Models of Criminal Justice System in England and Wales Essay

Models of Criminal Justice System in England and Wales - Essay Example These delegate the Police with the responsibility of the control of crime (Lea 2002, pp.32,67); the Prison Service, to run prisons; the Probation Service with the role of rehabilitation; the Crown Prosecution Service, for bringing action against those suspected of committing a crime; the Magistrates' Courts and the Crown Court with the responsibility of dealing with the trial of suspected criminals; the Court of Appeals for the final conviction of the perceived criminal; the Prison Service, for running prisons; the Serious Fraud Office for the investigation of frauds and other similar offences that affect trade the corporate world (Davies, Croall & Tyrer, 1995, pp.274, 342, 121, 152, 156, 274, 133). A new CJS agency in England and Wales took effect in 2001. The new Criminal Defence Service was established by the Access to Justice Act of 1999 which also established a Legal Services Commission which supervises this new agency (Wheeler 2006,p.165). This provides state-employed defence counsel that serves as lawyer to indigent defendants (Hirschel et al 2007,p.176). The CJS in England and Wales is essentially rooted in three principles. The first is that an accused is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty by proof beyond reasonable doubt. The second is that the criminal justice system is basically adversarial in nature i.e. that the accused is aided in his defence by a counsel while a prosecutor tries to prove that he is guilty and both parties face each other in court as adversaries (Davies, Croall & Tyrer 1995, p.193). The third principle states that there is criminal liability only when there exists in the actor

Recent Development in the Thoery of Rules versus Dicretions Essay

Recent Development in the Thoery of Rules versus Dicretions - Essay Example In this respect, this essay will assess the rationale in the Barro-Gordon Model of rules versus discretion to illustrate the relationship between monetary policies and inflation in achieving economic outcomes. Monetary policies play a crucial role in achieving certain outcomes – low unemployment, high money supply, or low inflation – in the economy. Achieving these outcomes, however, depends on the existing conditions surrounding the economic environment, which is also affected both by an individual’s expectations on future policies and economic conditions and the manner that these expectations are formed (Barro 1984: 1-2). The weight given to individual expectations, in this regard, highlights the monetary rules versus discretion debate under monetary economics such that as illustrated by the Barro-Gordon Model, an individuals’ expectations regarding future policies can either offset the effects of inflation under discretionary policies or achieve the zero inflation outcome through rules (Barro and Gordon 1983). Contrary to the traditional debate between rules and discretion focused on a policymaker’s capabilities and objectives; the Barro-Gordon Model is based on Kydland and Prescott’s work that identifies rules as a form of commitment similar to public policies and business dealings (Barro 1984: 1). In this respect, a monetary policy will only be as effective as the government’s reputation and its credibility in making a commitment to a policy because assuming that individuals are rational, they will always act in manner that predicts government behaviour and compensate for any losses that they believe will come from it. Hence, under monetary policies, where the output is always a consequent rise or fall in inflation, assuming that inflation is high and individuals are rational, these individuals will always expect a higher inflation rate and immediately adjust to these high rates, eliminating the

VDEC Based Data Extraction and Clustering Approach

VDEC Based Data Extraction and Clustering Approach This chapter describes in details the proposed VDEC Approach. It discusses the two phases of the VDEC process for Data Extraction and clustering. Experimental performance evaluation results are shown in the last section in comparing the GDS and SDS datasets. INTRODUCTION Extracting data records on the response pages returned from web databases or search engines is a challenge posed in information retrieval. Traditional web crawlers focus only on the surface web while the deep web keeps expanding behind the scene. Vision based data extraction provides a solution to extract information from dynamic web pages through page segmentation for creating a data region and data record and item extraction. A vision based web information extraction systems become more complex and time-consuming. Detection of data region is a significant problem for information extraction from the web page. This chapter discusses an approach to vision-based deep web data extraction and web document clustering. The proposed approach comprises of two phases, (1) Vision-based web data extraction, and (2) web document clustering. In phase 1, the web page information is segmented into various chunks. From which, surplus noise and duplicate chunks are removed using three parameters, such as hyperlink percentage, noise score and cosine similarity. Finally, the extracted keywords are subjected to web document clustering using Fuzzy c-means clustering (FCM). VDEC APPROACH VDEC approach is designed to extract visual data automatically from deep web pages as shown in the block diagram in figure 5.1. Figure 5.1 – VDEC Approach Block diagram In most of web pages, there will be more than one data object tied together in data region, makes difficult to search attributes for each page. Unprocessed source of web page for representing the objects is non-contiguous one, the problem becomes more complicated. In existent applications, the users necessitate from complex web