communication theory relating to technologically mediated communication benefits and limitation of communication students interactions between students and teachers and students and others vrbal non-verbal communication priestly's paradox channels of communication

A Narrative about an issue in CMC(computer mediated communication) eg. Privacy and social networking and effect on communication

and near the end of the essay in subtopic Analyse linguistic and visual features of your topic and explain how they affect communication


please APA style referencing.

use the files that iv attached for referencing only

COM 200 WEEK 2 ASSIGNMENT

For most of us, computer-mediated-communication (CMC) is a big part of our daily lives. For the purpose of this assignment, we will include your cell phone as a type of ?computer.? In this assignment, you will reflect on your CMC.

First, read Chapter 4 in Bevan and Sole. Next, monitor your cell phone and/or computer-use during the course of a single day. Please download and save the Save icon CMC chart and make a note each time you check an email, text, play a game, or even check the time. Keep track of all of your personal and work-based communication activities through the course of a day and write everything you did on the provided chart. Keep track of the type of communication, length of time of your engagement, and the roles of both verbal and nonverbal communication in the interactions.

As you take notes on your chart, ask yourself:

Was there any implied meaning in the text of your writing? Did you ever use emoticons or use all caps?
In your written messages, how do you try to convey tone without nonverbal cues?
In your spoken messages, how do you think you could have been clearer if those messages had been written?
What connections can you make between your activities and the various functions of language and non-verbal communication discussed in Bevan and Sole (Sections 4.1 and 4.2)? Please list and describe at least one function of language and one function of nonverbal communication and show how those functions are demonstrated in your day of interactions.
Sample Notes

Work email ? used emoticons and exclamation points to lighten the tone; careful with formal language and typos as this can be read that as careless or incompetent; saw responses to me with exclamation points and emoticons (nonverbal); like in table 4.7 in our text, I noticed I tried to clarify I understood others by saying things like "Are you saying that ...?" If I were with them, I'd read body language instead.

When you write your paper, focus on specific interactions like the example used above or comment on general-use patterns. Then, based on what you have learned in Bevan and Sole, answer the following questions:

How much time in a single day do you communicate with your phone, computer, or both? Why does this matter?
Why should we pay special attention to our CMC?
What function of nonverbal communication did your interactions illustrate? How important was nonverbal communication in all of your computer-mediated interactions? Or, how did the lack of nonverbal communication allow you to think about a function of nonverbal communication?
What function of language did your interactions illustrate? How important was verbal communication?
What advice from Bevan and Sole could be used to improve your computer-mediated-communication?
Do not worry if you end up missing a few of your interactions. However, the more details you collect, the better your evidence will be to support your points. If it turns out you do not do much computer-mediated-communication, focus on the costs or benefits of primarily relying on verbal (and/or spoken) communication.

Copy and paste your complete CMC chart to the end of your paper.

The paper

Must be two to three double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper
Student?s name
Course name and number
Instructor?s name
Date submitted
Must use the course text to support points.
Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Use Chicago Manual of Style. I need the bibliography and work cited information along with my order for free. I provided 11 reference materials to use. Along with that add at least 20 other references. I need minimum of 15 quotations. I have provided the Introduction of the research paper. Based on the introduction please write the body and conclusion. NOTE Keep my introduction and use that as a base to write the body and conclusion. I am ordering 12 pages in total write 10 pages for the body and 2 pages for conclusion based on my introduction. I am not paying to write an introduction as I would like to use my own introduction. So please write the body and conclusion only and make sure it flows with my introduction. The paper should be based on my introduction and answer the last three topic of the introduction, which are:
- Online cross-cultural communication is more prone to misunderstanding and distrust than face-to-face communication because some of the nonverbal communication cues like body language are missing.
- The building of trust between individuals can lead to successful on-line cross-cultural communication.
- There is a need to understand how the meaning of word may vary between cultures in order to eliminate any potential misunderstanding and distrust between individuals.


Subject: Interpretation across Culture in on-line communication

Introduction:

I have been using my second language, English, since I was two years old. I have been living in the U.S. for nine years and still some words do not portray the same meaning to me as they do to people over here. I have found that the meanings of words can change; I notice this particularly at my workplace. When I started my job, I was given a project, and in an e-mail communication I wrote, "I am working on resolving the problem. I will keep you posted with my findings. In the meantime, if you have any further problems please feel free to contact me again." The word "problem" created a big situation in my department. My manager and my co-workers thought the word "problem" sounded negative and that I should use the word "issue" instead. I explained to them that where I come from, Bangladesh, "issue" sounds very harsh. It makes me feel as if I am attacking someone personally. After much discussion, I stepped aside to think from their perspective and decided to change the word. These made me realize that communicating in the workplace in my second language, even if my colleagues and I do not always understand words the same way, we can eventually understand each other well enough to achieve our tasks at work.

Language is the key factor for communication. The English language is being used globally to communicate through online media. While most people are using the same language to interact, not everyone is communicating with the same cultural values and understanding. Effective communication with people of different culture is especially challenging. There are no established procedures or rules for us to follow to be efficient communicators across cultures. The Internet has caused an explosion in the variety of communication methods and has opened an extraordinary level of communication without boundaries. This is causing an unprecedented possibility for misinterpretation, misunderstanding, and distrust. Trust is a vital element in team development and efficiency building within a traditional team context. Any kind of communication we engage in has our cultural values intermingled in it. Culture teaches us values and principles that direct our thoughts and actions toward anything we encounter. This cultural understanding dictates the way we learned how to speak, write, and interact with others. It creates a challenge in understanding each other. Along with the regular face-t-face cross-cultural communication challenges now we need to pay attention to the cross-cultural communication via on-line media.

To keep costs down and remain competitive in the global economy many organizations are choosing to convert traditional teams to virtual teams and forming Geographically Dispersed Teams (GDT). It is easy to setup virtual teams, but the challenge is in establishing trust among virtual team members to work collaboratively. Individuals in a virtual team not only depend on the use of information technology but also create rapport through on-line communication. In a research done by Dr. Zhou she revealed that virtual team also needs to trust their team members for their work. Because they are dependent on each others assigned task to deliver a successful project. When there is s strong trust built within the team, it is easier for the team members to work efficiently because they are able to depend on each other. It also helps them to have open communication within the group and maintain a collaborative environment. Trust is a vital element in team development and efficiency building within a traditional face-to-face communication of team context. So, we also need to pay attention on how to build trust through on-line communication.

It is phenomenal how people can communicate with each other while connected only by computers. Today, online media has shortened the time span of international communication to a matter of seconds. According to Internet World Stats, on June 30, 2008 the Internet was used by 21.9% of the world population, which is a 5.19% increase since 2006. The increase of Internet usage has brought with it a mixture of new settings and concerns that affect how the world interacts with in cyberspace. It has become a melting pot of different languages, cultural values, laws, regulations, and individual expectations. These factors need to be considered while using the online media to network with people of different cultures around the globe. A majority of work teams now spend at least 25% of their time working in a virtual environment, according to a recent survey by the Institute for Corporate Productivity.

It can also be said that the on-line media is also influencing people to take on new habits from other cultures. Consider the following simple scenario that Satinder Gill, talks about in his article "The Cultural Interface: The Role of Self." Usually, in Japanese culture, everyone addresses their colleagues at work by their last name. When communicating via email they tend to address their colleagues by their first name, which they do not normally do in person (1). Here we can see how online communication changes how Japanese communicators address each other differently online rather than face-to-face. This is just one example of global communication causing unconscious changes to occur in users' communication styles and how we need to pay attention to online communication protocols between cultures.

The emergence of cyberspace is pushing everyone in the workplace to grow an understanding of how different cultural values can play a role in online communication. Online cross-cultural communication in can be unconsciously affected by cultural values. This factor can affect how employees from different countries engage in online communications. All of these issues can play a positive or negative role in our life. If we do not pay attention to potential misunderstanding, then we are more likely to become victims of miscommunication. It will take more than just awareness to overcome these issues and communicate online across culture. On-line cross-cultural communication is a vital element in todays communication at workplace for team development and efficiency. In this study I plan to explore some of the potential reasons for misunderstanding and distrust in on-line communication. I believe to address this question I need to tackle the following issues listed below:

- Online cross-cultural communication is more prone to misunderstanding and distrust than face-to-face communication because some of the nonverbal communication cues like body language are missing.
- The building of trust between individuals can lead to successful on-line cross-cultural communication.
- There is a need to understand hw the meaning of word may vary between cultures in order to eliminate any potential misunderstanding and distrust between individuals.


Some Resources to use in the paper Annotated Bibliography


Nastri, J., Pea, J., and Hancock, J. T. (2006). The construction of away messages: A speech act analysis. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11.4, article 7.
This research study focuses on away messages in IM and how it can be used for better communication. A total of 483 away messages written by 44 individuals were studied. The messages were broken down indo different categories. They are primarily assertives, followed by expressives and commissives, but rarely with directives. These findings are discussed in terms of computer-mediated discourse and online self-presentation.
Coppola, N. W., Hiltz, S. R., & Rotter, N G. (2004). Building trust in virtual teams. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. 47.2, 95-104
The authors, researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark uses Debra Meyersons concept, swift trust at the beginning of an on-line course to build trust between temporary teams in online courses. The industry is moving towards a virtual world and along with it the academia is also preparing the students to work in a virtual world. As the students are meeting for a short time they can be compared to the temporary groups at workplace how everyone is pressured to become familiar in a limited amount of time. It shows the faculty members who were able to build trust between the team within the first week of the class were able provide successful learning community. The same phenomenon works within virtual teams at work place. Trust needs to be present between team members so they can count on each other and work more effectively towards their task without additional worries.
Suchan, J. & Hayzak, G. (2001). The communication characteristics of virtual teams: a case study. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication; 44.3, 174-186
The authors, researchers are from the Naval Postgraduate School and the U.S. Army explores on how there is greater need by the industry to deliver to their client in the most efficient way and how they are turning towards virtual team to give them the nimbleness to leverage their resources. They research analyzed the communication technologies like Customer Support Virtual Team (CST) for a Fortune 500 organization. Advanced electronic media provide the primary means of interaction between the virtual team members. For an effective team they found the great need for self driven team members and a great deal of trust along with the most efficient communication tools. In contrast they also found that organizations need to have staff to support these technologies for virtual team to perform effectively. As the industry is getting more demanding with the turnaround time of their project this study shows how managing a productive virtual team directly depends on a reliable communication systems. They show an interlinked relationship connecting the need to maintenance the uptime of these systems which helps the virtual team to be productive and as a result support their clients.
Zhou, L., & Zhang D. (2005). A heuristic approach to establishing punctuation convention in instant messaging. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. 48.4, 391-400
The author, researcher at the University of Maryland, MD explores the behavioral indicators of deception in virtual group when using instant messaging as a media of communication through qualitative study. He also discovered the difference in linguistic behavior between deceivers and the truth teller. This study is crucial for industries as most are instant messaging or synchronous computer mediated communication now pervades in daily life of the workplace. The study also compares the research on deception in face-to-face communication based on the clue theory with the deception via instant messaging. The interpersonal deception theory from social science was also used to guide the deception research in the group studied using instant messaging. Compared to face-to-face interaction instant messaging is influenced by the lack of incoming social cues as the communicators doesnt get to see the facial expressions. It is important identify these deceptions as organizations interact with each other virtually to reduce project failures. The results from this research can be used to understand knowledge of deception behavior in human communication and be aware of deceptions in the virtual world.

Grosse, C. U. (2002). Managing communication within virtual intercultural teams. Business Communication Quarterly. 65.4, 22-38.
This study was based on the findings from a graduate level business communication class assignment and interviews with four executives from France, United Kingdom, and US. The study focuses on how to build a strong virtual team through technology at the same time keep the interaction more humanized. It is a challenge for the traditional workers to work with teammates where there is no face-to-face interaction so there is a greater need for human touch to make them comfortable. There is also a need to have awareness of cultural diversity in the global virtual team to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding. The study also troughs the idea of a first face-to-face interaction between the team before forming them into virtual team but this is not always feasible due to geographical location and cost. The organization need to encourage open communication from the beginning between the virtual team members to grow trust and understanding. In the long run this will help the team to be more efficient and productive.

Shaw, B. , Scheufele, D. and Catalano, S. "The Role of Instant Messaging as a Tool for Organizational Communication: An Exploratory Field Experiment" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Sheraton New York, New York City, NY Online Retrieved 2008-06-20 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p14438_index.html
Millions of adults currently use instant messaging (IM) in the workplace and yet there is very little research examining how use and perceptions of this new medium affect intra-organizational communication. While one of the characteristics of instant messaging is the ability to exchange real-time communication, what truly distinguishes instant messaging from other widely adopted forms of mediated communication is the integration of presence technology, which allows parties to detect if others are online and available to communicate. In this paper, we propose a theory of productivity benefits of presence-aware communication technology, building upon past research. Based on this model, we use a quasi-experimental longitudinal research design with quantitative and qualitative methods to test how providing instant messaging to selected workgroups at a Fortune 1000 company impacts employees attitudes and work behavior. Results suggest that IM use had a positive effect on improving productivity with participants citing reductions in voice mail and phone tag, improvements to how easy it was to see if colleagues were online and available to communicate as well as increased productivity served by back-channel communications conducted via IM. Results and future research directions are discussed.

Panteli, N. & Davison, M. R. (2005). The role of subgroups in the communication patterns of global virtual teams. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. 48.2, 191-220
This study was collaboration between the University of Bath, UK, and the City University of Hong Kong, China. The author, researchers represents both the universities and led a group of 47 students by dividing them into 8 subgroups. The research explores the emergence of subgroups in global virtual and the communication pattern of teams in virtual settings. Extensive observation was made for 8 months to analyze the way all the teams communicated on the same projects by using on-line file exchanges, chats, and discussion forum. The study was very close to real life scenario because of the geographical proximity and the organizational homogeneity of the members in two different locations. The study shows how misunderstand between team members caused lack in team cohesiveness thus creating boundaries. Although the end result of the task between the team were very good but interestingly the study show there is greater need to have highly skilled team leader to maintain the serenity between the subgroups and to help taking ownership of faults, thus reducing misunderstanding. The study does a great job in discussing the insinuations of the findings and how to apply in practice. As businesses are moving toward outsourcing this study can be used as source in understanding some of the shortcomings of virtual teams and ways to overcome them.

Burn, J. & Barnett, M. (1999). Communicating for advantage in the virtual organization. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. 42.4, 215-222
The authors, researchers at the Edith Cowan University, Australia studies six virtual organizational models and explores how the electronic network of virtual organizations rises above the conventional organizations. All these models have some common needs. They all seek for innovative way to come up with low-cost communications technology and employ rich functionality. The models also explore how virtual organizations are dynamic and are going through constant changes. The most stable virtual organization that run most efficiently are the ones that treat communication knowledge as their core need for their infrastructure. The trend to the formation of virtual organizations industry and a lot can be learned from their communication structure which can be applied to the traditional organization and to the formation of their virtual teams.

Zhou, L. (2005). An empirical investigation of deception behavior in instant messaging. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. 48.2, 147-160
The author, researcher at the University of Maryland, MD explores the behavioral indicators of deception in virtual group when using instant messaging as a media of communication through qualitative study. He also discovered the difference in linguistic behavior between deceivers and the truth teller. This study is crucial for industries as most are instant messaging or synchronous computer mediated communication now pervades in daily life of the workplace. The study also compares the research on deception in face-to-face communication based on the clue theory with the deception via instant messaging. The interpersonal deception theory from social science was also used to guide the deception research in the group studied using instant messaging. Compared to face-to-face interaction instant messaging is influenced by the lack of incoming social cues as the communicators doesnt get to see the facial expressions. It is important identify these deceptions as organizations interact with each other virtually to reduce project failures. The results from this research can be used to understand knowledge of deception behavior in human communication and be aware of deceptions in the virtual world.

Judith A. H. (2005). Building trust and collaboration in a virtual team. Team Performance Management. 7.3, 36-48
The author from the Holland College, Canada focuses on how building and having trust in virtual organization is important for it to be productive. Organization are moving toward a virtual team environment and to have effective virtual team there needs to me seamless communication between team members and they need to be able to rely on each other without any doubts. She studied six members in a virtual team to find the out how level of trust is important in team effectiveness. She suggest the application of Jung's theory of personality types to assess virtual teams in a positive and laissez-faire way to highlight value of diversity so the team members are at ease to share their personal and work style preferences, thus creating a circle of trust. Trust is need between all kinds of team but it is crucial for virtual team as there is no face-to-face interaction between team members and there is vulnerability for deception.

Jarvenpaa L. S. & Leidner E. D. (1999). Communication and trust in global virtual teams. Organization Science. 10.6, 791-816
The authors, researchers, at the University of Texas at Austin, TX studied three hundred and fifty master's students from 28 universities for six weeks in virtual team setting to explore the how trust was developed through virtual interaction. The study show communication challenges dues o cultural in interpersonal differences and thus creating misunderstanding between team members. The presence of the SIDE theory was found in the study as there were pauses between the members during their interactions which influence individuals to build stereotypical intuitions about each other. In this study we also see the application of Debra Meyersons theory of swift trust but between the team members were very fragile and temporary. There are challenges in virtual team due to geographical distance so organizations need to focus on open communications between the virtual team members so there is less misunderstanding. A productive virtual team cannot be built just with the proper communication tools but there is need for trust, respect, and relationship between team members.





There are faxes for this order.

Using the topic, thesis statement, and supporting points from your DB 1 posting, write a 350-500 (1-2 pages) argument essay defending your thesis statement and supporting points with logical reasoning and evidence based on your knowledge and experience. Do not research the topic or use outside sources.

This formal essay assignment should be formatted as follows:
An introduction paragraph which defines the issue and states your thesis statement in the last sentence.
Several body paragraphs, each stating a main point in support of your thesis statement. Each main point must be supported with logical reasoning and evidence (specific details to explain and illustrate your points)
A concluding paragraph should summarize main points and thesis.

thesis:
Computer mediated communication is no longer a new phenomenon therefor I think much of the negative effect/stigma has been removed or has simply disappeared. The only people who cannot/do not see the usefulness of computer mediated communication are those who have absolutely no experience or understanding of their main uses.

How Networked Are You?
The studies suggest that CMC - computer-mediated communication can and does enhance interpersonal relationships and networking. See if you agree or disagree by answering the questions below.

Can you identify a relationship that:
1. Has been enhanced by regular CMC interactions, such as IMing, e-mailing, or blogging?
2. Was created through CHC, perhaps in chat rooms. IMing/e-mailing, listservs, or online dating services?
3. Would suffer or perhaps and if computers weren't available?

What do your answers tell you about the impact of CMC on interpersonal relationships? Can you think of times when CMC has hurt or hindered relationships?

Examples of social networking sites can be facebook, myspace or other sites.
There are faxes for this order.

Teacher's Instructions-
Difficult ethical communication questions arise in organizational, public, mass, and now in computer-mediated communication as well as in most informal and intimate contexts. In a minimum of six clear, concise, research oriented pages, you are to analyze communication ethics. Within your paper, I strongly suggest you take the time to define communication, ethics, communication ethics and/or ethical communication using scholarly sources instead of a dictionary. Feel free to relate your research to a real world example. When writing, address the significance and the implications of your research. Tell me what you have learned and then tell me what you think about what you have learned.
Try conceptualizing your paper this way: you have communication and you have ethics, you are to research and write about where and how those two constructs intersect. If you choose to narrow your focus further by applying communication to a specific real world example, then you are researching and writing about where and how communication, ethics, and your real world example intersect. Your primary focus must be on communication ethics. Do not write a paper focusing on the real world example.
Even though your paper most likely will be descriptive in nature, be careful that you do not create a six page editorial instead of a research paper. Editorials consist of opinion supported by mostly anecdotal evidence. Research papers use opinion and anecdotal evidence to help explain the results of scientific studies and to demonstrate the potential ramifications.
Research should be from a minimum of four different academic sources and they must be used within the body of the paper. One of the sources must be Ayn Rand's "Virtue of Selfishness". Magazines, newspapers, or textbooks will not count as a primary resource. Please make use of relevant journal articles or scholarly books. Online/internet research can be used as long as it is scholarly and academic quality. Do not use encyclopedias or normal dictionaries.

Introduction:
Many companies are using computer mediated communication for training and updating their employees. They must choose the most effective and efficient manner of communication. Effective and efficient may be defined as achieving the communication goal while considering budget and time restraints.

Consider the following scenario:
Your company has 21 offices around the world. None of the members will ever meet face-to-face because of geographical dispersion and scheduling conflicts. They have formed a team of one representative from each office to determine the method of marketing and new product training and to develop the training content. Due to the cost of travel and the large number of individuals that need to be trained, the training will never take place face-to-face.
This training consists of:
Information about a new software application that will make your company more competitive. This information is available from the vendor and your IT department.
Information about the companys most recent products. This information will come from the marketing department at headquarters.
Information about the competitions products. This information is available from three different marketing groups located in New York, Tokyo, and London.
Successful sales methods that have been used by the different locations. This information is available from seven different locations that recently were given the Best Of The Best Marketing Awards.

Your boss has asked that you work with this team. He has asked you for a preliminary report prior to the first meeting.

Tasks:
Answer the following questions:
1. Explain the different communication mediums the team could use to communicate.
2. Which computer mediated communication methods would you recommend for the training? Defend your answer.
3. Since the information for the training is from so many different sources, how will the content for the training be gathered and delivered?

This is an applied project paper (much like a thesis). This paper will explore the challenges of creating and maintaining trust in a global virtual team whose members transcend time, space, and culture. The challenges are highlighted by integrating recent literature on work teams, computer-mediated communication groups, cross-cultural communication, and interpersonal and organizational trust.

Introduction:
Technology has changed how we communicate and conduct group and team processes. Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) may be as simple as a live chat with another, or it may be communication with a large
multi-national group. It may be synchronous or asynchronous. It is CMC that has facilitated the growth of online education and training both by educational institutions and by companies. The technology is changing rapidly. This assignment will allow you to explore the newest developments in CMC.



During this time, you may share information with your classmates in the Open Course Discussion Forum. You can share resources you have found, experiences you have had, or help a classmate get through a challenge using the the Internet. The assignment, however, should be an individual effort.

Task:
Using a minimum of two sources of information, write a paper on "the Latest and the Greatest CMC" for meetings or groups of five or more. In this paper, you will:

Document at least two sources. Please use APA Style.

Describe one or two new developments (within the last five years) in CMC. It may be a completely new development or a major enhancement. (Your description should explain how this development works.)
Describe how this new development will change the CMC process.
Describe the ideal application, including:
Type of group
Size of group
Cost to support
Given the opportunity, would you want to participate in a meeting using this CMC? Why or why not?

I've defined three cons of social networking for children.
Cyberbulling
Safety/Sexual Predators
Health Problems (present and future)

Include statistics. Include ethical, moral or legal issues.. I would like to use these sources as well as three additional sources to support these cons.

Boyd, D.M. & Ellison, N.B. (2007). Social Network Sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), Article 11

Rosen, L. (2011, August 16). Poke Me: How Social Networks can both Help & Harm our Kids?, California State University, Dominquez Hills

University of Gothenburg (2010, February 22). Cyberbullying: A growing problem. Science Daily. Retrieved August 18, 2012 from http/www.sciencedaily.com

You are to write a 3-page Summary of the article below. When quoting use APA format. Do Not Use Outside Sources!

