Controversies Over Technology in Early Childhood Classrooms Essay

Controversies Over Technology in Early Childhood Classrooms The role of technology in early childhood education is a controversial topic to both teachers and parents. The main concerns of both teachers and parents is the potential benefits for young children’s learning and development.. Supporters and non-supporters agree on the importance of young children’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical development. Supporters feel children should have the opportunity to use the computer as another tool to aide in and encourage their development. Non-supporters agree the computer may be a useful tool for young children but feel many teachers may not be using the computers in the best way to promote a healthy development in the child. They also contend that introducing the computer takes away from important learning experiences such as play and art (NWREL, 2001). School programs are now working on ways to better integrate computers into the classrooms in order to offer the young children the opportunities to develop the necessary skills to grow as students (Gimbert, 2004). The purpose of this research paper is to examine the controversies that surround technology use in early childhood classrooms. Introducing Technology into the Classroom Properly introducing technology into early childhood classrooms is the first and crucial step in producing a new and useful tool for students to use to enhance their learning. Many researchers do not recommend introducing computers to children young than three because they are not developmentally ready ((Haugland, 2000). It is useful to start off introducing a computer to young children in a group setting because it is general information all children need to know. The teacher may begi... ...about the different ways in which young children experience computers in the classroom setting. It included a study done of kindergarteners from about 22,000 different public and private schools and examined they availability of computers to these children. Romeo, G. (2003). Touching the screen: issues related to the use of touch screen technology in early childhood education. British journal of educational technology, 3, 329-339. In this Journal there was a study performed on early childhood students and their reaction to touch screen computers. The results were more negative rather than positive proving that it was more productive to use the mouse and keyboard for young children. Shade, D. (1999). Integrating technology into the early childhood classroom: the case of literacy learning. Information technology in Childhood Education Annual. 1999, 221-254.

Persuasion, Manipulation, and Seduction as Related to Human Communication Essay

Johnson 2 Since the beginning of the human race, human have use some sort of influence to get other to do what they want them to do. The earliest example of this can be seen in the Garden of Eden, where Adam was influenced to eat from the forbidden fruit. For the purpose of this paper we will attempt to compare the effect of persuasion, manipulation, and seduction as it relates to human communication. Much of human communication involves attempts to influence. It is done verbally and non-verbally, consciously and unconsciously, honestly and deceitfully. Some people may be swayed with reason and logic or by emotions and character. There is no doubt that the power to persuade is a coveted tool for anyone regardless of how they wish to use it. However, beyond simple persuasion are other acts of influence that are just as powerful. The terms persuasion, manipulation, and seduction are sometimes used interchangeable when describing influential behavior (Newell, 2010). Persuasion is the act of influencing others, who are conscious of the intent, through communication. That is they are conscious that attempted influencing is taking place. Also it is under the assumed umbrella of free will meaning that there is no form of duress or outside pressure involved that would force influence. While persuasion is an act that takes place between at least two conscious parties, manipulation happens when the side being influenced is not aware of it. That is a human is programmed over time to execute everyday decisions mindlessly based on the expected behavior of themselves and others. Manipulation takes place when a conscious person triggers an automatic response from an unconscious thinker. The art of seduction, as it is often described, is a kin to persuasion as its intent to influence is known. What sets it apart, Johnson 3 however, is the influencer (seducer) is setup to be the object of desire that will complete the missing parts of audience so that they may be complete (Codoban, 2006). Seduction is also a form of manipulation as it draws upon social programming and natural responses of people. As the tern is used mostly in the relationships of a man and a woman (or sexual preference), there are many programmed and natural responses that take place when a seducer successfully makes themselves the object of another’s desire (Newell, 2006). Sometimes the lines may be blurred when influencing takes place. There are definite moral stigmas attached to each of these influencing techniques. While persuasion has a broad connotation of simple attempts of influence to any audiences, manipulation and seduction have specific undertones of being immoral (Newell, 2006). Modern day persuasive devices are all around us and not all are as obvious as we they are, they can be very subtle. There are many ways in which people work to persuade. In advertising, commercials, magazines, movies, and political campaigns often times we see more empty promises, which classifies much of what we see in those arenas as seduction. On the other hand some of what we see in politics and marketing are closer to manipulation than seduction (Tuenge, 2010). Examples of manipulative devices given by Codoban (2006) were as follow, reciprocity, the consistency mechanism and social proof principle (p. 153-154).

