Abolitionism – Summary

Abolitionism Abolitionism in the United States was essential to causing the Civil War during the nineteenth century. Many abolitionists in the North, such as Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, felt that slavery was a sin against God and published newspapers and pamphlets to share their views. Other abolitionists, such as John Brown, felt that the only way to abolish slavery was to forcefully free the slaves. However, people in the South did not see what was so wrong about owning a person as property and felt that these newspapers and pamphlets were an attack on their way of life.Sectionalism began to form as tension between the Northern and Southern states grew. Soon enough, war broke out between the states and the Civil War had begun. Abolitionists such as John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and William Lloyd Garrison were major contributors to the movement to abolish slavery. John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry opened many people’s eyes to the issue of slavery. Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave spoke of his life as a slave and showed how bad slavery really was.He also published his own newspaper called the North Star which informed the public of slavery. Also, William Lloyd Garrison published the famous abolitionist paper, the Liberator which demoted slavery and promoted African American rights. He also began the American Anti-Slavery Society which was the first organization to demand an immediate end to slavery. Other publications such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe also contributed to the rise of abolitionism. By contributing to the rise of abolitionism, these abolitionists also contributed to the start of the Civil War.Tension between the Northern states and the Southern states grew as the rise of abolitionism increased. The more the Northern abolitionists protested, the more the Southerners felt their way of life was being attacked. There were many pamphlets and newspapers being published, as well as speeches being given by abolitionists which demoted slavery. The Southern citizens were outraged and responded in violence. The tension grew between the Northern states and the Southern states and sectionalism began to form. This tension soon exploded and the Civil War started.The protests led by abolitionists along with their newspapers and pamphlets resulted with numerous violent outbreaks between the Northern and Southern States. These outbreaks then lead to the beginning of the Civil War. The United States Congress also greatly contributed to the Civil War. When the American Anti-Slavery Society sent petitions to Congress which called for an end to slavery, they ignored it. Instead of addressing the issue at hand, Congress imposed the gag rule. The gag rule stated that Congress would not accept any petitions from the American people that dealt with slavery.When Congress deliberately avoided addressing the issu e of slavery, the problem was never solved. So abolitionists kept protesting and the tension between the Northern and Southern states grew until finally civil war between the states broke out. The cause of the Civil War was clearly abolitionism. The movement to end slavery in the United St1ates caused violent uprisings, the formation of sectionalism, and tension between the Northern and Southern states. These actions were further aggravated by Congresses ignorance towards petitions, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, and the many publications of the North Star and the Liberator.The abolition movement caused many issues which were essential to starting the Civil War. Images: †¢ â€Å"Influence of Prominent Abolitionists: The African-American Mosaic (Library of Congress Exhibition). † Library of Congress Home. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://www. loc. gov/exhibits/african/afam006. html. †¢ â€Å"Africans in America/Part 4/Portrait of Frederick Douglass Clos e-up. † PBS. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://www. pbs. org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2962b. html. †¢ â€Å"A Bio. of America: The Coming of the Civil War – Maps. † Teacher Professional Development and Teacher Resources by Annenberg Media. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. ttp://www. learner. org/biographyofamerica/prog10/maps/. †¢ â€Å"John Brown Picture. † Google Images. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://images. google. com/imgres? imgurl=http://www. steveisler. com/Civil%2520War/files/images/129. jpg&imgrefurl=http://www. steveisler. com/Civil%2520War/files/civilians. htm&usg=__psTkgJR9weRvEVOmWzIHozbJMH0=&h=1348&w=1138&sz=254&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=3YEu_IfLWnkvzM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3DJohn%2BBrown%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG. †¢ â€Å"Anti-Abolitionist Cartoon. † The Liberator Files. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://www. theliberatorfiles. com/liberator-photo-gallery/. â€Å"Remembering Black Loyalists – Gordon, an American Slave. † Nova Scotia Mu seum. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://museum. gov. ns. ca/blackloyalists/18001900/people1800/gordon_lg. htm. Information: †¢ â€Å"American Anti-Slavery Society – Ohio History Central – A product of the Ohio Historical Society. † Ohio History Central – An Online Encyclopedia of Ohio History – Ohio Historical Society. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://www. ohiohistorycentral. org/entry. php? rec=832. †¢ â€Å"The American Experience | John Brown's Holy War | People & Events | The Secret Six. † PBS. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://www. pbs. org/wgbh/amex/brown/peopleevents/pande06. tml †¢ â€Å"William Lloyd Garrison. † PBS. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://www. pbs. org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1561. html. †¢ â€Å"William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator []. † Ushistory. org. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://www. ushistory. org/us/28a. asp. †¢ Abolition. The McGraw-Hill Companies Glencoe. Print. †¢ â€Å"Harpers Ferry. † PBS. Web. 0 3 Jan. 2010. http://www. pbs. org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2940. html. †¢ â€Å"John Brown, Abolitionist, Harpers Ferry. † Civil War, American Civil War, Reconstruction. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://www. civilwaracademy. com/john-brown. html. †¢ â€Å"Frederick Douglass. † PBS. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://www. pbs. rg/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1539. html. †¢ â€Å"The American Experience | John Brown's Holy War | Timeline (1884 – 1910). † PBS. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://www. pbs. org/wgbh/amex/brown/timeline/index. html. †¢ The Liberator Files. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://www. theliberatorfiles. com/. †¢ â€Å"Biography of Frederick Douglass-Champion of Civil and Women's Rights. † Frederick Douglass Speeches-Seminars on Race Relations and Gender Equity. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://www. frederickdouglass. org/douglass_bio. html. †¢ Abolition – Camp Followers. Vol. 1. Milestone Documents in American History. Print. †¢ The McGraw Hill C ompany: Glencoe. Print.Primary Source Documents: †¢ â€Å"America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets. † American Memory from the Library of Congress – Home Page. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. http://memory. loc. gov/cgi-bin/ampage? collId=amss&fileName=as1/as113410/amsspage. db&recNum=0&itemLink=D? amss:3:. /temp/~ammem_xpav::@@@mdb=mcc,gottscho,detr,nfor,wpa,aap,cwar,bbpix,cowellbib,calbkbib,consrvbib,bdsbib,dag,fsaall,gmd,pan,vv,presp,varstg,suffrg,nawbib,horyd,wtc,toddbib,mgw,ncr,ngp,musdibib,hlaw,papr,lhbumbib,rbpebib,lbcoll,alad,hh,aaodyssey,magbell,bbc,dcm,raelbib,runyon,dukesm,lomaxbib,mtj,gottlieb,aep,qlt,coolbib,fpnas,aasm,denn,relpet,a

Literal Intelligence Collection

Literal Intelligence Collection: National Intelligence and the NSA wireless intercept program Intelligence Collection: Sources and Challenges February 13, 2012 In the aftermath of 9/11 the intelligence community (IC) felt pressure from all directions. Employees of the IC, Congress, and the general public wanted questions answered as to why our nation didn’t know an attack was imminent. This â€Å"failure† of intelligence caused a shake up within the entire IC, leading to many future changes. One such change was in communications intelligence (COMINT) collection.According to Cummings (2006), â€Å"President George W. Bush said that he authorized NSA to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations in the weeks following the September 11th terrorist attacks† (p. 6). The President’s decision had many repercussions. I will discuss the parameters of the decision, the management issues assoc iated with it that lead to such controversy, and the impact it had on national intelligence and the NSA.What led to this drastic decision by the U. S. President? The United States was blind-sighted in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack which resulted in the death of 2,977 innocent Americans. This was the largest attack in the history of the U. S. on our soil and although the signs were there for the intelligence community to see, it was mistakenly not put together. Much of the attack stemmed from communications between terrorist or those connected and working with terrorist within our Country, and this was unacceptable.In order to defend against such communications, according to Lichtblau & Risen (2005), â€Å"Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an ef fort to track possible ‘dirty numbers’ linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications†.The sole purpose of the NSA program was to safeguard our national security in a more expansive, efficient manner. The center on law and security (2007) states â€Å"†¦this requirement to demonstrate all of the substantive and procedural elements of FISA to the Attorney General's satisfaction before any surveillance can begin, would fatally impair the President's ability to carry out his constitutional responsibility to collect foreign intelligence to protect our Nation from attack† (p. 9).Any implementation involving citizen’s privacy is assured to draw controversy, and the root of the problem with this program was a management issue. The President, DCI, and the Director of the NSA should have informed the head of the Senate Select and Congressional oversight committees with a mor e in depth understanding of the changes and the secrecy. A plan should have been in place to deal with leaks to the public of the changes, and a more detailed description of the amendment to the policy should have been created and kept under lock and key.Intelligence collection involves many activities that citizens (lacking all of the facts), may deem unconstitutional. The problem with this is most of the time the facts are not available to the general population, media, and even certain members of the Congressional oversight committees, for fear of an operation leak. Much of what the IC does must remain secret, at least until the aftermath (which could be years later). In regards to the topic at hand, authorization of warrantless wireless intercept by the NSA, the main problem arose due to management failures in the implementation of such a controversial topic.The center on law and security (2007) states, â€Å"Critics of the NSA program do not necessarily object to the type of s urveillance, but rather to the way in which it has been authorized, and to the absence of any oversight† (p. 10). The Congressional oversight committees serve as a checks and balance to the IC and the President informed the heads of the committees (Gang of Eight) of his plan to authorize wireless intercepts on Americans. Cummings (2006) states, â€Å"†¦the executive branch had limited its briefings of the legislative branch to the Gang of Eight.They further asserted that the executive branch had prohibited them from sharing any information about the program with congressional colleagues† (p. 7). In the aftermath, it seems the Gang of Eight did not understand the necessity of secrecy behind this information. The President should have explained the reasoning behind the secrecy and why the information was limited to the Gang of Eight. If the Gang of Eight understood the parameters and restrictions in place, they could better defend the plan when future problems arose. Preparations hould have been in place for dealing with the public if and when the time came that the media caught wind of the wireless intercept. At some point the President should expect that the public would have to be addressed with some details defending his actions. There should have been regulations in place, describing the limits the NSA still had to endure when it came to U. S. citizens. When reports came out in 2005, there was much confusion as to what exactly the President had authorized, and if there were limits in place for the NSA. A failure to properly address the issue allowed the media to run wild with stories, further outraging critics.Silence and secrecy only added to the problem of distrust of the IC. In preparation, President Bush should have had a detailed description of the amendment to the policy, with restrictions still in place for the NSA. This policy should have been dated at the time it went into effect, signed by the President, the DCI, the Director of NSA and the Gang of Eight and kept in the possession of the Director of the NSA. Having a signed document would serve the future purpose of showing there was knowledge of the parameters of the amended policy.If this policy had to become public (open source) at some point, it would hopefully show that Management had made an organized effort of implementing change and involved as many officials as possible under the current circumstances. The National Security Agency (NSA) has the task of protecting U. S. national security systems through the use of signal intelligence (SIGINT), to include COMINT. Prior to the President giving authorization to warrantless domestic eavesdropping following 9/11, the NSA had to obtain a court approved warrant in order to eavesdrop on a U.S. citizen’s communications, otherwise known as a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrant. According to the center on law and security (2007) â€Å"FISA warrants require ‘probable cause’ to suspect that an individual is acting either for a ‘foreign power’ (including terrorist organizations) or as an ‘agent of a foreign power,’ a target (a cell phone, a computer, a BlackBerry, or a landline phone, for example), and that foreign intelligence be a ‘significant purpose’ of the warrant† (p. ). NSA is no stranger to negative public perception regarding their unconstitutional practices. This wireless intercept program put the agency’s reputation at stake once again. Reports of the NSA having access to most American’s phone records detailing their calls and communications is cause for concern for critics. Due to a lack of proper implementation, notifications and opportunity for oversight, the NSA and the IC has to climb another uphill battle to win back the trust of Americans.Dilanian (2011) states, â€Å"U. S. intelligence officials insist that the new surveillance powers have been crucial to stopping terrorist p lots†. Hopefully, some of the more recent successes in the community can erase the impact of failures and the intelligence community can improve their reputation once again. References Cummings, Alfred (2006). Statutory procedures under which Congress is to be informed of U. S. intelligence activities, including covert actions: NSA domestic surveillance.Congressional Research Service Dilanian, Ken (2011). 9/11, ten years after, more surveillance; A legacy of watchful eyes; The government eavesdrops on U. S. citizens as never before. Los Angeles Times Aug 30, 2011. Tuesday Home Edition. Lichtblau, E. & Risen, J. (2005). Bush lets U. S. spy on callers without courts. The New York Times, Dec 16, 2005. doi: 942423341 The Center on Law and Security at the NYU school of Law (2007). The NSA wiretapping program. For The Record, 1(Jan) 1-16.

