The Pros and Cons of Computers Essay Example for Free

The Pros and Cons of Computers Essay Boon: 1. The technology savvy children of today have accepted the computer as an integral part of their lives. 2. With the help of computers and internet, it is now much easier for children to access information of all sorts. 3. With the help of computers, education has become interesting. Children can now search any topic, for example science or social studies, under the sky with the help of search engines like Google and Yahoo. 4. Children learn new things faster and are up to date with the latest happenings around the globe. 5. E-learning is the latest trend these days. Various educational portals have come up. The purpose is to help children in their education. Bane: 1. Computer is a machine that makes everything on the Internet so easily accessible that it is difficult to keep children away from things they are not supposed to know at a certain age. 2. Children spend much time in playing games or social networking rather than their education and learning. 3. As everything is just one click away, children are becoming lazy and have lost the habit of manually referring to books or even dictionary. 4. They like to spend much time on the computer rather than playing outdoor games. They do social networking only on the Internet rather than going out and playing with friends. 5. The new disease on the computer or to say Internet is the ‘virtual world’. It is a computer-based simulated environment. A user takes an avatar and lives it virtually on the computer. It has its own negative effects, the user starts losing grip on the real world.

Ergonomics Essay -- essays research papers

What is ergonomics? Ergonomics is the science of fitting the job to the worker. When there is a mismatch between the physical requirements of the job and the physical capacity of the worker, work-related musculoskeletal disorders can result. Workers who must repeat the same motion throughout their workday, work in an awkward position use a great deal of force to perform, repeatedly lift heavy objects or face a combination of these risk factors are most likely to develop work-related musculoskeletal disorders. In this report, I will outline the main factors in having a safe workstation. There are certain ways in which you may choose an ergonomically correct chair. Does the seat feel comfortable and fit your shape? When you sit in the chair the seat should be at least one inch wider than your hips and thighs on either side. The seat should not be too long for your legs otherwise it will catch you behind the knees or it will prevent you from leaning fully back. Most ergonomic chairs have a seat with a front that prevents the seat from catching you behind the knees. The seat should also be contoured to allow even weight distribution and it should be comfortable to sit on. Is the seat chair height adjustable? The chair should be adjustable so that you can adjust seat height while you are sitting on the chair. Some chairs have a mechanical height adjustment (spinning) mechanism. Does the chair have a comfortable lower back rest? Many chairs have cushioned lower back supports that can be adjusted up and down and forwards and backwards to fit your shape. If the chair has a fixed height lower back support and it feels comfortable when you sit back against this then a fixed lower back support may be acceptable. When you sit back against the lower back support is there space for hips? Insufficient hip room can make you sit too far forwards on the seat so that you will not have enough thigh support. Does the seat still feel comfortable after you've been sitting in it for 30 - 60 minutes? If the seat is made from foam then continuous use can cause it to become deformed and then it will not provide cushioned support. Insufficient cushioning and inappropriate contouring can cause discomfort and hip and back fatigue. Is the tilt of the seat adjustable? In some situations it can be helpful to change the tilt of the seat pan to help to maintain a healthy seated postu... ...rved away from any contact surface. The forearm is shaped liked this for the wrist to remain free of surface pressure. Avoid restricting circulation - For many people there are exposed blood vessels near the skin at the wrist, which is where the pulse is often taken. Any pressure in this region will disrupt circulation into the hand and this will increase the risks of injury. Avoid Restricting Arm Movement - with a softly padded wrist rest, especially one that is rounded, or a soft chair arm rest the forearm becomes locked into position and this encourages people to make mouse movements by flicking the wrist, which also increases pressure. Choose a mouse design that fits your hand but is as flat as possible to reduce wrist extension. Don't use a curved mouse. Use a symmetrically shaped mouse. Consider a larger mouse, such as the Whale mouse, that encourage arm rather than wrist movements. The body was designed to perform a variety of tasks while actively using muscles. Sustained muscle activity robs the muscles of life giving blood flow. It is very important to actively stretch during breaks to flush out toxins that build up in the muscles that were used for sustained posture.

