Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 19

Essay Example petus to desegregation however occurred between 1866-1876 during the Reconstruction, when Congress overrode President Andrew Johnson and ratified the 14th Amendment. But in 1883 the U.S. Supreme Court overruled this and things reverted to their old ways although by 1869 the Freedmans Bureau had set up more than 3000 schools for black children. The most important judicial decision which led to total desegregation was the Brown v. Board of Education case, argued by such legal luminaries as Charles H. Houston and a battery of lawyers led by Thurgood Marshall, which opened the floodgates for reforms in the segregated educational system. The case was a combination of cases filed in South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, Washington D.C and Kansas. The Delaware case challenged the poor conditions of schools for blacks and also the plight of children who had to travel an hour everyday to attend a school with poor facilities because the local high school refused to take them. Louis Redding, a local NAACP attorney was the lawyer. The South Carolina case was a class action civil suit against the inferior conditions in black schools, filed by the state NAACP at the urging of Rev. J.A. DeLaine. The case from Virginia was against the inadequate buildings and inferior school facilities and was facilitated by the NAACP. The case from Washin gton D.C was filed when students from a black school, during a field trip to a white school were denied entry and the ruling stated it â€Å"a denial of the due process of law guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment†. The Kansas case which gained fame as the Brown v. Board of Education case was filed on denial of admission to black children in schools segregated for whites. The Topeka NAACP under McKinley Burnett was responsible for this suit. This case was a landmark judgment because it paved the way for desegregation, not only in schools but also other public utilities and led the way for greater change in society and a general attitude towards

Assess the economic benefits of Globalisation to developing countries Essay

Assess the economic benefits of Globalisation to developing countries within recent years - Essay Example 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) would lose more than 53% of its revenues if the American government asks them to restrict their operations within the United States (Barrera, pp. 17, 2007). Exxon Mobil is an American firm but it receives only 25 percent of its yearly revenues from operations within the United States (Welfens, 102-103, 1999). Finnish employees no longer form the majority at Nokia’s head quarter, which is a Finland based company; surprisingly, employees from China and India dominate the numbers (Chatterji & Gangopadhyay, 89-93, 2005). Honda, a Japanese automobile maker, has its biggest production plant in Ohio. When Pakistani government decided to impose a 25% duty on the import of cell phones, Nokia (Finnish company), Sony Eriksson (Japanese cum Swedish company), Samsung and LG (South Korean Companies) came into action and found ways to persuade the Pakistani government not to do so (Scholte, pp. 22-25, 2000). These were just a few glimpses and examples that how globalisation has affected each one of us. However, today we do not realize or feel that with such intensity but most of the products that we consume today, are manufactured or processed in strange lands, millions of miles away, lands that we have never seen or heard of. The rest of this paper is an attempt to asses the effects and changes brought by globalisation considering the specially the economic grounds. Despite the fact that there several definitions of globalisation but in its broadest sense, â€Å"globalisation refers to the rapid growth of linkages and interconnections between nations and social communities† that make up the present world system (Barrera, pp. 17, 2007). It is important to note that in economic terms globalisation has many forms. Firstly, it involves and facilitates trade between individuals, companies, corporations and

