Changing communication by technology Essay

Nowadays the world changes in so many parts such as environment, economic, cultural, technology and so on†¦ And all of those things will be effect in a business. Especially, technology has change really quick over last 20 years. It is made the word seem smaller and make people closer .Communicate today has changed from personal to more dialogue as sharing information, sharing videos, photos and other multimedia content. It is accomplished through the development of technology in both hardware such as smart phones, laptops and software as all social networks, email, and mobile software. We can easy see that the most outstanding changes in technology is Web Site, Social networking, smart phones, Internet shopping .it affect in communicate with our customers, suppliers, government and public. We can easy deny that the internet is growth up and change every day. ‘’The Internet is probably the most revolutionary idea since the invention of cell phones’’ (How the internet is changing life and business, 2014). It is the best opportunity for company doing marketing to attract customers. ’’Around 40% of the world population has an internet connection today. In 1995, it was less than 1%. The number of internet users has increased tenfold from 1999 to 2013’’ (Internet Users,2014). Furthermore, the development of hardware devices such as smart phones, tablets, computers also changes the way people communicate with each other. Communication within the company and outside the company has changed compared to the past. it made our communication in business is more faster and easier . Firstly, we can easy see that Word Wide Web is more commonly to communicates with customer. They can buy or do research by the web pages online and don’t need to go the showroom or a store to decide what they want to buy. â€Å"According to PC magazine,58% of people research a product or service provider online before buying†(e-shock 2020,Macheal de Kare-Silver,p.135) .Amazon is a successful company is this case with revenue achieve US$ 74.45 billion in 2013 (Amazon.com, Form 8-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Jan 30, 2014) .We also use the web pages for sharing information to public which mean we can use the web to provide information to public and attract investors also informed on the status of business quickly to shareholders . In addition to the benefits that are as low cost, easy to connect everywhere and rapid interactive communications but challenging encounter is the search  can be slow, danger of information overload and excess and virus attacks. The secondly is mobile phone. They changed the way people communicate with each other and companies also rely on it to be able to communicate better with their customers. For example ANZ Bank have created a â€Å"ANZ Gomoney app† to better interact with customers. they can easily use anytime, anywhere â€Å"GoMoney The ANZ â„ ¢ app provides a secure and convenient way to bank, 24/7†(anz.com.au,2014). In addition we can better interact together face to face wherever customers are when they use their Smartphone. For shareholders we can have meetings without necessarily meeting room , we can inform the external situation quickly companies to shareholders via sms or email when they are accessed by phone. Next, email has changed the way we communicate in business. it is used for internal communication within the company and external communication with customers, suppliers and the government . Scott F. Geld argue that Email is an Internet marketing tool that is fast, easy to use, inexpensive and effective (Advantages of Email,2014). Email can help companies reach customers through an easy advertising without spending much more on printing costs. Also â€Å"Email lets businesses market to targeted audiences. Customers can opt in to receive email communications about products they own, sales or new items. Customers who receive targeted emails based on their preferences are likely to be more receptive.†(Advantages and Benefits of Email for a Business, Amanda C. Kooser, Demand Media, 2014) . We may use email to conduct customer service to answer questions as well as information that customers need to know. Email has certain advantages for companies such as low cost and easy access can use at any time. It is easy to send a message to large numbers of people. Today we face many difficulties when using email to communicate as system security, risk sending the wrong address and so much spam box. With the organizations, communicate with customer such as selling products and services to the customer with a high possible price is a main purpose in their business. So that, to achieve it, they have to compete against with other competitors in the economic market and promote their products to the  customers. Therefore, using social media is the best way to advertise the organization’s products or services. â€Å"Social networking Web sites and services, such as Facebook, MySpace and Cyworld, have become primary communication media for a new generation of digitally aware consumers† (The Changing face of communication , IBM Corporation).By posting the article product promotion on the social media websites such as Facebook , Twitter†¦ they can communicate with the customer in a indirect way. Besides that, with the developing of technological, making advertising video is easier way to promote the organization’s business. In other words, the customers will be feel more confidence to make their choice when they can read or watch the products detail in their own computer and other customer comments about the products that they want to buy. With the developing of social media, the organizations will not to misspend their money for advertising their products, and time to communicate with their customers. Social media open the best way to business for the organizations in promotion and online-service with customer about their products. For example is this case is Vodafone .†The â€Å"Connect to Friends† application from Vodafone is a messaging application users can download from Facebook. It is open to Vodafone and non-Vodafone customers and allows them to send messages and photos directly from Facebook† (â€Å"Vodafone Connect to Friends.† Mobi le TechNews. September 2008.) Technological also changes the way of communication in today’s companies. In the past, we are difficult to communicate between levels in a company. Example, staffs are difficult to present the problem as well as new ideas for their managers. The managers also can hardly reach the staff new idea because it needs a long time. Today, it is easy to communicate internal in the company, it is faster and easier. For managers they can use email to send information to employees, and it’s easy to get staff feedback quickly. For staff, technology opens up opportunities so that they can present their ideas as well as faster and directly. In addition, the development of social networks brought a good tool for managers to communicate better with staff. They can understand better the problems existing in the company as well as getting good ideas to operating and develop company. For example, â€Å"General Motors uses social networking tools to facilitate communication between  executives and employees, as well as to give product experts the opportunity to present new designs to the employee community† (Holtz, Shel. â€Å"GMnext: A preview of corporate communications in the social media era.† January 3, 2008). Furthermore, communication between staff members also changed compared to the past. They can more easy to connect with mobile phones, we can communicate anytime, anywhere sharing new ideas and do the jobs better. They can share information and attach documents by email to complete the job faster. In other words, your employees can work wherever with devices, such as laptops, phones and they were easier to exchange information with each other at low costs by using email, clouds and but software like Skype, FaceTime and so on.

Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 37

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN A Whaley Death Nate was five more days alone in the apartment before they came for him. It started at dawn on the sixth day, when he noticed a group of whaley boys gathering around below his window. There had been humans out on the streets since the day he'd told Cielle about the Colonel's plan, but Gooville hadn't quite returned to normal (given that normal in Gooville was still extraordinarily weird to begin with). He could tell that the humans and whaley boys alike were on edge. Today there were no humans in the streets, and all the whaley boys were emitting a shrill call that he was sure he'd heard before, but strangely enough it hadn't been in the city under the sea. Hearing the hunting call in these circumstances made him shudder. He watch them gather, rubbing up against one another as if to strengthen the bond among them, milling around in small walking pods as if working off nervous energy, each of them raising his head occasionally and letting go the hunting call – flashing teeth, jaws snapping like bear traps. He knew they were coming. Nate was dressed and waiting for them when they came through the door. Four of them took him, lifted him in the air by his legs and shoulders, and carried him over their heads down the stairs to the street, then on into the passageways. The whole crowd moved into the passageways, their calls becoming more frequent and deafeningly shrill in the smaller confines. Even as his captors' long fingers dug into his flesh, a calm resolve came over Nate – an almost trancelike state, the acceptance that it was all going to be over soon. He looked to either side, only to have mouthfuls of teeth snarl at him, and even among the frenzy, here and there he heard the characteristic hissing snicker of a whaley-boy laugh. Well, they do know how to have a good time, he thought. He soon recognized the path they were taking him down. He could hear the calls of hundreds of them echoing through the caverns from the mother-of-pearl amphitheater. Maybe the entire whaley-boy population was waiting there. As they entered the amphitheater and the calls reached a crescendo, Nate stretched his neck and saw two big killer-whale-colored females holding the Colonel in the middle of the floor. The whaley boys holding Nate lowered him to his feet, and then two of them pulled him back against the benches to watch with the others. One of the big females holding the Colonel shrieked a long, high call, and the crowd calmed down, not quite silent, but the hunting calls stopped. The Colonel's eyes were wide, and Nate wouldn't have been surprised if the old man had started to bark and foam at the mouth. When things quieted down enough for him to be heard, he started shouting. The big female who was holding him clamped a hand over his mouth. Nate could see the Colonel fighting for breath, and he struggled against his own captors in empathy. Then the female started to speak – in their whistling, clicking language – and the crowd stopped even snickering. Their eyes bulged, and they turned their heads to the side to better hear her. Nate couldn't understand much of what she was saying, but you didn't have to know the language to understand what she was doing. She was listing the Colonel's crimes and pronouncing a sentence. It was no small irony, Nate thought, that the whaley boys who saw to justice were colored like the killer whales, the most intelligent, most organized, most glorious and horrible of all the marine mammals. The only animal other than man that had exhibited both cruelty and mercy, for one was not possible without potential for the other. Maybe memes were triumphing over genes after all. When she finished speaking, she handed the Colonel's arm to the other female, so that he was bent over forward, his hands held together high behind him. Then the female let out another extended shrill call, and the whole ceiling of the amphitheater dimmed until it was completely dark. When she finished her call, the light came back up again. The Colonel was screaming at the top of his lungs, random curses and mad pronouncements – calling the whaley boys abominations, monsters, freaks, railing like some mad prophet, his brain fried by God's fingerprint. But when the light was full again, he caught Nate's eye, just for a second, and he was quiet. There was something there, the depth and wisdom that Nate had once known the man to possess, or maybe it was just sadness, but before Nate could decide, the big female bent over and bit off the Colonel's head. Nate felt himself start to pass out. His vision tunneled down to a pinpoint and he fought to stay conscious, to concentrate on his breathing, which he realized had stopped momentarily. His vision came back, as did his breath, harsh and panicked through his gritted teeth as he watched. The killer spit the head across the amphitheater to a group of whaley kids, who picked it up and tore at it with their teeth. Then the female started tearing great chunks of meat out of the Colonel's body with her teeth, even as it twitched in the hands of her cohort – throwing the chunks to the crowd, who shrilled the hunting calls even more frantically than before. Nate couldn't tell how long it went on, but when it was finally done, and the Colonel was gone, there was a large red circle in the middle of the amphitheater floor, and all around him he saw bloody teeth flashing in whaley grins. Even the two whaley boys who held Nate's arms had partaken in the communion, grabbing chunks of meat and eating them with their free hands. One had hissed and sprayed blood in Nate's face. Then they dragged Nate to the middle of the amphitheater. He felt faint, the pulse banging away in his ears, drowning out all other sound. Everywhere he looked, he saw bloody teeth and bulging eyes, but he felt strangely detached. As the big female began another oration, he remembered a thought he'd had right after the humpback whale had eaten him. It came through to him like a malicious d? ¦j? ¤ vu: What an incredibly stupid way to die. Then there was another long, whistling call and Nate closed his eyes, waiting for the death blow, but it didn't come. The crowd had gone quiet again. He squinted through one eyelid, almost regretful that the moment had been delayed, and he saw teeth before him, but not the bloody teeth of the killers. The shrill whistle went on and on, made by the mottled blue whaley-boy female that had come out of the passageway and was striding across the amphitheater toward Nate. At her side was a very determined, petite brunette with unnatural maroon highlights, wearing hiking shorts and a tank top. The whaley boys holding Nate seemed confused. The female who had killed the Colonel was looking for some sort of guidance from the one holding Nate when Amy pulled the stun gun from her pocket and blasted her in the chest, knocking her back five feet to convulse on the bloody floor. â€Å"Let him go,† Amy commanded the one who was holding Nate, and for some reason, maybe just because it sounded so definitive, she let go of Nate's arms, and he fell, at which time Amy pulled up a second stun gun and pressed it to the big killer's chest, knocking her to the floor to twitch with her companion. Through it all, Emily 7 had continued to whistle. â€Å"You okay?† Amy asked Nate. He looked around at the situation, not sure at all if he was okay, but he nodded. â€Å"Okay, Em,† Amy said, and Emily stopped whistling. Before the crowd could react or a murmur of whaleyspeak start, Amy shouted, â€Å"Hey, shut up!† And they did. â€Å"Nate didn't do anything,† she continued. â€Å"The whole thing was the Colonel's idea, and none of us knew anything about it. He brought Nate here to help him destroy our city, and Nate said no. That's all you need to know. You all know me. This is my home, too. You know me. I wouldn't lie to you.† Just then the first big female started to recover, and Amy leaped in front of Nate to stand over the killer. â€Å"You get up, bitch, I'll knock you on your ass again. Your choice.† The female froze. â€Å"Oh, fuck it,† Amy said, and she zapped the big female on the nose with both stun guns at once, then wheeled on the other one, who was getting up but quickly dropped and played dead under Amy's gaze. â€Å"Good,† Amy said. â€Å"So we clear?† Amy shouted to the crowd. There was whaleyspeak murmuring, and Amy screamed, â€Å"Are we fucking clear, people?† â€Å"Yeah, clear,† came a dozen little mashed-elf voices in English. â€Å"Sure, sure, sure, you know it,† said one little voice. â€Å"Clear as a window,† came another. â€Å"Just kidding,† said an elf-on-helium voice. â€Å"Good,† Amy said. â€Å"Let's go, Nate.† Nate was still trying to find his feet. His knees had gone a little rubbery when he thought his head was going to be bitten off. Emily 7 caught him by the arm and steadied him. Amy started to lead them out of the amphitheater, then stopped. â€Å"Just a second.† She went back to where the lead killer female was just climbing to her feet and zapped her in the chest with the stun gun, which knocked her flat on her back again. As Amy strutted past Nate and Emily 7, she said, â€Å"Okay, now we can go.† â€Å"Where are we going?† Nate asked. â€Å"Em says you slept with her.† Nate looked at Emily 7, who grinned, big and toothy, and snickered. â€Å"Yeah, slept. Just slept. That's all. Tell her, Emily.† Emily whistled, actually a tune this time, and rolled her eyes. â€Å"Really,† Nate said. â€Å"I know,† Amy said. â€Å"Oh.† Nate heard squeaks coming from behind them in the corridor. â€Å"Wasn't that a little risky, taking on a thousand whaley boys with a couple of stun guns?† â€Å"I love these things,† Amy said, clicking the buttons to make miniature blue lightning arc across the contacts. â€Å"No, I didn't take on a thousand whaley boys, I took on one – an alpha female. Know what that makes me?† She smiled and then, without even breaking stride, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. â€Å"And never forget it.† â€Å"I won't.† Then that last week's anxiety about losing her came tumbling back over him. â€Å"Hey, where did you go? I thought the Colonel had taken you.† â€Å"I went out on my mother's ship to send a message.† â€Å"What message?† â€Å"I was calling our ride. All the whaley boys had been put on notice: No pilot was going to take his ship out of here with you on board, still won't. But I could go, so I went out with my mother to pick up some supplies. And I called a ride.† â€Å"What, Emily 7 can't pilot a ship?† â€Å"Uh-uh,† squeaked Emily 7. â€Å"Only pilots can pilot a ship, duh. Anyway† – Amy checked her watch – â€Å"your ride should be in the harbor soon. I have to go by my place and grab something I want to take.† An hour later they stood at the water's edge in the harbor, and Amy was checking her watch again. â€Å"I am so pissed,† she said, tapping her foot frantically. It seemed as if every thirty seconds they had been cornered by some human resident of Gooville, and Amy had to tell the story again. Emily 7 was the only one of the whaley boys, other than the crew of Amy's mother's ship, that was still in the grotto. â€Å"You think they'll revolt, hurt humans?† Nate asked. â€Å"No, they'll be fine. That was a first. It's not every day you find out that your messiah is plotting to kill you. Give 'em a day or two to get over the embarrassment – everything will be back to normal.† â€Å"I guess it's just as well that we're getting out of here. You don't want to face those two females you zapped.† â€Å"Bring it on,† Amy said, patting the pockets of her shorts. â€Å"Besides, I'm sort of special here, Nate. I don't want to sound egotistical, but they really all do know me, know who I am, what I am. No one will bother me.† Just then Nate spotted a light coming from deep in the mirror-calm water. â€Å"That's him,† Amy said. â€Å"Him?† â€Å"Clay, coming to take you home.† â€Å"Me? You mean us.† â€Å"Em, can I get a minute?† Amy said. † ‘Kay,† said Emily 7, skulking away from the shore toward town. When Emily was out of hearing range, Amy put her arms around Nate and leaned back to look at him. â€Å"I can't go with you, Nate. I'm staying.† â€Å"What do you mean? Why?† â€Å"I can't go. There's something about me you don't know. Something I should have told you before, but I thought you wouldn't†¦ well, you know – I thought you wouldn't love me.† â€Å"Please, Amy, please don't tell me you're a lesbian. Because I've been through that once, and I don't think I could survive it again. Please.† â€Å"No, nothing like that. It's about my parents†¦ well, my father really.† â€Å"The navigator?† â€Å"Uh, no, not really. Actually, Nate, this is my father. She pulled a small specimen jar out of her pocket and held it up. There was a pink, jellylike substance in it. â€Å"That looks like – ; â€Å"It is, Nate. It's the Goo. My mother was never intimate with her navigator, or with anyone in the first three years she was here, but one morning she woke up pregnant.† â€Å"And you're sure it was the Goo, not just that she had way too many mai-tais at the Gooville cabana club?† â€Å"She knows it, and I know it, Nate. I'm sort of not normal.† â€Å"You feel normal.† He pulled her closer. â€Å"I'm not. For one thing, I don't just look a lot younger than I really am, but I'm also a lot stronger than I look, especially as a swimmer. Remember that day I found the humpback ship by sound? I really can hear directional sound underwater. And my muscle tissue is different. It stores oxygen the way a whale's tissue does, I can stay underwater without breathing for over an hour, longer if I don't exert myself. I'm the only one like me, Nate. I'm not really, you know†¦ human.† Nate listened, trying to weigh what it really meant in the bigger picture, but he couldn't think of anything except that he wanted her to go with him, wanted her to be with him, no matter what she said she was. â€Å"I don't care, Amy. It doesn't matter. Look, I got over all this† – he gestured to all that – â€Å"and the fact that you're sixty-four years old and your mother is a famous dead aviatrix. As long as you don't start liking girls, I'll be fine.† â€Å"That's not the point, Nate. I can't leave here, not for long anyway. None of us can. Even the ones who weren't born here. The Goo becomes part of you. It takes care of you, but you become attached to it, almost literally. Like an addiction. It gets in your tissues by contact. That's how my mother had me. I've been gone a lot already this year. If I left now, or if I left for longer that a few months at a time, I'd get sick. I'd probably die.† At that moment a yellow research submersible bubbled up to the surface of the lagoon, a dozen headlights blazing into the grotto around a great Plexiglas bubble in the front. â€Å"That's it, then. I'll stay. I don't mind, Amy. I'll stay here. We can live here. I could spend a lifetime learning about this place, the Goo.† â€Å"You can't do that either. It will become part of you, too. If you stay too long, you won't be able to leave either. You had to have noticed that first night we got drunk together, how fast you recovered from the hangover.† Nate thought about how quickly his wounds had healed, too – weeks, maybe months of healing overnight. There was no other explanation. He thought about spending his life with only fleeting glimpses of sunlight, and he said, â€Å"I don't care. I'll stay.† â€Å"No you won't. I won't let you. You have things to do.† She shoved the specimen jar in his pocket, then kissed him hard. He kissed her back, for a long time. The hatch at the top of the dry exit tower on the sub opened, and Clay popped up to see Nate and Amy for the first time since they'd both disappeared. â€Å"Well, that's unprofessional,† Clay said. Amy broke the kiss and whispered, â€Å"You go. Take that with you.† She patted his pocket. Then she turned to Clay as she checked her watch again. â€Å"You're late!