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ustadjeeonline-blog · 4 years ago

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some Critical Best Practices for On the web Teaching: Be Prepared

Ustad Jee Online

We are in an unprecedented time using higher education being disrupted, while traditional classes are being transferred online, at least for the time being. Regardless of whether this will continue for any time period remains to be seen. This has taken place at an interesting time for area of distance learning as many from the for-profit schools have sealed, and the growth of new on the web schools has slowed. The volume of online schools growing is fixed, and competition comes from classic schools offering online classes.

Ustad Jee Online

Which has a move of traditional instructional classes to an online platform, you will find a challenge for many educators for you to adapt to a virtual natural environment. Those educators who instruct in this environment already, for instance myself, are already accustomed to setting up a virtual presence. However , when online teaching can be gratifying for those who can adapt to this, there are many demands for education in this environment, and it can always be quite challenging at times. Whether new to online teaching and also have extensive experience, you will find just about the most important measurements is the end-of-course student evaluation. You will also seen by completion of the required facilitator obligations, which typically includes engagement in class discussions and comments for learning activities.

To assist you to prepare for the requirements of on the net teaching, there are critical guidelines you can implement to ensure you are generally effectively and substantively done your class. These are the merchandise of my work as a web educator, along with my job in faculty development, and have been reviewed by the strictest involving standards and applying these types of standards to faculty I've evaluated. You can use these best practices being a checklist for the development of your personal online teaching practice, it doesn't matter how long you've taught classes online.

Online Instructor Essentials

The method that you manage your time and the regular schedule you create can ultimately determine how successful you might be as an online educator. Both the tasks which are going to take those most amount of time are category discussions and feedback. If you don't allow enough time for these responsibilities, and you fall behind, you are going to experience rushed when trying to finish what is required of a person. The ultimate result is either getting minimal participation, minimal responses, or both. A feeling of currently being rushed may also show up in the disposition as well, if you turn out to be agitated when there is not enough the perfect time to complete the required tasks or even deadlines are nearing. Your own personal students will sense this kind of, even in an online environment, and there is subtle cues which display in the word choices used in on the internet posts and messages.

Something more important to consider is the contract an individual agree to when you become a school member and accept a category commitment. You need to take the time to assessment the faculty expectations, specifically if you are new to the school, to be certain you know all details about functionality requirements. Should you have any inquiries, it is best to contact your Department Lounge chair or supervisor. The most important timeline requirements involve giving an answer to learner questions, regardless of how shared or sent. You will likely get audits and/or performance opinions, and when you do, use this tool as a means of self-development to help you continue to learn and expand.

Making a Transition: From Classic to Online Teaching

For people who teach in a traditional school room and now must teach on-line, there will be a learning shape which will happen quickly. The initial adaptation is becoming used to the actual technology platform or LMS, and discovering the technical tools which can enhance the mastering experience. The most significant challenge intended for traditional educators, who are new to teaching online, is getting together with learners who are not noticeably present. The lack of visual tips can be overcome at times when a webinar is integrated into your classmates program. However , for most in the class, it is functioning without having a live class and aesthetic or verbal cues. At this point the words posted become the principal form of communication and this helps it be much more challenging to assess the particular intent or meaning connected with what is being stated, especially when a learner has difficulties with academic writing.

Precisely what an online educator must sooner or later learn, often through some practice, is he or she is a single who must keep the class interested, not the course elements. If a learner is not make an effort to participating or is not found in class, it is the instructor who have must work to re-engage the learner, and do and so within a timely manner, for a disengaged learner may rapidly become dropped from the study course. This means learners are looking for, and sometimes expecting, their instructors being highly engaged and contained in the course, and conscious of their needs. An instructor cannot journal onto their class a couple of times a week and hope this really is sufficient. There must be ongoing as well as active involvement to retain an online class, and work towards the developmental of the requirements of all learners.

6 Important Best Practices for Online Instructing: Be Prepared

What follows are best routines you can implement now, regardless of length of time you've taught on the web. If you have implemented some or perhaps all of them already, you can use this a checklist to advise yourself of what's necessary for your work as an educator.

Ideal Practice #1. Become the Assist Your Learners Need

Any time learners enroll in a class, they can be likely aware of their failures already. When you begin the process of suggestions and note those inadequacies, it may only serve to further more confirm they are not capable of doing well in their academic studies. That is why you must take a supportive method to your feedback and the tutorial approach used as you connect to your learners. Consider at the same time the fact you and your students are separated by long distance, or as I call that, the distance factor. Your enrollees are going to read what you posting and share before you at any time have an opportunity to explain the idea, which means everything you write will need to have a supportive tone on it. How you write, along with that which you write, can and will identify the future of the learner, plus the effort he or she will keep in your class. Find whichever way you can to be the assist your learners need by using time to read what they write-up and write, and admit them as learners.

Finest Practice #2. Develop a Way of thinking Which Encourages Positivity

You could have likely read about nurturing a rise mindset in learners, and this also can occur even in your grown-up learners, provided the conditions in the online class are favorable to do so. This is not just a response to a beautiful LMS or scientific tools, it occurs any time an instructor has a disposition and also mindset which encourages positivity. This means you have become aimed at your learners and you carry out strategies to encourage and uplift them. In my post, Learn 5 Essential Learner-Centered Approaches for Online Instructors, I mentioned my use of videos to get feedback. I also use limited videos to encourage individuals as well, along with small paper prints I create to uplift them.

There will be times when you experience challenged, especially when a spanish student sends an email and visages their frustration in an annoying manner. The most effective strategy to acquire when you have a negative reaction is usually to write in a Word document, subsequently step away for a few short minutes to regain your balance. If you return, you will likely be able to target once again and better help the learner. When you make an environment which feels good, from the perspective of the pupil, you have managed to accomplish another goal: You have helped humanize the learning experience. This also helps take the distance factor outside of distance learning.

Best Practice #3. Be a Leader in Academics Writing

Many educators aren't hired because they are professional copy writers. Regardless of the academic writing ability you possess, consider this to be a constant area of development. I use anything document to develop my debate posts, to help ensure We've managed the mechanics. What you wish to remember is that your scholars are watching what you article in discussions and create as you provide feedback. When there are numerous academic writing issues, this may send a merged message if your feedback stresses academic writing errors typically the learner has made. If your institution offers resources within an on the net writing center, this may be of great benefit for you and any student who needs further advancement. If these resources are generally not immediately available for you, there are many online language resources you can find. You want to lead the way having academic writing and show your own personal learners you take it just like seriously as you enforce the item when feedback is presented to them.

Best Practice #4. Become a Master of Your Study course Materials

What I've mastered over time about course prep is the need to learn my training materials. When a course is usually pre-developed for you, it may seem most is needed is to join often the discussions and participate, then provide feedback based upon the actual written rubric. However , this is certainly far from what is required for training course preparation. Every instructor have to review the course resources thoroughly and completely, in the same way a starting point, in order to be able to engage in class discussions in a substantial manner and provide substantive opinions. More importantly, ongoing development signifies reading and finding solutions related to the course matters, as the use of supplemental solutions will help provide context on your discussion posts and the comments you develop. When you end up being the master of your course components, you are creating additional learning chances for your learners.

Best Process #5. Be Determined to Get a Lifelong Learner

As you are mingling with your learners, and you recall why you love to teach, you happen to be encouraging them to develop a enjoy of learning. If you want to come to be even more effective in this technique, you can continue to cultivate your own personal determination to become a lifelong novice. While you may not be a spanish student now, you can find professional improvement opportunities of your own. Many academics institutions encourage or call for educators to publish, and this offers a very good opportunity to conduct investigation into areas you are interested in mastering. There are many affiliations you can also enroll in and likely find webinars to go to. What I've done like a Modern Educator is to compose online articles and web sites, as a means of continuing my analysis and writing, even if I am just not publishing in an public academic capacity. It nonetheless allows me to share my expertise and expertise, while attaching with other educators, sharing tips, information, and strategies.

Greatest Practice #6. Establish a Normal of Excellence

Over time you may evaluate and refine your own instructional practice. It will be a result of what has been successful, the particular strategies which have not provided you well, lessons you could have learned (some the right way yet others by mistake), and most significant of all, feedback you have got from learners in many distinct forms. Typically the feedback My spouse and i learn most from arises within the classroom, as I consider new strategies and obtain replies in response. There is a excessive standard I have established with regard to myself. At the beginning of my find employment as an educator I was very hard about myself when I made errors. But now with time and process under my belt, I realize both successes and blunders have served me nicely. It is not possible to become a best online educator without having educated for some time and even then, you'll still must be open to learning along with development as learner requires evolve. I can state along with certainty the needs of students today are different than we were holding 15 years ago when I first acquired my start. But developing a standard of excellence presents me a sense of reputation to myself and makes selected I am working to the best associated with my abilities.