Keeping Schools Safe During Tight Budget Times Essay

Keeping Schools Safe During Tight Budget Times - Essay Example Parents can be able to understand and forgive educators and stakeholders in the education sector if they fail in their performance, but they find it difficult to forgive if their children are hurt through accidents or incidents which could have been avoided through strategic management or planning. The media and attorneys, also support parents in their initiative. These groups advocate for educators to be proactive even during tough economic times and stringent financial times. In today’s post-Columbine era, school safety has brewed a potent storm that has seen a number of events threaten the progress and reforms made on security, school drug and violence prevention, and emergency and disaster preparedness. In July 1, 2010, the federal Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program was eliminated, and the U.S department of education for the financial year 2011 proposed a new school safety program. The Title IV segment of the program was eliminated despite its strong agitation for strategi es aimed at preventing drug and violence in schools. The new program proposed by the U. S department of education is shallow and fails to integrate the diverse programs that were incorporated in the Safe and Drug-Free Schools, which provided strategies to school for a decade (Trump, 1). A raging economic recession has seen cutbacks being imposed to local school budgets in an effort to channel finances to other areas that are deemed more strategic and intricate. The uncertainty of the future coupled with hasty decisions on school budget cuts may negatively impact future planning and accrue more costs. School leaders assume that the budget cuts on security, prevention, and other safety programs will be shifted to other agencies. Police, community based programs, and social service also face the same economic hard times. Moreover, education leaders and legislators have shifted their focus from school safety to performance, reforms, and meeting other state and federal expectations. Scho ol safety funding has been overridden by a focus on lobbying for academic funding and policy. In the long term, schools are most likely to face elimination of programs and staff involved in implementing school safety and prevention programs. Programs such as Youth Development Programs, Student Assistance Programs, and Professional Development Programs are will be adversely affected, as well as staff layoffs. These programs are crucial towards ensuring a safe and healthy environment. Staff reduction ultimately leads to student behavioral problems and increased security threats. This is highly because of the dramatic shift from a proactive approach to a reactive approach in school safety and prevention efforts. Consequently, the quality and quantity of services decline. This has been confirmed by a detailed report prepared by the Department of Education (Trump, 2). Schools are at the risk of declining awareness and disaster preparedness mainly because of a profound decrease in profess ional development programs. However, despite these impending damages, school leaders can keep their schools safe through implementing effective school safety communication channels within the institutions. Schools can create and update a safety Web page. This provides parents with tips and information on where to drop-off or pick-up their children. The page should have a link to the district’

Stem Cell Research - The field of stem cell research Essay

Stem Cell Research - The field of stem cell research - Essay Example Many of the signals required to induce formation of specialized adult cells must be present in these tumors, but unlike embryos, tumors generate adult cell types in a hopelessly undirected manner. If a developing embryo is not to end up a mass of disorganized tissues, it must do more than generate adult cell types. Embryos must orchestrate and choreograph an elaborate stage production that gives rise to a functional organism. They must direct intricate cell movements that bring together populations of cells only to separate them again, mold and shape organs through the birth of some cells and the death of others, and build ever more elaborate interacting systems while destroying others that serve only transient, embryonic functions. Throughout the ceaseless building, moving, and remodeling of embryonic development, new cells with unique characteristics are constantly being generated and integrated into the overall structure of the developing embryo. Science has only the most rudimentary understanding of the nature of the blueprint that orders embryonic development. Yet, recent research has begun to illuminate both how specific adult cells are made as well as the central role of stem cells in this process. The term "stem cell" is a general one for any cell that has the ability to divide, generating two progeny (or "daughter cells"), one of which is destined to become something new and one of which replaces the original stem cell. In this sense, the term "stem" identifies these cells as the source or origin of other, more specialized cells. There are many stem cell populations in the body at different stages of development. For example, all of the cells of the brain arise from a neural stem cell population in which each cell produces one brain cell and another copy of itself every time it divides. The very earliest stem cells, the immediate descendants of the fertilized egg, are termed embryonic stem cells, to distinguish them from populations that arise later and can be found in specific tissues (such as neural stem cells). These early embryonic stem cells give rise to all the tissues in the body, and are therefore considered "totipotent" or capable of generating all things. Review of the Research While the existence of early embryonic stem cells has been appreciated for some time, the potential medical applications of these cells have only recently become apparent. More than a dozen years ago, scientists discovered that if the normal connections between the early cellular progeny of the fertilized egg were disrupted, the cells would fall apart into a single cell suspension that could be maintained in culture. These dissociated cells (or embryonic stem cell "lines") continue to divide indefinitely in culture. A single stem cell line can produce enormous numbers of cells very rapidly. For example, one small flask of cells that is maximally expanded will generate a quantity of stem cells roughly equivalent in weight to the entire human population of the earth in less than sixty days. Yet despite their rapid proliferation, embryonic stem cells in culture lose the coordinated activity that distinguishes embryonic development from the growth of a teratoma. In fact,