Bharti Airtel Limited

Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company headquartered at New Delhi, India. It operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands. Airtel has GSM network in all countries in which it operates, providing 2G, 3G and 4G services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the world's third largest mobile telecommunications company with over 261 million subscribers across 150 countries as of August 2012. [4] It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with 183. 1 million subscribers as of November 2012. [5] Airtel is the third largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. Airtel is the largest provider of mobile telephony and second largest provider of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services. It offers its telecom services under the airtel brand, and is headed by Sunil Bhar ti Mittal. Bharti Airtel is the first Indian telecom service provider to achieve Cisco Gold Certification. 6] It also acts as a carrier for national and international long distance communication services. The company has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore. Airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategy of outsourcing all of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance and building the ‘minutes factory' model of low cost and high volumes. The strategy has since been copied by several operators. [7] Its network—base stations, microwave links, etc. is maintained by Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Network[8] whereas business support is provided by IBM,[9] and transmission towers are maintained by another company (Bharti Infratel Ltd. in India). [10] Ericsson agreed for the first time to be paid by the minute for installation and maintenance of their equipment rather than being paid up front, which allowed Airtel to provide low call rates of INR1/minute (US$0. 02/minute). [11] During the last financial year (2009–10), Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Luc ent to manage the network infrastructure for the tele-media business. On 31 May 2012, Bharti Airtel awarded the three-year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for setting up an Internet Protocol access network (mobile backhaul) across the country. This would help consumers access internet at faster speed and high quality internet browsing on mobile handsets. [12] Sunil Mittal founded the Bharti Group. In 1983, Mittal was in an agreement with Germany's Siemens to manufacture push-button telephone models for the Indian market. In 1986, Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL), and his company became the first in India to offer push-button telephones, establishing the basis of Bharti Enterprises. By the early 1990s, Sunil Mittal had also launched the country's first fax machines and its first cordless telephones. In 1992, Mittal won a bid to build a cellular phone network in Delhi. In 1995, Mittal incorporated the cellular operations as Bharti Tele-Ventures and launched service in Delhi. In 1996, cellular service was extended to Himachal Pradesh. In 1999, Bharti Enterprises acquired control of JT Holdings, and extended cellular operations to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In 2000, Bharti acquired control of Skycell Communications, in Chennai. In 2001, the company acquired control of Spice Cell in Calcutta. Bharti Enterprises went public in 2002, and the company was listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India. In 2003, the cellular phone operations were rebranded under the single Airtel brand. In 2004, Bharti acquired control of Hexacom and entered Rajasthan. In 2005, Bharti extended its network to Andaman and Nicobar. This expansion allowed it to offer voice services all across India. In 2009, Airtel launched its first international mobile network in Sri Lanka. In 2010, Airtel acquired the African operations of the Kuwait based Zain Telecom. In March 2012, Airtel launched a mobile operation in Rwanda. [13] On 26 February 2013, Airtel announced that it had deployed Ericsson’s Mobile Broadband Charging (MBC) solution and completely modernized its prepaid services for its subscribers in India. As a part of the deal, Ericsson’s multi service MBC suite allows prepaid customers to have personalized profile based data charging plans. Prepaid customers will be able to customize their data plans across mobility, fixed line and broadband by cross bundling across multiple domains (2G, 3G, 4G/LTE & Wi-Fi). It will also offer flexible multi service charging in geographical redundant mode, making Airtel the first operator to implement geographical redundancy at such a large scale. [14] In May 2013, Bharti Infotel paid Rs 50,000 as compensation to a customer â€Å"for unfair trade practices†. The customer alleged that the company continued to aggressively demand payment despite customer requests for disconnection of service. [15]

Annotated Bibliography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 6

Annotated Bibliography - Essay Example The fan YouTube video shows Jolie meeting her many fans. The video shows Jolie signing autographs for her eager fans. The visual & sound video shows fans were taking pictures of their idol. Meanwhile, Jolie’s bodyguards ensure Jolie’s safety and security. Several comments affirmed one of the Jolie fans fainted, dispelling the accident claim. The initial news reports indicated the fan met an avoidable fan accident. By staying away from the places where Jolie frequents, fan accidents can be literally avoided. With a large fan crowd, the fans must expect it is more difficult to step beside Jolie. For the faint of heart, it is highly advisable to stay away from Jolie’s path. In order to avoid being crushed by other Jolie fans, one fan insisted they must not rush towards their idol. Jolie agreed to have an avid fan her picture (Primary). The Jolie fan’s YouTube video showed both Jolie and husband Brad_Pitt greeting their fans. The video scene was taken during the 2014 film_Independent Spirit Awarding ceremony. Some video viewers commented they did not like Jolie’s question. Other fans opined Jolie’s question was meant to be funny. Another fan insisted Jolie’s questioning seemed seriously uttered. Another video videor emphasized some fans treat Jolie as a movie goddess (Primary). The YouTube video shows another fan’s coverage of Jolie doing humanitarian work. The scene shows Jolie carrying carry a young African boy. The fan uploaded the video to show she is proud of Jolie’s humanitarian work. In another scene, Jolie is seen visiting some bedridden refugees. Another scene showed Jolie was crying as she felt some individuals succumb to the harsh realities of life. The fan likes how Jolie would go visit the children of native African community. Jolie’s humanitarian efforts affirms Jolie goes out her way to beneficially improve the lives of the world’s poor families. Many

Criminal Conduct and Criminal Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Criminal Conduct and Criminal Law - Essay Example The consideration of mens rea is important because it separates those crimes that were committed willfully, and those acts that were accidental. The willful element shows that the person desired the outcome and should be responsible, or the outcome so desired. The lack of the willful element may mean that the outcome was desired and was not even planned for. It is only fair not to punish someone for an act they did by mistake, and they did not even desire the outcome. However, at times, the law has to go a step further and see whether the outcome was foreseeable, or if the person performing the act was so negligent in acting that he could not even consider the occurrence of the act. If a person pulls a trigger of a loaded gun to check whether the gun is working, he will be responsible for the murder or injury that is occasioned if the bullet hits somebody. It is only fair that people be held criminally liable for criminal acts that occur due to negligence on their part even if they did not have the requisite mens rea. From the above analysis, it is noted that there is no clear answer on whether a person is criminally liable or not considering the lack of mens rea. Each case is to be in light of the prevailing circumstances (Herring, 2013). Legislative immunity is immunity that is accorded to legislators in parliament in the process of passing laws. Legislative immunity applies to actions that the legislators may do, or words said in the process of formulating legislation. Legislative immunity is important because it accords the legislators protection from being sued for libel arising out of words spoken in Parliament. However, it is to be noted that this immunity is not absolute and can be removed by the courts on application by an interested party. The parliament can also remove the immunity through amending the law, although this will not act retrogressively. Legislative immunity is meant to ensure freedom of speech during

