TEACHERS AT SECONDARY AND COLLEGE LEVEL IN PUNJAB

The importance of instruction for the resurgence of a society can non be denied. Harmonizing to Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, â€Å" the preparation of a human head is uncomplete without instruction, as instruction contributes a batch in doing adult male a right mind. † ( Khan, 2010 ) While doing determinations for the demand of instructors, the policy shapers and educational decision makers considers several factors. The entire figure of instructors required in a territory or metropolis or small town depends upon the registration of pupils in schools and colleges, the rate of instructors ‘ retirement and bend over and the coveted teacher-student ratios required in that country. Harmonizing to Yasin, â€Å" factors such as high in-migration rates within a population or policies on cut downing category size besides contribute to the demand for new instructors. † ( Yasin, 1998 ) The present research is about the demand and supply of instructors at secondary school and college degree in Punjab. The research analyzes that whether the instruction section of Punjab has been able to supply quality instruction and fulfilled the demand of instructors in schools and colleges particularly in rural countries. The present research besides analyzes the enterprise of the present authorities for change overing Urdu Medium schools into English Medium and its relation to the demand and supply of instructors.Statement of the ProblemMeeting the demand of providing competent instructors to secondary schools and college degree in Punjab is indispensable for bettering the quality of instruction in these schools and colleges. These schools and colleges particularly the authorities establishments depend upon the instruction section for bettering the quality of instruction and for the proviso of professional and qualified instructors. The rural countries need particular attending f rom the instruction section to better the quality of instruction. The rural countries frequently lack competent instructors due to the location, low wage and fewer installations. Teachers hesitate from learning in such countries. The present authorities ‘s enterprise of change overing Urdu Medium schools to English Medium has posed a new challenge for these schools. This research analyzes the demand and supply of instructors in schools and colleges of Punjab and provides feasible solution for making balance between demand and supply of instructors in Punjab.1.2 Purpose of the StudyThe intent of the survey is to research the balance between demand and supply of instructors in the secondary schools and college degree in Punjab. The research analyzes assorted grounds which lead to the demand of instructors in schools and colleges. The research provides a feasible solution for work outing the job of quality instruction and make fulling the vacancies of qualified instructors in sch ools and colleges of Pakistan. The paper besides assesses that whether the transition of Urdu Medium schools into English Medium has posed the demand for demand of the competent instructors.Scope of the ResearchThe present research is an extended survey on the demand and supply of qualified instructors at secondary and college degree in Punjab. The research covers the demands and demands of the schools and colleges in rural and urban countries for make fulling the spread of quality instruction and jobs faced by schools and colleges in the employment of competent instructors. The research besides analyzes the demand and supply of instructors in the Urdu Medium schools which have been converted to English Medium schools.1.4 Importance of the ResearchThis research would turn out to be an extended survey on solutions required for making balance between the demand and supply of instructors at secondary and college degree in Punjab. It has analyzed the demands of the schools and colleges particularly that of rural countries in supplying competent instructors to them. The research has besides emphasized the demand of competent instructors in the Urdu Medium schools which have been converted to English Medium.1.5 Justification of the ResearchThe subject of the research is appropriate, as carry oning research on the demand and supply of instructors has revealed utile facts related to the proviso of quality instruction to pupils at secondary and college degree. This research would be utile in long tally as it has provided solutions for get the better ofing the supply of competent instructors in Punjab.HypothesisRural and hapless communities in Pakistan face the greatest demand for instructors. They face extra challenges such as retaining of instructors, who may be attracted to the higher wages which are offered to them in metropoliss. The supply of instructors has greatly grown over the past 10 old ages. Keeping in position the demand for instructors, the supply of inst ructors must go on to increase. The demand for new instructors may differ by territory or small town and it depends upon the local population growing, instructors ‘ retirements and bend over, in-migration rates and wages offered to them. With the transition of all Urdu Medium schools to English Medium schools in Punjab, the demand for qualified and professional instructors in these schools have increased.Literature ReviewAcademic ReviewsHarmonizing to Goel, â€Å" A adult male becomes a rational animate being when he becomes educated. † ( Goel, 2007 ) Education is indispensable for the moral and learning developments of worlds. It contributes to the national economic growing and poorness decrease. The population of Punjab histories for 60 % population of Pakistan. ( Sayed, 2007 ) There are about 64,000 educational institutes in Punjab, out of which 44,000 are primary schools. ( Sayed, 2005 ) There are over 500,000 employees in these institutes, out of which 350,000 are instructors. ( Sayed, 2005 ) There are about 11 million registrations in these institutes. ( Sayed, 2005 ) Harmonizing to John Wall, Country Director of World Bank ; â€Å" Improvements in instruction results in Punjab have the possible for country-wide impact. † ( McCutcheon, 2007 ) Decrease in poorness can be achieved by turn toing the root cause of poorness, that is ; deficiency of instruction and accomplishments. Harmonizing to a World Bank study, the quality of instruction provided by the populace sector in Pakistan is really low. This is due to â€Å" low competence of instructors, deficiency of quality text editions and larning stuffs, deficiency of classroom-based support for instructors, deficiency of the appraisal of pupils, hapless supervising and hapless sector administration and direction. † ( World Bank, â€Å" Third Punjab Education † 2006 ) . In rural countries, there is deficiency of qualified instructors, as they hesitate to work due to legion grounds such as deficiency of motive, low wages, deficiency of installations in schools and hapless on the job conditions. In 2003, the Punjab Education Sector Reform Program ( PESRP ) was launched for the intent of bettering quality, entree and administration in the instruction sector of Punjab. This plan comprised of supply-side enterprises including upgrading of schools and make fulling vacancies of instructors. A figure of reforms affecting instructors ‘ enlisting, professional development of instructors, production of text editions and betterment in the scrutiny system were implemented. ( UNESCO, 2007 ) With the support of UNICEF and the National Rural Support Programme ( NRSP ) , PESRP has given high precedence to instructors in its new reform programme. ( McCutcheon, 2007 ) In order to run into the billowing demand of instructors, about 50,000 instructors have been hired since 2003. About 100,000 instructors have been trained through refresher classs in â€Å" child-centered instruction patterns. † ( McCutcheon, 2007 ) The authorities has taken effectual steps to better the quality of instruction in Punjab. The EFA ( Education for All ) National Plan of Action ( NPA ) 2015 figures out legion issues sing instructor supply, preparation and Supervision. ( UNESCO, 2007 ) The NPA emphasizes the demand for 118,000 instructors up to 2015 in order to run into the Universal Primary Education marks. ( UNESCO, 2007 ) There is deficiency of instructors in schools and colleges of Punjab due to decelerate replacing of retired instructors, less figure of instructors in primary schools and fewer instructors are recruited on lasting footing. The EFA NPA has suggested relaxation of makings for instructors in rural countries and for supplying specific inducements to them in order to make full the spread of instructors. ( UNESCO, 2007 ) By supplying in-service preparation to instructors, the quality of instruction will greatly better in these schools and colleges. The authorities is set uping Professional Development centres for the quality preparation of instructors. The authorities of Pakistan has converted all Urdu Medium schools in Punjab to English Medium schools. With this enterprise, the differentiation between two categories of instruction has been removed. This enterprise has chiefly being taken for viing with the globalized universe in the field of cognition. ( The News, 2010 ) The instructors of these schools have been provided developing through English Language classs. The preparation plans aims at bettering learning and English linguistic communication accomplishments of the instructors. The instructors have besides been offered heavy salary bundles. ( The News, 2010 ) The transition of schools has raised more demand for the supply of professional and competent instructors. The academic reappraisal has shown that the supply of instructors has grown over the past 10 old ages, but due to the uninterrupted addition in demand of instructors particularly in rural countries, the supply of instructors must go on to increase for the following decennary.1.8 Methodology1.8.1 ApproachThe research comprises of both Qualitative and Quantitative analysis. The research has gathered information with respect, but non restricted to the followers ; Analysis of the demand and supply of instructors in schools and colleges in Punjab. Problems faced by the instruction section in providing competent instructors to schools and colleges in Punjab. Problems faced by schools and colleges particularly in rural countries to make full the spread of quality instruction and to enroll competent instructors. Possible solutions for get bying with the demand of instructors in schools and colleges in Punjab. The Qualitative methodological analysis in the present research involves both primary every bit good as secondary beginnings. Primary beginning involves study of Pakistan Education Assessment System ( PEAS ) . Unstructured interview was conducted from 9 top directors of PEAS. Unstructured Interviews are utile for in-depth study, as â€Å" inquiries can be changed or adapted in order to run into the respondent ‘s intelligence, understanding or belief. † ( The Psychology Wiki, 2010 ) Burns and Grove defines qualitative research as ; â€Å" The logical thinking procedure used in qualitative research involves perceptually seting pieces together to do wholes. From this procedure, significance is produced. However, because perceptual experience varies with the person, many different significances are possible. † ( Burns, Grove, 1993 ) . Data is normally gathered through less structured research instruments in qualitative research. Secondary