Impact of Online Learning on the Education System

Impact of Online Learning on the Education System Topic Area Education for all Can online learning replace our current model of education? Introduction We live in a world where access to most resources (thanks to the internet) are just a click away. The only resource that seems to be struggling to reach to the majority of the world through this method is schooling or education. Is it possible for education to remove the walls around our schools? Can our current model of education be replaced by online learning? Global How has online learning affected our world? Online learning has been out there since search giants like Google, Yahoo and Bing were set up. The only difference between now and then is that earlier it was difficult to prove that you had knowledge about a subject because there was very little proof of what you knew unless you could demonstrate it. Earlier all organizations mandated proper certification or documents of qualifications. Its only now that online learning offers proper certification. And in accordance to that online learning is slowly getting accepted in companies and organizations with the proof of the certificate(s) achieved by doing so. Online learning offers courses on everything from counting on your fingers to university level Astrophysics. As of 2013, the number of people in Colleges 183 million Secondary School 568.5 million Primary School 713.6 million Total number of students 1.436 billion (20.5% of the total population in 2013) The laws that govern population growth entail that these numbers would have grown in the past 4 years and would be approximately 1.501 billion people (20.5% of 7.461 billion {total population}). According to EdSurge the number of learners on the big 3 online learning sites (edX, Coursera and Udacity) were a stunning 24 million. United States of America Several universities like Harvard even encourage their students to view video lectures so they can use the time for the lecture for doing something else and when they are free they can simply view the lecture. According to Udacity CEO, Sebastian Thrun, some 4 million registered users worldwide, and about 60,000 working on nanodegrees at anyone one time. In several schools in USA, the teachers use Khan Academy to aid/conduct their daily classes. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has put almost all of its courses online on MIT OpenCourseWare for all student regardless of their nationality, or the college/university they attend. This really helps students a lot since most of the material for math and science is almost the same as their universities/schools/colleges. India In countries like India where students are pushed to their mental and physical limits to achieve grades that yield are a 100 percent average or the equivalent, these certificates show another stairway to success to these students. Students now turn to websites like edX, Coursera, Udacity and Khan Academy to learn whatever they need to or in several cases want to. This also allows the students to excel in their studies, and get better career opportunities in their future, as online learning shows an effort to learn beyond what is expected of a student. The Rajasthan state government is going to add Khan Academy lessons as part of their day to day school curriculum to provide their students with a platform with universally accepted teaching-learning models and techniques. But due to other problems like poverty and availability of electricity (which I will address later) it is difficult to switch over to online education. China In China the number of universities and colleges offering online learning platforms has skyrocketed in the past years. 30 out 110 of Chinas well-known universities have an online learning platform. Chinas ministry of education has been encouraging a lot of students to take online courses, however no university is allowed to give out degrees. Another advantage to online learning is that you can view videos/lectures as many times as you need to. You can ask for help on forums on many online learning sites. Online learning also offers a lot of different perspective and immense exposure. Google was one of the first multi-national organisations to employ people not based on their qualifications or proof of knowledge/learning rather based on their skills and experience. There is an option for the learner to avail for the Honour Code Certificate but courses offering these certificates are extremely few and when a learner presents an honour code certificate as part of their CV or rà ©sumà ©, they are looked at with suspicion as the terms of the honour code are literally honouring your word. The reason honour code certificates and statements of achievement (based on the honour code) were stopped is because of misuse of the fact that there was no way to verify (branching out to Verified Certificates) that the person doing the course is the person whose name is on the certificate. On the other hand, verified certificates use a government issued