Module 1 Discussion Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Module 1 Discussion Questions - Assignment Example The membership fees are payable on a calendar year basis. Corresponding and observing members are not levied any fees. The membership for AMIA has been categorized as regular, student, trial, retired, corporate, and affiliates memberships. The membership fee for each category is $300, $40, $150, $75, and $450 per annum respectively. Each of these categories attracts unique benefits. For American Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), membership for half-day members is $935 per annum. Likewise, pre-symposium members have to pay 1,035 members and student members, $1,085, annually. For the Nursing Informatics Working Groups (NIWG), each membership category has a specific membership fee. For instance, publishing members pay $2,000 so as to make their articles available on NIWG website. The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) website offers a wide range of medical information, information about itself and its affiliates, its publications, and information on upcoming or latest developments. The website has also a portal designed to help members login to their accounts or for newcomers to open new accounts (IMIA, 2012) The American Medical Informatics Association’s website, on the other hand, contains information that relates to government affairs, healthcare industrial development, and general news items that are pertinent to AMIA. Healthcare educational programs and career information are other resources one can find on the website (AMIA, 2012). The Nursing Informatics Working Groups (NIWG) has information about itself, given that it is an organization that seeks to integrate nursing, information and knowledge on nursing and management information for the promotion of global and public health. Publications, summits, career guidance, nursing educational facilities and centers are some of the pieves of information that one finds on NIWG website (AMIA-NIWG, 2009). Both IMIA and NIWG offer great discounts to their members. For instance, while

Analysis of Professional Development Plan Essay Example for Free

Analysis of Professional Development Plan Essay The definition of professional development varies in school districts and educators agree that the term is ever changing and involves the use of technology. Some educators have said that the term has an operational definition. In the article, key design factors in durable instructional technology professional development, author John Wells offers the following definition for educators within the context of the technological age:Professional development†¦goes beyond the term training with its implications of learning skills, and encompasses a definition that includes formal and informal means of helping teachers not only learn new skills, but also develop new insights into pedagogy and their own practices, and explore new or advanced understandings of content and resources. [This] definition of professional development includes support for teachers as they encounter the challenges that come with putting into practice their evolving understanding about the use of technology to support inquiry-based learning (p.2). Professional development may encompass various characteristics such as goals and outcomes aligned to the districts, relevant topics in trainings, opportunities for staff collaboration, development maintained by an on-site coordinator, high quality and professional training and evaluations to determine effectiveness of program. James Polk, author of traits of effective teachers, states, the need for a strong professional development program is well established in research (p.2). Mr. Polk (2006) cites a recent study of factors contributing to three aspects of the teaching process that, teachers ranked professional development in the top third of importance on each aspect (p. 2). In analyzing the professional development plan of my school district, Richland County School District One, I noticed several issues that were identified by Mr. Polk. Mr. Polk outlined several problems associated with the traditional in-service programs that are deemed ineffective. Mr. Polk (2006) states that:assumptions, such as periodic in-service being sufficient to develop new teaching methods and improve practice, teachers being able to learn by listening to a speaker, and professional development being a luxury  rather than an integral part of district improvement, are all negating factors in the implementation of patronization of training programs (p. 2). Mr. Polk further identifies research-based, more effective assumptions such as professional development should be perpetual, and school change involves external and internal organizations and personal development. In professional development programs, the instructions to teacher should be demonstrated or modeled, practiced with feedback and professional development should be integrated into the daily life of teachers. Mr. Polk (2006) states that if professional growth rests solely on bimonthly, two-hour in-service sessions after the students are dismissed early, then any training received will unlikely be reflected in student mastery (p.2). Richland County School District Ones (RSDI) professional development program has several components such as the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA), Avatar, and classroom walkthrough. According to the Richland County School District Ones website, Plan Do Check Act is used in designing curriculum and delivering classroom instruction, in providing student support services, staff goal setting and evaluation, developing any new program, product or process design, planning strategically and starting a new improvement project or implementing any change. The Plan component is identifying the learning problem and gathering the needed data. The Do component is analyzing the causes and implementing the plan on a trial of pilot basis. The Check component of PDCA is gathering the data results of the solution and analyzing the data. The Act component is implementing the instruction for all students and modifying the improvement plan. Avatar is the districts professional development management system that allows for teaches to sign up for trainings offered by the district. All the trainings are offered after school or in the summer; this contradicts the recommendation offered by Mr. Polk that professional development should be integrated into the daily life of the teacher during the school day. The classroom walkthrough team is a district employee, the principal, assistant principal, and the professional development on-site coordinator. The team conducts the classroom walkthrough by observing the instructional strategies of a teacher for a total of five to ten minutes. The teacher is not offered prior information or feedback on the classroom walkthrough to correct or enhance his instructional strategies. The Richland County School District One website offers the levels of engagement of the students who the team should identify during the walkthrough. The levels; Authentic Engagement, Ritual Engagement, Passive Compliance, Retreatism, and Rebellion and their definitions are cited on the web page but teachers would not know their level due to lack of communication from the classroom walkthrough team. The problem of the poor quality of professional development was identified in the South Carolina schools that I have researched. For example, in Richland County School District Two, the districts professional development program mirrors Richland County School District Ones program by only focusing on providing monthly in-service trainings on half-days for students or summer in-service activities. Both districts also provide the occasional monthly state or national conference in the teachers subject area and online training, i.e. Educational Television. Richland County School District Two differs by offering their Richland School District Twos Technology Education Collaboration Mentors Program. The program is for school-selected representatives from every school in the district. The program focuses on helping fellow staff members develop personal technology skills and integrate technology into their classroom. Besides this program, I was unable to find any difference from the two dist ricts and the professional development training. Richland County School District One and District Two professional development programs consist of low quality training once a month, irrelevant topics, lack of feedback from teachers and administrators, and concepts but lack of implementation. The districts programs lack the scope, high quality, accessibility (besides the Avatar system in RSDI), relevancy, and feedback from students. The majority of the districts professional development program is the poor quality program described by Mr. Polk; two-hour  in-service sessions after the students are dismissed early from school. Reference Polk, J. (2006). Traits of effective teachers. Arts Education Policy Review, 107, p. 23-30. Wells, J. (2007). Key design factors in durable instructional technology professional development. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 15, p. 101-123. www.richlandone.org/ipda/Training_Tools/pdca.htm and www.richland2.org