beginning in the present rese arch comprises of reappraisal of books, diaries, articles, periodicals, current event intelligence, web stuff, etc. Quantitative research has been used by the research worker for deriving firsthand cognition about the demand and supply of instructors at secondary schools and college degree in Punjab. Harmonizing to Andrew Sanchez, â€Å" Quantitative research generates statistics through the usage of large-scale study research, utilizing methods such as questionnaires or interviews † . ( Sanchez, 2005 ) Purposive Sampling method had been used for choosing the sample. It uses a specific pre-defined group and does non affect random trying. Purposive Sampling method is a non-probability sampling method which is chosen â€Å" with a intent in head. † ( William, 2006 ) . The sample of the choice of 9 top directors from PEAS is rather appropriate for obtaining information about the demand and supply of instructors at secondary school degree and colleges in Punjab. Keeping in position the above mentioned definitions and accounts, it can be concluded that the usage of qualitative every bit good as quantitative methods for this research has been justified. These methods have provided elaborate survey of the research subject and have assisted in clear uping all issues related to the demand and supply of instructors at school and college degree in Punjab.1.8.2 Data Gathering MethodThe research involved aggregation of informations through primary and secondary beginnings, that is ; direct and indirect observation. Direct observation involved study of PEAS Department for obtaining positions of 9 top directors of the section. Indirect observation involved reappraisal of secondary beginnings such as books, diaries, articles, web stuffs, etc.1.8.3 Originality and Limitations of the DataValidity and singularity of the informations are guaranteed while capturing informations and executing analysis. The research emphasizes on the demand and supply of instr uctors at school and college degree in Punjab and make fulling the spread of quality instruction in these schools and colleges. As the cogency of the information is dependent upon the efficiency of the research worker, the research worker has been careful in maintaining the cogency of the informations during informations aggregation, analysis and while pulling decisions. Ethical issues are considered during the research procedure. In order to avoid disagreements, careful survey and analysis have been done. Data is limited to the subjects mentioned above.1.8.4 Research QuestionsThe major research inquiries of the present survey are as follows ; Is the instruction section of Punjab run intoing the demands of the demand of instructors at secondary school and college degree? How choice instruction can be provided to secondary school and college pupils in Punjab? Has the instruction section of Punjab taken stairss to carry through the spread of quality instruction in schools and colleges? Are schools and colleges in rural countries confronting jobs of supply of instructors? With the transition of Urdu Medium schools to English Medium, are these schools confronting the job of demand of competent instructors?Factual PositionPresently the schools and colleges of Punjab state are confronting a deficit in the supply of qualified and competent instructors particularly in rural countries. Teachers lack motive for traveling to rural countries due to low wage, backward location and deficiency of installations in these schools. As a consequence of this, the demand of instructors in rural countries has extremely increased. The deficiency of competent instructors is besides due to decelerate replacing of retired instructors and enlisting of instructors on impermanent footing. The determination of authorities for change overing Urdu Medium schools into English Medium has besides posed a demand for the enlisting of qualified and professional instructors. The authorities is taking stairss to carry through the spread of quality instruction and qualified instructors. Th is has been done by enrolling qualified instructors, increasing the wage of bing instructors and by increasing the accomplishments of the instructors through refresher classs in order to heighten their instruction accomplishments and English Language accomplishments.Section – 2: Situation AnalysisIn this subdivision, the research worker analyzes the informations obtained from the study of Pakistan Education Assessment System ( PEAS ) . The study involved aggregation of informations through direct observation, i.e ; interview. A sample size of 9 top directors of PEAS was selected for interview. Unstructured interviews were carried out from the top directors. The sentiment and positions of the directors have been obtained related to the demand and supply of instructors at secondary school and college degree in Punjab. Facts extracted from the interviews have been analyzed to obtain the findings.2.1 Opinions and positions of top directors about the demand and supply of instructo rs at secondary and college degree in Punjab2.1.1 Quality of instruction at authorities and private schools97 % of the top directors of PEAS informed that the quality of instruction provided to pupils of authorities schools is non satisfactory. These schools lack competent instructors, educational stuff and installations. The conditions of schools in rural countries are worst. Many schools have been closed in rural countries as these schools lack competent instructors and basic installations. However, the quality of instruction at private schools is satisfactory. These schools have qualified and competent instructors.Figure 1: Opinion of top director of PEAS about the quality of instruction in schools of rural countries2.1.2 Causes of famine of instructors in rural countries95 % of the top directors believed that instructors hesitate to work in rural countries due to hapless on the job conditions and low wages. The top direction suggested that instructors can be motivated to work in rural countries by increasing the wages of bing instructors, supplying good salary bundles to the new instructors and by supplying text editions and basic installations to these schools. Teachers should be recruited on lasting footing instead than on impermanent footing. If the instructors are provided inducements and good wage bundles they will be able to execute their occupations in these countries.2.1.3 Performance of authorities and private colleges98 % of the top directors of PEAS believed that every bit compared to the authorities schools, the public presentation of authorities colleges in urban countries is satisfactory. The authorities colleges have competent and qualified instructors in urban countries. However, the colleges in rural countries lack competent instructors.Figure 2: Opinion of Top Directors of PEAS Regarding Quality of Education and Competent Teachers in Government Colleges in Urban Areas2.1.4 Major ground behind deficiency of instructors90 % of the top direc tors of PEAS informed that deficiency of instructors is besides due to the fact that most people do non fall in the profession of learning as they consider it a low paid and an inferior occupation. Some people merely fall in this profession as a last resort. As a consequence of this, they lack motive to carry through their duties. When they find any good chance, they leave the instruction profession.2.1.5 Carry throughing the spread of quality instruction in freshly converted English Medium schoolsWhen the positions of the top directors were taken sing the transition of Urdu Medium schools into English Medium, all of them agreed that it is a good enterprise from the authorities for taking the differentiation between two categories of instruction. Students analyzing in Urdu Medium schools are frequently considered as inferior to English Medium. Furthermore, when these pupils reach higher categories, they face trouble in understanding scientific discipline topics. The top directors be lieved that the spread of quality instruction in these schools can be fulfilled by supplying instruction and English linguistic communication accomplishments to the instructors through on-the-job preparation. This spread can besides be filled by enrolling competent instructors on lasting footing.2.2 FindingssThe findings of the study are in consistent with that of literature reappraisal, as it has shown that rural schools and colleges of Pakistan face the greatest demand for instructors. The status of authorities colleges in urban countries is rather satisfactory as these schools have competent instructors. The demand for the supply of instructors has greatly grown over the past 10 old ages. Keeping in position the demand for a big figure of instructors, the supply of competent instructors must go on to increase. The demand for new instructors may differ by territory or small town and it may depends upon the local population growing, instructors ‘ retirements, instructors â₠¬Ëœ turnover rate, instructors ‘ in-migration rates and wages offered to them. With the transition of all Urdu Medium schools to English Medium schools in Punjab, the demand for qualified and professional instructors in these schools have greatly increased.Section – 3: Decision and Recommendations3.1 DecisionThe demand and supply of instructors can be balanced if the Numberss of vacancies of instructors are filled in by the figure of instructors needed to make full these places. The rural schools and colleges of Pakistan are confronting the deficit of the supply of qualified and competent instructors. These educational institutes besides lack basic installations and educational stuff. Teachers hesitate to work in rural countries due to low wage and hapless on the job conditions. There is besides deficit of instructors due to the fact that the profession of instruction is considered as a low paid and inferior occupation. Peoples merely fall in this profession as a last r esort. On the occupation preparation is besides required for the instructors to heighten their instruction accomplishments. With the transition of Urdu Medium schools into English Medium schools, the demand for qualified and competent instructors has risen. There is demand for enlisting of professional and qualified instructors in order to raise the quality of instruction in schools and colleges particularly authorities schools and colleges in rural countries. With the uninterrupted addition in the population and accent of the authorities on instruction, the demand for supply of more instructors will farther increase.3.2 RecommendationsBased upon qualitative and quantitative analysis following recommendations have been suggested: In order to actuate instructors, they should be provided good wage bundles and other inducements. Teachers should be recruited on a lasting footing instead than on impermanent footing in authorities schools and colleges. The position of instructors demands to be raised in the society, as instruction should non be considered as an inferior occupation. Teachers working in rural countries should be provided particular salary bundles and inducements. Teachers need on-the-job preparation in order to heighten their instruction accomplishments. The instructors of the Urdu Medium schools which have been converted into English Medium schools needs to be trained in English linguistic communication accomplishments. There is besides demand for enlisting of competent instructors in these schools.

