If I were to create my own class that utilizes technology to teach, I would come up with an English class that teaches students how to write effectively. It is very important for students to learn how to effectively write. Almost every job requires some writing or effective form of communication, so it is important to be able to communicate with others with clarity and impact. The utilization of technology to help students develop reading and writing skills can help make learning easier, more fun and more convenient. I have come up with a class called Write Right, which will help students do just that.

One of the objectives of the class would be to learn how to effectively persuade people through writing. Everyone will need to persuade people to side with their opinion at some point in their lives or another, and people that can effectively persuade are going to be more successful. Students will look at different persuasive essays, advertisements, YouTube clips and other sources to analyze the different techniques used to persuade. It is important that students go beyond the typical argumentative essay format and look at other forms of persuasion that they may encounter or use more practically, such as commercials or political campaigns.

It is also important for students to learn various forms of expository writing. Students will run into situations where they will need to explain how things work or deliver information to people. They should be able to present unbiased information clearly and succinctly.

There should also be a component of creative writing. Writing combines the left and right sides of the brain. The way ideas are organized and presented is determined by the left region of the brain, while the creative presentation of the ideas and figurative language is controlled by the right side. Students should be encouraged to think creatively and come up with new ways of delivering ideas that are insightful.

Technology would be utilized in teaching students various writing techniques. The course would be taught online, through a course management system (CMS) like DrupalEd or Moodle. Many colleges are already using similar systems, where they can post assignments online, network with the scholarly community, peer edit and do various other things. The network setup would make it easy for the teacher and the students to login and assist each other, contributing to the social constructionist pedagogical approach, where students learn not only from the teacher, but from each other as well. Students will be required to log into their account twice a week to check for assignments and network with the community of scholars (other students).

Students will be required to use the book Readings for Writers, by Jo Ray McCuen-Metherell and Anthony C. Winkler. This text will help guide students through a structured process of learning the new concepts. It will also provide examples of texts that put these writing techniques into use. Students will benefit from honing in on their reading skills while also learning to make connections between the theoretical writing format and real examples of its effective use. They will benefit both as readers and writers.

Readings for Writers is a book that provides over 100 excerpts from reputable texts, that acts as real examples to all the writing techniques outlined in the book. It covers a broad range of topics and genres, and some of the most well known pieces of writing in literature. The general format of the book is as follows: First it explains the writing technique covered in the chapter and provides tips on how to write more effectively. It then goes on to show a few passages and excerpts using the writing technique. There are guides that tell you what to look out for and what you should be asking yourself as a reader. At the end of every section there is a self assessment to check your understanding of the concepts discussed.

Students will be required to read sections of the book to learn how to write properly, then they will be assigned a writing assignment testing their skills at applying the strategies learned. Students will have an open choice on topics to write about, as long as they can properly support and formulate their writing pieces. Students will be assessed on how well they can write, as well as on their responses to the readings from the book, to see how well they understand and apply the concepts taught. Students will also peer review and edit passages and papers and provide constructive criticism.

The goal of this class is to further enrich students' writing skills through the use of technology, so they can write more effectively and learn easier and more conveniently. Eventually, I would also attempt to get Facebook integration with the class, so students can combine social networking with academics and make learning fun.

Posted in 1 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 2:45 AM  

Chapter 2 - The Locked Door

Chapter two is all about the decisions made behind the locked door of the subconsciousness. These decisions are made using the subconscious mind, so it is impossible to consciously use reasoning and logic to come up with an explanation for the decision made.

My dad has a problem with depression, and he has to take medication for the rest of his life to maintain a healthy balance of chemicals in his brain to keep him from getting depressed. One day we decided to try alternate methods of finding a solution to the problem. We visited a hypnosis clinic and my dad was hypnotized. This may sound a little far fetched, but hypnosis simply relaxes a person to the point where the person hypnotizing can reach into the subconscious mind of the person under hypnosis. There, they can unlock the door and figure out what really causes people to feel the way they do and make the decisions they make. My dad was cured of depression for several years after the hypnosis sessions, because the source of the problem was targeted. The unexplainable decisions made are locked behind the doors of the subconscious mind.

