Observing the Similarities and Differences between...

Dystopian fiction has dominated human imagination for centuries and themes of futuristic societies oppressed by bureaucratic and technological control have become consistent throughout various novels, films and television shows. The absence and mistreatment of humanity due to factors such as war, famine and poverty criticize current global issues while also foreshadowing the consequences of those issues if left unresolved. Both Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and the movie Gattaca reflect dystopian societies in their approach to human reproduction and social class. The illusion of utopia and dehumanization of individuals are present through both societies’ dependence on an elite group of males. Handmaid’s Tale and Gattaca, while sharing similarities between dystopian themes, challenge reproduction from two greatly opposing perspectives: science and religion. In Gattaca, natural conception is highly unrecommended whereas in Handmaid’s Tale it is firmly encouraged and supported. Handmaid’s Tale concentrates on biblical teachings and gender roles reflect those of old world normalities. Citizens are divided into different social classes and are to conform to the expectations of their class. Gattaca on the other hand is based on gender equality, and social class is divided between two categories-genetically engineered and naturally conceived. The presence of an elite group of males, extreme scientific and religious influences, and

Richard II Eclipsed By Henry Bolingbroke - 1403 Words

I: Deposing â€Å"God’s Elected Deputy†: Richard II Eclipsed by Henry Bolingbroke Let us begin with Richard II and Richard’s extra-legal actions in act 1. As we shall see, though Richard here seizes the exception and establishes himself as sovereign over English law, his actions create a dangerous precedent that will eventually prove the king’s undoing. The play famously begins with King Richard mediating an argument between Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray. As Katherine Eisaman Maus explains, the two â€Å"are fighting about the murder of Thomas of Woodstock;† though â€Å"Bolingbroke knows that Richard secretly ordered Woodstock’s death,† he nevertheless â€Å"cannot say so, [and must] pic[k] Richard’s agent Mowbray for his target† (â€Å"Introduction to Richard II,† 973). Richard, cognisant of his own guilt in Woodstock’s death, cannot allow the matter to proceed legally, and defers judgement in favour of a trial by combat—an already antiquated means of determining whose cause was right t hat acts under the presumption that God will favour the just cause and allow the innocent man to win (973). Richard, however, senses that Mowbray’s loss would â€Å"fright fair peace / And make us wade even in our kindred’s blood†Ã¢â‚¬â€that is, ignite civil war—and so of necessity asserts his own authority over that of his own laws: he diffuses the situation by ‘mercifully’ banishing the combatants from the realm and thereby preventing further crisis (1.3.131-132). In so doing he rises to Schmitt’s hypothesised role of

Projects Closure Free Essays

Closing a Project Projects are by definition, temporary endeavour with commencement and ending periods. Wysocki (2012) identified project closure as the fifth process group in PMLC where the final product derived from the project is presented to the client according to specifications. The question of â€Å"how well did you do? † will be answered when client approves of the output, asset/output gets installed, audit tests post-implementation status and a final report submitted. We will write a custom essay sample on Projects Closure or any similar topic only for you Order Now The client’s acceptance of a project deliverable is a very important milestone as it sets in motion a key activity called â€Å"closure† which effectively brings to an end the project life cycle. (Wysocki, 2012) also identified closing a process that involves the following milestones: i. Getting client acceptance ii. Ensuring that all deliverables are installed iii. Ensuring that documentation is in place iv. Getting client sign-off on the final report v. Conducting post-implementation audit vi. Celebrating the success Client Acceptance – As a key trigger for project closure and a major milestone to every PM, client acceptance signifies that project output meets specifications and thus, brings to an end the â€Å"temporary endeavour† called project. At this stage, the project deliverables are reviewed and a verdict is passed by the client. This can be via a formal acceptance test procedure (ATP) between the client and the project team where the project team demonstrate key features of the project to confirm clients expectations while the client keeps a checklist to ensure compliance with scope equirements. In NLNG project closure procedure requires a thorough user acceptance test (UAT) with the project sponsors and end/super-users meeting the project handling firm before a project is declared closed. Client acceptance can also be informal for small projects that require just datelines or a few deliverables in place. A brief hand-over ceremony or a communication