Backgroud of Malaysia Airlines Essay Example for Free

Backgroud of Malaysia Airlines Essay Malaysia Airlines System Berhad is also known as MAS in short. MAS is founded in 1947 as Malayan Airways, but it has change its name as Malaysian Airline System in 1 October 1972 .MAS is the flag carrier which is own by government of Malaysia. MAS headquarters is situated at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, Selangor. MAS operates flights at its first base in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and secondary base in Kota Kinabalu. Malaysian Airlines System Berhad is the holding company for Malaysia ¶s national airlines carrier, one of the fastest growing airlines in Asia. Malaysia Airlines has two airline subsidiaries, which is Firefly MASwings. Firefly operates scheduled flights from its two home bases Penang International Airport and Subang International Airport. The airlines focuses on tertiary cities although has recently launched services to Borneo from KualaLumpur International Airport. MASwings focuses or inter-Borneo flights. Malaysia Airlines has a freighter fleet operated by MASKargo, which managers freighter flights and aircraft cargo-hold capacity for all Malaysia Airlines passenger flights. MAS are using this type of craft Airbus A330-200 and A330-300. Boeing 737-400, 800 and400/400. Malaysia Airlines operates a fleet of aircraft with two cabin configurations. Malaysia Airlines B777-200ER fleet has a two configuration which is Golden Club Class and Economy Class. Its B747-400 fleet has a three-cabin configuration, also including First Class. Malaysia Airlines premium cabins and Economy Class have been giving numerous awards for excellence in product and service delivery. From a small air service, Malaysia airlines have grown to become award-winning airline with more than 1000 aircraft, servicing more than 110 destinations across six continents. Malaysia Airlines also practiced the online booking and buying to make their reservation or purchasing way easier for passenger. With this online purchasing, the passengers need to fulfill their details like the destination they want to go and the departure place they want. The payment will settling via the online banking. Internet user can book their air ticket, hotel, and train ticket and rent car via Malaysia Airlines Website.