The Shawshank Redemption

Adrian Sanchez Intro to Film 1 Sharri Hefner 4/20/13 Shawshank Redemption The Shawshank Redemption is a drama film released in 1994 written and directed by Frank Darabont. The overall theme of The Shawshank Redemption is the burden of isolation and imprisonment. Each of the inmates inside Shawshank Prison is locked up metaphorically as well as literally. Most prisoners in Shawshank redemption are there for life sentences. All that time behind the walls have changed the way the prisoners think and how they live.The young prisoners always say they are innocent when they are truly guilty. But Red, (played by Morgan Freeman) admits that he is guilty after spending 40 years in jail. The time he had to think about what he did is what led him to confess the truth. This is just one example of what all those years of isolation does to a person. The formal elements, camera, and the narrative is what I will use to prove the theme. The overall look and feel of the film is dark until the ending. The mise-en-scene of shawshank prison is unjust and shady.The design and characters help shape the mise-en-scene as an unjust and shady prison system. The design of shawshank looks like an old school dark sort of tower as you can see when andy first arrives to the prison. The costume is spot on in this movie. The officers uniforms look very intimidating as the prisoners uniforms look very dirty and plain. The warden is also dressed nice throughout the movie always in a suit. They use this to differentiate the high class and the lower class. The higher class is always controlling the lower class and accessing their dominance.They instill fear in their prisoners by abusing them and beating them which is very unfair. Years of being in that sort of environment can cause some prisoners to go crazy. Imagine going through that and witnessing that type of abuse every day of your life? Its going to have a huge effect on your brain mentally. This type of abuse makes a prisoner feel trapped an d even more isolated. Also the camera helps dictate the feeling of isolation and imprisonment. The camera is key to the theme. The camera shots and angles help make the viewer see how it feels to be isolated and trapped.One of my favorite shots of the movie is when andy is walking inside shawshank prison and they use a cut transition into a subjective shot where andy is looking up and seeing the tall building as hes walking inside the prison. That scene lets me know that he is already feeling trapped and he had just got there. They also use lighting to help inforce isolation and imprisonment. When Red is in his jail cell and as soon as the lights go out the lighting immediately changes and they do a close up shot to reds face and his emotion seems frightened and scared.Also when Andy gets cornered by three guys for the first time the lighting helps build shadow to make andy feel trapped. The narrative also helps shape the theme. The narrative as a whole helps dictate the theme. The characters throughout the movie feel trapped. There are different levels of isolation within the prison from the large, enclosed recreation yard to the smaller work crews down to the cellblock, cells, and, finally, solitary confinement.The prison then becomes a multilayered world that they have to live and deal with for the rest of their lifes. The sad thing is they cannot do nothing about it. When Bogs gets locked up in solitary confinement for a week the officers opened the door and said â€Å"Times up bogs† then he put on a fake grin and said â€Å"its your world boss†. This is the warden and the officers world and the prisoners are trapped in it with nothing they can do about it. They are in for so long that they get used to the prison system and this cruel world.But they forget about the life outside the bars. When brooks finds out he will be on parol he loses it. He almost kills his friend just to stay in jail. He wants to stay in jail because outside of the wall s he is nothing but inside the prison he is actually somebody. The montage of brooks when he gets out of jail is extremely sad. It depicts the negative effect on being imprisoned for a long time. When he gets out he is lost in the world. He feels even more alone then he ever was in shawshank.Being in prison for that long has negative effects on the brain. When you get used to one way of living you feel like that’s the only way to live but when you step out in the real world you are just confused and don’t know how to react to the environment. Sadly he committed suicide at the end of the montage. Also red told andy in the last scene that they were in prison together â€Å"ive been in here for most of my life. Im an institutionalized man now [†¦] In here im the guy that can get things for you. Outside all you need is the yellow pages. He is saying that he is so used to the prison that he would never survive in the real world. This futher proves my theme that isolat ion and imprisonment is a burden. You feel trapped both physically and mentally when you’re in jail for that long. Andy and red were the only ones to break through the physical and mental hurdle that many prisoners couldn’t. Others would have just given up. But andy and red had other intentions. They wanted freedom so bad they would do anything to get it. And so they did. Now that’s The Shawshank Redemption.

