Saturday, January 25, 2020

Impact Of Social Networking On E Business Information Technology Essay

Impact Of Social Networking On E Business Information Technology Essay Social networks have changed the way internet users communicate, search for and share data today. For example, increasing the relations between e-businesses and social networks can improve user satisfaction. Using data from blogs, forums and online journals, the evaluated impact that social networking has on e-businesses and e-commerce sites. The results show that while the majority of users do engage in social networking, those e-businesses and e-commerce site that transact with the social networking sites generally obtain significant benefits in the form of product promotion, branding and higher user satisfaction that the ones that dont. This is clearly shown by the illustration and graphs shown in this research paper. Introduction In its early years, e-business was used for uploading basic information about products and services and now it provides corporate information on sites that sell goods and services on the internet. If compared to e-commerce, the purchases made online are unlimited. E-commerce involves online financial transactions Top social networking sites like Facebook, Hi5, Friendster and MySpace have made a significant impact on how todays internet users communicate, search and share data. Users join these social networks, publish and maintain their own profiles by using publishing tools, they also establish links to their friends. The social links are evidence that trust has been established between the connected users. The marketing strategies of social networks can have a huge impact on e-business, for example, users can become members of both the social network and e-business. For example, users who buy or sell items on Ebay can leave links of their products on their MySpace account. To guide their financial decision-making, the social networks and e-business offers users information on how they are connected to each potential transaction partner. Since majority of internet users engage in social networking sites, those who do business with friends of friends end up benefiting from higher user satisfaction. The analyzed results show that social networking has a positive impact on e-business. Outline of the paper This paper is organized as follows: Section 2: Introduces Social Networking Section 3: Introduces E-business Section 4: Introduces E-commerce Section 5: Outlines the impact of social networking on e-commerce and e-business Section 6: Conclusion Social networking Social networking has always been known for its interactive communication with online participants who are brought together electronically to share views, upload images and so many other features. Social networking is free and all it takes is commitment, it has a short learning curve and provides access to global market. TagWorld social site was the first to embrace e-business and that has revolutionized social networking, it has also given them a competitive advantage over their rivals like MySpace and Facebook. TagWorld members can post items for sale in the new classifieds section, which can be searched by tag similar to a subject or catagory, keyword or zip code radius. Multiple images of an item can be included with the ad, as well as a payment model. Sellers can choose a fixed price or mark the item negotiable which allows buyers and sellers to haggle over a price. PayPal is integrated into the site to make paying for items easier. Items appearing in the classifieds can also appear in storefronts that members can incorporate into their personal Web pages. Mello (2006) T [8]Below is the size and growth of the top social networking sites. Profiles 12 months Growth Hi5 98.9m 33.6m 51.6% Facebook 50.1m n/a n/a Friendster 50.9m 19.6m 62.5% MySpace 184.1m 82.7m 81.5% Size Growth There are two types of social networking services they are, internal and external. Internal Social Networking These are for private communities like companies, organizations or associations. Most companies want their staff to stop using external social networks since its unproductive, so they block the external social sites. [2]Their staff can communicate with each other or even with different departments. [1]External Social Networking This is a public network, where all web users can access it. Most social networking sites are used to attract advertisers. A good example is Facebook, Hi5, Friendster and MySpace. Social Networking Analysis This is the mapping and measuring of relationships between people. It is used for the analysis of social structures. A good example of a social networking analysis tool is the Sentinel Visualizer product [5]. The tool is used to measure the degree of centrality, betweenness centrality, closeness and Eigenvalue. Degree centrality This is simply the number of direct relationship that a user has. If a user has more relationship, he or she is an active player in the network as shown below. In the above illustration, Alice has the highest degree centrality, which means that she is quite active in the network. For her to get to Rafaels clique she has to go through him [5]. Betweenness Centrality This identifies a users position within a network in terms of their ability to make connections with other groups in the network. The user with a high betweeness centrality has a big influence in the network as shown below. In the example above, Rafael has the highest betweenness because he is between Alice and Aldo. Alice and Aldo have a slightly lower