Crowdsourcing: Human-based Computation and Amazon Mechanical Turk

In a companion blog post to his June 2006 Wired magazine article, Jeff Howe posited the first definition of crowdsourcing:â€Å"Simply defined, crowdsourcing represents the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call. This can take the form of peer-production (when the job is performed collaboratively), but is also often undertaken by sole individuals. The crucial prerequisite is the use of the open call format and the large network of potential laborers.†Daren C. Brabham was the first to define â€Å"crowdsourcing† in the scientific literature in a February 1, 2008, article:â€Å"Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed problem-solving and production model.†In the classic use of the term, problems are broadcast to an unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions. Users—also known as the crowd—s ubmit solutions which are then owned by the entity that broadcasted the problem—the crowdsourcer. In some cases, the contributor of the solution is compensated monetarily, with prizes, or with recognition. In other cases, the only rewards may be kudos or intellectual satisfaction. Crowdsourcing may produce solutions from amateurs or volunteers working in their spare time, or from experts or small businesses which were unknown to the initiating organization.Crowdsourcers are primarily motivated by its benefits. One of these includes the ability to gather large numbers of solutions and information at a relatively inexpensive cost. Users are motivated to contribute to crowdsourced tasks by both intrinsic motivations, such as social contact,  intellectual stimulation, and passing time, and by extrinsic motivations, such as financial gain.Due to the blurred limits of crowdsourcing, many collaborative activities are considered crowdsourcing even when they are not. Another consequ ence of this situation is the proliferation of definitions in the scientific literature. Different authors give different definitions of crowdsourcing according to their specialties, losing in this way the global picture of the term.After studying more than 40 definitions of crowdsourcing in the scientific and popular literature, Enrique Estellà ©s-Arolas and Fernando Gonzà ¡lez Ladrà ³n-de-Guevara developed a new integrating definition:â€Å"Crowdsourcing is a type of participative online activity in which an individual, an institution, a non-profit organization, or company proposes to a group of individuals of varying knowledge, heterogeneity, and number, via a flexible open call, the voluntary undertaking of a task. The undertaking of the task, of variable complexity and modularity, and in which the crowd should participate bringing their work, money, knowledge and/or experience, always entails mutual benefit. The user will receive the satisfaction of a given type of need, be it economic, social recognition, self-esteem, or the development of individual skills, while the crowdsourcer will obtain and utilize to their advantage that what the user has brought to the venture, whose form will depend on the type of activity undertaken†.Henk van Ess emphasizes the need to â€Å"give back† the crowdsourced results to the public on ethical grounds. His non-scientific, non-commercial definition is widely cited in the popular press:â€Å"Crowdsourcing is channeling the experts’ desire to solve a problem and then freely sharing the answer with everyone†Crowdsourcing systems are used to accomplish a variety of tasks. For example, the crowd may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task (also known as community-based design or distributed participatory  design), refine or carry out the steps of an algorithm (see human-based computation), or help capture, systematize, or analyze large amounts of data (see also citizen science).HistoryThe term â€Å"crowdsourcing† is a portmanteau of â€Å"crowd† and â€Å"outsourcing,† coined by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired magazine article â€Å"The Rise of Crowdsourcing†. It has been argued that crowdsourcing can only exist on the Internet and is thus a relatively recent phenomenon., however, long before modern crowdsourcing systems were developed, there were a number of notable examples of projects that utilized distributed people to help accomplish tasks.Historical examples The Oxford English DictionaryThe Oxford English Dictionary (OED) may provide one of the earliest examples of crowdsourcing. An open call was made to the community for contributions by volunteers to index all words in the English language and example quotations of their usages for each one. They received over 6 million submissions over a period of 70 years. The making of the OED is detailed in The Surgeon of Crow Thorne by Simon Winchester.Crowdsourcing in gene alogy researchGenealogical research was using crowdsourcing techniques long before computers were common. Beginning in 1942 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also known as the Mormon church) encouraged members to submit information about their ancestors. The submitted information was gathered together into a single collection. In 1969 in order to encourage more people to participate in gathering genealogical information about their ancestors, the church started the three-generation program. In this program church members were asked to prepare documented family group record forms for the first three generations. The program was later expanded to encourage members to research at least 4 generations, and became known as the four-generation program.Institutes that have records of interest to genealogical research have used crowds of volunteers to create catalogs and indexes to records.Early crowdsourcing competitionsCrowdsourcing has often been used in the past as a competition in order to discover a solution. The French government proposed several of these competitions, often rewarded with Montyon Prizes, created for poor Frenchmen who had done virtuous acts. These included the Leblanc process, or the Alkali Prize, where a reward was provided for separating the salt from the alkali, and the Fourneyron's Turbine, when the first hydraulic commercial turbine was developed.In response to a challenge from the French government, Nicholas Appert won a prize for inventing a new way of food preservation that involved sealing food in air-tight jars. The British government provided a similar reward to find an easy way to determine a ship’s longitude in the The Longitude Prize. During the Great Depression, out-of-work clerks tabulated higher mathematical functions in the Mathematical Tables Project as an outreach project.Modern methodsToday, crowdsourcing has transferred mainly to the Internet. The Internet provides a particularly good venue for crowdsourcing since individuals tend to be more open in web-based projects where they are not being physically judged or scrutinized and thus can feel more comfortable sharing. This ultimately allows for well-designed artistic projects because individuals are less conscious, or maybe even less aware, of scrutiny towards their work. In an online atmosphere more attention is given to the project rather than communication with other individuals.Crowdsourcing can either take an explicit or an implicit route. Explicit crowdsourcing lets users work together to evaluate, share, and build different specific tasks, while implicit crowdsourcing means that users solve a problem as a side effect of something else they are doing.With explicit crowdsourcing, users can evaluate particular items like books or webpages, or share by posting products or items. Users can also build artifacts by providing information and editing other people's work.Implicit crowdsourcing can take two forms: standalo ne and piggyback. Standalone allows people to solve problems as a side effect of the task they are actually doing, whereas piggyback takes users' information from a third-party website to gather information.Types of crowdsourcingIn coining the term of â€Å"crowdsourcing†, Jeff Howe has also indicated some common categories of crowdsourcing that can be used effectively in the commercial world. Some of these web-based crowdsourcing efforts include crowdvoting, wisdom of the crowd, crowdfunding, microwork, creative crowdsourcing and inducement prize contests. Although these may not be an exhaustive list, they cover the current major ways in which people use crowds to perform tasks.According to definition by Henk van Ess that has been widely cited in the popular press,â€Å"The crowdsourced problem can be huge (epic tasks like finding alien life or mapping earthquake zones) or very small (‘where can I skate safely?'). Some examples of successful crowdsourcing themes are p roblems that bug people, things that make people feel good about themselves, projects that tap into niche knowledge of proud experts, subjects that people find sympathetic or any form of injustice.†Crowd votingCrowd voting occurs when a website gathers a large group's opinions and judgment on a certain topic. The Iowa Electronic Market is a prediction market that gathers crowds' views on politics and tries to ensure accuracy by having participants pay money to buy and sell contracts based on political outcomes.Threadless.com selects the t-shirts it sells by having users provide designs and vote on the ones they like, which are then printed and available for purchase. Despite the small nature of the company, thousands of members provide designs and vote on them, making the website’s products truly created and selected by the crowd, rather than the company. Some of the most famous examples have made use of social media channels: Domino's Pizza, Coca Cola, Heineken and Sam Adams have thus crowdsourced a new pizza, song, bottle design or beer, respectively.Crowdsourcing creative workCreative crowdsourcing spans sourcing creative projects such as graphic design, architecture, apparel design, writing, illustration. etc. Some of the better known creative domains that use the Crowdsourcing model include 99designs, DesignCrowd, crowdspring, Jade Magnet, Threadless, Poptent, GeniusRocket and TongalCrowdfundingCrowdfunding is the process of funding your projects by a multitude of people contributing a small amount in order to attain a certain monetary goal. Goals may be for donations or for equity in a project. The dilemma right now for equity crowdfunding in the USA is how the SEC is going to regulate the entire process. As it stands rules and regulations are being refined by the SEC and they will have until Jan. 1st, 2013 to tweak the fundraising methods. The regulators are on edge because they are already overwhelmed trying to regulate Dodd – Frank and all the other rules and regulations involving public companies and the way they trade. Advocates of regulation claim that crowdfunding will open up the flood gates for fraud, have called it the â€Å"wild west† of fundraising, and have compared it to the 1980s days of penny stock â€Å"cold-call cowboys.†The process allows for up to 1 million dollars to be raised without a lot of the regulations being involved. Companies under the current proposal will have a lot of exemptions available and be able to raise capital from a larger pool of persons which can include a lot lower thresholds for investor criteria whereas the old rules required that the person be an â€Å"accredited† investor. These people are often recruited from social networks, where the funds can be acquired from an  equity purchase, loan, donation, or pre-ordering. The amounts collected have become quite high, with requests that are over a million dollars for software like Trampoline Systems , which used it to finance the commercialization of their new software.A well-known crowdfunding tool is Kickstarter, which is the biggest website for funding creative projects. It has raised over $100 million, despite its all-or-nothing model which requires one to reach the proposed monetary goal in order to acquire the money. UInvest is another example of a crowdfunding platform that was started in Kiev, Ukraine in 2007. Crowdrise brings together volunteers to fundraise in an online environment.Most recently, the adult industry gained its own site in the way of Offbeatr. Offbeatr allows the community to cast votes on projects they would like to see make it to the funding phase. â€Å"Wisdom of the crowd†Wisdom of the crowd is another type of crowdsourcing that collects large amounts of information and aggregates them to gain a complete and accurate picture of a topic, based on the idea that a group of people is on average more intelligent than an individual. This idea of co llective intelligence proves particularly effective on the web because people from diverse backgrounds can contribute in real-time within the same forums.iStockPhoto provides a platform for people to upload photos and purchase them for low prices. Clients can purchase photos through credits, giving photographers a small profit. Again, the photo collection is determined by the crowd's voice for very low prices.In February 2012, a stock picking game called Ticker Picker Pro was launched, using crowdsourcing to create a hedge fund that would buy and sell stocks based on the ideas coming out of the game. These crowdsourced ideas, coming from so many people, could help one pick the best stocks based on this idea that collective ideas are better than individual ones.MicroworkMicrowork is a crowdsourcing platform where users do small tasks for which computers lack aptitude for low amounts of money. Amazon’s popular Mechanical Turk has created many different projects for users to par ticipate in, where each task requires very little time and offers a very small amount in payment. The Chinese versions of this, commonly called Witkey, are similar and include such sites as Taskcn.com and k68.cn. When choosing tasks, since only certain users â€Å"win†, users learn to submit later and pick less popular tasks in order to increase the likelihood of getting their work chosen. An example of a Mechanical Turk project is when users searched satellite images for images of a boat in order to find lost researcher Jim Gray. Inducement prize contestsWeb-based idea competitions, or inducement prize contests often consist of generic ideas, cash prizes, and an Internet-based platform to facilitate easy idea generation and discussion. An example of these competitions includes an event like IBM’s 2006 â€Å"Innovation Jam†, attended by over 140,000 international participants and yielding around 46,000 ideas. Another example is Netflix Prize in 2009. The idea wa s to ask crowd to come up with a recommendation algorithm which was more accurate than Netflix's own algorithm. It had a grand prize of US$1,000,000 and it was given to the BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos team which bested Netflix's own algorithm for predicting ratings by 10.06%Another example of competition-based crowdsourcing is the 2009 DARPA experiment, where DARPA placed 10 balloon markers across