Anthem and Farenheit 451 Essay

Fahrenheit 451 and Anthem Comparison Essay When a person is entrapped within a society that dictates their behaviour, thoughts, and opinions they are unable to grasp the realization of their societies corrupt nature. However, there is always the odd individual who willing and capable of uncovering the truth of their society. In the novels Anthem by Ayn Rand, and Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury the main characters of the novels were able to find truth by, forming friendships that are banned by their societies, rebelling against the grain of society to gain knowledge or form ideas, and finding flaws within their societies. Thus proving that, when one seeks truth within the confines of a controlling society it leads to self-discovery because they find the courage to escape. When one seeks truth within the confines of a controlling society by forming friendships that are banned it leads to self-discovery, because they find the courage to escape. For instance, Montag a character form the novel Fahrenheit 451. In the society that he lived in, any types of reading material was considered forbidden. Those who took it upon themselves to embrace the reading material were considered to be just as harmful as the material itself, because it lead people to believe â€Å"all the false promises, all the second-hand notions and time worn philosophies† that people had (Bradbury, 76). However, Montag intentially befriended an elderly man named Faber, who in his younger days, before the revolution, was an English professor. Montag know that Faber was knowledgeable in literature, but he became his friend regardless of this fact because he was curious of the forbidden treasures that his society kept from him. On the other hand Faber was aware of the glorious preachings, concepts, and ideas that literature held, and he was also aware of the error his society was making when it decided to eliminate reading material during its transformation. Although he was conscious of the valuable information that would be lost Faber did not speak out or fight against this decision, in turn he lost one of the most valuable things in his life: â€Å"I’m one of the innocents who could have spoken up and out when no would listen to the ‘guilty,’ but I did not speak and thus became guilty myself†¦ Now it’s too late† (Bradbury, 82). Faber’s misfortune friendship and his non-existent initiative to fight for literature inspired Montag to discover his true self, and his own beliefs that lead him to flee form his society in order to end up regretting the fact that he did not protest for his right to knowledge. Thus showing that by Montag forming a friendship that was not excepted by his society he found the courage to escape. A second example of one finding enough courage to escape a controlling society, because of a banned friendship is Equality 7-2521 of the novel Anthem. In the society in which Equality 7-2521 lives feelings and emotions that one may have towards another are forbidden, because it makes that individual different and unique from others within a society where everyone is to be considered equal. Although this is a main law Equality finds himself being drawn to a young girl by the name of Liberty 7-2000. With his new found attraction Equality 7-2521 reaches out to the girl in hopes of grasping a relationship, and this is exactly what he achieves. The relationship between Equaulity 7-2521 and Liberty 7-2000 helped him discover his true self. It made him realize that he was able to have love for someone else and that there was nothing wrong or improper about the feelings that he was experiencing and that this was not curse but an advantage, one that have him an individual. Equality’s self discovery, gave him the gallantry to escape form his society, because it made him recognize how corrupt and controlling his society was and it also made him realize that the only way he would ever truly be happy is if he were free. Both characters with in the novels Anthem, and Fahrenheit 451 discovered themselves by forming friendships that were not excepted in their society, an din both cases they gained enough courage to escape. Montag’s friendship with Faber inspired Montag to escape and realize his true self only because he was afraid to become what Faber was; a coward, not willing to fight for his beliefs. In contrast, the friendship that Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 7-2000 shared inspired Equality to discover his self, and escape, because he was different and enjoyed being unique from the rest of his society. This shows that although both characters were inspired by friendships, the reasons for their actions, and their self-discovery were different. Thus proving that, when one seeks truth within the confines of a controlling society it leads to self-discovery, because they find the courage to escape. A second factor that must be accounted for is the fact that when one seeks truth within the confines of a controlling by rebelling against the grain of society to form ideas or gain knowledge it leads to self revelation and it gives them the courage to escape. A good example of this is Equality 7-2521. In the novel Anthem Equality seeks and finds truth in his society by discovering a source of energy. The process of Equality’s discovery was very long and strenuous and it consisted of disobeying the rules that were set, on many given nights in order to sneak away and work in his secretive tunnel on his invention. Because of what his society preached, he instilled in his thoughts that he was, â€Å"born with a curse† (Rand, 13). Equality 7-2521 believed this because he was curious about the nature of things and broke rules to explore the world in which he lived. However, when he discovered that he was able to produce a light from a source other than a candle his thoughts and opinions towards himself and his society changed. His society did not want to recognize or accept the new energy that he discovered. The society’s ignorant towards Equality 7-2521’s discovery, that could have changed the way that the society lived and worked angered him. In result it made him discover that he was a unique individual that had thoughts that were far more indepth and surpassed the thoughts of others he was surrounded by. Equality 7-2521’s search to gain knowledge helped him build the strength to escape the controlling society that he lived in because he realized that it and the individuals that it contained were just holding him back form discovering his true self and environment further. Equality 7-2521 sought truth within his society by rebelling against it and forming a new idea and that gave him the strength to escape. In addition, Montag from the novel Fahrenheit 451 was also in search of truth and did so by rebelling against his society and gaining knowledge that resulted in courage to brake free. In the society of this novel people were restrained form reading literature, and to ensure that this law was not broken. It was the job of firefighters to burn and destroy all reading materials. Montag was a perfect example of a firefighter he ignighted books to ensure that the evil teachings that they held would never by absorbed by people of his society, until his curiosity overtook him: â€Å"there must be something in books, things we can’t imagine,†¦ there must be something there† (Bradbury, 51). This interest Montag had in hat his society withheld from it’s people soon overwhelmed him and he found himself rebelling by secretly recovering and protecting book form homes that were being destroyed because of the literature that they contained; â€Å"Montag felt the hidden book pound like a heart against his chest’’ (Bradbury, 39). Not only did Montag rebel by stealing books, but he embraced the knowledge inside. The wisdom that he acquired f rom these sources of knowledge lead him to self-discovery, because he realized the corrupt nature of his society. His society was so corrupt that he no longer wanted to take part and inhibit people form opening and expanding their minds. Montag’s self discovery is evident when â€Å"suddenly the odor of kerosene made him vomit,† although it was once such a great smell that only a true firefighter could love, and he could no longer fulfill his job as a firefighter and be happy (Bradbury, 49). Montag’s new found knowledge gave him the courage to escape because he recognized that if he stayed and continued to be controlled by his society that he would never be able to spread the knowledge and wisdom that he had gained. Both Equality 7-2521 and Montag rebelled within their society’s and in result formed ideas or captured some form of wisdom. Furthermore, both discovered themselves and recognized from their discovery that they needed to break free form their society in order to have freedom and the will to share their advanced knowledge and ideas. Montag and Equality 7-2521 both made discoveries that could have and would have changed the way their society’s functioned and thought. Although, what Montag realized had been recognized by individuals in his society before in contrast to Equality’s newly discovered light source that was unknown to his society. Therefore proving that when one seeks truth within the confines of a controlling society, it leads to self-discovery, because it gives them the courage to escape. The last factor that must be accounted for is the fact that when one presues truth within the confines of a manipulating society by finding flaws within, it leads to self-discovery, because they find the courage to escape. An example of this is Equality 7-2521. The society that he lived in is very narrow minded and believes that conformity is essential in order for all to be content. Their Motto: â€Å"We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, one, indivisible and forever,† is the basis of their ethics, and suppresses them form leading a typical lifestyle. No one within the society of the novel Anthem was permitted to have thoughts, pinions, or ideas of their own. Equality 7-2521 was silenced by the conformity that his society had. Finally he came to the realization that his society’s flaw was depriving him and others of their individuality. This realization gave Equality 7-2521 a better understanding of himself. Him recognizing his society’s flaw gave him the bravery to escape, because he realized that his society would never learn from it mistakes and frailties, and that he needed to take action in order to provide a better and more fulfilling life for himself and others. Therefore, Equality 7-2521 investigation for truth within his society led him to the realization of flaws that it contained, and gave him the courage to escape. In comparison, in the novel Fahrenheit 451 Montag uncovers imperfections within his society, that directed him to discover himself, because it gave him the courage to retreat. The society that Montag lives in confines the population by restraining them from any sort of reading material, in fear that the material will cause people to become unhappy, depressed, or angry, with the information that it consists of: â€Å"We stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought†¦ Don’t let the torrent of melancholy and drear philosophy drown our world† (Bradbury, 62). This quotation proves that this society believes that it is truly making people happy by holding back, and not allowing them to have opinions and thoughts of their own, basically controlling them. Not only does the society of the novel control people by making it known that they can not enjoy the pleasure, and benefits of reading, but they also control them with parlor walls, which are giant televisions that take up an entire living room wall. These walls â€Å"tell you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. It seems so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn’t time to protest† (Bradbury, 84). Montag realizes that this is his society’s major fault, and the reason that they are in desperate attempts of controlling everyone is because they believe and want everyone to be alike: â€Å"We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitutions says, but everyone made equal† (Bradbury, 58). Montag’s recognition of his society’s flaw leads him to self-discovery ecause he realizes exactly what his society is doing, and knows that it is not mentally healthy for any individual. Montag breaks free of his society by escaping, because he yearns for the knowledge and independency that his society refuses to provide and except. Both characters apprehend that their society’s have major obstacles that they have to overcome before it could ever become a well functioning and productive society with well functioning individuals. They also escape the societies, because they realize that nothing will ever be done about the blunders that they hold. Furthermore, both Montag, and Equality 7-2521 conceive when free from their past societies that they want to take action, and establish a society of their own. Both societies in the two novels Fahrenheit 451 and Anthem find ways of controlling the humanity that it with hold by molding them into what them want them to be. Thus and thus proving that when one seeks truth within the confines of a controlling society it leads to self-discovery, because they find the courage to escape.

