5 Ways to Deal With Difficult Students

5 Ways to Deal With Difficult Students Teaching a lesson to your class can become quite a challenge when you have to deal with the constant disruption of a difficult student. It may seem like you have tried every behavior management tip known to man, along with trying to provide an organized routine to help the student manage their responsibilities. Inevitably, when everything youve tried fails, keep your head up and try again. Effective teachers choose discipline techniques that will encourage positive behavior and motivate students to feel good about themselves and the decisions that they make. Use the following five tips to help you combat classroom disruptions, and deal with those difficult students. Define Expectations Specifically, define your expectations and help students understand there are consequences for unwanted behavior. When students break the rules they need to be ready for the consequences. Clearly write out and define each expectation you have, and post them in a visible spot in the classroom. Common Student Expectations for the Classroom: Stay seated during classroom activities and eventsRaise your hand before speakingShow respect for school property and studentsWait to be dismissedBe prepared for classBe considerate and respectful Parent-Teacher Communication Get parents involved in their childs education. A lot of the time the students that are being disruptive, may not be getting the attention that they need from home. By communicating your concerns with the parents, you may find there may be something going on in the household that is out of your control. Find a way to keep parents informed of their childs behavior at school. Communicate with Parents by: Creating an open-door policyEmail, text or instant messageWeekly or monthly newsletterProgress reportParent conference Once you find a way to communicate with the parents of the difficult child, next you must consider what words you will choose to say to the parents. Present the facts of the unwanted behavior, and be prepared to communicate with the parents how you plan to change the students behavior. Knowing how you are going to deal with the parents, will help you address the needs of the child for behavior modification. Model Expected Behavior Set a positive tone by modeling expected and appropriate behavior. When you are dealing with a difficult student, explain to them why you dont like the behavior they are displaying, and model for them the behavior you would like to see. (Example: I did not like that you yelled out in class without raising your hand. The appropriate way to talk in class is to raise your hand and wait to be called upon.) By modeling the expected behavior, you are showing them exactly what you expect of them. Children Learn From: SeeingListeningCopying what they seeActionsAttitudes Reward Acceptable Behavior Sometimes when the students that are not behaving, see the students that are behaving get rewarded for that behavior, it sets a positive example. Setting up a hands-on behavior management plan can help students physically see and track how they are behaving throughout the day. This, in turn, can make them re-think how they are behaving and get rewarded for acting appropriately. Keep Calm, Cool and Collective Naturally, when someone gets you upset it is common to react with frustration and anger. When this happens, its important to remain calm. Take a deep breath, or even walk away from the situation for a moment to clear your head. Remember, this child may not have learned the tools of how to properly communicate, and now it is your job to teach them. When you stay calm in a difficult situation, it will model for the student that this is the proper way to react. Sometimes overt behavior can be contiguous and that only leads to a classroom of unwanted chaos.

Composition Essay

Composition Essay Composition Essay Composition Essay: Write It Easily Writing a composition essay proves to be challenging enough in ones first language, not to mention in a foreign language. Here you will find some tips and strategies on how to organize your writing easily and quickly, in order to get full marks in the organization aspect of your composition essay short. Composition Essay Types Narrative. In the introduction restate the composition essay topic in your own words and briefly introduce the person or incident you will be writing about. In the main body establish the background to what you are about to describe. Narrate what happened. Break this portion into 2-3 paragraphs: the introduction to the key moment, especially the key moment and the aftermath. Write all in the separate paragraphs. Use time links where possible. In the conclusion, discuss the influence a person or incident had on you and what you learned. Problem or solution. In the introduction, restate the situation in your own words. State simply that the situation involves problems, but solutions do exist. In the main body write a separate paragraph about each problem. Start with a good topic sentence describing the problem, than analyze it with the series of examples, reasons, and results. Using a clear transition statement, present one or more solutions. Use links and elaborate with reasons, examples, and results. In the conclusion of your composition essay, summarize by the restating of introduction. For and against. In the introduction, briefly restate the issue of the topic. State simply that the issue has advantages and disadvantages. In the main body write a