Why Using Experiential Learning With Adults Is Powerful

Why Using Experiential Learning With Adults Is Powerful Kolb and Frye, two leaders in adult educational theory, say that adults learn best through active participation and reflection. This form of learning is called experiential because it involves hands-on experience and observation as well as discussion and other forms of learning. What Is Experiential Learning? In a sense, experiential learning is simply learning by doing but there is more to the process. Not only do learners take action, but they reflect on, learn from, and take new action based on experience. Kolb and Frye describe experiential learning as a four-part cycle: The learner has concrete experience with the content being taught.The learner reflects on the experience by comparing it to prior experiences.Based on experience and reflection, the learner develops new ideas about the content being taught.The learner acts on her new ideas by experimenting in an experiential setting. When the new ideas are put into action, they become the basis for a new cycle of experiential learning. Examples of Experiential Learning Its important to understand that experiential learning is not identical with hands-on learning or apprenticeship. The purpose of experiential learning is not simply to learn a skill through practice, but also to think critically about the practice and to improve upon it. For a child, hands-on learning might involve mixing baking powder and vinegar and watching it bubble and rise. This activity is good hands-on fun, but it doesnt necessarily provide the child with a full understanding of the chemical interaction between the two materials.   For an adult, hands-on learning might involve working with a trained carpenter to learn how to build a chair. In this case, the learner has gained some skills but has not taken part in experiential learning. The next step would involve taking time to reflect on the experience and compare chair-building to other building projects. Based on reflection, the learner would then develop new ideas about how best to go about building a chair and return to chair building with new insights and ideas. Pros and Cons of Experiential Learning Experiential learning can be very powerful for adults because they have the life experience and cognitive ability to reflect, develop new ideas, and take positive action. It also provides adults with the real-world experience they need to place their new skills in context and to develop new ideas about how to implement their skills. This is particularly true when real-world skills are taught in a classroom context. For example, a classroom experience with providing CPR is very different from a real-world experience in the back of an ambulance. On the other hand, experiential learning has very specific limits. It is only useful when the  content being taught is content that will be used in a real-world setting. So, for example, it is very difficult to provide experiential learning relative to literature, history, or philosophy. Yes, it is possible to take field trips to relevant locations or museums but field trips are quite different from experiential learning.

Correct Spelling Is Profitable for Online Businesses

Correct Spelling Is Profitable for Online Businesses In his book on the history of English spelling, Oxford English professor Simon Horobin offers this economic argument for the value of correct spelling: Charles Duncombe, an entrepreneur with various online business interests, has suggested that spelling errors on a website can lead directly to a loss of custom, potentially causing online businesses huge losses in revenue (BBC News , 11 July 2011). This is because spelling mistakes are seen by consumers as a warning sign that a website might be fraudulent, leading shoppers to switch to a rival website in preference. Duncombe measured the revenue per visitor to one of his websites, discovering that it doubled once a spelling mistake had been corrected.Responding to these claims, Professor William Dutton, director of the Internet Institute at Oxford University, endorsed these conclusions, noting that, while there is greater tolerance of spelling errors in certain areas of the Internet, such as in email or on Facebook, commercial sites with spelling errors raise concerns over credibility. Online consumers concerns about spelling mistakes on websites are understandable, given that poor s pelling is specifically highlighted in advice on detecting potentially fraudulent email, so called phishing. . . .So the message is clear: good spelling is vital if you want to run a profitable online retail company, or be a successful email spammer.( Does Spelling Matter? Oxford University Press, 2013) To make sure that your writing isnt littered with spelling errors, follow our Top 10 Proofreading Tips. Dont depend on your spellchecker to handle all the work. Many so-called spelling errors are actually mistakes in word choice- such as the use of  your for youre  or role  for ​roll. A good number of the words in our Glossary of Commonly Confused Words are homophones like these, and your spellchecker simply isnt clever enough to keep their meanings straight. As Horobin states in his introduction, hes not out to reform English spelling (a futile exercise in any case) but to argue for the importance of retaining it as a testimony to the richness of our linguistic heritage and a connection with our literary past. I recommend Horobins book to anyone interested in learning more about the origins of English spelling and its often eccentric conventions. More About English Spelling Writers on English SpellingFour Spelling RulesTop 20 Spelling MnemonicsThe Futility of Spelling Reform