ID to function and the name on the certificate has to match the one on the ID. This reduces chances of someone else doing your work for you. A problem with certification for online learning and online courses is that almost all the verified certificates on the most online learning platforms are now paid and the se prices are very high. A lot of the paid/verified certificates on edX are for $50 and quite a few of them are for a hundred dollars. As a matter of fact, Udacity has a minute number of free courses and all other courses on Udacity are paid. This makes it difficult for a learner to get these certificates because of the cost of these certificates. This reduces the number of learners completing the course, contary to what is said by edX when a user enrols into a course Its a proven motivator to complete the course. These prices can create a barbed-wire around the school we are trying to render wall-less. Another fact worth considering is, that in a lot of countries schooling/college is expensive and using free, online resources can help you save all that money. For the world as one, I think the developed countries (like the United States) should start by using online education to enhance and ultimately replace their current models of education. By doing so, they would set an example and would encourage other countries to be like them. National Is replacing the current model of education with online learning feasible in my country? According to the Indian Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment 27.5% of Indias population is below the poverty line, which is roughly 367.48 million people (Population of India à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ 1,336,286,256 * 27.5/100 = 367478720). I believe, asking students/people who are underprivileged to learn using online resources, is inappropriate because having an internet connection is expensive and without one online learning is impossible. So its almost like saying the water is free but the way to get to the water is paid (and expensive). So I do not think it is feasible to replace my countrys current model of education with online learning. Local Is replacing the current model of education with online learning feasible for the students in my school/community? According to a survey I conducted among my friends on my social networking circles (Link to responses available in the bibliography below) à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ 98.3% of the people use the internet for learning something, studying and/or work. Most people use the internet for 5-8 hours a day. 22.4% of the people use google and/or other search engines to learn what they want to. 5.1% also use Khan Academy and use search engines. 1.7% use Khan Academy and similar websites for studying. 6.9% do the points mentioned above and also use edX, Coursera and similar platforms for studying. 3.4% use Khan Academy and edX/Coursera and other platforms for studying. 11.9% use the internet for college/university work and use all of uses mentioned above. 49.2% use all/some of the tools mentioned above and also work. Keeping the above points in mind I believe that my friends circle can depend on the internet for schooling/education or can use the internet to enhance this essential process. Personal As an individual I believe I can switch over to the Internet for my education as I have no problems with Internet access, and the colleges/universities I am considering for my further education accept and even encourage online learning and certification, which again is not a problem with me. I find that I can fit into that group of people who can and should turn to online learning. I find that using E-Books and E-Lectures is more convenient and environmentally friendly (using E-Books rather than books). I can also get my hands on to material that sometimes teachers in class might not be able to cover. I think that replacing the current model of education with online education is possible for me, although I might require a teacher to guide me at times. Personal Response My research and essay were partly inspired by Salman Khans (educationist) Ted Talk (in 2011) and I had turned to online resources for learning. Salman Khan tells us how the traditional academic model is not cut out for the extremes of the Bell Curve the students who find a topic/subject easy, and the ones who dont, but the system is rather suited for the average student. He says that, just like in Music or Martial Arts, you only move onto a further skill once youve mastered the basic. But as all of us know, most of our schools cannot compensate for the students who lag behind in a subject/concept and the class simply has to move on. He uses the cheese-block analogy and demonstrates to us how minor gaps in our knowledge can make the cookie crumble (the cheese in this case!). So I see myself working on Khan academy to do the best I can and learn all I can because according to Sal Khan You only need to know one thing You can learn anything. This will help me and can also inspire