separate paragraph about each side of the argument. Start with the clear topic sentence describing one side of the argument. Develop with 2-3 aspects. End the conclusion by weighing up both sides and expressing your opinion. Opinion. In the introduction briefly restate your topic and your opinion. In the body of composition essay, write a separate paragraph about each choice, side or key aspect. Start with topic sentence announcing your choice. Develop with several reasons and examples to justify your choice, using linking words. End your essay by restating your opinion and leaving the reader with a thought-provoking idea: After you finish writing your essay, give it a rest and turn your attention to some other task, such as writing or proofreading your summary essay. While proofreading clarifies all phrases and points, add in words that you have omitted and change words that you have mistakenly put, erase unnecessary apostrophes, add in needed. Proofread also your spelling errors, capitalization errors and comma use errors. Need Help? We Can Assist You With All Aspects of Essay Writing! If you need help with your essay writing, you are welcome to become our client and receive a professional help overnight. Read more: 250 Words per Page Term Paper Communism Paper Philosophy Term Business Ethics Paper Term Argumentative Term Paper Analysis Term Paper

Assignment 5-2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Assignment 5-2 - Essay Example Mistakes are relatively low on cost and therefore, less serious. Creative or lateral thinking is an alternative perspective on the situation; and thus the problem and solution states can be interpreted differently from how most people see it. This leads to an alternate style of responding to the problem. A novel solution can often seem more interesting, and people are likely to become involved in the process with more enthusiasm; thereby leading to a greater chance for success. Which style of information processing should be used in a given situation or is more likely to succeed should be chosen carefully by the person seeking to solve a problem they face in the workplace. In the present scenario, vertical processing and problem solving techniques were used to resolve a reoccurring problem in the office. It was noted that attendance of employees dropped drastically when there was a particular type of sporting event involving major regions or the country. During the previous sport sea son, there was a distinct drop in the productivity of the set-up. When another season was due; this history became a major concern for the manager. It was decided that a few key employees should be involved in finding a solution to the problem of reduced productivity. Upon discussion, it was found that the younger employees are more likely to want to take a day of to watch sports. After this conversation, it was decided that certain key playing days should be announced half – day working on the promise that other day’s would not be affected. Accordingly, a notice was circulated amongst the staff so that they feel motivated enough to come for the rest of the days without taking an unannounced (impromptu) holiday. On understanding the process of using lateral thinking it was believed that there could be other alternatives to the solution to this problem. First of all the assumptions made when evaluating the problem were tested. The manager found that the assumption that all productivity dropped on these target days was untrue. Only certain members of the staff were implicated in this situation. The other assumption that distraction was due to the game was also challenged, since the rest of the staff was not interested in abstaining from coming to work, or working at the same level a s any other day. If a reasonable number of staff were not planning to watch sports, they could easily continue work. But it is rather unfair to give free time only to a few employees because they want to watch a sport. Thus, a more right question needs to be asked by the manager as to what options are there so that it is a win – win situation for all. A new and alternate approach to the situation is to tune the cafeteria television to the Sports channel, and allow the employees watch the game for its said time-period. This option, though unconventional, at least keeps the employees at work, and only those who wish to see them do view the sports. Also, in the even t that another employee needs them to be around when getting a task done; this work will not stagnate due to the unavailability of the employee in question. Although any screen which can be connected to the office can be used to relay the match to the employees; it makes logical sense to select the one in the cafeteria, as the noise and cheering will not trouble other employees who may not be interested in the game. The vertical process comes most naturally to most employees, since

POEMS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

POEMS - Essay Example June Jordan herself a civil rights activist who fervently fight for the rights of African-Americans. Her radical beliefs and principles are vividly echoed in her poem. On the other hand, Ted Kooser’s poem sounds simple on the surface due to its terse and straightforward style. My initial interpretation of the poem is that the author is unhappily celebrating his birthday, celebrating an important day of his life alone. But when I read Kooser’s biography, my interpretation of the poem changed. When I learned that he is recognized as a poet with a remarkable grasp of metaphors I thought that perhaps the poem is not even talking about him or, specifically, his own gloomy disposition, but about the simple things that are usually taken for granted, like a book, darkness, a window. What the author, I think, is trying to convey is that these simple things can bring happiness, like the happiness that a birthday celebration can

