Memphis Design-Michele De Lucchi and Ettore Sottsass Essay

Memphis Design-Michele De Lucchi and Ettore Sottsass - Essay Example The paper "Memphis Design-Michele De Lucchi and Ettore Sottsass" discovers postmodernism and Memphis design group. With inspirations derived from earlier movements such as Pop Art and Art Deco, the colors were used in both a graphic and dynamic way. The use of history in the Memphis post modernist furniture is particularly evidenced by the way their colorful designs that were reminiscent of the 1950s and 1960s ‘op’ art movement. The use of history and drawing of inspirations from the past in post modernism was particularly meant to counter the modernist concepts of writing history or starting from scratch after all was lost during the war. The social and cultural changes in 1970 led to the reaction against modernism. Designers embraced popular consumerism and culture. The modernistic principle required all objects to functional. Radical designers started to define a new language for design and moved away from functional well-designed goods. Ettore sottsass and De Lucchi were particularly frustrated by the rigid attitudes of the international design community. The post modernist artists were inspired by cultural, emotional philosophical, ancient, and contemporary influences. Together with De Lucchi and other designers, he founded Memphis to explore a visual language for design based on the popular culture and kitsch. The group wanted to experiment with new designs and materials. Ettore wanted to discover new and unique ways of using materials to bring a wealth of artistic influences.

Burkes Key Ideas in Shelleys Work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Burkes Key Ideas in Shelleys Work - Essay Example Similarly pleasure is something, which can be created from void, which can felt by its own origin or by the serenity of observing and sensing small and delicate joys. Pain can be visualized as it exists from 'nothing' but infinity. That infinity which resides deep inside human soul, and can only be felt by going through different channels of exploration, these channels actually reside within human existence and it is only possible to activate these channels, if one is aware how it feels to investigate things. How to feel fear, how to feel pain, and similarly how to overcome pain with pleasure. This obscurity can be identified in P.B. Shelley's work as it is the human mind, which creates obscurity, which creates and even beautifies its creation, sometimes in small and tiny things, those things that are often assumed as 'meaningless' to the world, might be of great importance to someone's imagination. It is actually what one perceives, how he perceives and in which way he perceives The refore, the vastness lies not in the nature, as a matter of fact the nature is still, possess some kind of serenity, but it lies within the limitations we set to our imagination. To some people nature has its own language, own way of conveying messages. Messages that can be understood not by everyone, but only those who know the way of feeling things, things that bring small joys, small delicacies with small breezes of tranquility. It is the silence of the nature, which can be felt, vastness lies within us, within our perception. Shelley has used the word 'dark' and 'glittering', so the abstract is our imagination, which leads to our approach in identification. It is the imaginative dilemma through which we can judge the degree of obscurity of our human nature. Our nature when compared to the 'landscape' reveals many hidden aspects to us. Like, the natural beauty or we can say the natural landscapes, is austere to human. It entirely depends upon us to how we take perception of it. E ither we feel it obscure, beautiful or we feel a painful experience. If we regard it as beautiful, to what extent we are skeptical about it, and how we are affected physically by the nature of its awesomeness. To Burke the concept of 'sublime' is the most powerful and effective degree of human experience, which can be felt by the natural factors of fear, pain and joy. A particular feeling of passion, which is caused by the sublime, leads human towards darkness or light. These conditions always exist in their true forms; they are pure without any obstacles of external environmental factors. Their purity can be assessed by the fact as to what extent they occupy the mind when they are present in any form. The same influence can be seen in Shelley's 'Mont Blanc' part 2 as 'My own, my human mind, which passively Now renders and receives fast influencings, Holding an unremitting interchange With the clear universe of things around;' -Percy Bysshe Shelley So, the influences when intercept themselves with clarity or obscurity, they have a strong influence on human mind or a strong hold on human mind. That influence can be seen in its highest form in the presence of pain or fear. Pain is more influential than

Outsourcing and how it has effected communication between customers Essay

Outsourcing and how it has effected communication between customers and companies that outsource - Essay Example The result today is a capitalist international economy which has made inroads into the formerly socialist states of eastern and central Europe. Global interdependence is now a feature of the world system and whether one thinks that globalization is a good or bad thing it remains here to stay. Outsourcing, meaning the subcontracting of employment to other countries, is an increasingly common phenomenon with global ramifications (the terms â€Å"offshoring† and â€Å"outsourcing† will be used interdependently here). As the jobs of the first world make their way to the developing countries of the third world, the forces of globalization have had many unintended consequences. The loss of manufacturing jobs in the countries of the Western world and their movement to lower paying countries of the developing â€Å"third world† has restructured the global economy. While outsourcing has had variety of consequences, both positive and negative, this research paper aims to p rovide a holistic analysis of the outsourcing phenomenon in the twenty-first century. What have been the effects on customer satisfaction of outsourcing between customers and companies that outsource? The following will now explore this important question in light of the offshoring phenomenon. Seeking to understand the correlations between customer satisfaction and the offshoring of tasks, duties and responsibilities in the twenty-first century, a recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlighted the important concerns raised by customers when customer service is offshored. Have you ever called a company with a question or complaint and been redirected to Bangladesh, India or the Philippines? Arguing that this is an increasingly common phenomenon in our era of globalized trade and that outsourcing primary customer service functions have a wide variety of

PUBLIC HEALTH AND COMMUNITY NURSING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

PUBLIC HEALTH AND COMMUNITY NURSING - Essay Example Of concern specially is smoking among adolescents which can contribute to several health problems and birth defects in babies born to pregnant women who smoke. Thus, the community selected for critical analysis of health needs in this essay is adolescent smokers. The extent of problem and the impact and effectiveness of public health in the primary care setting with reference to this community will be discussed through review of suitable literature. The Community According to the 2009 statistics, 29 percent of pupils have tried smoking atleast once and the prevalence of smoking in young people was 6 percent. Though this proportion is the lowest since the time the survey began in 1982, it continues to be a significant problem for both health authorities and public. The prevalence of smoking between 11-15 years old has been estimated to be 6 percent. The prevalence is more among girls (7 percent) when compared to boys (5 percent). Another important finding of the survey is that the pre valence of smoking increases with age. At 11 years of age, the prevalence is 0.5 percent and at 15 years of age it is 15 percent. Ethnicity has an influence on the prevalence. It is more common in White pupils when compared to Black of Mixed ethnicity pupils. It is also more prevalent in pupils coming from lower socioeconomic strata (Smith et al, 2009). According to the Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use