to the client by the PM is good enough. Most community development projects in NLNG do not require a formal UAT. Installation of Project Deliverables – After UAT project outputs/deliverable are installed and a â€Å"go-live† is declared. Installation of project outputs according to Wysocki (2012, 314 – 315) can take any of the four approaches viz; phased, cut-over, parallel or by business-unit. Phased installation as the name implies, takes bit-by-bit installation of project deliverables in a specific order. Company-wide re-organisation projects are likely examples here. Cut-out installation replaces an old system with a new one after the new system is tested in a test environment. Most upgrade project are installed using this approach. Parallel installation requires the new deliverables installed while the old is still running. This is referred to as â€Å"parallel run† in IT projects as it permits a comparative study of the two systems. By-business unit installation is where project deliverables are spread around business units that may necessarily be in one location. Project documentation – Young (2010) noted that project documentation involves Project Closure Report, Post Implementation Review Report and data archiving that will be used to measure project’s success in term of outcomes as defined at the early planning stage. Project documentation serves to keep track of the project schedules, records of estimates of key project inputs, UAT activities and how the changes were managed, challenges and key learning points during project implementation and go-live. It also involves development of manuals for user training and other resources as may be required by the post go-live project owners. Ultimately, both client and PMs have a role in what becomes of project documentation. While the PM ensures that those documents serve to provide avenue for assessing project outcomes, client’s understanding of the document is particularly important during and post go-live project phases. Final Report sign-off: – A clear understanding of project documentation following a UAT will bring about another milestone in project close called â€Å"sign-off† where the client formally accept deliverables as installed alongside all the relevant documentations. By this, the client fully takes responsibility of the project and since this is a post go-live situation, the client accepts and sign-off the Project Closure Report which formalizes the closure of the project. The report is however, usually prepared by the Project Manager and presented to the client or project sponsor for sign-off. Post-Implementation Audit – This comes moments after go-live to identify if project goals have been achieved since the new/changes project comes on board. It asses key project goals set at the beginning, durations and resources, value proposition achieved, key learning points and what works (or not worked) since go-live. It is an audit because it is undertaken with a view to ensure compliance with set objectives. A post-implementation audit report is delivered as documentary of the project history highlighting key project goals and success factors, project methodologies, risk management strategies, client satisfaction assessment reports, etc. The audit report can serve to re-assure project owners of the benefits of the newly implemented project or it highlights major challenges/exposures of the new system. While the former validates initial project objectives, the later opens up avenues for quick intervention to mitigate losses and value erosion as a result of the new project. Celebrating Success – Part of project close is a ceremonial arrangement to recognise that the project has actually ended. Most go-live activities require elaborate celebrations with souvenirs and adverts to herald the arrival of a new project. In NLNG, projects go-live are celebrated with gift/souvenirs, bonuses and other incentives to project team members and other relevant parties. Community development projects have cultural dances and other local events to go with. Business Risks Associated with Skipping Project Close-out – Project close out is an essential part of PMLC as it answers the â€Å"how well did you do† question and thus skipping it poses significant exposure to not only the project, but broad business or welfare objectives of client. Non-closure also impacts on the PMs resources and corporate reputation. Key risks associated with non-closure of projects include; ? Increasing tendency for non-implementation of the entire project or failed/part implementation that wont be noticed until a later period ? Absence of client acceptance test may hamper a proper UAT which normally provides the avenue for addressing project gaps ? Improper documentation will eventually affect optimal utilization of project deliverables. Also, absence of user manuals could trigger misuse of project outputs and bring about recurring cost of maintenance ? Absence of project installation and hand-over exposes the project falling into the wrong hands as no proper change management has been put in place. ? Lack of client sign-off exposes both parties to breach of contract and litigations while project teams and sponsors may develop animosity due to accusations, counter-accusations and blame game as project risks manifest. Lack of post-implementation audit may deny the client the benefit of assessing project objectives/targets against actual results post go-live. This entails that all the risks inherent in this new project are assimilated and may not be easily addressed. References 1. Young, M. L. (2010) PM Hut: A Complete Guide to Closing Projects. Available at: http://www. pmhut. com/a-complete-guide-to-closing-projects (Accessed: 20th April, 2013) 2. Wysocki, R. K. (2012) Effective project management traditional, agile, extreme, 4th Edition. Wiley, Indianapolis. How to cite Projects Closure, Papers

