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Tuesday, November 21, 2017
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I am a professional hunter and I am sharing my knowledge on those blogs. If you really love to hunt get in touch with my sharing information. Happy Hunting.
I am a professional hunter and I am sharing my knowledge on those blogs. If you really love to hunt get in touch with my sharing information. Happy Hunting.
Saturday, April 15, 2017
The Faith of Science, the Science of Faith
Pages overflow with words on the relation of Science and Religion. And that is all good. Mankind has not yet reconciled the two, and many take sides claiming either one or the other to be the greater truth. However, in that discourse, even discord, the exploration for deeper understanding raises mankind.
So let me add a few more pages.
The Apparent Lack of Miracles
Let us take as true the claim that few if any clear miracles have occurred in the last centuries, basically since the dawn of the scientific era. Many may disagree, even vehemently, but let us accept that statement.
What would be a clear miracle? Anything the four main gospels indicate Christ performed, i.e. a directed, observable transformation outside any known scientific explanation and astounding in that transformation. We will add that a current miracle needs verification by an array of non-religious authorities and observation by many.
As noted, let us accept no such miracle has occurred in the last several centuries.
Would that establish anything? I would offer that it would not. The lack of miracles would shed little or no light on the questions of the existence of the supernatural, and the relation of Science and Religion.
In the great Foundation series, Issac Asimov postulates that a great mathematician Hari Seldon develops a technique, psychohistory, which can predict the future of the Galactic Empire. Seldon predicts a thirty millennium dark age, and sets in motion a plan to shorten that to a thousand years. The plan will cycle through stages, during which different cultural forces, be it technology or commerce or worship, each have primacy. The flow of these cycles creates a sweep of history that will shorten the impeding dark ages.
Religious salvation at the hand of a God could readily run through stages. Just as Seldon psychohistory ran through stages, religious salvation could require a sequential sweep of stages. We could be in a purposeful stage of no miracles, since a secular development of science may serve as a key stage in salvation sweep.
You may find this hypothesis astounding, even absurd. You may say no sweep of salvation history exists. But you could not base that objection on the "apparent" current no-miracle era. Any lack of miracles in the modern era does not disprove the existence of miracles in other times, nor does it disprove the existence of a God, nor does it disprove the existence of a sweep of salvation history.
Miracles, God and a sweeping salvation history could exist even if the current era lacks miracles.
The Efficiency of Science
Science stands as among the most objective pursuits of mankind. Many have written about how cultural and organizational imperatives bend and corrupt science. However, Science requires objective observational evidence, and in the end observation has banished threads of theories that are incorrect thinking.
Further, at every turn Science has overcome apparent limitations to the observable. Observations are becoming expensive, e.g. the Large Haldron Collider, or the James Webb Space Telescope, but I for one would not be surprised if Science develops methods to observe events before the Big Bang, or that occur in other multi-verses.
There is an uncertainty though. For all of the past and ongoing success of Science, it remains a hypothesis, not a fact, that the explanatory reach of Science can expand for ever. We extrapolate from past and current success that Science can continue to solve problems; but we don't know for certain.
Some might say we have a faith in Science.
You might object. Certainly the trajectory of scientific explanation provides proof of its future efficacy. But we have been at Science for a relatively short period, in historic terms, four centuries, maybe five. And just as the apparent lack of miracles for five centuries provides, in my judgment, no firm foundation for declaring Religion irrelevant, the success of Science for five centuries provides no proof, only a faith, that Science can expand its reach forever.
Am I stating Science will hit a limit? No. What I am saying is that as I, as we, search for understanding and truth, I will not, and we collectively can not, discard that Science could reach a limit.
The Science of Religion
Religion seeks to give insight to that which is beyond, beyond our physical senses and beyond our understanding. Religion provides illuminations about our afterlife, and our origins, and our purpose, and our destiny.
And in numerical and commitment terms, Religion has accomplished that with great success. Billions of people profess faith and belief in the dogma and revelations provided by Religion and the iconic figures of Religion, such as Christ, Mohammed, and Buddha.
But just as I argue the future efficacy of Science can be considered an article of faith, not certainly, I will argue that the faith of Religion contains a weakness born of its essentially complete lack, dare say disavowal, of any scientific explanation.
Why does Religion need some scientific underpinning? Because Religion posits that the transcendental God has in the past and continues now to enter into the world. He spoke to the prophets, he became man, he performed miracles, he hears our prayers, he sends us grace, he gives us wisdom. How does a God accomplish that? By what mechanism does he reach from the supernatural into the natural to impact our tangible world?
Let's take a simple example. Before a trip, believers pray to God for a safe bus trip. How does God hear that prayer? At what point do our words and thoughts pierce the envelope of existence and enter the transcendental realm. No observation of science has tripped across any instance that would correspond to our words or mental thoughts leaving to a supernatural realm.
And how does God make our trip safe? How does he influence the mental state of the driver to pay attention, what electro-chemical or quantum-entangled signal does a transcendental consciousness send to make the ocular neurons in the driver's brain be more perceptive of coming hazards. Science has never observed such an influence.
The reply often states that one must accept the methods of God to be a mystery; that one must believe.
That is fine. But at some point, just like Science must see its continued efficacy as an article of faith, Religion must see that the coherence of its theology involves some accommodation to a scientific underpinning for the mechanism by which the supernatural impacts our actuality.
Christ turned water into wine in real space, in real time, and those who drank the liquid perceived it as wine. Christ walked on water. Christ rose from the dead. Those are physical events, involving matter and energy transformation. Unless Religion wants to admit those events were illusions or trickery, some physical mechanism underlies those events, and likely that mechanism is observable. It could be a mechanism beyond any science we know, but that mechanism must be, as I view it, something observable.
The rejoinder might be God suspended the laws of physics. The question remains. How? What field or mechanism or force does God use to effect that suspension?
One may view as blasphemy a search for a scientific explanation of a God. God lies beyond science; we can not know him through science. That may be. God can remain beyond Science. What would seem can not remain outside Science is the mechanism of his influence.
The Journey
Religion and Science both seek the truth. And at times for some, and at times for many, Religion and Science, both the institutions and the members, conclude they have the truth, or that the truth lies just around the next discovery.
But we might be mistaken. Truth may not be at hand, or even near.
Remember what we have just covered. The existence of miracles, or rather their apparent lacking, stands as a hot button of focus, even controversy, but by my contention that focus is misplaced. Science sees itself as objective, but by my contention the ultimate efficacy of Science rests on a type of faith. Religion views its realm as the spiritual, but by my contention Religion fails to recognize how it must address its consistency and integration with Science.
So we have common postulations that might be wrong.
And similarly, while the postulation might be correct that truth might be at hand, we have no certainty of that. In many a past era, individuals have judged, preached and proclaimed religious or scientific truth to be complete, only for a succeeding era to discover mystery.
So we may not be near truth. That postulation may be wrong. The ultimate truth of both God and Science could span above us by more than the wonders of the earth span above the comprehension of animals. We could have no more understanding than a butterfly has of a space ship.
With that perspective, that our journey to truth may have many eras to go, centuries, millennium, centuries of millennium, I do not dwell on which has more truth, on whether Science is closer or Religion is closer. We are on a journey to truth. Too much may lie ahead of us to look sideways and argue with our fellow travelers.