pages is the description of individual data object derived from the partitioning of the data region. VDEC achieve the data capturing from the deep web pages using two phases as discussed in the following sections. Phase-1 Vision Based Web Data Extraction In Phase-1 VDEC approach performs data extraction and a measure is introduced to evaluate the importance of each leaf chunk in the tree, which in turn helps us to eliminate noise in a deep web page. In this measure, remove the surplus noise and duplicate chunk using three parameters such as hyperlink percentage, Noise score and cosine similarity. Finally, obtain the main chunk extraction process using three parameters such as Title word Relevancy, Keyword frequency based chunk selection, Position features and a set of keywords are extracted from those main chunks. Phase-2 Web Document Clustering In Phase-2 VDEC perform web document clustering using Fuzzy c-means clustering (FCM), the set of keywords were clustered for all deep web pages. Both the phases of the VDEC helps to extract the visual features of the web pages and supports on web page clustering for improvising information retrieval. The process activities are briefly described in the following section. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED IN VDEC APPROACH Definition (chunk): Consider a deep web page is segmented by blocks. These each block are known as chunk. For example the web page is represented as, , where the main chunk, . Definition (Hyperlink): A hyperlink has an anchor, which is the location within a document from which the hyperlink can be followed; the document having a hyperlink is called as its source document to web pages. Hyperlink percentage Where, à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Number of Keywords in a chunk à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Number of Link Keywords in a chunk Definition (Noise score): Noise score is defined as the ratio of the number of images in total number of chunks. Noise score, Where, à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Number of images in a chunk à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Total number of images Definition (Cosine similarity): Cosine similarity means calculating the similarity of two chunks. The inner product of the two vectors, i.e., the sum of the pairwise multiplied elements, is divided by the product of their vector lengths. Cosine Similarity, Where, , à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  Weight of keywords in, Definition (Position feature): Position features (PFs) that indicate the location of the data region on a deep web page. To compute the position feature score, the ratio is computed and then, the following equation is used to find the score for the chunk. (4) Where, à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Position features Definition (Title word relevancy): A web page title is the name or heading of a Web site or a Web page. If there is more number of title words in a certain block, then it means that the corresponding block is of more importance. Title word relevancy, Where, à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Number of Title Keywords à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Frequency of the title keyword in a chunk Definition (Keyword frequency): Keyword frequency is the number of times the keyword phrase appears on a deep Web page chunk relative to the total number of words on the deep web page. Keyword frequency based chunk selection, Where, à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Frequency of top ten keywords à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Number of keywords à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Number of Top-K Keywords PHASE-1 – VISION BASED DEEP WEB DATA EXTRACTION In a web page, there are numerous immaterial components related to the descriptions of data objects. These items comprise an advertisement bar, product category, search panel, navigator bar, and copyright statement, etc. Generally, a web page is specified by a triple. is a finite set of objects or sub-web pages. All these objects are not overlapped. Each web page can be recursively viewed as a sub-web-page and has a subsidiary content structure. is a finite set of visual separators, such as horizontal separators and vertical separators. Every separator has a weight representing its visibility, and all the separators in the same have the same weight. is the relationship of every two blocks in , which is represented as:. In several web pages, there are normally more than one data object entwined together in a data region, which makes it complex to find the attributes for each page. Deep Web Page Extraction The Deep web is usually defined as the content on the Web not accessible through a search on general search engines. This content is sometimes also referred to as the hidden or invisible web. The Web is a complex entity that contains information from a variety of source types and includes an evolving mix of different file types and media. It is much more than static, self-contained Web pages. In our work, the deep web pages are collected from Complete Planet (www.completeplanet.com), which is currently the largest deep web repository with more than 70,000 entries of web databases. Chunk Segmentation Web pages are constructed not only main contents information like product information in shopping domain, job information in a job domain, but also advertisements bar, static content like navigation panels, copyright sections, etc. In many web pages, the main content information exists in the middle chunk and the rest of the page contains advertisements, navigation links, and privacy statements as noisy data. Removing these noises will help in improving the mining of the web and it’s called Chunk Segmenting Operation as shown in figure.5.2. Figure 5.2 Chunk Segmenting Operation