating Session Long Projects that actually apply to your life and work, we ask you to create a communication for the organization you are in.

Assignment:

Using the resources below, write one routine email and one goodwill email for the organization you are in. If you are not in an organization, you can pick one that interests you. You can make up the content, or you can write real ones. After you've written them, analyze them, identifying all the principles for creating good news messages, routine messages and emails that it embodies. This should be three or more pages long.

Then write a brief summary (about 300 words) explaining why you wrote your message as you did. In this summary, please discuss your objectives and how you used the background readings.

Be sure to submit the e-mail and summary in the same document.

This section of the assignment should include references, properly cited, to articles from the background materials.

Your assignment will be graded on logical flow, ease of reading, tone of message, references to articles, understanding of concepts, and (for that extra special touch) tasteful creativity.

Be careful: remember that emails can be leaked! If your email appeared on Page 1 of the Wall Street Journal, would you be proud or embarrassed?

Submit your assignments to CourseNet by the module's due date.

Assignment Resources:

On Writing Emails

Professional E-Mail Needs Attention
Christensen, G.J. (2003). Professional E-mail Needs Attendion. Accessed June 3, 2011, at: http://www.csun.edu/~vcecn006/email.html

Does E-Mail Escalate Conflict?

This article helps explain some of the bad outcomes that email can lead to. It also helps you see how to avoid these outcomes.

Johnson, L. K. (2002). Does E-Mail Escalate Conflict? MIT Sloan Management Review. 44(1) 14-15. (ProQuest)

Writing Effective E-Mail: Top 10 Tips
Jerz, D.G. (2000). E-Mail: Ten Tips for Writing It Effectively. Accessed June 3, 2011, at: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/e-text/email/

On Writing Goodwill Messages

The Write Stuff for Quality
Campanizzi, Jane (2005). The Write Stuff for Quality. Accessed June 3, 2011, at: http://qpc.co.la.ca.us/cms1_035856.pdf.

On Intercultural Communication

Intercultural Communication: A Guide to Men of Action
This article is very old, very short and very good.

Hall, E. T. & Whyte, W. F. (1960). Intercultural Communication: A Guide to Men of Action. The International Executive. New York, 2(4) 14-15. (ProQuest)

The Anthropology of Manners

Ditto for this one.

Hall, E. T., (1959). The Anthropology Of Manners. The International Executive. New York, 1(3), 9-11. (ProQuest)

Assignment Expectations:

Write two short emails.

Write a summary explaining why you used the principles you used in writing your emails.

Learning Assessment #1
?
Introduction to Strategy and SWOT Analysis
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Paper Introduction
?
Prepare a 5 - 7 page Analytic Paper in which you respond to the instructions listed below and follow APA writing guidelines .? APA stands for the American Psychological Association.?
?
Student papers written for courses within the College of Business are expected to follow the writing standards and guidelines outlined by APA.? You can learn more about APA writing standards by visiting this web site:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ .?? In the upper right corner of the web site you will find a link titled ?APA Formatting and Style Guide.?? It is the second bullet point under the section titled ?Most Popular Resources.?
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Paper Instructions
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Write two pages: ??? ?Write two pages in which you review the core concepts in the assigned readings.? Don?t attempt to review all the concepts in these readings, only those concepts which most help you better understand strategy.? The assigned readings are as follows:
?
1. Chapter 1 ? SWOT Analysis I??????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????? ????????
???????????
2. Chapter 2 ? SWOT Analysis II
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3. What is Strategy by Michael Porter
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4. Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy by M. Porter
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Write three to five pages :??? Using the concepts listed below write three to five pages in which you analyze an organization you know well.? The concepts to use in analyzing this organization are as follows:
?
??????????? SWOT Analysis
???????????
??????????? Porter?s Five Forces
???????????
??????????? Core Competency(s) of the organization
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??????????? Strategic Advantage(s) of the organization

Learning from different realist and surrealist modes of literary and artistic expressions, you are required to produce a creative project of your own:

With a picture from the Peak of Hong Kong, you need to draw a picture in response to it. Now, you have chosen to draw Russian-Israeli artist Leonid Afremovs nostalgic oil paintings - Alley by the Lake (http://afremov.com/product.php?productid=17674) , after drawing your picture, write an essay of about 600 words to explain the rationale behind and explore the ways in which artistic and cultural texts relate to reality in these 2 pictures. You must use subheadings on the essay as they can be good pointers for your readers.


Something about Leonid Afremov:

His paintings seem to slow down time, letting us enjoy the precious details of these closed autumnal cities. The painter is famous for his unusual, yet very effective technique: all he uses for his paintings are oils, canvas and the palette-knife. The brush-free paintings give an astounding edginess to the luminous cities and landscapes.

Leonid Afremov is one of the greatest and best-known modern impressionists of our time. He is highly respected among art critics and collectors. Afremovs paintings have made their way to the private houses and galleries in the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, France, Spain and many other countries. This is even more admirable knowing that the artist is self-representing and all of his promoting and selling processes are held on Internet.

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Prepare a 1,400- to 1,750-word paper in which you analyze the concept of verbal learning. As a part of your analysis, you must address the following items:

? Describe the concept of verbal learning.

? Compare and contrast serial learning, paired associate learning, and free recall.

? Explore the concept of Mnemonics in the recall of verbal stimuli.

Include at least four references from scholarly sources.

Read all Journal Blog 1 - Final Posts

1. Identify 3-5 key learnings from your classmates posts and give an example of how you will use each learning.

2. Identify 2 learnings that you think will be important to our study of multicultural communication in the workplace.

3. List two topics from reading your classmates posts that you would like to learn more about


For your reference this is assignment is related to order number A2069432.
Essentially (and as indicated above) the assignment is to read through the essays of fellow classmates and answer the questions above. I am attaching my classmates essays in the resource file section.

Also when referring to a students essay please refer to the students name who wrote the essay. I have included the name of the essays and the student who wrote the essay in the reference page.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

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Customer is requesting that (Hophead) completes this order.