Individual's Personal Privacy Literature review

Individual's Personal Privacy - Literature review Example Social issues can be described as matters of concern to both the community and the government (Anon., 2012 a). Social issues may include the cost incurred by the society for switching ways to computer-based systems, increased internet associate crimes and the division that may arise in the society on the basis of the â€Å"information poor† and the â€Å"information rich†. St James Ethics Centre describes ethics as the search for answers for the question related to what an individual ought to do (Anon., 2012 b). The centre comes up with some ethics that are associated with the professional behavior. On the other hand Rainer defines ethical issues as moral principles that the society understands and guides the conduct of its members (2009 p.23). He also postulates that it is doing what knows is the right thing to do. The ethics include, one accepting his or her actions, one standing firm to an idea he or she believes in, one having the courage to attempt even the most di fficult questions and one developing a balanced and well-informed professional mind and conscience. Ethical considerations include privacy, copyright, equity and access and freedom of information do (Anon., 2012 b).   Social and ethical issues related to information and information systems include, accuracy of information and data, the changing nature of the work, privacy of an individual, data and information security, appropriate usage of information, health and safety and copyright laws. Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 stipulates that each and every employer should ensure that the health and safety risks and hazards of their workers are minimized (Anon., 2012 a).   Ã‚  The above social and ethical issues affect people participating within the information and information system, individuals with a purpose with the information system and people within the information system environment.  Pollack (2009, pp. 174) asserts that the users of information systems are most of the time as it affects their lives and as well affect information system. Users may not be part of the system directly but they affect it and are likewise affected by it. The major ethical concern that worries the users of the systems is that the systems do not use the users’ personal information they input into the system for unethical concerns they may not wish their information to be used for.   Too Buckland (1999, pp. 19) outlines that it would be very unethical if the users of the systems use it in such a way that it was not intended for like to access other people’s personal information.   Adamski (2007, pp. 15) defines privacy as a human value that consists of four key elements which he refers to rights. He divides these rights in two major categories; the first one comprises three rights which help an individual to guard him or herself against personal information seekers.   They include solitude, intimacy and anonymity. The other category stipulates the rights an individual holds to regulate the amount of personal information he or she gives out. The right involves reserve.

Essentials of Health Information Management Essay Example for Free

Essentials of Health Information Management Essay Source- oriented medical records are kept together by subject matters, such as data from all laboratory results. Progress notes are all kept together and are written in paragraph format; these entries are filed under a specific sectionalized area in the patient chart and are usually in chronological order. Many facilities use the chronological order because this is an easy way to locate the required documents. The major advantage is that information is organized together, which makes it easier to determine the assessment, treatment, and observations a particular department provided a patient. The major disadvantage is there is no possible way to quickly determine all of the patient problems or treatment that has been provided to the patient. Problem- oriented medical records are kept together by a problem number; with this a number is placed to each problem. This is the most traditional way that most physicians document his or her records. Progress notes are kept in a â€Å"SOAP format, which is S= subjective, O=objective, A= assessment, and P= plan of action.† (SOAP Notes, 2010) The problem oriented-medical records have four parts, which include a database, problem list, initial plan, and progress notes. The major advantage is the record format is the ease or progression through all the data. The data is organized into stratified sections, which is quicker to find information needed and allows for a more rapid review of multiple office vists over time. The major disadvantage is that this type of format requires additional training and commitment from the medical and professional staff. An integrated record is a combination of source- oriented and problem- oriented medical records. The records are arranged in a strict chronological order, regardless of the source of original information. This method keeps a good account of continual events as the events occur and this method makes it difficult to compare and coordinate the issues easily. References Farlex. (2011). The Free Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.medical-dictonary.thefreedictionary.com SOAP Notes. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.maexample.com/soap-notes.htm

Hollywood in the global film market | Film Studies

Hollywood in the global film market | Film Studies When the average Friday night cinema-goer sits down to watch a film in this country they would most probably be waiting to see the latest Hollywood blockbuster projected onto the screen. This seems to have been the norm for decades now but it wasnt always the case. Cinema was born in France with the introduction of motion pictures from the Lumià ¨re brothers; Auguste and Louis. The first presentation of motion pictures and the Lumià ¨re Cinà ©matographe (a combined camera, printer and projector) was to the Society for the Promotion of Industry (Socià ©tà © dEncouragement a lindustrie Nationale) on March 22, 1895. Only one film was shown, Employees Leaving the Lumià ¨re Factory (La Sortie des usines Lumià ¨re), shot by Louis. It was projected, almost as an afterthought, following their lecture on advances in experimental colour photography. It was nine months later in the darkened rooms at the Grand Cafà © in Paris on December 28, 1895 that the first exhibition of moving image s was opened to a paying, European audience. Included on the playbill were The Arrival of the Train (LArrivà ©e dun train à   la Ciotat), Babys Meal (Repas de Bà ©bà ©) and The Sprayer Sprayed (LArroseur et arrosà ©e). However, it wasnt long before cinema became international when the Americans tried their hand at making movies. In the period between the Lumieres first private and public exhibitions, two brothers, Otway and Gray Latham, screened the very first film to the paying public; Young Griffo versus Battling Charles Barnett, an impressive eight minute reel of a boxing match between the titular Griffo and Barnett. Their small storefront theatre in Broadway, New York became the first dedicated cinema. Over the next twenty years the number of filmmakers and films being made increased. This period of frantic filmmaking became known as the Silent Era. All over the United States movies were being shown at ‘Nickelodeons; shops that had been transformed into exhibition areas where films were projected onto screens, walls or hanging sheets. This was not just an American phenomenon; here in the UK over 3000 cinemas had opened by 1917. The number of important films of this era included Georges Mà ©lià ¨s 1902 film A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune) based on Jules Vernes novel From the Earth to the Moon (De la Terre à   la Lune) that is recognised as being the first science fiction movie; Edwin S. Porters 1903 movie The Great Train Robbery that introduced complex narrative structure it its editing techniques; and D.W. Griffiths 1915 feature The Birth of a Nation which grossed $10 million at the box office. The next logical step for this new industry was to integrate sound with the images. In 1927 Warner Brothers released The Jazz Singer, the first ‘talkie feature film to be widely distributed. This invention practically caused the death of the Silent Era as audiences demanded sound with their films and heralded the ‘Golden Age of cinema. But once again it was not an industry completely dominated by Hollywood. The French idea of commercial movie houses became the international model, and entrepreneurs scurried to build impressive movie houses across North America and Europe including theatres to seat up to 5,000 people, rather than relying on the storefront Nickelodeons from the turn of the century. Birmingham born businessman Oscar Deutsch opened his first Odeon cinema in the UK in Perry Barr, Birmingham in 1920. By 1930 the Odeon was a household name and to this day there is still an Odeon in the prime location of British cinema exhibition, Leicester Square. Since the Second World War (1939 1945) the dominance of Hollywood as the motion picture production capital of the world has been virtually unchallenged. With the exception of the Indian Film Industry, lovingly named ‘Bollywood, there has not been a notable challenger to Hollywoods crown. There have been moments when a possible contender to the throne has emerged from within Europe or the UK, bringing with it a new style of filmmaking, a new school of thought or an embarrassing outburst at an awards ceremony; â€Å"The British are coming!