survey of 2006 (NHS, 2007), nine percent of pupils in England are regular smokers and a further 5 percent are occasional smokers. The survey defined regular smokers as those smoking atleast one cigarette per week and occasional smokers as those smoking less than one cigarette a week. Pupils who smoked regularly smoked an average of 6 cigarettes a day, approximately 43.5 cigarettes a week. 74 percent of the regular smokers smoked cigarettes from a packet and 6 percent smoked from rolled tobaccos. Girls were more likely to smoke from a packet (NHS, 2007). Regular smoking in this age group has been associated with drug abuse, alcohol intake and truancy and school exclusion. The dependence of smoking by children is mainly related to the time they spend as regular smoker. Those who have smoked for more than a year as regular smokers have reported that they find it difficult to not smoke each day. However, more than 50 percent opined that they knew the ill effects of smoking and thus would like to give up. Most pupils knew that smoking caused lung cancer. But two-thirds of them reported that they felt relaxed because of smoking. Thus, the immediate benefits of smoking outweighed the future potential hazards of smoking. According to the survey, majority of pupils were aware of the fact that their families had negative attitude towards smoking. One third of the pupils who smoked did so secretly and occasional smokers were more likely to be secret smokers. Also, households of pupils who smoked were more lenient that those who did not smoke (NHS, 2007). Since most adult smo kers begin smoking at young age, it is every important to ascertain and understand the causes of smoking in young children so that predictors of smoking can be evaluated and targeted for prevention. Several risk factors have been studied in this regard. According to the Liverpool Longitudinal Smoking Study (Smith et al, 2009), deprivation at both school and home was strongly associated with smoking among adolescents. The trial of smoking is influenced by several school-related environmental factors

How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression Essay Example for Free

How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression Essay Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States of America. His tenure ran from 1933 to 1945. Franklin Roosevelt was born in 1882 at Hyde Park, New York City. He attended the prestigious Harvard University before proceeding to Columbia Law School. President Franklin got married to Eleanor Roosevelt in 1905. Franklin Roosevelt entered into public service through politics as a member of the Democrat Party. In 1910, Franklin Roosevelt won the senate seat and become the senator of New York. A few years after the elections, Franklin was appointed assistant secretary of the navy by President Woodrow Wilson. In 1920, he was nominated by the democrats for to be there vice president. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt was elected president of the United States of America. Heale states that the Americans were not happy with the failures of President Hoover. President Hoover failed to intervene and help save the American economy from the depression. The American citizens were thus ready for change (2007). Since they view Franklin Roosevelt as the most suitable candidate with the qualities that they desired, they voted him into presidency. His incredible and marvelous works as a governor made him the best choice for Democrats presidential candidate. By March 1933, America was hit by the worst economic depression. More than thirteen million were rendered jobless and nearly all businesses and commercial banks closed their operations. On observing this, President Franklin Roosevelt formulated the 100 Days Program which was intended to bring back the once glorious American economy back to normal. His proposal, The New Deal, which was also enacted by the US Congress as well, was meant to revive the major economic sectors of United States, especially the manufacturing, business and agricultural industries. The great depression hit America immediately after the crash of the Wall Street in October 1929. As a governor of New York, Franklin made strenuous efforts to help those who were unemployed. According to Leuchtenburg, President Franklin believed that the great depression resulted from low production in the agricultural and industrial sectors, unequal distribution of wealth, malpractices in the financial sector as well as international economic situations (2004). The New Deal proposal was to bring relief to unemployment. It was designed to help those who risked losing their homes and farm plantations. The New Deal was to bring new reforms, for example, through establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority. By mid 1935, US had achieved considerable amount of economic recovery from the depression. Hoverer, more and more businessmen and bankers were turning against Franklin’s New Deal program. According to Norton and others, the bankers and businessmen feared President Franklin’s political and economic experiments (Norton et al., 2011). In the reforms programs, President Franklin proposed that the Federal Government was to provide adequate social security to its citizens. The wealthy people were to be taxed heavily. Banks and other public utilities were to be put under new controls by the federal government. He further proposed enormous work reliefs for the unemployed. After his re-election in 1936, President Franklin formulated constitution laws that enabled the federal government to legally regulate the economy. In his New Deal proposal, Franklin Roosevelt sought through neutrality legislations that would keep United States of America out of war with Europe. However, when the Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese in 1941, President Franklin redirected all the resources of the nation towards global war with Japan, during the Second World War. During his presidency, America was hit by the worst economic depression ever seen in its history. According to Leuchtenburg, Franklin helped Americans regain hope and faith in themselves during the great depression (20004). Description of the New Deal According to Heale, the New Deal was an inclusive sequence programs that were designed and enacted by US Congress and signed by President Franklin Roosevelt to combat the great depression through ensuring appropriate strategies for improving the social and economic status of the American people (2007). Through the New Deal, American farmers were given the Agricultural Adjustment Act which endowed farmers with funds for agricultural activities. The National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA) was formulated to help in regulation fair competition within the manufacturing and trade industries. Furthermore, the New Deal provided Americans with collective bargaining power. Various state organizations such as the Public Works Administration (PWA), which was mandated to construct public transport infrastructure such as roads and railway lines and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) which provided re-insurance services to banks were created. Similarly, President Franklin created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) which was meant to provide navigation services, generate hydroelectric power as well as controlling flood in the Tennessee River Valley. TVA was also responsible for regional growth and development of the Tennessee River Valley. According to Leuchtenburg, Tennessee River Valley was the poorest region in America during that time and thus President Franklin’s initiative to induce regional development in the area was incredible and of great importance to Tennessee people (2004). In order to curb high rates of unemployment, President Franklin instigated a special work program through the New Deal proposal in which jobless citizens were to perform various tasks to help in conservation and protection of the environment. The program, which was dubbed Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), enabled its members to plant trees, help in draining swamps that would otherwise be bearing sites for malaria causing mosquitoe s, restocking of rivers with fish to increase fish production and other projects that were directed towards environmental conservation. According to Heale, President Franklin’s New Deal brought more benefits to the American people through development projects and programs that were tailored towards creating job opportunities (2007). This greatly helped in alleviating poverty and eradicating the sufferings of the American people after US was hit by the great depression. Leuchtenburg asserts that the New Deal consisted of two phases. The first phase consisted of reform programs that were tailored towards recovery from effects of the great depression by supporting business and agricultural activities (2004). These programs were to help in regulation prices, reducing inflation rates and creation of job opportunities through increased public works. On the other hand, the second phase was to provide legislations for regulating social and economic growth and development. Through such legislations, huge numbers were targeted to benefit from the undertaking of president Franklin initiatives. According to historian Thomas A. Bailey, the New Deal focused on the three R’s of economic growth and development, namely; Relief, Reform and Recovery. He further explain that this three items of the New Deal entailed providing relief to the poor and unemployed citizens of US, recovering the economy for the impacts of the great depression and lastly, reforming the financial sector of the to prevent further economic depression (Norton et al., 2011). Criticism of the New Deal Although the New Deal was warmly received by many Americans, including labor unions, minority groups as well as human rights organizations, it received a variety of harsh criticisms. The major opponents of the New Deal were politicians form the Republican Party. Republicans opposed the New Deal claiming that President Franklin was misusing public funds. They accused the president for unnecessarily increasing public spending. They also claimed that the president was abusing the office of the president by centralizing the power of the executive government within a few people. Bankers, businesspersons and wealthy Americans also accused President Franklin for imposing high taxes on them. They believed that the high taxes were punitive in nature and unnecessary. Rosenbaum and Bartelme suggest that even though President Franklin faced strong opposition against his New Deal, he resolved to revive the American citizens’ trust in him by broadening his plans (2009). For instance, he proposed a legislation that would put off employers from interfering with labor unions. In addition, he introduced the federal pensions as well as unemployment insurances schemes in order to assist those who not employed. Conclusion Even though President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal received great opposition, it founded strong economic and social policies for the American people. Its legislations are still intact and used in the present America. Through the Federal Reserve System, many banks are today stable and hoard less currency. The New Deal imposed new rules and regulations that help wipe out corrupt dealings in the American banking systems. Today, individual deposits are safe and secure due to the rules that were imposed by President Franklin in his New Deal programs. This has been achieved through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Additionally, through the New Deal, President Franklin Roosevelt was able to bring about equality between men and women at the workplace. Initially, women were sidelined in the workplace. However, through a New Deal program dubbed Works Progress Administration, women and men were given equal employment opportunities with the federal government. In my view, this helped in eliminating workplace discrimination against women. Furthermore, it also helped in increasing the total income available for household consumptions, thereby improving the living standards for American families. Previously, it was only men who used to go to work and provide food for their families. However, when the great depression hit the American economy, most people lost their jobs and thus men were not able to adequately provide for their families. Through employment of women, the total income for households was incredibly increased. I would conclude that the New Deal was a great idea for the American people. Through government intervention, President Franklin was able to bring joy to the American citizens.

Eye Tracking in Usability Evaluation

Eye Tracking in Usability Evaluation   In this literature review I have talked about experiments conducted on usability of various interfaces and designs using eye-tracking. The authors of the papers focus on various types of eye movements for usability evaluations like saccades, pupil dilation, fixation, scanpaths etc. Based on these measurements the try to infer the point/area of interest of the users, point on entry, the cognitive load etc. about the user. These conclusions help in understanding the mindset of the users which can be generalised to a larger population within the proximity of time and space and help in making recommendations for better design of the interface. Benefits of eye tracking: Eye tracking has many benefits. Using eye tracking methods for usability evaluation one can track how the users interact with a given interface or environment. They help in measuring the effectiveness of a visual element on the interface. The measurements recorded can give an insight into the users mind while making a decision regrading searching or navigating an interface. This can be done by measuring what users are interested in, what they are ignoring and what is distracting them from their current tasks. They help in figuring out the Area of Interest which I a randomly shaped box that may contain some information or object or potential interest to the user. The quantitative data collected through eye tracking gives a visuals representation usually in the form of heatmaps(hotspots) which help in better understanding the results. Eye tracking equipments used now-a-days like Tobii and SMI are easy to set-up, calibrate and handle. They are unobtrusive and p rovided accurate real-time feedback. The fast passed usability testing of the software development industry, test conducted using eye tracking can of valuable and useful input providing benefits what will help the users. Eye Tracking in Usability Evalusation: A practitioners Guide [1] This paper is a general guideline on the use of eye tracking used for usability evaluation. The author talks about the specialists who conduct the study, the metrics used with the testing, the protocol followed to conduct a test. They also talk about when eye tracking can come in handy as compared to the normal usability test which usually include heuristic evaluation, cognitive walkthrough, checklist, remoter-usability testing, click-tracking etc. The authors talk about the different types of eye movements that are measured like saccades, fixation, pupil dilation, scanpaths etc. These movements provide a log of the visual attention of a user on the interface. It is also interesting to know that the eye tracking gadgets only track the movement of one eye, usually the dominant eye of the beholder. Saccades: rapid eye movements. Fixation: A linger at a point for more than 300ms. Scanpath: established by the sequence of saccades and fixations. Most of the studies conducted analyzed the fixation pattern. Which can be realized through heatmaps. Red indicates the highest level of fixation followed by green yellow. The areas which are not colored drew no attention. F-Shaped Pattern for reading web content[4] The author says that a eye tracking study was conducted on 232 users on their reading behaviour on webpages. They found a governing F shaped pattern which was undeviating among most of the users. The participants of the experiment were fond to first adhere a long horizontal gaze across the screen, followed by a short horizontal gaze on the area below and finally giving a quick vertical scan of the content of the webpage. Occasionally there were a few cases of an E and an L shaped pattern but mostly F was dominant with variation in the placement of the horizontal bars. These patterns suggest hat usres dont read the text on a website line by line. They like to give a scan to see if any of the content available if of interest or not. Such reading patterns suggest that first paragraph should contain important and catchy information. While scanning vertically users generally users generally read the first two words of the text. Visual Hierarchy and Viewing Behaviour: An eye tracking study[2] The authors of this paper aim to suggest effective improvements in the design of a web page to attract more users and to disperse important information