Learning Is A Continuous Process Education Essay

Learning Is A Continuous Process Education Essay It is said that Ignorance is Bliss. If that be the case, one may wonder why people seek knowledge. This is because Knowledge is Power. That is why everyone is in pursuit of knowledge. Acquiring / up gradation of knowledge is known as learning. Learning is a continuous cyclic process. It starts from what one knows. It goes towards what one wants to know. The cycle is as shown below [1] In the process of learning, one picks up from what others know and some times one learns from ones own experience. Many times the success in life comes through learning new skills, knowledge, capabilities and attitudes. If we narrow our concern to the success of learning process in educational institutions, the success cannot be measured as a simple parameter. The success may be seen immediately or it may be felt at a later date. Success may be felt by an individual or it may be felt by the society. In many societies, education is seen as cost center and not as profit center. Governments in the world spend huge sums of money to educate their population. Generally these investments are made currently with an eye on future generations of the society. All along lifetime of mankind, education and continuous up- gradation of knowledge have been contributing to development of society. In a broad sense the following parameters can form the basis of measuring the success of learning: Knowledge gained Skills up-gradation Decision making capability Attitudinal change Ability to shoulder responsibility Problem solving capability Judgmental capability II LEARNING PROCESS Many principles are used to accelerate learning process [2]. Learning style depends on students preferences, students information processing capability, personality, social interaction tendencies, cultural diversity in the learning place and instructional methods. It may be difficult to model learning process precisely. There is a lot of disagreement between the educators and psychologists in the understanding of learning process. However, they agree that learning can be explained by the combination of two approaches namely, behaviorism and cognitive theory. Some of the principles that affect learning are readiness, exercise, effect, primacy, intensity, recency and perception. The factors that affect perception are physical organism, basic need, goals and values, self concept, time and opportunity and element of threat. There are four levels of learning namely, Rote learning, understanding, application and correlation. Higher levels of learning take place in cognitive domain, affecti ve domain and psychomotor domain. However, any knowledge / skill learnt are liable to be forgotten if not used regularly. There are methods for retention of what is learnt. The methods are praise, recall by association, favorable attitudes, meaningful repetition and leaning with all senses. Learning or acquiring of knowledge, skill etc are aimed at enhancing a persons decision making capability, problem solving ability, judgmental capabilities, ability to shoulder responsibilities and above all confidence of that person. Since learning is an important aspect of students lives, it becomes all the more important for us (teachers) to concentrate on different learning processes and various teaching methods that can bring about the required change in the students for maximum benefits. From the understanding of learning process, we understand that teaching involves transfer of knowledge, belief, skill, understanding, experience, values and preferences from the teacher to the taught. While undertaking any teaching assignment, the teacher is interested in knowing he sure methods of success in achieving the required goal of transfer of knowledge etc. There is no specific fool-proof method for available for the same. The success depends on the subject taught and methods employed. If one method has failed, the teacher must find another that can facilitate transfer of maximum information. In short, teaching is not considered to be a science and it is recognized as an Art. III PEDAGOGIES Different pedagogies are used for teaching different subjects. The well known, time tested standard and traditional pedagogies are chalk and talk, demonstration, tutorials, experiments and questions. But it has been found that these pedagogies fall short of expectations. So, there have been efforts to identify more effective novel strategies for teaching. We shall discuss some of the novel pedagogies and some of e-learning methods. Recent pedagogies include Role play, learn while you play, Learn through games, promoting Lateral thinking, Discovery learning, Cooperative learning, Case studies and Peer teaching. More recent methods are e-learning and m-learning pedagogies. We shall discuss each of these in detail. 3.1 Role Play Role play as a pedagogy has been in use for some time now [3]. It has been recognized as an effective learning tool especially for development of attitudinal skills. It exposes the participants to different views / perspectives for the same situation. All the participants may have gone through the theory of situations and how to react to such situations. However, in practice, one may find himself / herself wanting. Role play lets the participants go through the experience and to understand what different people may think / do at the same situation. In a role play a scenario is explained through a brief given to set of players. Each player may have been given different responsibilities and with different goals / objectives. There may be roles with conflicting interests as in the real life scenario. As the players play out the scenario, the possible obstacles in any ones plan are unfolded. Each one learns about the others ideas and each player gains more insight in to real life situati on. The result is the rich experience gained by all. 3.2 Learn while you play This pedagogy is use in use since kindergarten scheme of education is in vogue. This pedagogy is used mainly to help children get out of their homesickness in to a system of education. The system is use from 19 Century [4]. The pedagogy is useful in making even the reluctant child to join his / her friends in learning the basics of language / numbers. It has been found to be very effective across large societies. One of the reasons for this pedagogy to be successful is that it makes learning an interesting activity. It can possibly be beneficial if the same pedagogy is extended o higher learning also, specifically for learning skills. 