Strawberry Dna Extraction and Quantitative Hypothesis Development

We wanted to extract, see and analyze DNA from a single strawberry( 12. 11 g). The long, thick fibers of DNA store the information for the functioning of the chemistry of life. DNA is present in every cell of plants and animals. The DNA found in strawberry cells can be extracted using common, everyday materials. To start the procedure we needed the following supplies; one strawberry, one plastic cup, 10 ml of Cell Lysis Buffer (10% detergent, 1% NaCl), one plastic zip-lock bag, one coffee filter, and 25 ml of ice cold Ethanol.The first step of the process was to obtain the weight of the plastic cup by itself, get a strawberry, remove the stem and leave, put it in the plastic cup and then record the weight of plastic cup with strawberry. The results of this first step was; weight of plastic cup: 9. 63 g, weight of plastic cup and strawberry: 21. 74 g. The following step was to place the strawberry in the zip-lock bag, close it and start smashing the strawberry until it was completely broken up, the strawberry had a smoothie-like look. 0 ml of Cell Lysis Buffer was added to the strawberry and gentle massaged it for about one minute. This buffer, which has detergent in it, is to dissolve the cell and nuclear membranes and salts to break the ionic bonds between the histones and DNA, it separates DNA from strawberry. During this step, my lab partner prepared the coffee filter to filter the solution as determine by our instructor. We pour the cell lysate on the coffee filter and allowed it to go through it, to help it, we used a spoon and gently pushed the substance to get the most liquid out of it without braking the coffee filter.Before the filtration the texture looked solid, but after it looked like strawberry juice. Our instructor added 25 ml of ice cold ethanol to the cup and obtain the DNA. We could observe a solid white, mucus like material forming out of the â€Å"juice†. The excess of liquid was removed from the cup, and the cup and DNA was weighted, resulting of 10. 81 g, which was subtracted from the cup weight, having 1. 18 g as the weight of DNA. After this, we calculated the % of the strawberry that was DNA. We concluded that the DNA from strawberry was 9. 74%

Health Care in the USA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health Care in the USA - Essay Example Authorities to transmit overt health messages, such as those for AIDS prevention, immunization, or family planning, may use the electronic media. Perhaps more significant are advertisements (for insecticide, beer, soft drinks, automobiles, powdered milk, cosmetics, and other items of commerce) and programmatic content depicting supposedly admirable people and their lives and activities. Emulation of such models may have rapid and profound health consequences, both good and bad. Moreover, decades ago, the medium is often the message, and the mere presence of the radio or television receiver may lead to significant changes in personal or group behavior, independent of the nature or content of the broadcast messages. Most commentators ascribe the great decline in mortality in countries like US that were developing during the 18th and 19th centuries to improved nutrition, water supply, excreta disposal, and housing; legislation to control employment of women and children; and public health services in the broad sense. There seems to be a common misconception in the world that Health Care Services in US have monolithic socialized medicine systems under which a person need only appear on a hospital doorstep to be showered with free services. Perhaps equally widespread is the idea, promoted by television pictures of starving hordes, "such is not the case in the United States, where not all Americans are covered by health insurance" (Shi, L. & Singh, D., 2004, p. 2). Neither of these extreme images is accurate. While often useful, comparative studies have their limitations. On a superficial level, comparative health services research can uncover statistics on the numbers of facilities, physicians, hospital beds, and so on; on money and other resources put into the system; and on the number of patient visits or immunizations given over a certain period of time. It can also illustrate certain structural relationships within systems, such as the organization of divisions of a health department or the regionalization of hospitals, health centers, clinics, and dispensaries. Pages of tables and charts can be prepared in such studies, but skill and care are needed to draw correct conclusions from these data. There are two basic problems: (1) what the data show and (2) what they do not show. "Health care is a continuously evolving process impossible to describe adequately in an instantaneous snapshot, any more than a single frame can exemplify a long and complex motion picture" (Frick, K., Jensen, P.L., Quinlan, M. and Wilthagen, T, 2000, p. 86). The fact that a system for health care exists does not necessarily mean that it functions according to design or that it is used, or used appropriately, by the people whom it is intended to serve. The official health care system is not necessarily the health care system, because it has several parallel systems. Persons may by necessity (= lack of access) or by intent (= distrust) circumvent the official system. Indeed, in some parts of the US only a minority of the population may make use of official health services, preferring to consult pharmacists, healers, or others whose services are not recorded on government charts and tables. Whereas the elements of a system, and the resources put into it, can be counted and described, t he output or product of the system, in terms of improved health, is impossible to measure and may even defy estimation. Attitudes, motivations, and policies cannot be indicated on an organizational

Progressivism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Progressivism - Essay Example The era ensured direct primaries and voting of American seniors. This achievement was vital because it gave the citizens power of their regime. The progressives had a goal of improving education in high school through construction of vital facilities such as playgrounds. This measure was to suppress certain districts and substitute the urban machines (Henretta & David 253). The urban machines were corrupt and inefficient systems of municipality. The era saw the regulation of labor laws hence all people especially women were able to receive minimum wages (Henretta & David 583). Child labor was in restriction and insurance cover for factory workers enhanced. The work of progressives facilitated to the redress of various issues, for example, drugs and operation of the railroad industry (Henretta & David 461). There was firm antitrust laws plus decreased tariffs. The congress ensured control of banking systems hence improving conditions of work. Progressivism featured constitutional changes allowing income tax. The changes in constitution altered the election process leading to gender consideration. The reforms outlawed the sale plus manufacture of alcohol in various regions. The pioneers of progressivism called for restriction of immigrants through control of borders, and changing the nationality of the

Mergers and Acquisitions Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Mergers and Acquisitions Case Study - Essay Example The acquisition may generate monopoly gains whereby the purchasing a rival firm might minimize competition and enhance industry profits (Faulkner, Teerikangas and Joseph 2012, p.502). On August 17, 2010, SABMiller declared its intention to take its bid for Foster’s Group Ltd directly to the company’s shareholders. On December 16, 2011, SABMiller, one of leading brewers globally with more than 200 beer brands and over 70,000 workers in more than 75 countries, acquired Carlton and United Breweries (CUB) representing the Australian beverage business of Foster’s Group Limited. The court approval of the transaction preceded the entity's shareholders meeting, whereby the deal received the green light by 99.1% of current shareholders. The completion of the transaction scheme of arrangement can be regarded as a notable success given that SABMiller’s earlier proposal (June 2011) to acquire Foster’s Group for $4.90 per share became hostile in August 2011. In the approved transaction, Foster’s Group’s ordinary shareholders gained total cash consideration of A$5.40 per share, which represented an enterprise value of about Australia $11.7billion. In addition, to completing the acquisition of the firm, SABMiller also entered into a strategic alliance with Castle in Africa. Some of the means of gaining control of a public company entail a public offer (takeover bid) detailing gaining control of a listed public company. Recommended takeover can also be undertaken by: scheme and launching a dual listed company structure (Ahlstrom and Bruton 2010, p.190). A scheme demands a proposal to be tabled by the target to its shareholder and approved by the court. Court’s approval is critical as it... This paper stresses that the acquisition was not difficult to integrate, and it is improbable that SABMiller would dispose the acquired firm. The paper has established that the acquisition heralded benefits to the SABMiller’s shareholders given that the acquisition aligned with the firm’s strategic priorities, and handed the firm with a leading position in the stable and profitable Australia beer industry. SABMiller expects Foster’s to become a critical part of its business via the application of its commercial capabilities and global scale, as well as by building on the initiatives put in place by Foster’s management. The acquisition of Foster’s is anticipated to be EPS enhancing for SABMiller within the first full year of ownership, and herald economic returns that may exceed the project WACC by year 5. These results align with takeovers being highly motivated by maximization of shareholder wealth. Public mergers and acquisition within Australia a re guided by the overriding market activity and requires the regulation of recommended and hostile bids. The regulation encompasses undertaking of due diligence; procedures for announcing and launching an offer. This report makes a conclusion that the acquisition of Foster’s Group Limited by SABMiller appears to be propelled by the objective of leveraging the synergies within the acquisition process. In order to keep up with growth and changes within the globalized economy, any entity has to pursue the path of growth that contains diverse challenges and issues and overcome them to become a success story. SABMiller, through its indirectly wholly-owned Australian subsidiary, acquisition of Foster’s can be regarded as a case mirroring a company following the path of success.