betweenness because they are essentially only between their own cliques. Closeness This measures how fast a user can access more users in a network. A user with a high closeness has a high visibility as to what is happening in the network. Eigenvalue This measures how close a user is to other highly close users within a network, this is measured globally. Some companies like SAS Institute have come up with a system called SASÂ ® which detects and prevents fraud on social networks [4]. The same system measures productivity and provides other information to help manage the site efficiently and effectively [4]. E-business This is basically a way of conducting business electronically. E-business involves business processes like electronic purchasing and supply chain management, processing orders electronically, handling customer service, and cooperating with business partners. E-business involves a business cycle of production, sales, procurement, distribution, payment and marketing so its not hard for it to work for any business. There are several applications that can benefit e-business, these are blogs and forums. These will show the e-business how its users like their products by viewing their comments. E-commerce This basically means conducting business electronically, mainly via the internet. E-commerce has impacted sectors in governments such as the cultural and information sector. Another industry that may have a large future growth via e-commerce is banking. With the continuity of ecommerce, there will be futuristic issues like social, economical and privacy. Most of the internet users fear buying from online businesses since they often have limited guarantee about the privacy of their information. If such problems are resolved, e-commerce can play a positive role in improving the world business. Some applications that are used in e-commerce are email, online banking, teleconferencing and newsgroup. With e-commerce, users can conduct business anytime, access the global market, allow customers self service or customer outsourcing. There are constraints of e-commerce, they are: Time for delivery of physical products, e-commerce is often used to buy goods that are not locally available thus taking time and money, this is due to the buyer and seller being from different countries. Physical product supplier delivery uncertainty, most of the time e-commerce purchases are made on trust. This is because having access to the product physically is not possible, a purchase is made on an expectation of what that product is and its condition. Another reason is that supplying businesses is conducted across the world, a user or buyer cannot be sure whether or not the supplying businesses are legitimate and are not just going to take his or her money. Perishable goods: Goods bought and sold through the internet tend to be durable and not perishable, they need to survive the trip from the supplier to the purchasing business or consumer. Limited and selected sensory information: Whatever a user buys, all they can see is the images of the product and its description. They cannot smell, weigh or even inspect it as they would if it was in a local store. Returning: Returning goods online can be difficulty since most e-commerce business has stated that in their return policy. Privacy, security, payment, identity and contract: Most of the time e-commerce businesses have issues of privacy of information, security of the same information and payment details. One would think that the availability of goods online would increase competition and lower prices, but this doesnt always occur. A good reputation may allow a seller or a retailer to control his or her area of market. [7] Below is a diagram of the complaints made by Australians e-consumers: Impact of social networking on e-commerce and e-business E-businesses and e-commerce sites cannot compete in todays market without collaborating with social networks. There are several impacts that Social networking has on e-business and e-commerce, such as economical and social impacts. These are shown below: Economical Impacts One of the main advantages social networks have is millions of users, e-businesses and e-commerce sites have come up with ways of pulling or attracting those users to their sites. For e-businesses and e-commerce sites to actually benefit from social networks, they need to use the following marketing strategies: Driving internet traffic for ad revenue Brand building Link building for traffic and Search engine optimization Promotion of goods and services Affiliate Marketing Pay Per Click Advertising Driving Internet Traffic for ad revenue Driving traffic to a site is very inexpensive. Hence, e-commerce and e-business sites have to be attractive with rich contents so as to ensure user interactivity. This strategy will benefit both the social networks and the e-business/e-commerce sites. Benefits of Driving Internet Traffic for ad revenue: It is far better than pay per click as you already direct viewers to the page If an e-commerce or e-business site uses this strategy, it will be able to view their competitors, their products, services and their current strategies Link building for traffic optimization E-businesses and e-commerce sites can place links in social networking sites which will actually boost the traffic of their websites. Benefits of Link building for traffic optimization: This strategy can help e-business or e-commerce sites build trust by having multiple one-way links to their sites. It is a cheap way of driving traffic to the e-business or e-commerce