in an effective manner. For this purpose, they have analyzed the gazing patterns of users. The author have tried to decipher the reason behind the F shape viewing pattern by most users which could be due to the arrangements of element on the interface or the task at hand. To test this they used 4 prototypes of a webpage with each having a different visual hierarchy. The prototypes differed in the form of being well structed or not and 2 had images of people and 2 did not. 48 participants were used for the study which were from different field of the industry and each one was given either a searching task or a browsing task on one of the 4 prototypes. Fixation patterns using heatmaps was used to analyze the data. It was found that users fixate more on the part of the page which is above the fold. The F shaped pattern was not apparent w ith any of the conditions as the website was more visually complex as compared to a text based simple website. The well structured and organized pages drew more attention. During searching users tend to gaze in a scattered manner with more focus on the left side of the page where the navigation links are usually located. Browsing is less scattered with few fixations time and is usually defined within the center of the interface. Faces drew more attention only when they were placed above the fold of the page and during browsing. They concluded that these insights into a users viewing pattern can help make better designs for different type of websites to attract users. No subjective ratings were used to access users comfort while dealing with the different types of interfaces. Efficiency Trust and visual appeal: Usability testing through eye tracking[5] The authors conducted a research on the efficiency, trust and visual appeal of a website and made recommendations on what kind of an interface would attract more customers to an e-commerce website and what type of user experience would make a first-time visitor a customer. The author believed that an element of social presence will give a more satisfying experience while navigating an automated website which lack humane warmth. This accompanied with a aesthetically pleasing interface will make the users trust the website more. To test this the authors came up with a set of tasks for the users and two hypothesis which were related to images of people on a website and the visual appeal of a website. 522 users were recruited for an online study and each of them were provided with a different prototype of a website. Users were asked the visual appeal and the level of trust on the website using seven point Likert scales. After performing p on the online study, authors concluded that websi tes with images of people are more visually appealing and in turn elicit a higher level of trust. It was fond that the users conduct the search from left to right. The online study was followed by an eye tracking experiment to confirm the results of the online study. They used a count heat map and a fixation heatmap. 40 were recruited for the eye tracking experiment. The experiment confirmed that images of faces are more helpful in drawing attention. Gender Preferences in Web Design: Usability Testing through Eye tracking[6] The authors of this papers tried to investigate the visual predilections of male and female users. They have tried to detect he noticeability of bricklets(small box containing useful information) based on their background colour images by male and female users. Since men and woman have different notion of attractiveness, an hypothesis was made on the noticeability of the different prototypes of the bricklets. Men have a tendency to like dark colors and women have a tendency to like light color. 36 participants were chosen for the study out of which 17 were male and 19 were female. 4 type of bricklets were designed with dark and light background color and with and without images. Tasks were designed in such a way so that the users were tested on their ability to detect certain kind of bricklets. It was found that both male and female fixate less on images and more on the bricklets without images. Female users were attracted more towards the darker background bricklets and male users w ere not biased towards a specific colour. The study concluded that what users find appealing is not necessary noticeable this was supported by the discrepancy in self report survey and the fixation duration on the bricklets by the users. Generation Y and Web Design: Usability through Eye tracking[7] The aim of the authors of this paper is to come up for better design recommendation for retail web sites to attract the millennial generation also knows as generation Y. This generation poses the strongest internet skills and spend around $200 a year on online retail. An hypothesis is made that Generation Y like large images preferably of celebrities and with search features and as little text as possible. Top 50 retail pages were selected. These pages were ranked on the characteristics posed by them based on the predilections of generation Y. A self report study and an eye tracking study was conducted to compare both the results. 99 participants were selected who possessed strong internet skills for the self report study. 9 participants were selected for the eye tracking experiment. The survey and the data provided by the eye tracking device supported the hypothesis made. Eye tracking in Web Search Tasks: Design Implications [3] The authors of this paper conducted an eye tracking usability testing for a web portal application which was developed by Oracle portal software. Seven users were selected to complete six tasks for the study. The users came across 15 screens while completing their tasks and had to spend around 360 seconds to complete one task. The authors recorded the key presses and mouse clicks on the interface and eye movements like saccades and fixations and the dwell time on the Area of Interest were diligently recorded. Every task started with a set of scenario and required the user to perform them based on his understanding. The results in this study were not in the form heatmaps but rather in the form of screen bitmap files, fixation file and object file. These files were amalgamated to perform data analysis. The study was performed in a very systematic way. The authors studied the eye movements of the users at the task level then at the screen level and then finally at the object level with the focus on Area of Interest. In-depth study was conducted regarding screen visits and distribution. The authors analyzed the pattern for navigating within and between portlets and concluded that there is an inclination for the users to notice the portlets on the left and the upper part of the screen in view. The authors tried to discover a relationship between user action, scene sequence and the data derived from the eye movement. Age-related Differences in Eye Tracking and Usability Performance: Website usability for Older Adults [8]. The authors of this paper conducted usability study of websites through eye tracking to make design recommendations which keep in mind the needs and ease of usability and navigation of older adults. 5 websites were used for the experiment. And a comparison was made on how you and old people interact with the environment. Around 3-7 young adults and 2-3 older adults were recruited. All of them a possessed a working knowledge about using the internet. The participants were given predefined tasks and their fixations were recorded using the unobtrusive eye tracking device. The participants also filled out a questionnaire to report their satisfaction level. It was found that older adults focus more on the center portion of the screen and ignore the information located on the peripheral areas. Cluttered periphery results in performance hindrance for the old users. The ignorance of the edge of the screen can be related to the cognitive decline encountered due to growing age. Older adults we re less accurate and efficient as compared to younger adults. Older adults who are ususally unfamiliar with the environment get easily distracted by unnecessary elements. Seven users are very less as compared to the recommendation of 10-30 participants made by [1]. There were often stements made by the authors that there is presently too little evidence to support the notion [3] suggesting that clearly 7 participants for the experiment was not enough and the results produced can be a threat to external validity. [1] also suggest to recruit 20% more participants in case there are problems with calibiratio of the equipment with the users. [2] used 48 users from different fields of the industry sector age not mentioned. 