Optical Spinel Ceramics Processing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Optical Spinel Ceramics Processing - Essay Example Alternatively, efforts to â€Å"make polycrystalline spinel by traditional hot pressing of powder have led to inhomogeneous material, typified by opaque nontransmitting regions, thereby making it unsuitable for practical applications† (Sanghera et al, 215). The properties of spinel optical ceramics can be described as follows: The composition of the material is MgAl2O4. The typical grain size of the material is bimodal in nature, 25 µm average and 150  µm averages. The structure is cubic, spinel. Lattice constant of the material is 8.082A. Density is 3.58 g/cc. It is polycrystalline in form with a melting point of 2135?C. Young’s modulus of the material is 276GPa and the sheer modulus is 18.9?106 psi. The material’s Poisson’s ratio is 0.26, and hardness of the material is 1650 Kg/mm2. Fracture toughness of the material holds a record of 1.5 MPa-m1/2 and the flexure strength is 170MPa. Specific heat of the material is 0.8191 J/g - ?C. The transition lim its are 0.25 to 6.5 microns and the thermal conductivity is 25W/m-C @25 ?C (Spinel Optical Ceramic). The present study focuses on learning about the processing of spinel optimal ceramics, including ceramic product processing, their characterization, and applications. Ceramic Product Processing: With the help of ceramic product processing, commercial products of varying sizes, shapes, details, and complexities, are produced. These products may also reflect varying compositions of their materials, structure and cost. The growing capacity to purify, expand and distinguish ceramic materials has led to application of ceramics processing into the field of science. In general, heat is applied on the material for the production of the ceramic as well as on other raw materials in order to develop a unbending product. For ceramic products that make use of naturally occurring materials like rocks and minerals, there is a need for special processing of the materials. This helps in controlling t he transparency, size of particle, distribution of the particle sizes, and heterogeneity of the materials. All these factors have a significant effect on the final product being developed, which is the finished ceramic. In case of some ceramic materials, the starting materials used for processing include powders that are prepared chemically. With the help of accurate chemical compositions and sizes of particles the synthetic materials may be used to control the production of these powders (Ceramic Processing). Once this step is achieved, the ceramic materials are transformed into particular shapes. Water and additives are added to the material for this purpose after which a shape forming process is applied on the materials. The forming techniques that are most commonly used for the purpose include extrusion, slip casting, pressing, tape casting and injection molding. Once the formation of the ceramics is complete, a green color of the ceramics would be obtained. Heat is then applied on this formed material which is a treatment referred as firing or sintering that leads to the production of a finished product rigid in nature. In some cases a glazing process is also applied, particularly where the products include electrical insulators, dinnerware and tiles. Ceramics processed for highly developed applications may undertake a machining and/or a step for polishing the materials such that they can

The film Amarcord Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The film Amarcord - Essay Example To celebrate and appreciate this particular fact The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has started giving Academy Awards to the feature films since 1945. ‘Amarcord’ released in the year 1973 is an Italian film which can be distinctively encapsulated in the genre of comedy-drama. The film is directed, produced and written by Academy Award winner Federico Fellini and Tonino Guerra. A seminal work in autobiography, the film Amarcord is a tale that narrates the event of coming-of-age with the combination of bawdy comedy. The film narrates a story casted with untamed characters that are shown residing in the fictional town bearing the name Borgo which is created based upon the actual hometown of Fellini which is Rimini of 1930s under the regime of Fascist Italy. The film stars Magali Noel, Bruno Zanin, Pupella Maggio and Armando Brancia. This film won the Academy Awards for ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ and at the same time, it received nominations for the Best Director and the Best Writing and the Original Screenplay categories. Synopsis of the Story: The Plot The film ‘Amarcord’ is a satire of the di rector Federico Fellini’s youth under the fascist regime in Italy and exhibits a carnivalesque picture of the provincial Italy where the director tries to turn the menial chores of life into a circus constructed with social rituals, desires of the adolescent period, fantasies in male and subterfuge subjected to politics all set within the span of a year against the backdrop of a coastal town reminiscing the period of nineteen thirties. The film presents Titta’s sentimental educational journey throughout the year bearing the emblem of Italy’s â€Å"lapse of conscience†. Fellini draws upon Mussolini’s ridiculous postures along with those of the Catholic Church that captivated the adolescence of the Italian youth for the perpetual frame of time. Fellini does this by mocking himself and the villagers of his village with the allegorical presentation of the comic scenes that bears the actual connotation of their incapability to accept and adopt moral res ponsibility and subsequently they outgrow their sexual fantasies. The Elements of Style The aesthetic perspective of the film is completely attuned with the time and setting that the film projects. The colourful setting of a coastal village is quite convincing. The use of bright colours, loud make-ups and appropriate props are deliberately incorporated to project the merry life of a coastal town during summers. The town is reminiscent of Rimini, but the vibrant colours and bright set-up evoke a feeling of larger-than-life on the silver screen. Music plays a very important role in evoking the true mood of the film. The nostalgic score by Nino Rota and Carlo Savina drives away the audience to the by-gone days and yet the music has the punch and the signature of the nineteen seventies which makes it acceptable with the proper blend of historical elements supportive to the demand of the narrative and the plot of the film. Owing to the demand of the plot, there is more than one story tha t runs parallel within the bigger framework of the film. To synchronise these stories or sub-plots within the single frame is a challenging job and skilful editing of these parallel scenes and plots into a wider perspective would not have been achieved in a better way than Ruggero Mastroianni. The camera work of Fellini and Giuseppe Rotunno is excellent and the neat shots of this film in both the close and distant angels are always commendable. The projection of the sexual fantasies and coming back to the original world need a frequent to and fro camera movement which was accomplished superbly through