Long-Term Growth and Development of a Nation Dissertation

Long-Term Growth and Development of a Nation - Dissertation Example While the Democratic Party is known as the architect of modern day racism, the Republicans have been following a policy of attacking racism at its very roots. The delegation head J.C. Watts pointed out, â€Å"we are going to attack racism at its roots, we have to focus on education, on economic empowerment, and on rewarding hard work† the Republicans are aware of the Democratic policy of keeping the blacks in poverty and hunger in order to turn them against the Republicans during election time and induce them to cast protest votes. Republicans are against the racial quotas and social welfare benefits. However, I feel they should incorporate these in order to win the confidence of the blacks. Thus the Republicans aim at winning the hearts of the blacks and help them gain a respectable position such that they may have little ground for protest. According to Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association, â€Å"The Democrats fight every effort of Republicans to get blacks out of poverty because they know that once blacks become prosperous, the Democratic Party will lose its power base†. Working at the grassroots level would be essential for this. The Republicans cannot work towards the betterment of the blacks without a policy of approaching the problem secretly, slowly and on a one-to-one level. The Democrats know that for politics’ sake they cannot let the blacks prosper. However, prosperity cannot come to a nation if a large section of the population or inhabitants lies impoverished and in misery. However, the United States by its very constitution, stand against bigotry and hence racism. In the words of Watts, â€Å"Our country was built on a foundation of liberty and equality for people of all races, religions, and backgrounds. The principles of tolerance and equality remain the core of our identity as a nation†. However, the most recent blow to the efforts against racism was disturbed when the 9/11 massacre to ok place. The threat would fall on the Arabs and Muslims. Recently, after 9/11 took place this hatred even spread towards the harmless Sikhs of India. The idea of promoting the Ku-Klux-Klan (KKK) complemented the Democrats’ interest.

Erin Brockovich Movie (2000) Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Erin Brockovich (2000) - Movie Review Example Hence, the movie depicts a character-based true event of American history involving one of â€Å"the largest direct-action legal settlement† that ever happened in America. Although Albert Finney, who is acting Erin’s irritable boss, is also an interesting character; still, Erin’s trashy and plain mannerism holds the viewer’s attention through the length of the movie. â€Å"The story of Erin Brockovich is an inspirational reminder of the power of the human spirit†, says Henderson. The movie is a sweet story of her struggle and passion which led her to become a successful woman who ended her helping herself through helping others. Erin portrays the labor class of America who is fighting to make their both ends meet and desperate for justice and employment. People of this class face punishments and all decisions from the law even when there is no fault of theirs. Thus, Erin’s is the story that starts with a depiction of the plight of the working class. Also, the two sides of Erin Brockovich are correctly shown in the film which includes â€Å"the tender loveliness of a mother to match her first name, and the assaulting harshness of a fullback to match her last name†. However, she has been shown as being foul-mouthed which the labor class is usually stereotyped as. For example, when Erin gets into an argument with a colleague and the latter says that they got off on the wrong foot, Erin replies that all she (the colleague) has been two wrong feet. The movie proves to some extent that it is always the labor class of people that have to suffer.

National ( the U.S.) and Oklahoma medicaid Dissertation

National ( the U.S.) and Oklahoma medicaid - Dissertation Example Per-enrollee growth exceeded economy-wide inflation by nearly 11% (Klemm, p107). Amendments to the Social Security Act were passed in 1971 and 1972 creating Supplemental Social Security Income and nearly all beneficiaries also received Medicaid. Optional amendments began covering intermediate care services for the mentally retarded and psychiatric services for patients under 22. By 1976 enrollment reached 20.7 million with an average growth rate of 5% a year which did not vary greatly for the next ten years. Because of this considerable growth the Reagan administration began to consider ways to curve deficit. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act in 1981began a three year reduction in and also reduced some eligibility for Welfare benefits. States begin to attempt Health Maintenance Organizations and community based waiver programs and focus began to shift more towards managing services and controlling the costs of care. Enrollment rates remained stable though expenditures continued t o increase and rise. In 1984 congress decided to implement expansions that continued to increase throughout the eighties. ... Medicaid spending was approximately 275.5 billion dollars in 2003 (Holahan and Ghosh, p 26) and became a major target for the 2005 budget debate. Spending increased by 10 % between 2000 and 2003; thus being attributed to welfare reform. Growth was noted among the non-disabled and children; as the economy began to decline the population experienced job losses and loss in income. State Medicaid cutbacks were made, insurance premiums rose and employee sponsored coverage declined. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2011 was tailored with the expectation that sixteen million people would gain access to health care. Obama care has created two basic paths towards universal health care access (Reno, p 61). Obamacare has increased funding for the public side of the current health care system though many worry that private insurers will end up absorbing increased health care costs. Oklahoma Medicaid Program Medicaid provides acute health care and long term care services to over 600,000 low-income families and elderly individuals. The Oklahoma health care vision is ‘for Oklahoman’s to enjoy optimal health status through access to quality health care regardless of their ability to pay,’ (Connell, 2012). The Oklahoma Health Care Authority has administered and overseen the Oklahoma Medicaid program since 1995 and is responsible for rule making and policy development. The Oklahoma Medicaid State Plan includes coverage for the following services: Ambulance and ambulatory surgery center services Substance abuse and behavioral health services Case management services Radiation and chemotherapy services Renal dialysis services Certain dental services Durable

Value for health care managers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Value for health care managers - Essay Example In this gradual endeavor, healthcare managers may help a medical personnel carry out vital tasks efficiently in treating a patient by examining the set of necessities that matter to the working personnel who seeks to fulfil them to acquire a motivational tool for enhancing performance. It may be a tedious work to come to know and evaluate the concerns of each individual working in a medical firm. There are need-based theories of motivation, however, which a healthcare manager may look into and for which to invest some time to assist him in determining which would be most fitting and valuable at targeting to motivate a particular group or individual in the company. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the ERG theory of Clayton Alderfer, the Two-Factor theory of Frederick Herzberg, and D. McClelland’s Acquired Needs theory are the four need-based theories of motivation which to some extent attempt to demonstrate grounds for human needs and wants (Carpenter, Bauer, & Erdogan, 2009 ). Majority of these and related theories according to the specific needs of a man bring across the significance of having certain needs come to be satisfied prior to shifting focus on other priorities that are less relevant in the sense that they bear no direct impact upon motivation. By his Hierarchy of Needs, Abraham Maslow proposed ranking of human needs with the use of pyramid representation where the basic of all is the state of ‘physiology’. Maslow points out that only by satisfying such primary requirement through sufficient food, air, and water can the person proceed to deal with supplicating the need for safety which is on the next level since needs come in the order of importance and human desires attached with the needs, particularly those yet to be satisfied, affect human behavior (Cuizon, 2009). Using the pyramid model, Maslow further levels up safety to social need after which esteem is accounted for in order that self-actualization on the top-most level can be sustained by a character initially developed by self-worth. The hierarchy presents a systematic manner of assessing where a laborer stands within circumstances which allow him to display appropriate potentials where, in doing so, the process may inevitably reflect what he lacks or yearns for. Moreover, application of Maslow’s theory could bring out in each subject the type of response through which a behavior is delivered or that which suggests how the person feels about the situation in relation to himself and the people around him. Consequently, his strengths and weaknesses are also revealed in the course of communicating to others his set of attributes and principles which depict them. For instance, an employee who is trying to feed her esteem may be appreciative of a boss who receives an equal or higher degree of acclaim may rather find it unsuitable or awkward if she occurs to be at the stage of trying to be socially content, knowing that individual rewards would probably keep her further apart from the rest of the circle which she desires to be part of (Carpenter, et al., 2009). Considering the ability of a competent healthcare manager to execute

Vulcanicity Case Essay Example for Free

Vulcanicity Case Essay Volcanoes mostly occur at plate margins. They can also occur at hot spots and in rift valleys. The most active volcanic zone is the Pacific Ring of Fire around the Pacific plate. Here plates are colliding or separating. At active points on these plates volcanic mountains are formed, e.g. Nazca Plate and South American Plate, where plates separate, e.g. Pacific and Nazca Plate and in rift valleys, e.g. African Plate, Kenya. The most active area on the globe is the western rim of the Pacific Plate stretching from Russia to New Zealand. Several findings relating to earthquakes and volcanic activity can be explained by plate tectonics. If you follow news stories of earthquakes, you may begin to wonder why such places as California or Japan have so many earthquakes, whereas the north eastern United States or Western Europe have so few. The fact is that earthquakes occur along belts and the vast majority of these belts lie on the boundaries of the earth’s tectonic plates. The same is true of volcanoes and locations known for earthquakes, such as the Philippines, have many volcanoes.The Hawaiian Islands are located near the centre of the Pacific Plate. These islands of Hawaii experience plate movement, helping to form the volcanoes that created those islands. At the south of the island group, many volcanoes are still active, while those to the north are mainly dormant. The reason for this is that the Pacific Plate is moving north over a stationary lava source (mantle plume) below Hawaii. The south islands remain above it, while the northern islands have moved away.The Oceanic crusts are tend to be youngest at the centre of ocean basins and along mid-ocean ridges, or along submarine ridges where new seafloor is created. There is much volcanic activity here as massive fissure eruptions frequently occur. Crusts of oceanic and continental type differ by their thickness and by composition. Basalt, an igneous rock (from the cooling of magma), makes up the SIMA, whereas much of the continental crust (SIAL) is made up of granite, also an igneous rock. Where the crust is thin volcanic activity is more clearly seen.

