Prelude no 15 in Db major by Chopin

The song Prelude no.15 by Chopin, also known as the raindrop prelude is written in ternary form, which means it's an ABA structure. It's structure unlike many other preludes has a very clear Ternary form structure with a coda at the end to finish the piece nicely. Section A is written in Db, while section B is written enharmonically in C# minor. Although it is in Ternary form the piece can be split into 4 parts. The Coda, A, B, and A again. Melody and Rhythm Just like the name of the piece, Raindrop, throughout the piece sustained notes are used to act as the continuous raindrops falling. During the piece such as in the first bar, Chopin uses descending notes and arpeggio's to represent falling raindrops. He also uses septuplets and turns to create similar effects. He changes to the relative minor and dominant keys to create variation within the melody. Tonality The Raindrop Prelude is written in Db major with 5 flats. Bb, Eb, Ab, Db and Gb. The piece is generally tonal and uses many different relative keys to create variation throughout the piece. Texture. Although the Raindrop Prelude is written and played on one piano the texture is generally quite thick throughout. Chopin, in the B section, uses a technique called doubling to create a powerful and a build up of the texture. This is where a note is played in octaves in both hands creating a more emotional feeling as well, as a feature of romantic music. The texture could be described as both polyphonic and homophonic as the melody above the pedaled notes is more complex but fits in with many of the sustained notes. Use of Piano. Because Prelude no. 15 is written for piano Chopin uses the abilities of the piano very well to create variation among sections. For example, in section B the melody is played in the Left hand rather than the Right which created a low forceful and powerful sound. Also by using pedaled notes in both the harmony and melody the sound of the piano created the feel of raindrops. Chopin also wrote Prelude no. 15 because many pieces of music were created for the piano in the Romantic era as the instrument was developed and made bigger which enables it to create Cantabile sounds and sustained slurs with pedals. Also piano's were now able to make larger ranges of dynamics, articulation and pitches because of the use of hammers on strings and the extension of octaves.

Exploring The Concept And History Of Art Museums Art Essay

In today ‘s society graphics has about turned itself into a famous person icon, with art gross revenues estimated to be over 13 billion per twelvemonth and apart from the drugs trade it is the biggest unregulated market in the universe. Museum civilization has hence had to alter over the old ages. Art museums used to be topographic points were people came to see art, whether it be pictures or sculptures. There are legion museums all over the universe and most major metropoliss will hold a celebrated museum. These museums draw big Numberss of tourers and art partisans to come and see the present and past pieces of art. The architecture of an art museum or gallery, peculiarly a modern art museum is frequently considered to be a work of art every bit much as the contents in the museum. The Guggenheim art museum in Spain is an illustration of an art museum which is famed for its elaborated an unusual architecture. Most art museums specialise in exhibiting a specific type of art, fo r illustration the Tate Modern in London is an art museum that entirely exhibits modern-day plants of modern art. 2.0 History In the seventeenth century there were no such things as art auctions, rich Godheads or affluent business communities would monetary value each object and invite buyers to come and see the art. This was a slow procedure as it lacked the exhilaration or inducement of today ‘s auctions. Some of these screenings would last for yearss and in the instance of Duchess of Portland lasted 38 yearss. The bulk of these gross revenues were sold for little net incomes. In 1795 Calonne and Trumbull were the first to accomplish high monetary values for there aggregations and towards the center of the nineteenth century an wholly new strain of aggregators were born ; they were for the most portion work forces who had made big lucks in industry in England and other states. They were untrammelled by â€Å" roll uping † traditions, and their investing was about entirely extended to the creative persons of the twenty-four hours. The dispersions of these aggregations began in 1863 with the Bi cknell Gallery, and continued at irregular intervals for many old ages The following large measure in the art universe was in America in the 1970 ‘s. Robert Skull and His married woman Ethel had acquired a big aggregation of inexpensive art, normally paying 1000-2000 lbs each for a Rauschenberg or a Jasper Johns and they besides purchased James Rosenquist ‘s f1 11 for 45k. Fig 1: James Rosenquist ‘s F1 11 ( www.pierretristam.com ) Equally shortly as it was purchased Mr Skull lent it to the metropolitan manager of art in New York. This was a astute move immediately increasing its value of the picture. In the game between museums and aggregators, Mr Skull would shortly keep all the cards. On the 18th October 1973 the Skulls auctioned off 50 pieces from there aggregation. Mr Skull was a really sharp booster, the most written and talked about adult male in art at the clip. The auction was picked by angry creative person whose plants Skull had bought for non really much, including Robert Rauschenberg. The auction was a great success and broke many records in the art universe at that clip. After the Skull auction was over the art universe ‘s accent shifted from aesthetes to money ; everyone would desire a piece of the action. By the mid 1980s high monetary values made proprietors want to sell there aggregations, auction houses were flooded with expensive pieces. This attracted another new strain of purchaser to the biggest unregulated market in the universe, they viewed art strictly as an investing and monetary values went sky high. The cost of such monetary values was that art became admired non by any critical position but for its monetary value, auction houses were the new butcheries of gustatory sensation, directing some art to inflamed celebrity and this kept on traveling. These monetary values made it difficult to separate what was existent art and what was n't. It had a cultural map so that you could n't do your ain opinion. The rise in monetary values has affected museum civilization, when the metropolitan museum of art New York bought Aristotle contemplating idea of home run by Rembrandt, all of the rumors and all of the inquiries in the art universe so were inquiring ‘is it traveling to be in the national gallery in London or the national gallery Washington? ‘ . In today ‘s society when anything of import comes on the market they are sent to private galleries who bid the highest to expose these chef-d'oeuvres. Fig 2: Aristotle contemplating idea of home run There is no manner a museum can vie ( www.designlessbetter.com ) in today ‘s market. The art museums of the yesteryear have non given up though. With the aid of mass media, accents on spectacle and the cult of the famous person chef-d'oeuvre museums have managed to pull the public back in. What has been gained in these new Numberss in the gallery has besides been lost with what they used to stand for. Today the Tate is a now trade name name, the Louvre is a trade name name and so is the Guggenheim. With the spread of these big planetary trade names come the creative persons that feature in them. 3.0 Damien Hirst The current richest life creative person in today ‘s society is Damien Hirst. He owes most of his success to a big private aggregator called Charles Saatchi. During the 1990 ‘s Hirst was a outstanding member of the Young British Artists who dominated the art scene in Britain during this clip. After Hirst left college he organized assorted independent exhibitions to which he was introduced to a adult male called Charles Saatchi. Charles Saatchi was a really wealth man of affairs and ran a planetary advertisement bureau with his brother. Mr. Saatchi loved art and helped patronize promising creative persons from the Young British Artists. When Saatchi saw Hirst ‘s major installing ( A Hundred Years ) consisting of a big glass instance incorporating maggots and flies Fig 3: A Hundred Old ages feeding off a decomposition cows caput he was astonished and so ( www.artnet.com ) bought it. Over the following few old ages Hirst and Saatchi became close friends and in 1991, Ch arles Saatchi offered to fund whatever graphics Hirst wanted to do. The consequence was showcased in 1992 in the first Young British Artists exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in North London which was besides owned by Mr. Saatchi.The Saatchi Gallery was a topographic point of modern-day art, and therefore the gallery ‘s shows, had distinguishable stages, get downing with US minimal art exhibitions, so showcased the adult male of the minute Damien Hirst along with the Young British Artists, Fig 4: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, It was opened in 1985 by ( www.artchive.com ) Mr Saatchi in order to demo his ample aggregation to the populace. The gallery was a major influence on art in Britain during its clip. It has besides had a history of media contention, which it has courted, and has had extremes of critical reaction. Quite a batch of creative persons shown at the gallery are unknown non merely to the general populace but besides to the commercial art world.The rubric to Hirst ‘s work was The Physical I mpossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, It featured a 14ft shark enclosed in a glass instance and became a symbol British art in the 1990 ‘s therefore being Hirst ‘s first major accomplishment. With the aid of Charles Saatchi Hirst was able to go on bring forthing art cognizing at the dorsum of his head his work was to be centre phase at the Saatchi Gallery. Over the following 12 old ages Damien Hirst became a family name as he produced other big decease related plants of art such as. Fig 5: Away from the Flock Fig 6: Mother and Child Divided Fig 7: Hymn Fig 8: Oops brown painting In April 2003, the Saatchi Gallery opened at new premises in London, with a show that included a Hirst retrospective. This brought an ever-growing strain in his relationship with Saatchi to a caput. Hirst disassociated himself from the retrospective to the extent that he has ne'er put it on his CV. Hirst said Saatchi was â€Å" infantile † and â€Å" I ‘m non Charles Saatchi ‘s barrel-organ monkey†¦ He merely recognises art with his billfold†¦ he believes he can impact art values with purchasing power, and he still believes he can make it. † ( hypertext transfer protocol: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saatchi_Gallery ) Shortly after this the brace had one more show together in the White Cube Gallery, London so went there separate ways. Today Damien Hirst is the universe ‘s richest life creative person ; he still continues to bring forth graphics and has had exhibitions all over the universe. His latest creative activity is called ‘Love of God ‘ . It was exhibited in the White Cube gallery, London and was a human skull recreated in Pt and covered with over eight 1000s diamonds and is estimated to of cost Hirst 15 million Fig 10: Love of God ( www.artnet.com ) pounds to do. The asking monetary value for the piece was 50 million lbs ; although the piece did n't sell outright it was bought by a pool that included Hirst himself and his gallery the White Cube. In November 2008, Hirst exhibited the diamond skull at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, despite public contention. The skull was exhibited following to pictures from the aggregation of the museum that were selected and curated by Hirst. The museum manager, there was n't controversy nevertheless to demo the skull in the historic museum among the board members. Throughout Hirst art calling he physically doing all his early work, but from his rise celebrity and to day of the month he has ever used helpers. The sum of work he produces mean he needs a mill apparatus like Andy Warhol used to utilize in the 1970 ‘s when he founded ‘The Factory ‘ . It was an art studio, were he employed art workers to mass green goods prints and postings. This method of bring forthing art has led inquiries about Hirst ‘s genuineness, and in 1997 a picture that Hirst said was a â€Å" counterfeit † appeared at sale, although he had antecedently said that he frequently had nil to make with the creative activity of these pieces. â€Å" Hirst said that he had merely painted five topographic point pictures himself because, â€Å" I could n't be sleep togethering arsed making it † ; he described his efforts as â€Å" crap † – † They ‘re shit compared to†¦ the best individual who of all time painted musca volitanss for me was Rachel She ‘s superb. Absolutely sleep togethering brilliant. The best topographic point painting you can hold by me is one painted by Rachel. † There is another narrative of a picture helper who was go forthing and asked for one of his pictures. Hirst told her to, â€Å" ‘make one of your ain. ‘ And she said, ‘No, I want one of yours. ‘ But the lone difference, between one painted by her and one of mine, is the money. â€Å" ( Hirst, Damien and Burn, Gordon ( 2001 ) . On the Way to Work. Faber ) With art at head of concern and civilization in today ‘s society Museums have been forced to demo a new face lift image to pull the public back into its doors, while little galleries and auction houses have become the new genteelness evidences for up and coming creative person of tomorrow. The Architecture of these edifices themselves has besides had to alter. The White Cube Gallery in St.James ‘s London, the Guggenheim in New York which was renowned as one of the architectural icons of the twentieth century are both really good illustrations of alteration. 4.0 The White Cube The White Cube branded gallery, known most normally in the universe for its modern-day commercial art, is place to creative persons like Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and many other internationally celebrated creative persons including members from the Young British Artists which is how it achieved its repute by giving one individual shows. Its most recent gallery opened in 2006 in St.James ‘s Street and was designed by MRJ Rundell & A ; Associates. It was the first free standing edifice in the country and he provides 5000 ftA? exhibition infinite. The gallery is a crisp-edged box and stands out from the edifices around it, Harmonizing to the Architects the edifice was designed to esteem the cardinal qualities of discretion and modesty of the St James ‘s country. Fig 11: White Cube Gallery ( www.cosmur.co.uk ) 5.0 The Guggenheim The Guggenheim of New York was the first art museum edifice to be designed to retroflex a piece of art. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the late 1950 ‘s it was a disclosure to the architecture universe. It is a edifice that has become every bit celebrated as the art aggregation it displays. The Guggenheim dances gracefully between Fig 12: Guggenheim New York ( www.gallery.egyptsons.com ) architecture and sculpture. Since the gap of the Guggenheim New York the Guggenheim trade name has opened another three galleries in Venice, Berlin and Bilbao. The gallery in Bilbao was opened in 1997 and was designed by Frank Gehry. It is a dramatic construction with its swirling signifiers and its frontage of Ti, glass, and limestone.The curves on the edifice were designed to look random. Using computing machine plans to assist plan the edifice ‘s construction it made it executable to construct forms that architects off earlier old ages would hold found impossible to build. Fig 13: Guggenheim Bilbao ( www.artknowledgenews.com ) With modern museums and galleries going more similar pieces of art, the following coevals of art galleries in my sentiment will be like fantasy islands pulling people non for the art but for the experience. The Guggenheim is constructing a new Gallery in Abu Dhabi which will be the largest Guggenheim in the universe with a floor infinite of 450,000 ftA? . The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi joins other taking international civilization establishments including the universe celebrated museum trade name the Louvre, in the unprecedented creative activity of a vivacious civilization finish for visitants from around the universe. 6.0 Decision The art universe attractively copies our money driven, famous person obsessed amusement civilization, same arrested development on celebrity, same obeisance to mass media that grabs our attending with its noise and waver. Art should do us experience more clearly, more intelligently, it should give us consistent esthesiss that which otherwise we would non hold had, that is what market civilization is killing. In the 1960 ‘s art was a manner of doing money, started as a drip and turned into a stampede. If art does n't state us about the universe we live in so I do n't believe there is much point in holding it.