International and Comparative Relations Essay Example for Free

International and Comparative Relations Essay As the number of hired workers in companies raises so are the Human Resources Managers facing more challenges as they need to maintain a competitive edge in their business both at home and abroad. Chinas entry into the World Trade Organization created fresh opportunities which resulted to some firms retreating and others expanding (Bamber, Lansbury Wailes, 2004), making the entry of foreign firms to be faced by challenges than it was in the 1970s and thus even the HR managers are in for a challenge since they have to carefully know how to tackle the culture of post-WTO China so as to have an effective HRM systems. According to Lucas (2004) it is important to understand the HRM challenges facing foreign firms in China and how to overcome them. According to information given by interviewees, who included senior managers and private equity specialists, it was discovered that the Western model of HRM may not solve the challenges. Firms had to come out with ideas on how to manage human resources in response to the changing environment in China. To know how the firms were doing this, interviews were conducted rather than survey instrument (Deery Mitchell, 1999). After the interviews it was noted that the strategies of the HR in China differed from those of the West. For instance one of the HR process in China is selection of people they want to work in their companies. Some private successful firms wanted young people who are from school others selected people who do not drink or smoke. While firms really wanted to remove redundant employees in their companies, some of the managers that were interviewed said that there was benefit â€Å"organized† over-staffing. Again in the issue of employee contribution; to encourage employee contribution there had to be change of mentality like their association of mistakes with penalties. It was noted that many employees in the foreign firms were afraid to do anything outside their job description thus the HRM policies were encouraged to aim at helping these employees. There was also the issue of training programs in which they should also teach about what is wrong and its solution.  Ã‚   One way of helping these employees according to (Verma, Kochan Lansbury, 1995) was to train them well in their jobs so as to extend even beyond their job description. This however has to be encouraged through creation of friendly environment involvement in risk taking. There is also another problem of lack of ground rules that are well-established which results to interference with the operations. Some individuals have the power to stop some industries from operating. The foreign firms thus need to know the relevant person in that location. The HR has the role to select well-connected people in management team (Morgenstern, 1984). Even in some companies they need the individuals they want to hire for their jobs to have connections with government bodies or powerful individuals so as they can link them in case of a problem. The HR also plays the role of â€Å"change agent† (Blanpain, Lansbury Park, 2002) where they help firms implement new programs, improve processes and transform positively the organizations culture. Employment relationship is vital as the employers need to have good relationship with their existing employees as well as their new ones so as to avoid problems at the place of works hence increasing workplace productivity. This however can be complex as sometimes the employees can find the rules set by the employers quite challenging. As human the way we choose to control our goal maybe different from what the organization wants. The organization needs people who can interact with others to be productive to the company. The employment relation constitutes of three sides that is the employers, employees and the law. In addition there are employment rights.   In different countries and cities we have different way of treating employees and companies also have got different policies. Employment relationships are faced by challenges such as competitive pressures, technological change as this may result to either the employer seeking new employees who have got the most updated technological skills or requiring the old employees to update their skill by going back to class of which other will not welcome the idea, changing of owns behaviors; this may lead to disappointment to either party. As time goes by the employee-employer relationship changes. This according to Blanpain, Lansbury Park (2002) can be brought about by societal, organizational or individual changes. From the society point of view changes in the relationship is as a result developments in our society for example the cultural norms influence and the values that are related to exchanges. The organization together with the employee composes the second and third sources of changes in employment relationship. The organization and the employer both are part of the society and are both influenced by the same structural factors and dynamic change processes. However they still have some differences as the desires of the organization and those of the employee may not necessarily converge. For instance the organization may require organizational flexibility to cope with the competitiveness. Similarly the employee desire and expectations of the organization may change for example an employee with a family probably with small children will want the employers flexibility to provide good balance between his job and his private life as an important issue. There seems as if the traditional labor laws are less effective in determining the employment relationships