Friday, December 31, 2010

How Post-Industrialism May Affect the Global Economic Stage

The west enjoys its economic prosperity because of its dominance on the service and manufacturing sector. These first world nations can easily and more efficiently transform raw materials and manpower into useful goods, at a rate that tops every other place on the planet. We can say that today's developed world is largely industrial in nature and on the other hand, the poorer, less-developed nations of the world are still engaged in agricultural endeavors.
But then, globalization is now changing the face of the world economy, especially with the advent of the internet, which has enable the introduction of outsourcing on a massive scale, unparalleled by anything else in the past. Because of this, manufacturing jobs are moved from countries that have soaring labor costs to countries that offer cheaper labor of similar quality.
Western post-industrialism could be the best answer with respect to its problem arising from an aging population, because information and technology jobs are not very dependent on hard labor. Instead, it depends on knowledge and intellect; something that one can still have even past retirement age.
The East that is historically known as the poorer of the two, can have a better fighting chance in as far as improving social services, education, and virtually all other sectors of their local society. The issue of economic equality is something that concerns every person on Earth. In light of this economic paradigm shift brought about by the post-industrializing West and an industrializing east, then both will have an equally powerful bargaining chip in the international arena.
It is hoped that because of this, international laws will become fairer to all parties concerned. Because of a more equitable distribution of economic clout, each party will think of the other more than they did decades ago. After all, one needs something from the other, and strained relations will do nothing to ensure that. But then, this does not have to mean that they will be more predisposed into engaging in wars just because of this perceived economic pride. Actually, the reverse may be true.
Because of this dichotomy of economic roles, countries will become more interdependent on each other, so much so that waging a war will assure mutual destruction. But then, here lies the problem: what about those people who may get left behind? What about those ones who are not capable of developing or changing their current skill set so that they could adapt? That is a question that has perplexed everyone up to this point.

Green Jobs and Hiring From the Smart Grid

America's Smart Grid is set to change our lives and the lives of our children. Today's energy grid is 'dumb' - it essentially has remained stagnant for the past hundred years. It doesn't adapt to the needs of homeowners and businesses based on their demand for energy; it simply pumps out a standardized amount of electricity, much of it going to waste. Our current energy grid doesn't make use of new eco-friendly technologies like solar and wind - it still relies on harmful and waste producing coal and oil.
The Federal Government has pumped billions of dollars into the new Smart Grid to turn things around on a number of levels. The grid will be intelligent for one: fluctuating the amount of energy sent to various corners of the country based on the current demand while also integrating new sources of energy from solar and wind power. This new system of energy distribution will not only conserve valuable electricity, but also will save our country billions of dollars in wasted energy costs over the next ten years.
There's another huge benefit to the smart grid as well - green jobs. Analysts have forecasted the Grid's job producing effect due to the large amount of federal stimulus money is going towards training a new generation of workers who are proficient in utilizing the technology.
Just like how a previous generation of workers became invaluable due to their expertise in nuclear and chemical engineering, this new generation of smart grid technologists will be equally as important. Today, one of the highest paying jobs in the country is a chemical engineer - within the next decade it will certainly be an engineer who specializes in some niche within the vast array of grid technologies.
There also will certainly be a plethora of small and medium-sized businesses that evolve and revolve around the smart grid ecosystem; providing services and products that make the grid even more effective in each local environment. For these businesses, adept grid technologists will be in high demand, creating a healthy and competitive market for talent in the sector.
Finding and hiring this valuable new generation of green talent will be another challenge for the government and businesses alike. Competition will be fierce for the brightest minds in the field, and companies and projects will succeed or fail based on their ability to secure the best. Not only will higher pay grades, perks and benefits provide ammunition to hire talent, but also a company's ability to use cutting-edge technology to make hires. Smart Grid organizations that utilize applicant tracking and hiring programs that are able to intelligently seek and attract workers in specific sectors will be able to gain an edge in the field. These will be the individuals and companies that shape the future of energy.