I properly understand there are many inherent problems associated with online teaching, and the most are related to time and less direct contact with learners. Still I've found it can be a very satisfying experience because I am capable of getting to know my learners superior to I ever could within a traditional classroom. This may seem unusual to someone who has by no means taught online, who perceives learners face-to-face, but this perspective comes from being able to control each and everyone of them inside a discussion, getting to know them by way of weekly learning activities, and interesting with them through direct interaction. While I am separated via my learners, I have found instruments to bridge this distance and replace the distance which has a virtual presence. Now with these kinds of six critical strategies, I am able to further assure learners Therefore i'm there to support them and the progress in a nurturing, optimistic, and supportive manner. When you can take this approach yourself, you could possibly and your learners will find on the internet learning to be a viable in addition to enjoyable form of education.

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educareindiaadvisory-blog · 2 years ago

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Why it is important to get School Affiliation?

The main objectives of the CBSE were those of: serving the educational institutions more effectively and to be responsive to the educational needs of those students whose parents were employed in the Central Government services and had frequently transferable jobs across the country.

CBSE is one of the most preferred boards in the country and the reasons are many. CBSE is behind maintaining uniformity among all the students across India. It's effectiveness is reflected on the number of schools affiliating with it each year. It covers basic and general knowledge required for a child to move forward in terms of education. Not only have they introduced All India Board exams for Standard 10th and 12th.

We are, at our core, social creatures. Affiliation is the strength that allows us to join with others to create something stronger, more adaptive, and more creative than any individual — the group.

1. The Roots of Growth:

Your family is your child's first and most important group, glued together by the strong emotional bonds of attachment. Yet your child is also connected to other groups with far less powerful bonds — he is part of a culture and community. Membership in all of these groups will shape his life. In turn, as he grows he will influence them. It is in groups that your child has thousands of brief emotional, social, and cognitive experiences that help define his development. The capacity to join in, contribute to, and benefit from groups is essential to his healthy development.

2. Necessity to learn engagement with people:

From his primary relationship with you, your child has learned social language and basic rules of interaction. The importance of these rules is reinforced by his dependence on you and your inherent size, strength, and power. However, none of these factors is present when your child first starts to interact with other young children. Because of this, children tend to be better at engaging and affiliating with adults than with other kids. The "rules" of social engagement and communication between children take time and experience to learn.

3. Grasping Group Dynamics:

As children grow, they become better at maintaining and managing multiple relationships. Structured and regulated group interactions such as those in a preschool classroom help develop these skills. Picking a partner to work on a task or play a game with provides opportunities to wait, share, take turns, cooperate, and communicate with others. The games and the tasks increase in complexity as your child grows.

4. Offer the Help and Support to the Children:

The majority of children who have problems in groups have yet to learn how to self-regulate or reach out to others. They do not easily learn social cues and often act in impulsive or immature ways when they do not get what they want. This makes other children avoid them, which creates a negative cycle — fewer opportunities to socialize leads to slower social learning. Over time, these children stand out further and further from their peers in their capacity to be a comfortable part of the group. A distant, disengaged, or impulsive child won't be easily welcomed in a group. And in fact, if he is not part of a group, he may act in ways that lead others to tease or actively avoid him.

The only priority of the School and Affiliation Board is to:

· Devising a student friendly study pattern by introducing effective innovations in teaching and learning methodologies.

· Improvement in examinations and evaluation processes to deliver fair results.

· Promote the skill learning among students by adding job-oriented inputs.

· Conducting various service training program and workshops on regular basis so as to update the instructive skills of the teachers and administrators.

For more details on How to start a CBSE School, Steps to Start a CBSE School, Complete Guidance to Start a School and How to Get CBSE Affiliation, visit our website www.indiaeducare.com Or CALL US 8889-063-333

School Information Initiative by Educare India Advisory

#proceduretostartanewschoolinindia #stepstostartaschool #startingnewschool #guidanceonopeninganewschool #howtostartcbseschool

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victoriagloverstuff · 6 years ago

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Is it time to remove Zuckerberg from (his) office? – TechCrunch

A colleague, who shall remain nameless (because privacy is not dead), gave a thumbs down to a recent column in the NYT. The complaint was that the writer had attacked tech companies (mostly but not exclusively Facebook) without offering any solutions for these all-powerful techbro CEOs’ orchestral failures to grasp the messy complexities of humanity at a worldwide scale.

Challenge accepted.

Here’s the thought experiment: Fixing Facebook

We’ll start with Facebook because, while it’s by no means the only tech company whose platform contains a bottomless cesspit of problems, it is the most used social platform in the West; the de facto global monopoly outside China.

And, well, even Zuckerberg’ thinks it needs fixing. Or at least that its PR needs fixing — given he made “Fixing Facebook” his ‘personal challenge’ of the year this year — proof, if any more were needed, of his incredible capacity for sounding tone-deaf.

For a little more context on these annual personal challenges, Zuckerberg once previously set himself the challenge of reading a new book every two weeks. So it seems fair to ask: Is Facebook a 26-book sized fix?

If we’re talking in book metaphor terms, the challenge of fixing Facebook seems at least on the scale of the Library of Alexandria, say, given the volume of human content being daily fenced. It may, more likely, be multiple libraries of Alexandria. Just as, if Facebook content was housed in a physical library, the company would require considerably more real estate that the largest library of the ancient world to house its staggeringly-massive-and-expanding-by-the-second human content collection — which also of course forms the foundation of its business.

Zuckerberg himself has implied that his 2018 challenge — to fix the company he founded years before the iPhone arrived to supercharge the smartphone revolution and, down that line, mobilize Facebook’s societal ‘revolution’ — is his toughest yet, and likely to take at least two or three years before it bears fruit, not just the one. So Facebook’s founder is already managing our expectations and he’s barely even started.

In all likelihood, if Facebook were left alone to keep standing ethically aloof, shaping and distributing information at vast scale while simultaneously denying that’s editing — to enjoy another decade of unforgivably bad judgement calls (so, basically, to ‘self-regulate’; or, as the New York Times put it, for Zuckerberg to be educated at societal expense) — then his 2018 personal challenge would become just ‘Chapter One, Volume One’ in a neverending life’s ‘work-in-progress’.

Great for Mark, far less great for humans and democratic societies all over the world.

Frankly, there has to be a better way. So here’s an alternative plan for fixing Facebook — or at least a few big ideas to get policymakers’ juices flowing… Bear in mind this is a thought exercise so we make no suggestions for how to enact the plan — we’re just throwing ideas out there to get folks thinking.

Step 1: Goodbye network of networks

Facebook has been allowed to acquire several other social communication networks — most notably photo-focused social network Instagram [1BN monthly active users] and messaging app platform WhatsApp [1.5BN] — so Zuckerberg has not just ONE massively popular social network (Facebook: [2.2BN]) but a saccharine suite of eyeball-harvesting machines.

Last month he revealed his sunless empire casts its shadow across a full 2.5BN individuals if you factor in all his apps — albeit, that was an attempt to distract investors from the stock price car crash conference call that was to follow. But the staggering size of the empire is undeniable.

So the first part of fixing Facebook is really simple: No dominant social network should be allowed to possess (or continue to possess) multiple dominant social networks.

There’s literally no good argument for why this is good for anyone other than (in Facebook’s case) Zuckerberg and Zuckerberg’s shareholders. Which is zero reason not to do something that’s net good for the rest of humanity. On one level it’s just basic math.

Setting aside (for just a second) the tangible damages inflicted upon humans by unregulated social media platforms with zero editorial values and a threadbare minimum of morality which wafts like gauze in the slipstream of supercharged and continuously re-engineered growth and engagement engines that DO NOT FACTOR HUMAN COST into their algorithmic calculations — allowing their masters to preside over suprasocietal revenue stripping mega-platforms — which, to be clear, is our primary concern here — the damage to competition and innovation alone from Zuckerberg owning multiple social networks is both visible and quantifiable.

Just ask Snapchat. Because, well, you can’t ask the social networks that don’t exist because Zuckerberg commands a full flush of attention-harvesting networks. So take a good, long, hard look at all those Stories clones he’s copypasted right across his social network of social networks. Not very innovative is it?

And even if you don’t think mega-platforms cause harm by eroding civic and democratic values (against, well, plenty of evidence to the contrary), if you value creativity, competition and consumer choice it’s equally a no brainer to tend your markets in a way that allows multiple distinct networks to thrive, rather than let one megacorp get so powerful it’s essentially metastasized into a Borg-like entity capable of enslaving and/or destroying any challenger, idea or even value in its path. (And doing all that at the same time as monopolizing its users’ attention.)

We see this too in how Facebook applies its technology in a way that seeks to reshape laws in its business model’s favor. Because while individuals break laws, massively powerful megacorps merely lean their bulk to squash them into a more pleasing shape.

