Integrating Internet-based mathematical manipulatives within Essay Example for Free

Integrating Internet-based mathematical manipulatives within Essay Integrating Internet-based Mathematical Manipulatives Within a Learning Environment The article explores the development, use and importance of digital manipulatives in a mathematics classroom. These manipulatives are believed to be more versatile, economic and efficient than either the manufactured or teacher-created concrete objects traditionally used in the classroom. Manipulatives have been used from time immemorial and have provided tangible mental picture of abstract mathematical concepts. The digitalization of these manipulatives is an important progress in this process. However, the presumption that the article makes about the efficacy of manipulatives in teaching children along with the supposed teaching potential of the manipulatives is doubtful and smells of commercial publicity. There are several advantages that manipulatives are purported to provide. They concretize theoretical ideas, make the study concrete, build confidence in the learner, help solve problems and make the learning experience interesting. What the paper presupposes is that only the using of digital manipulatives is sufficient to bring each of these advantages. This is not supported by evidence. Let us consider the claim that manipulatives build confidence, if a section of the students is less familiar with web based technology than other students in the class, they are likely to lose confidence-using manipulatives. This may adversely affect their learning of math concepts and unnecessarily handicap them. The paper places some conditions that must be fulfilled to realize the full potential of manipulatives. For instance the parents must experience the system, manipulatives should be used for writing assignment, teacher pronounces the benefits to the students, ground rules are established and students are encouraged to explore more material on the web. If manipulatives are used as prescribed they can improve the understanding of more complex and more advanced math theories. These conditions are impractical. What happens if the parents are unfamiliar with the web? Does it put their children at a disadvantage? A teacher pronounces the benefits of manipulatives to children. This is a straw man. If a teacher uses manipulatives she automatically supports the method, there is no need to sermonize it. A child being encouraged to explore more material on the web is an issue that is not related directly to manipulatives. This opens up a host of debatable issues including the exposure of children to unsuitable material. Digital manipulatives can be downloaded and installed on school computers or distributed to children on CDs to be viewed in their homes. The issue of encouraging children to explore the web is not directly related to manipulatives. Further there is no teacher to guide the children in case of glitches. See what the instructions of a manipulative say. (Public Broadcasting Service, 2006). Familiarize yourself with the rules of this fraction game and have fun creating flag designs with the designated fractions. You can choose to paint by half, quarters, and combinations of quarters and halves and then the program will pick colors for you to paint your design by clicking in the flag. One drawback is that there is no help provided if the fraction portions are incorrect, you can only advance if you have painted to correct fractions. A research that comprised of a survey tested the proficiency development potential of manipulatives in math teaching. The basics tested in the survey were motivation, unique instructional capabilities, and support for new instructional approaches, increased teacher productivity and skills for an information age. Eleven teachers were surveyed using a five-point scale. The results were mixed. The results showed that the teachers felt that the use of digital manipulatives had a high positive impact on motivation, that the digital manipulatives had exceptional instructional capabilities, that the web based manipulatives supported new instructional approaches and that the web based manipulatives provided excellent training for an information age. What the teachers did not agree was that the web-based technology increased their productivity. In addition, the teacher showed apprehension about some issues like their inability to track the progress of the student, tricky web sites, ambiguous instructions and lack of direct feedback. This research is not valid. It does not clarify which constructs it attempts to measure. It does not give the process by which it selected the five variables. In addition, the sample size of eleven teachers is too small to reach any meaningful conclusion. Again, the study does not mention basis or the criteria for the selection of the eleven teachers. The study does not give us the details of how the survey scale was constructed. Was there a pilot test? It seems not. The direct conclusion of the research was that virtual manipulatives encouraged student-oriented erudition. The study assumed that the responses of the 11 teachers were indicative of the affect of the digital manipulatives on children. This is questionable. The background of the teachers is not given. Which type of schools they taught in? What physical manipulatives were the teachers using currently? The teachers were ambivalent as to whether digital manipulatives were better than concrete manipulatives and whether teachers were willing to replace concrete manipulatives entirely with digital manipulatives. The teachers have expressed reservations about their inability to track the progress of the student, ambiguous instructions and lack of feedback. If these concerns are addressed satisfactorily it is doubtful if digital manipulatives will remain student centric. In addition, the paper does not define what it means by ‘student centric’. Currently the digital manipulatives that are available on the net offer innovative, interesting and concrete learning opportunities of otherwise nonrepresentational math theories. The end result is that children manage to learn math concepts that were earlier believed to be too advanced for them. These are believed to increase theoretical learning, deeper understanding of dynamic systems, calculation, communication and innovation in thinking. The paper presupposes that the use of the new technology alone is sufficient for enhanced learning of complicated theories. This is not supported by evidence. The learning experience is a function of the power of understanding of the student, the effort he puts in to comprehend and his analytical skills. In addition, learning is facilitated by teacher inputs and guidance. Digital manipulatives cannot replace teacher inputs nor can they substitute student aptitude and effort. Attributing learning achievements to a learning tool is a lopsided opinion inspired by the sales propaganda of digital manipulatives software developers. In sum, the paper eulogizes the benefits of web-based manipulatives for math learning. These manipulatives are claimed to increase children’s understanding of advanced theories and increase the attractiveness of these theories. These web-based manipulatives are declared to focus on the learner and make an optimal use of web-based technology for visualizing intangible concepts. References: Public Broadcasting Service (2006). PBS Teacher Source: Fraction Flags. Retrieved from http://www. pbs. org/teachersource/recommended/math/lk_onlinegames. shtm on August 19, 2006.