For More Thoughts - To get added perspectives, visit the website The Human Intellect. The site contains a wealth of short and medium length discussions on topics ranging from ethics to Einstein, as well as a selection of a few longer articles such as this one.
About the Author - My background includes engineering and business, and my interests cover philosophy, theology and science, as well as sports, hiking and umpiring.
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Technology is Disruptive - And Empowering
Technology changes the way we work, live our lives, and have fun. Technology can empower businesses with improvements in productivity, faster development and production cycles, superior decision making by employees, and enhanced customer service. But deriving these benefits from incorporating new technology is not always a smooth process. Technology is often, at first, disruptive before it becomes empowering.
Although the ideas developed in this article may have general applicability, they are mainly intended to relate to the incorporation of new information and communications technologies into business processes. Information technologies involve computers and their peripheral equipment as well as the data flow across local area networks. Communications involve any voice and video activity including the telephone system and related equipment as well as the communications pathways creating the wide area networks.
Technology Changes Business Processes
Every action conducted within a business is part of one process or another. Sometimes the processes are easily defined and readily observable, as in the path of a purchase order. At other times, the process is not so clear but nevertheless it still exists even if by default.
New technologies are introduced into business to:
- Speed up existing processes
- Extend the capabilities of existing processes
- Change the processes
In changing the processes, the new technologies will often allow new ways of conducting business that were not previously possible.
Other than simply speeding up existing processes, new technologies will be disruptive when first introduced. This results from having to change patterns of behavior and/or relationships with others. When disruption occurs, productivity often suffers at first, until such time as the new processes become as familiar as the old ones. At this point, hopefully, the goal has been achieved of reaching a higher level of productivity than the level at which it started before the introduction of the new technology.
Therefore a common cycle that occurs with the introduction of new technologies includes:
- Disruption
- Lower productivity, and, finally,
- A higher plateau of productivity than the starting point
- Minimize the disruption
- Minimize the time it takes to increase productivity
- Maximize the gain in productivity
- Context in which the processes operate, that is, who will be impacted by changes in the specific processes affected
- Democratizing potential of technology
- Types of people that will react in very different ways to new technologies
- The social relationships within an organization and possibly with companies with whom you conduct business
- Political (power) structures within an organization
- How individuals view themselves and their abilities
Technology can be democratizing. If it is used to create and disseminate information useful to the mission and goals of the business, it can be a great equalizer between "levels" of management and staff. The key word is "disseminate." If access to the information is decentralized, and easy communication of the information is allowed, then "front line" workers can improve the quantity and quality of decisions they make without having to involve layers of management.
Types of People from a Technology Perspective
From a perspective of introducing new technology into your company, you may find it helpful to understand the following four types of people:
- Innovators/embracers
- Enthusiasts
- Acceptors
- Naysayers
Enthusiasts will accept new technology enthusiastically. They won't usually seek it out but will be eager to incorporate it into their processes where appropriate. As a result of their openness, they will often readily learn how to use the new technology and may also be useful in assisting others through the learning process.
Acceptors will accept new technology because it is required. They will not seek it out. In fact, they will often try to avoid it at first until they are forced to accept it. Once they understand the new technology is here to stay, they will willingly learn how to benefit from it or, at least, live with it.
Naysayers habitually oppose new technologies and often are very vocal about their opposition. They often gripe about any changes and will often never change if they don't have to or they quit before they are made to change "the way they do things."
The productivity vs. time curve will look different for each of these types of people. Think of how each person in your own organization fits into these four types. Think of how that impacts deriving the full benefits that you've carefully targeted. Think of how that impacts your ability to discover additional benefits once the technologies are implemented. Understanding the differences can help smooth out the rough spots during and after the implementation process.
Lessen the Disruption; Increase the Empowerment
Understanding the context in which processes exist, the democratizing potential of technology, and the types of people will help you achieve the goals stated above for a more rapid payoff from a smoother introduction of new technologies.
In addition, make the new technologies transparent to the user or, at least, make them as intuitive to operate as possible. Extra time in pre-planning the introduction of new technologies and training employees in the use of the technologies can provide a return many times greater than the hours spent in planning and training. You can achieve faster increases in productivity, reduced impact on customers, and lower burdens on support staff.
With proper planning and training, the productivity curve will increase at a faster rate and to a higher level than it might otherwise have achieved
Ed Mass is President of Mass Strategic Communications, Inc., a telecommunications consulting firm since 1993. Visit [http://www.voip-telephone-system.com] and http://www.masscom.com for more information. We specialize in Transforming Telecommunications from a Tactical Tool To a Strategic Business Resource. We Integrate Business Strategies with Technology Opportunities.
We act as an extension of your staff. We are business strategists to increase the performance of your company through intelligent and cost effective use of technology.
Specifically, we consult on IP Telephone System Decisions, Service Provider Decisions for Voice and Data Services, and Services Audits to Inventory All Services and Discover Unused Services. We do all this within a framework of Vendor-Neutral Consulting.
Copyright 2006 Ed Mass and Mass Strategic Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you do not edit the article in any way. You must leave all of the links active and include the full author name credit with company profile.
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History of Educational Technology
There is no written evidence which can tell us exactly who has coined the phrase educational technology. Different educationists, scientists and philosophers at different time intervals have put forwarded different definitions of Educational Technology. Educational technology is a multifaceted and integrated process involving people, procedure, ideas, devices, and organization, where technology from different fields of science is borrowed as per the need and requirement of education for implementing, evaluating, and managing solutions to those problems involved in all aspects of human learning.
Educational technology, broadly speaking, has passed through five stages.
The first stage of educational technology is coupled with the use of aids like charts, maps, symbols, models, specimens and concrete materials. The term educational technology was used as synonyms to audio-visual aids.
The second stage of educational technology is associated with the 'electronic revolution' with the introduction and establishment of sophisticated hardware and software. Use of various audio-visual aids like projector, magic lanterns, tape-recorder, radio and television brought a revolutionary change in the educational scenario. Accordingly, educational technology concept was taken in terms of these sophisticated instruments and equipments for effective presentation of instructional materials.
The third stage of educational technology is linked with the development of mass media which in turn led to 'communication revolution' for instructional purposes. Computer-assisted Instruction (CAI) used for education since 1950s also became popular during this era.
The fourth stage of educational technology is discernible by the individualized process of instruction. The invention of programmed learning and programmed instruction provided a new dimension to educational technology. A system of self-learning based on self-instructional materials and teaching machines emerged.
The latest concept of educational technology is influenced by the concept of system engineering or system approach which focuses on language laboratories, teaching machines, programmed instruction, multimedia technologies and the use of the computer in instruction. According to it, educational technology is a systematic way of designing, carrying out and evaluating the total process of teaching and learning in terms of specific objectives based on research.
Educational technology during the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age
Educational technology, despite the uncertainty of the origin of the term, can be traced back to the time of the three-age system periodization of human prehistory; namely the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.
Educational technology, despite the uncertainty of the origin of the term, can be traced back to the time of the three-age system periodization of human prehistory; namely the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.