othe r people to be like me. Possible Future Scenarios The world needs to realise that traditional schools and curricula will not be able to cope with our rapidly changing world. Getting the world to accept online resources as instead of/to enhance our education, we need a little amount struggle to overcome the natural resistance to change that we have, monetary funding and support from governments of the world (in terms of providing cheap internet access and pushing learners to use online resources). After taking these steps the world would slowly but surely be a better place. The world can simply ignore the fact that online education holds the key to our future and would not embrace online learning, which would cause problems several other problems (like availability of space for schools, teachers and staff required to run the school and availability of books etc). It would also cause a rise in illiteracy and poverty (since it would restrict learning and schooling to schools and colleges only). Taking into account my research, I think that this scenario is not very likely to occur. The world can realise this fact now and can help our future generations to focus on keeping up high in the sky rather than getting out of problems like illiteracy and poverty. Considering what I learnt through the course of my research, this scenario is very likely to occur. The world can move toward Scenario 2 but might not be able to make enough progress due to problems like poverty, illiteracy and lack of access to the internet. This would cause these problems to grow further. This scenario is highly likely to occur. __________________________________________________________________ Bibliography https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=number+of+students+in+the+worldhttps://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-09-08-udacity-coursera-and-edx-now-claim-over-24-million-students https://support.edx.org/hc/en-us/articles/215167977-Does-edX-offer-free-certificates https://www.google.co.in/about/careers/how-we-hire/http://www.tatatrusts.org/article/inside/rajasthan-tata-trusts-elearning-mouh http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/9/3/cameo-cheating-method-mooc/ https://edx.readthedocs.io/projects/open-edx-building-and-running-a-course/en/named-release-birch/running_course/discussions.html http://socialjustice.nic.in/UserView/index?mid=76672 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_fipGX3VASNtGMSbY4uyMGgTY1QlpVwhH1pFuAGmT80/edit?usp=sharing (Responses for survey) http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education?language=en https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MTRxRO5SRA http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1966969/more-online-education-start-ups-china-expected-close-down-2016 https://internationaleducation.gov.au/News/Latest-News/Pages/Online-education-in-China.aspx https://internationaleducation.gov.au/News/Latest-News/Pages/Online-education-in-China.aspx http://www.whatsonweibo.com/10-hottest-chinese-online-education-companies-2016/ http://www.ted.com/talks/sal_khan_let_s_teach_for_mastery_not_test_scores/transcript?language=en https://www.khanacademy.org/youcanlearnanything#

Canadas Diverse History :: Canadian Canada History

Canada's Diverse History This essay analyzes the diversity of Canada's history, geography, climate, economy, cultures and government. Did you know it is the largest country in the world now that U.S.S.R broke up. Specifically, Canada is 9,922,330 square km. Did you know that Canada used to be named "Kanata"? Yes, Kanata is an Indian word meaning village. It was not until July 1,1867 that Kanata was renamed Canada. Canada was originally discovered by Jacques Cartier an explorer from France who sailed down the St.Lawrence in 1534. Cartier we believe was the first to set foot on Canadian soil. He marked his presence with a flag claiming it his land. Over the years, Canada has developed into the home of the largest free-standing structure in the world. Canada,(a great tourist attraction)is also home of the largest water fall in the world. Our farmland unlike a lot of others has a variety of climate. The warmer summer climate ranges from +10 - +30 and the cooler climate ranges from anywhere to -10 - -30. Despite the changes in temperature, Canada's precipitation is very light. Our home is enclosed by the United States of south, the Pacific ocean and Alaska on the west side, the Atlantic ocean on the east side and the Arctic up north. One of the dominant reasons Canada is so well populated is due to the fact of our financial status. At this present time, the economy is not doing too well, but who's is? Canada is highly industrialised by manufacturing Automobiles, food, liquor and tobacco. We as a Unified country accept other cultures and religions. Canada has about every nationality possible and together they form a great home. Despite the many cultures, Canada's main languages are english and french. Canada is a democracy. This means the government is elected by all t ople.