† In the last sixty years there have been several European film movements that have demonstrated that there is an alternative to the Hollywood system, however they have not managed to topple the system and in some cases have been neatly integrated and repackaged into the Hollywood blockbuster. In this essay I shall look at the stranglehold that Hollywood seems to possess over the global film market and contrast it to the state of the European film industries and in particular to the British film industry. I shall emphasis the importance of European and British films, filmmakers and movements and how they relate to the Hollywood system. Being that this is such a large topic area I shall focus on how Hollywood has figuratively grown into a dragon and that the sporadic attempts at slaying it by European ‘knights in shining armour more often than not end up feeding it and making it stronger. I shall try to determine how influential non-Hollywood films are on Hollywood, and vice versa. I also intend to examine how the British film industry has fared since the end of the Second World War against such stiff competition from the other side of the Atlantic; and what lies ahead in the not too distant future. For the purposes of this essay I shall refer to the mainstream American film industry as ‘Hollywood; I am not saying that Hollywood ‘is the American film industry as there are a number of independent filmmakers producing and releasing feature films that frequently make box office profits, most notably Miramax, but for this essay I shall be focusing purely on the Hollywood system. The Hollywood as we know it today began in earnest in the 1910s when major producers such as Carl Laemmle, William Fox, Adolph Zukor and Marcus Loew decided to disassociate from the Film Trust based in New York (a ‘trust of the ten leading American and European producers of movies and manufacturers of cameras and equipment set up in 1908 that would tax filmmakers into using their patents to allow the film to be officially ‘legal) and venture into a more independent, West coast filmmaking structure in the all-year sunshine of California. This departure from the Trust afforded the producers to shoot feature films instead of the normal short one or two ‘reelers (so named after the length of the reel of film used to shoot it). These independents introduced a vertically integrated system that eventually covered production, distribution and exhibition. The Hollywood studio system was born and names such as Paramount (formerly Adolph Zukors Famous Players-Lasky), Fox, Warn er Brothers, Universal (formerly Carl Laemmles Independent Motion Picture Company), Columbia, Universal Artists and Marcus Loews MGM blossomed. According to Douglas Gomery: â€Å"†¦the average cost for Hollywood features of the day rarely ranged beyond $500,000, expanding distribution across the globe meant revenues regularly topped $1,000,000.† (Nowell-Smith 48). This was a massive leap in the twenty years from a time when a film of a train approaching a railway station was shown to the general public. Hollywood understood that the needs and demands of the masses had become more sophisticated over the short period of time that was cinemas infancy. As such the producers looked towards popular pulp fiction novels, plays and in particular the newly invented genre of the Western to entertain their audiences. In 1922 the major Hollywood companies formed the Motion Picture Producers and Distribution Association of America (MPPDA) to assist in the promotion and distribution of films worldwide. This was run by a former Republican politician, William H. Hays. His work for the MPDDA was closely linked with the US State Department and allowed Hollywood to dominate the UK, Canada, Australia, Europe (except Germany and the Soviet Union), South America, Central America and the Caribbean. This world domination looked set to continue until the Wall Street Crash in 1929. Even though Hollywood had originally distanced itself from New York, financial backing from the East coast was needed to fund the studios. As such the Depression that followed the stock market crash proved a difficult time for Hollywood, though not immediately as the movie industry enjoyed its best year in 1930 as studio profits reached record levels. However, between 1930 and 1933 theatre admissions fell from 90 million per week to 60 million, gross industry revenues fell from $730 million to about $480 million, and combined studio profits of $52 million became net losses of some $55 million. (Nowell-Smith 220). However it wasnt all doom and gloom. As the ‘Big Five of Paramount, RKO, Warner Bros, Fox and MGM had to reorganise their financial structure (the integration of owning their own cinemas was almost bankrupting them), the ‘major minor studios of Columbia, Universal and United Artists were enjoying the freedom of only being production and distribution companies; therefore having the freedom to continue producing high quality films without the noose of the exhibition property around their necks. In fact it was in this period that the minor studios were producing ‘B-movies; factory-produced low cost, low risk genre films usually made up of cowboys, gangsters or horror (for example; South of the Rio Grande Columbia 1932, Afraid to Talk Universal 1932, and White Zombie United Artists 1932). This ability to adapt to the market is an early demonstration of why Hollywood is still the market leader in feature films. From these early years it was evident that the studio system was going to be at the forefront of film production. The 1930s and 1940s were to prove to be the beginning of the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema with the introduction of colour films and the release of such popular films as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney 1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (Warner Bros 1938), Gone with the Wind (MGM 1939), The Wizard of Oz (MGM 1939), and Citizen Kane (RKO 1941). When the United States entered the Second World War in 1941 the Hollywood machine was utilised by the government to produce propaganda films for the American public. Within one year of the attack on Pearl Harbour, nearly one third of Hollywoods feature films were war related, as were the vast majority of its newsreels and documentaries (Nowell-Smith 234). Yet again Hollywood was flexible enough to mee t the demands of the public and due to the nature of the audiences at home and most notably abroad (the UK), Hollywoods foreign revenues reached record levels. Like the Depression before it, even the Second World War could not stop Hollywood. The next period of Hollywood cinema came in the 1960s and continues today. This is regularly referred to as Modern Cinema and saw the power of the studios sway towards the director (often regarded as the auteur). In his book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls author Peter Biskind highlights Arthur Penns Bonnie and Clyde (Warner Bros 1967) as the first of the new breed of films, â€Å"Bonnie and Clyde was a movement movie; like The Graduate, young audiences recognized that it was ‘theirs† (Biskind 49). This ‘new Hollywood saw new players attract new audiences. The new kids on the block included George Lucas (THX 1138, American Graffiti, Star Wars), Steven Spielberg (Jaws, ET, Jurassic Park), Martin Scorsese (Mean Streets, Raging Bull, The Aviator) and Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Dracula). The power of the director was affirmed when George Lucass 1977 film Star Wars was released and confirmed that a single film could earn its studio huge profits and t urn a poor year into a very successful one. Star Wars had a production budget of around $13 million (imdb.com) and has (as of the end of June 2005) grossed nearly $798 million. (thenumbers.com) While the American film industry had always looked abroad for sources of revenue, the