Duringthe Stone Age, ignition of fire by rubbing stones, manufacture of various handmade weapon and utensils from stones and clothing practice were some of the simple technological developments of utmost importance. A fraction of Stone Age people developed ocean-worthy outrigger canoe ship technology to migrate from one place to another across the Ocean, by which they developed their first informal education of knowledge of the ocean currents, weather conditions, sailing practice, astronavigation, and star maps. During the later Stone Age period (Neolithic period),for agricultural practice, polished stone tools were made from a variety of hard rocks largely by digging underground tunnels, which can be considered as the first steps in mining technology. The polished axes were so effective that even after appearance of bronze and iron; people used it for clearing forest and the establishment of crop farming.
Although Stone Age cultures left no written records, but archaeological evidences proved their shift from nomadic life to agricultural settlement. Ancient tools conserved in different museums, cave paintings like Altamira Cave in Spain, and other prehistoric art, such as the Venus of Willendorf, Mother Goddess from Laussel, France etc. are some of the evidences in favour of their cultures.
Neolithic Revolution of Stone Age resulted into the appearance of Bronze Age with development of agriculture, animal domestication, and the adoption of permanent settlements. For these practices Bronze Age people further developed metal smelting, with copper and later bronze, an alloy of tin and copper, being the materials of their choice.
The Iron Age people replaced bronze and developed the knowledge of iron smelting technology to lower the cost of living since iron utensils were stronger and cheaper than bronze equivalents. In many Eurasian cultures, the Iron Age was the last period before the development of written scripts.
Educational technology during the period of Ancient civilizations
According to Paul Saettler, 2004, Educational technology can be traced back to the time when tribal priests systematized bodies of knowledge and ancient cultures invented pictographs or sign writing to record and transmit information. In every stage of human civilization, one can find an instructional technique or set of procedures intended to implement a particular culture which were also supported by number of investigations and evidences. The more advanced the culture, the more complex became the technology of instruction designed to reflect particular ways of individual and social behaviour intended to run an educated society. Over centuries, each significant shift in educational values, goals or objectives led to diverse technologies of instruction.
According to Paul Saettler, 2004, Educational technology can be traced back to the time when tribal priests systematized bodies of knowledge and ancient cultures invented pictographs or sign writing to record and transmit information. In every stage of human civilization, one can find an instructional technique or set of procedures intended to implement a particular culture which were also supported by number of investigations and evidences. The more advanced the culture, the more complex became the technology of instruction designed to reflect particular ways of individual and social behaviour intended to run an educated society. Over centuries, each significant shift in educational values, goals or objectives led to diverse technologies of instruction.
The greatest advances in technology and engineering came with the rise of the ancient civilizations. These advances stimulated and educated other societies in the world to adopt new ways of living and governance.
The Indus Valley Civilization was an early Bronze Age civilization which was located in the northwestern region of the Indian Subcontinent. The civilization was primarily flourished around the Indus River basin of the Indus and the Punjab region, extending upto the Ghaggar-Hakra River valley and the Ganges-Yamuna Doab, (most of the part is under today's Pakistan and the western states of modern-day India as well as some part of the civilization extending upto southeastern Afghanistan, and the easternmost part of Balochistan, Iran).
There is a long term controversy to be sure about the language that the Harappan people spoke. It is assumed that their writing was at least seems to be or a pictographic script. The script appears to have had about 400 basic signs, with lots of variations. People write their script with the direction generally from right to left. Most of the writing was found on seals and sealings which were probably used in trade and official & administrative work.
Harappan people had the knowledge of the measuring tools of length, mass, and time. They were the first in the world to develop a system of uniform weights and measures.
In a study carried out by P. N. Rao et al. in 2009, published in Science, computer scientists found that the Indus script's pattern is closer to that of spoken words, which supported the proposed hypothesis that it codes for an as-yet-unknown language.
According to the Chinese Civilization, some of the major techno-offerings from China include paper, early seismological detectors, toilet paper, matches, iron plough, the multi-tube seed drill, the suspension bridge, the wheelbarrow, the parachute, natural gas as fuel, the magnetic compass, the raised-relief map, the blast furnace, the propeller, the crossbow, the South Pointing Chariot, and gun powder. With the invent of paper they have given their first step towards developments of educational technology by further culturing different handmade products of paper as means of visual aids.
Ancient Egyptian language was at one point one of the longest surviving and used languages in the world. Their script was made up of pictures of the real things like birds, animals, different tools, etc. These pictures are popularly called hieroglyph. Their language was made up of above 500 hieroglyphs which are known as hieroglyphics. On the stone monuments or tombs which were discovered and rescued latter on provides the evidence of existence of many forms of artistic hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt.
Educational technology during Medieval and Modern Period
Paper and the pulp papermaking process which was developed in China during the early 2nd century AD, was carried to the Middle East and was spread to Mediterranean by the Muslim conquests. Evidences support that a paper mill was also established in Sicily in the 12th century. The discovery of spinning wheel increased the productivity of thread making process to a great extent and when Lynn White added the spinning wheel with increasing supply of rags, this led to the production of cheap paper, which was a prime factor in the development of printing technology.
Paper and the pulp papermaking process which was developed in China during the early 2nd century AD, was carried to the Middle East and was spread to Mediterranean by the Muslim conquests. Evidences support that a paper mill was also established in Sicily in the 12th century. The discovery of spinning wheel increased the productivity of thread making process to a great extent and when Lynn White added the spinning wheel with increasing supply of rags, this led to the production of cheap paper, which was a prime factor in the development of printing technology.
The invention of the printing press was taken place in approximately 1450 AD, by Johannes Gutenburg, a German inventor. The invention of printing press was a prime developmental factor in the history of educational technology to convey the instruction as per the need of the complex and advanced-technology cultured society.
In the pre-industrial phases, while industry was simply the handwork at artisan level, the instructional processes were relied heavily upon simple things like the slate, the horn book, the blackboard, and chalk. It was limited to a single text book with a few illustrations. Educational technology was considered synonymous to simple aids like charts and pictures.
The year 1873 may be considered a landmark in the early history of technology of education or audio-visual education. An exhibition was held in Vienna at international level in which an American school won the admiration of the educators for the exhibition of maps, charts, textbooks and other equipments.
Maria Montessori (1870-1952), internationally renowned child educator and the originator of Montessori Method exerted a dynamic impact on educational technology through her development of graded materials designed to provide for the proper sequencing of subject matter for each individual learner. Modern educational technology suggests many extension of Montessori's idea of prepared child centered environment.
In1833, Charles Babbage's design of a general purpose computing device laid the foundation of the modern computer and in 1943, the first computing machine as per hi design was constructed by International Business Machines Corporation in USA. The Computer Assisted instruction (CAI) in which the computer functions essentially as a tutor as well as the Talking Type writer was developed by O.K. Moore in 1966. Since 1974, computers are interestingly used in education in schools, colleges and universities.
In the beginning of the 19th century, there were noteworthy changes in the field of education. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), right from its start of school broadcasts in 1920 had maintained rapid pace in making sound contribution to formal education. In the USA, by 1952, 20 states had the provision for educational broadcasting. Parallel to this time about 98% of the schools in United Kingdom were equipped with radios and there were regular daily programmes.
Sidney L. Pressey, a psychologist of Ohio state university developed a self-teaching machine called 'Drum Tutor' in 1920. Professor Skinner, however, in his famous article 'Science of Learning and art of Teaching' published in 1945 pleaded for the application of the knowledge derived from behavioral psychology to classroom procedures and suggested automated teaching devices as means of doing so.
