Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 5

Education - Essay Example As the report declares educational status in the United States is much ahead of the developing countries. Though funds for education are quite high, proper utilization of these funds is very essential. The educational systems in United States must focus on for certain issues such as character development, moral formation, discipline, safety, protection from drugs and early sex in the schools etc. These issues are as important as the subject knowledge. Therefore it is essential that the instructors and the parents together need to look into these aspects more seriously. This paper stresses that the aim of teaching is to make student learning possible. The role of a facilitator, or instructor, in Education is to understand the need and interest of the students and provide them the ideal conditions for learning. The task of the instructor in education is the creation of a learning environment in which students are encouraged to think carefully and critically and express their thoughts, and in which they wish to confront and resolve difficulties, it involves constantly monitoring and reflecting on the processes of teaching and student understanding and seeking to improve them. The first and foremost reason people want to become a facilitator or instructor is that it is a one of the most creative profession that provide a unique, definite, and essential social service. Teachers play a most important role in formulating the future of our civilization by providing the best education. This profession gives a sense of satisfaction.

Effective Communication in the Workplace

Effective Communication in the Workplace Communication is an important aspect of any work place. It can consist of verbal and nonverbal messages. Effective communication, especially in the field of computer technology, is essential to work place productivity. Communication is considered to be effective when both parties involved have the same understanding of the message being sent. Effective Communication doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out affair or an elaborate meeting. It can be short and simple; precise and to the point. It can be a manager walking down sending a short email to one of his assistants to request an update on the necessary protocols for a new system. Another example of effective communication could be a coworker reminding another coworker of a mandatory section meeting at 2:00 P.M. later the same afternoon. Neither of these exchanges took a long time, but they are direct and to the point. This is what makes for effective communication. (McIntosh, 2008) Verbal messages are one form of communication. Verbal messages consist of words spoken between two or more people. They can take place face to face or via the telephone or other electronic medium like video conferencing. Interpersonal communication makes up the majority of your every-day communication. This includes conversations with your family, friends, and coworkers. (Wood, 2014) One thing to remain aware of in your verbal messages is the clarity and ambiguity. A lot of problems in communication stem from simple misunderstandings. To avoid this, we must make a conscious effort to refrain from using ambiguous language in our conversations. Focusing on clarity and ambiguity reminds me of a time when I was in the military. In 1979, I was stationed in a remote location in Greece. I often worked with Greek personnel to accomplish daily jobs. During this time, I became very familiar with the saying â€Å"always tomorrow.† I found out early during my stay in Greece that the Greek work for tomorrow is pronounced, â€Å"av-iee-o†. When requests were made of our Greek counterparts, their answer would always be â€Å"av-iee-o†, meaning tomorrow. When the next day came, the work was expected to be completed. When the work was not received, a follow up would be made and the answer again was simply, tomorrow. I later found out that when requests were made, a specific time and date needed to be stipulated because â€Å"tomorrow† from my Greek counterparts equated to whenever they were finished. I truly found out the meaning of â€Å"always tomorrow† the hard way. After learning this, every request was given with an absolute time and date for expected completion. This scenario is not subject to just my experiences in the military. Misunderstandings like this can be avoided by utilizing as much clarity in your communication as possible. Other issues with clarity can stem from using slang and jargon. Using slang can be a slippery slope. While it may be perfectly fine for use with your friends and family in a less formal setting, it can leave your bosses and clientele with a negative impression of your competence. It can also be confusing if not everyone understands your slang. Jargon, on the other hand is more technical is sort of short-hand and can be quite useful on the job. Like slang, however, it can be confusing to people outside of your company or industry. So, it is not advisable to use jargon too much in formal communications, especially communications with clients or people from other industries. Keeping your communication clear, but concise can help avoid giving ambiguous statements that leads to confusion and misunderstandings. (Flood, 2008) Words can be an effective tool in moving people’s emotions. They can be used to motivate individuals to work harder. Conversely, they can evoke feelings of anger and provoke a defensive stance from the recipient. For this reason, another characteristic of verbal messages to avoid is using inflammatory language. â€Å"Inflammatory language is one of the most common causes of conflict escalation.