in many countries (Dickens Neal, 2006). The pressure for flexibility in firms has led to changes in the employment relations. These changes have been linked to societal factors. In 1999-2000, twenty-seven Dutch Organization (Bach, 1999) a questionnaire was distributed to groups of employees. The data that was gathered from a sample that represented the working population showed that the younger and older employee was underrepresented and there was over representation of people between 25 and 44 years. This is a contradiction to the Chinese authority who wanted younger people. The questionnaires also assessed individual characters, employee obligations toward the company and employer obligation toward the employee. It was noted that most employees aired out their opinions on several issues affecting them and they were thinking beyond their jobs. This is unlike in China where due to fear of intimidation employees were afraid to air out their opinions. A comparative study of employment systems in the US and Japan was achieved by use of game-theoretic framework (Rapra Technology Limited, 2005) here the employment system was seen as an equilibrium outcome of interactions among management, labor, and government. In both countries, the relations evolved from ones associated with short-term contracts and company-wide employee representation. While Japan continued in the same path, the U.S experienced a breakdown of implicit contract during the Great Depression (Mortimer Leece, 1994). It is important to study internationally comparative employment relations so as to contribute to our knowledge about the employment relations in other countries and also to provide model for the development of policy. Due to globalization, there is increased economic connectedness hence the need to learn about employment relations practices in other countries. In addition it also helps with theory construction. International comparison requires acceptance of reference point. Employment relations in Britain as accordance to Jenkins (2000) was characterized with formation of unions which marked a big growth up until the World War II when due to a rising number in unemployment the membership of the unions declined. This was also caused by part-time jobs and concentration in the private sector where unions found it hard to recruit. Unlike most other   Western European countries, Britain (Sparrow Cooper, 2003)has one main union confederation that is the Trades Union Congress(TUC) that was established in 1868.Between 1980 and 1990 private sector firms membership of employers associations fell sharply before it started to rise again slightly in the 1990s. The state plays a very important role in employment relations either directly and/or indirectly. The changing pattern of employment relation in Britain reflects some trends which may include de-industrialization, proportion increase in services and growth of a typical employment. Employment relation in United States of America can be started in 1930s (Stuart Martinez- Lucio, 2005) when the US unions first arose as a seemingly permanent force. Between 1940-1950 the unions grew tremendously and in 1960s and 1970s transformed government employment into sector with strong unions. Employers organizations in USA are relatively unimportant and unlike in other countries there have not been any employers confederations. By 1985 the depth of union membership crisis was acknowledged and new forms of employee participation appeared in some workplaces. Though in the early 1990s there was a strong economic recovery (Bender Theodossiou, 1996), there was growing polarisation in employees labor market experiences. By 2000 the pressures from globalisation increased. The non-union sector has marked a tremendous growth in spite of the labour laws being enforced. REFERENCES Almond, P Ferner, A 2006, American multinationals in Europe: managing employment    relations across national borders, Oxford University Press, Melbourne   Bach, S 1999, Public Service Employment Relations in Europe: Transformation, Modernization    Or Inertia?, Routledge Bamber, G, Lansbury, R Wailes, N 2004, International and Comparative Employment   Ã‚   Relations: Globalisation and the Developed Market Economies, 4th ed, SAGE, Boca Raton,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   FL Bender, K Theodossiou, I 1996, International Comparisons of the Real Wage-employment    Relationship, University of Aberdeen Blanpain, R, Lansbury, R Park, Y 2002, The Impact of Globalisation on Employment

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Iris Recognition And Afis Technology Essay

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Iris Recognition And Afis Technology Essay Introduction The biometric scanning technology is a great revolution for contemporary society. There are many application made from biometric scanning technologies, which may use in many different way. Some of these applications based on biometrics are complex. This report is going to evaluate the effectiveness of Iris recognition and AFIS for to control accessing to a secure workplace. Background The human beings use the biometric information, which has already been a long history. For example, using fingerprint for signature, identifying someone from gait. In the middle of nineteen century, many features of human beings body were used to identify the criminal cases (Jain and Ross, 2004). With the progress of human society, a practically modern biometric scanning system is becoming more and more important. Today, there are many security problems such as to control access to a secure workplace, privacy and data security, which can be solved by the biometric scanning system. However, there were lists of practical biometric applications. To evaluate the effectiveness and find out which one is preferable, which is a required and meaningful action. Definition The biometric scanning system seems a kind of technology that uses the features of the human beings body. Jain and Ross (2004) point that the biometric scanning system is a science system that based on the identity of a person, which include the physical and behavioural features of the human beings. The physical attributes is static features such as fingerprint, face, retina, iris, vein pattern, hand and finger geometry. The behavioural attributes is dynamic features such as voice, gait and signature. Outline This report will talk about using biometric scanning system to control accessing to a secure workplace by