Although the first practical use of Regular television broadcasts was in Germany in 1929 and in 1936 the Olympic Games in Berlin were broadcasted through television stations in Berlin, Open circuit television began to be used primarily for broadcasting programmes for entertainment in 1950. Since 1960, television is used for educational purposes.
In 1950, Brynmor, in England, used educational technological steps for the first time. It is to be cared that in 1960, as a result of industrial revolution in America and Russia, other countries also started progressing in the filed of educational technology. In this way, the beginning of educational technology took place in 1960 from America and Russia and now it has reached England, Europe and India.
During the time of around 1950s, new technocracy was turning it attraction to educations when there was a steep shortage of teachers in America and therefore an urgent need of educational technology was felt. Dr. Alvin C. Eurich and a little later his associate, Dr. Alexander J. Stoddard introduced mass production technology in America.
Team teaching had its origin in America in the mid of 1950's and was first started in the year 1955 at Harvard University as a part of internship plan.
In the year 1956, Benjamin Bloom from USA introduced the taxonomy of educational objectives through his publication, "The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, The Classification of Educational Goals, Handbook I: Cognitive Domain".
In 1961, Micro teaching technique was first adopted by Dwight W. Allen and his co-workers at Stanford University in USA.
Electronics is the main technology being developed in the beginning of 21st century. Broadband Internet access became popular and occupied almost all the important offices and educational places and even in common places in developed countries with the advantage of connecting home computers with music libraries and mobile phones.
Today's classroom is more likely to be a technology lab, a room with rows of students using internet connected or Wi-Fi enabled laptops, palmtops, notepad, or perhaps students are attending a video conferencing or virtual classroom or may have been listening to a podcast or taking in a video lecture. Rapid technological changes in the field of educational have created new ways to teach and to learn. Technological changes also motivated the teachers to access a variety of information on a global scale via the Internet, to enhance their lessons as well as to make them competent professional in their area of concern. At the same time, students can utilize vast resources of the Internet to enrich their learning experience to cope up with changing trend of the society. Now a days students as well teachers are attending seminars, conferences, workshops at national and international level by using the multimedia techno-resources like PowerPoint and even they pursue a variety of important courses of their choice in distance mode via online learning ways. Online learning facility has opened infinite number of doors of opportunities for today's learner to make their life happier than ever before.
Presently Research Associate in the ICFAI University and have been pursuing PhD from Gauhati University, Assam.
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The Age and Online High School Education
You might have a better reason to leave the high school before completion of your education. This is a common plight in many young people. If at a young age a lucrative job opportunity strikes your way you would definitely love to go for that leaving all things apart. Even the conventional study is put off and priority is given to the job opportunity.
At a later stage of life you start feeling that had those years been revived so that you could have completed the course and get hold of the high school diploma. Earlier such a provision for education whenever you would wish to get was impossible. But today it is the most convenient way. Online high school education has paved the path for all. The best part of it is you get hold of the high school degree or diploma by pursuing your other priorities and jobs along with the learning process. Make up your own arrangement to attend the internet classes and you can attend them sitting simply anywhere be it the dense forests in the Amazon basin or the highest range on the mountain peak. The only facility you must have is the Internet connection.
Get connected in the easiest and swiftest possible way and also get the chance of completing your schooling in an all-new way. Begin at any age Your professional life will never be put at stake if you get enrolled in the online high school education at any point of your lifetime. Only you will have to make sure that the course curriculum is at par your other educational records and total profile.
To promote online medium of school and higher education the fee has been so structured to keep it within your reach. Again if the matter of recognition given to online diploma is considered, nowadays it is being highly acclaimed and has been given an equal status as a regular course in the academic session.
Once you complete your high school diploma through online education you too are also eligible to apply for jobs, as any other student from the conventional education background is entitled. Students taking part in a regular course can also avail the online facility. This will help the student to wind up the course in a better and faster way and easily achieve the diploma with great results. In case of such students the online facility is an additional means to supplement the regular education system. Whichever way you go online high school education is ultimately profitable in every sense.
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Degrees Online - Enrolling For Online School & Education For Your Future
A lot of us devote the bulk of their time engaging in the things in life that they have to do, much like studying rather than things they want to do like vacations. Because of this, plenty of people want to participate in online school/education for themselves as well as for their kids. They will take most of these courses to gain even more expertise that could benefit their future.
There are several online institutions and education courses available online. The good thing is that despite the fact that all these courses are available online, the caliber of the degrees online guarantees suitable knowledge and education for everyone.
You will discover online school/education typically offer you courses on just about any line of business you are thinking of studying. Additionally, you definitely will note that they offer courses that focus on psychology or other fields that should get you prepared for employment. And yet other than all of these courses, they are able to in addition offer you education courses that can present you with the credentials and even certifications to be a school teacher.
Many of these courses usually are offered in numerous forms, some have a tutorial format for students who need guidance studying. As a result of online technology, online students could possibly get professors from all across the globe. The teachers in a different country may broaden student's viewpoints by simply sharing knowledge in relation to numerous topics. Teachers will have knowledge relating to different issues that traditional college or university professors lack, resulting from his or her physical location.
As an illustration, you'll find language programs taught on the internet as tutorials. It is usually beneficial for students to have lecturers that are teaching their native language. Not only can they provide language insights but additionally may add something additional such offering insight into the customs as well.
To find the most effective online school and educational courses that were designed to best fit your needs, good research will make sure you choose the most desirable courses and schools on the market. You will discover an array of courses whether it's tutorial courses or collegiate classes that will get you prepared for a line of work.
To ensure that you obtain an excellent education on the web you will want to be sure to find accredited online schools and courses. Credibility will be essential in making use of your education for your future job not to mention getting professors to give the best quality education.
Signing up for online school/education programs with accredited schools offers you several advantages. You'll discover numerous benefits by taking class on your down time since it is convenient when it can be done via the internet.
Online education is no longer a thing of the past. In today's increasing knowledgeable world it's important not to be left behind. Making sure that you know your options is important. With so many different online degrees available; you need to know your choices and what those choices mean. Throughout the country there are so many different online education programs. These programs cover many subjects and can be taken on your own pace and speed.
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Online High School Education Vs Classroom-Based Learning
As long as a student chooses an accredited school to get an online high school education, there will be no difference with regards to the credibility of the diploma compared to classroom-based schools. He will also get the same level of education that students attending traditional education institutions are able to receive. The main difference, however, is that a student who chooses to learn through distance education will be able to take advantage of the flexibility in terms of scheduling, as well as the ability to study at his own pace from anywhere he chooses.
Although many parents of high school students seem to be dubious about the educational system of online high schools, recent studies have actually shown that studying online can benefit students more than learning at traditional institutions. The California State University at Northridge has found that students enrolled in online learning programs tested 20% better than their counterparts who have studied in conventional classroom-based schools. It also noted that distant learners tend to be high achievers with more self-motivation and discipline.
The results of this study show that a student's attitude and motivation toward learning is more important than the methods of delivery regarding the course materials. This also shows that people are changing their views on education. Although there isn't much of a difference with the curriculum, such studies have convinced more and more people that getting an online high school education, especially when combined with eagerness and determination, can also lead to personal and professional success.