The Hobbit and Bilbo Essay

The Hobbit and Bilbo Essay The Hobbit and Bilbo Essay Book Report: The Hobbit The Hobbit is a book written by J.R.R. Tolkien, there were many different publishers and dates of publication, and they are: * George Allen and Unwin 1937- Great Britain. * Second Edition 1951- Great Britain. * Third Edition 1966- Great Britain. * Fourth Edition 1978- Great Britain. * Fifth Edition – Harper Collins Publishers (London, England) – (Edition that I am reading). Plot: Bilbo, a simple hobbit is smoking his pipe when all of a sudden he is visited by an old acquaintance, Gandalf the Wizard. Gandalf asks Bilbo to go on a dangerous but exiting adventure with him. As hobbits don’t really go on adventures Bilbo was confused and asked Gandalf to come back the next day. The next day came and Bilbo heard a knock at his door, he thought it was Gandalf but 13 dwarves came one by one knocking at his door before Gandalf finally came to his doorstep. The dwarves started eating and speaking of their upcoming journey to the Lonely Mountains. Long ago, there was a dragon named Smaug, he was an evil, blood drenching, and fire breathing scum of a dragon. One day Smaug chased away the dwarf’s forefathers from the Lonely Mountains, their King at that time was Thorin Oakenshields father. Thorin wanted to regain his father’s throne and all the wealthy possessions that lie in the mountain that Smaug had made a bed for. The dwarves and Gandalf want Bilbo to come along with them and to be their burglar, as Hobbits are known to be sneaky and very quiet when they have to. After some agreements on their upcoming adventure and a few captivating songs the dwarves leave for the night so they can get an early start. The next morning, Bilbo is woken up and hurried by Gandalf to join up with his fellow companions. They then begin their long and dangerous journey. Not long before they left Bilbo all of a sudden realised that he has never gone further from his home town of Hobbiton ever before. A few days later Gandalf disappea rs and does not come back for a while, this happens quite a few times throughout the book. Bilbo encountered a lot of danger, on one occasion he was faced with stealing from some trolls but was caught. This led to the rest of the group being captured. Gandalf returned in time to rescue them and defeated the trolls. The group went along and travelled to a magical, peaceful and beautiful place called Rivendell. They stayed there for a while to freshen up the supplies. After meeting Elrond who is the head of Rivendell and retrieving a map to help them on their journey, they leave and enter the mountains. The group’s path is very hard and dangerous. One day when taking shelter in a cave, they are grabbed by Goblins, except for Gandalf who disappeared. In the Great Hall of the Goblins, Gandalf reappears and kills the chief Goblin and rescues the dwarves. The group flees but Bilbo drops and is knocked out into the darkness. When he woke up, Bilbo came across a magical ring and while trying to find a way out of this dark and dreadful cave, he comes across a creature named Gollum. After talking about riddles and if Gollum was going to eat Bilbo, Bilbo escapes by putting on the ring, as the ring makes the wearer invisible, and this is also how he got past all the goblins without being noticed. After re-joining the group they encounter wolves and are forced to climb trees so they aren’t attacked. Fighting them wasn’t a choice as many goblins came afterwards. Giant eagles saw what was going on came and rescued the group. The eagles took the group to a dark forest named Mirkwood. There they stay with a man named Beorn who helps them by providing them with supplies. When they enter the forest they leave the ponies behind and Gandalf does not go along either. The forest is terrible. One day one dwarf falls into a stream that made him fall asleep which made the rest of the dwarves carry him through the forest. When nearing the end of their food and supplies they are attacked by giant

