Using Application Gadgets for Teaching Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Using Application Gadgets for Teaching - Essay Example As such, teachers should learn the various technology-based instructional products available on the Web. This paper identifies an application gadget that teachers of all levels and subjects can use. In the software industry, computer applications are likewise called gadgets. Application gadgets aid in various classroom activities, such as teaching, research, portfolio-making, and evaluation. They provide creative ways to promote multiple intelligences through a variety of interactive activities for students. One very interesting application gadget is the Xtranormal Studio. This application gadget allows the teacher to make their own short movie clip that could serve as a springboard activity to the lesson. Xtranormal Studio can be found easily on the Web. To create a movie, first, one has to sign up for free membership. Second, the user chooses the characters, background setting, and sounds. There are lots of options to choose from, thus teachers handling different subjects can easil y find one that relates to their subject. Third, the user types character dialogues, and assign facial expressions and gestures to the characters as they talk. Some options for facial expressions include happy, surprised, sad, and so on. ... Movies made in the Extranormal Studio can vary according to the author’s intent. For example, for Social Science, teachers can make up a scene in a talk show where a politician or a socially prominent person is being interviewed by a host. For teaching ESL, teachers can create a movie with two friends having dinner together. Likewise, for Mathematics, they can have cartoon characters or animals to state problem to be solved instead of having the problems written on the board. These activities make learning fun and exciting, thus motivating learners to participate and listen well to the lessons. For my eighth grade Science class, I created a short movie to introduce the lesson, thus the movie served as a motivational activity to arouse interest and elicit reactions from my students. The lesson was all about energy. Normally, Science teachers would ask students to enumerate some objects that function through energy. However, in my class, I use a series of short movies I made wit h Extranormal Studio to make students understand concepts, for instance, matter, energy, etc. In the movie, there are two friends who are sharing a room in a dormitory. One of the characters is older than the other, thus the younger one asks help from her friend on topics she needs to understand. The other one gives examples and at the end addresses the audience to give other examples or explanations regarding the present topic. This way, students are motivated to join in the discussion. Likewise, I use the gadget for informal assessments and synthesis. As an assessment material, I ask students in groups to make their own movie to answer some questions about our topic. Likewise, for synthesis of the lesson, I ask students to make a short movie to illustrate what they have learned

Working with Federal Reserve's Publications Research Paper

Working with Federal Reserve's Publications - Research Paper Example 5). This paper is aimed at describing Federal Reserve’s views regarding various economic perspectives in recent times. These economic perspectives include current level of inflation, Federal Reserve’s assessment of the current economic activity and financial markets, and the monetary policy tools the Federal Reserve uses to stabilize the economy and maintain price stability in the country. Federal Reserve’s assessment of current economic activities and financial markets: The Federal Reserve holds a very positive view regarding the current economic activities and the current condition of the financial market of the country. The chairman of the Fed, Dr. Ben S. Bernanke, has argued that after the global financial crisis of 2007-08, the American economy is experiencing greater volume of economic activities. These activities include both greater production and consumption of goods and services across the country and also greater volume of monetary and financial transa ctions through financial intermediaries of the country. Disturbances in the financial markets of the country, including mainly the markets for houses, loans, and mortgages, have created greater problems in the country by reducing the volume of economic activities in the country. The crisis has created problems for private as well as public sector businesses, mainly for financial companies to increase their level of profits or even to stay in the business. But during the period of end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, the US government and the Fed took various fiscal as well as monetary policies which have helped economic agents in the country to increase the volume of economic activities and to increase country’s rate of growth of aggregate and per capita income along with the level of unemployment. The most important fiscal policy that has been implemented by the US government is reducing the level of government expenditure. This has helped the country to reduce the level o f budget deficit and fiscal deficit. According to the Fed the country is experiencing greater economic activities in terms of greater production of goods and services and greater stability in the financial market of the country compared to the period of global financial crisis. This greater stability has helped the country raise the level of investment in production of goods and services and also in research and developmental improvements of existing technologies of the country. The rate of aggregate income is expected to catch up with pre-recession period’s rates within 2013 and the per capita income growth rate is expected to increase at the rate of China’s per capita income growth rate (Bernanke, 2009, p. 1). Federal Reserve’s assessment of current inflation: The level of inflation has been very high since 2007. Due to this consumers are not capable of purchasing costliest goods and services and hence business organizations which are engaged in production of these goods and services are leaving the industry. Again this is reducing the level of income in the country and hence the level of demand for necessary goods and service. The Fed is expecting inflation to be subdued in the next few years because of weaker level of real economic activities prevailing in the country. It is expecting to have a lower level of inflation rate in 2013 which might lead to an increase in the volume of economic activities in the country. The Fed is expecting that the current rate of change in overall prices is expected to fall to 1 to 2 percent from its current level of 3 percent within five years. According to the Fed the declining trend in prices of energy resources and other commodities will gradually help the economy to implement stricter monetary and fiscal policies being aimed at