two aspects, which include Iris recognition and Automatic Fingerprint Identification Scanning system. These two aspects will put perspective in a critical way in order to show both positive and negative. Hopefully, the outcome of this work can be a guide book for those who wish to select a possible biometric scanning system to protect the security of accessing a secure workplace. The AFIS In fact, to control accessing to a secure workplace is a category of identification and authentication. There are many method can reach this objective. The AFIS is one of these methods. In this section, firstly, it will find out the definition of the AFIS. Secondly, it will look at the uniqueness property of fingerprint identification. Thirdly, it will look at the reliability, convenience and availability. Lastly, it will mention fingerprint identification could be affordable. What is the AFIS? The AFIS is an abbreviation of Automatic Fingerprint Identification Scanning. This is a kind of biometric that use peoples fingerprint to identify something. The AFIS may use a database to store data that include fingerprint image, detail features of fingerprint of ten fingers and something else. It can be a tool for identification and authentication of large population group. The system will search in the database to match the correct person. Maltoni and Cappelli (2008) argues that using computer to process the fingerprint data that people input into the computer and computer will achieve the goal of identification and authentication by a series of actions such as sorting, locating, analysing and comparing. The uniqueness property The automatic fingerprint identification scanning has uniqueness property because it based on the fingerprint. The fingerprint is a physical attribute of human body. It even was used in the ancient time. Using a Fingerprint to make an identification and authentication probably has already more than hundreds years (Jain and Ross, 2004). At present, it was used in many areas for identification and authentication purpose because it is a simply unique way. For example, this method is used for door lock, car lock, computer accessing, internet accessing, attendance recording, bank account accessing, etc. There are a number of ways that use this method for identification and authentication purpose can be found. Some still do not think the uniqueness property is a very good feature for identification and authentication because there is a possibility of copy. When people use fingerprint to make an identification and authentication, the finger must be touched. It will leave a vestigial fingerprint on the touched panel of fingerprint machine, which will be copied easily. If this action is done by others who have ulterior motives, then the individual information will be used in an illegal way. This is very dangerous for individual information (Maltoni and Cappelli, 2008). However, the copy from the vestigial fingerprint of others is easy to identify although make a copy is a feasible method. Usually, this copy is so-called artificial fingerprint. Compare with the real fingerprint from human body directly, the copy is unclear, the shape is not complete, dull and one-dimensional. Therefore, users do not need to worry about this case. Reliability, convenience and availability The automatic fingerprint identification scanning is reliability, convenience and availability because fingerprint identification and authentication is the mature biometric technology (Komarinski, 2005). Firstly, the fingerprint is reliable because it includes quite huge information and will keep for all life of human being, In spite of the fingerprint just a little part of human body. Secondly, this is a convenient way and with available information which people used for identification and authentication. The reason is that human fingerprint cannot change and it can use any time and people do not need to worry about forgot things like cards, keys or others. The reliability of match fingerprints could be a problem. Due to automatic fingerprint identification scanning uses computer to compare and match the fingerprints. This action is only referring to some simple information about fingerprint such as shape or other simple information. Meanwhile, the performance of computer will affect the reliability of fingerprints matching as well. The results might not be accurate completely (Maltoni Cappelli, 2008). In fact, this is not a drawback to fingerprint identification because this issue caused by the performance of computer. This fact just demonstrates that the information come from the fingerprint is extremely large, even the computer was made busy. This is not the drawback of fingerprint but the exactly advantage it is. At present, the computing technology upgrade rapidly, thus, it does not need to worry too much for this. The reliability of computing matching algorithm will be improved. Smaller Equipments and Cost Effective Fingerprint identification scanning needs a fingerprint identification machine, which just is smaller equipment. Generally speaking, the fingerprint machine compare with its effectiveness, the price of this kind of equipment is probably not too much. It is affordable for some organizations even just for individuals. In addition, Maltoni and Cappelli (2008) argues that there are many type of fingerprint identification machine that for different usage of situation in the market. It seems just like a common machine, which such as microwave oven, TV, computer and something else. Due to this is a machine then there could have some issues sometimes. However, it is not a fault of the fingerprint identification. Much more, this should not be an excuse to say that the disadvantages of using fingerprint identification outweigh the advantages. Iris Recognition The iris recognition is another method to control accessing to a secure workplace. In this section, firstly, it will find out the definition of iris recognition as well. Secondly, it will indicate the higher reliability of iris recognition, it will mention the iris recognition is difficult to hoodwink. What Is Iris Recognition? As previous definition of biometrics, the iris is a statically human physical attribute. The iris, a kind of externally visible tissue with coloured, is an internal component part of eyes. Each iris contains a unique iris image. It includes many features such as lens, filaments, spots, structure, concave points, rays, wrinkles and stripes and other features structure, Patel (2008) claim that Iris can be used for biometric identification and authentication. Its key features are highly complex and unique. There is no two iris is same. The equipment of iris recognition scanning consists of a fully automatic camera to look for users eyes, when the camera found the iris, it began to focus. Iris recognition will take a high quality image of the iris. Higher Reliability The most important feature of the iris recognition is that it is a relatively stable and highly reliable method used to control access to a secure workplace. Firstly, iris has higher uniqueness and located inside of eyes, which include abundant information inside of human eyes. Secondly, iris recognition has higher stability due to its appearance is difficult to change after formed. Thirdly, there is higher recognition accuracy. Shoniregun and Stephen (2008) argues that the rate of correct of iris recognition is relative high compare with other solutions of biometrics. Lastly, it is a quickly biometric security scanning system. In most situations, it is only need one second for each person. It is very much lower than fingerprint identification scanning. According to these features, there is a strong possibility that the iris recognition could be a better way for controlling accessing to a secure workplace. Any biometric scanning technology has its drawbacks. Iris recognition as a kind of relative emerging technology has drawbacks as well. To use this method will cost high due to this technology is relative new and probably is not as mature as fingerprint identification. Why iris recognition is cost high? The main reason is that iris recognition needs an extremely high quality camera lens. This required core component for iris recognition is very expensive. Furthermore, there is a drawback seems like the most important point, which is that very difficult to scan and read the black eyes. If to do that, needs a good quality light source. However, there is a essential point cannot forget that security is the most import thing for using a biometric scanning system to control accessing to a secure workplace. Compare with other biometric scanning system, iris recognition is more secured, stable, reliable, convenient and fast way to protect secure workplace. As technologies development, the cost might be reduced. Users would benefit more from the iris recognition. Difficult to hoodwink Using iris recognition can prevent hoodwinking. Due to iris is a specific part of human eyes. It cannot be touched. Vacca (2007) argues that when it used for identification and authentication, which is totally without physical touch. It is a very important feature for protect individual biometric information. Compare with fingerprint identification scanning, iris recognition is better than automatic fingerprint identification scanning. If someone would like to change the appearance of iris, and then need to do very careful operating, moreover, it will have a big risk of sight. Conclusion To sum up, the advantages of using biometric scanning system outweigh the disadvantages. It is no exaggeration to say that those benefits from automatic fingerprint identification scanning are very attractive for individuals and organizations (Patel, 2008; Shoniregun and Stephen, 2008). From a critical thought, the report has been mentioned two biometric scanning methods which are automatic fingerprint identification scanning and iris recognition. Although these two methods exist some possible issues, advantages is mainly and clearly part. Firstly, as for AFIS, it has mentioned three benefits of fingerprint identification, which are uniqueness, reliability, convenient, availability and cost effective. Secondly, regarding iris recognition, it has mentioned the higher reliability and difficult to hoodwink. As a suggestion, for highly security reason, the iris recognition can be used. For example, airport, immigration checking. If just for common use such as enter into the office, class room or computer room, automatic fingerprint identification scanning is good for that. (Words count: 1928)

My Antonia :: essays research papers

1. Discuss the significant of each of the following citations. Provide several examples that support each quote. A. "The country girls were considered a menace to the social order. Their beauty shone out too boldly against a conventional background. But anxious mothers need have felt no harm. They mistook the mettle of their sons. The respect for respectability was stronger than any desire in Black Hawk Youth." The above quotation is telling about how the elderly people of Black Hawk did not trust the younger girls. This brought about when the young girls: Antonia, Tiny, Lena, etc. and Jim would constantly go to the parties held in Black Hawk. Jim's grandmother especially did not approve of Jim going to parties. Although, Jim continued to go, but eventually felt that he should obey his grandmother. Antonia, whom was working for the Harlings, was forced to choose between going to parties or continue working for them. She chose to continue going to parties, but then started to work for the Cutters. B. "This was the road over which Antonia and I came on that night when we got off the train at Black Hawk...For Antonia and for me, this had been the road of Destiny; had taken us to those early accidents of fortune which predetermined for us all that we can ever be. Now I understood that the same road was to bring us together again. Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, and incommunicable past." The above quotation is showing the importance of Jimmy and Antonia's friendship. The road brought them together since they shared a significant amount of memories at the road. Jimmy remembers those special times he had with Antonia when he approaches the road. It is also a symbol for friendship, and the possibility of it being rekindled and/or never forgotten. 2. How is the following and accurate depiction of Antonia? How are the enumerated traits revealed throughout the story? "More than any other person remembered, this girl seemed to mean to us the country, the conditions, the whole adventure of our childhood." (Jimmy) This is an accurate description of Antonia because she lived in many conditions where she had to quickly adapt. When she moved to Nebraska, she was not used to living in her poor surroundings. Most of the time she had a fairly good attitude about this, following her father's footsteps, although her mother did not have a very good attitude.