The Maturation of Siddhartha :: Hesse Siddhartha Essays

The Maturation of Siddhartha Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse is the story of a young Indian noble who ventures off in the world to find an understanding of the meaning of life. His journey begins as a young Brahmin who yearned to unwind the complexities of his existence. He ends as an old sage who has found peace within himself and his surroundings. Throughout the book, Hesse allows the reader to trace Siddhartha's maturation process both through his experiences, and people with whom he comes in contact. During his journey, he makes a number of choices, "turns", that put him on a path of his maturation which is marked by self discovery and independence. Siddhartha's maturation is developed by three key events: his meeting with Buddha, his attempted suicide, and the arrival/departure of his son, as they all contribute to his self discovery and individuality. Siddhartha's meeting with Gautama, the Buddha, is the first key experience that contributes to his maturation process. After several years of living the ascetic life of a Samana, Siddhartha decides to seek out Gautama, "The Illustrious One," as a possible source of assistance in his journey to find his inner self. After their meeting, however, Siddhartha becomes more convinced that the Buddha's methods satisfy his logical and tangible needs, but will not bring him any closer to realizing his spiritual and metaphysical needs. The theme of maturity presents itself in Siddhartha's conclusion that if he is to achieve an immaterial balance, it must be on his own. He understands that the Buddha had a remarkable experience, but it is a personal one. Siddhartha sees that his development process relies on his forging his own experiences, and his attainment of self realization can only be made by himself, regardless of what knowledge Gautama may impart to him. The second experience that puts Siddhartha on a path to maturity is his attempted suicide. Preceding this incident, Siddhartha made a complete turnaround and decided to explore his worldly needs and lives the life of a lover, merchant, and gambler. As a student of lust under Kamala and money under Kamaswami, the protagonist becomes self centered, greedy, and no longer one who can "think, fast, and write." His time in the village is