Cyberstalking and Internet Harassment - Then and Now

Cyberstalking and Internet Harassment - Then and Now The first federal prosecution of cyber harassment in the United State was in June 2004 when 38-year-old James Robert Murphy from Columbia, South Carolina, pleaded guilty to two counts of Use of a Telecommunications Device (the internet) with Intent to Annoy, Abuse, Threaten or Harass. According to investigators, Murphy was sending anonymous and uninvited emails to Seattle resident Joelle Ligon and to her co-workers as early as 1998. Murphy and Ligon  had dated on and off from 1984-1990. As time went on, the harassment increased and along with dozens of obscene emails each day, Murphy also began sending sexually  explicit faxes to Ligon and her co-workers. Cant Get Away When Ligon moved to different states and changed jobs, Murphy was able to track her through malware he had placed on her computers and continue his attack. For over four years Ligon tried to ignore the messages by deleting them, but Murphy began making it appear that Ligon was the one sending the sexually explicit materials to her fellow workers. Murphy also had special email programs in order to hide his identity and he created the Anti Joelle Fan Club (AJFC) and repeatedly sent threatening emails from this  alleged group. Ligon decided to start collecting the materials as evidence and went to the police who enlisted the help of the Northwest Cyber Crime Task Force, composed of the FBI, United States Secret Service, Internal Revenue Service, Seattle Police Department, and Washington State Patrol. The NWCCTF investigates Cyber-related violations including criminal computer intrusions, intellectual property theft, child pornography and internet fraud. She also managed to identify Murphy as the person harassing her and she obtained a court order barring contact. When Murphy emailed her, denying that he was harassing  her, he violated the court order. Murphy was indicted in April 2004 on 26 counts of sending harassing emails and other violations between May 2002 and April 2003. At first, Murphy pleaded innocent to all charges, but two months later and after a plea agreement was reached, he pleaded guilty to two of the violations. No Remorse From Murphy In court, Murphy told the Judge what he did was stupid, hurtful and just plain wrong. I was going through a bad patch in my life. I want to take my lumps and get on with life. In sentencing Murphy Judge Zilly noted that he was surprised that Murphy made no effort to indicate your remorse to the victim, to indicate you were sorry. The Judge noted that he had received a letter from Joelle Ligon unlike any he had ever received from a crime victim. In it Ligon asked the Judge to impose an effective and compassionate sentence. Judge Zilly decided to impose 500 hours of community service instead of the 160 hours requested by the government. Zilly also sentenced Murphy to five years of probation and more than $12,000 which was to paid to the City of Seattle to compensate the City for 160 hours of work time lost by employees dealing with the harassment. The Crime of Cyberstalking Continues to Grow It used to be that news reports such as Murphys case were an oddity, but with the increase of people managing several aspects of their lives online, both at work and in their personal lives, it has created a vulnerability that attracts criminals including cyberstalkers, webcam blackmailers and identity thieves. According to a poll released by Rad Campaign, Lincoln Park Strategies and Craig Newmark of craigconnects, a quarter of the American population has been bullied, harassed or threatened online and that number almost doubles for those under the age of 35. A third of the victims of online harassment are afraid that the situation may spill over into their real lives resulting in embarrassment and humiliation, loss of jobs, and many are scared for their lives. Reporting Online Harassment and Cyberstalking Many victims of cyberstalking do like Joelle Ligon did when Murphy first harass her, she ignored it, but as the threats grew she sought help. Today, it appears that the response by social networks and law enforcement is improving, with 61 percent of the reported cases resulting in the social networks shutting down the accounts of the offenders and 44 percent of reported cases to law enforcement resulted in an effort to track down the offender. If You Are Threatened Threats should never be ignored - report it. Keeping a record of the date and time of the threat, a screen shot, and hard copies is evidence. It not only can help authorities, social networks, ISPs and website host figure out the identity of the offender, but it also helps prove the level of the harassment which is the deciding factor on if, or if not, a complaint gets investigated.