To assign importance to a region in a web page (), we first need to segment a web page into a set of chunks. It extracts main content information and deep web clustering that is both fast and accurate. The two stages and its sub-steps are given as follows. Stage 1: Vision-based deep web data identification Deep web page extraction Chunk segmentation Noisy chunk Removal Extraction of main chunk using chunk weightage Stage 2: Web document clustering Clustering process using FCM Normally, a tag separated by many sub tags based on the content of the deep web page. If there is no tag in the sub tag, the last tag is consider as leaf node. The Chunk Splitting Process aims at cleaning the local noises by considering only the main content of a web page enclosed in div tag. The main contents are segmented into various chunks. The result of this process can be represented as follows: , Where, à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   A set of chunks in the deep web page à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Number of chunks in a deep web page In Figure 5.1, we have taken an example of a tree sample which consists of main chunks and sub chunks. The main chunks are segmented into chunks C1, C2 and C3 using Chunk Splitting Operation and sub-chunks are segmented into . Noisy Chunk Removal A deep web page usually contains main content chunks and noise chunks. Only the main content chunks represent the informative part that most users are interested in. Although other chunks are helpful in enriching functionality and guiding browsing, they negatively affect such web mining tasks as web page clustering and classification by reducing the accuracy of mined results as well as speed of processing. Thus, these chunks are called noise chunks. Removing these chunks in our research work, we have concentrated on two parameters; they are Hyperlink Percentage and Noise score which is very significant. The main objective of removing noise from a Web Page is to improve the performance of the search engine. The representation of each parameter is as follows: Hyperlink Keyword – A hyperlink has an anchor, which is the location within a document from which the hyperlink can be followed; the document containing a hyperlink is known as its source document to web pages. Hyperlink Keywords are the keywords which are present in a chunk such that it directs to another page. If there are more links in a particular chunk then it means the corresponding chunk has less importance. The parameter Hyperlink Keyword Retrieval calculates the percentage of all the hyperlink keywords present in a chunk and is computed using the following equation. Hyperlink word Percentage, Where, à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Number of Keywords in a chunk à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Number of Link Keywords in a chunk Noise score – The information on Web page consists of both text and images (static pictures, flash, video, etc.). Many Internet sites draw income from third-party advertisements, usually in the form of images sprinkled throughout the site’s pages. In our work, the parameter Noise score calculates the percentage of all the images present in a chunk and is computed using the following equation. Noise score, Where, à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Number of images in a chunk à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Total number of images Duplicate Chunk Removal Using Cosine Similarity: Cosine Similarity Cosine similarity is one of the most popular similarity measure applied to text documents, such as in numerous information retrieval applications [7] and clustering too [8]. Here, duplication detection among the chunk is done with the help of cosine similarity. Given two chunks and, their cosine similarity is Cosine Similarity Where, , à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  Weight of keywords in, Extraction of Main Block Chunk Weightage for Sub-Chunk: In the previous step, we obtained a set of chunks after removing the noise chunks, and duplicate chunks present in a deep web page. Web page designers tend to organize their content in a reasonable way: giving prominence to important things and deemphasizing the unimportant parts with proper features such as position, size, color, word, image, link, etc. A chunk importance model is a function to map from features to importance for each chunk, and can be formalized as : . The preprocessing for computation is to extract essential keywords for the calculation of Chunk Importance. Many researchers have given importance to different information inside a webpage for instance location, position, occupied area, content, etc. In this research work, we have concentrated on the three parameters Title word relevancy, keyword frequency based chunk selection, and position features which are very significant. Each parameter has its own significance for calculating sub-chunk weightage. The following equation computes the sub-chunk weightage of all noiseless chunks. (1) Where à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Constants For each noiseless chunk, we have to calculate these unknown parameters, and. The representation of each parameter is as follows: Title Keyword – Primarily, a web page title is the name or title of a Web site or a Web page. If there is more number of title words in a particular block then it means the corresponding block is of more importance. This parameter Title Keyword calculates the percentage of all the title keywords present in a block. It is computed using the following equation. Title word Relevancy; (2) Where, à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Number of Title Keywords à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Title word relevancy, à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Frequency of the title keyword in a chunk. Keyword