Facebook is not just spending big on lobbying lawmakers (and it sure is doing that), it’s using technology and the brute force of its platform to pound on and roll over the rule of law by deforming foundational tenets of society. Privacy being just one of them.

And it’s not doing this reshaping for the good of humanity. Oh no. While democratic societies have rules to protect the vulnerable and foster competition and choice because they are based on recognizing value in human life, Facebook’s motives are 100% self-interested and profit-driven.

The company wants to rewrite rules globally to further expand its bottom line. Hence its mission to pool all humans into a single monetizable bucket — no matter if people don’t exactly mesh together because people aren’t actually bits of data. If you want to be that reductive make soup, not a “global community”.

So step one to fixing Facebook is simple: Break up Zuckerberg’s empire.

In practical terms that means forcing Facebook to sell Instagram and WhatsApp — at a bare minimum. A single network is necessarily less potent than a network of networks. And it becomes, at least theoretically possible for Facebook to be at risk from competitive forces.

You would also need to at keep a weather eye on social VR, in case Oculus needs to be taken out of Zuckerberg’s hands too. There’s less of an immediate imperative there, certainly. This VR cycle is still as dead as the tone of voice the Facebook founder used to describe the things his avatar was virtually taking in when he indulged in a bit of Puerto Rico disaster tourism for an Oculus product demo last year.

That said, there’s still a strong argument to say that Facebook, the dominant force of the social web and then the social mobile web, should not be allowed to shape and dictate even a nascent potential future disruptor in the same social technology sphere.

Not if you value diversity and creativity — and, well, a lot more besides.

But all these enforced sells-offs would just raise lots more money for Facebook! I hear you cry. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — so long as it gets, shall we say, well spent. The windfall could be used to fund a massive recruitment drive to properly resource Facebook’s business in every market where it operates.

And I do mean MASSIVE. Not the ‘10,000 extra security and moderation staff’ Facebook has said will hire by the end of this year (raising the headcount it has working on these critical tasks to around 20k in total).

To be anywhere near capable of properly contextualizing content across a platform that’s actively used by 2BN+ humans — and therefore to be able to rapidly and effectively spot and quash malicious manipulation, hateful conduct and so on, and thus responsibly manage and sustain a genuine global ‘community’ — the company would likely need to add hundreds of thousands of content reviewers/moderators. Which would be very expensive indeed.

Yet Facebook paid a cool $19BN for WhatsApp back in 2014 — so an enforced sell off of its other networks should raise a truck tonne of cash to held fund a vastly larger ‘trust and safety’ personnel bill. (While AI systems and technologies can help with the moderation challenge, Zuckerberg himself has admitted that AI alone won’t scale to the content challenge for “many years” to come — if indeed it can scale at all.)

Unfortunately there’s another problem though. The human labor involved in carrying out content moderation across Facebook’s 2BN+ user mega-platform is ethically horrifying because the people who Facebook contracts for ‘after the fact’ moderation necessarily live neck deep in its cesspit. Their sweating toil is to keep paddling the shit so Facebook’s sewers don’t back up entirely and flood the platform with it.

So, in a truly ideal ‘fixed Facebook’ scenario, there wouldn’t be a need for this kind of dehumanizing, industrialized content review system — which necessitates that eyes be averted and empathy disengaged from any considerations of a traumatized ‘clean up’ workforce.

Much like Thomas Moore’s Utopia, Zuckerberg’s mega-platform requires an unfortunate underclass of worker doing its dirty work. And just as the existence of slaves in Utopia made it evident that the ‘utopian vision’ being presented was not really all it seemed, Facebook’s outsourced teams of cheap labor — whose day job is to sit and watch videos of human beheadings, torture, violence etc; or make a microsecond stress-judgement on whether a piece of hate speech is truly hateful enough to be rendered incapable of monetization and pulled from the platform — the awful cost on both sides of that human experience undermines Zuckerberg’s claim that he’s “building global community”.

Moore coined the word ‘utopia’ from the Greek — and its two components suggest an intended translation of ‘no place’. Or perhaps, better yet, it was supposed to be a pun — as Margaret Atwood has suggested — meaning something along the lines of ‘the good place that simply doesn’t exist’. Which might be a good description for Zuckerberg’s “global community”.

So we’ll come back to that.

Because the next step in the plan should help cut the Facebook moderation challenge down to a more manageable size…

Step 2) Break up Facebook into lots of market specific Facebooks

Instead of there being just one Facebook (comprised of two core legal entities: Facebook USA and Facebook International, in Ireland), it’s time to break up Facebook’s business into hundreds of market specific Facebooks that can really start to serve their local communities. You could go further still and subdivide at a state, county or community level.

A global social network is an oxymoron. Humans are individuals and humanity is made up of all sorts of peoples, communities and groupings. So to suggest the whole of humanity needs to co-exist on the exact same platform, under the exact same overarching set of ‘community standards’, is — truly — the stuff of megalomaniacs.

To add insult to societal and cultural injury, Facebook — the company that claims it’s doing this (while ignoring the ‘awkward’ fact that what it’s building isn’t functioning equally everywhere, even in its own backyard) — has an executive team that’s almost exclusively white and male, and steeped in a very particular Valley ‘Kool Aid’ techno-utopian mindset that’s wrapped in the U.S. flag and bound to the U.S. constitution.

Which is another way of saying that’s the polar opposite of thinking global.

Facebook released its fifth annual diversity report this year which revealed it making little progress in increasing diversity over the past five years. In senior leadership roles, Facebook’s 2018 skew is 70:30 male female, and a full 69.7% white. While the company was fully 77% male and 74% white in 2014.

Facebook’s ongoing lack of diversity is not representative of the U.S. population, let alone reflective of the myriad regions its product reaches around the planet. So the idea that an executive team with such an inexorably narrow, U.S.-focused perspective could meaningfully — let alone helpfully — serve the whole of humanity is a nonsense. And the fact that Zuckerberg is still talking in those terms merely spotlights an abject lack of corporate diversity and global perspective at his company.

If he genuinely believes his own “global community” rhetoric he’s failing even harder than he looks. Most probably, though, it’s just a convenient marketing label to wallpaper the growth strategy that’s delivered for Facebook’s shareholders for years — by the company pushing into and dominating international markets yet without making commensurate investments in resourcing its business in international markets….

Fascinating detail from @karaswisher interview w/ Zuck where he admits Fb's margin comes from rest of world – i.e. where fb is under-resourced vs impacts/damage its platforms can have – and not from the US. So, tl;dr, fb's profitability is reliant on fb's lack of responsibility pic.twitter.com/UNG7OFssjF

— Natasha (@riptari) July 19, 2018

This facet of Facebook’s business becomes especially problematic when you consider how the company has been pouring money into subsidizing (or seeking to) Internet access in emerging markets.

Initially via its Internet.org ‘Free Basics’ initiative which was marketed as a ‘humanitarian’, quasi-philanthropic mission to ‘wire the world’ — though plenty of outsiders and some target countries viewed it not as charity but as a self-serving and competitive-crushing business development tactic. (Including India — which blocked Free Basics, but not before Facebook had spent millions on ads trying to get locals to lobby the regulator on its behalf).

More recently the company has been putting money into telecom infrastructure a bit less loudly — presumably hoping a less immediately self-serving approach to investing in infrastructure in target growth markets will avoid another highly politicized controversy.

It’s more wallpapering though: Connectivity investments are a business growth strategy predicated on Facebook removing connectivity barriers that stand in the way of Facebook onboarding more eyeballs.

And given the amounts of money Facebooks has been willing to spend to try to lodge its product in the hands of more new Internet users — to the point where, in some markets, Facebook effectively is the Internet — it’s even less forgivable that the company has failed to properly resource its international operations and stop its products from having some truly tragic consequences.

The cost to humanity for Facebook failing to operate with due care is painfully visible but difficult to quantify.

Not that Zuckerberg has let those inconvenient truths stop him from continuing to suggest he’s the man to build a community for the planet. But again that rather implies Facebook’s problems grow out of Facebook’s lack of external perspective.

Aside from the fact that we are all equally human, there is no one homogenous human community that spans the entire world. So when Zuckerberg talks about Facebook’s ‘global community’ he is, in effect, saying nothing — or saying something almost entirely meaningless as to render down to a platitudinous sludge. (At least unless his desire is indeed a Borg-esque absorption of other cultures — into a ‘resistance is futile’ homogenous ‘Californormification’ of the planet. And we must surely hope it’s not. Although Facebook’s Free Basics have been accused of amounting to digital colonialism.)

Zuckerberg does seem to have quasi-realized the contradiction lurking at the the tin heart of his ‘global’ endeavor, though. Which is why he’s talked suggestively about creating a ‘Supreme Court of Facebook‘ — i.e. to try to reboot the pitifully unfit for purpose governance structure. (Although talk of ‘community-oriented governance’ has neither been firmed up nor formalized into a tangible structural reform plan.)