The Controlling Force of Our Society

Have we gone to the extreme or have we simply forgotten children require nurturing, love, and discipline? Discipline for the development of well-rounded, educationally sound individuals to go forth in society and become an asset to the community and family. What happened? Where did we go wrong? Was it caused by a bureaucracy that created a nightmare of fear in parents, fear so all encompassing it has made the children the controlling force of our society. Parents who now allow their children to do as they please. A society that is now complacent in providing discipline to a generation of children who have little or no respect for themselves, peers, parents, teachers, and other associates.
Parents live in fear of children seeking revenge by informing authorities they physically abused them. They fear being guilty by association; fear the child is more believable and not always truthful in providing the facts. Teachers, administrators, hospital personnel, and child welfare advocates assume the parent is at fault. The parent is tasked with the responsibility of proving they did no do harm to their children. Parents who fear a bruise from a child's everyday rough play may cost them their reputation and freedom.
Where crime is at an all time high and will continue to climb. Where civil disobedience is the norm that often escalates to more serious crime. Where a victim has fewer rights than the accused and prison is no longer a deterrent to crime. The question remains: Who is the controlling force of our society?

Educate Women - Educate A Whole Generation

Education today is not the privilege of the few, but on the contrary it is mandatory for people one and all. Educational equality is the new slogan of the government. How far this slogan is being brought into action is the question asked by many. Today women are not just restricted to household work and cooking for her family, today, it's all about empowerment of women.
A woman is the flag bearer of a society. It is she who gives birth to the future of the world. She is responsible for rearing her children and giving them an opportunity to grow up in a healthy and positive environment. In order for her to this, the most important thing she needs is education. A mother is the child's first teacher. Without her being educated how will she educate her children?
Not only this, it is necessary to educate women so that they can provide a safe and healthy life to herself as well as her child. It is important to educate her so that she can take an active part in supporting the economy of the world.
Benefits Of Educating A Woman:
1.Decrease the mortality rate of women and children: females who are educated are more aware of health and hygiene. They are more likely to go for proper medical treatments and precautions to avoid disease and infections. This will improve the immunity of mother and child and decrease the mortality rates to a great extent.
2.Reduction In Population: educated women are more likely to take birth control measures like pills, abortion, etc. they are more aware of family planning, safe pregnancy, and late motherhood. This will help in reduction of female fertility rates.
3.Protection Against HIV and AIDS: literate women are less likely to be affected with this dangerous disease. They are aware of safe sex practices and use of condoms, which can help them avoid HIV and AIDS.
4.Adding To The World Economy: women who are educated can participate in increasing the economy rate of the world and improving the financial conditions.
Thus, it is very important to educate a girl because when we educate a girl, we are educating a whole new generation to come. For details refer education guide.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Diversity Within a Preschool - Children With Asperger's Syndrome

Asperger's syndrome also known as A.S is a form of autism. Autism is a disorder of development that affects social and communication skills. Autism is not just one specific disorder but occurs in a variety of forms and degrees. The term Autistic Spectrum Disorder is often used to describe the whole range. On this spectrum comes the condition A.S. A.S is found among all races, nationalities and social classes; the name comes from a man named Hans Asperger who was an Austrian physician who first described the syndrome in 1944.
A.S has a pattern that includes:
  • Lack of empathy not understanding social cures and others feelings
  • Little ability to form friendship
  • One sided conversations
  • Intense absorption in a special interest, which may leave no space for more an age appropriate, common interests
  • "clumsy" movements in both their articulation and gross motor behaviour
  • A love of routine, unexpected change in routine can be upsetting
  • Repetitive activities, children with A.S may spin and watch spinning objects for long periods of time
  • Sensitive to sensory touch, light and noise
People with A.S perceive the world differently from everybody else. They find the rest of us strange and baffling.
The way children with A.S perceive the world makes sense to them and they cannot change the way they think or act. They can however find help to adapt in ways they won't cause conflict and confusion with others, who may not understand or tolerate A.S behaviours. Children with A.S look normal and often have average or above average intelligence, but for some reason are not able to understand and relate to other people at a level one would expect for their age. It can be hard for parents, teachers and peers to understand why these children have a lack of desire to interact with peers or inability to understand simple or social cues. They can be assumed to be selfish, where as they are actually would just rather play by themselves with a special interest of their own. Children with A.S do not take much notice of the reaction of the people listening to them and may talk on regardless of the listener's interest and may appear insensitive to their feelings. When A.S children are listening to others, jokes, exaggerated language and metaphors can cause confusion: for example a person with A.S may be frightened at statements like "she bit my head off" and take it quite literally.
The child with A.S does not see themselves as a member of a particular group; they follow their own interest rather than that of the other children in the class or playground which can lead to total social isolation.
The causes of Aspergers syndrome are still being investigated. It is believed that not one single cause can affect the pattern of behaviours that children with A.S present with. But there is strong evidence to suggest that A.S can be caused by a variety of physical factors, all of which affect the brain development. A.S sometimes can be assumed to be due to an emotional deprivation because of their social inadequacies, but this is untrue. A.S is a developmentally disability affecting the brain and there is no cure, but with appropriate education and support children affected with A.S develop into competent adults who can overcome social situations and expectations of others.
To find the ideal preschool service and great information on good childcare check out the section on child care centres and kindercare at our website.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Teaching Reading to Children With Down Syndrome Is a Sight to Behold