Siddhartha Gautama :: essays research papers

Siddhartha Gautama Siddhartha Gautama was born about 563 BC in what is now modern Nepal. His father, Suddhodana, was the ruler of the Sakya people and Siddhartha grew up living the extravagant life on a young prince. According to custom, he married at the young age of sixteen to a girl named Yasodhara. His father had ordered that he live a life of total seclusion, but one day Siddhartha ventured out into the world and was confronted with the reality of the inevitable suffering of life. The next day, at the age of twenty-nine, he left his kingdom and new-born son to lead an modest life and determine a way to relieve universal suffering. For six years, Siddhartha meditated under a bodhi tree. But he was never fully satisfied. One day he was offered a bowl of rice from a young girl and he accepted it. In that moment, he realized that physical hardships were not the means to freedom. From then on, he encouraged people not to use extremes in their life. He called this The Middle Way. That night Siddhartha sat under the bodhi tree, and meditated till dawn. He cleared his mind of all worldly things and claimed to get enlightenment at the age of thirty-five, thus earning the title Buddha, or "Enlightened One." For the remainder of his eighty years, the Buddha preached the dharma in an effort to help other people reach enlightenment. When Siddhartha is a Brahmin, he believes in the existence of many gods, and performs sacrifices to them. After a while he realizes this is meaningless and decides to leave his family and community and become a Samana. As a Samana, he tries to destroy himself in may ways. He feels if he kills himself, with its passions and emotions, he will find the great secret. Siddhartha doesn't spend much time as Buddha, although he has an important revelation. He discovers he can't find peace by learning from a master. He finds the only way to have peace with the world is by finding it for himself. When Siddhartha leaves Buddha, he is enthralled with the world. He starts paying more attention to the world because he knows he must get experience for himself. As he walks he comes upon a town. He stays and becomes a merchant. At first he looks at his actions as a game. After a while he becomes more serious. He starts drinking and gambling and becomes lazy. Siddhartha sees this and decides to leave the town.He wanders through a forest and comes upon a

Rethinking Project Management Essay

The systemic models show behaviour arising from the complex interactions of the various parts of the project; they demonstrate how behaviour arises that would not be predicted from an analysis of the individual parts of the project and thus show how the traditional decomposition models in some circumstances can be inadequate. The project behaviour shown in this body of work is complex and non-intuitive. It shows causal feed-back, leading to nonlinear behaviour, and produces e? ects which can sometimes manifest themselves after signi? cant time-delays; and the behaviour of such systems is di? cult for the human brain to predict and understand intuitively. Furthermore, the models di? er from the bodies of knowledge in their empha- is on ‘‘soft’’ factors; the factors within the feedback loops are not only hard ‘‘concrete’’ factors: ‘‘soft’’ variables are often important links in the chains of causality and are thus critical in determining the project behaviour; such variables might include morale, schedule pressure, client changing his mind and so on; in addition, there is a recognition that the models need to incorporate not only ‘‘real’’ data but management perceptions of data. ‘‘Systemic’’ models have been used to explain failures occurring in projects which might have been well-managed by traditional project-management methods. The failures analysed by these methods are in complex projects subject to uncertainty. Conventional techniques are designed for projects with large numbers of elements, but the assumed structures are subject to very limited types of interdependence, and conventional methods are even more unsuited to projects under high uncertainty. It is when uncertainty a? ects a traditionally-managed project that is structurally complex that the systemic e? ects discussed above start to occur. But the systemic models demonstrated an important aspect: it is management actions to accelerate perturbed projects which particularly exacerbate the feedback; when the project is heavily time-constrained, so the project manager feels forced to take acceleration actions, and this produces the problems from feedback. Thus we have identi? ed the three compounding factors which come together in complex structures of positive feedback to cause extreme over-runs when projects are managed conventionally: structural complexity, uncertainty and a tight time-constraint. Recognition of the problems inherent in conventional prescriptive procedures has led to the development of contrasting project management methodologies. While being within a strategic framework, these methodologies are usually identi? ed by words such as ‘‘lean’’ or ‘‘agile’’, and are particularly prevalent in the software industry [55] (perhaps due to the particular goal-uncertainties of such projects). These methods contradict the underlying emphases of conventional approaches: the project emerges rather than being entirely pre-planned; the management style is much more co-operative, recognising that the Plan prepared pre-project is fallible and incomplete, and there is acceptance that the plan cannot be fully prepared because of the in? uence of the external environment. The systemic modelling work analysed the reasons for project over-runs for many seriously over-run project, giving explanations in terms of