Students looking to get an online high school education can always turn to Continental Academy. Providing quality high school completion programs for a broad community of alternative learners in the United States and abroad, the institution puts practical, academically-rewarding, and affordable education within easy reach. In addition, with the kind of guidance and academic support that Continental Academy offers, home schooling online has never been easier and more convenient. Visit ContinentalAcademy.com or contact 1-800-285-3514 for more information.
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If Technology Is Effective in the Classroom - Why Do Some Students Dislike It So Much?
The effectiveness of technology use in the classroom has become a controversial issue. While many teachers and students feel that it's best to use technology because it enhances teaching many others feel that it causes too many challenges and that it is a waste of time. If technology is as effective in the classroom as many teachers believe it to be; why do some students dislike it so much?
In order to objectively respond to this question, 3 articles were examined. 2 out of the 3 relate how the use of technology in the classroom frustrates students while the last one translates the thoughts of students who feel that technology in the classroom has responded to their need. So the issue is not that technology is not effective but rather that some teachers need to be mindful about technology use in the classroom and others need to be trained in order to properly use technology to teach so that students do not view technology as obstruction learning but as an enhancing tool.
After summarizing the 3 articles that have been reviewed we will be able to prove that there are 2 groups of students who claim to dislike technology in the classroom: Those who are improperly exposed to it by their teacher and those who did not give themselves enough time to familiarize themselves with it. We will then be able to get to the logical conclusion that those same students would appreciate the value of technology in the classroom if their teachers used it properly. Let us first summarize the articles that we are referring to.
The article "When good technology means bad teaching related that many students feel that teachers and professor use technology as a way to show off. Students complain of technology making their teachers "less effective than they would be if they stuck to a lecture at the chalkboard" (Young) other problems related by students include teachers wasting class time to teach about a web tool or to flab with a projector or software. When teachers are unfamiliar with the technological tools, they are likely to waist more time trying to use them the technological software that is used the most according to students is PowerPoint. Students complain that teachers use it instead of their lesson plan. Many students explain that it makes understanding more difficult "I call it PowerPoint abuse" (Young). Professors also post their PowerPoint Presentation to the school board before and after class and this encourages students to miss more classes.
Another problem reported in the article with the use of technology in the classrooms is that many schools spend time to train their staff about how to use a particular technology but it does not train them on "strategies to use them well" (Young). The writer believed that schools should also give small monetary incentives to teachers and professors to attend workshops.
In an interview made with 13 students, "some gave their teacher a failing when it came to using Power Point, Course Management systems and other classroom technology" (Young ) some of the complains were again about the misuse of PowerPoint's and the fact that instructors use it to recite what's on the scale. Another complaint was that teachers who are unfamiliar with technology often waste class time as they spend more time troubleshooting than teaching. The last complain mentioned is that some teachers require students to comment on online chat rooms weekly but that they do not monitor the outcome or never make reference to the discussion in class.
Similarly, the article "I'm not a computer person" (Lohnes 2013) speaks to the fact that students expectations as far as technology is concerned is very different. In a study done with 34 undergraduate university students, they advise that technology is an integral part of a university students life because they have to do must everything online from applying for college or university, searching and registering for classes, pay tuition and that in addition to being integrated in the administration, etc. technology is also widely used to teach and is valued by higher education.
Those students, however, feel that technology poses a barrier to success as they struggle to align with the ways in which the institution values technology." A student explains that technology is used in her freshman year to turn in assignments, participate in discussion boards and blogs, emailing the professor, viewing grades and for a wide range of other administrative task including tracking the next school bus. This particular student whose name is Nichole says that she does not own a laptop but shares a family computer. She has a younger brother who also uses the computer to complete his school work so she consequently has to stay up late to complete assignments. She states "technology and I? We never had that connection" (Lohnes). Nichole dislikes the fact that her college requests that she had more contact with technology than she is conformable with. Nonetheless, she explains that as she started doing those school online assignments so frequently she came to realize that they were not that bad.
One of her issues though with technology is that she had come from Puerto Rico about a year prior entering college and that she never had to use the computer so much there. The articles relates that other college students like Nichole have admitted that they are "reluctant technology users" (Lohnes) The article wants to explain, in essence, that although most people would expect that college students prefer technology and are already familiar with it," that assumption is faulty" (Lohnes).
On the other hand, the article "What Screenagers Say About... " High school age students were asked about what they thought of technology but most expressed liking it. One of them said about PowerPoint: "My history teacher did a good job with Power Points. He would put them online, which made for really great reviews." (Screneagers, 2011) Others expressed how technology was really who they are and that teachers should understand for example that when they text in class, they are not being rude but that they have gotten used to multi tasking. Another student invites teachers to not be afraid of technology "Teachers shouldn't be afraid of technology. Understand that it's how we live our lives. So don't just push it out. Learn to cope with us and how we work." (Screenagers, 2011)
Another student however, expressed how she prefers simpler technology that her teacher is comfortable with rather than high tech that the teacher does not manipulate well "The most important thing for teachers is to be comfortable with what they're using. It doesn't have to be super high tech. My math teacher used a projector, and it was one of my favorite classes. Then I would go to this other class where the teacher used Power Points and the SMART board, but I didn't get any more out of it because she wasn't comfortable with the technology" (Screenagers, 2011) Students spoke about their appreciation for virtually all types of technology used in the classroom. Another said "One of my teachers used Skype. That's face-to-face interaction. If I had a problem with some math problem I was working on, I could take a picture of it and put it on the Skype screen. She could see where I was making my mistake. It really helped." (Screenagers, 2011) The bottom line is that those high school students wanted to let teachers know that they really like technology and that it is already a great part of their daily routine but that it had to be used properly in order for them to enjoy it.
Similarly, they summarize a few things that they dislike as well. Among the list, they said: reading on the computer, paying a lot for an online textbook and the fact that they often forget everything else when they get caught up with using technology.
Nonetheless, they had much more positive things they liked in technology like for example that some teachers would text a question for them to think about before class, so if they do not know they answer, they would communicate with classmates to discuss the possibility for the answer before class. This allows them to go to class prepared. They also like using Skype, emailing their teachers instead of going to speak to them in person. They also enjoy discussion boards. The advice they would like to convey to their teachers is to make sure that they are comfortable with whatever technological tools they are using, to give them more freedom to use the good sites and those in the middle range when they are surfing the net using school computers and to understand that technology is part of their lives.
After summarizing those articles, we can see that the students mentioned in Youngs, 2004 dislike technology because their experience with it was not satisfactory. In other terms, a group of students dislike technology because some teachers are not mindful about technology use or they need additional training. For example, some students are frustrated because they feel that instructors waist their time when they are not properly trained to use the technological tools. Others disliked the fact that some teachers had PowerPoint presentations which were either not meaningful or they would just read whatever they wrote and add no additional comments. Those examples are called "bad teaching (Young, 2004) and they are in fact terrible examples that teachers should not follow because technology is not meant to help teachers do the least work or to adopt poor teaching practices. Somme students related that PowerPoint was widely used by teachers so they even call it PowerPoint abuse.