Phonics is the ONLY way to teach reading.
Or so I thought.
When I began my life as a homeschool mom, I KNEW phonics was the best way to teach reading.
It made the best sense. Letters have sounds, which combine to make words. If you know the sounds, you can decode and read words.
Besides, after having grown up through the "Dick and Jane" look-say era, I knew the whole-language approach was lacking. Although I was a good student, I didn't enjoy reading as much as I could have. And I was only an above average speller.
When my firstborn was reaching school age, I found the very best phonics program I could find. He learned to read phonetically, as did his younger siblings. We changed programs over the years, but still focused on phonics, because phonics was the ONLY way.
But then my eighth student arrived.
With Down syndrome.
Faced with a child who could not talk well, whom the therapists had written off as "only getting more delayed," I wondered how I would help her succeed.
But then I found the solution: Sight reading!
Although it went against my homeschool grain, on the advice of my daughter's neurodevelopmentalist, I began teaching her to read with flashcards when she was 3.
I will never forget the night we started. She was sitting in her high chair after supper, and I flashed about 10 words to her. I went through the card stack three or four times in a minute.
Then I put three words in front of her, and asked her to show me a particular word.
Without hesitation, she pointed to the correct word! I asked her to show me three or four words, and she identified them all!
In just a minute, my non-verbal toddler with Down syndrome was reading!
Sight reading is the most efficient way to teach a child who is non-verbal to read. In fact, it's the primary way to teach babies and toddlers to read. (If you've ever seen videos of babies reading, chances are their parents used a flash cards and signs.)
Sight reading is especially good to teach reading to children with Down syndrome because these children tend to learn visually.
The process is easy. All you need are index cards, a black marker, and a word list. Some sight-reading programs use the Dolch word list, others use words that they consider more meaningful to little children. The Dolch list is available all over the internet. To these words be sure to add words that you know are meaningful to your child, including the names of siblings and pets.
The size of the index cards will vary with the age of your child. Toddlers do better with larger cards and larger letters. By school age, normal 3" x 5" cards with moderately large type (30 to 42 pt.) will work well.
Write a pile of cards in one sitting. This way your handwriting will be consistent, and you'll have the flash cards finished. Use lowercase letters unless the word requires a capital.
Begin teaching with 10 cards. If you turn the cards toward you with the words upside down, you can flash them faster. (I struggled for months until I figured this out.) As you read the word, pick the card up and put it down in front so the child sees it. Don't linger--the eyes and the brain go faster than your hand and mouth. If you can flash the cards one per second, that's a good speed. If you can go faster, do.
Go through the stack quickly. Reshuffle, and do it again. You should be able to go through 10 cards four or five times in a minute.
After a minute, you can offer your child a choice of three cards and ask him to point to the word you give him.
If he doesn't get the right response immediately, don't worry. Some children don't pick up on this the first time for many reasons. For example, if a child is not hearing or seeing well, more repetition may be required. If after several weeks your child isn't responding well, you may want to have the eyes, ears and visual processing assessed.
For many children, sight reading is a quick and dirty way to read.
For my daughter with Down syndrome it was much more than that. Sight reading gave her success in an academic area and earned her the esteem of her peers. At three, she couldn't walk and she didn't talk much, but she could demonstrate that she could read. With sight reading, she was reading larger words than her typical peers.
Eventually, phonics will be added to my daughter's reading curriculum. And when it is, she'll understand it better, because she'll be able to see how the sounds fit together.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