Frequency based chunk selection: Basically, Keyword frequency is the number of times the keyword phrase appears on a deep Web page chunk relative to the total number of words on the deep web page. In our work, the top-K keywords of each and every chunk were selected and then their frequencies were calculated. The parameter keyword frequency based chunk selection calculates for all sub-chunks and is computed using the following equation. Keyword Frequency based chunk selection (3) Where, à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Frequency of top ten keywords à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Keyword Frequency based chunk selection à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Number of Top-K Keywords Position features (PFs): Generally, these data regions are always centered horizontally and for calculating, we need the ratio of the size of the data region to the size of the whole deep Web page instead of the actual size. In our experiments, the threshold of the ratio is set at 0.7, that is, if the ratio of the horizontally centered region is greater than or equal to 0.7, then the region is recognized as the data region. The parameter position features calculate the important sub chunk from all sub chunks and is computed using the following equation. (4) Where, à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Position features Thus, we have obtained the values of, and by substituting the above mentioned equation. By substituting the values of , and in eq.1, we obtain the sub-chunk weightage. Chunk Weightage for Main Chunk: We have obtained sub-chunk weightage of all noiseless chunks from the above process. Then, the main chunks weightage are selected from the following equation (5) Where,à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Sub-chunk weightage of Main-chunk. à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Constant, à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Main chunk weightage. Thus, finally we obtain a set of important chunks and we extract the keywords from the above obtained important chunks for effective web document clustering mining. Algorithm-1 : Clustering Approach PHASE-2 – DEEP WEB DOCUMENT CLUSTERING USING FCM Let DB be a dataset of web documents, where the set of keywords is denoted by . Let X={x1, x2, †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦, xN} is the set of N web documents, where, xi={ xi1,xi2,†¦.,xin}. Each xij(i=1,†¦.,N;j=1,†¦.,n) corresponds to the frequency of keyword xi on web document. Fuzzy c-means [29] partitions set of web documents indimensional space into fuzzy clusters with cluster centers or centroids. The fuzzy clustering of keywords is described by a fuzzy matrix with n rows and c columns in which n is the number of keywords and c is the number of clusters. , the element in the row and column in, indicates the degree of association or membership function of the object with the cluster. The characters of are as follows: (6) (7) (8) The objective function of FCM algorithm is to minimize the Eq. (9): (9) Where (10) in which, m(m >1) is a scalar termed the weighting exponent and controls the fuzziness of the resulting clusters and dij is the Euclidian distance from key to the cluster center zip. The zj, centroid of the jth cluster, is obtained using Eq. (11) (11) The FCM algorithm is iterative and can be stated as in Algorithm-2. Algorithm-2 : Fuzzy c-means Approach Experimental Setup The experimental results of the proposed method for vision-based deep web data extraction for web document clustering are presented in this section. The proposed approach has been implemented in Java (jdk 1.6) and the experimentation is performed on a 3.0 GHz Pentium PC machine with 2 GB main memory. For experimentation, we have taken many deep web pages which contained all the noises such as Navigation bars, Panels and Frames, Page Headers and Footers, Copyright and Privacy Notices, Advertisements and Other Uninteresting Data. These pages are then applied to the proposed method for removing the different noises. The removal of noise blocks and extracting of useful content chunks are explained in this sub-section. Finally, extracting the useful con

Stephen Cranes The Open Boat Essay -- Open Boat Stephen Crane Essays

Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat"      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"None of them knew the color of the sky.† This first sentence in Stephen Crane’s â€Å"The Open Boat† implies the overall relationship between the individual and nature. This sentence also implies the limitations of anyone’s perspective. The men in the boat concentrate so much on the danger they are in, that they are oblivious and unaware to everything else; in other words, maybe lacking experience. â€Å"The Open Boat† begins with a description of four men aboard a small boat on a rough sea. The central theme of this story is about confronting Nature itself. â€Å"The Open Boat" is Stephen Crane’s account from an outsider’s point of view of the two days spent in a small boat. The correspondent is autobiographical in nature; Stephen Crane was shipwrecked off the coast of Florida while working as a war correspondent. The correspondent in â€Å"The Open Boat† portrays the author. Mainly through the corres pondent, Crane shows the power of nature and how one man’s struggle to survive ultimately depends on fate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The character of the correspondent learns that the principles of Nature is unpredictable by accident or by fate just as life itself is unpredictable. Stephen Crane pays special attention to the correspondent, who shares the painful chore of rowing the boat with the strong oiler. While rowing, he contemplates his situation and the part that nature plays in it. All of the men seem to know they are helpless in the face of nature.their lives, at...