positive feedback, often exacerbated by management actions, and importantly including both ‘‘hard’’ and ‘‘soft’’ factors in the causal analysis; the analysis shows that conventional methods can be inappropriate and potentially disadvantageous for projects that are structurally complex, uncertain, and heavily time-limited. Projects which exhibit these three characteristics would appear to lend themselves less to conventional methods and newer methods might be more appropriate, such as ‘‘agile’’/’’lean’’ methods often called ‘‘agile’’ or ‘‘lean’’. However, the thesis of Williams [54] is not that we should simply ignore conventional project 684 S. Cicmil et al. / International Journal of Project Management 24 (2006) 675–686 management methods and move to these opposing techniques. Rather, with the understanding gained from this analysis of the systemic modelling work, we need to move our discourse to take account of the e? ects encompassed in this work; then we need to categorise projects according to the dimensions which give projects a propensity for the type of systemic e? ects, so that an appropriate management style can be speci? d, in particular an appropriate balance between conventiona l methods as espoused in the bodies of knowledge and these contrasting methods. This work suggests that once a project is subject to disruptions and delays dynamics then the traditional project management tools are probably inappropriate for managing the project. The use of traditional tools is likely to unintentionally exacerbate the undesirable consequences and lead to greater overruns than need be the case. Even the nature of the agenda at project progress meetings needs to have a di? erent focus and emphasis. Awareness of the potential consequences of mitigation becomes important as possible traditionally ‘obvious’ actions are proposed. 7. Conclusions, implications and the way forward Our aim in this paper has been to discuss critically the nature of knowledge that could be created about the actuality of projects and how it contributes to our understanding of project environments, to improvements in practice, and to educational and developmental e? orts. We attempted to shed some light on the assumptions behind theoretical and methodological approaches to researching the actuality of projects and project management that, in our view, can be helpful in broadening the boundaries of the project management body of thought and contributing to more satisfactory processes and outcomes of contemporary projects. Researching the actuality of projects, as presented in this article, draws on: – a combination of practical philosophical considerations and concrete empirical analyses towards understanding human action, and for that matter, managerial action in the concrete situation and – requires a theoretical shift from more common normative rational approaches to individual and project performance towards a more developmental one which focuses on practical action, lived experience, quality of social interaction and communicative relating, operations of power in context, identity, and the relationship between agency and structure in project environments. The research presented in this paper as exemplars of actuality research provide some compelling and interesting insights into the actuality of managing projects addressing on-going gaps in our knowledge of how to e? ectively manage complex undertakings. Cicmil and Marshall develop an empirically grounded understanding of project complexity that incorporates processes of communicative and power relating among project actors dealing with ambiguity and equivocality related to project performance criteria (success/failure) over time that is in constant ? ux. Cicmil and Hodgson’s work casts light on the traditional foundations of project management practitioner development and demonstrates the need for developing both instrumental and value rationality as the basis for project management practice. The research by Thomas and Buckle questions the underlying assumptions embedded in traditional project management discourse and explores the impact of these embedded assumptions on the practice and practical discourse of practitioners. The Strathclyde research team’s work on understanding complex project failures contributes signi? cantly to our understanding of the complex interactions between the actuality of projects and the unintentional consequences of applying traditional ‘‘best practice’’ control oriented project management to complete projects under extreme time pressures. All of these research studies make signi? cant contributions to an understanding of the actuality of projects and provide insights into how project management practitioner development needs to change to address these project realities. Methodological issues (epistemology, ontology, and representation) are also of dominant concern in these studies. The argument is that theory and empirical research must proceed simultaneously on micro and macro levels of analysis and within both objective and subjective methodological traditions, focusing on action which is habituated, practical, tacit, dispositional, and at the same time structured. From this perspective, it is important not only to explore or explain what is but also to examine why it is as it is and what activities are encouraged or discouraged by this focus, and how it comes to be. The recommended methodological approaches are capable of addressing a much wider range of mportant project issues such as: the social responsibility of management, ethical conduct, bounded rationality, anxiety, emotions, the operation of dominant discourses, power/knowledge relationship, culture, and identity. Despite this, we do not promote ‘actuality research’ as a comp eting or privileged stream of thought to the more mainstream ones. We argue for it as an alternative lens through which new insights into projects and project management practice can be generated. One of the key assertions is that the understanding which drives much of project management literature does not satisfactorily explain the richness of what actually occurs in project environments. http://www.uwe.ac.uk/bbs/trr/Is7-cont.htm