While the notion of a Supreme Court of Facebook, especially, does risk sounding worryingly like Zuckerberg fancies his own personal Star Chamber, the fact he’s even saying this sort of stuff shows he knows Facebook has planet-straddling problems that are far, far too big for its minimalist Libertarian ‘guardrails’ to manage or control. And in turn that suggests the event horizon of scaling Facebook’s business model has been reached. Hello $120BN market cap blackhole.

“It’s just not clear to me that us sitting in an office here in California are best placed to always determine what the policies should be for people all around the world,” Zuckerberg said earlier THIS YEAR — 2018! — in what must surely count as the one of the tardiest enlightenments of a well educated public person in the Western world, period.

“I’ve been working on and thinking through,” he continued his mental perambulation. “How can you set up a more democratic or community-oriented process that reflects the values of people around the world?”

Well, Mark, here’s an idea to factor into your thinking: Facebook’s problem is Facebook’s massive size.

So why not chop the platform up into market specific operations that are free to make some of their own decisions and let them develop diverse corporate cultures of their own. Most importantly empower them to be operationally sensitive to the needs of local communities — and so well placed to responsively serve them.

Imagine the Facebook brand as a sort of loose ‘franchise’, with each little Facebook at liberty to intelligently adapt the menu to local tastes. And each of these ‘content eateries’ taking pride in the interior of its real estate, with dedicated managers who make their presence felt and whose jobs is to ensure great facilities but no violent food fights.

There would also need to be some core principles too, of course. A set of democratic and civic values that all the little Facebooks are bound to protect — to push back against attempts by states or concerted external forces seeking to maliciously hijack and derail speech.

But switch around the current reality — a hulkingly massive platform attached to a relatively tiny (in resources terms) business operation — and the slavering jabberwocky that Zuckerberg is now on a personal mission to slay might well cease to exist, as multiple messy human challenges get cut down to a more manageable size. Not every single content judgement call on Facebook needs to scale planet-wide.

Multiple, well resourced market-specific Facebooks staffed locally so they can pro-actively spot problems and manage their communities would not be the same business at all. Facebook would become an even more biodiverse ecosystem — of linked but tonally distinct communities — which could even, in time, diverge a bit on the feature front, via adding non-core extras, based on market specific appetites and tastes.

There would obviously have to be basic core social function interoperability — so that individual users of different Facebooks could still connect and communicate. But beyond a bit of interplay (a sort of ‘Facebook Basics’) why should there be a requirement that everyone’s Facebook experience be exactly the same?

While Facebook talks as if it has a single set of community standards, the reality is fuzzier. For example it applies stricter hate speech rules to content moderation in a market like Germany, which passed a social media hate speech law last year. Those sorts of exceptions aren’t going to go away either; as more lawmakers wake up to the challenges posed by the platform more demands will be made to regulate the content on the platform.

So, Zuckerberg, why not step actively into a process of embracing greater localization — in a way that’s sensitive to cultural and societal norms — and use the accrued political capital from that to invest in defending the platform’s core principles?

This approach won’t work in every market, clearly. But allowing for a greater tonality of content — a more risqué French Facebook, say, vs the ‘no-nipples please’ U.S. flavor — coupled with greater sensitivity to market mood and feedback could position Facebook to work with democracies and strengthen civic and cultural values, instead of trying to barge its way along by unilaterally imposing the U.S. constitution on the rest of the planet.

Facebook as it is now, globally scaled but under-resourced, is not in a position to enforce its own community standards. It only does so when or if it receives repeat complaints (and even then it won’t always act on them).

Or when a market has passed legislation enforcing action with a regime of fines (a recent report by a UK parliamentary committee, examining the democratic implications of social media fueled disinformation, notes that one in six of Facebook’s moderators now works in Germany — citing that as “practical evidence that legislation can work”).

So there are very visible cracks in both its claim to be “building global community” or even that it has community standards at all, given it doesn’t pro-actively enforce them (in most markets). So why not embrace a full fragmentation of its platform — and let a thousand little blue ships set sail!

And if Facebook really wants one community principle to set as its pole star, one rule to rule them all (and to vanquish its existential jabberwocky), it should swear to put life before data.

Locally tuned, culturally sensitive Facebooks that stand up for democratic values and civic standards could help rework the moderation challenge — removing the need for Facebook to have the equivalent of sweat shops based on outsourcing repeat human exposure to violent and toxic content.

This element is one of the ugliest sides of the social media platform business. But with empowered, smaller businesses operating in closer proximities to the communities being served, Facebook stands a better chance of getting on top of its content problems — getting out of a reactive crisis mode piled high with problems where it’s currently stuck to taking up a position in the community intelligence vanguard where its workers can root out damaging abuse before it gets to go viral, metastasize and wreak wider societal harms.

Proper community management could also, over time, encourage a more positive sharing environment to develop — where posting hateful stuff doesn’t get rewarded with feedback loops. Certainly not algorithmically, as it indeed has been.

As an additional measure, a portion of the financial windfall gained from selling off Facebook’s other social networks could be passed directly to independent trustees appointed to the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation for spending on projects intended to counter the corrosive effects of social media on information veracity and authenticity — such as by funding school age educational programs in critical thinking.

Indeed, UK lawmakers have already called for a social media levy for a similar purpose.

Step 3) Open the black boxes

There would still be a Facebook board and a Facebook exec team in a head office in California sitting atop all these community-oriented Facebooks — which, while operationally liberated, would still be making use of its core technology and getting limited corporate steerage. So there would still be a need for regulators to understand what Facebook’s code is doing.

Algorithmic accountability of platform technologies is essential. Regulators need to be able to see the inputs underlying the information hierarchies that these AI engines generate, and compare those against the outputs of that shaping. Which means audits. So opening the commercial black boxes — and the data holdings — to regulatory oversight.

Discrimination is easier to get away with in darkness. But Mega-platforms have shielded their commercial IP from public scrutiny and it’s only when damaging effects have surfaced in the public consciousness that users have got a glimpse of what’s been going on.

Facebook’s defense has been to say it was naive in the face of malicious activity like Russian-backed election meddling. That’s hardly an argument for more obscurity and more darkness. If you lack awareness and perspective, ask for expert help Mark.

Lawmakers have also accused the company of willfully obstructing good faith attempts at investigating scandals such as Cambridge Analytica data misuse, Kremlin-backed election interference, or how foreign money flowed into its platform seeking to influence the UK’s Brexit referendum result.

Willful obstruction to good faith, democratically minded political interrogation really isn’t a sustainable strategy. Nor an ethically defensible one.

Given the vast, society-deforming size of these platforms politicians are simply not just going to give up and go home. There will have to be standards to ensure these mega-powerful information distribution systems aren’t at risk of being gamed or being biased or otherwise misused and those standards will have to be enforced. And the enforcement must also be able to be checked and verified. So, yes, more audits.

Mega-platforms have also benefited from self-sustaining feedback loops based on their vast reach and data holdings, allowing them to lock in and double down on a market dominating position by, for example, applying self-learning algorithms trained on their own user data or via A/B testing at vast, vast scale to optimize UX design to maximize engagement and monopolize attention.

User choice in this scenario is radically denuded, and competition increasingly gets pushed back and even locked out, without such easy access to equivalently massive pools of data.

If a mega-platform has optimized the phasing and positioning of — for example — a consent button by running comparative tests to determine which combination yields the fewest opt outs, is it fair or right to the user being asked to ‘choose’? Are people being treated with respect? Or, well, like lab rats?

Breaking Facebook’s platform into lots of Facebooks could also be an opportunity to rethink its data monopoly. To argue that its central business should not have an absolute right to the data pool generated by each smaller, market specific Facebook.

Part of the regulatory oversight could include a system of accountability over how Facebook’s parent business can and cannot use pooled data holdings.

If Facebook’s executive team had to make an ethics application to a relevant regulatory panel to request and justify access each time the parent business wanted to dip into the global data pool or tap data from a particular regional cluster of Facebooks, how might that change thought processes within the leadership team?

Facebook’s own (now former) CSO, Alex Stamos, identified problems baked into the current executive team’s ‘business as usual’ thinking — writing emphatically in an internal memo earlier this year: “We need to build a user experience that conveys honesty and respect, not one optimized to get people to click yes to giving us more access. We need to intentionally not collect data where possible, and to keep it only as long as we are using it to serve people… We need to be willing to pick sides when there are clear moral or humanitarian issues. And we need to be open, honest and transparent about challenges and what we are doing to fix them.”

It seems unlikely that an application to the relevant regulators asking for ‘Europe-wide data so we can A/B test user consent flows to get more Europeans to switch on facial recognition‘ would pass the ‘life before data’ community standard test.

And, well, it’s well established that the fact of being watched and knowing it’s happening has the power to change behavior. After all, Facebook’s platform is a major testament to that.

So it may be more that it’s external guidance — rather than a new internal governance model — which Facebook sorely lacks. Some external watchers to watch its internal watchmen.

