If it wasn’t for humans nothing would remain in the world- no business, no government, nothing! So, humans are a requisite factor for anything in this world. Yet, when it comes to human behavior it is something different. There have been many researchers on human behavior. These researches focus on understanding the way how humans make decisions, react, and plan. In fact, the contemporary technology has equipped these researches to get their hands on the human minds and behavior on a deeper level.

Yet, the major challenge faced in understanding human behaviors is on how human brains support the changing nature. Generally, humans are agents who focus on providing what the body needs including the mental needs by adjusting to the changing environment. The brain performances eventually support the cognitive process for the outcome of human behaviors. Keep reading to understand better.

An action relates to anything that you can witness through sensors or with your nude eyes. Thus, an action is based on the transition from one form to another. For example, the teacher says to close the books, then the students obey it, so it is an action based on sensors. The students heard the teacher which is why they performed the activity. Basically, behavioral actions vary, it can be food consumption, sweating, or even sleeping.

Well, emotions, cognitions, and actions will not connect together without one another. These factors need to be connected together to give life to human behaviors. These factors help you to listen to your mind, surrounding, and people around you. However, it is pretty tough to say what caused a human to behave in a certain way – whether it is emotion, action, or cognition. Finally, it is clear that human behaviors are a topic that unfolds further and further.

Global warming is a phenomenon where the earth’s average temperature rises due to increased amounts of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and ozone trap the incoming radiation from the sun. This effect creates a natural “blanket” which prevents the heat from escaping back into the atmosphere. This effect is called a greenhouse effect.

Contrary to popular belief, greenhouse gases are not inherently bad. In fact, the greenhouse effect is quite important for life on earth. Without this effect, the sun’s radiation would be reflected back into the atmosphere, freezing the surface and making life impossible. However, when greenhouse gasses in excess amounts get trapped, serious repercussions begin to appear. The polar ice caps begin to melt, leading to the rise in sea levels. Furthermore, the greenhouse effect is accelerated when polar ice caps and sea ice melts. This is due to the fact the ice reflects 50% to 70% of the sun’s rays back into space; but without ice, the solar radiation gets absorbed. Seawater reflects only 6% of the sun’s radiation back into space. What’s more frightening is the fact that the poles contain large amounts of carbon dioxide trapped within the ice. If this ice melts, it will significantly contribute to global warming.

A related scenario when this phenomenon goes out of control is the runaway-greenhouse effect. This scenario is essentially similar to an apocalypse, but it is all too real. Though this has never happened in the earth’s entire history, it is speculated to have occurred on Venus. Millions of years ago, Venus was thought to have an atmosphere similar to the Earth’s. But due to the runaway greenhouse effect, surface temperatures around the planet began rising.

If this occurs on earth, the runaway greenhouse effect will lead to many unpleasant scenarios – temperatures will rise hot enough for oceans to evaporate. Once the oceans evaporate, the rocks will start to sublimate under the heat. To prevent such a scenario, proper measures have to be taken to stop climate change.

Winter is one of the most important seasons in India. It is a part of the four seasons that occur in India. Winters are the coolest season that starts from December and last till March. The peak time when winter is experienced the most in December and January. In India, winters hold great importance. In addition, the essence it has is admired by many people. Winters give you the time to indulge in various activities like snowball fighting, building snowmen, ice hockey and more. It is a great time for kids to enjoy their vacations and get cozy in their blankets.

During winters, schools usually take a break and close down. The days are shorter and the nights get longer. The chilly mornings give you a different sense altogether. Hot drinks like coffee, tea, and hot chocolate are enjoyed more during winters. The sun rises quite late and sometimes it does not.

Even when it does, it doesn’t get a bit hot. People long for a little sunshine as the cold weather sends chills down the spine. You see people on the roads burning woods and paper to get a little warmth. However, not many people prefer going out in winters. They like sitting by the fireplace or heater all day.

In the hilly areas, people experience snow during winters. They have to shovel it out of the way to make way for walking. The essence of winters is enhanced by Christmas as well. It sets the holiday mood for people and is admired all over the world.

But, there is also a downside of this season. The farmers, homeless people, and animals are most affected by this season. There is hardly any business in this season for farmers. Hundreds of homeless people die due to the harsh winters.

As the animals do not have proper shelter, they too lose their lives. In addition, many flights are also canceled during this season. Nonetheless, this does not make winter any less important. It is quite essential to maintain balance in the weather of our country.

Natural calamities are the calamities which are inflicted by God, or Nature, or man and his world. At these calamities, the unseen hand wreaks havoc in the part of the world it chooses to act upon. On these natural activities of nature no scientific or technological developments can wield any control.

They can occur as and when and where ordains it. Natural calamities can be of many different kinds, but the similarly in all, is their massive destruction in the area of their occurrence. The natural disasters are of many kinds, they are drought and famine, flood, earthquake, hailstrom and a cyclone.

In the wake of all these, in one sweep there is complete devastation and destruction, due to which normal life comes to a standstill. Loss of life is well nigh complete, and belongings of people get lost, blown away or swept away. The scene is one of the awe, of some unknown power that appears to wreak some revenge on the people of the area.

One feels that, there will never again be life in the area, there will never again come up any construction in the area. But, nature plays its part in this also, and even after the most ghastly disaster, life has come up blooming as ever as before in areas of such devastation.

Even though the importance of time differs for everyone, it is nonetheless important. Once we grow up, our childhood never comes back. Similarly, a student always tries their best all through the year for getting good grades.

Similarly, people make use of their precious time for different purposes to do their best to fulfil their wishes. It is because we are aware that time will not wait for anyone. We all get to live our life once.

Thus, it is up to us as to how we will use it. We can spend it by gaining a lot of achievement or we can spoil it by wasting the precious time given to us. Intelligent people strive to make the most of their time but living each moment to the fullest. Thus, we must all strive for the same thing.

It is clear by now that time is more valuable than money. Millions of people believe in this and it remains a fact. It is because once you lose time, you will never get it back, not even a second of it.

Time can be used to make money but money cannot be used to make more time. Thus, all the money in the world does not matter if you do not have enough time. Do you know the difference between successful people and failures?

We all get 24 hours in a day, no matter where we come from or how much money we have. It is not using all 24 hours that matters; it is how we use those hours. A successful person will always use their time efficiently to make progress in life.

Time is something we get and we have all the right to use it just like money. But, what’s different is that when we lose money, we can always get it back in one way or another. However, when we lose time, we can never get it back with any amount of money.

A patient in need of medical attention understands the value of time and that it is valuable than money. Similarly, an entrepreneur will take the fastest mode of travel to travel for a business deal to save time and seal and the deal. Thus, we see that time is indeed more important than money in life.

Love is difficult to define, difficult to measure, and difficult to understand. Love is what great writers write about, great singers sing about, and great philosophers ponder. Love is a powerful emotion, for which there is no wrong definition, for it suits each and every person differently. Whether love is between family, friends, or lovers, it is an overwhelming emotion that can be experienced in many different ways.
People experience love for the first time by being part of a family. Family love is demonstrated through lessons of sacrifice, concern and compassion, from the cradle to the grave.There are many different levels and conditions of family love. It is the love we cherish between our intermediate family and our…show more content…
A close-knit loving bond between two people can begin with a friendship. Whether it is a friendship between two males, two females, or one male and one female, these friendships.will develop into love. In no way is it a romantic love, but this type of love connects and bonds friends. Friends may move away or friendships may wane, but the love between the two people burns on forever.

Air pollution is a serious issue and a cause for major concern in today’s world. A report published in 2014  by the World Health Organisation states that 4.21 million individuals died prematurely in 2012 as a result of air pollution. Air pollution existed much before humans, in the form of volcanic eruptions and forest fires. However, it became much more prevalent after the Industrial Revolution.

Rapid industrial growth, unregulated emissions and a host of other issues significantly contributed to the rise in air pollution. In some cases, the severity of air pollution reached an extent where government intervention was necessary. The Great Smog of London, 1952, was an extreme case of air pollution where visibility was severely hampered. It also caused a host of illnesses and the consequent deaths of countless civilians. In November 2017, the levels of air pollution in Delhi were ten times above the safe limits. For reference, the healthy air quality index is between 0 to 50, but during that particular time period, the air quality index hit 500+. This event is now called the Great Smog of Delhi.

An air quality index of 500 and above indicates that the air is heavily polluted and will cause irreversible lung damage and a host of other illnesses to everyone who is exposed to it. Therefore, to avoid such situations in the future, relevant actions must be implemented.

Water harvesting is a technique of increasing the recharge of ground water by capturing and storing rainwater locally in sub­surface water reservoirs to meet the household needs. There are various reasons for water harvesting such as:

To meet the ever-increasing demand for water, reducing the run-off which chokes drains, avoid the flooding of roads. Apart from these augmenting of the ground water storage, raising water table, reducing groundwater pollution and soil erosion and supplementing domestic water requirement during summer and drought etc. are important reasons for water harvesting.

However, the water harvesting can be very beneficial where ground water levels are declining on regular basis and the availability of ground water is inadequate in lean months. This can be helpful in urban areas where due to rapid urbanization, infiltration of rain water into subsoil has decreased drastically and recharging of ground water has diminished.

There are several low cost techniques are available to recharge the ground water aquifers. Among them the water harvesting, refilling of dug wells recharging of hand pumps, construction of percolation pits, bunds and stop dams on small rivulets.

In urban areas, rainwater available from roof tops of buildings, paved and unproved areas goes waste. This water can be recharged to aquifers and can be utilized gainfully at the time of need. The rain water harvesting systems needs to be designed in a way that is does not occupy large space for collection and recharge system. The roof top rain water harvesting can be a very effective tool to fight the problem of water shortage particularly in urban areas.

Pollution is a term which even kids are aware of these days. It has become so common that almost everyone acknowledges the fact that pollution is rising continuously. The term ‘pollution’ means the manifestation of any unsolicited foreign substance in something. When we talk about pollution on earth, we refer to the contamination that is happening of the natural resources by various pollutants. All this is mainly caused by human activities which harm the environment in ways more than one. Therefore, an urgent need has arisen to tackle this issue straightaway. That is to say, pollution is damaging our earth severely and we need to realize its effects and prevent this damage. In this essay on pollution, we will see what are the effects of pollution and how to reduce it.

Race means being part of a group of people who are identified by their race, colour, nationality, citizenship, or ethnic or national origins. If you experience discrimination, this counts as race discrimination. Even if you’re not part of one of these groups, it still counts as discriminates against you because they think you are. This is known as perceived race discrimination. Rce discrimination is when you are treated unfairly because of your race, or because of the race of someone you are connected with, such as your partner. If race discrimination takes place in any of the following situations it is illegal and you may be able to take action about it:

• employment and training
• education
• when providing goods and services, for example, banking, entertainment and transport
• housing
• any of the activities carried out by public authorities, such as the NHS, government departments, local authorities, the police and prisons

Race discrimination can be direct or indirect. It may also take the form of harassment or victimisation. Race discrimination does not need to be delibrated. Someone may be discriminating against you without realising it or meaning to, but this might still count as discrimination.

DIRECT RACIAL DISCRIMINATION- It is direct race discrimination to treat someone less favourably than someone else would be treated in the same circumstances, because of race. To prove direct race discrimination, it will help if you can give an example of someone from a different racial group who, in similar circumstances, has been, or would have been, treated more favourably than you. Racist abuse and harassment are forms of direct discrimination. One example of direct race discrimination is where you are from a particular racial group and an employer refuses to appoint you because, the employer says, you ‘wouldn’t fit in’ or ‘the customers would object’. It’s also direct discrimination if an employer turns you down for a job because of your connection with someone else of a particular racial group.