Evaluating use of PowerPoint for teaching in schools

Evaluating use of PowerPoint for teaching in schools Microsoft PowerPoint Program is a presentation software programme that can be used effectively in academic sector (Bartsch and Cobern, 2003). PowerPoint was developed as a business software tool, but its inherent capabilities led to its adoption in education, and this has been the subject of ongoing research. PowerPoint is an easy-to-use software application (Holzl, 1997) and can be used to give dynamic and engaging presentations in the visual mode. Some of the features of the PowerPoint are helpful for lecturers, for example, to highlight key points, and to show assignment information. Additional features such as clipart and cartoons can add interest to presentations (Sammons, 1997). Several researchers have analysed the effects of PowerPoint on student performance and student preferences towards Power Point. These studies have used different methodologies and there are a range of empirical results. These are described in the following sections, where each studys merits and demerits of using Power Point are presented, followed by analysis and conclusions. It is one of the most useful things to know about the secondary school perspective on styles of teaching, and how this impact on the students future. In olden days, it was very difficult for the school teachers to make use of technology in classroom teaching. One of the main reasons is lack of training and equipment. The use of electronic media in school laboratories, classrooms are being increased and are being used in science and technology lessons by teachers who are confident in the usage of modern technology in the classroom (Ofested, 2002). Nowadays, it is also common for the school teachers to give lectures through modern packages and PowerPoint, particular during practical classes. In spite of availability of technologies, still delivery the lecture through chalk and talk approach is dominant one (Dudley and Timothy 2006). Nowadays, in developed countries, the use of PowerPoint in education has become widespread. However in some schools in Saudi Arabia, its usage is not ubiquitous but restricted to some important lessons and topics. This may in part be due to teachers limited knowledge of how to use PowerPoint, so broadening their knowledge might give benefits and make it easier for students to learn. However, in most schools, the classrooms are simply not equipped for PowerPoint presentations a single classroom in the whole school may be the only one equipped for PowerPoint. In addition to that, there may be resistance by some teachers to alter, while others are still hesitant, given the debate over the extent of any positive influence of PowerPoint on the educational performance of students. Past studies are inconclusive about PowerPoint, with contradictory views. However in Saudi Arabia, some studies supported the usage of such technology in Saudi schools for the benefit of learners (Al-Sharhan, 20 06). In general, the discussion about the use of PowerPoint in teaching practice has two important problematic issues: How effective is the technology at improving the quality of teaching received by learners. How consistent is PowerPoints use have teachers the required skills and enthusiasm for its use The first issue can be manifested in the level of satisfaction that may be inspired by the technology. For some researchers, the simplicity of the technology removes more of the teaching professional load and leads to a non-stimulating delivery of content (Pauw, 2002). The second issue tells about the inconsistency within the educational setting due to absence of suitable training and opposition in implementing the technology by someone. This may have negative effects on learners, who were given the different modes of approach in delivering the PowerPoint presentations within the same discipline. Therefore, it is more important in selecting the technology to ensure that it is compatible with the aims of training in order to bring the successful implementation. Purpose of the Study This present study evaluates the use of PowerPoint for teaching in schools. The factors involved in implementing PowerPoint in schools are also explored. Based on this study, it has been found that computer technology and multimedia presentations have no guaranteed effect on quality of learning. On the other hand, It has also been found that the use of such technology motivate the students for positive learning. Moreover, it has been proposed that use of technology is in harmony with the adoption and familiarity of learners of such technology, and so connects prevailing learner and educational cultures. The present study also addressed the factors to implement the way of effective adoption of technology, proper deployment of PowerPoint, training and development, models of teaching practice in mixed formats. At the same time, it is also important for the teachers to keep update the technology and technological changes. Then only, the content delivery and driving force for learning will be maintained. Though, PowerPoint is in greater use among teachers and researchers, but the best format to deliver materials based on learner assimilation needs to be found (Heines, 2000). Research Questions How does the use of PowerPoint presentations in educational institutions compared to traditional presentation, including the use of overhead projectors and handwritten blackboard notes? Does the use of PowerPoint increase the student performance? What are the advantage and disadvantage of use of PowerPoint in teaching? What are the factors affecting the use of PowerPoint presentations effectively? What are the benefits of existing debate on the use of PowerPoint presentations in the classroom setting? What are the opinions of the students in PowerPoint presentations regarding lighting, use of colours, backgrounds, images, and sound, and the way of delivering the lecturers through of slides? Literature review INTRODUCTION Several researchers have made an attempt to analyse the student performance and preferences based on the effects of PowerPoint. In their attempts, different methodologies were used and based on that a range of empirical results have also been proposed. These were discussed based on the use of PowerPoint and its merits and demerits were also presented in the following sections. There has been a lot more discussion over different methods to deliver lecture to the students. In particular, many lecturers use written material delivered on a chalkboard, whiteboard, or by transparent sheet on an overhead projector, and, in last fifteen years or so, the method of presenting the visual information directly from a computer onto a screen. These types of computers and projection technology devices can be seen in the classrooms. This gives the facility to engage the learners through graphics and multimedia presentations. Many faculty members and administrators felt that PowerPoint was initially considered as a cutting edge technology for use in the classroom. Later students felt that the PowerPoint should not be used more often because it is too passive. For example, Creed (1997) argues that the use of computer-based presentations makes the teacher to be too focused. Kask (n.d.) and Parks (1999) suggested that the computer-based presentations make the students to take a nap in larger auditoriums, where the some of the lights in the auditorium have to be dimmed. Prior to lecture, if the lecture notes are provided to the students, students may show less interest in attending the class. Others feel that the PowerPoint offers the ability to provide more concentration to the students. For example, Stone (1999) argues that the discussion in the classroom is improved by the use of computer-based presentations. In the part of the presentation, the discussed questions can be displayed on the screen. Based on the students interaction and response, the students names and comments can also be projected in the presentation. Finally, these interactions and responses can then be printed or given to all students. He also discusses how the exercise and experiments given to the students can be facilitated by incorporating them in the presentations. It can also be argued that the students take less time for taking their notes, whereas the PowerPoint allows more time for interactive activities. Based on the controversy about PowerPoint and its usage, some studies have attempted to measure the impact of computer generated presentations on student performance. Overall, the results have been mixed. A Very few said that the PowerPoint presentations did not have an effect on the student performance, while others said that PowerPoint presentations enhances the student performance. Educational Technology The one of the oldest and most common forms of educational technology is chalkboard. Through chalkboard a current topic of discussion, points to be discussed, points to be noted, end result of the discussion, important issues to be remembered up to certain period of time, summaries of discussion and lines of reasoning. In olden days, the major medium of communication followed by professor to take lecture was chalk and blackboard (Frost Fukami, 1997). The use of pictures, tables, and charts on the chalkboard will add an advantage to the information publicly communicated. This way of delivering lecture is suppressed by the more expensive and sophiscated technologies such as the overhead projector, the video-tape player, the more interactive video-disc player, PowerPoint, computer for computer assisted learning and most interactive whiteboard (Ghrist et al, 2003). In colleges, nowadays several studies have emerged on the use of multimedia in classrooms. Professors are using these techn ologies in mixed and creative way to promote the most learning techniques for the students to satisfy their aims and needs (Thomas, 2009). Nowaczyk et al. (1988) observed that the student interest and awareness of relevancy of topics were enhanced by videos. The static media such as overhead projector contributed to better understanding of the material presented in that instance. Video (VHS or DVD) presentations were made the students to engage in business activities, news, stories, integrate theory, R D activities and new challenges in the workplace and all these activities provide higher value of entertainment than other technologies (Caudron, 1997; Salomon, 1984). In some cases, video presentations and watching videos on particular issue is interesting than other technologies (Fulk et al., 1995). Astleitner (2002) reported the studies concerned with critical thinking of teaching via web lectures. The informations in the audio recording lectures were greatly influenced than video recordings. Though, the difference between the two modalities in terms of retention was nil. During subjective evaluation, students showed better evaluations for audio recordings. Interactive whiteboard is the present educational technology makes the things easier for the teacher to include the presentation content in wider range such as images from the internet, graphs from the excel sheet, text from MS word. Apart from that, student and teacher annotations could be done on the objects. The one of the drawbacks of the Interactive whiteboards is cost. It is more expensive than conventional whiteboards, projector, and screen combination. Their surfaces can be damaged and quite often replacement is required. The negative perceptions of PowerPoint compared to other interactive presentation tool were reported by Wolfs (2007). In his comparison, the use of PowerPoint and electronic presentation tool were compared. Wolfs (2007) studied and compared the students interests in content and perception of pace over the course for 2nd years student. This was done by splitting the participants into two groups. The first group consists of 36 students and the duration was about 50 minutes lectures for each class. The instructor used PowerPoint to project the course content. The second group consists of same number of students and the classroom presenter was used. The classroom presenter is like PowerPoint slide presentation with more interactive features such as write on the digital screen with digital pen, connection can be performed between student and instructor, information can be shared between instructor and student system. Instructor has a laptop computer, whose monitor swivels, lays flat and a llows the user to write on the digital screen using digital pen (notepad). The PowerPoint in the laptop could able to utilize linking features. However, PowerPoint alone doesnt have these features. Hence the classroom presenter had greater impact on the survey results. To predict the difference between two methods, optional web-based post-class survey provided to the group. The advantage of classroom presenter is that it allows the instructor to interact with the device by digitally highlighting information and also have the features to write on the digital slide. Though, the difference in the result is not significant. However, out of 17%, 3% perceived attending lectures using classroom presenter to be more interesting. One of the speculations is that most of the students preferred the added interaction of classroom presenter. This may be cause for speculation of students interaction and instructor presence compared to effectiveness of any presentation tool (Cited in Kevin, 2008). Thomas, (2009), compared five teaching technologies approaches like Projector, PowerPoint, Video, the Internet, and Lecture. And the results are overlapping and merging together. Such as, video can be shown in PowerPoint and internet and PowerPoint slides through web. They also used projector screen as blackboard using black films. Hence, in natural teaching environment, it is difficult to segregate Lecture, Projector, PowerPoint, Video, or the Internet. However, it is believed that the cognitive abilities of the students can be used to focus these five teaching technologies individually. The separate general perceptions about use of each technology can also be provided (Thomas, 2009). In his study, integrated computer workstation used for lecture in all classrooms and the teaching materials were presented on the same large screen using projector, PowerPoint, Video (VHS or DVD), and the Internet. The PowerPoint slides were replaced with traditional overhead color transparencies for l ecture outlines and information. Students use internet effectively for business organization, to refer the links cited in the books, research journals, reports, papers, case studies etc. Apart from this, the current events, news and many other types of information are also accessed in the internet. Internet acts as a largest digital library tool for the instruction. The specific type of classroom presentation will not serve the students needs. Different technologies can be used for different learning objectives. Among all the education technologies, the Lecture and PowerPoint are less active and interesting and also boring than other different approaches. Still these the Lecture and PowerPoint technologies contribute to student performance. All technologies have their own characteristic strength and weakness. There is an urge to develop the practical impacts of these new available technologies on education and students (Thomas, 2009). USING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM In some studies, it was mentioned that the PowerPoint presentation increases the students motivation and achievements in their lessons (Mantei 2000). In addition to that, most of the students mentioned that it helped them in taking notes and study for exam if instruction is provided in PowerPoint presentations (Noppe, 2007), and they prefer PowerPoint lectures