Process Critique of Application Theory in Practice Essay

Process Critique of Application Theory in Practice - Essay Example As a result, knowledge of best practices did not necessarily mean the adoption of these best practices (Hoque & Noon, 2001). One of the plausible explanations given with this gap is lack of knowledge. The necessity of the transfer of knowledge to line managers for application may have been important but often a neglected issue. Study showed that while Industrial and Organizational psychologists â€Å"are informed about HR research findings than HR practitioners† (Carless et al., 2009:110) this does not translate into practice. It is already a given in human resource management that for a business enterprise to achieve optimum productivity, it should hire the best people. It is also a common knowledge to a point of being a slogan among companies that human resource or its people are its most important assets. Being the most important asset, human resource should be taken cared of so that they will be more motivated to perform and will stay in the organization. This notion however tends to be neglected and overlooked in practice when realities set in the organization. When the issue of competitiveness set in where companies have to lower cost to increase its profit, it tends to shortchange its employees. Shortchanging employees takes in many forms and is not limited to offering lowest pay possible. It includes compressing multiple job functions into a single role to save cost and to optimize the labor of such employee. If the human resource has already been optimized to the hilt, companies will tend to outsource other functions where they can lower labor cost and without any responsibilities to the outsourced employee. In the recent financial crisis of late 2008 to 2010, human resource was among the first casualty when companies employed cost saving measures to cope with the crisis. Employees felt that they are not

Issues and Challenges in Integrating Information Technology into the Essay

Issues and Challenges in Integrating Information Technology into the Curriculum - Essay Example As a result, ICT and its capability in improving student performance have been marginal as well. How then, should these new technologies be implemented by teachers in order to successfully integrate them into the curriculum As this essay will argue, the successful integration of information technology into the curriculum requires a paradigm shift from the teachers perspective, together with their acquisition of the technical skills required to use ICT, and a good support system from the school to create a contextually relevant environment that will make teachers more receptive in using new technologies and encourage learning from students. As Jonassen, Peck, and Wilson (2003) claim, ICT today is not simply a medium where information is transferred, but a tool that students learn with, assisting the learning process itself. At the very least, one could infer that ICT is changing the nature of education today - from the school, to its curriculum, each facet of education is being revised to cope with the fast development in ICT in an effort to effectively integrate such new technologies (Williams and Price, 12). However, it is imperative to note that the implementation of ICT is just a single aspect within the larger context of school reform. Thus, it is important to understand that school reform today, insofar as ICT is concerned, places emphasis not just on quantifiable outcomes, such as an increase in the amount of ACT available in schools, but on the quality of learning experiences for students - the degree that ICT enriches students' learning experiences (Godfrey, 2001, p.15). Unfortunately, most teachers do not fully comprehend such relationship between ICT and education. According to a study conducted in Australian schools, the purpose of ICT in the curriculum continues to be ill defined and poorly understood by teachers (Fifoot, 2000). An implication of such is that ICT causes frustration among teachers, which eventually forces them to abandon it altogether. If not, they just end up using it ineffectively, as a tool to substitute typewriters and calculators, for example. Using ICT in such ways do not only waste valuable investments made for the improvement of learning, but it can also have negative effects in the student's learning process because it leaves them incapable of integrating ICT effectively in their daily lives as well. Teachers, therefore, need to know how to use technology to successful use it in the classroom. However, it is imperative to differentiate between knowing how to use technology for its sake from knowing how to use technology for the sake of improving student learning (Fishman, et. al, 2001). As Tiene and Ingram (2001, p.xv), puts it, teachers "need to expand their awareness of ... educational technologies [and] the critical issues associated with the effective utilization of these technologies." Aside from understanding ICT implementation within the context of school reform, it is also imperative to understand the changes and trends surrounding ICT and school reform. Grabe and Grabe (2004, pp.35-39) outlined this shift in terms of changes in student and teacher roles,