People are also primed by their environment and influences, to think a certain way subconsciously. They have no conscious control over these thoughts, but the thoughts largely help determine how they think when making snap judgments. One example of priming that Gladwell uses in Blink is when the sentences he lists include words that are associated with old people, and as a result the people participating in the activity ended up walking down the hallway slowly, which is a characteristic of old people.

Another example used in the book was when African Americans were asked to indicate their race on a standardized test, they ended up with worse results than those that were not reminded of their race. African Americans are primed to think that they are not supposed to be as smart as others due to the effects of racism. They subconsciously think they are not as capable as the average white student. As a result of their subconscious mindset, they end up doing worse on the test.

Speed dating is another activity where snap judgments are made. These decisions are also made behind locked doors. Most people could identify what they look for in a partner, yet the actual people they are attracted to hardly ever match up to the specifications they list initially. Again, people are unable to justify their decisions on why they like one person over another. They just say that they feel a connection, or that it seems right. Speed dating is another instance of decisions made subconsciously.

Due to the fact that these decisions cannot be easily justified or quantified, I believe online dating websites do not work. These sites compare people based on dozens of different dimensions, but if people are unable to identify what they are really looking for in a mate, it is impossible for a computer to accurately match them up to the right person, because computers cannot enter the human subconsciousness. This is why many of the surveys used to determine preference are indirect. They may ask whether you like Burger King or McDonalds better, or whether you like Coke or Pepsi. Although these products may seem like personal preference, a they can be used to profile people and their thought process when it comes to making decisions. They are indirect indicators of a person's personality and preference.

Chapter 3 - The Warren Harding Error

President Warren Harding was one of the best looking, yet worst presidents in American history. So why did so many people elect him to office? He did not have many credentials and he definitely didn't show signs of being a leader. He was, however, powerful looking and healthy. People jumped to the conclusion that he would make a good president. This was an error because they never looked beyond the first impression. They let their misconceptions betray them.

People have all sorts of unconscious associations with different groups of people. Often women are associated with housework more than men, and black people are seen in a negative light over white people. As a DJ spinning music at parties, most people jump to the conclusion that I am not educated well. The stereotypes go on and on. There was a case study done on car salesmen. Most salesmen profile their customers and try to spot the sucker; the person that will pay sticker price for a car. Most often they single out females and African Americans and are stubborn on price for only some groups of people. They end up losing customers because they jump to the conclusion, subconsciously, that these people will not negotiate as much as other groups. This is a dangerous error, because there are plenty of educated people that do not fit the stereotypes, and salespeople will end up losing customers by profiling and ruling out individuals.

To do so would be like a TSA agent to stop everyone that had a beard and looked Arab, because they could be potential terrorists. Terrorists are smart enough to realize that they can't go around looking like Osama Bin Laden, or they'll attract too much attention. Another interesting thing Gladwell found was that most CEOs are tall men. They are about 3 inches taller than the average man, which is no surprise. Tall, well built people appear to be more powerful, so subconsciously interviewers feel a more dominating presence, and therefore believe the person would be fit to do the job.

Chapter 4 - Paul Van Riper's Big Victory

Paul Van Riper's victory was as a result of thinking practically and not over-analyzing. The blue team was so caught up in strategy that they forgot to think practically. They never realized that although communication technology could be cut, the Red team would not need it. They had other plans.

Students at Linworth are expected to think practically. In the traditional high school environment, the curriculum is primarily focused on theoretical application of concepts learned in class. At Linworth, it is just as important to be able to practically apply concepts through using common sense. There are all sorts of smart people in the world that fail at the simplest things. Just a few weeks ago, I had to build a motor for an A.P. Physics project. The motor was built perfectly in theory, but I had a wire in the way that would keep the armature from turning properly. The motor did not work, and as a result there was a 25% deduction to my grade. A large portion of the class could not get their motors to work. Most of these students were the ones that were relatively smart but not hands-on.