Professor Notes About Program Cluster Early Childhood Education & Care

Question: Discuss about the Program Cluster Early Childhood Education and Care. Answer: Introduction: Curriculum planning formats are the templates, where the upcoming curriculum activities of the children and their progress will be maintained and will be monitored in regular basis. These formats can be different for different classes. Such three sample of curriculum planning formats age given below: Figure 1: Curriculum planning format 1 Source: Flannery et al., 2013 Figure 2: Curriculum planning format 2 Source: Mayesky, 2014 Figure 3: Curriculum planning format 3 Source: Ashdown Bernard, 2012 Analysis of collected planning formats: After analyzing the three curriculum planning formats, I feel that these formats reflect positive view of the child and educator. The children with early age group (0-5 years) are developing and learning in nature. In this stage, they are prone to learning new things. Therefore, these formats actually meet that target. These formats explore the interests, abilities, culture, ideas and current knowledge in attractive ways (Haywood Brooks, 2013). Through these formats, each childs learning in a group is organized in such a way, where all the children can maximize their opportunities individually. Along with the children, the educators also get positive influence from these formats. The educators can communicate with the children in various ways. Due to these formats, the educators can focus on all the subjects with same importance in a same timing. The educators can compile the information, which is gathered from each child. These formats also help to build the professionalism of the educators. In Frameworks Learning process, children actively participate in the daily learning session, where the educators can identify the interests and strengths of the children. Based on the learning outcomes, the educators design the appropriate learning environment and choose the proper teaching strategies, which are required for the children. These formats focus on all the subjects with same importance in a same timing. It will help to monitor each child through knowing its interests and strengths (Bacon et al., 2014). The overall group will be monitored through assessing individual child in Frameworks Learning. The Framework has worked as conclusive international evidence to recognize long-term outcomes and big picture. These outcomes direct the early childhood educators in a broad way in early childhood setting so that the children are learning while engaging and build the success of their lives. The goal of any learning process is to make sure that the children are able to learn the n ew things. This goal is achieved with the help of these planning formats in this learning process. The curriculum-planning format should be made in such a way, where there will be separate column of certain criteria, like, childrens portfolios, international teaching, supporting skills and development, childrens interests and childrens progress. These criteria will be ,maintained on daily basis by the educators (Isenberg Jalongo, 2013). The monthly progress report will be built based on that. Along with these planning formats, both the children and educators will maintain specific diaries. In the diaries of children, certain things will be reported, like, community events, family input, child input. The educators will also mention childrens reflections, their learning and spontaneous experiences in the planning format on a daily basis. In the planning format or in diary, there should be separate column, which will be meant for parents suggestions and input (Kimble, 2014). The educators will maintain their observations towards each child in their specific diaries. The educators ca n also note down their daily program plans in their diaries, so it can help them to present their teaching program plan in an arranged way. If these records will be followed in daily basis, then it will help to monitor the participation of each child in the program. Along with these, both the family and children will get the opportunity to give feedback and to comment about the curriculum. The curriculum planning formats will be changed in each six months. In the changed planning format, there will be separate column of future planning, like summer camp, yoga session, constructing class and foreign language learning. The children and their families will be informed about