The Impact of Ict on Tertiary Education

The impact of ICT on tertiary education : advances and promises Kurt Larsen and Stephan Vincent-Lancrin Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Directorate for Education / Centre for Educational Research and Innovation* DRAFT OECD/NSF/U. Michigan Conference â€Å"Advancing Knowledge and the Knowledge Economy† 10-11 January 2005 Washington DC ABSTRACT: The promises of e-learning for transforming tertiary education and thereby advancing the knowledge economy have rested on three arguments: E-learning could expand and widen access to tertiary education and training; improve the quality of education; and reduce its cost.The paper evaluates these three promises with the sparse existing data and evidence and concludes that the reality has not been up to the promises so far in terms of pedagogic innovation, while it has already probably significantly improved the overall learning (and teaching) experience. Reflecting on the ways that would help develop e-learnin g further, it then identifies a few challenges and highlights open educational resource initiatives as an example of way forward.The first section of the paper recalls some of the promises of e-learning; the second compares these promises and the real achievements to date and suggests that e-learning could be at an early stage of its innovation cycle; the third section highlights the challenges for a further and more radically innovative development of e-learning. Knowledge, innovation and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have had strong repercussions on many economic sectors, e. g. the informatics and communication, finance, and transportation sectors (Foray, 2004; Boyer, 2002).What about education? The knowledge-based economy sets a new scene for education and new challenges and promises for the education sector. Firstly, education is a prerequisite of the knowledge-based economy: the production and use of new knowledge both require a more (lifelong) educated popu lation and workforce. Secondly, ICTs are a very powerful tool for diffusing knowledge and information, a fundamental aspect of the education process: in that sense, they can play a pedagogic role that could in principle complement (or even compete with) the traditional practices of the education sector.These are the two challenges for the education sector: continue to expand with the help (or under the pressure) of new forms of learning. Thirdly, ICTs sometimes induce innovations in the ways of doing things: for example, navigation does not involve the same cognitive processes since the Global Positioning System (GPS) was invented (e. g. Hutchins, 1995); scientific research in many fields has also been revolutionised by the new possibilities offered by ICTs, from digitisation of information to new recording, simulation and data processing possibilities (Atkins and al. , 2003).Could ICTs similarly revolutionise education, especially as education deals directly with the codification a nd transmission of knowledge and information – two activities which power has been decupled by the ICT revolution? The education sector has so far been characterised by rather slow progress in terms of innovation development which impact on teaching activities. Educational research and development does not play a strong role as a factor of enabling the direct production of systematic knowledge which translates into â€Å"programmes that works† in the classroom or lecture hall (OECD, 2003).As a matter of fact, education is not a field that lends itself easily to experimentation, partly because experimental approaches in education are often impossible to describe in precisely enough to be sure that they are really being replicated (Nelson, 2000). There is little codified knowledge in the realm of education and only weak developed mechanisms whereby communities of faculty collectively can capture and benefit from the discoveries made by their colleagues.Moreover, learning typically depends on other learning inputs than those received in the class or formal education process: the success of learning depends on many social and family aspects that are actually beyond the control of educators. Information and communication technologies potentially offer increased possibilities for codification of knowledge about teaching and for innovation in teaching activities through being able to deliver learning and cognitive activities anywhere at any time.Learning at a distance can furthermore be more learner-centred, self-paced, and problem solving-based than face-to-face teaching. It is also true, however, that many learning activities cannot be coordinated by virtual means only. The emulation and spontaneity generated by physical presence and social groupings often remain crucial. Likewise, face-to-face exchanges are important when they enable other forms of sensory perception to be stimulated apart from these used within the framework of electronic interactio n.However, the influence of distance and time is waning now that the technological capacity is available for knowledge-sharing, remote access and teamwork, and organising and coordinating tasks over wide areas (OECD, 2004a). Focusing on tertiary education, this paper examines the promises of ICTs in the education sector, first as a way to better participate in the advancement of the knowledge economy, second as a way to introduce innovations. Leaving aside the impact of ICTs on the research or e-science performed by tertiary education institutions (see Atkins and al. 2003; David, 2004), we concentrate on e-learning, broadly understood as the use of ICTs to enhance or support learning and teaching in (tertiary) education. E-learning is thus a generic term referring to different uses and intensities of uses of ICTs, from wholly online education to campus-based education through other forms of distance education supplemented with ICTs in some way. The supplementary model would encompas s activities ranging from the most basic use of ICTs (e. g. use of PCs for word processing of assignments) through to more advanced adoption (e. g. pecialist disciplinary software, handheld devices, learning management systems etc. ). However, we keep a presiding interest in more advanced applications including some use of online facilities. Drawing on the scarce existing evidence, including a recent survey on e-learning in post-secondary institutions carried out by the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), it shows that e-learning has not yet lived up to its promises, which were overstated in the hype of the new economy. ICT have nonetheless had a real impact on the education sector, inducing a quiet rather than radical revolution.Finally, it shows some possible directions to further stimulate its development. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: the first section recalls some of the promises of e-learning; the second compares these promises and the real achievements to date and suggests that e-learning could be at an early stage of its adoption cycle; the third section highlights the challenges for a further development of e-learning and shows what directions might be the most promising for its further development. I.Advancing knowledge and the (knowledge) economy: the promises of e-learning The emergence of ICTs represents high promises for the tertiary education sector (and, more broadly, the post-secondary education sector if one takes into account their impact on non-formal education). ICTs could indeed play a role on three fundamental aspects of education policy: access, quality and cost. ICTs could possibly advance knowledge by expanding and widening access to education, by improving the quality of education and reducing its cost.All this would build more capacity for the advancement of knowledge economies. This section summarises the main arguments backing the promises. E-learning is a promising tool for expanding and widening access to tertiary education. Because they relax space and time constraints, ICTs can allow new people to participate in tertiary education by increasing the flexibility of participation compared to the traditional face-to-face model: working students and adults, people living in remote areas (e. . rural), non-mobile students and even foreign students could now more easily participate in education. Thanks to ICT, learners can indeed study where and/or when they have time to do so–rather than where and/or when classes are planned. While traditional correspondence-based distance learning has long played this role, ICT have enhanced traditional distance education enabled the rise of a continuum of practices between fully campus-based education and fully distance education.More specifically, fully online learning can allow large numbers of students to access education. The constraints of the face-to-face learning experience, that is, the size of the rooms and buildin gs and the students/teacher ratio, represents another form of relaxation of space constraints. ICTs indeed allow a very cheap cost of reproduction and communication of a lesson, via different means like the digital recording and its (ulterior or simultaneous) diffusion on TV, radio or the Internet.The learning process or content can also be codified, and at least some parts be standardised in learning objects, for example a multimedia software, that can in principle be used by millions of learners, either in a synchronous or asynchronous way. Although both forms might induce some loss in terms of teachers-learners interactivity compared to face to face teaching, they can reach a scale of participation that would be unfeasible via face-to-face learning.When the needs are huge, fully online learning can be crucial and possibly the only realistic means to increase and widen rapidly access to tertiary education. Some developing countries have huge cohorts of young people and too small a n academic workforce to meet their large unmet demand: given training new teachers would take too much time, notwithstanding resources, e-learning might represent for many potential students and learners the only chance to study (rather than an alternative to full face-to-face learning) (World Bank, 2003).E-learning can also be seen as a promising way for improving the quality of tertiary education and the effectiveness of learning. These promises can be derived from different characteristics of ICTs: the increased flexibility of the learning experience it can give to students; the enhanced access to information resources for more students; the potential to drive innovative and effective ways of learning and/or teaching, including learning tools, easier use of multimedia or simulation tools; finally, the possibility to diffuse these innovations at very low marginal cost among the teachers and learners.Distance E-learning has not only the virtue to be inclusive for students that cann ot participate in tertiary education because of time, space or capacity constraints, as it was shown above. It can also in principle offer to students more personalised ways of learning than collective face-to-face learning, even in small groups.Although learning is often personalised to some extent in higher education through the modularity of paths, ICTs allow institutions to give students to choose a wider variety of learning paths than in non-ICT supplemented institutions – not the least because of the administrative burden this would represent in large institutions. This means that students can experiment learning paths that best suit them. Moreover, e-learning can potentially allow students to take courses from several institutions, e. . some campus-based and others fully online. This possible flexibility of individual curricula can be seen as an improvement of the overall student experience, regardless of pedagogical changes. In one word, e-learning could render educat ion more learner-centred compared to the traditional model. A prestigious university generally has a sizeable library gathering tons of codified information and knowledge.One of the most visible impact of ICTs is to give easier and almost instant access to data and information in a digital form that allows manipulations that are sometimes not otherwise possible. The digitisation of information, from academic journals through to books and class notes, can change (and has changed) the life of students by giving them easy access to educational resources, information and knowledge, as well as new data processing possibilities.But e-learning could also lead to the enhancement of quality in tertiary education by leading to innovative pedagogic methods, new ways of learning and interacting, by the easy sharing of these new practices among learners and teachers communities, as well as by more transparency and easier comparisons and cross-fertilisation of teaching materials and methods. Fina lly, e-learning can be seen as a promising way to reduce the cost of tertiary education, which is critical for expanding and widening its access worldwide. It might thus represent new opportunities for students having ifficulties with this traditional format. Although ICT investments are expensive, they can then generally be used at near-zero marginal cost. Where would this cost-efficiency come from: the replacement of expensive brick and mortar campuses by virtual campuses; the digitisation of library materials that would save the cost of keeping huge paper collections; the improvement of efficiency of institutional management; the automation of some of the traditional on-campus activities, including some teaching. II. Living up to the promises: a quiet rather than radical revolutionHas e-learning (and especially online learning) lived up to the promises outlined in the previous section? It has to some extent. The reality of e-learning has never matched its most radical promises (Z emsky and Massy, 2004): while experiments are still underway, the initial stage of over-enthusiasm has ended when new economy bubble burst about 2002. In this respect, e-learning has followed the ups and down of the new economy and given rise to the same caveats as in other sectors: irrational beliefs about its market value, over-investment, over-capacity, and more announces than services really launched (Boyer, 2002).Like other activities, e-learning has not proven yet its ability to generate high profits or to replace the old economy of