3.3 Learn through games This pedagogy is very much useful for learning management skills. This is practiced in many International Schools of management [5,6]. It was started in 1958. It seeks to initiate reactions (management decisions) from students in a simulated environment. The game(s) can be played by a group of students across the table or it can be played over the Internet. Assisted learning is possible with the teacher providing necessary inputs so the student makes correct decisions. A good example is TOC V6 that can be played over the Internet [7]. The game lets the students to create a company, operate railway lines, plan routes and tariffs, plan advertisement and management strategies based on simulated results. In this game, the player is expected to make management decisions in the spheres of personnel, business planning, marketing and financial management. 3.4 Lateral Thinking The term Lateral Thinking was invented in the year 1967 by Edward De Bono [8]. It lets the students to think out of the box. The practice has been found to be useful in many situations. The website by the author is very useful in understanding the full capabilities of the practice of lateral thinking. In any situation, one can find the way out by simply thinking differently. As an approach, it is beneficial for all students to be encouraged in the art of lateral thinking as they are likely to face different problems than the ones for which they are prepared now. Good example of lateral thinking is the game of crossword. It tries to find an answer to a seemingly difficult statement. 3.5 Discovery Learning It is a good tool to let the students learn new concepts simply by discovering them. It is originally proposed by Jerome Bruner [9]. Discovery Learning is a method of inquiry-based instruction, discovery learning believes that it is best for learners to discover facts and relationships for themselves. This pedagogy allows knowledge to be constructed by the students themselves. In this method, the learner discovers the facts from their past experience and existing knowledge [10]. David Kolb has suggested an experimental learning model in 1984 [11] as shown below. Seymour Papert, a Professor from MIT has said You cant teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it [12]. Learning orientations are found to happen in four different domains, namely, Behavior, cognitive, humanist and social domains. Out of these, cognition and recognition are mental processes that get sharpened by learning. Cognition is a complicated process that extends beyond what one sees or hears or smells. It provides understanding and association. For example, when we hear background music, we are able to identify the song and also any event / memory associated with it. 3.6 Case studies In this pedagogy, a single person or a group of persons study a situation or case in the real world. That is, they study a real time problem. It is expected that the person or group is involved in extensive research about the problem. Case studies are very helpful in the fields of Business or medicine. Case studies are useful in bringing out the correlations between events. Many times, case studies are also useful in suggesting suitable ways out of any situation. It helps the participants to weigh the pros and cons of different approaches towards the solution to any problem on hand. The benefits of this pedagogy and the approaches are many [13]. Free samples of case studies are also available [14, 15, 16, 17, and 18]. 3.7 Peer Teaching This has been found to be very effective in teaching students with mixed capabilities. This strategy exploits the advent of ICT (Information Communication Technology) in the field of education. In an UNESCO study conducted at Malaysia, it has been found that this pedagogy is very helpful for students in learning [19]. This strategy has been identified as hands On, Heads On, Hearts On strategy. There are many benefits of this strategy as this makes it possible for the learning to continue beyond the classroom and the examinations. It encourages collaboration among the students. But it must be borne in mind that a good student may not always be a good teacher. Main reason for this strategy to be effective is that we tend to remember [20]: 10% of what we hear 15% of what we see 20% of what we hear and see 60% of what we do 80% of what is done actively with reflection; 90% of what we teach others IV RECENT TRENDS Recent pedagogies are e-learning and m-learning using more of ICT. These strategies are more suited for teaching knowledge or concepts. However, for teaching skills, ones personal experience is the best teacher. For example, one cannot learn to swim from any amount of conceptual teaching from any one. One can learn swimming simply by jumping in to a water body and picking up the nuances of swimming. An analysis of e-learning initiatives of Colleges of Technology shows that majority of the staff members here use prepared study material and starting and maintaining discussion forum in websites. Some of the staff also uses power point presentations for transferring knowledge. However, there are some more e-learning pedagogies that can be made use of. We shall discuss them in detail. 