global focus of Hollywood was also amplified in this period. Overseas theatrical and video markets exploded during the second half of 1980s; between 1984 and 1986, Hollywoods European exports alone jumped 225 percent to reach $561 million annually. In some major European markets, Hollywood movies accounted for 45-65 percent of total box-office receipts. (Herman 39) In fact, according to The Numbers (a free resource for industry professionals to track business information on movies) out of the top 100 all-time highest grossing movies worldwide, only one movie was made before the period of Modern Hollywood Cinema (Gone with the Wind which has grossed $350 million dollars since its release in 1939). (thenumbers .com) With the top two films grossing $2,000 million having been released in 1997 (James Camerons Titanic) and 2003 (Peter Jacksons third instalment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King) it is obvious that the Hollywood machine still manages to churn out money-making productions. So what is it that keeps Hollywood head and shoulders above other national film industries? In his essay Reconceptualizing National Cinema/s, Stephen Crofts points out that there are seven varieties of ‘national cinema as licensed by the political, economic and cultural rà ©gimes of different nation-states: â€Å"Cinemas which differ from Hollywood, but do not compete directly, by targeting a distinct, specialist market sector; Those which differ, do not compete directly but do directly critique Hollywood; European and Third World entertainment cinemas which struggle against Hollywood with limited or no success; Cinemas which ignore Hollywood, an accomplishment managed by a few; Anglophone cinemas which try to beat Hollywood at its own game; Cinemas which work within a wholly state-controlled and often state-subsidized industry; and Regional or national cinemas whose culture and/or language take their distance from the nation-states which enclose them.† Crofts 50) He ar gues that Hollywood can not be seen as a national cinema due to its trans-national appeal. Thomas Elsaesser adds that Hollywood is totally other to national cinema it is difficult to maintain because so much of any nations film culture is implicitly Hollywood. (Elsaesser 166). This is echoed in the words of Edward Buscombe who states that at times Hollywood appears to be†¦ no longer a national cinema but the cinema (Buscombe 141) These views propel the ideology that Hollywood is the word people use to describe popular cinema. As Crofts identified, there are a number of ways in which non-Hollywood cinema has tried to challenge (or indeed avoid confrontation) the American system. The fifth example; ‘Anglophone cinemas which try to beat Hollywood at its own game best represents how the British film industry tried to challenge the giant that is Hollywood (with varying results). The European film industries would fall into the third and seventh categories; ‘European and Third World entertainment cinemas which struggle against Hollywood with limited or no success; and ‘Regional or national cinemas whose culture and/or language take their distance from the nation-states which enclose them. Due to the many different European languages the latter example is perhaps the most relevant but at the same time admits defeat in attempting to export the film to the United States. However, this is not to say that Hollywood has not had to adapt to remain the world leader. The early 1980s saw a dramatic drop in box office receipts. The beginning of the decade saw a 9% drop in tickets sold nationwide in American cinemas when only 1,022 million were sold. This figure got worse in 1986 when just over 1,017 million tickets were sold (boxofficemojo.com) (compared to over 4,500 million ticket sales in 1930). The home video market had certainly dented theatrical sales but Hollywood would always recoup somehow. The immediate problem was the cost of keeping cinemas o pen; a similar situation to the post Depression period of the 1930s. Another financial reshuffle was in order. The six major Hollywood film studios were now part of conglomerates. Gulf Western (Paramounts parent company) also owned Madison Square Gardens, Desilu, Simon and Schuster, and Paramount Pictures Television. Yet, only 11% of Gulf Westerns revenues were derived from entertainment industry holdings and just 4% from Paramount Pictures in 1981. That same year, United Artists was bringing only 12% of the revenues in for Transamerica, Universal represented 22% of MCAs income, and Warner Bros. accounted for 24% of Warner Communications revenue. (Lewis 86). However, by 1989, the entertainment division of Gulf Western, led by Paramount Pictures, accounted for over 50% of Gulf Westerns yearly income during a year in which Paramount had only fourteen releases and a 13.8% share of the market thanks to the success of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ($197 million domestic box office), (the-numbers.com) demonstrating again just how important a single film had become by the end of the 1980s. These blockbusters were to save Hollywood and allow it to grow stronger, and in 2002 ticket sales were over the 1,523 million mark which was the highest figure for over twenty years. It is practically impossible to pinpoint a single film that best demonstrates how the Hollywood system works. I have chosen to examine three different movies from three different periods of its history to illustrate how Hollywood evolves; Intolerance (1916), Singin in the Rain (1952) and The Matrix (1999). D.W. Griffith directed over 500 films during his career, most of them were shorts produced between 1908 and 1914. In 1915 he directed Birth of a Nation, a film that â€Å"†¦established him as one of the first truly great film directors, able to balance scale with intimate, impassioned storytelling† (Falk 11) but the film also has its critics: â€Å"Hopefully the only film in movie history to project in its publicity the Ku Klux Klan as the heroic defenders of Christian civilization† (Shiach 12). Two years later he directed Intolerance. Intolerance is, in my opinion, a better example of a Hollywood film than the overtly racist Birth of a Nation. Its narrative structure is interwoven with four different stories from four different periods in history each telling their own stories of intolerance, be it through religion or society. This storytelling device of jumping from one story to another allowed Griffith to direct the film at a speed that would keep the audiences enthralled to the very last reel. Unfortunately it failed at the box office. The production budget was over three and half times than that of Birth of a Nation and the box office did not return this. The lavish sets and numerous extras that were brought in by Griffith to turn this into a spectacle ended up leading to its financial failure. This was an early lesson to the studios that throwing a lot of money at a production did not necessarily mean that it was going to be successful. In hindsight this film stands up well; the crowd scenes are epic, so to the Babylon sets and the innovative use of camera angles and cross-cut editing techniques. Griffith formed United Artists with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart and Mary Pickford in 1919, cementing his position as a major player in the early Hollywood years. The year 1952 saw the highest grossing film in America to be the documentary This is Cinerama showcasing the possibilities of Cinerama; a widescreen system that employed stereophonic sound and used three cameras and three projectors to cover a huge curved screen. Further down the list was Stanley Donen and Gene Kellys musical Singin in the Rain (MGM 1952). Not only does the film include perhaps one of the most memorable scenes in Hollywood history (the song and dance of the title) but also one of the first big budget films to poke fun at its own industry. The story takes place during the transition from silent film into ‘talking pictures and highlights some of the problems that arose for all the major studios. Roger Ebert, film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times proudly states that â€Å"Singin in the Rain has been voted one of the greatest films of all time in international critics polls, and is routinely called the greatest of all the Hollywood musicals. I dont think theres an y doubt about that. There are other contenders†¦ but Singin in the Rain comes first because it is not only from Hollywood, it is about Hollywood.