to traditional lecture (Frey and Birnbaum, 2002). Researchers explored that the end-result of preparing PowerPoint presentations by the students are very limited. Gunel et al. (2006) compared the effectiveness of the students in writing summary report and preparing PowerPoint presentation about two units in physics lesson. In this particular case,It was observed that the students prepared the PowerPoint presentation scored significantly better than the students prepared summary report format. In another study, Marmienà © (2006) investigated the ability of the students in choosing the material and the content of PowerPoint pres entations on professional topics via the internet and also he investigated the students ability to prepare and deliver the presentation in front of the audience. As a result, it was mentioned and reported that preparing and delivering the material through PowerPoint presentation improved the students gaining skills in addition to listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. That is the use of such technologies is more time-efficient compared to traditional way of delivering the presentation i.e. using whiteboard or overhead transparency projector. Hence, more time can be given on interaction and instruction rather than using the traditional way (Mantei, 2000). Susskind (2005) taught two courses on Introduction to Psychology. In these courses, half of the courses, he taught with the help of PowerPoint and other half without PowerPoint presentations in a counterbalanced order across classes. Gradewise, there was no significant difference in student performance. However, the students performance has not increased in many courses that used multimedia presentations (Susskind Gurien, 1999; Szaba Hastings, 2000). In one of the studies, it was demonstrated that there was a decrease in student performance when the instructor switched from transparencies to PowerPoint (Bartlett, Cheng, Strough, 2000). Ahmed (1998) compared the two methods (overhead projector and PowerPoint) of information presentation. He observed very little difference in the performance on exams resulting from the use of these two methods. It was also indicated that that the difficulty of the lectures had a greater impact on the performance of the student than the use of PowerPoint itself. Szabo and Hastings (2000) presented three different lectures; first lecture with overhead transparencies; second lecture with PowerPoint; and third lecture with power point and handouts of the Power Point slides. All these lectures were tested for the same group of students in a physical education course. One week later, mock tests were conducted to the students. While there was no significant difference in grades between two tests on lectures delivered with PowerPoint, the grades from the two PowerPoint lectures were higher than the grades scored with the lecture provided with overhead transparencies. In 1995, Lowery (1999) taught Environment Science course through overhead transparencies. In 1996-1997, the same lecture was provided to the students with the help of Power Point. He found statistically significant differences on comparing the average test scores. The material taught in the year of 1996 and 1997 with the help of PowerPoint have higher average test scores than the course taught with overheads in the year of 1995. In the survey of Sazbo and Hasting (2000), 80% of the students felt that PowerPoint lectures were highly beneficial and that visual emphasis to recall the lecture material during the exam time. The presenters often highlight the main ideas and points with bullets. Based on this information, the audience members and students aware of the tips included in the presentation. In the latter stage, they may specially focus on the points presented in the slides and ignore the elaboration talk given by the speaker (Savoy, Proctor and Salvendy 2009). According to Savoy (2009), the use of PowerPoint, webcasts and podcasts have tremendously increased in university lectures to focus the students attendance and expose the student to the lecture material effectively. However, the easy way of preparation and distribution of information digitally does not always mapped to the enhanced student performance. In one of the interesting parallels with Susskind (2004), a traditional lecture format to a PowerPoint multimedia format has been compared. By doing this, they observed that students thought themselves to be equal and capable if they had learned from the format similar to the E-lectures in this study, as they were learned through traditional lectures. Paradoxically, these were not reflected their performance during exams. It also does not seem to be linked to the presence or absence of multimedia delivery. Using PowerPoint effectively Due to the presence of mixed results among the studies investigated relate to the beneficial effects of PowerPoint on performance, a new perspective fine-grained analysis is needed to assess the impact of delivery style on student performance (Susskind, 2005). All the above studies, did not investigate and concentrate the complexity of the presentations which is also one of the factor directly impacts the performance. For example, PowerPoint presentations can be written with simple text in single coloured screen. Presentations can also be made complex with tables, pictures, graphs, animation effects such as sound effects, visual effects, video clips. The effectiveness of PowerPoint and other multimedia presentations directly depends on the complexity of the presentation. However, several researchers have demonstrated that a few lectures include material which can reduce overall performance of PowerPoint presentations, such as irrelevant sounds (Moreno Mayer, 2000), clusters of text (Schraw, 1998), and irrelevant and unwanted pictures (Mayer, 2001, p. 113). According to Robert Kristi (2002), in the detailed PowerPoint presentations, the items which are relevant (e.g. most of the pictures), and not relevant (e.g. most of the sound effects) to the context were presented. The level of the performance is diminished because of the irrelevant items presented in the presentation. These irrelevant items detract the students concentration. It was also found that the graphics related to the context may be beneficial, and the graphics not related to the context not at all helpful in learning. Also, for a simple presentation, the graphics items are not necessary. But graphics items will be helpful for tedious, complex and difficult lectures. If the graphics items are desired, then the PowerPoint presentations should have the special features to accommodate them in an easy manner. It can be concluded, that the relevant items should only be given in the presentation. (Robert Kristi 2002) It is also worth to mention that some of the flexible features of PowerPoint such as colour, variation in font, image, dynamic model building, or multimedia capabilities bring the student attention close to the context. For digital lecturing, the student enthusiasm depends on the structured pattern of the PowerPoint presentation. Hence, the presenter or the instructor should follow a well-organised and structured pattern of the presentation. Susskind (2005) mentioned about the way of delivering the lecture styles that there is no difference on various styles of delivering the lecture. In his experiment; a mixed participant design and counterbalanced lecture format order were involved. This eliminated any confounding between delivery style and order. Apart from that, it reduced the potential cohort effects via within the subject comparisons. However, methodological issue regarding student assignment has not been carried out. Susskind observed that the students were not assigned random ly. The results of his experiments could be reflected the pre-existing conditions of academic ability, preparation and motivation. STUDENT PREFERANCE AND IMPACT IN COURES EVALUATION Besides evaluating the student performance based on the impact of computer-generated slides, several studies concentrated the perceptions of PowerPoint. For example, Daniels (1999) found that the three-quarters of the students in her analysis preferred PowerPoint presentation rather than chalkboard. Similarly Szabo and Hastings (2000) reported that 90% of the students thought that the PowerPoint lectures grabs more attention than the traditional lecture. Furthermore, 65% of the students in the study preferred PowerPoint and said that the PowerPoint lecture motivate the students to attend the class and 72 % of the students said that they prefer to see PowerPoint used in all courses. In the survey, there was an exception found in students of economics majors (612 students) at Radford University (Hashemzadeh and Wilson, 2007). In their study, students were asked to compare the course lecture provided with and without PowerPoint (not taught by the same professors). It was found that the majority of the students felt that they could able to understand lecture better because they felt more involvement and better interaction with the instructor in the sections taught with PowerPoint. The majority of students preferred courses taught with PowerPoint rather than courses taught without PowerPoint. Frey and Birnbaun (2002) found that the students preferred lectures using PowerPoint than those using chalkboard or whiteboard. They also perceived that the lecture is to be more structured and organized. In their study Students appreciated the advantages of PowerPoint, such as easy to read the slides, keeping the lecture on-track, enlivening the lecture by providing the combinations of pictures and more concise text. They also often criticised badly-prepared and poorly-presented lectures. In common, too much information provided on the single slide and slide was fully composed of similar words leading to boring rather than interesting. Students were less engaged for chalkboard or overhead transparencies techniques were used in delivering the lecture. (Frey and Birnbaun, 2002) Advantages The advantages of presenting lecture through PowerPoint presentations can be generalized as follows: Using the PowerPoint, the course content and the way of delivering the lecture could be framed properly (Nouri Shahid 2005). According to students, observing the lecture through PowerPoint presentations is quite interesting. Thus, giving lecture through PowerPoint presentations affect the students in positive way (Parks, 1999; Nouri Shahid, 2005; James, 2006; Atkins-Sayre et al 2006). In PowerPoint presentations, poor handwriting issues, decrease in visibility due to chalk, perennial issue of dirty blackboards (if blackboard were used for long time) were avoided. (Carlos, 2008) PowerPoint presentation enhances the students interest for attending the classes (James, 2006; Sugahara Boland, 2006 ). Through PowerPoint presentations, the learning capacity of the students is increased. (Harrison, 2006) According to Lowry (1999), after introducing the PowerPoint lecturer classes to first year environmental science course a remarkable improvement was observed in student performance and cognition. Because of PowerPoint presentations, time taken for the students in taking notes was reduced. Most of the students brought their PowerPoint slides printout to the classroom and annotate to them as required. (Carlos, 2008) Providing PowerPoint presentation classnotes to the students indicates a organised set of notes that allows students to transform into a detailed form without putting much effort on it. (Carlos, 2008) In some of the studies, it was found that supply of PowerPoint presentations along with student notes lead to achieve better performance and retention (Kiewra, 1985). It was also found that some studies show that segregating the notes from notes what students taken while observing can also lead to better retention (Aiken, 1975). Another big advantage of PowerPoint presentations is that the instructor can present a lot of material in single lecture such as giving concepts in problem solving, discussion, or review of articles in terms of class materials. Because of this students need not to dedicate more time in taking the elaborate class notes. (Carlos, 2008) Photos, videoclips and hyperlink for elaboarate discussion can be added in the PowerPoint presentation only.(Carlos, 2008) According to Young, 2004, it was proclaimed in one of the most public endorsements of PowerPoint that the students performance and learning experiences are enhanced by the use of multimedia. Students also mirrored this thought. Because the PowerPoint presentation enlighten a lecture with images, pictures that provide additional support to the key points and improved clarity to the texts compared to chalkboards (Young, 2004). And also, it is possible in PowerPoint presentation that the instructor can cover the previous class notes in a single slide to make the students to remember. (Carlos, 2008) Instructors indicated that PowerPoint can be used to update their lectures from time to time and believe that PowerPoint presentation is a valuable tool that help to organize the class notes. (Schwartz, 2005) Disadvantages The disadvantages of presenting lecture through PowerPoint presentations can be generalized as follows: One of the major disadvantages is that instructor has to spend more time in preparing the notes and relevant pictures from the World Wide Web and place the pictures, graphs or tables in the appropriate place. .(Kristi,2003) Most of the lecture presentation will be reused subsequently for next batch students with less time effort. This initial time taken for preparing the presentation by the faculty member is reasonably considered as major disadvantage.(Kristi,2003) From the study by Dudley (2006), it was observed that the electronic presentations were disliked. The main reasons were given; hard copies of the class notes were not given, through presentation lot of material could be covered, complicated pictures and diagram were provided, lectures were delivered very quickly. The additional material had to be added in the PowerPoint presentation notes to reinforce it. (Carlos, 2008) Using chalkboard or a whiteboard in the classroom allows more time in spending a single topic. This gives natural pauses and provides delays in the presentation and discussion before moving to next topic. (Carlos, 2008) Opposition of PowerPoint notes is that the structure of PowerPoint lecture commands a degree of linearity that may creates artificial misguiding hierarchies of informations provided in the lecture (Tuft, 2003), hierarchical organization of content is to be removed (Doumont, 2005), and discourages the chances to redirect or expand upon the delivered points (Schwartz, 2005). Besides adherence usage of pre-designed template, PowerPoint urge to use bullets, which convey the message in detrimental or effective way (Boehle, 2006, Tufte, 2003 Mayer, 2004).Edward Tufte (2003), claimed that the bullets lead to gross generalization, inaccurate logical and superficial reasoning and more often leads to indifferent conclusions. Hanft (2003) also supported that the PowerPoint presentation depress the discussion. Most of the students have positive opinions about the instructors in terms of PowerPoint presentation. Some of the students were complained that instructors used too much text and pictures and information in the slides and makes the slides to be clumsy manner, because of this the material in the slides were difficult to see (Doumont, 2005; Young, 2004). One student at Connecticut College said that her professor would write too long sentences or complete sentence in the PowerPoint slides, rather which she would then read. Because of that the information presented in the slides were become complicated and convoluted (Young, 2004). Further, some of the instructors