War in Iraq: There Was Another Option Essay -- Politics Political

War in Iraq: There Was Another Option 1. As our brave men and women in uniform find themselves embroiled again in a conflict in the Middle East, debate surrounding the timeliness and necessity of this second Gulf conflict has ceased in most professional circles. However, before the current conflict began, controversy raged over when and how to best prosecute this situation. Many argued that the United States should have worked through the United Nations to pursue a resolution that had the consensus of the world behind it. That endeavor, however, was doomed to failure from the start. The United States sought to solve this dilemma using military force. France and Germany desired to diffuse it using anything but force. In order to properly evaluate all options in this case, one must ask themselves how immediate a threat did Saddam Hussein pose to the United States and what is the best way to counter that threat? In my estimation, Saddam Hussein poses no immediate threat to the United States. Thus, the US government had the time to cultivate a plan to remove him from power that was agreeable to all involved. 2. One must examine the fine points of each argument that the administration had proposed for the immediacy of war in order to best refute them. The first and often most repeated argument that Saddam Hussein posed a direct threat to the United States is that he possessed weapons of mass destruction. I am willing to concede that the Iraqi military possessed both chemical and biological agents. Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of them that were never accounted for after the first Gulf War. He has even used them on several occasions on Kurdish minorities in Northern Iraq. However, no proof was ever offered that he possessed nu... ...o.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ ap/20030411/ap_on_re_mi_ea/war_us_military_623> McDowell, Patrick. Crowd Kills 2 Clerics at Shiite Shrine . Middle East AP. April 11 th 2003. < http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ ap/20030411/ap_on_re_mi_ea/war_clerics_killed&cid=540&ncid=716> Mearsheimer, John J. and Stephen M. Walt. An Unnecessary War . Foreign Policy. January/February 2003. 45-48 Pollack, Kenneth M. The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq . Random House Publishing. First Edition 2002. 64, 144 Rai, Milan. No Justification For War . Znet. March 6 2002. Community for Social Change. April 13 2003. Rice, Condoleezza. Campaign 2000: Promoting the National Interest . Foreign Affairs. January/February 2000. 86 Tenet, George. Letter to Congress . October 2002

Internet as a Learning Tool

International Journal of Computing and Business Research ISSN (Online) : 2229-6166 Volume 2 Issue 2 May 2011 INTERNET AS LEARNING TOOL: INDIAN ENGINEERING STUDENT’S PERCEPTION Vandana Sharma [1], Rishu Chhabra[2] 1 2 Education & Research, Infosys Technologies Limited, Mysore, Karnataka, India Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Chitkara University, Punjab, India, ABSTRACT Our global economy now relies on brainpower and innovation rather than manual labor and raw material as a generator of wealth and good education has become the key part in shaping the success of the countries.Over the last decade, t h e I T revolution has brought in advancement that shows increasingly visible effects on the education with the birth of online education. First student community realized the effect of the internet on their education. Invention of internet has removed all the barriers to learning. The scope of this paper is to analyze the north Indian engineering student’s percep tion about internet as learning tool effects of internet on them in perspective of their relations, education, entertainment and and socialization.Technology can have both positive and negative consequences on people in different walks of life at different times. Now necessity is to understand the true impact of it so that everybody gathers benefits that yield a healthy mind. In this paper, with the help of an empirical study it was inspected that whether the contacts via e- mail, online chatting and availability of information through Internet would lead our students in a better learned and connected individual. Study also examines the kind of learning mode students prefer.These issues are discovered in detail and suitable solutions are proposed to counter the negative effects of internet on students. Keyword: Internet, education, learning tool INTRODUCTION Internet is a tool for the improvement of learning. A textbook which was a traditional learning tool are now out of date as in ternet moves quickly and provides updated information and includes a wide variety of International Journal of Computing and Business Research ISSN (Online) : 2229-6166 Volume 2 Issue 2 May 2011 international sources. Now learning has a greater reliance on information acquired from the internet rather than from textbooks.Dependence on this tool has increased exponentially and unbelievably. Social, geographical, economical barriers are disappearing as students interact worldwide. The technological revolution has a faster and deeper impact on more and more lives. This has further increased with the improvement of technology. Venkatesh [1] surveyed in his paper that all technologies create an impact of s o m e k i n d . For example, the television technology has had an influence on the media habits of the public, their attitudes and behavior towards entertainment and the interaction between family members.Cole [2] assessed the requisite of Internet as a mainstream medium t h a t m a y s o o n b e a s prevalent a s television although pace of