† (Ebert). The film was rushed through by MGM (the studio that produced most of the lavish musicals) after the success of 1951s An American in Paris and as such the film was an original screenplay and Donen and Kelly were freed from the constraints of adapting a stage musical, being able to develop something completely from scratch. This freedom is present on screen and, like the previous example Intolerance has won more fans in the years after its release than the audiences at the time. Today the musical is a rare sight to emerge from Hollywood. It is seen as an expensive genre that has served its time. There have been a few exceptions like Baz Luhrmanns Moulin Rouge (20th Century Fox 2001) and Rob Marshalls Chicago (Miramax 2002) but I cannot see any Hollywood studio spending money on this genre like MGM did in the Golden Age. Brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski directed the science fiction action movie The Matrix in 1999. Labeled by some as a â€Å"cult classic† (Gottlieb), I find it hard to agree that a film that has grossed over $450 million (thenumbers.com) worldwide should be called a ‘cult. Set sometime in the near future the film taps into a common paranoia that all is not as it seems. Hollywood released this film, with its $65 million (thenumbers.com) production budget knowing that the recent trend of Asian kung-fu movies were entertaining the young generation like Hark Tsuis 1991 film Once Upon a Time in China (Wong Fei-hung) or Woo-ping Yuens 1993 film Iron Monkey (Siunin Wong Fei-hung tsi titmalau). This film was also used in an extensive advertising campaign to promote the sales of DVDs; a figure of $20 million was spent on prints and advertising costs. With the combination of kung-fu, a storyline focusing on paranoia and special effects never seen before in a major blockbuster; it w ould not be cynical to believe that Hollywood thought of The Matrix as their ticket into the new millennium. The British film industry has historically always been the poorer cousin to Hollywood, or as Robert Murphy suggests, â€Å"British cinema has been despised and disparaged for much of its existence† (Murphy 5). While Hollywood was experimenting with and developing the dramatic narrative of feature films in the early 1910s, Britain did not realise the potential of the longer film format; and one of the only companys releasing fictional drama, albeit single reel films, was Hepworth who produced films such as Rescued by Rover (1905), Faust (1911) and A Fishermans Love Story (1912). As late as 1925 Joseph Schenck commented on the inferiority of British cinema saying that â€Å"You have no personalities to put on the screen. The stage actors and actresses are no good on the screen. Your effects are no good, and you do not spend nearly so much money.† (Schenck). This statement is eerily poignant eighty years after he said it. In fact as early as 1907 Hollywood was acting swift er than Britain in developing the cinematic world by exploiting British cultural heritage when the Selig Polyscope Company produced the one reel short A Tale of Two Cities based on Charles Dickens novel. Four years later Vitagraph remade the film as a thirty minute short in 1911. In fact Hollywood then remade the film six years after that when Fox produced A Tale of Two Cities in 1917. It wasnt until W. Courteney Rowden directed the one reel film of the same title that Britain finally had its own film version of the novel in 1922. And it wasnt until Ralph Thomas directed A Tale of Two Cities (Rank 1958) that Britain had its very own feature film of the novel; the sixth remake since the original 1907 film. Even though the British film industry was slow to accept the possibilities offered by the dramatic narrative of feature film there were some important figures to emerge. Alfred Hitchcock directed his first completed feature film in 1925 with the crime drama The Pleasure Garden, having already made a name for himself as a writer on Graham Cutts Woman to Woman (1923). He followed that up with a number of groundbreaking films including The Lodger (Gainsborough Pictures 1927), his first talking movie Blackmail (BIP 1929), and Jamaica Inn (Mayflower 1939); his final film in Britain before Hollywood producer David O. Selznick sent for him from Hollywood. At a time when Hollywood was going from strength to strength with the help of the MPPDA, Britain was finding that too many American imports were saturating the home industry; $165 million revenue was made for Hollywood by the overseas British market. (Nowell-Smith 58). The Films Act of 1927 set a quota on imported movies that â€Å"was pr ogressive, beginning at 5 percent and rising to 20 percent in ten years time.† (Balio 469). This should have been a period in which Britain could progress both in quality and quantity of film production as the Act was meant to â€Å"open up the market for ‘long (over 3,000 feet in length) British films by stipulating that 7.5 per cent of films acquired by film renters each year had to be British and 5 per cent of those shown by exhibitors also had to be of British origin, both percentages rising to 20 by 1935 and remaining at that level until 1938 when the Act expired.† (Street 10). In reality it allowed a number of cheap productions, or â€Å"quota quickies† (Balio 469) to be made that did more harm than good for the British film industry. However, the Act allowed Britain to emulate the American system of vertical integration with companies able to produce, distribute and exhibit its own films; this introduced The Associated British Picture Corporation and the Gaumont British Picture Corporation. The British film movement enjoyed a period of producing a number of fine films (most notably by Alfred Hitchcock) that included Alexander Kordas period drama The Private Life of Henry VIII (London Film Productions 1933), Marcel Varnels comedy starring Will Hay, Oh, Mr. Porter! (Gainsborough 1937), and Sam Woods drama Goodbye Mr. Chips (MGM 1939). When the Second World War broke out in 1939 Britain had to focus on the war effort; just as what was to happen in Hollywood, the films produced up to the end of the war were predominantly propaganda films. Some of the greatest filmmakers in British cinema were to come to the publics attention during the war; directors such as Michael Powell (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1943), David Lean (In Which We Serve 1942), Thorold Dickinson (Next of Kin 1943) and Carol Reed (The Way Ahead 1944) exploded onto the scene. The 1940s were an exciting time for the British film industry with box office admissions peaking at 1,635 million in 1946 (Sparos 14) and companies such as the Rank Organisation began to expand, with a massive screen empire embracing the Gaumont British company; this included the Gainsborough Studios, the Odeon cinema circuit and Pinewood and Denham studios. The famous Ealing Studio, under Michael Balcon, secured its place in film history with the production of comedies such as Passport to Pimlico, Whisky Galore and Kind Hearts and Coronets, all made in 1949. Two years earlier Balcon founded the British Film Academy in a hotel suite at the Hyde Park Hotel on the 16 April 19 47. This was later to become BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts). Running parallel to the Ealing comedies was the movement of social reality films, commonly referred to as ‘kitchen sink dramas but often named the New Wave. At a time when the British public was feeling the burden of the aftermath of the war with rationing and high unemployment, there was a need for film to reflect the lives of the masses. One of the first major forays into this genre was produced by Filippo Del Giudice. Del Giudice was an Italian lawyer who left his native fascist Italy for London in 1932 and helped set up Two Cities Films in 1937. In the 1950 film Chance of a Lifetime directed by Bernard Miles, the story focuses on trade unionism and what stage the co-operative movement had reached in 1950, a few years after the reforming Labour government was elected but months before the re-election of Winston Churchill; showing that the country was oscillating between Socialism and Conservatism. Miless intelligent script was even-handed in its approach to these issues and also gave insights into the class system of the time yet did not go so far as to support the unions at the time. Alan Wood, biographer of Rank, charged the film with being â€Å"a crude form of anti-Socialist propaganda† (Wood 245). Even though critics felt the film did not go far enough into the class struggle it opened the doors for directors to comment on such issues as unemployment and the working classes. In earlier British films we had seen the working class as ‘good and decent supporting roles to the more noble upper classes (the most obvious analogy would be in the wartime Navy film where the working class would be below deck powering the ship and the upper classes above deck steering its course). Here we saw their lives at the centre of the action in great detail, told to the audience in an everyday household situation; hence the kitchen sink tag. We see events through the emotional journeys of these characters. Films like Jack Claytons Room at the Top (Remus 1 959) painted their protagonists to show that they had moved on from the hero at Normandy to an average, everyday person who wanted to make the most of their life and somehow try to improve their social position. This did not have to be solely represented in social realism, comedy crossed over as well. In John Boultings comedy Im Alright Jack (British Lion 1959) the class divide is made perfectly evident in the dispute between the workers and the owners of a factory; with the inclusion of Peter Sellers trouble-making union representative thrown in for good measure. At last the British film industry, as had the French and Italians, were producing films with a strong political and artistic background of their own that they would develop and progress into the 1960s. However, this particular notion of reality is much debated and is a problem when looking at whether film is â€Å"a product of society or that of an ideology of one director or author.