Video Games And Children Education Essay

Video Games And Children Education Essay Video games, children love them, but youre not so sure. Here you can find out about the risks and benefits of video games, plus some ideas for choosing appropriate games and managing your childs interest in playing them. did you know According to a 2005 survey: 76% of families set rules about which types of games their children could play.   Games with cartoon-style violence can send the message that violence is a good way to solve conflict. They can also make kids less sensitive to real-life violence, or make them overly fearful about violence in their own world. What are video games? Playing it safe Benefits of playing video games Problems of playing video games What about violence in video games? What are video games? Video games are electronic, interactive games that come in many forms: CDs, DVDs, internet downloads and online games. They can be played on a personal home computer (PC), television or portable hand-held device. Some games are controlled by a separate joystick or console, while others use the computer keyboard and/or mouse. Many games (including those online) can be played by several people at once. The big name brands for video games are Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo. Playing it safe The best way for your child to learn from video games is when you play together. An added bonus is that youll spend some time with each other and have fun! Here are some ideas for making the most of video games with your child. Set ground rules of one hour: aim for this recommended daily  screen time  for children under seven or eight. Moderate: aim for balance in your family activities, so that everyone has a go at physical activity, creative activities  and interactive social games. Work together to prioritise indoor play time, outdoor fun, homework and time spent with friends. Get involved: ask your child to show you how a game works its the best way to tune into what your child is learning. Make a mental note of the kinds of games your child enjoys and finds challenging. So if your child is really enjoying a game about dinosaurs, for example, you can broaden his knowledge by finding books or movies on the topic. Discuss: talk to your child  about the games he is playing. Find out what your child likes or dislikes about the games and ask what he would change or add to make them better. This will develop his analytical and critical skills. Be informed: read reviews of the games you think might be suitable for your child. Make sure you carefully read the blurb on the games cover. And dont forget to check the games rating games rated G or PG are more likely to suit young children. Borrow before buying: if possible, borrow games from a library or a friend before making a purchase. You might find that your child isnt interested in a particular game, or you dont approve of the games content or concepts.   Dr. Mona warned left a consulting psychology of the many children watching the kid cartoons and played video game in the first three years of age, where it may lead to decreased levels of intelligence and the ability to communicate and collection. Said Dr. Mona left in the program Good Morning Egypt on Monday morning said the research proved that watching television in the early age of the child lead to a lack of focus makes the child as much movement, the child also Tbehrh colors and speed of movement in the cartoon tends and loves to watch a lot, which it at the age of nursery tired of explaining the lessons is a modern teacher to receive information. And recommended Mona Yousry mothers need to identify the assets of the childs education from birth through the reading, or search the electronic information network, or the use of a specialist in psychology for child-rearing in a scientific way so that it can avoid the mental and neurological problems they face in old age. She consultant child psychology that the American Academy of Children recommended in a recent non-exposed children under three years for any electronic games or watch cartoons. She noted that if the Mona return the child to sit for several hours in front did not respond kindly to reduce the period, the mother use a physician for treatment of addiction, net and to increase communication with friends and family to keep him on the damage that addiction. Abstract The ability to balance cooperative and competitive behaviors has important implications for a childs overall development. While socially competent children appear to learn highly successful strategies for entering peer groups and negotiating access to limited resources, the development of this level of social competence can be challenging for preschool-aged children. Early childhood educators may therefore have to intervene to develop the childs social competence and promote the use of negotiation and effective conflict management strategies. Using theories of social exchange and human sociobiology, this paper reviews literature on cooperation and competition involving limited resources and highlights the implications of this research for early childhood education. Results suggest that a variety of individual and social-contextual factors might influence a childs development of socially competent behavior. The review highlights the importance of teaching children to negotiate effecti vely with peers. Introduction Many educators view school-age students attraction to video and computer games with envy. If only we could harness the power of video games in education, some say, with a wistful expression. Some equate the attraction of the game to the computer, and hope that any educational experience that occurs on a computer will somehow capture that magic. Some delve deeper, designing extensive educational simulations that adopt conventions of popular game design and expensive production values merged with educational content. In this paper, I suggest how these attitudes combine with market forces to strongly reinforce bad design and curtail innovation, rather than support a vision of compelling, immersive educational experiences. There is no doubt that video and computer games have positive educational outcomes for the users. In an in-depth literature review, Alice Mitchell and Carol Savill-Smith conclude that there is the use of such games can stimulate the enjoyment, motivation and engagement of users, aiding recall and information retrieval, and can also encourage the development of various social and cognitive skills. (Mitchell Savill-Smith 2004). In this paper, educational games are games designed for youth in the age range of compulsory school, approximately ages 5 to 18 that contain overt attempts to teach school-related subjects. Video games are commercial games designed for a specific hardware console such as Nintendo GameCube and GameBoy, Microsoft X-box, and Sony PlayStation. Computer games are designed for use on personal computers, either by running application software on the computer or playing a game online. As time goes on these distinctions blur, but the markets are different enough to make this distinction. This paper, written by an educator who also designed video games and computer software for the home and school markets, evaluates attempts to harness the lure of these games for educational purposes. The paper offers an analysis of why the nature of video and computer games is antithetical to traditional forms of school curriculum, content and assessment, and why market forces, both consumer and educational, drive these design decisions. Why Are Games An Attractive Model For Education? When educators look at video and computer game players, they see young people suddenly transformed into attentive learners, willing to spend inordinate personal time learning to master complex situations. These same students, however, may not devote similar dedication to school-related activities. Educators wonder what it is about these games that could be used to make these game players devote the same