INDIRECT RACIAL DISCRIMINATION- It is indirect race discrimination to have a rule, policy or practice which people of a particular racial, ethnic or national group are less likely to be able to meet than other people, and this places them at a disadvantages. Examples of indirect discrimination might include an employer insisting that candidates for a job should have foreign qualification, the banning of wearing headscarves or insisting wearing skirts, an employer insisting that someone has English as a first language,etc. If you think that indirect race discrimination might have occurred, you may be able to make a complaint about it. However, if the person or organisation you are complaining about can show that there are genuine reasons for the rule, policy or practice and that it has nothing to do with race, this won’t count as discrimination. For example, an employer may be able to show why an employee needs to have gained their qualification in the foreign in order to work in a particular role. If they can do this, there won’t have been any discrimination.

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING

It is illegal for an employer to discriminate against you because of race. This includes all employers, no matter how few people they employ. Most workers, including employees, agency workers, trainees and those who are self employed have protection from race discrimination at work. This includes recruitment, selection, promotion, training, pay and benefits, redundancy and dismissal, terms and conditions of work, etc. Trade unions have a duty not to discriminate against their members or those wanting to because members. There are some situations where employers are allowed to treat you less favourably because of your race and this won’t count as discrimination.

RACE DISCRIMINATION IN EDUCATION

It is illegal for any school or college to discriminate against someone because of race. This applies to both state and private schools and colleges. A school or college must not discriminate in any of its policies and practices. This include admission policies, treatment of pupils, exclusions and decisions about pupil’s special educational needs or disabilities. Schools and colleges also have a duty to protect pupils against racial abuse and violence from other pupils, both on school premises or on the way to or from school.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT RACIAL DISCRIMINATION?

If you think you’ve suffered race discrimination there are a number of things you may be able to do. These include:

• talking to the person or organisation that discriminated against you
• using grievance procedure or making a claim to an employment tribunal if it is an employment problem
• publicising your case through the courts
• taking legal action through the courts
• giving details of the problem to an advice agency who may able to refer it to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, if you believe the problem is widespread

When deciding what action to take about race discrimination, you will need to think about what you are trying to achieve. For example, do you want financial compensation, justice or publicity? You will also need to think about how quickly you need to get a result. If someone has been violent or hostile towards you because of your race, you can report this to the police as a hate incident or hate crime.

Naruto is one of the most popular and best anime of all time and is known as big 3 of anime industry along with One Piece and Bleach. It is written by Masashi Kishimoto and hats off to him for writing such a great master piece. It was first aired on Oct 3, 2002 on Tokyo TV and is animated by Studio Pierrot.

Watching Naruto Uzumaki the protagonist of this series grow from a naughty, hyperactive and knuckle headed ninja into a more mature, responsible and determined Teenager and eventually Becoming the Hokage and completing his childhood dreams was one hell of an adventure. Naruto will shake you up to the core while watching it, the plot twists, the back stories of characters, the world development and powers are all perfectly illustrated in the series. The Naruto Series is divided into two seasons, which are Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. While the first season Naruto revolves around the childhood story of the main protagonist Naruto Uzumaki, his friends and adventures. The Naruto Shippuden takes place after he comes back from a long time training with a legendary Ninja, “Jiraiya Sensei”.  

Now the story takes place in shinobi world, where our protagonist Naruto Uzumaki goes to a ninja academy in order to become a ninja. He is an orphan and lives alone. Nobody in the village he lives want to talk to him and go near him nor do they want their children’s to go near Naruto and talk or play with him. Naruto clearly struggles to find his place in the village. Things are like this because, some moments prior to birth of Naruto Uzumaki, a huge demon known as kyuubi or Nine-Tailed Fox attacks the hidden leaf village (the village where naruto lives). The village struggles to stop the rampage of the nine tailed fox. So, in order to put an end to Kyuubi rampage, the leader of the village, the fourth hokage sacrifices his life and uses a forbidden technique on the fox and sealed the beast inside the newly born Naruto.

So, the first season revolve around Naruto making friends, passing form academy, learning different techniques and train under his Sensei Kakashi Hatake and Jiraiya Sensei and their missions and adventure. The first Season finishes like this.

The First Season is all about knowing the world in Naruto learning about other villages like the Mist Village, Sand Village and various events and history of Leaf Village. All of the character development is done in this season, villains and dangers to the world and village are introduced. Writer was successful in creating a base for a story and attract the viewer’s towards the story and create an emotional connection with the viewers, and has successfully evoked interest in minds of lot of Anime Viewers. The BGM used in Naruto is just great and fits right with scenes also the show opening songs are great and have its own vibe. The animation is also good, considering it is a show form 2002. But apart from these things, some things just didn’t felt right like, this season was not that well organized as there were a lot of fillers and we had to skip a lot of episodes, straight away. Also, the story development sometimes feels off track and at some point’s, one may even lose their interest and get bored of Naruto. Some people might also not like the animation as it is old and not that good. But believe me, complete it once and you will never once regret giving your time, watching this series.

Now, the 2^nd season continues after Naruto coming back to leaf village from 2.5 yeears training with Jiraiya Sensei. Naruto has become more confident and responsible towards fulfilling his dream of becoming Hokage and getting recognised by village as someone who protects and maintains peace. This season is where things get interesting and the story takes you on rollercoaster of emotions. Where you will laugh, cry, become motivated and a lot of things will happen. Previous Villains will emerge as Heroes, protecting everything from the shadows. An organization named Akatsuki will be on move to destroy leaf village and we will get a deep dive into back story of characters such as Pain, Back Story of Uchiha Clan Slaughter by Itachi Uchiha and why was Sasuke Uchiha his little brother only was left alive among Uchiha’s? Things like this will get disclosed, and there will be start of 4^th Great Ninja War, where we will see a lot of God Level characters like Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju (both regarded as God of Shinobi) and other previous Hokage’s in action. Tailed Beasts, Sage of Six Paths and there history will be disclosed. The real villain lurking and controlling everything from shadows will appear and our Team 7 will be reunited to fight them. Also, I would like to honourably mention some characters like Itachi Uchiha and Pain (Nagato). These are some characters whose powers and story will send Goosebumps to your bones. Dialogues like “We are pain, We are God”, and the level of fight and action are just amazing. After watching such characters I realised one thing that the villains in Naruto are not villains, they are just the previous heroes, who got their heart broken due to certain reasons and lost faith in the world. All these peoples just wanted to maintain peace, the only thing different was their meaning of peace and their method of attaining peace. Although, till the end of the story, Sakura will still remain useless. Except that all other characters grow and become mature and more powerful.

So, finally I would like to suggest you to watch Naruto strongly, because it’s just great series to watch. Like, you don’t have to be mature to watch this series, you will become mature after watching this series. The supporting characters like sasuke, sakura, shikamaru, gara, etc, are well developed and their involvement is greatly illustrated. Again the sound track of Naruto Shippuden does a great job and I really liked the opening song Blue Bird. Before starting Naruto one might think that spending 300 episodes to explain a 2 day war might not be great, but I must say that that’s why Naruto is great.

Well, something’s still remains which may irritate you like the fillers, there again a lot of fillers but that can be skipped with help of resources from internet. But if you want to deep dive into series you should watch fillers as well, because via fillers you get to know more about characters and their bonds. Apart from this Sakura is still there to keep you irritated throughout series. So, just stop thinking and start watching the show, Enjoy Watching!!!

“RESPONSIBLY INCORPORATING TECHNOLOGY INTO LITERACY INSTRUCTION”

TAG : INSTRUCTION
CATEGORY: TECHNOLOGY

The use of interactive computer programs in an educational setting is often intended to motivate students (Boyle et al., 2016; see also our previous blog post on technology use to motivate young readers) and offer more individualized learning to meet the diverse needs of students (Vasquez & Straub, 2012). In recent years, the quality and quantity of computer programs have increased so dramatically that their use is now pervasive in K-12 classrooms (Gray, Thomas, & Lewis, 2010). The investment in educational software and digital subscription services in United States schools already totaled about $8 billion in 2013, the last reported record of expenditures (Harman, 2014), and it continues to rise.

Digital tools and opportunities commonly are integrated with face-to-face instruction to create a blended learning environment (Greer, Rowland, & Smith, 2014). Multiple review articles looking at the current state of blended learning research across various ages of students and settings have found significant positive effects. However, most research has been with college students, while the number of studies conducted in elementary or secondary schools remains small. In one meta-analysis, only 5 of 176 studies reviewed were conducted in kindergarten through Grade 12 (Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia, & Jones 2009). Another review found only seven studies in elementary or secondary schools that employed a rigorous research design capable of assessing the effectiveness of blended learning (Brodersen & Melluzzzo, 2017)

The limited number and rigor of studies make it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the benefits of blended learning. In addition, some researchers caution that students may struggle to comprehend large blocks of text that require scrolling or navigating among multiple screens (e.g., Mangen, Walgermo, & Brønnick, 2013). It is important that teachers understand how to capitalize on the benefits of incorporating different types of technology in literacy instruction (e.g., electronic books, reading intervention programs) while minimizing the potential pitfalls.

Educational technology versus assistive technology
Educational technology that all students might access as part of the normal course of literacy instruction should be distinguished from the subcategory referred to as assistive technology. Software and hardware that are purposefully identified for use by students with disabilities in order to complete academic and everyday tasks are considered assistive technology. A student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 plan should include any assistive technology needs, and the purpose of that technology should be made clear to the student’s teachers. Once properly described in this manner, allowing the student to use the technology is not optional, rather a legal and ethical obligation the teacher must fulfill (Assistive Technology Act of 1998, 2004).

If the use of assistive technology is necessary in some instances but counter to the student’s learning goals in other ways, the team developing the IEP may specify when the tools are or are not appropriate for use. For example, a student with dyslexia may need to use audiobooks or text-to-speech recognition when learning content for subject area courses. Without the assistive technology, the student may not have the same opportunity as his or her peers to learn or demonstrate an understanding of the material. However, it may not be appropriate to use those tools when the student is receiving reading instruction intended to help him or her work on the particular reading or writing skills for which the assistive technology is being relied upon. To put it another way, if a student with dysgraphia is working on an IEP goal to improve handwriting skills, it would not make sense to complete handwriting lessons using voice recognition software on a digital device. Similarly, if a student with dyslexia is working on improving decoding skills, it would not make sense to have the decodable text aligned with a phonics lesson read to him or her through text-to-speech software.

The sections that follow describe limitations of two types of educational technology, and some considerations to help use the technology in beneficial ways that are complementary to core literacy instruction. These tools might be made available to all students, not just those with an IEP, during literacy instruction in a blended learning environment.

Electronic books and readers
Electronic books (e-books) include digital textbooks, novels, informational articles, and other supplementary reading materials, delivered via an electronic reader (e-reader), computer, or tablet. Texts can be purchased individually or can be obtained through a paid subscription. They were widely used for independent reading in the Iowa Reading Research Center’s study of intensive summer reading programs (Reed, Schmitz, Aloe, & Folsom, 2016). During these segments of class, students most often were observed sitting in front of laptops, wearing headphones, and listening passively to the audio of the book or article being read to them while yellow highlighting moved over the words on the screen. This activity did not make students responsible for applying reading skills, and the yellow highlighting even removed the need for students to track the print themselves.

In addition to potentially turning students from active readers into passive listeners, e-readers have been associated with students reading less frequently (Merga & Mat Roni, 2017). This may be partly due to getting off task using the other features of the devices such as online content or other applications not associated with reading the digitally delivered text. Properly designing blended learning activities, as discussed with greater detail later in this post, can ensure the technology does not become a distraction or disruption to literacy learning (Kennedy & Deshler, 2010).

Digital reading instructional programs
The use of digital curricular programs is believed to help teachers with individualizing reading instruction and intervention for students of different ability levels (Cuevas, Russell, & Irving, 2012). Unfortunately, there is not a lot of evidence that using digital programs actually results in improved outcomes among students with and at risk for reading disabilities (Stetter & Hughes, 2010). The standard for establishing that technology “works” traditionally has been based on whether the tool operates as intended, rather than on rigorous research evidence of effectiveness (Edyburn, 2013). An operational tool is not the same thing as an effective tool.