Look At Transmission Control Protocol Information Technology Essay

Look At Transmission Control Protocol Information Technology Essay Transmission Control Protocol is one most reliable ,connection oriented communication protocol used in the internet traffic .The main aim of this section is to conduct a research on TCP friendly protocols and find a suitable answer to the questions like the features of TCP that are not suitable for real-time multimedia application, TCP friendly congestion control for non-TCP application etc. I. Features of TCP not suitable for real time multimedia application. The uses of multimedia applications are increasing day to day in the internet traffic. In recent future it is sure that the real-time multimedia applications increase rapidly and make up a considerable portion of the total internet bandwidth. TCP is full duplex, connection oriented communication protocol that is used for transmitting data that mainly focuses on the accuracy of data. But some features of TCP are not suitable for real time multimedia application which includes the following. Reliability through Retransmission Since TCP is a reliable protocol it uses error control mechanisms like retransmission when an error occurs. Retransmission delay is one of the most important problems in multimedia application for TCP oriented connection. This retransmission is useful in traditional application such as http, FTP, telnet etc which require the loss free data transfer between the communicating media. In the case of multimedia application there is an massive emission of data into the network especially in the case of video. This will cause network congestion, since TCP is a reliable protocol it will reduce the window size and data emission rate to get out of this congestion. The retransmission causes end-to-end latency which is not suitable for real time multimedia applications where the receiver needs the data at the same time when the sender sends it. Congestion control In TCP, the available bandwidth can be monitored by using congestion algorithm which uses the transmission rate for the manipulation results in some deliberate waste. In the cases where there is no congestion, TCP congestion control fairly shares the available bandwidth. Over shorter time scales, the TCP instantaneous rate just looks like a saw- tooth. The cycles are between periods of additive increase separated by multiplicative decrease (AIMD). This rate fluctuation is not suitable for multimedia streaming application because it affects their smooth functioning. Socket based application programming interface The sockets based application programming interface does not support multihoming (a technique to improve the reliability of internet connection of an IP network). This result in an application can use only a single IP address to a particular TCP connection with another host. In an occasion where the interface associated with that IP address goes down which result in the connection loss and reestablishment. This is not suitable or multimedia applications like VoIP. TCP does not support multicasting In most of the multimedia communication like audio and video conferencing, the network traffic will be high and large amount of data flow across the network. In such situations data are transmitted by using multicasting techniques between the sender and the receivers. But TCP does not support multicasting TCP does not support time stamping. The major problem faced in real time multimedia applications like video and audio conferencing is the jitter. The major solution for the problem associated with jitter is the use of time stamps. The timestamp at each packet shows the time at which each packet is produced when compared with the previous one. So that the receiver knows when each packet is to be played. But unfortunately TCP does not provide support for time stamping. TCP is connection oriented The TCP is connection-oriented protocol. In this first a connection is established between the source and the destination before data transfer. The main disadvantage of this connection oriented protocol in real time communication like VoIP is the consumption of resources spent setting up the call. This connection oriented feature made a little overhead during connection establishment because it is time taken during certain occasions. Time overhead is not suitable for real time multimedia applications. Do not require full duplex transmission In TCP, the processes that reside in the internet establish a reliable serial communication path and exchanges full duplex stream of bytes. The processes within the communication are identified by the IP addresses. The full duplex connection is not compulsory for most of the multimedia application. The best example is TV broadcast over LAN; in most situations it uses simplex continuous media connection. Acknowledgement In TCP, there is the need of acknowledgement during the transmission of each packet. The positive acknowledgement causes overhead because all packets are sent with a fixed rate. This is not suitable for multimedia. II) UDP is TCP Unfriendly protocol In order to discuss about this topic