Web 2.0 Learning Essay Example for Free

Web 2.0 Learning Essay The original wiki, The Portland Pattern Repository (Portland pattern repository, n. d) was created by Full Name Cunningham in 1995 (c2. com/cgi. wiki? WikiHistory – reference properly – if there is no author use the title of the page The definition of a wiki is a webpage or set of webpages that can be easily edited by anyone who is allowed access (Edersbach et al. ,2006 ). The overriding goal of a wiki is to become a shared repository of knowledge with the knowledge base growing over time (Godwin-Jones, 2003). Chawner and Lewis (2004) noted that a wiki is an example of â€Å"social software†, â€Å"a type of software that makes it easy for groups of people to work in a virtual environment†. However, Viegas , Wattenberg and Dave (2004) indicate that wikis are vulnerable to malicious edits or â€Å"vandalism,† which can be a problem at may levels. However, Cych (2006) argues that acts of vandalism and mistakes are rectified quite quickly by the self-moderation processes at work (a couple of sentences expanding on this issue is needed here – if I were you I’d try and refer to something which discusses the accuracy of wikipedia against the encyclopeadia britannica). As an alternative to the global editing of wiki’s, restricting access to registered users only is often used for professional, work group wikis. One of the great features of a wiki is its capacity to be able easily editable. A wiki has the capacity to be able to be edited collaboratively rather the information presented in wikis have the option to be edited or added utilizing a very rudimentary mark-up computer code that would use a internet explorer or browser. Broken down, one page within a wiki is referred by many as a wiki page as compared to the entire set of wiki pages is called a wiki when taken into consideration (Cunningham Leuf 2001). Thus, it can be generalized that a wiki is a collection of information where contributors can contribute collectively and users can access freely information. This has been proven as one of the most accessible or effective web 2. 0 applications in providing accessible and affordable information to students and researchers. One characteristic of a wiki that has made it so popular in sharing and communicating information to students is its ease of usability. Students need not have a degree in computer science or web applications but rather just the passion of sharing intuition and a little bit of patience in order to learn the scripts involved in the programming. They are free and without any need for registration so that users need not have the need to register or pay any amount (Aigrain 2003). It also offers real-time editing and creation so it provides the opportunity for students, researchers and faculty with much needed time as they acquire, research, and provide information within the educational institution. To summarize, unlike blogs, Wikis tend to be more structured and flexible,and, while blogs can be highly personal, wikis are intensely collaborative (Godwin-Jones, 2003). Wikipedia Wikipedia is full blown example of a Wiki. Wikipedia is the pet-project of Wikimedia Foundation which is a non-profit organization that aims to provide encyclopaedia-type information to internet users. Wikipedia has then turned out to become almost a household name, with more than 8,000,000 online articles that is accessible in the internet and is presented in more than 250 languages (it is noteworthy that almost 2,000,000 of those articles are made in English). These articles are peer-developed, rather they are developed and continually improved by researchers, users and experts of a particular field in order to provide the most accurate and up to date information on a given topic/subject (Hinchcliffe, 2006). Currently, Wikipedia holds just below 610 million words which are approximately 15 times more than what Encyclopaedia Britannica holds in these books (Godwin-Jones, 2003). Because of its nature of being able to be written collaboratively by practically anyone that has something to contribute in the page, its fame and usefulness as a resource for information has steadily increased even from the start of its creation. Currently Wikipedia is within the top ten websites around the world that is being visited daily by users worldwide (Chawner Lewis, 2004). The name â€Å"Wikipedia† that was developed by Wikimedia is a combination of two words – Wiki which points to an online collaborative effort in creating an article or text and Encyclopedia (Godwin-Jones, 2003). But fame is without its critics. Because of Wikipedia’s astronomical rise and open nature, other people critical about these aspects have begun to look closer on wikipedia’s accuracy, precision with respect to how it is able to present information and reliability for users and researchers alike. Wikipedia has been constantly hounded with comments pertaining to high vulnerability of being vandalized and used for spreading wrong information that can be used as reference. However, because of its huge support from users, contributors and sub-programs have begun to address these problems (Chawner Lewis, 2004). In addition to this, there were studies conducted that focused on these two aspects of wikipedia and they showed that in general, Wikipedia’s instances of vandalism is rather short-lived and is as accurate as any other encyclopaedia, online or hard bound. Because of this it has won such prestigious awards as the Time Person of the year that focused on how Web 2. 0 technologies has furthered and practically galvanized online collaboration and collective effort throughout the world in order to produce scholarly articles for free.