† â€Å"Hey, missy, I set a time when I'd be at the coordinates you sent – six hundred and twenty-three feet below sea level – and I was there. You didn't mention that I had another mile of submarine cave with some of the scariest-looking rock formations I've ever seen.† He glanced at Nate. â€Å"They looked alive.† â€Å"They are alive,† Amy said. â€Å"Are we close to the surface? The pressure is –  » â€Å"I'll explain on the way,† Nate said. â€Å"We'd better go.† Nate stepped onto the sub as Clay slipped down inside the hatch to allow him to pass. Nate crawled into the hatch and looked back to Amy before he closed it. â€Å"I'll stay, Amy. I don't care. For you I'll stay. I love you. You know that, right?† She nodded and brushed tears out of her eyes. â€Å"Yeah,† she said, Then she spun around quickly and started walking away. â€Å"You take care of yourself, Nathan Quinn,† she shouted over her shoulder, and Nate heard her voice break when she said his name. He climbed down into the sub and secured the hatch above him. Clay had watched Amy walk away from the big, half-submerged Plexiglas bubble in the front of the sub. â€Å"Where's Amy going?† â€Å"She can't come home, Clay.† â€Å"She's okay, though?† â€Å"She's okay.† â€Å"You okay?† â€Å"I've been better.† They were quiet for the long ride through the pressure locks to the outside ocean, just the sound of the electric motors and the low hum of instruments all around them. The lights of the sub barely reached out to the walls of the cave, but every hundred yards or so they would come to a large, pink disk of living tissue, like a giant sea anemone, which would fold back to let them pass, then expand to fill the passageway once they had gone through. Nate watched the pressure gauge rise one atmosphere every time they passed through one of the gates, and it was then that he realized he wasn't escaping at all. The Goo knew exactly where and what they were, and it was letting him go. â€Å"You're going to explain what all this is, right?† Clay said, not even looking away from the controls. Nate was startled out of his reverie. â€Å"Clay, I can't believe – I mean, I believe it, but – Thanks for coming to get me.† â€Å"I never told you, you know – it's not really appropriate or anything – but I have pretty strong feelings about loyalty.† â€Å"Well, I respect that, Clay, and I appreciate it.† â€Å"Yeah, well, don't mention it.† Then they were both a bit embarrassed and both pretended that something was irritating their throats and they had to cough and pay attention to their breathing for a while, even though the air in the little submarine was filtered and humidified and perfectly clean. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT Pirates Nate was standing with Clay on the flying bridge of the Clair as she steamed into the Au'au Channel. â€Å"You'd better put on some sunscreen, Nate.† Nate looked down at his forearms. He'd lost most of his color while in Gooville, and he could feel the sun cooking him, even through his T-shirt. â€Å"Yeah.† He looked off toward Lahaina, the harbor he'd piloted into a thousand times. They'd have to anchor far outside the breakwater with a ship this size, but it still had the feeling of coming home. The wind was warm and sweet, the water the heartbreak blue of a newborn's eyes. A humpback fluked about eight hundred yards to the north of them, its tail glistening in the sun as if it were covered with sequins. â€Å"There's still a month left of the season,† Clay said. â€Å"We can still get some work done.† â€Å"Clay, I've been thinking. Maybe we can be a little more purposeful in what we're doing. Maybe a little more active, conservation-wise.† â€Å"I could go for that. I like whales.† â€Å"I mean, we have the resources now, and even if I could prove the meaning of the song – somehow decipher the vocabulary of it – I could never prove the purpose. You know, without compromising Gooville.† â€Å"Not a good idea.† During the trip home Nate had explained it all. â€Å"I mean, there's no reason we can't do good science and still, you know – ; â€Å"Kick some ass.† â€Å"Well, yeah.† Clay affected an exaggerated Greek accent. â€Å"Sometimes, boss, you just got to unbuckle your pants and go looking for trouble.† â€Å"Zorba?† â€Å"Yeah.† Clay grinned. â€Å"Great book,† Nate said. â€Å"Is that the Always Confused?† Clay pulled up a pair of binoculars and focused on a speedboat that was rounding the Lahaina breakwater, showing more wake than she should in the harbor. Kona was driving the Always Confused. â€Å"My boat,† Clay said, somewhat distressed. â€Å"You need to get over that, Clay.† The speedboat came around to a parallel course with the Clair as the ship cut her engines in preparation to drop anchor. Kona was waving and screaming like a madman. â€Å"Irie, Bwana Nate! Irie! The lion come home! Praise Jah's mercy. Irie!† Nate came down the steps from the flying bridge to the deck. Whatever resentment he might have had for the surfer at one time was gone. Whatever threat he might have felt from the boy had melted away. Whatever irrelevancy Kona's youth and strength might have underscored in his own character was irrelevant. Maybe it was time to be an example instead of a competitor. Besides, he was genuinely glad to see the kid. â€Å"Hey, kid, how you doing?† â€Å"Jammin' now, don't you know.† â€Å"That's good. How'd you like to go be a pirate?† Because the Navy didn't maintain permanent offices on Maui, Captain L. J. Tarwater had been given a small office that the navy sublet for him in the Coast Guard building, which meant that, unlike on a naval base, here the public could pretty much come and go as they wished. So Tarwater wasn't that surprised to see someone come strolling through his office door. What he was surprised by was that it was Nathan Quinn, whom he thought quite drowned, and who was carrying a four-gallon glass jar full of some clear liquid. â€Å"Quinn, I thought you were lost at sea.† â€Å"I was. I'm found now. We need to have a chat.† He set the jar on Tarwater's desk, leaving a wet ring on some papers there, then went back and shut the door to the outer offices. â€Å"Look, Quinn, if this is some kind of stunt, like spray-painting fur, you're wasting your time. You guys act like the military is the great Satan. I'm here to study these animals. I grew up in the same generation you did, and so did most of the people in the navy who do what I do. We don't want to hurt these animals.† â€Å"Okay,† Nate said. â€Å"We only have two things to talk about here. Then I'll show you something.† â€Å"What's in the jar? That better not be kerosene or anything.† â€Å"It's seawater. I got it at the beach about ten minutes ago. Don't worry about it. Look, first you're going to finish your study and you're going to strongly recommend that the navy's torpedo range not be moved into the sanctuary. You will not let that happen. The animals do dive to depths where they can be hurt by the explosions, and they will be hurt by the explosions, which you'll be setting off not to defend the country but just so you guys can practice.† â€Å"There's no evidence that they ever dive deeper than two hundred feet.† â€Å"There will be. I've got data tags coming in from the mainland, I'll have data in a month.† â€Å"Still†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Shut up,† Nate said, then thought better of it and added, â€Å"Please.† Then he continued. â€Å"Second, you need to do everything in your power to back off of testing low-frequency active sonar. We know that it kills deepwater hunters like beaked whales, and there's probably some chance that it also injures the humpbacks, and under no circumstances do you want to do that.† â€Å"And why would that be?† â€Å"You know what my work has been for the last twenty-five years, right?† â€Å"You've been studying the humpback song. What, trying to figure its purpose?† â€Å"I found it, Tarwater. It's a prayer. The singers are praying.† â€Å"That's preposterous. There's no way you could know that.† â€Å"I'm positive of it. Absolutely positive. I know it's a prayer, and that the torpedo base and LFA will harm a God-fearing animal.† Nate paused to let it sink in, but Tarwater just looked at him like he was an annoying rodent that had crawled in from the cane fields. â€Å"How could you possibly know that, Quinn?† â€Å"Because their prayers are answered.† Nate took a portable tape recorder out of his shirt pocket and set it on the desk next to the seawater, into which he'd already mixed part of the Goo that Amy had given him. He pushed the ;play; button, and the sound of humpback-whale song filled the office. â€Å"This is ridiculous,† Tarwater said. â€Å"Watch,† Nate said, pointing to the water, which began to swirl, a tiny pink vortex forming in the middle. â€Å"Get out of here. I'm not impressed with your Mr. Wizard tricks, Quinn.† â€Å"Watch,† Nate said again. As they watched, the pink vortex expanded while the whale song played, until half the jar was filled with a moving pink stain. Then Nate turned off the tape. â€Å"So what?† Tarwater said. â€Å"Look more closely.† Nate opened the jar, reached in, strained out some of the pink, and threw it on Tarwater's desk. Tiny shrimp – each only an inch long – flipped about on the blotter. â€Å"Krill,† Nate said. Tarwater didn't say anything. He just looked at the krill, then scraped a couple into his hand and examined them more closely. â€Å"They are krill.† â€Å"Uh-huh.† â€Å"What, it's like Sea Monkees, right? You had brine-shrimp eggs in there.† â€Å"No, Captain Tarwater, I did not. The humpbacks are praying, and God is answering them, giving them food. We could run this little experiment a hundred times, and that water would be clear when we started and full of krill when we ended. Trust me, I've done it.† And he had. The little bit of Goo in the water created the krill out of the other life in there, the ubiquitous SAR-11 bacteria that existed in every liter of seawater on the planet. Tarwater held up the krill. â€Å"But I thought they didn't eat when they were here.† â€Å"You're thinking on too small a scale. They don't feed for four months, and then they do nothing but feed. They're thinking in advance – the way you might think about breakfast before you go to bed at night. Doesn't matter, really. What you need to do, Captain, is everything in your power and influence to stop the range and the LFA testing.† Tarwater looked stunned now. â€Å"I'm just a captain.† â€Å"But you're an ambitious captain. I can have a jar of seawater on the secretary of the navy's desk in ten hours. Do you really want to be the one to explain to this administration that you're hurting an animal that prays to God? Particularly this administration?† â€Å"No, sir, I do not,† said Tarwater, looking decidedly more frightened than he had been just a second before. â€Å"I thought you were an intelligent man. I trust you'll handle this, and this will be the last anyone will hear of my jar.† â€Å"Yes, sir,† Tarwater said, more out of habit than respect. Nate took his tape recorder and his jar and walked out, grinning to himself, thinking about the praying humpbacks. Of course, it's not your particular God, he thought, but they do pray, and their god does feed them. He headed back to Papa Lani to make the calls and write the paper that would torpedo any hope of Jon Thomas Fuller's ever building a captive dolphin petting zoo on Maui. A pirate's work is never done. Three months later the Clair cruised into the cold coastal waters off Chile on her way to Antarctica to intercept, stop, harass, and generally make business difficult for the Japanese whaling ship Kyo Maru. Clay was at the helm, and when the ship reached a precise point on the GPS receiver, he ordered the engines cut. It was a sunny day, unusually calm for this part of the Pacific. The water was so dark blue it almost appeared black. Clair was below in their cabin. She'd been seasick for most of the voyage, but she had insisted on coming along despite the nausea, using her saber-edged persuasive skills on the captain. (â€Å"Who's got the pirate booty? All right, then, help me pack.†) Nate stood on the deck at the bow, his arm around Elizabeth Robinson. Above them swung an eighteen-foot rigid-hull Zodiac on a crane, ready to drop into the water whenever it was needed. There was another one on the stern, where once the submarine had been stowed. Up on the flying bridge, Kona scanned the sea around them with a pair of ;big-eye; binoculars on a heavy iron mount that was welded to the railing. â€Å"There's one, a thousand yards.† Clay came out onto the walkway beside Kona. They all looked to starboard, where the residual cloud of a whale blow was hanging over the calm water. â€Å"Another one!† Clay shouted, pointing to a second blow closer to the ship off the port bow. Then they started firing into the air as if triggered by a chained fuse: whale blows of different shapes, heights, and angles – great explosions of spray erupting so close to the ship now that the decks started to glisten with the moisture. Then the backs of the great whales rolled in the water around them, gray and black and blue, hills of slick flesh on all sides, moving slowly, then lying in the water. Nate and Elizabeth moved up to the bow railing and watched a group of sperm whales lolling in the water like logs just a few feet off the bow. Next to them a wide right whale floated, bobbing gently in the swell, only a slow wave of the tail revealing that the creature was alive. It rolled to one side, and its eye bulged as it looked at them. â€Å"You okay?† Nate asked Elizabeth, squeezing her shoulder. This was the first time she'd been out on the water in over forty years. In her hands she clutched a brown paper lunch bag. â€Å"They're still amazing up close. I'd forgotten.† â€Å"Just wait.† There were probably a hundred animals of different species around the ship now, most rolled on their side, one eye bulged out to focus in the air. Their blows settled into a syncopated rhythm, like cylinders of some great engine firing in succession. Kona jumped up and down next to Clay, praising Jah and laughing as each animal breathed or flicked a tail. â€Å"Irie, my whaley friends!† he shouted, waving to the animals close to the boat. Clay desperately resisted the urge to grab up cameras and start blasting film or digital video. It felt like he had to pee, really badly, from his eyes. â€Å"Nate,† Clay called, and he pointed to a bubble net forming just outside the ring of floating whales. They'd seen them dozens of times in Alaska and Canada, one humpback circling and releasing a stream of bubbles to corral a school of fish while others plunged up through the middle to catch them. The circle of bubbles became more pronounced on the surface, as if the water were boiling, and then a single humpback breached through the ring, cleared the water completely, and landed on its side in white crater of splash and spray. â€Å"Oh, my goodness!† Elizabeth said. Flustered, she pressed her face into Nate's jacket, then looked back quickly, lest she miss something. â€Å"They're showing off,† Clay said. The lolling whales lazily paddled out of the way, opening a corridor to the ship. The humpback motorboated toward the bow, its knobby face riding on top of the water. When it was only ten yards from the bow, the animal rose up in the water and opened its mouth. Amy stood up, and next to her stood James Poynter Robinson. â€Å"Hey, can we get a ladder down here?† Amy shouted. â€Å"Praise Jah's mercy,† Kona said, â€Å"the Snowy Biscuit has come home.† Nate threw a cargo net over the side, then climbed halfway down and pulled Amy up onto the net. He held her there as the ship moved in the swell, and she tried to kiss him and nearly chipped a tooth. â€Å"Help me with Elizabeth,† Nate said. Together they got the Old Broad down the cargo net and handed her to her husband, who stood on the tongue of a whale and hugged his bride after not seeing her for four decades. â€Å"You look so young,† Elizabeth said. â€Å"We can fix that,† he said. â€Å"You'll get old?† â€Å"Nope.