The Theory of Scholarship of Distance Education
Everything that is recorded in the literature of the field is the theory of the field. Somebody so later organizes and summarizes the body of knowledge, or parts of it, and as these summaries are found useful by more and more scholars and researchers they become authoritative. Then, instead of reviewing all the literature yourself you can refer to the summary. It is like a map. A map summarizes what is known about a place and if there are many inky spaces it shows them. This is the clue to knowing where new exploration i.e. research, is needed. The accepted facts and concepts that make up theory also provide a shared perspective for those who have studied it and a common vocabulary for discussing, analyzing, or criticizing it. People who go on journeys of discovery who have not read the theory -- either exhaustively in its long form-the literature or and in its summer rise forms-are traveling without a map. In research they asked questions that have been answered or in bed are unanswerable and because they do not understand vocabulary they are confused and they cause a great deal of confusion. In education a lot of the information about technology that is collected and reported as distance education is not really about distance education at all and is rather trivial in significance while questions that do need to be researched is often overlooked. Knowing the theory, then, is very valuable for everyone who wants to practice and distance education for research it is indispensable.
A Very History Short of Scholarship
scholarship can be defined as research grounded in theory. It should be surprising -- and but it is a fact -- that while whole departments of professors and hundreds of colleges of education have for decades studied teaching and learning and how these organized inside the campuses and classrooms of schools, universities, and training organizations, what goes on when communication technologies extended teaching and outside the classroom and campus has been ignored by nearly all of them. What a research was done in this area was until recently undertaken by people who are engaged in the practice of teaching at a distance and took it on themselves to attempt some analysis of and reflection on what they were doing. Even when they produce research reports they had difficulty in sharing them since the editors of the journals of education had little interest in publishing what they were writing about. Probably the person to suggest there was a need for research and distance education was in J.S. Noffsinger 1926, first director of the national home-study Council who went on to produce the first systematic description of American correspondence education. This was followed a few years later by another landmark survey by Bittner and Mallory published in their University teaching by mail 1933. In 1956 a major survey was undertaken by the national University extension Association gathering information from 34 institutions and 69,519 distance learners. In 1960 and other national survey was undertaken jointly by the national University extension Association and the national home study Council and was disseminated in the correspondence instruction in the US (Mackenzie, Christiansen, and Rigby, 1968). The Brandenburg Memorial assay a collection of contributions from the leading thinkers and practitioners of the years following World War II edited by Charles Wedemeyer appeared in two volumes 1963 and 1966. Among the few outlets for publications were the newsletters of the national University extension Association and the national home study Council and the newsletter of the ICCE, which Wedemeyer started in 1971. Matters improve went to foreign journals entered circulation: distance education (an in-house organ of the UK open University) and Epistolodidktica, a journal published by the European home study Council. However these were hard to obtain in the US and the editorial policies meant they were unlikely to publish a American research. In the 1980s as interest in using telecommunications for distance education become of considerable interest a growing number of to begin to engage in research. They received a significant stimulus in 1986 with the establishment of the American Center for study of distance education and the founding of the American Journal of distance education, one of the most significant events affecting University independent study in the past 15 years. Providing a foundation for scholarship alongside the American Journal of distance education was a unique event that occurred in 1986. That was the first American symposium of research in distance education. This was an invitational meeting of 50 American academics who has shown an interest in research in distance education convene specifically by the American Center for study of distance education to review and discuss a research agenda. For the symposium came a book, the first moon scholarly collection on American distance education. A similar key been opened in the 1990s when an international workshop was held in Caracas, Venezuela under the auspices of the American Center for study of distance education bringing American researchers to meet with other researchers from all five continents for the purpose of formulating a global research agenda. In 1991 the history of the field was recorded in a book sponsored by independent study division of the nationally University continuing education Association, the foundations of American distance education. The first formal courses of instruction began in the early 1970s when Charles Wedemeyer began his graduate seminar and independent study offered in the adult education program at the University of Wisconsin Madison. His research assistant and this was Michael G. Moore who took over teaching the seminar on Wedemeyer retirement in 1976 and continued teaching it each year as a special summer course until 1986. After moving in that year to the Pennsylvania State University more instituted his own program of graduate courses. By 1987 Holmberg was able to list a number of universities where distance education was being taught and felt able to assert that it is evident that a research discipline of distance education has emerged.

History of Theory of Distance Education
In the summer of 1972 Michael G. Moore made a presentation to the world conference of the international Council for correspondence education meeting in Warrenton, Virginia on the topic of learner autonomy: the second dimension of independent learning. It began as follows: we started my posture lading that the universe of in shock consisted of two families of teaching behaviors, which we referred to as contiguous teaching and distance teaching. After describing conventional or contiguous teaching Michael G. Moore defined distance teaching as; the family of instructional methods in which the teaching behaviors are executors apart from the learning behaviors, including those that in contiguous teaching would be performed in the learners presence, so that communication between the learner and the teacher must be facilitated by print, electronic, mechanical, or other devices.
This was the first attempt in America to define distance education and it went on to propose a general theory of the pedagogy of distance education. For two years while working with Wedemeyer, Michael Moore had study educational theory and noticed what had not been noticed before; that there were no systematic theory to account for education in which the teaching behaviors are executed apart from the learning behaviors. He explained to the international Council for correspondence education conference in 1973: as we continue to develop various nontraditional methods of reaching the growing number of people who cannot or will not attend conventional institutions but who choose to learn apart from their teachers we should direct some of our research to the macro-factos; describing and defining the field, discriminating between the various components of this field; identifying the critical elements of the various forms of teaching and learning; building a dear radical framework which will embrace the whole area of education.
History of the Term Distance Education
The term distance education that Michael Moore chose to define the universe of teaching-learning relationships characterized by separation between learner and teacher was one he first heard in a conversation with the Swedish educator Brje Holmberg. Holmberg was director of the Hermods correspondence school in Sweden, and being fluent in German he had read about the work of a group of research at the University of Tubingen. Instead of talking about correspondence study these Germans use the term Fernstudium, or distance education; and Fernunterricht or distance teaching. Prominent among these were K. H. Rebel, M. Delling, K. Graff, G. Dohmen, and Otto Peters. Since they only publish their work in German; English-speaking scholars only knew it in later years mainly due to the efforts of Desmond Keegan.
Otto Peters
In 1967 Peters published a seminal work, which was translated into English in 1983 with the title distance teaching and industrial production. A comparative interpretation in outline. In this article Peters explained how it becomes clear that distance that he is a form of study complementary to our industrial and technical age. His thesis was that distance education is best understood as the application of industrial techniques and delivery of instruction and that unless industrial methods are used distance education will not be successful. These techniques include; systematic planning, specialization of the workforce, mass production of materials, automation, standardization, and quality control, as well as using a full range of modern communications technologies. This application of industrial practices will result in a high quality; the high cost of this is amortized when course are distributed to a large number of students -- what is known to economists as the economies of large-scale production.
Toward a Pedagogical Theory
Peters theory was an organizational theory and it didn't circulate in English until the 1980s. The nearest to a theory in English was Wedemeyer in 1971 attempt to define the independent learner as a person not only independent in space and time but also potentially independent and controlling and directing learning. Michael Moore was attracted by this idea of learner independence and the possibility that distance could actually be a positive force in helping adult learners individually and in groups to have greater control over their learning and more independence from the control of educational institutions. Although working with Wedemeyer he was more influenced than Wedemeyer by the writing of Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, Charlotte Buhler, and other so-called humanistic psychologist. Also at the time the ideas of andragogy promoted by Malcolm Knowles and the self-directed learning research of Alan Tough in 1971 was at the height of their popularity. In searching for the macro-factors Michael Moore gathered and analyzed the structure and design of several hundred of courses in which the teaching behavior are executed apart from the learning behaviors and on this empirical basis offered his theory at the 1972 conference, the theory was intended to be global and descriptive. In other words it was to be of sufficient generality to accommodate all forms of distance education as defined and to provide a conceptual tool that would place any distance education program and the relationship to any other. You are creating an equivalent of the periodic table advised University of Wisconsin adult education professor Robert Boyd. Follow Linnaeas said Charles Wedemeyer just as the 18th century scientist sought to identify the characteristics that would differentiate living creatures and also assist in classifying them the aim was to create a system for classifying this special type of education program. What emerged combines both the Peters perspective of distance education as a highly structured industrial system, and Wedemeyer perspective of a more learner-centered, interactive relationship between learner and teacher. Since 1986 it has been known as the theory of transactional distance.
Theory of Transactional Distance
The first core idea of the theory of transactional distance is that distance is a pedagogical phenomenon and is not simply a matter of geographic distance. Although it is true that distance education learners are separated by time and/or by time from their teachers, what is important for both practitioners and researchers is the effect that this geographic distance has on teaching and learning communications and interactions, curriculum and course design, and the organization and management of the education program. When we speak of distance learning we do not speak of an educational experience that is no different from the contiguous course except for the physical separation of learner and teacher but we describe a family of programs that have distinctive, qualitative differences. Transactional distance is the gap of understanding the communication between teacher and learners caused by geographic distance that must be bridged to distinctive procedures in instructional design and the facilitation of interaction.
Distance Education as a Transactional
The concept of transaction was derived by John Dooley and developed by Boyd and Apps 1980. As explained by Boyd and Apps; it connotes the interplay among the environment, the individuals and patterns of behavior in a situation. This transaction that we call distance education is the interplay between people were teachers and learners in environments that have the special characteristics of being separated from one another. It is the physical distance that leads to a communication gap, a psychological space of potential misunderstandings between instructor and learners that has to be bridged by special teaching techniques and this is the transactional distance. Transactional distance is a continuous rather than a discrete variable; a program is not either distance or not distance, more distance or less distance. In other words transactional distance is relative rather than absolute. As has been pointed out for example by Rumble 1986, there is some transactional distance in any educational the event even those in which learners and teachers meet face-to-face in the same space. What is normally referred to as distance education is that subset of educational events in which separation of teacher and learner is so significant that it affects their behavior in major ways. The separation actually dictates that teachers plan, present content, interact, and perform the other processes of teaching and significantly different ways from the face-to-face environment. In short the transactional distance in such that special organizational and teaching behaviors are essential, how special will depend on the degree of the transactional distance. These special teaching behaviors fall into clusters. We can describe transactional distance by looking at these teachers behaviors. Similarly, if we are designing courses we think about how much to invest in each of these clusters of teaching behavior; or, in other words, how much transactional distance we or our students will tolerate. The two sets of variables are labeled dialogue and structure.
Dialogue is a term that helps us focus on the interplay of words and actions and any other interactions between teacher and learner when one gives instruction and the other responds. Dialogue is not the same as interaction, drew interactions are necessary for creating dialogue. The extent and nature of this dialogue is determined by the educational philosophy of the individual or group responsible for the design of the course by the personalities of teacher and learner by the subject matter of the course, and by the environmental factors. One important environmet to factor that affects dialogue in the existence of a learning group and its size. It is probable there will be much more dialogue between an instructor and a single learner than between an instructor and a particular learned in a group of learners. Another environmental variable that influences dialogue is language; it is found that persons working in a foreign language are likely to interact less with an instructor than those who share the instructors tongue. One of the most important environment variables is the medium of communication. For example in a correspondence course or an online course each individual learner has a dialogue with the instructor through either electronic or surface mail. Because it is in writing this is a rather highly structured and -- in the case of surface mail -- a slow dialogue. A greater degree of dialogue is likely in a course taught online because of the speed in frequency of responses by teacher and student to the inputs of each author. Audio conferencing by telephone is usually a highly dialogue process. However as indicated before since the audio conference is group base there will be less dialogue for each individual student than in an online course. Also forms students usually feel more comfortable and engage in more dialogue by the text-based, asynchronous communication methods then they do in the faster, synchronous audio conference. If some courses such as those used in video telecourses have very little or no dialogue. It is possible to learn a foreign language, for example, from a video-telecourse. When watching these television tapes a student might actually speak out while giving a response to something that televised teacher says but since there is no feedback to the instructor, the instructor is not able to respond to student, and no dialogue occurs.


Guided Didactic Conversation
Working as professor at the distance University, in Hagen, Germany, Brje Holmberg selected the learner-teacher and dialogue as the fundamental characteristics of distance education. Distance teaching, suggested Holmberg 1981, should be a conversation, what he called a guided didactic conversation. Distance education, he said: ... implies that the character of good distance education resembles that of a guided conversation aimed at learning and that the presence of the typical traits of a conversation facilitates learning. And also the feeling of personal relation between the teaching and learning parties promotes study pleasures and student motivation and that such feeling can be fostered by well-developed self instructional material and suitable two-way communication at a distance.
The Growing Importance of Dialogue
In the decade since the formulation of the idea of dialogue in transactional distance there has been a considerable research of the social and language based nature of the teaching-learning relationship casting further light on the importance of the concept. This perspective is based on Vygotskys 1978 theory of learning which explains the centrality of language as a medium by which the learner constructs a way of thinking. The relation to learner autonomy is shown by be Vygotskian notion of handover. Through the exchange of meanings and the development of a shared understanding within the Vygotsky calls the zone of proximal development, learners gradually come to take control of the process of learning. They enter a community of shared discourse as novices and supported by a teacher or of the more competent person primarily through their growing confidence in using the tool of language progressively take charge of their own learning. In this Vygotskian perspective on learning a dialogue between teachers more competent other and learner is accompanied by a shift in control of the learning process from teacher to student.
Core Structure
The second set of variables that determine transactional distance are elements in the course design. The turn use described this structure. A course consists of such elements as, learning objectives, content themes, information presentation, case studies, pictorial and other illustrations, exercises, projects, and tests. Quality depends on how carefully bees are composed and how carefully structured. A design team might Pilate-test parts of their course on an experimental group and thus ascertain exactly how long it would take each student to accomplish each objective. They may measure the reading speed of their potential students and in theater the number of pages of reading required for each part of the course. Instructors may be provided detail rubrics and making schemes to help them ensure all students meet standard criteria for achievement. They may monitor the learning performance of each student with great frequency providing remedial activities for those that need them and so ensure that every student has accomplished a set of course in a tightly controlled sequence. The student may be emitted into the course has cohorts and none may be remitted to move into any content area except at the pace of home rule. In an online course or in using a printed study guide each student might be required to follow the same sequence of study and activity; audio and video materials may be synchronized very tightly to the specific pages and the study guide for on the Web; and online discussions may be carefully organized so that each student is included in an online chat room, according to a carefully scripted plan. By contrast a different course may permit students to explore an undefined set of web pages and/or tapes at their own speed, study a set of readings, and submit assignments online only when they feel ready. They may be told to call or e-mail an instructor for a help desk it, and only win, they wish to receive advice. Such would be a course with much lower structure than the former course just outlined. Light and dialogue, structure is determined by the educational philosophy of the teaching organization, the teachers themselves, the academic level of the learner, the nature of the content, and by the communication media that are employed. Since structure expresses the rigidity or flexibility of the courses educational objectives, teaching strategies, and evaluation methods, it describes the extent to which course components can accommodate war be responsive to eat learners individual needs. A recorded television program for example, not only permits no dialogue but it is also highly structured, with virtually every activity of the instructor and every second of time provided for in a script and every piece of content predetermined. There is little or no opportunity for any deviation according to the personal needs in Easton. This can be compared with many web-based courses, which can be structured in ways that allow students to follow many different paths through the content.
Structure and dialogue Measure Transactional Distance
The recorded television program is a very highly structured and teacher-learner and dialogue is nonexistent. This means the transactional distance is high, in the correspondence course mentioned earlier there is more dialogue and let structure so it has less transactional distance. In those live audio or video teleconference programs that have much more dialogue and little predetermined structure and the extent of transactional distance is even lower. In online settings in those courses have little or no dialogue, asynchronous or synchronous, are of higher transactional distance than those that have such a dialogue. Again and again it must be emphasized that these are generalizations, and the analysis has to be done on specific programs because so much more is involved in merely the technology being used. The extent of dialogue and degree of structure varies from course to course, from program to program. In a course or program with little transactional distance learner receives directions in guidance through ongoing dialogue with your instructor and by using instructional materials that allow modifications to suit their individual needs, learnin styles, and pace. In more distance courses where there is less dialogue and more structure learners have some guidance; if there is neither dialogue structure and been they must be entirely independent and make their own decisions about study strategies decide for themselves how to study, what to study, when, where, in what ways, and to what extent.
Learner Autonomy
Degree to the transactional distance the more such responsibility the learner has to exercise. Calling his 1972 ICCE presentation learner autonomy: the second dimension of independent study, Michael Moore declared that a theory of distance education that only considered the variables of teaching which would be flawed. This was at a time when all education including correspondence teaching was under the influence of behaviorist learning theory and the idea of learners being autonomous individuals constructing their own knowledge based on their own experience received little notice outside of some adult education circles. In the behaviorist view since distance learners were beyond the immediate environment of the teacher the main problem was how to optimally controlled them. In chapters were urged identify their goals and very specific behavioral turns to prescribe a highly structured regime of presentation, practice, and reward; and to test and measure achievement of all students according to the precise standards built into the objectives. The purpose of into action was to test the extent to which learners were achieving the instructors objectives and to give the successful learners positive reinforcement. The challenge for the educator was to reduce a perfect set of objectives, techniques, testing devices, one that would fit every learner in large numbers Ed distance so that no one would deviate or fold between the cracks. The parallel of a distance education pedagogy described in this way with the industry will model for delivery of education that Peters was working out at the same time is obvious. Having identified the importance of structure as a key element of distance education Michael Moore believed that in the theory of distance education, a balancing perspective was needed one that accepted the idiosyncrasies and independence of learners as a valuable resource rather than a distracting nuisance. In addition to highly structured courses in which passive learners were trained by irresistibly elegant instructional tools it was necessary to conceptualize a dimension that accommodate more collaborative relationships between teachers and learners which would allow for the fact that many learners chose their learning objectives and conduct, construct, and control much of the learning process and that some teachers and teaching institutions encourage this. The concept of learner autonomy is that learners have different capacities for making decisions regarding their own learning. The ability of a learned to developing personal learning plan -- the ability to find resources for study in one's own work or community environment and the ability to decide oneself when progress was satisfactory me not to be conceived as an extraneous and regrettable malaise in a smooth running, and shorter-controlled system. Instead degree to which these learners behaviors exist can be seen as an important dimension for the classification of distance education programs. It is the fact that some programs allow for greater exercise of learner on a nominee than others. Therefore programs can be defined and described in terms of what degree of autonomy learners are expected are permitted to exercise. This is not to say that all students are fully autonomous or ready to be autonomous or that all programs and teacher should treat them as such. Like dialogue structure learner autonomy is a relative concept. Since the original theory a number of important researchers have you never read it on the idea of learner autonomy particularly Candy 1991, Brookfield 1985, Pratt 1988 and Long et al 1989. One of the most comprehensive discussions of autonomy in the context of distance education theory is that of Munro (1991, 1988).
Desmond Keegan, when he founded the Australian Journal distance education in 1980, Keegan published in the first issue an analysis of what he called for in general accepted definitions of distance education. The four definitions were those of Holmberg, Peters, Michael Moore, and perhaps rather strangely in July 1971 law of France which regulated distance education in that country. For this analysis Keegan concluded that the following six elements are to be regarded as essentials for any comprehensive definition: separation of teacher and student, influence of an educational organization especially in the planning and preparation of learning materials, use of technical media, provision of two-way communication, possibility of occasional seminars, and participation in the most industrial form of education. Keegans summary of the four generally accepted definitions became the most widely cited definition of distance education. In 1986 he repeated his technique this time analyzing Peters, Michael Moore, Holmberg and Dohmen. He did not change his list of key elements but he did state them any local form. The first element for example was: the quasi-permanent separation of teacher and learner throughout the length of the learning process; this distinguishes it from conventional face-to-face education. The possibility of occasional seminars became: the quasi-permanent absence of the learning group throughout the land of the learning process so that people are usually taught as individuals and not in groups with the possibility of occasional meetings for both didactic and socialization purposes.
Randy Garrison, further insights into learner autonomy and its relationship to dialogue and structure are found in a model developed by a group of Canadian researchers. This group focuses the discussion of the learner-teacher relationship in terms of control. Another important term is proficiency which is the students ability to construct meaning and the disposition needed to initiate and persist any learning endeavor. The educators aim is to arrive at an optimum balance of control among facilitator, learners, and curriculum. The resulting learning outcome will be socially worthwhile as well as personally meaningful, if the three dimensions of control are in dynamic balance. Meaningful means the learners assume responsibility to make meaning of the content by simulating or accommodating new ideas and concepts into their existing knowledge structures. In addition, socially worthwhile knowledge is that knowledge which has been continually confirmed and which has redeeming social value. What is being described here is a collaborative constructivist perspective of teaching and learning what the individual has the responsibility to construct meaning impetus paid in reciprocal communication for the purpose of confirming understanding and generating worthwhile knowledge. Until recent times such collaborative constructivist approaches to learning at a distance were limited by the character of the technology. However new Internet networks make it possible to offer collaborative learning experiences at a distance in a cost-effective manner. Technological advances on allowing more distance education institutions in choosing to the agreement is that transactional rather than transmissive. Garrisons 1989 model proposes six types of transactional relationships, building on Michael Moore's 1980 93-part model of interaction. That's in addition to learner-content, London-in short, and learner-learner interactions, Garrison added; teacher-content, teacher-teacher, and content-content. With the incorporation of computer-mediated conferences into program designed to support interaction, Hillman, Willis, and Gunawardena 1994 and a four type of interaction which take-home learner-interface interaction. Garrison 2000 argues that the focus of distance education theory has shifted from structural constraints overcoming geography to transactional issues ptimizing teaching-learning strategies. Recent research has been concerned with the cognitive and social presence that occurs in computer mediated interaction.
Collaborative Learning and the Social Construction of Knowledge
Conceptualizing learning as socially situated some researchers argue that group based collaborative learning enables development of learning communities in the short term and potential communities in practice in the long term. Since in distance settings, normal communication is conveyed through an artificial medium we must find ways to achieve social presence. One seminal study developed by interaction analysis model to examine the social constructions of knowledge and computer mediated instruction. It was concluded that the dynamics of the virtual report all the participants toward various forms of compromise and negotiation on the way to socially constructing a commonly acceptable knowledge. Research suggests that the affection, inclusion, and sense of solidarity of the group, the ease of expression and synthesis of multiple viewpoints with no one student dominating, are important characteristics in the successful social structure the knowledge online. In an earlier study of computer mediated instruction, Cheng et al 19 anyone reported a higher completion rate for those learners will work collaboratively in 90% than for those who work independently 22%.
System Dynamics of Saba
With his colleagues and students Saba has elaborated the theory of transactional distance by using computer simulated modeling. In the first project, Saba and Twitchell used a computer simulation method based on systems dynamics modeling techniques that demonstrates and explains the interactions of different forces in the distance education system. Next, Saba employed the model to describe the interrelationship of the variables that make up structure and dialogue. Here is how he describes the model 1988: integrated systems provided a flexible means for decreasing structure through integrated dialogue. They also expedite increased structures will dialogue can be kept to a desirable level. This defines a demented relationship between dialogue and the level of required structure. This relationship can be displayed as a negative feedback loop in a system dynamics casual diagram. The negative flow diagram represents an inverse relationship between levels of thy love and structure. As dialogue increases, structure decreases, and as structure decreases dialogue increases to keep the system stable. In negative feedback loops, the stability of the system depends on interventions from outside the loop. The level depends on the actions of teacher and learner. In a plausible scenario, the need for decreasing structure is communicated to the teacher. Consultation automatically increases dialogue; then adjustments in goals, instructional materials, and evaluation procedures of car and the learner achieved the desired level of autonomy.
Saba expanded the system model in a third project mentioning before, when he ran simulations of distance students exchanges with instructors to measure relationships of transactional distance and autonomy. Using a technique for coding speech called discourse analysis the researchers identified the speech content of a number of educational transactions at a distance and classified them into 10 main categories and 20 subcategories. In this way they are operationalized dialogue, structure, and teacher/learner control and measure the effects that changes in any of these had in the others.
Others Applications of Theory of Transactional Distance
at the University of Hawaii, Bischoff et al 1996 survey 221 students perceptions of structure, dialogue, and transactional distance in a coarse mediated by interactive television. Data was generated by a 68-item questionnaire and items were measured along a 5-point Likert scale. As expected, results showed that dialogue and transactional distance were inversely proportional; that is, a dialogue increase, transactional distance decrease. Chen and Willits 1999 study the experiences of 121 learners in a videoconferencing environment. They found that the greater the transactional distance between instructor and learner the student perceive their learning outcomes lower. What had the most significant effect on the learners perceived learning outcomes was the frequency of in class dialog. They found that the larger the learning group the greater the distance transaction between in structure and learners as perceived by learners. In research on factors that affect online dialogue in computer mediated instruction, Vrasidas and MacIsaac 1999 emphasized the relationships of the structure of the course, class size, feedback, and prior experience. Prior experience with CMC along with access to appropriate technology is relevant to the quality of dialogue, a point noted by Wegerif 1998. Hopper 2000 undertook a qualitative study of life circumstances and transactional distance in a videoconferencing environment and found that even students who reported a perception of high transactional distance were satisfied with their experience and the level of their achievements. Gayol 1995 use transactional distance theory to explore the transactions that occurred in the computer-mediated communication learning environment of students in the course with participants in four different countries, with four different languages. Posted assignments and messages of the students and the instructor were analyzed to measure the changes in the degree of dialogue, structure, and learner autonomy. Bunker, Gayol, Nti, and Reidell 1996 examined the effect of changes in structure on dialogue in an audio-conferencing course connecting nine sites internationally. In another study Chen 2001 measured the impact of individual and instructional variables on learners perceived transactional distance in a world wide web learning environment and recommended the future development of instruments for measuring transactional distance.
Theory and the Student
What these examples indicate how researchers can base their study on the fear radical platform and how the result of each study them, in turn, makes the platform or helpful for the next researcher. You can see the theories serves as a tool to help specify variables of structure, dialogue, and learner autonomy, and then suggests questions about the relationships among these variables. Unfortunately there is far too little research and that is theoretically oriented in this way. After an extensive review of research on web-based instructions, Jung 2001 concluded: Web based in structure and we sure showed little resemblance to establish pedagogical theory in general or distance education theory in particular. While some studies raise their research questions and discuss the findings in theoretical frameworks other studies have little relationship to establish learning theories. She went on to suggest questions for future research, including: does the extent of rigidity or flexibility in the structure of a web based instruction course of the dialogue and transactional distance as is the case in other distance education modes?; what Web based instruction structure best supports interaction and learning?; what are the effects of different types of interaction on learning and satisfaction in web-based instruction?; and how can we balanced learner autonomy and core structure in Web based instruction? Following Jung, we would agree that there is a need for much more research of an empirical nature to identify the many variables that lie within structure, dialogue, and autonomy; and to explore them more thoroughly. There are rich opportunities for graduate students in this unexplored feel, especially with the rapid growth of web-based injection. But, as Jung emphasizes, when students looked into the possibilities of research is important eight first read as much as possible of the existing distance education literature. The journals mentioned in this book will provide the basis of this reading. It is also necesary for students to think how they can connect their thinking about research and distance education with their study of the more general body of educational research and theory. There are many aspects of traditional learning theory that are relevant to distance learning. Likewise, there is a great deal of research in instructional design and technology-based delivery systems that is directly applicable to distance education efforts.
The Theory and the Practitioner
What determines the success of distance teaching is the extent to which the institution and the individual instructor are able to invite the appropriate structure and design of learning materials, and the appropriate quantity and quality of dialogue between teachers and learners, taking into account the extent of the learners autonomy. The more highly autonomous the learner, the greater is the distance they can be comfortable with IE their last the dialogue in the last structure. For others, the goal must be reduced distance by increasing dialogue ranging from online asynchronous to synchronous interaction, perhaps using the telephone, or at the most extreme, face-to-face contact, while providing the security of sufficient structure.