we need to describe the basic functions of the TCP and UDP. In order to clearly define about the TCP, UDP unfriendliness we need to understand the basic concepts in detail. With the increased use of real time applications internet users looking for more reliable protocol that provide more faster medium for audio and video. Since TCP is a reliable protocol it has the capacity to reduce the amount of data loss, noise and out of sequence data. TCP uses connection based communication between the communicating hosts. This connection based feature of TCP helps in the guaranteed delivery of the packets. It has flow control and congestion control. In the case of UDP, it is unreliable. There is no guarantee for packet delivery and for the sequence. In this protocol there is no connection establishment before the communication starts and it sends the data according to its availability. In real-time communication (for audio or video), both the communicating ends look for speed rather than accuracy. The connection less feature of UDP, that sends the data when they are available and not try to resend once there is an error or packet loss made UDP much faster than TCP. This increased speed made more popularity for UDP in streaming media over internet. When compared to TCP the UDP has a main drawback, since UDP continuously sending packets through the network without considering there is congestion on the network. It does not take any measures to reduce the congestion in the case where congestion occurs. But TCP make use of the congestion control mechanisms like reduce the transmission rate. Since UDP does not make use of any congestion control algorithms when congestion occurs this tend to take the utilisation of the available bandwidth over the internet. For this reason UDP is known as a TCP unfriendly protocol. According to the opinion of Ross (2005, p.198) in his book Computer Networking specifies that UDP is the most commonly used protocol for multimedia application such as Internet phone, real-time video conferencing and streamed of audio and video. So in order to overcome these problems of congestion controls with UDP and improves the band width utilisation and also a fair towards competing TCP connection result in the devel opment of new technology called TCP friendly technique. With the increased popularity of the streaming media the UDP traffic becomes a problem for the internet as a whole. III) TCP Friendly congestion control protocols The popularity and development of internet leads to the extensive use of real-time multimedia applications like video conferencing, chatting etc. All these applications make use of non congestion controlled protocols like UDP for transmitting continuous video, audio through the network. This type of non congestion controlled traffic is called unresponsive flows. The major feature of the unresponsive flow is that they do not reduce their load on the network when there is a packet loss. They continuously transmit the data through the network at the rate with which is encoded without bothering about the network congestion. This type of UDP traffic causes traffic congestion in the network as well as it produce an extreme unfairness towards the network. In order to solve these problems, we need to improve the UDP for proper bandwidth utilisation, reducing loss ratio and also produce a fair towards the competing TCP connection and this is called as TCP Friendly. In this section we are disc ussing about the congestion control mechanisms used by TCP friendly protocols like TFRC and TFMC. TFRC (TCP-Friendly Rate Control) TFRC is mainly defined as a congestion control mechanism for unicast flows in the Internet. TFRC is evolved from TFRCP protocol and it is mainly used for unicast communication but sometimes it is used for multicast communication with some modifications. The lower variation of throughput over time makes this much more suitable for telephony or streaming media and which has a smooth sending rate. TFRC uses equation based congestion control for unicast traffic. In this mechanism it explicitly adjust its sending rate as a function of the measured rate of loss events where the loss events contain one or more packet dropped within a RTT. As it follows the equation based congestion control, TFRC directly make use of the TCP throughput equation which makes it possible to compete fairly with TCP. The following is the throughput equation used in the TFRC for congestion control: In this equation X is the transmit rate in bytes/second. S is the packet size in bytes. R is the round trip time in seconds. B is the no of packets acknowledged by a single TCP acknowledgement. t_RTO is TCP transmission timeout value in seconds. The general working of the TFRC congestion control mechanism as follows: As the first step the receiver calculate the loss event rate and gives this information back to the sender. Using this data the sender calculates round-trip time (RTT). Using this loss event rate and RTT, calculate acceptable transmit rate using the TFRC throughput equation. Finally the sender adjust the transmission rate to match the calculates rate. By using the receiver based mechanism TFRC is well suited for applications like the sender are a large server handling many concurrent connections and receiver is has more memory and CPU cycles available for computation. TFMC (TCP friendly Multicast Congestion Control) TFMC is the single rate congestion control scheme for multicast transmission. TFMC is single rated simply means that the receiver