4.1 Animation Animation uses the language of pictures. It is easy to convey a concept through an image than through verbose statements. Image captures the attention of viewers better than the ability of a lecturer to capture the attention of the listener. There are many 2D or 3D animation pictures available for teaching different subjects. It is possible to make the students understand certain time-related concepts better with animation than by regular classroom lecture. Many organizations are involved in development of animation pictures for teaching different subjects. 4.2 Simulation Software Many times, especially in design, it may not be possible to build a particular product and then test it. It may be costly and there may be other problems. So, it becomes advantageous if we can simulate a design and test the same in simulation. More over, a product / design that may give certain results under certain conditions, may give varied results under different conditions. While it may be possible to calculate / extrapolate the current situation, simulation helps the person to find the result without having to create the conditions physically. There are soft wares available for simulating various parameters and finding the results. The student can test his / her design under different conditions. Many simulation packages are available for teaching different subjects. 4.3 Video Lectures This is another method where the student is made to listen to the lectures by an eminent person in a field. The lectures by a reputed person are recorded and are available as video lectures. There are many such lectures available in the Internet [21]. The well known lecture series from Professors of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) or Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are available for free down load on any technical subject. These lectures are expected to offer to the student the much needed variety of view on the subject. It must be understood such lectures, though available, are not suited for developing practical skills. 4.4 Audio- visual (AV) lectures These are slightly different from the video lectures. These are useful with additional voice-over. That is, there are practical demonstrations with supporting voice -over instructions. The additional instructions are very helpful in enhancing the understanding of the subject. There are many available, mainly for learning different languages. However, there are a series of AV volumes available for Physical Exercises by Jane Fonda. 4.5 Screen casting and POD casting Some times screencasting helps easy understanding of some subjects [22]. A screen cast is the capture of the computer screen along with accompanying audio (of the teacher) and distributed. It can be viewed through the LAN in screen cast or it can be distributed through mobile network in POD cast. It can be considered to be representation of computer screen over a period of time. It captures changes in the screen for each action. The student, even if he / she has not been attentive in the class to appreciate all the minute points can learn them leisurely at home at a later time. 4.6 Virtual Learning Virtual Reality is the latest technique. It allows the user to experience a simulated Virtual environment in the computer. It calls for use of many gadgets associated with imaginary environments. It helps the student to gain the experience of any situation without having to go through the rigmarole of creating the environment. This is driven by stringent computing power requirements. V CONCLUSION We have considered many pedagogies that can be used in your classroom. After studying all these options, one may wonder if the pedagogy used by that person is the best one. However, it must be borne in mind that a particular pedagogy may be well suited for teaching a particular subject. The same pedagogy may not suit well for teaching other subject. The suitability of the pedagogy is dependent on the following parameters: The subject taught Students capability to understand Students interest to learn Nuances involved in learning that subject The learning environment Compulsion / incentives in learning that subject Language proficiency of teacher and taught We have considered different pedagogies and their relative merits. Only after practice of each of them one can come to a conclusion if it is well suited for any subject. VI References http://www.in-corporate.eu/images/diagrams/learning-process.gif http://www.dynamicflight.com/ Blanter A Blanter , Allee (1997) Applications in Education In the Art of play : Helping Adults reclaim imagination and spontaneity Philadelphia: Bruner/Mazel Taylor Francis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindergarten sbaweb.wayne.edu/~absel/bkl/vol17/17ck.pdf http://www.cmu.edu/corporate/news/2007/features/mgmt%20game.shtml Carnegie Mellon University http://tocgame.sr1.fi/ www.edwdebono.com/debono/lateral.htm Bruner, J.S. (1967). On knowing: Essays for the left hand. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. www.learning-theories.com/discovery-learning-bruner.html Kolb DA 1984. Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice-Hall. http://www.papert.org/ http://www.studygs.net/casestudy.htm www.Caseplace.org www.intel.com/business/casestudies/all/index.html http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/company_list.php http://www.schroeder-inc.com/casestudy.html http://ucs.ist.psu.edu/default.asp Tan Tee Hwa, Student Peer Teaching Strategy, Malaysia, UNESCO, Bangkok (2009) ISBN 978-92-9223-251-1 (Print version), ISBN 978-92-9223-252-8 (Electronic version) http://ceupromed.ucol.mx/sptss/introduction.htm www.youtube.com www.educause.edu/eli

Cell Phone Technology Essay