† He looked back to Nate and saluted. Nate could hear whaley-boy pilots snickering inside the whale. â€Å"I brought you a pastrami on rye,† she said. Poynter took the paper bag from her as if he were accepting the Holy Grail. Nate and Amy scrambled up the cargo net and stood at the bow as the whale drifted away from the bow. â€Å"Thank you, Nate,† the Old Broad said, waving. â€Å"Thank you, Clay.† Nate smiled. â€Å"We'll see you soon, Elizabeth.† â€Å"We will, you know,† Amy said as the whale ship closed and sank back into the waves. â€Å"I know.† â€Å"I have to come back here every few months, you know.† â€Å"I know.† â€Å"Forever.† â€Å"Yeah, I know.† â€Å"I'm the new colonel now. I'm sort of in charge down there, you know, since I'm sort of the daughter of their god. So we'll have to spend time down there.† â€Å"Do I have to call you ‘Colonel'?† â€Å"What, you have a problem with that?† â€Å"No, I'm okay with that.† â€Å"You realize that the Goo really could decide to wipe out the human species at any minute.† â€Å"Yep. Same as it's always been.† â€Å"And you know if I live out here, I'm not always going to, you know, look like this?† â€Å"I know.† â€Å"But I will always be luscious, and you – you will always be a hopeless nerd.† â€Å"Action nerd,† Nate corrected. â€Å"Ha!† Amy said. AUTHOR NOTES Science and Magic â€Å"The science you don't know looks like magic,† Kona says in Chapter 30. I have generally come down on the side of magic, simply because it involves less math, but with Fluke it was necessary to learn a little science. Because so much of Fluke does fall into the realm of magic, though, I thought it only fair to give you, gentle reader, some idea of what's fact and what's not. The body of knowledge on cetacean biology, especially as it relates to behavior, is growing at such a staggering rate that it's hard to be sure of what you know from one day to the next. (This happens to be exactly the way I live my life, so that worked out nicely.) Scientists have been studying humpback song for fewer than forty years, and it's only in the last decade that studies have been undertaken to try to relate the song to social behavior and interaction. (And a challenging question there: What constitutes interaction in an animal whose voice can carry a thousand miles?) As I write this, September 2002, much about the humpback song is still unknown. (Although scientists do know that it tends to be found in the New Age music section, as well as in tropical waters. There is no reasonable explanation for this, but as of yet no tagged humpbacks have been tracked to the New Age section at Sam Goody's.) At this point no one has ever seen or filmed the mating of humpbacks, so while it would appear that the song has something to do with mating, because it is performed only by males and because it is sung only during the mating season, no one has drawn a direct correlation between the song and mating. Theories abound: The males are marking territory sonically, they are showing their fitness and size by singing, they are calling mates, they are just saying ;howdy; – all of the above, none of the above. The fact remains that, regardless of its purpose, the humpback-whale song is the most complex piece of nonhuman composition on earth. Whether it's art, prayer, or a booty call, the humpback song is an amazing thing to experience firsthand, and I suspect that even once the science of it is put to bed, it will remain, as long as they sing, magic. Beyond the song, much of the whale behavior and biology described in Fluke is accurate, or as accurate as I could keep it and not overburden the story. (Excepting the whale ships, the whaley boys, and every killer whale's being named Kevin, all of which I made up. Killer whales are actually all named Sam. Duh.) The acoustic data, and the analysis thereof, is generally balderdash. While scientists do indeed collect data in the manner described, much of the analysis process came from my imagination. For the record, though, low-frequency whale calls can and do travel thousands of miles under the sea. While the Lahaina Harbor is indeed inundated with whale researchers every winter, and while there are indeed lectures given periodically at the Whale Sanctuary visitor center, the acrimony, competition, and tension described among the researchers is completely of my own creation, as are the individual descriptions and personalities of the characters. Tension among a bunch of neurotics is just more interesting for a story than is a description of dedicated professionals doing their work and getting along, which is the case in reality. When in doubt, assume I made it up. CONSERVATION The reason we shouldn't kill whales is because they fire the imagination. – JAMES DARLING, PH.D. Hey, I thought they were saved already! No one likes the â€Å"We're glad you enjoyed this story about the rainforest with all its cute little animals and charming native people, BECAUSE IT WILL ALL BE A CHARRED DESERT NEXT WEEK!† approach, and I hate to do it to you, but you should know that much of the conservation information in Fluke is accurate. They aren't quite saved. The Japanese and the Norwegians continue to practice whaling, each taking up to five hundred minke whales a year under â€Å"scientific research† permits (the meat ends up in markets in Europe and Asia). Despite â€Å"free market† arguments to the contrary, whaling is not a profitable business in Japan. It is subsidized by the government, and, to bolster consumer demand, they have introduced whale meat into the school lunch program so children will develop a taste for it. (Good thinking there. Don't we all crave the cafeteria cuisine of our youth? Mmmm, mashed peas.) Biologists working undercover in Japanese markets (spy nerds), by running DNA tests, have found endangered whale species (including blue whale) in cans of whale meat labeled as â€Å"minke whale meat.† (So someone is still killing them.) Except for scientific whaling, the International Whaling Commission's moratorium on hunting great whales is still in effect, but several whaling nations are rallying hard to have the moratorium lifted and finance survey studies to prove that great-whale populations, including humpbacks and grays, have recovered enough for them to resume hunting. The U.S. antiwhaling position in the IWC is severely compromised by the fact that they support aboriginal whaling – that is, subsistence hunting by indigenous people. The argument for aboriginal whaling by the actual indigenous people is seldom made on a basis of subsistence, but more often because hunting whales is a â€Å"cultural tradition of their people that must be preserved.† This, of course, is utter bullshit. It's a tradition of Americans of European descent to commit genocide on indigenous people, but that doesn't mean we ought to start doing it again. Even some old ideas are still bad ideas. While it is true that many whale species seem to be recovering, like the gray and the humpback, other populations still struggle, and some, like the North Atlantic right whale, may yet disappear from the planet. (Not due to hunting, but as one researcher, whom I won't name, said, â€Å"because they're stupid as shit and won't get out of the way when they hear a ship coming.† Hell, I almost wreck when a squirrel runs in front of my car, and there're millions of them. I can't imagine trying to keep a supertanker from going in the ditch while swerving to avoid one of the last remaining right whales.) Recent surveys estimate (and they can only estimate, because scientists can't find enough of the animals to actually count – I guess when you find one, you just have to count the bejeezus out of him, then extrapolate with algorithms and computer projections) that there may be fewer than three hundred North Atlantic right whales left in the world. But on a happier note, some of the populations are recovering, and although the Japanese government appears to be a bunch of nimrods (and who are we to talk?), the Japanese people seem more interested in watching whales than eating them, so the pressure to extend the hunt may relent. The kicker to all this is probably that habitat loss and pollution, not hunting, present the greatest threat to marine mammals. (Wha†¦? Habitat loss, don't they have the whole ocean?) For the most part our oceans are great, wet deserts, with millions of square miles in which life is very sparse. Predictably, human populations have started to compete with marine mammals for the food sources, and, under increased demand and improved fishing methods, many once rich fishing grounds are becoming as barren as a clear-cut forest. Hydroelectric dams that restrict the migration of salmon and other species to their freshwater breeding grounds are already having an impact on the populations of marine mammals that feed on the adult salmon. As industrial pollution and agricultural runoff take toxic chemicals to the ocean, it would seem that the enormous volume of seawater would dilute these chemicals to harmless levels, and that's what happens until the chemicals are gathered up by a mechanism called the food chain. Recent studies of tissue samples of some toothed whales (killer whales and dolphins, who feed fairly high up on the food chain) show levels of man-made toxins so high that the animal's blubber actually qualifies as toxic waste. Studies are now going on to determine if declining marine mammal populations on the west coast of North America may not be caused by the lower birth rates and the compromised immune systems of animals who feed on toxic fish. (Oh yeah, guess who else is at the top of the seafood chain?) You want to help? Pay attention. Caring about the condition of our oceans does not make you a psycho, tree-hugging, bleeding-heart liberal, it just makes you smart. The health of all life on this planet depends on the health of the oceans. It's just good business. (Even a supply-sider has to admit that if you fish a population to extinction, there will be no supply, so there will be no demand. It's bad economics from the right or the left.) So watch what you eat, and don't eat fish that are being over-fished (like Chilean sea bass, for instance). And don't pour the used oil from your oil change down the storm drain unless you want your next shrimp platter to taste like Quaker State and you sort of like the idea of having your own children born with flippers. And go look at some whales. Not captive ones, wild ones. It all comes down to economics, and as long as it's more profitable to have whales around to look at, we'll have them around to look at. If you don't live near water and can't get to any, rent a whale video. It all comes around. Barring that, just yell at people randomly to stop killing whales. It could catch on. Really. (â€Å"Would you like fries with that?† â€Å"Shut up and stop killing whales!† â€Å"Thank you. Drive through, please.†) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, my thanks to the home team: to Charlie Rodgers, as usual, for thoughtful reads and cogent comments; to my editor, Jennifer Brehl; and to my agent, Nicholas Ellison, who a couple of years ago said, â€Å"Hey, how about a book about whale song? I don't know – like there's meaning in it or something. You figure it out.† Blame or credit goes to Nick for that. As always, thanks to Dee Dee Leichtfuss for being my â€Å"reader without an agenda.† Thanks, too, to Galen and Lynn Rathbun, for taking time away from studying the hose-nose shrew to fill me in on the home life of the field biologist and for putting me in touch with the people at NOAA. My thanks also to Kurt Preston for geological information, to Dr. David Kirkpatrick for information on genetics, to Mark Joseph for my â€Å"Introduction to Sonar† phone lecture, and to Bret Huffman for Rasta-Pidgin tutoring. Much of the background on genes, evolution, and memes came from the work of Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, The Extended Phenotype, and others; also from Daniel Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea and from Susan Blakemore's excellent book The Meme Machine. I recommend them all for further reading, but when you're finished, you may have to read several of my books and watch a lot of TV just to get stupid enough again to function in the modern world again. Fortunately I am gifted in this respect and have recovered nicely, thank you. The laser-measurement algorithm described in Chapter 1 was formulated by Dr. John Calambokidis of the Cascadia Research Collective. He should get credit for that as well as for many other contributions to the field. Many of the research anecdotes I used in Fluke were fashioned out of stories told to me by the researchers themselves. The story of the Japanese whalers being affected by seeing a mother sperm whale and her calf (Chapter 30) was told to me by Bob Pittman of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. The story of the Pacific Biological Research Project, where the military funded a feasibility study to use seabirds as a biological-warfare vector, was told to me by Lisa Ballance, Bob's wife, who also works at NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center. Thanks, too, to Dr. Wayne Ferryman, also from NOAA, who shared many hours of stories, providing me with information about the lifestyles of researchers. My thanks to Dr. Ferryman as well for inviting me to observe the California gray whale survey in person and not insisting that I always bring the pizza. Thanks to Jay Barlow from NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center for information on navy research projects and the relationship between researchers and the navy. Much of which I blew off so I could put Captain Tarwater in Maui, but still, thanks, Jay. My thanks, too, to Carol DeLancey of Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Program, who told me the great story of the female right whale using a researcher's Zodiac as a diaphragm while the researchers were assaulted by a pair of prehensile whale willies (Chapter 8) – something that happened directly to Dr. Bruce Mate, but which I embellished in that I don't believe that the whales ejaculated in the boat, and Dr. Mate did not become a lesbian. For information on underwater acoustics and the nature and range of blue-whale calls, much of which I totally ignored, many thanks to Dr. Christopher G. Fox of the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. It was Chris's description of an unidentified, persistent throbbing noise coming from deep under the Pacific Ocean, somewhere off the coast of Chile, that first inspired the undersea city of Gooville. For the inside story on harbor life in Lahaina and the dating life of the female researcher, my thanks to Rachel Cartwright and Captain Amy Miller, who study humpback cow/calf behavior and biology in Maui in the winter and Alaska in the summer. My thanks, too, to Kevin Keyes for whale and dolphin stories, as well as for his infinite patience in teaching me ocean kayaking and providing the â€Å"cold-water discipline† safety training that probably kept me from drowning while trying to get out among the animals. Finally, my deepest thanks to Dr. Jim Darling, Flip Nicklin, and Meagan Jones, who for two seasons allowed me to ride along and observe their research in Maui, as well as for giving generously of their time to answer my questions both in person and by e-mail. While most of the information about humpbacks and humpback song in Fluke came out of these trips, the inaccuracies and liberties taken with the information are my own. The anecdotes and science I learned from these folks, all of whom have spent their lives working in the field, were enough to fill two books, and were certainly too voluminous to list here. Simply put, this book would not have been possible without their help. Kinder, more intelligent, more dedicated people than these do not the face of this earth walk. To support their ongoing research on humpback song and behavior, send your tax-deductible donations to: Whale Trust 300 Paani Place Paia, HI 96779