Using the to prepare bullets below and the article, please write a two page paper addressing the questions asked. Thank you


Current Information and Communication Technologies
With so much attention focused on health care reform, it is important that nurses be given the opportunity to use high-quality technology tools. These tools can increase access to vital medical information, promote effective communication among health care professionals, and improve the patient experience. By actively seeking out and adopting these tools, nurses can greatly enhance the quality and safety of care that they provide.
This Discussion focuses on identifying quality technology tools that increase the ability of nurses to provide safe, effective care.
To prepare:
Review the various technology tools described in this weeks Learning Resources.
Identify a recently adopted information, education, or communication technology tool in your specialty area. Reflect on how it is used and how its use impacts the quality of care.
Consider how your identified technology tool might impact nursing practice if it were more widely used. What are some barriers preventing increased usage? How could wider implementation be facilitated?
Post on or before Day 3 a description of a current or new information, education, or communication technology tool that is being used in your specialty area and assess its impact on the quality of care. Highlight the effect that increased use of this technology would have on nursing practice and discuss the barriers that are slowing or hindering its adoption. Summarize how adoption of the technology tool could be facilitated.


NURS 6051: Transforming Nursing and Healthcare through Information Technology?Current Technologies?Program Transcript
NARRATOR: One of the most exciting elements of nursing informatics is the potential for continuous, uninhibited growth and development. New technologies and tools are emerging every day that are changing the face of health care and vastly improving outcomes. This week's media segment features Katie Skelton, Doris Fischer, Carina Perez, Shannon Mori, Carmen Ferrell, and Lynn Tamanaha as they discuss current technologies and innovations that are improving the health care field.
KATIE SKELTON: I think one of the huge things that we really will be paying much more attention to is population health. And I think without technology we don't have a chance really in managing that better. Being able to remotely manage patients, be able to have patients be able to call in or have technology report in changes in condition, and be able to have nurses and physicians and therapists be able to take action. Not just on one or two or their assignment of five patients, but literally hundreds of patients out in the community. I think we'll revolutionize health care and how we deliver it out in the community.
DORIS FISCHER: Currently at St. Joseph's Hospital we have a nursing research team which goes and does, not only literature searches for evidence-based practices but also-- because we're a magnet hospital-- they take those suggestions from our bedside nurses when they notice something is-- have a question about something at the bedside. And they research those out into projects. That information that comes from those and the evidence behind it then gets placed at the bedside. But how do you disseminate that throughout the hospital? That's where the technology will come in.
The technology with an intranet. And on that intranet has a place for nursing specific information. What's new? What can you utilize at the bedside, and how can you utilize it? The nurses go to that particular intranet and use that to gather the information that is new and evidence-based within the hospital. What we've done with that is we've taken those nurses who have a specific interest in an area, let's say diabetes, and we've used those nurses as the content experts to be the ones to-- let's call it a webmaster on that particular site-- in order for that evidence-based information to be current and up to date. Because their interest
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will drive them to know what's the latest and most important standards within that particular area.
You also, in that technology, you're looking at things like communication beyond the documentation. What about phones? How do we access our physicians? Now you're looking at not only communication on a medical record, but then now how do you communicate that out to the different members of the team and have them speaking the same language, so that everyone is on the same page. And once you're on the same page, the care for that patient now becomes evidence- based and perfect. Communication between physicians, communications from patients, and those things.
So what I'm working with is I'm working with not only our IT department. I'm also working with our chief nursing officer. And I'm working with the complete board on both the ministry side, and the health system side, in order to figure out what can I leverage that is going to give my nurses the best information flow and the best technology for their use on this ministry. And that means when a patient picks up the call light, where's it going to go. Does it go to the Secretary who says, can I help you, or can I make it go directly to the nurse? Because then you have that one to one nurse-patient. Your evidence is there. Your response time is better. And you know what's going on. So now you have satisfaction on the patient side that they're speaking directly with the nurse. Same with the physicians.
The younger physicians want messages, want to know information, like I said, out of a text message. So can I get that phone, that I can have a directory in, that can text message my physician and still maintain HIPAA standards, where no patient care information is out there and accessible, other than to the people that need it.
CARINA PEREZ: This is an exciting time where information sharing is a luxury. So we really try to optimize our documentation system. So within our documentation system, what we used to calculate as values, like fall risk scores, Braden risk scores, everything auto populates for you with a value and a direction on what to do if you get that value. So that's something that was built in and very helpful. You can also set auto reminders that, based on this, a reminder that says you should really do an intervention. So these are some of the values in it.
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What's coming up in our system is eMAR-BMV. In eMAR-BMV, for example, when you give a pain medication, every single patient has to be reassessed within an x number of time. Now, nurses are very busy and sometimes you don't get to reassess, and that may be forgotten. At other facilities where eMAR-BMV was implemented, the reassessment automatically reminds you, so they get 100% compliance. We are anticipating those same statistics.
eMAR-BMV is Electronic Med Administration Record. BMV is Bedside Medication Verification. eMAR is basically an electronic version of your paper MAR. BMV is bar code scanning at the bedside. Bar code scanning adds another layer of safety to med administration. It allows you to recognize the patient, and recognize the drug, and that it has been ordered and profiled for your patient.
SHANNON MORI: The future is very exciting. I would say I would love to see nurses being able to talk to other nurses across the country on specific diseases or if they need help figuring out what to do for their patients they'll be able to. Once technology also advances, I believe the nurses will be able to spend more time with their patients and less time charting. There's also a big hope for patients themselves. For every one. Being able to have their health record in the palm of their hand. Being able to look at their smartphone and say, oh, these are my medications, this is when I need to follow up with my doctor. I mean we pay the bills on our smartphones, we should be able to make informed decisions on health care as easily.
CARMEN FERELL: In each patient room there's a computer that the patient's documents on and there's a scanner for them to check both the arm band and the medication before delivering meds, because there's a patient safety factor. There's great studies that talked about that if we used a scanner the likelihood of nurses making mistakes in delivering medications is a lot less. So we use that technology for patients.
In every single room we also have-- especially in critical care-- monitors that monitor the patients automatically. Heart rate, blood pressure, respirations, that sort of thing. That information gets translated right into the computers for nurses and physicians to be able to see that automatically.
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In critical care you have the EKG or the electronic heart rate going on. So that gets automatically transmitted as well. If the patient happens to be on a breathing machine, that information also gets translated electronically. And in the critical care setting, which is really my love, there's all kinds of other machines that automatically get transmitted electronically. Like your IV fluid, it's automatically calculated and sent over to the medical record.
So there's a lot of technology that's helping us in a way capture the care that we're delivering. And then it's up to the nurse and the physician to take a look at that and figure out is the treatment correct. Do we need to alter any kind of treatment? And we're not quite there yet, but when we get there in a few months, the physician will be able to access all that patient information from their home, vacation, wherever they're at, and be able to make a good diagnosis without ever coming to see the patient. Because the nurse is pulling all that information into the medical record for them. Because that's what the nurse does.
There's voice recognition dictation today for physicians. But I think that's moving into also the nursing realm, and any other kind of a profession that would like that realm. So if you have someone that's maybe older and not so adept at typing in a computer, they can actually dictate everything that they've seen and done for the patient. While walking, on the phone, whatever. So that's an exciting thing for nurses when they look at the amount of work that they have to do. Also there is the ability for the patient to pull up their medical record at home, or anywhere, and see what care that they got delivered. So that's coming up on the horizon.
NARRATOR: In the following segment Lynn Tamanaha explains the details of a new Electronic Bed Board and how it has increased the efficiency of bed management at St. Joseph's Hospital.
LYNN TAMANAHA: Patients who want to come into our hospital-- Anyone who wants to stay overnight at the hospital, has to go through here. Basically, nowadays we use an Electronic Bed Board that we monitor all patient movement. What beds are available, patients transferring. As you can see on the bed board, pink is for girl. Blue is for boy. Yellow means that the bed is dirty and needs to be cleaned. White indicates the bed is clean and ready to be occupied.
2012 Laureate Education, Inc. 4
In the old days, we used to do pink and blue cards, and we have a whole set up with each individual room. And in each room we put in a pink card and a blue card. When we go through the bed huddles we go through each unit. And we go through and see which beds are open, and which ones are occupied, which ones are blocked. We talk about surgical patients that still need to be placed. Patients who are direct admits from physicians offices that are going into the bed that we may not know about yet. We talk about discharges, patients that are going to be going home soon or later on today, and which beds will be opening up.
So when we go through the Bed Board we talk about each unit. What's going on, how many patients they can take in. As you can tell we have a very, very busy ED, so we have to anticipate. What's going to be going on tonight, so we can smooth out the patient flow from our ED and also from our PACU. We also get a number of phone calls from other facilities that patients want to come here. So we have to also know what beds are open. So we can either accept those patients, say yes, we have open beds for them or, I'm sorry we don't have anything available right now.
In the old days, ER would have to call and say, hey, is there a bed open. We'd have to call the floor and say, what rooms do you have open. They say, yes we have a room but the bed is dirty. So we have to call back ED. Say, yes we have a bed, but it's not clean yet. Then they would call us back. Is the room clean yet? Then we would call the floor. Yes it's clean. Then call ED back again.
With the Bed Board, it's all automatic. It's great. When a patient is discharged it sends out an automatic page to our housekeeping staff. They go and they clean the bed. They call into a special number that turns the bed clean. We see that immediately on the Bed Board, so we know the bed is ready. It's cut down on all the phone calls. It's amazing how less phone calls it takes now to get a patient admitted. So patients are admitted quicker. They can receive their care faster on the floor if they don't have to wait as long for clean bed. It's just so much smoother nowadays with the Electronic Bed Board.
2012 Laureate Education, Inc. 5


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OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE NURSE COMMUNICATION, RESPONSE TIME TO BED ALARMS, AND PATIENT SAFETY
M T
ExaminationofWireiosTocinoioyToimpove
mursoComunication, RosponseTimetoBed
Aiarms, andPatient Safety
Linda Guarascio-Howard, MA, MS, PhD
Abstract
Objective: A medical-surgical unit in a southwestern United States hospital examined the results of adding wireless com- munication technology to assist nurses in identifying patient bed status changes and enhancing team communication. Fol- lowing the addition of wireless communication, response time to patient calls and the number of nurse-initiated communica- tions were compared to pre-wireless calls and response time sampling period.
Background: In the baseline study, nurse-initiated communi- cations and response time to patient calls were investigated for a team nursing model (Guarascio-Howard & Malloch, 2007). At this time, technology consisted of a nurse call system and telephones located at each decentralized nurse station
and health unit coordinator (HUC) station. For this follow-up study, a wireless device was given to nurses and their team
Author Affiliation: Dr. Howard is President of E&S Research Consultants, LC, in Chandler, AZ.?Corresponding Auttior: Dr. Linda Guarascio-Howard, E&S Consultants, LC, 2121 E. Desert Inn Drive, Chandler, AZ 85249 ([email protected]) Acknowledgments: The author would like to thank Dennis Gallant, Vice President at Hill-Rom, and Steve Henderson, Area Vice President for Support and Technical Contributions, Hill-Rom. The author also thanks contributors Kathy Malloch, RN, PhD, MBA, FAAN, Kathy Malloch and As- sociates; Judy Crook, DM, MSN, RN; and Susie Faz-McCann, RN.
members following training on device use and privacy issues. Method: Four registered nurses (RNs) were shadowed for 8 ; hours (32 hours total) before and after the introduction of the ; wireless devices. Data were collected regarding patient room visits, number of patient calls, bed status calls, response time
. to calls, and the initiator of the communication episodes.?: Results: Follow-up study response time to calls significantly decreased (f-test p = .03). RNs and licensed practical nurses responded to bed status calls in less than 1 minute??"62% of
the 37 calls. Communication results indicated a significant
shift (One Proportion Z Test) in RN-initiated communications, ; suggesting an enhanced ability to communicate with team?; members and to assist in monitoring patient status. Patient
falls trended downward, although not significantly (p > .05), for a 6-month period of wireless technology use comparedto the same period the previous year.
: Conclusions: The addition of a wireless device has advan-?: tages in team nursing, namely increasing communication with
staff members and decreasing response time to patient and
bed status calls. Limitations of the study included a change in?i caregiver team members and issues regarding wireless device " and locator badge compliance. Administrative issues that arose
during this field study Included bed and cable maintenance,?' device battery charging, and the training of new and floating I team members.?; Keywords: Patient safety measures, interdisciplinary teaiDS,
design, response time, patient falls
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I HERD V0LUME4. NUMBER 2. PP 109-120 COPYRIGHT 02011 VENDOME GROUP. LLC
Introduction
Effective communication within caregiver teams is an important element for bed status response and patient safety programs, including patient fall prevention programs. The Joint Commis- sion (2007) identified effective communication among caregivers as a 2008 Patient Safety Goal. Communication issues were listed as the major root cause of patient falls in the Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert (2000). The ability to com- municate directly with co-workers and to locate team members is important for quick caregiver response to patient conditions, bed status alarms,
and fall prevention. In this follow-up study, re- sponse time to patient calls and bed status alarms was examined following the implementation of bed status alarms linked to wireless technology worn by caregiver teams. Communication pat- terns were collected and compared to a baseline study (Guarascio-Howard & Malloch, 2007) to identify the changes in response time and com- munication fiow patterns of caregiver teams.
Much of the healthcare patient safety literature has focused on fall prevention programs, mod- els (Hignett 8c Masud, 2006; Weatherall, 2004), and patient assessment methods (McFarlane- Kolb, 2004; Morse, Morse, &c Tylko, 1989; Sal- gado, Lord, Ehrlich, Janji, & Rahmand, 2004). The programs consist of a variety of components, including patient assessment, environmental haz- ard analysis, and the use of interventions such as bracelets, bed rails, and bed alarms (Agostini & Baker, 2001). Hospital designs such as decentral- ized nurse stations have been investigated and
linked to positive patient safety outcomes; they
Effective communication within caregiver teams is an important
element for bed status response and patient safety
programs, including patient fall prevention programs.
are considered desirable because they enable pa- tient visibility, access, and information (Brom- berg, 2006; Guarascio-Howard & Malloch, 2007; Page, 2004; Reiling, 2005).
Few studies on wireless technology and bed alarms were found. Wireless technology research by Breslin, Greskovich, and Turisco (2004) and Kuruzovich, Angst, Faraj, and Agarwal (2008) identified cost savings associated with reduced communication times, user preference surveys, and communication fiow efficiencies. Methods to collect patient call data included sampling calls by monitoring rooms, not the caregiver. In a clas- sic study published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Tideiksaar, Feiner, and Haby (1998) examined bed alarms and their ef- fect on patient falls. However, wireless technology
was absent, and the focus was the relationship be- tween bed alarms and patient falls. The literature search did not produce research exploring team nursing models nor team communication related to fall prevention and wireless technology.
This follow-up research examines the effect of in- tegrating wireless devices with nurse call systems
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EXAMINATION OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE NURSE COMMUNICATION, RESPONSE TIME TO BED ALARMS, AND PATIENT SAFETY 1
m
and bed alarms to answer the following questions: ( 1 ) How do wireless communication devices affect communication within the team nursing model? and (2) How does wireless technology affect re- sponse time to patient and bed status calls?
Background
Why are bed alarms an important intervention for patient falls, and how can their effectiveness be improved? The field of occupational safety an- alyzes interventions and controls using a system- atic method based on level of protection, feasibil- ity, and effectiveness. In preventing falls or any injury, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, 2008) identifies a hierarchy of controls to prevent injury and illness resulting from hazards such as falls.
Control methods such as substitution at the top of the list in Table 1 are potentially more effective and protective than those at the bottom, such as personal protective equipment, because controls requiring little or no human involvement afford less chance of human error. If a patient is involved in a protective intervention, then a multitude of behavior and physical awareness factors will af- fect the successful outcome of the intervention. Although the most effective at reducing hazards, elimination and substitution are not always fea- sible, or they are extremely expensive to imple-
ment. For example, eliminating falls by manually transferring patients from bed to bathroom would require patient lifts to be installed in rooms at the time of construction or involve considerable expense to retrofit. However, other patient trans- fer scenarios, such as patient room bed transfers
to transport gurneys, can be eliminated by using the patient room bed for transfer to Radiology or other hospital departments.
Engineering controls, the next most effective fall protection category, are interventions such as bed rails and bed height adjustments. Just as a punch press guard may be propped open by an operator, bed rails and height adjustments can be defeated by patient action either intentionally or inadver- tently. When bed alarms are supported by inte- gration with the nurse call system, protection is increased. However, bed alarms that are audible only near the patient room and the health unit co- ordinator (HUC) station risk going unnoticed. If the HUC is unavailable and the caregiver is in an- other patient room, the alarm could ring without
response. The addition of a wireless system allows the caregiver to be notified immediately of a bed status alarm. Redundancy of alarm methods and bed status notification is desirable for increasing the effectiveness of bed status alarms.
Administrative controls include work practices such as fall assessments, fall risk signs, and arm bands. Such work practices are important for identifying fall-risk patients and the need for close monitoring; however, engineering controls such as bed rails and alarms represent a physical barrier that does not require the involvement of a caregiver. When a patient's mental or physical conditions override engineering controls such as bed rails, both alarm and communication systems are needed to alert caregivers. The initial cost of
engineering controls is usually higher than that of administrative controls. However, savings may be
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realized in the cost of care for falls that occur during a patient stay that are not compensated by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS, 2008).
Communication
In a team nursing model,?communication is impor-?tant for the coordination of?healthcare and the efficiency?of response to patient con-?ditions. In an analysis of?144 fatal events, the Joint?Commission (2007) lists lack of communication as the second leading cause of falls, just behind in- adequate training and orientation for caregivers.
To help describe communication in a team envi- ronment, the communication leader or initiator was observed and recorded, and team communica- tions were analyzed. The communication initiator's analysis described communication structure, flow, and team leaership (Moss & Xiao, 2004). Xiao, Seagul, Mackenzie, Ziegert, and Klein (2003) de- scribed an example of team leadership in an anal- ysis of operating room teams and leaders, which indicated that as team experience increased, there was more shared leadership. However, on a medi-
cal-surgical unit, a team can be distributed in vari- ous areas of the floor including the patient room, an alcove, the HUC station, or a service area.
Efficient workflow may also be inhibited by the team leader having to walk around to identify
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Table 1. Hierarchy of Controls and Interventions
Controls/Interventions Hazard
ProtectionExample
Move patients in room bed.
Utilize bed rails and low bed height adjustments.?8ed rails??"low bed with bed exit alarms, nurse call system, and wireless.
Fall assessments, patient bracelets. armbands, signs, and open doors.
Walkers and hip protectors.
Patient Involvement
No patient involvement.
Patients can adjust bed rails and fall.
Alarms??"call system alone will first need HUC involvement. Wireless- direct alert to caregiver Depend on completion of assessment.
Falls go unnoticed.
Patient involvement and training needed.
Elimination/substitution
Engineering controls
A physical barrier and supportive devices between the patient and the hazard.
Patient transfers- bed to gurney. Patients falling from the bed.
Policy to identify fall- risk patients.
Devices require patient compliance.
Administrative controls
Work practices and policies
Personal protective equipment?Devices to lessen fall risk.
rooms with call lights on or to travel to the mas- ter station to find team members. Several studies have determined that walking the hallways can take up a significant amount of a nurse's time??"as much as 28.9% (Burgio, Engel, Hawkins, Mc- Corick, & Scheve,.199O; Hendrich & Lee, 2004; Ulrich, Quan, Zimring, Joseph, &c Choudhary, 2004). The objective of technology is to help re- duce walking time and increase the efficiency of healthcare services.
Methodology
A medical-surgical care unit in a southwestern U.S. hospital examined the results of adding wireless communication technology and linking it to pre-existing systems to help caregiver teams respond to patient calls and to identify bed sta- tus changes and bed exits. The medical-surgical care unit consisted of 24 rooms arranged in two long, parallel hallways with the HUC located in the center. Caregiver teams were located at the