† (Askin, 2003) The fact that words can evoke such negative feelings is enough of a reason to try to avoid the use of inflammatory language. It is obvious you should avoid words that promote negative feelings of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and more. Trigger words are so inflammatory that they can instantly invoke a severe emotional response. It is important to realize how inflammatory they can be. What might seem to be simple and innocent to you could in fact be a trigger word to someone else. You should first accept that you have trigger words of your own and learn to be aware of them. Then you can start to be more aware of the fact that others will have a reaction to what you say, be it negative or positive. What you say is not the only thing that matters in communication. You must also be aware of how you say it. Nonverbal communication includes the tone you use, your facial expressions, gestures, body language and more to help convey your messages and give them a deeper meaning. (Wood, 2014) It is all the ways you express yourself without actually using words. Nonverbal messages are extremely important, especially in work place communication. The way you say the words you use to communicate, your body language and gestures, even your posture can all contradict what you are actually saying. Some research has shown that people tend to believe the nonverbal cues displayed when someone’s verbal and nonverbal communication are not in sync. Friedrich Nietzsche once stated, â€Å"All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.† (Smith, 2013) This can be applied to the importance of nonverbal communication. The overall morale of an office can have a great impact on its productivity. Nonverbal messages can have a significant impact on the morale. For instance, an employee gives a presentation to their manager. Throughout the presentation, the employee sees the manager yawning and fidgeting a lot. One thing this employee might think is that the manager is not interested in the presentation at all. This can cause the employee to lose some of their â€Å"zeal† for working there and lower their morale. With lowered morale, the employee’s production begins to slip over time. (Ray, n.d.) One of the â€Å"problems† with nonverbal behavior is that it can be somewhat ambiguous. It is easy to interpret someone’s body language the wrong way. For instance, in the example above, the employee could have mistaken the manager’s yawning as showing their lack of interest in the topic. However, the yawning could just as easily been caused by a lack of sleep the night before. The constant fidgeting could have been due to drinking too much coffee before the meeting to compensate for a lack of sleep. (Adler, 2014) Even though nonverbal communication can be easily misinterpreted, it is still important to be careful of the images you convey. Even though what you say through verbal communication is still very important, how you say it can determine how much your audience retains. Dustin York is an assistant professor at Maryville University. He conducted an experiment to determine how much of a factor nonverbal communication really played in the retention of information from presentations. During his experiment, he used 4 university classes totaling 80 students. Each of the classes had a guest lecturer giving the exact lecture. The wording and information was all the same, but each guess was instructed to vary their nonverbal cues throughout the lecture. Two lectures were instructed to use effective nonverbal communication in the presentations, while the other two were instructed to use poor nonverbal communication. The students were all given the exact same test after the lectures. York found that the students attending the lectures with effective nonverbal communication scored approximately 30% higher than students of the other lectures. (York, 2013) Effective communication requires both verbal and nonverbal communication to work together. It has been determined that nonverbal communication works with verbal communication to either reiterate the message, contradict the message, emphasize the message, or complement the message. You should be careful not to use nonverbal cues to contradict the message too much or you can appear to be untrustworthy. (Wood, 2014) Effective communication is a vital key to any successful workplace. In the computer technology field, coworkers rely on each other to relay accurate information. In dealing with clients, it is important to be able to communicate with them effectively. You must remember to speak clear and concise messages. This will allow you to improve your clarity and reduce any ambiguities. You must also be careful of what you say. Stay away from slang, jargon and inflammatory words, especially trigger words so that your audience can remain receptive to your message. Just as important, if not more, be cognizant of the nonverbal messages that you send. While your verbal messages are important, you must always be aware of the effect that your nonverbal cues add to them. Combining the effective use of both verbal and nonverbal communication can lead to increased productivity in the workplace. References: McIntosh, Perry, et al. Interpersonal Communication Skills In The Workplace. [New York?]: American Management Association, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 11 July 2014. Akin, Jennifer. Escalation-Limiting Language. . Beyond Intractability, 1 Sept. 2003. Web. 10 July 2014. http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/escalation-limiting-language>. Wood, Layne. Verbal Versus Nonverbal Communciation. . Live Strong, 12 Jan. 2014. Web. 10 July 2014. http://www.livestrong.com/article/157893-verbal-communication-vs-nonverbal-communication/>. Ray, Linda. Nonverbal Behavior in the Work Place. . Demand Media, n.d. Web. 9 July 2014. http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/nonverbal-behavior-workplace-2851.html>. Smith, Jacquelyn. 10 Nonverbal Cues That Convey Confidence At Work. . Forbes, 11 Mar. 2013. Web. 9 July 2014. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/03/11/10-nonverbal-cues-that-convey-confidence-at-work/>. York, Dustin. 5 Keys to Great Nonverbal Communication. . Ragans PR Daily, 31 Dec. 2013. Web. 11 July 2014. http://prdaily.com/Main/Articles/5_keys_to_great_nonverbal_communication_15623.aspx. Flood, Timothy E.. MBA fundamentals: business writing. New York: Kaplan Pub., 2008. Adler, Ronald B. Communicating at Work 11th Edition. : McGraw-Hill Education, 2014.