Of Mice and Men †the American Dream Essay

The term American dream may not be used too often any more, but especially in the 1930’s it was a very motivating term for the working class. Whether their dream was to own their own company, support their family or even just own a piece of land to call their own, the thought of having a dream that they could fulfil if only they worked hard enough was keeping them moving forward. George and Lennie’s dream was the latter, they longed to own a piece of land, to have animals, and live so no one would have control over them. But throughout the course of the novel, some of their choices adjust the final outcome of their dream. By the end of Of Mice and Men Lennie and George’s dream has been altered in many ways. Although Lennie was killed in the end of the novel, a version of his dream still came true. The basis of Lennie’s dream was that he would be safe from harm and people running after him and that he would be stopped from hurting anyone accidentally. By killing Lennie, George gave him what it was he wanted, even if he didn’t realize it at the time. â€Å"Ever’body gonna be nice to you. Ain’t gonna be no more trouble. Nobody gonna hurt nobody or steal from ‘em† (Steinbeck 106). Without Lennie living, he would no longer be wanted by the people from Weed for accused rape. He would also be spared from Curley and his revengeful killing, because of the accidental killing of Curley’s wife. George knew what he had to do but he didn’t want Lennie to feel any pain in the process. â€Å"Shoot him right in the back of the head†¦he wouldn’t feel nothing† (Steinbeck 45). The way Carlson shot Candy’s old dog was the same way that George shot Lennie. Right in the back of the head he said softly† (Steinbeck 107). The method he used to end Lennie’s life was much more merciful and humane than Curley’s plan. George also wanted Lennie to be at peace, thinking about their dream, their ranch, before he died. Killing Lennie was George’s only option. If Curley had gotten to him he would have had a painful death and even in the possibility of Lennie’s escape, he would eventually be tracked down and killed or sent to an asylum because of his mental disabilities. Because of George’s death and the circumstances they put themselves in, Lennie did not get to see the day that they owned a ranch, but he did ultimately get his dream. We never find out for sure if George fulfills his dream and gets a ranch, but even thought Lennie died, he still has an opportunity to achieve this dream. Lennie is now not driving George out of his jobs and on the run. â€Å"You can’t keep a job and you lose me ever’ job I get. Jus’ keep me shovin’ all over the country all the time† (Steinbeck 11). Since George could keep a job without Lennie, he would be able to get the full stake of pay each month for his ranch and raise the money quicker. He also still has the support of Candy. â€Å"S’pose I went in with you guys. Tha’s three hundred fifty bucks I’d put in. I ain’t much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens† (Steinbeck 59). Not only could George keep a job but he could also have a much more leisurely life. â€Å"I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a girl† (Steinbeck 7). Without having to care for Lennie, George would be able to relax and live a more normal life as a worker. Because of Lennie’s death George may even be able to get the ranch faster and by doing so still achieve a version of the American dream. The American dream is a motivation for many characters in Of Mice and Men but through a series of events, not all their dreams remain the same by the end of the novel. George and Lennie’s dream was their ambition, their reason to keep persevering. They always had it as their ideal, their goal to strive for. If they could just own a ranch they would be happy. But throughout the novel, Lennie is killed and his dream is fulfilled by not having life at all. George’s dream is now altered because Lennie would not be a part of it. Even Crooks had a dream, to go in on the ranch with George, Lennie and Candy, but because of his race, he had to realize that his dream could not be that lofty and his dream was forgotten. All during the novel, the message that is portrayed is that the American dream that is fulfilled is not the same as the dream they originally began with. Throughout the duration of Of Mice and Men, many versions of the American dream demonstrated motivational objectives for the characters. Lennie longed for peace and safety. George wished to have a leisurely life and Crooks hoped for a world where he was not discriminated against. Throughout the novel, these dreams were changed and sometimes even forgotten. Because of this, Steinbeck gives the impression that the American dream can never truly be fulfilled to the dreamer’s original standards.