EXAMINATION OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE NURSE COMMUNICATION, RESPONSE TIME TO BED ALARMS, AND PATIENT SAFETY 1m m
alcove stations, which were situated between two patient rooms and equipped with telephones and two desktop computers. The baseline study (Guarascio-Howard &c Malloch, 2007) staffing called for three teams of three registered nurses (RNs), three licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and three certified nursing assistants (CNAs). In the follow-up study, staffing was periodically altered and two CNAs shared the 24 patients, three RNs, and LPNs. Communication patterns and the re- sponse to calls in the follow-up study were com- pared to the baseline data.
Baseline Study Technology
Technology in the baseline study consisted of a nurse-locating system that required caregivers to wear badges that were tracked and monitored at the HUC master station. The call lights located outside each room flashed and were visible to care- givers in the hall and monitored at the HUC mas- ter station. Communication audio stations were located near the patient bed, on the patient room wall, in the medication room, in the lounge, and in hallways. Bed status calls consisted of bed exit, bed speaker disconnect, and staff disconnect. Status alarms rang at the HUC master station and in the patient room. The HUC could talk to the patient
through a pillow speaker and notified the caregiv- er, if necessary. The physical arrival of a caregiver at the patient room depended on HUC response time and/or the ability to see the call light.
Follow-Up Study Wireless Technology
The wireless communication device was equipped with display and audio, and it received team communications and alarms regarding bed exit
and bed status changes. The wireless device also allowed team members to communicate with hospital department heads. The nurse-locator system was linked to the wireless communica- tion device, enabling the alarms to reach care- givers assigned to rooms. The unit coordinator was also provided with a wireless device and was able to view all bed status and exit alarms from a master station. The combination of the wire- less device and master station facilitated quick response to patient calls.
The added wireless communication technology provided enhancements to fall protection bed alarms for caregiver teams. Additional alarms and bed status changes could be sent to caregiver wireless devices. Some of the additional bed status alerts available to team wireless devices included bed height, bed brake, head rail, foot rail, system turned off, or bed exit alarm turned off.
The wireless device was added to the floor and caregiver teams for purposes of this follow-up re- search. At the time the research was performed, department heads and administrative units were using the wireless device in the hospital, but it had not been distributed to caregivers. The wire- less device enabled communication with team members via simple commands, such as speaking a team member's name into the device. Bed status changes appeared as text messages with audible
notification.
The following steps were required to update com- munication systems, prepare caregivers, and sup- port experimental conditions:
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1. The nurse locator system had to be linked to the wireless communicator to enable caregiv- ers to receive alarm notifications.
2. A bed alarm protocol and a bed protection template were developed with input from management.
3. Training regarding Health Insurance Portabil- ity and Accountability Act considerations, bed status setup, and providing device information instructions to call team members had to be conducted for day shift caregivers and HUCs.
4. Continued support systems were set up to re- spond to bed communication system failures, wireless device maintenance, and breakdowns.
5. Management enforcement was needed for badges and wireless devices and for additional training for current or new personnel.
The protocols for bed alarm conditions and bed status notification were developed with input from nurse managers and systems manufacturer representatives. Every morning the HUC entered default templates into the system. The default bed protection consisted of bed brake on, bed in the low position, and head rail up. The second level of protection was the activation of the bed exit alarm, determined by an RN and the assess- ment scoring system. The third level of protec- tion required four rails up, activation of the bed exit alarm, and a physician's order. Deviations from the template or changes in bed status initi- ated a notification to the wireless device, alerting
assigned caregivers and the HUC.
The bed alarm and status notification was priori- tized as First Assignment??"RN, Second Assign-
ment??"LPN, Third Assignment??"CNA, and Fourth Assignment??"HUC. The bed alarm and status notification was a low-decibel sound and a unique tone. If the RN chose not to answer the wireless device, the alarm would automatically notify the LPN, the CNA, and then the HUC. The H U C could then observe the locations of caregivers on the Master Station and follow up with the closest caregiver. The RN would be aware of the alarm notifications and have the ability to follow up on them later.
Patient-initiated calls, including normal calls (requests for pain medication, food, etc.), bath- ing, and toilet requests, were routed through the HUC station, which was the same call routing as the baseline study. The HUC also had a wireless device and could use it to notify caregivers to as- sign bed calls indicate patient-initiated calls, and other needed information.
Five weeks following the training and use by team members, data were collected for four RNs adher- ing to the baseline study experimental procedure (Guarascio-Howard & Malloch, 2007). Four RNs were shadowed from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the medical-surgical care unit areas excluding patient rooms per institutional review board ap- proval requirements. Data collected were coded to protect patient-sensitive data and to preclude nurse identification. The nurse call system gener-
ated response times to patient calls and change-in- bed-status alerts. The wireless device system ran reports on the number of calls, the call initiator, whether a call was received successfiilly, and the to- tal time of the call. The wireless devices were used
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Table 2. Technology Utilization
Technology
Baseline Follow-up
Face to Face 77.05% 74.76%
Phone Page 20.00% 1.97% 11.39% 1.52%
Audio Stations
0.98% 0.76%
Wireless N/A 11.57%
EXAMINATION OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE NURSE COMMUNICATION. RESPONSE TIME TO BED ALARMS. AND PATIENT SAFETY 1mCO mS
for a 6-month period following the training and a 5-week adjustment period. Fall data were collected for the 6-month period of the follow-up study and compared to the previous year's 6-month period.
Results
Communication data and safety indicators were compared before and after the introduction of the wireless technology. Results were analyzed from five data sources: shadow log data, the nurse locator report system, the wireless report system, fall records, and audio recordings.
Patient Falls
Patient fall rates trended downward for the 6-month follow-up study period compared to the baseline 6-month period. However, the results were not significant {p > .05). The average 6-month baseline fall rate was 2.7, and the follow-up fell rate was 2.0. Fall rates are dependent on multiple issues and root causes (Joint Commission, 2000). Caregiver communications and bed alarms help control fall rates, but process measurements such as response time and communication events are important indicators of patient safety effectiveness and fall prevention engineering controls.
Technology Use
Data generated from the shadow logs revealed differences in technology use in the follow-up
study (see Table 2). Wireless communicator use was 11%, and phone use decreased from a 20% use in the baseline study to 11.39% use??"almost a 50% decrease. This suggests that communica- tions normally handled by telephone were now being communicated by wireless. The advantage of the wireless communicator over the tele- phone was that team members could contact each other in any area of the medical-surgical care unit, whereas phone use was limited to the alcoves, and nurse-locating systems were at the HUC station, on wall units, and in patient rooms, lounges, conference rooms, and medica- tion rooms. The HUC is also required to find the caregiver and then phone or use the nurse locating system. The wireless device also had a capability for leaving voice messages if team
members were not available.
Table 3 displays data regarding the wireless com- munication use of team members and hospital personnel during the 8-hour shift: sampled. Two reports were generated by the wireless device soft- ware. One report listed all incoming calls and the second report listed outgoing calls. The reports identified the caller, receiver, and total time of the call. RNs made 31 calls, which was 65% of all completed calls. Forty-two percent of the RN calls were made to the CNA. Incoming calls from the HUC to the RN enabled additional monitor-
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Table 3. Wireless Device Use by Caregiver?Team Members RN Outgoing Calls
Incoming Calls to RN
Follow-Up Study
HUC 3 LPN 7 CNA 13 Other RN 4 Other Departments 4
Total Completed Calls 31 Average Time per Call N/A Incomplete Calls 14
ing of bed status alarms and calls from patients. RNs were able to network with other staff RNs and to plan breaks and lunches. Patient informa- tion and questions were immediately communi- cated among team members. The average com- pleted call time was between .5 and .56 minute
or 30 to 34 seconds per call.
Incomplete calls were logged by the wireless sys- tem; however, data indicating the amount of time to initiate incomplete calls were not collected. The training did not include information for contact- ing outside departments, but several RNs quickly realized that speaking the department name into the device provided direct contact. However, in- complete calls did result from the following: the call was not answered by a team member; the team member did not log into the system, an incorrect name was used, or the team member rejected the call. Team members did not answer
calls when engaged with patients, and they could reject calls during a lunch break. A log-in process was required before beginning a shift: and had to be completed before calls could be received. An estimate of incomplete call time was a few sec-
onds, or the time it takes to speak a person's name and for the system to respond.
Response to Calls
Healthcare safety outcomes should include care- giver response to bed status calls and patient calls. Patient and bed status call activity was analyzed for the baseline and follow-up teams for the days sampled. Normal calls included responses to pa- tient requests for medication, food, and so on. Bed status calls included calls related to bed exit alarms, bed rails, bed brakes, and bed height sta- tus. The "all calls" category is the sum of normal calls, bed status alarms, bath, and all other types of call. Table 4 shows a significant decrease in the follow-up team response time to all calls, (i-test,
p = .03) as well as a 145% increase in the num- ber of calls. The increase in bed status calls was expected because of the bed protocols established in the follow-up study environment. Addition- ally, the routing of bed status calls directly to the team helped reduce bed status response time. The number of bed status calls for follow-up data col- lection increased from 3 to 37 calls for 4 days of shadowing, and normal calls increased from 69 to
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Number Time (mins.) Number
Time (mins.) 1.35 6 2.40
3.73 7?6.47 0?2.10 4 1.67 2.11
15.76 .51 N/A
17 8.57 N/A .50 5 N/A
00
4.50 0

EXAMINATION OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE NURSE COMMUNICATION. RESPONSE TIME TO BED ALARMS. AND PATIENT SAFETY 1m S
Table 4. Nurse Locator Calls and Response Time Baseline
Follow-Up Total Number
179
84 37
Call Type
All Calls?Normal Calls Bed Status Calls
Total Number
73 69 3
Average Response (mins.)
Average Response (mins.)
2.73
4.14
1.32
84. The additional calls suggest additional moni- toring ofpatient rooms.
Table 5 identifies bed status call response time by team member. Follow-up study bed status calls were routed through the protocol: first to the RN and then to the LPN, CNA, and HUC, respec- tively. The RN responded to 38% of the calls in fewer than 30 seconds. The LPN responded to 24% of the calls in less than 1 minute, and the CNA responded to 14% in less than 1.5 minutes. The remainder of the bed status calls had HUC involvement, which included additional time and the need to locate the RN or identify possible bed or alarm issues. Pre-wireless team responses
Table 5. Bed Status Call Response
to bed alarms were greater than 1.5 minutes. Al- though not significant {t-testp >.O5), the number of RN visits to patient rooms also increased by 38%, from 199 to 274 visits, following the intro- duction of wireless technology.
Caregiver Communication Analysis
The number of communication episodes was ana- lyzed by means of a review of the audio recordings collected while shadowing. The total number and duration of communications increased by 77% in total minutes and 78% in total number (see Table 6). An increase in communication episodes among caregivers adds to the efficiency of pa- tient care by proiding additional opportunities
Caregiver Response rime?(HUC or Nearby Caregiver)
0-30 seconds >30 >1 <1.5 minutes
>1.5 <2 minutes
>2 minutes
Total
Average response
Baseline Te<3m Caregiver Response Follow-Up Tearr1
4.05 4.19 2.25
Number Percentage Time Number of Total
Percentage of Total
0 0 0 0
00
2 67
1 33?3 100% 2.25 N/A
38 LPN>30<1 9 24
Protocol?RN 0-30 seconds 14
minute?CNA >1<1.5 5 14 minutes?HUC >1.5<2 2 5 minutes?> 2 minutes 7 19 Total 37 100% Average response 1.32 N/A
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Table 6. Communication Episode Comparison
Communication Episodes
Baseline Pre-Wireless
Follow-up Post-Wireless Increase
Time (Minutes)
245.35
435.03 77%
292 520
78%
124 169 275 245
122% 45%
to clarify expectations and patient orders (Joint Commission, 2000; Xiao et al., 2003).
Team leadership and communication patterns within the caregiver teams were explored by identifying the initiator of the communication episode (see Table 6). The frequency of RN- initiated communication increased significantly over the baseline study and pre-wireless condi- tions (One Proportion Z Test, which compares the proportion or percentage of nurse calls in the two studies). Additional communication episodes suggest enhanced leadership opportu- nities in areas such as care planning, mentoring, and monitoring team activities. Furthermore, the monitoring of patient bed status increased the need for more communication. Several RNs also commented on the ease of locating team members, which lessened the need for addition-
al walking and searching.
Discussion
Results indicate that caregiver team efficiency increased because of decreased response time to patient calls and bed status alarms. The increase in room visits and communication events among team members and hospital stafl^ facilitated in-
creased efficiency and the monitoring of staff and patient activities. Although the reduction in pa- tient falls for a 6-month period was not signifi- cant, process measures such as response to calls was significant. Response to bed status is impor- tant in preventing falls and also for minimizing injury when a fall occurs. The options of head rail, foot rail, and low-bed status in addition to bed alarms are a means to monitor patient status more comprehensively and customize protection measures for individual patients. Tideiksaar et al. (1998) described other advantages to bed status changes such as quick identification of patient
acute illness conditions, which may include fre- quent trips to the bathroom.
However, the implementation of wireless com- munication and additional bed status alarms creates the need for management systems to sup- port these technologies. Bunch (2005) identifies training and management support as extremely important for implementation. Caregiver turn- over necessitates ongoing training. Wireless de- vices and nurse call badges demand compliance and monitoring by management. Beds require the regular testing and maintenance of cables and alarm connections. Additional HUC responsi-
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Number of Episodes
RN-lnitiated
Team-Initiated

EXAMINATION OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE NURSE COMMUNICATION, RESPONSE TIME TO BED ALARMS, AND PATIENT SAFETY 1m
The implementation of wireless communication and additional bed status alarms creates the need for management systems to support these technologies.
bilities must be kept in mind when considering staffing and bed protocol input.
Limitations of the follow-up study include a change in caregiver teams from the baseline study to one CNA for two RNs and 12 patients instead of eight patients and one RN. This ap- plied to all days sampled, which may have in- creased the need for additional team coordina- tion communication by the RN. Also, there were systemic operational problems, such as software breakdowns, team locator badge com- pliance, wireless device compliance, and Boat- ing staff training. The follow-up study strongly suggests that the wireless device improved nurse efficiency by enabling team members to receive and respond efficiently to bed status alerts. Al-
though most RNs exhibited high enthusiasm for the technology, suggestions were made to extend alarms to patient chairs and to include the physicians who support the unit. One of the RNs sampled had difficulty using the wire- less device; however, a hospital technician pro- vided additional support. Follow-up training is needed for continued caregiver team use after the technology is introduced.
Conclusion
This study suggests that wireless technology offers advantages for communicating the status of pa- tients and fall risk factors. Patient falls occurring during hospital stays result in additional costs to the hospital as well as pain and suffering for the patient. Wireless devices offer additional patient monitoring capabilities, thereby increasing the effectiveness of bed alarms related to bed status changes and the notification of all caregiver team members. This communication results in a faster
response to patient conditions.
The wireless device offered the RN additional op- portunities to communicate with team members. As team leader, the RN is able to communicate with members anywhere on the floor. Conversely, physicians and caregiver teams have easy and im- mediate communication access to the RN. Pa- tient care and caregiver team management were enhanced by this communication device.
Future research should consider collecting data on fall assessment, which is needed to establish proper bed protocols. Protocol management cre- ated additional work for the HUC, who had to obtain information from the RN and enter it into the system. To effectively implement this system, it would be helpful to evaluate all caregiver and management role changes.
A comparison of patient satisfaction scores before and after wireless device implementation indi- cates an additional area for future research. The RN perspective would be a great asset not only regarding patient satisfaction, but for designing
HERD Vol. 4, No. 2 WINTER 2011 HEALTH ENVIRONMENTS RESEARCH & DESIGN JOURNAL 119
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RESEARCH
I HERD VOLUME 4. NUMBER 2. PP 109-120 COPYRIGHT (82011 VENDOME GROUP, LLC
future fall protection systems, including bed sta- tus alarms and wireless devices.
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Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2008). Fact sheets: Details for: Medicare Takes New Steps To Help Make Your Hos- pital Stay Safer. Retrieved July 5, 2009, from http://www.cms. gov/apps/media/press/factsheet.asp?Counter=3227&intNumP erPage=10&checkDate=&checkKey=&srchType=1 &numDays= 3500&srchOpt=0&srchData=&keywordType=AII&chkNewsType =6&intPage=&showAII=&pY ear=&year=&desc=false&cboOrder =date
Guarascio-Howard, L., & Malloch, K. (2007). Centralized and de- centralized nurse station design: An examination of caregiver communication, work activities, and technology. Health Envi- ronments Research & Design Joumal, 7(1), 44-57.
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Title: TECHNOLOGY FOR TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES AMONG COMMUNITY
COLLEGE STUDENTS.
Author(s): Calderon-Young, Estelita
Source: Community College Journal of Research & Practice; Mar99,
Vol. 23 Issue 2, p161, 9p
Document Type: Article
Subject(s): INTERNET in education

EDUCATIONAL technology

LANGUAGE & languages -- Study & teaching

COMMUNITY college students

COMMUNITY college teachers
Abstract: The dream of community college instructors of using
technology to enhance the acquisition of foreign languages among
students is now a reality. Language labs equipped with interactive
computers are taking the place of their listening station predecessors.
Within these updated language labs , students are using the target
language via interactive software packages, CD - ROMS, E - mail, and the
Internet. Faculty members are creating their own multimedia packages
that include listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The World Wide
Web is creating opportunities to instantly acquire and use cultural
information about foreign countries that would previously take hours of
research . The new technology is fostering interest among foreign
language faculty members. With their enthusiasm and proper training,
instructors are actively engaging community college students in the
process of acquiring second languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Full Text Word Count: 3320
ISSN: 1066-8926
DOI: 10.1080/106689299264981
Accession Number: 1605574

Persistent link to this record:
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Cut and Paste: href="http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=1605574&db=tfh&site=ehost">T
ECHNOLOGY FOR TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES AMONG COMMUNITY COLLEGE
STUDENTS.

Database: Professional Development Collection
TECHNOLOGY FOR TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES AMONG COMMUNITY COLLEGE
STUDENTS



The dream of community college instructors of using technology to
enhance the acquisition of foreign languages among students is now a
reality. Language labs equipped with interactive computers are taking
the place of their listening station predecessors. Within these updated
language labs, students are using the target language via interactive
software packages, CD-ROMS, E-mail, and the Internet. Faculty members
are creating their own multimedia packages that include listening,
speaking, reading, and writing. The World Wide Web is creating
opportunities to instantly acquire and use cultural information about
foreign countries that would previously take hours of research. The new
technology is fostering interest among foreign language faculty members.
With their enthusiasm and proper training, instructors are actively
engaging community college students in the process of acquiring second
languages.

Over the last few years, colleges and universities have become
interested in what technology has to offer their faculty, staff, and
students. Some departments are even spending a lot of money integrating
the latest technological advancements into their subject areas.
Computers, LANs, CD-ROMs, scanners, file servers, and laserdiscs are
fairly standard equipment in most colleges and universities today. Some
colleges and universities have more computer peripherals and software
programs than others, but the presence of these technological advances
indicates that educators are interested in the benefit gained from the
technology at their disposal.

Generally speaking, computers can increase productivity. Software
packages today calculate student progress, schedule classes, create
tests/worksheets, generate curriculum templates, generate official
reports, track students' progress after they leave college, figure
payroll, and so on. Through E-mail, messages and documents are sent at
one's convenience and read at the same time or when time permits. The
World Wide Web (WWW) is allowing students to access information within a
matter of seconds and connect with people all over the world in many
languages.

Computer-assisted language instruction advocates recommend that language
professionals use one or more of the advances in the technology cited
above. The proponents of computer-assisted language learning (CALL)
claim that all of the technology we have at our disposal has the
potential to empower students when it is used appropriately. Technology
is changing much quicker than our educational institutions. The critical
issue to address is how to incorporate concern for learning into the
functional specifications of the new devices (Norman, 1993). As Lanham
puts it, "Electronic technology is full of promising avenues for
language instruction; it will be lunacy if we do not construct a
sophisticated comparative-literature pedagogy upon it" (Lanham, 1993,
p.23). It will be more important to train a smaller group of experts to
facilitate language learning through new digital technologies than to
train and employ enough language experts who are proficient in the labor
intensive methods that characterize the analog method. Students will
have access to a broad range of authentic language materials and
instructors will use these to enhance learning.

This article examines some applications of computer use in the foreign
language classroom and suggests some uses of computer networking.


E-MAIL, CHAT ROOMS, ELECTRONIC FORUMS


By using E-mail instead of using the telephone to make long-distance
calls, institutions can save thousands of dollars. Students can initiate
discussions with their teachers or with other students any time of day,
and from a number of places, rather than only during class or office
hours, resulting in greatly increased student-teacher and
student-student interaction (Harasim, 1986; Hartman et al., 1991;
Phillips, Santoro, & Kuehn, 1988). A student does not need to wait for
an instructor's permission to talk, giving students even more control
over what topics to raise and when (Garrison & Baynton, 1987). They can
also communicate their thoughts at their own pace, leading to further
opportunities for self-expression (Kinkead, 1987). Professional
productivity increases when educators use technology efficiently and
effectively, and using E-mail is one way to do this.

E-mail is an asynchronous form of telecommunication because the
recipient does not have to be on-line at the time the message is sent.
The messages can be composed on-line or in a word-processor and then
uploaded. Messages can be sent from one person to many people via
bulletin boards and discussion lists. With asynchronous conferencing,
messages can be read at a later time.

Synchronous conferencing, on the other hand, allows people to send
messages instantly between people who are on-line together. This can
take place on a university network or in a language laboratory. It can
also occur at a distance using the Internet resources available such as
Multiple User Domain, Object-Oriented (MOOs) and Internet Relay Chat
areas (IRC), both of which are used as discussion and simulation areas.
Electronic mail office hours encourage collaboration with students and
colleagues in other places.

With the addition of CuSeeMe cameras and QuickCam software, individuals
can also be seen as they communicate via E-mail. A golf-ball size camera
is mounted on the computer and the software installed. The location is
put onto the screen and within seconds the image of a person or a class
is on the screen. Imagine the excitement of a classroom of 20 students
each seeing the person on their computer while engaging in real time
conversation in a foreign language. CuSeeMe users are listed on the Web,
making it easy for any teacher to initiate and continue live dialogue
with someone in France, Mexico, Germany, and so on. The communication
occurs in the native language of that country while the communicators
are face-to-face via computer. International borders are fading quickly
with the use of such technology.


COMPUTER PACKAGES


More popular perhaps for language educators has been the use of
computers for practice. Software packages today include problem-solving
and simulation, drill and practice, videotape lessons, trivia games, and
computer-animated books. The latest programs contain digitized images of
foreign cities and countries accompanied by text in the target language.
Many are equipped with Voice Recognition capability, which records the
student's voice, corrects the pronunciation and allows for several
attempts at perfecting the pronunciation of the word or phrase.

Integrating new technologies into foreign language classes has presented
many instructors and software companies with challenges. Foreign
language software developers face the enormous task of designing
computer programs suited to the learning styles of many students. A look
at cognitive styles of learning shows that students' performance will be
greater when they are taught with methods that reflect their learning
style (Reid, 1987; Richardson, 1977). How can one produce a computer
program to successfully fit the needs of a language lab filled with 20
students ?

There is where much work has been done to assess the effectiveness of
using technology in language instruction. The results are mixed. The
assessment of total student gain rather than low-level thinking skills
is difficult to do because of lack of resources for controlled groups,
the Hawthorne effect, bias of the software manufacturer who conducts the
study, and so on. What has been found is that these types of programs
exist and have a place in some learning situations but are no longer the
ultimate use of computers in technology.


Instructor-Designed Multimedia Programs


With the abundance of authoring systems available today, instructors are
developing programs that correspond to their particular language
curricula. These systems are fairly easy to use and allow the instructor
to enhance the instruction by integrating teaching materials at their
disposal such as laserdisc, video, graphics, CD audio, digitized audio,
text, and so on. Many of the authoring programs allow the instructor to
toggle back and forth between the template and the actual text to assure
that the finished multimedia program includes listening, speaking,
writing, and reading. The cultural part is embedded in each of the
content areas and can be added at the instructor's discretion.

Some of the multimedia/hypermedia authoring systems currently in use in
the foreign language profession include Dasher, Calm, Wincalis,
Supermaclang, Calet, Lecture, Galt, Libra, Hyperstudio, Oracle Media
Objects, Authorware, Iconauthor, Language Tool, Multimedia Toolbook, and
Hypercard. The components and costs vary for each of these programs, but
most of them have been designed to allow the instructors to design a
custom-made multimedia program within several hours using information
they have or can access easily.


THE WORLD WIDE WEB


The WWW is experiencing exponential growth as a means to acquire
information. Currently doubling in size roughly every 50 days, the Web
provides possibilities that are extraordinary. The question facing many
of us is "Are we ready to begin the transition from our present form of
delivering our instruction to the Net ?" Whereas some educators have
never ventured into that arena, some instructors, such as those included
in materials produced at the University of Hawaii's Second Language
Teaching and Curriculum Center, are intensively exploring the Web's
potential in designing and delivering learning materials.


METHODS OF INTERACTION


What follows is a list of ways to use the Web or Internet to enhance
and/or deliver instruction.


Browsing


Probably the most well-known method is "Web browsing." Sites are being
added at unbelievable rates on a daily basis. You simply type in a
subject of interest in one of the search engines such as Netscape
Browser, Yahoo, Alta Vista, Infoseek, Webcrawler, Microsoft's Internet
Assistant, and so on, and before long you have entered sites with
bountiful information and links to other related sites.