40 people in [5]. [6] 99 participants were recruited. [8] small number of users. Limits on generalizations made. Users were tested for their visual acuity The users were made to sign demographic, consent and disclosure forms. The authors conducted initial training tasks They used a head mounted system. Although these systems are good for tasks which may require a lot of head or body movement, they are obtrusive. They obstruct a certain portion of the of the field of view of the user and can interrupt a user in hi cognitive process or task at hand as he is constantly reminded of a apparatus being setup on his head. Since this experiment was conducted in 2002 the eye tracking instruments used that time were not technologically that advanced. Therefore, a lot of time and effort went into analyzing the data. Tape recorders were used to capture users comments and a video recorder was also used for in depth analysis. While conducting the experiment it was found that one of the users took very less time to complete the task as compared to others. The authors concluded that users learned about the interface while performing the tasks. But since one of the users showed less reaction to time to the given task at hand the inference suffers from a threat to internal validity because he possessed previous knowledge about similar interface. Threats to generalizibilty as an intrusive setup was used. Dis advantages: tedious, requires extensive data reduction, focus on micro-level behaviours, too much noise in the data. Lots of work required to narrow down on the data that is needed Eye tracking study is usually conducted where results of traditional software usability results are compared with that of the results from the eye tracking derived results. The traditional usability tests are usually done using five point Likert scale. In many experiments authors have concluded that users are inclined towards noticing the upper left side of the interface. It maybe possible that users in these experiments are used to languages that goes left to right and hence are natural disposed to look at the upper left side of the screen. If there experiments were conducted on a subset of population that are used to languages that go from right to left then there could have been different results. Most of the papers have conclude that users tend to ignore important information what is located at the bottom of the page which if below the fold. It could be father investigated that is that information is accompanied with an image of a person then would it attract users or not. While investigating the usability of an interface mostly two types of tasks were used: browsing and searching. This is because it the viewing behaviours of the users change depending on their task. In searching the users try to find a point of entry into a page and then from their he scans the near the point of entry for relevant information. In the heatmap the areas that are red could be the point of entry for those elements of the interface and the yellow and green areas in the heatmap are the surrounding locations where the users try to locate relevant information. Since the search process is majorly influenced by the factors such as, images, color and text. Designers can make use of these factors to guide the searching process of the users A trend was found that larger images attracts more attention as compared to smaller images. This can be used to attract user attention towards information that need immediate attention. Studies suggest that images of people tend to attract more attention. For [2] more prototypes of the web pages could have be formulated and compared to see if that was really true. Heat maps are created using data from several participants and are used to analyze the pattern of fixation on an area on the interface. The findings in [2] are in contrast with the one in [4] where the author has concluded on a dominant F shaped pattern. It can be absorbed what for a text based website with a simple visual hierarchy an F shaped pattern of viewing is more visible but for websites that have a complex visual hierarchy the viewing pattern in more scattered although focusing a lot on the left side if the interface which again is dominated by the users reading style form left to right. Different results will most certainly be produced with users who are habitual in reading from right to left. In general websites with good visual appeal and easy navigation elicit trust worthiness and are major contributing factors towards an enhanced user experience. [5] says that when since images attract attention, can be used to draw users attention to important information below the fold of a page. But the author of [2] contradicts this by saying that even though images of human faces were placed below they fold they attracted very little attention. [5] says that there is no effect of the gender of the image of the face on the website but in [?] notice a lot re spots on the heat map over the images of a female. Also, further studies can be conducted to see male images are more appealing than female image and which gender of the images attract the male users and which gender of the images attract the female users. The analysis of the heat maps performed by [5] was more structured as they used a standardized heatmap. Such a map puts a limit on the number of fixations to be considered as a red zone across different prototypes. Although in [5] the authors conclude that users trust level can be enhanced by the increasing visual appeal it should be noted that visual appeal is not all that matters, functionality of a website also plays a major role. the authors of [5] said that users are attracted toward the area where the images of faces were located but little fixation on the images. This is opposed by [?] where the authors have concluded that generation Y is then to fixate on the images of faces more. Then again the age difference between the participants in [5] was spread out therefore the two papers made contradictory statements. Also, since [5] is making recommendations for a e-commerce website which is mostly used by generation Y they could have narrowed down the are limit of the participants of the experiment. Papers [5] and [2] concluded that images of faces attract more attention but it maybe possible that images of different genre may be more effective. These images when paired with a lowers aesthetic quality webpage may not attract any attention at all. Keeping the ethical issues in mind [],[], and [] did not made the users sign Informed consent form and no information is provided if the participants were briefed or not. [7] suggest that generation Y is more attracted towards images of celebrities. But the study may fail external validity as it has not considered the population of the people who are not familiar with those celebrities. To extend this study a search task could have been given to the users to gain a more indepth understang of likes and dislikes of generation as done ny authorss in [2] and [3]. [7] conducted a research on generation Y but we know that baby boomers are constitute major part of the population that uses the internet. Results form [2], [7] and [5] can be combined to make recommendations for designs that would attract more users and increase user satisfaction. These designs would generally contain more images of faces, important information will be located on top left corner of the screen. To draw attention towards the part of the page below the fold images of celebrities can be used in an effective manner. Most studies concluded that users tend to focus on the left side of the interface but the studies conducted in[8] concluded that older adults ignore the left navigation area. This suggests that younger users who are more familiar with the interface know where to look at for navigation but this lack of knowledge and experience hinder the performance of an older adult. To help out the tease out the age effect designers can do a dual placement where navigation information can be placed in the center and the peripherals of the screen. All the eye tracking studies performed were under a laboratory condition. Here the users are asked to perform task in which they might be interested. These results maybe different in a real world situation when users are performing tasks of their own interest and are aware that the are not being monitored.