Customer Relationships and Marketing Communications Essay

Customer Relationships and Marketing Communications - Essay Example Technology has grown manifolds and has been a great boon to mankind over the past few years. Since the past decade, the intent of the Internet has provided man with a strong weapon to acquire every minute details pertaining to various products in a jiffy of a second. The Internet has provided mechanisms to obtain information related to diverse products by sitting at one spot. These technological trends provide an opportunity to the companies for carrying out a good marketing plan that would satisfy the consumer’s requirements up to a maximum extent possible (Embellix, 2000). The producers are not left with an option to modify the related details as the Internet is a vast field that possesses, the vendor’s site with the product details and also the information that the critics put up pertaining to the specific products. So, the vendors need to be careful about the impact that online information has over the consumer’s thought. Therefore, by the development of tech nology producers cannot fool the consumers with over budgeted advertising schemes. Technology trends are also offering scope for consumers to compare similar products based on their features and quality performance. These sorts of comparisons enable the consumer to purchase the necessary product that would serve the purpose based on all the requirements. Consumer convenience has been a key issue for the producers to add value to their products (Lindsey Partos, 2005). These issues have been mostly addressed by technology developments. The consumers are provided with e-commerce aspects wherein they can do a whole lot of shopping by sitting at home.

RESEARCH CRITIQUE Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

CRITIQUE - Research Paper Example oned in the article is not the lack of hourly rounding taking place; in fact it is that as the staff shortage has worsened over the years, the patient satisfaction had decreased which causes hindrance in the patient outcomes. The author identifies the significance of the problem as he mentions the detailed study about the change in the hourly rounding pattern in nursing and how it affects the patients and the whole system. The background information provided by the author supports the problem fully as he explains why the patient satisfaction rates fell, how they could be improved and what role does hourly rounding play. The purpose of the study is to work out the challenges faced by nurses every day and to improve the patient satisfactory level. The authors used previous researchers and their articles to support the current analysis and changing trends. The references that were used from the past 10 years were Meade and co-authors (2006), Krauss and co-authors (2005), Amador and Loera (2007) and Olive and co-authors (2006). The references used from the last 5 years are Culley (2008), Assi, Wilson, Bodino, Bognar and Lemenski (2008), Healy, Oliver, Milne, and Connelly (2008), Coussement and co-authors (2008) and Roszell, Jones and Lynn (2009). The authors suggest that future qualitative research should be done focusing on discharged patients’ perceptions about how nurses treated them during their hospitalization. The study is based on a theoretical framework discussing the many kinds of variables that need to be considered. The studies analyzed discuss the various views and methods used to implement the hourly rounding. The overall article shows a theoretical perspective of why the hourly rounding is needed, is significant, is effective, improves the patient satisfaction, and how it should be managed to ensure the future results are effective too. The research hypotheses are the use of hourly rounding in the nursing profession to improve the quality of services

Ban Spam :: essays research papers fc

Ban Spam   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is a new day at the office, and workers are getting online to check their electronic mail, only to find that it has been over run by unsolicited junk mail. This mail, more commonly referred to as spam has been around since the beginning of the Internet, and according to a recent article, as the Internet has grown, so has spam (†Spam Spam† E.L.) A recent study by Star Internet, based on the typical number of staff spending ten minutes a day checking their mail, indicates that spam costs companies in the U.K. 472 dollars a year per worker, and on a national scale, spam costs U.K. firms 4.6 billion dollars a year (Gold F.A.). This is just one reason why bulk unsolicited (spam) e-mail is costly, time consuming, and should be banned.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The term spam for unsolicited e-mail is believed to have originated from a Monty Python skit in which the dialogue was drowned out by shouting out the word â€Å"spam†(â€Å"How to Avoid† F.A.). This is much the way spam drowns out other messages in in-boxes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although spam is a problem for businesses, it is certainly not limited to them. A large amount of spam mail is targeted at anyone who has an e-mail address, and many adults are therefore concerned at some of the content that is sometimes received with these inconvenient messages. Some spam messages may contain explicit content, such as subject headers that display sexually explicit words and phrases that may be unsuitable for children who have access to the Internet.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even though spam can contain some sexually explicit material, there are generally twelve spam scams that seem to be popular. According to one article, many spam messages may contain promises of business opportunities, making money scams, work-at-home schemes, health and diet scams, easy money, getting free merchandise, chain letters, getting free merchandise, investment opportunities, cable scrambler kits, guaranteed loans or credit with easy terms, credit repair, and vacation prize promotions (Gardner E.L.). These are the most popular, but certainly not the only spam scams that are out there today.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many ways to receive spam mail, or get on a spammer’s list. Many times, e-mail addresses that are given out while filling out forms over the Internet end up on a spammer’s list. According to one article, this is generally because spammers use special harvesting software for retrieving e-mail addresses, and many times there isn’t a privacy policy that prevents companies from giving out e-mail addresses to other companies.