3 Tricks to Figure out the Authors Tone

3 Tricks to Figure out the Author's Tone Authors tone is simply an authors expressed attitude toward a particular written subject. It may not be his or her actual attitude as authors can certainly express an attitude other than their own. Its very different from the  authors purpose! The tone of the article, essay, story, poem, novel, screenplay, or any other written work can be described in many ways. The authors tone can be witty, dreary, warm, playful, outraged, neutral, polished, wistful, reserved, and on and on. Basically, if theres an attitude out there, an author can write with it. To better understand tone, you should practice. So, now that you know what it is, how can you determine the authors tone when you get to a reading comprehension test? Here are a few tricks to help you nail it every time. Read the Introductory Info On most major reading comprehension tests, the test makers will give you a little snippet of information along with the authors name prior to the text itself. Take these two examples from the ACT Reading test: Passage 1: This passage is adapted from the chapter â€Å"Personality Disorders† in  Introduction to Psychology, edited by Rita L. Atkinson and Richard C. Atkinson ( ©1981 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.). Passage 2: This passage is adapted from the novel The Men of Brewster Place  by Gloria Naylor ( ©1998 by Gloria Naylor). Without reading any portion of the text itself, you can already determine that the first text will have a more serious tone. The author writes in a scientific journal, so the tone will have to be more reserved. The second text could be anything at all, so when youre reading, youll need to use another trick to determine the authors tone. Watch Word Choice Word choice plays a major part in the tone of a piece. If you look at the examples given in the What is Authors Tone article, youll see how very different an identical situation can be by just the words an author chooses to use. Look at the following words and see how they reflect a different feeling, even though the words are similar in meaning. Sit in the sunshine and smile. Bask in the brilliant rays. Discover your giggle.Sit in the hot sun and smirk. Recline in the glaring rays. Hunt for that snicker.  Sit in the warm sun and grin. Relax in the warm rays. Look for a chuckle. Even though all three sentences are written almost identically, the tones are very different. One is more relaxing- you can picture a lazy afternoon by the pool. The other is more joyful- maybe playing in the park on a sunny day. The other is definitely more sarcastic and negative, even though its written about sitting in the sun. Go With Your Gut Often, a tone is tough to describe, but you know what it is. You get a particular feeling from the text- an urgency or a certain amount of sadness. You feel angry after reading it and can sense the author is angry, too. Or you find yourself chuckling throughout the text even though nothing comes right out and screams funny! So, on these kinds of texts, and the corresponding authors tone questions, trust your gut. And on the authors tone questions, hide the answers and make yourself come up with a guess before looking. Take this question for example: The author of the article would most likely describe ballet as... Before you get to the answer choices, try to finish the sentence. Put an adjective in there based on what youve read. Amusing? Essential? Cut-throat? Joyous? Then, when youve answered the question with a gut reaction, read the answer choices to see if your choice, or something similar, is there. More often than not, your brain knows the answer even if you doubt it!

Whether or not we should use animals in medical research Essay

Whether or not we should use animals in medical research - Essay Example Every side of the argument has posed questions concerning man’s place with respect to these animals and the natural world. Most people arguing against the use of animals for medical research have based their arguments on the relationship between humans and nature philosophies as put forward by Peter Singer that humans do not exist totally above nature, with the focus basically on animals. Singer refers to most attitudes that humans possess towards animals as speciesism that is a concept, which has existed throughout history (Owen 33). Before him, Aristotle was of the view that nature consists of a hierarchy where animals with less ability to reason existed for those who had less ability to reason. Therefore, plants are in existence for the sake of animals, with animals existing for the sake of humans. He used this concept to further his belief in slavery with humans with less reasoning ability existing to serve those with higher ability (Owen 34). While this view has been reje cted by society, it is applied towards animals and other non-humans. Speciesism has been practiced by Christians and Jews based on the superiority they extract from the book of Genesis and God’s word (Owen 36). ... The lobby for animal liberation does not contend that every animal has equal worth, however. It contends that where the animal and man possess similar interests, these interests need to be equated to each other, for instance, the avoidance of physical pain (Owen 37). There should be no automatic discount because one is human and the other evidently is not. Singer’s rejection of speciesism is clearly illustrated by his clarification; he does not mean to imply that all living beings have equal worth via his consideration of how man makes choices within his own species. If man had to make a choice between saving a normal human being’s life and that of an intellectually deficient human, he would most probably plump for the normal one. However, were the choice between the prevention of suffering in a normal human and in the intellectually deprived, making the assumption that both had painful injuries and that there were only pain-killers for one, then the choice becomes murk ier. The choice probably would be on the basis of the one who had more suffering (Owen 38). Because most experiments concerning animals are painful to the animal, the movement for animal rights commits itself to the complete abolition of animal use in medical research. Those that support the utilization of animals for medical research argue that while animals do suffer in a morally significant way, this is not sufficient ground, by itself, to afford them equal status morally with humans (Owen 50). Therefore, if the animals do not have the same moral status in comparison to humans, humans are not morally obligated to restrain themselves from using them for medical research.