Race, Class, and Gender in the United States Essay

Rothenberg paints an oppressive picture for women, the financially oppressed and minority members of society. The author presents compelling essays of race, gender and class which examine the social construct of each issue. Race has been defined as the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. This has produced the view that Euro-Americans’ social, cultural, and economic advantaged position must be maintained at the expense of others as the normal life. The influential power of race, gender and class are explained and illustrated through the collection of essays. The dynamics of power are divided based on different social classifications. Concrete Responses The essays included present a compelling but biased study within the context of class, race and gender. History shows racism has been clearly practiced in the past; however much has been done to correct the unbridgeable and immutable differences in race, gender and class status in the United States. Rothenberg emphasizes, in the collection of essays, past views of Euro-Americans’ superiority in intelligence and abilities over darker skinned races. Throughout the history of the United States, discrimination against race and gender has been documented thus creating various classes according to race and gender. Racism has been defined as â€Å"a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race† (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2010). While discrimination is described as being â€Å"the process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded to differently† (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2010). Discrimination encompasses a much larger circumference than racism. People v. Hall, 1854, Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857, and Bradwell v. Illinois, 1873 created a class difference in the ruling of each case between Euro-American males, Indians, Negroes, Chinese and women (Rothenberg, 2010, p. 495). Skin color differences have been thought to explain intellectual, physical and artistic differences, thus justifying varying treatment between racially different individuals (Rothenberg, 2010, p. 17). A person of property was considered of superior intelligence and character (Rothenberg, 2010, p. 8). The claim that race is a social construction takes issue with the once popular belief that people were born into different races with innate, biologically based differences in intellect, temperament, and character (Rothenberg, 2010, p. 10). Michael Omi and Howard Winant maintain that â€Å"Race is more a political categorization that a biological or scientific category† (Rothenberg, 2010, p. 10). Racial distinctions can be correlated with economic and political changes in the society of the United States. In California, 1854, the state Supreme Court ruled in the case, People v. Hall that Chinese Americans should be barred from testifying against whites as Indians and Negroes had previously been barred with a California statue. The judges â€Å"marked [Chinese-Americans] as inferior, and †¦ are incapable of progress or intellectual development beyond a certain point† (Rothenberg, 2010, p. 495). Orientals and Hispanics were regarded to be naturally suited to perform brutal, sometimes crippling, farm labor which whites were physically unsuited to perform. In 1857, the United States Supreme Court ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford stated that â€Å"Negroes were never considered a part of the people of the United States (Rothenberg, 2010, 495). Gender refers to the particular set of socially constructed meanings associated with each sex (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2010). Men and women have been portrayed as polar opposites with different abilities. The notion of difference itself is constructed and suggests that the claim that women and men are naturally and profoundly different reflects a political and social decision rather than a distinction given in nature. In 1873, the Supreme Court ruled in Bradwell v. Illinois that women could not practice law and added further degradation arguing â€Å"that women belong in the â€Å"domestic sphere†Ã¢â‚¬  (Rothenberg, 2010, 495). Every society has different options on what constitutes a woman’s gender role verses a man’s role. While Roe v. Wade, 1973, is considered a significant stride forward in women’s rights, the after effects of the abortion rights given have for open debate on the benefits this case has brought to the women’s movement. Spiritually, man and wife should be as one flesh (Genesis 2:24) and a helpmate to each other (Genesis 2:18), not in competition with each other for power. In the past, attitudes against races and gender other than Euro-American males have restricted the right to vote, own property, and even extended to the forced evacuation of Japanese-Americans into relocation camps. Clearly, discrimination has existed in this country; however, â€Å"the twentieth century has seen the growth of large and diverse movements for race and gender justice† (Rothenberg, 2010, p. 497). However, Rothenberg’s emphasis on race and gender portray differences as unbridgeable and immutable, regardless of any social programs or education. Reflection Rothenberg’s collection of essays is informative of historical discrimination and the