the United States and challenged teams to compete to be the first to report the location of all the balloons. A collaboration of efforts was required to complete the challenge quickly and in addition to the competitive motivation of the contest as a whole, the winning team (MIT, in less than nine hours) established its own â€Å"collaborapetitive† environment to generate participation in their team. A similar challenge was the Tag Challenge, funded by the US State Department, which required locating and photographing individuals in 5 cities in the US and Europe within 12 hours based o nly on a single photograph. The winning team managed to locate 3 suspects by mobilizing volunteers world-wide using a similar incentive scheme to the one  used in the Balloon Challenge.Open innovation platforms are a very effective way of crowdsourcing people’s thoughts and ideas to do research and development. The company InnoCentive is a crowdsourcing platform for corporate research and development where difficult scientific problems are posted for crowds of solvers to discover the answer and win a cash prize, which can range from $10,000 to $100,000 per challenge. InnoCentive, of Waltham, MA and London, England is the leader in providing access to millions of scientific and technical experts from around the world. The company has provided expert crowdsourcing to international Fortune 1000 companies in the US and Europe as well as government agencies and nonprofits.The company claims a success rate of 50% in providing successful solutions to previously unsolved scientific and technical problems. IdeaConnection.com challenges people to come up with new inventions and innovations and Ninesigma.com connects clients with experts in various fields. The X PRIZE Foundation creates and runs incentive competitions where one can win between $1 million and $30 million for solving challenges. Local Motors is another example of crowdsourcing. A community of 20,000 automotive engineers, designers and enthusiasts competes to build offroad rally trucks. Implicit crowdsourcingImplicit crowdsourcing is less obvious because users do not necessarily know they are contributing, yet can still be very effective in completing certain tasks. Rather than users actively participating in solving a problem or providing information, implicit crowdsourcing involves users doing another task entirely where a third party gains information for another topic based on the user’s actions.A good example of implicit crowdsourcing is the ESP game, where users guess what images are a nd then these labels are used to tag Google images. Another popular use of implicit crowdsourcing is through reCAPTCHA, which asks people to solve Captchas in order to prove they are human, and then provides Captchas from old books that cannot be deciphered by computers in order to try and digitize them for the web. Like Mechanical Turk, this task is simple for humans but would be incredibly difficult for computers.Piggyback crowdsourcing can be seen most frequently by websites such as Google that mine one’s search history and websites in order to discover keywords for ads, spelling corrections, and finding synonyms. In this way, users are unintentionally helping to modify existing systems, such as Google’s ad words.CrowdsourcersThere are a number of motivations for businesses to use crowdsourcing to accomplish tasks, find solutions for problems, or to gather information. These include the ability to offload peak demand, access cheap labor and information, generate bet ter results, access a wider array of talent than might be present in one organization, and undertake problems that would have been too difficult to solve internally. Crowdsourcing allows businesses to submit problems on which contributors can work, such as problems in science, manufacturing, biotech, and medicine, with monetary rewards for successful solutions. Although it can be difficult to crowdsource complicated tasks, simple work tasks can be crowdsourced cheaply and effectively.Crowdsourcing also has the potential to be a problem-solving mechanism for government and nonprofit use. Urban and transit planning are prime areas for crowdsourcing. One project to test crowdsourcing's public participation process for transit planning in Salt Lake City has been underway from 2008 to 2009, funded by a U.S. Federal Transit Administration grant. Another notable application of crowdsourcing to government problem solving is the Peer to Patent Community Patent Review project for the U.S. Pat ent and Trademark Office.Researchers have used crowdsourcing systems, in particular Mechanical Turk, to aid with research projects by crowdsourcing aspects of the research process such as data collection, parsing, and evaluation. Notable examples include using the crowd to create speech and language databases,and using the crowd to conduct user studies. Crowdsourcing systems provide these researchers with the ability to gather large amount of data. Additionally, using crowdsourcing, researchers can collect data from populations and  demographics they may not have had access to locally, but that improve the validity and value of their work.Artists have also utilized crowdsourcing systems. In his project the Sheep Market, Aaron Koblin used Mechanical Turk to collect 10,000 drawings of sheep from contributors around the world. Sam Brown (artist) leverages the crowd by asking visitors of his website explodingdog to send him sentences that he uses as inspirations for paintings. Art cur ator Andrea Grover argues that individuals tend to be more open in crowdsourced projects because they are not being physically judged or scrutinized. As with other crowdsourcers, artists use crowdsourcing systems to generate and collect data. The crowd also can be used to provide inspiration and to collect financial support for an artist’s work.Additionally, crowdsourcing from 100 million drivers is being used by INRIX to collect users' driving times to provide better GPS routing and real-time traffic updates.DemographicsThe crowd is an umbrella term for people who contribute to crowdsourcing efforts. Though it is sometimes difficult to gather data about the demographics of the crowd, a study by Ross et al. surveyed the demographics of a sample of the more than 400,000 registered crowdworkers using Amazon Mechanical Turk to complete tasks for pay.While a previous study in 2008 by Ipeirotis found that users at that time were primarily American, young, female, and well-educated , with 40% having incomes >$40,000/yr, in 2009 Ross found a very different population. By Nov. 2009, 36% of the surveyed Mechanical Turk workforce was Indian. Of Indian workers were male, and 66% had at least a Bachelor’s degree. ? had annual incomes less than $10,000/yr, with 27% sometimes or always depending on income from Mechanical Turk to make ends meet.The average US user of Mechanical Turk earned $2.30 per hour for tasks in 2009, versus $1.58 for the average Indian worker. While the majority of users worked less than 5 hours per week, 18% worked 15 hours per week or more. This is less than minimum wage in either country, which Ross suggests raises ethical questions for researchers who use crowdsourcing.The demographics of http://microworkers.com/ differ from Mechanical Turk in that the US and India together account for only 25% of workers. 197 countries are represented among users, with Indonesia (18%) and Bangladesh (17%) contributing the largest share. However, 28% o f employers are from the US.Another study of the demographics of the crowd at iStockphoto found a crowd that was largely white, middle- to upper-class, higher educated, worked in a so-called â€Å"white collar job,† and had a high-speed Internet connection at home.Studies have also found that crowds are not simply collections of amateurs or hobbyists. Rather, crowds are often professionally trained in a discipline relevant to a given crowdsourcing task and sometimes hold advanced degrees and many years of experience in the profession.Claiming that crowds are amateurs, rather than professionals, is both factually untrue and may lead to marginalization of crowd labor rights.MotivationsMany scholars of crowdsourcing suggest that there are both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that cause people to contribute to crowdsourced tasks, and that these factors influence different types of contributors.For example, students and people employed full-time rate Human Capital Advancement as less important than part-time workers do, while women rate Social Contact as more important than men do.Intrinsic motivations are broken down into two categories, enjoyment-based and community-based motivations. Enjoyment-based motivations refer to motivations related to the fun and enjoyment that the contributor experiences through their participation. These motivations include: skill variety, task identity, task autonomy, direct feedback from the job, and pastime. Community-based motivations refer to motivations related to community participation, and include community identification and social contact.Extrinsic motivations are broken down into three categories, immediate payoffs, delayed payoffs, and social motivations. Immediate payoffs, through monetary payment, are the immediately received compensations given to those who complete tasks. Delayed payoffs are benefits that can be used to generate future advantages, such as training skills and being noticed by potential employ ers. Social motivations are the rewards of behaving pro-socially, such as altruistic motivations. Chandler and Kapelner found that US users of the Amazon Mechanical Turk were more likely to complete a task when told they were going to â€Å"help researchers identify tumor cells,† than when they were not told the purpose of their task. However, of those who completed the task, quality of output did not depend on the framing of the task.Another form of social motivation is prestige or status. The International Children's Digital Library recruits volunteers to translate and review books. Because all translators receive public acknowledgment for their contribution, Kaufman and Schulz cite this as a reputation-based strategy to motivate individuals who want to be associated with institutions that have prestige. The Amazon Mechanical Turk uses reputation as a motivator in a different sense, as a form of quality control. Crowdworkers who frequently complete tasks in ways judged to b e inadequate can be denied access to future tasks, providing motivation to produce high-quality work. CriticismsThere are two major categories of criticisms about crowdsourcing, (1) the value and impact of the work received from the crowd and (2) the ethical implications of low wages paid to crowdworkers. Most of these criticisms are directed towards crowdsourcing systems that provide extrinsic monetary rewards to contributors, though some apply more generally to all crowdsourcing systems. Impact of crowdsourcing on product qualitySusceptibility to faulty results caused by targeted, malicious work efforts. Since crowdworkers completing microtasks are paid per task, there is often a financial incentive to complete tasks quickly rather than well. Verifying responses is time consuming, and so requesters often depend on having  multiple workers complete the same task to correct errors. However, having each task completed multiple times increases time and monetary costs.Crowdworkers ar e a nonrandom sample of the population. Many researchers use crowdsourcing in order to quickly and cheaply conduct studies with larger sample sizes than would be otherwise achievable. However, due to low worker pay, participant pools are skewed towards poor users in developing countries.Increased likelihood that a crowdsourced project will fail due to lack of monetary motivation or too few participants. Crowdsourcing markets are not a first-in-first-out queue. Tasks that are not completed quickly may be forgotten, buried by filters and search procedures so that workers do not see them. This results in a long tail power law distribution of completion times. Additionally, low-paying research studies online have higher rates of attrition, with participants not completing the study once started. Even when tasks are completed, crowdsourcing doesn't always produce quality results. When Facebook began its localization program in 2008, it encountered criticism for the low quality of its cro wdsourced translations.One of the problems of crowdsourcing products is the lack of interaction between the crowd and the client. Usually there is little information about the final desired product and there is often very limited interaction with the final client. This can decrease the quality of product as client interaction is a vital part of the design process.It is usually expected from a crowdsourced project to be unbiased by incorporating a large population of participants with a diverse background. However, most of the crowdsourcing works are done by people who are paid or directly benefit from the outcome (e.g. most of open source projects working on Linux). In many other cases, the resulted product is the outcome of a single person's endeavour who creates the majority of the product while the crowd only participates in minor details.Concerns for crowdsourcersEthical concerns. Because crowdworkers are considered independent contractors  rather than employees, they are not guaranteed a minimum wage. In practice, workers using the Amazon Mechanical Turk generally earn less than the minimum wage, even in India. Some researchers considering using Mechanical Turk to get participants for studies have argued that this may be unethical.Below-market wages. The average US user of Mechanical Turk earned $2.30 per hour for tasks in 2009, versus $1.58 for the average Indian worker. While the majority of users worked less than 5 hours per week, 18% worked 15 hours per week or more, and 27% of Indian users said income from Mechanical Turk is sometimes or always necessary for them to make ends meet. This is less than minimum wage in either country, which Ross et al. suggest raises ethical questions for researchers who use crowdsourcing.[ When Facebook began its localization program in 2008, it received criticism for using crowdsourcing to obtain free labor.Typically, no written contracts, non-disclosure agreements, or employee agreements are made with crowdsourced e mployees. For users of the Amazon Mechanical Turk, this means that requestors have final say over whether users’ work is acceptable; if not, they will not be paid. Critics claim that crowdsourcing arrangements exploit individuals in the crowd, and there has been a call for crowds to organize for their labor rights.Difficulties in collaboration of crowd members, especially in the context of competitive crowd sourcing. Crowdsourcing site InnoCentive allows organizations to solicit solutions to scientific and technological problems; only 10.6% of respondents report working in a team on their submission.