this future planning through the diaries or parents-teachers meetings. These programs will help to develop the learning and interests of the children. The children also will enjoy these session, as these sessions will be different from their regular classes (Mayer, 2013). The curriculum planning also can be made in such a way, where both the children and their families can actively participate together. Certain examples of these programs are physical activities, cooking competition, constructing competition. These programs will support the learning process and help to build the understandings between parents and their children. These program formats will be printed in paper templates and will be distributed to the children at the staring of their learning process. It will make these formats easy to use, flexible and accessible. Both the educator staffs and families can interpret in these templates through writing their comments. These program formats will also be present in the systems of the particular institution (Cremin Arthur, 2014). Educators will monitor the system formats. Therefore, this procedure will help to keep the track of the progress of the student. Due to this, the parents and educators can communicate regarding any childs progress related issues at any point of learning. The documented assessments can be arranged on half-yearly basis or in the gap of six months. In these documented assessments, the tests will be conducted on separate learning topics, where the children need to be performed. The educators will evaluate it and the children will be informed about the evaluation comments along with their parents. Apart from this, each child will be observed on daily basis and its daily performance on learning curriculum will be noticed (Flannery et al., 2013). The educators will make their critical reflection based on the observations. The educators will also discuss about their critical reflective ideas on the children to their parents. These evaluation or assessments will help to recognize the interests, innovative ideas, communication skills, strong points and weak points. It will also help in monitoring physical and mental abilities. These evaluation comments will in term help to make the future curriculum process to modify the children learning. Developing new curriculum planning format: Student Name: Week: 1st week of month August Class: Nursery Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Language Skills Playing attention while reading short stories Naming of different sounds, which will be heard in the class Understanding the communication between friends and teachers Writing activity and shared reading Handwriting bookwork Social/Emotional Skills Imagination and creativity in provided topics Talking about recent family gathering Learning communication skills Learning behavioural skills Organising social programs Math/Reasoning Skills Matching similar items Reciting 2-5 tables from memory Counting small amount of items Finding odds from given pictures Learning substitution Science Skills Noticing various objects throughout the day Identifying certain animals Colouring the animals Reading short stories on animals Crafting items on animals Physical Skills Moving in rhythm with music and songs Developing coordination and balance Participating in a group activity Learning music Learning physical exercises Extra Activities Participating in Home School group Grocery shopping Visit to library Observing drama or play performances Visit to perk Teachers Feedback Parents Comments Justification: This newly developed curriculum-planning format is easily accessible, as it will be published in paper template. In this format, the student name and number of the week are mentioned. It will help to monitor the children individually. The format is made for the children of nursery level. Therefore, it automatically will address and monitor the children of nursery group. The format has developed in such a way, where both parents views and educators views will be reflected. According to the Piagetian approach, the children can learn through the hands on activities and play. It will help to concrete their experiences (Mayesky, 2014). Therefore, in this format, all the subjects are covered in terms of activities. It will also help to know the interests and strengths of the children individually or group. This will monitor the group in term. The format is maintained on daily basis and it is made for five days. In this way, this format will keep the records of each childs participation in the daily activities. The topics in every subjects are presented in different ways on daily basis. It will help to build the learning. This format is also giving the opportunity to children and their family to participate in these programs actively. The row of parents comments is providing the family to give the feedback on both the programs and the evaluation of teachers (Yeung Chan, 2013). After evaluating this planning format, it is observed that, this format will keep the track of daily progress of the children. It will help the children to perform in future assessments and to develop future aspects. Outline of a process: The institution has planned for future Summer Camp program for the nursery children. It is important for the children, as the reviews will be evaluated in the final assessment. In order to meet the goal, the planning format will be made and then it will be distributed among the children in nursery group. The parents of the children will also be informed about this program through parents-teachers meeting (Lonigan et al., 2015). Summer Camp program for 2016 Goals Reflective practice Learning extracurricular activities Learning partnerships Practice Painting Crafting Dancing Game Highlights Beach party Attractive foods and drinks Duration 15 days Outcomes Developing innovative ideas Building relationships Group participation Barriers to learning/additional needs: Barriers to learning/additional needs are certain challenges, which make the hindrance for the children in order to pursue their education. Among many other such barriers, the selected barriers are poverty and disabilities in the children. Poverty: Poverty is described as the educational barrier, where the children are not able to pursue their primary education due to lack of financial disability in their family. The children cannot get their additional needs due to the financial constrains of their family. This barrier occurs, as the parents of the children cannot afford school uniforms, transportation, foods, books and other school suppliers, like, chalks, pens and notebooks. Due to these challenges, the children are not able to continue their education. Moreover, in order to stable the financial condition, the children are forced to take the role of child labors (Van Oers Duijkers, 2013). This need is diagnosed when the children cannot concentrate in their learning and they start missing their class. Their physical and mental situations start deteriorating, when they undergo this situation. In order to treat this barrier, both the families and the education institutes have to take the initiatives. In order to remove this ba rrier from the society; certain strategies can be implemented in the society. The families with economical constrains can take the guidance of social counselor. The counselor can help the children through providing all the necessary items, like, books, uniforms. Sometimes under certain government policies, the children who belong to lower level of economical background get the education at free of cost. However, many families are not aware of these facts. Therefore, the government, social counselors, teachers and volunteers have to take the responsibilities (Booth et al., 2013). They can arrange for educational camps where they can provide all the details about the free access of the learning materials. The volunteers can go to the families with financial constrain to motivate them so that they send their children for perusing education. Various institutions and teachers also can come together in order to provide the free education to the children. After assessing the community, many professionals and agencies are found, which support the children education in low economical condition. These support systems are described below: Compassion Australia: Compassion Australia is an agency, where the main goal of the team members is to lift the children out of the poverty and to provide them with beast quality of education. The Compassions Child Sponsorship Programfocuses to make the children, who graduate with the skills to be emotionally and physically healthy, economically self-supporting and able to develop a genuine relationship with the Christ. They have 150team members and other volunteers, who provide their skills, energy and time to fulfill the objectives. This agency is generally situated in Newcastle, NSW. But is has other regional offices in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Contact details: 30Warabrook Boulevard, Warabrook NSW 2304 Australia Tel: 1300224453 Tel: +61249355000 Fax: +61249355099 Email: compassion@compassion.com.au The Smith Family: The Smith Family helps the children, who are in unfavorable conditions, in order to provide the education. This agency has worked on 94 Australian communities and sometimes outside of the local school. Contact details: Tel: +1800024069 https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/ Disabilities in the children: The disabilities in the children are described as educational barrier, as it makes hindrances in childs education. The disabilities in the children generally occur due to the physical and mental abnormalities in the children. Sometimes, these abnormalities come genetically or sometimes it occurs due to certain accidents. The disabilities in children are diagnosed while learning, when the children face difficulties in learning and they cannot memorize. Sometimes the children face problem in hearing and visualizing the objects in the class. They cannot communicate properly. They generally start their education at very older ages. Sometimes these challenges can be treated after several medal settings (Lewis Presser et al., 2015). However, some issue cannot be solved permanently, like children with Schizophrenia, Alzheimer. They need completely different