opinions of a number of authors; however, there are two sides to every story. Rothenberg has presented only one side of the race, class, and gender issues in an angry fashion. All evil has not been created by Euro-Americans. Pem Davidson Buck states that northern Whites looked down their noses at the Irish in the same manner they looked at free Blacks (Rothenberg, 2010, p. 35). This created a â€Å"psychological wage† (Buck as quoted by Rothenberg, 2010, p. 35), instead of monetary gain, such as the employee of the month or assigned parking places (Rothenberg, 2010, p. 35). Calvinism taught being poor was a punishment from God while success was a sign of being righteous with God. This further created differences in class among the American society, including discrimination of women, people of color, and homophobia. Differences between rich and poor, white and black, men and women are socially constructed as innate differences among people. Then they are used to rationalize or justify the unequal distribution of wealth and power that results from economic decisions made to perpetuate privilege. The status of various occupations and class positions they imply often changes depending on whether the occupation is predominately female or male. This particular discrimination also led to more domestication of women. Status began to be calculated if a woman could â€Å"stay home† (Rothenberg, 2010, p. 36). If a woman was forced into the labor force, the family didn’t meet the cultural requirements for white privilege (Rothenberg, 2010, p. 36). The categories of gender, race and class reflect culturally constructed differences that maintain the prevailing distribution of power and privilege in a society. Constructed differences are altered in relation to social, political and economic changes. The argument seems to fluxuate between racism and culturism. If cultural status is lost due to a woman working, that has very little to do with to which race she belongs. As stated in Buck’s essay (Rothenberg, 2010, p. 36), native men redefined themselves by† their class position as skilled mechanics working for better wages under better conditions† (p. 36) due to the ownership of their trade tools and their hard work ethic (Rothenberg, 2010, p. 36). Again this is cultural rather than racial. Any craftsmen, no matter what color his skin, can buy the tools of his trade to better his position. Rothenberg tends to be angry at this country’s struggles against racism, class and gender. She has collected many angry essays to support her racial and feminist opinions but has not shown more than a minimal reference to how far this country has progressed for all races and genders to be â€Å"We the People of the United States† (U. S. Constitution, 1776) forming a more perfect Union under God. Action This book has given me much food for thought. During the reading of this book, I have been more consciously aware of the different races and cultures in my workplace. While I don’t agree with Rothenberg’s apparent view that racial and gender discrimination continues in our society today as it has throughout our country’s history, I do see a tendency towards a reverse discrimination. Since my husband joined corporate America almost two years ago, I’ve watched him miss promotions, even though he is very productive and conscientious in his work, so that a minority, usually a woman, could have the position, even though her employee record is full of criticism of her work ethic. White males continue to be punished today for the actions and attitudes of their forefathers even though most do not hold those same discriminatory beliefs. While I am not unconscious of race, I do not identify an individual as part of a particular race in my first impression or description of them. As I have illustrated with my students, no two people whether light or dark skinned are the same color. The biggest wish I have for my students is for them to be able to unzip their skin so that color is not visible to each other at all. As future medical assistants, surgical technicians, pharmacy technicians and nursing assistants, these students need to see past race, gender and even class. As a teacher, I strive not to make decisions based on race or gender. Class is not an issue for me in the class room since all students dress in scrubs according to school dress code. Lao Tzu said, â€Å"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime†(n. d. ). I am a firm believer that regardless of race, gender or class that our country was founded to give everyone an equal opportunity to pursue life, liberty and happiness with hard work and education. If I can give my students a sense of work ethic along with the academic and technical skills they need, I will have given them the tools to succeed financially and in their chosen professions. References Discrimination. (2010). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved August 13, 2010, from http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/discrimination gender. (2010). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved August 13, 2010, from http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/gender Lao Tzu. (n. d. ). BrainyQuote. com. Retrieved August 13, 2010, from BrainyQuote. com Web site: http://www. brainyquote. com/quotes/quotes/l/laotzu121559. html Mount, Steve. (2001)†The Constitution of the United States,† Preamble. USConstitution. net. U. S. Constitution online. Retrieved August 12, 2010 from http://www. usconstitution. net/const. html racism. (2010). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved August 8, 2010, from http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/racism Rothenberg, P. (2010), Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. New York: Worth Publishers.