Crime Data Comparison Essay

This week in class we were asked to choose two metropolitan areas with different data and write a paper comparing the occurrence of the offense in the selected areas. We were asked to identify the number of occurrences reported to the police for each area, and address the following questions which area had more reported incidents? What were the rates of the crime for each area? Did the rates change over time in either area? What factors might explain the differences in the rates? The information will be presented as it appears above. New York and New Jersey are two metropolitan areas that have had a lot of crime both high profile media grabbing attention and low profile everyday crime occurrences. Therefore these two metro areas can provide for very good demographical crime data as well as have a good base to study from due to the high crime rates in both areas. As such this paper will be comparing forcible rape crime data from both areas to see what is happening in this particular field. So with looking at the FBI.gov web site and looking for info on these two areas and the categories forcible rape it is very clear that this is a very big crime in both areas in new jersey the total for 2011 is 1,006 rape case which the year before in 2010 was at 981 cases which is a 2.5 % increase in this crime. In New York where this crime is a lot higher in totals 2,752 which is 1.6 % less than in 2010’s 2,797 cases. With this data we can see a few things happening here for one we can see that New York has a drop in rap e cases in one year and that New Jersey has increased in this crime, and this could be due to a number of reasons. We know that the two states are almost one in the same and that many people who work in New York live in New Jersey which could mean that these cases could involve residents from both areas and so both would have possibly been reported to. We could speculate that New Jersey has a less severe punishment than New York for rape crime and so the criminals would go to that area to commit the crime due to a less harsh punishment if caught. Another factor on this could be to release times of prisoners within the state that may go to metro areas and commit crimes; this could be a very real factor to consider due to the likely hood of violent criminals repeating their crimes. At any rate not just one factor is the most likely reason as to why we see a drop in New York and an increase in New Jersey. The probability that it has to do with most of if not all stated factors is very real, especially since rape is not a crime that can be predicted nor really deter able unfortunately. And with both metro areas having such high populations it is also possible that many cases were never reported, which is why New York and New Jersey both estimate a total as well as keep records for the actual total. In New York they had an estimate of 2,972 rape case that’s almost three hundred unreported rapes that may have happened. So with knowing that the actual rape cases reported versus the estimated total one could see that even though the statistics are going down and it may look like the crime rate in an area is going down you would still need to see the estimated totals and compare to see what could be unreported and unknown. With the info we have and the estimates on it as well it is clear that although I may appear that New York is getting a handle on its rape crime it may not be as well off as it appears and although New Jersey has had an increase in rape cases it also has lowered its estimate which could be a good sign or bad and unfortunately that is the way crime an statistics go ever changing and adapting. References Uniform Crime Report. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table-4

Notes On Supply Chain Management - 1469 Words

Contents Introduction 2 Supply Chain Management: 2 RFDI- Radio Frequency Identification 3 Types of RFID’s 4 History 4 Barcodes RFID 5 Supply Chain RFID 6 Applications of RFID’s 6 Barriers in adoption of RFID’s 7 Future innovative uses 8 Conclusion Way forward 8 Bibliography 9 RFID: An overview from SCM perspective Introduction With exponentially increasing globalization, industries are facing huge challenges in terms of supply chain management. Everything has to be connected to each other and proper information has to be available to take cost saving decisions. Industries right from retail to manufacturing plants to pharmaceutical sectors to animal habitats to defence industry, what not!!! Every industry needs†¦show more content†¦Decisions based solely on sales data without understanding the real time inventory levels and taking supply chain decisions. 3. Level of communications about products is key determinant of success of any supply chain. 4. Proper review of lead times burst capacity, standard capacity quick turnaround capabilities with their suppliers to ensure suppliers capabilities. 5. Involvement of many companies makes supply chain management very complex. Proper care has to be taken to deal with all the parties involved because failure to implement the same is visible to all trading partners. The complex process can be understood from following picture: RFDI- Radio Frequency Identification To deal with problems posed by supply chain issues, exceptional technologies are needed. One such technology is RFID which is an acronym of Radio Frequency Identification. RFID technology is a means of gathering data about a certain item and doesn’t need to see or touch the data reader. It uses the inductive coupling or electromagnetic waves. This technology has unlimited possibilities for connected devices around us right from goods, animals, gates, containers, machines even human are tagged through RFID’s. (ILIE-ZUDOR, 2006) Types of RFID’s Various types of RFID’s- 1. Passive RFID’s: No battery and internal power supply system, small, light, stores very small amount of data, the cheapest form of RFID, read only, writes only