Business Law and Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business Law and Ethics - Essay Example First thing on my mind would be to try to figure out a way to alert some one of importance about the issue at hand without being viewed as an unfriendly suitor. Should I began on the floor pointing fingers the workers or should I take this straight to the top? Using an ethical approach, it would make more sense to first make managerial routes of watching the floor to observe the processes that take place during sanitation and changeover routines in order to gain factual information to bring forward with my concerns. In finding that the employees are not exactly following company protocols the question of what to do next would become an aggravating opponent which in turn could make me jump the gun to make the mistake of blowing the whistle. Being that the company is already having problems with earnings along with a pending poisoning case looming in the air, it would definitely not be a good idea to turn my back on the issue nor would it be a good idea to help the company develop more losses by publicly destroying its reputation applying a tort in blowing the whistle on the situation. Therefore further investigation would be needed. After discussing the issue within the quality department and checking previous records, I would then assess the risk of taking this thing any further. If I tell now will I be praised and heralded a hero to be given an early promotion? Maybe so, but if I decide to keep quiet with the belief that this will probably blow over, will it come back to haunt me in the future because I didn’t do my job? These are individually very difficult questions to answer, but I believe that if I followed the proper steps to analyze each individual area where and how the salmonella may have infected the product, will help in taking the proper steps to eliminate this from happing again. This would serve as a job well done giving me enough satisfaction that would keep me from making the same

Discuss the benefits and drawback of fair value accounting measurement Assignment

Discuss the benefits and drawback of fair value accounting measurement vis--vis other measurements with respect to enhancing the quality of financial information - Assignment Example The accounting system demands an estimation of fair market value in order to demonstrate the present value of future cash flows (Penman, 2007). Many financial analysts are of the opinion that the fair value accounting has significantly contributed to the reasons behind financial crisis of 2008 (IMF, 2009). In this paper the statement will be critically evaluated to justify such argument. The paper will also analyse the benefits and drawbacks of fair value accounting in comparison with other measurements in order to enhance quality of financial information. Many critiques have argued that apart from the reasons such as subprime mortgage, excessive debt and default credit swaps that had mainly caused for financial crisis of 2008, fair value accounting which is also known as mark to market accounting has significantly contributed towards the crisis through producing deceptive data and defective financial statements (Laeven and Huizinga, 2009). However, though there has been much substantiation regarding asset fire sales and downward spirals in financial markets, supporting evidences that may prove the accounting system’s function in igniting the crisis are negligible. Such discussion can be based on the following myths. Some critiques have argued in favour of FVA that the assets reported under historical cost in the company’s balance sheet have no relation to their current value. The values of most of such assets are documented at their purchasing price with adjustments for depreciation (for building, plant and machineries etc.) or appreciation (bonds and other fixed maturity investments) of those assets (Bonaci, Matis and Strouhal, 2010). However, such valuation may not be appropriate in current market scenario. For example, value of a company owned building may hold more value in present market than its depreciated book value as calculated under historical cost. Hence, even under historical accounting, importance of fair value has been established

The Reversal of the College Marriage Gap Research Paper

The Reversal of the College Marriage Gap - Research Paper Example It is generally argued that American society has been transformed in the manner that there are visible changes in the roles of men and women at the time of their marriages. (Fry and Cohn). Due to this reason, the resulting changes in the way adults marry have been manifested in the form of late marriages. This bar graph also indicates that the marriage rates of the adults under the age of 20 have subsequently declined due to the changes in the economic status of women. Another study conducted also showed that the average age for first marriage has changed during last forty years as economic hardships as well as the changing relationships between different members of the society have contributed towards the transformation which was experienced by the American society as a whole due to this shift. (National Poverty Center) Graph -2 indicates the changes which took place in terms of ages of the college educated as well as non-college educated adults at the time of their marriage. The results suggest that the average age of the college educated as well as non-college educated adults is almost same at the time of marriage. This change in the ratio of the ages has changed over the period of time, as earlier, non-college educated adults tend to marry at an early age as compared to the college educated adults. The change is however, mainly because of the difficult economic situations with which both types of individuals have to tackle.

Eight Elvises Essay Example for Free

Eight Elvises Essay Following the times of the middle 1950’s Abstract Expressionism sparked an interest for Andy Warhol, and during the 60’s Andy, and Roy Lichtenstein created a new realism of America. This new realism was called Pop Art which expressed daily life in America as it was being lived. Warhol was born in 1928 as Andy Warhola, he grew up with a curiosity in commercials, and after a very successful life he became the main figure associated with Pop Art. His art is some of the most well known art of all time, and he is considered one of the best artists of all time, his greatest painting was done on canvas in 1963 called the Eight Elvises and is worth one hundred million dollars, which this amount is in the likes of Jackson Pollock, and Pablo Picasso’s work. Andy Warhol has many accomplishments during his life, and he was inspired by many different people and things. His talent led him to many opportunities including movies and artwork. Growing up Warhol was diagnosed with chorea which is a disease of the nervous system that causes movements that are involuntary. This disease is correlated with scarlet fever, causing Andy to grow up primarily bed-ridden, and this is where he listened to the radio and collected pictures of movie stars which helped him gain his own personality and attributes. After his struggle he spent his time at Carnegie School of Fine Arts Institute in Pittsburgh, he studied hard and showed his artistic capability early while he studied commercial art. Warhol was quickly offered a position in New York drawing advertisements for a shoe company. This is where his whimsical colors started to be portrayed in his drawings of those shoes. While working with the shoe company he was recruited to illustrate the vinyl album covers for band by record labels who at the time were booming with musical talent. In 1952, while Warhol was doing shoe art he was also doing his own art on the side. He wanted to show his early work to the public, so after pitching his idea he got his first art show in New York at the Hugo Gallery. All of his works during these times are very interesting to me, because he used his art to represented life as it was in America every day. Warhol took these everyday things as simple as Campbell’s soup cans, or Coke Cans and turned them into monumental items in America’s life. These items sell over 3 million products a day; these companies’ should be thanking Andy for making their business boom Worldwide. Warhol stated â€Å"You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca-Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca-cola, and just think, you can drink Coca-Cola, too† (Art). This art of the soups and cokes form analytic lines the way he stacks cans precisely and mathematically as he draws, which takes extreme precision and measurement on his part to make sure that everything is straight and perfect. After these paintings were produced, Warhol began getting very well known in the New York art world. This art led him to moving on to what was called â€Å"The Factory† where many creative minds ranging from actors, writers, musicians, and other artists would drop by and lend their inspiration. The Factory† is where Andy let his ability shine, he decided to get rid of a difference between high and low art, and make known that art can be found anywhere. High art being art that has history and low art being art that has no history, but Andy wanted to clear high and low all together. Warhol liked the factory because it had a crazy atmosphere that fit his life style. He produced all of his work during the time at factory while he was working there. Including in 1963 piece that had the most impact on me which was the silkscreen painting Eight Elvises because the unusual thing about this silkscreen is that it is unique. Warhol had many other silkscreen’s that were produced sometimes in the hundreds, and Warhol only made one Eight Elvises. This 12 ft canvas shows from left to right Elvis in cowboy attire with his gun drawn in his right hand with seven repeat images on the left of his body finishing off with a full body view with left hand in sight as his body fades away. Warhol was known as a primary visual artist and this art is an example of that. Silkscreen is a stencil method of printmaking in which a design is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface. Warhol did not bother to clean up the imperfections of the print including slips of the screen, uneven inkings of the roller, and general graininess. I believe that this artwork and the artists represent America because Warhol used American icons such as items and faces to secure a place for these in history. For these reasons this is why I have chosen this artwork. I like that he used a popular person Elvis and put his pop art twist on him turning him into eight western Elvises ready to draw his weapon, I think this means that he is a dependable hero for America to lean on. Warhol uses high and low art through his artwork giving it a desirable product. During the sixties his art was very distinct and powerful which in turn Warhol gained mass popularity, and people that had known him had been driven away from him due to his success. In 1968 a woman that worked for Warhol on occasion found him and shot him in the stomach, stating that â€Å"He had to much control over my life† (Art). He survived the gunshot, but was injured horribly and was required to wear a bandage on his stomach for the rest of his life. After this incident Warhol returned to the art world creating some more of my favorite art because of the way that he uses colors on the faces of American icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Mr. and Mrs. JFK, even Jimmy Carter, Mick Jagger, and Elvis. After the assassination attempt he also began publishing a magazine called â€Å"Interview† which is still published today. This magazine was dubbed as â€Å"The Crystal Ball of Pop (Interview. com) due to Warhol’s style of running the magazine, Andy would take pictures of famous people or items and by adding his color schemes he would make the entire magazine look like his art. A portion of this magazine is still dedicated to Andy’s style of work. His hard work ethic led him to many art shows getting his work extensively in museums and galleries around the world until he died during a gall bladder procedure that was deemed a safe procedure. His work of almost forty years has secured his position as one of the most influential talents of all time, and one of the greatest artists in the world. Warhol grew up with tough conditions leading to his confused life and very awkward personality type, these factors contributed to his choice of being a homosexual and his ambition of wanting to only make rich people richer by putting their pictures in the art world for more people to look at this is why he did so many self portraits. He wanted everyone to remember what he did and to this day I would say he made a big impact.