learning. However, interpreting this as a failure of e-learning would however over-simplify the reality and could be seen as â€Å"throwing the baby with the bath water†. While, perhaps unsurprisingly, e-learning has not led to the radical revolution in tertiary education that was sometimes prophesised, some of its forms are already pervasive in tertiary education and have already led to a quiet revolution.Its modesty should not lead to over look it. This section gives a overiew of the limited evidence we have about the adoption of e-learning in tertiary education. E-learning adoption The radical innovation view was that fully online learning would progressively supersede traditional face-to-face learning and represent a competitive threat for traditional tertiary educational institutions. To some extent, this belief has been a reason for the creation of new ventures and for established institutions to enter this new market: early adopters ould indeed possibly gain a brand name and a serious competitive advantage in the new market. The reality is that, while sometimes successfully experimented, fully online learning has remained a marginal form of e-learning and often not even the ultimate goal or rationale for e-learning adoption. However, this does not mean that e-learning in other forms has not gained significant ground over the past decade in tertiary education: there is indeed some evidence of a noticeable growth o f e-learning adoption both on demand and supply sides.One must bear in mind that e-learning encompasses a wide range of activities. Following the terminology used in the CERI survey (OECD, 2005), we distinguish between different levels of online learning adoption as follows, from the less to the most intensive form of e-learning: ?None or trivial online presence; ?Web supplemented: the Web is used but not for key â€Å"active† elements of the programme (e. g. course outline and lecture notes online, use of email, links to external online resources) without any reduction in classroom time; ?Web dependent: Students are required to use the Internet for key â€Å"active† elements of the programme—e. g. online discussions, assessment, online project/ collaborative work—but without significant reduction in classroom time. ?Mixed mode: Students are required to participate in online activities, e. g. online discussions, assessment, online project/collaborative wo rk, as part of course work, which replace part of face-to-face teaching/learning. Significant campus attendance remains. Fully online: the vast bulk of the programme is delivered online with typically no (or not significant) campus attendance or through â€Å"learning objects†. What do we know about the major trends in the adoption of e-learning by institutions and students? First, e-learning has grown steadily in the last decade, at a relatively rapid pace, but from a very low starting point—and for some activities: from scratch. The lack of comprehensive data renders these trends difficult to document, but existing surveys all point to the same direction of an increasing activity/supply.A significant share of tertiary education institutions have developed some e-learning activities and strategies and believe in the critical importance of e-learning for their long term strategy. The 2003 Sloan Survey of Online Learning based on a sample of 1 000 US institutions shows that only 19% of US institutions have no advanced e-learning activities – that is web dependent, mixed mode or fully online courses (Allen and Seman, 2003). The remainding 81% offer at least one course based on those advanced e-learning activities.Second, this growth of e-learning under all its forms should continue in the near future. There is indeed a converging evidence that tertiary education institutions consider as part of their future development strategy. In the Sloan survey, less than 20% of the US tertiary education institutions considered online education as not critical to their long term strategy. Similarly, data from the first international survey by the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (OBHE) revealed that of the 42 UK institutions that responded (out of a total population of ca. 06), 62% had developed or were developing an online learning strategy and most had done so since 2000 (OBHE, 2002). The second survey undertaken in 2004, 79% of the 122 unive rsities from the Commonwealth countries responding to the survey had an institution-wide â€Å"online learning† strategy as such or integrated into other strategies (46%) or under development (33%). Only 9% of these institutions had no e-learning strategy in place or under development in 2004 .While these figures may reflect some self-selection in the respondents, they unambiguously show a significant adoption or willingness to adopt some form of e-learning in the coming future. Although reflecting different levels of adoption of e-learning, all post-secondary institutions participating in the CERI survey on e-learning point to the same direction and report plans to increase their level of online delivery or to maintain their already high levels (OECD, 2005). Third, virtual universities are not likely to become the paradigm of tertiary education institutions.While it will most likely continue to grow, especially in distance institutions (see below), no evidence point towards a predominance of this form of e-learning in the near future in tertiary education. While the mixed mode of learning blending online and on-campus courses now clearly appears as a better candidate, institutions head towards the simultaneous offer of a variety of learning models. For understandable reasons, only few campus-based institutions (that is the bulk of post-secondary institutions) seem to aim at delivering a large share of their courses fully online or at becoming virtual.While some institutions participating in the CERI survey are at the avant-garde of e-learning, no campus-based institution predicted to deliver more than 10% of its total programmes fully online within three years (OECD, 2005). In the US, rather than offering only fully online courses (16%) or only mixed mode courses (10%), most institutions offer both fully online and blended courses; moreover, the majority (67%) of academic leaders believe that mixed mode and web dependent courses hold more promise than fully online, against only 14% having the opposite view (Allen and Seaman, 2003).This clearly reflects what we know about the main rationales for undertaking e-learning. The OBHE surveys show that on-campus enhancement of teaching and learning (1st) and improved flexibility of delivery for on-campus students (2nd) are the two key rationales in institutional strategies of e-learning. Only 10% of the institutions considered the enhancement of distance learning as more important than on-campus enhancement.Interestingly, the level of importance granted to distance or fully online learning decreased between 2002 and 2004 among returning respondents. Distance or fully online learning remains the fifth most important rationale though (OBHE, 2002, p. 4). Finally, while a generalisation of the fully online model is not probable for tertiary education overall, at least in the medium run, this does not mean that fully online activities are not growing rapidly nor that the fully online learning model gains ground at distance education institutions (Bates, 1995).To our knowledge, no data on fully online enrolments are available for other countries than the United States. According to the 2003 Sloan survey, more than 1. 6 million students (i. e. 11% of all US tertiary-level students) took at least one fully online course during the Fall 2002 and about one third of them, that is 578 000 students, took all their courses online. For example, the University of Phoenix, the largest university in the United States in terms of enrolments, has for example 60 000 of its 140 000 students online.The enrolments of fully online students in the United States were forecasted to increase by about 20% between 2002 and 2003, to 1. 9 million students—a projection that proved to be accurate according to the 2004 Sloan survey (Allen and Seaman, 2003, 2004). This growth rate, which is projected estimated at 25% for 2005 is much higher than the growth rate of total tertiary enrolments in t he United States. From a low starting point, fully online learning is growing at a rapid pace, even if it is merely as a complement to face-to-face or mixed mode learning.Moreover, fully online learning is clearly very important for distance institutions. In the CERI survey, the institutions willing to embrace fully online learning to the greatest extent were all virtual/distance learning only institutions (or branches) (OECD, 2005). In conclusion, e-learning seems to live up to its promises in terms of flexibility and possibly access. It is a growing activity that has for example significantly widened the participation in tertiary education of foreign students (OECD, 2004).Does e-learning improve the quality of tertiary education? The real impact of e-learning on the quality of education is difficult to measure. E-learning largely embodies two promises: improving education thanks to improved learning and teaching facilities; inventing and sharing new ways of learning thanks to ICTs , that is a new specific pedagogic techniques. While the first promise is by and large becoming a reality, at least in OECD countries, the second appears further from reach.Viewed mainly as an enhancement of on-campus education, and thus matching the reality depicted in the previous section, there is some evidence that e-learning has improved the quality of the educational experience on both faculty and students sides (not to mention enhancement of administrative management). All institutions participating in the CERI survey reported a â€Å"positive impact† of greater use of e-learning in all its forms on teaching and learning. The quality of education (with or without e-learning) is very difficult to measure, not the least because learning depends on students’ motivation, abilities and other conditions (e. g. amily, social, economic, health backgrounds) as much as on the quality of teaching. However, the reasons explaining this positive impact on quality largely live s up to the promises of e-learning to offer more flexibility of access to learners, better facilities and resources to study, and new opportunities thanks to the relaxation of space and time constraints. Basically, they do not correspond to a significant change in class pedagogy, but to a change in the overall learning experience. According to the institutions, the main drivers or components of this positive impact come from: †¢facilitated access to international faculty/peers, e. . with the possibility of online lectures or joint classes with remote students; †¢flexible access to materials and other resources, allowing students to revise a particular aspect of a class, giving more access flexibility to part-time students, or giving remote and easy access to the library materials; †¢enhancement of face-to-face sessions, as the availability of archived lectures online frees up faculty time to focus on difficult points and application and because the introduction of e-l earning has sometimes led to a debate on pedagogy; †¢improved communication between faculty and students and increase of peer learning;This â€Å"positive impact† on the overall learning experience is, alone, a significant achievement of e-learning, even though it has not radically transformed the learning and teaching processes. The quality of fully online learning is a more controversial question, possibly because online learning was once viewed as possibly become of higher quality than on-campus education (possibly including e-learning as already mentioned).Comparing the quality (or the beliefs about the quality) of fully online learning against traditional distance learning, traditional face-to-face learning or other mixed modes of e-learning might not yield the same results: fully online learning is indeed more readily comparable to distance learning than to on-campus education. While institutions having adopted e-learning have generally a positive view of its possi ble impact on quality, there is little convincing evidence about the superior or inferior quality of fully online learning compared to other modes of tertiary education.Another question is whether fully online learning has entailed innovation in pedagogy or just replicated with other means the face-to-face experience. As noted above, ICTs could indeed entail pedagogic innovations and help create a community of knowledge among faculty, students and learning object developers that would codify and capitalise over successful innovation in pedagogy. At this stage, there is no evidence that e-learning has yielded any radical pedagogic innovation.The most successful fully online courses generally replicate virtually the classroom experience via a mix of synchronous classes and asynchronous exchanges. Arguably, they have not represented a dramatic pedagogical change. We will see below that in spite of worthwhile experiments, learning objects and open educational resources are still in thei r infancy. They hold promises for educational innovation though. The cost of e-learning Has e-learning lived up its promises in terms of cost-efficiency?Here again, not if one looks at the most radical promises: as noted above, virtual universities have not replaced brick and mortars and saved the cost of expensive building investments and maintenance; digital libraries have supplemented rather than replaced physical ones; the codification and standardisation of teaching in a way that would allow less faculty or less qualified academics has not become the norm, nor have new online learning objects been invented to replace faculty altogether; finally, it has become clear that there was no once-for-all ICT investments and that the maintenance and upgrading costs of ICT facilities were actually important, contrary to the marginal cost of then replicating and diffusing information. Moreover, cost-efficiency has for many universities been a secondary goal compared to the challenge of dev eloping innovative and high quality e-learning courses at many tertiary education institutions. Although the anking of cost-efficiency has increased between 2002 and 2004 by 16%, 37% of respondents considered â€Å"cutting