Organization Development and Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 6

Organization Development and Change - Essay Example This is because the effects of change are understood hence organizational change is supported by the same people who change affects within the organization. This involvement of the workforce in the creation of change within the organization leads to the acceptance of change among the stakeholders of the organization. This involvement leads to synergy, which enhances motivation and productivity in an organization. These are the benefits that accrue from full implementation of change in an organization. Inclusiveness in strategic change creation and implementation serves as a cheap source of ideas because the contribution of many people is considered before a decision is made. This initiative also provides networking to the organization which enhances the implementation of the change within an enterprise. This owes to the fact that networking helps in acquisition of crucial information with regard to decision making. According to Cummings and Worley (2009), strategic change in an organization determines the going concern of an organization. Participation in the change process is favored in the republics which practice democracy in governance as opposed to one-man rule scenario in some countries. Organizational development and change are inevitable for the advancement of any organization. This is because of the flaws associated with the status quo position of an organization structure especially a bureaucratic organizational structure. There is a need for the organization’s management to communicate the re-structural change and the goals of the change, to the workforce in order for the employees to embrace the change. There are benefits which accrue to people when they take part in a number of activities pertaining to change. These benefits include the improvement in the quality of decisions made with regard to the change variables. It also highlights timely responses required when the change takes effect. According to Lines (2011), the effect of

Virgin Airways Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Virgin Airways - Assignment Example Currently, the airline is using Embraer jets, Boeing and Airbus for its flight services and has a presence in 29 cities across Australia. The airline is also a member of the Sytax alliance and is given a 4-star rating. Virgin Airways has managed to be one of the leading airlines in Australia and around the globe. This paper aims at analyzing the nature of the business including the internal and external business environment. The paper will also focus on a discussion of the planning and strategy formulation, organizational change, and how the company implements corporate social responsibility and ethical behavior. However, the paper will mainly concentrate on the strategy formulation of the company in order to understand the competitive advantage of the company. Planning and Strategy Formulation According to Virgin Airways, its major strategies are defined as being creative in addressing the challenges facing the company. The company heavily relies on the Virgin brand name in terms of providing quality services at affordable prices (Hooley 60). The company puts great emphasis on improving its human resources by having a strong focus on values, culture and pioneer leadership. Business analysts contend that the virgin culture is phenomenon in the sense that the brand has a very strong culture that is recognized for quality and value for money. The virgin brand is also recognized for its fun work environment. Research studies indicate that the virgin brand was 94 percent recognized before the airline was finally established. The brand was being tanked among the best ten brands in the Asia-Pacific region and also among the top trusted brands in Australia (Hooley 66). Virgin Airways has managed to establish a very unique culture through Richard Branson. Branson is among the high profile entrepreneurs that exist in the modern world and has managed to transform the world of business through his emphasis on a unique working culture. Most of the airline employees have pr eviously worked for the Virgin Group. This is to ensure that there is the spread of the Virgin culture across the airline company. The company’s senior management has a good working relationship attributed to the fact that most of the members have worked together as a team in their previous job positions at Virgin Group. They have respect for each other’s talent and ability. This is a strong working culture that has been established at the top and one that filters down the company. The main corporate synergy for the company is the ability to operate like a venture capital firm based on the Virgin brand name (Hooley 70). This involves non-related diversification at the individual level of business. This is achieved through the creation of hierarchical relationships and the interactions between the corporate head office and the airline business unit. The airline company has managed to leverage on the virgin brand which has approximately 96 percent prominence in the minds of consumers. This ensured that the airline entered the industry with a bang. Virgin Australia was established in 2011 but has managed to shake up existing orders in the market and given competitors a run for their money. Virgin Australia is a business unit under the Virgin Group but the company is focused and develops as an autonomous business under the Virgin brand name. This creates a decentralized organizational structure and independent decision making

What is sociology, anyway Why bother to study it Essay

What is sociology, anyway Why bother to study it - Essay Example The official and the most likely reason for the US war on Iraq is not aligned with the author’s claim that war occurs because a lack of understanding of each other’s behavior. There was also no justification for what Hitler’s and his Nazi party was doing prior to World War II, thus not understanding the Nazi culture was not a justifiable excuse for the US and its allies not to have gone to war with Germany. Sociology can be defined as the scientific study of human society and social behavior (NesSmith, pg. 5). The author of the article had a lot of good ideas about the importance of sociology to our society. An innovation that has helped the global society connect more has been the internet. The internet allows for instant communication from people from different parts of the world and provides its users with a vast database of information that can be used to learn about other people’s culture. The culture of each nation across the world is different, but these differences are what make the planet a unique and interesting place to live

Special education Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Special education - Assignment Example Some of the special needs entail communication challenges, physical disabilities, behavioral and emotional behaviors and developmental disorders. Students exhibiting the special needs usually benefit from additional educational services where different approaches are used with examples of a resource room, use of technology and a teaching area that is specifically adapted (University of La Crosse, 2012). This is where special educators come in. Special educators have a repertoire that has evidence based strategies meant to individualize instructions specifically for individuals who have exceptional learning needs (ELN). These strategies enhance critical thinking in learning, problem solving as well as individual skill performance. More over the strategies enhance self-reliance, self-control and self esteem. Special educators play a huge part in put a lot of emphasis in maintenance development and generalization of skills and knowledge across settings, environments and lifespan (Univer sity of La Crosse, 2012). When it comes to assessment, this is a very crucial process during decision making as well as teaching of special educators. The educators use various types of assessment information when making different educational decisions. They also use assessment results to assists them identify the exceptional learning needs and also to come up and enforce individualized instructional programs and also adjust instruction when it comes to responding to ongoing learning progress (University of La Crosse, 2012). ... In addition, they understand assessment that is related to eligibility, referral, instruction, program planning and placement. An empirical study conduct by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) in regards to the participation of disabled students in regards to statewide testing programs, probed the question of why students were excluded in these assessments (Almond et al, 1997). Despite the fact that participation rates largely contributed to poor data collection during testing time, the study found that there was also the files that used key marker variables. This resulted in many disabled students being lost in the midst. The study identified the four reasons that make statewide assessment to be used and they included; providing data so as to inform policy, make decisions regarding student competence, provide accountability data based on criterion achievement levels and lastly, to be able to compare the local agencies that are local (Almond et al, 1997). In their meth odology, they focused on testing students with disabilities from 3rd, 5th, 8th as well as 10th graders. After having done their research, the NCEO found that program participation and demographic data would be used when it came to grouping of scores and also taking into consideration the effects of program services, age, language proficiency and socioeconomic status (Almond et al, 1997). Therefore, when it comes to the evidence that I will use to make sure my students responses as well as errors guided discussion decisions and ensure that feedback is provided to learners, I will use the evidence based practice. This is where there is use of instructional strategy, teaching program or intervention that leads to consistent positive results particularly when they are experimentally