Guided browsing is a direct way to increase interaction between students
and information on the Web. Rather than allowing the students to
randomly surf the Net, instructors find particular sites, use the
information to enhance the lesson plan for the day and direct the
students to that particular site. After finding the information,
students can then complete the lesson using the material on that site
and by using the links provided, print the answer sheet, and deliver it
to the instructor in person or via electronic mail.

An example of a lesson using the Web would be as follows: Students are
asked to plan a prospective business visit by a group of businessmen and
women to Monterrey, Mexico. Students are directed to CITYNET on the Web
where information is found on the weather for the day of their visit,
means and costs of transportation to and from the airport and within the
city, special places to visit in the city and surrounding areas, and
major hotels and travelling documents required. All this is provided by
giving the student one universal resource locator (URL). From there
links are found to the addresses where the information will be found. On
these links, students are given the opportunity to read the information
in Spanish or English. A beginning language student on a fact-finding
mission for a cultural or historical assignment might want to read about
it in English, whereas a more advanced language student would do the
same in the target language. The total time needed to complete such an
investigation would be 30 minutes, during which the student is learning
about the language and cultural differences in telling time, forms of
money and exchange rates, forms of reporting temperatures and distances,
and so on. The list could go on to indicate the benefit gained.

The implications for an intermediate or advanced class are unbelievable.
A report by the student on an author, for example, may include sound
files of the author's voice (when available), photographs, or original
text. These objects are found on the Web and are added to the file
created by a word processor. All that is required is easy access to a
computer equipped with a word processor and attached to the Web.

Web sites are appearing so rapidly that they are almost impossible to
track. Pages devoted to languages and language learning are springing up
so quickly that they are almost impossible to explore on a daily basis.
Southern Methodist University's Foreign Language Learning Center at
http://fllc.smu.edu/is a good example of the types of materials that can
be brought together for access from one site. The National Foreign
Language Resource Center at http://www.lll.hawaii.edu/nflrc/is an
invaluable resource for trends and research in the area of technology
and foreign languages. The Agora Language Marketplace at
http://agoralang.com/ has assembled an enormous collection of references
and links to other sites and references.


REAL-TIME COMMUNICATION


Unlike E-mail, Web-based communication systems allow multimedia,
synchronous communication in real time. Primarily used for social role
playing, this class of interaction is supplemented by Multiple User
Domain (MUD), Multi-User Shared Hallucination (MUSH), and object
oriented MOOs. Certain software programs such as ROUNDTABLE at
http://www.ffg.com/rt.html allow users to exchange documents of all
kinds as they participate in the live conferencing. This particular
company has chat sessions such as French People Talking, Israel,
Italian, Japan, German Chat, La Escuela, Deutsch am runden Tisch, and
more. MUNDO HISPANO at http://web.syr.edu/ ~ Imturbee/mundo.html is an
interesting site that offers information on Web-based software that
makes the connection to the live chat on the Web a little simpler.


PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING


When technology is used as an information processing tool, it requires
more time on the part of the instructor in learning how to use it
effectively. To facilitate student involvement in the computer culture,
teachers must be actively present in the project, for their involvement
"likely plays a direct role in how actively students participate"
(Eastmond, 1993, p. 136). One looks at the database, sorts information,
and places it in categories to present it to the students. Asking the
students to click on the icon that says WWW must be followed with
precise directions on where to go to begin the search for the desired
information. Unless this direction takes place, students become
entangled in locations that do not impact the concentration area.

Opportunities for professional development in technology are crucially
needed to prepare teachers to effectively use the Internet. The focus
should be on skill development with the cognitive tools that mitigate
the Internet's complexity (Ryder & Wilson, 1995). However, skill
development with the Internet's tools is a function of extensive
practice (Mayes, 1994).

Traditional approaches to integrating new curricula in the classroom
will not be successful when applied to technology. As Grandgenett and
Mortenson (1993) observed, merely supplying teachers with technology
often does little good unless the teachers are also carefully trained to
use the technology through an appropriate inservice program. A few
workshops here and there are not enough to successfully integrate
technology into instruction (p. 56).

Research proves that providing training to professionals has an impact
on the way they perceive the usefulness of the resource. Honey and
McMillan (1993) investigated the impact of factors such as prior
experience with technology, availability of training, administration
commitment, and the type of Internet connection on educators' attitudes
toward and use of the Internet. These researchers found that those
teachers who were the most positive about the usefulness of the Internet
in their teaching were those engaged in an ongoing process that required
extensive training from experts.

In addition, the measurement of the impact of using technology as an
information processing tool requires developing and applying standards
and the ability to wait at times for long periods to complete the
project or task. It also means that students need at least 1 hour per
week in the lab to effectively learn and use the technology available.
With the proper training, instructors will be able to implement new
programs to enhance the learning process in acquiring a foreign language
and will be able to develop tools to effectively measure this
improvement.

Beyond training the students in computer use, the teacher is also
responsible for handling the new teacher--student and student--student
relations in the computer classroom. Fox noted that "for a classroom to
really be interactive, the teacher has to contribute actively, too"
(Fox, 1990, p. 46). Teachers need to be clear on what is expected of
students, be aware of uneasy feelings initially and encourage progress
toward involvement until the student feels comfortable.

A central goal of modern approaches to language teaching, including
communicative language teaching, task-based learning, process approaches
to writing, and training in language learning strategies, is to enhance
student autonomy and control over the language learning process.
(Warshauer, Turbee, & Roberts, 1994). Rather than concentrating on the
drill and practice programs available to students on the computer, a
more global view is needed to look at the possibilities available
through the "information explosion." Cummins and Sayers pointed out that
more than 6,000 scientific articles are written each day (Cummins &
Sayers, 1990), and with information doubling every few years (Cross,
1984) new technologies will bring us in step with the cultural,
scientific, and economic realities of the 21st century.

Through technology, students can gather information to produce creative
work that they can share with their classmates, teachers, and others
outside the classroom; they can also make meaningful reports to their
classmates and contribute to efforts to improve the life within the
college and in the community.

The use of computer technology, like other forms of technology, is not a
"magic wand" that can solve all problems just by being waved (Hiltz,
1990). The appropriate and effective use of computers for student
empowerment is more a pedagogical issue than a technical one. Successful
results require careful planning (Eldred, 1991), a balanced and critical
perspective (Hawisher & Selfe, 1991), and "an interactive and
experiential approach to pedagogy" (Cummins & Sayers, 1990, p. 22); in
short, a pedagogy of empowerment.


REFERENCES


Cross, K. P. (1984). The rising tide of school reform reports. Phi Delta
Kappan, 66, 167-172.

Cummins, S., & Sayers, D. (1990). Education 2001: Learning networks and
educational reform. Computers in the Schools, 7 1/2, 1-29.

Eastmond, D. (1993). Alone but together, adult distance study by
computer conferencing. Unpublished dissertation, Syracuse University,
Syracuse, NY.