teaching costs long-term† as a key rationale in the OBHE survey (OBHE, 2004)—a small percentage compared to the two key rationales (over 90% of responses). Again, most universities consider e-learning materials and courses as a supplement to traditional class-room or lecture activities rather than a substitute. The predominance of web dependent and mixed modes of e-learning makes the assessment of the costs and benefits of e-learning investments more difficult to evaluate as they become part of the on-campus experience. It is striking that the institutions participating in the CERI survey on e-learning had no systematic data on their e-learning costs (OECD, 2005). In this context, and after the burst of the dot. om economy bubble that put out of busi ness many e-learning operations (many never really started their operations though), identifying sustainable cost-efficient models for e-learning investments in tertiary education has become critical. There are examples of cost-efficient models â€Å"outside† the traditional colleges and universities though. Virtual tertiary education institutions as e. g. the Catalonia Virtual University have a cost advantage as they are developing e-learning material from scratch and not â€Å"building onto† a physical camp. The Open University in the UK which is gradually moving from a traditional distance learning courses using books, video cassettes, and CD-ROMs to online courses has reported that their costs per student are one third of the average cost for similar on-campus programmes in the UK.Fixed capital costs are lower and it is easier to align staffing structures to e-learning processes than at â€Å"traditional† universities. The e-learning activities of Phoenix Un iversity, which is a private for-profit university mainly for adult students, is also seen as cost-effective. Its business model is based on â€Å"standardised teaching†, relatively small on-line class size, and use of proven low-tech e-learning technologies (inducing lower costs than more sophisticated technologies). Much of the faculty staff at Phoenix University is often hired part time and having jobs at other tertiary education institutions, which often implies that staff development costs are lower at Phoenix University than other tertiary education institutions.E-learning investments in tertiary education can be cost-effective, but it depends on the business model, the profile and number of students and topics (cost-effectiveness has been demonstrated in some cases in large undergraduate science classes (Harley, 2003), and initial development costs. The calculations also depend on whether student opportunity costs are taken into account. The initial costs for e-learnin g development are often high (e. g. infrastructure, creating course material from scratch, experimentation, new kind of staff/units, immature technologies, etc. ). In order to ensure that e-learning investments are cost efficient, e-learning activities may need to substitute parts of the on-campus teaching activities (rather than duplication).Educational innovations, like learning objects, could for example allow supporting the re-use and sharing of e-learning materials. Although data is lacking on cost-efficiency, at this stage there is little evidence that e-learning has led to more cost efficiency in tertiary education. Failures have been more numerous than success stories, although the latter document the possible sustainability of e-learning. The adoption of ICTs for administrating tertiary education institutions has probably been the main source of cost efficiency in the tertiary sector, like in other economic sectors. Conclusion: the e-learning adoption cycles So, has e-learn ing lived up to its promises?This is probably true as far as it holds promises for incremental improvement, including an increased access and quality of the learning experience—a kind of change whose importance should not be underestimated. As for radical innovation, the answer is rather: not yet. So far, e-learning has induced a quiet rather than a radical revolution of tertiary education. Perhaps e-learning will follow the same development path in tertiary education as other innovations that first begin with experiments, then expand to a group of early adopters before becoming commonplace. Zemsky and Massy (2004) have proposed a possible â€Å"e-learning innovation’s S-curve† divided into four distinctive but often overlapping adoption cycles that help understand the current development of e-learning, and, possibly, its future challenges. The cycles include: )Enhancements to traditional course/program configurations, which inject new materials into teaching an d learning processes without changing the basic mode of instruction. Examples include e-mail, student access to information on the Internet, and the use of multimedia (e. g. PowerPoint) and simple simulations; 2)Use of course management systems, which enable faculty and students to interact more efficiently (e. g. Blackboard or WebCT). They provide better communication with and among students, quick access to course materials, and support for administrating and grading examinations; 3)Imported course objects, which enable the faculty to embed a richer variety of materials into their courses than is possible with traditional â€Å"do it yourself† learning devices.Examples range from compressed video presentations to complex interactive simulations including the increased use of â€Å"learning objects† ; 4)New course/program configurations, which result when faculty and their institutions reengineer teaching and learning activities to take full advantage of new ICTs. The new configurations focus on active learning and combine face-to-face, virtual, synchronous, and asynchronous interaction and learning in novel ways. They also require faculty and students to adopt new roles – with each other and with the technology and support staff. The overview of current e-learning adoption shows that most tertiary education institutions in OECD countries can largely be located in cycles one and/or two. These first two cycles have largely built upon and reinforced one another. However, they have not fundamentally changed the way teaching and learning is pursued at the large majority of institutions.Their momentum has not automatically transferred to either increasing use and dissemination of learning objects or to the use of new course/program configurations (e-learning cycles three and four). Cycles 3 and 4 correspond to changes remodelling more radically teaching and learning. While some experimentations underway give us some idea of where they could he ad, they are still in their infancy. The third cycle corresponds to the creation of â€Å"learning objects† that can potentially offer an efficient approach to the development of e-learning materials (i. e. reduced faculty time, lower cost, higher quality materials), although many issues remain (e. g. opyright, lack of incentives for faculty to create, the range of actors in and ‘location’ of the creative process, lack of standardisation and interoperability of e-learning software). The learning objects model implies material/course development that departs from the â€Å"craft-model† where the individual professor is responsible for the majority of work. Instead it is a model where the course is assembled largely by or from third-party material. Besides the technical and organisational challenges of developing learning objects, there are also considerable pedagogical challenges using them. Some argue that learning is so contextually based that the breakin g up of the learning experience into defined objects is destructive for the learning process.Evidence from the Open Learning Initiative at the Carnegie Mellon University suggests that effective e-learning courses are often facilitated by having a ‘theme’ that runs throughout the course, which might be difficult to obtain with the notion of decontextualised learning objects (Smith and Thille, 2004). Therefore, much more research and development is needed to ensure pedagogical effectiveness of the learning objects model. For faculty members to rely on others for their material will also need a cultural change as it would probably often be considered today as demonstrating â€Å"inferiority†. Wide use of learning objects in tertiary education will therefore only occur if major changes in working habits and attitudes of faculty are possible. The development of learning objects is very much in its initial phase. This is illustrated by the use of the public available l earning objects repositories as e. g.MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching). The basic idea behind the MERLOT repository was to create a readily available, low-cost, web-based service to which experimenters could post their learning objects and from which interested practitioners could rate and download objects for use in their courses. While there has been a tremendous growth in the number of learning objects made available by MERLOT, there has been very little interest to use what other colleagues had made available and consequently little effort in terms of rating others’ learning objects. This can however be seen as the first steps towards the construction of knowledge communities in education.Despite the premature stage of learning objects and the large number of obstacles to overcome, some standard form of learning objects will probably emerge and gain importance in the development of e-learning in tertiary education as well as in othe r education sectors. Very few institutions have reached the fourth e-learning adoption cycle at an institution wide scale. There are however institutions which are clearly experimenting with new ways of using ICTs that change the traditional organisation and pedagogy of tertiary education. One such example is the previously mentioned Open Learning Initiative at the Carnegie Mellon University. The use of cognitive and learning sciences to produce high quality e-learning courses into online learning practices is at the core of this initiative (Smith and Thille, 2004).As there is no generic e-learning pedagogy, the aim is to design as â€Å"cognitive informed† e-learning courses as possible. The establishment and implementation procedures for routine evaluation of the courses and the use of formative assessment for corrections and iterative improvements are part of the e-learning course development. The development of the e-learning courses often rely on teamwork including facul ty from multiple disciplines, web designers, cognitive scientists, project managers, learning designers, and evaluators. The key question for any project like the Open Learning Initiative attempting a combination of open access to free content, and a fee-for-service model for students using the courses in a degree granting setting is its sustainability.This initiative could not have been realised without significant voluntary contributions from private foundations and a major research grant from the National Science Foundation to start the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center. The next section will address the challenges for the adoption of these third and fourth adoption cycles. III. Challenges for the further development of e-learning in tertiary education: what sustainable innovation model? The aim of this final section is to identify and reflect on some of the key issues that would need to be considered in a systematic way for e-learning to develop further and become a deeper d river of innovation in tertiary education.If the vast majority of colleges and universities are to embrace the third and fourth e-learning adoption cycles, a sustainable innovation and investment model will have to be developed. A first challenge lies indeed in the development of sustainable e-learning innovation models which go beyond using e-learning as an add-on to traditional forms of teaching and learning in tertiary education but rather invent new, useful and better pedagogic innovations partly substituting traditional face-to-face teaching. This will require a broad willingness of these institutions to search for new combinations of input of faculty, facilities and technology and new ways of organising their teaching activities.A second challenge lies in the development of a realistic model for investment in e-learning that would stimulate the participation of faculty and other stakeholders and be financially sustainable, which is not straightforward given that there is littl e systematic knowledge on the real costs and benefits of e-learning investments in tertiary education. However, like for ICT investments in other sectors, the cost-effectiveness of e-learning investments will depend on whether new organisational and knowledge management practices are adopted. It might indeed be more difficult to provide the â€Å"softer† social, organisational and legal changes in tertiary education than the technological infrastructures necessary to fully embrace the advantages of e-learning.This section emphasises partnerships and networks as a possible way forward for further investment, product development and innovation diffusion in e-learning. There are many examples where tertiary education institutions seek to share the costs of e-learning development through partnerships and networking. Partnership and network building are also useful for having access to new knowledge, to learn from others experience and exchange information about the latest develop ments in e-learning and they can involve many different organisations as e. g. traditional colleges and universities, virtual universities, libraries, for-profit ICT and training companies from different sectors etc.These activities can range from sharing material, joint technology and software development, joint research and development, joint marketing, joint training, connectivity, etc. and can be sub-national, national and international (OECD, 2004b; Cunningham and al. , 2000). After showing the importance (and challenges) for universities to engaging their faculty in e-learning, we will turn to an innovative practice exemplifying the potential power of partnerships and networks: Open Educational Resources (OER). They will indeed most likely have significant implications for the way e-learning activities will develop over the coming years in tertiary education. Engaging universities and faculty in e-learningIn most OECD