How to Ensure A Good Education for Your Deaf Child

Having a child with disabilities isn't easy. If you're the parent of a deaf child, then you know this as well as anyone. Whether it's a physical, mental, emotional or psychological disability, the fact is that the world isn't really built for people who are different, so chances are you've already ruled out the notion of keeping your child in the public school system and you're looking at deaf school options or possibly home schooling.
Home Schooling for Deaf Children
There are a lot of arguments for and against home schooling for deaf children. The fact is that your child may well wind up learning more through staying home and being taught by people he or she loves and trusts than by going to a special school to learn. The downside is that this can have an adverse effect on a child's developing social skills. By simply staying home, within their comfort zone, they may not learn how to deal with others until their early adulthood.
On the other hand, you may well be able to find a home schooling community for hearing impaired children, but i you don't live in a big city, this may be much easier said than done.
Deaf School Options
At a school for the hearing impaired, children may have some difficulty adjusting, at first, to being surrounded by new people. However, over time, the benefits do seem to outweigh this. A child who goes to a school for the deaf will, first and foremost, realize that perhaps they're not so different after all. By being surrounded by those who understand hearing impairment and those who suffer from hearing impairment themselves, a deaf child may feel much more comfortable and be much more willing to simply learn and stay focused in a more comfortable environment than that which public schooling provides.
Another benefit is that you're likely to meet other parents of deaf children through the school, other parents who know how difficult it can be and who understand that behind the disability is a unique individual. At a school for the deaf, and within the surrounding community, your child isn't a "deaf kid", but a person who may be exceptionally intelligent or creative, who may be athletic or have a great sense of humor. In being around other deaf people and those who see your child as a person, not as a disability, your child may really bloom as an individual and learn to take pride in who he or she is.
Financing Education
As you're probably looking into private schools, if you haven't already, you should look into charitable organizations and grants specifically for the families of deaf or disabled children, as well as government programs like SSI designed to help finance the extra costs associated with the disabled.
In any event, there's no shame in accepting a little help in paying for private schooling for a deaf child. In time, as your child grows into adulthood and comes to fully understand the responsibilities therein, they should grow to appreciate that you gave them the best education that you possibly could.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Teaching Reading to Children With Down Syndrome Is a Sight to Behold