sites. Promotion of goods and services This can be done by providing information to educate clients about the products. The information can be promoted by advertising on social networking sites. Benefits of Link building for traffic optimization: Clients have a better understanding of the goods and services. Goods and services can be commented on or criticized by clients. Affiliate Marketing This is one of the most efficient methods of promoting the e-business or e-commerce sites. Affiliate marketing is risk free since its marketing costs are only paid for actual results. This method eliminates the need for having an advertising budget or employees since the cost of using the affiliate marketing method is commission based. Benefits of Affiliate Marketing: This strategy allows the e-business or e-commerce to track visitors, this helps in E-businesses and e-commerce sites have access to a wider audience thus generating more goods and services. Pay Per Click Advertising This is a type of advertising where the advertiser pays depending on the number of times the published ad is clicked on. It is a very effective way of targeting specific users and it also provides a reliable way of measuring the effectiveness of the advert. Benefits of pay per click advertising: It targets users more accurately It can show what keywords users have clicked on to view its site. It is also simpler in targeting users who live in different geographical spots. The economical impact on e-business and e-commerce helps in building credibility. It is easier for the e-business and e-commerce sites to gain clients confidence if they connect with them on a personal and professional level. Social Impacts When it comes to social impacts, this mainly refers to productivity of employees in e-business and e-commerce sites. This is the biggest concern in e-businesses since it can lead to network security risk and damage to reputation. Negative employee blogging or inappropriate posts about the workplace on social networking sites presents a new, confusing and often very daunting challenge for many smaller employers, said Jackie Breslin, director of human capital consulting for TriNet. Business owners need to stop and ask themselves some important questions regarding their employees personal online usage of this growing technology in order to safeguard the companys reputation and protect themselves from liability if legal and harassment issues arise. Justin (2008) The solution to this problem is internal and an external custom social network. These are organizational or private social networks where only staff members and clients have access. This improves teamwork, collaboration and productivity within the staff members. When it comes to clients, it will improve loyalty and retention and most of all, increase the response time for enquiries. There are several negative impacts that social networks have such as Technical threat, online scams, cyber-stalking and identity theft. Malicious users are constantly trying to post or load their contents containing [6] browser exploits and then convinces users to view their contents. They also post scripts on the social networking sites that will run inside the browser of the users that view the content. A good example of this is cross-site scripting, this is basically a security exploit in which the attacker inserts a malicious code into a link that appears to be from a trustworthy source. Once a user clicks on the link, the embedded code is submitted as part of the clients web request and it executes on the users computer thus allowing the attacker to steal information. But the technical threat has preventive methods such as filtering scripts, and updating the web applications, antivirus and antispyware. The solution that millions of internet users trust is Secure Socket Layer certificates. A social networking site has to have a Secure Socket Layer installed for it to safeguard its members. The same applies to the e-business and e-commerce since the solution will ensure that clients online payment information will be submitted securely to its payment gateway and merchant account, it will also protect the website in case payment information is compromised. Secure sockets layer has other advantages like: It encrypts important information. Each secure socket layer certificate has unique, authenticated information about the certificate owner. SSL is used only where sensitive information is exchanged in order to provide privacy/security. So its a must have for both the e-business and the e-commerce. This means that secure socket layer certificate have no negative impact or disadvantage since its only used to encrypt important or vital information. 5. Conclusion While this research paper presents an evaluation of the impact of social networking on e-business. It seems that social networks have positive impacts on e-business even though some threats have been identified, such as security and privacy. Privacy has the most negative impact since almost all users write things about themselves which they wouldnt have in a social meeting. This makes it easy for hackers and malicious attackers to target them. Even with the integration of the social and e-commerce users, this has still created a new target for hackers and malicious attackers. Since e-commerce users post links in their social network account which will redirect anyone who clicks it to the products page in their e-commerce account, you may find that fraudsters or even hackers will place links that will actually give them access to information of both the e-commerce and social network accounts of the targeted user. It would have been better if further understanding of the structural differences between social networks and e-business were made. The observed differences could be attributed to the e-businesss nature of the network transactions, a further user behavior analysis on e-business or e-commerce could be carried. The findings could better the understanding of the motivation of the users socially and business wise.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Defining Abnormality Essay

