Wikis as Education Tool Essay Example for Free

Wikis as Education Tool Essay With the development of today’s technology, it has allowed the creation and proliferation of information in a more convenient manner. Due to this, individuals have used this towards achieving competency and gaining the necessary foundation for learning that paves the way for improvement. Seeing this, instruments such as â€Å"wikis† have allowed the creation and further expansion of data. By taking into consideration the advantages of this mechanism in education, it can further harness the way educational goals are administered and achieved. The development of the term ‘wiki’ in education started in 2006. It is composed of information that is subject for changes and improvement on a particular subject given. â€Å"Wikis are more versatile than a class blog, because blogs are typically one way communication and Wikis are updated by teachers and students† (Wetzel, 2008, p. 1). Since this idea is powered by the internet, it allows people to actively collaborate and contribute both information and insights on a subject, thus widening the horizons for change (Baird and Nye, 2009). Its creation originates from a posting of a particular topic of interest. Under this, the user then allows his/her work to be subject to editing and updating on areas that need further expansion. â€Å"Wikis improve upon more traditional modes of writing collaboration like sharing paper and document files since a wiki page is shared on the Internet and easily accessed and edited online† (Baird and Nye, 2009, p. 1). At the same time, since its creation, it has adopted new approaches that have made this process more user-friendly and applicable to all. â€Å"The use of hyperlinks, tables, images, media, as well as incorporating the customized layout that we see with carefully designed web sites is present in wikis† (Baird and Nye, 2009, p. 1). Looking closely at the content associated with ‘wikis’, the topics offer a myriad of information that students can deem to contribute. It can look into areas of Natural Sciences such as Biology, Physics, Chemsitry, etc. or other topics such as History, Mathematics, Religion, and Sociology. The presence of this diverse subject matter exemplifies its potential in creating an active environment for learning and enhances educational goals and objectives (Elgort, 2007). That is why continuing strategies should be explored to actively tap on its strengths and capability as an instrument for teaching and facilitation. Realizing the relevance of such approach in education, I feel that it can be an essential device for intensifying training and facilitate learning. In doing this, I need to understand the parameters and scope of what my subject of interest would be. After this, I have to actively link this on how I wish to use ‘wikis’ to encourage cooperation among my target students. â€Å"Decisions need to be made not only about how information is structured but also what navigational support is provided to the reader, and these decisions are crucial to the ways in which the reader interacts with the wiki† (Elgrot, 2007, p. 234). I feel that this is an initial step in making sure that the initiative is in-line with the objective, needs and standards mandated. After this, the next step involves the creation of an active system wherein students can explore the meaning of the subject and point out their relative inputs and understanding based on the information provided. This means that communication and interaction via the website is an important agenda to consider. By highlighting areas wherein changes or modifications can happen, it can increase the likelihood of participation and further acquisition of knowledge and information. To conclude, the creation of wikis is one instrument that technology has provided to humans today. By actively exploring its capabilities, it can be seen that this setup can be applied to intensify and increase learning objectives. At the same time, as people realize the relevance of such practice, it can be an alternative approach in education which can make it adaptive to 21st century trends. References Baird, R. and Nye, M. (2009) Beyond Wikepedia: Wikis as Learning Tools in CITES EdTech.Retrieved May 11, 2009 from http://www. cites. illinois. edu/edtech/newsletters_articles/articles/baird/beyond_wikipedia-spr09. html Elgort, I. (2007) Using wikis as a learning tool in higher education in ascilite. [online] Retrieved May 11, 2009. 233-238. Wetzel, D. R. (2008) Using Wiki Technology to Engage Students: Educational Technology Strategies for Creativity and Collaboration. Retrieved May 11, 2009 from, http://teachertipstraining. suite101. com/article. cfm/using_wiki_technology_to_engage_students

The Role of the Sirens in Homers Odyssey Essay -- Homer Odyssey Essay

The Role of the Sirens in Odyssey The Sirens in the Odyssey represent more than just a maritime danger to the passing ship. They are the desires of man that he cannot have. The Sirens can also be construed as forbidden knowledge or some other taboo object. Whatever these singing women actually are, the sailors are wise to avoid them. As usual, the wily Odysseus cheats at the rules of the game by listening to their song under the restraints constructed by his crew. In their critical review, Horkheimer and Adorno treat the song of the Sirens as a forbidden knowledge of everything. The Sirens represent man's enlightenment. The two writers state, "Even though the Sirens know all that has happened, they demand the future as the price of that knowledge, and the promise of the happy return is the deception with which the past ensnares the one who longs for it" (Horkheimer and Adorno 48). Even though these critical readers do not mention it, they have repeated a story from the Bible. Adam and Eve also sought enlightenment. Once they tasted the apple and gained knowledge, their futur...