Choosing a Major Essay -- University College Education Essays

Choosing a Major Some people already know by the age of seven that they want to become a pilot or nurse; others, however, have more difficulties deciding what to do with their future. People who decided to go to a university or college have to make an important choice: what major are they going into? For many people this is a very difficult question. As the statistics show, one out of five students change their major between admission and the first day of classes. Nearly three out of four students change majors at least twice before they graduate. And three out of four college students express uncertainly about their major. These striking results raised some questions for me. Is it really necessary to choose a major? What influence has the choice of a specific major on the student and his or her education? What are the opportunities for the future? And how can these students be helped? Since I am still having trouble choosing a major myself, I decided to do some research on this topic and I hope it w ill help you a little bit to make the right choice. Before you start to think about a major, you might ask yourself why you should choose a major in the first place. There are several answers to this question. The first one is very simple: choosing a major is required by the university. Every college will request you to select an area of concentration, usually called a major. Each major has a set of requirements: number of courses, electives, and comprehensive examination. The general goal is to require the exploration and understanding of a body of material and of the techniques needed for mastery of that material. This is the university’s view on the requirement of a major. However, there are some other perspectives on t... ...y you have enthusiasm for and do well in,† is advice often given by employers. Lynn Cheney, former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, agrees: â€Å"Students who follow their hearts in choosing majors will most likely end up laboring at what they love. They’re the ones who will put in the long hours and intense effort that achievement requires. And they’re the ones who will find the sense of purpose that underlies most human happiness.† Indeed, a major is required, but it will also influence your education and the perspective from which you will view the world around you. You don’t have to worry too much about your job opportunities, so choose a major you like. It will not only make your education more enjoyable, so you can get the best out of it, but it will also provide you with a more positive view of the world and make your life more pleasant.