Eldred, J. (1991). Pedagogy in the computer-networked classroom.
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Fox, T. (1990). The social uses of writing: Politics and pedagogy.
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Garrison, D. R., & Baynton, M. (1987). Beyond independence in distance
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Grandgenett, N., & Mortensen. (1993). A collaborative inservice model
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Harasim, L. (1986). Computer learning networks: Educational applications
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Hartman, K., Neuwirth, C., Kiesler, S., Sproull, L., Cochran, C.,
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Hawisher, G., & Selfe, C. (1991) The rhetoric of technology and the
electronic writing class. College Composition and Communication, 42,
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Hiltz, S. R. (1990). Collaborative learning: The virtual classroom
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Kinkead, J. (1987). Computer conversations: E-mail and writing
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Lanham, R. A. (1993). The electronic word: Democracy, technology, and
the arts. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Mayes, T. (1994). Mindtools: A suitable case for learning. NATO Advanced
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Norman, D. A. (1993). Things that make us smart: Defending human
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Reid, J. M. (1987). The learning preferences of ESL Students. TESOL
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Richardson, A. (1977). Verbalizer-visualizer: A cognitive style of
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Ryder, M., & Wilson, B. (1995). From local to virtual environments:
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Warschauer, M., Turbee, L., & Roberts, B. (1994). Computer learning
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University of Hawaii, Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Center.

~~~~~~~~

By Estelita Calderon-Young

Humanities and International Studies, Collin County Community College,
Plano, Texas, US

Address correspondence to Estelita Calderon-Young, 2530 Pecan Meadow,
Garland, Texas 75040, USA.

_____

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Source: Community College Journal of Research & Practice, Mar99, Vol. 23
Issue 2, p161, 9p
Item: 1605574

Directions:
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

DUE DATE :August 29, 2014

A minimum of 3 peer-reviewed sources and 4 popular and/or open-web sources will need to be used in the bibliography.

Topic: Sports and Pop Culture (NFL/NBA)

See attached documents for further detailed assignment description/directions.

Study book if necessary:
Storey, J. (2009). Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction. (5th ed). London: Pearson

There will be two attachments with further directions for this paper. It is necessary to use the table located in the attached document in this paper that includes the 3 peer-reviewed sources and 4 popular and/or open-web sources will need to be used in the bibliography. Please be sure to use it exactly as shown.


objectives:
?Explore different types of contemporary American culture.
?Examine the various elements of popular culture and how they inform or reflect our attitudes, behavior, and society.
?Identify the qualitative and quantitative research methods used to create knowledge about popular culture.
?Exercise written, oral and/or mediated communication skills, and critical thinking skills.
?Construct and implement effective search strategies in finding resources relevant to popular culture.
?Demonstrate the ability to identify, locate, and retrieve information relevant to popular culture.
?Analyze, evaluate and synthesize popular and peer-reviewed research on a subtopic in popular culture.
?Use American Psychological Association style guide for paper formatting and citation style.

The purpose of this assignment is for students to 1) identify and learn a subtopic in Am. Popular Culture that is of interest to them;
2) become familiar with the online library resources; and
3) to develop some information literacy skills.

Students will be developing an annotated bibliography based on a subtopic in American Popular culture that is of interest to them. (SPORTS/POP CULTURE)

A minimum of 3 peer-reviewed sources and 4 popular and/or open-web sources will need to be used in the bibliography.

The completed assignment will include:

1) Identify subtopic in American Popular Culture that you chose to investigate for this assignment. (eg. sport and popular culture)
2) List search terms you used in your searches (i.e. sport, sociology, "popular culture")
3) Annotated entries for a minimum of 3 peer-reviewed articles (see below for what should be included in each entry)
4) Annotated entries for a minimum of 4 popular and/or open-web sources

Each source entry should be in a table format and include the following:

1) APA-formatted full reference for the source
2) Brief description of the source
3) Brief discussion of how the source is relevant to your subtopic of interest and why you chose it.
4) Evaluation of where the source came from - i.e. peer-reviewed journal, blog, website, etc.
5) Evaluation of strengths and weaknesses regarding how helpful the source was in addressing your subtopic of interest.
6) Comparative analysis - compare/contrast how this source addresses your subtopic of interest in comparison to another source (note: no source should be used in this section more than twice)

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

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

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

2 pages on the Effects of Leadership Ethics

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FACEMASH TO FACEBOOK: AN INNOVATIVE JOURNEY FROM UNIVERSITY SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITE TO BILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS
On the 28th of October, 2003, Mark Zukerberg wrote Facemash in order to create a social networking website for the students of Harvard. At that time he was not aware that he was starting a whole new era of social networking innovation and creativity. What was started as a tool of social networking for the students of the university became the biggest social networking hub. The reason behind this unexpected and surprising success is the innovative and fearless attitude of the Facebook leader. In this rapidly changing world, it has become necessary for each and every business to innovate and change in order to survive and operate profitability. To create examples of this kind requires leadership hype in innovation, creativity, and change.
BACKGROUND AND HISTORY OF FACEBOOK:
Thefacebook.com, as known at that time, was launched on 4th February, 2004 by Mark Zukerberg. Initially it was limited to the students and faculty of Harvard University, later it was extended to other universities located in Boston and then to all Universities of United States. In August 2005 it was named facebook.com, and from September 2005, the different High Schools of United States were also added into the network. The next milestone for Facebook was going global as it reached to universities of United Kingdom a month later (Phillips, 2007). The network was further expanded and extended to other people who had email ids, apart from different educational institutions, in September 2006. The site was and is free of cost from the very start. Advertising is the main and major source of revenue for Facebook. In 2010 the company reported revenue of around two billion dollars (Womack, 2010).
Facebook is used by around 78% online households of United States (Hofstetter, 2009). In the year 2010 the Facebook reported around 500 million active users which is a big number (Chapman, 2010). Google and Yahoo are one of the companies which are interested in purchase of Facebook, but the founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is not interested in selling Facebook.
Characteristics of Innovation and Change in an Organization
Innovation, creativity, and change have become essential to survive and succeed in todays world. Everything is changing at a rapid pace, and in order to adopt and adjust to changing surroundings the organizations have to come up with new and innovative ideas and concepts. In order to bring in continuous improvement and changes there should be a strong leadership (BlessingWhite, 2007).
This kind of approach towards innovation requires transformational leadership skills. The leader should be innovative, creative, and ready to take risk. At the same time the leader should have the tendency and ability of motivating and encouraging the employees for innovation and change. One of the most effective and best instruments for change management for effective and successful leadership is the innovation and creativity.
The process of change is not easy, it is important to manage the change process effectively and efficiently. Change is accompanied by high level of resistance both from inside the organization and from outside the organization. The responsibility and task of an effective leader is to minimize this resistance and bring in new ideas and innovation (BlessingWhite, 2007).
Innovation and creativity are critical for the success of organization, but the process of innovation should be smartly managed and controlled. One has to first assess the climate for bringing in innovation and change. In order to bring in continuous changes and innovation the climate of the organization should be such that it supports innovative ideas and concepts (BlessingWhite, 2007).
The top management should involve employees in the process of change and encourage them to bring in new ideas and concepts in order to motivate them and reduce the level of resistance. In order to bring in effective change and innovation the employees should be involved in the day to day operational decisions and empower them and delegate authority to employees. This raise the confidence and motivation level of employees and encourage them to come up with innovative ideas and concepts. There should be an informal and friendly environment in which employees can think about new ideas and elaborate and share them with each other. Moreover there should be support from top management and leadership and the new ideas should be welcomed and discussed and if appropriate then they should be implemented. Apart from this the top management and leadership of an innovative organization should be ready to take risk and should have tolerance of uncertain and unexpected results which can accompany the innovation, creativity, and change (BlessingWhite, 2007).
Because of globalization and technological advancement the whole scenario of the business world is changing. In this changing context and situation, innovation, creativity, and change has become the main driver and source of attaining high performance, growth, and valuation (BlessingWhite, 2007). This is the main reason behind the growth and success of Facebook. Apart from this it is the leadership that is most important in bringing in innovation and change, which is also visible from the case of Facebooks success.


SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to analyze the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a business. Identifying SWOTs is vital to management, for future steps in the process of planning for achievement of the selected objective may be taken from the SWOTs. The essential elements of the SWOT analysis are as follows:
Strengths: i.e., characteristics of the business or team that give it an advantage over others.
Weaknesses: i.e., characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage relative to other players.
Opportunities: i.e., external chances to make greater sales in the market.
Threats: i.e., external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the firm.
According to researchers, there are a definite Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities or Threats facing Facebook currently.
Strengths
One of the top and leading social networking sites.
It has a renowned name as a social networking website.
Ranked as 2nd in Top 500 sites (2010).
One of the fastest evolving and adopted website.
It has more than 500 active users on its site, and contains around 900 million objects that the users interact with.
Creates a virtual social network for the user that involves him at a personal level.
The latest clean layout makes it more user-friendly and the user can easily and quickly see the profile of friends with a single click.
The tabs make it more user friendly and easier to access and browse.
Translated in more than 70 languages.
The integrated Wall and mini feed feature is also a major reason for the likeability by its users.
The main element that Facebook features and commends is that it realizes the real relations, and takes life to the next level of virtual reality.
Sharing is very easy regarding the website; friends can easily shareand comments on photos, that also makes up for the fun element.
Privacy options also includes the restriction and total control over ones own profile page, as to who can access what content; it gives a secure feeling regarding the user.
Features that make blogging easier and fun and the user never get to leave Facebook, which provides high time for the user.
Notes feature has been regarded as a nice feature that doesnt clutter like the other social networking sites, friends can tag in order to make them realize about the note and comment, and poetries or notices can be easily notified, the events also has a major impacts.
Leverage of assets has a large tendency regarding the site.
Communication level and expertise is highly appreciative and highly involes high impact.
Innovation is yet another element that Facebook gets involved in.
The growth of Facebook has had tremendous impact on the internetindustry, and it is known as the fastest growing social-networking site.
Customers loyalty level is very high, due to the excellent alignment of Facebook that is almost according to the preference of its users.
Leader in the industry regarding the market share.
Management team is very strong with high adaptability regarding the technology.
The financial position is very strong.
The unique features make it a stand-alone product in the marketwith less competition.
It has the notion of creating different communities in the internetworld and acts as a hub, it also derives individualistic approach in the social networking.
The users are quite addictive to Facebook due to the factor of being less clutter and people seek social integrity and integration and Facebook offers features that regard almost all the elements.
Applications also regarded as a means of entertainment in Facebook, and it also features games where friends compete with each other and that make it more.
Features chat, in which groups are formed and the users in the group can also get involved in a private chat with exclusively with its members.
Wall posts by friends also make up as a semi instant messaging feature and it also provides a feeling of realistically being attached to the other user.
Regardless of the complexities in its mechanism of operations, the usage ability of a novice user is highly credible and anyone can easily start using and knowing facebook on day one.
It offers a platform for different people and share ideas, applications, and get conversations.
Has partnered a lot of application developers and 3rd party applications. Many companies regard Facebook as a major touch-point for their business such as the online gaming business and reached at a whole new level due to Facebook features.
Marketing is also a major revenue generator regarding Facebook, as the overall communication and marketing of Facebook regarding other businesses is high and attention is high as well without making the user suffer which happens in most of the sites due to the high level of advertising and clutter.
Facebook has created such a space for itself in the internet industry that the competition is looking up on it, and the tremendous growth has given into its profitability and its adaptability.
Weaknesses
Due to the innovative steps changing in the look of Facebook, there are many liabilities regarding its use such as the bugs and problems that the users face in operating the website.
The user gets an alien feeling as proper feedback is not being provided to him/her regarding his/her problem, mostly there are FAQs and options to choose from.
Initially, Facebook had to face a lot of problems, specially when people easily deleted things and post on their profile.
Customization is quite hard, and is almost annoying for most of the users as they want to look unique regarding their profile but are forced to use a uniform profile. Many applications made by the user are hard to find due to the boxes option which hides most of the things to create less clusters.
The flash animation banners are quite distracting, and need to be positioned in such a ways that it does not get in the way of the user.
Adding application on Facebook is quite a feat, and spamming friends to add the same application as well.
The consistency of the applications and games and the experience held by the users hold importance but due to the high level of required space volume required to make the millions of people happy at the same time, Facebook has to be careful as to how to manage such operations.
A lot of time is wasted when the user keeps on searching for the right application on Facebook and finds it after a lot of time wastage.
Too many irrelevant and useless applications.
The semi instant messaging service regarding the wall posts is not quite the same real-time instant messaging.
Opportunities
There are still lots of opportunities for Facebook, the users specially can relate and share important information to their friends, business partners. they can easily create business partners.
Facebook pages are easier to find and join, and the future possibilities of these pages are vast as the many organization has made a Page that acts as a introductory phase for the organization, and the advertising impact will be an opportunistic approach in reaching the target customers globally.
Facebook has a wide use of collecting user data through polls andsurvey regarding different services for different businesses and collect valuable data that can be useful for different businesses before investing in any area.
Regarding the popularity and the influence that Facebook holds on its customers, it has the opportunity to drive the peoples lives in a whole new direction. The users will be getting inter-connected without any variable expense of high cost, and can instantly derive meaning in the communication.
Expansion in the international market and the flexibility of initiating the cultural aspect of the other countries will surely be a positive and more welcome approach.
Facebook has room for innovation, and can regard more services that touch the social networking.
They should invest in technology and provide feedback information regarding its users as there are also businesses operating in the Facebook community.
Facebook can include services regarding program developments, navigational framework, financial structure, and also targeting specifications.
Applications will be highly reputable if the structure and platform is strong and reliable with powerful marketing to reach its customers.
To work in such a way that the long-term credibility is increased as well as the reputation of Facebook, i-e developing programs and engaging in hosting programs that will compete with high level program developers. But Facebook should mostly engage in developing online programs that can be used in sync with the user and their friends.
Facebook offers an opportunity to make money regarding services that would touch up the customers and their small amount of transactions to their partners or friends.
Can also be used a p2p portal where people can engage in any buy and sell approach, but the exchange and distribution channel should be invested upon, and it is valuable for Facebook in the future, or it can partner with companies like Amazon, eBay or Apple.
The mobile engagement for Facebook has brought about a lot of significant changes in the lives of the users, as they can stay connected with their friends without being disconnected with their work or routine.

Threats
Facebook privacy settings are time and again disrupted that made it leak millions of private photos of people over the internet, it is advisable that facebook should tight the security measures and devise such techniques that will not understate the privacy of the user.
Spamming has become an issue due to the mini feed and wall merging, the more friends the user has, the more spammed will be the Feed, and the user will disregard in it and will engage only a selective or will not engage at all due to over-information.
The major social-networking sites as well as the top popular sites on the web are actively taking measures to get a hold of Facebook.
The configuration of different options in Facebook is quite time consuming, and most of the users who do not have sufficient knowledge will have their privacy being exploited.
The applications and programs mature quickly and the users get bored quite easily after some attempts at using the applications. Most of the applications have a one-time usage and hence boring.
The younger generation is quite vital for the exploitation of the full potential of Facebook, losing their interest will mean a crack-down.
The digital trend that needs to be followed, and Facebook seeking its identity through communities and individuls of many cultures and specially the teenagers will take a high step at what will be able enough for it to get in the world of the internet. They must foresee the attractive sections regarding the users and get more engaging in customer feedback.






System for Case Study
Technological Innovation System: Facebook has relied on a Technological Innovation System, a concept developed within the scientific field of innovation studies which serves to explain the nature and rate of technological change. Facebooks innovation is a dynamic network of agents interacting in a specific industrial area, under a particular institutional infrastructure and involved in the generation, diffusion, and utilization of technology.
I believe that Facebook must transition to the development of a new products system, i.e., changes in design of established products, in order to succeed. This will require new management and a new management structure. This hypothesis is backed up by opinions in the business literature. According to a recent report in The Washington Post, in the On Leadership column, published on June 13, 2010, now is the time for change at the top of Facebook. The article was entitled, Facebooks leadership: Time for an update.
Application of the System
There are structural components to the Technological Innovation System that Facebook uses in order to utilize the system effectively. First they use the Technological Innovation System concept to stimulate knowledge to induce technological change and economic performance. In Facebook there is a need to exploit this knowledge in order to create new business opportunities. This stresses the importance of individuals as sources of innovation, something which is sometimes overseen in the, more macro-oriented, nationally or section oriented innovation system approaches. Second, Facebook uses the Technological Innovation System approach as a focus on system dynamics.
Challenges to Innovation and Their Solutions
Facebook requires never ending improvements and innovation to sustain its current status and to open new opportunities. They manage inputs on a global scale and across engineering disciplines in conjunction with all of their other business platforms. Facebook faces the challenge to manage information better and get more information to more people. This requires teamwork across the entire enterprise.
Innovation is a team sport. It depends on the understanding that they have an openness to technology and work openly across different groups, platforms and organizational lines. It takes real leadership to start the course and inspire people to reach their highest level of performance. You first have to switch the emphasis from the individual to the team and make it an all-inclusive concept. Second, they have moved from the thought of innovation for innovations sake and moved it towards innovation that is customer inspired. A greater focus on the, in this instance, does not inhibit the flow of ideas or creativity, it actually has raised the bar.

Role of Ethics and Responsiblities
According to the Post, Amy L. Fraher is a retired Navy commander, naval aviator, former United Airlines pilot and director of the International Team Training Center at San Diego Miramar College, also had comments on Zuckerberg. My issue is not with [Facebook chief executive Mark] Zuckerberg's age or business experience, per se. What I wonder is whether he possesses the team-building skills required to elicit the leadership qualities from his employees needed to run the business long term, said Fraher. How did Facebook -- or its leader -- become fixated on such a complex non-user-friendly solution as the only possibility? Like the organizational culture at NASA in the 1980s, when managers overlooked potentially catastrophic flaws in the Challenger's O-ring design, has Zuckerberg's near-missionary zeal to create a networked world created a groupthink mentality, one that supersedes the transparency and open communication that Facebook cites as its core values? And has its brilliant co-founder been so seduced by his vision that he has forgotten the most important leadership lesson -- always question your own assumptions?
Yash Gupta, a professor and dean of the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University, also commented on the change processes that need to be undertaken at Facebook. The typical entrepreneurs generally don't ponder what their future management structure is going to look like. They're the kind of people who aren't happy dealing with bureaucracy, so they're not likely to envision how the bureaucracy of their own companies is going to be assembled, said Gupta. They tend to be people with big ideas and big passion; they're not very interested in maintenance. They're seed planters, not bean counters. In fact, research has shown differences between the brains of entrepreneurs and the brains of other kinds of business people. They're literally wired differently. But,Gupta said, the transition from the entrepreneurial style of leadership to the more managerial style is essential and must be handled with care.
If it's done too soon or too late, then problems occur. Knowing when to make the shift isn't an exact science. The organization has to be careful not to stifle the culture that generated the initial success. Otherwise, there's a risk of ruining the brand, said Gupta.
John Baldoni is a leadership consultant, coach and regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review online, also commented on Zuckerbergs situation.
Leadership wisdom is something that accrues with age and experience. And so it is no wonder that Mark Zuckerberg is struggling with large issues. He's still in his 20s, said Baldoni. Youth does not preclude effective leadership. Our military is led from the front by a very capable core of junior officers. They are supported by equally youthful noncommissioned officers. Both may lack the wisdom of years, but they make up for it with experience and a focus on mission. These men and women have learned to lead through their people, not over them, and in doing so they provide a strong leadership example for the rest of us. Zuckerberg needs to lead going forward, but pay close attention to where he has been, said Baldoni.
Jonathan Cowan, president and co-founder of Third Way, a think tank of the progressive movement, said that great leaders recognize that what it takes to get an idea off the ground is dramatically different from running and growing an aging organization. Yet all too often, start-ups fail to make the shifts necessary to prosper and compete in this middle stage. Who knows? Perhaps the next leader of Facebook has "friended" the current CEO -- and he or she is just one click away from better navigating the company's meteoric but challenging rise.
Thus, as averred earlier,we believe it would be best for Zuckerberg to stop down, and take a lesser title, and let a more experienced manager take the reigns as Facebook moves forward.
Core Aspects of Leadership
Innovative leadership is the need of the time (BlessingWhite, 2007). Apart from this the companies who are able to come up with new innovative ideas take advantages of first mover. The perfect example of this is Facebook. The leadership of Facebook is not only creative and innovative but also brings in new innovative ideas and concepts on continuous basis. The leadership of Facebook is aware of the fact that time is the most important and crucial factor in bringing in innovation and change. The innovation brought in wrong and inappropriate time can be dangerous for the organization and can leads to failure. On the other hand a timely innovation can help the organization to make way towards success and growth. The leadership of Facebook is able to incorporate this principle in its innovative strategies and at the same time is able to manage the all associated resistance and criticism about its aggressive approach towards innovation and creativity (Blodget , 2010).
The Facebook is a good example for companies and organizationwhich are able to change and innovate. The leadership of Facebook is good source of learning new and modern approach of leadership towards innovation, creativity, and change. Mark Zukerberg is a source of motivation for new leaders who want to bring in innovation and change through their creative ideas. Mark has given a new definition to of an effective and efficient leader which is the need of this changing and challenging time.
Principles and Practices for Implementing Innovation
The main reason and cause of success the of Facebook is the innovation and creativity. The approach of Facebook towards innovation and creativity is the key of its success. The leader of Facebook is ready to take risk for bringing new ideas and concepts into practice. The creation of Facebook itself is the biggest example of the innovation and creativity part by its leader. Facebook is an innovative organization and it keeps on bringing creative changes and innovation irrespective of their implications. The approach of Facebook is to first do it and then see what happens (Blodget , 2010). This approach is very much important for the success of any business in this changing world.
In the last five years, Facebook is believed to be the most successful online innovation. Facebooks idea of innovation is aggressive but at the same time smart (Blodget , 2010). Mark, as a CEO, has the ability of coming up with new ideas and has the guts to implement them and take the risk. At the same time he has smart and clever enough to observe, judge, and predict surroundings and conditions effectively and correctly and bring innovations accordingly.
This approach towards innovation of Facebook has given the company a competitive edge over all other social networking websites Facebook has been started as an innovative organization and is still proving to be a pioneer and leader in bringing in and trying new ideas and concepts.
Hindrance to Leading Innovation and Change
The latest trend is that for competitiveness and ongoing success the organization should be innovative and creative. Despite of this trend many organizations are not able to bring in necessary innovation and changes according to the changing requirements and demands. The main reason behind this is the lack of effective and efficient leadership (BlessingWhite, 2007). The innovation and creativity is dependent on the efficiency and abilities of the leader. The leader should be aware of the changing environment and situations and should have the ability to anticipate future and devise strategies accordingly. The modern leadership should be aware of the ways and methods of bringing in effective innovation and implementing the innovation in the whole organization. It is important for the leader to be ready to take risk and at the same time he or she should be able to effectively manage and overcome the associated resistance with the change and innovation.
It is the leadership on which the innovation, creativity, and change relies on. The leader should be creative and innovative himself and at the same time should have the ability of motivating and encouraging the other people in the organization to bring in new innovative ideas and concepts.

Facebook ??" Literature Review
Introduction
Facebook is far and away the most popular and most heavily populated social networking site on the Internet. This paper reviews the literature on Facebook in terms of leadership, challenges to innovation and change, and more.
Literature Review
An article in Bloomberg reports that sales on Facebook have risen faster than expected, and in fact while Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was named Time magazine Person of the Year, the social networking site was expected to top $2 billion in sales (Womack, 2010, p. 1). Those sales, the article continues, include banners, videos and other promotions in graphic format, will grab about 9.4 percent of that market (Womack). If Facebooks sale of ads reached 9.4 percent of that market, it boosted Facebook well over Googles share of ads (6.7 percent) and closer to Yahoo (16.2 percent). The one negative point in the article relates to privacy concerns and criticisms; but Facebook pledged to make privacy control easier for users, Womack explains.
Henry Blodget outlines some of the latest attacks on Facebook in the Business Insider ??" attacks that are mainly related to privacy issues. Blodget explains, Facebook often shares way more information with the world than its users know (Blodget, 2010, p. 1). This problem is due in part to the fact that Zuckerberg (CEO) approaches innovation with a do-it-first-and-then-see-what-happens attitude, according to Blodget. Journalist Blodget asserts that Zuckerberg is smart to approach innovation fearlessly and even quasi-recklessly; look where he is now.
On July 20, 2010, Facebook hit the 500 million mark ??" and Zuckerberg is quoted by Glenn Chapman in Agence France-Presse (AFP) saying: I could never have imagined all of the ways people would use Facebook when we were getting started 6 years ago (Chapman, 2010).
Sarah Phillips in the Guardian presents a brief bio of Facebook CEO Zuckerberg; the article revisits the launch of Facebook in 2004 (originally called The Facebook) when Zuckerberg was attending Harvard University. Within 24 hours, 1,200 students at Harvard had already signed up. Originally intended for university students, Facebook was opened to high schools in the US in 2005, and in 2006 it was extended beyond educational institutions to any online person with a valid email address. Zuckerbergs leadership in guiding his business through the formative stages is impressive.
As of October, 2009, an estimated 78% of online U.S. households were on Facebook; at least that is the assertion of Wendy Hofstetter writing in Capture The Conversation. In order to show the flexibility and power of the Facebook format, Hofstetter set out to make the Travel Channel pages more viral. She did that by taking advantage of the shared functionality accessible through Facebooks API. The pages became more interactive, more targeted, and more informative.
Leadership may be based on the ability of individuals to innovate, but in this article it explains that innovation remains a mystery to most organizations (www.Blessingwhite.com). The core part of the job for some employees is to execute strategy as well as explore the challenges and best practices for leading innovation according to the Blessingwhite narrative. There are five steps leaders can take if they wish to remove innovation barrier and become more creative. They have to be willing to take risks, in the first place. The five steps include: a) align terms; b) inspire action; c) be a coach and instill the right behaviors so employees can innovate; d) trust and build trust; and e) if you have to swim against the cultural tide in order to build a culture of innovation ??" then do it.
Adam N. Joinson writes in the Italian magazine CHI about the motives of those who use Facebook. Using 241 Facebook users in a survey, the author identified seven unique uses and gratifications: social connection, shared identities, content, social investigation, social network surfing, and status updating (Joinson, 2008). Those who use Facebook for social connection gratifications tend to use Facebook more than others, Joinson explains. In other words, feeling good about knowing new people and having frequent digital interaction with friends is a motivating factor vis--vis frequency of use.
Should faculty on a university campus have a presence on Facebook? That question (among others) was put to 136 students (77% of the students in the classes that were surveyed) in this research project. The authors actually conducted a two-year study, and after the first year, published their findings. The 136 student were enrolled in two undergraduate courses whose professors had established Facebook profiles for at least six months (Hewitt, et al, 2006). The answers to the question asked at the beginning of this paragraph turned out to e a mixed bag: of the 102 students (out of 136) that answered the question, 66% said faculty presence on Facebook was acceptable. The majority of the remaining 33% raised identity management or privacy issues in written comments, Hewitt wrote.
Meanwhile, students in this survey (who had seen the professors posts) gave the professors that were on Facebook a 4.7 out of 5 rating. Interestingly, students that had not seen their professors on Facebook also gave them a 4.7 rating, Hewitt explains. Having explained that, the authors admit there may have been a ceiling effect at play in this survey; that is, the professors that posted on Facebook were highly respected and extremely well-liked by students regardless of their online activities, Hewitt continues.
Male respondents were twice as likely to condone faculty presence on Facebook than females, Hewitt explained. The following comment came from the 33% that had mixed feelings about professors on Facebook: Facebook can unfairly skew a professors perception of a student in a student environment; that remark indicated to the editors that this female respondent believes Facebook is a place that is owned by students. It is also obvious that students that put racy or provocative images or narratives on their Facebook pages should understand that they could be judged ??" fairly or unfairly ??" by anyone in a position of authority, including faculty. Another couple comments from students in Hewitts research went like this: Its a social network for students; Faculty & students should remain separate when it comes to social functions (Hewitt).
Michael Useem, professor of management and director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management ??" at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School ??" published an editorial in The Washington Post that takes Zuckerberg to task for his alleged lack of leadership qualities. Useem begins the editorial by praising General George Meades heroic actions in the Civil War. He sets up Zuckerberg perfectly by pointing out how efficiently and effectively Meade used his promotion to take charge of the Army of the Potomac (95,000 troops compared with the 10,000 he had previously lead). Three days after getting his promotion (thanks to President Lincoln), Meades (using his new position) engaged and then defeated the Confederate Army which was led by the iconic General Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg (Useem, 2010).
How does Zuckerberg fit into this matrix? Useem asserts that his issue is not with Zuckerbergs youthful age or his business experience. What then, is Useems problem with Zuckerberg? Useem doubts that Zuckerberg has the team-building skills required to elicit the leadership qualities from hi employees needed to run the business long term (p. 1). On page 2 of the article in the Post Useem wonders how Facebook ??" or its leader ??" became fixated on such a complex non-user-friendly solution as the only possibility? Non-user-friendly solution?
At this point in his attack on Zuckerberg, Useem loses the reader. What is Useem talking about? So far so good for Zuckerberg; in fact the exponential growth of Facebook ??" and Zuckerbergs ability to fend off (or fix) the privacy criticisms, and to keep the company moving swiftly and surely ??" is nothing short of genius. Useem makes good points in this piece; there are transitions that growing companies must go through as a matter of course. Indeed, it is possible that Zuckerberg needs a mentor, as Useem suggests on page 2. And it is conceivable that Zuckerberg is a young executive that is not soliciting advice from the right people.
But beside the possibility that Useem sees something that isnt obvious to the rest of the world, the writer seems to steer off course. Great leaders recognize that what it takes to get an idea off the ground is quite different from running and growing an organization, Useem asserts logically and succinctly. But where is the connect with Zuckerberg and Facebook?
Meanwhile, a research article that compares Facebook and MySpace provides some interesting perspectives from users of those networking sites. For example, the members of MySpace reported significantly more experience using the site to meet new people while Facebook members expressed significantly greater trust in Facebook and its members (Dwyer, et al, 2007). Facebook members also were more willing to share identifying information than were members of MySpace, Dwyer writes.