Five Phases of Nursing Process Essay

Five Phases of Nursing Process Essay Discuss how the five phases of the nursing process may be used to provide effective nursing care (1500-2000) Introduction The nurse as a health care provider meets the total needs of the patient and this need to be done in an attentive and cautious way as there is life involved. Nursing is concerned with the psychological, spiritual, social and physical aspect of the person rather than only on the patient’s medical condition. Critical thinking alone is not enough for solving problems. Critical thinking needs to be combined with scientific methods to identify patient’s problems and provide care in an effective way. This structure of thinking and acting is called the nursing process. Nursing Process The nursing process plan is an important aid in the hospitalization of patients. It is a systematic, client oriented not task centred which enables the nurse to identify the client care problems. The effective use of the nursing process helps the nurse to determine not only existing problems but also problems that might arise in the future. Being able to assume problems may prevent pain and complications to the client. The nursing process consists of five interrelated phases – assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation. Each of the five steps depends on the efficiency of the previous steps. In each step of the nursing process both the nurse and the patient need to work together as partners. The nursing process is also a continuous process because health conditions can change from time to time. The nurse must frequently reassess, implement, insert new interventions and revaluate the overall process. The nursing process has no specific periods, it can last fo r days, months or years, and all this depends on the patient’s current status. All steps of the nursing process rely upon complete and authentic information gained and given about the client. Assessment The nursing process begins as soon as a relationship forms between the patient and the nurse. This nurse-client relationship will help and also determine part of the end results. Assessment begins by gaining data regarding the patient. Data can be collected from a variety of sources. The client is the primary source which can share personal perceptions and feelings about health and illness. During the assessing process the nurse and the patient will eventually start building a sense of trust between them. It is the nurse duty to make the patient comfortable enough to talk and give information; this will help the nurse to identify more quickly the patient strengths and weaknesses. Secondary sources are utilizing when additional information is required to clarify data and when the patient is unable to provide information. However, they include the patient’s family or individuals present in the patient’s environment. When data is given by secondary sources it is also important for the nurse to avoid being defensive as this may cause both the client and relatives to avoid being honest and open. The nurse communication must make the patient and famil y feel free to share their comments and also ask some questions, after all this aids for a better plan of care. The nurse while gaining information from secondary sources should carefully consider the patient’s right to confidentiality. Interviewing, observation and physical examination are three major methods that are used to gather information during nursing assessment. By interviewing the patient the nurse can acquire specific information and naturally it facilitates nurse-patient relationship. The nonverbal components of a nurse-patient interaction frequently transmit a message more effectively than the actual spoken words. The patient’s facial expression however also reveals important information. On the other hand observation involves the use of senses to acquire information and this mostly requires practice from the nurse. The focus of physical examination is the diagnosis of the disease. Both objective and subjective data are used while assessing the patient. Objective data consist of observational attitudes towards the patient’s behaviour. Subjective data is gathered when the nurse while interviewing the patient obtain data about his/her feelings. After the assessing part, documentation of data needs to be done. The purpose of documentation is to establish communication amongst the members of the health team. Documentation also tracks the patient progression and regression. Assessment is a continues activity that begins at the time of admission and continue during patient contact. Diagnosis After the nurse has collected and prioritized the patient data, diagnosis begins. The North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) which operates the official list of nursing diagnostics states that nursing diagnosis are â€Å" a professional judgment based on the application of clinical knowledge which determined potential or actual experiences and responses to health problems and life processes†. Through nursing diagnosis the nurse can determine actual and potential health problems. Existing needs will always take the priority upon potential problems not because they are not important but the existing ones would need to be tackled first to try to avoid potential ones. In the diagnosing step, the nurse analyzes data gathered from the nursing assessment. These data help the nurse to identify patient strengths and health problems. In this phase data are processed, classified, interpreted, and validated. Classification allows the nurse to manage the large volume of data. Placing data into categories also helps the nurse to identify missing data that require for more discussion. Interpretation leads the nurse to recognize the patients’ patterns and trends. While through validation the nurse is able to verify the accuracy of data. Errors in the diagnostic process such as inaccurate interpretation of data, incomplete data and lack of knowledge or experience can result in nursing diagnostic statements that are not suitable for the patient. Diagnosis will help the nurse to report the findings to other health care professions and work collaboratively with them to resolve the patient problem. We should be aware about the difference occurring between nursing diagnosis and medical diagnosis. While the nursing diagnosis identifies responses to health and illness medical diagnosis focuses more on curing. Planning After the nurse collects patient data and identifies patient strengths and health problems, it is time to plan for nursing action. The nurse here can debate with a specialist to choose an adequate type of plan of care to a particular patient. During planning the nurse needs to work hand in hand with the patient and family to prioritize the nursing diagnosis. Educating the patient and answering questions about the patients’ doubts is really useful in this phase as this gives a clear image on what the patient needs are to build his/her outcomes. Prioritizing takes place by identifying patient goals and expected outcomes, identify nursing interventions that may help the patient to achieve his/her goals, and communicate the plan of care. If an outcome is nursed-focused rather than patient-centred it is incorrectly done. If a patient is not willing enough to achieve certain goals and outcomes than the plan of care would be waste of time. The inclusion of the patient as and active p articipant in the plan of care will help to facilitate the achievement of the outcomes. Patient’s refusal to participate in the plan of care may result to a failure in validation. The nurse, patient and family need to work together to make the goals valuable and lead to a worthwhile plan of care. The initial planning is the initial assessment as soon as the patient admission and this may change several times according to the patient new diagnosis and goals. Ongoing planning is the assessment done by all the nurses who work with the client throughout the time a patient is admitted to hospital. Discharge planning is the plan of care after the patient is discharged from hospital. Implementation The implementation phase begins after the nursing care plan has been developed. Here plan of care is put into action to see how effective it is. The purpose of implementation is to assist the patient in achieving desired health goals: prevent disease and illness, restore health and facilitate coping with altered functioning. It is important for the nurse to assess the patient periodically so it will be easy for the nurse to establish whether interventions are being effective. Again when implementing nursing care it is important to work in partnership with the patient and family. Before implementing nursing action, the nurse should reassess the patient again to make sure whether the action is still needed. It is very typical that changes occur within the nursing actions due to health changes which may be enhanced or deteriorated. After all it is of great importance to face the patient about his/her health situation caringly, he/she has right to know what he/she is experiencing. Docume ntation is really important in this phase both for the nurse and for the patient. The nurse through documentation can evaluate and examine the patient’s status while the patient can by him/herself analyze his/her own health advancement and where he/she can improve more to reach goals. After documentation is done the nurse should consult colleagues to see if other approaches might be more successful. Evaluation The process of evaluation which is ongoing happens as soon as all the nursing intervention actions occur. Through evaluation the nurse in relation with the patient determine whether the goals/outcomes stated in the plan of care have been met, partially met or not met. Effectiveness of care is determined through this process in which new modification can be introduced. Based on the patient’s responses to the plan of care and achievement the nurse can decide whether to terminate, if there are difficulties in achieving outcomes or continue the plan of care if more time is needed to achieve goals. The purpose of evaluation is to determine the overall patient’s progress, lack of progress and the effectiveness of nursing care in helping patient’s achieve their expected outcomes/goals. Evaluation can be conducted at the end of the nursing process and this is done by comparing the patient’s health status with the outcomes defined in the plan of care. If evaluation reveals that the patient has made little or no progress towards goals/outcomes stated in the plan of care the nurse needs to revaluate each previous step. If the outcome was achieved by the patient then the care plan can be revised again without the need to add more outcomes in the nursing plan. An effective evaluation can result from the nurse’s accurate communication with the patient and good observation skills throughout the ongoing process. Evaluation can give a feedback; this feedback is judging the nurse whether being a good care giver or what could be arranged next time to be a better one. Conclusion When the nursing process is used effectively it promotes many advantages both towards the nurse and patient. From the nurse’s point of view, the nursing process enables you to determine if your nursing care helped the client. The nursing process also helps the nurse to avoid errors and inadequacy in the plan of care. The nurse by making use of the nursing process can improve communication with the rest of the health care professions and patients. On the other hand, the client is an active participant, knowing well his/her roles in his/her health status. Therefore, the patient is given a sense of responsibility. When the nursing process is delivered in a proper way, it works efficiently leading to satisfying results. This is the reason why nurses are encouraged to make use of this process as much as possible. Sometimes it is difficult to manage to implement the nursing process well to each patient. Often wards are too chaotic having opposing patients or being short of staff and it is difficult for a nurse to give a lot of attention on each patient. Nurses are human and as humans they are not perfect, although they try to give their best in patient’s care and needs. After all their dedicated work, nurses get back a huge sense of satisfaction when seeing that they were part of great difference to others.