Teachers still play a critical role in planning appropriate instruction, regardless of the types of materials or resources used in lessons (Regan, Berkeley, Hughes, & Kirby, 2014). Without the supportive guidance of and interaction with a teacher, some students who have experienced repeated reading failure and other challenges report feeling dismissed by being sent to the computer for their instruction (Reed & Wexler, 2014). For those students, the use of computers depersonalized the instruction.

Improving the use of digital tools in the classroom
Educational software and other digital tools are far more sophisticated than those that were available even a decade ago. Use of these tools in the classroom offers new avenues for increasing efficiency, individualization, and student motivation (Boyle et al., 2106). However, simply replacing traditional print-based books and instructional materials with digital formats cannot guarantee that those resources will be used wisely.

Educators might take several steps to ensure the digital activities remain the complement and not the core of their literacy instruction:

Always provide the assistive technology for a student with a disability as prescribed in the IEP.
Disable the audio, highlighting, and hyperlink functions of e-books unless a student’s language and learning needs (as outlined in the IEP) specifically warrant such high levels of support. If the functions are used, consider the circumstances and timeline in which they should remain enabled. Then, make a plan to assist the student with transitioning away from needing those functions.
Plan face-to-face instructional activities based on the materials students read on e-readers or the skills they learn on a computer program. This might include fostering discussions about the important ideas in a text, incorporating the transfer and application of skills to reading in other content areas, creating opportunities to explore and apply key vocabulary words from the digital text, writing predictions about or reactions to the digital texts, and making connections to other lessons or reading materials.
Consider computer programs as one component of a blended learning environment in which the teacher and peers are still the primary sources of interaction and instruction for students. Situate the time spent on the computers as a segment of independent learning and practice. A small group of students may work with the digital resources while the teacher is instructing another small group. Have the small groups rotate through stations of teacher-led instruction, computer-led instruction, and peer collaboration.
Digital tools can be powerful augmentative resources for differentiating literacy instruction, but they are not yet able to supplant the important role of the teacher.

– Jerisha. S

“EDUCATIONAL GAMES, MOBILE QUIZZES AND DIGITAL BADGES ARE TRANSFORMING LEARNING”

TAG: LEARNING
CATAGORY: EDUCATION

Behind the buzzwords:

Gamification, Nikoletta-Zampeta Legaki explains, means to enhance systems, services, organisations and activities in order to create similar experiences and motivations to those experienced when playing games, with the added educational goal of affecting user behaviour.

Practical implementations of gamification include a variety of elements and techniques, which can be, for example, points, leader boards or challenges.

Game-based learning is about acquiring knowledge or skills by playing a game, thus making the learning process more interesting, meaningful and effective. Games can be anything from digital- to real-life role-playing games.

“When we play games, there is a purpose and challenges and tasks that appeal to us. As we proceed in the game, we become more effective and begin to recognise our abilities,” Isabella Aura explains.

Games have been played throughout the history of mankind, and there has always been more to the process than pure entertainment.

For example, the development of a child’s brain relies heavily on playing, and societies would malfunction if we were not capable of working together or competing against each other according to mutually agreed rules – skills and attitudes that we learn by playing games.

So game-based learning is by no means a new invention. Digital educational games have been around for a while, too.

Issues with user-friendliness
I recall playing educational computer games as a kid at school. In one of the games, the player had to point and click at European countries on a map. By trial and error, I learned to locate mysterious countries like Albania and Liechtenstein.

It was the 1990s, so this was a fresh exception to regular classroom learning. However, the games were not a lot of fun to a 10-year-old – at least compared to any of the popular PC games we used to play at the time.

“Sadly, the same setting still exists,” says Isabella Aura. “We all know that games designed for entertainment tend to be more engaging and multidimensional than games that are solely for educational purposes.”

Oliver Šimko has come to the same conclusion. He says that finding an excellent educational game that meets today’s game industry standards is still challenging.

“If you look for good examples of educational games, you’ll find that many of them were designed as games in the first place, and educational value happened almost by a happy coincidence. Educational games are too often designed based on the needs of the client or the business, forgetting to consider them from the learner’s perspective.”

Be that as it may, game-based learning is here to stay.

Mandatory training can be more engaging
The business world is embracing gamification, which is quite easy to understand if you have ever had to sit through a lecture on company values or health and safety policy.

According to Isabella Aura and Nikoletta-Zampeta Legaki, the most common gamification procedure for companies is to create different types of simulations, for example to introduce new employees to the company.

“Some large tech companies are also using digital badges to recognise learning and, for example, the consultant company McKinsey uses a game during its recruitment process,” adds Nikoletta-Zampeta Legaki.

The potential is huge, because you can turn something that people don’t even want to attend into a pleasant experience

Oliver Šimko notes that gamification can be particularly useful in mandatory training.

“The potential is huge, because you can turn something that people don’t even want to attend into a pleasant experience. However, it is easy to fail if you misjudge your audience.”

Gamification has also reached the world of science. A good example of this, Nikoletta-Zampeta Legaki says, is a crowdsourcing game called Foldit. The idea of the game is simple: to identify the structure of proteins.

“You don’t have to be a scientist. You just need to be able to see patterns,” she explains.

A delicate balance for adult learners
Compared to corporate training or scientific research, the setting of non-formal adult education is very different.

“Adults who have voluntarily enrolled in a course tend to take responsibility for their learning. However, this doesn’t mean that they don’t need any additional motivation or entertainment,” says Isabella Aura.

She believes that one way that adult education could benefit from gamification is by using individual learning paths, for learners to get the most out of the course.

“Individual learning paths can be enhanced with badges or other rewards, individual tasks or avatars, for example.”

If a game is well designed and user-friendly, you don’t have to have any pre-existing knowledge or skills to be able to play it.

Nikoletta-Zampeta Legaki points out that there is a fine line between giving too much or too little guidance to adult learners.

“There is a really important balance between the autonomous, self-learning process, and the guidance which is needed to avoid getting lost in the learning process. At this point. techniques like flipped learning or gamification can be really helpful.”

“Learning is a serious business”
One thing to keep in mind is that not all learners are eager to take on new learning routines. Oliver Šimko brings up some common obstacles, such as viewing learning as a serious business not to be undermined by games, in his blog post on EPALE.

He says that these obstacles can be overcome by careful game design and knowing your audience. Instead of demographics, he speaks of psychographic segmentation and taking into account that there are different player types.

“Some people want to win and some like to see others lose. Some play to express themselves and others just want to feel the social elements of the game. You need to prepare game mechanics that work for all of them.”

Many people who oppose playing games believe that you have to be a so-called digital native to enjoy them. Isabella Aura notes that the whole concept is rather misleading.

While some children grow up surrounded by digital devices, they do not automatically know everything about technology, and all skills need to be learned. Also, if a game or gamified feature is well designed and user-friendly, you don’t have to have any pre-existing knowledge or skills to be able to play it.”

What will the future bring?
While it is understandable that not everyone embraces the idea of having more technology in our lives, it seems inevitable.

“Distance learning is now the new reality,” says Nikoletta-Zampeta Legaki, “and this creates more opportunities for gamified solutions. There is a call for games that are nicely integrated with all of these meeting platforms and are able to engage or get the attention of people, because you get very tired of just sitting in front of a screen.”

She also expects to see a stronger role for VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality), especially in statistics and data visualisation.

I saw the change in attitude and behaviour take place before my eyes. It was the surprising miracle of education.

In addition to these immersive new technologies, Oliver Šimko sees huge potential for gamification in a world that is increasingly interconnected.

“The digital world is blending into the personal world, for example in how our social media accounts are connected to pretty much any service we use nowadays. Gamification could become the key element in motivating and nudging people in this new environment,” he says and gives a few examples of gamified solutions that help us make better choices for ourselves and others.

“There are recent fitness apps that nudge users towards walking an extra mile and improving their health. An app called Headspace uses cleverly gamified techniques to help you start meditating, and Waze nudges you towards becoming a more proactive and caring driver who contributes to road safety.”

However, advanced technology combined with extensive user data can also be used to control people.

“We can see the nightmarish scenario emerging in China, where the social credit and point system is in fact a gamified citizenship that in my opinion resembles an almost totalitarian future. I hope that gamification will never go in this direction.”

After this thought, it might be useful to end with a less threatening example of gamification.

Success in small steps
A gamified learning experience does not have to be digital at all, or the digital element can be just a tiny part of it.

Nikoletta-Zampeta Legaki noticed the value of gamification while she was teaching forecasting techniques to a postgraduate class in Greece.

“People came to the course after 8 or 10 hours at work, which meant that the last thing they wanted to do was to listen to someone explaining mathematical equations,” she says.

She created a mobile quiz on Quizizz, and saw the tiredness vanish.

“It was really simple stuff. After a wrong answer, some music or a meme might appear. But suddenly the students were excited, speaking to each other and wondering what had just happened.”

For the teacher, the experience proved that game-based learning has great potential.

“I saw the change in attitude and behaviour take place before my eyes. It was the surprising miracle of education.”

Jerisha. S

“25 CONTENT AMPLIFICATION TOOLS FOR MARKETING PROFESSIONALS”

TAG : MARKETING TOOLS
CATEGORY: DIGITAL MARKETING

There is so much content out there, now that Google has made the creation of quality content mandatory for high rankings. It means that creating great content solves only half the problem; the real job is getting that content noticed by the right audience at the appropriate time, which is extremely important if a business will achieve its goals.

Content amplification is that arm of content marketing that is concerned with pushing blogs, articles, infographics, web pages and other content/messaging onto discovery platforms.

These platforms include social media sites and other high –traffic networks, where your target audience will be attracted by your headlines, come to consume your content and hopefully convert to help you achieve business goals.

BENEFITS OF CONTENT AMPLIFICATION TOOLS:

Content amplification spells huge benefits for everyone involved. The following are just a few examples:

For marketers: providing something valuable to your target audience enables a marketer to unobtrusively develop meaningful relationships/engagement with the audience, which results in higher ROI than conventional advertising.
For consumers: Effective content amplification places the consumer at the center of control regarding what he/she chooses to consume while simultaneously adding value and addressing their daily issues.
For businesses: Engaging unobtrusively with consumers by solving real-life issues through high-quality content is a great way to build brand awareness, attract links and hence increase traffic and conversions rates that will ultimately improve revenue generation..

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE ABOUT CONTENT AMPLIFICATION?

The first step of learning effective content amplification is accepting these hard realities:

Your content is not special
Yes, you’re creating excellent, in-depth, well-articulated content, but so are a billion other sites on the Internet. No matter how good it is, you’ll need active promotion to get your work before the audience that matters. Consider this: in just 24 hours, there are over 4B new Facebook posts, almost 500K new WordPress posts, over 100K hours of new YouTube feeds and over 144.8 B new posts.

Great content does NOT promote itself on merit; this is the greatest fallacy in content marketing.

You are not special
Unless you are Justin Bieber, Buzzfeed, Wall Street Journal or The Oatmeal, you don’t have a drone of audience hanging onto your every word – unless you worked to do that. Unless you have the kind of following, reputation and resources that they have, you won’t get too far with just push-publishing.

The ugly truth is that people care about who wrote a piece, even more than the piece itself. That’s why even terrible content from the right influencer can spread like a bushfire. But for the rest of us, you have to work extra hard to build trust and credibility before your content has a chance of pushing itself.

Sharing is the least of your goals
Unless you are in the content business, share numbers are not your goal. Your goals begin with what happens after the content is shared – leads, links, subscriptions, brand awareness, sales, etc. Ultimately, you want to ensure your content is not just reaching a mass of people, but rather a mass of the right people. For that, you need active, strategic promotion.

INTRODUCTION TO CONTENT CREATION:

The foundation of content amplification is content creation. The first step is to work in creating great, targeted, relevant and value-adding content that will be the basis of your content amplification strategies.

Types of content
There are many types of content you can write, and you need to delve into as many different types as you can to cater to a wider demographic, even within your target audience segment. You don’t have to do all at once, but you should be afraid to venture into a new field just because they’re new to you. Create a schedule to plan how often you will churn out different types, and stick to it to add spice and variety to your blog.