types of education system in their learning process. There are many educational institutions and agencies, which help these disabled ch ildren in perusing their education. The agencies, teachers and the volunteers organize various activities through which the children can learn and develop their skills, as they cannot concentrate on any memorizing things. The organizers also arrange for separate activities based on extracurricular activities, like summer camp. These children can develop their social, behavioral, and communicative skills through these supportive programs (Follari, 2014). After assessing the community, many professionals and agencies are found, which support the disabled children in education. These support systems are described below: Raising Children Network: This support system is a website, where the parents of the disabled children can get the support for their children staring from the baby stage. This agency helps the children with various disabilities. In order to provide the best quality of their service, they get the support from various authorized sponsors, like Australian Government, the Royal Childrens Hospital Melbourne. Contact details: https://raisingchildren.net.au/ Children and Young People with Disability Australia: Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) deals with the disabled young people along with children (aged 0-25). This agency responds and listens to the problems of the children, advocate and educate them. After reviewing the children, the agency informs their problems to their families. At the end of the program, they also celebrate the achievements and success of the disabled children. Contact details: 20 Derby Street, Collingwood VIC 3066 PO Box 172Clifton Hill VIC 3068 Phone:03 9417 1025 or 1800 222 660 (regional or interstate calls) Email:info@cda.org.au Conclusion: Children are the future generation in the society. Their education is the most important topic in the society. Sometimes the children learning process may appear as challenging. After reviewing the above text, in the conclusion, it can be said that if the children learning process can be made in different way, then the children can learn easily. References: Ashdown, D. M., Bernard, M. E. (2012). Can explicit instruction in social and emotional learning skills benefit the social-emotional development, well-being, and academic achievement of young children?.Early Childhood Education Journal,39(6), 397-405. Australias largest national education charity - The Smith Family. (2016). Bacon, E. C., Dufek, S., Schreibman, L., Stahmer, A. C., Pierce, K., Courchesne, E. (2014). Measuring outcome in an early intervention program for toddlers with autism spectrum disorder: use of a curriculum-based assessment.Autism research and treatment,2014. Bers, M. U., Flannery, L., Kazakoff, E. R., Sullivan, A. (2014). Computational thinking and tinkering: Exploration of an early childhood robotics curriculum.Computers Education,72, 145-157. Booth, T., Masterton, M., Potts, P., Swann, W. (2013).Curricula for diversity in education. Routledge. Cremin, T., Arthur, J. (2014).Learning to teach in the primary school. Routledge. Flannery, L. P., Silverman, B., Kazakoff, E. R., Bers, M. U., Bont, P., Resnick, M. (2013, June). Designing ScratchJr: support for early childhood learning through computer programming. InProceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children(pp. 1-10). ACM. Follari, L. (2014).Foundations and best practices in early childhood education: History, theories, and approaches to learning. Pearson Higher Ed. Haywood, H. C., Brooks, P. H. (2013). Bright start: a cognitive curriculum for young children.Clinical Psychology Special Education/Kliniceska I Special'naa Psihologia, (3). Isenberg, J. P., Jalongo, M. R. (2013).Creative thinking and arts-based learning: Preschool through fourth grade. Pearson Higher Ed. Kimble, G. (2014). Children learning about biodiversity at an environment centre, a museum and at live animal shows.Studies in Educational Evaluation,41, 48-57. Lewis Presser, A., Clements, M., Ginsburg, H., Ertle, B. (2015). Big Math for Little Kids: The effectiveness of a preschool and kindergarten mathematics curriculum.Early education and development,26(3), 399-426. Lonigan, C. J., Phillips, B. M., Clancy, J. L., Landry, S. H., Swank, P. R., Assel, M., ... Eisenberg, N. (2015). Impacts of a comprehensive school readiness curriculum for preschool children at risk for educational difficulties.Child development,86(6), 1773-1793. Mayer, R. E. (2013).Teaching and learning computer programming: Multiple research perspectives. Routledge. Mayesky, M. (2014).Creative Activities and Curriculum for Young Children. Cengage Learning. Raising Children Network. (2016). Raisingchildren.net.au. Van Oers, B., Duijkers, D. (2013). Teaching in a play-based curriculum: Theory, practice and evidence of developmental education for young children.Journal of Curriculum Studies,45(4), 511-534. Yeung, S. S., Chan, C. K. (2013). Phonological awareness and oral language proficiency in learning to read English among Chinese kindergarten children in Hong Kong.British Journal of Educational Psychology,83(4), 550-568.