I can relate to what is being expressed by those students. I observed a Teaching Assistant teach a grammar class recently. He purchased a device to allow him to monitor the screen without touching the computer. He was able to walk throughout the class while changing slides. It all looked so impressive but despite all of this show, students were left so confused at the end of the lesson. When they asked questions, he went back to the slide that had the grammar rule and read it over to the class. The PowerPoint was a duplication of the textbook chapter. The same examples of the book were used. At the end of the course, he felt that he had done a great PowerPoint when in fact, it was not meaningful. It was a copy/paste project from the text book to the screen. This example shows that we need to use common sense when using technology. When teaching grammar, a teacher has to be able to come up with examples other than those in the book, you have to write on the board, have student practice what they have learned. PowerPoint use was a real bad idea, in my opinion, for teaching this course. It was just not the right technological tool for the lesson.
Students in that class may decide that they hate Power Points because it confuses them more while the issue is not with the use of PowerPoint but instead with the teacher's poor choice of technology. The point I also want to make here is that teachers may sometimes be unaware of their improper use of technology. This is why, as educators, we sometimes need to ask students for their feedback so we may make corrections where needed.
We can then conclude that those students dislike technology as a result of improper technological use by teachers, and also because many teachers do not attend workshops or training sessions to help them obtain a broader knowledge of technology since they are so busy. Like suggest (Youngs, 2004) and (Lohnes, 2012), those same busy teachers would have attended those trainings if there were given an incentive. In the article "Technology Standards in a Third-Grade Classroom" (Kovalik, 2001), it is related how a study done on a 3rd grade class of 25 showed that students were properly using technology. There is no indication that those students dislike using technology. The article also mentioned how the teachers were highly trained because the Ohio board pays incentive to teachers to participate in technology training which teaching them not only how to use technology by teaches them strategies on when to use them.
Boards from other states should consider doing the same thing to ensure that their teachers are responding to the technological need of their students and that they are teaching them according to the standards. The Ohio school mentioned above met the standards as far as technology is concerned because of the technology coaching received by the teachers. If teachers learn how to properly use technology in the classroom, it will be a less frustrating experience for them and for the student who will less likely dislike technology since it will meet its purpose to enhance teaching.
The other groups of students who dislike technology are those who were not exposed to it for long enough. The College Freshman, Nichole advises that she was not exposed to so much technology while she was in high school in her home country; consequently, it seemed to be a burden to her to have to need a computer to complete most of her school assignments but also to interact with her classmate via a discussion board. What is interesting though is that even though she claimed to dislike technology so much, she advised that once she started to spend so much time using it, she realizes that it is not so bad. Even though it is likely that some people do not like the telephone and texting so much, the computer and some website have become part of most people daily routine. In Nichole's case, she does not own a laptop and has to wait for her turn to use the family computer which means that she has no attachment to this media because her use of it is controlled. However, once she gets to own her own computer, it is a guaranteed that her view of technology will change.
I returned to school after about 12 years. When I was in college the 1st time around, nothing was electronic but when I contacted USF to apply, they told me that everything was online. At first, I asked why everything was online but once I got used to it, I started to understand the value of having the convenience to do a lot of things without having to live my home.
Therefore, Nichole will certainly not continue to dislike technology that much once she gets more familiar and more attached to it. The fact is that she stated that she started to realize that it was not that bad once she started doing so many assignments. She came to the conclusion that the computer was not yet a friend but that it was no longer an enemy; it became to her an acquaintance.
With this understanding, depending on the background of some ELL students and depending on whether or not they were exposed to technology in their home country, they may not like technology at first but this should not be a sign that they will never come to appreciated it. As teacher, we will need to allow them time to familiarize themselves with it while we continue to properly use it so that we do not advocate against it or involuntary send missed information about its true value.
On the other hand, the last article testifies to the fact that the new generation is technology driven and that when used properly, they benefits from it in the classroom, there are several examples of how teachers originally used technology to teach which are appreciated by students. What should the conclusion be then?
We have proven that technology use is effective in the classroom but that teachers need to take some actions in order to make this tool useful to students. It is necessary that they received some training if they lack it, and like a student suggested in the Screenager article, they should refrain from using complicated tools if they are not sure about how to use them. It's best to properly use something much simpler that they are familiar with like a high school student suggested.
In addition, it is important for teachers to screen the countless technological tools and to research them before introducing them to their teaching. Should they test some that do not work well, they have to stop using them and seek one that is more appropriate. Most importantly, technology is not always the answer this is why teachers should be balanced when using it. If it is required that we use the board and chalks to help students better understand, this is what we should do. Doing so, we will ensure that more students appreciate the use of technology in the classroom for what it is worth.
Work Cited
Kovalik, Cindy, Lynn Smolen, and Jazmine Toddy. "Technology Standards In A Third-Grade Classroom."
Journal Of Research On Computing In Education 33.5 (2001): 1-17. Academic Search Premier.
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Journal Of Research On Computing In Education 33.5 (2001): 1-17. Academic Search Premier.
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Lohnes Watulak, Sarah. "'I'm Not a Computer Person': Negotiating Participation in Academic
Discourses." British Journal Of Educational Technology 43.1(2012):109-118. OmniFile Full Text
Mega (H.W.Wilson). Web.9Aug. 2013.
Discourses." British Journal Of Educational Technology 43.1(2012):109-118. OmniFile Full Text
Mega (H.W.Wilson). Web.9Aug. 2013.
Young, Jeffrey R. "When Good Technology Means Bad Teaching" Chronicle Of Higher Education
51.12(2004): A31-A31. Academic Search Premier. Web.9Aug.2013.
51.12(2004): A31-A31. Academic Search Premier. Web.9Aug.2013.
What Screenagers Say About... (2011). Educational Leadership, 68(5), 44-46 Wed. 9 Aug.2013.
By
NICK MYRCA MALEBRANCHE- GAUTHIER
Subject: Classroom Technology
8/9/13
8/9/13
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Impacts of Information Technology on Society in the New Century
In the past few decades there has been a revolution in computing and communications, and all indications are that technological progress and use of information technology will continue at a rapid pace. Accompanying and supporting the dramatic increases in the power and use of new information technologies has been the declining cost of communications as a result of both technological improvements and increased competition. According to Moore's law the processing power of microchips is doubling every 18 months. These advances present many significant opportunities but also pose major challenges. Today, innovations in information technology are having wide-ranging effects across numerous domains of society, and policy makers are acting on issues involving economic productivity, intellectual property rights, privacy protection, and affordability of and access to information. Choices made now will have long lasting consequences, and attention must be paid to their social and economic impacts.
One of the most significant outcomes of the progress of information technology is probably electronic commerce over the Internet, a new way of conducting business. Though only a few years old, it may radically alter economic activities and the social environment. Already, it affects such large sectors as communications, finance and retail trade and might expand to areas such as education and health services. It implies the seamless application of information and communication technology along the entire value chain of a business that is conducted electronically.
The impacts of information technology and electronic commerce on business models, commerce, market structure, workplace, labour market, education, private life and society as a whole.
1. Business Models, Commerce and Market Structure
One important way in which information technology is affecting work is by reducing the importance of distance. In many industries, the geographic distribution of work is changing significantly. For instance, some software firms have found that they can overcome the tight local market for software engineers by sending projects to India or other nations where the wages are much lower. Furthermore, such arrangements can take advantage of the time differences so that critical projects can be worked on nearly around the clock. Firms can outsource their manufacturing to other nations and rely on telecommunications to keep marketing, R&D, and distribution teams in close contact with the manufacturing groups. Thus the technology can enable a finer division of labour among countries, which in turn affects the relative demand for various skills in each nation. The technology enables various types of work and employment to be decoupled from one another. Firms have greater freedom to locate their economic activities, creating greater competition among regions in infrastructure, labour, capital, and other resource markets. It also opens the door for regulatory arbitrage: firms can increasingly choose which tax authority and other regulations apply.