countries the question is no longer whether or not tertiary education institutions should invest in e-learning. Because of the competition between institutions and student demand for easy access to courseware material and flexible learning environments, most tertiary education institutions willing to deliver quality teaching are bound to invest in e-learning. As we have seen, the large majority of institutions are now embracing e-learning adoption cycles one and two, which are basically about providing the students with better access to learning and course material and facilitating the electronic communication between students and teachers.Again, only very few institutions and faculty are however systematically exploring and producing re-usable learning material and objects (third cycle) or have taken full advantage of new ICTs with focus on active learning that combines face-to-face, virtual, synchronous, and asynchronous interaction and learning in novel ways (fourth cycle). The latter approach would require faculty and students to adopt new roles – with each other and with the technology and support staff. While ICTs offer powerful new instruments for innovation, tertiary education institutions are generally decentralised institutions where individual faculty often has the sole responsibility for teaching courses and delivering course material. Adoption of the third and especially the fourth e-learning cycle would imply changing to more collaborative ways of organising and producing teaching material.Faculty members would in many cases have to collaborate with a whole range of new staff as e. g. course managers, web designers, instructional/pedagogical designers, cognitive scientist etc. to produce course material. This could lead to resistance from â€Å"traditional† faculty arguing that current teaching practices have proved its value for centuries and there is no need to change them to new pedagogical and teaching methods, which have hardly proven their efficiency yet. Moreover, promotion of facult y and funding allocations in universities are often linked to research activities rather than teaching activities, often seen as less prestigious.Faculty members have therefore often relatively few incentives to invest their time in e-learning activities. The adoption of new ways of teaching and learning at tertiary education institutions through ICTs can therefore create organisational conflicts and tensions. New organisational innovations, new knowledge management practices, and more team working are therefore necessary conditions for tertiary education institutions to be able to move to e-learning adoption cycles three and four. The CERI study on e-learning case studies in post-secondary education has identified a number of lessons learnt by institutions that are in the forefront of e-learning development (OECD, 2005): More strategic e-learning planning at the institutional or faculty level and to tie this to the overall goals of the institution is needed; †¢A paradigm shift in the way academics think of university teaching would be necessary, e. g. a shift away from ‘scepticism about the use of technologies in education’ and ‘teacher-centred culture’ towards ‘a role as a facilitator of learning processes’, ‘team worker’, and ‘learner-centred culture’; †¢Targeted e-learning training relevant for the faculty’s teaching programme as well as ownership of the development process of new e-learning material by academics is also necessary. There is no one-best-way or trajectory for e-learning development at tertiary education institutions.But it might prove more difficult to provide the â€Å"softer† social, organisational and legal changes in tertiary education than provide the technological infrastructures necessary to fully embrace the advantages of e-learning (David, 2004). It will depend on a whole range of factors not necessarily related to the development of e-learning including: †¢Changes in the funding of tertiary education and in particular e-learning funding; †¢Student demography; †¢Regulatory and legal frameworks; †¢Competition between traditional tertiary education institution themselves and with new private providers; †¢Internationalisation including the possibility of servicing foreign students living abroad; and not the least to the extent to which students will want to use the new opportunities for new and flexible ways of learning.Many tertiary education students would possibly prefer to have some kind of â€Å"mixed model† learning choice involving a whole range of different learning opportunities and forms combining face-to-face, virtual, synchronous, and asynchronous interaction and learning. A possible way forward: Open Educational Resources Open Educational Resources appear as a potentially innovative practice that gives a good example of the current opportunities and challenges offered by ICTs in or der to trigger radical pedagogic innovations. Digitalisation and the potential for instant, low-cost global communication have opened tremendous new opportunities for the dissemination and use of learning material.This has spurred an increased number of freely accessible OER initiatives on the Internet including 1) open courseware ; 2) open software tools (e. g. learning management systems); 3) open material for capacity building of faculty staff ; 4) repositories of learning objects ; 5) and free educational e-learning courses. At the same time, there are now more realistic expectations of the commercial e-learning opportunities in tertiary education. The OER initiatives are a relatively new phenomenon in tertiary education largely made possible by the use of ICTs. The open sharing of one’s educational resources implies that knowledge is made freely available on non-commercial terms sometimes in the framework of users and doers communities.In such communities the innovation impact is greater when it is shared: the users are freely revealing their knowledge and, thus work cooperatively. These communities are often not able to extract economic revenues directly from the knowledge and information goods they are producing and the â€Å"sharing† of these good are not steered by market mechanisms. Instead they have specific reward systems often designed to give some kind of credit to inventors without exclusivity rights. In the case of open science, the reward system is collegial reputation, where there is a need to be identified and recognised as â€Å"the one who discovered† which gives incentives for the faculty to publish new knowledge quickly and completely (Dasgupta and David, 1994).The main motivation or incentive for people to make OER material available freely is that the material might be adopted by others and maybe even is modified and improved. Reputation is therefore also a key motivation factor in â€Å"OER communities†. Be ing part of such a user community gives access to knowledge and information from others but it also implies that one has a â€Å"moral† obligation to share one’s own information. Inventors of OER can benefit from increased â€Å"free distribution† or from distribution at very low marginal costs. A direct result of free revealing is to increase the diffusion of that innovation relative to conditions in which it is licensed or kept secret.If an innovation is widely used it would initiate and develop standards which could be advantageously used even by rivals. The Sakai project has, for example, an interest in making their open software tools available for many colleges and universities and have therefore set a relatively low entry amount for additional colleges and universities wishing to have access to the software tools that they are developing. The financial sustainability of OER initiatives is a key issue. Many initiatives are sponsored by private foundations, public funding or paid by the institutions themselves. In general, the social value of knowledge and information tools increases to the degree that they can be shared with and used by others.The individual faculty member or institution providing social value might not be able to sustain the costs of providing OER material freely on the Internet in the long term. It is therefore important to find revenues to sustain these activities. It might e. g. be possible to charge and to take copyrights on part of the knowledge and information activities springing out of the OER initiatives. Finding better ways of sharing and re-using e-learning material (see the previous mentioned discussion on learning objects) might also trigger off revenues. It is also important to find new ways for the users of OER to be â€Å"advised† of the quality of the learning material stored in open repositories.The wealth of learning material is enormous on the Internet and if there is little or no guidance of the quality of the learning material, users will be tempted to look for existing brands and known quality. There is no golden standard or method of identifying quality of learning material in tertiary education on the Internet as is the case with quality identification within tertiary education as a whole. The intentions behind the MERLOT learning object repository was to have the user community rating the quality and usability of the learning objects made freely available. In reality very few users have taken the time and effort to evaluate other learning objects.There is little doubt that the generic lack of a review process or quality assessment system is a serious issue and is hindering increased uptake and usage of OER. User commentary, branding, peer reviews or user communities evaluating the quality and usefulness of the OER might be possible ways forward. Another important challenge is to adapt â€Å"global OER initiatives† to local needs and to provide a dialogue between the doers and users of the OER. Lack of cultural and language sensitivities might be an important barrier to the receptiveness of the users. Training initiatives for users to be able to apply course material and/or software might be a way to reach potential users.Also important will be the choice (using widely agreed standards), maintenance, and user access to the technologies chosen for the OER. There is a huge task in better understanding the users of OER. Only very few and hardly conclusive surveys on the users of OER are available . There is a high need to better understand the demand and the users of OER. A key issue is who owns the e-learning material developed by faculty. Is it the faculty or the institution? In many countries including the United States, the longstanding practice in tertiary education has been to allow the faculty the ownership of their lecture notes and classroom presentations. This practice has not always automatically been applied to e-learning c ourse material.Some universities have adopted policies that share revenues from e-learning material produced by faculty. Other universities have adopted policies that apply institutional ownership only when the use of university resources is substantial (American Council of Education and EDUCAUSE, 2003). In any case, institutions and faculty groups must strive to maintain a policy that provides for the university’s use of materials and simultaneously fosters and supports faculty innovation. It will be interesting to analyse how proprietary versus open e-learning initiatives will develop over the coming years in tertiary education. Their respective development will depend upon: How the copyright practices and rules for e-learning material will develop at tertiary education institutions; †¢The extent to which innovative user communities will be built around OER initiatives; †¢The extent to which learning objects models will prove to be successful; †¢The extent to which new organisational forms in teaching and learning at tertiary education institutions will crystallise; †¢The demand for free versus â€Å"fee-paid† e-learning material; †¢The role of private companies in promoting e-learning investments etc. It is however likely that proprietary e-learning initiatives will not dominate or take over open e-learning initiatives or vice versa.The two approaches will more likely develop side by side sometimes in competition but also being able to mutually reinforce each other through new innovations and market opportunities. Conclusion There are many critical issues surrounding e-learning in tertiary education that need to be addressed in order to fulfil objectives such as widening access to educational opportunities; enhancing the quality of learning; and reducing the cost of tertiary education. E-learning is, in all its forms, a relatively recent phenomenon in tertiary education that has largely not radically transformed teachi ng and learning practices nor significantly changed the access, costs, and quality of tertiary education. As we have shown, e-learning has grown at a rapid pace and has enhanced the overall learning and teaching experience.While it has not lived up to its most ambitious promises to stem radical innovations in the pedagogic and organisational models of the tertiary education, it has quietly enhanced and improved the traditional learning processes. Most institutions are thus currently in the early phase of e-learning adoption, characterised by important enhancements of the learning process but no radical change in learning and teaching. Like other innovations, they might however live up to their more radical promises in the future and really lead to the inventions of new ways of teaching, learning and interacting within a knowledge community constituted of learners and teachers. In order to head towards these advances innovation cycles, a sustainable innovation and investment model wi ll have to be developed.While a first challenge will be technical, this will also require a broad willingness of tertiary education institutions to search for new combinations of input of faculty, facilities and technology and new ways of organising their teaching activities. 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Thille (2004), The Open Learning Initiative – Cognitively Informed e-learning, The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, London. World Bank (2003), Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges for Tertiary Education, The World Bank, Washington D. C. Zemsky, R. and W. F. Massy (2004), Thwarted Innovation – What Happened to e-learning and Why, The Learning Alliance, Pennsylvania University.