experiencing worst network condition will adapt to the sending rate. It has relatively low variation of throughput over time, which is suitable for applications that require a smooth sending rate like video streaming. The general working of TFMC congestion control as follows First step is the calculation of loss event rate and RTT by the receiver. By using this information with the help of TCP throughput equation the receiver derive a TCP friendly sending rate. In order to prevent feedback implosion at the sender the feedback is supplied only to a subset of the receivers using feedback suppression mechanism. In the receiver side the feedback is not suppressed and it calculates the transmission rate and gives it to the sender. This report has two main purposes, it helps to calculate the RTT for receiver and give the appropriate transmit rate for the sender. IV) TCP friendly congestion control for non-TCP applications. There are many studies conducted on TCP friendly congestion control for non TCP application. The congestion control mechanisms are used to achieve the following aims: Use of congestion control mechanisms help the applications to use the bandwidth more efficiently and thus increases the performance Those applications which adapt to the network can easily make use of the wider bandwidth and more useful of the Internet Congestion Control algorithms helps to reduce the Congestive Collapse ie the situation in which network performs a little work due to the over utilisation of network links. There are a number of TCP friendly congestion control mechanisms are introduced now a days which include end-to-end schemes and hop-by-hop mechanism. The end- to- end mechanism consist of AIMD window based and rate based protocols and hop-by-hop consist of rate based hop-by-hop mechanism. The end-to-end congestion control mechanisms are necessary for responsive as well as unresponsive flows which reduce the traffic load when packet loss occurs. In rate based hop-by-hop congestion control scheme it matches the sending rate of the connection to the service rate observed at the downstream node. In window based AIMD schemes which utilises the increased and decreased congestion window of the sender. This mechanism has some advantage as well as some disadvantages. The major advantage is that it is familiar, reasonable in the field of fairness, stability, oscillations and other properties. The disadvantage is that it has more abrupt changes and oscillation in sending rate which is not suitable for real time streaming application. In rate based AIMD schemes, the most common examples are RAP (Rate Adaptation Protocol) and LDA (Loss-Delay based Adjustment Algorithm). The LDA is mainly proposed for adapting the transmission rate of multimedia applications to the congestion level of the network. It mainly relies on end-to-end Real Time transport Protocol (RTP) and its control protocol (RTCP) for feedback information. The major difference between rate adaptation schemes and window based schemes is that the latter is not ack-clocked. The main advantage is that the adaption of the sending rate deduces the no of oscillations and also helps to reduce the heavy traffic in real-time applications.

Multi-User Dungeons

This lengthy article on avatars in Multi-User Dungeons (MUD) was informative and useful, though hard for the novice gamer to digest in one sitting. Literature attests to the gaming community using computers as tools to communicate and to link together friendships and partnerships. However, the article points out there is a danger of the gamer becoming overly involved in the community, and to remember that words on a forum/discussion board screen etc does not equate to an entity that reflects a physical community.I agree that there are differences and these need to be borne in mind during the gaming experience, however I find Rhiengold ignores the inherent similarities of virtual and physical communities with regard to their psychological processes (Agress, Edberg, & Igbaria, 1998). The article reviews MUD as a dynamic and â€Å"wild side† to the Internet. Rheingold contends that real magic exists here and that a person's identity is characterized by its fluidity. The imaginary worlds created with huge computer databases of programming languages deliver melodramas and satires, puzzles, education, leisure time and competition.With respect to the article's description of MUD communities Rheingold is somewhat over-exuberant in listing virtues of MUDs. There is an emphasis on fantasy, power, dominance, sexual prowess and violent injury or death. The goals as presented by Rheingold are economic dominance, fame and social power. Another criticism of the article is that it is not structured soundly. The history of MUD communities begins a page or so into the article. The piece then abruptly jumps to describing potential empirical functions of MUDs; such as observing them as â€Å"living laboratories for studying the first-level impacts of virtual communities†.Rheingold does not attempt to outline how such research could be undertaken, what would be measured or how participants would be ensured of informed consent. Numerous ethical dilemmas are obvious whe n considering the use of MUD communities as settings for collecting social and/or psychological data. Unlike the physical environment, MUDs are not â€Å"natural† and field research designs would need to be modified to maintain ethical standards and empirical rigor.Rheingold also suggests that the MUD environments could be used a