† (Murphy 146) These New Wave films represented an â€Å"extremely dynamic, but short lived, period of film-making.† (Nowell-Smith 605). By 1963 London became the party capital of the world and the notoriety of ‘Swinging London and its Soho clubs and cinemas was in complete contrast to the gritty social dramas of the late 1950s. Suddenly British culture was internationally recognised. With the mass popularity of The Beatles in music, Mary Kwant in fashion and David Hockney in art people were looking towards Britain to produce films that captured the spirit of the moment: The 1960s witnessed a revitalisation of British Cinema and the emergence of a flourishing and diverse film culture after what was widely perceived to be the doldrums era of the 1950s.† (Moore-Gilbert 218). People demanded films that were not as ‘angry as the previous decade but celebrated the new possibility of social freedom. Unfortunately the money was not immediately available from British financiers and it was Hollywood that came to the rescue. The commercially successful Tom Jones, directed by Tony Richardson in 1963 was backed by United Artists and a number of American studios began investing heavily in British cinema. It is ironic that just as Hollywood saw the possibilities of exploiting British culture at the turn of the century, they were equally as deft to jump on the original ‘Cool Britannia bandwagon; leaving British investors to miss out all over again. United Artists also saw a lucrative business opportunity in Ian Flemings charismatic character James Bond. With the backing of United Artists, Terence Youngs 1963 film Dr. No, the first official What Is a GPS How Does It Work? What Is a GPS How Does It Work? Introduction to GPS The GPS also known as Global Positioning System is a global navigation system that runs on satellites that are active 24/7 (Library Of Congress, 2011). Development of the GPS was initially started by the US for military purposes; they would guide their troops and navigate them away from danger or would use this to launch missiles on a targeted area. Only recently during the early 2000s been the GPS released to the public by the US and made it free to access to anyone that owns a GPS receiver. Due to its various uses and availability the GPS started to gain popularity amongst people, in fact it has also helped in shaping the world into what it is today. The GPS system has become global and massive. It is used in most of our vehicles and smart phones to get us around its main purpose is to guide us to our location when we are lost, or for looking up a location. Like smart phones and email, this technology has become a key part of our modern day society. It has become a useful tool in our lives that we now have started to depend upon. GPS has replaced maps and has become the key tool of navigation. GPS is now also used in games and other application such as Facebook. GPS system works via detecting signals from GPS satellites located in space (Gray, 2012). The GPS system detects these signals via a GPS receiver (Bertagna, 2010). The GPS receiver detects the radio waves from satellites and then tries to find your location by calculating the time it took for the signal to reach the receiver. After calculating the time it took, it determines the location of the satellite and then determines how far it is from the satellite. By using trilateration it then calculates your location. Trilateration is a mathematical process which uses circles and triangles to calculate distance and area of a place. Common uses of GPS GPS has become a part of our daily lives ever since the US government released it to the public, our everyday devices have been equipped with GPS technology to assist us and enhance our experience (Saha, 2014) (Fortenberry, 2016). Everyday devices such as smartphones, tablets, vehicles and even packages we buy online have a small tracking device fitted in that constantly tracks its location, keeping the customer updated every minute. In fact, aeroplanes nowadays require a GPS tracker, which assists pilots in figuring out the route to their destination mid-air. This technology also helps control rooms in airports keep track of the aeroplanes current location. In fact, even passengers can view their current locations inflight through the entertainment system. Its not just aeroplanes that have inaugurated this technology but most of the vehicles being manufactured today come with a built in GPS system which helps drivers in setting a location and discovering the fastest way to reach it (Horban, 2009). This built in GPS technology also assists in tracking down stolen vehicles, which helps create a decline in car theft and gives a strong sense of security to the customer. The following graph taken from Rewire Security gives graphical evidence of a decline in car theft due to the implementation of a GPS system providing better and improved security. (Trading, 2014) Increase in GPS usage between teenagers Since GPS is now completely open for use to the public, many companies have started to develop softwares that utilize the GPS system. Most GPS softwares are found in mobile app stores these days since mobile phones are a common GPS using device. Moreover, since teenagers are often the age group that uses smartphones the most, quite a lot of the GPS apps are designed with the purpose of entertainment, which led to a huge rise of teenagers getting involved with such entertainment based apps. Entertainment apps which are booming between teenagers are mostly game or dating related (Collier, 2012) . Lets take the example of Pokà ©mon Go that came out quite recently, that game was a massive success due to the fact that it involved players leaving their house and going around different locations capturing Pokà ©mons. Pokà ©mon Gos main feature involved using a GPS tracker to track the players location as he would travel certain distances and to different areas. Pokà ©mon Go has also use d the GPS system to mark important landmarks as Pokà ©stops where players can buy items by using their points. This would not be possible without GPS technology. Whats important to consider here is how such a simple concept became very popular and addictive between teenagers, it is intriguing how a simple system that was used initially solely for the purpose of navigation has now turned into a means of entertainment. GPS systems are more often used by older teens in comparison to younger teens since parents do not give younger teens the freedom of roaming around the city since it is not safe for a child to roam around the city without parent supervision. Older teenagers however, tend to have a drivers license or some other means of transport and a lot of independence. Older teens tend to be given a lot more freedom in most parts of the world. Moreover, they often have to go to multiple places such as university, college, library and at times even their part time jobs. However, quite a lot of issues have appeared at the hands of GPS apps. Such as teens being addicted to the game Pokà ©mon Go and not caring about their own safety and walking around dangerous places. Moreover, GPS systems have also been adopted by dating apps now which has caused a lot of distress among parents. There has also been malpractice of the GPS apps at the hands of parents too. Some parents install apps which can allow them to track the location of their children via their childrens phone. This is an act of intruding a persons personal privacy. Due to how GPS trackers have various different uses, we have certain situations where we begin to question whether its really ethical to use such powerful technology in the way we have, which leads to social and ethical concerns being raised.

