Pervasive Computing Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Pervasive Computing Case Study - Essay Example Furthermore, it also allows telecommuters to combine their work from home with other forms of teleworking. It is the result of a better access to high speed internet connections, an improved ability to concentrate and a better balance between work and family according to The International Telework Association & Council (ITAC)3. As seen on the extract of Anne Fisher's article, there is a real debate on the advantages and drawbacks of teleworking. We will try to define these two sides of that type of work from two points of views: the teleworker himself and the managers of a teleworking team. In the first question of our essay we have seen some of the benefits of telecommuting. Teleworkers can define their own schedule which can include working before or after regular office hours, they achieve to balance their personal life with their work better than they used to and they show an increased concentration and therefore a higher productivity. The Midwest Institute for Telecommuting Education announces that home workers present an increase of 3 to 25% in productivity4. Nevertheless Paul Dickerson's story is a perfect example of the drawbacks of teleworking. As he was working from home, people started to believe that he was unemployed and avoided him. Even if the share of teleworkers in the total volume of workers is increasing, it has not completely reached a social recognition and people that are working from home could be considered as unemployed or lazy. However it appears, in Dickerson's case that he has now a different problem. As his friends are now aware of how he organizes a day of work, they believe that he has a lot of free time. Working from home requires an important organization. On one hand it is much more flexible and you can combine several activities at the same time, but on the other hand you have to show a strong discipline in order to accomplish your tasks and reach your objectives. The managers and the businesses can also face some difficulties when dealing with teleworking. Joseph Cothrel first describes us the lack of non-verbal communication in teleworking. He explains that when you receive an email from a teleworkers you don't have any tone of voice or meaningful pauses which according to him can convey crucial information. One of the main issues of teleworking is presented here. The communication can be difficult because you are not directly in contact with the worker. All the elements of body language are missing and ultimately this can delay the work. Instead of a direct explanation, you will need several emails to correctly define the work which has to be done and the managers will not have any awareness of the worker's feelings regarding their request. Christina Parr raises another danger. The in-office workers can wrongly consider the teleworkers, they may believe they are not working at all. We are again faced with the social notion of work which is attending work in an office from 9a.m. to 5p.m. However Parr and J. Scott Calhoun present their teleworkers as accountable and reachable and the speech that Calhoun gives to his in-office workers is more than

Literacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Literacy - Essay Example Lake uses his son’s cultural literacy and the Indian traditional literacy standards to describe Wind’s state of grace, his power, and functionality within the Indian culture. He describes Wind’s literacy as a state-of-grace by identifying his excellence in learning what has culturally been expected of him. Lake applies traditional standards and succeeds in illustrating how the child’s literacy meets honorable standards by demonstrating his diversified knowledge. The description of the child’s scope of education that has been â€Å"colorful, complicated, sensitive, and diverse† identifies this state-of-grace because of the child’s tender age. The child has also learnt many things that different members of the society engage in. He has learnt from all social groups and this includes his father, mother, and people from both his generation and his parents’ generation. Wind’s literacy also identifies a state of grace because h e is able to apply the learnt concepts such as understanding indicators to natural phenomena (Lake n.p.). The writer also describes power in the child’s literacy by illustrating how the literacy captures the child’s attention to an extent that he can only focus on the knowledge when he identifies an associated phenomenon. When he identifies change in the atmosphere, Wind is carried away, and is captured by what he has learnt and his mind dreams of the things that his traditional literacy taught him that should be done at such times. This means that Wind’s literacy is not only powerful in its self, but is more powerful than the western literacy that has failed to capture Wind’s attention into focusing in class. Lake also uses developed conflict in the child to demonstrate the power in his literacy. When Wind learns that his literacy conflicts with the new form of education in school, the cultural conflict