research environment for evaluation of second-level effect of virtual communities on physical world relationships, such as with family, personal relationships, friendships etc. Interestingly, Rheingold points out that fundamental issue for the western culture are called into question with MUDs, social norms, values and expectations are adapting to the virtual (pun intended) anonymity the Internet can provide. He makes a good point that this in an important issue for a community where many relationships are mediated by technology.Unfortunately, the article has several disjointed jumps, with Rheingold distributing MUD history throughout the piece. He e xplores the idea of gaming being an addiction, due to several MUDders admitting to spending most of their waking hours immersed in virtual worlds. The concept of MUD community addiction is presented in the article as a â€Å"communication addiction† that needs to be experienced to be understood according to MIT's Media Lab Associate Professor Amy Bruckman; How do we feel about tens of thousands of college students spendingtheir time and government-sponsored resources to chase virtual dragons? To answer this question, you have to dive in and explore assumptions about what is a meaningful way to spend one's time. What are the value judgments implicit in various answers to that question? † Rheingold suggests that the first step is to investigate the fascination some gamers have with MUDding, to determine how obsession develops. Identifying unique features of the medium that engage a gamer psychologically and that meets a person's needs and expectations would inform about f ascination.He further states changing conceptualization about what is identity is the underlying cause as to how fascination develops into a dysfunctional obsession. Hence, to Rheingold, MUD communities are an extension of ongoing cognitive changes brought about by innovation, technological advancements and adaption of symbols to suit a communication-saturated society. MUD environments have allowed dissolving of social boundaries associated with time and space, as well as boundaries of identity. A gamer can pretend to be another; they can pretend to be many other people simultaneously.It appears to Rheingold that depersonalized modes of communication allow some people to be much more personal with each other as compared to a relationship in the physical world. However, he questions the authenticity of the human relationship within the cyber context, given the masking of the person and the distancing that the medium can provide. In this way he states that MUDding is not real life. Ho wever, he does not explore the potential for MUD to become a person's life, which from a constructivist point of view, would make the virtual a â€Å"real world† given that a person is seen as constructing their own reality (Riddings & Gefen, 2004).Overall, Rheingold focuses on issues of identity for the MUDder. One of the first activities that a person does when entering a MUD environment is to create an identity. They describe their character for others who inhabit or visit the MUD. It is through the creation of their identity, states Rheingold that the MUD community develops, grows, changes and maintains coherence for its members. It is the roles each gamer plays, points out Rheingold, that guides the socio-cultural value system of the community; †¦the roles give people new stages on which to exercise new identities,and their new identities affirm the reality of the scenario. The fluidity of identity is enabled by the participants being able to communicate using a num ber of public and private channel options; ? private e-mail ? person-to-person chat ? person-to-person chat ? â€Å"say,† â€Å"whisper,† and â€Å"pose† to anybody else in the same room ? form of group chat that uses the boundaries of metaphorical rooms as social boundaries ? turn on or off special-interest CB channels for other semipublic conversations across different parts of the MUDPoses and words are used to communicate meaning in the MUD environment. Rheingold describes the use of pose as useful though disembodied non-verbal language. Another word for posing is â€Å"emoting† and provides an added dimension to communication not possible in the physical world. For example, â€Å"[Instead] of leaving the room, you can disappear in a cloud of iridescent, bubble-gum-flavored bubbles†. Rheingold comments that first feelings of artificiality when posing soon disperse when one becomes aware of the added control they have over the ambience of the co nversation.Posing can provide contextual cues to that are not available through words on a screen alone. The added advantage of having creative powers within the MUD environment takes the experience beyond that of conferencing and or chat sites, â€Å"such as magic carpets that transport their owners to secret parts of the kingdom†. Other characters are able to steal or gain power of objects and avatars of others. As such, the social construction of valuing items and characters is similar in process to that which occurs in the creation of value systems in physical communities.Similarly, the social goal of power, over others and the material world, is a social concept that continues to be maintained in the virual world. Rheingold ignores this salient feature of consistency in what makes a community. In this way, MUD environment's can be considered â€Å"real† as they are experienced by individuals, and they do lead to the construction of social institutions, rules and c ommon