Adverse Effects Of Technology On Student Learning

Adverse Effects Of Technology On Student Learning As I was sitting in my room one night reading through articles on technology and its effect on education, a single idea sparked my interest in the topic: how students in my generation were being seen as negatively affected in the academic sphere by the advent of the iPhone, iPads, and constant television streaming. This idea got me thinking about my own life and use of technology both inside and outside the walls of my high school. It is hard for me to imagine a life without my devices, but the concerns by teachers across America are almost impossible to ignore. In today’s society, technology is a huge part of the lives of the current generation of high school students and will be even more ingrained in the lives of younger generations. The use of technology in schools will not slow down in the future, it will only grow more rapidly each year. Technology in education has caused students to lose focus in the classroom and become less analytical problem-solvers in regards to cri tical thinking questions. Clearly, the use of technological devices in the niche of education hampers the learning ability of students in the classroom. Initially, technology use in educational settings impedes students’ focus on scholastic tasks. Obviously, students do not always regard school as entertaining. Historically, students that were uninterested in a subject or lesson would often not have a way to escape from listening to the teacher; however, in today’s culture, students can turn to a tiny, pocket-sized treasure chest of games on their cell phone when they get bored in class. As technological advances have evolved, cell phones have made it easier and more accessible for students to become distracted from learning. Writer for the New York Times, Matt Richtel, in his article for the Times, â€Å"Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say†, published in the New York Times on November 1, 2012, addresses the topic of technology in education and argues that students have minimized the ability to focus on schoolwork since the technological boom. He supports this claim by examining one large-scale survey conducted by the Pew Internet Project, a branch of the Pew Research group, then analyzing another large-scale survey conducted by Vicky Rideout of Common Sense Media, a non-profit, San Francisco-based organization which counsels parents on childhood media use, and finally he uses interviews from teachers who spend time daily observing students in their classrooms. Richtel’s purpose is to show that students of the current generation have shifted dramatically in their approaches to learning and how the impact of technology has made it more difficult for students to keep attention on their responsibilities in school in order to help educators and parents rethink the amount of use of technology their student should be allowed to use. From the article, Richtel claims that, â€Å"There is a widespread belief among teachers that students’ constant use of digital technology is hampering their attention spans,† and this quote is spot-on in the culture of our soci ety. In Richtel’s quote, he illuminates how teachers, the people spending almost eight hours a day with students, have been seeing a noticeable decline in their students’ ability to focus on specific tasks in academia. If teachers, given their extensive time spent with students, have all had a similar experience with students’ waning attention spans, it is hard to discount that evidence against students. Evidently, teachers have been noticing as obvious degeneration in students’ ability to focus since the introduction of technological devices in student possession. Likewise, in the New York Times article, â€Å"Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction† (2010), author Matt Richtel, writer for the New York Times, asserts that the attention spans of contemporary students has diminished and suggests that technology is to blame for the decline. He backs up this claim by doing the following: first, he begins the article as the story of seventeen-year-old Vishal, a once bright and attentive student who’s grades have plummeted since he discovered technology in seventh grade, next, he uses research done by a Duke University professor and The Kaiser Family Foundation to supplement his thesis, last, he includes more stories of students and how they feel their use of technology has impacted their academic life. In this article, Richtel states, that â€Å"Several recent studies show that young people tend to use home computers for entertainment, not learning, and that this can hurt school performance, particularly in low-income families.â €  This quote is significant because, Richtel explains how studies that have been done in the recent past have supported the thesis of home computers being used by students for purposes other than those that are educational. For example, students at home may use their computers for social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram or video streaming sites like YouTube instead of using the computer to play learning-centered games, read e-books, or work on homework. Furthermore, students are also apt to spend more time on these non-educational sites than on sites which could help them study for quizzes and tests or further their knowledge on subjects that they are not strong in and thus, hindering academic performance. It is well-defined that it is tremendously easy for students to lose focus on academic subjects while distracted by technology. Additionally, technology in education has also been shown to lessen the amount of critical thinking done by students in complex problems. Matt Richtel also discusses the topic of reduced problem-solving skills in his article â€Å"Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say†. In this article, Richtel states, â€Å"Lisa Baldwin, 48, a high school teacher in Great Barrington, Mass., [who] said students’ ability to focus and fight through academic challenges was suffering an ‘exponential decline’.† He goes on further to say that, â€Å"She said she was the decline most sharply in students whose parents allowed unfettered access to television, phones, iPads and video games.† Clearly, teachers have taken notice of the decline of students’ critical thinking skills in recent years. Whether it be in math, science, English, or any other subject, there will always be challenges to students that they may not be necessarily confident on how to solve the anticipated problem. As technology advances, students will be more enabled to use the internet to find the answers to such complicated problems instead of learning how to work through them, which will in turn, cause them to slowly lose the critical thinking skills necessary to adulthood. As in the quote from Ms. Baldwin, the â€Å"academic challenges† that are proposed to students will not just go away with the evolution of technology, and students will have to become more skilled problem-solvers than they currently are in order to succeed academically. The importance of preserving problem-solving skills in future generations is unimaginable, and it is recognizably a problem that many teachers, including Ms. Baldwin, are experiencing. Moreover, the ability of students to solve multifaceted problems has also been recognized by students to be a clear issue in education due to the use of technology. Matt Richtel also discusses the topic of the weakening ability of students to solve complex problems in his article â€Å"Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction†. In his article, Richtel observes the class of teacher Marcia Blondel, an expert teacher, who has been forced to resort to reading aloud in a senior English class because students have lacked the ability to read the assigned passages at home. Ms. Blondel states, â€Å"You can’t become a good writer by watching YouTube, texting and e-mailing a bunch of abbreviations.† This quote shows how teachers like Ms. Blondel are particularly alert to the fact that student learning capacities have taken a considerable shift from students being proactive to barely reading an assigned group of pages in a senior English class. It is more than understand able for an elementary-level English class to verbally read passages in class to bolster comprehension, but in a high school-level class, verbal reading is almost non-existent. The claim made by Ms. Blondel is not uncommon, technology has taken over aspects of students’ lives that were once filled by semi-meaningful actions. Discernibly, the use of technology has significantly hampered students’ ability to solve intricate problems. Conclusively, technology in education has huge implications on student achievement. The use of digital devices in educational settings has impeded on this culture’s students’ ability to focus and maintain attention in the classroom, as well as technology diminishing the ability of students to solve complex mental problems presented in classroom situations. Clearly, the use of technology in education has had a negative impact on today’s society’s students in the areas of focus and problem-solving. This thesis is bad for our culture because unless a restriction is placed on technology use by students, the dependency on technology will only grow and the problems proposed in the thesis will only become exacerbated by future generations of students. As thousands of students enter the school system each scholastic year, it is necessary to understand the true impact that iPhones, iPads, television, and video games have on developing minds. It is up to educators and parents to change this growing trend.

Limits to the U.S. long-term economic growth ( Essay

Limits to the U.S. long-term economic growth ( - Essay Example ic growth in the U.S in that, the modern global economy is depended upon other countries and therefore a financial crisis in one country is reflected in all other countries. Notably, poor governance and corruption has been described by researchers as the greatest vice inhibiting the economic growth in the U.S. Moreover, the decline in population resulting from aging or migration has negatively affected the economic growth. Economic sustainability requires improvements in productivity and innovations therefore, inadequate investment in human capital is a factor limiting the economic growth in the U.S. Studies have also depicted that, US has too many resources that are never exploited fully and therefore they fail to develop as expected (Jorgenson, Fraumeni, & Gollop 2004). The US government should step in with effective strategies that are going to counter the constraints of her economic growth. The future growth in U.S is facing a threat from infrastructure weaknesses within some of its cities, for example, Los Angeles. The government will need to abruptly spend more on infrastructure so as to deal with the consequences of declining economy. In addition, the US government needs to invest in insurance companies so that external shocks will never affect the economy of the country (Jorgenson, Fraumeni, & Gollop 2004). An effective legal framework will be able to curb the corruption and poor governance vice. Therefore, private property protection via legal frameworks will facilitate innovation and development within US. High level skills are required for economic growth. The government should provide incentives and employment opportunities to its professional citizens otherwise, they will migrate to other countries for such priorities (Vatter & Walker 20 06). It is an absolute good idea that the US government’s efforts are required in the promotion of economic growth. This is because of the diverse areas in which the government should play some very critical roles.

The Success Story of Toyota Comapny in Qatar Essay

The Success Story of Toyota Comapny in Qatar - Essay Example Current paper focuses on the performance of Toyota in Qatar. Toyota is one of the major competitors in the global automobile industry. The success of the firm has been highly related to its supply chain management system. The relatively low prices of the firm’s products, compared to the products of competitors, is another factor that has highly benefited the performance of Toyota worldwide. In Qatar, Toyota has followed similar goals and strategies. The history of Toyota in Qatar are presented and evaluated. Also, reference is made to the automotive industry of Qatar, at the level that the external environment can highly influence organizational performance. It is revealed that the prospects for Toyota in Qatar are significant. However, it is necessary for the organization to review its strategic framework periodically ensuring that the competitiveness of the firm towards its rivals is kept at high levels. A brief history of Toyota Toyota Motor was established in Japan in 1937 (Toyota Corporation 2012, History). Toyota Motor Corporation has resulted from the merge between Toyota Motor Co and Toyota Motor Sales Co in 1982 (Toyota Corporation 2012, History). Through the decades the firm established production units worldwide; still, the firm’s critical strategic decisions have been traditionally developed in Japan. Of particular importance have been the organization’s production units in USA, established in 1988, in UK, established in 1992 and in China, established in 2000 (Toyota Corporation 2012, History). Toyota Corporation focuses on the ‘Motor Vehicle Production and Sales’ (Toyota Corporation 2012, Overview). In 2011, the firm’s employees worldwide were estimated to 317,716 (Toyota Corporation 2012, Overview). In 2011, the firm’s profits reached the 18,993.6 (in billion yen), slightly increased from 2010, when the firm managed to achieve a profit of 18,950.0 (in billion yen, Toyota Corporation 2012, Overview). In 2009 the firm’s profits were estimated to 20,529.5 (in billion yen, Toyota Corporation 2012, Overview). In other words, the firm faces delays in regard to its profitability. This problem is made clear by reviewing the firm’s performance for the years 2006 to 2010 in US and Europe (Graph 1). Still, the performance of the firm in other markets is quite encouraging. For example, reference can be made to the case of China and Brazil (Graph 2). Graph 1 – Toyota Corporation in USA and Europe, for 2006-2010 (Source: Toyota Corporation 2012, Figures) Graph 2 - Toyota Corporation in China and Brazil, for 2006-2010 (Source: Toyota Corporation 2012, Figures) How it all started in Qatar The presence of Toyota in Qatar is closely related to Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros. Co. (AAB), a firm that was established in 1958 (Qatar 40 Years Organization 2012, Attendees).