Jacob Marley Essay

This year the Citizens Theatre, which is a professional theatre, performed the well known pantomime â€Å"Scrooge†. I have been to the Citizens Theatre many times previous to seeing â€Å"Scrooge†. The Citizens Theatre is internationally recognized theatre with a proscenium arch stage and shows a variety of different plays, some very traditional and some very contemporary. As a child I was always amazed by the set and costumes used in the Citz’s pantomimes, it seamed that no corners were cut. So with this in mind I expected, not so much of a panto, but more of a theatrical performance with great visuals and I would say I was correct to say this. I am fairly familiar with the pantomime â€Å"Scrooge† adapted from the Charles Dickens’ book â€Å"A Christmas Carol† as I have seen it in other theatres prior to this year at the Citz. The Citz’s, I thought was maybe not as traditional as the other versions but it was equally, if not more so, entertaining. I went to the pantomime twice whilst it was on, first with my peers and then with young children. IT was very interesting to see how they both reacted. The Story of â€Å"Scrooge† is about a man called Ebenezer Scrooge, a wealthy business man full of greed counting every penny entering and parting his pocket. On Christmas Eve he is visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner Jacob Marley, who has come to warn Scrooge of what awaits him if he carries on with his greediness. That evening Scrooge is to be visited by the three ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. Firstly the ghost of Christmas past comes to show him of the happy times before his self-inflicted loneliness caused by his greed, as a child and as a young man. Then the ghost Christmas present shows Scrooge the Cratchit family. The Cratchit family is very poor and consists of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s employee, his wife and their four children including their son Tiny Tim who is extremely ill. Scrooge is forced to realize that all the people around his fine it difficult to speak well of him. The ghost of Christmas future tells scrooge nothing but shows him of his death burdening all the people around him with the greed he left behind as they celebrate his death. Seeing this awful future that he himself could be creating, Scrooge decides to change for the better, rewarding workers with a pay rise and giving money to charity he had previously changed and donating a rich Christmas feast to the Cratchit family. The quality of the set was amazing as it was very grand and the size of the stage meant that the set could be quite big without being pretentious. All around the stage is painted Scrooges favorite phrase â€Å"Bah Humbug† in italic writing. At first there was just an office set up with a window through which you could see all the Characters entering the scene, I thought that this made the action more realistic and was quite interesting. The window was also used for carol singers and the audience could just faintly hear then which made it feel like you were actually in the office. When Scrooge goes home the office wall is raised to reveal a whole new set which is even more spectacular. A set of stone stairs lead up to Scrooge’s bedroom, luxuriously decorated compared to his office that is on a 15 foot tall platform. The most exciting part of the set was when Christmas present arrives with his set, a whole new room painted red into which he is camouflaged, just rolling on moving Scrooge’s room away. This room is decorated with lots of Christmas decorations. The one prop used by Scrooge a lot was a light bulb which showed how grudging he was because he would remove it with such care whenever leaving the room. Obviously the main character in the play was Ebenezer scrooge. He was an old, selfish, grumpy, bitter old man. We could tell this by his facial expressions that were always very twisted. Although dressed in a suite his long scraggly hair and unshaven face showed that he wasn’t all that concerned with his appearance. This rugged look indicated his age as well as his movement which was hunched over and slow. At the end however we see a very different scrooge that stands up tall with his head in the air to show his confidence has been gained and he is proud of his changes. I think this could’ve been shown by making a greater contrast as I didn’t think the change in Scrooge was very dramatic. At the end of the play we are made aware that Scrooge does care about the people around him. He may have realized in a selfish manner, but he changed before it was too late which is what matters, leaving us with a fairy tale ending. I think one of the most dramatic characters in the play has to have been Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s deceased business partner. He appears from the floor when Scrooge’s light suddenly cuts out. His costume is amazing with a death gown shredded with blood smeared across it to signify that he is dead and has been tortured for his sinful life. Although impressive, Jacob Marley’s entrance was quite alarming and younger children found it quite scary, especially along with the chains on his wrists and ankles acting as the chains binding him to hell. Compared the quietness of the room before, this huge explosion of noise is very effective. He comes to warn scrooge and is desperate to get the message to him, we can tell this by the way in which he attempts to get closer to him but the chains stop him, there is also wind blowing against him stopping him making contact with Scrooge.