Identify and explain the main causes of economic growth. b) Look at Coursework

Identify and explain the main causes of economic growth. b) Look at the country rankings of the UK, South Korea, Qatar and Equat - Coursework Example In the recent past years, the initiative of sustainable development intensification has led to development of additional factors such as environmentally sound process, which ought to be considered in the growth of an economy (Erikson & Stimson, 2002. p. 56). A factor that leads to an increase in total demand is one of the key causes of economic growth in any country. This can occur due various sources. However, an increase in total demand is a short-term cause. This is because whenever an economy of any country is at its full capacity, that country cannot produce any additional products or services to improve her economy. However, improvements or advancements in the labor forces, and quantity and quality of products and services will give room for the long-term economic growth through a heightening in productivity (Nordhaus, 2001, p. 23). Progression or advancement in technology has been one of indicators of economic growth in various states. Technological advancements in any country lead to a high and more productive economy of that given country, and this will accelerate economic growth. Every developing country and developed states have invested heavily in the technology industry in order to see their country economy grows quickly. According to Erikson and Stimson, advanced technology has improved service delivery and encouraged both local and foreign investments (Erikson & Stimson, 2002, P.56). There are few cases of unemployment in all countries with improved technology. This is because technological improvements have led to creation of job opportunities that see their citizens securing jobs and improving their living standards. Consequently, these local and foreign investments will accelerate economic growth despite the fact that the fresh capital goods or assets for example, machines, will be the exact source of the growth (Friedman, 2005). Deepening and widening capital is one of the causes of economic growth of a country. Capital widening takes place w hen investment rises and increases with the strengthening of the labor force. On the other hand, Capital Deepening takes place when capital increases while the labor force remains constant. Economists usually say that capital deepening is one of the most significant and necessary forms of investment (Nordhaus, 2001, p.23). Uses of land and mineral resources are the major causes of economic growth in both developed and developing countries. Proper utilization of mineral resources of a country depends heavily on government policies and regulations. Most of citizens in countries that have implemented strict policies have utilized their resources well, including land. Countries with double-digit economic growth have recorded proper utilization of their resources. In the economic growth globally, various countries have different situation and circumstances that are facilitating economic growth. For instance, the UK has a robust economy (Nordhaus, 2001, p.23). In the end, economic growth can take place due to increased capital, raised investment in new infrastructure, factories, increased labor productivity, and augment the working population or the discovery of fresh raw materials. Technological improvements can also facilitate or hinder economic growth (Friedman, 2005). Economic growth relies on investment and productivity, using available resources more efficiently and

See describtion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

See describtion - Essay Example Inaccuracy is also evident in expressing judging personality. This is as a result of the fact that it describes judging personality as moderate and not distinctive. In reference to the personality depicted above, the expected management style is above average. The characteristic of being slightly introvert is particularly essential since it gives room from externals. This prevents one from shallow-mindedness, thus facilitating the making of informed decisions. Being distinctively intuitive is another factor that affects the management style. This leads to perception of truth and proper understanding that are acutely vital in the various management styles. Thinking is a fundamental element in the management. Shallow thinking adversely affects the management style since one should exercise critical thinking when making management decisions. However, intuition complements the arising gap and deficiency. The characteristic of being moderate in judging is decidedly vital since it determines the management style. It is an admirable virtue in management that leads to success of an organization (Judge 13). The management style is all rounded. It possesses various essential traits in management. One can recommend the style as it leads to successful implementation of a management style that leads to success of an entity. Ambiguity should not be tolerated in management. Thorough research and invitation of new ideas reduces ambiguity. Ambiguity should be avoided since it leads to poor management of an organization. This deters an organization from achieving its desired objectives (Judge 17). I possess type â€Å"A† personality. This expresses aggressiveness, ambitiousness, competitiveness, timeliness and business oriented traits. This personality portrays fundamental qualities in business management. This encompasses activities such coordination,