Conflict Management Plan Essay

Competing The strength maybe that one person will see the benefits.The weakness will be that the other person in the issue will not benefit the same or at all at the other person in the situation and does not consider the other in the situations. Collaborating The strength is when both parties involved in the issue propose to solve the problem by discussing the differences rather than by accommodating, therefore they benefit from the results.The weakness maybe if both parties agree to re solve the issue but cannot discuss the differences in their issues. Avoiding The strength is when the parties try to move on from the issue and not cause a big deal over it.The weakness maybe that by dismissing the issue; it will never get resolved. Accommodating The strength is when one party involve is willing to be the bigger person and let the other party involve win the situation, in order to keep the peace.The weakness maybe that the person who is willing to let the other win the issue. They will never resolve the issue between them and it is possible that it can be brought up in another situation. Compromising The strength can be that the issue will be solved and both parties neither win nor lose.The weakness maybe that both parties have to give up something in order for the issue to be resolved. Also, both parties to the issue will have incomplete satisfaction. 2.Which of the available conflict management strategies is most appropriate for the current situation with David and James? Provide your rationale, including what factors you considered in making your selection. Your response should be at least 100 words. In James and David situation, the most appropriate conflict management strategy will be the Collaborating and Compromising strategy. According to Robbins and Judge (2011), collaborating is when both individuals involved are in the agreement to solve the conflict in order to make each individual involved happy. It is believed that David and James should talk about the issue and try get to the bottom of where the issue or conflict began. Therefore, when James and David come to an agreement to collaborate and solve the issue, both can be happy with the outcome because not one or the other made the choice alone; it was a team effort. In addition, using the compromising strategy has some similar effects to the collaborating strategy, however, in this case there is no win or lose situation. Both James and David will have to compromise in making a decision in which will not benefit them both, but it will solve the issue. 3. If the selected strategy is not successful, what is your alternate strategy? Provide your rationale for this selection. Your response should be at least 100 words. In James and David situation if the first strategies do not work, the second appropriate conflict management strategy would be to use the accommodating strategy. Robbins and Judge (2011) states that, accommodating is when individual involved in the conflict put the best interest of the other party before themselves. This strategy may be tricky because in order for this to work, David or James will have to make a choice to put the other person in front of themselves. As a result, this strategy can strengthen James and David friendship because they will see that no matter what, one of them is willing to accommodate the other in order to keep the peace. 4.What potential road blocks might be encountered in resolving the conflict? How would you address these? Your response should be at least 100 words. 5. In James and David Situation the potential road blocks that might be encountered are communication, structure and personal variable. Robbins and Judge (2011) states that, communication, structure and personal variables my not directly lead to conflict however they are necessary in order for conflict to arise. When there is not communication between to individuals problems will arise. Moreover, I would address the issue by using one of the conflict resolution strategies such as the collaborating. I would set James and David to communicate with each other and discuss the issue and try to resolve it amongst each other. Hope the outcomes between both individual is to resolve the conflict. Reference Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2011). Organizational behavior (14th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. University of Phoenix. (2012). University of Phoenix Material: Conflict Management Plan Plan. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, MGT/311 – ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT website. University of Phoenix. (2012). Riordan Manufacturing Virtual Organization [Multimedia]. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, MGT/311 Organizational Development website.

Gladiator Powerplay Essay

Gladiator is a film about Maximus, a roman general who was to be the next emperor, succeeding Aurelius. Aurelius’ son Commodus gets angry and jealous at the fact that he was not chosen by his father to be next in line. He then proceeds to kill his father and orders Maximus to be killed. Maximus flees but finds out that his family has been murdered. He later gets enslaved and becomes a gladiator, where he trains under Proximo who also was a former gladiator. He then starts a journey to get the peoples power and to gain revenge over the person who killed his own family (Commodus). Imperial or political power play * Maximus has to gain the trust and power from the general public * Commodus is jealous that he did not get picked as the next emperor * Maximus is shown as being fearless which makes the crowd like him even more * Maximus has nothing to lose, so Commodus can’t do any more damage to his public image * Maximus was shown to be a noble and powerful Roman general Power play in relationships * Maximus and Commodus has a strong tension to show each other who has more power * Commodus and Aurelius had a bitter relationship and ended in Commodus murdering Aurelius * Maximus and Proximo where Maximus had learnt to become a fearless gladiator * Commodus’s guards and Proximo, where Proximo gets murdered * The People and Commodus