Brainstorming & Applied Imagination

Brainstorming has a long history that stretches back to almost 3000 years, although it owes its current popularity to efforts of Alex Osborn in 1950s through his seminal work Applied Imagination (Proctor, 1999, 114; Sutton and Hargaddon, 1996). Osborn used brainstorming with an objective to increase creativity within organizations. In his surmises, creativity in organizations was impeded by hostile environment to new ideas that discouraged people from coming forth with their views and opinions.Further development of brainstorming has been result of Osborn’s commitment to encourage employees to come out freely with their ideas (Paulus and Brown, 2003, 110). Brainstorming gained rapid popularity due to its simplicity, its fun elements, its therapeutic abilities and its proven effectiveness in stimulating creativity and emergence of new ideas (Davis, 1973, 90). In brainstorming participants are encouraged to come openly with their ideas of wildest sort, without being interfered, and criticized, that leads to combination and improvement of ideas (Sutton and Hargaddon, 1996).Techniques of Brainstorming Generally brainstorming techniques are divided into two main categories that are a) Unstructured; b) Structured (Proctor, 1999, 114). While the unstructured brainstorming doesn’t involve any established procedure, resulting in unproductive efforts, the structured brainstorming proceeds through some set rules that make it a very effective technique. These rules and principles, suggested by Osborn in the early 1950s are (ibid) 1. No criticism: Criticism is not permitted during brainstorming session to help in uninhibited flow of ideas2. Quantity is encouraged: Large number of ideas increases likelihood of effectiveness of session 3. Unrestrained ideas: Brainstorming sessions encourages participants to come out with any idea, no matter how wild it appears. This helps people in coming out of their fears and express their views openly 4. Improvement of ideas: Brainstorming also encourages people to suggest in improving ideas of other people and suggest ways by which various ideas can be combined in unison, for greater efficiency. Benefits of BrainstormingThese techniques of brainstorming have helped in reaching solutions to various kinds of problems within organizations. As reported by Proctor (1999, 116) brainstorming has proved very effective in coming out with solutions of problems that pertain to Issues of reducing time in production line, 1. finding ways to handle shop lifting 2. In marketing and sales segment where within a short time a large number of concepts, punch lines and creative names are required. However the same techniques of brainstorming do not yield desired result if problem is too technical or require special expertise that cannot be suggested by other people.Today brainstorming has become synonymous with creative thinking and infusion of imaginative solution to problems that come in organizational setups. The basic concept of brainstorming is to achieve a synergy of ideas that helps to break situation of deadlocks. It helps in generating ideas and then narrows down attention to their detail whereby from a number of available options the optimum course is selected. Thus it creates a sequence where participants themselves become proponents of ideas and their judge to weed out the ineffectual concepts and retain only those that carry sufficient potential with them (Proctor, 1999).The distinct advantage of brainstorming is that it helps in bringing forth a number of ideas through creating a light and interactive atmosphere where one idea is instigator of many other ideas, and even an absurd suggestion acting as a stimulant for relevant ideas. The other advantage of brainstorming is that it is a therapeutic procedure in overstressed atmospheres where people are given opportunities to speak up, present their views, receive feedback and share their ideas with others (Davis, 1973).There are numerous instances where brainstorming has successfully delivered the solution to problems that had flummoxed organizations. Effectiveness of Brainstorming Although the effectiveness of brainstorming is demonstrated through various experiments and test groups, there is a controversy whether group brainstorming is more effective than solitary brainstorming (Paulus and Brown, 2003). As mentioned by Sutton and Hargaddon (1996), a majority of experiments conducted on techniques of brainstorming have come out with different observation on the thesis of Osborn.Their findings revealed that although group brainstorming is a widely accepted method for inspiring creativity, revamping business operations and bringing improvement in industrial and manufacturing processes, controlled tests have shown that compared to individuals thinking alone, the productivity output of group brainstorming is lower. Further findings by Mullen, Johnson and Salas (1991) suggest that in some cases groups consisting of more than two members have shown comparatively lower productivity than that of individual thought process.However, on exploring the reasons of lower productivity, its found some of them result from improper application of Osborn’s fundamental rules. The three main reasons suggested for lower productivity in group brainstorming are 1. Fear among group members in freely expressing their ideas, anticipating negative feedback by their group partners 2. Lower level of accountability, where member tend to go reckless and literally get focused on coming out with only wild and impractical ideas 3. Sometimes over generation of ideas by some individuals block idea generation process of other individuals who loose the coherence of their thought process.Electronic Brainstorming Application of information technology and computer analysis methods to brainstorming has provided new tools in hands of researchers to measure the effectiveness of brainstorming and improve its outcome by balancing te chnological capabilities with the situational requirements. Meeting styles within groups, in the words of Dennis (1994) have largely resorted to electronic communication styles that offers benefits of â€Å"parallelism, direct access to meeting memories and anonymity offered by pure electronic communication†.Group brainstorming has seen emergence of new techniques such as Group Decision Support System, Electronic Meeting System, Groupware, and Group Support System. Some of these methods help the group members to interact with each other by help of networked computers that facilitate instant communication, messaging, sharing of ideas and joint coordination. In addition members can highlight key issues on discussion on common large electronic blackboard that is visible to every group member (Dennis, 1994).Apart from the benefits of parallelism, access to meeting memories and anonymity of individual, the electronic brainstorming session also provides the facility of media richne ss, i. e transmission of complex information. Studies have shown that a combination of electronic communication and verbal communication produces better media richness than what either of them are capable of achieving alone (Dennis, 1994). Electronic brainstorming has received great boos by application of EBT or Electronic Brainstorming Tool that has been designed to assist researchers who are interested in method of electronic brainstorming (Clapper, 1995).The tool provides users with a simple interface to help in sharing and developing ideas for effective communication, leading to greater media richness. Reeference Clapper DL, 1995, EBT: a Tool for Electronic Brainstorming Researchers. Journal of Organizational Computing. Volume: 5. Issue: 1, Page Number: 22 Davis, GA, 1973, Psychology of Problem Solving: Theory and Practice, Basic Books, New York Dennis AR, 1994, Electronic Support for Large Groups, Journal of Organizational Computing, Volume: 4. Issue: 2, Page Number: 177Hargado n A, Sutton RI, 1996, Brainstorming Groups in Context: Effectiveness in a Product Design Firm, Administrative Science Quarterly. Volume: 41. Issue: 4, 685 Mullen, Brian, Craig Johnson, and Eduardo Salas, 1991, Productivity loss in brainstorming groups: A meta-analytic integration, Basic and Applied Psychology, 12: 2-23 Paulus PB, Brown VR, 2003, Group Creativity: Innovation through Collaboration (edit),Bernard A. Nijstad, Paul B. Paulus, Oxford University Press. New York Proctor, T, 1999, Creative Problem Solving for Managers, Routledge London