Geographic Impacts on Health | Reflection

Geographic Impacts on Health | Reflection Have you ever heard the phrase by Margaret Mead, â€Å"You are unique just like everyone else?† I believe everybody is unique but similar in their own way. It is because of this that I consider our perception of health, regardless if it is in the planning, implementation, and evaluation stage, varies tremendously yet remains the same in many ways. Our notion of health strongly depends on so many factors such as demography, ethnicity, religion, tradition, and values. Demographic distribution of populations has a very big impact on health with regards to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of health interventions because the bigger the population in a certain area, the bigger the intervention. For example, a town of 1,000 people will require less planning, executing the plan will be drastically easier, and evaluating the success of the intervention can be done smoothly compared to a city of 100,000 people. Also, certain areas tend to have a higher prevalence of certain diseases. By studying this, health interventions can be tailored to target certain health concerns or illnesses from certain areas. Political values of a certain country can affect the different stages of health intervention because most health related projects, these days, needs the approval of the government. Depending on the government, some proposed health projects can take years to fruition while others might not take that long. Furthermore, if the politics of a country is shady, the chances of a proposed health project to be approved or implemented is slim to none. Religion can be one of the hardest things to deal with when it comes to the stages of healthcare intervention. As a nurse, I have experienced first-hand the impact of religion has on certain medical treatment. There are some religious beliefs that are not too hard to handle but there some religious beliefs that can take it to the extremes. One of the hardest things I have ever been through was when my beliefs and values contradicts a patient’s religious beliefs especially when it involves life and death. Ethnicity also plays an important role in determining the proper intervention. It is a known fact that there are certain illnesses that affect certain ethnic groups. For example, â€Å"the rate of dementia on admission to nursing homes is higher among black residents than among white residents.[1] Weintraub D, et al. (2000).† Even though dementia does not have a cure, people can tailor their healthcare interventions to fit the needs of different ethnic groups. But this is only the tip of an iceberg. There are many diseases and illnesses associated with ethnicity. By knowing such data, people can go out of their way to limit a certain disease or illness thereby, hopefully, preventing the disease or illness from ever happening. Having been lucky to travel to different countries, I can say that human values really does have an impact on health interventions. One very big example is how Filipinos value the elderly. I am not insinuating that other countries do not value their elderly or Filipinos are better at valuing their elderly. I am just implying that we have a different way of taking care of our elderly. Filipinos seem to get a sense of fulfilment when taking care of their parents. I believe in taking care of my parents when they get old because they took care of me when I was young. I will send them to a rest home not because there are not any rest homes in the Philippines, but because I want to keep them close and connected – they are and will always be a part of the family. Since my beliefs and values have been instilled in me and because I have seen how my parents took care of their parents, it has now become sort of a tradition in which I and my fellow Filipinos take pride of. This is one way on how tradition impacts healthcare intervention. But there are also other ways. In many countries, especially in remote areas, traditional medicine is still being practiced and people in these areas believe this is the only form of medicine out there. A strong push for knowledge would be the proper intervention here. Having mentioned all these, it is safe to say that determinants either have a direct or indirect impact on health interventions. Also, some determinants can either be a deterrent or an opportunity. By deterrent, I mean those rare ones where health interventions can’t be implemented because certain beliefs will not permit such mediation. However, determinants can also be an opportunity to come up with a better plan, a more effective implementation, and a more efficient evaluation system of a healthcare intervention. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Attitude is the way you think about someone or something. Since we are all unique in our own way, it is safe to say that we also have different attitudes towards someone or something. You may like the Miami Heat while I like the San Antonio Spurs. Having this in mind, it would not be a long shot to conclude that our individual attitude towards health can have a great impact, directly or indirectly, towards planning, implementation, and evaluation of healthcare interventions. The public’s concept of health and illness is different no matter where you go. The World Health Organization defines health as â€Å"physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.†[2] These days, we are more united in trusting medicine and research than resorting to traditional medicine. But, that does not mean traditional medicine did not have the same attitude towards health and illness. â€Å"Traditional medicine practice (TMP) within Aboriginal Australia encompasses a holistic worldview which reflects that of the World Health Organizations’ definition of health†[3] Oliver, Stefanie. (2013). However, the practice of traditional medicine is slowly becoming a lost trade primarily due to colonisation, medical advancement, research enhancement, and technological improvement. Nowadays, most of us rely on science rather than traditional medicine. Have you ever wondered what brought about the advent of medical advancement? Funny as this may sound, most drugs today are of herbal descent and it is very important to recognize the value traditional medicine had on today’s medicine. There are still places where traditional medicine is still accepted and is still being practiced. Even in a small country like the Philippines, indigenous areas still believe that illness is caused by â€Å"voodoo magic† and that a â€Å"witch doctor† and his/her methods serve as the cure for such illness. In Korea, roots of certain plants are mixed in a drink and is believed to improve and restore homeostasis. Acupuncture is a method of needle insertion at various points of the skin to stimulate circulation and improve overall balance. This is believed to originate from China. How health is accepted and practiced in an area will depend on how the public values the importance of health. With all the different diseases out there, I believe that most countries consider health as a big priority and it is very evident from all the research being done to find a cure for certain diseases such as cancer, diabetes, HIV, and many more. It is not only through research that indicates how much importance the public considers health. Diet programs, exercise programs, and even healthier TV shows are being shared and broadcasted in hopes to help gain and inspire a healthier wellbeing. The public’s attitude towards health and medical professionals is essential to healthcare interventions because if people were not concerned about their own health, they would not seek the aid of doctors, traditional healers, or medical professionals. If they do not need help from medical professionals then there would not be a need for any planning, implementation, and evaluation. However, most people value their lives. They, generally, value their own health and fear what could happen if they do not take care of themselves. That is why people are slowly learning to consult dieticians to help them eat healthier. People are seeking the aid from trainers to get them into shape. People are even considering the use of traditional medicine and traditional methods (e.g. acupuncture) to do whatever it takes to be healthier. In my own opinion, especially here in New Zealand, the public is very concern about their health and also their environment. They are starting to open up to a more â€Å"organic† way of being healthy. These days, people are slowly â€Å"going green† and this is why they are exploring different alternatives to common medicine all for the sake of being healthy. I believe the media plays a vital role for the immergence of the â€Å"going green† lifestyle that people all over the world are slowly following suit. The public’s attitude towards health, illness, and medical professionals is very important. Without the public’s support, nothing will get done. The first thing that comes to mind when people mention New Zealand is the natural beauty this country possesses. New Zealand is surrounded by beautiful coastlines waiting to be discovered and crystal clear pristine waters to be explored. Aside from the coastline, New Zealand boasts of majestic snow-capped peaks and breath-taking waterfalls. We all got to see a glimpse of its immense beauty through the Lord of the Rings movie series and the Hobbit movie series. But the beauty of New Zealand is not only evident looking form the outside-in but also from the inside-out. Here, beauty runs skin deep. New Zealand is a melting pot of multiple cultures ranging from Maori, European, Pacific Island and Asian descent – all of which are very proud of their ancestry. With all these different cultures, it is hard to imagine how people get along. However, people just make it work here. They respect each other’s variances. This, for me, is what makes New Zealand unique and special. This kind of respect towards one another is generated from New Zealand’s founding document – The Treaty of Waitangi. This treaty simply implies that Maori people have the same rights as British people. This attitude and way of thinking has been instilled on every resident that it has robbed off on other settlers. So people accept each other equally. More so, people are learning to adapt to each’s culture. This is even evident when it comes to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of healthcare interventions. For example, the Maori’s cultural influence has been socially accepted that the whole nation is working together to maintain and preserve such a culture. It is a fact that Maoris generally have an obesity problem, which is a potential for diabetes, so the whole community is working hand in hand to provide means to aid the Maoris in tackling this problem. Health leaders are assisting whanau to come up with ways to address such an issues through proper education, training, and other means. But the community is not only helping the Maoris because the Maoris are also helping the community by educating them on their ways of traditional medicine. Since New Zealand is a very diverse country, all cultures are being treated the same way. More and more acupuncture facilities are popping up all over major cities. People are learning different herbal remedies from Asia to treat numerous ailments. Yoga, which originated from India, is just as popular here. People are learning how to eat healthier and exercise regularly like most Asian countries do. The influence is great and the impact is clear. It is up to us to absorb all these new cultural insights and choose a healthier lifestyle. [1] Weintraub D, Raskin A, Ruskin PE, Gruber-Baldini AL, Zimmerman SI, Hebel JR, et al. Racial differences in the prevalence of dementia among patients admitted to nursing homes.Psychiatric Services.2000;51:1259–1264. [2] World Health Organization:Declaration of Alma-Ata. Alma-Ata: USSR; 1978. [Proceedings of the International Conference on Primary Health Care] 6–12 September [3] Oliver, Stefanie. (2013). The role of traditional medicine practice in primary health care within Aboriginal Australia: a review of the literature. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 2013, 9:46. doi: 10.1186/1746-4269-9-46