A Study of the Diffusion of Innovation

Today, there are many educational institution are implementing different types of technology in order to enhance instruction of the teacher as well the learning efficiency of the students. It is believe that application of technology will definitely enhance instruction because these types of materials and apparatus are especially designed for education and instruction.The most visible form of technology today is the computer (Gallas, 1994). Unlike in the previous decades where teachers use the traditional blackboard and chalk to teach their middle school students, now most teachers are using computers to aid them in teaching their students. This is just one example of interventions of technology in a middle school classroom.For this paper, the main objective is to determine the different types of technologies being implemented in a middle school classroom in order to enhance instruction. Moreover, the paper will try to define the factors that affect the diffusion process of technolog y integration within middle school classrooms.TYPES OF TECHNOLOGYComputers  For the past few decades in teaching methodology, the mode of teaching in almost every classroom is done by one-to-many interaction (Cooper & Robinson, 1998). This means that there is one who takes the responsibility in giving the right amount of knowledge to its student.The said interaction is mostly known as the teacher to student relationship. This mode of teaching had produced many intellects in the world. Many professors and scholars relied on this technique to teach their students effectively. They thought that this technique will make their students absorb the teaching they inculcate. This condition is whether the class is big or small.Science and mathematics subjects are one of the most important subjects that must be taught effectively to a student especially in the elementary level.The curriculum of a school must be of good quality because this will serve as a good foundation on the learning proc ess of the students (Fink, 2004). It is believed that good foundation on science ad math subjects will be a tool on the success of the students. Thus, there is a need in the upgrading of the current teaching methods of the said subjects for the students who wants to learn fully the basic or fundamental principles of the said subject.Today, computers aid teachers in instructing their students. But how teachers utilize computer in teaching their students? Some lessons are shown through the use of computers. Unlike in a blackboard and chalk setting where the teacher can only write and draw figures but with the use of computers, the teacher can do more (Their & Daviss, 2002).A good example of this is when a science instructor teaches human anatomy. For a middle school student, he or she will find it hard to imagine human parts especially the internal organs. Thus, the science instructor will use a computer to better visualize the human anatomy. Basically, computers are being implemented today because there are some discussion when used by a blackboard and chalk, the student cannot understand the given lesson.Most educational institutions believe that there is a need to include in their academic curriculum the subject information technology and one example of this is the usage of computers. The above discussion shows why teachers use computer while this part of the paper will analyze why is there a need to include computer related subjects in the curriculum of middle school classrooms (Technology Education Association, 2000).Computers that are being used by math teachers, uses software that has connection is teaching math subjects (Harlen, 2001). This software is designed to teach math lesson and techniques in such a way that it will not create confusion on students. In solving math problems, the first thing to do is read the problem and determine what are the given.After this, the solver must find out what is being asked from the problem. Some math problems have o bvious statement where the solver can detect it with ease while there are also other math problems that do require and analysis first before knowing what is being asked. The next part will be the most difficult one because the solver will determine what equation or group or equations will be use to answer the math problem. This part does require some analysis (AutoSkill, 2003).The very reason why students are advised to take computer subjects is that, computers are now considered basic necessity in our society (Education Development Center, Inc.,2000). Almost every person in the country has computers. Moreover, all business transactions use computers. Thus, to prepare them in their chosen career, they will not be left behind due to their illiterateness in computer hardware and software. A Study of the Diffusion of Innovation Today, there are many educational institution are implementing different types of technology in order to enhance instruction of the teacher as well the learning efficiency of the students. It is believe that application of technology will definitely enhance instruction because these types of materials and apparatus are especially designed for education and instruction.The most visible form of technology today is the computer (Gallas, 1994). Unlike in the previous decades where teachers use the traditional blackboard and chalk to teach their middle school students, now most teachers are using computers to aid them in teaching their students. This is just one example of interventions of technology in a middle school classroom.For this paper, the main objective is to determine the different types of technologies being implemented in a middle school classroom in order to enhance instruction. Moreover, the paper will try to define the factors that affect the diffusion process of technolog y integration within middle school classrooms.TYPES OF TECHNOLOGYComputersFor the past few decades in teaching methodology, the mode of teaching in almost every classroom is done by one-to-many interaction (Cooper & Robinson, 1998). This means that there is one who takes the responsibility in giving the right amount of knowledge to its student. The said interaction is mostly known as the teacher to student relationship.This mode of teaching had produced many intellects in the world. Many professors and scholars