Study on Competency Model of an effective teacher

Study on Competency Model of an effective teacher The paper builds on comprehensive review of 13 research papers and a book on teachers competencies on basis of which a Competency Model of an effective teacher has been suggested that can be used during recruitment, training, and performance appraisal and also can be used as a mean for compensation of a teacher. Competencies of an Effective teacher Model has been categorized into three categories as shown in the above diagram which are as follows: Concern for College, Concern for Self and Concern for Students. Therefore, this paper produces data on what attributes in todays academic market place and in particular in classroom produces effective teachers. INTRODUCTION: Education has become essential these days. But along with it there are several challenges of education as well which require change in the quality and structure of education. For this integration of education with corporate sector is required for which course contents needs to be upgraded. But this is not sufficient as teachers are the education providers they play a vital role in bridging the gap between what is now available in the form of curriculum and the demands of the corporate world. Hence teachers should therefore react to the changing scenario and equip themselves to meet the need of the hour. Hence this paper identifies competencies (behavioural indicators) required for an effective teaching according to the changing scenario. Therefore, this paper produces data on what attributes in todays academic market place and in particular in classroom produces effective teachers. The theory being, the more effective the teacher the better prepared the student is for tomorrows challenges, not yesterdays and the more competitive the school can make itself. The paper will first review the literature highlighting competencies [behavioral indicators] of effective teacher given by other researchers. First it is important to understand the word competency. A competency is an underlying characteristic of an individual that is causally related to criterion-referenced effective and/or superior performance in a job or situation [1] Underlying characteristic means the competency is a fairly deep and enduring part of persons personality and can predict behavior. Causally related means that a competency causes or predicts behavior and performance. Criterion-referenced means that the competency actually predicts who does something well or poor, as measured on a specific criterion or standard. The history of competency can be traced to the early 1970s when industrial psychologists and human resource managers were seeking ways to predict job performance. There was significant evidence to show that personality testing was very poor at predicting job performance (about 10 percent success rate was achievable). In 1973, David McClelland, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University wrote a seminal paper Testing for Competence Rather than for Intelligence, which appeared in American Psychologist in 1973 [2], that created a stir in the field of psychology (McClelland, 1973). According to his research, traditional academic aptitude and knowledge content tests seldom predict on-job performance. He went on to argue that the real predictors of job performance are a set of underlying personal characteristics or competencies. McClellands concept of competency has been the key driver of the competency movement and competency-based education. LITERATURE REVIEW Attempts to define teacher behaviors have blossomed into a movement known as Competency-based teacher education (or Performance based Teacher Education). The State of Florida has been a leader in identification of generic teaching competencies and in the movement of competency-based teacher education. In 1975 the Council on Teacher Education (COTE), spearheaded a project to identify those competencies which are most essential to all teachers. 48 generic competencies consistently appeared in the search was selected for a final survey instrument. A random sample of 5 percent of all certified personnel in the state were asked to rate the competencies. 23 competencies met the specified acceptance criteria. The 23 generic competencies were grouped into 5 major categories namely communication skills, basic knowledge, technical skills, administrative skills and interpersonal skills. The state of Florida has included the 23 generic competencies in state policies requiring all personnel to de monstrate them in order to be certified as a teacher in the state [3]. A few of the sub-skills under each of the five major categories are as follows: Communication Skills, Basic Knowledge, Technical Skills, Administrative Skills and Interpersonal Skills. Peter F Oliva [3] has described an effective teacher as one whom: Is fully prepared in his or her subject Has a broad general education Understands the role of a school in the society Holds an adequate concept of himself or herself Understands basic principles of learning process Demonstrate effective techniques of instruction Efficiently handles the management of the classroom Possesses personal characteristics conducive to the success in the classroom A similar list has been developed by Kenneth P Henson [3] of an effective teacher as one whom: Is interested in students as individuals Has patience and is willing to repeat Displays fairness Explains things thoroughly Is humorous Is open minded Is informal Does not feel superior Knows the subject Is interested in the subject Is neat in appearance Similarly Dwight Allen and Kevin Ryan [3] have given skills which are generic or common to teachers at all level as follows: Stimulus variation, Set induction, Closure, Silence and Non-Verbal Clues, Reinforcement of Student participation, Fluency in asking question, Probing question, High order question, Divergent question, Recognizing attending behavior, Illustrating and using examples, Lecturing, Planned Repetition, Completeness of communication Teachers Competency has been defined as any particular knowledge, skill, or attitude or any set or combination of them that we may choose to specify (Donald M Medley Patricia R Crock). The knowledge specified may involve subject-matter knowledge, general knowledge, knowledge of psychology, sociology or one of the other disciplines, knowledge of pedagogy-any knowledge that may enhance teacher performance. Skills specified may also relate to content, to writing and speaking skills, to skills in arithmetic, they may be perpetual or diagnostic in nature, they may be performance skills such as those involved in lecturing, leading a discussion or planning instruction, they may be related to deployment of knowledge and skills of other types, or to the integration and implementation of complex strategies. Attitudes specified may pertain to the self, to pupils, to colleagues and to the profession, to values, or whatever [4]. A recent Research in 2008 by Faculty of Education, Adnan Menderes University, Turkey aimed to determine the teachers competencies Turkey needs in the European Union harmonization process [5]. The research used Delphi technique to determine the teachers competencies. Delphi application was completed by participation of 37 experts. As a result of analysis of the third round data removal of items with a standard deviation above 1 and arithmetic average below 6, 142 competency items were