Below are just a few examples of these:

Infographics – this is a visual representation of data/information, and it is very popular across the board since it condenses a lot of information into simple, interpretable figures and stats. Infographics are shared up to three times as often other content types.
Memes – these are easy to make, hilarious and have huge potential for virality. However, they’re more geared towards a social audience rather than for your blog.
Videos and podcasts– there’s a host of choice on video content, but the key is to ensure the video is of good quality and delivered succinctly and memorable. Videos can be exceptionally persuasive if done well.
Guides and how-to’s – in-depth, detailed, practical piece with text and relevant images. Visual elements are important to enhance the comprehensibility of this type of content.
Book and product reviews – opinion pieces on various books and products that people in your niche would be interested in. Share both good and bad aspects, and why they made it to your list, which gives a better understanding of you and humanizes you before the audience.
Opinion posts (rants) – these are extremely effective in building discussions and engagement, but they must be used very carefully. Ensure comprehensive research to avoid putting your foot in your mouth and losing credibility with the audience.
Useful tools and resources for content creation
Creating content doesn’t have to be as taxing anymore; there are many ways, tools and resources to get high-quality content without breaking your back. These content amplification tools can also help when working on visual-based content, which is where most people have a major problem.

For research
Google Drive Research Tool – helps you conduct Google search while on your Google Drive window.
Site:search – this is a Google search option that limits only to specific websites. The site search formula is “ site:domainexample.com [search query] ”
Google Search Console – formerly Google Webmaster Tools, GSC is helpful for data augmentation related to SEO and keyword research.
For writing and editing
Evernote – the free version is extremely helpful for everything from the creation of to-do lists to writing entire article content and editing. It’s also available as an app for mobile allowing you to sync work across devices.
Word2CleanHTML – useful for those who create drafts on Word and other word-processing software rather than the CMS. This tool helps filter and fix those little quacks that happen on HTML when content is copied from external sources into the CMS window.
Grammarly and Correctica – apart from human editors, you need a grammar tool to triple-check your content prior to publishing. Both tools are free, and Grammarly can even check for plagiarism.
Write My Essay – dedicated to providing all services related to content creation, in case you want to outsource content creation rather than do it yourself.
25 Tools and Resources to Make Content Amplification much easier
Once you have your high-quality content, you are now ready to embark on content amplification. Below are 25 tools and resources you can use to get your content noticed by the right eyes:

Contently
Contently is a content creation, optimization and distribution company in New York City. You can use the expertise of more than 30,000 content specialists to move your content through paid distribution, email, and social media channels. Contently is trusted by a few major brands, including American Express and General Electric.

Buzzstream
Buzzstream is a software suite specially designed for B2B content marketing specialists, and it enables content amplification via social media, PR, and link acquisition. It is popularly used by both large and small businesses to jumpstart outreach, build credibility and track communications throughout online platforms.

Cision
The content marketing suite by Cision is intended for top tier websites with engaged audiences to drive traffic to content and increase brand exposure. It’s an easy-to-use tool for PR campaign strategy enhancement. B2B marketing teams can use this tool to reach the largest audience possible by targeting channels frequented by potential customers.

Edgar
The Edgar app is intended to offer optimized visibility for businesses’ posts on social media. Given that most updates will only be seen by a fraction of your followers, Edgar app is set to automatically repost archived content, and it uses algorithmic analysis to schedule update posting at the most optimal high-traffic times.

Buffer
Buffer is a tool for social media management and is popular as an easy tool to maintain the freshness of your LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook and Twitter profiles and share content on these platforms. Using Buffer, you can set times for your social media posts, which enables you to post at the optimal times for your followers located across different time zones.

OnePress Social Locker
This is a WordPress plugin that is set up such that viewers can access full content only after they have shared it on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. For otherwise engaged audiences, you can use OnePress on select posts. It is an easy-to-install plugin that is very affordable – just $24 – even for startups.

Outbrain
Outbrain is a convenient traffic-driving tool that enables content promotion by embedding links with high-authority publishing sites. Each time you browse the web, you’re likely to encounter something from Outbrain. It’s simple to sign up, all you need is to commit a specific budgetary allocation and leave the work to Outbrain.

Storify
This tool helps you to collect content from social media, pages and blogs throughout the web into a single location. It also makes content viewer-friendly and connects you to related, story-worthy sources while you’re creating content. There’s a free and Business Pro version, the latter with enhanced privacy, customization and support options.

Listly
Listly is very useful to advertising your content by sharing, publishing and planting lists to help viewers gain quick access to relevant and related information and links (your own included). It is a widely held resource for content marketers, mostly for its ability to link audiences with relevant, interesting information.

PR Newswire
PR Newswire is particularly intended for the newsworthy content, being a high-authority news source. It offers subscribers up-to-minute videos, press releases, audio and images to help them stay current. Also, it is useful for content distribution and to boost the social visibility of updates and scheduled content.

Taboola
This is a content discovery tool intended to recommend your content to high-authority/quality, related third-party websites. When the visitor clicks on your content, it will be viewed through YouTube, social media, your site or another third party site. It also includes analytics and free resources for campaign optimization, performance stats as well as one-on-one support to enable business goal achievement.

Gravity
Another content distribution tool intended to create a personalized web experience for visitors. This is done using their Interest Graph technology, which organizes content according to relatable interests. It analyses your content and only shows it to interest readers in the form of personalized endorsements. They also have free browser extensions for readers who recommend your content as they interact with other parts of the web.

Zemanta
A tool that enables automated aggregation and indexing of your content, which is then distributed in the form of in-stream ads, promoted recommendations, sponsored content and in-text links in select, quality third-party sites. It includes a dashboard with analytics on performance and efficacy of your content and match content display with viewer interests.

SimpleReach
This tool enables content distribution and measurement. Their analytics tools offer insights into real-time content performance, with predictive tools to determine which are likely to perform best. Real-time reporting and prediction enables you to know in advance which content is likely to drive highest engagement and traffic, so you can focus on those.

Triberr
It’s a social network of influencers and blogger, grouped according to interests. Members join and can share content with the group to drive social shares and comments. There are both free and premium options, the latter allowing access to more features and larger tribes. It includes features for Influencer Marketing campaigns.

GaggleAmp
A social media marketing tools which helps content distribution with your key players i.e. customers, employees and partners. A group is gathered and they agree to share company-originated content within their social accounts. It also offers powerful social activity analytics, including ROI information on traffic, engagement and revenue generation.

Zapier
Zapier provides a single platform that connects all your web apps, where you can automate and coordinate tasks. Over 300 aps are supported, and then you can set up automated events and triggers (called Zaps). The dashboard allows you to monitor activity and manage all your apps. It can also be applied for content distribution, given that it includes most popular social networks and CMSes.

AddThis
AddThis gives website administrators a chance to build traffic by making it simpler for user to share content. It provides for increased audience engagement with users not on the site, and allows content distribution on most social networks and third party platforms.

ShareThis
It’s a comprehensive solution that allows site users to share content with their networks through a number of channels, including email, IM, SMS and social media. It also provides insights and real-time analytics for social intelligence needed by content publishers, developers and brands.

LinkedIn
Through its publishing platform, LinkedIn allows marketing teams to post content to the site, which posts are useful in increasing traffic to the brands social media profiles and official sites. Companies on LinkedIn can maintain blogs on the site to create a strong signal as industry leaders.

Facebook Ads
Facebook ads on average reach 91.3% of your target audience, unlike other online ad campaigns, which means you’re getting a good deal for your investment. Ads may be targeted according to demographical characteristics, location and interests among other options.

Promoted Tweets
These tweets are deployed to potential followers and current fans of the brand. You need to have compelling content, which will be shot at the right audience using a variety of filtering options on Twitter. Targeted users receive the tweets on their timelines.

MailChimp
A free/premium email marketing/web-based platform that enables content sharing through email newsletters. There are pre-designed templates for newsletter creation making it easier to use. It can be integrated with WordPress and Twitter to enable you build email lists throughout the web. Also includes tracking and metric analytics capabilities.

Hootsuite
This free/premium social network dashboard enables management of multiple social platforms and profiles and measures performance of content shared to the various platforms. All major networks are supported with provisions for additional integration with other networks through their HootSuite App Directory.

Conclusion
You are now armed with all the tricks and tips to create and sell high-quality content. Go forth and be great!

-Jerisha. S

“CONCRETE STEPS TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCES TO FIND A JOB”

TAG : WORKING
CATEGORY: JOB

When you find yourself unemployed, whether you knew it was coming or not, you have to set yourself up for success to increase your chances of finding your next position.

With today’s job market, competition if high and there are hundreds of people applying for one open position.

Have concrete steps to take can improve your chances of finding your next job. Here are some to consider to help put you on the path:

Make Finding a Job Your Full-time Job

When you initially become unemployed, it is common, and often necessary, to take a few days to evaluate your situation and process what has just happened.

This is normal. What isn’t normal, or healthy, is to commit only a couple of hours a day to your job search. Your job search needs to become your NEW full-time job.

It can become tempting to start binge-watching that new Netflix show or start working on those projects around the house. Resist!!

Instead, set a daily schedule for yourself including online searching, networking, LinkedIn (LI) posting/commenting, etc. Every day your schedule should reflect your job-hunting efforts.

Revamp Your Resume

If it has been more than 5 years since your resume was updated, it’s time. In this competitive job market, your resume is your marketing piece that will get you in the door.

A hiring manager spends on average 10 seconds scanning your resume to determine if they may want to invite you for an interview. That means your resume better stand out to catch their attention.

You want to have more than one resume when applying for jobs, so it helps to have professional resume writers review your resume and make needed changes.

Depending on the job you’re looking for, you will need to highlight different aspects of yourself on your resumes. Professionals are great at creating different resumes for every client.

Customize a Cover Letter

Think of the cover letter as a quick handshake introduction to a prospective employer. Your cover letter should be unique to the job you are applying for—don’t send out a cover letter addressed to “Sir or Madam”, you want it to be personal and show that you put some effort into the process.

Highlight your skills that will set you apart from other prospects, and address a pain point for each specific company. Never ever use a generic cover letter. HR managers can spot those a mile away.

Develop Your Networking Plan

Networking must be a key part of your job search plan. Networking is still the #1 way people find jobs. Determine how you will utilize LI and other social media sites to communicate the fact you are in an active job search.

Be sure your LI profile is job search ready before you start connecting with people again…if it’s been a while. Consider joining a trade industry, as well as LI groups relevant to your industry.

Let people know that you are looking for a job–there’s no shame in asking if someone is hiring. Other professionals can often connect you with HR managers when your skills are qualified.

But you need to do more than just network online, get out and go to some networking clubs or events. You can meet more people over a drink than you can with blasting out your resume to Facebook friends.

Begin Expanding Your Search

Sending out resumes in one industry may have worked in the past, but that’s simply not the case. Today you have to be well-versed in many different fields.

You never know what your next platform for success will be. If you have experience in marketing, then your next career may be in sales or advertising. Just try to branch out and see what’s out there.

Creating a specific job search plan with will help to keep you on track. Use these steps as a guideline to keep you motivated and moving forward toward your next position.

Jerisha. S

“WHY NOW’S THE TIME TO EMBRACE FLEXIBLE WORKING”

TAG: FLEXIBLE WORKING

CATAGORY: JOB

In a flexible working arrangement, an employee has some say over how, where or when they work. Whether this involves working from home, working part-time, job sharing or having another kind of flexitime arrangement, generally workers benefit from an element of freedom to define a working arrangement that supports their lifestyle.

Tom Neil is a guidance writer for ACAS, the non-departmental body of the Government that works throughout the UK to prevent and resolve employment disputes. “All employees who have worked for their employer for more than 26 weeks are entitled to make a request for flexible working,” he explains. However, whilst half of UK employers offer flexible working arrangements, a recent CBI report found that just one in 10 job listings mention flexible working. “More work needs to be done on understanding the benefits that flexible working can bring to an organisation,” says Neil.

So, can flexible working arrangements benefit both employers and employees? And, what are the barriers preventing our workplaces from adopting these practices on a much wider scale?