Psychologist, for years have given their theory on normal and abnormal behavior, but all the studies they have done seems to give more evidence to prove what make each individual do what they do and why. In the normal and abnormal behavior we use all research and take all of its studies into consideration and apply it to why such behaviors have occurred. Reading this paper you can see that there are many experiments that challenge the theory of behavior no matter if it’s normal or abnormal. We will clarify some of the challeges as we define and classify both normal and abnormal behavior when we look at the challenges in Culture, gender and sexual preferences/practices and religion. Cultural normal and abnormal behaviors Culture is a challenge to abnormal behavior because these behaviors establish through socio-cultural traditions. The sociocultural perspective explains that abnormal behaviors are a result of family influences and social forces. Similar to the behavioral perspective, socio-cultural theorists believe mental disorders are learned behaviors. They tend to focus on social class, gender, and ethnicity in the explanation of mental disorders. An understanding of one’s sociocultural forces is also taken into consideration concerning abnormal behavior and its cultural challenge. Social forces, such as the media, social change, pressures, poverty, and social institutions are examples of how mental disorders are distinct or classified in culture. Family perspectives challenge abnormalities because they are complex systems. Because families are a representation of stability, any type of disruption could result in an emotional disorder. Culture puts a limit on abnormality because social norms tend to change over time. Cultural relativism holds the idea that normal or acceptable behavior are determined by society. Every society has its own views about what is normal and what is abnormal. For in instance, in the past Greeks thoughts people who heard voices was evidence of divine prophecy, yet today this is a sign of schizophrenia (Hansell & Damour, 2008). Culture bound disorders or abnormal behaviors practiced by a specific culture do not fit into the usual categories of the DSM-IV categories because the practices pertain to a particular group of people (Simons, 1996-2012). Given that the sociocultural perspective explains abnormal behavior is learned; treatment consists of switching the rewards and punishers in the environment and changing the bad habits that causes these behaviors (Learn Maximum, 2011). Mind/body normal and abnormal behavior Abnormal thoughts can have an important impact on the body. The mind/body connection is very strong. Constantly thinking negative thoughts can either perpetuate an already existing illness or bring illness on. Worrying all of the time can bring on anxiety that can cause other problems, such as high blood pressure and heart problems if not treated. Hypochondria are a condition brought about from abnormal thinking. Hypochondria are a disorder where a person thinks he or she has a life-threatening illness, but in actuality, are completely healthy physically. Other symptoms are, worrying about minor problems and linking them to life-threatening illnesses, seeing doctors numerous times to have tests, such as MRI’s and echocardiograms, switching doctors because the current doctor will not diagnose the patient with an illness, constantly talking to family and friends and suspected illnesses, continually checking their bodies for sores and lumps, checking vital signs, such as pulse and blood pressure on a frequent basis, and believing that they have disease after hearing or reading about it. There are several ways to recognize if thought are abnormal and could be hypochondria or if they are normal reactions and are in need of a doctor’s attention. Sometimes symptoms exist in actuality and a doctor cannot identify those symptoms. This can cause anxiety as well that can lead to other health problems. If a person can locate the illness that goes along with his or her symptoms, this usually means that he or she are normal and not hypochondriac. It is important to take an active role in recognizing mental and physical health to get the help needed. Recognizing when it is time to go to a medical doctor or psychiatrist is important to mental and physical health (Mayo Clinic, 2010). Religious normal and abnormal behavior The article of studying the specificity of spirituality: lessons from the psychology of religion discuss how the psychology of religion studies the specificity of spirituality. One major issues is how psychology contributes to the assessment, exploration, and explanation acts and activities of the specificity of religious and spiritual. There have been discussions for a long time about substantive vs. unctional definitions of the scientific study of religion (Platvoet & Molendijk, 1999). A substantive definition of religion is looking at religion as a type of philosophy or a basic understanding of nature and