Mountains of the Moon: A Re-inscription of the Colonial Master Narrative :: Movie Film Essays

Mountains of the Moon: A Re-inscription of the Colonial Master Narrative      If Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke were alive in 1989 to see the release of Bob Rafelson’s Mountains of the Moon, what would their response to the film be?   Would they agree with the way Rafelson’s film depicts their remarkable journey into Africa to find the source of the Nile River?   Would they agree with the way the film dramatizes their relationship with each other?   The answers to these questions would help a great deal in determining whether Rafelson’s film about Burton and Speke’s expedition was accurate, or whether his film was an attempt to sensationalize their story to increase its reception.   Unfortunately, Burton and Speke are not around to answer these questions, which makes an analysis of these issues difficult.   Therefore, rather than analyzing this film from a historical perspective, this critique is concerned with what story Rafelson’s film tells.   How does Rafelson’s movie shape audience’s opinions about Burton and Speke as characters?   Does his story, through visual rhetoric, retell or reinterpret Burton and Speke’s story?   What role does Africa play in Rafelson’s film?   The answers to these questions should help determine whether Rafelson’s film is a re-inscription of the colonial master narrative, or whether it is a post-colonial critique of European colonization.    Mountains of the Moon sets out to recreate the adventures of Richard Burton (Patrick Bergin) and John Hanning Speke (Iain Glen).   The plot of the film focuses on Burton and Speke’s relationship, and their journey to discover the source of the Nile River.   One interesting characteristic that separates Rafelson’s Mountains of the Moon from previous attempts to describe Burton and Speke’s expedition is that Rafelson’s film introduces a human element into Burton and Speke’s relationship; an element that remains the focal point throughout the entire movie (Campbell, www.theparamount.org). As a result, Rafelson shifts the focus of the movie away from the business aspect of the story, and compels audiences to focus more on the friendship that develops between Burton and Speke.   Sidney Pollack’s Out of Africa shifts in the same way.   In Pollack’s 1985 film, audiences find themselves more concerned with the film’s love s tory, than with the Baroness’s coffee plantation in Africa.   This shift occurs not by accident, but rather as a deliberate attempt by Pollack to tell a particular story.   Therefore, Rafelson’s film deliberately shifts to allow him to tell his story: a story about â€Å"Two strangers made friends by a savage land.

Revolutions Around the World Essay -- History, Intellectual Innovation

During the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century, the colonies of the New World, and countries of the Old World, were undergoing revolutions and reforms. In North America, the United States created an economic and political powerhouse; the modern world’s first major nation to become a democracy. The Haitian Rebellion dramatically inspired other slaves and people to rise above government and be given the rights to freedom. The French Revolution practically destroyed its earlier absolute monarchy and caused the people to fight for social and political systems that treated them fairly and gave them more voice in government. The ideas and responses to the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions illustrate political uprisings in each government, change in social autonomy and a newfound sense of pride, along with intellectual shift and innovations. An additional document that would help analyze these revolutions would be a written document about a person’ s account and emotional insight to what it was like living during a revolution. A major thought for these revolutions was that the people of these regions wanted to formulate a new government in which it would grant more people freedom and would be actually able to listen to the people. In British periodicals, illustrations display British Officials being tarred and feathered; a humiliating event for anyone (Doc 2). This represents the Americans’ public opinion towards political leaders of Britain and their demand for liberty and justice. The Declaration of Independence states that the United States wants a just government that listens to the voice of the people, and is made up of the people (Doc 3). The Declaration of Independence displays how the ideas of the p... ...people into joining the revolt and other countries thinking about rebellions and revolutions (Doc 6). The political uprisings, national pride and change in social statues, along with intellectual innovations were all ideas and responses to the revolutions. The ideas and the responses to these ideas were important factors in the outcome of these revolutions. Political up rise and search for liberty caused governments to be overthrown and fought against. A sense of equality, shift in social autonomy, and nationalism led to revolutions in France, America, and Haiti. The influences of intellectual ideas led to more people being involved in the revolutions of these regions. These revolutions change the world, causing the United States to become the world’s largest power, Haitian people to gain liberty, and absolute monarchy in France to be completely overthrown.

Participative Management and Change-Oriented Leadership Essay

Fear is an emotional response to threats and danger. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of pain. (Ohman, A. (2000). Fear and anxiety: Evolutionary, cognitive, and clinical perspectives. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds. ). Handbook of emotions. (pp. 573-593). New York: The Guilford Press. A debilitating emotion that must be managed understood and embraced in a world that is fast becoming familiar with the successes enjoyed by those whose human component is its capital. When did we last take interest in knowing the expressed culture of the company, its leadership and components? What we know now is, we too must be going through this, and it is the same urge that brings us to the table to open a channel of communication that could possibly address how we can all move forward with understanding, sensitivity and optimism in creating change that will benefit both HTI and its human resource asset. More and more structured organizations find the need to shift to become a people-focused management style to improve retention and ensure that changes of any kind is managed rather more successfully. Loyalty influences retention and retention contributes to growth. As a recognized leader in the industry, our upper hand in staying on top will always be dependent on the pillars that support it. Relational leadership is a concept that is not out of reach, and as corporate leaders, it is upon us to make certain that we put in, not just the cutting edge technology ideas, or business savvy that signs contracts but the latest proven expertise in managing our human capital to keep up to the changing times, shifting lifestyles and influences there are about us. Many corporate cultures have changed the moment its leaderships changed their perspectives of how management styles/strategies, consciousness and corporate values tip the scale of profitability. Eventually, over time, loyalty not only assures retention, stability and growth for the business and the brand, its shareholders, but as well as its individual members.