relied on this technique to teach their students effectively. They thought that this technique will make their students absorb the teaching they inculcate. This condition is whether the class is big or small.Science and mathematics subjects are one of the most important subjects that must be taught effectively to a student especially in the elementary level. The curriculum of a school must be of good quality because this will serve as a good foundation on the learning process of the students (Fink, 2004). It is believed that good foundation on science ad math subjects will be a tool on the success of the students.Thus, there is a need in the upgrading of the current teaching methods of the said subjects for the students who wants to learn fully the basic or fundamental principles of the said subject.Today, computers aid teachers in instructing their students. But how teachers utilize computer in teaching their students? Some lessons are shown through the use of computers. Unlike in a blackboard and chalk setting where the teacher can only write and draw figures but with the use of computers, the teacher can do more (Their & Daviss, 2002).A good example of this is when a science instructor teaches human anatomy. For a middle school student, he or she will find it hard to imagine human parts especially the internal organs. Thus, the science instructor will use a computer to better visualize the human anatomy. Basically, computers are being implemented tod ay because there are some discussion when used by a blackboard and chalk, the student cannot understand the given lesson.Most educational institutions believe that there is a need to include in their academic curriculum the subject information technology and one example of this is the usage of computers. The above discussion shows why teachers use computer while this part of the paper will analyze why is there a need to include computer related subjects in the curriculum of middle school classrooms (Technology Education Association, 2000).Computers that are being used by math teachers, uses software that has connection is teaching math subjects (Harlen, 2001). This software is designed to teach math lesson and techniques in such a way that it will not create confusion on students. In solving math problems, the first thing to do is read the problem and determine what are the given. After this, the solver must find out what is being asked from the problem.Some math problems have obvio us statement where the solver can detect it with ease while there are also other math problems that do require and analysis first before knowing what is being asked. The next part will be the most difficult one because the solver will determine what equation or group or equations will be use to answer the math problem. This part does require some analysis (AutoSkill, 2003).The very reason why students are advised to take computer subjects is that, computers are now considered basic necessity in our society (Education Development Center, Inc.,2000). Almost every person in the country has computers. Moreover, all business transactions use computers. Thus, to prepare them in their chosen career, they will not be left behind due to their illiterateness in computer hardware and software.InternetInternet is being introduced today in most middle schools. The use of internet for education purposes is called electronic education or simply e-learning. The teacher may teach his or her students wherever and whenever.This is also applicable when the teacher wants also to give exercise and examination. The good thing with the use of internet is that, it does not need the student to go in the classroom just to learn the lesson. What is needed is a set of computer that has an internet connection (Technology Alliance’s Technology in Education Task Force, 1998).FACTORS OF TECHNOLOGY DIFUSSIONThere are factors why technology is implemented in teaching method in a middle school classroom. One is that it is more efficient compared to the traditional setting of a classroom.We know that a typical classroom consists of tables where the students will sit for the rest of time of discussion and a blackboard and chalk where all the writings will be done, but when technology is implemented, the classroom will transform into more convenient environment that will aid students to appreciate what the teacher is discussing.Computers will create an excitement among students because they will not feel bored in the discussion. Audio-visual equipment will also facilitate in the efficient learning of the students. They will understand more some complicated lessons like in science and math subjects.References:AutoSkill, (2003). Developing Mathematical Proficiency with the AutoSkill ® Academy of MATH ®Cooper, J., & Robinson, P. (1998). Small-group Instruction in Science, Mathematics,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Engineering and Technology (SMET) Disciplines: A Status Report and an   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Agenda for the Future. Journal of College Science Teaching.Education Development Center, Inc. (2000). Findings from Phase I and Phase II (1989†¹91) of the Middle School Technology Integration Project. [Electronic Version]. Retrieved April 10, 2008, from http://www.edc.org/FSC/MIH/Fink, L. D. (2004). Beyond Small Groups: Harnessing the Extraordinary Power of Learning Teams [Electronic Version]. Retrieved April 10, 2008, from http://www.med.wright.edu/aa/facdev/_ Files/PDFfiles/BeyondSmallGroups.pdfGallas, K. (1994). The Languages of Learning: New York: Teachers College Press.Harlen, W. (2001). Primary Science: Taking the Plunge: Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann,.Thier, M., & Daviss, B. (2002). The New Science Literacy: Using Language Skills to Help Students Learn Science: Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.Technology Education Association. (2000). Press Release 2000. Technology Education Association. [Electronic Version]. Retrieved April 11, 2008, from http://www.tae.eduTechnology Alliance’s Technology in Education Task Force. (1998). UPDATE OF   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE. Technology Alliance’s Technology in Education   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Task Force

The eNotes Blog Top Ten Classics Dissed Amazon Commenters FightBack!