The cell phone technology that is ever changing by the day was scientifically invented and born back in the early 1980’s. Science was the main key to the birth of the cell phone which was put together by the Motorola Company who today is still making cell phones. Before the cell phone came out the car phone was the first mobile phone which were very large and had to be hooked up to a briefcase which supplied the power for the mobile phone. Science was the utilized to create the cell phone and today the use of cell phones has brought literature to the palm of our hands. With science as the foundation to the birth of the cell phone technology age has not only brought the birth but has also brought new births of other new technologies. The cell phone is basically a radio and the invention of the cell phone traces back all the way to the radio. As we all know Alexander Bell back in 1876 invented the telephone and shortly after that the radio was invented around 1880 by Nikolia Telsa. Now with science and technology these two were combined to create what we call the cell phone or cellular phone. How stuff works) With science came the cell phone and with continued scientifically research the years bring more technology to the cell phone that would change the world. Professors, cell phone companies, and others use the art and knowledge of past use science to keep building on top of the birth of the cell phone. Scientist and researchers around the world see a successful future in the cell phone industry and jumps on the opportunity that will be one of the fastest growing industries of today. Just after the invention of the cell phone researches begin to work on a smaller and more efficient cell phone as the first one is very inefficient as it requires a large power supply to run the phone. It was impossible to carry around as it only could be used in automobiles due to the large power supply. Not only the power supply was large the actual radio waves used where also not suited to availability for everyone to use as there were at most around 25 available channels per tower, per town. (How stuff works) Researchers begin to use science to begin to make the cell phone industry more efficient and available for everyone. The next step to making the cell phone more available was to start with having more channels to handle all the cell phone conversations. Duplex channels are needed to be used in order for two people to talk to each other at the same time. The next step was figuring out how to increase the amount of available frequencies and how to make them available without confliction. Cell towers were built across cities and each cell tower were available to have up to 56 conversations going at one time. That was still not enough as they forecasted to have more than that as people started to purchase cell phones. The problem with this is that if anyone more that those 56 would not be able to talk with anyone until someone out of the 56 ended. The next scientifically challenge was to make the availability of conversation at a greater number with the use of higher frequencies. (How stuff works) One problem with cell towers is that in the beginning there were not enough cell towers to keep a conversation going when the person on the cell phone was on the move. As a person on a cell phone is on the move through a city it connects itself to the closest cell tower in range and when out of range it connects to the next nearest cell tower. The problem with this is that there were not enough cell towers which created â€Å"dead spots† which we all know as drop calls. Along with insufficient number of towers the cell phone was analog which was known as 1G (1st Generation) cell phones. As cell towers grew more frequencies were needed to grow as well. This brought the first digital cell phone which was considered the 2G (2nd Generation) cell phone. (How stuff works) With the creation of the digital cell phone also brought the availability of more frequencies. With more frequencies more people were able to have conversations at one time for each tower. Each tower carried the same number of frequencies and as the digital phone came in more cell towers were being built. Eventually there would be hundreds of cell towers in each city that would be able to handle the number of people with cell phones. Currently we are now in the 4G (4th Generation) age and with that technology we are able to do things on cell phones that we never thought we could do 30 years ago. Over the year the technology and science of cell phone has grown faster than any other product. The technology has driven the cell phone technology to connections around the world. It has also connected people like no other communication device. People from around the world are now communicating and connecting more to family, friends, and others across the country. Not only are they talking to each other but they are also communicating now with other technology aspects that has grown onto the cell phone age. People are now connecting through the internet using their cell phones and people are now connecting in ways that are changing the world. The biggest technological change in cell phones is text messaging. The cell phone eventually became more than just a radio telephone communication device. We then started to use the cell phone to send text messages like a email message. Businesses around the globe had a big impact on the technology that was built in cell phones technology. Business people around the globe needed to have email communication at all times so then that was integrated into the cell phone. Then came text messaging which was short text messages sent from phone to phone. Text messaging became a big hit as more and more people started to sway towards the text messaging than talking over the phone. When text messaging started T9 was introduced which is predictive texting or others may know it as Text on 9 