obtained. Removal and combination of overlapping opinions was done and hence 137 competency items were obtained. The competencies were divided into four competency categories which are as follows: Competencies Regarding Professional Knowledge Competencies Regarding Field Knowledge, Competencies Regarding Improving Oneself, Competencies Regarding National and International Values. Competencies Regarding Professional Knowledge were addressed in five categories as follows: Professional Competencies Regarding Getting to Know the Students and Enabling Their Improvement Professional Competencies regarding the process of learning-teaching process Professional competencies regarding monitoring and evaluating learning and improvement Professional Competencies regarding School, Family, Colleagues and Society Relations Professional Competencies Regarding the Programme and Content (Abdul Rahim Hamdan et al, Faculty of Education, University of Malaysia) studied the teaching competency and dominant characteristics of 309 teachers from different secondary / primary schools in Johor Bahru [6]. Their competencies were determined through teaching skills, concern for school, concern for students and concern for self, forming a comprehensive and practical model of teachers competency characteristics. Factor analyses of the instrument with various samples revealed 19 stable subscales. Skills Scales were divided into seven sub-scales. There were scales on Subject Knowledge, Teaching Prowess, Classroom Management, Updating Knowledge, Instructional Planning, Teaching Effectiveness; and Teaching and Learnings Progress Evaluation. Concern for School Scales was divided into five sub-skills. There were testing on teachers concern on School Vision and Mission, Objectives and Goals, School Policy and System, Collegiality and Commitment. Scales on Concern for Student were divide d into four sub-scales. There were testing on teachers concern on Student Needs, Academic Performance, Motivation and Behavior. Concern for Self Scales was divided into three sub-scales. There were testing on teachers concern on Self-Development, Self Management and Performance Standard. The most dominant competency of the teachers was in concern for school scales followed by skills, concern for self and concern for students. The result showed that there is significant relationship between gender and teaching competency. The result for the ethnic and teaching competency showed that there is no relationship between ethnic and teaching competency in this study. The data analysis showed that there is no relationship between teaching experience and teaching competency. The result also showed that there is no significant relationship between academic qualification and teaching competency. Thus, it can be summarized that, teachers with higher academic qualification does not mean more comp etent in teaching. (Naree Aware Achwarin, R.N., Ed.D., Graduate School of Education, Assumption University of Thailand) aimed to determine the teacher competence level and investigate the relationship between teacher qualification, teaching experience, and school size and teacher competence of teachers at schools in the three southern border provinces of Thailand [7]. The method of survey research was used through questionnaire. The unit of analysis was teachers, 750 were selected by simple random sampling methods from nine educational regions, 18 secondary schools, under the Basic Education Commission of Thailand (OBEC) at Narathiwas, Pattani, and Yala province. The instrument used for collecting data was a questionnaire, constructed by the researcher, employing the professional standards of knowledge and experience from the Teacher Council of Thailand (2005) containing nine competence areas. The Cronbachs Alpha coefficient for the reliability was 0.96. The content validity was evaluated by five exper ts in the field of Educational Administration. The findings revealed Teachership was the highest teacher competence. In order from the highest to the lowest of nine competence areas, the ranking was teachership; psychology for teachers; educational measurement and evaluation; classroom management; learning management; educational innovation and information technology, language and technology for teachers; curriculum development; and educational research. (Earl Simendinger Bella Galperin, The University of Tampa Daniel R. LeClair, AACSB International A.G. (Tassos) Malliaris, Loyola University) described the design, development and delivery of this curriculum [8]. The objective and what the reader can expect to learn from this work is what are the most important attributes of effective business teachers. Incorporating these attributes into course design and delivery should lead to improvements in teaching effectiveness and students evaluation scores, which results in students better prepared for the business field. In addition to it, reviewing the past literature in particular, student evaluations have received the most attention- this statement shows the gap that competencies derived about the teachers were basically based on student perception not on the basis of management, professor and industry professions. (Kirk Tennant Charles Lawrence, 1975) focused upon teaching strategies and scheduled class hours and their effects upon instructor and course evaluations, student performance, and student absenteeism [9]. The study indicated that discipline teaching strategy produced much better student academic performance. This study indicates that in those situations in which student performance was considered a primary goal, a discipline teaching strategy should be adopted. In all cases the finding suggest that a discipline teaching strategy will improve both attendance and performance. In this multisection course, classes scheduled at good hours had higher student attendance, better student performance, and more favorable teacher evaluation by students. (William J. Read, Dasaratha V. Rama K. Raghunandan, 2001) surveyed administrators of accounting programs from a cross-section of schools and programs to determine whether there is an association between the weight given to teaching and the weight assigned to SEs [10]. The respondents were asked to allocate 100 points among research, service and teaching representing the weights that were attached to each in decision on tenure and promotion to full professor in their institution. The Result showed a statistically significant inverse relationship between the weight given to SEs and the weight assigned to teaching in faculty evaluations for tenure and promotion to full professor. This suggests that as institutions increase the relative emphasis on teaching in their tenure decision and promotion to full professor decision, they place significantly less weight on Student Evaluation. (Stephen A. Stumpf et al, New York University) investigated the relationships among several variables outside of the instructors classroom control and student ratings of teaching effectiveness are investigated in a causal network [11]. The student ratings are relatively independent of external variables. Variables external to the construct of student perceived learning include: (a) variables that students do not agree relate to their learning, (b) variables that the instructor cannot control with his or her instructional efforts within a class (e.g., instructor sex, class size), and (c) variables that students cannot observe and thus cannot accurately evaluate. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed; the six independent variables account for a statistically insignificant 9% of rating variance. The set of six external variables were then entered into a regression equation already containing the three intrinsic variables (instructor in class, instructor in general an d graded assignments). The additional variance accounted for is .6%, indicating that no unique contribution is made by any or all of the external variables. The variables were instructor sex, the year the instructor received her/his last degree, instructor rank, proportion of required courses that an instructor taught over the two semester period and class size. (Dr Paul Isely Dr Harinder Singh) analyzed different factors that influence student evaluations, based on large set of data, reveals that class size, the difficulty of the class, the percentage of students responding, and the length of class are important determinants of students perception [12]. Moreover, although higher expected grades results in more favorable student evaluations, this relationship is significantly different depending upon faculty rank. Based on these findings, the author makes two policy recommendations. First, student evaluations of teaching should be adjusted for specific major determinants to obtain less biased estimates. Second, evaluating teaching effectiveness by a broad teaching portfolio that includes actual grades given to students and other teaching supplements may discourage faculty from exploiting the relationship between higher expected grades and favorable student evaluations. (James E. Whitworth, et al, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia) analyzed 12,153 student faculty evaluations to investigate the effects of: (a) Faculty member gender (b) Course type (required business core courses, classes within designated majors, or graduate classes) (c) Course level (graduate versus undergraduate classes) on student faculty evaluations [13]. The authors explored the effect of these three factors on students perceptions of how much they learned in particular classes. They found that female instructors rated better than male ones and that rating differed significantly by course type and by students perceived amount of learning. Graduate students tended to give higher scores than undergraduates. These findings could indicate that comparing evaluation data across different courses might not produce valid overall effectiveness rankings. (Richard L. Peterson et al, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ)conducted a study within a large department of a business school and recommends that the process used be adapted by other business school departments and other academic units across the university and at other universities to ensure a more universally appropriate usage of students ratings [14]. The central objective of the research was to identify variables that provide a valid rationale for assigning faculty into norming groups for the purpose of comparing one member of that group to all other members of that group. Given the objective and the data set they had available, they selected the following six variables to explore: Semester Effect, Course Session Effect, Faculty Type Effect, Course Level Effect, Course Focus Effect Course Type. Overall, this study makes two primary contributions to the literature. First, it provides an empirical examination of the factors that might be influencing students ratings. Seco nd, it offers suggestions on how these ratings might be used by administrators. These two contributions offer more evidence that supports Brightmans (2005) recommendations that any evaluation instrument focused on faculty teaching must be reliable and valid and have a meaningful norming report. COMPETENCY MODEL OF AN EFFECTIVE TEACHER A Competency Model of an Effective Teacher has been obtained after reviewing the literature and also by using Competency Dictionary obtained by colleagues of Richard Boyatzis in 1981 which was obtained by analyzing the data [i.e transcripts of behavioral event interviews] from a number of competency studies which produced set of competencies that consistently distinguished superior performance across organizations and functions [1] COMPETENCY MODEL OF EFFECTIVE TEACHER Concern for Self Concern for College Competencies of an Effective Teacher Concern for Students Figure 1: Competency Model of an Effective Teacher Competencies of an Effective teacher can be categorized into three categories as shown in the above diagram which are as follows: Concern for College, Concern for Self and Concern for Students. As teacher has duty towards for College it is defined as the first category where teachers competencies are adoption of College Vision and Mission, teacher should be committed towards his/her work, a teacher should be high on competencies like credibility, integrity and sincerity. Next comes the category Concern for Self which is very important as teacher always carry these competencies such as teacher should be high on analytical thinking, conceptual thinking, also have good meta qualities such as creativity, teacher should have excellent communication skills, should always be information seeking, should have self-control, self-confidence, be flexible, achievement oriented, open and receptive and most important is that teacher should be able to balance work and his/her life perfectly. Coming to Concern for Students teacher should have competencies like interpersonal understanding, should be able to influence others, should be good in developing others and should be assertive when required. The three categories have been diagrammatically represented below: The broad areas of Competencies under this category are: Organizational Awareness, Adaption Commitment Concern For Order, Quality And Accuracy The competencies can be as follows: Mission Orientation, Commitment to work contract, Ethical conduct and Credibility, integrity and sincerity Concern for College Figure2: Concern for College Competencies The broad areas of Competencies under this category are: Analytical Thinking Conceptual Thinking Meta Qualities Communication Knowledge and Information Orientation Self-Control Persistence Flexibility Achievement and Action Being open and receptive Being organized Work Life Balance The competencies can be as follows: Reasoning, Ability to Generate Theories, Creativity, Presentation skills, Resistance to Stress, Persistence, Strong Self-Concept, Adaptability, Result Orientation, Composure, Humor, Time Management, Work/Life Balance Concern for Self Figure 3: Concern for Self Competencies The broad areas of Competencies under this category are: Interpersonal Understanding Impact and Influence Developing Others Being Directive The competencies can be as follows: Empathy, Approachability, Sensitivity to Others, Interpersonal Savvy, Showmanship, Teaching and Training, Realistic Positive Regard, Motivating others, Classroom Control and Discipline, Assertive Concern for Students Figure 4: Concern for Students Competencies USE OF COMPETENCY MODEL: This Competency Model can be used for identifying policies for teacher training, Pre-service teacher training programs of institutions of higher education for teacher training, In-service training of teachers, Professional Development of Teachers, Selection of teachers, Evaluation of teacher performances, Self-knowledge and self-development of teachers.