The benefits of flexible working

Neil explains that for employees, the benefits of flexible working are often focused on improving their work-life balance, as well as looking after their health and wellbeing. However these arrangements also impact positively on productivity. “Research from the CIPD has shown that implementing flexible working practices can improve staff engagement and motivation,” Neil says. Natalie Pancheri, HR Policy Adviser at the London School of Economics (LSE) agrees. “The benefits of flexible working are well established, from increased employee engagement to better performance,” she says.

LSE has won recognition for its initiatives to support parents and carers in the workplace, recently being noted as a pioneer in Shared Parental Leave by the charity Working Families. While flexible working has historically been seen as a female or parental issue, Pancheri explains, “The benefits can and should apply to all staff whether you are disabled, a carer or simply seeking a better work-life balance.”

Pancheri describes flexible working as: “recognising that individuals have different needs both inside and outside of work.” This is true for Sharon Ellis, a working mother in her early 40s whose 13 year old daughter has special education needs (SEN). “Outside of school hours, it’s very difficult to get support,” says Ellis, explaining that with limited funding for transport and sparse local resources for after-school care, she often has to do the school run, which impacts on the number of hours she can work each week. Ellis was employed through Randstad to work as a mental health support worker at Preston University. Luckily for Ellis her employers support her need for a flexible working arrangement. “They’re really flexible,” she says. “I can manage my own timetable to suit my needs.”

Mandy Garner is the editor of workingmums.co.uk, a site set up in 2006 to act as a bridge between employers and women looking for new, flexible work positions. The site has since expanded, offering a section for dads, support on employment issues and a home business section. “Most of the workforce are likely to need flexible working at some point in their career,” says Garner. “Technology makes it increasingly easier to work flexibly (therefore) it makes no business sense not to offer it.” Garner has four children and has worked in various flexible arrangements, including working from home, working part-time and freelancing. “I basically work all the time, but flexibly so I can pick up the kids and deal with holidays, sickness, inset days and the like,” she says.

It’s not only employees who benefit from flexible working. As Neil explains, flexible arrangements often benefit the company or organisation, too. They can “help to reduce absenteeism, increase productivity and enhance employee engagement and loyalty,” he explains. “It can greatly increase the pool of applicants for vacant roles, while helping to retain the experienced and skilled staff already there.”

Pancheri echoes this, explaining that for companies, offering flexible working arrangements means “attracting, retaining and developing the best possible workforce.” At the same time, it can benefit a company financially. “We also know from research that staff can often value flexibility over other more traditional forms like remuneration, so there’s a positive financial implication for organisations to consider too,” she explains.

According to Pancheri, offering flexible working is also about doing the ‘right thing’. “Embedding a culture of flexibility begins to chip away at the types of issues that can prevent women from advancing their careers, as well as making sure that this becomes the norm rather than ‘special treatment’ that may be resented by others,” she says.

What are the barriers?

Ellis used to work as a joiner, but after having her daughter, she knew she’d have to find a job which offered a flexible working arrangement. Ellis went back to college as a mature student and retrained as a counsellor. She began working for a charity that was supportive of her needs, but was later made redundant as a result of government cuts. “It took me from May till September to find a job that allowed me to work around my daughter,” she explains. None of the roles Ellis initially applied for in that interim period were willing to offer job splits – all wanted one person who could work full-time.

Ellis’s situation is not unique. According to an annual survey conducted by workingmums.co.uk, the lack of flexible working options, along with childcare costs, prevent mothers from returning to work. “Our recent survey showed 18% of mums had been forced to leave their work when flexible working was not allowed,” confirms Garner.

It’s not only a problem for working mothers. “Research shows that dads also want more flexibility,” says Garner. “Enabling dads to work flexibly is crucial to greater workplace equality,” she insists. Furthermore, Garner’s surveys indicate younger employees are starting to expect and want flexible working arrangements too.

According to Neil, many employees are not fully aware of their rights regarding flexible working. “To actually ask your employer to change your working arrangements can be a substantial and potentially uncomfortable concept,” he explains. “However (workers) should feel reassured that they do have the right to ask to work more flexibly and are protected from suffering any detriment related to it,” he adds.

Whilst employers have the right to reject a flexible working proposal if they have a good business reason for doing so, employees can make a claim to an employment tribunal if they believe their request has not been fairly handled. “Understanding the issues that the business may have with your request can be really important,” says Neil, who sees finding a flexible working arrangement that suits both parties as an important hurdle to overcome. “It means that you are better prepared to suggest ways that any negative impact on the business can be mitigated.”

Future hopes for flexible working

Neil believes that for an organisation to attract and retain a happy and productive workforce, employers need to think beyond the basic legal requirements around flexible working. “That means running a business in an open-minded and adaptable manner,” he says. “Most roles can accommodate some sort of flexible working arrangement … compromise from the employee and the employer can often lead to an outcome that works for everyone,” he adds.

Garner agrees. “Flexible working is most effective if it works for all parties … there has been a lot around recently about employers using flexible working to basically exploit workers,” she cautions, referring to the insecurity that comes with zero hour contracts. Looking forward, Garner adds: “As people stay in work longer and have to balance that with caring responsibilities for older relatives, the need for flexible working will only increase.”

Today, Ellis runs her own private counselling and psychotherapy business alongside her role as a support worker at Preston University. She also volunteers locally, supporting other parents who have children with disabilities. “You’ve got to work for it, but it is possible,” she says. “I’m really pleased with how things have worked out.”

Pancheri believes that in order to make flexible working a national success, the pre-existing culture, habits and mind-set of many organisations needs to be challenged. All of which takes time. “We are in the early stages of looking at ‘agile working’ and what that could look like at the LSE. Agile working is a bit of a game changer but appears to be gaining support so far,” she says. “Flexible working isn’t about being a parent anymore; it’s what the millennial generation of workers are coming to expect and it is something organisations should be embracing and seeking to embed wherever possible.

“THE BEST APPS FOR IPAD PRO CONNOISSEURS: 10 ESSENTIALS TO DOWNLOAD RIGHT NOW”

TAG: MACHINE

CATAGORY: TECHNOLOGY

Right out of the box, an iPad Pro can do plenty it lets you create doodles, send emails, watch movies, browse the web, check your schedule, and more. But Apple’s premium tablet really shines when you start adding third-party apps to it.

We found the very best apps for the iPad Pro, ones that will simply supercharge your essays, art, and music. These essential downloads prove the power and versatility of Apple’s top tablet.

1. Procreate:

We could do a whole feature just on digital art apps for the iPad Pro. Out of all of these options, Procreate wins for its breadth of features and intuitive interface. The app offers a wealth of advanced tools well over 100 different brush and pen types, with more than 50 different customizations available on each one. These help you create some seriously brilliant results, from basic digital sketches to advanced computer-generated artwork. Despite this multitude of options, Procreate still manages to avoid making its interface cluttered-looking or difficult to access. It really is a pleasure to use.

Procreate costs a one-time fee of $10. But to get the most out of it, you should also invest in an Apple Pencil ($130 from Apple).

2. Paper:

Paper helps you scribble digital doodles, with an emphasis on taking notes and making plans rather than creating artwork (though the app can do that too). Like actual paper, it lets you organize everything in a series of customized “notebooks.” In another similarity, the interface is very simple to use: It keeps the workspace as the main focus.

Sign up for a Pro subscription ($8 per month), and you can add cross-device syncing, multiple brush sizes, unlimited color swatches, and more features. While you’re buying, be aware that, like Procreate, Paper benefits from the Apple Pencil accessory.

3. Pixelmator:

Pixelmator is a comprehensive image editor for the iPad Pro, and it offers oodles of bonus features, including pixel-by-pixel editing, a vast range of tools, layer support, automatic adjustments, Photoshop compatibility, the ability to drop in text and shapes, and more. Create your own digital artwork from scratch, or make your existing photos look their best: The app can remove blemishes and imperfections from images, clone areas of a picture, blur or sharpen specific regions, and apply a host of color and brightness filters.

This thorough set of options comes with a price tag of $5. Add an Apple Pencil and Pixelmator becomes even easier to control.

4. Microsoft Excel:

Apple is eager to promote the iPad Pro as a serious computing device, and few apps demonstrate this better than Excel. Although it may not be as capable as the full-fat desktop version, Microsoft has been incrementally improving this competent mobile adaptation of Excel over the years and it’s significantly better than it was at launch. For example, the company added the ability to edit two spreadsheets side-by-side earlier this year.

The free app includes key formatting and sharing tools, but you will need an Office 365 subscription from Microsoft to make edits (rather than just view spreadsheets). That’ll set you back $7 per month.

5. YouTube:

This essential video player should be one of the first apps you download onto your new iPad Pro. Whether you want to catch up on the latest sports highlights or learn to play guitar, you’ll find yourself turning to the YouTube app. You can also upload your own video clips straight from an iPad Pro.

With the free YouTube app for the iPad, you’ll have access to content from livestreams to music videos, as well as any shows and movies you’ve purchased from Google. If you pay $12 per month for YouTube Premium, you will also get an ad-free experience and access to some original web shows.

6. Evernote:

Evernote is widely regarded as one of the best note-taking apps in the business. Part of its appeal is that you can adapt it to so many different uses, from taking lecture notes to editing a shopping list shared between multiple family members (everything syncs seamlessly across multiple platforms). Because its interface is easy to navigate on a touchscreen, and it offers support for handwritten notes—whether you scribble them with a finger or an Apple Pencil—Evernote works particularly well on the iPad Pro.

Plenty of these features are available free of charge. If you need access to more features, such as offline support and plug-ins for other mobile apps, you can purchase a premium subscription for $8 a month.

7. LumaFusion:

If you plan to do some advanced video editing on your iPad Pro, Apple’s own iMovie is a decent (and free) choice—but LumaFusion is better. It offers a traditional, timeline-based interface, as well as a host of drag-and-drop functions you can use to split and combine scenes, while adding filters and effects. With a set of comprehensive tools for creating titles, mixing and syncing audio alongside your clips, and introducing effects like slow or fast motion, LumaFusion guides you from the first steps to the final export of your movie masterpiece.

Admittedly, at $30, the price of entry is relatively steep. But if you want your iPad Pro to help you with serious video editing, this app won’t let you down.

8. Notability:

The iPad Pro makes a great note-taking tool, particularly if you download Notability. Your digital scrawls will never have looked so good and well-organized as they are inside this app. It lets you enhance your handwritten text with different pen styles and colors, find search terms within a digitized version of your notes, drop in images and typed words, and import and annotate PDFs. In other words, this is a complete sketching and note-taking solution.

At $9, Notability costs more than a less visually-dazzling option like Evernote. But the iPad Pro was designed for apps like this—it really makes the tablet shine.

9. Google Docs

If you think there are too many note-taking apps for the iPad Pro, just wait until you check out the selection of writing programs. You might opt for anything from Apple’s own Pages to the beautifully-designed Ulysses, but we’ve selected Google Docs. When you write on an iPad Pro, you need an app that focuses on core features like formatting and collaboration without including so many elements that it appears cluttered on screen. Google Docs ticks all the relevant boxes: It’s lightweight, user-friendly, and versatile. It also works offline, so when you lose Wi-Fi or LTE access on your iPad Pro, you can keep typing that report.

Like most Google apps, this one is free to use, and it lets you access your essays from any other mobile device or web browser.

10. Things

If organization buffs plan to manage their tasks and to-do lists on an iPad Pro, they can’t do better than the Things app for iPadOS. It’s almost as fully-featured as the macOS version, which means it gets two thumbs up from us. With simple and intuitive tools for scheduling, sorting, and searching, you can stay on top of all your projects, small and large alike. Choose your favorite view and use it to review what you need to do today and how far along each project is. Meanwhile, integration with the iPadOS Calendar and Siri makes this productivity app even easier to use.

This marks another relatively expensive app in our list. But if you think about the years of use you’re going to get from Things, and the time you’re likely to save with its help, we think the app is worth the outlay.