Continuous Quality Monitoring Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Continuous Quality Monitoring - Research Paper Example Department of Health, 2011). This paper explores CMS accreditation in references to surgical site infection, one of the hospital-acquired infections. Hospital-acquired infections during surgeries may be caused by poor performance of surgical procedures such as insertion of catheters (tubes) into body tracts, nose, mouth, or blood vessels, contaminated hands and surgical environment and materials. Hospital-acquired infections are sometimes referred to as nosocomial infections and appear 48 hours to four days after a patient has been admitted at a health facility. Most affected by nosocomial infections are patients under long-term care in hospitals and patients admitted for intricate procedures such as surgeries. In most cases, surgical site infections are caused by surgical procedures or/and unsterilized surrounding. Regrettably, health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have indicated that almost half of nosocomial infections are preventable if only health care providers strictly adhered to the set guidelines (Centers for Medicare, Medicaid Services, & U.S. Department of Health, 2011). The situation is made worse by the fact that nosocomial infections occur in already immune-compromised patients (Pittet, 2010). Among the major causes of surgical site infections are bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, which are already in the body or are acquired from contaminated hospital equipment, other patients, the environment, or health workers. In recent times, hospital-acquired conditions such as surgery site infections have poised quite a range of new challenges for the Medicaid and Medicare programs (Centers for Medicare, Medicaid Services, & U.S. Department of Health, 2011). In fact, these challenges led the President to sign the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 on February 8, 2006, an Act, which required that an alteration be done in Medicare Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) concerning payments for

Classification and division essay on types of colleges (ex. Public,

Classification and division on types of colleges (ex. Public, Private, State or University) - Essay Example Moreover, it only offers a two-year associates degree after the completion of which, it is to the discretion of the student to transfer to another college or work based on the degree provided by the community college. However, many students have been opting for a baccalaureate degree after completing a two-year program at the community college (Bridget, & Kurlaender, pp. 1-5). However, a liberal arts college is different. The basic focus is to polish the students’ abilities in terms of writing and analysis. It does not delve too much into the intricacies of specialized teaching or learning. Liberal arts colleges offer a bachelors degree at the completion of the four-year program (Aldrich, pp. 29-35). The college does not offer any program beyond the bachelors level, but it creates too interactive an environment for the limited population of students it caters to. Side by side, the United States offers public as well as private colleges. The local governments run public colleges by the taxes they collect. This is their major source of funding, and by virtue of it, they can afford a significantly lower fees than privately run colleges. Moreover, due to the lower cost it accrues to the student, it attracts many people and public colleges generally have a bigger student body than state colleges. Private colleges, on the other hand, depend on self-generated money for operating and so have a higher cost. However, the higher cost is often associated with better facilities for students and staff as well (Aldrich, pp. 49-58). Moreover, public and private universities offer courses ranging from sciences to liberal arts. Students from a broader background tend to attend these due to the diversity of offered courses at the institutions. In addition, the degrees offered are of Master’s and PhD level too. The different types of colleges discussed have been unique in one aspect or the other. The system of education

Tourism's Social, Cultural, and Ecological Impact Essay

Tourism's Social, Cultural, and Ecological Impact - Essay Example There can be no doubt that when an area is opened up for tourism that there will be significant changes. Tourism, while stimulating the economy, places the social order, the cultural values, and the ecology of the area at great risk. The social structure of a tourist area will change dramatically as the enterprise matures. A study on North Cape Norway by Gerald (2005, p.48) found that the seasonal nature of the employment opportunities attracted in-migration to the area during the peak season, as well as an out-migration of young people dissatisfied with the "employment prospects offered by seasonal tourism". One respondent to the study noted the personal change that takes place and reported that contact with the tourists caused her to, "become someone ... something you're not. Without knowing it consciously, and it just seems like you are so cosmopolitan, so sophisticated" (Gjerald 2005, p.49). When we add in the factors of stressing the infrastructure, changes in local politics, and the loss of existing social networks the social change is substantial. While the social order is at risk of great change, cultural traditions and values may all but disappear. Tourist destinations are often modeled on the tourist it intends to attract, while the local culture is placed on display as an oddity. The islands of Aruba and Barbuda are, "exemplified by the dominance of large scale resorts, convention trade, and the increasing prevalence of manmade attractions like shopping, gambling, and cruise traffic" (Thomas, Pigozzi, & Sambrook 2005, p.19). In addition, Gerald (2005, p.50) reports a modest increase in drugs, alcohol use, theft, and sexual assault in the North Cape Norway area. Meanwhile, local customs and traditions are relegated to be a display for the tourists, rather than have any meaningful cultural value.

Are Science and Religion in Conflict Research Paper

Are Science and Religion in Conflict - Research Paper Example A quick glimpse of the topic, conflict in science and religion, using the online search engine generates more than 52 million results. This information could not clearly establish though, if indeed, conflict exists between the two divergent disciplines. The complexities by which the term religion is defined have proven the vast encompassing elements that go into its pursuit. Robinson (2011) for example, after evaluating a host of disparate definitions, arrived at this conclusion: â€Å"religion is any specific system of belief about deity, often involving rituals, a code of ethics, a philosophy of life, and a worldview" (p. 1). The simplicity by which science, on the other hand, clearly is indicated as â€Å"knowledge attained through study or practice," or "knowledge covering general truths of the operation of general laws, esp. as obtained and tested through scientific method [and] concerned with the physical world† (Science Made Simple, Inc., 2006) already signifies brewin g conflicts in terms of the possibilities of overlapping issues. In this regard, the objective of this essay is to confirm through supportive arguments from various authoritative sources that indeed, science and religion are not in conflict despite supposed overlapping and contradicting issues. Arguments Supporting Science and Religion are not Conflict From the overview of definitions of both science and religion, it is already eminent that conflicting issues exist due to their disparities in disciplines. According to Robinson (2009), science and religion are based on different foundations where â€Å"science is ultimately based on observation of nature†¦ (while) religion is largely based on faith† (p. 1). This fact is validated by Ecklund and Park (2009) when their findings supported â€Å"the idea that religion and science are in completely different spheres† (p. 290). Science deals with different areas ranging from natural sciences (study of the natural world) to social sciences (study of human behavior and society). Religion, on the other hand, has indicated from the abovementioned definition that it is a system of beliefs that encompasses a broader range of beliefs including philosophies of life and different perspectives of worldviews, depending on cultural factors and value systems. Since these two disciplines propose divergent theoretical foundations, there is no way that conflicts in interests could exist. Another supporting argument that attests that no conflict exists between science and religion is the fact that there are studies that reveal the existence of scientists with defined religious orientations who do not believe that conflicts between the two disciplines exist. In the study written by Scheitle (2011), to prove that no conflict exists, â€Å"the assumption is that, because they are the most knowledgeable about scientific matters, scientists will be most likely to demonstrate some conflict with religion if such a confli ct exists (Wuthnow, 1989, p. 143). If scientists are less religious that nonscientists, then the inference has been that there is an inherent conflict between scientific knowledge and religious belief† (Scheitle, 2011, p. 175). More importantly, and consistent with Scheitle’s study, the findings generated by Ecklund and Park from their study of Religion Among Academic Scientists (RAAS) which was completed over a three-year period from 2005 through 2007 revealed that â€Å"in contrast to research that has argued there is not an actual conflict between the knowledge framework of religion and that of science, on the basis that social scientists are le