its diffusion seems much faster. Kraut e t al [3] conducted a longitudinal study on the effects of Internet on social involvement and psychological well-being. Their findings show that the greater use of the Internet was significantly related with decreased community within the family, a decrease in local social network and loneliness and depression. In a report of SIQSS, [4] N.Nie has also continued with the negative consequences of the Internet that are similar with the outcomes of the Kraut group. Katz and Aspden [5] made a survey using 2500 respondents, 8 percent of them were Internet users. Comparing users with non-users, they establish no evidence t h a t t h e u s e o f i nternet reduces people’s membership in social and religious organizations. Among users, more use of the Internet was related with additional contact with family members and an increased involvement in online communities. This survey contradicts the discoveries presented in [4] and [5].Wellman [6] made a survey on â€Å"the National Geographic Society website† and came out wi t h t h e s u g g es t i o ns t hat t h e I n t er n e t can be used for increasing interpersonal connectivity and organizational involvement. Not only can expose people to more inf ormation and more contacts, it can reduce commitment to community. However, this increased connectivity and involvement. In 2009 there were nearly 81,000,000 users of internet in India. There are many studies available at global level about the impact of internet on students but studies about Indian engineering students are not available.INTERNET IN EDUCATION There are number of main advantages of using internet for education [7] A . Flexibility and Variety The flexibility of the internet is possibly the greatest advantage for online education. Websites, interactive activities, lecture notes, videoconferencing, webinars, chartrooms, and blogs, online education studen ts and their educators can interact in ways that are already known to them. Internet provides user friendly interface International Journal of Computing and Business Research ISSN (Online) : 2229-6166 Volume 2 Issue 2 May 2011 to user and new users also feel more comfortable with time B.Ease and Low Cost of Access Internet has defeated the distance barrier for learning. Students need not to move to gain knowledge. It has become easy and affordable for everyone from a rural area student to a working professional. For the purpose of interactive courses and videoconferencing rural students are facing problem and this still requires attention C. Ease and Low Cost of Setting Information Online Email, chat and interactive online meeting has become new way of learning. Information regarding a course is all available online. This is not only accessible but is affordable for institutes also.Records are available for 24X7 for any time use. D. Ease of Updating Information Online Information up dation is easier than revising a textbook. Results can be displayed just after an exam. A new course is easy to add. New research or finding can become part of syllabus instantly. In [8] Aytekin ISMAN, Fahme DABAJ studied students-teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards internet based on various parameters. It was concluded that at education cycle of students concentrate more to learn internet alternatives and functions for getting great positive benefit their future life by adapting contemporary trends.In [9] Hong etal studied . Students' attitudes toward the use of the Internet for it is important that students should b e exposed learning at a university in Malaysia and showed that to this web based learning so that they could get benefit from Web-based courses and Web-assisted conducted in their field of specialization by the various departments. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this research was to collect information about the impact of internet on learning of eng ineering students. This study is directed to answer following questions: †¢ †¢ †¢ What is the attitude of students towards using internet for their course contents?Do the students prefer using internet over books? Does internet builds confidence in students by helping them in presentations etc.? METHODOLOGY The research instrument in this study was a questionnaire. There were total of 20 questions in this questionnaire each with five selections of response from â€Å"Strongly Agree† to Strongly Disagree†. Questions were divided into four categories. In first category questions were framed to measure student’s attitude toward International Journal of Computing and Business Research ISSN (Online) : 2229-6166 Volume 2 Issue 2 May 2011 he use of internet for their course purpose. Sample question for this category is â€Å"With the help of internet I am able to collect more study material â€Å". Second category asks students about their preference of internet over books. Sample question for this statement is â€Å"For study purpose I prefer spending time on internet surfing rather sitting in a library â€Å". Third category measures the student’s attitude for internet as a tool of confidence builder. Sample question is â€Å"Internet has boosted my confidence as I am able to present my reports, seminars etc. n better wayâ€Å". In the last category miscellaneous questions were asked to get student opinion about group learning through internet using blogs and discussion forums, their time spent on internet etc. As all students were engineering students, questions were not asked to measure their basic knowledge and skills of the internet. Population under investigation included 100 students of Computer Science & Engineering of a Wifi enabled engineering institute campus. All students use Laptop