Step 4) Remove Zuckerberg from (his) office

Public companies are supposed to be answerable to their shareholders. Thanks to the share structure that Mark Zuckerberg put in place at Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is answerable to no one except himself. And despite Facebook’s years of scandals, he does not appear to have ever felt the urge to sack himself.

When the idea of personal accountability was brought up with him, in a recent podcast interview with Kara Swisher, he had a moment of making a light joke of it — quipping “do you really want me to fire myself right now? For the news?” before falling back on his line that: “I think we should do what’s gonna be right for the community.”

And, you know what, the joke was exactly right: The idea that Zuckerberg would terminate his own position is both laughable and ludicrous. It is a joke.

Which means Facebook’s executive structure is also a joke because there is zero accountability at the highest level — beyond Mark’s personal threshold for shame or empathy — and that’s now a global problem.

Zuckerberg has more power than most of the world’s elected politicians (and arguably some of the world’s political leaders). Yet he can’t be kicked out of his office, nor lose his CEO seat at any ballot box. He’s a Facebook fixture — short of a literal criminal conviction or otherwise reputation terminating incident.

While you could argue that not being answerable to the mercenary whims of shareholder pressure is a good thing because it frees Zuckerberg to raise business transformation needs above returns-focused investor considerations (albeit, let’s see how his nerve holds after that $120BN investor punch) — his record in the CEO’s chair counters any suggestion that he’s a person who makes radical and sweeping changes to Facebook’s modus operandi. On the contrary, he’s shown himself a master of saying ‘oops we did it again!’ and then getting right back to screwing up as usual.

He’s also demonstrated a consistent disbelief that Facebook’s platform creates problems — preferring to couch connecting people as a glorious humanitarian mission from whence life-affirming marriages and children flow. Rather than seeing risks in putting global megaphones in the hands of anyone with an urge to shout.

As recently as November 2016 he was still dismissing the idea that political disinformation spread via Facebook had been in any way impactful on the US presidential election — as a “pretty crazy idea” — yet his own business had staffed divisions dedicated to working with US politicians to get their campaign messages out. It shouldn’t be rocket science to see a contradiction there. But until very recently Zuckerberg apparently couldn’t.

The fact of him also being the original founder of the business does not help in the push for disruptive change to Facebook itself. The best person to fix a radically broken product is unlikely to be the person whose entire adult life has been conjoined to a late night college dorm room idea spat online — and then which ended up spinning up and out into a fortune. And then into a major, major global mess.

The ‘no better person than me to fix it’ line can be countered by pointing to Zuckerberg’s personal history of playing fast and loose with other people’s data (from the “dumb fucks” comment all the way back in his student days to years of deliberate platform choices at Facebook that made people’s information public by default); and by suggesting entrenched challenges would surely benefit from fresh eyes, new thinking and a broader perspective.

Add to that, Zuckerberg has arguably boxed himself in, politically speaking, thanks to a series of disingenuous, misleading and abstruse claims and statements made to lawmakers — limiting his room for manoeuvre or for rethinking his approach; let alone being able to genuinely compromise or make honest platform changes.

His opportunity to be radically honest about Facebook’s problems probably passed years and years back — when he was busy working hard on his personal challenge to wear a tie everyday [2009]. Or only eat animals he kills himself [2011].

By 2013’s personal challenge, it’s possible that Zuckerberg had sensed something new in the data stream that was maybe coming down the pipes at him — as he set himself the challenge of expanding his personal horizons (not that he put it that way) by “meeting a new person every day who does not work at Facebook”.

Meeting a new person every day who did work at Facebook would have been far too easy, see.

Is it even possible to think outside the box when your entire adult life has been spent tooling away inside the same one?

Step 5) Over to you…

What are your radical solutions for fixing Facebook? Should Zuckerberg stay or should he go? What do you want lawmakers to do about social media? What kinds of policy interventions might set these mega-platforms on a less fractious path? Or do you believe all this trouble on social media is a storm in a teacup that will blow over if we but screw our courage to the sticking place and wait for everyone to catch up with the cardinal Internet truth that nothing online is what it seems…

Cool read from TC Source Link

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marketingmovement · 3 years ago

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TOP MISTAKES OF DIY MEDICAL MARKETING

To expand your medical practice, you need patients. The only way you’ll be able to attract customers through your door to be served by your suppliers and employees is to market your business. Your medical practice isn’t like a lemonade stand where you open the door and hope someone comes in from the street, wondering why the lights are on. While most medical practice owners recognize the importance of marketing, they frequently make mistakes that harm their entire medical marketing strategy. Now a days, Health and wellness marketing companies have become very sensitive. Improper marketing methods get entrenched in a healthcare organization’s strategy, it can disrupt the patient experience or, worse, lead patients to become disengaged.

Healthcare Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

Working as a healthcare professional may be an excruciatingly unpleasant and stressful experience, and it’s your duty to help them relax along the way. Not all healthcare marketing strategies are effective. Campaigns that place too much emphasis on “conversion” might lead to patient misunderstanding or even damage. Medical firms, on the other hand, make a lot of errors when it comes to DIY marketing. Here are some of the most typical healthcare marketing blunders you may have made:

Ineffective External Communication

Communicating with your consumers, whether actively or passively, is an important element of any marketing plan. Those “customers” are potential patients in the case of healthcare and wellness marketing. They come from all backgrounds, but they all have one thing in common: they want to be treated like humans. Custom marketing solutions are perfect to implement in these sectors.

Usage of Non-Patient-Friendly Terms

Your potential patient will be confused and frustrated if your content is packed of acronyms and jargon. Doctors, nurses, and administrators, for example, may be aware that an AMI stands for “acute myocardial infarction.” Outside of medicine, however, everyone prefers (and knows) the term “heart attack.”

Not Blogging

Many healthcare providers do not have a blog on their website that is a wasted opportunity. It is usually noticed that providers or organisations with blogs enjoy a 55 percent increase in traffic and an 11 percent increase in ROI. A blog also offers you a voice in your community, allowing you to engage and develop credibility with patients through a different medium.

Ignoring Customer Feedback

We live in a system where nearly every decision we make, big or little, is influenced by online reviews. You’ll almost certainly read the reviews before adding that new scarf to your Amazon shopping basket. As a result, it’s no surprise that 72 percent of patients start their search for a doctor by reading internet reviews.

Responding to reviews helps you manage your reputation in addition to making your services more appealing to potential patients. For genuinely negative reviews, you can control the narrative and, more crucially, uncover trends in errors that your company can fix. This is excellent for business and better for your patients’ health and safety. Malfunctioning internal Communication

Hundreds of moving pieces must function in unison to form a successful team. This necessitates teamwork and open channels of communication both within and outside. When internal communication goes down, it has a detrimental impact on the whole provider or business.

What Makes a Successful Healthcare Marketing Strategy?

A few simple changes can improve the patient experience while also increasing the efficacy of your marketing initiatives. Budget is the Key to Success!

A strategy that includes scopes for every budget is the one that stands through thicks and thins. The flexibility and versatility of price caps for medical digital marketing services helps build the customer base as well as goodwill. Marketing Movement offers a budget-friendly healthcare marketing services.

A Website with Sense and Common Sense

While any digital strategy benefits from a responsive website with eye-catching design features, the greatest healthcare websites do much more than just look and feel good. Not only can patients benefit from an easy-to-use hospital website, or any website for a medical practice. It makes people more likely to keep any appointments they set up on the website.

Setting the Philosophy of Encouraging Patient Reviews and Testimonials

While responding to patient evaluations is vital, a strong healthcare marketing plan goes one step further and uses them. Potential patients can learn a lot from reviews and testimonials if they want to make an educated selection. Encouragement of these evaluations, as well as participation in them, can help to fuel your campaign. Interacting with your community online allows you to have a voice in it. It also aids in the resolution of internal issues that may arise as a result of unfavorable feedback.

Sharing Content Relevant to the Patients

High-quality, relevant content may help you establish yourself as an industry leader (and as an added bonus, well-written, unique content can drive your SEO traffic). Just be sure that the tone of the article is appropriate while sharing it. You may also address issues that patients may not have thought to ask by offering high-quality material. It can boost your authority while also benefiting the medical industry and your community. Your business, as well as past, current, and prospective patients, will profit greatly from the proper content.

Patient connection, effective external communication, and an emphasis on enabling individuals to adopt healthy lifestyle choices are all driving forces in DIY medical marketing. Finding a proper marketing guidance is necessary. When in need seek SEO for Medical Practices to complement Online Marketing for Medical in Melbourne.

A bad patient experience might be caused by a badly designed website, inefficient internal communication, or ineffective external message. Someone may decide to cease searching for medical treatment as a result of irresponsible or insensitive marketing encounters. The stakes are quite high. These healthcare marketing tactics for improving your website, content development, can make a significant difference in the lives of your patients.