Family violence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Family violence - Essay Example Elders undergo different forms of abuse including physical, psychological, sexual, material abuse and at times they risk being neglected. These forms of abuse may result to physical, emotional or behavior injury to the victim. According to Wallace & Roberson (2013), the most serious and common type of elder abuse is psychological abuse (p. 297). This form of abuse involves inflictions of pain and distress mostly through non-verbal act, example humiliating, intimidating or isolating the elderly. In many occasions, the victims may deny this form of abuse although he/she may feel deprived of family support or rejections resulting to the victim believing there is no reason of continuing living. This may lead to depression, neurotic disorders, anxiety or even the psychoneurotic behavior. At times, elders can fall victims of caretakers who may act as predators or those caretakers who have mental disorders that make them abusive. If the elders value their independence and are in a position to handle their affairs, they should not accept any form of abuse, intimidation or exploitation from their caretakers. Instead, as written by Wallace & Roberson (2013) they should take reasonable measures to protect themselves by seeking advice and powers from the attorney (p. 299). There are some institutions that ensure that the elderly live with dignity and are free from any type of abuse or exploitation. This will ease the challenges that they face during their old age. Stalking is a behavior involving repeated unwanted communication in a way that would cause fear and stress in people. There are many types of stalkers each being complex because of the varying reasons and time. According to Wallace & Roberson (2013), the victims of stalking are usually harassed or threatened with contact ranging from making calls or visiting the victim (p. 371). Zamu et al. established a database that clearly explains the different categories of

Managing communication, knowledge and information Essay

Managing communication, knowledge and information - Essay Example This paper seeks to establish an understanding of the meaning of communication, information and knowledge management, and show how these three aspects can be improved within an organization, including the integration of Information Technology systems to hasten company’s operations. In details, this paper will look at communication process, internal and external sources of knowledge and how managers can improve the communication process as well as communication skills. In addition, the role played by various stakeholders in ensuring effective communication is explained. Lastly, it also covers how IT systems can be used for collecting, analyzing, storing, disseminating and providing access to knowledge and information. Discussion Communication management Communication is the process of transmitting a message from a sender to a receiver in a comprehensible manner. It can also be the process of sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings with others while making sure that those thoughts , feelings and ideas are well understood by the people concerned. Communication is all about speaking, listening as well as observing. Effective communication is crucial in the business world and personal life too. Since communication accounts for the difference between success and failure in many businesses and that it is critical to the successful operation of modern organizations, effective communication is an absolute must. Moreover, every person in an organization needs to understand the principals of effective communication. Companies everywhere are working towards the realization of Total Quality Management (TQM) and effective communication, and the manner in which individuals perceive and converse with each other in the workplace is crucial. Poor communication reduces quality, weakens productivity, and later leads to anger as well as lack of trust among stakeholders in an organization, and therefore, communication process is the guide towards the realization of effective com munication. In communication process, the passing of information from the sender to the receiver takes place, and individual who follow the process have the opportunity to become more productive. Communication process within an organization is usually determined by the nature of the organizational structure. Communication process is made up of four key components, which is encoding, the medium of transmission, decoding and feedback. The communication process begins with the sender who can be an individual, group or organization that initiates communication and ends with the receiver. The sender‘s attitude, experience, knowledge, skills experience, perceptions and culture have an influence on the message. Therefore, the sender is usually responsible for the success of the message, and the written words, spoken words and non-verbal language selected are paramount in ensuring the receiver interprets the message intended (Burnett & Dollar 1989). The encoding process is the first s tep in the communication process. A sender must encode, which means translating information into a message that represents ideas and concepts usually in the form of symbols, and it becomes a coded message which will now be communicated. The

Pedestrian and bicycle facilities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Pedestrian and bicycle facilities - Essay Example Both regional and local authorities have the responsibility of planning, and implementi8ng cycling policies. National level commitment is essential for putting right the legal, regulatory, and financial framework that lead to successful implementation of cycling initiatives. This is the city in the region with a well advanced form of League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Community where bicycling is an important means of transport and recreational activity. According to the 2007-2011 American Community Survey, 4% of Newark households engage in bicycling for recreation (Delaware Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan Survey). It is a normal phenomenon that all cyclists at one time have felt to be invisible to motorists. Bike Delaware has provided the â€Å"intentional blindness† that addresses this phenomenon. Another issue of safety is the question as to why cyclists’ and pedestrians’ safety is termed as invisible to traffic engineers. Most traffic engineers pay close attention to road safety and traffic congestion. Despite this safety, little is realized on the ped/bike safety projects. The federal program called the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) is responsible for funding Road Safety in Delaware. According to the data collected from the research, Delaware has spent more than $8 million HSIP dollars every year on road safety improvement projects but none focused on reducing pedestrian or cyclist fatalities. As a result, motor vehicle occupant fatalities have reduced while pedestrians’ fatalities have not. Cycling around Delaware University and Newark area is a favored means of transport to students, staff, faculty, and locals living in the area. Cyclists are assisted by the Newark Traffic Relief Committee (NTRC) that has prepared a Newark City Bicycle Map. The map shows cycling and pedestrian routes in the city and provides

Capital Planning Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Capital Planning - Research Paper Example That is why it is also known as "economic rate of return (ERR)". When multiple projects are presented to the organization, the project that gives the highest internal rate of return will be selected for investment. It is important to know about the net present value of the project because then the investor can decide whether it is worth investing in a project or not. When multiple projects are presented to the organization, all available future streams of returns, until its full useful life, will be converted to its present value and the project that gives highest net present value will be the most lucrative of the projects that are available for investment. Thus, net present value (NPV) is an appraisal technique to arrive at the conclusion to invest in a most lucrative project, from a financial perspective. Leasing is a novel way of financing machinery, equipment, computer or any other asset without paying the full amount upfront. The lessor (financer) and the lessee (receiver of the asset) are the two parties involved in any leasing agreement in which the lessee needs to pay agreed lease charges, monthly or yearly, for the use of the asset. The advantage is that the person need not worry about arranging funds to buy the asset. It is better to lease an asset in which obsolescence rate is quite high. When one is interested in using the asset rather than owning it, it is better to lease the asset (Murray, 2012). d) Comparing outright payment versus present value of all leasing rates to be paid over its useful life. If the present value of the leasing cost is not substantially higher than outright purchase (around 20%), I would go for leasing the

List routines and procedures to be used in and out of the classroom Essay

List routines and procedures to be used in and out of the classroom - Essay Example (Emmer 2003) Beginning of the day. When the bell rings students have to enter classroom under the direction of elementary teacher. They are entering by way of the door that is assigned to their class. Routines in the beginning of the day can be different, for example, students can create a crossword puzzle using key classroom rules as a clue or they can create different word puzzles that will contain hidden messages for each student. But the most interesting routine will be getting acquainted with rules and other students. The procedure is rather simple. It will allow students to become familiar with main policies, rules and their classmates. Such routine is useful for students to get know each other better. And finally it will help in finding out shy students or such who don’t want to interact. A procedure embraces three simple steps: Transition between activities. Students have to be prepared for transitions between activities. Visual supports may help students to see that the activity is ending and it is time for another activity. Verbal warnings and cues may be also used as a signal to transition. Transitions are easier is they are essential part of class routine. If students are with special needs experience fewer behavioral problems if they are taught transition. Children will move from activity to another with more confidence. Possible routines can be visual cues (social stories, flicking light, visual schedules, using pictures, etc.). A procedure will be the next: Field trip. Field trip is the extension of school curriculum and school day. All school rules affect field trip. The weather for field trip must be clear and all events have to be planned for the early summer or late spring. Students have to prepare meals and to clean up. The routine is to observe the greatest number of insects and to learn something new about them. Students must have notebooks, collecting equipment and field guides. Such activity will be interesting for children,

The Treatment of Women in the Old Testament Research Paper

The Treatment of Women in the Old Testament - Research Paper Example This essay will demonstrate an argument against this point of view in conjunction with numerous examples in order to back it up. Such examples will include the major Old Testament characters of Eve, Rahab, and Ruth. In the first couple of books of Genesis, we read that Eve was created and thus was the first women to exist. The Lord decided that Adam needed a helper because he could not do everything on his own. So, the Lord put Adam into a deep sleep and took one of his ribs, which He used to form the first woman, Eve. After this, we understand how a woman must be connected to a man: â€Å"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh† (The Holy Bible, Gen. 2:24). This tells us that women must be treated with respect because they become one with their husbands. In the very next chapter of Genesis, Eve comes across her first challenge—this sets the tone for women throughout the rest of the Old Testament. In Genesis 3:6 (The Holy Bible), after being tempted by the serpent, Eve decided to taste the fruit. Once she had tasted it and found that it was good, she gave some to Adam so he could also eat some. This was the beginning of mankind, but more specifically women in general. Once God had found out what Adam and Eve had done, he cursed them for their disobedience. He said to Eve: â€Å"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you† (The Holy Bible, Gen. 3:16). Even though Adam was also punished, his penalty was not as severe as Eve’s. This begins a theme that is seen all the way through the Old Testament—women are inferior to men because they were the first ones to sin. However, there are examples of women who went against the stereotypes of those times. Further along in the Old Testament, we can see in the book of Joshua how Rahab is treated. This wom an is a very interesting case because she lived in Jericho; she was not from the Israelites. Additionally, she was also described being a prostitute. These types of people were the lowest of the low back in those societies. At that time, the Israelites had sent spies to the city of Jericho in order to capture the city. They just happened to stay at an inn where Rahab was also the inn-keeper (Word 7). Instead of turning them over to the authorities, Rahab took them up to the roof and hid them under stalks of flax that were placed on the roof (The Holy Bible, Josh. 2:6). When asked why she risked her life for her enemy, Rahab said that she believed in the God Jehovah because of the miracles that occurred down in Egypt. For her help, Rahab asked that her and her family would be spared once the Israelites took the city. The spies replied, â€Å"If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land† (The Holy Bible, Jos h. 2:14). An agreement was then made to work out how the plan would come to fruition. When the Israelites did take the city of Jericho, Rahab and her family were spared because of Rahab’s obedience. After the Israelites had gained control of Jericho, Rahab and her family were allowed to remain along with the Jews. This story shows us how even though a woman may be considered dirty and unclean, if she displays obedience, then she can be used for good. This example of Rahab is a little