and Internet on daily basis. RESULT AND DISCUSSION A.Student’s attitude towards using internet for their syllabi There were four questions under this category. For each statement responses were coded 2 for â€Å"Strongly disagree â€Å"to 5 for â€Å"Strongly agree† and 1 for â€Å"No opinion†. Thus the scores for each student on the statement ranges from 8 to 20. Scores from 8-10, 12-16 and 17-20 were classified as having â€Å"negative† ,†neutral† and â€Å"Positive† attitude towards the use of internet for learning. Table 1 shows the result. Table1. Student’s attitude towards using internet for learning. Scores 8-10 12-16 17-20 Attitude Negative Neutral Positive Frequency 2 58 40B. Student’s preference of internet for study material over the books For each statement responses were coded for 2 â€Å"Strongly disagree â€Å"to 5 for â€Å"Strongly agree† and 1 for â€Å"No opinion†. Thus the scores for each student on the statement range from 10 to 21. Scores from 10-14, 1517 and 18-21 were classified as â€Å"do not prefer us ing internet â€Å",†no preference† and â€Å"prefer use of internet† over books. Table 2 shows the result of student’s preference of internet over books International Journal of Computing and Business Research ISSN (Online) : 2229-6166 Volume 2 Issue 2 May 2011Table2. Student’s preference of internet over books Scores 10-14 15-17 18-21 Preference Frequency Do not 15 Prefer No 48 preference 37 Prefer C. Student’s attitude towards internet as a confidence builder For each statement responses were coded 2 for â€Å"Strongly disagree â€Å"to 5 for â€Å"Strongly agree† and 1 for â€Å"no opinion†. Thus the scores for each student on the statement range from 2 to 10. Scores from 2-4, 5-7 and 810 were classified as having â€Å"Negative â€Å",†Neutral† and â€Å"Positive† attitudes towards the use of internet for learning.Table 3 shows the attitude of students toward internet as confidence builder. Table3. St udent’s attitude towards internet as a confidence builder. Scores 2-4 5-7 8-10 Attitude Negative Neutral Positive Frequency 11 31 58 Despite of the fact that the students in this survey were from computer science & engineering stream half of the students find it difficult to understand all the terms on WebPages. 90% students spend 1-5 hours on internet. 66% students use blogs and discussion forum for the solution to their technical problems.Only 8% students disagree that internet can be helpful in group learning. 79% students consider that mixture of online course and classroom course will be better for learning process. 84% students feel that internet helpful to prepare them for examination. 71% students do not find internet adding to laziness. 51 % students believe that the use of internet has decreased the verbal communications among themselves. Internet has positive impact on learning domain but has negative impact on social aspects of a student’s personality.Thoug h students realize this they should indulge more in social interactions and activities. Institutes should hold seminars time to time to make students aware about the importance of internet as learning tool. Institutes should encourage group learning through internet and should promote the use of blogs for learning purpose. Courses should be designed in blended format of classroom and online teaching. As result of this survey showed that more Indian students are opting online books as compare to paper book so use of online bookInternational Journal of Computing and Business Research ISSN (Online) : 2229-6166 Volume 2 Issue 2 May 2011 reading devices should be promoted. The use of such devices is user friendly. CONCLUSION In this paper result of the survey of use of internet as learning tool by engineering student has been presented. Engineering students are using computer and internet on daily basis. Maximum students find internet a very useful tool for their studies. Students prefer online books and study material. They find internet helpful to boost their confidence for presentations and reports.Engineering institutes should promote the use of internet as a learning tool and should provide infrastructure to facilitate the students. Students also feel that excess use of internet may cause some socialization problems. REFERENCES [1] A. Venkatesh, A c onceptualization of Household/Technology Interactions, Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 12, 189-194, 1985. [2] J. I. Cole, The Impact of the Internet on Our Social,Political and Economic Life, The UCCLA Center for communication Policy, 2000. [3] R. Kraut, M. Patterosn, V. undmark, S. Keisler, T.Mukophadhyay and W. Scherlis, Internet Paradox: being? , a Social Technology that Reduces Social Involvement and PsychologicalWell53(9),1998a. American Psychologist, [4] N. Nie, Study of social Consequences of the Internet, Stanford Institute of the Quantitative Study of Society (SIQSS), 2000. [5] J. Katz, and P. Aspden, Motivations for and Barriers to Internet Usage: Results of a national publicopinion survey,Internet Research-Electronic 170, 1997. [6] B. Wellman, A. Q. Haase, J. Witte, K. Hampton, Does the Internet Increase, Decrease, or Supplement Social Capital?Social Networks,Participation, and Community Commitment, The Internet in Everyday Life, American Behavioral Scientist, 45(3), 437-456, 2001. [7]http://www. college-university- directory. com/internet_1. html [8] Aytekin ISMAN, Fahme DABAJ, Attitudes of Students Towards Internet,Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE October 2004 ISSN 1302-6488 ,5 (4) [9] Kian-Sam Hong, Abang Ahmad Ridzuan , Ming-Koon Kuek , Students' attitudes toward the use of the Internet for learning: A study at a university in Malaysia. networking Applications and Policy, Vol. 7(3),