Education and Economics Essay Example for Free

Education and Economics Essay I. Introduction: The conventional theory of human capital developed by Becker (1962) and Mincer (1974) views education and training as the major sources of human capital accumulation that, in turn, have direct and positive effect on individuals’ life time earnings. In the Mincerian earning function, the coefficient of school years indicates the returns to education, i. e. , how much addition in earnings takes place with an additional school year. There exists a wide range of literature that estimated the rates of returns to education for different countries [Pascharapoulos (1980; 1985; and 1994); Pascharapoulos and Chu Ng (1992)]1. In Pakistan, most of the nationally representative household surveys do not contain information on variables, such as, completed years of schooling, age starting school, literacy and numeracy skills, quality of schooling, and technical training. Due to the unavailability of completed school years, one can neither compute the potential experience nor observe the effect of an additional year of schooling on individual earnings. Therefore, the available literature in Pakistan is lacking in estimating the returns to education by using the Mincerian earning function2. In recent years, the government of Pakistan has started nation-wide survey, Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (PIHS), to address the imbalances in the social sector. This survey ? The authors are Senior Research Economist and Research Economist at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) Islamabad. 1 Pascharapoulos (1994) provide a comprehensive update of the estimated rates of returns to education at a global scale. He observed high social and private profitability of primary education (18%and 9% respectively) in all regions of world. The private rate of returns at this level were found highest in Asia (39%) as compared to other regions. He also noted a considerable increase in total earnings by an additional year of education in all regions of world; 13% in Sub-Saharan Africa; 10% in Asia; 12% in Europe/Middle East/North Africa; and 12% in Latin America/Caribbean. 2 At national level, only two studies are available in Pakistan that used the Mincerian earning function approach to examine the returns to education [see Shabbir and Khan (1991) and Shabbir (1994)]. However, both these studies are based on twenty years old data set. 2 provides rich information on the above mentioned variables that were missing in the earlier household surveys. This study uses the data of PIHS to examine the returns to education by using Mincerian earning function and thus aims to fill the vacuum that, due to the lack of appropriate data, exists in the literature on returns to education in Pakistan. In this paper we will first estimate the earning function with continuous school years with the assumption of uniform rate of returns for all school years. It is argued that different school years impart different skills therefore we extend our analysis to examine the addition in earning associated with extra years of schooling at different levels of education, i. e. , how much increase in earnings takes place with an extra year of schooling at different levels, such as, primary, middle, matric, intermediate, bachelors and masters. By doing so we overcome the problem that exists in the available literature in Pakistan. To our knowledge no study has yet adopted this method to examine the returns to education in Pakistan3. The impact of technical training and school quality on the earnings of fixed salaried and wage earners will be examined in this study. Based on the available data in Pakistan, most of the studies, for example, Haque (1977), Hamdani (1977), Guisinger et al (1984), Khan and Irfan (1985), Ahmad, et al (1991); and Ashraf and Ashraf (1993a, 1993b, and 1996) estimated the earning functions by defining the dummy variables for different levels of education4. These studies observe low rates of returns at different levels of education as compared to other developing countries. However, a positive association between levels of education and earnings and an inverse relationship between the degree of income inequality and educational attainment has been noted. In order to examine the inter- 3 Most of the studies on returns to education in Pakistan used dummy variables for different levels of education where the rates of returns at different levels of education are computed by the estimated coefficients. 4 In Pakistan, the data on education in most of the nationally representative household surveys have been reported in discrete form that denotes the completion of different levels of education, such as, ‘primary but incomplete middle’, ‘middle and incomplete matric’, and so on. 3 provincial differentials in returns to education, Shabbir and Khan (1991) estimated the Mincerian earning function by using a nationally representative sample, drawn from the of Population, Labour Force and Migration Survey (1979) for the literate wage earners and salaried males. Later Shabbir (1994) estimated the earning function on the extended sample of the same data set. These studies found 7 to 8 percent increase in earnings with an additional year of schooling. Although the results are consistent with those of comparable LDCs but may not reflect the recent developments in Pakistan’s economy as these studies are based on the data set which are 20 years old now. Since 1979, the economy of Pakistan has passed through various changes, especially after the inception of the Structural Adjustment Programme in late 1980s. For example, the literacy rate has increased from 26 percent to 45 percent and enrolment at primary level has increased by 67 percent. Public and household expenditures on education have also increased [Economic Survey (1998-99)]. Moreover, due to the fiscal constraints, the employment opportunities in the public sector have started shrinking and the economy is moving towards more openness with stronger role of private sector in recent years. In this scenario, it becomes imperative to re-test the role of human capital as both private and public sectors are moving towards more efficiency and productivity. This study is important from three standpoints. First, in order to estimate the effect of education on earnings, the most recent and nationally representative household survey data is used which provides detailed information on the variables that were missing in previous surveys. Second, it uses the splines of education in the earning function to examine the additional earnings associated with extra school years at different levels. Third, this study investigates the role of some important factors such as, technical training, school quality, and literacy and numeracy skills on earnings for the first time. 4 The rest of the paper is organised as follows: section 2 presents an overview of the education sector. Section 3 outlines the model for empirical estimation and describes data. Section 4 reports the results. Conclusions and policy Implications are presented in the last Section. II. The Education Sector in Pakistan: An Overview: Education plays an important role in human capital formation. It raises the productivity and efficiency of individuals and thus produces skilled manpower that is capable of leading the economy towards the path of sustainable economic development. Like many other developing countries, the situation of the education sector in Pakistan is not very encouraging. The low enrolment rates at the primary level, wide disparities between regions and gender, lack of trained teachers, deficiency of proper teaching materials and poor physical infrastructure of schools indicate the poor performance of this sector. The overall literacy rate for 1997-98 was estimated at 40 percent; 51 percent for males and 28 percent for females; 60 percent in urban areas and 30 percent in rural areas. These rates are still among the lowest in the world. Due to various measures in recent years, the enrolment rates have increased considerably. However, the high drop-out rate could not be controlled at primary level. Moreover, under-utilisation of the existing educational infrastructure can be seen through low student-institution ratio, (almost 18 students per class per institution) low teacher-institution ratio (2 teachers per institution) and high studentteacher ratio (46 students per teacher). The extremely low levels of public investment are the major cause of the poor performance of Pakistan’s education sector. Public expenditure on education remained less than 2 percent of GNP before 1984-85. In recent years it has increased to 2. 2 percent. In addition, the allocation of government funds is skewed towards higher education so that the benefits of public subsidy on education are largely reaped by the upper income class. Many of the highly educated 5 go abroad either for higher education or in search of better job opportunities. Most of them do not return and cause a large public loss. After mid-1980s, each government announced special programs for the improvement of the education sector. However, due to the political instability, none of these programs could achieve their targets. The Social Action Program was launched in early 1990s to address the imbalances in the social sector. This program aims to enhance education; to improve school environment by providing trained teachers, teaching aids and quality text books; and to reduce gender and regional disparities. The Phase-I of SAP (1993-96) has been completed and Phase-II is in progress. The gains from the Phase-I are still debatable because the rise in enrolment ratio has not been confirmed by the independent sources. Irrespective of this outcome, government has started work on Phase-II of SAP. In this Phase, government is paying special attention to promote technical and vocational education, expanding higher education in public as well as in the private sector, enhancing computer literacy, promoting scientific education, and improving curriculum for schools and teachers training institutions in addition to promoting primary and secondary education. Due to low levels of educational attainment and lack of technical and vocational education, Pakistan’s labour market is dominated by less educated and unskilled manpower. A considerable rise in the number of educational institutions and enrolment after 1980s is not yet reflected in Pakistan’s labour market. This might be due to the fact that most of the bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes emphasise only on academic education without developing specific skills. The sluggish demand for the graduates of these programs in the job markets leads to unemployment among the educated and the job market remains dominated by the less educated. In this scenario, it becomes important to explore the role of education for the economic benefit of individuals. 6 III. Theoretical Model and Estimation Methodology: We start with the human capital model developed by Becker (1964) and Mincer (1974) where natural logarithm of monthly earnings are the linear function of completed school years, experience and its square. In mathematical form the equation can be written as: ln Wi = ? 0 + ? 1 EDU i + ? 2 EXPi + ? 3 ( EXPi ) 2 + Ui (1) where ln Wi stands for natural logarithm of monthly earnings, EDUi represents completed years of schooling, and EXPi is the labor market experience of ith individual. ?1 implies the marginal rate of return to schooling. A positive value of ? 2 and negative value of ? 3 reflects the concavity of the earning function with respect to experience. Ui is the error term, assumed to be normally and identically distributed. It has been argued in the literature that different school years impart different skills and hence affect earnings differently. Therefore, it is misleading to assume a uniform rate of return for all educational levels. Most of the previous studies used dummy variables to capture the effect of different levels of education. In order to examine the effect of school years at different levels of education, van der Gaag and Vijverberg (1989) divided the years of schooling according to the school systems of Cote d’ Ivore. Similarly Khandker (1990) also used years of primary, secondary and post-secondary schooling in wage function for Peru. Both studies found significant differences in returns to education at different levels of education. Following van der Gaag and Vijverberg (1989), we divide the school years into seven categories according to the education system of Pakistan. In Pakistan, the primary education consists of 5 years of schooling; middle requires 3 more years; and by completing 2 more years of schooling after middle, an individual obtains a secondary school certificate i. e. , Matric. After matric , i. e. , 10 years of schooling, students have a choice between technical and formal education. Technical education 7 can be obtained from technical institutions which award diploma after 3 years of education while the certificate of intermediate can be obtained after two years of formal education. After the completion of intermediate certificate, students can enter either in the professional colleges for four years or in non-professional bachelors degree program for two years in a college. Those who choose non-professional degree can pursue their studies in a university for masters for two more years. At this stage the graduates of professional and non-professional colleges complete 16 years of education. They can now proceed to the M. Phil. or Ph. D. degrees. In order to examine the returns to education at different splines of education, we estimate the following extended earning function. ln Wi = ? 0 + ? 1Yrs Pr imi + ? 2 YrsMid i + ? 3YrsMati + ? 4 YrsInteri + ? 5 YrsBAi + (2) ? 6 Yrs Pr of i + ? 7 EXPi + ? 8 ( EXPi ) 2 + Ui where YrsPrim, YrsMid, YrsMat YrsInter YrsBA YrsProf are defined as: YrsPrim = D5EDUi YrsMid = D8EDUi YrsMat = D10EDUi YrsInter = D12EDUi YrsBA = D14EDUi YrsProf = D16EDUi where D5 = 1 if where D8 = 1 if where D10 = 1 if where D12 = 1 if where D14 = 1 if where D16 = 1 if 0 EDU ? 5 5 EDU ? 8 8 EDU ? 10 10 EDU ? 12 12 EDU ? 14 EDU 14 The coefficients associated with YrsPrim, YrsMid, YrsMat YrsInter YrsBA YrsProf in equation 2 imply an increase in income with one year increase in education at respective levels. For example, the returns to five completed years of education at primary level will be 5*? 1. Similarly, the returns to for six, seven and eight of education will be 5*? 1+? 2, 5*? 1+2? 2, and 5*? 1+3? 2 respectively. On the same lines we can compute the returns to education at each level as: 8 Returns to Primary =5*? 1 Returns to Middle =5*? 1+3*? 2 Returns to Matric= 5*? 1+3*? 2+2*? 3 Returns to Intermediate=5*? 1+3*? 2+2*? 3 +2*? 4 Returns to Bachelor’s =5*? 1+3*? 2+2*? 3 +2*? 4 +2*? 5 Returns to MA/Prof=5*? 1+3*? 2+2*? 3 +2*? 4 +2*? 5 +2*? 6 The data are drawn from the nationally representative Pakistan Integrated Household Survey 1995-96. In order to assess the performance of the Social Action Programme (SAP), the government of Pakistan has launched the series of Pakistan Integrated Household Surveys (PIHS), a collaborative nation wide data collection effort undertaken by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS). So far two rounds have been completed. The first round of the PIHS is different from other round on two counts. Firstly, the information on employment and wages is available only in this round. Secondly, only 33 percent of the sample used in the first round is being repeated in the subsequent rounds. This implies that all of these rounds are independent cross-section data sets and can not be properly linked with each other to be used as panel data. Therefore, the appropriate sample can only be drawn from the first round of PIHS. This round was conducted in 1995-96, which covers 12,622 households and more than 84,000 individuals. The 1995-96 PIHS provides a detailed information on completed school years5. In addition, this survey contains information on age started school. This information is particularly important for our study to calculate the potential experience of a worker. The indicator for experience used by Mincer (1974) is a good proxy for U. S. workers as they start school at the uniform age of six years6. However, this assumption does not hold in Pakistan, as in this country there is no uniform age to start school. In urban areas, children as young as three years start going to school whereas in rural 5 This is the only nation-wide data set that provides this particular information. Similarly no other survey contains information on public and private school attendence and year starting school. 