attention to the goals of school. Educational software developers deconstruct the elements of video games and come to the conclusion that the game play can be extracted from the context. Therefore, the thought goes, mere substitution of educational content and context while leaving game play elements untouched will produce educational games with great benefits for learners and stockholders alike. In engaging computer and video games, the player must master a progressively challenging set of skills to advance each step in the game progression to ultimately win and end the game. This advancement through challenges is seen as a direct correlation to advancing through a course of study. In a classroom, the teacher guides the acquisition of skills and the students are able to progressively tackle harder problems, learn new facts and produce higher quality products required by the subject. It seems obvious that if an educational game led players through a similar process, similar results would be achieved, with the added benefit that students would pay attention and be engaged more than in a traditional classroom environment. Learning vs. Content Mastering skills comes in many forms. Game designers know that at some point, learning new skills has to end and you need to let the player start to play. Some games have a first level where skills are introduced, and then you start the real game. The actual content of the game, how to shoot your weapon, how to navigate your vehicle, how to throw the football, or any of the multitude of variations of game play is actually very limited. The game consists of becoming an expert in quickly selecting which of these skills are appropriate to your current situation. Learning in the game is a process, much of which ends in failure. Game designers know that there is a very special feeling that gamers get when they are being challenged at the right level. If you fail too quickly and too often, the gamer will give up. If the challenges are too easy, they will lose interest. Its not fun to simply win all the time. Frustration and failure result in the eventual euphoria of wining at a new level, and provides incentive to keep going. The secret of a videogame as a teaching machine isnt its immersive 3-D graphics, but its underlying architecture. Each level dances around the outer limits of the players abilities, seeking at every point to be hard enough to be just doable. In cognitive science, this is referred to as the regime of competence principle, which results in a feeling of simultaneous pleasure and frustrationa sensation as familiar to gamers as sore thumbs. James Paul Gee, a reading professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy Educational game developers have different design goals thrust on them. Any educational game designed for schools must meet demands for increased accountability and test scores. The content of games must tie to mandated curriculum standards, which list the things that students must know in a certain grade level. The game therefore correlates to these standards and provides assessment vehicles so the students progress through these standards can be measured. If this does not happen, the game will have a very limited market in schools. These standards are likely to differ from state-to-state and between nations, making development of these games even more expensive. In building these games, designers must often make sacrifices in creativity to allow content to fit into the game environment. Game play becomes rote, and graphics must be reused to accommodate the game elements that are drawn from a content pool. As much as the designers try, they are bound by the requirements of mandated content and simultaneous assessment to create a repetitive experience. These games may (or may not, depending on the research you read) increase standardized test scores, but they arent something that a student will devote time and energy to voluntarily like a video game. Some educational games go to great efforts to substitute the made-up worlds of video games with realistic educational worlds built to reproduce curriculum content. However, most educational games focus on low-level topics of simple literacy and arithmetic. The analytical rigor, ingenuity, and passion reserved for the most popular video games are seldom invoked by educational computer games. What is best about the best games is that they draw kids into some very hard learning. Did you ever hear a game advertised as being easy? What is worst about school curriculum is the fragmentation of knowledge into little pieces. This is supposed to make learning easy, but often ends up depriving knowledge of personal meaning and making it boring. Ask a few kids: the reason most dont like school is not that the work is too hard, but that it is utterly boring. (Papert, Easy Doesnt Do It.) Some commercial games do contain a lot of content, for example, sports simulations. Memorizing player statistics, playbooks and game statistics can help a player win the game. The difference is that the game is also playable without learning that content, but advancing in the game is easier when you do. There is no amount of content that is mandatory, in fact, some players will do very well by simply being skilled in game-play, while others may excel because they have memorized vast amounts of sports statistics. The game makes no judgement however, about which skills or content is more important than others, and offers all kinds of players many different ways to succeed. As another example, chess is a complex game with limited content. Chess is also well regarded as supporting educational goals such as promoting critical and logical thinking skills. Yet the content of the game of chess is fairly minimal. There are only a few pieces with special moves to learn, the rules are straightforward and the game board is simple. Most people can function at a beginner level with less than an hour of instruction. What is it about chess, then, that attracts brilliant people to devote their lives to it? Its that the rules are tuned so that highly complex and difficult problems are created relatively quickly. In chess, the process and resulting strategies for winning provide challenges that automatically escalate as players (and their opponents) become more adept at extending and complicating the game. As curriculum, chess could be done in a few weeks, with a test at the end assessing the students knowledge of chess moves, board set up, and perhaps some names of fa mous players. But anyone who would portray that as educationally appropriate would be laughed at. Market Forces Video and computer game designers face constraints placed on them by the market realties that exist in todays retail world. When a company makes a decision to create a game, they want to put their money into games that will make them the most return on their investment. Game designers work to create a game that will look great, play well, be engaging and offer the player an experience that surpasses anything else they have done before. Educational game designers have additional market forces thrust upon them that video game designers dont have to worry about. These market forces tend to further constrain educational game design in ways that are contrary to what game designers know makes a game fun and engaging. Consumer Market The consumer market for video and computer games is undergoing extreme pricing pressure that makes it very risky for publishers to invest the large amounts of money it takes to produce, market and sell these games. In the past ten years, the retail price of childrens computer games has dropped from over $40 (US) to less than $10 (US) due to many factors, including competition from free Internet sites. The market for video games has remained slightly more stable with less price erosion. For video games to be commercially viable, the development costs range from 5-60 million dollars (US). (Williams 2004) This does not include the costs associated with marketing and