Australia Has Regional and Global Links Essay Example for Free

Australia Has Regional and Global Links Essay Australia has regional and global links with other countries for aid. This report will describe the advantages and disadvantages for Australia that result from its Indonesian aid links which includes improving Australia’s reputation and providing employment and training opportunities for people. However country may become too dependent on other countries for support and dishonest leaders may use the money for their own benefits. First and foremost, Australia is popularly known to be ‘champions of the underdog’ who believe in the ‘fair go’ principle. To not have an overseas aid program is thought to be inhumane and even unpatriotic. The Australian Overseas Aid Program argues that most Australians support Indonesian aid simply because they sincerely care about those who are less well off. Aid to Indonesia may then encourage a friendly relationship between them and Australia and the future of positive exchanges of cultural values. Secondly, by providing aid for countries such as Indonesia, it provides employment and training opportunities for Australians. Thousands of full and part-time jobs have been created in government and non-government aid agencies as well as in private firms. Voluntary aid has been said to benefit young people seeking work experience and retirees and unemployed people seeking worthwhile work. The theory is that voluntary work gives them valuable knowledge and work skills and improves cultural links between the two countries. However, when there are positives, there are always negatives. The disadvantage for Australia giving aid is that the receiving country of the aid can become too dependent on receiving that money. Instead of the country using the aid and becoming more independent by implementing programs and policies in their country, they remain dependent on the aid. For example, Australia gives Indonesia approximately 2 billion dollars a year. This is a concern because without Australian aid the people of Indonesia would be very poor. Furthermore, another disadvantage would include dishonest leaders abusing the money. Australian and international aid each year amounts to millions of dollars and unfortunately, must money is used by corrupt leaders who use the funds for their own benefits or to support their private armies. As a result, the aid does not get to the people who need it most. In summation, providing aid to other countries will always have its advantages and disadvantages. As seen from above, Australia benefited from providing aid to countries such as Indonesia because it provided employment and job opportunities for Australians and improved Australia’s reputation. However, providing too much assistant could result in the country becoming too independent or the money could be abused and used for the wrong purposes consequently, those who need it most don’t get the benefits.