Phonics is the ONLY way to teach reading.
Or so I thought.
When I began my life as a homeschool mom, I KNEW phonics was the best way to teach reading.
It made the best sense. Letters have sounds, which combine to make words. If you know the sounds, you can decode and read words.
Besides, after having grown up through the "Dick and Jane" look-say era, I knew the whole-language approach was lacking. Although I was a good student, I didn't enjoy reading as much as I could have. And I was only an above average speller.
When my firstborn was reaching school age, I found the very best phonics program I could find. He learned to read phonetically, as did his younger siblings. We changed programs over the years, but still focused on phonics, because phonics was the ONLY way.
But then my eighth student arrived.
With Down syndrome.
Faced with a child who could not talk well, whom the therapists had written off as "only getting more delayed," I wondered how I would help her succeed.
But then I found the solution: Sight reading!
Although it went against my homeschool grain, on the advice of my daughter's neurodevelopmentalist, I began teaching her to read with flashcards when she was 3.
I will never forget the night we started. She was sitting in her high chair after supper, and I flashed about 10 words to her. I went through the card stack three or four times in a minute.
Then I put three words in front of her, and asked her to show me a particular word.
Without hesitation, she pointed to the correct word! I asked her to show me three or four words, and she identified them all!
In just a minute, my non-verbal toddler with Down syndrome was reading!
Sight reading is the most efficient way to teach a child who is non-verbal to read. In fact, it's the primary way to teach babies and toddlers to read. (If you've ever seen videos of babies reading, chances are their parents used a flash cards and signs.)
Sight reading is especially good to teach reading to children with Down syndrome because these children tend to learn visually.
The process is easy. All you need are index cards, a black marker, and a word list. Some sight-reading programs use the Dolch word list, others use words that they consider more meaningful to little children. The Dolch list is available all over the internet. To these words be sure to add words that you know are meaningful to your child, including the names of siblings and pets.
The size of the index cards will vary with the age of your child. Toddlers do better with larger cards and larger letters. By school age, normal 3" x 5" cards with moderately large type (30 to 42 pt.) will work well.
Write a pile of cards in one sitting. This way your handwriting will be consistent, and you'll have the flash cards finished. Use lowercase letters unless the word requires a capital.
Begin teaching with 10 cards. If you turn the cards toward you with the words upside down, you can flash them faster. (I struggled for months until I figured this out.) As you read the word, pick the card up and put it down in front so the child sees it. Don't linger--the eyes and the brain go faster than your hand and mouth. If you can flash the cards one per second, that's a good speed. If you can go faster, do.
Go through the stack quickly. Reshuffle, and do it again. You should be able to go through 10 cards four or five times in a minute.
After a minute, you can offer your child a choice of three cards and ask him to point to the word you give him.
If he doesn't get the right response immediately, don't worry. Some children don't pick up on this the first time for many reasons. For example, if a child is not hearing or seeing well, more repetition may be required. If after several weeks your child isn't responding well, you may want to have the eyes, ears and visual processing assessed.
For many children, sight reading is a quick and dirty way to read.
For my daughter with Down syndrome it was much more than that. Sight reading gave her success in an academic area and earned her the esteem of her peers. At three, she couldn't walk and she didn't talk much, but she could demonstrate that she could read. With sight reading, she was reading larger words than her typical peers.
Eventually, phonics will be added to my daughter's reading curriculum. And when it is, she'll understand it better, because she'll be able to see how the sounds fit together.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Studying Physics With Toys By Lucien H Lester


If you are a physics teacher, thinking that it is difficult to make your student like the subject, we suggest that you use toys during the class. These toys will make them enjoy the class more as they are playing and studying at the same time.
As the first and simple toy we would suggest for you, marble becomes a good idea to teach your students physics. Tell them about the concept of marbles game, that every action gives an equal and opposite reaction.
You can explain them that when the shooter collides with another marble, the shooter actually makes the marble move to the same direction the shooter was going to, even though the shooter has stopped running. It seems like the marble continues the shooter's track. From the collision, the smaller marble will absorb the energy of the shooter as the larger marble. The energy pushes the marbles to move forward in the same direction.
Another toy, a yo-yo can lead your students into understanding on kinetic energy, angular momentum, and force. These scientific concepts are gained when the yo-yos descend and move in spiral. Let them examine how the toys work while playing them.
Talking about motion, you can also use Matchbox cars to explain the concept of inertia. You can place something small on top of the matchbox car roof, such as a match stick. Push the car until the stick falls from the roof. With this toy car you can also teach them another physical scientific concept. In this case, you need another toy car with different size. They will see how things with more mass will make larger impact as they gather momentum more quickly.
If you want to teach your students aerodynamics and gravity, you can firstly have them to make airplanes from origami (folding papers). These paper airplanes show how the shape and the balance between the body and the wings influence the ability to fly. In this case, they also learn how the actual plane flies. Those are some toys that you can use to teach physics. Teachers are supposed to be more active and creative to make the students interested in studying any subject, including physics.
Talking about physics, you are probably interested in any discussions on ray spectrum and any devices dealing with this subject. Thus you can read other articles of Lucien Lester on diode array spectrophotometer and raman spectrometers. Within those articles you can also find reviews on such spectrometers which you can take into consideration before you purchase one.