One of the reasons over-analyzing can cause people to make ill-informed decisions is that when you have too many options, you end up confusing yourself and going back and forth instead of making a decision. The case of heart attacks in the hospital was a great example of how too much information could actually throw doctors off. Also too many options for the jam at the supermarket confused the customers.

With my consumer electronics website, TheGigStore.com, I once had over 25,000 products on the website. I realized that there were too many options for products. If you wanted a video cable, there would be 5 different brands selling the same thing. There would be 3 different quality levels, and a wide range of prices for each product. The more options the customers had, the more confused they became. Eventually, I decided to select only about 200 products and keep the website very simple. Sales increased dramatically in a short period of time.

So many people wonder: Is it possible to prepare yourself to make the right decision in the blink of an eye? I believe it is possible to be correct most of the time, as long as you set guidelines for misconceptions or stereotypes that my not be true. After passing through a few simple filters, it is up to your instinct, or "gut feeling" to quickly make the right decision.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 12:06 AM  

The book Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, is about making quick snap judgments without thinking for a long time. It's about knowing when to trust your "gut feeling" and when not to. When people can master the use of these instinctive feelings, they can make quick, powerful decisions without analyzing rational information too long.

This quick thought process occurs in the adaptive unconsciousness. Instinctive decisions come to people in the same way everyone remembers to breathe, sweats when they're hot, or flinches when they are startled. It is a natural impulse, a function of the body to protect itself. The body automatically picks up surrounding details and unconsciously calculates what is best for it to avoid any physical threats.

Although these instinctive feelings can help make snap decisions, they can often be misleading. It is important to learn when to trust these feelings, because humans are hardwired to have many misconceptions and biases that affect their decision making ability. There are many judgments that should not be made instantly. For example, marketing experts make a living off of tinkering with the presentation of their message in order to affect the customers unconsciously, making them want the item based on a snap judgment. Instead of thinking the decisions through rationally, these marketers want customers to buy impulsively.

Gottman decodes couples' relationships based on small cues that show actions performed subconsciously by each individual. He identifies and explains exactly what to look for in a couple's actions, and what actions they cannot control. The uncontrollable actions show a great deal about the couple and the health of the relationship itself. When the couples are analyzed, I don't think they can consciously control what is normally an unconscious decision. It's like trying to control the speed of your pulse, or how much sweat you are giving off.

Gottman identifies contempt as the primary feeling that causes relationships to go bad.
With over 80% guessing accuracy, I believe Gottman has really mastered the snap judgment technique, and knows when he should trust his instinct. I would personally get his expert opinion before getting married, to see if he can identify any problems with the relationship. Obviously I would want to do this early enough into the relationship that it wouldn't cause any pain if the results are not desirable.

There is a lot that can be learned from just an individual's environment, such as their bedroom. The section in Blink that described the surveys people filled out after inspecting rooms reminded me of a show on MTV called Room Raiders. The show is about a guy or a girl raiding three rooms and learning as much about the other person as possible through only what he or she could find in the bedroom. They would decide who to date based on what they learn about the person's belongings in the room.

It is also interesting to learn that medical malpractice litigation is based on how well people like their doctors. If they like their doctors, they are less likely to sue the doctor for medical malpractice because they are under the impression that it is not the doctor's fault. I personally follow a similar approach when marketing my DJ services. Often I get people to like me as a DJ and as a person instead of getting them to like my music. If they like me, they are less likely to complain, or even notice if there are mistakes in the performance of the music mixing.

Posted in 1 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 11:36 PM  

Hand a five-year old a new set of Hot Wheels. Get a quality education and make your parents proud. Live a successful life and have a lot of fun. When any of these things happen, we usually label the feeling as being “happy,” but what is true happiness? I believe true happiness does not exist. Happiness is only temporary.

The problem with this so-called “happiness” in this world is that it is usually at the cost of someone else’s happiness. Anytime this happens, it is not true happiness, because how can you be happy if you are hurting someone else? Eventually, when you gain the knowledge to understand what kind of pain you are causing to the other person, you will not be so happy. Also, since I believe in the karma theory, what goes around comes around. If you are happy now at the cost of someone else’s pain, you will eventually end up experiencing that same pain. Since life is a cycle of temporary happiness and sadness, it is impossible to truly become happy.