In-Work Benefits and the Nordic Model

Abstract Welfare bene†¦ts in the Nordic countries are often tied to employment. We argue that this is one of the factors behind the success of the Nordic model, where a comprehensive welfare state is associated with high employment. In a general equilibrium setting, the underlining mechanism works through wage moderation and job creation. The bene†¦ts make it more important to hold a job, thus lower wages will be accepted, and more jobs created.Moreover, we show that the incentive to acquire higher education improves, further boosting employment in the long run. These positive e ¤ects help counteracting the negative impact of taxation. JEL codes: H24, J21, J24 Keywords: Nordic model, in-work bene†¦ts, wage adjustment, unemployment, education, skill formation, earnings 1 Introduction A prominent feature of the so-called Nordic model is a comprehensive welfare state †¦nanced by taxes on labor.In fact, the public sector in many We want to thank Torben Andersen, Mar tin Floden, Richard Freeman, Mathias Herzing, Eddie Lazear, Ethienne Lehman, Bruno van Linden, and participants at the Conference on the Economics of the Nordic Model. y Department of Economics, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Ph. +46 8 163547. Fax +46 8 161425, E-mail address: ann-so†¦e. [email  protected] su. se z Economics Division, University of Southampton, UK; Economics Department, UniCredit & Universities Fellow, Central European University, Budapest; and IZA, Bonn.Email address: m. [email  protected] ac. uk 1 of the Nordic countries is responsible for the distribution and allocation of resources amounting to more than half of their country’ GDP (Eurostat, s 2012). With an emphasis on redistributional transfers and service provision †¦nanced by taxes on labor, a concern with the model is, of course, that it induces weak incentives to work. In a more long term perspective, such a system may also reduce incentives to acquire skills, with a negativ e impact on future pproduactivity and labor market outcomes.However, external observers are often surprised that the Nordic countries manage to combine low unemployment and high labor force participation with high taxes and generous welfare arrangements. So, how is this possible? One answer to this question is that many of the welfare arrangements in the Nordic countries are closely tied to market work. The generosity of the bene†¦ts are, in general, related to earnings. In addition, eligibility to a number of bene†¦ts and social services is conditional on employment.Subsidized childcare, for example, is, in principle, only available to employed workers. Also, some generous elements of the paid paren'tal leave schemes are only accessible to employed workers. In addition, the more recently introduced earned income tax credit is by de†¦nition exclusively targeted to employed workers. The idea is that these bene†¦ts, by increasing the returns from working, increase the supply of labor. The observation that the Nordic countries have sustained high economic aactivity because bene†¦ts are closely tied to market work is not new.In fact this was noted as a contributing factor to the high participation rate observed in Sweden when a group of NBER economists studied the Swedish welfare state in the mid 1990s (see Freeman et al. , 1997). This was also an important message in the discussion on the prospects and challenges of the Scandinavian model in Andersen (2008). The starting point for this paper is that entitlement to many of the bene†¦ts available in the Nordic countries is conditional on employment. As discussed above, this tends to increase the gains from working, which encourages labor supply.However, we argue that this is not the end of the story. To investigate the full impact of welfare state arrangements of this type, one needs to account for the general equilibrium e ¤ects. This is particularly relevant because many bene†¦ts have been available to the whole population for a long period of time. Clearly, to investigate the e ¤ects of these bene†¦ts on employment, which is an equilibrium outcome, both supply-side and demand-side factors must be iincluded in the analysis. Moreover, beside considering the equilibrium outcome for the existing workforce, it is important to account 2 or the impact of these bene†¦ts on incentives to acquire skills. The equilibrium composition of the workforce in terms of educational attainment is a crucial variable for the sustainability of the Nordic model, both in terms of its growth potential and international competitiveness (Andersen, 2008) and in terms of the political support for the welfare state (Hassler et al. , 2003). To carry out such an analysis, we develop a simple model of a non-clearing labor market featuring involuntary unemployment as an equilibrium outcome.Labor force participation is also endogenously determined. Moreover, individuals di ¤e r in their ability to acquire education and choose educational attainments based on a cost-bene†¦t analysis. In particular, we focus on the choice between proceeding to higher, i. e. tertiary, education or not. The aim is to investigate the implications of bene†¦ts that are conditional on work on unemployment and labor force participation, accounting for their long term impact on educational attainments.We show that bene†¦ts available only to employed workers moderate wages, reduce unemployment rates, and increase labor force participation and employment. Moreover, one could expect that welfare bene†¦ts, even if conditional on work, could induce an outright reduction in education as they represent an important subsidy for low skilled workers. What we †¦nd instead is that the incentives to proceed to higher education are actually strengthened. This is a consequence of the relatively sthronger increase in labor market opportunities for highly educated workers that follow when wages are moderated.Wages, in turn, fall because workers are more willing to accept lower wages when bene†¦ts are conditional on work and thus the value of having a job is higher. Lower wages increase job creation and lower the unemployment rate. Thus, total employment increases for three sets of reasons. First, the bene†¦ts reduce the unemployment rate for workers at all educational levels. Second, more workers choose to proceed to higher education where expected unemployment spells are shorter. Third, as labor force participation increases with the bene†¦ts, a larger share of the population will be employed.We also look at the impact of bene†¦ts when they are †¦nanced through a proportional tax on wages. Taxation actually reinforces wage moderation and, as such, does not overrule that bene†¦ts reduce wages, increase job creation, and reduce unemployment rates. However, it weakens the incentives to acquire higher education and particip ate in the labor force, thus inducing a counteracting e ¤ect on educational attainment and labor force participation. The element of the Nordic model that this paper underlines is the wage moderation stemming from bene†¦ts conditional on work.Also, we †¦nd this 3 mechanism to be very robust to the choice of model. Moreover, looking at bene†¦ts through this channel highlights how they have a positive impact on educational attainment and participation, thus counteracting, at least partly, the negative e ¤ect that taxation has on skill acquisition and labor force participation. The analytical results are followed up with a numerical example illustrating the e ¤ects of the bene†¦ts on labor market performance and educational attainment.The simulations indicate that bene†¦ts can have an important impact on unemployment for both low- and high- skilled. Without distortinary taxation, bene†¦ts also have a positive impact on skill acquisition, thus further reducing overall unemployment in the long run. When †¦nancing through proportional taxation on wages is iincluded in the model, the negative e ¤ect of taxation on educational attainment dominates the positive e ¤ect of bene†¦ts, thus resulting in a decrease in the share of the workforce acquiring tertiary education.Nonetheless, bene†¦ts still have a positive overall impact on unemployment. Considering the previous literature, there are a number of studies that have tried to explain why the Nordic countries have performed so well despite high taxes and generous welfare arrangements. As mentioned, some of these studies have emphasized the importance of that bene†¦ts are tied to market work for the successful outcome in terms of employment and participation (see Aronsson and Walker, 1997).A related view is provided by Rogerson (2007). He argues that the governments’spending pattern in the Scandinavian countries, compared to other high tax countries, can potentially explain the large number of aggregate work hours observed in these countries. He shows, holding tax rates constant, that it matters if the revenue is spent on disability payments which may only be received when an individual does not work or subsidies for day care for working mothers. The reason is that childcare subsidies create jobs.Our study also †¦nds that how the government choose to spend tax revenues matters for labor market performance, although for a di ¤erent reason. In contrast to Rogerson (2007), our results materialize through general equilibrium e ¤ects working through wage moderation. There is also a large number of studies focusing on particular features of the welfare state in the Nordic countries, looking for instance at the impact of childcare subsidies and paid paren'tal leave schemes on labor supply and a number of other outcome variables. 1 In contrast to our study, this literature