Computers and communication technologies also promote more market-like forms of production and distribution. An infrastructure of computing and communication technology, providing 24-hour access at low cost to almost any kind of price and product information desired by buyers, will reduce the informational barriers to efficient market operation. This infrastructure might also provide the means for effecting real-time transactions and make intermediaries such as sales clerks, stock brokers and travel agents, whose function is to provide an essential information link between buyers and sellers, redundant. Removal of intermediaries would reduce the costs in the production and distribution value chain. The information technologies have facilitated the evolution of enhanced mail order retailing, in which goods can be ordered quickly by using telephones or computer networks and then dispatched by suppliers through integrated transport companies that rely extensively on computers and communication technologies to control their operations. Nonphysical goods, such as software, can be shipped electronically, eliminating the entire transport channel. Payments can be done in new ways. The result is disintermediation throughout the distribution channel, with cost reduction, lower end-consumer prices, and higher profit margins.
The impact of information technology on the firms' cost structure can be best illustrated on the electronic commerce example. The key areas of cost reduction when carrying out a sale via electronic commerce rather than in a traditional store involve physical establishment, order placement and execution, customer support, strong, inventory carrying, and distribution. Although setting up and maintaining an e-commerce web site might be expensive, it is certainly less expensive to maintain such a storefront than a physical one because it is always open, can be accessed by millions around the globe, and has few variable costs, so that it can scale up to meet the demand. By maintaining one 'store' instead of several, duplicate inventory costs are eliminated. In addition, e-commerce is very effective at reducing the costs of attracting new customers, because advertising is typically cheaper than for other media and more targeted. Moreover, the electronic interface allows e-commerce merchants to check that an order is internally consistent and that the order, receipt, and invoice match. Through e-commerce, firms are able to move much of their customer support on line so that customers can access databases or manuals directly. This significantly cuts costs while generally improving the quality of service. E-commerce shops require far fewer, but high-skilled, employees. E-commerce also permits savings in inventory carrying costs. The faster the input can be ordered and delivered, the less the need for a large inventory. The impact on costs associated with decreased inventories is most pronounced in industries where the product has a limited shelf life (e.g. bananas), is subject to fast technological obsolescence or price declines (e.g. computers), or where there is a rapid flow of new products (e.g. books, music). Although shipping costs can increase the cost of many products purchased via electronic commerce and add substantially to the final price, distribution costs are significantly reduced for digital products such as financial services, software, and travel, which are important e-commerce segments.
Although electronic commerce causes the disintermediation of some intermediaries, it creates greater dependency on others and also some entirely new intermediary functions. Among the intermediary services that could add costs to e-commerce transactions are advertising, secure online payment, and delivery. The relative ease of becoming an e-commerce merchant and setting up stores results in such a huge number of offerings that consumers can easily be overwhelmed. This increases the importance of using advertising to establish a brand name and thus generate consumer familiarity and trust. For new e-commerce start-ups, this process can be expensive and represents a significant transaction cost. The openness, global reach, and lack of physical clues that are inherent characteristics of e-commerce also make it vulnerable to fraud and thus increase certain costs for e-commerce merchants as compared to traditional stores. New techniques are being developed to protect the use of credit cards in e-commerce transactions, but the need for greater security and user verification leads to increased costs. A key feature of e-commerce is the convenience of having purchases delivered directly. In the case of tangibles, such as books, this incurs delivery costs, which cause prices to rise in most cases, thereby negating many of the savings associated with e-commerce and substantially adding to transaction costs.
With the Internet, e-commerce is rapidly expanding into a fast-moving, open global market with an ever-increasing number of participants. The open and global nature of e-commerce is likely to increase market size and change market structure, both in terms of the number and size of players and the way in which players compete on international markets. Digitized products can cross the border in real time, consumers can shop 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and firms are increasingly faced with international online competition. The Internet is helping to enlarge existing markets by cutting through many of the distribution and marketing barriers that can prevent firms from gaining access to foreign markets. E-commerce lowers information and transaction costs for operating on overseas markets and provides a cheap and efficient way to strengthen customer-supplier relations. It also encourages companies to develop innovative ways of advertising, delivering and supporting their product and services. While e-commerce on the Internet offers the potential for global markets, certain factors, such as language, transport costs, local reputation, as well as differences in the cost and ease of access to networks, attenuate this potential to a greater or lesser extent.
2. Workplace and Labour Market
Computers and communication technologies allow individuals to communicate with one another in ways complementary to traditional face-to-face, telephonic, and written modes. They enable collaborative work involving distributed communities of actors who seldom, if ever, meet physically. These technologies utilize communication infrastructures that are both global and always up, thus enabling 24-hour activity and asynchronous as well as synchronous interactions among individuals, groups, and organizations. Social interaction in organizations will be affected by use of computers and communication technologies. Peer-to-peer relations across department lines will be enhanced through sharing of information and coordination of activities. Interaction between superiors and subordinates will become more tense because of social control issues raised by the use of computerized monitoring systems, but on the other hand, the use of e-mail will lower the barriers to communications across different status levels, resulting in more uninhibited communications between supervisor and subordinates.
That the importance of distance will be reduced by computers and communication technology also favours telecommuting, and thus, has implications for the residence patterns of the citizens. As workers find that they can do most of their work at home rather than in a centralized workplace, the demand for homes in climatically and physically attractive regions would increase. The consequences of such a shift in employment from the suburbs to more remote areas would be profound. Property values would rise in the favoured destinations and fall in the suburbs. Rural, historical, or charming aspects of life and the environment in the newly attractive areas would be threatened. Since most telecommuters would be among the better educated and higher paid, the demand in these areas for high-income and high-status services like gourmet restaurants and clothing boutiques would increase. Also would there be an expansion of services of all types, creating and expanding job opportunities for the local population.
By reducing the fixed cost of employment, widespread telecommuting should make it easier for individuals to work on flexible schedules, to work part time, to share jobs, or to hold two or more jobs simultaneously. Since changing employers would not necessarily require changing one's place of residence, telecommuting should increase job mobility and speed career advancement. This increased flexibility might also reduce job stress and increase job satisfaction. Since job stress is a major factor governing health there may be additional benefits in the form of reduced health costs and mortality rates. On the other hand one might also argue that technologies, by expanding the number of different tasks that are expected of workers and the array of skills needed to perform these tasks, might speed up work and increase the level of stress and time pressure on workers.
A question that is more difficult to be answered is about the impacts that computers and communications might have on employment. The ability of computers and communications to perform routine tasks such as bookkeeping more rapidly than humans leads to concern that people will be replaced by computers and communications. The response to this argument is that even if computers and communications lead to the elimination of some workers, other jobs will be created, particularly for computer professionals, and that growth in output will increase overall employment. It is more likely that computers and communications will lead to changes in the types of workers needed for different occupations rather than to changes in total employment.