goals mediated by a culturally-dependant language.The MUD culture is framed by the technology through which it is made visible and allows interaction, and also, by the physical world from which its computer hardware and software, and persons social rules came from. Much like Russian dolls, worlds within worlds. Navigation of the MUD community provides a learning experience for each character and they learn their roles to play. Gender roles are a dominant determinant of social placement and social expectations within the physical world. So too in the world of MUD.For example, tiny. sex and net. sleazing are techniques used predominantly by male characters to seduce female newbies into cybersex that is recorded and distributed across the globe via the Internet. As such, gender stereotypes remain within the virtual world, and women tend to be viewed as inferior, gullible and unworthy of treatment as equals. Despite social thought advances in the 21st century, the physical world c ontinues to exist within a patriarchial system that creates power struggles between dichotomies.The MUD communities do little to challenge the status quo of inequality with regard to gender, and in many ways (due to its anonymity) increase opportunities for people to act out anti-social behaviors. It must be kept in mind that these behavioral choices are grounded in physical world cultures, so that Rheingold's claim that MUD communities are unlike the â€Å"real world† in terms of social interactions is poorly supported. In conclusion, Rheingold delivers an indepth subjective critique of MUD communities. The critical review before you has evaluated Rheingold's interpretation and communication of the relevance and function of MUDs.Evidently, MUDding is an important psychological and social activity or â€Å"way-of-being† for many people, both female and male. This has sparked much debate in terms of addiction theories, gender issues and perhaps most importantly, ones se nse of identity. This paper has demonstrated that MUD communities have the potential to be research environments if ethical criteria can be met, and that in terms of social processes virtual communities have many similarities to those of the physical world from which they emerged.References Agres, C. , Edberg, D. & Igbaria, M. (1998) Transformation to Virtual Societies: Forces and Issues. The Information Society 14(2), 71-82. Rhiengold, H. (n. d. ) The Virtual Community. Retrieved January 12, 2007 from http://www. rheingold. com/vc/book/5. html Riddings, C. M. & Gefen, D. (2004) Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online. Retrieved January 12, 2007 from http://jcmc. indiana. edu/vol10/issue1/ridings_gefen. html

My Antonia and Huckleberry Finn Essay

Characters from various books that may or may not have anything to do with one another can be similar and different in many ways. Huckleberry Finn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, and Antonia Shimerda from My Antonia by Willa Cather are similar in a variety of ways, however they have important differences. Huckleberry Finn is always ready to go on any type of adventure with his best friend Tom Sawyer. Also, the pair are extremely superstitious. Huck is discriminated against for a myriad of reasons. Some being, he is the son of the town drunk, so the adults frown upon him. Because of his father’s lifestyle he is basically an orphan, he has to find his own food, clothes, and a place to sleep. He also does not attend church or school. Opposite to that, the boys of the town envy him for his freedom and lack of discipline. The Widow Douglass who lives in town offers Huck a place to stay. She says he can live in her house, and with the money from the treasure he and Tom found she would be able to support him. Tom encouraged Huck to take advantage of this offer while he could. This was a hard decision for Huck to make because he is not willing to give up his independence that he is accustomed to. He lives with the widow for a short period of time then decides he enjoys being on his own and is willing to face the hardships of life by himself to maintain his freedom. Antonia Shimerda is extremely generous and optimistic. Through the hardships of immigrating to America from Bohemia, her father committing suicide, and her fiance leaving her before they get married, and at this time she is pregnant, she never looses hope. She looks for the best in every situation and tries to find a solution for everything. Everyday she has to face racial and gender discrimination. She is judged brutally by the townspeople because of her love for dance. Her and her family, which now consists of her mother, brothers and sisters, have to face the difficulties of life after the death of their father along with the difficulties of living in a new country. Her and her family are living in poverty, and are trying extremely hard just to survive. Later, Antonia works as a servant. Her boss does not like her habit of attending the dances she enjoys going to. He threatens to fire her if she continues to attend these dances. She loves her independence too much to let someone take it away. So she works for a brutal boss and suffers so she can have her independence and go to her dances. Huckleberry Finn and Antonia Shimerda have many similarities and differences. They have very different characteristics, however they both face many hardships, discrimination on a daily basis, and they both value their independence a lot that they would rather live harder lives so they can be independent.