The Demon in the Free

The Demon in the Freezer Essay I. The Other Side of the Moon 1. Peter Jahrling wanted to work with the smallpox virus because he wanted to be in efforts to create a national stockpile. He could not believe that the vaccine was not enough for a bioterror attack on the United States. He wanted to find a cure for the disease. 2. In April, the Institute of Medicine issued a report saying that if the world wanted to have a new vaccine or an antiviral drug for smallpox then the virus would need to be kept for scientific experiments. President Bill Clinton had personally favored the destruction, but after reading the report changed his mind. The White House now endorsed keeping the stocks. A month later the WHO voted to keep smallpox alive for another three years until June 30th, 2002. II. A Woman With A Peaceful Mind 1.During an experiment, Lisa was holding a pair of blunt children’s scissors with her rubber space suit gloves. She was trying to open a bottle by prying on a tab with the scissors. Suddenly they slipped and the tip of the scissors jammed into the middle finger of her right glove. She felt a stab of pain near her fingernail. III. Nuclear Pox 1.The experiment that the Australians presented was they were trying to use a virus to try to cut down populations of mice. They had been infecting mice with an engineered mousepox virus that was supposed to make the mice sterile. But the engineered mousepox had wiped out the mice. Jahrling and Moyer uneasy about this line of research because the Australians had engineered a pox virus that could overwhelm the vaccine and they had done it by putting a single gene from the mouse into the virus. One mouse gene into the pox. They realized that the virus had taken down immunized animals and bioterrorists could use this. IV. Chaos in Level 4 1.Lisa and her team were inoculating monkeys with different strains of smallpox. They were putting it into the bloodsteams of the monkeys and they used higher doses. Jahrling felt that if a billion particles of the smallpox didn’t give a monkey a disease of some sort, then nature would be telling us that variola was not going to go into any species except man. 2.Lisa worked in a corridor of the sub-subbasement. She was in a Level 4 area because that was where the smallpox and the monkeys were quarantined. 3.The monkey-model team consisted of Peter Jahrling, John Huggins, Lisa Hensley, and an Army veterinary pathologist named Mark Martinez. There was also an animal caretaker named James Stockman and two veterinary technicians named Joshua and Rafael and a biologist named Louise Pitt. 4.First the monkeys were exposed to Harper, then Dumbell 7124 (India strain). 5.First, the Harper smallpox was blown into the air around Monkey C099’s head. Then he got it inserted into a vein in his thigh and he received one billion infective particles of Harper smallpox. 6.Before they had used a lower dose and they had given the virus to the monkeys through the air. This time, they also put it into the bloodstreams of the monkeys. V. Demon Eyes 1.Eight monkeys were given the Harper or India strains. There were seven of them that died (six from hemorrhagic smallpox and one from classical pustular smallpox). Harper was the only survivor. 2.The scientists bonded with monkey C099 because that monkey had been sacrificed as a result of their experiments and unlike the other monkeys, he didn’t die naturally (they put him to sleep). 3.The necropsy room was used to perform a post-mortem exam in privacy so no other animal of the same species can observe. 4. 5.The one monkey that survived was put to death because protocol of the experiment required the euthanasia of all animals in order to gather more data on the effects of smallpox. I would’ve done the same thing because if the virus had spread through the monkey’s body, it would have suffered unnecessarily, seeing how the other monkeys died from being infected just as he was being to. They put the monkey out of his misery. VI. Demon Eyes 1.An anthrax cell is similar to a virus because when it comes into contact with lymph or blood, it cracks open and germinates and turns into a rod-shaped cell. It is different because unlike a virus it is alive. It uses its own machinery to makes copies of itself. 2.Tom Geisbert believed the anthrax spores were man made because he observed that something was clinging to the spores. When he turned up the beam the goop began to spread out of the spores. The spores had something in them like an additive. 3.The anthrax may have infected and killed the postal workers because it was continuously handled by many workers. The envelopes were squeezed through the mail sorting machines which made the anthrax pores start to leak through the letters of the pores. 4.The Daschle letter had gone through the Hamilton facility en route to Brentwood. 5.The Daschle anthrax may have come from Iraq but the samples they’d seen from Iraq were completely different. The Iraqi had been mixed with bentonite and these spores didn’t have clay in them. 6.Ken Alibek defected to the United States from Russia. He revealed to the US Government that a panoramic vista of Biopreparat, as well as an advanced bioweapons program in Russia that was broken into secret compartments. 7.Ken Alibek suggests that biological weapons are more beneficial than nuclear weapons because while nuclear weapons destroy everything, biological weapons are more beneficial because they destroy vital activity (people). 8.The concept of vital activity was demonstrated when he the jar containing a surrogate of a weaponized brain virus called VEE, which traveled easily in the air. Depending on the altitude of the dispersal of the contents, the particles could travel close to fifty miles (this could be used with anthrax mixed with smallpox). 9.Geisbert discovered two extra elements in the anthrax spores: silicon and oxygen. 10.The EPA spent an estimated thirty million dollars decontaminating the Brentwood mail facility. 11.There were five homicides in the Amerithrax case. 12.The difference between a K and Q collected sample of evidence is that a Q sample comes from an unknown source and can be matched to known samples. K samples are reference samples that are fully identified. 13.The Amerithrax (Ames) strain came from a dead cow in Texas in 1981 and it ended up in the labs at USAMRIID. The fact that the Maerithrax strain wasn’t military pointed to a home-grown American terrorist instead of a foreign source. This helped to turn the focus of the investigation to wihin the United States. 14.The FBI still believed that al-Qaeda had something to do with the Ames strain because Mohammed Atta (who was the operational leader of the hijackers), made inquiries at airports in Florida about renting crop-dusting airplanes (he probably wanted to spray something from the air). 15.The investigation of Dr. Steven Hatfill was completely justified, although how the FBI handled it through the media was wrong. Hatfill clearly had a reputation and experience in the scientific community when it came to the knowledge to carry out such an attack. He had a storage facility in Florida and had access to a cabin in a remote party of Maryland. He even had a secret-level security and he was close with Ken Alibek and Bill Patrick (two men with anthrax making experience). Hatfill even commissioned Patrick to write a study on the effects of anthrax mailed in letters. Patrick worked out a scenerio in which a letter containing two grams of dry anthrax spores was opened inside an office building. The FBI had every reason to believe that he was a person of interest, however the leaks to the media were unnecessary, because Hatfill’s career was basically because of being investigated. I strongly feel like there was no need for the media to be present everytime his house or cabin or office was raided and samples were taken out. The FBI wanted to show the public that they were doing their job effectively, but at the same time they didn’t have to use Hatfill as their scapegoat because his life and career were ruined as a result. 16. A bioreactor (also called an STLV) was developed at NASA. You can grow human tissues in it and then infect them. Using a device like this can test new drugs against smallpox and other exotic diseases that could not be tested ethically in people. 17.Dr. Alfred Sommer was enraged about the smallpox research that Peter Jahrling conducted with monkeys because he believes that smallpox could have been eradicated completely if the stocks had been all destroyed. He believes that the biggest danger of Jahrling’s research was it would look suspicious to other countries and would encourage them to do their own experimentation. 18.D.A. Henderson believed Jahrling’s work could not lead to the development of new drugs or vaccines against smallpox because what was really needed was an inhaled dose of smallpox in a monkey to test a vaccine, since people inhale the virus. VII. Superpox 1.A recombinant virus is a virus that has been engineered in the laboratory. 2.Interleukin-4 is produced by the immune system because it fights off an infection by stimulating the production of antibodies. 3.Cellular immunity is provided by numerous kinds of white blood cells. 4.If the gene for IL-4 is added to a poxvirus, it will cause the virus to make IL-4. It starts signaling the immune system of the host, which becomes confused and starts making more antibodies. 5.The genetically engineered mousepox is compared to AIDS because it seems to create a king of instant AIDS-like immune suppression in a mouse right at the moment when the mouse needs this type of immunity the most to fight off an exploding pox infection. 6.There are two ways to vaccinate a mouse against mousepox. One way is to infect it with natural mousepox. The other way is to vaccinate the mouse with the smallpox vaccine. 7.The Australian scientists found that mice immunized with natural mousepox become completely immune to IL-4 mousepox, however it was different because the IL-4 mousepox crashed through the smallpox vaccine, killing the mice they had previously vaccinated. 8.Scientists should definitely be allowed to create a supervirus, as long as they are doing so for scientific reasons. If there was a complete ban on scientific experimentation that may lead to the creation of superviruses, then at the same time there wouldn’t be vaccines created. Before the Eradication began, there were two million people dying every year. Those doctors who ended the virus as a natural disease ended up saving fifty to sixty million human lives. Those who end up getting the short end of the stick (if there is no creation of superviruses and vaccines) are the people living in third world nations, where medical vaccinations are not readily available. On the flip side, if scientists are given free reign to create superviruses whenever they want, then that will ultimately lead to biological warfare with countries threatening each other. This can lead to intimidation and blackmailing of smaller nations, who may not be able to compete and keep up. There need to be strict guidelines governing viruses (like smallpox) that countries create and expand on. Last month, Australia was in the news because scientists there had genetically modified the virus that causes smallpox. They managed to create a new strain that had caused the death of all the animals involved in the study. What makes this different from what I read in the book is that the new virus was done with mice that had been previously immunized. This is a scary possibility because there are countries out there that are still looking to improve on the smallpox virus.