Theories Of The Common Sense - 960 Words

Questioning whether or not people make choices seems to be an arbitrary concept to ponder. Common sense causes one to believe that, of course, humans make choices daily. Even now, common sense dictates that it is a choice to read this paper or even for this paper to be written at all. However, according to one form of early philosophy, common sense has led society astray. Each event that occurs throughout the universe has causation such that one never acts of his or her own free will. This theory of the absence of free will, known as hard determinism, has three main premises as its basis. The first premise states that no event is uncaused (Kleinman 64). This appeals to humanity’s practicality; for every force, there is an equal and opposite force. One reaps what he or she sows. What goes around, comes around. This form of logic demonstrated in the first premise satisfies society’s intrinsic desire for predictability and reason. The second premise then states that if an event is caused, it must occur; likewise, if it must occur, no other outcome could be achieved. Thus, if every event’s outcome is predetermined through causation, no man can act against it; this tenet makes up the third and final premise (Kleinman 64). Therefore, based upon these three premises, no man holds the power of free will. As can be imagined, hard determinism appears to have a few holes in its validity as a theory. A person, for instance, consciously makes choices each day, such as choices of dietShow MoreRelatedCommon Sense Explanations And The Explanations Of C. Wright Mills Theory Of The Sociological Imagination1534 Words   |  7 PagesIn this essay I will be exploring the differences between common sense explanations and the explanations of C. Wright Mills theory of The Sociological Imagination. Common sense is based on people s personal experiences and their opinions, very often constructed from social norms and generalised views. Whereas, the Sociological I magination thought up by sociologist C. Wright Mills (1959) is based on the ideas of thinking critically and skeptically, in order to think sociologically. He wrote thatRead MoreSeason Your Data with Theory and Common Sense in Nate Silvers Book, Signal and The Noise1343 Words   |  6 Pagesbook is about the overwhelming proliferation of data and how so much of that data can produce more noise (garbage) than the signal (truth). The book told us how to find the truth amidst all the noise and the value of seasoning your data with theory and common sense. The author of the book, Nate Silver, provides a number of practical lessons that are extendable and very applicable to supply chain forecasting. Lesson number one is â€Å"more information does not mean better information†. Too much data can causeRead MoreThe Difference Between Common Sense and Science1262 Words   |  6 PagesThe difference between common sense and science. 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