Skill Requirements for IS Professionals in E-learning

Skill Requirements for IS Professionals in E-learning Skills requirements for information system professionals in the e-learning sector This research project is an investigation into the skills required for Information Systems (IS) professionals working in the commercial e-learning sector. This involved determining the perceived skill requirements for IS professionals, the actual skills held by current employees in this sector, and identifying any skills gaps that existed. The survey obtained information from a representative selection of the IS professional population. The questionnaire sample included IS professionals at all levels and grades of employment and reflected the composition of participating organizations. The table below summarises the objectives of this investigation: Identify the state of the UK IS workforce and the e-learning industry, Investigate the skills required to work as an IS professional in the e-learning industry in Berkshire, Investigate what skills gaps exist and Investigate the possible causes of these skills gaps. The main outcome of the study was a matrix of the skills required that can be used by universities and training organisations to tailor their course content to suit the constantly evolving demands of this industry. To combat the skills gaps that emerged and prevent performance problems arising, a number of recommendations need to be adopted to address the problems discovered: (1) Improve training strategies for IS professionals within the sector, majority of organisations have no set training strategy or budget; this is something that needs to change, (2) Create an annual ‘e-learning skills report’ detailing gaps and shortages, allowing education and industry to understand emerging and established skills needs. It would allow changes in demand and type of skill to be monitored. This would allow organisations to structure their internal training strategies, to eliminate skills gaps and (3) Form direct links between industry and education partners to allow course content t o be improved and improve employment prospects for graduates. The most important action is to integrate education with industry. If courses as specialist as-learning could be developed with an industry partner, the correct content would be guaranteed. 1. Introduction Many organisations have come to realise that certain new technologies can optimise efficiency and make processes more effective. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can bring industry closer to their customers, partners and suppliers through more integrated business and communication systems, and can provide enhanced educational opportunities. â€Å"There is a well-established relationship between improvements in Information Systems (IS) skills and increased productivity.† (Dress, 2001) The opportunity to gain competitive advantage through technology has consequently contributed to demand for skilled IS professionals outstripping supply. The label used to describe this effect is a ‘skills shortage’. The Computer Services and Software Association estimate that IS skills shortages will cost the UK over  £30 billion over the next three years(e-skills NTO, 2001). There is a growing recognition that the gap in skills for IS professionals is widening. The gap in skills does not only affect the ICT (primary) sector but all other sectors (secondary)which apply information technologies in their production, processes, products or services. The E-revolution of the information industries has created a new labour force, professional IS roles are becoming diversified and a generic IS curriculum will not meet all the needs for all IS jobs in the future. It seems that in any system that has an â€Å"E† placed in front of it; e-learning, e-business, e-commerce, are the development of new skills. Never before have new skills appeared at such a rate. Even if industrial structure is only changing slowly, employers of ‘IS ‘practitioners rarely found it easy to articulate their current and particularly future skill needs very precisely. â€Å"Nearly one third of the IS skills in the market today have only emerged in the last year. Sixty seven of the one hundred and thirty three internet related skills are totally new.† Chris Bennett, MD SAP Australia (Hawking, 2002) New curricula need to be developed which consist-’of separate distinctive concentrations, which target specific roles in the job market. A new stronger relationship needs to be formed between educational institutions and companies; to allow the required skills to be taught and help alleviate the current IS skills shortages. In the rapidly changing field of IS, educational programs must be continually re-evaluated and revised. â€Å"There is presently a gap between what industry wants characteristically in it IS personnel and what academia provides to them.† Gupta and Watcher( 1998) The first step in the curriculum revision process is to conduct a study to determine the expected skills and knowledge required for IS professionals in industry. This will allow academic institutions to create programs that more accurately reflect the demands of the marketplace. At present, there is no identifiable data about the requirements of IS professionals specific to the e-learning sector. This is the gap in knowledge that needs to be investigated. This dissertation has been commissioned to do precisely that; to investigate the skills required for IS professionals working in thee-learning industry. The results can then be used as a foundation for developing a suitable postgraduate course at the University level. The main outcome of the study will be a matrix of the skills required that can be used by universities and training organisations to tailor their course content to suit the constantly evolving demands of this industry. The research carried out in this project can be used by other universities to clarify the skills required for employment in this sector, allowing course content to be tailored to suit the changing demands of industry, and improve the opportunities for students seeking employment upon graduation. 2. Aims Objectives The research will be cantered on the key area of skills gap analysis. This will involve determining the perceived skill requirements for IS professionals and the actual skills held by current employees, then determining the differences. This study aims to obtain information from a representative selection of the IS professional population, and from that sample the researcher will then be able to present the findings as being representative of the population as awhile. The characteristics of the total population will be represented justly in the sample to enable the researcher to say with fair confidence that the sample is reasonably representative. The sample will include IS professionals at all levels and grades of employment and will reflect the composition of participating organisations. The study will allow users to simultaneously score both their own self-assessment of their ability and their perceptions of the levels of skill actually required by their job. The sample population will include organizations in the e-learning sector with a history of close association with Business Link Berkshire and Wiltshire. Summary of Research Objectives †¢ Identify the current state of the UK IS workforce and the e-learning industry †¢ Identify the most important/prevalent issues from the literature †¢ Investigate the skills required to work as an IS professional in the e-learning industry in the Berkshire region †¢ Identify the skill gaps from the perceived and actual skill levels †¢ Discuss the finding and compare against those of relevant previous studies 3. Literature Review The foundation for revision of curriculum process is the review of literature and investigation into the expected industry skills and knowledge for IS professionals. In the introduction chapter an outline of this study was given. This section will focus upon academic literature related to the subject area, which will go onto further support the data already mentioned. As well as academic literature, reports are of particular importance to this dissertation, due to the dynamic nature of the industry, reports are able to offer the very latest up to date information, which may take months to be peer reviewed and published in journals. There are a number of reports, which have been consulted in the preparation of this report that have provided valuable insight into the subject area. In addition the background chapter that follows this contains greater detail into the region and industry trends, separated to avoid over-powering the critical issues highlighted here. 3.1 Background The literature in general Skills Requirements Analysis (SRA) is extensive. Related areas include Training Needs Assessment (TNA) and the broader area of Learning Needs Assessment (LNA). Recent work in the area, such as that by Sine (1998) and earlier, by Kidd (1984) in knowledge acquisition adds to more traditional texts from skills training practitioners including Peterson (1998) and Major (1988). These papers all identify skills training as one of a number of initiatives to solve performance problems in an organisation. Using the performance problems identified, how far the skills identified are present, and how big is the gap between the performance objectives and the performance resulting from actual skills in place. This process is referred to as a skills audit. The skills audit links directly to the research questions in chapter one. A skills assessment or audit has three main objectives: 1. To determine what skills are required by each employee; 2. To determine which of the required skills each employee has; 3. To analyse the results and establish the specific training needs. Authors such as Hamel (1994) openly express the increasing value of employee’s skills, leading to knowledge within an organisation. More recent articles, such as Birch all and Tovstiga (1999) describe how this knowledge manifests itself primarily as organisational competencies and capabilities, leading to that all-important competitive advantage. Onaway to increase a company’s organisational competencies and capabilities in order to gain competitive advantage is through carefully implemented training and development, Schuler (1984).Education and training provision are important strategic practices in the development of organisational competence, but without understanding the precise skills needs first, how can the appropriate training be applied? 3.2 Information System Curriculum There is extensive literature surrounding the area of IS curriculum design. Although this study will not involve any design of curriculum, it is none the less useful to have an understanding of some of the issues that arise in designing IS curriculum; if the findings of this study will be used as a foundation to develop IS curricula. A common theme in the literature is the difficulty in creating curriculum that can fulfil all requirements in an industry that evolves so rapidly. Martinson and Cheung (2001) suggest that recent developments of IS industry jobs and career paths have made understanding the knowledge/skills requirement of an IS professional even more difficult. This is supported by Latham (2000) who explains that the complexity and multi-disciplinarily nature of Information Systems makes identifying a common curriculum both difficult and contentious. Skills requirements will inevitably change over time and it is important to take a strategic view of the needs of industry. There are a number of papers that highlight the differences between industry and academia strategies, and strong suggestions that these need to be merged and greater links formed between the two. Kim, Shim, and Yoon (1999) found that, â€Å"IS organisations perceive managerial and organisational issues as more important than educators†. They also found that educators consider emerging issues more important than industry organisations. Curriculum should be developed working with corporate partners. Similar work of Srinivasan, Duane, and Wright(1999) supports the importance of this idea of improving links between education and industry. In Lightfoot’s (1999) research on IS curriculum design, it was suggested that curriculum needs to be developed to satisfy both the current and future needs of the industry at the sometime. This is impossible without the links mentioned above. 3.3 Information System Skills Although the growing demand for IS professionals is evident, the exact combination of skills required is not. This could be attributed to the scope and divergence of IS roles that are now available. Hedge (now known as Dress) highlighted that â€Å"The fast-moving technological change in 1CT and rapid innovation, mean that it is much more difficult than in the past to determine the type and combination of skills that are needed† (Dee, 1999). While the reported growth of demand for IS workers is very evident, the identification of specific skills required for the variety of positions in Information Systems is not as clear† (Noll and Wilkins 2002).Research by Young and Lee (1997) and Lee, Trough, and Farwell (1995)confirm the increasing importance of these â€Å"soft skills†, which include writing, teamwork, presenting, project management, and interpersonal relationships. E-skills NTO, the industry representative body for IT skills, recently published a comprehensive report detailing the current situation regarding the supply and demand of IT and telecommunication professionals in the United Kingdom. This survey, called e-skills 21(2002) was the most comprehensive study of IT and Telecom Professionalism the UK in history, it included over 4000 interviews with professionals at all levels and across all sectors during 2001. The results of the comprehensive e-skills 21 survey mentioned earlier are characterised into technical and generic skills. More detail into what each compromises of will be given later. Aspects of the e-skills study have been used to develop the research instrument used in this study, to allow the skills gap findings to be directly compared. This E-Skills survey revealed a consensus among the companies that there was no major skill gap among the IS workers. However the one’s that did mention about a gap, pointed out the skills gap related to operating system, application usage and networking skills. It was common opinion among most of the respondents that technology was evolving at a much faster rate than they could grasp. These issues will be looked at during the study. Several studies indicate that verbal skills, work in cross-functional groups and written communications skills were the three most highly rated qualities to seek in staff Gupta and Watcher (1998) This view is supported in a recent report (lackey et al., 2000) quotes one respondent who said that: ‘There is a real lack of people who can combine ICT and business acumen.’ The biggest challenge for technical CT staff is in understanding the dynamics of business; including sales and marketing processes, supply chain processes, and internal processes. They also need to continue to develop and evolve customer facing business systems to enhance and improve the end user experience. CT staff were also identified as a central resource in teaching skills to other areas of the business; consequently communication skills and an understanding of the organisation are essential (E-skills 21, 2001). Another requirements paper by Lewinski (2003) suggests that IS skills can be more effectively developed through on-the-job training. The classification of requirements was not as specific as the other literature mentioned, but similarities can be seen in the results. With regard to technical skills; troubleshooting was required by 97 preceptor respondents, 91 services and facilitation, 82 installation of hardware/software and configuration, and 67 expressed a need for systems operation, monitoring and maintenance. Equal importance was placed upon non-technical skills, including; good communication, analytical/problem solving, flexibility and the ability to learn quickly. The only other study to include both a perceived and actual approach to skills assessment (as this study does) is by Hay (2003). The report by Hay (2003) concludes that there are four skills that are consistently higher than perceived needs of the job; basic computer use, word processing, spread sheet and database use. The areas repeatedly below the required level were presentation and graphics software, and use of a browser. There was also a reported â€Å"clear gap in the market† in the areas of knowledge of operating systems and networking. These skills gaps are readily identifiable by the employees themselves, with over 50% of participants lacking the required skills in at least one area. There are so many papers, with so many different classifications that comparing them directly was extremely difficult in writing this literature review. The common themes that came out were the technical and generic split of skills. There is a need for combination of both sets of skills. The skills gaps appear to be entered on OS and Networking skills on the technical side, and all skills related to the generic side. The only way to breakdown the mixture of skills from various papers to be able to understand and compare in a scientific way is by using an industry standard framework. The chosen framework and a number of other frameworks are described inspection 3.5. 3.4 E-Learning Skills Any employee, in any role, requires some overall, understanding of the business within which they work. Therefore, as this study is of IS professional skills in the e-learning industry each individual employed is required to have some understanding of the basics of teaching, tallow them to function as part of an educational organisation. The skills mentioned in this section will be required, though the depth of pedagogical skills will by dependant on the individual’s role. For example, the pedagogical skills of a training professional should be considerably stronger than that of a programmer. There was surprisingly little literature in the area of IS professionals working in-learning. The most useful research found was by Massy (2000 and2001). Both these studies were critically analysed by the Scottish enterprise research report published on their website. Both the papers suggested that the skills and competencies required by on-line training professionals can be broadly categorised as technical, pedagogical and managerial. Massy (2001) pointed out that there has been a consistent shift from the importance laid on Information Communication Technologies skills requirements with increased efforts now being placed on the acquisition of the above mentioned categories. The SFIA framework appears to cover every aspect of IS skills, the area of education and training was looked at closely being of particular importance to this study, and was found to give enough detail for IS professionals in general. Although more detail was required in the design of the instrument used in this study. â€Å"In line with developments in technology generally, the impact of technology-supported learning (TSL), and in particular e-learning(EL), has given rise to new combinations of skills, featuring how people learn with a sound understanding of the available technology in the design of learning experiences.† (Massy, 2000a cited in SERR, 2005) The first survey by Massy (2000) showed some interesting differences from the follow-up survey (2001). There was a marked change in focus of skills from technical (ICT) to pedagogical skills. The key concern in2000, was that technology had become the central focus for e-learning development, appeared to have been address in the 12 months that passed before the second survey. Greater emphasis was now being placed on the managerial and pedagogical attributes required for producing and presenting e-learning. In the same 12 month period, over 60% of respondents had taken part in some informal training, and a further 30% formal classroom-based learning. The step down in attaining ICT skills was reportedly due to the basic fluency being established and the focus being directed to attaining new skills in e-learning content design. This requires a greater understanding of management and pedagogy. The study by Martin and Jennings (2002) followed the same approach as Massy. In this survey a distinction was made between users and suppliers of e-learning. Unfortunately it is not possible to make that distinction, as more often than not they are the same person. This problem of identifying groups was also expressed in the report, â€Å"Unreality, most user organisations are also providers of e-learning, such as universities.† Suppliers identified an increased interest in gaining in-depth Information Communication skills; others suggesting this were a major problem. Stronger leadership and ‘championing’ of projects is also required. The most important ICT skills identified, with regard to-learning were: To effectively utilise web-page design, including text, audio and video conferencing materials, E-mail, Bulletin boards, Discussion forums for communication with and between learners (SERR,2005). These are relatively common and well-developed skills for IS professionals. Another important issue, which has continued to braised throughout this literature review, is the need for better collaboration between industry (supplier) and academia. To aid this it is also suggested that e-learning needs to be integrated further in to university and college education. 3.5 Information System Frameworks IS management and occupational analysts in different-organisations and countries have tried to distil the structure of the industry, from the constantly evolving picture, so it is understandable that a number of different occupational frameworks have therefore emerged. The most important frameworks to this study are those that have been used for surveys. While there are broad similarities, different surveys, using different frameworks, produce different results, and although they may enrich the overall picture of the industry, they cannot generally be usefully compared. A number of academics have developed their own skills frameworks. Allot these follow the same format of grouping technical and business skills, against various levels of competency. Examples of academic frameworks developed include early research by Ashen Hurst (1972) that identified 37 skills and abilities that a student in a graduate IS program should expect to acquire into six categories: people, models, systems, computers, organizations, and society. Similarly the work of Todd et al. (1995) classified IS knowledge into seven categories: hardware, software, business, management, social, and problem solving, and development methodology. It was also reasoned that interpersonal and managerial skills are more important than any technical skills for IS managers. Nelson (1991) classified 30 skills into six groups: organizational knowledge, organizational skills, organizational unit, general IS knowledge, technical skills, and IS product. This paper found that IS personnel were deficient in general IS knowledge followed by organizational knowledge, technical skills, organizational skills, IS product, and organizational units (in that order). Lee and Gosling (1999) classified three key abilities of IS professionals: ability to learn new technologies, ability to focus on technology as a means (not an end), and ability to understand technological trends into technology management knowledge and other technology-related knowledge into technical specialized knowledge. There port classified non-technology-related knowledge into business functional knowledge, interpersonal and management skills, letting interpersonal and management skills contain some personal traits. Also included was the ability to teach others interpersonal and management skills. It was found that non-technological knowledge is now more important than technical skills. A skills framework gives organisations: A clear, well-structured view of their staffs skills; A tool for more accurate planning and management of resources; A tool for accurate development of careers, so improving retention; A better way of targeting training; A method of risk assessment for the loss of key skills; A tool for accurate and efficient recruitment (Taken From Skills Framework ). In the UK, in June 2001 e-skills NTO published a Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). It provides a common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective Information Systems making use of Information Communications Technologies. It appeared to be a simple and coherent two-dimensional framework consisting of areas of work on one axis and levels of responsibility on the other (SFIA ). Previously there was no industry benchmark for organisation to measure the skill levels of their organisation. The methodology for this study will be developed to allow the results to be mapped directly onto the framework. Therefore, the findings can be compared to those of previous research carried out by-skills NTO. 3.6 Summary The literature presented has highlighted some important issues, provided grounding for this study and has helped eliminate some of the preconceptions of what was expected. The purpose of identifying skills gaps is to allow the appropriate training to be adopted, therefore eliminating the performance problems that exist. The career paths of the IS industry are no longer straight forward and the complexity and diversity of the sector makes understanding it in a scientific way very difficult. The literature suggests that as the industry is so dynamic, relationships must be improved between education and industry. The problems that exist relate to academic and training practitioners not providing the correct skills in their graduates. Research focused academia tends to provide graduates with the latest emerging technologies, these skills quickly become out-of-date, while the more fundamental technologies appear to be neglected. This is expressed in the views of many industry speakers, it is assumed that an IS professional will be capable of learning new programming languages, once the method of logical thinking has been established. It is more important to develop the established fundamental technologies, and allow the professional to develop the niche skills required as they move into a specialist area, for example e-learning. The technical skills gaps that exist are focused around Microsoft Programs; including Windows/NT, MS Application skills (especially MS Access), and Networking technologies. The generic skills gaps that exist include both written and oral communication, user IT skills, industry awareness, and problem solving. The combinations of these two types of skills gaps are from literature that investigated the whole IS industry. It will be interesting to see how they compare with thee-learning sector, which you would presume at this stage to have stronger focus on generic skills. The literature that was focused one-learning highlighted all forms of communication (e.g. oral, written, and electronic) as the most important generic skills. The most important technical skills required included web related technologies and presentation or audio visual skills. The final area to look into was to see if the focus change from technical to pedagogical was visible in this study. This could not be done in the same way as the literature by repeating the study again after a 12 month period. As different approach the structure of the instrument could be written in way to allow comparisons to be made between importance levels of the three categories of skill. The main reasons cited for skills gaps in the ICT sector are a lack of skills/experience of new technologies and organisations failing to train/develop staff sufficiently to meet their needs. This in turn causes difficulty in introducing technological change. The other effects highlighted include delays in the development of new products/services and difficulties meeting business objectives. Much of the literature suggests the most obvious actions to address the problem of skills gaps would be to provide further training and increase recruitment of direct staff. These can be included in the changing of working practices. The chapter on research methods will explain exactly what instruments are used and the approach taken. The literature was used extensively to create the instruments and followed previous research to allow comparisons of the results to be made. They follow the form set out in this review; combining technical, generic and pedagogical skills. Instruments used in the literature were modified and extended for the purposes of this study. The results chapter also uses some of the literature as a source of ideas for the descriptions and highlighting the most significant findings. This is to allow direct comparison with previous studies. The main gap identified in the literature is with regard to quantifying the pedagogical skills mentioned. In Masons work the skills are mentioned but not in enough detail. In the e-learning industry the pedagogical skills will not match that of a â€Å"normal† teacher or lecturer, as there is not only a significant difference between the methods of teaching and learning, but also in content provision. The student in an e-learning environment is a researcher, which is quite different from classroom based taught learning. There are also further technical skills that are only required in this sector that need to be assessed. This study should provide the reader with an understanding of the requirements of an IS professional working in e-learning and highlight the gaps that currently exist in this sector in Berkshire. It will be of particular benefit to persons working within the industry or closely linked to it. This study can be used as a basis to start an investigation into the requirements of an IS e-learning undergraduate or postgraduate course. 3.7 Research Hypothesis Null Hypothesis is defined as ‘The state opposite to that suggested in a hypothesis, postulated in the hope of rejecting its form and therefore proving the hypothesis.’ Hence the null hypothesis for this research may be stated as H0: â€Å"There is no skills gap among Information system professionals in the e-learning sector.† The following research hypothesis is derived from the literature and will be tested using the primary research conducted by the researcher. H1: â€Å"There exists a skills gap among Information system professional in the e-learning sector† 4. Research Methodology 4.1 Introduction An appropriate research methodology is a general plan of how the researcher will go about answering the research questions considering the sources to collect data and the constraints that one might have(access to data, time, location and money, etc.). It should reflect the fact that the researcher has thought carefully about why a particular strategy/method has been employed. Data intended for almost any study can be obtained from two sources: Primary Data and Secondary Data. This chapter describes the process of method selection and justification for the method chosen. The sample selection method is described and the design of the instrument used is included. There is an introduction into how the results were analysed before the results chapter which holds greater detail. Then there is a short description of how the methods chosen could have been improved or expanded on given greater time or financial resources. 