Unexpected Reward :: essays research papers

Unexpected Reward   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Organized youth sports are excellent programs that every town in every state should offer to young people of their community. These programs help children to find their interests, build confidence, and make friends. All of these things are important in the development of a child. These are a few of the reasons that interested me in volunteering my services as an assistant coach of a Pop Warner football team, The Plymouth Vikings.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I coached children ages nine to eleven. I would help them with the fundamentals of football such as the proper way to hold the football when you run, the difference of pass blocking and run blocking, and how to tackle properly. It really made me feel good to know that I was helping kids improve their skills at a game they loved to play.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There was one boy that attended every practice, and seemed to be tuned in to every bit of information I gave the team. The boy’s name was Gregory; we all called him, â€Å"Goody.† Goody was the starting quarterback. Greg reminded me of myself when I was his age. He was always having fun when he played, he was always trying his best, and he was somewhat mischievous. Greg was just a normal eleven-year-old that loved to play football. He was the best player on the team. Goody could play any position; he could throw, run, catch, and play defense. He had a great deal of potential on the field, but he was struggling in school. You hold a â€Å"C† average in school to play Pop Warner football. Greg was just barely making the grade. I didn’t want to see a kid with so much love for the game to be kicked off the team because he was not doing well in school. I began to talk to him about the issue and I would explain to him the importance of working hard in school just like he does on the football field. I told him that he should keep professional football as a dream, but to make school his first priority. At the time I really did not know if he listened to me or if he even cared what I had to say, but I knew I had tried to help him. I even offered to help him with homework. Goody never asked for help on his homework, but assured me he was doing better. Unexpected Reward :: essays research papers Unexpected Reward   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Organized youth sports are excellent programs that every town in every state should offer to young people of their community. These programs help children to find their interests, build confidence, and make friends. All of these things are important in the development of a child. These are a few of the reasons that interested me in volunteering my services as an assistant coach of a Pop Warner football team, The Plymouth Vikings.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I coached children ages nine to eleven. I would help them with the fundamentals of football such as the proper way to hold the football when you run, the difference of pass blocking and run blocking, and how to tackle properly. It really made me feel good to know that I was helping kids improve their skills at a game they loved to play.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There was one boy that attended every practice, and seemed to be tuned in to every bit of information I gave the team. The boy’s name was Gregory; we all called him, â€Å"Goody.† Goody was the starting quarterback. Greg reminded me of myself when I was his age. He was always having fun when he played, he was always trying his best, and he was somewhat mischievous. Greg was just a normal eleven-year-old that loved to play football. He was the best player on the team. Goody could play any position; he could throw, run, catch, and play defense. He had a great deal of potential on the field, but he was struggling in school. You hold a â€Å"C† average in school to play Pop Warner football. Greg was just barely making the grade. I didn’t want to see a kid with so much love for the game to be kicked off the team because he was not doing well in school. I began to talk to him about the issue and I would explain to him the importance of working hard in school just like he does on the football field. I told him that he should keep professional football as a dream, but to make school his first priority. At the time I really did not know if he listened to me or if he even cared what I had to say, but I knew I had tried to help him. I even offered to help him with homework. Goody never asked for help on his homework, but assured me he was doing better.

An Ounce Of Cure :: essays research papers

As the old saying goes, â€Å"an ounce of cure is worth a pound of prevention†. I believe that this is what the author thought of when choosing the title for this story. There is a lot of wisdom found in these words that is usually only realized after the fact. This reminds me of another old saying that I think also applies to this story – â€Å"Hindsight is twenty-twenty†. How many times have we thought, â€Å"if only I knew then what I know now†? Would we have made the same choices? This question is difficult to answer since we cannot change the past. This story is about a teenage girl, whose first heartbreak leads to some rather unfortunate events. She tells us about her first love and her first kiss. â€Å"Two months, and a few amatory stages later, he dropped† her for a girl who was performing opposite him in a school play. Watching him with the other girl was more than she could bear and the night she went to see the play was â€Å"the beginning of months of real, if more or less self-inflicted, misery† for her. While baby-sitting one night, she made the fatal mistake of getting drunk. She then calls her best friend, who shows up with another girl and several boys, to help her with her situation. Before she was able to cover up the ill-fated events, the couple returned home unexpectedly. She then had to explain what happened to her mother. Her mother then buys a bottle of Scotch and goes to see the couple to discuss her daughter’s actions. She was forbidden to date again until she turned sixteen and she ha d to pay for the bottle out of her baby-sitting money. Her reputation suffered greatly until the fall, when another girl did something even more scandalous and people forgot about her. In the end, she discovered that she was completely over the boy and she learned a valuable lesson about how actions have consequences. I found this story very enjoyable to read. I felt that the story was well written and conveyed a realistic insight into what some teenage girls experience. I, having once been a teenager, can relate to the girl in the story. Although I didn’t get drunk, I still recall my first love and the crushing heartache I felt when he broke up with me. People deal with rejection and disappointment in different ways, and sometimes we can use poor judgment. An Ounce Of Cure :: essays research papers As the old saying goes, â€Å"an ounce of cure is worth a pound of prevention†. I believe that this is what the author thought of when choosing the title for this story. There is a lot of wisdom found in these words that is usually only realized after the fact. This reminds me of another old saying that I think also applies to this story – â€Å"Hindsight is twenty-twenty†. How many times have we thought, â€Å"if only I knew then what I know now†? Would we have made the same choices? This question is difficult to answer since we cannot change the past. This story is about a teenage girl, whose first heartbreak leads to some rather unfortunate events. She tells us about her first love and her first kiss. â€Å"Two months, and a few amatory stages later, he dropped† her for a girl who was performing opposite him in a school play. Watching him with the other girl was more than she could bear and the night she went to see the play was â€Å"the beginning of months of real, if more or less self-inflicted, misery† for her. While baby-sitting one night, she made the fatal mistake of getting drunk. She then calls her best friend, who shows up with another girl and several boys, to help her with her situation. Before she was able to cover up the ill-fated events, the couple returned home unexpectedly. She then had to explain what happened to her mother. Her mother then buys a bottle of Scotch and goes to see the couple to discuss her daughter’s actions. She was forbidden to date again until she turned sixteen and she ha d to pay for the bottle out of her baby-sitting money. Her reputation suffered greatly until the fall, when another girl did something even more scandalous and people forgot about her. In the end, she discovered that she was completely over the boy and she learned a valuable lesson about how actions have consequences. I found this story very enjoyable to read. I felt that the story was well written and conveyed a realistic insight into what some teenage girls experience. I, having once been a teenager, can relate to the girl in the story. Although I didn’t get drunk, I still recall my first love and the crushing heartache I felt when he broke up with me. People deal with rejection and disappointment in different ways, and sometimes we can use poor judgment.