Opposing the Death Penalty Essay -- Against Capital Punishment Essays

Opposing the Death Penalty Capital punishment is the infliction of the death penalty on a person convicted of a crime. Executing convicted felons has been one of the most widely practiced forms of criminal punishment in the United States. However, this highly controversial form of punishment is not carried out in all of the states in the nation. Currently, the states that do not practice the death penalty are: Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Even for the states that do enforce the death penalty, it has been a topic of debate for many years. In this paper, I will review the major issues related to capital punishment with an emphasis on opposition to it. There are two groups who argue over the decision to take a person's life as a punishment for a crime. There are many points of discussion including whether or not it is a fitting and reasonable punishment, whether or not it acts as a deterrent to crime and whether or not it is morally neutral or morally wrong. These two classes of people can be grouped together as the 'retentionists', and the 'abolitionists' (Americana 596). For the retentionists, the main reasons they are in support of the death penalty are to take revenge and to punish. Their main worry is the protection of society from dangerous criminals. The retentionists have some good ideas, but they are still very wrong. The abolitionists view the death penalty as morally and legally wrong. Further, they argue that it does not act as a deterrent for crime, it is irreversible and could be used on an innocent person, it is more expensive than imprisonment, and that those who are con... ...iego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1997 ?Capital Punishment.? Encyclopedia Americana. 1990 ed. Draper, Thomas. Capital Punishment. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1985. Gibeaut, John. ?Death penalty a lively issue.? Aug 2002: 70-74. Criminal Justice Periodicals Proquest. Roesch Library, Dayton. 18 October 2002. Leone, Bruno. ?Does Capital Punishment Deter Crime San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1998 McMillon, Rhonda. ?Seeking a fair penalty.? Sep 2002: 70-72. Criminal Justice Periodicals Proquest. Roesch Library, Dayton. 18 October 2002. Mitchell, Hayley. The Death Penalty. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2001 Nathanson, Stephen. An Eye For and Eye? Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2001 Pohier, Jacques. ?The Death Penalty and Torture.? New York:Seabury Press, 1979