Keys. (http://www. ask. com/wiki/T9_(predictive_text) This is a program running in the background that automatically predicts the words you are trying to type in a text message. This made it easier and faster to spell out words as it would spell out the word you are trying to type without having to type out the whole word. The creation of texting has not only brought a new way of communicating with others but has also created another problems in results of the creation of texting. A 2008 study by the mobile industry’s trade association CTIA found that among teens ages 13 to 19, 57 percent view their cellphones as key to their social life, and most view texting as a vital feature. † (#34) According to this information it has brought attention that teen drivers are being distracted while driving with cell phone usage and texting. This is creating an upwards in automobile accidents and deaths in this country. â€Å"The California Highway Patrol released a report Wednesday showing that talking on a cellphone while behind the wheel is the leading factor contributing to crashes blamed on inattentive drivers. Furthermore, the US Department of Transportation reports that distracted driving played a role in nearly 6,000 deaths and 500,000 injuries in 2009. † (#34) As you can see in the California Highway Patrol report it shows a growing number of accidents due to text messaging or using cell phone while driving a automobile. The government today is having a hard time reducing the statistics of automobile accidents due to cell phone usage and is looking for a solution to eliminate it. No matter what is done you cannot stop public drivers from using their cell phones in a automobile. A probable solution has come up that may help in reducing the statistics by installing cell phone jammers. When a automobile is in the drive mode a cell phone jammer will activate and prevent anyone in the car from using a cell phone. A person would have to pull to the side of the road and put the automobile into park mode in order to deactivate the cell phone jammer. Then they will be allowed to use their cell phones for any use. This is only a probable solution and it doesn’t sound like a great one but it is something to start off with and hopefully eventually one day it can be sculpted into a real solution.

Economics light Essay

Q1. Mention the problem? The problem of that case study is the organizational conflict i.e. every functional manager is trying to get his own interest; therefore, the working climate became disturbed. In other words, it is possible to say that it is a communication issue. Q2.What did sales managers do? The problem of the sales manager lies in focusing on getting more customers more than thinking of getting more profitable orders. Q3. What did manufacturing managers do?  The problem with the manufacturing managers consists in disordering of work steps, light color orders and dark color orders, which in turn wastes time and money. Q4. State your opinion to solve the problem? SOLUTION 1. Sales manager: He should modify the pricing policy for â€Å"rush orders† in a way that enables the company to exceed its breakeven point and get at least its profitable processing .i.e. to make a special price for rush orders. 2. Manufacturing manager: He should review the cleaning process and try to implement a more cost reducing efficient method. 3. General manager: * He should consider introducing a new machine, one for light color and the other for dark color, hence, reducing the cost of getting a new machine will be covered by eliminating the cost of cleaning and cost of time wasted. * He should ensure that the 250 workforce are aware of that every workers effort and role is step in many pre and post steps. Hence the notion of teamwork will prevail. * Every worker should be aware of not only his own task but also the tasks of all his coworkers to get the value of his own role and appreciate it so self esteem will prevail. * As for , the functional managers, especially, the manufacturing and sales managers should be aware of their critical position and try to be farsighted to the long run  objectives not only the short run. They should get rid of their personal interests and vision. They should cooperate and try to implement an overall objective. Done by Abdulla Talal Alsada BH05501669 SBI((FF))

I Will Revisit Russon s Definition Of Memory, And Three...

In this paper I will revisit Russon’s definition of memory, and three of the aspects that he presents as important in the memory process. I will also argue that our body play an important role for our remembering, as does the objects we interact with. As well as present my position on Russon description of memory demonstrating that Russon’s description is indeed relatable to the actual human experience. Russon’s definition of memory is not subjected to one main idea, but rather an intertwining of related ideas pertaining to experience. He views memory as, â€Å"What we experience as the determinateness of objects that communicates to us what we can and cannot do,† (Russon 41). To emphasize, we experience our world through interactions with the world’s objects. The contact made with these objects provides an identity for them that later communicates to us about ourselves. Russon present this idea of memory based on two types of memory, implicit and explicit. Implicit memory are memories that we remember in part, while explicit memory are those that we remember completely. An example that Russon gives in another instance that connects to this is the idea of him terminating his lease and having a few weeks remaining is inscribed in everything within his apartment. Each object represents the identity of the future commitment of moving whether pervasively or occasion ally. However Russon thinks that for us to remember there are certain aspects that needs to be involve. First is