“LONG-LIFE LEARNING AND THE AGE-INTEGRATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION ”

TAG: ABOUT LEARNING

CATAGORY: EDUCATION

Universities are among the most age-segregated of institutions, catering almost exclusively to young people in their late teens and early 20s, even as new demographic realities render this educational model obsolete.

With unprecedented numbers of adults living longer, many want or need to learn and earn longer too. A new life stage—an encore to conventional adulthood—is opening up between the career- and family-building years, and the frailties associated with old age. Most people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s are healthy, energetic, and often surprised to be pushed into retirement or laid off with few job prospects. While some want to move into full-time leisure, the vast majority seek new pursuits, whether paid or unpaid, that offer meaning and purpose. But they find few roadmaps and few options for long-life learning at universities.

This reality represents a lost opportunity for all parties—older adults and younger ones, universities and society at large. Older and younger adults, both grappling with increasingly ambiguous and uncertain futures, must find their own way without the benefit of each others’ experiences and perspectives. By focusing only on young people, universities pass up a chance to add a new source of revenue, diversify and enrich campus life and learning, and leave a bigger mark on the future. Society, perhaps, loses the most, as younger and older adults represent largely untapped pools of talent that can be marshaled—individually and together—to respond to the social, economic, and environmental shocks characterizing life in the 21st century.

Introducing Multigenerational Initiatives

In 2017, we launched the University of Minnesota Advanced Careers Initiative (UMAC) to help older adults discover new futures, bring the generations together, and reimagine higher education as a welcoming place for people of all ages. UMAC connects multigenerational learning with social impact work, bringing younger and older students together in classes that address issues like inequality, climate change, global health, and social justice. These classes have fostered collaborative, cross-generational relationships that often extend beyond the classroom.

The University of Minnesota is one of a small but growing number of universities that are bringing encore adults to their campuses to help them prepare for engaged, longer lives. Unlike conventional continuing education programs—such as Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes, which offer age-segregated, enrichment courses for retirees—these initiatives intentionally mix their older and younger students in classrooms. They also encourage older students, often known as fellows, to plan second careers in the nonprofit sector or as entrepreneurs.

Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative, launched in 2008, led the way with this model. Its year-long program targets corporate executives with at least 20 years of experience who are ready for their next chapters. These fellows take classes with younger students, attend some seminars together, and develop a plan for “a program, an organization, a foundation” with the potential for “significant impact on a major problem.”

Meanwhile, Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute, Notre Dame’s Inspired Leadership Initiative, and The University of Texas’s Tower Fellows Program emphasize exploration, personal growth, and purpose. All attract professionals with distinguished careers seeking a new trajectory for their lives. These programs encourage fellows to take courses in subjects they haven’t studied before or that didn’t exist when they were younger, attend campus events, and share their transition challenges with one another.

Cost represents a major barrier, however, with 2021 program fees starting at $53,000, depending on the program, plus housing expenses. While scholarships are sometimes available, these programs are designed primarily for people of means. By contrast, UMAC’s nine-month program, the first multigenerational university program at a public university, costs $16,000. As growing numbers of people seek encores to their careers, we need to make programs like these more accessible to a broad mix of older adults, including those with modest incomes.

Layers of Learning

In the grand scheme of university life, these programs are all nascent, enrolling relatively small numbers of students and still learning a great deal about what constitutes success. Over the past few years, UMAC has exceeded expectations in some ways and fallen short in others. But the work has shown that universities have a great deal to gain from offering programs that engage older adults in the fabric of higher education.

The lessons we’ve learned can serve as guideposts for those at other colleges and universities who want to begin to move from age-segregated institutions to age-integrated ones.

1. Create an intentional, intergenerational learning community. Connecting learners of different ages in the classroom melds experience and exploration, often with transformative results. At UMAC, a retired neonatologist brought practical insights from his experience with infant care to a global health class. A realtor contemplating next steps gained new understandings of structural inequalities around race and housing, learning from the experiences of younger students in the class. An advertising executive collaborated with students in a community-organizing class to uncover parallels between the lived experiences of people involved in the 1960s civil rights movement and today’s Black Lives Matter movement.

In intergenerational classes, older and younger students share their skills and knowledge, providing reciprocal mentoring and creating strong bonds across generations. The simplistic framing is that older adults offer career expertise, such as interviewing skills and professional networks, while younger students offer technological savvy. But age-integrated classes help create much deeper connections across the generations.

Some encore adults and undergraduates who meet in courses discover they both share a passion for the environment or early learning and decide to collaborate on a class project or meet for discussions outside of class. Others realize that despite their age difference, they’re both grappling with what they want to do with the rest of their lives and can benefit from exchanging advice. And many form long-lasting friendships that challenge age stereotypes.

2. Build on existing infrastructure. Using existing resources and curricula helped integrate UMAC into the overall university community, alerting others to the program’s presence and paving the way for deeper impact across the university.

As an example, we leveraged the university’s Grand Challenge Curriculum, a collection of interdisciplinary classes focusing on contemporary issues. At first, we encouraged a few faculty members teaching these courses to invite UMAC fellows to join the classes. In addition to doing course work, the older fellows served as volunteers, helping undergraduates with projects or professors with research or other administrative tasks. We then approached colleagues in other university centers and institutes to open their doors to UMAC fellows, too, spreading the knowledge and skills older adults bring to a wider audience. A UMAC fellow with a background in investment banking, for example, joined the university’s Venture Center business advisory team, bringing valuable expertise to early-stage startups.

On the flip side, we built UMAC within the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation, an interdisciplinary research institute. But while aligned from a research perspective, we had to look elsewhere for grounding when it came to spreading the word.

3. Determine funding needs and sources before launch. UMAC intentionally started small and under the radar. By launching as a pilot, we gained the flexibility and time to experiment with program design, learn what worked, and implement best practices. But our unobtrusive launch hindered financial resource development, compared to a bolder unveiling. The result was a skeleton staff with limited bandwidth for internal promotion, external marketing, and recruitment.

We received modest funding from the University of Minnesota’s provost to launch, but the $16,000 fellows pay in fees doesn’t cover ongoing operational costs. At this point, we need to admit at least 40 fellows to be sustainable.

The challenge is to find a way to garner necessary resources while simultaneously having room to try out various approaches. Given our experience, we recommend that new multigenerational learning programs solicit assistance from existing institutes or centers at their universities to contain costs. They should also consider raising as much financial support as possible from leaders, trustees, alumni, or other sources before launching, especially if they plan to keep program costs for participants low. A financial cushion and/or partnership with another institute or center on campus would have given us the opportunity to invest in areas like marketing and recruitment from the beginning.

4. Encourage an ongoing alumni network. Multigenerational university initiatives build age-integrated communities for encore adults at a time in their lives when they’re separating from familiar work environments and need new support networks. These new communities foster relationships among older students and between older and younger ones, creating bonds that last beyond time on campus and opening doors for fruitful alumni connections.

Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute (DCI), for example, invites alumni to return to the campus for periodic visits and alumni gatherings. In 2018, it created the dciX program to promote ongoing connections between current fellows and alumni, while offering a conduit for continued engagement with Stanford University. UMAC fellows also stay connected with each other and with undergraduate students they continue to mentor. Many maintain ties with the nonprofits where they volunteered as part of their fellowship.

A Blueprint for the Future

Younger and older adults, from their late teens to their 80s and beyond, confront two common sets of choices: how to fashion their own futures in a world of ambiguity, hyper-change, and risk, and how to respond to the pressing societal problems of our times.

Universities can help both generations grapple with these choices together instead of on their own. Based on our experience at UMAC, the resulting multigenerational learning is richer for students of all ages and life stages.

Universities have long histories of age segregation, and while innovative ideas for integration abound, they often topple under the weight of established practice, bureaucracy, and institutional inertia. Change eventually occurs, organizational scholars say, when the costs of doing nothing outweigh the costs of change. As leaders of higher education come to recognize the imperative to address urgent societal challenges—including the shift to a world with more people over age 65 than under age 18—that time is now.

“MEDIA BUYING AND MEDIA PLANNING”

TAG : MEDIA

CATAGORY : DIGITAL MARKETING.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, the list goes on and on of the different digital media channels out there, and these are just the social ones.

As media continues to grow, it can be hard to keep up. A busy brand doesn’t have the time for that. Understandable.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone to help you create a media strategy and then another person to implement that strategy for the best price?

That’s exactly what a media planner and media buyer does. Here, we will walk through the basics.

What Is Media Planning?

Media planners are the people figuring out which media platform to use for a new campaign. To make the most effective decision, they will complete research to figure out how to achieve what the client wants.

They will then set a budget, outline objectives and goals for the campaign, and choose more than one platform if necessary. A media planner will have certain skill sets to get the job done, such as:

Attention to detail

Negotiation skills

Commercial awareness

Understanding of numeracy and data analysis

Confidence

Organizational skills

Interpersonal and communication skills.

The process of media planning includes these four steps:

Internal Market Research:

Conducting internal market research involves learning everything possible about the client. A media planner will soon understand the client’s brand identity to figure out what their unique selling point is.

External Market Research:

External market research is about looking at what the competitors in the same industry are doing. A media planner will explore how a brand is currently creating ads and how it compares to the competition.

They’ll also take a look at the intended audience and what attracts them. This will help them decide on what media outlets to use.

Setting Objectives and Goals:

A campaign is created with the combination of what the client wants and what the media planner believes they should achieve. A media planner can make every dollar of your marketing budget work in your favor.

By working with media buyers, a media planner can create objectives and goals that they can reach for a brand.

Creating a Budget:

Determining the message of a brand is just one step of the media planning process. A planner will then allocate funds to ensure the message is seen on the respective platforms.

While creating a budget, the media planner will allocate a percentage to each channel. For example, a brand may spend 50% of the budget on social media and leave the rest for mobile ads, billboards, radio, etc.

What Is Media Buying?

Media buyers will receive the strategy created by the media planners. Once they get that strategy, they will work on the most effective media channels and look for cost-effective options.

A good media buyer will have a complete understanding of the current marketplace. They are also responsible for creating relationships with vendors.

Media buyers and planners may be integrated under the same roof, but media buyers sometimes come from a separate agency. To be a great media buyer, these skills are necessary:

Communication and negotiation skills

Decisiveness

Understanding of media analytics software

Organization skills

Ability to multitask

Attention to detail

Ability to understand a lot of information at once

Identification of target audiences

The specifics of the things that media buyers do are:

Creating Contacts:

Media buying is a lot about who you know. A media buyer can create the best return on investment for a brand because they have access to the best deals through their relationships.

Knowing About Media Channels:

Knowing the right people is important as a media buyer, but understanding media channels is also a huge part of the job. There are different target audiences that media channels are best for.

A media buyer will have the best knowledge of media channels to find the perfect space for a brand. They will also have the negotiation skills to ensure a brand gets the best deal possible.

Ad space will have a price based on the traffic and exposure of the space. It’s no wonder why Super Bowl commercial spots are pricey.

If the media planner allocated the budget correctly, the price tag will be worth the return. A media buyer must use their negotiation skills to buy a specific ad space below or at the budgeted amount.

Tweaking Campaigns:

The media buyer is responsible for the strategy after the media planner sends it off. The media buyer will then keep a close eye on the channels being used to make sure the campaign is effective throughout its lifetime.

A media buyer is flexible during this process as they gather data about the performance of the campaign. If the project gets off course, a media buyer can use specific tools like programmatic advertising to keep the campaign aligned.

After the campaign is finished, a media plan will be created. This plan is the collective results from the final campaign evaluation.

Media Planning and Buying Terminology:

When working on an advertising campaign, you’ll come across many different terms that you may be unfamiliar with. The terms that correlate to media planning and buyer are:

Inventory

Inventory is another word for ad placements that can describe the amount of available ad space. This could be an amount based on what a publisher can sell or what the media buyer actually purchases.

You’ll hear this term in traditional and digital advertising.

Media Mix

Media mix refers to all of the media channels a brand will use to achieve its campaign goals. For example, your media mix could be online videos, radio, social media, and SEM.