A number of industries are affected by electronic commerce. The distribution sector is directly affected, as e-commerce is a way of supplying and delivering goods and services. Other industries, indirectly affected, are those related to information and communication technology (the infrastructure that enables e-commerce), content-related industries (entertainment, software), transactions-related industries (financial sector, advertising, travel, transport). eCommerce might also create new markets or extend market reach beyond traditional borders. Enlarging the market will have a positive effect on jobs. Another important issue relates to inter linkages among activities affected by e-commerce. Expenditure for e-commerce-related intermediate goods and services will create jobs indirectly, on the basis of the volume of electronic transactions and their effect on prices, costs and productivity. The convergence of media, telecommunication and computing technologies is creating a new integrated supply chain for the production and delivery of multimedia and information content. Most of the employment related to e-commerce around the content industries and communication infrastructure such as the Internet.
Jobs are both created and destroyed by technology, trade, and organizational change. These processes also underlie changes in the skill composition of employment. Beyond the net employment gains or losses brought about by these factors, it is apparent that workers with different skill levels will be affected differently. E-commerce is certainly driving the demand for IT professionals but it also requires IT expertise to be coupled with strong business application skills, thereby generating demand for a flexible, multi-skilled work force. There is a growing need for increased integration of Internet front-end applications with enterprise operations, applications and back-end databases. Many of the IT skill requirements needed for Internet support can be met by low-paid IT workers who can deal with the organizational services needed for basic web page programming. However, wide area networks, competitive web sites, and complex network applications require much more skill than a platform-specific IT job. Since the skills required for e-commerce are rare and in high demand, e-commerce might accelerate the up skilling trend in many countries by requiring high-skilled computer scientists to replace low-skilled information clerks, cashiers and market salespersons.
3. Education
Advances in information technology will affect the craft of teaching by complementing rather than eliminating traditional classroom instruction. Indeed the effective instructor acts in a mixture of roles. In one role the instructor is a supplier of services to the students, who might be regarded as its customers. But the effective instructor occupies another role as well, as a supervisor of students, and plays a role in motivating, encouraging, evaluating, and developing students. For any topic there will always be a small percentage of students with the necessary background, motivation, and self-discipline to learn from self-paced workbooks or computer assisted instruction. For the majority of students, however, the presence of a live instructor will continue to be far more effective than a computer assisted counterpart in facilitating positive educational outcomes. The greatest potential for new information technology lies in improving the productivity of time spent outside the classroom. Making solutions to problem sets and assigned reading materials available on the Internet offers a lot of convenience. E-mail vastly simplifies communication between students and faculty and among students who may be engaged in group projects. Advances in information technology will affect the craft of teaching by complementing rather than eliminating traditional classroom instruction. Indeed the effective instructor acts in a mixture of roles. In one role the instructor is a supplier of services to the students, who might be regarded as its customers. But the effective instructor occupies another role as well, as a supervisor of students, and plays a role in motivating, encouraging, evaluating, and developing students. For any topic there will always be a small percentage of students with the necessary background, motivation, and self-discipline to learn from self-paced workbooks or computer assisted instruction. For the majority of students, however, the presence of a live instructor will continue to be far more effective than a computer assisted counterpart in facilitating positive educational outcomes. The greatest potential for new information technology lies in improving the productivity of time spent outside the classroom. Making solutions to problem sets and assigned reading materials available on the Internet offers a lot of convenience. E-mail vastly simplifies communication between students and faculty and among students who may be engaged in group projects.
Although distance learning has existed for some time, the Internet makes possible a large expansion in coverage and better delivery of instruction. Text can be combined with audio/ video, and students can interact in real time via e-mail and discussion groups. Such technical improvements coincide with a general demand for retraining by those who, due to work and family demands, cannot attend traditional courses. Distance learning via the Internet is likely to complement existing schools for children and university students, but it could have more of a substitution effect for continuing education programmes. For some degree programmes, high-prestige institutions could use their reputation to attract students who would otherwise attend a local facility. Owing to the Internet's ease of access and convenience for distance learning, overall demand for such programmes will probably expand, leading to growth in this segment of e-commerce.
As shown in the previous section, high level skills are vital in a technology-based and knowledge intensive economy. Changes associated with rapid technological advances in industry have made continual upgrading of professional skills an economic necessity. The goal of lifelong learning can only be accomplished by reinforcing and adapting existing systems of learning, both in public and private sectors. The demand for education and training concerns the full range of modern technology. Information technologies are uniquely capable of providing ways to meet this demand. Online training via the Internet ranges from accessing self-study courses to complete electronic classrooms. These computer-based training programmes provide flexibility in skills acquisition and are more affordable and relevant than more traditional seminars and courses.
4. Private Life and Society
Increasing representation of a wide variety of content in digital form results in easier and cheaper duplication and distribution of information. This has a mixed effect on the provision of content. On the one hand, content can be distributed at a lower unit cost. On the other hand, distribution of content outside of channels that respect intellectual property rights can reduce the incentives of creators and distributors to produce and make content available in the first place. Information technology raises a host of questions about intellectual property protection and new tools and regulations have to be developed in order to solve this problem.
Many issues also surround free speech and regulation of content on the Internet, and there continue to be calls for mechanisms to control objectionable content. However it is very difficult to find a sensible solution. Dealing with indecent material involves understanding not only the views on such topics but also their evolution over time. Furthermore, the same technology that allows for content altering with respect to decency can be used to filter political speech and to restrict access to political material. Thus, if censorship does not appear to be an option, a possible solution might be labelling. The idea is that consumers will be better informed in their decisions to avoid objectionable content.
The rapid increase in computing and communications power has raised considerable concern about privacy both in the public and private sector. Decreases in the cost of data storage and information processing make it likely that it will become practicable for both government and private data-mining enterprises to collect detailed dossiers on all citizens. Nobody knows who currently collects data about individuals, how this data is used and shared or how this data might be misused. These concerns lower the consumers' trust in online institutions and communication and, thus, inhibit the development of electronic commerce. A technological approach to protecting privacy might by cryptography although it might be claimed that cryptography presents a serious barrier to criminal investigations.
It is popular wisdom that people today suffer information overload. A lot of the information available on the Internet is incomplete and even incorrect. People spend more and more of their time absorbing irrelevant information just because it is available and they think they should know about it. Therefore, it must be studied how people assign credibility to the information they collect in order to invent and develop new credibility systems to help consumers to manage the information overload.
Technological progress inevitably creates dependence on technology. Indeed the creation of vital infrastructure ensures dependence on that infrastructure. As surely as the world is now dependent on its transport, telephone, and other infrastructures, it will be dependent on the emerging information infrastructure. Dependence on technology can bring risks. Failures in the technological infrastructure can cause the collapse of economic and social functionality. Blackouts of long-distance telephone service, credit data systems, and electronic funds transfer systems, and other such vital communications and information processing services would undoubtedly cause widespread economic disruption. However, it is probably impossible to avoid technological dependence. Therefore, what must be considered is the exposure brought from dependence on technologies with a recognizable probability of failure, no workable substitute at hand, and high costs as a result of failure.
The ongoing computing and communications revolution has numerous economic and social impacts on modern society and requires serious social science investigation in order to manage its risks and dangers. Such work would be valuable for both social policy and technology design. Decisions have to be taken carefully. Many choices being made now will be costly or difficult to modify in the future.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Ankit_Faldu/2286834
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