The research tapped into the opinions of 69 Facebook members (29 male; 40 female) and 48 MySpace members (29 males; 19 females) in 2006. To the question, I feel that the privacy of my personal information is protected the Facebook mean was 3.884, significantly higher than the MySpace mean of 3.292 (F = 4.663, p = 03), Dwyer explains. But the widest gap between the two networking sites was found in response to the question, I believe most of the profiles I view on [Facebook or MySpace] are exaggerated to make the person look more appealing. The mean for this question was 4.29 for Facebook, and 5.125 for MySpace, a gap of nearly one full point on a seven item scale (F = 8.243, p = .005) (Dwyer).
Alessandro Acquisti and Ralph Gross conducted Facebook research to determine how concerned members of Facebook were regarding privacy and security. The survey used 147 males and 147 females ??" all Facebook members. What Acquisti and colleague found was that an individuals privacy concerns are only a weak predictor of his membership to the network (Acquisti, 2006, p. 1). In addition, they found that people who have intense privacy concerns join Facebook and reveal great amounts of information ??" an apparent contradiction. Moreover, some Facebook members simply trust their ability to control information and external access to their information, without truly knowing whether they can trust the security and privacy aspects.
A research article in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (Ellison, et al, 2007), the authors examined the relationship between Facebook users and social capital (the resources one accumulates by having friendships or mutual acquaintances with others). The empirical results of this study contrasts with what the popular press presents, Ellison asserts. An individuals intensive use of Facebook can translate into a long-term friendship with classmates from college and high school that otherwise might not be there. Such connections could have strong payoffs in terms of jobs, internships, and other opportunities, Ellison explains on page 22. Hence, Facebook indeed has a strong linkage to a persons need for social capital.







Works Cited
Acquisti, Alessandro, and Gross, Ralph. (2006). Imagined Communities: Awareness,
Information Sharing, and Privacy on the Facebook. PET.
Blessingwhite. (2007). Leading Innovation: Innovate on the run: The competing demands of
modern leadership. Retrieved March 20, 2011 from http://www.blessingwhite.com.
Blodget, Henry. (2010). Ignore the Screams ??" Facebooks Aggressive Approach is Why It Will
Soon Become The Most Popular Site In The World. Business Insider. Retrieved March 20,
2011, from http://www.businessinsider.com.
Chapman, Glenn. (2010). Facebook Membership Hits 500 Million Mark. Agence France-Presse.
Retrieved March 21, 2011, from http://www.google.com.
Dwyer, Catherine, Hiltz, Starr Roxanne, and Passerini, Katia. (2007). Trust and privacy concern
Within social networking sites: A comparison of Facebook and MySpace. Proceedings of
The Thirteenth Americas Conference on Information Systems. Retrieved March 20, 2011,
from: http://www.csis.pace.edu/~dwyer/research/DwyerAMCIS2007.pdf.
Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C. and Lampe, C. (2007). The Benefits of Facebook Friends:
Social Capital and College Students Use of online Social Network Sites. Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1-27.
Hewitt, Anne, and Forte, Andrea. (2006). Crossing Boundaries: Identity Management and
Student/Faculty Relationhips on the Facebook. CSCW.
Hofstetter, Wendy. (2009). Case Study: A Facebook Story. Capture the Conversation. Retrieved
March 20, 2011, from http://www.capturetheconversation.com.
Joinson, Adam N. (2008). Looking at, Looking up or Keeping up with People? Motives and
Uses of Facebook. CHI
Phillips, Sarah. (2007). A brief history of Facebook. The Guardian. Retrieved March 20, 2011
From: http://www.guardian.co.uk.
Useem, Michael. (2010). Facebooks leadership: Time for an update? The Washington Post.
Retrieved March 20, 2011, from http://www.washingtonpost.com.
Womack, Brian. (2010). Facebook 2010 ales Said Likely to Reach $2 Billion, More Than
Estimated. Bloomberg. Retrieved March 20, 2011, from http://www.bloomberg.com.

My topic: The Impact of Distance Learning in Accounting Higher Education.

This is the introduction that was started. If possible can you please incorporate some of this article in the introduction.

This article has been sent to you by: [email protected], dahli
>Sender''s Comments: june 2003 article
>
>Article Title: The Realities of Web-Based Training
>
>Author: By Jennifer Minotti, Ed.M., & Paul Giguere, Ed.D., Education
>Development Ctr Inc
>
>Department and Issue: T.H.E. Journal Feature, June 2003
>
>Web-based
> training (wbt) - the use of the World Wide
> Web for training purposes that can be delivered anytime, anywhere to
>anyone
> with access to an Internet-enabled computer - has become a term both
> loaded with possibilities and mired down in misconceptions. As with
> face-to-face training, the goal of WBT is to improve skills, enhance
> learning and understanding, and change attitudes and behaviors over
>time.
> When thinking about the best ways to deliver training, WBT offers the
> ability to deliver training in three distinct ways: synchronously (in
>real
> time), asynchronously (not in real time) or by using a combination of
>the
> two. In addition, numerous technologies and combinations of
>technologies
> can be used to deliver exciting WBT. However, when planning for WBT,
> administrators should carefully consider how it can best serve the
>training
> needs of their organization by examining its various bene fits and
>limitations.
>
>
> Benefits of WBT
>
>
> Educators exploring WBT as an option to meet a
> school''s or district''s training needs may find that it provides
> several advantages over traditional face-to-face training. In fact,
>several
> research studies illustrate that WBT is equally as effective in terms
>of
> participant grades and scores. Although, in some cases, participants
>prefer
> WBT over traditional classroom training. The major benefits of WBT are
> listed below (Hall 2000; Horton 2000; Gold 1997; and Ligle and Madey
>1997).
>
>
>
> Flexibility and time
>
>
> Training may occur anytime, anyplace that there is Internet access.
>
>
> Individuals can learn at their own pace and around
> their own schedules within a given training time frame.
>
>
> Individuals
> gain access to colleagues and experts from geographic locations with
>whom
> they would ordinarily not have the opportunity to communicate.
>
>
> Individuals
> are able to take advantage of lifelong learning without relocating or
> quitting their jobs.
>
>
>
> Learning and understanding
>
>
>
>Individuals
> must think, respond, problem solve, use critical reasoning, interact
>and be
> creative to fully participate in WBT.
>
>Individuals
> may feel more in control of their own learning, thus possibly taking
>on
> more responsibility.
>
>Individuals gain
> access to real-world examples, databases, experts and additional
>sources of
> information online.
>
>Individuals are able
> to reflect in greater depth on responses to questions or activities
>posed
> in training before making their answers and opinions public to other
> participants.
>
>WBT emphasizes a
> learner-centered approach to training versus simply logging the number
>of
>  hours spent in training.
>
>
>
>
> Cross-platform and varied software
>
>
>Individuals
> may be positively challenged by actively navigating the online
>environment
> and learning new technologies.
>
>Training may
> be accessed on several computer platforms, including Windows,
>Macintosh and
> UNIX.
>
>Training may
> be accessed using many of the common Web browsers, including Netscape
> Navigator, Internet Explorer, America Online, Lynx and other free
> proprietary     software.
>
>
>
> Cost
>
>
>Overall
> training costs are often cheaper for participants due to eliminating
>travel
> and facilities fees.
>
>WBT is less
> expensive when considering the districtwide and worldwide distribution
>of
> training, in relation to the limited number of participants in a
> traditional classroom environment.
>
>WBT can be
> easily updated and "recycled" for additional training at a
> nominal fee.
>
>
> Accessibility and equal opportunity for all
>
>
>The
> standardized nature of WBT equalizes delivery of the materials for all
> individuals.
>
>Opportunities
> to attend training are created for individuals with disabilities and
>others
> who may be excluded due to time, geography or mobility.
>
>Multimedia
> such as graphics, video and audio can enhance learning and
>understanding,
> as well as be adapted to individuals with various learning styles.
>
>Individual
> characteristics such as physical disabilities remain anonymous to
>other
> participants, thus eliminating judgments and stigmas often associated
>with
> particular disabilities.
>
>
>
> Constraints of WBT
>
>
> While WBT provides several benefits over traditional
> face-to-face training, there are a number of disadvantages associated
>with
> this form of training. Below are factors one should be aware of when
> considering WBT for their students or staff (Hall 2000; Horton 2000;
>Gold
> 1997; and Ligle and Madey 1997).
>
>
>
> Flexibility and time
>
>
>
>WBT often
> requires more effort and time on the part of instructors and designers
>in
> developing and adapting curricula to the Web-based medium. This type
>of
> training also frequently requires a shift in teaching and training
> strategies.
>
>Participants
> must spend additional time familiarizing themselves with the new
> technologies before they can  engage in the content; some never
>get
> past this initial stage.
>
>Instructors
> often need to provide additional assistance to students who are new to
>the
> technology and medium.
>
>Participants
> often spend more time in online discussions, brainstorming, writing
>and
> doing problem-solving activities than they do in face-to-face
>classrooms.
>
>Time lapses
> (when engaged in asynchronous discussion), while waiting for responses
>from
> instructors or colleagues, may be frustrating to the WBT participants.
>
>
> Learning and understanding
>
>
>
>Materials
> must be engaging, self-describing and easy to use in order to avoid
> confusion on the part of students, because the instructor is not
>always
> present to answer questions right away.
>
>Some
> individuals feel isolated and lonely learning in this medium due to
>the
> lack of a shared physical space with other trainees and the
>instructor.
>
>Meanings can
> often be misconstrued without face-to-face and real-time cues.
>
>Some
> individuals remain skeptical about learning in a new way; instead they
> prefer learning in the traditional format.
>
>Individuals
> may find it hard to concentrate or stay on task by not being in a
> structured classroom setting.
>
>Some
> individuals may find the hypermedia environment confusing or difficult
>to
> follow.
>
>
> Cross-platform and varied software
>
>
>Individuals
> may feel threatened or intimidated by the new technologies involved.
>
>Expertise with
> technology is now almost as important as knowledge in the core subject
> area.
>
>Bandwidth
> limitations that involve intensive graphics, video and audio often
>slow
> down WBT.
>
>It is
> difficult to ensure exact design and formatting across platforms and
> numerous browsers.
>
>Online
> training is often not viable for everyone, such as those with limited
>or no
> access to the Internet or technology.
>
>Some
> instructors are resistant to learning new technologies that they
>believe
> will soon become obsolete.
>
>
> Cost
>
>
>Expenses are
> often hard to estimate when designing WBT for the first time, and a
> break-even point for return on investment can be even harder to
>determine.
>
>Cost can be
> more expensive than in a traditional classroom environment given the
>need
> for special equipment, software, instructional designers and the
>adaptation
> of course material, especially when designing WBT for the first time.
>
>WBT may
> require an extra staff person to handle technical issues for
>participants
> and training developers.
>
>
> Accessibility and equal opportunity for all
>
>
>The ability
> and necessity to access the training materials are as important as
> understanding the materials.
>
>Individuals
> with disabilities are at risk of  being excluded when content is
>not
> made fully accessible.
>
>
>
> Conclusion
>
> WBT presents both opportunities and obstacles for
> individuals exploring WBT as an option to meet a school''s or
> district''s training needs. Clearly, a lot of thought must go into the
> initial planning stage, taking into account the specific needs of the
> particular school or district. However, in the end, it should be
>remembered
> that "what makes any course good or poor is a consequence of how well
> it is designed, delivered and conducted, not whether the students are
> face-to-face or at a distance" (Moore and Kearsly 1996).
>
>
>
> References
>
>
> Gold, J. 1997. "Does Computer-Mediated
> Communication (CMC) Present Individuals With Disabilities
>Opportunities or
> Barriers?" Computer Mediated
> Communication Magazine  4 (1).
>
> Hall, B. 2000. "FAQs About Web-Based
> Training." Online: www.brandon-hall.com.
>
> Horton, W. 2000. Designing
> Web-Based Training. New York: John Wiley &
> Sons.
>
> Ligle, J. and G. Madey. 1997. "Web-Based Training:
> A Case Study on the Development of an Intranet-Based Training Course.
> Online: http://hsb.baylor.edu/ramsower/ais.ac.97/papers/liegle2.htm.
>
> Moore, M. and G. Kearsly. 1996. Distance Education: A Systems View.
>New
> York: Wadsworth.
>
>----
>To read the article on our Web site go to
>http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/a4444.cfm
>----
>T.H.E. Journal offers a FREE one-year subscription to qualified individuals
>in educational institutions. Go to http://www.thejournal.com/freesub for
>more information.
>----
>Copyright ? 2003 T.H.E. Journal L.L.C. All rights reserved.
>

This three-page paper presents a topic for research regarding distance learning in the field of accounting. The writer uses three sources to explore the positive and negative aspects of using distance learning to teach accounting to students.

Chapter 1
Introduction
Context of the Problem

Distance learning has been around for many years. With the advent of the Internet however it has grown significantly over the last two decades and students around the world are now able to take courses they might otherwise have to miss out on. There are many reasons that students use distance-learning courses including time constraints, childcare difficulties and physical disabilities. There are several reasons distance learning is offered through educational institutions including the ability to save classroom space, offer the course to a wider audience and save funding on building. The field of accounting is used to provide financial support, checks and balance systems, future projections and other tasks regarding money in the business, government and non-profit worlds. The field of accounting has been using distance learning to instruct students for some time now. While there are advantages to this procedure such as saved time and better access for students, there are also concerns that the field really requires an in person teacher. This research proposal will answer whether or not distance learning in the field of accounting is as effective as in person learning.
Statement of the Problem
While there are obvious advantages to the use of distance learning in many subjects the field of accounting is highly specialized and may present problems. Accounting combines the use of mathematics, and social responsibility with human resource management and other areas to provide financial advice, guidance and projections in all areas of life. Because of the many facets of life that accounting incorporates and the detailed mathematical requirements of the field distance learning has come under examination.
?Distance learning experiences can be designed to either complement or replace a standard classroom instructional setting. These goals may be accomplished either with a remote site receiving the same instructional presentation as a host site (remote) or with an asynchronous, non-site Web-enhanced delivery methodology (distant) .? For one to effectively learn in a distance learning accounting course there must be several criteria met including a grasp of basic mathematics, as well as the ability to maneuver with a computer. Accounting classes online present a challenge when it comes time for the teacher to see where the student went wrong. There are many involved steps to most accounting procedures and the ability to see the students perform the steps in person allows the teacher to stop them if they get off course, instead of trying to figure out where they went wrong after the fact.
Current literature points to an overall satisfaction with distance learning in the field of finance, with students reporting an appreciation for provided chat rooms and other methods of communication in the course work . ?Students reported that the course involved more independent study than they had expected .?
Distance learning in the field of accounting allows the student to tailor the courses to meet their individual needs .
One problem with distance learning however is the ability and ease for the student to fall behind; fail in self-discipline needs and drop out of the course . This proposed study will address the problems that are encountered through distance learning courses in accounting and some of the things that can be done to reduce those problems. The study will determine the positive and negative aspects of distance learning in the accounting field and present possible solutions to the problems.

REFERENCES

Anne Nicholls, Flexible study opens doors. , Independent on Sunday, 01-14-1996, pp 12.

Serwatka, Judy A, Improving student performance in distance learning courses. , T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education), 04-01-2002, pp 46.

Mariola, Eleni; Manley, John, Teaching finance concepts in a distance learning environment--a personal note. , Journal of Education for Business, 01-01-2002, pp 177.

This is the section of the paper I need help with.

SECTION 2: STAGES OF DSP DEVELOPMENT


RESEARCH QUESTION AND SUBQUESTIONS

Students are required to identify a problem within their major field which the research will intend to address. A research question proposal, written by the student detailing what the contemplated DSP will entail, is submitted to the seminar professor for approval. The proposal consists of:

1. Topic
2. Statement of the Problem
3. Specific research question and subquestions to be addressed

RESEARCH PROPOSAL (Chapter One)

After the research question and research subquestions are approved, the student develops the complete research proposal for the professor?s review and approval. The proposal consists of:

TITLE PAGE (see Turabian for example)

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1. Context of the problem (background of, and introduction to the problem)
2. Statement of the problem
3. Specific research question and subquestions to address the problem
4. Significance of the study (why this study is important; who will benefit)
5. Research design and methodology (how this research will be conducted: qualitative or quantitative analyses, including content analyses, use of interviews, questionnaires, etc.); what primary and secondary sources to be used: government and industry publications, student-generated data, books, periodicals, etc.
Interviews when appropriate and required: name, title and company of each interviewee must be identified. A minimum of five interviews should be conducted.
6. Organization of the study
7. Tentative Reference List

If you need additional information please email at [email protected]

Please contact via of email or phone immediately if this paper can't be done by the due date.
Overview and Learning Objectives

Due October 23 Critical Response Paper




Critical Response Paper Assignment

DEADLINE: MIDNIGHT, EASTERN TIME ZONE, USA Monday, October 23, 2006


? The vast majority of the companies that undertake downsizing neglect to build and support their human resources.?

Assignment:

Choose an article from one of the following sources of information: peer reviewed journal, major newspaper, trade publication, internet source.

The article should describe and discuss downsizing undertaken at an organization. Based on your article and your understanding of the class discussions and readings on downsizing, write a four page, double spaced paper that supports or refutes the above italicized statement on companies and downsizing. Discuss all major components of downsizing and their effect on human resources. Be sure to include parenthetical citations where appropriate. Include a title page (your name, date, title of article (cited), module number and course & instructor name)-does not count as one of the four pages.

Submit your document as an rtf or doc attachment in the correct place in the Module 2 written assignment space. Do not simply summarize the article but use it to support your case.






Maximizing Personal and Collective Performance: Learning Objectives & Overview

Key Element Description
Module Maximizing Personal and Collective Performance
Overview In the Innovator Role, leaders must recognize that companies need flexible structures in order to respond to rapidly changing new demands. Managers respond to change by adaptation, receiving continuous feedback from the outside and aligning the organization with the external environment. They do this by engaging in boundary spanning and environmental scanning.

The major challenge in the broker role is managing cultural adaptation and orchestrating the integration processes between networked organizations. They must also build trust with outsiders, manage interfaces, create win-win situations for both companies and engage in negotiations.

This new style of management requires managers to ask the kinds of questions that will encourage staff to solve problems on their own and make decisions on their own. Leaders must be skilled at managing disorder.

Leaders as directors are vital for the success of non-bureaucratic, team-based organizations. Self-managed teams do not mean the elimination of supervisory tasks, but simply a transfer of those tasks to the team members
Objectives Mastery of this module will enable you to:

Identify and acquire the critical success factors for external networking;

Identify and apply strategic responses to environmental uncertainty;

Understand and apply the new transitional roles of management issues associated with the hypereffective manager;

Apply and understand critical leadership roles with self horizontal team based organizations.
Learning Activities Class Discussions & Critical Response Papers
Short Essay Examination


Belasen, A. (2000) Leading the Learning Organization, Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press

Subject: Strategic Change


Source: Belasen, A. (2000) Leading the Learning Organization, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press

Adjusting to the Environment: Adaptive Responses and Organizational Change

In the Innovator Role, leaders must recognize that companies need flexible structures in order to respond to rapidly changing new demands. When an organization has a good read of the environment, but no way to respond to the changes, the organization is strategically passive. Organization will know what its competitors are going to do in advance in the marketplace, but they have no understanding how to handle the situation. Some companies have a clear strategy and effective planning but are unable to use them because their competitors are unknown and their position within the market is unclear.These companies will resort to incremental changes that at best follow patterns from the past rather than the profound changes that are need to transform the organization into the future.

The biggest challenge to organizations is an environment that is scarce, dynamic and complex. This kind of environment has high uncertainty and there is a low tolerance for errors. Demands are unpredictable and environmental factors must be constantly monitored. If an environment is more complex, organizations must become decentralized, push down decision-making; professionals enjoy more autonomy in their work but they are subject to rules and standardization.

If the environment is dynamic, organizations are faced with short product life cycle, uncertain sources of supply, and high labor turnover. The organization cannot predict, and therefore, cannot achieve coordination using standardization of work products. The organization becomes more organic. It must be flexible to adjust to competitors.

Managers, in responding to this kind of environment, adapt by receiving continuous feedback from the outside and they align the organization with the external environment. They do this by engaging inn boundary spanning and environmental scanning. Effective leaders transform the entire organization with the right attitude and right questions. They must create an awareness of the need to change and enhance the organizational ability to adapt. High performance leaders act as if they are the conductors orchestrating the change process but without specifying a particular approach. They must set new performance standards to realign the organization with its environment and hold unit managers accountable for fundamental changes. Managers at higher levels think and act strategically. They examine the dynamics and changes that happen along the value chain of the organization; initiate internal and external networking; and create and maintain horizontal linkages that integrate people and units along the value chain.



Linking the Organization: Information Technology and Networking

The major challenge in the broker role is managing cultural adaptation and orchestrating the integration processes between networked organizations. The high performance leader must deal with pressures to terminate a networked alliance when conflict arises. They must also build trust with outsiders, manage interfaces, create win-win situations for both companies and negotiate. These leaders recognize that trust takes time. Therefore, leaders must create a work climate that encourages mutual respect and transforms the organization into one that is more flexible and adaptive. This means that they must negotiate linking programs, and have the competencies to succeed in boundary management. These leaders must find organizations to complement their organization and make the two stronger than either alone.

Top-level managers must link organizations, coordinate key players in the network, and monitor the flow of resources across the organizations. In addition, they must make sure alliances run smoothly and that information across organizations is shared as part of the value chain. As organizations increasingly rely on technology, technology itself will change the way managers manage people. It adds more variety to way people work, but the use of technology means that there could be a risk of dehumanizing workplace since people to people interaction is now over the computer. Thus, broker managers will face a special challenge with electronic organizational linkages. They must now possess both technical and communication skills.

Consequently, there are issues with the application of IT and its effect on complex interpersonal relationships. Direct communication is now transformed outside of the chain of command by e-mail. Some researchers argue that information technology supplements traditional face-to-face communication with its emphasis on speed, outreach and efficiency (CMC-computer mediated communication). Others have argued that it can be used as a buffer and reduce communication relations and transactions. The psychosocial need of people to talk face to face, receive nonverbal cues, immediate feedback is eliminated by CMC. Others take the opposite view. They see use of CMC and its ability for top managers to by pass the chain of command and speak directly to front line staff and their supervisors as making middle manager redundant. Top management using IT can communicate directly to teams, minimizing time and reinterpretation. This changes power dynamics of workplace. Yet, the motivating principle of external networking is powerful. Interdependence boosts speed and quality and close customer-supplier relationships trim costs. While quality management techniques spread throughout companies using IT as suppliers use their technological expertise to boost firm performance. Networking can be seen as an alternative to vertical integration.

Living with Corporate Downsizing: The Hypereffective Manager

Downsizing companies can be caught up in a destructive pattern of temporarily improving the status quo, but these productivity gains do not last. Cutting without adequate restructuring of work must be replaced with common sense. Organizations that are downsizing must reorganize to provide more customer value and productivity not to simply eliminate jobs. Although empowerment and self managed teams have rendered middle managers less valuable, their knowledge about and loss of organizational memory and their contribution to informal communication networks is indispensable.

The traditional bureaucratic organization relies on maximizing efficiency so it adopts a system of centralized control through vertical hierarchies and functional departments. It uses horizontal differentiation, standardization of work processes and formalization (rules and policies; training and coordination;). By doing this management reduces uncertainty and achieves effective integration. Middle managers in traditional roles exercise positional power to get greater compliance with goals and strategies by lower levels. They provide clear direction and common patterns of behavior that reduce ambiguity and uncertainty. As producers, managers are gatekeepers who translate the goals and strategic plans of the upper levels into operational goals that are clear and understood by lower levels in the company. They respond to reports and questions for clarification from lower . These managers are sensitive to demands for accountability and responsiveness from higher levels. They also ensure the smooth flow of information and work between upper and lower levels. Middle managers are communicators who create and manage dependencies. We can see how management roles have shifted from promoting stability to coping with increasing complexity. Their strategic role has now become dealing with change and understanding the need to change. They also have a role in preparing for it, managing the process and stimulating it.

The traditional style of management was that managers told people what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. The new style of management is that people must let their manager ask questions to encourage staff to solve the problems on their own and make decisions on their own. The new style requires managers to be skilled at managing disorder and at helping employees self-organize into groups such as self managed work teams. During the transition from old styles to new, managers must respond to simultaneous and often contradictory sets of pressures from the top, from stakeholders to mobilize resources around new ideas, and from pressures from the bottom to maintain constancy in purpose, stability and continuity. This is both challenging and frustrating for them. Managers who are unwilling to let go of any of their roles are vulnerable to hypereffectiveness. Hypereffectiveness can transform managers into conservative, overloaded people who are pushed to the limits by top management who demand nothing short of better results.

Leading Self-Managed Teams: Roles and Communication

Self managed teams are also called high performance teams. They are likely to emerge in organizations undergoing a shift in paradigms. Self managed teams help organizations become more productive, more competitive and profitable. They offer technical breakthroughs, cost containment and quick response. SMTs have higher quality outputs because they engage in continuous improvement and greater flexibility through adaptability and problem solving. These teams can improve productivity because deep employee involvement builds intense commitment to the corporate vision of success. Anything that does not support the team is a target for elimination. These teams help drive quality improvement into every level of the organization as the organization adjusts to changes in its environment.

The director role is vital for the success of nonbureaucratic, team-based organizations. Vertical organizations can run virtually without leaders because they are centralized. Their high formalization is an effective substitute for leadership. Hierarchies manage functions through middle management, integrate units? efforts and monitor their performance. Self managed teams are referred to as bossless teams, but although it is true that external leaders of SMTs are former managers whose roles have been transformed into facilitators and coaches, SMTs are not leaderless. A SMT is not a elimination of supervisory tasks but simply a transfer of those tasks to the team members.Over time, multiple leaders emerge in the teams; leadership may rotate among team members and may be fulfilled simultaneously and complementarily by multiple team members who assume different job responsibilities.Team members are expected to act out the eight leadership roles and to simultaneously consider and balance the competing demands that are represented by each set of expectations. Experts agree that a balance in playing roles is essential for effective leadership.

Researcher Quinn notes that effectiveness is maintaining creative tension between contrasting demands in a social system. Team members must see their work context as a complex dynamic system that is constantly evolving. The roles shift between leader and follower depending on different situations. Since effective team members need to lead and follow, a team requires both shared leadership and followership to be successful.

Ongoing performance feedback and reinforcement of communication within the team are the most important ways to leverage collective accountability and high commitment to the team?s goals. Successful leadership roles demand access to information that traditionally has been considered part of the supervisory domain.

The transformation from a bureaucratic, supervisory organization to a value based organization with self-managed teams presents challenges. Instead of being told what to do by your supervisor, self-managed teams are given considerable responsibility to design their own jobs, set objectives, recruit and select their own members.


Virtual Seminar Evaluation Criteria


I will be providing an individual evaluation on your participation in the virtual seminar and a general evaluation of the class participation when the seminar concludes.

Please see below for some tips about how to improve your participation. I will use this evaluation outline in assessing your participation and grade on this portion of the module.

Your response to my question: Did your response thoughtfully and thoroughly address all aspects of the question? Did your response include at least one parenthetical citation to the readings required for the course or other readings germane to this module?

Your original question: Was your question clearly stated and thought provoking? (E.g. Was your question more than a simple look up the response in the text question?) Did your question include at least one parenthetical citation to the readings for the class or other germane readings?

The way you managed the discussion associated with your original question: Did you promptly respond to all students who responded to your question? Did you respond in a way so as to promote greater depth of discussion? Sometimes a quick response like, ?I agree with our response? is fine. However, quick responses do not promote greater depth of discussion. To promote greater discussion, you will need to respond promptly and thoughtfully, offer a comment or question and then ask for a further response of your fellow classmate(s).

Your participation in other student led discussions: Did your responses thoughtfully address all aspects of the questions? Did at least several of your responses include at least one parenthetical reference to the readings for the module?

Timeliness of Your Participation: Did you jump into the discussion early? Did you respond promptly to all students who responded to your question ? Did you participate in the other student led discussions so as to allow sufficient time for your classmates to respond to you?

Respect and courtesy of your participation: Did you demonstrate respect and courtesy throughout the discussion?

Critical Response Paper Evaluation Criteria



I will evaluate your critical response paper based on the following points. My goal is to help our succeed in this course, so please read and follow these comments carefully.

Your article selection: Did you choose a journal, internet article or newspaper article about the topic? Was the article appropriately cited? Was your article choice appropriate to the topic of discussion?
Organization of the Paper: Did you include appropriate subheadings so that the reader could follow your reasoning? Did you include your name, course name, module number and name and date submitted? Did you use standard citations in the body of your paper and in the reference section? Did you follow generally acceptable grammar and composition practices? Was your paper organized and thorough?

Format: Was your written assignment generally free of typographical errors? Did you follow instructions for the submission of the critical response paper? Did you submit the paper by the deadline? Was the paper prepared according to instructions, e.g. paper page length, type of font used, no clip art, etc.

Content of Analysis: Did you summarize the main points of the article in your own words? Did you include insightful comments and original observations? Did you discuss the main elements of corporate downsizing? Did you successfully compare Belasen?s concepts about downsizing to the corporate downsizing that occurred as described in your article or newspaper article or internet site? Did you integrate concepts discussed in class, based on your personal experience, if any, in this area? Did you include additional references? Did you support any observations that you made with examples to illustrate your points? Did you include a conclusion? Did you answer the questions that the instructor posed?

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In module 3, you will be reading either an autobiography or biography of a leader and answering questions about whether this person exhibits the characteristics of a high performance manager. Your book choice will also form the basis for your written book review assignment and virtual seminar participation in module 3. Therefore, it is important that your book choice is submitted to me so that I can approve your selection. If you are not registered for Module 3, then you can ignore this assignment.

Special Note from Jacqueline Mines************************
The Leader I suggest we use is Bill Gates, However you can choose a different leader if you suggest. This notation is from Jacqueline Mines, I need to know ASAP which leader you suggest if you don't want to do Bill Gates.
************************************************************
Please remember that your choice of autobiography or biography is due to me via your private folder by no later than OCTOBER 16, 2006 EASTERN TIME ZONE, MIDNIGHT USA

Your choice of book must be pre-approved by me before you can begin the assignment that is due in Module 3.

Please remember that this assignment will form a substantial part of both the written assignment in Module 3 and your Virtual Seminar participation. If you have any questions, please let me know via your private folder. Thanks.

Format: Author, Title of Book, Date Published, Pu

Special note from Jackie Mines**************************
I have copies of the chapters if you need them, I can fax them it's to many to scan and emial. Please let me know ASAP.***************************************************

There are faxes for this order.

You are to write 3-page paper. Read the article below and summarize the article. Do Not Use Outside Sources!


Moore & Kearsley

The Nature of Adult Learning
Although it is true that distance education courses are sometimes provided to schoolchildren to supplement or enrich the classroom curriculum, the overwhelming majority of distance education students in the US are adults typically between the ages of 25 and 50 years consequently understanding the nature of adult learning is an invaluable foundation for understanding the distance learner. The best-known description, now a classic, is that of Malcolm Knowles 1978 theory of adult education is what he called andragogy the art and science of helping adults learn can be reduced to the following propositions, expressed as differences between adults and children: although children being accept dependent on a teacher, adults like to feel they have some control over what is happening and to exercise personal responsibility; although children accept the teachers definition of what should be learned, of those preferred to define it for themselves, or at least should be convinced that it is relevant to their needs; children will accept the teachers decisions about how they learn, what to do, when and where, Adults like to make such decisions for themselves or these to be consulted; although children have little personal experience to draw on, adults have a lot, and they appreciate this being used as a learning resource; children must acquire a store of information for future use. Adults either assume they have the basic information or need to acquire what is relevant here and now. Instead of acquiring knowledge for the future, they see learning is necessary for solving problems in the present; and children may need external motivation to make them learn, adults will usually volunteer to learn have intrinsic motivation.