Whatever you use for a campaign to reach your marketing goals is considered your media mix.

Scheduling

A media planner and buyer will schedule certain ads at a time and on a specific day for various media channels. Scheduling will depend on the target audience.

Targeting

Targeting is one of the more common terms you’ll hear in marketing. A media planner will identify the ideal audience that should hear the campaign message through internal and external market research.

Target Audience/Market

This is another common term you can’t go without hearing in the marketing world. Once targeting is complete, the audience that has been chosen is the target audience/market. These groups can be specific or broad.

Manual Bidding

Manual bidding is not the same as automation or programmatic buying. In fact, it is the opposite.

Manual bidding involves changing the bid on ads based on engagement, keyword performance, cost, etc.

Automatic Bidding/Programmatic Media Buying

Automatic bidding, otherwise known as ad programmatic media buying, is an automated process of buying and selling ad space. If done in real-time, it is known as real-time bidding (RTB).

It replaces a manual negotiation as it is based on algorithms in digital technology. We’ll go more into detail about this term later in the article.

Real-Time Bidding (RTB)

Real-time bidding is when ad impressions are sold by media vendors through an ad exchange platform. Every impression is sold when it becomes available in real-time, hence the name.

As the market conditions change, advertisers can adjust their bids.

Guaranteed Inventory/Direct Buys

A media planner or buyer can secure bulk ad placements at a fixed CPM (cost per thousand impressions). This method guarantees that certain people will see the ad from their campaign.

The guarantee comes at a higher cost, but since there is no risk, many brands find it worth it.

Non-Guaranteed Inventory

Non-guaranteed inventory is sometimes interchangeable with real-time bidding. It works similar to an auction as advertisers bid against each other to secure the best ad placement possible.

It is called a non-guaranteed inventory because the ad placement is not guaranteed. Guaranteed inventory will have top priority for the best ad placements over this method.

For those with smaller budgets, this method may work best. However, it involves a lot of monitoring of the ad performance in real-time.

Cost Per Thousand (CPM)

CPM refers to the cost of an ad per 1,000 people that see it. The price will be higher if more people are going to see it and vice versa.

Request for Proposal (RFP)

An RFP is a document that a media buyer or other member of an agency will submit during the bidding process. The intent is to express interest in ad placement by reaching out to a media vendor.

The Media Planning and Buying Process in Simple Terms

Simply put, the media buying and planning process takes just five steps to complete. Those steps being:

Identifying a target audience through market research

Understanding the interest of the audience

Finding the audience at their most receptive times

Delivering content that drives the audience to take action

Testing ad placements over and over to see what is and is not working

The five-step process can help a brand connect with its audience as they are going through the buyer journey. The four stages of a buyer’s journey are attract, convert, close, and delight.

During the attract stage, a brand can reach the audience through any of the following media buying tactics:

SEM

SEO

Social media

Digital display

Outdoor

Radio

TV

Print

PR

At the convert stage, brands will target the audience using social media, video, content, retargeting, and landing pages. They are then led to the close stage where lead nurture campaigns, email optimization, and CRM database management can be used.

Last, we have the delight stage. This is where a customer really falls in love with a brand after it has worked so hard with media planning and buying. This stage typically involves client communications and social media engagement.

How Media Buys Are Negotiated

To get a brand the best deal, a media buyer must know how to properly negotiate a media buy. After receiving a strategy from the media planner, a media buyer will execute the plan in the following ways:

Research

During this process, the research never ends. The more information that is known, the better. Like media planners, media buyers must complete research to know the answers to these questions:

What is the cost of leads in the industry?

What is the standard cost of ad placement on various channels?

What types of ads and sizes perform best on those channels?

The answer to those three simple questions can help a media buyer understand how to create a successful campaign.

Budgeting

During each negotiation, a media buyer will have detailed information on the budget. For premium spots, brands may be willing to up the ante.

Before getting to the negotiation process, it is essential to know the overall budget. A media buyer will figure out how to make the most of that budget while understanding the wishes of the brand.

As a general rule of thumb in media buying, a professional will make their first bid lower than their target price. This opens the floor up for negotiation and may lead to leftover money in the budget.

Backup Plans

A good media buyer will always have a backup plan and multiple relationships with vendors that they can reach out to. Even if the brand has its sights set on a specific TV network or publisher, the spots may be filled or out of the budget.

When this happens, a media buyer should already have additional options to come up with a fast solution to the problem. A brand needs to know when they should back away and try a different option.

Lead Generation

This is an essential step in the media buying negotiation process. A buyer should always consider what they want their lead filters to be before the negotiation ends. You can’t always adjust filters after.

Value Add-Ons

A media buyer with a good relationship with a vendor is more likely to get value add-ons free of charge. This provides a brand with more exposure than what their budget originally aimed for.

The Contract

Anything that was negotiated with the media buyer and the vendor will be stated in a written contract. Without this, a vendor may not provide what was negotiated.

Negotiation Types

The two main types of negotiations used in media buying are zero-sum and integrative.

Zero-sum negotiations happen when one or both of the parties cannot compromise on an agreement. This is not a great negotiation style as it can ruin the ongoing relationship with a media buyer and vendor.

Through integrative negotiations, both parties agree so that each side gets a good deal. Because both parties are happy, this is the most effective media buying negotiation type.

Media Buying Tactics

As mentioned above, many different media buying tactics can place an ad in front of the ideal audience. A media planner will decide which one to use based on what the research suggests about the audience.

It is not enough to target an audience one time. Even after you convert them into customers, it is essential to continue advertising to them.

When you connect to your target market over and over again, you’ll have a complete inbound marketing strategy that relies on media planning and buying.

The Central Bank is the highest authority in the banking sector and it supervises, controls and regulates the monetary and financial activities of the banking sector in a country. Central Bank is also known as the apex bank in a country. In India, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is the Central Bank. One of the pivotal features of Central Bank is that it has complete or residuary monopoly over note issue in a country. The function of central bank are as follows:

ISSUER OF CURRENCY

The Central Bank has the monopoly right to issue currency in a country and control the volume of currency and credit. The currency which issued by the apex bank is the legal currency and is circulated in the country. Generally, Central Banks issues currency by having a reserve backup. As of India, RBI has a minimum reserve of Rs.200 crores in form of gold of value Rs.115 crores and Rs.85 crores in form of foreign securities.

BANKER TO THE GOVERNMENT

Just like how the commercial banks are to the public, the Central Bank acts as a banker to the government. It also accepts deposits and provide loans to the government. Central Bank accepts receipts and make payments, provides loans and advances and provide remittance services just like banks.

BANKER’S BANK AND SUPERVISOR

Central Bank acts as a banker’s bank :

• It is a custodian of their cash reserves.
• It is the lender of last resort.
• It acts as a clearing house for member banks.

CONTROLLER OF CREDIT AND MONEY SUPPLY

Central Bank controls money supply and credit through monetary policy. It controls the volume of currency by restricting its issue and controls credit through various qualitative and quantitative measures.

EXCHANGHE CONTROL

The next function is to maintain the exchange value of currency. In exchange control system in India, every citizen has to deposit the foreign exchange he receives with the RBI. For securing foreign exchange, it must make an application to the RBI in the prescribed form.

LENDER OF LAST RESORT

During emergency situations where commercial banks are unable to fulfil the obligations of their depositors, they approach the Central Bank as the lender of last resort. Central Bank rediscounts its eligible securities and provide loans against these securities. It prevents the banking system from a failure or breakdown.

CUSTODIAN FOR FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES

The Central Bank is responsible for maintaining the external value of the currency and thus maintains some gold and foreign currencies so that in the event of fluctuations, Central Bank buys and sells foreign exchange in the market to minimize the effect.

CLEARING HOUSE FUNCTION

The Central Bank acts as a Clearing House for its member banks. Banks receive cheque drawn on other banks from customers which has to be realized from drawee’s bank. Cheques are also drawn and passed on to other banks which also needs to be realized from drawee bank. Central Bank allows other banks to come together to set off their cheque claims without physical movement of money through the clearance facility.

PUBLICATION OF DATA

Finally, the Central Bank also collects and publishes various statistical data relating to the banking and financial sectors of the economy.

Relevant links:https://hscprojects.com/central-bank-functions-economics-project/#:~:text=The%20main%20function%20of%20a%20central%20bank%20is,during%20times%20of%20bank%E2%80%99s%20insolvency%20or%20financial%20crisis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_Bank_of_India

Book – The power of your subconscious mind

Author – Dr Joseph Murphy

About the Author

Dr Joseph Murphy devoted a good part of his life studying eastern religions and was an intellectual of the book I Ching, the Chinese manuscript of insight. For 28 years, he was priest at the Los Angeles branch of the Church of Divine Science. It was a New Thought church that encourages a practical holiness, free of religious faith and dogma.

He believed he had found secrets concerning the subconscious that were beyond time and culture.

Murphy’s idea is very simple and minimal. He states that if you desire for something, just implant that idea into your non-repellent (Subconscious) mind.

How this strategy work

The author saw the subconscious mind as a shady room in which we create images that we want to live in real life. While the alert mind sees an incident happening, takes a photo of it and recollects it. Whereas the subconscious mind works in reverse, ‘seeing’ something before it happens.

The subconscious is neutral in a moral sense, so pleased to adopt any routine as ‘normal’, good or bad. We let harmful thoughts dive into the subconscious every minute of our lives, then are amazed when we find result in day-to-day experiences and relationships.

Knowledge of the subconscious means we can rule the thoughts and images we feed to our mind. This idea makes author’s book to be one of the best books ever. It has instructions and affirmations that will have the greatest effect on the subconscious, a tool of freedom. Having a perception that your subconscious mind is like a photographic mechanism which removes makes the struggle in life easy; if it is just a subject of changing current mental images with new ones, change seems easy.

Trusting your Subconscious

‘The law of your mind is the law of belief itself,’ author wrote. We should make ‘the truth’ our utmost value. The truth is weak next to the actual power of belief in shaping our lives. Whatever you feed your subconscious, it will digest it as fact.

Strength and Fortune

In the ancient times, it was the influence of recommendation and acceptance in the subconscious mind that healed. Wonders of healing, Dr Joseph said, are basically the body following the subconscious mind’s knowledge of ‘perfect health’ when the paranoid nature of the normal conscious mind is hushed.

The other feature of mental healing is the foundation that our minds are part of a larger human mind, related to ‘infinite intelligence’. This is why it is not crazy, author claimed, to believe you can heal people not actually near to you, by picturing health, energy and love for them.

As there is a belief of health and harmony in the world, so there is a principle of abundance. Those aware of this will not have a nervous breakdown if their business is lost but understand it as a message to get reacquainted with the fact of a prosperous universe.

The ‘feeling of wealth’, author said, produces wealth in reality. He shows how to indicate to the subconscious so the abundant images reproduce themselves in real life. Law of Attraction always works.