Morality Essay example -- Moral Ethics Philosophy essays

Morality   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Moral philosophy is very important to the success of an individual. But, before I tell you why moral philosophy is so important, and how it has helped me in my life, let me give you a little background knowledge. Rational knowledge has two components. These components are material and formal. Formal knowledge is not object oriented, and is based on reason. Formal knowledge is logic, or the laws of thought. Material knowledge is object oriented, and has two components. These two components are natural and moral. Natural law is physics. It determines what is the case, and how things behave in nature. On the other hand, moral law determines what things ought to be. Morality is something humans think about, and is not based on physiological factors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Now that we have a little background of knowledge and moral law, let me tell you why you should lead a moral life. Even though morality is not imposed upon you, it is about humanity. And, while it may not seem fair, in reality, morality is judged by humans. So, if you are immoral, other people will be the ones that notice that you are immoral, and that can hurt personal relationships. One way that I have succeeded throughout my career is by knowing and being friends with a lot of people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The practical side of life is based on interpersonal relationships. Whether it be social or business, communicating with people is the only way to get things done. There is no way that you can go through life in today's society without getting along with people. If people think that you are immoral, than they will not respect you, or be willing to work with you. Again, it may seem like it is not fair because you know that no one is one hundred percent moral, and if someone doesn't respect you because you are immoral, than they are hypocritical. But, when it comes to moral issues, the reality of the world is that people are hypocritical. They feel it is okay for them to do it, but not okay for anyone else.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Think about it, how many times have you said, "I can't believe that he did that; he's a jerk." Knowing the entire time that you have done the same thing. You may say, "Who cares!" I'm here to tell you that one day you might care. Let me give you and example. After I completed a business venture that made me over one million dollars, I learned that the only reaso... ...Moral law has helped me be successful in everything that I do.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Being a 65 year old man, I have seen a lot. I know the value of moral philosophy. Moral philosophy has helped me be successful in every thing that I have done. You may ask, "How has it helped you be successful?" Well, I have told you a couple of aspects of moral philosophy, and all of these aspects have helped me keep things in perspective. Financial success will come with morality, but if it doesn't, then you will still be better off because you have led a moral life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There have been times in my life when I have succumb to selfish inclination, and the results were immediately good. But ultimately, if I had been labeled as an immoral person, and was not able to do certain things because people didn't like me, than I definitely wouldn't have been the one invited to give this talk to you. By the way, I am getting paid an awful lot of money for this talk. So there is another way that morality has helped me. Happiness is not a grounding for morality, because some immoral people are happy. But, morality can lead to ultimate happiness and greater success in whatever you attempt to do in life.