reality, which has nothing to do with our social or psychological lives. Functionalist definitions of religion are people belief either in social life, in society. Spirituality is cultural experiences that consists of different acts and activities in a certain spiritual tradition, which can be normal for some people or abnormal. Psychology of religion is a Western enterprise, in the East elaborate but different psychologist exists (cf. , e. g. , Paranjpe, 1998). Spirituality has different specificity, spiritual acts, and activities which associated to what people consider the act of transcending. One of the tasks psychology has is to comprehend the accuracy of human lives as well as in religion and spirituality, all spiritual acts, and activities are not alike. Psychologists involved in the study of the specificity of spirituality should go beyond with his or her research and understand the peculiarities, such as what they bestow. The clarification they offer for the behaviors and activities are so that people can understand the involvement and the type of meaning they bestow. Conclusion As we have demonstrated the challenges in classifying and defining normal and abnormal behavior because it is always changing and giving new research they have conducted in their study to indicate what is normal/ abnormal and how to identify from each of the behaviors.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Frankenstein Literary Analysis Essay - 903 Words

Frankenstein Literary Analysis Friends will determine the direction and quality of your life. Loneliness is a battle that all people will once face at a certain point in their life; it is how they handle it that determines the outcome of that battle. In Mary Shelleys Frankenstein loneliness is the most significant and prevailing theme throughout the entire novel. Shelley takes her readers on a wild journey that shows how loneliness can end in tragedy. Robert Walton is the first character introduced that is lonely. â€Å"I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine.† (Shelley 10) Walton tries to mend his loneliness by writing letters to his sister, but it is just not enough. Communicating†¦show more content†¦It was dark when I awoke; I felt cold also, and half-frightened as it were instinctively, finding myself so desolate (Shelley 68) For the monster it is the constant rejection and its abandonment by Frankenstein at birth that leads it to loneliness and extreme anxiety. In all probability, the creature was reaching out, as a small child does to their mother, but his ugly appearance only frightened Victor into running away (Coulter) The main reason for its rejection is the monster’s outward appearance. The rejection by humans in general and specifically by its creator only increases the monsters feelings of loneliness, emotional abandonment, and, as a resu lt, anger. The loneliness of the Creature leads it to unbelievable acts of violence, the first one being the killing of Frankensteins youngest brother William. The monster describes its terrible act in detail: I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph: clapping my hands, I exclaimed, I too can create desolation; my enemy is not impregnable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him (Shelley 97). Shelley is trying to teach the world a lesson by illustrating that the monster is not just a scientific project, the monster is a living emotional being. Frankenstein even further rejects theShow MoreRelatedLiterary Analysis Of Shelleys Frankenstein1594 Words   |  7 PagesFrankenstein is a novel incorporating ideas that will forever sustain relevance. These ideas presented by Shelley are simple, yet very powerful life lessons that show the consequences of mankind going too far. 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Wednesday, January 1, 2020

The Banking Concept of Education - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2123 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2017/09/23 Category Advertising Essay Type Argumentative essay Tags: Concept Essay Study Essay Did you like this example? Paolo Freire, a Brazilian radical educator talks about the oppression students face in the traditional method of learning, The Banking Concept of Education. According to him in this method of teaching â€Å"the contents, whether values or empirical dimensions of reality, tend, in the process of being narrated, to become lifeless and petrified. † He accuses education to be suffering from â€Å"narration sickness† where students learn the content distancing it from reality in a very mechanical way. Therefore he proposes a Problem-Posing method of education where the students while learning from the teacher are themselves educating the teacher through constant communication. Regarding â€Å"dialogue as indispensable to the act of cognition which unveils reality†, the problem-posing method of education thrives on understanding and creativity resulting in critical reflection and then intervention by students who should then go on to transform the lives of p eople in the world. As revolutionary as the problem-posing method may sound in this article, I have mixed feelings about this whole issue as conventional wisdom has it that the Banking Concept of Education enables more content to enter the minds of students making them more knowledgeable about the topic being taught and sometimes the subject matter itself does not allow ways for effective problem-posing. I can now vividly recall my experience in my Business Studies class during junior high school year and look at it through