Krakow Bpo Destination

Why Krakow for Business Process Outsourcing? Empowering your Business Introduction: Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has become a major driver of performance in business today. Companies of all sizes and in all industries are realising the many benefits of transferring non-core activities to specialist service providers. In the drive to increase profits and productivity it's important to focus on core operations and value creation.With non-core activities taking up valuable management time it can be difficult to stay competitive, more so in the current economic environment. Working in a collaborative partnership to ensure successful outsourcing and releasing your team members from non-core activities can significantly reduce your operational costs. This position is best summarized as ‘do what you do best and outsource the rest'. Outsourcing is not about what you can subtract from a business. It's about what you can add.Leo Blennerhassett, Managing Director of Accenture Irelan d, the Irish arm of the global leader in BPO, was recently quoted in an interview: ‘The trend to outsourcing is real and companies are looking to improve their overall health by transforming their business on both a strategic ; tactical level'. Research by Gartner, the world's leading research firm, indicates that BPO will achieve double digit growth in the coming years as more and more organizations, of all sizes and from all industries, turn to BPO providers to reduce costs, drive revenue, enhance customer service and eliminate non-core activities from within their firms. 3 Outsourcing is now an essential tool for every organization. Ongoing research from Accenture into the characteristics of high performance, has found that outsourcing is one of the key enablers of high-performance businesses and governments. More and more decision makers are turning to outsourcing to help them elevate their organizations' performance, driving value into their enterprises and driving cost o ut. Evolving Outsourcing's services touch an ever broadening range of industries and business processes. We are transforming existing operations for our clients, making them smarter, faster and cheaper.Why outsource? What are the benefits to my business? Substantial cost savings, both in terms of labour ; capital: o The concept of fully loaded cost is central to BPO. In many cases clients will only think of the cost of labour when attempting to establish the cost to the business of having Person X performing tasks A, B ; C in-house. However, it is critical to factor in the costs associated with hardware, software, furniture, stationary, salary contributions, management, training and so forth in order to accurately understand the true cost of this person to the organization i. . the fully loaded cost. By partnering with a specialist BPO provider you eliminate the need to recruit ; train new employees as well as cutting down on administration ; HR management costs. Acquiring 3rd party expertise by partnering with specialist service providers: o As we head into what has become known as the 3rd Generation of Outsourcing, the emphasis has long shifted from pure cost reduction to performance improvement. BPO providers are specialists at the services they provide and, as such, can deliver improved service quality to our clients' customers.Ability to focus on core competencies: o By allowing your BPO partner to handle some or all of your non-core activities, your own in-house team can refocus all time, energy and resources on activities directly linked to your top line. In the current climate this is particularly important as the need to have all team members focused on sales & revenue has never been greater. Culture of continual improvement: o The idea of continual improvement is central to BPO.BPO providers ought to practice what they preach and be constantly seeking to refine & improve business processes for existing clients leading to continuous and increased gain s for client partners. Increased market flexibility & reduced time-to-market: o By partnering with a BPO provider, firms enable themselves to become leaner, more dynamic and more agile. BPO providers allow client firms to scale quickly in response to increased demand and/or new services/products or promotional campaigns. This is imperative in today's economic climate Factors to Consider when choosing an Outsourcing locationThere are many offshore destinations to which a company can outsource its business processes and there are even more variables which must be considered when choosing the right destination for your company and your specific requirements. Among the most pertinent considerations are: the availability of resources, the quality of those resources and the accompanying risk. While it should never be the single determining factor, price and subsequent cost savings obviously need to be closely examined and clearly understood. 05 Cost Savings: Choosing a location for your B PO requirements is largely a question of risk versus reward.Although it might be easier to manage a relationship with a local company this will not provide the financial advantages that outsourcing to an emerging market can generate, where labour and other non-labour costs are significantly lower. The BPO decision is not purely a lowest cost decision. Practical considerations such as geographic proximity, time difference and cultural similarities are integral to selecting the appropriate BPO location. Locations such as India ; China invariably win the lowest cost element of any selection process.However, outsourcing is now as much about process enhancement and customer service improvement as it is about cost. With this in mind, locations regarded as closer to the ‘west'- geographically, culturally and the way in which they do business – have made huge leaps forward as BPO destinations in recent years. The main beneficiary of this move has been Central ; Eastern Europe ( CEE) and Poland in particular. In several cases, Indian BPO organizations have themselves followed this trend by establishing their own presence in the CEE region. Availability of Resources:Poland boasts the largest number of educational centres and produces the largest number of graduates approximately 40,000 per annum in terms of ICT graduates alone of all countries in the CEE region. Evolving Outsourcing is headquartered in Krakow which is commonly regarded as the ‘Oxford of Poland' and the ‘Silicon Valley of Poland' on account of the number and quality of universities and graduates in the city. However, this fact alone is of no use to your organization if you are not properly positioned to recruit the best people to your BPO project team.This is why it is imperative to understand how a BPO service provider intends to recruit people to your particular project team. Evolving Outsourcing is part of the Evolving Group, which also comprises Evolving Recruitment and Evolvi ng Training. Evolving Recruitment is a full-service HR company with clients ranging from blue chip multi-nationals to SMEs. Therefore, we are not only in a position to handle your outsourced business processes but are also perfectly positioned, in the first instance, to recruit and train the best possible staff for your particular project.This is a crucial component when choosing a BPO partner. Quality of Resources: It is imperative to choose a BPO location in which a large pool of highly-qualified, multi-lingual graduates is being produced every year. Ideally the destination city should have a reputation not only for producing a high number of excellent graduates each year but these graduates should come from a wide range of areas such as engineering, medicine, economics, IT, languages, administration ; management. 07 Cultural Similarity:It is important to choose a BPO location which is culturally aligned to your own country and/or the country or countries in which the majority of your clients are located. There should be cultural and linguistic similarities in order to prevent the perception of a disconnect emerging. There is an abundance of anecdotal evidence to this effect. Evolving Outsourcing is headquartered in Krakow, Poland, a country which is culturally and linguistically aligned to the western business world. Risks: Choosing a location for your BPO requirements is largely a question of risk versus reward.The ‘rewards' of BPO include significant cost savings, improved process performance (further fuelling bottom ; top line) and an enhanced experience for all your clients from partnering with specialist service providers. The ‘risks' are primarily associated with the perceived loss of control which accompanies a move into BPO by an organization. This is a natural reaction for organizations using BPO service providers, particularly for the first time. Bearing this in mind, BPO providers truly committed to partnership- and collaborationbased relationships need to work with the client partner to allay these fears.At Evolving Outsourcing, we spend a significant amount of time discussing this with client partners. We help organizations through this initial period of tentativeness in three key ways. 1. Show the value of recommendations and explain clearly how their implementation will improve the client's particular situation. 2. Ensure the client clearly understands exactly what the proposed solution is going to achieve i. e. to what point are we trying to get? 3. Ensure client partners understand and feel that they ‘own' the proposed solution and are fully committed to implementing it.Striking a balance between risk & reward is key to choosing a BPO partner and location. At Evolving Group, when it came to choosing a location for our Outsourcing delivery centre we felt that Krakow satisfied our requirements in that it is a relatively low cost/low risk location. When speaking with prospective client partners we use t wo main points to elucidate the low risk nature of partnering with Evolving; Firstly, we have found that the average skills of Polish employees tend to be significantly higher than many other countries.Whether it is an IT specialist, a web/graphic designer or a Finance & Accounting professional, we are constantly impressed by both the technical skills and the ‘can do' attitude they display. Secondly, we facilitate our clients by offering to initiate our BPO relationship using a Pilot Project for a short, predetermined period of time. This allows organizations to work with us and see the benefits of what we can bring to their business without the up-front commitment of a longer contract. Naturally, the single most important aspect of selecting a BPO location is choosing the right provider with whom to partner.At Evolving Outsourcing, we provide costsaving & performance-enhancing outsourcing services to companies of all sizes in all markets/industries. Headquartered in Krakow, P oland, our proximity to some of the country's most renowned universities gives us excellent access to a superior pool of talented and highly-educated, multi-lingual graduates allowing us to provide our client partners with world class business process outsourcing services at a much lower price than can be achieved in the Ireland or the UK.Why Krakow? At Evolving Outsourcing, we took the strategic ; tactical decision to locate our delivery centre in Krakow as we feel it provides us and our client partners with a very strong ‘best of both worlds' scenario. We can offer significant cost savings ; performance improvements from a strategically located city which is renowned for producing world class graduates (Krakow has 7 universities). 09 Tholons, (www. tholons. om) a leading global strategic advisory firm focused on the outsourcing industry recently ranked Krakow the 5th most attractive city in the world and 1st in Europe for outsourcing in their report – ‘Top 50 Em erging Outsourcing Cities'. In assessing the cities' levels of attractiveness as an outsourcing destination, the research examined such criteria as the quality and availability of human resources, education levels, costs of running a business, business-related risks, investment climate, infrastructure and quality of life.Many of the world's leading outsourcing and technology companies have already set up operations in Krakow: IBM Outsourcing LogicaCMG General Electric HCL HP Cap Gemini Motorola Google Research Labs Hewitt In addition, the following firms already have ‘shared services' centres in Krakow RR Donnelly Electrolux Bayer Shell Shared Services Centre Philip Morris Outsourcing Centre Hitachi E;Y BP Shared Services Centre Indesit KPMG International Paper Lufthansa Evolving GroupOur starting point at Evolving Outsourcing is to ask ourselves ‘what value can we bring to this company? ‘ We are not interested in ‘elbowing' our way into an organization in or der to ‘sell our wares'. In every first meeting with a potential client we ask the questions ‘what can we do for you? How can we help you? ‘ We listen. We are in the business of consulting, never hard selling. Business Process Outsourcing is a complex undertaking and it is vital to choose the appropriate partner for your firm and your objectives.In the case of Evolving Outsourcing, we provide our services from our state-of-the-art delivery centre in Krakow, Poland. In BPO speak, Krakow is considered a nearshoring location as opposed to an offshoring location. Nearshoring locations like Krakow are characterized by relative proximity to the client country (i. e. Ireland) in terms of geography, time zone, culture (values, behaviours ; attitudes) and language (incl. accent). Examples of offshoring locations include India and China. The nearshore Vs offshore decision has significant implications for the SME business owner.Practical implications such as a monthly or bi-m onthly site visit are entirely feasible from a time ; cost perspective if we are speaking about a nearshoring location such as Krakow. A business owner can fly from Dublin, Cork or Shannon on a weekday morning, be collected at the airport, brought to the delivery centre for the day and be back at their office 24-48 hours later. This is simply not possible with an offshoring destination such as India. All of these practical considerations must also be added to the mix when engaging in a BPO decision-making process.Practical considerations such as the above-mentioned site visits coupled with the communication advantages of a one hour time difference and cultural and linguistic similarities must be carefully weighed against a purely lowest cost-driven decision i. e. offshoring locations such as India and China, as well as emerging destinations like the Philippines, will inevitably win the battle from a purely low cost perspective. Evolving Outsourcing is part of Evolving Group, a multi -lingual, full service HR Services, Training ; Outsourcing Company.Supplying more than 300 companies in over 15 countries with Outsourcing, Recruitment and HR solutions. Our clients, ranging from large multinationals to small and medium size enterprises, are located throughout the EU, Canada and the Middle-East. 84% of our clients are involved in repeat business with us. Our Business Process Outsourcing solutions include Customer Interaction Management Solutions, Back Office Document ; Data Management Solutions, Finance ; Accounting Solutions, IT Support Solutions and Internet ; e-Commerce Outsourcing Solutions.To see how BPO can assist your business, contact us for consultation at [email  protected] com About the author: Brian O'Brien B. Comm. , MSc. is Managing Director, Evolving Outsourcing and Business Development Director, Evolving Group. Having previously lived in Krakow, Poland he has relocated to Ireland to head up Evolving Outsourcing's push into the Irish ; UK markets. H e always welcomes an opportunity to discuss BPO requirements and can be contacted directly at b. [email  protected] com or www. linkedin. com/in/brianobrienireland