Nike Internal Factors

Nike Corporation today is the largest sports apparel and footwear brand in the world. Thousands of people wear Nike gear not only to the playing field but also so social gathering and other casual events. Nike is one of the pioneers to take sportswear from the playing field to public domain. It not only made wearing sports wear popular and turned it into fashion wear but also simultaneously captured the serious performance wear market. The growth of the company over the years has been attributed to its brand building efforts and creative marketing. When it first enter into the industry the market was dominated with German products and others products even those made in America were considered inferior to the products from the European giants like Adidas and Puma. To overcome this they collaborated with Japanese partners who can provide similar quality at cheaper prices. After nearly eight years of selling through importing, Blue Ribbon Sports the company that evolved into Nike was formed. The name ‘NIKE’ was taken from Greek goddess of victory and Swoosh was adopted as brand logo. (Nike, 2007) Strengths of Nike Nike Business Model The Nike business model has little changed over the last four decades. The company was founded with the belief that it can provide customers products at competitive prices by getting them manufactured in Japan and selling them over in United States. Over the years the destinations have changed but the philosophy remained intact. As the income level in Japan increased it shifted it manufacturing units in Taiwan and Korea. After the boom in Korean and Taiwanese economy it shifted its base in other emerging economies like Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and China to leverage the cost of production difference. This has resulted in reducing the costs significantly and the company is enabled to deliver maximum value to its customers. Strong Marketing Abilities All this time Nike managed the product design, marketing, sales and distribution system which made it one of the first company in the world to focus on the core competitive advantage and outsource the rest. Strong Supply Chain Management This strategy not only enabled Nike to focus on its strengths of marketing and designing but also able to leverage the specialization of the vendors supplying the goods. For example Shoes were manufactured cost effectively in Taiwan and Japan while clothing is manufactured in labor inexpensive countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. Recently with increasing operations and established brand the company has changed focused on streamlining operations, efficient demand forecasting and supply chain management. Celebrity Advertising with Cutting Edge Products On the marketing front the company spend big amount on building the brand since the mid eighties. The success of Nike advertising can be attributed to its repeated success of picking up the next superstar in world or sports like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods in past or Sharapova and Michelle Wie at present. Efficient Retail Management and Brand Management Starting from the running shoes, today the company has turned into a lifestyle brand. Today it not only sells shoes and sports gear but casual clothing, bags, fashion accessories etc (Holmes, 2004). The number of stock keeping Units (SKU) becomes large if one considers that these accessories and gears are developed according to various sports following like cycling, aquatic, skateboarding, outdoor activities, football, baseball, soccer, golf and tennis. Merchandise Mix To enter into various price points with diluting the brand Nike has bought various brands like Exter, Starter, Team Starter, Asphalt, Cole Haan shoes, Converse, Hurley skateboard gear, Bauer etc. Weakness Issues with Sweatshops This dead fish focus on leveraging low labor cost in South East Asian economies to deliver competitive products has often landed Nike in various sorts of troubles from human right groups and labor unions back home, most blaming the company for exploiting children and workers in inhumane conditions. Numbers of these groups blamed it for bringing in and supporting the sweatshop culture in these economies and the company once famous for innovative designs and creative products soon became poster child of anti-globalization worldwide. Noting this Phil Night in said in annual meeting – â€Å"The Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime, and arbitrary abuse†. Since then Nike has taken number of steps to cut this malaise in the system and develop respectable human and working standards for its third party vendors. Fall in the Sports shoes market due to changing trends Over the last few years there is continuous decline in sports shoes sale because of trend of non sports shoes with jeans. This has resulted in increasing discount and low realization. Nike has to sort out this aspect of their business along with the rest of sporting gear. Conclusion Over the years Nike has moved from manufacturing to purely a R&D and marketing company. Today Nike headquarters only looks after the designing, market trends and marketing of the products while outsourcing all others. This may have resulted in cutting the cost but it has also increased the dangers like sweatshops and blemish to the brand equity of the company. Nike (2007) Nike official Website 2007. Retrieved on 20th March from www.nikebiz.com   