Bsa 375 Sr-Rm-022 Part 1

Myrna Bravo Riordan Manufacturing is in need of updating their decrepit HRIS system to stay profitable. This system will move from the legacy system, integrated with the financial system, into a new standalone system used to integrate all of the HR tools within the system presently. In 1992 Riordan Manufacturing opened its doors to the Human Resources Department. At that time the system, HRIS, was integrated to be cohesive with the financial system.Now, 20 years later, the system has seen better days as it continues to utilize both outdated hardware to run the system and processing methods for the current data associated with the system. Riordan Chief Operations Officer, Hugh McCauley, has reached out to find a single standalone solution to their need for an updated HRIS. This solution is aimed at becoming more sophisticated, state of the art information system in the Human Resources Department. Initial Evaluation Riordan Manufacturing currently operates one system for seven differen t facets of the Human Resources Department.This system is responsible for the following information: employee information, training and development records, open positions and applications, performance and attendance, compensation, employee relations, and the original financial suite as well. Each individual facet has its own key personnel that use the systems respectively to the other systems. Some aspects of the system are still in hard copy forms kept in locked cabinets in the offices of the personnel responsible for them. Worker’s compensation is maintained by a third-party organization that maintains their own records.Key Stakeholders Key stakeholders will include the end users of each system that is in use at this time. This can be organized into a JAD session for each area to acquire the information in a brain storming environment instead of the feeling of an interrogation. The culture of the organization will lend invaluable information to developing the system. In ad dition to the end users that work with the software daily both Yvonne McMillan, Director of HR, and Maria Trinh, Chief Information Officer, will be conferenced with the stakeholders to provide their perspectives of the requirements.Maria will be brought in to the requirements solicitation to provide information and resources of the physical requirements while agreeing upon acceptable and favorable terms for the system as a whole. Yvonne will be brought in as an overall eye of the system. Her point of view will be more thorough about the system than the end users. Her sight is of an overall understanding whereas the end users only see their portion. Other key stakeholders will be advised of the information and updated to the progress as the information becomes available.The other key stakeholders will include the other executives of Riordan Manufacturing. Information Gathering and Analysis Tools It is important to have information gathering techniques so that no information can be ov erlooked. The information system that we are looking for must meet the requirements of the organization and the employees that will be using the system. The first part of information gathering should consist of identifying information sources.The main sources of information in the company should be employees who use the system and will be using the new one because they can tell you what works and what does not work or basically what’s good about this system so that we can implement it in the new system. Another source is forms and documents that have been used in the past for example accreditation paperwork or system requirement paperwork. There are also procedure manuals, rule books and reports that can be used to gather information as well.Once the analyst have identified proper sources they will then view the current system and determine the system’s problem areas as seen by the people who currently use the system and from that develop the SRS (Systems Requirements Specification) which is a tool that analyst use to specify what information requirements will be provided and also can be used for detailed design of the system. The SRS should be complete, specify operational, tactical, and strategic information requirements, it should eliminate possible arguments between users and analysts and it should use graphical aids easily understood by users who are not computer savvy.â€Å"Information Gathering†,  n. d). Techniques to Gather Requirements Several techniques are available to gather requirements information about the system. These can include interviews, documentation, and sequestered input through surveys or other mediums. Ideally one of the most effective means of gathering this information is through interviews of the people that use the system most often. While dealing with interviews we need to make the most of the time available and as such one of the best means is by utilizing a Joint Application Development session.This will provide the interviewees the ability to freely share ideas of what is wrong with the system, what is right with the system, and what is neutral. JAD will provide more information than individual interviews. The use cases ability will provide us access to the system to walk step by step through the system processes to discover how the system is for untrained personnel, resource management, and reliability. This will provide us with information that is not obtained by any other means in certain terms.The information gathering process will continue to the end of the project by the stakeholders providing feedback based on results. As we proceed through the design and development of the system we will have the ability to test each phase. This testing will provide the stakeholders with an opportunity to provide information based on the results. Information gathering will be continuous for Maria Trinh and her department as we will require their input about system longevity and down time al lotted for the new system. This information will be obtained at the inception of the project and built into the application.If the time frame provided from Maria Trinh in regards to down time is not obtainable, negotiations will commence to find a favorable median up time to maintenance time. I propose categorizing the requirements into functional requirements, operational requirements, technical requirements, and transitional requirements. The functional requirements define how the user thinks the system is functioning overall, the operational requirements define what background processes need to be executed in order for the system to work optimally over a period of time, the technical requirements define what echnical issues that must be addressed in order to successfully implement the system, and the transitional requirements define the processes or steps needed to implement the system smoothly and successfully. Project Scope â€Å"Project scope is the part of project planning t hat involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables, tasks, costs and deadlines† (Rouse of TechTarget. com).This scope should include the following (â€Å"Dummies. om†,  2012):Justification: How and why your project came to be, the business need(s) it addresses, the scope of work to be performed, and how it will affect and be affected by other related activities.Objectives: The products, services, and/or results your project will produce (also referred to as deliverables).Product scope description: The features and functions of the products, services, and/or results your project will produce.Product acceptance criteria: The process and criteria for accepting completed products, services, or results.Constraints: Restrictions that limit what you can achieve, how and when you can achieve it, and how much achieving it can cost.Assumptions: Statements about how you will address uncertain information as you conceive, plan, and perform you r project.ConclusionAll of the information gathered through JAD Sessions; interviews; and hands on experiences will be set into current attribute categories. Each of these categories will be divided to show the good aspects and the bad aspects of the application. All of this will be agreed upon unanimously in a last JAD session to determine what the actual requirements are that need to be placed into the requirements list. The requirements list will then be compiled to form the foundation of the scope and feasibility of the project. After the scope and feasibility have been accepted by the organization we will begin the development process.