a different perspective. The pedagogy in that class was very similar to what Freire would describe as â€Å"The Banking Concept of Education† where we as students were meant to absorb as much as we could from what was being poured onto us by the teacher, just like sponges. As per the syllabus from Edexcel U. K our course was required to â€Å"produce students who have a sound understanding of business and who have the ability to use knowledge, skill s and understanding appropriately in the context of international markets and the United Kingdom. †-Edexcel International. What I experienced and learnt from that class was totally different though. Our teacher, a â€Å"well-educated† man in his fifties, would come to class with pages of printed lecture notes and distribute them to all the students at the beginning of each class. He would then start narrating the notes in his own words and would act, according to Freire’s words, as a depositor. We, as students, were mere objects in his class trying to patiently receive, memorize, and when necessary repeat what was deposited in us. We were primarily not â€Å"called upon to know, but to memorize the contents narrated by the teacher†. The more we stored and reproduced â€Å"facts† the less we developed our ability to learn through critical reflection, the method of authentic learning. There was very little or no true communication in class in te rms of facilitating questions from students about various topics in the course. One such example was when one student in my class asked him â€Å"Why would a country increase or decrease its foreign currency exchange rates? †, his reply was â€Å"You are not required to know that according to your business studies syllabus, so don’t bother. Although our teacher was true his complete lack of respect for the student’s keenness to acquire some relevant additional knowledge baffled me. He had already chosen the program content and made up his mind as to what was and what wasn’t â€Å"necessary†. We as students did not have any say in it and had to accept his way of teaching, otherwise we would be â€Å"misfits† in the education system. Feature (h) of the banking concept reads â€Å"the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it. This just sums up that saddening incident during our class. Freire a lso states that â€Å"any situation in which some individuals prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence. † The fact that he did not enable us to learn through inquiry was an act of violence regardless of the means he used for it. He denied us of the basic right of dialog and communication. This raises questions about our status as human beings, for the fact that communication with others and our own decision making is what distinguishes us from mere objects surviving on Earth. On a different note, although we were conscious of what was being taught to us, we were never encouraged to be conscious of consciousness. In other words we would not contemplate on the authenticity of what was entering our conscience. I learned that increasing interest rates would cause inflation to reduce but was never able to discuss why and how it occurs or whether it occurs at all. Thus I was forced to look at the world from what was being taught to me, my teacher ’s and the textbook’s fragmented viewpoint of reality, which took away my ability to think for my own self. Problem posing in class was thought of as challenging the teacher’s knowledge and qualifications to teach the subject. A questioning or problem-posing student was considered rebellious or arrogant. Therefore in the name of the â€Å"preservation of culture and knowledge we have a system which achieves neither true knowledge nor true culture†. We accepted this fact and moved on to be just automatons during the length of the course. We were taught everything with only one purpose in mind – score exemplary marks in the public examination set by Edexcel. All the course content, questions for â€Å"discussion† in class were focused on getting all the â€Å"knowledge† we needed to score an A in the final public exam. Business Studies as a subject of learning the functioning of enterprises in the â€Å"real world† was not what we did seem to study. We learned all the definitions, advantages and disadvantages of certain decisions and how to answer each type of question in black and white. No places for inquisitive learning, discussion, grey areas, nothing. The more passively we learned the better â€Å"fits† we became to the class and the smarter we were deemed to be as questioning would mean we hadn’t grasped the subject with success. We could never come up with authentic thoughts of our own as critical reflection was minimal. The subject matter though stimulating was never the topic of a debate or discussion thus its attachment to reality was distanced through our learning. According to Freire true â€Å"knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful, inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other. This is what stimulates authentic reflection which enables us to understand â€Å"people i n their relations with the world† We were forced to look at the subject removed from its real-life existence as if it were an extinct species and we were trying to recollect as many facts about it as possible. This according to me distorts the true purpose of education which is to be knowledgeable about something and be able to put it into practice, which would then enhance the lives of fellow human beings. Freire calls this praxis, the actions through which true liberation is achieved. Freire