4.2 Choice of Methodology A small-scale research study of this kind can use a survey to obtain large amounts of data in a short space of time. This study has produced a statistical analysis of the skills r Skill Requirements for IS Professionals in E-learning Skill Requirements for IS Professionals in E-learning Skills requirements for information system professionals in the e-learning sector This research project is an investigation into the skills required for Information Systems (IS) professionals working in the commercial e-learning sector. This involved determining the perceived skill requirements for IS professionals, the actual skills held by current employees in this sector, and identifying any skills gaps that existed. The survey obtained information from a representative selection of the IS professional population. The questionnaire sample included IS professionals at all levels and grades of employment and reflected the composition of participating organizations. The table below summarises the objectives of this investigation: Identify the state of the UK IS workforce and the e-learning industry, Investigate the skills required to work as an IS professional in the e-learning industry in Berkshire, Investigate what skills gaps exist and Investigate the possible causes of these skills gaps. The main outcome of the study was a matrix of the skills required that can be used by universities and training organisations to tailor their course content to suit the constantly evolving demands of this industry. To combat the skills gaps that emerged and prevent performance problems arising, a number of recommendations need to be adopted to address the problems discovered: (1) Improve training strategies for IS professionals within the sector, majority of organisations have no set training strategy or budget; this is something that needs to change, (2) Create an annual ‘e-learning skills report’ detailing gaps and shortages, allowing education and industry to understand emerging and established skills needs. It would allow changes in demand and type of skill to be monitored. This would allow organisations to structure their internal training strategies, to eliminate skills gaps and (3) Form direct links between industry and education partners to allow course content t o be improved and improve employment prospects for graduates. The most important action is to integrate education with industry. If courses as specialist as-learning could be developed with an industry partner, the correct content would be guaranteed. 1. Introduction Many organisations have come to realise that certain new technologies can optimise efficiency and make processes more effective. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can bring industry closer to their customers, partners and suppliers through more integrated business and communication systems, and can provide enhanced educational opportunities. â€Å"There is a well-established relationship between improvements in Information Systems (IS) skills and increased productivity.† (Dress, 2001) The opportunity to gain competitive advantage through technology has consequently contributed to demand for skilled IS professionals outstripping supply. The label used to describe this effect is a ‘skills shortage’. The Computer Services and Software Association estimate that IS skills shortages will cost the UK over  £30 billion over the next three years(e-skills NTO, 2001). There is a growing recognition that the gap in skills for IS professionals is widening. The gap in skills does not only affect the ICT (primary) sector but all other sectors (secondary)which apply information technologies in their production, processes, products or services. The E-revolution of the information industries has created a new labour force, professional IS roles are becoming diversified and a generic IS curriculum will not meet all the needs for all IS jobs in the future. It seems that in any system that has an â€Å"E† placed in front of it; e-learning, e-business, e-commerce, are the development of new skills. Never before have new skills appeared at such a rate. Even if industrial structure is only changing slowly, employers of ‘IS ‘practitioners rarely found it easy to articulate their current and particularly future skill needs very precisely. â€Å"Nearly one third of the IS skills in the market today have only emerged in the last year. Sixty seven of the one hundred and thirty three internet related skills are totally new.† Chris Bennett, MD SAP Australia (Hawking, 2002) New curricula need to be developed which consist-’of separate distinctive concentrations, which target specific roles in the job market. A new stronger relationship needs to be formed between educational institutions and companies; to allow the required skills to be taught and help alleviate the current IS skills shortages. In the rapidly changing field of IS, educational programs must be continually re-evaluated and revised. â€Å"There is presently a gap between what industry wants characteristically in it IS personnel and what academia provides to them.† Gupta and Watcher( 1998) The first step in the curriculum revision process is to conduct a study to determine the expected skills and knowledge required for IS professionals in industry. This will allow academic institutions to create programs that more accurately reflect the demands of the marketplace. At present, there is no identifiable data about the requirements of IS professionals specific to the e-learning sector. This is the gap in knowledge that needs to be investigated. This dissertation has been commissioned to do precisely that; to investigate the skills required for IS professionals working in thee-learning industry. The results can then be used as a foundation for developing a suitable postgraduate course at the University level. The main outcome of the study will be a matrix of the skills required that can be used by universities and training organisations to tailor their course content to suit the constantly evolving demands of this industry. The research carried out in this project can be used by other universities to clarify the skills required for employment in this sector, allowing course content to be tailored to suit the changing demands of industry, and improve the opportunities for students seeking employment upon graduation. 2. Aims Objectives The research will be cantered on the key area of skills gap analysis. This will involve determining the perceived skill requirements for IS professionals and the actual skills held by current employees, then determining the differences. This study aims to obtain information from a representative selection of the IS professional population, and from that sample the researcher will then be able to present the findings as being representative of the population as awhile. The characteristics of the total population will be represented justly in the sample to enable the researcher to say with fair confidence that the sample is reasonably representative. The sample will include IS professionals at all levels and grades of employment and will reflect the composition of participating organisations. The study will allow users to simultaneously score both their own self-assessment of their ability and their perceptions of the levels of skill actually required by their job. The sample population will include organizations in the e-learning sector with a history of close association with Business Link Berkshire and Wiltshire. Summary of Research Objectives †¢ Identify the current state of the UK IS workforce and the e-learning industry †¢ Identify the most important/prevalent issues from the literature †¢ Investigate the skills required to work as an IS professional in the e-learning industry in the Berkshire region †¢ Identify the skill gaps from the perceived and actual skill levels †¢ Discuss the finding and compare against those of relevant previous studies 3. Literature Review The foundation for revision of curriculum process is the review of literature and investigation into the expected industry skills and knowledge for IS professionals. In the introduction chapter an outline of this study was given. This section will focus upon academic literature related to the subject area, which will go onto further support the data already mentioned. As well as academic literature, reports are of particular importance to this dissertation, due to the dynamic nature of the industry, reports are able to offer the very latest up to date information, which may take months to be peer reviewed and published in journals. There are a number of reports, which have been consulted in the preparation of this report that have provided valuable insight into the subject area. In addition the background chapter that follows this contains greater detail into the region and industry trends, separated to avoid over-powering the critical issues highlighted here. 3.1 Background The literature in general Skills Requirements Analysis (SRA) is extensive. Related areas include Training Needs Assessment (TNA) and the broader area of Learning Needs Assessment (LNA). Recent work in the area, such as that by Sine (1998) and earlier, by Kidd (1984) in knowledge acquisition adds to more traditional texts from skills training practitioners including Peterson (1998) and Major (1988). These papers all identify skills training as one of a number of initiatives to solve performance problems in an organisation. Using the performance problems identified, how far the skills identified are present, and how big is the gap between the performance objectives and the performance resulting from actual skills in place. This process is referred to as a skills audit. The skills audit links directly to the research questions in chapter one. A skills assessment or audit has three main objectives: 1. To determine what skills are required by each employee; 2. To determine which of the required skills each employee has; 3. To analyse the results and establish the specific training needs. Authors such as Hamel (1994) openly express the increasing value of employee’s skills, leading to knowledge within an organisation. More recent articles, such as Birch all and Tovstiga (1999) describe how this knowledge manifests itself primarily as organisational competencies and capabilities, leading to that all-important competitive advantage. Onaway to increase a company’s organisational competencies and capabilities in order to gain competitive advantage is through carefully implemented training and development, Schuler (1984).Education and training provision are important strategic practices in the development of organisational competence, but without understanding the precise skills needs first, how can the appropriate training be applied? 3.2 Information System Curriculum There is extensive literature surrounding the area of IS curriculum design. Although this study will not involve any design of curriculum, it is none the less useful to have an understanding of some of the issues that arise in designing IS curriculum; if the findings of this study will be used as a foundation to develop IS curricula. A common theme in the literature is the difficulty in creating curriculum that can fulfil all requirements in an industry that evolves so rapidly. Martinson and Cheung (2001) suggest that recent developments of IS industry jobs and career paths have made understanding the knowledge/skills requirement of an IS professional even more difficult. This is supported by Latham (2000) who explains that the complexity and multi-disciplinarily nature of Information Systems makes identifying a common curriculum both difficult and contentious. Skills requirements will inevitably change over time and it is important to take a strategic view of the needs of industry. There are a number of papers that highlight the differences between industry and academia strategies, and strong suggestions that these need to be merged and greater links formed between the two. Kim, Shim, and Yoon (1999) found that, â€Å"IS organisations perceive managerial and organisational issues as more important than educators†. They also found that educators consider emerging issues more important than industry organisations. Curriculum should be developed working with corporate partners. Similar work of Srinivasan, Duane, and Wright(1999) supports the importance of this idea of improving links between education and industry. In Lightfoot’s (1999) research on IS curriculum design, it was suggested that curriculum needs to be developed to satisfy both the current and future needs of the industry at the sometime. This is impossible without the links mentioned above. 3.3 Information System Skills Although the growing demand for IS professionals is evident, the exact combination of skills required is not. This could be attributed to the scope and divergence of IS roles that are now available. Hedge (now known as Dress) highlighted that â€Å"The fast-moving technological change in 1CT and rapid innovation, mean that it is much more difficult than in the past to determine the type and combination of skills that are needed† (Dee, 1999). While the reported growth of demand for IS workers is very evident, the identification of specific skills required for the variety of positions in Information Systems is not as clear† (Noll and Wilkins 2002).Research by Young and Lee (1997) and Lee, Trough, and Farwell (1995)confirm the increasing importance of these â€Å"soft skills†, which include writing, teamwork, presenting, project management, and interpersonal relationships. E-skills NTO, the industry representative body for IT skills, recently published a comprehensive report detailing the current situation regarding the supply and demand of IT and telecommunication professionals in the United Kingdom. This survey, called e-skills 21(2002) was the most comprehensive study of IT and Telecom Professionalism the UK in history, it included over 4000 interviews with professionals at all levels and across all sectors during 2001. The results of the comprehensive e-skills 21 survey mentioned earlier are characterised into technical and generic skills. More detail into what each compromises of will be given later. Aspects of the e-skills study have been used to develop the research instrument used in this study, to allow the skills gap findings to be directly compared. This E-Skills survey revealed a consensus among the companies that there was no major skill gap among the IS workers. However the one’s that did mention about a gap, pointed out the skills gap related to operating system, application usage and networking skills. It was common opinion among most of the respondents that technology was evolving at a much faster rate than they could grasp. These issues will be looked at during the study. Several studies indicate that verbal skills, work in cross-functional groups and written communications skills were the three most highly rated qualities to seek in staff Gupta and Watcher (1998) This view is supported in a recent report (lackey et al., 2000) quotes one respondent who said that: ‘There is a real lack of people who can combine ICT and business acumen.’ The biggest challenge for technical CT staff is in understanding the dynamics of business; including sales and marketing processes, supply chain processes, and internal processes. They also need to continue to develop and evolve customer facing business systems to enhance and improve the end user experience. CT staff were also identified as a central resource in teaching skills to other areas of the business; consequently communication skills and an understanding of the organisation are essential (E-skills 21, 2001). Another requirements paper by Lewinski (2003) suggests that IS skills can be more effectively developed through on-the-job training. The classification of requirements was not as specific as the other literature mentioned, but similarities can be seen in the results. With regard to technical skills; troubleshooting was required by 97 preceptor respondents, 91 services and facilitation, 82 installation of hardware/software and configuration, and 67 expressed a need for systems operation, monitoring and maintenance. Equal importance was placed upon non-technical skills, including; good communication, analytical/problem solving, flexibility and the ability to learn quickly. The only other study to include both a perceived and actual approach to skills assessment (as this study does) is by Hay (2003). The report by Hay (2003) concludes that there are four skills that are consistently higher than perceived needs of the job; basic computer use, word processing, spread sheet and database use. The areas repeatedly below the required level were presentation and graphics software, and use of a browser. There was also a reported â€Å"clear gap in the market† in the areas of knowledge of operating systems and networking. These skills gaps are readily identifiable by the employees themselves, with over 50% of participants lacking the required skills in at least one area. There are so many papers, with so many different classifications that comparing them directly was extremely difficult in writing this literature review. The common themes that came out were the technical and generic split of skills. There is a need for combination of both sets of skills. The skills gaps appear to be entered on OS and Networking skills on the technical side, and all skills related to the generic side. The only way to breakdown the mixture of skills from various papers to be able to understand and compare in a scientific way is by using an industry standard framework. The chosen framework and a number of other frameworks are described inspection 3.5. 3.4 E-Learning Skills Any employee, in any role, requires some overall, understanding of the business within which they work. Therefore, as this study is of IS professional skills in the e-learning industry each individual employed is required to have some understanding of the basics of teaching, tallow them to function as part of an educational organisation. The skills mentioned in this section will be required, though the depth of pedagogical skills will by dependant on the individual’s role. For example, the pedagogical skills of a training professional should be considerably stronger than that of a programmer. There was surprisingly little literature in the area of IS professionals working in-learning. The most useful research found was by Massy (2000 and2001). Both these studies were critically analysed by the Scottish enterprise research report published on their website. Both the papers suggested that the skills and competencies required by on-line training professionals can be broadly categorised as technical, pedagogical and managerial. Massy (2001) pointed out that there has been a consistent shift from the importance laid on Information Communication Technologies skills requirements with increased efforts now being placed on the acquisition of the above mentioned categories. The SFIA framework appears to cover every aspect of IS skills, the area of education and training was looked at closely being of particular importance to this study, and was found to give enough detail for IS professionals in general. Although more detail was required in the design of the instrument used in this study. â€Å"In line with developments in technology generally, the impact of technology-supported learning (TSL), and in particular e-learning(EL), has given rise to new combinations of skills, featuring how people learn with a sound understanding of the available technology in the design of learning experiences.† (Massy, 2000a cited in SERR, 2005) The first survey by Massy (2000) showed some interesting differences from the follow-up survey (2001). There was a marked change in focus of skills from technical (ICT) to pedagogical skills. The key concern in2000, was that technology had become the central focus for e-learning development, appeared to have been address in the 12 months that passed before the second survey. Greater emphasis was now being placed on the managerial and pedagogical attributes required for producing and presenting e-learning. In the same 12 month period, over 60% of respondents had taken part in some informal training, and a further 30% formal classroom-based learning. The step down in attaining ICT skills was reportedly due to the basic fluency being established and the focus being directed to attaining new skills in e-learning content design. This requires a greater understanding of management and pedagogy. The study by Martin and Jennings (2002) followed the same approach as Massy. In this survey a distinction was made between users and suppliers of e-learning. Unfortunately it is not possible to make that distinction, as more often than not they are the same person. This problem of identifying groups was also expressed in the report, â€Å"Unreality, most user organisations are also providers of e-learning, such as universities.† Suppliers identified an increased interest in gaining in-depth Information Communication skills; others suggesting this were a major problem. Stronger leadership and ‘championing’ of projects is also required. The most important ICT skills identified, with regard to-learning were: To effectively utilise web-page design, including text, audio and video conferencing materials, E-mail, Bulletin boards, Discussion forums for communication with and between learners (SERR,2005). These are relatively common and well-developed skills for IS professionals. Another important issue, which has continued to braised throughout this literature review, is the need for better collaboration between industry (supplier) and academia. To aid this it is also suggested that e-learning needs to be integrated further in to university and college education. 3.5 Information System Frameworks IS management and occupational analysts in different-organisations and countries have tried to distil the structure of the industry, from the constantly evolving picture, so it is understandable that a number of different occupational frameworks have therefore emerged. The most important frameworks to this study are those that have been used for surveys. While there are broad similarities, different surveys, using different frameworks, produce different results, and although they may enrich the overall picture of the industry, they cannot generally be usefully compared. A number of academics have developed their own skills frameworks. Allot these follow the same format of grouping technical and business skills, against various levels of competency. Examples of academic frameworks developed include early research by Ashen Hurst (1972) that identified 37 skills and abilities that a student in a graduate IS program should expect to acquire into six categories: people, models, systems, computers, organizations, and society. Similarly the work of Todd et al. (1995) classified IS knowledge into seven categories: hardware, software, business, management, social, and problem solving, and development methodology. It was also reasoned that interpersonal and managerial skills are more important than any technical skills for IS managers. Nelson (1991) classified 30 skills into six groups: organizational knowledge, organizational skills, organizational unit, general IS knowledge, technical skills, and IS product. This paper found that IS personnel were deficient in general IS knowledge followed by organizational knowledge, technical skills, organizational skills, IS product, and organizational units (in that order). Lee and Gosling (1999) classified three key abilities of IS professionals: ability to learn new technologies, ability to focus on technology as a means (not an end), and ability to understand technological trends into technology management knowledge and other technology-related knowledge into technical specialized knowledge. There port classified non-technology-related knowledge into business functional knowledge, interpersonal and management skills, letting interpersonal and management skills contain some personal traits. Also included was the ability to teach others interpersonal and management skills. It was found that non-technological knowledge is now more important than technical skills. A skills framework gives organisations: A clear, well-structured view of their staffs skills; A tool for more accurate planning and management of resources; A tool for accurate development of careers, so improving retention; A better way of targeting training; A method of risk assessment for the loss of key skills; A tool for accurate and efficient recruitment (Taken From Skills Framework ). In the UK, in June 2001 e-skills NTO published a Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). It provides a common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective Information Systems making use of Information Communications Technologies. It appeared to be a simple and coherent two-dimensional framework consisting of areas of work on one axis and levels of responsibility on the other (SFIA ). Previously there was no industry benchmark for organisation to measure the skill levels of their organisation. The methodology for this study will be developed to allow the results to be mapped directly onto the framework. Therefore, the findings can be compared to those of previous research carried out by-skills NTO. 3.6 Summary The literature presented has highlighted some important issues, provided grounding for this study and has helped eliminate some of the preconceptions of what was expected. The purpose of identifying skills gaps is to allow the appropriate training to be adopted, therefore eliminating the performance problems that exist. The career paths of the IS industry are no longer straight forward and the complexity and diversity of the sector makes understanding it in a scientific way very difficult. The literature suggests that as the industry is so dynamic, relationships must be improved between education and industry. The problems that exist relate to academic and training practitioners not providing the correct skills in their graduates. Research focused academia tends to provide graduates with the latest emerging technologies, these skills quickly become out-of-date, while the more fundamental technologies appear to be neglected. This is expressed in the views of many industry speakers, it is assumed that an IS professional will be capable of learning new programming languages, once the method of logical thinking has been established. It is more important to develop the established fundamental technologies, and allow the professional to develop the niche skills required as they move into a specialist area, for example e-learning. The technical skills gaps that exist are focused around Microsoft Programs; including Windows/NT, MS Application skills (especially MS Access), and Networking technologies. The generic skills gaps that exist include both written and oral communication, user IT skills, industry awareness, and problem solving. The combinations of these two types of skills gaps are from literature that investigated the whole IS industry. It will be interesting to see how they compare with thee-learning sector, which you would presume at this stage to have stronger focus on generic skills. The literature that was focused one-learning highlighted all forms of communication (e.g. oral, written, and electronic) as the most important generic skills. The most important technical skills required included web related technologies and presentation or audio visual skills. The final area to look into was to see if the focus change from technical to pedagogical was visible in this study. This could not be done in the same way as the literature by repeating the study again after a 12 month period. As different approach the structure of the instrument could be written in way to allow comparisons to be made between importance levels of the three categories of skill. The main reasons cited for skills gaps in the ICT sector are a lack of skills/experience of new technologies and organisations failing to train/develop staff sufficiently to meet their needs. This in turn causes difficulty in introducing technological change. The other effects highlighted include delays in the development of new products/services and difficulties meeting business objectives. Much of the literature suggests the most obvious actions to address the problem of skills gaps would be to provide further training and increase recruitment of direct staff. These can be included in the changing of working practices. The chapter on research methods will explain exactly what instruments are used and the approach taken. The literature was used extensively to create the instruments and followed previous research to allow comparisons of the results to be made. They follow the form set out in this review; combining technical, generic and pedagogical skills. Instruments used in the literature were modified and extended for the purposes of this study. The results chapter also uses some of the literature as a source of ideas for the descriptions and highlighting the most significant findings. This is to allow direct comparison with previous studies. The main gap identified in the literature is with regard to quantifying the pedagogical skills mentioned. In Masons work the skills are mentioned but not in enough detail. In the e-learning industry the pedagogical skills will not match that of a â€Å"normal† teacher or lecturer, as there is not only a significant difference between the methods of teaching and learning, but also in content provision. The student in an e-learning environment is a researcher, which is quite different from classroom based taught learning. There are also further technical skills that are only required in this sector that need to be assessed. This study should provide the reader with an understanding of the requirements of an IS professional working in e-learning and highlight the gaps that currently exist in this sector in Berkshire. It will be of particular benefit to persons working within the industry or closely linked to it. This study can be used as a basis to start an investigation into the requirements of an IS e-learning undergraduate or postgraduate course. 3.7 Research Hypothesis Null Hypothesis is defined as ‘The state opposite to that suggested in a hypothesis, postulated in the hope of rejecting its form and therefore proving the hypothesis.’ Hence the null hypothesis for this research may be stated as H0: â€Å"There is no skills gap among Information system professionals in the e-learning sector.† The following research hypothesis is derived from the literature and will be tested using the primary research conducted by the researcher. H1: â€Å"There exists a skills gap among Information system professional in the e-learning sector† 4. Research Methodology 4.1 Introduction An appropriate research methodology is a general plan of how the researcher will go about answering the research questions considering the sources to collect data and the constraints that one might have(access to data, time, location and money, etc.). It should reflect the fact that the researcher has thought carefully about why a particular strategy/method has been employed. Data intended for almost any study can be obtained from two sources: Primary Data and Secondary Data. This chapter describes the process of method selection and justification for the method chosen. The sample selection method is described and the design of the instrument used is included. There is an introduction into how the results were analysed before the results chapter which holds greater detail. Then there is a short description of how the methods chosen could have been improved or expanded on given greater time or financial resources. 4.2 Choice of Methodology A small-scale research study of this kind can use a survey to obtain large amounts of data in a short space of time. This study has produced a statistical analysis of the skills r