Is Human Immortality Beneficial - 1774 Words

â€Å"Sustainable† Growth Advances in technology have really boomed over the last couple of decades. Not too long ago it was impossible to do many of our daily tasks taken for granted today. Tasks such as checking cell phones to browse Facebook, text friends, or even just play games to kill time. We are in the middle of a technological revolution. Aside from the concrete technological advancements, what about the biotechnological side? Well it is to no surprise medicine has been greatly improving, which typically leads to an increase of our life expectancy. We have also genetically modified organisms to better our society. If our life expectancy goes up due to our advancements, our death rate will most likely go down. Also if our birth rate is higher than our death rate, then this will lead to a population growth. Nonetheless, to prevent a bigger problem in the future, we need to implement a plan into our governments offering incentives toward having a limited number of children. It has even been theorized human immortality is a reachable goal through this method of replacing organs. Even more astonishing, it is estimated to be reached in our lifetimes. This is possible by using the same concept involved in automobiles and applying it to humans. When a car breaks down, it is possible to replace or fix the part. So why would it not be possible to do the same with organs? Well in most cases it does not work because the human body rejects the organs. It would be different if weShow MoreRelatedEssay The Debate Concerning Stem Cell Research1409 Words   |  6 Pagesdebates around the world. In the blink of an eye, clones, perfect children, and immortality are no longer a myth told by elders around campfires. Through various techniques, scientists are able to better the lives of those living, but at what cost? In their articles â€Å"Cloning Human Beings: An Assessment of Pro and Con,† by author Dan W. 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