refers to true liberation as the transformation of the world through the actions of men and women who reject communiques and embody communication. In other words through interaction and discussion with people a solution which is of greater benefit to people at large is found which when implemented enhances the lives of the people. It acknowledges the world to be dynamic and needing constant transformation and not one which is static in nature. On this note had we had a class which wou ld have facilitated problem posing, we would have attached the subject content to the real world thus enabling us a better understanding of the material. In my opinion a great drawback of the banking concept of education is that once the exams or quizzes are over most of the course content is forgotten since everything was stored in your head with the sole purpose of spitting it out for the exams. Due to its detachment from reality the course content is insignificant in our lives. As the exams are over our â€Å"containers† are emptied and ready to be filled by new material needed for the next session of regurgitating. In hindsight however, I feel that our teacher was not really left with many other ways to educate us on the subject. Many people regard that an interactive class would make understanding of the subject content easier, however teaching a class of thirty five, had he facilitated questions from the students and enabled discussions it would have taken forever to complete the syllabus. Quite frankly, at the end of the day getting good grades at the exams was of utmost priority. Although we are told standardized tests are not true reflections of a person’s intelligence or knowledge its results are considered significant and life-changing, how ironic. So this is a key reason for the survival of the banking concept of education. Speaking honestly, most of us wouldn’t mind getting an A and not knowing anything about the true reality of the material than fail the course and know how it relates to the world and the people. That is how deep the importance of letter grades is inculcated into our systems. Furthermore some of the course content required it to be taught in such a way. For example it would have been interesting to discuss the possibility to regard all currencies as equal in value, but in truth it is not. Such a debate would not only have wasted time but could have caused confusion and distorted the facts about excha nge rates. In a system where syllabuses are required to be followed and deadlines need to be met, effective management of time is of utmost importance. On another note this could have caused some students to get a false perception about the topic too, distorting reality, thus it was better for our teacher to dictate the facts and for us to follow. Therefore we can say that both methods of education have their sets of pros and cons. On the one hand the teaching of facts in black and white is beneficial as it avoids confusion and in most cases it actually is in plain black or white although we would like to think otherwise. This method enables more content to be absorbed by the students making their knowledge bases wider and enable them to score better grades. On the other hand problem-posing education tries to attach reality to the content being learned which enables us to recall the content better, even after exams are over. According to Freire it also enables us to solve the problems people face with the world which truly liberates us as humans since we acknowledge that humans and the world co-exist. When looking back at the article written by Freire, he himself is contradicting his own teachings through the tone of his article. While he believes that learning through the problem-posing method is revolutionary due to its significant contributions towards mankind, his complete disregard for the obvious benefits of the banking concept of education convinces me that he is contradicting his own thoughts about education. For example the paragraph on page 252 â€Å"Once again, the two educational concepts and practices†¦banking education resists dialogue†¦banking education treats students as objects†¦banking concept inhibits creativity†¦historicity as their starting point. † bombards the banking concept and praises the problem-posing method. By doing this Freire is trying, although unsuccessfully, to convince the reader to end orse his way of thinking†¦this makes us question his actions as he is forcefully trying to fill our conscience without any regard to us being â€Å"conscious of consciousness†. This article as a whole makes me understand one thing it is possible for both teaching methods to co-exist just like the world and humans. This could then result in the transformation of the lives of more students, rather than just the group who would like to learn interactively or the group who would like to learn narratively. It is common knowledge that different people like to learn differently as no two people would be the same, thus an optimum combination of both methods could be the most effective education system one where facts are taught with relation to the world and whenever possible including discussion about ambiguous topics enabling students to have a fuller grasp of content and reality. Or it could be a totally different pedagogy altogether but one thing is for sure – we cannot count on the banking concept alone nor the problem posing concept by itself to be the ideal method of teaching and learning in the modern world†¦ Don’t waste time! 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