Why do Adults Enrolled in Distance Education Course?
For American children going to school is the work of childhood. The adult is a person with employment, family, and social obligations; so for an adult there are costs in enrolling in an educational course. The cost can certainly be measured in dollars but more importantly it is costs time and effort that must be taken from a marginal time and energy remaining from what is spent on the normal demands of adult life. For most adults, therefore, there have to be specific and clear reasons for starting a learning program, these tend to be highly motivated, task oriented students. Unlike younger learners most adults have experience in employment and many are seeking to learn more about fields of work in which they already know a great deal. Also unlike younger learners they know are a lot about why and about the world, about themselves, and about interpersonal relations, including how to deal with others in the class, and perhaps with the teacher and with an administrative system. The adult student, teachers gain authority from what they know and the way they deal with their students not from any external symbols or titles. Physical distance tend to further reduce the dominant psychological position of the teacher probably one reason some classroom teachers do not enjoy being at a distance. Some adults enrolled in distance education courses to compensate for a neglected high school education; others are seeking college credit courses; many take noncredit courses in plethora of subjects just to improve their general knowledge or to develop satisfying pastimes. Some seek practical knowledge when they first become parents, homeowners, or members of a school board. In America today education is presented primarily as a personal investment with the return been improvements in employability or income. Therefore the most common reason for taking a distance education course is develop or upgrade skills and knowledge needed in employment. However widely differing motivations for learning are suggested by recalling some of the organizations mentioned earlier in chapters in this book. They include Air Force personnel learning the mechanics of a truck by home-study, the College dropout trying to make a college credit through independent study, the professional engineer keeping abreast of new information through courses offered by NTU, the sales representative working on a company-sponsored program about a new product and the group of homemakers discussing gardening through a cooperative extension teleconference. It is impossible to summarize the topics that are dealt distance learners study; what is certain is that they cover just about every subject under the sun. And whatever the reason for taking a course and whatever the subject, it is also certain that the dealt distance students are always very serious, very committed, and highly motivated about what they're doing.
Anxiety about Learning
One reality that is not often talked about but something that needs to be kept in mind is that most of dealt distance learners feel quite anxious about studying at lease when they first began a new course or especially a new institution. If this anxiety is revealed its usually directed at the person who is the closest representative of the teaching institution -- the instructor. It is not really the instructor who is the source of the anxiety but what underlies it is the students concerned about being able to meet expectations both those of the institution and -- just as important -- self expectations. This is a natural fear of failure that everyone experiences to some degree. The students carver their anxiety which of course makes it harder for others who feel they must be the only ones intimidated by the challenges of the course. The sensitive instructor tries to ensure the anxious student develops familiarity with procedures and that the institutions expectations are well understood. However those adults who are inexperienced as distance learners may have to give me a high degree of anxiety at the beginning of the course. Their fear becomes concentrated when they have to turn in their first written assignment or present their views in a teleconference. The first assignment is especially critical; it is when an ancient student is most likely, statistically, to drop the course. Until this anxiety has been revealed by successfully taking the risk involved in handing in the assignment students may not be able to enjoy the course and in fact may not performed the best of their goods because of their nervousness. As they become accustomed to the system and have early positive feedback, confidence grows and anxiety comes under control. Being aware of this anxiety one of the first responsibilities of the instructor is to try to lower the level of tension. This does not mean that the workflow or the standards were part of the students are lowered but it means first that steps are taken in the course designed to deal with the well-known causes of anxiety. Conrad 2002 study found that students were helped by having access to the course materials before the courts began in the wanted to see a message from the course instructor when they first access the course. In setting the right climate for learning the ensure or should explain that mistakes are natural part of learning and there is no reason to fear in making them, risk-taking is approved, there is no such thing as a dumb question, the instructor admires and approves effort and commitment, and the instructor cares about the students being successful and will work toward that goal. Perhaps the two most important and typical, adult attitudes that these report shows are an appreciation of efficiency and an appreciation of an enjoyable learning process/environment.
Providing Access
Perhaps what most people think of when they first think about distance education is the capability for an institution or organization to provide access to education to some learners who could otherwise not have it. This in fact describes the professional people who we met in the previous section, although some of them lived in major cities, there was no access to the subject they wanted at times and places convenient to them. However access is even more important to certain kinds of students; those who are disabled, elderly, or living in remote areas. Although the convenience and flexibility of distance education is a benefit to all students, remind us that or some students distance education makes all the difference between a richer or a poorer quality of life. We suggest that you might like to investigate the people behind the statistics, as a class project or formal research you will find it a very rewarding activity because in every population of distance learners are found some very exceptional people.
Factors Affecting Student Success
As we saw in the previous chapter 1 aspect of distance education that has been studied from several different angles involved the factors that affect student success and failure. In most distance education courses and programs since participation is usually voluntary a proportion of the students who again programs do not complete them. In the past it was not unusual for non-completion also referred to as dropout rates for distance learning courses to be in the range of 30-50 percent; nowadays the figure should be near the lower the end of the range and for University credit courses it is comparable to traditional classes i.e. less than 10%. For many years administrators and researchers have struggled to understand what causes some students to withdraw in the hope of being able to improve their institution's completion rates. One of the many methodological difficulties of this research is that dropout is usually a result of no single causation but an accumulation and a mixture of causes. A member of researchers have developed formal models for predicting completion e.g. Billings and Kember 1989. Research studies have identified a number of factors that are predictors of probable completion of distance education courses. They include: intense to complete, students who express determination to complete a course usually do, on the other hand, students who are unsure about their ability to finish are more likely to drop out. Early submission, students will submit the first assignment early, or punctually are more likely to complete the course satisfactorily. For an example of research, Armstrong et al 1985 found 84% of the students who submitted the first assignment within the first two weeks usually completed course, whereas 75% who took longer than two months to submit the assignment did not complete the course. Completion of other courses, students who successfully complete one distance education are likely to complete subsequent courses.
Kembers and Billings Models of Student Completion
Kember 1995 presented a model for student progress that focused specifically on adult learners in distance education courses using the term open learning, which we have explained in earlier chapters. This model focuses on the factors that affect a student success completion of distance education program with particular focus on the extent to which students are able to integrate their academic study with often conflicting employment, family, and social commitments are. Kembers models suggest that students intrigue characteristics e.g. educational qualifications, family status, employment and direct them toward one of two pathways in a distance education course. Those with favorable situations tend to proceed on a positive track and are able to integrate socially and academically. Other students take a negative track where they have difficulties achieving social and academic integration which affects their course achievement i.e. GPA. The model also incorporates a cost/benefit decisions step in which students consider the costs and benefits of continuing their study. Those who decide to continue we'll recycled through the model for another passage. However in each pass through the model student may change track due to their experiences in taking the course. Kembers is based on a large body of research and theory about attrition in both traditional and distance education courses. Kember used empirical data collected via interviews and questionnaires from a number of sources in the formulation and validation of the model. These sources included student taking courses at the UK open University, the University of Papua New Guinea, the University of Tasmania, Charles Stuart University Australia, and seven different open learning programs in Hong Kong. In order to collect standardize data for the models Kember developed and used the distance education student program questionnaire, which consists of 68 items pertaining to the variables in the model plus demographic information for entry characteristics. Kember also collected students outcome data in the form of GPA and the number of course models attempted and completed. To validate the model Kember used factor analysis on his questionnaires responses to determine the underlying factors. The factor analysis confirmed the four primary variables in the model hole in social integration, academic integration, external attribution, and academic incompatibility. Kember then use path Analysis multiple regression to identify the casual relationships among the variables in the model. The results of the path analysis confirmed that the basic structure of the model is accurate: 80% of the total variance of student completion could be examined either variables in the model. Kember outlines the implications of this model as follows. The positive academic integration factor contains this subscale deep approach and surface approach and extrinsic motivation subscales. This suggests that student progress can be enhanced if the design of a course concentrates on developing intrinsic motivation and a deep approach to the subject matter. Academic integration can also be improved by developed collective affiliation and ensuring congruence between student expectations and course procedures. The model also identifies the difficulty students are likely to face in completing open learning courses can therefore serve as a guide for counseling and guidance activities. Kembers model is very compatible with the system approach and that is espoused in this book. Although Kember does not attempt to relate his model to a system approach the major variables of the model do map into the primary subsystems.
Billings model of Course Completion
Billings model for the completion of correspondence courses. The links shown in the diagram represents the relationships among the variables i.e. they are casual, addictive, and correlational. Billings found that students who made the most progress were those who had the intentions of completing the course in a specific period of time three months, submitted the first lesson relatively early within 40 days, had higher entrance examination scores and hide GPA's had completed of the correspondence courses, had a supportive family, head high goals for completing the program, live relatively close to the sugar, and had good college-level preparation. The single most important predictor variable was the students intention to complete, which suggest the importance of motivation over other factors. Not surprisingly one of the best predictors of success in distance education is the educational background of the student. In general the more formal education people have the more likely they are to complete a distance education course or program.
Personality Characteristics
Much less reliable as a predictor of success or failure but clearly relevant and the personality characteristics of the student including what is often referred as to learning style. Early research suggested that students will on more field independent i.e. relatively less influenced by the surrounding environment including social environment are better suited to distance learning than people who are less field independent. Diaz and Cartnal 1999 found that students who selected an online version of health classes were more independent as learners and value collaboration more for its ntrinsic value than external incentives. Halsne and Gastta 2002 as college students to take the survey that identified their visual, auditory, tactile, or kinesthetic learning purposes and found that those who selected online courses related themselves higher as visual learners whereas those selected on campus classes were more auditory and kinesthetic in their learning styles. Another personality dimension that is often associated with distance education is introversion and extroversion with introverted individuals being more predisposed to distance learning. Persistence, determination, and it need to achieve are all qualities that would positively affect a student success. The nature of students motivation for take any particular course or program i.e. intrinsic or extrinsic is also likely to affect their success.
Extracurricular Concerns
A variety of extracurricular concerns -- such as employment e.g. job stability, and workload, family responsibilities, health, and social interests -- can positively or adversely affect completion of distance education courses. For example, encouragement from employees, coworkers, friends, and family regarding distance learning can motivate the student to do will; conversely lack of support from one or more of these groups can result in poor performance and non-completion.
Course Concerns
Many features of the course or program itself affect the success of students. This includes: the perceived relevance of the content to career or personal interests, the difficulty of the course and program i.e. amount of time/effort required, the degree of student support available, the nature of technology useful the course delivery and interaction, the extent of the pacing or scheduling involved, the amount and nature of feedback received from a shorter/Hooters on assignments and on course progress, and the amount and nature of the interaction with instructors, tutors, and others students. In summary, students are more likely to drop out of a course if they perceive the content as a relevant for of little value to their career or personal interests if the course is too difficult and takes too much time or effort they become agitated in trying to complete the course or handling administrative requirements and receive your system's if they receive little or no feedback on their coursework or progress and it they have little or no interaction with the instructor, tutor, or other students and hence become too isolated.
Study Skills
To a great extent, the study habits and skills of students determined their success in online classes and this is one factor under their control. Students will play in their study time and develop schedules for completing coursework are more likely to do well in distance education. Procrastination is the number one enemy of distance learning -- 1 student get behind in their assignments it becomes very difficult ketchup and they invariably dropout. Of course a good program is the one that has the structure that makes it hard to fall behind and a student support system that intervenes if the student appears to be in difficulty. There are lots of student oriented guides about distance learning in almost every distance education program provides guidelines to their students. Unfortunately learning its study skills is not easy for students who have never practice them or perhaps have not used them in a long time. This is one area where counselors can make the difference between success and failure. Researchers have examined student's reactions for a number of perspectives most studies are connected with assessing the level of learner satisfaction with a particular course or program or to the extent to which students perceive surgically instructional media or teaching strategies to be effective. Some studies are concerned with changes in student attitudes to distance education that come about as a consequence of being distance learners.
Classroom versus Distance Learning
A common question that is examined is how students fill about distance learning relative to traditional classroom instruction. In many cases students say they prefer traditional classroom learning even though they enjoyed their distance learning course and found it worthwhile. Sometimes there are problems e.g. equipment for years, inexperienced instructors that produce negative attitudes toward distance learning. Very similar problems occur in traditional classroom but the absence of the father figure or mother figure to take care of them is discovering for some students. Most students are able to cope with problems a most students actually enjoyed taking responsibility for solving their own problems. However this is obviously hard work been leading a teacher do it some of the negative attitudes to distance learning comes from reluctance to take responsibility and make an effort. Fortunately this only applies to a minority of students. It will implement in courses students can be very positive about the distance learning experience and many before such courses over traditional classes. Nelson 1985 or example, survey the attitudes of students taking classes via two-way video conference and reported that 94% believed their level of achievement was a high, or higher, then regular classes, and 97% wanted to take further videoconference classes. On the other hand, Barker 1987 evaluated the attitudes of children who had taken classes by the TI-IN satellite videoconference system and found that 65% believed video class to be more difficult than read what classes and 70% would prefer to take regular classes. It is worth nothing that in this study, numerous problems were mentioned, including technical problems, difficult to contact in the instructor, and in adequate teacher preparation. A number of research studies have examined the relationship between student perceptions and teaching strategies for program designed characteristics. St. Pierre and Olson 1991 found that the following factor contributed shoe student satisfaction in independent study courses: the opportunity to apply knowledge, prompt return of assignments, conversations with the instructor, relevant course content, and a good study guide. Conversely, Hara and Kling 1999 reported the student education in web-based courses were caused by: lack of prompt feedback from instructors, ambiguous instructions for assignments, and technical problems. Maki and Maki 2000 in the journal behavior research methods, instruments, and computers reported that young University students learn better when studying any web-based distance education mode than their counterparts who study and a conventional class. Differences in pretest and post-test scores were twice as high for the distance learner. Over a number of semesters and with different instructors the distance learners in this study did better but just as consistently they expressed less satisfaction with the force because getting better results went along with having to do more work than in the classroom course. It is always worth keeping in mind when analyzing the results of student satisfaction surveys that there is typically no relationship between these attitudes and actual achievement. Since students may do well and of course even though they may not enjoy it as much as being in a face-to-face classroom the main use of measures of satisfaction is in predicting dropout rate, advising on course choice act registration time, and also to trigger counseling intervention.
Resistance to Distance Education
since most students have little experience learning at a distance they are unfamiliar with it and maybe think it's about taking distance education courses. Indeed in some situations this on familiarity is translated into resistance that must be overcome in order for the course to have any hope of succeeding. Many students as well is teachers and training managers have a misconception about distance learning that must be changed if they are to profit from it. For example, students may believe that distance education courses are easier than conventional classes and require less work. They discover that this is not the case and that opposite is true they may be unhappy. Students often assume that distance education courses will be a verse of quality than classroom offerings and avoid taking such courses. Students frequently do not understand that they must take a larger degree of responsibility for their learning in a distance education course and not wait for the instructor or tutor to push them. This kind of misunderstanding leads to students falling behind and becoming dissatisfied. For these reasons it is very desirable to include an orientation session in any distance education course where students can find out about how the delivery system works and what is expected of them. Granger and Benke 1998 report that a number of programs recognizing that many of the adult students have been away from almost any for some time provide a full orientation program to prepare them for their new study activities. This returning to the learning activity can take various forms from face-to-face weekend session on campus to a term long credit bearing study of adult learning strategies, including organization, time management, and study skills. Another aspect that affect students receptivity toward distance education is the technology involved. Much research has shown that comfort with the technology being used as a primary factor in determining satisfaction and success. If students are unfamiliar with the technology they will be reluctant to use a creativity and adventurously which will affect their experience quite severely. As things become familiar with the technology is resistance erodes. However if there are ongoing technical problems agitation and resistance will continue to grow. A research study by Purdue and Valentine 2000 of certified public accountants look at the attitudes and reasons for reluctance to become involved as distance learner. Data gathered from 444 respondents revealed four main reasons why these professionals were unsure about taking professional development courses by distance education. They were: concern about the effectiveness and their ability to handle electronically mediated communications, concerns about course quality, and concerns about access to technology based resources, and concerns about whether they could find the necessary personal resources. In summary, research and experience suggests that the three main causes of dissatisfaction and resistance to distance education are: bad course design and teacher incompetence to cause the most problems, wrong expectations on part of students, and poor technology or inability to use technology properly.
Student Support: Guidance and Counseling Services
Traditional universities offer a variety of services to help students who have problems. Among such services are: walk-in counseling Center, financial aid offices, remedial tutoring, career development and placement offices, and facilities intended to boost peer support and social interaction. This is an area that than the subsystems of course design and instruction. This is an area that is generally less well organized in distance education and less well organized than the subsystems of course design and instruction. It is an area that deserves more attention since there is a direct relationship between student's failure and dropping out of a program and failure of the support system. The need for guidance and counseling can come at any stage of the distance learning experience. It guidance is available early in a course or program to help students make choices among various options of the problems are likely to be averted. Including in such admission counseling should be an analysis of his is knowledge and study skills to see if they match the expectations of the course. Ideally all students should receive some sort of orientation when they enter a program this too will reduce the need for individual counseling later. It is critically important to inform people of the time demands that a company distance education and to encourage them to think about how they will fit it in with their other interests and obligations. Within any group of learners their typically will be a considerable range in their aptitude for distance learning. Students with poor study more time management skills, or poor communication those we usually have difficulty with distance learning. A common problem that every distance instructor runs into is that of overoptimistic student has successfully negotiated face-to-face classes with a minimum of effort but has a shot on discovering that the same avoidance techniques will not work in distance education where there is no way of hiding in the back of the classroom. Single mode institutions have specialists, four times that provide student support services and used before range of technologies, including face-to-face counseling sessions in study centers for such places as public library's. Dual mode institutions might be able to use branch campuses in this way but usually there are student support is provided by telephone and online. Many dual mode institutions have at least a skeleton staff of full-time counselors but very often their services are not well explained student school as a result gin to turn to administrators and instructors when they need counseling support. In an attempt to reduce which calls most institutions now provide web-based support sites with some form of general orientation to distance learning, tips for online study, information on how to contact counseling and advising services, technical help, and programs to help potential students evaluate their own readiness for distance learning. The advantage of providing these services online is that they are available around-the-clock even ones that are not available. Furthermore, in dual mode institutions such as those (Santa Barbara City College, University of Wisconsin, Brevard community College, Montgomery College, and Penn-State World Campus) providing student services online allows them to be better integrated with services to on-campus students who also benefited from the online access. The more mechanized the student support e.g. not requiring a personal human intervention, the most cost effective also. Everyone likes support from a human rather than a web site but most people also want to have tuition fees held as low as possible.
Orientation
The following are some of the questions and information usually included in web sites to orient potential or new students: what is distance education and how does it work online?, what can I study?, how do I learn?, what do I need?, is distance education suitable for me including self-assessment instruments?, sample course materials, tour of virtual campus, questions to gather data about educational background, questions about learners expectations and motivations, time available for study, access to computer and Internet, and learners acted too profile. One other important quality that institutions try to provide to their distance education students is a sense of belonging to the institution. On-campus students develop this filling through their physical presence in clubs, sports, and other social bins. It is not easy to do this at a distance, but creative student services can help establish some sense a relationship between distance students and the institution. In spite of all efforts to students to find the right level of course and to ease their entry into the distance learning experience some students will encounter unexpected job, family, or health-related problems that threaten their academic success/progress. A student support service has to be proactive as well as reactive. If it only reflects the students who come forward as for help many will be lost. Methods have to be developed for identifying problems early and by intervening to offer support even though the student may not come forward to request. The poor method is careful monitoring assignment productivity. If the student will normally produces good assignments begins to cheery eight or her not to reduce on time a red flag should alert student support personnel to a potential problem that may require at least an e-mail message to offer of assistance. Failure to take such steps could mean that not academic problems will demand the students complete attention and there is a good change the student will drop out of the course.
Administrative Assistance
Students sometimes get into difficulty and therefore need assistance in dealing with the routine administrative aspects of being a student -- registering, paying fees or giving tuition benefits, up training materials, receiving grades, taking exams, and so on. In the case of on-campus students, questions or problems can be resolved by visiting the relevant office. However in the case of an off-campus student all interactions is likely to be via e-mail or telephone. Students often have difficulty identifying and reaching the right person to talk to especially in large institutions can become very agitating. Ideally students in distance education programs have a single person they can contact for all administrative problems. In addition all administrative requirements and procedures should be described in a student handbook or web page that suit was received at the beginning of a course or when they first register in the institution.
Social Interaction
Most students enjoy interaction with their instructor and fellow students not only for instructional reasons but for the emotional support that comes from such social contact. Some institutions have developed electronic networking as a means of socializing in the form of real-time chat rooms were students meet for coffee, discuss coursework, compare notes, or chat about nonrecourse or perhaps nonacademic matters. For many students this is a valued weight of reducing their feelings of isolation.
A Realistic View of the Distance Learner
Although it is easy to talk about distance learning in general in any specific distance learning program it is essential that designers and injectors take the time to understand their particular learners. It is very dangerous to proceed on generalizations because assumptions are then made that may be quite erroneous. Even groups that are thought -- in general -- to be ideal populations for distance training programs are not always. Here are some examples: professional development for classroom teachers, although they obviously appreciate the value of learning and education many teachers feel very overworked, have little free time, and do not have a suitable learning environment during the day at school. Successful programs have been those were special ranges have been made to provide times and facilities for professional development; management training, human resource managers tend to be people oriented and some may prefer to learn by informally talking to others on the phone or in person at a meeting, rather than standing alone reading what appear to be more messages on their computer; continuing medical education, even though all healthcare professionals except the idea of continuing medical education, like schoolteachers, may find their daily routines, which often include exhausting evening shifts, too hectic to accommodate formal study; at risk students, although they have the most need for extra educational opportunities, they usually have poor learning/study skills and have a great deal of trouble with both the techniques and the self-discipline needed for distance learning; prisoners, individuals who are incarcerated me have more time than the average person, but may have limited access to equipment or facilities needed for learning even obtaining specific books and frequent mail may be problematic; Armed Forces personnel, especially those on foreign assignments. Such students have less control on their disposable time banned in civilian life and may be sent on a mission that means special arrangements have to be made regarding the completion of their study assignments; and taking a broader perspective, it is always important to keep the possibilities of culture and gender distances in mind. Again it is dangerous to generalize but some groups of men and some groups of women may respond differently to certain program characteristics, as may different cultural groups. The point of mentioning these difficulties is not to say that program should not be offered to these groups; of course there are thousands of successful programs with these groups, and there are other groups with challenges of their own. The reason for mentioning the challenges is to emphasize the importance of empathy -- understanding how things look from the students point of view -- and not to make facile assumptions. Such assumptions can lead to unrealistic expectations that in turn lead to failure that could have been avoided with a little more understanding. Understanding these challenges is equally important for course designers, instructors, and administrators, but especially for student support personnel. The guide to developing online student services is a resource for administrators and others whom each provide student support services online. It provides: general tips for setting up online student services, brief discussions on a range of student support issues, guidelines for basic good practice in delivering student services via the Internet, and examples of practice and selected institutions.

Communication across cultures

Most major businesses have employees from several different cultures, and to be effective, they must know how each culture looks at communication. Similarly, businesses aiming to go multinational must also learn the customs of communication for the nation they want to do business in, lest they risk a major faux pas. Discuss how these cultures interact, case studies, conversational analysis and major differences on how different countries may communicate on a business level.

Do you think a person?s gender, ethnicity, and background could have an impact on how he or she communicates nonverbally and verbally.

Leadership, Gender, and Communication in Movies project which includes:
1. Identifies and analyzes concepts, theories, and vocabulary terms that relate to social dimensions of gender, communication, and culture, and provides working examples from the movie YOu've Got Mail.
2. Identifies and analyzes concepts, theories, and vocabulary terms that relate to gender and communication, and provides working examples from the movie YOu've Got Mail.
3. Communicate in a concise, balanced, and organized manner, using APA format and an appropriate number of scholarly, high-quality resources from the movie YOu've Got Mail.

I have some source pages that can be used. I did a powerpoint presentation based on the above topic as well as a light outline.

Resource: ?Verbal and Nonverbal Communication? video located in this week?s Electronic Reserve Readings
Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper that includes the following:

? **Describe the principles of verbal and nonverbal communication.
?** Explain which three principles you think are critical for effective communication.
? **Include at least one personal experience with a difficult verbal or nonverbal communication.
?** Explain how you could use these principles to promote communication in a health care workplace.
?** Explain how technology influences the communication process.
**Include at least two academic references.

*Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

***I have attached the transcripts for this video to use as the resource

The assignment is (1) to explicate a general claim about human communication and to (2) to advance argunents speaking to the validity of this claim supported by theory or research on specific communication topics.

GOALS
1) Assimilation
It is required that material is assimilated from the communication science approach and the rhetorical studies approach around a single general claim ( the specific topic provided).

2) Analyze
Identify how research or theory on a single communication topic is related to the general claim about communication, i.e. the specific topic.

3) Writing
The assignment expects articulation and support of the the claim/specific topic about communication using existing theory and research as evidence. Cite the sources of evidence as well as the sources used to explicate the general claim/specific topic used to support your arguments.

GUIDELINES
First, explicate a general claim about communication. In this case... Explicate the specific topic... "Communication is influenced by characteristics of the communicator."
A general claim is an assertion about communication that is relevant to communication in BOTH communication science and rhetorical contexts.

The first paragraph of the paper should identify and describe the the general claim/specific topic.

SUPPORT THE GENERAL CONCLUSION
The body of the paper will be devoted to advancing arguments demonstrating or sustantiating the general claim about communication. In other words, you need to construct arguments that answer the question that your claim engages and then you need to provide evidence that supports the specific arguments made in that paragraph. Additionally, you should work to make clear links back to the general claim as you develop the body of the paper.

SPECIFIC GUIDELINES
1. Identification and explication of a general claim about communication and a preview of the paper. The preview should specifically identify the topics that are covered in the paper.

2a. Three arguments substantiating your claim drawn from communication science theory and research.

2b. Three arguments substantiating your claim drawn from rhetorical studies theory and research.

3. A summary of the paper and a discussion of 2-3 implications of the view of communication you have articulated.

4. Clear grammatically correct writing, correct citations, reference page, etc.

PAPER STRUCTURE
Introduction
The explication of a general claim about communication serves as the introduction to your paper. It is your responsibilty to explain how you are interpreting that claim to clarify the position you will advance in the paper. Thus, in this sectionyou should define and explicate what your claim about communication means. This section should also provide an explicit preview of the structure of your paper.

Body
Organize the body of the paper into papragraphs explaining how research or theory on communication topics supports you claimabout communication. More specifically, each paragraph should review evidence from at least one research article or communication theory and explain how that evidence supports your argumentand your general claim about communication.

Conclusion
Conclude the paper with two paragraphs. The first paragraph should summarize the specific arguments advanced in your paper. The second paragraph should discuss 2-3 implications of the claim you have advanced. Please note, you are not asked to discuss the implications of the various theories you have cited in the paper. Instead, focus on the implications that are suggested if the view of communication you have argued is accurate or accepted.

References
Paper must include a reference page in APA style.

Theories of Human Communication by Stephen W Littlejohn & Karen A Foss is an important source.
Also there are some pertinent communication writings available to send.


There are faxes for this order.

Identify a communication environment that you has encountered that can be better managed by using strategies found in our textbook, Adler & Rodman, Understanding human communication (11th edition).

Using any of the topics intrapersonal, interpersonal, small group, or public communication.
Minimum 3 citations from the text supporting statements made about communications cited in APA format.

Needs to be between 1000 words

Order of the assignment needs to be

ID the communication topic or topics
Choose management strategy and explain why the strategy was chosen
Include an expected outcome