Research methodology Essay

There are several types of research methodology, however this discourse is mainly focused on what would be described as a case study, since its primary effort is to review the potential that Pepsi Saudi would emerge from its decision to implement Balance Scorecard as a winner. So this will use both quantitative and qualitative research framework . This section will outline the qualitative and quantitative research methods, the case study research method, and the questionnaire research method. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Usually quantitative research employs the method that is based on testing of theories. It uses measurement of numbers, and statistical analysis to perform its studies. The idea behind quantitative research is often to ascertain that a generalized theory or the prediction of a theory will be confirmed by using quantitative method. So it starts with the hypothesis and the theories that requires to be tested. The approach of quantitative research include the use of instruments, usually formal and generally recognized instruments. It is conducts experiments with an underlying expectation that a consensus would be arrived at. It usually aims to arrive at a predictable  generalization, and it would normally have a causal explanation. It can control and manipulate the subject, with deduction and analysis. The idea is really to establish consensus by reducing data to numerical indications. So the goal of quantitative research is the determination a given prediction, it wants to see that such generalization could be verified or confirmed. In general the quantitative methodology assumes that there is an objective reality which is independent of the person doing the research, it also takes the position that the subject of study can be done in an objective manner. The researcher must maintain independence from the research object. And the research is not expected to be value affected. In other words the researcher must make sure that he or she does not become a part of the research. This is known as being value free of the research itself. The quantitative methodology tests cause and effect by using deductive logic. When done correctly a quantitative research should be able to predict, and explain the theory in question. (O’brien 1998). TYPES OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH: There are generally three different types of quantitative research, experimental research,  qausi -experimental research, and surveys. EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH: In experimental research, the researcher is active, as opposed to a passive agent who simply observes. The researcher is able to manipulate the subject that is being studied, or at least some part of the subject that is being studied. Also experimental research entails that the research must use some kind of control in the research process, usually a control group would be one of the elements of experimental research. Also the researcher would apply random selection to the control group. The research applies manipulative element to some of the subjects under study but he will not apply the same manipulation to other subjects. So the research uses what is known as â€Å"placebo† in some of the experimental subjects, and not in others. QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH: Quasi-experimental research does not use the control random system that experimental research uses, but it can manipulate some independent variables. So in order to five authenticity to the result of the quasi-experimental research, the researcher can implement some controls, but he does not use random system. SURVEYS: Surveys uses cross- sections or longitudinal studies, and questionnaires in its research. It uses data and conducts interviews with the aim of making an estimation about the given subject of study. Surveys does not involve experimental interventions. Survey are considered advantageous because it could be used to study many subjects, in many topics. Also the information garnered from surveys could be used for different purposes. Although surveys are usually expensive, but they are considered economical because the results could be applied to various things. (Polit 1989).

Group Characteristics and Development Essay

I was one of the founders of World Movers Research Firm (WMRF). The aim of forming this group was to create employment, earn better incomes and offer consultancy services to those organizations and business entities that could not afford these services at lesser charges than the normal market price in order to help them to grow and achieve their goals. The group comprised of people from diverse areas of study and we thought that this was an advantage since we would inject professionalism into the intended research firm. During forming stage, great care was taken to ensure all diverse disciplines were accorded the respect they deserved. It was also expected that some of us would do lesser job than the rest but this was handled with great care to ensure that no discipline was underrated because this would create intra group conflicts. We therefore discussed the objectives in detail and the job expected of every group member. There was need to have interim leaders who would coordinate the operations of the firm and we gave a chance for members to volunteer as we prepare for group elections. Even though two of our members wanted to head the organization, we managed to solve the conflict by encouraging dialogue amongst them. They were informed that the elections were to be conducted soon and there was no point of arguing. (Marilyn B. Cole, 2005, Pp. 20 – 32; Robins, S. , & Judge, T. , 2009) The most challenging part was perhaps the norming stage. There was a great need of constitution and there was a very hot debate. We managed to come up with a constitution and we agreed unanimously to stick to it and amend it when necessary incase we felt that there was a deficiency. We defined the roles of each member. We also agreed on the groups rewarding system and sharing of profits as well as the losses. All this was made possible by conforming to the agreed upon rules (Marilyn B. Cole, 2005, Pp. 28 – 32) After acquiring an office and making the necessary procurements, it was time to start the work. We managed to get a tender to review the operations of the joint loans boards in the country and make recommendations to improve them. The job was so well done that we were given the opportunity to implement the report. We found out that some of the roles needed modifications, and some of the members were not comfortable with the tasks in which they were supposed to carry out. We amended the constitution and everything came back to normal. (Marilyn B. Cole, 2005, Pp. 21 – 32) We all had high expectations and same objectives. Everyone worked very hard to achieve his part. The constitution was also very clear and conflicts were kept as minimal as possible. The group had minimal cohesion. This was just one of the ways of avoiding the negative symptoms of groupthink. In addition, through voting, we managed to set up a good directive leadership. The group was very independent from outside influences and the groups homogeneity nature in terms of ideologies and social background also suppressed negative groupthink effects. (Marilyn B. Cole, 2005, Pp. 28 – 38; Robins, S. , & Judge, T. , 2009) I can say that the group has been successful since it is still operating. Everyone is contented with his role in the group and we have even gone a step further to venture in investments from the income we have been able References Marilyn B. Cole, (2005). GROUP DYNAMICS IN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY: THE THEORETICAL BASIS AND PRACTICE APPLICATION OF GROUP INTERVENTION, Slack Robins, S. , & Judge, T. (2009). ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, (13th Ed). Upper Saddle River, N. J: Pearson Prentice Hall.