putting the product on retail shelves. These costs can exceed the development budget. To make matters worse, games sales are tracked by major retailers weekly, and a game that does not sell well within a few weeks will be pulled off the shelves to make room for something that will make more money. This does not allow for a game to develop a word of mouth or build a reputationthe game must be promoted with expensive marketing to make sure that the early sales are high. If not, the game will be unavailable or in the bargain bin in a matter of weeks. For a company to invest tens of millions of dollars in a new game, they want to be assured of success. Edutainment games, although less expensive to build, also are pressured to sell copies quickly. Retailers are often reluctant to put any box on the shelf that they do not instantly recognize as a potential hit, so they will tend to choose software for children, educational or not, based on licensed characters from popular television shows. Retailers see that parents will purchase games with familiar characters rather than ones with strong educational content. For video game systems, there are no educational games being developed. This market is controlled by the hardware console manufacturers. These manufacturers, Nintendo (Game Cube and Game Boy), Sony (PlayStation), and Microsoft (Xbox) control all games developed and produced for their platforms. Every game design must pass through their approval process. Their goal is to market their game systems to hard-core gamers because they are the ones who spend the most money. These manufacturers cannot allow their systems to be perceived as being for children, it confuses the brand message. They therefore actively discourage all games that are designed primarily for children. The only ones that pass the approval process are tie-ins with licensed characters currently starring in hit movies or TV shows. Without the approval of the game system manufacturer, there is no way to bring a game to market. These manufacturers also require a large royalty for every unit sold, further reducing any chance of profitability. In addition, video games labelled educational have sold so dismally that no one is making them anymore. Parents do not think of video game systems as being educational, they prefer their children to have fun and view these electronic games as a break from school and homework. Finally, proprietary consoles like the Leapfrog systems have temporarily replaced educational game purchasing for many parents. Unfortunately, these consoles only allow simple games that are little more than multiple choice drills. The School Market The school market for educational software provides some hope for educational game designers. Schools will pay more than consumers for software, and therefore, there should be more money to develop good educational games. However, looking closely at the numbers provides a more sobering conclusion. Simply by looking at the U.S. school market, you can see the economies of scale break down. There are approximately 115,000 K-12 school buildings in the U.S. (public and private.) At normal videogame pricing, sales of 500,000 units is required to breakeven (DFC Intelligence, 2004). Every school in the U.S. would have to purchase 4 units of any educational videogame for it to just to make the publishers investment back. Clearly, this is not a market that will by itself support the development and production of educational videogames. Traditional publishers, especially publicly traded ones, simply cannot tell their investors and shareholders that they choose to spend their money on something with a low, slow return on their investment when there are other choices that make more money. For this reason, educational software companies are concentrating their development and sales efforts on the sales of large instructional learning systems that can cost schools tens of thousands of dollars, even up to a million dollars for large installations. It is more efficient to make one sale for a hundred thousand dollars than to sell a thousand units of an educational game for $100 each. Inherent in the sale of these large systems is the promise that they will cover massive amounts of content and provide assessment data for the school system. This drives the design of this software towards the management of the content pool and reduces both the game play and the educational value of the software. Fear of government sanctions is responsible for revenue generated by these systems, not quality. Conclusion Educationally meaningful edutainment software requires substantial shifts in attitudes towards education both in the consumer and designer community. Its not as easy as plugging school content into a video game engine. In addition, success would necessitate changes in the retail environment or non-traditional sources of funding for game development. The current system of publishers working with retail and institutional purchasing works to reward the best-selling games in a very traditional capitalistic way. This makes it unlikely that games that do not fit into the current market expectations will be able to survive without an alternate source of funding for both development and dissemination. There are certainly non-profit organizations that can choose to avoid these channels. However, it is not even enough to give games away for free. Schools especially are hard pressed for time, and bringing in new programs that do not promise to fully meet every goal of the set curriculum is just not worth it. There may be instances of individual teachers integrating a game into their classrooms, but the impact would be very small relative to the dissemination effort that would be required. Likewise, busy parents will not even bother taking a free game, especially if it does not fit into their perception of their needs. Their own time is more valuable than that. Publishers recognize that reaching the mass-market parents is an expensive proposition. Unlike the entrenched audience of hard-core gamers who regularly disseminate information very efficiently through their own fan discussion boards, read similar magazines, and pay a lot of attention to new game releases, parents are much more difficult to reach. Given these facts, the difficulty of educational game dissemination would most likely be pretty demoralizing to any institution that would have to devote millions of dollars and years of effort in the hope that it would significantly impact education. That kind of investment would require at least some hope of reaching a wide audience for even the most benevolent non-profit to consider it a success. Educationally meaningful game software will require substantial shifts in attitudes towards education both in the consumer, publisher, and designer community. No one assumes it will be as easy as plugging school content into a video game engine. But it is daunting to grasp that success would require changes in the retail environment, a change in the current content-based assessment focus in schools, or need to rely on massive funding and patience from non-traditional sources of funding for game development and dissemination. Does this mean that it is impossible? Of course not. These markets are changing rapidly and there is a high likelihood that channels that are small or even not invented yet will become mainstream. The key is to understand how current market forces work to impact game design, and decide how (or whether) a game design will conform to these expectations. The best news is that if we accept that non-traditional publishing is required for revolutionary educational game design, designers do not have to feel constrained by current rules. Freeing educational game designers from mandated curriculum, outdated assessment practices, and mass-market cartoon characters may be the only way that educational games can make that paradigm shiftcreating the marriage of fun, engagement and academic legitimacy that innovative educational game designers envision.