Searching for Medical SEO Service in Melbourne, or Medical Content Writing Services / Digital Marketing Company in Melbourne will help you seek the right Custom marketing solutions.

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annieboltonworld · 3 years ago

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Juniper Publishers-Open Access Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources

An Assessment of Learners’ Engagement in Mathematics: Towards Building Mathematics Culture in South African Schools

Authored by Bernard Moeketsi Hlalele

Abstract

South Africa is the highest ranked emerging economy in Africa there being one of the most promising emerging markets globally. In the current highly technological economic world, mathematics education and mathematics performance are key resources in the global competition. This study used a modified Venn diagram model of student engagement to assess the level of engagement of learners in Mathematics. This study used a case study research design to assess the level of student engagement in mathematics. A sample of 80 high school leaners was drawn from grades 8, 10, 11 and 12. Responses were captured in SPSS and reliability was run whose results were a Cronbach’s Apha coefficient of 0.808 that is way above the threshold value of 0.7. After grouping that was aided by scores and by deciles, the results showed that leaners are not engaged in mathematics teaching and learning. An ANOVA test was run between groups to check differences in means, the results showed a significant difference at 0.05 with P = 0,1.008471< 0.05. A further test was conducted; this post hoc test showed all grades having equal means except grade 10 which revealed a significant difference with grade 11. This was however inconsistent with the performance levels these respondents obtained in their previous years. The conclusion was that all the respondents showed disengagement in mathematics teaching and learning. These results on the other hand are therefore consistent with the literature that shows South Africa far below other countries in global competitiveness in terms of mathematics. The study therefore recommends that authorities and all other relevant stakeholders adopt top-learner-performance countries such Singapore as shown in the brief literature review below.

Keywords: Learners’ engagement; mathematics culture

Introduction and Theoretical Background

School is central to the daily lives of many youths, in a sense that they view it as their long-term wellbeing and this attitude is embedded in their participation in both academic and non-academic pursuits. However, some youth do not share the above mentioned view point; they do not believe that academic success will have a strong bearing on their future. These feelings and attitude may result in a disruptive behaviour towards teachers and other students. Meeting youths’ needs is perhaps a major challenge in the 21st century facing teachers and school administrators. Researchers have devised a term, engagement that refers to the extent to which students identify the value of schooling outcomes, and participate in academic and non-academic school activities. Student engagement has to date almost become a buzz word not only in traditional conventional systems but in all spheres of education [1]. Several studies have proven learners’ engagement to be highly correlated with improvements in specific desirable outcomes that include; general abilities and critical thinking, practical competence and transferability, cognitive development, improved grades and learners ‘satisfaction leading to participation in both academic and non-academic activities [2-5]. In addition to this, researchers, teachers and policy makers have increasingly focusing on leaners’ engagement as a key tool for addressing low achievement problems, learners boredom and alienation and high failure and dropout rates [6].

The country’s general competence in mathematics is regarded as a major component of the economic success and the level of mathematics knowledge in the population had a direct link with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) [7]. Mathematics has not only got a place in economy but also in social sciences as well in political debate as a contribution to conduct of rational debate. It also has impacted positively in forensic sciences through crime detection, which is one of the economic issues that retard the social and economic development [8]. Two of the South African Department of Basic Education goals for 2030 at from 2015 to 2019 are; goal 5: Increase the number of Grade 12 learners who pass mathematics and Goal 6: Increase the number of Grade 12 learners who pass physical science [9]. It is through education, that nations have better skills, autonomous workers that are able to use their education for creativity, building of wealth as well as putting pressures off government economic programs [10]. However, South Africa is currently facing a downward trend in the world competitiveness rankings, especially in the factors such as economic growth where she ranked 56th in 144 countries and performed poorly on high education and training and ranked 144th in labour-employer relations [11]. In a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) South Africa was ranked last in 148 countries in mathematics and science and 146th for overall quality of her education, however these results were slummed by the Department Basic Education (DBE) [12] that they were not credible and accurate as the methodology followed was based on the opinions of business leaders who were not even experts in the field [13]. Surprisingly, in a 2013 ANA Diagnostic Report whose main aim was to determine learners’ performance on knowledge and skills as a result of both learning and teaching, the department of basic education found low levels of competency [14]. In 2012 and 2013 the National average percentage scores in Mathematics were 13% and 14% respectively for 9th graders [15]. Given the above context, it is imperative that an evaluation of the level of leaners’ engagement is conducted to; assess the level of student engagement, ascertain the factors that impact positively on student engagement in a South Africa context, identify the factors that lead to student disengagement and recommend strategies to enhance student engagement. The results from this study are therefore hoped to contribute in increasing learners’ engagement in mathematics hence the country’s economic growth.

Brief Literature Review

Student engagement has received a global attention in the 21st century probably due to well established robust correlations with students’ academic achievement and development that include, satisfaction, persistence and social engagement [2]. However, this phenomenon has defined differently by various scholars [16]. The following are some of the definitions of student engagement. Student engagement is concerned with the interaction between the time, effort and other relevant resources invested by both students and their institutions intended to optimize the student experience and enhance the learning outcomes and development of students and the performance, and reputation of the institution [2,17]. Davis [18] argues that student engagement is a three dimensional concept and this entail, relational engagement (where leaners engage with the classroom and school community), behavioral engagement (encompasses students’ effort, persistence, participation, and compliance with school structures) and cognitive engagement (how students feel about themselves and their work, their skills, and the strategies they employ to master their work). There is actually very little consensus on how student engagement is defined however, one thing agreed upon is that it is not onedimensional. It involves cognitive, behavioral and affective components Sri kanthan [19].

Strategies that Promote Learner Engagement in STEM

Many believe that the key to strengthening any nation’s economy and competing globally chiefly lies in the fostering innovative culture and educating youth in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) [20]. Studies in United States have shown that hands-on activities, campaigns designed to arouse interest in youth have resulted in an increase in performance in STEM. Some of these activities include; taking field trips where experiments are conducted, teachers who enjoy their subjects and motivate and encourage learners to partake in STEM. One of the most powerful strategies that US uses to engage its youth in STEM is through innovation teams of high school learners, teachers and mentors that are given up to $10, 000 each to invent technological solutions to real world problems [20]. Similarly, Taylor and Parsons [10] asserts that today’s learners want to connect and communicate constantly and need an environment that support these connections. In Singapore, the world leading country in the Mathematics, Science and Technology, the following strategies in the table below are implemented to ensure increased engagement in STEM at all education levels (Table 1).

Science actually means business, moving to a business culture that values science-based strategies is more highly to create a greater diversity of career prospects for science and engineering graduates in the country [8,21]. Similarly, it is estimated 75% of the fastest growing populations ‘occupancy needs STEM skills and knowledge (Office of the Chief Scientist, 2013) [22]. The following table shows some of these strategies used in other countries (Table 2).

Methods and Materials

A 5 point likert scale questionnaire was administered to all participants of a selected school in Thaba Nchu. The sample size of 80 leaners drawn from various grades, 8, 10, 11 and 12 was chosen. The study used a modified Venn diagram student engagement model where scores were aggregated per respondent per statement. The scores were categorized in deciles with corresponding level of engagement. All scores from normal to lower values were regarded as disengagement [23]. An ANOVA test was conducted to check if any differences existed between groups. This was followed by a Post Hoc test to seek deeper understanding of which groups differ in means (Tables 3-5).

From the table above it can be seen that 65% (52) of the respondents have normal to strongly disengagement leading to a conclusion that these leaners are not engaged in mathematics (Tables 6 & 7).

Tables 6 & 7 shows the results of one-way ANOVA and the null hypothesis that three grades means are equal is rejected at 0.05 significant level, hence revealing a significant difference in means in these grades since p = 0.008471 < 0.05 (Table 8).

From the above table it can be deduced that grades 8, 10 and 12 form one subset with their p-values showing non-significant differences. However, grade 10 seems to be significantly different from the grade 11. The following table tracks the possible reasons for this. It is then evident that grade 10 mean is likely to be different because 100% of its respondents showed engagement in mathematics yet the whole study revealed disengagement. This is also contradicting the performance levels these leaners got in their previous grade (Table 9).

Conclusion

In conclusion the study which was aimed at assessing the level of engagement of leaners in mathematics. The study has revealed that there is still a good amount of work to be done to achieve a satisfactory performance in mathematics. The results are however consistent with the literature on how South Africa fairs internationally. It is therefore recommended that authorities and all other stakeholders align their strategies with those of the top performing countries such as Singapore.