Lord Dalhousie was the one who introduced railways, electric telegraph and uniform postage in India. Born and brought up in an age which ideologically belonged to Bentham and his followers,9 it was indeed difficult for Dalhousie, though essentially a conservative, to escape their influence. Dalhousie gave first proof of his utilitarianism when in I845 he joined Peel Cabinet, which had succeeded Melbourne, as President of the Board of Trade. Dalhousie laid before Peel “a sound and statesman like scheme” for placing British railways under the direct control of the state. Dalhousie scheme was not accepted, for in those days Parliament looked coldly upon any scheme which savoured of state interference with individual or class interests. But what Dalhousie could not achieve in England, he achieved in India.Bentham thought that an absolute authority would be the best machine to produce the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people and the British colonies like India appeared to the philosopher as the best fields for experimentation in reforms. It is true that Dalhousie was not the only Governor-General to wield absolute powers in India; his predecessors also did the same. But what is interesting to note here is that, unlike his predecessors, Dalhousie actually looked upon himself as an Oriental monarch, the source of all power and dispenser of all favour. Dalhousie’s modus operandi was basically the same as that of an authoritarian reformer. While in India, he acquainted himself ‘thoroughly with the system of Government and its administration, with the condition, the resources and the wants of the country’. He made a clear distinction between those functions which must be carried out by an authoritarian government and those which were to be executed by a third party. While education, the electric telegraph and the uniform postage came under the first category, railways came under the second. The first group consisted of ‘works which affect the general wellbeing of the community … and which, producing no immediate return must be executed by the Government if they are to be formed at all’. Since the second group, such as the introduction of railways, would bring immense profits to some commercial groups in England, they must be executed by them.Dalhousie approached the problems of infanticide, female education and the remarriage of Hindu Widows with the spirit of a Bentham. In the connation his appointment of the Commissioners of the Post Office to investigate the abuses of the postal system is one of the most direct proofs of his utilitarianism during his stay in India. Indeed, the way in which he sought to execute his social measures for the material improvement of the people owes much to Bentham’s ideas. In India the origin of the departments of railways, electric telegraph and post office may be traced to the same influences which were at work in Dalhousie’s mind. ‘My own opinion’, he wrote on 30 June 1854, ‘has long been decidedly in favour of placing a single authority at the head of every public department. In that form only can sustained promptitude of action be maintained and real responsibility enforced.’In the utilitarian philosophy of an authoritarian government, unity of authority is as essential as uniformity of management. Dalhousie accepted this principle and he was always careful that his social measures should be uniform, in other words, systematic. He insisted that the railway codes in one Presidency should not vary from those in another. Since the railways were an all-India enterprise, the codes to govern them should be uniform. Local Government could modify them to suit local conditions but the basic codes must be the same for the three Presidencies. It must, however, be remembered that Dalhousie never gave explicit expression to his beliefs in utilitarian principles. The classic example among some of Dalhousie’s predecessors who had accepted utilitarian-ism as their second faith was provided by Bentinck. In a farewell dinner at Grote’s house, just on the eve of his departure for India as its Governor-General, in December i827, Bentinck had said to James Mill; ‘I am going to British India; but I shall not be Governor- General. It is you that will be Governor-General.’ Viewed as a whole, Dalhousie’s regime contributed greatly to the transformation of Oriental India into Western India. The series of Western innovations he had introduced and the reforms he had carried out, Dalhousie thought, would strengthen the grip of the British Raj over India. It was perhaps the greatest limitation of Dalhousie that he failed to see the future that a modern country would give birth to a modern nation. In history things often happen which their authors do not intend to happen, and after they have happened they make them famous.

In India today, Dalhousie is remembered more as a catalyst in the growth of Indian nationalism than as a torch-bearer of British imperialism or as the man at the root of the mutiny which swept the Indian sky in I857.

Unemployment, also referred to as joblessness, occurs when people are without work and actively seeking employment. During periods of recession, an economy usually experiences high unemployment rates. There are many proposed causes, consequences, and solutions for unemployment.

TYPES OF UNEMPLOYMENT

1. CLASSICAL-Occurs when real wages for jobs are set above the market clearing level. It causes the number of job seekers to be higher than the number of vacancies.
2. CYCLICAL-Occurs when there is not enough aggregate demand in the economy to provide jobs for everyone who wants to work. Demand for goods and services decreases, less production is needed, and fewer workers are needed.
3. STRUCTURAL-Occurs when the labor market is not able to provide jobs for everyone who wants to work. There is a mismatch between the skills of the unemployed workers and the skills needed for available jobs. It differs from frictional unemployment because it lasts longer.
4. FRICTIONAL-The time period between jobs when a worker is searching for work or transitioning from one job to another.
5. HIDDEN-The unemployment of potential workers that is not taken into account in official unemployment statistics because of how the data is collected. Foe example, workers are only considered unemployed if they are looking for work so those without jobs who have stopped looking are no longer considered unemployed.
6. LONG TERM-Usually defined as unemployment lasting longer than one year.

MEASURING UNEMPLOYMENT-Unemployment is calculated as a percentage by divided the number of unemployed individuals by the number of all individuals currently employed in the workplace. The final measurement is called the rate of unemployment.

EFFECTS OF UNEMPLOYMENT-When unemployment rates are high and steady, there are negative impacts on the long run economic growth. Unemployment wastes resources, generates redistributive pressures and distortions, increases poverty, limits labor mobility, and promotes social unrest and conflict. The effects of unemployment can be broken down into three types:

1. INDIVIDUAL-People who are unemployed cannot earn money to meet their financial obligations. Unemployment can lead to homelessness, illness, and mental stress. It can also cause underemployment where workers take on jobs that are below their skill level.
2. SOCIAL-An economy that has high unemployment is not using all of its resources efficiently, specifically labor. When individuals accept employment below their skill level the economies efficiently is reduced further. Workers lose skills which causes a loss of human capital.
3. SOCIO-POLITICAL-High unemployment rates can cause civil unrest in a country.

REDUCING UNEMPLOYMENT-There are numerous solutions that can help reduce the amount of unemployment:

1. DEMAND SIDE SOLUTIONS-Many countries are unemployed worker through social welfare programs. Individuals receive unemployment benefits include insurance, compensation, welfare, and subsidies to aid in retraining. An example of a demand side solution is government funded employment of the able-bodied poor.
2. SUPPLY SIDE SOLUTIONS-The labor market is not 100% efficient. Supply side solutions remove the minimum wage and reduce the power of unions. The policies are designed to make the market more flexible in an attempt to increase long run economic growth. Examples of supply side solutions include cutting taxes on businesses, reducing regulation, and increasing education.

FULL EMPLOYMENT-Full employment is the level of employment rates where there is no cyclical or deficient demand unemployment. Mainstream economists define full employment as an acceptable level of unemployment somewhere above 0%. Full employment represents a range of possible unemployment rates based on the country, time period, and political basis.

IDEAL UNEMPLOYMENT-Full employment is often seen as an “ideal” unemployment rate. Ideal unemployment excludes types of unemployment where labor market inefficiency is reflected. Only some frictional and unemployment exists, where workers are temporarily searching for new jobs. This classifies the unemployed individuals as being without a job voluntarily. Ideal unemployment promotes the efficiency of the economy. Lord William Beveridge defined “full employment” as the situation where the number of unemployed workers equaled the number of job vacancies available. He preferred that the economy be kept above the full employment level to allow for maximum economic production.

NON-ACCELERATING INFLATION RATE OF UNEMPLOYMENT(NAIRU)-The full employment unemployment rate is also referred to as “natural” unemployment. In an effort to avoid this normative connotation, James Tobin introduced the term “Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment” also known as the NAIRU. It corresponds to the level of unemployment when the real GDP equals potential output. The NAIRU has been called the “inflation threshold”. The NAIRU states the inflation does not rise or fall when unemployment equals the natural rate. As an example, the United States is committed to full employment. The “Full Employment Act” was passed in 1946 and revised in 1978. It states that full employment in the United States is no more than 3% unemployment for persons 20 and older, and 4% for persons aged 16 and over.

Credit creation is one of the important functions of a commercial bank.

“A commercial bank is one that accepts deposits and lend loans and earns an income with the difference.”

Commercial banks expand the money supply in the economy through the form of credit creation. The banking structure is based on credit. Credit basically means getting the purchasing power now and promising to pay at some time in the future. Bank credit means bank loans and advances. Banks generally accept deposits but do not give the whole as loans. The banks keep a minimum reserve of the deposits for the demand of depositors and provides the remaining as loans. The deposits are generally ‘demand deposits’ which can be repayable on demand.

When providing a loan, the bank does not provide it as cash but opens a secondary depository account in the name of the borrower. Now, let us see what is primary and secondary deposits.

Primary deposits are deposits from a customer to a bank which forms the basis of credit. Secondary deposits are loans provided by bank to the borrower. The bank opens an account in the name of the borrower. In credit creation, every loan transaction happens only by opening a secondary depository account.

Let us understand the process of credit creation through the table below

The table above explains the process of credit creation by a single bank. In the table, the cash reserves are kept so that the bank can meet depositor’s needs and lends the rest of the deposits. In this bank, the cash reserves are kept at 20% of the total deposits. Now, a person A deposits an amount say Rs.1000. Person A’s deposits are the initial primary deposits. Of this 20%, that is, Rs.200 is taken for cash reserves and the remaining Rs.800 is taken for lending. Another person, say person B borrows an amount of Rs.800. This money is neither given in form of cash nor straightly to his bank account. The money is given in the form of secondary deposits. This marks the Round 1 of credit creation. Since the money is given in secondary deposits, for the bank, it considers it to be a new deposit because cash at bank increases by Rs800 and by charging 20% cash reserves and give the remaining amount of Rs.640 to lending to say, person C. This process continues for several rounds until the deposits become zero. At the end of the process, the bank has managed to multiply the amount of money supply which is circulating in the economy. As of the above example, the initial deposit amount was Rs.1000 but in the end, through the Multiplier Effect the money created is Rs.5000. Multiplier Effect refers to the ability of the bank to increase money supply through the process of borrowing and lending.

MULTIPLIER EFFECT = 1/CRR = 1/20% = 5 times

where CRR is the Cash Reserve Ratio

We can see observe from the table that the deposits have been multiplied by 5 times by the bank.

Relevant links:https://www.slideshare.net/ramusakha/credit-creation-28701684

https://byjus.com/commerce/credit-creation-by-commercial-bank/

Information about dried fruit is very conflicting.

    Some say it is a nutritious, healthy snack, while others claim it is no better than candy.

WHAT IS DRIED FRUIT?

Dried fruit is fruit that has had almost all of the water content removed through drying methods.

The fruit shrinks during this process, leaving a small, energy-dense dried fruit.

Raisins are the most common type, followed by dates, prunes, figs and apricots.

Other varieties of dried fruit are also available, sometimes in candied form (sugar coated). These include mangoes, pineapples, cranberries, bananas and apples.

Dried fruit can be preserved for much longer than fresh fruit and can be a handy snack, particularly on long trips where refrigeration is not available.

Dried Fruit is Loaded With Micronutrients, Fiber and Antioxidants 

Dried fruit is highly nutritious.

One piece of dried fruit contains about the same amount of nutrients as the fresh fruit, but condensed in a much smaller package.

By weight, dried fruit contains up to 3.5 times the fiber, vitamins and minerals of fresh fruit.

Therefore, one serving can provide a large percentage of the daily recommended intake of many vitamins and minerals, such as folate .

However, there are some exceptions. For example, the vitamin C content is significantly reduced when the fruit is dried.

Dried fruit generally contains a lot of fiber and is a great source of antioxidants, especially polyphenols .

Raisins May Reduce the Risk of Certain Diseases 

Raisins are dried grapes.

They are packed with fiber, potassium and various health-promoting plant compounds.

Prunes are Natural Laxatives and May Help Fight Diseases

Prunes are dried plums.

They are highly nutritious, being rich in fiber, potassium, beta-carotene (vitamin A) and vitamin K.

They are known for their natural laxative effects.

This is caused by their high content of fiber and a sugar alcohol called sorbitol, which is found naturally in some fruit.

Eating prunes has been shown to help improve stool frequency and consistency. Prunes are considered to be even more effective at relieving constipation than psyllium, which is another common remedy.

Dried Fruit is High in Natural Sugar and Calories 

Fruit tend to contain significant amounts of natural sugars.Because the water has been removed from dried fruit, this concentrates all the sugar and calories in a much smaller package.For this reason, dried fruit is very high in calories and sugar, including both glucose and fructose.below are some examples of the natural sugar content of dried fruit.

Avoid Dried Fruit with Added Sugar (Candied Fruit) .

To make some dried fruit even more sweet and appealing, they are coated with added sugar or syrup before being dried.

Dried fruit with added sugar are also referred to as “candied” fruit.

Added sugar has repeatedly been shown to have harmful effects on health, increasing the risk of obesity, heart disease and even cancer.

To avoid dried fruit that contains added sugar, it is very important to read the ingredients and nutrition information found on the package.

Sulfites are added to some dried fruit to preserve color, which may cause adverse effects in sensitive individuals. Dried fruit that is improperly stored and handled may also be contaminated with fungi and toxins.