My Philosophy :: Philosophy of Education Teaching Teachers Essays

My Philosophy Why do children turn out the way that they do? Do the decisions we make as teachers have a big impact on our students? Consideration needs to be given to these issues as we enter classrooms. The children of today will be the leaders of tomorrow. Therefore, all children need a structured education to help them learn their responsibilities in life. Children need to stay active in the classroom and be aware of the importance of their education. Students of the elementary age have various characteristics. They have curiosity flowing and their minds are active. Children want to understand what is happening around them. Students have a wide imagination, which allows them to be creative and unique. Children respect their teachers and imitate their actions because they look up to their teachers as role models. Students are dependent, therefore needing attention and assistance. The nature of knowledge is relative. Each individual learns differently. Teachers need to use different strategies for everyone to learn the same area of curriculum. Everyone has a distinct personality that allows him or her to learn differently. Some areas come easier to individuals than other areas. Each person’s ability to learn something is dependent upon his or her environment around them. For example, if someone isn’t provided with the proper tools for the area of study, they will not be able to learn it. The use of different techniques will allow each individual to use their constructive intelligence. The purpose of education is to help individuals to learn about their world, morals, and the values of their country that will help guide them through their society. Education is a very important aspect in today’s world. Education allows each individual to succeed in life and to inspire knowledge that will be passed on to younger generations. As a teacher, I hope to provide the best education possible for my students. I plan to inspire each individual in a way that will help them in life.