PEACE BUILDING PROCESS Essay

Conflict refers to the state of opposition, disagreement or incompatibility between two or more people which is sometimes characterized by physical violence. Conflict occur in different forms such as boundary and territorial conflicts, civil wars and internal conflicts having international repercussions, succession conflicts in territories decolonized and political ideological conflicts. In the other hand post conflict is the situation in which open warfare has come to an end. Such situation remains tense for years and can easily relapse into large scale violence. Peace building describes interventions that are designed to prevent the start of violent conflict by creating sustainable peace. This start before conflict starts or it ends. Post conflict peace building means action to identify and support structures which will tend to strengthen and solidify peace in order to avoid relapse into conflict. Peace building process takes different dimensions according to scholars. According to Barnett et al. post peace building process follows three dimensions that is stabilizing post conflict zone; restoring state institutions and dealing with social and economic issues. Stabilizing post conflict; Peace building activities directly attempt to reduce the means available, and the incentives, for actors to return to conflict. They include disarmament (taking away weapons), demobilization, reintegration programs (re-integrating former combatants into civil society), security sector reform, and arms control for light and heavy weapons systems. The first three activities (Disarmament, Demobilization, Re-integrating or DDR) are comprehensive process at the core of peace building as DDR is uses as preventive intervention that is the core component of peace agreement. Practitioners should be cautioned in using DDR approach because it does not provide panacea and it must be understood that just as situations vary, so do possible solutions differ. Restoring state institutions; this dimension tends to reinforce building state capacity to provide basic public goods and increase state legitimacy. Activities involved in this dimension involving rebuilding basic facilities, transportation and communication network, utilities; building health and education infrastructure. But because international actors do not envisag e playing state-like functions long into the future, they also provide some degree of technical and capacity building assistance for state institutions—even as they support parallel NGO’s or private sector structures that may operate outside of or duplicate state functions. For instance, international financial institutions typically provide technical assistance so that state institutions can develop the capacity to build, monitor, and regulate basic economic and financial activities. Dealing with social and economic issues, programs in this context attempt to build not only the state’s but also society’s ability to manage conflict peacefully and develop the socioeconomic infrastructure necessary to underpin economic development. Activities include trauma counseling; transitional justice and restoration; community dialogue; building bridges between communities; increasing peace adherence of human rights; gender empowerment; raising environmental awareness; promoting economic development and developing a civil society and private sector that can represent diverse interests and challenges the state peacefully (Barnett,2007). In general, it takes time to address fragility and building peace and it is done best from the bottom up especially th rough civil society and local government but many post conflict countries have weak local structures which require support. Sri Lanka is an example of the critical country that government has in a post-conflict situation and where it needs to work in partnership with national agencies, commonwealth and international partners. These institutions may function to restore local infrastructure, provide new houses, ensure basic services and encourage local economic development. Major organizations that work worldwide UN Peace-building Commission (PBC), UN Peace-building Fund (PBF), World Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Commission. In the same line of thought the supports provided by particular organizations are not enough as they are undertaking supply driven than the demand driven that is they provide peace building service in which their organizations specializes, not necessary that the recipient most needs. References Barnett, M., Kim, H., O’Donnell, M. and Sitea, L. (2007). â€Å"Peace building: What is in a name?†. Global governance. 13:35-38 Muggah, R. (2006). â€Å"Managing post conflict zones: DDR and weapons reduction.† In small arms survey year book 2005: weapons at war (small arms survey), 21 Schirch, L. (2013). Conflict Assessment & Peacebuilding Planning. CO: Lynn Reinner Press. UN General assembly (n.d). Disarmament, Demobilization and Re-intergration. para 9-10 Wright, C. Peace-building in post-conflict states. London, 2013

The Controversy Of Graham Gained National Fame After A...

Toya Graham gained national fame after a video surfaced of her hitting and yelling at her sixteen-year-old son who was partaking in the Baltimore protest-turned-riots that arose after Freddie Gray died from a broken spinal cord that may have resulted while in police custody (Levs et al.). Protests began after Gray’s death by people who felt that this situation was one of many that indicated widespread police brutality. When Graham saw her son holding a brick presumably to then throw at police along with other rioters, she became very upset and ran after him, hitting him and yelling for him to â€Å"go home†(Levs et al.). Graham, who has generally been lauded for her seemingly stringent and involved approach to parenting, says, I m a†¦show more content†¦Today, homicide is the second leading cause of death for people between the ages of 10 and 24; when discussing youth violence the range is extended beyond 18 and in to the mid twenties (CDC). In addition to murder, non-fatal injuries are another large part of the picture of youth violence. In 2007, 668,000 young people between the ages of 10 and 14 were treated for violence related injuries at hospital emergency rooms (CDC). In 2007, a large representative sample of the country’s high school students were surveyed; 35.5% of students surveyed answered ‘yes’ when asked if â€Å"they had been in a physical fight in the previous twelve months†, and 4.2% of students surveyed answered ‘yes’ when asked if they had been â€Å"in a physical fight one or more times in the previous twelve months that resulted i n injuries that had to be treated by a doctor or nurse (CDC). As this survey was conducted with a representative sample, it helps to give one a good picture of the aggregate youth violence problem in the United States of America. Tonya Graham’s worry that her son would become ‘another Freddie Gray’ is one echoed by others, but not evenly among different groups. Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay developed Social Disorganization Theory in Chicago in 1942 (Seepersad). In the 1960’s and 1970’s Social Disorganization Theory was seen as less relevant by many criminologists, but this soon changed in the 1980’s when the theory was expanded (Seepersad). More recent research