Top Ten Classics Dissed Amazon Commenters FightBack! Recently, the blog Brain Pickings wrote a piece titled The Greatest Books of All Time, as Voted by 125 Famous Authors.   Well, apparently none of these famous authors consulted some of the people who had previously commented on their selections at Amazon.com. Here is a sampling of their.err. opinions. 1.   Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov I ended up throwing this book away after reading about 5 chapters..if you enjoy reading the pedophilic ramblings of a perv, go for it! Yuk! And Im a very open minded person but this book is just gross. 2.   The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald That book was the poorest excuse for literature I ever had the displeasure of reading. I did read it twice, but each time, I was disgusted with it. The characters in the story were worthless wastes of human flesh. Daisy was a ditz, Gatsby himself was a possessive stalker and everyone else didnt have enough brains to realize that they were all being used!! 3.   Ulysses by James Joyce ULYSSES is tiresome, tedious, and passe. The appeal of reading the mind wanderings of a pasty, weak pseudo-intellectual grows stale after the first dozen pages. For those enterprising readers such as myself who feel guilty dumping a Joyce work after only a chapter, read on. It gets worse. Confession: the genius mind-maze that is Joyce is sometimes just not worth exploring. One would have better luck escaping the Minotaur than successfully exiting this lingual labyrinth. 4.   To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf Someone needs to end the farce that Virginia Woolf is a good writer. Her work, to me, is neither thought-provoking nor well-written. I was really disappointed with this work and actually threw my copy into a box headed for Goodwill (not really good will to pass it on, but I had to get it out of my house)and I never give away books. Lets stop pretending folks . 5.   The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner The book starts nowhere, ends absolutely nowhere, and has little of interest in between. The characters are not interesting. They dont do anything interesting. Their thoughts, the main feature of the book, are not interesting. 6.   Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Whomever claims this to be a great book needs their head examine or probably has been subjected to a lobotomy. This 900 page of rubbish is no more than a glorified, pompous, shallow soap opera nicely ensconced in a setting I would terrorize and throw rocks at with much enthusiasm. I gave it one star because it makes a much needed bookend on my shelf. Anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison, and even Raymond Chandler, trumps and surpasses this hail storm of snobbish prose. I propose a petition to burn all Anna Karenina novels from the face of the earth and implement a law of 10 years in prison if caught with this novel in your possession. There, I said it . 7.   Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Every time I have to help a high-school student or college freshman slog through Madame Bovary, I find myself wondering why the assignment isnt a violation of the Geneva Convention. Im as dedicated a soldier as any in the war against illiteracy, but there is such a thing as an inappropriate and inhumane weapon. 8.   Moby Dick by Herman Melville I will tell you somethingYOU havent read Moby Dick either. Why else would you be considering buying it? Most people who have read Moby Dick are just happy to have been done with it. Im sure the majority of people who have read this classic novel/slapstick comedy indeed are overjoyed to have been at it and done with it. I bet they would never want to read even a long-winded review of it. So, there you are. Proof that you have not read Moby Dick, just as I have not read Moby Dick. Maybe you better just forget about Moby Dick entirely and just go have a nap. Maybe a cup of blended celery juice will fix you of the notion of reading Moby Dick. Come to think of it, maybe that would solve my bladder disease. 9.   Great Expectations by Charles Dickens BY FAR the worst book Ive ever had to read. I along with half of my class could read no more than one page of it without falling into a deep slumber. Im getting sleepy just thinking about it. Anyway, if someone does want to buy this book for some strange reason, I hope that they do not have Great Expectations for it, because they will be very disappointed at the end when their expectations arent fulfilled! 10.   Crime and Punishment by Fydor Dostoevsky Reading CP is like getting hit on the head with a sledgehammer, repeatedly. The author has a point to make; he makes it. Then, just in case you didnt get it, he makes it again. And again. And again. There, now did you get it? The entire book could be condensed into a short story and still effectively convey the same message. And on a more minor note, shouldnt *something* happy happen at least once in a novel? Shouldnt there be at least one scene in which a little birdie chirps a happy song from a pretty tree? Does *everyone* have to be spitting up their lungs into the gutter on a dark and gloomy day? Sheesh!!