Retail Management Career Path Paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Retail Management Career Path Paper - Assignment Example It gives an individual an opportunity to interact with employees and understand their weaknesses and how to improve them (Sims, 2008). This form of skill empowerment is not only important to the organization but is also crucial in improving personal relationships. This is the ability of the human resource manager to maintain focus on the activities that possess the greatest potential of meeting the work commitments. It is an attribute that allows them manager to understands and concentrate on facts that have a greater impact in the meeting of work requirements While other professionals may work from their homes or in pleasant working conditions, an average human resource manager works for a standard 40 hours per week. This is due to the requirements involved in fulfilling the role. These include organizing trainings and concentrating on improving employee output. Human resource managers are required to attend various refresher courses in handling the dynamics of manpower management. The mangers are also expected to work on their individual relation building attributes so as to ensure that they understand the needs of the organization and how to align them with the available manpower (Martin, 2008). Career advancement in the field of human resource goes to the doctorate level. This is the highest point of academic advancement that a human resource manager can archive. There are also training sponsored by renowned human resource trainers in the world. Human resource managers’ are expected to attend such training and receive certifications that are globally recognized (Martin, 2008). The training is tailored to meet the modern requirements in the field of human resource management. The compensation in this field is decided by a number of facts including; education and personal achievements. There is no limit to the nature of compensation that a human resource manager is entitled to. The dynamic involved include the size of the organization, the

CAPM Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

CAPM - Assignment Example Based on the rationale obtained in relation to these mentioned fields, the paper aims at concluding with regard to the relevance of CAPM for corporate managers (Fama & French, 2003). CAPM is valued high owing to its ability to guide investment projects through accurate calculation about the relationship between the risk and return. This relationship provides two major functions. First, it serves as a standard regarding the rate of return for assessing the potential investments and second, it helps generating a cultured guess, rather than a biased one, with regard to return on assets, which have not been traded in the market place. The common concept behind CAPM is that investors must be remunerated in two ways, i.e. time assessment of money as well as risk (Leonard, Loli, Kralj & Vlachos, 2012). The relationship of risk and return can be described with regard to the fact that low level of risk is connected with low potential returns and high risks are connected with high potential returns. In general terms, ‘risk’ is considered as negative concerning the fact that risks imply investments and their returns as conditional, wherein investors may or may not be able to generate their desired level of profit. It is thus that CAPM suggests, considering high risk of return, investors must be conscious about their possible risk tolerance at the time of selecting investment projects for their portfolio. Notably, according to the model, there are two types of risks those can be possible when selecting investment, such as systematic risks and unsystematic risks (Leonard, Loli, Kralj & Vlachos, 2012). CAPM helps to calculate the cost of equity of a private company by assessing the betas and thereafter, calculate the cost of debt by estimating risk of default as well as cost of debt after tax. In a private company, the originations of risks and

10 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

10 - Essay Example There are two groups of software professionals; one is the production part of software development and the other one is service part of IT providers. The reason for making two groups is that, the profession is more or less of the same, design and development. The second group is also doing the same but for public service. The responsibility of a software engineer is to design and implement a variety of software solutions. They may be occupied in the design and testing of various applications like computer game, some business applications, operating system or various superior software programmes for extreme hardware and equipment. Once the system is completely designed, the testing team will test and debug the system and after that the maintenance team maintain the system. The software engineers normally work in a complicated and highly technical environment. The application engages computer science as well as mathematics. They should know programming languages and applications because they will be involved in a variety of works. After a university or high school degree, most of the students select the career as IT professional or in software services. The path from university to a company is very straight. According to the recruitment policy; they recruit some experienced candidate. Companies prefer managerial skills as well as technical skills. The demand of IT jobs is extremely high as it provides a better economical potential, better salary scales, and job security. In the United Kingdom those who move to the IT sector from municipal administration won’t get enough job satisfaction. On the basis of their experience; It professionals are classified as a Software Programmer, Analyst, Project Leader and so on. In spite of an enormous reforms relying on outsourcing and transfer of personal, the interviewees assemble all their resources to carry on in the private company the organisational profession that they underway in public administration they

Cameras in Court Rooms Distort the Trial Process Essay

Cameras in Court Rooms Distort the Trial Process - Essay Example In UK, citizens do not only watch parliament proceedings but also court proceedings without having to attend in person. On the other hand, they also watch debates in the House of Lords and House of Commons on terrestrial television. In UK, trials of well-published are often televised as either news reports or separate documentaries (Brill, 1996, p.51). A channel that only airs criminal justice system’s footage, Court TV, is normally made available in the court rooms to inform the citizens of proceedings of a certain case. O.J. Simpson’s murder trial was fully filmed and watched by millions of audience. This made the lawyers and judges that were involved in this case become international celebrities. Another famous case trial that was filmed and watched by all citizens was that of Louise Woodward – a case of murder committed in the United States (Mason, 2000, p. 26). Pictures of her appearance in the courtroom were transmitted in Britain. That resulted into immens e public reaction. A campaign by the national media raised enough money to pay for her sub sequential appeal and defense costs. The televised emotive pictures made the public to sympathize with her, hence the assistance. Interesting issues concerning discrimination, individual liberties and constitutional rights are raised in this topic. Other international trials have also embraced the significance of audio visual technology (Mason, 2000, p. 26). International criminal tribunals that were concerned with former Yugoslavian dissolution and Rwandan atrocities were also televised, thus gaining mixed reactions from the public. Arguments Supporting Camera Use in the Court Television as Educator; Learning the Law A democratic society allows its citizen’s to access court proceedings. Anyone has a right to sit in the public gallery, watch the whole or part of the trial, or appeal. In UK, citizens are often free to attend even then House of Lords, similar to the way citizens are free to watch the proceedings of the Supreme Court in the United States. Therefore, there is no constitutional barrier that bars court trials from being televised. However, it is difficult for non-lawyers to understand court events. Television coverage normally include commentaries that make it easier for citizens to understand thus making the watching of a trial an educational experience that is even more profitable. In the OJ Simpsons case, camera men were frequently cautioned against taking shots of the messenger. This case has since created a knee-jerk sort of reaction. However, watching all court proceedings is limited during the week as people are busy in their work places. Attending court proceedings in person is every expensive while public gallery is limited in space. People have to arrive very early in courts to attend well-publicized trials in order to secure a seat. Citizens should not enjoy their democratic rights by making such sacrifices of money and time. On the other han d, court proceedings should be televised just like parliament proceedings. This is because laws are usually made in parliament and the role of court is only developing them. Precedent doctrine is normally applied in countries that use common law. Therefore, outcome of subsequent cases can be determined by earlier reasoning. Consequently, court decisions could equally impact on people’s lives just like just like parliament decisions. It is the right of all citizens to know these decisions. Moreover, even though all cases do

My Best Memory of Cuba Essay Example for Free

My Best Memory of Cuba Essay Orly Solomon was a child star in France, the French Shirley Temple if I may tell the truth. At the young age of eight she became a famous singer, actress and TV host. She even got into the Guinness World Records as the youngest TV host in history. For years Orly toured around singing, released CDs and performed on television and on stages. But as she grew into adulthood, due to poor management, she lost momentum and her position in the entertainment industry, and was soon forgotten. Orly was never one to give up easily, and as such, a few years later she applied for a main role in the world renowned production The Lion King. Of all things it was in German, a language she did not speak. After rigorous auditions, having to learn German in a very short time in order to pass her final audition, in 2003 she got accepted and moved to Germany. Orly was back in the game and was singing her heart out entertaining audiences again. After a few years of living the same role over and over Orly started getting tired of the assembly line routine. She craved creativity and change as any artist does in a long repetitive production. Her dream was to travel to Cuba to learn Spanish and salsa. She took her first trip to Cuba and fell in love with the place and its highly developed art scene. Orly had another dream to release a single with some of the most famous Cuban artists such as Maykel Blanco y Su Salsa Mayor, Pupy y Los Que Son Son and more. And like everything in her life shortly after she made her dream come true. This artist-entrepreneur has always had a brilliant mind initiating profitable projects. It started as a young teenager while organizing karaoke parties mixed with her singing, which in those times was truly ground breaking. It continued to organizing big events and later concerts for big stars such as Maykel Blanco and his band when they toured in France. Orly’s life would not have shamed a telanovela and one should probably be produced in her honour someday. Her life story so far had many unexpected turns and twists, but like a willow tree, she flexes well with the wind. Orly, no doubt, fell in love with Cuba and its artists and had realized her dream – she knows all of the top salsa artists such as Maykel Blanco, Alexander Abreu, Manolito Simonet and more. She works with them regularly and even released a few singles in Cuba that she feels very proud of. But one day it all clicked for her when she recognized that many people in the world were just as passionate about salsa as she was and dreamt of having a memorable experience with their favourite artist. This is how the project ‘My Best memory of Cuba’ came to life. ‘My Best Memory of Cuba’ is Orly’s new concept allowing her to share her great luck of meeting the biggest Cuban salsa stars and working with them. Orly offers groups the great opportunity of getting connected to them and being featured in a video clip with them. You pick the song, the artist, and the location in Havana and voila! A quick rehearsal, about an hour of fun filming and dancing, and each person ends up with a DVD of their best memory of Cuba – their own personal video clip with their dream star, a dream come true!