To know more about Juniper Publishers please click on: https://juniperpublishers.com/manuscript-guidelines.php

For more articles in Open Access Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources please click on: https://juniperpublishers.com/ijesnr/index.php

#Juniper Publishers Review #juniper publishers publons #Environmental Chemistry #Meteorology #Oceanology #Pollution #Hydrology #Geology #Limnology

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juniperpublishers-imst · 4 years ago

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Exploring Innovative Teaching Techniques in Higher Institutions in Cameroon – A Case Study of the Catholic University Institute of Buea, The Growth Entrepreneurial Mindset University

Abstract

Innovative or creative teaching is known to nurtures students’ creative potential and this requires four competencies namely learning, social, educational, and technological which involves the preparedness and readiness to learn, communicate with others from different backgrounds, passion and knowledgeability, and finally the use of technology to further student understanding. While there are clearly significant benefits to innovative teaching methods, there is a need for caution too in our fast-paced digital world where students have an extensive amount of visual information to hand throughout the day and night. Selflessness is also a factor when trying to innovate and innovation is not carrying a single idea to a predetermined destination and at some point, innovation must be inclusive. The Catholic University Institute of Buea (CUIB) as a professional university has taken the bold step to be the premier game changer and leader in entrepreneurial education in Cameroon and one thing is certain, that entrepreneurialism does not mean a compromise of traditional academic values. On the contrary, it not only fosters it but elevates it since it requires higher order thinking skills such as problem solving; creativity, critical thinking, and thinking for understanding and transfer. CUIB do not only teach students the tasks and practices of business (Heart of Business) but also help them to develop a moral compass (soul of Business) that will enable them to find the right solutions even when in uncharted territory with a growth mind-set.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Innovative teaching,Teaching

Introduction

Traditional lectures is known to have ruled auditoriums for decades however there are new styles of teaching that have been discovered and are being discovered and these newer and more innovative teaching methods are moving away from the traditional model of lecturing and passive learning towards a greater focus on active learning, whereby students flexibly interact with others as they do participate in the lectures. Studies proposed that the collaborative way of learning in primary schools, where children sit around a table to work out a problem together, holds significant benefits for active learners but can become lost as the student progresses through their education. Paradoxically, as students develop superior thinking skills and problem-solving skills, the existing teaching methods becomes more and more passive with time thus leading to disengagement and frustration. The traditional lectures limit the opportunities for student interaction, but recent attempts to provide greater student interactions in lectures have resulted in much higher satisfaction, higher thinking skills and enhanced motivation.

According to the president of the Catholic University Institute of Buea (CUIB), Rev. Dr. George Nkeze Njingwa, most traditional universities are too “content” based and do not allow for the transfer of knowledge, new ideas and technology from university to the industry or community. This is what is popularly known as the Triple Helix Concept, namely the University as the Knowledge base, working with the Industry and Society. It is for this reason that CUIB runs a four-year entrepreneurial programme which is mandatory for all students and the purpose of this programme is to foster innovation, creativity, new ideas and new businesses. Students belong to entrepreneurial base groups and are expected to start their own businesses and run them.

Background of Study

The Catholic University Institute of Buea (CUIB) South West Region, Cameroon, was approved as a non-profit making university in two separate letters. The authorization to create CUIB on 09/01/0194 of 11 June 2009 and the authorization to start was signed by the Honourable Minister of Higher Education Prof Jacque Fame Ndongo by decision no 10/02173/N/ MINSUP/DDES/ESUP/SAC/NJE/ebm dated 26th of May 2010. Its primary purpose is to train professional servant leaders with moral and spiritual values so that they may be responsible to their communities. The proprietor/chancellor of the Catholic University of Buea is the Bishop of the Diocese of Buea. In June 2011, another arm of the University, the Business and Research Park was created as a legal entity of its own by the Cameroon laws no RC BUC.2031-B023 with the name CUIB-Centre for entrepreneurship research and innovation [1]. The Catholic University Institute of Buea Sport Academic (CUSA), Went operational in December 2014 with authorization no 1106/ G37/C84/VOL II/SAAJP with the main aim of assisting young, talented and excellent skilled Cameroonians in the various field of sport like football, volleyball, basketball, handball etc.

Literature Review

Innovative teaching is the process of leading to creative learning, by implementing new methods, tools and contents that can benefit learners and their creative potential. Instructors, trainers and teaching assistants’ relapse to educating students in the way they were educated and thus implementing the teaching practices that were effective in helping them learn furthermore how students learn best has change as time too has change [2]. Sternberg & Lubart [3] proposed that divergent thinking and embracing alternate solutions to problem solving while demonstrating a sensitivity to problems could help educators achieve these goals. Additionally, it has also been recommended that providing opportunities for active learning and stimulating learning interests could also help nurture innovative practices in the learning environment. Project-based learning is a good example of innovative learning, but it is possibly not the way you would expect as learning through projects is indeed innovative compared to teacher-led and textbook-sourced instruction.

Innovative teaching is good, whether technology is used; as a bad teacher does not suddenly become a good teacher just because technology is not included into the mix nor does a good teacher need to always use technology to maintain their effectiveness. Innovative teaching therefore focuses on creating conducive environments within which good learning can occur and the innovative teachers are excellent at supporting students and are also expert at creating engaging content and new experiences and they measures progress without causing any stress to the learner.

Research Methodology

For this research work, the researchers used both primary and secondary data that is information collected from fieldwork through direct observation and through books and the website of the University respectively. This research also uses quantitative or qualitative method of data collection and according to Jary & Jary [4], qualitative techniques rely on the skills of the researcher as an interviewer or observer in gathering data whereas quantitative methods place reliance upon research instruments employed to gather data and analyze it for example questionnaires.

Findings and Analysis

According to Rev. Dr. George Nkeze cited in the 2018/2019 bulletin annual publication of the Catholic University Institute of Buea, the dynamics of a constantly changing world is complicated: the education landscape is constantly changing, the old ways of learning- going to school and writing a test is no longer tenable and therefore it will essential to train students and adults about how to learn efficiently (skills oriented) and not what to learn (knowledge oriented). The Catholic University Institute of Buea – CUIB ubiquitous satellite campus: study anywhere, anytime campus is an initiate to take advantage of the technology advances that permit the blend of e-learning with the university’s traditional learning methods and models. This model involves a hybrid form of on-site and ubiquitous learning where students, professionals as well as non-professionals alike can benefit from the university state of-the-art and many amenities it provides. The university authorities believe that gone are those days where learning is confined to a physical classroom or restricted to hours of the day as this method contributes to the university’s goal to train individuals that can flourish in a rapidly changing world.

According to Kasey Bell [5] google classroom is designed to help teachers and students communicate and collaborate, manage assignments paperless, and stay organized and borrowing from the Google classroom which is part of the Google Apps for education suite, the authorities of the Catholic University Institute of Buea in an effort to continue to foster its policy of on-site and ubiquitous learning. It should be noted that students, professionals as well as non-professionals learn from the comfort of their environment without necessarily meeting in a physical environment and working with the guidance and support of the lecturer. The entrepreneurship training and practice program and activities which provide the scope and tradition necessary to implement the learning processes inherent in building an entrepreneurial mind-set [6].

The Catholic University Institute of Buea – centre for entrepreneurship and innovation academic fair (CUIB-CEI). It is an annual flagship event organised within the first two quarters of the month, it is under the theme ‘Economy of Communion’. There are also other innovative teaching methods namely: colloquium guest speaker, academic boot camps and start-ups, business plan challenge contest, one eagle one talent initiative and student incubator program [7].

Conclusion

As the educational environment is constantly changing in this complicated landscape especially with regards to the changing technology, for educational institutions to remain competitive, authorities must move from a fixed mind-set to a growth mind-set [8-11]. This means that they should be able to embrace challenge, be an opportunity to grow and be persistent in the marketplace, learn and identify areas to inform gained more skills from hard work and always accept continuous improvement.

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itsyourturnblog · 4 years ago

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Let’s talk about power.

When faced with complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity as we are in the current health, economic and political climate, it can be tempting to double down on structure, rules, policies and regulations, because these things give us a sense of power. And through that power, control.

The problem is, these forms of power and control aren’t real. They’re an illusion and clinging to them is a recipe for disaster over time.

I’m not saying there should be no org charts, or hierarchy. In fact, organizational hierarchies are a good thing because in theory, they allow people at each level to do their jobs better. Rather than worrying about what everyone else is doing, each individual can focus on their specific area and their specific results. In other words, hierarchy allows for specialization and focus.

But.

When leaders rely on the hierarchy not as a system for getting stuff done, but as a self-perpetuating system for obtaining power and control, organizational hierarchies become bureaucratic nightmares.

The truth is, the bureaucratic model is comforting to leaders who have an over-attachment to their needs for certainty and significance. This causes them to engage in a flawed form of thinking. I have the position. I have the authority. I’m the leader. Therefore, I’m worthy. In short, it’s for the weak and fearful. The irony of this mindset is that in the bureaucratic model, the authority and power belong to the position (i.e. job title) rather than the person. The person can be replaced, and the bureaucracy will continue to function.

So, we have to ask: Where’s the certainty and significance in that?