Program Planning and Evaluation Essay

The Far West community is an ever-growing community that is presenting many opportunities especially for a diverse population. Because the way society is as a whole it is important that there are culturally diverse communities not only for ones that need the exposure to diversity but for the cultures that need a place they can call and feels like home. Within communities such as Far West there is a huge need for the educators to be able to provide good education as well educational programs that tends to the diverse needs of a diverse population. Far West is a community striving to provide the perfect community and educational atmosphere for those that look to call Far West home. A program that is focusing on producing a successful program for a diverse population would have to utilize some program planning. This is especially accurate when a majority of the school population is of an Asian descent. Not only will program planning need to take place to come up with ways to provide for the Asian populations needs but for other cultures as well. Due to the growing population of Asian people within Far West there has also been a spike in the population of other cultural groups. Not only will a need for educational programs for the Asian culture be a must but also for others such as the Hispanic population. Not only will bilingual educators be needed but also bilingual programs, text books, and other materials to provide for the multicultural school population. The program is planning to use the first four years of grades kindergarten through fourth grade as the transition period to transform these unilingual to bilingual American students. Another program that is going to be put into place is a diversity program. Planning for this program is going to take some outside of the box thinking and some dedication from the educators and from the parents of the students.  Recruitment of faculty and staff will take place to help run this program. The principal is on board with the program and plans to make a point to recruit all the bilingual staff and paraprofessionals to help make this program run without a hitch. Parents are going to be needed to make this program a success as well. The needs for dedicated, caring parents are needed to form a diversity program committee to plan and execute everything, (â€Å"Http://www.ehow.com†, n.d.). There have been talks of creating a new class to aid in this program as well as an after school program. It will all depend on the funding whether or not the class will be implemented but the after school program is a go. Along with the daily afterschool program there will also be a monthly program celebration that will celebrate a different culture each month. Determining the celebrated cultures will be based on the different cultures that attend the school. During that month all students involved with the program will learn the lifestyles, traditions, history, and any common knowledge of the celebrated culture of that particular month. To make this happen successfully it is important to allow students to be involved and have a say in the programs planning and scheduled activities. This is the strategy to keep the students engaged and provide them with a sense of importance and responsibility. All is set in place for this program and applications for the grants have taken place and this will be what will determine if there will be a class provided during school hours as well as the after school program. Another area of need to make sure that the Far West elementary school is providing acceptable and successful services is the use of program evaluations. Some programs do this type of evaluation but it normally takes place on a quarterly basis. Far West plans to utilize a bi-monthly evaluation so the necessary statistics are recorded to make sure that the program is effective. This not only helps the students but it is also beneficial for the teachers and aides. With the students the evaluations provides insight on the learning level of the students and how well they are obtaining and learning the material taught within the program. All students learn on different levels and it is important to decipher what a child’s learning level is so that the program does not fail the student. The evaluations are also important for the educators and assistants because it allows them to analyze the data provided to see if adjustments need to be made so that lower level students can receive e xtra assistance. The  evaluations can also provide teachers with insights on any areas of improvement needed on how they are teaching the curriculum to the students. Evaluation is needed to help make a program successful and it also helps in the continuing evolution of a program. Far West plans to focus their attention on their program planning and evaluation by following a check lists. This check lists focuses on Curriculum, particularly a diverse curriculum. The next area would be instruction. The instruction given to these students is going to be as diverse as the schools population with the use of technology such as computers, videos, music, and artwork. These strategies will be added to the typical traditional use of textbooks and other media sources that can be obtained within the school’s library. Evaluation is another strategy on the checklists that was already touched upon, and lastly culture. A school’s culture sets the tone for how much the student’s value diversity in others as well as how confident they feel being themselves, (â€Å"Http://www.ehow.com†, n.d.). Program planning and program evaluation go hand in hand with this organization and for the most part a majority of all organizations. Part of the planning that has taken place is to provide an evaluation program on a bi-monthly basis. Success for this program relies on the continuous planning to make the program efficient and the continuous evaluation to make sure that the program is effective for students and the curriculum is effective as well. Both of these interrelate because with this program, planning and evaluation is needed for the overall success of the program. Far West believes that they have a curriculum, program, which is only in need of some extra staff, some dedicated parents, a nd some funding to make it all happen. Although everything presented within this written document has been all positive and seems to be fool proof there are always bumps in the road and potential obstacles that have to be faced when implementing a program of this nature. Technical issues are something that could slow the process of such a program if the required resources are not available. Because this is such a diverse program that is expected to have a large and diverse amount of participants the need for technology is needed. Technology is not only needed for resources but for alternate teaching strategies, programs, record keeping, communication, student interacting, research, and many more areas. Because of the size of the diverse population that is expected at Far West, part of their budget is  going to have the need for more computers and different bilingual programs to allow for more ample instruction of the programs curriculum. Another area of concern when it comes to starting a program would be political aspe cts. Politics is involved in almost everything one can think of. There is a large chance that there are some parents or other citizens within the Far West community that may feel that the grant money needed for all the educational changes can be utilized in other areas. Some parents that may be of another ethnic decent or part of a family that may not feel that it is important for their children to be culturally diverse could be opposed to this program proposal. These families may think that it would be a waste of money or recourses. Some families may feel that more attention should be given to classes of the arts such as art, and music. Or they may be some that believe that funding may be needed for more extracurricular activities such as sports or travel clubs. Other areas of concern could be facility improvement or maintenance. Other political issues could be on how a family looks at political views. Republicans may be opposed to such a program because they may feel that the money could be used in other areas, whereas democrats could be all for a program that is set up to help all of those involved. Other areas could be the overall upbringing and cultural traditions that families follow. Racism is still a huge issue within society and there could be families that feel that it is not in their children’s best interest to learn cultural diversity and may also feel like it is against their rights for such a program to be taught at the school their children attends. That is why the program is optional and not a requirement. The in school class would be a class where students that are interested or their parents are interested can enroll them into the class. The after school program will be optional as well. Although Far West is investing a lot of time and work into this program they are not going to allow this program take away from any other area within the school. This is to prevent from anyone to feel that they are being discriminated against. Far West is not taking any advantages away from other students they are just getting accustom to the ever evolving school population for years to come. This program is important. Children are the future of this country and if children are to be successful they are going to need the correct learning atmosphere, and resources to be able to do so. The Far West population is  becoming more and more diverse by the day and this is the case for the Far West elementary school. Far West has developed a program that will promote learning in an area that is a new way of life with cultural diversity. This is mindset of the future and by Far West Elementary setting an example; this could be the new and improved way of educating our youth starting at an early elementary age. References http://www.ehow.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/how_7464923_create-diversity-program-school.html http://www.ehow.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/info_7846153_checklist-diversity-evaluation-classrooms.html