The Role of Women in the Church Essay Example for Free

The Role of Women in the Church Essay The role that women play in Church has always been a misunderstood and heavily scrutinized issue within the church. These negative thoughts may be attributed to the bible’s own scriptures in regards to women. It is widely believed that men are natural born leaders, as that is the way God made them, but modern society has shown us that women can be just as successful in leading, if not more so. Today women serve as positive leaders in politics, business, law and even in some churches as of lately. So why then, do many churches refuse women the right to serve as leaders? Why did God include passages of the Bible that restrict women’s leadership? According to The Rise Of Women As Church Leaders (2006), Many Christian religions keep women out of top leadership posts – especially the pulpit. Their reasons rely mainly on selective readings of certain biblical passages regarding women.† (para. 2) Women should listen and learn quietly and submissively (Timothy 2:11). I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. (Timothy 2:12-14). If they have any questions to ask, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is improper for women to speak in church meetings (Corinthians 13:35). The women should keep quiet in the churches, for they are not authorized to speak, but should take a secondary and subordinate place, just as the Law also says (Corinthians 14:34). These are each very clear examples of the restrictions of leading women in Christianity. While many churches continue to deny women certain human rights, it is very clear that without women, the Christian religion would be a vastly different community. In recent years, women have seen a large amount of changes within Christianity. This religion has actually put fourth opportunities for women in the community. While the rights of women might not be the equivalent to men as of yet, Christianity has helped give women a stronger place in society while hugely contributing to successful leaps in rights. Jewish and Islamic societies have also had their own issues regarding women’s roles. The primary role of a woman in all three religions is to be a wife and mother. Judaism teaches that men and women are equal in the eyes of God even though Judaism sets different roles for each sex. In Islam, it is a little bit different. The Qur’an regards men and women as equals and states that they should each be treated the same. However, many Muslim societies practice the oppression of women in day to day life. Similar to Orthodox Judaism, men and women worship separately in Islamic cultures. Christianity, Judaism and Islam have each seen many leaps and bounds in the rights of women in recent years. The next century could see even larger changes for women and possibly the complete abolishment of the oppression of women. Reference The Rise of Women as Church Leaders. (2006). Retrieved from http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0719/p08s01-comv.html