There is none, because we’re talking about inauthentic power. Authentic power is another thing entirely. And an authentically powerful leader is entirely different from one who is inauthentically powerful.

Instead of trying to be at the center of every decision and every activity, the authentically powerful leader enables decisions and activities. They distribute decision making power widely, and encourage diversity of people, experiences and viewpoints. This is how good stuff begins to emerge.

In their book Freedom Inc., Authors Brian Carney and Isaac Getz call this process “corporate liberation”. According to them, “A liberated company allows employees complete freedom and responsibility to take actions that they — not their managers — decide are best for their company’s vision”.

It’s all about trust and respect. The industrial era led us to increase control and decrease personal autonomy at work. Leaders didn’t want creative, self-directed employees, they wanted obedience and uniformity. But in the knowledge era, we need more from our employees. We need them to think, the connect and to innovate. And we just can’t regulate those behaviors.

Employees perform best and are at their most loyal when their needs for growth and contribution are being met on the job. Top down control kills that because top down control makes for small jobs. And small jobs make for small people. When employees aren’t trusted or respected, negative behaviors such as gossiping, missed workdays and even theft will abound, because we’ve effectively infantilized them. We’ve taken away their agency, their creative selves and their desire to excel. There’s not much left after that.

According to Gallup’s (super depressing) 2017 State of the American Workplace report, only 33 percent of U.S. employees are engaged at work. Gallup estimates that actively disengaged employees (those acting out because of their dissatisfaction) cost the U.S. as much as $605 billion each year in lost productivity.

When we let go of control and employees are now able to strive for growth and contribution, well, everything changes. Expect more of them, liberate them, and watch them go. They won’t let us down. That same Gallup report reveals that the more engaged an organization’s employees are, the better it performs. At the world’s best organizations, 70 percent of employees are engaged.

Rather than setting a top-down strategic vision, and the much-dreaded cascading goals that lose all meaning the further down the org chart we go, we much allow change to emerge from within the organization and adapt our behavior and strategies accordingly.

In times of complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity, true leadership is practiced in the mobilization of others the solve problems and create new things. This can happen at any level of the organization. Our job is to recognize these informal leaders as they emerge and remove internal and external barriers that may inhibit them from doing what needs to be done.

Authentic power is born of personal alignment with our values and purpose and a commitment to growth and contribution. A person who is in alignment doesn’t need to control everything. They observe, influence and enable.

So really, it all comes down to this: The most effective leaders are not in control of their teams. They’re in service to them.

Ready to become authentically powerful? Start here.

Here’s an idea! If you’d like to learn more about getting and staying unstuck, sign-up for my weekly newsletter (green box at top right of your screen on desktop, or under this post on mobile) so you’ll never miss a post. I promise I’m not a spammy nightmare. One per week, and that’s it.

It’s Time to Let Go of (inauthentic) Power was originally published in It's Your Turn on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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juniperpublishersnursing · 5 years ago

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Trauma, Mental Health, Coping, Resilience, and Post Traumatic Growth (PG)-Palestinian Experience-Juniper Publishers

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Introduction

Coping

Based on Lazarus and Folkman's [1] model, coping refers to the behavioral and cognitive efforts one uses to manage the internal and external demands of a stressful situation. Coping can be classified as being either problem-focused or emotion- focused in nature. Lazarus & Folkman's [1] stress-coping theory, in which the individual assesses both the relevance of the environmental stressor (i.e. what he or she has at stake in the encounter) and his or her coping options before deciding on coping strategies to deal with the stressor. This theory's general emphasis on “coping,” however, could be expanded to encompass “development” or “growth.” There are three dimensions are most commonly used to categorize coping strategies:

Problem-focused and emotion-focused coping.

Primary and secondary control coping.

Engagement and disengagement coping (also referred to as approach versus avoidance coping) [2].

Problem-focused coping involves activities that focus on directly changing elements of the stressful situation.

Emotion-focused coping involves activities that focus more on modifying one's internal reactions resulting from the stressful situation.

Coping strategies includes a broad diversity of thoughts and behaviors used to manage the demands of a taxing situation [1]. Multiple research groups have attempted to organize coping strategies (and styles) into different categories.

The approach/avoidance construct, as the label implies, indicates whether the individual makes attempts to change the situation or distance him- or herself from the stressor as a way to reduce negative outcomes.

Coping strategies implemented immediately following trauma exposure, and in response to post traumatic stress. Avoidance as a sort of coping, such as behavioral or emotional avoidance, have been associated with increased psychological distress among interpersonal violence PTSD populations [3]. Avoidance behaviors could lead to withdrawal from support networks and reduced opportunities for positive experience, thereby compounding negative affect and reduced emotional experiencing. Approach-oriented coping strategies, such as active coping, planning, and support seeking, have been generally deemed adaptive following exposure to stress [4].

Social support is a variable that has been considered as both a means of coping and a resource contributing to the availability of other forms of coping [5]. The different ways of conceptualizing the role of social support in coping, and the relative lack of studies that examine reciprocal relationships between coping factors, has created some confusion about what roles social support may play in helping women deal with domestic violence.

Resilience

Over the decades, definitions of resilience in sciences concerned with child and family systems have become more dynamic, multilevel, and process oriented in focus, reflecting a broad theoretical shift toward a relational developmental systems framework in life course human developmental science and related fields [6].

Resilience and post traumatic growth (PG) theory and research are rooted in the philosophical stance that emphasizes the consideration of positive (salutogenic), rather than pathological or negative factors in trauma research [7]. Distinctions should also be made between posttraumatic growth and the concepts of resilience, hardiness, optimism, and sense of coherence. All these concepts describe certain personal characteristics that allow people to manage adversity well.

Resilience is usually considered to be an ability to go on with life after hardship and adversity, or to continue living a purposeful life after experiencing hardship and adversity. Smith defined resilience as a process that leads to "strength awareness", but psychological resilience may be operationally defined as strength awareness itself-that is, the belief that one can persevere or accomplish goal-relevant tasks across varied challenges and adverse situations.

Given this growing interest in scalable definitions, resilience can be defined broadly as "the capacity of a dynamic system to adapt successfully to disturbances that threaten its function, viability, or development" [8]. This definition of resilience could apply to an individual, family, computer system, economy, or ecosystem, among other systems. The capacity of any given system to adapt to challenges depends on the function of many interacting, changing systems. The resilience of children and their families are intertwined and also linked to supports and systems beyond the family in community, culture, and the physical environment.

Child resilience investigators have long recognized that resilience is inferred from judgments about risk (discussed further below) and adaptive function or development [9]; What are the criteria or standards by which we identify whether a person, a family, or any other system is adapting well? Issues in defining positive child development, adaptation, competence, or success have received considerable attention in child resilience science. What are the criteria or standards by which we identify whether a person, a family, or any other system is adapting well? One major approach to the criteria for judging adaptation is positive, focused on age-related expectations for behavior and achievement defined by communities and societies, often termed "developmental tasks" [10]. A second approach for judging adaptation, defined by low levels or absence of symptoms or disorder, stems from the initial focus on children at risk for psychopathology in the history of child resilience science. This negative approach has been criticized theoretically [11] and also from a common-sense perspective.

Family Resilience

What does it mean for a family system to be doing well or fulflling its functions effectively? Walsh [12], the concept of family resilience shifted attention from family as a resource or protective system for the individual members of a family to the function of the family unit as a whole, studied in terms of family adaptation or maladaptation in the context of adversity and the family processes that sustain family resilience. McCubbin [13] described the desired outcomes of family resilience in terms of success in fulfilling important expected functions of the family. These tasks included functions such as providing a sense of belonging and meaning, affording economic support, educating and socializing family members, and protecting vulnerable members of the family [14]. The effectiveness or success of a family would then be judged according to these expectations. Again, the criteria were multidimensional.

Post Traumatic Growth

In contrast, post traumatic growth refers to a change in people that goes beyond an ability to resist and not be damaged by highly stressful circumstances. Calhoun defined post traumatic growth as "positive change that an individual experiences as a result of the struggle with a traumatic event". In contrast to the construct of resilience, in which the individual returns to baseline functioning following highly stressful or traumatic experience, post traumatic growth is characterized by post-event adaptation that exceeds pre-event levels. Despite this interesting body of literature, there is still limited evidence on how living in areas of war and political conflict impact on university students, and which types of personal growth they may develop in response in relation to resilience. The aim of this paper to review papers conducted in Gaza Strip targeting children and adults using coping, resilience, and PTG.

Method

The author reviewed all his previous work in the area using the available data.

Results

As shown in the Table 1, 2 & 3 [26].

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thisdaynews · 5 years ago

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Osinbajo, Sagay, Urge Mass to participate fully in the fight against corruption.

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/osinbajo-sagay-urge-mass-to-participate-fully-in-the-fight-against-corruption/

Osinbajo, Sagay, Urge Mass to participate fully in the fight against corruption.