Tips for Moving out of the Dorms

Moving out of the dorms? Two semesters is more than enough time to pack all sorts of debris into  a college dorm room. Here are some expert tips to make the process a little easier. 10 Tips for Moving out of a Dorm Room Spring Cleaning:  Encourage the notion of a pre-spring break cleaning. Doing a trash purge just before spring break means that much less garbage to deal with on the last day of school. You know your child will bring home bags of dirty laundry, but if weather permits, have him bring home any winter clothing, boots and/or flannel sheets that he doesnt still need at school.Divide and Conquer: If your child is coming home at any time before the end of the second semester, or you are going to visit him, take an empty duffel bag or two and start packing up winter clothing and any other non-essentials. Every bag you can get out of the room early is a bag you won’t have to deal with on the last day of school.Consider Summer Storage: If your childs dorm room has accumulated a lot of possessions - hes purchased a mini-fridge, for example, or youve traded in the Suburban for a Prius - you may want to consider a summer storage option. Store bulky possessions at a self-storage place near campus and you wont have to move it back next fall either. Most self-storage places take reservations, so youll want to reserve a unit 30 days ahead.Purge the Fridge, Dump the Trash: Have your child empty his refrigerator as soon as his last final is over, and start taking trash to the dumpsters. Wait till the day the dorms close and those dumpsters will be full.Sell the Books: Encourage your child to assess his textbooks and sell back anything he no longer needs. English lit books - Canterbury Tales, for example, and 1984 - can be used by siblings or friends forever, but genetics textbooks become obsolete very quickly. Sell them to the campus bookstore, via Amazon or Craigslist or through a textbook rental company such as Chegg.com, where, for example, an excellent condition, Organic Chemistry textbook that retails for $156 can be sold back for $81 or traded in for $89 in Chegg Dollars - which can be used, in turn, to rent next years textbooks. And Chegg pays the postage. Any of t hose options are preferable to lugging heavy books home to rot in your garage.Bring Supplies: It is easier to pack a car with regularly shaped objects – boxes or large Rubbermaid bins - as opposed to black plastic trash bags, grocery bags, and loose items. So bring packing boxes, rolls of packing tape, a roll of paper towels, a bottle of cleaning fluid, and a few trash bags for actual trash. Wear grubbies. Bring bottles of water and granola bars.Empty and Load: Time for the move! Empty all drawers, desks, cupboards and closets. Check the area under the bed and atop tall pieces of furniture. Pack boxes and tubs as neatly as possible, so they hold as much as possible. Dont mix dirty laundry into boxes of clean contents. Take water breaks, watch your back, and clean as you go. Use the corridor as a staging ground, stacking each packed box neatly against the wall until youre ready to make a trip down to the car.Consider Donations: You may find there are some items that you and yo ur child will be willing to part with if space doesn’t permit them aboard – rugs, for example, or oddly shaped, relatively inexpensive items, such as electric fans or lamps. So many items of this sort get thrown away on the move-out day, some schools have started setting up separate dumpster areas so those items can be salvaged and donated. If your childs school does not have such plans, consider doing a Goodwill or thrift store run before packing for home.Pack Em Up, Move Em Out, Rawhide: If you have lined up summer storage space, either in campus housing or off-campus, move those items first. Then enlist all your Tetris skills and start loading your car with everything that’s coming home. Save soft items – blankets, bedding, and overcoats – to stuff into nooks and crannies and pad fragile items.Final Sweep: When the room is completely empty, do one last drawer and cupboard check. Check the restroom too, if your child has a toiletry cupboard there . Sweep out the dorm room and mop off any obvious grunge. Unplug the mini-fridge and arrange for pickup. Pull out the dorm checklist the university gave you last fall, the one that lists existing damage, and go over it with an R.A. so your child can check out. One last potty stop, hugs all around and you’re off! Now the only problem is, where to put all that stuff when you get back home...