Antisocial Personality Disorder: Causes, Effects, Treatment

Antisocial Personality Disorder: Causes, Effects, Treatment Antisocial Personality Disorder Crystal Fulp Antisocial Personality Disorder Personality disorders affect many people in society, but are understood by few. Personality disorders are defined as a deeply ingrained, maladaptive and specific problem behavior or pattern. Such problem patterns typically manifest themselves by early adolescence and have an impairing impact on the person’s functioning in life with a particular emphasis on the impact that such disorders have on their relationships and quality of life (Comer, 2014). There are a total of ten personality disorders that have been categorized into three distinct clusters. Disorders under the first cluster (cluster A) are said to be odd personality disorders because they cause people to exhibit behaviors that can be seen as â€Å"odd† or â€Å"eccentric†. Disorders listed under the second cluster (cluster B) are said to be dramatic personality disorders because they cause people to exhibit overly dramatic, emotional, or aggressive behaviors. Disorders listed under the final cluster (cl uster C) are said to be anxious personality disorders because they cause people to behave in overly anxious or fearful ways (Comer, 2014). All ten of the personality disorders can be devastating, but the dramatic personality disorders are marked by behaviors that are overly dramatic, emotional, and/or aggressive. The dramatic personality disorders are more commonly diagnosed than any other personality disorder. However, the antisocial personality and borderline personality disorders have gained more attention from researchers because the actions of those diagnosed tend to effect more people (Comer, 2014). The remainder of this discussion will cover the Antisocial Personality Disorder in detail. The disorder will be defined along with the most common symptom configurations, which will lead to a discussion about the historical and current etiological causes of the disorder. The final portion of the discussion will cover treatment modalities. Definition of Disorder Symptom Configuration Antisocial personality disorder is defined as exhibiting a pervasive pattern of behavior where someone disregards and violates the rights of others (APA 2013). This disorder can only be diagnosed if the patient/client exhibits behaviors that satisfy certain criterion. The criterion used to diagnose this disorder is as follows: Source: (APA, 2013) The essential feature of Antisocial Personality Disorder is exhibiting a complete disregard for the rights of others that lead to a violation of the aforementioned rights (APA, 2013). People with Antisocial personality disorder are very deceitful and manipulative. They will go to extravagant lengths in order to control others or get them to do what it is they want them to do. These people also exhibit an inability to plan ahead and a lack a moral conscience. Simply put, these people do not feel remorse if their actions cause any harm or discomfort to other people. They tend to rationalize their behaviors by saying, â€Å"They were stupid for doing that, so they deserved what they got† or something similar (Comer, 2014). People with this disorder may also exhibit consistent irresponsible behaviors such as failing to obtain and keep employment, paying child support, paying off debts, or even appropriately caring for themselves or others (including their own children or spouses). It’s important to note that these behaviors must not be confused with the antisocial behaviors exclusive to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (APA, 2014). It’s also common for people who suffer from this disorder to be more likely to exhibit criminal behavior than others. In fact, a study found that at least thirty percent of incarcerated individuals exhibit symptoms consistent with Antisocial Personality Disorder (Comer, 2014). They are also much more likely to abuse alcohol or other controlled substances. In fact, people with Antisocial Personality Disorder are much more likely to participate in risky behaviors than the average population (Comer, 2014) Antisocial Personality Disorder: A Case Example It can be hard to imagine what this disorder would look like in the real world. Imagine a twenty-two year old man named Jacob. Jacob is currently serving a five year sentence in a minimum security penitentiary for assault and felony larceny. Jacob has a long disciplinary record both inside and outside of the prison. Since he’s been incarcerated he’s been involved in numerous physical altercations and is known to be irritable and prone to exhibiting aggressive behavior when it’s not appropriate. He’s also been cited for possessing drugs and alcohol inside the prison (Black, 1999; Comer, 2014; Oliviera-Souz et al., 2008). Jacob is being referred to the prison psychologist because of his most recent offense. In the past month he has been found guilty of an assault during which he beat a fellow inmate with a lunch tray. When the psychologist asked Jacob why he reacted that way he said, â€Å"He shouldn’t have been in my way. He got what he deserved.† Jacob didn’t exhibit any guilt or remorse for what he had done. Fallowing this discussion Jacob told the psychologist about his actions as a teenager. Jacob admitted to being involved in criminal activities and consuming alcohol while underage. He also admitted to breaking into places and selling controlled substances. He went on to talk about how he used to hurt animals. When asked if he felt bad about it he responded that he didn’t and viewed it as more of a game than anything else (Black, 1999; Comer, 2014; Oliviera-Souz et al., 2008). Over the next few months, the psychologist notices that Jacob often acts without thinking of the consequences and treats his criminality as a game of wit. He’s also highly irresponsible and lacks a moral conscience as indicated by his past and present crimes. The psychologist concludes that Jacob is exhibiting behaviors consistent with Antisocial Personality Disorder and refers to him to the prison’s treatment program (Black, 1999; Comer, 2014; Oliviera-Souz et al., 2008). Causes of Antisocial Personality Disorder General Information about Causes There doesn’t seem to be a single cause of Antisocial Personality Disorder. In fact, there seem to be many different possibilities presented from many different angles, especially in relations to genetics and certain environmental factors. For the sake of time, this discussion will focus on the behavioral/cognitive and biological perspectives on this disorder. However, it seems important to note that lower socioeconomic status has been correlated with the development of this disorder (APA, 2013). Common Biological Perspectives Genetics plays an important role in the development of Antisocial Personal Disorder. People who had parents who were diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder are much more likely to develop the disorder themselves (APA, 2013). Researchers have also found serotonin levels to be correlated with Antisocial Personality Disorder (Black, 2014). However, this finding really isn’t that surprising when one considers that significantly lower serotonin levels have been found in regards to other psychological disorders such as depression (Comer, 2014). Behavior/Cognitive Causes of Antisocial Personality Disorder There are many possible behavioral causes of Antisocial Personality disorder. However, behavioral researchers believe that there is a correlation between antisocial personality behaviors and modeling. Simply put, these researchers believe that children can learn antisocial behaviors from their parents (Comer, 2014). After all, children learn from watching the people around them and then imitating that behavior (as indicated by Bandura’s Social Learning Theory). Furthermore, researchers have also found a correlation between antisocial behaviors and people who had lived in violent households. It has been found that children who lived in households where violence and aggression was a common occurrence are more likely to exhibit antisocial behaviors than children who didn’t grow up in violent and/aggressive households. Children who lived with parents who abused alcohol and/or controlled substances have also been found to be more likely to exhibit antisocial behaviors (Black , 2014). It’s also important to note that child abuse has been correlated with the development of antisocial personality disorder. Simply put, children who are abused are much more likely to exhibit antisocial behaviors than children who weren’t abused (Black, 2014). This research indicates that parental modeling and disturbed or volatile environments could be connected with the development of Antisocial Personality Disorder. Cognitive theorists point to society’s individualism and egocentrism as a possible cause. People with Antisocial Personality Disorder have attitudes that continually trivialize the needs of others (Elwood et al., 2004). There is an argument among cognitive researchers that these attitudes are much more prevalent in society than people believe them to be (Comer, 2014). Differential Diagnosis Considerations for Antisocial Personality Disorder Personality Traits People with Antisocial Personality Disorder exhibit very specific personality traits. These personality traits serve to help them achieve their ends at whatever cost as they are only concerned with their own wants/needs. People with this disorder have been known to exhibit a complete lack of empathy (APA, 2013). They may also be callous and cynical. People with this disorder may also have an inflated or arrogant self appraisal along with being cocky and opinionated. These people tend to have a superficial charm that draws people and can appear to be very intelligent and informed to others (APA, 2013) Ages and Populations Effected In order to be diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder one must be at least eighteen years of age, however, antisocial behaviors consistent with conduct disorders must be present prior to fifteen years of age. Antisocial behaviors consistent with conducts disorders include aggression towards people or animals, theft, deceitfulness, destruction of property, or rule violations (APA, 2013). These behaviors violate the social norms of adolescence’s aged fifteen and under and as such a history of such behaviors is required to diagnose someone with Antisocial Personality Disorder. This disorder typically develops by late adolescence or early adulthood. One interesting phenomena related to this disorder is that the symptoms usually even out by forty years of age. That would mean that this disorder begins to develop in one’s adolescence, peek in their mid-twenties and thirties, and decrease in intensity by age forty. It’s also important to note that men are much m ore likely to be diagnosed with this disorder than women (APA, 2013). Dual Diagnosis Patterns Diagnosing Antisocial Personality Disorder can be very tricky under the best circumstances. A diagnosis is only given to someone who is at least eighteen years of age and has a history of behaviors indicative of conduct disorders. In the event that an adult doesn’t meet the criteria to be diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder they may be diagnosed with a conduct disorder (APA, 2013). Diagnosing this disorder is made even more difficult when substance abuse is involved. In these cases, a diagnosis is only given if there is a history of antisocial behaviors in the client/patient’s adolescence and childhood. If both the substance abuse and the antisocial personality behaviors existed together in childhood then it’s necessary to evaluate the client/patient for both substance abuse disorder and antisocial personality disorder (APA, 2013). Clinicians should also keep in mind that the features of Antisocial Personality Disorder are similar to that of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. This diagnosis can only be given if the antisocial behaviors aren’t exclusive to either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. To that end, the criterion for this disorder can be easily confused with other disorders, so it’s important to pay close attention to the patient’s history (or lack thereof) of antisocial behaviors (APA, 2013). Treatment Modalities for Antisocial Personality Disorder Treating personality disorders can be very difficult to do. In relation to Antisocial Personality Disorder the available treatments range from being completely ineffective to only moderately effective, this doesn’t result in an overly positive prognosis (Comer, 2014). There are currently three treatments available for this disorder. One form of treatment is medications. Certain therapies have also been shown to be somewhat effective in treating this disorder, specifically cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) and psychotherapy (Comer, 2014). Using medications to treat any psychological disorder is a trial and error process at best. Using psychotropic drugs to treat Antisocial Personality Disorder is no different. At this point, the Food and Drug Administration (ADA) has not approved any drug to be used to treat this disorder specifically (Mayo Clinic, 2013). However, psychiatrists have found that some drugs can help alleviate the symptoms of this disorder. These drugs tend to be the atypical (newer) antipsychotic drugs. These drugs have been found to be moderately effective in some clients/patients (Comer, 2014). Psychotherapy, otherwise known as talk therapy can also be used to help treat this disorder; however, this treatment approach isn’t effective in all situation and patients/clients. In fact, this treatment approach will only be effective if the patient/client realizes and/or admits that they contribute to their own problems. This type of therapy can be administered in a clinical one-on-one setting or in a group setting (Mayo Clinic, 2013). Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT) has been shown to be moderately effective in the treatment of Antisocial Personality Disorder (Hoermann, Zupannick, Dombeck, 2014). Cognitive/behavior theorists argue that the only way to change dysfunctional behavior is to change the dysfunctional thought behind it. After all, according to cognitive-behavior theories one’s cognitions lead to their behaviors be them good or bad. CBT not only focuses on changing dysfunctional thoughts, but it also seeks to challenge the dysfunctional core beliefs underlying their dysfunctional thought patterns (Hoermann, Zupannick, Dombeck, 2014). CBT therapists work with people on accurately interpreting the world around them and then changing or redirecting dysfunctional thought patterns (Hoermann, Zupannick, Dombeck, 2014). For people with Antisocial Personality Disorder, CBT would involve trying to help these patients/clients develop impulse control and a moral conscience (Comer, 2014). The problem with treating this disorder is that the people who have it aren’t very likely to seek treatment out for themselves because they don’t see their behavior as a problem (Comer, 2014). In fact, most people with this disorder that are in treatment originally went to see a mental health professional for a different reason entirely. There are also a large number of people with this disorder who don’t receive treatment until forced to by the criminal justice system as a part of their probation/parole or incarceration programs (Comer, 2014). Antisocial Personality Disorder Construct Antisocial Personality Disorder is one of the most commonly researched personality disorders, but there is still much to be discovered (Comer, 2014). For instance, the DSM-V states that the symptoms of this disorder tend to level out by forty years of age (APA, 2013). Why does that occur? Do certain neurochemicals, such as serotonin behave differently by age forty? The DSM-V also states that the criminality present in those with this disorder can sometimes be confused with â€Å"normal† criminal behavior (criminal behavior not associated with this disorder specifically). Other than the criterion listed, what criterion can clinicians use to help differentiate the two? This may be my own point of view only, but the criterion used to diagnose this disorder seems convoluted and easily confused with the criterion for other mental disorders (APA, 2013). Conclusion Antisocial Personality Disorder is a very serious personality disorder that can have devastating consequences for those who have it. This disorder makes it hard to do basic things, such as form and maintain healthy relationships and stay within the boundaries of both society and the law (APA, 2014). Unfortunately, most people don’t realize that it’s a problem until they are either incarcerated or forced into treatment by judges. Even then most people don’t consider it to be a problem and the disorder in general is made difficult to treat because of the personality traits and attitudes of the people who have it (Comer, 2014). What is clear is that more research needs to be done in the hope that further research can uncover a more suitable treatment method that will greatly increase the quality of life for people who have this disorder. References American Psychiatric Association, American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. Washington, D.C: American Psychiatric Association. Black,D.W., Larson,C.L. (1999). Bad boys, bad men: Confronting antisocial personality disorder. New York: Oxford University Press. Black,D. (2014). What Causes Antisocial Personality Disorder? RetrievedApril15, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/what-causes-antisocial-personality-disorder/000652 Comer,R.J. (2014). Abnormal psychology. New York, NY: Worth Pub. Elwood,C.E., Poythress,N.G., Douglas,K.S. (2004). Evaluation of the Hare P-SCAN in a non-clinical population. Personality and Individual Differences. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00156-9 Hoermann,S., Zupannick,C., Dombeck,M. (2005). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Personality Disorders (CBT). RetrievedApril15, 2014, from http://sevencounties.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=docid=41578cn=8 Mayo Clinic (2013, April 12). Antisocial personality disorder Treatments and drugs. RetrievedApril15, 2014, from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/antisocial-personality-disorder/basics/treatment/con-20027920 Oliveira-Souza,R.D., Moll,J., Ignà ¡cio,F.A., Hare,R.D. (2008). Psychopathy in a Civil Psychiatric Outpatient Sample. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35(4). doi:10.1177/0093854807310853

Socrates Essay -- essays research papers

Socrates (470-399 BC)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Socrates was born to a poor Athenian family in 470 BC He spent most of his time teaching others. One of his pupils was Plato. Socrates was a believer in absolute truth rather than relative truth. His main interest was the process by which people learned how to think for themselves.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  He would usually talk to whoever would take the time to listen. He asked many questions and criticized answers. His style of conversation has been given the name Socratic dialogue. Socrates would often ask students questions without giving them answers. When the students did give answers, he opposed them with clear logical arguments. This method forced his students to defend their statements and to clarify their thinking.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Socrates was the wisest philosopher of his time. He was one of three great teachers of ancient Greece. Socrates was short and fat, with a snub nose and wide mouth. Despite his ugly appearance, many said he was a very moral teacher and a pleasant man to be around. Socrates married a lady named Xanthippe. She was notorious for her sharp tongue and quick temper.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Athenian mob and its self-serving leaders did not appreciate Socrates and his teachings. In 399 BC, they accused him of â€Å"corrupting the young† and of â€Å"not worshipping the gods worshipped by the state.† These men took Socrates to trial and brought hi...