6 Mincer defined experience as (Age-education-6). 9 areas the school starting age is higher. 7 This information enables us to construct potential experience as (age-schools years-age starting school). Although experience is still a proxy for actual experience but it is relatively better measure than age and the Mincer type potential experience. In addition to education and experience, various other factors, such as quality of schooling, technical training and quality of schooling have significant impact on earning8. It has been argued that because of the market-oriented approach adopted by the private schools, the graduates of these schools earn more as compared to the graduates of public schools9. According to Sabot (1992), Behrman, Ross, Sabot and Tropp (1994), Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996a), Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996b), and Behrman, Khan, Ross and Sabot (1997), the quality of education has positive, significant and substantial impact on cognitive achievements and hence on post school productivity, measured by earnings. These studies observed higher earnings of the graduates of high quality school than those who attended a low quality school. A recent study by Nasir (1999) found considerably higher earnings for the private school graduates. These schools, however, charge higher fees. â€Å"Estimates of average annual expenditure per pupil in both government and private schools indicates that the total cost of primary level in rural areas is Rs. 437 (Rs 355 for government schools and Rs. 1252 for private schools), compared with Rs. 2038 in urban areas (Rs. 1315 for government and Rs. 3478 for private schools). This means that the cost of primary schooling is almost three times that of public schools in urban 7 The issue of age starting school has been highlighted by Ashraf and Ashraf (1993) and because of the nonavailability of this information, they used age as proxy for experience. 8 See Summers and Wolf (1977); Rizzuto and Wachtel (1980); Behrman and Birdsall (1983); Booissiere, Knight and Sabot (1985); Knight and Sabot (1990);Behrman, Ross, Sabot, and Tropp (1994); Behrman, Khan, Ross and Sabot (1997). 9 Various studies found the effectiveness of private schools to acquire cognitive skills [Colemen, Hoffer and Kilgore (1982); and Jimenez, Lockheed, Luna and Paqueo (1989)]. For Pakistan, Sabot (1992), Behrman, Ross, Sabot and Tropp (1994), Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996a), Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996b), and Behrman, Khan, Ross and Sabot (1997) found a significant variation in the cognitive skills among children with same number of school years. These studies conclude that some of the differences are due to the family characteristics while some are due to the quality of schooling. 10. areas and nearly four times in rural areas. The differences in cost of schooling also reflect the degree of quality differentials in public and private schools, and between urban and rural schools. A relatively better provision of school facilities and quality of education in private schools is causing a continuous rise in school enrolment in urban areas† [Mehmood (1999) page 20]. The PIHS provides information on the type of school attended10. On the basis of this information we can identify workers according to the school they attended and therefore examine the effect of type of school on individual earnings. In order to capture the quality of education an individual received, a dummy variable is included in the model that takes the value ‘1’ if individual is a graduate of private schools and ‘0’ otherwise. The effect of post-school training on earning has been found positive and substantial in many developing countries [see Jimenez and Kugler (1987); van der Gaag and Vijverberg (1989); Khandker (1990); and Nasir (1999)]. The PIHS contains information on years of technical training. This information helps us to examine the effect of technical training received on individual earnings. We use completed years of technical training as independent variable in the earning function. The existence of vast gender gap in human capital accumulation is evidenced by various studies in Pakistan11. The PIHS reports vast gender disparities in literacy and enrolment rates. The literacy rate among females is half than that of males’ literacy rate for whole Pakistan. This difference has increased to three-folds for rural areas. The gender difference is however smaller for the gross enrolment rate at primary level. For the higher levels of education, this difference 10. The coefficient of private school may also capture the effect of socio-economic background of workers. The data, however, does not contain such information, therefore we are unable to separate the effect of parental characteristics from the effect of private schools in worker’s earnings. 11 Sabot (1992); and Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996b); Sawada (1997); Shabbir (1993); and Ashraf and Ashraf (1993a, 1993b, and 1996) 11 shows an increasing trend. Similarly vast gender gap has been observed in returns to education where males earn more than the female workers [Ashraf and Ashraf (1993a, 1993b and 1996) and Nasir (1999)]. In order to capture the effect of gender, a dummy variable is introduced in the model that takes the value ‘1’ for males and ‘0’ otherwise. The regional imbalances in the provision of limited available social services are more pronounced in Pakistan. Rural areas are not only underdeveloped in terms of physical infrastructure but also neglected in gaining basic amenities. Haq (1997) calculated the disaggregated human development index for Pakistan and its provinces. He noted that nearly 56 percent of population is deprived of basic amenities of life in Pakistan; 58 percent in rural areas and 48 percent in urban areas. According to the 1995-96 PIHS, the literacy rate in urban areas is 57 percent and in rural areas it is 31 percent. The gross enrolment rate was noted 92 percent in urban areas and 68 percent in rural areas. Because of these differences low returns to education are observed in rural areas [Shabbir (1993 and 1994) and Nasir (1999)]. To capture the effect of regional differences, a dummy variable is used that takes the value ‘1’ if individual lives in urban areas and zero otherwise. The four provinces of Pakistan exhibit different characteristics in terms of economic as well as social and cultural values. Significant provincial differentials in rates of returns to education have been noted that reflect not only the differences in market opportunities but also indicate uneven expansion of social services across provinces [Khan and Irfan (1985); Shabbir and Khan (1991); Shabbir (1993); Shabbir (1994); and Haq (1997)]. The effects of these differences are captured through the use of dummy variables for each province in the earning function, Sindh being the excluded category. 12 For the purpose of analysis we restrict our sample to wage earners and salaried persons. Our sample contains 4828 individuals. Among them, 4375 are males and 453 are females. Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics of some of the salient features of the important variables. According to the statistics in table 1, average age of the individuals included in the sample is 34 years with 18 years of experience. A typical worker in the sample has completed approximately 10 years of education. A majority is graduated from public schools. Most of the workers live in urban areas. On average an individual earns Rs. 3163 per month. In our sample, there are only 22 percent individuals who received technical training. The average years spent for training are less than one year. A majority of wage earners belong to Punjab, followed by Sindh and Balochistan. Table1 Mean, Standard Deviation and Brief Definitions of Important Variables Variables W Age EDU EXP RWA MALE Urban Private Training Punjab Sindh NWFP Balochistan Mean SD Variables Definitions 3163. 34 3397. 39 Individuals monthly earnings in rupees consist of wages and salaries. 34. 07 12. 36 Age of an individual in years. 9. 53 4. 36 Completed years of schooling. 18. 14 11. 80 Total Years of labour market experience calculated as (age-school years-age starting school). 2. 37 1. 07 Categorical variables, contains 4 categories of literacy and numeracy. 0. 91 0. 29 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual is male. 0. 60 0. 49 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to urban area 0. 04 0. 19 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual is a graduate of private school 0. 35 0. 87 Completed years of technical training 0. 38 0. 49 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to Punjab 0. 31 0. 46 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to Sindh 0. 15 0. 36 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to NWFP 0. 16 0. 36 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to Balochistan 13 IV. Empirical Results The estimated results of equation 1 and equation 2 are reported in table 2. The highly significant coefficients of school years and experience indicate the applicability of human capital model for Pakistan. An additional year of schooling raises individual’s monthly income by 7. 3 percent, which is very close to the prior studies. 12 13 The coefficient of experience shows substantial increase in wages with each additional year. The concavity of age-earnings profile is evident from the negative and significant coefficient of experience squared. The results reveal that an individual with five years of experience earns 31 percent higher wages as compared to non-experience worker. The highest level of earnings is achieved with approximately 30 years of experience. These estimates are relatively low compared to prior studies14. The positive and significant coefficients of gender (0. 401) and regional dummies (0. 178) strengthens the a priori expectation that males earn more than females and earnings are higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas. These estimates are consistent with earlier studies [see Arshaf and Ashraf (1993), Khan and Irfan (1985)]. Furthermore, significant inter-provincial differences in individual’s earnings can be observed in the estimated model. Many studies indicate substantial differences in earnings across school levels. For example, van der Gaag and Vijverberg (1989) noted that an increase of one year in elementary, high and university education causes an increase of 12 percent, 20 percent and 22 percent respectively in 12 The estimated coefficients of school years by Shabbir and Khan (1991), Shabbir (1991), Shabbir (1993) and Shabbir (1994) are found to be in the range of 6 percent to 9. 7 percent. 13 The returns to education are calculated by taking the anti-log of 0. 092 (estimated coefficient of completed school years) and subtracting from 1. To convert into percentage, multiply the value by 100. For details, please see Gujrati (1988) page 149. 14 The difference in the returns to experience could be due to the approach adopted by these studies. Most of the studies used age as a proxy for experience [see for example Khan and Irfan (1985); Ashraf and Ashraf (1993); and Nasir (1999)]. Shabbir (1991) used the Mincerian approach to calculate experience. The present study uses actual age of starting school and actual years of education. These information enable us to calculate total years of labor market experience. This approach is also not the perfect alternative for actual experience, as we do not have information about the starting time of the first job. But when compared with other approaches, it is more precise in measuring experience. 14 earnings. In order to examine the returns to education across different school years, we include the information on schooling according to the education system of Pakistan (equation 2). The results reported in column 3 of table 2 show a positive and significant impact of school years at each educational level on earnings. For example, an increase of one year in education at primary level increases the earnings by 3 percent. Similarly, at middle level, one year of schooling brings about an increase of 4 percent in earnings and the total returns to schooling at middle level are 27 percent. Table 2 Earning Function with and without Levels of Education Variables Coefficient s 6. 122 0. 072* 0. 058* -0. 001* 0. 178* 0. 401* 0. 127* -0. 113* -0. 203* 0. 412 t-ratios Coefficient s 6. 380 0. 058* -0. 001* 0. 150* 0. 264* 0. 098* -0. 112* -0. 166* 0. 027** 0. 040* 0. 050* 0. 057* 0. 071* 0. 082* 0. 429 t-ratios Coefficient s 6. 342 0. 058* -0. 001* 0. 152* 0. 262* 0. 096* -0. 108* -0. 164* 0. 052* 0. 007 0. 025* 0. 038* 0. 047* 0. 063* 0. 075* 0. 429 t-ratios Constant EDU EXP EXP2 Urban Male Balochistan NWFP Punjab RWA Yrs-Prim Yrs-Mid Yrs-Mat Yrs-Inter Yrs-BA Yrs-Prof Adj R2 148. 91 46. 71 26. 49 -19. 20 10. 31 13. 98 4. 94 -4. 34 -10. 21 92. 03 23. 85 -16. 84 7. 87 8. 15 3. 40 -4. 06 -7. 75 2. 03 5. 07 8. 69 11. 41 16. 85 21. 98 89. 25 23. 84 -16. 88 7. 98 8. 09 3. 32 -3. 91 -7. 63 2. 41 0. 45 2. 45 5. 02 7. 28 11. 47 15. 57 * significant at 99 percent level. ** significant at 95 percent level. One can note higher returns of additional year of schooling for higher educational levels from this table. For example, the returns to masters and professional education (Yrs-Prof) are more than five- 15 times higher than that of primary school years (Yrs-Prim). The results exhibit a difference of 15 percent between primary graduates and illiterates, the excluded category. This category includes illiterates as well as all those who have not obtained any formal schooling but have literacy and numeracy skills15. To further explore the earning differential between primary school graduates and those who never attended school but have literacy and numeracy skills, we have constructed an index RWA that separates illiterates from those who have literacy and numeracy skills. This index takes the value ‘zero’ if individual does not have any skill; ‘1’ if individual has only one skill; ‘2’ if individual has two skills; and ‘3’ if individual has all three skills. We re-estimated equation 2 with this new variable and the results are reported in column 5 of table 2. According to our expectations, the coefficient of RWA is found not only large (0. 05) in magnitude but also statistically significant at 99 percent level. This indicates that the individuals with all three skills earn 15 percent more than those who have no skill. On the other hand, the coefficient of Yrs-Prim dropped to 0. 007 and became insignificant16. The differential in the earnings of illiterates and those having five years of primary education was 15 percent (0. 03*5=0. 15). This differential however, reduced to approximately 9 percent (0. 007*5+0. 053=8. 8) when we include those who have no formal education but have literacy and numeracy skills. These high returns to cognitive skills indicates the willingness of employer to pay higher wages to the able workers as compared to those who have five or less years of schooling but do not have these skills. Now we examine the effect of technical training and quality of schooling on earnings, first in separate equations and then in a single equation. The impact of technical training on earnings is examined by including years of apprenticeship as continuous variable in our model. The results are reported in column 1 of table 3. The results show a positive and significant impact of technical 15 There are 48 wage earners in our sample who have education less than primary but do not have any of these skill. Whereas we found 76 wage earners who do not have any formal education but have at least one of these skills. 16 This result is consistent with van der Gaag and Vijierberg (1989). 16 Table 3 Earning Functions : Impact of Technical Training and School Quality (Separate Functions) Variables Constant EDU EXP EXP2 Urban Male Balochistan NWFP Punjab Train.