The universe maintains perfect balance. For every positive charge there is a negative. For every good action there is a bad action. For every male there is a female. For every day there is a night. The list goes on. This means that nobody can ever be truly happy, because for every happy moment there is a sad moment. The only way to experience true happiness is to escape this universe and world of material possessions. Although it is not possible to physically escape this world, one can at least liberate their mind from the actions of the rest of the world. This can be achieved through meditation and concentration on nothingness. The idea is so abstract it is hard for people to imagine. Perhaps I could relate it to something that more people would understand. If instead of meditating, that person is praying to God, then the question I would be asking is what is God? What does God look like? There is no accurate physical description of the being, so in that sense, if you believe in God instead of karma, you may be concentrating on nothingness as well.

How can a person experience true happiness if they are not alive? They would have to escape this world, and the only way to do that is to liberate the soul from the body. In that case, it is impossible to experience true happiness while living life. One can get close to that experience by concentrating on nothingness.

Posted in 1 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 9:54 PM  

Dozens of innocent people are victim to prosecution of crimes they have never committed. Specifically in Texas, 17 out of 40 criminal cases have been exonerated. That is over 40% of cases with people wrongfully sentenced. This means that the real criminals are still out on the streets, and innocent people are losing years of their lives. Texas convicts have hope, because DNA evidence is preserved for most of the cases, which can now be read and compared with other evidence because the technology is here. The problem is that district attorneys are under pressure to prosecute someone to comfort the public and lead them to believe they are doing their job. The same problem occurs with today's news and media outlets, because they are more concerned about getting the news out first than they are about making sure that whatever they report is true.

The majority of wrongly charged criminals have been African American. This may relate to Gladwell's ideas in Blink, where people relate black to negative things and white to positive. Prosecutors my subconsciously believe that black people are more likely to commit crimes. This does not imply they are racist bigots, but there is a stigma that people associate with black people and crime.

Eyewitness accounts are not substantiative enough to prove whether an individual has committed a crime or not. In the case of James Lee Woodward, he was convicted because he had been convicted of theft as a teenager, so his previous criminal record suggested that he could have committed another crime. After all, according to the 20/80 rule, 20 percent of people cause 80 percent of the problems, so he could've been one of the few that commit multiple crimes. Logically, he could have been the suspect, but there was nothing to prove that he was guilty. I understand why the DA would jump to conclusions as they have in the past, but obviously they have not been putting much thought into their hypothesis, because over 40% of the criminals have been wrongfully convicted.

Time cannot be bought back, so something must be done to prevent so many false convictions. The convictions are a matter of public safety versus personal rights and liberties. DNA testing has been a giant leap in aiding to determine who is truly innocent and guilty. However, there are many states who have not preserved DNA evidence from the scene of crimes that have occurred a long time ago. How will these innocent people be discovered and exonerated?

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 12:53 AM  

I visit CNN.com several times a week to keep up with both national and world current events. Recently CNN started including a t-shirt icon next to select headlines. When the users click the icon, it allows them to see the headline on a t-shirt, select a color, style and size, and order the shirt with the desired headline printed onto it. This service seems a little odd, considering many of the headlines, like "Robbers storm, trash jewelry store," seem irrelevant to wear on t-shirts. This is just another way for CNN to capitalize on news. Instead of informing people of what is going on in the world, they are doing what any business would do: trying to make money.

It is surprising that CNN is doing this as opposed to other media providers. I would expect a newspaper company to start selling t-shirts online, because newspapers are traditionally sold individually, but as technology evolves, more and more news and information reaches us digitally. Since most of the news is now available free online, newspapers are decreasing in popularity. This t-shirt idea would be a creative to push for more revenue, but it seems to be irrelevant and unnecessary. I doubt they are selling many t-shirts with the headlines that are posted. There may be a few historic headlines that people would want to save, but for the most part the everyday news is not going to be remembered. CNN is trying to capitalize on the ever so popular online t-shirt trend. The cost of producing a t-shirt is under $1 (when mass producing them), and the shirts on CNN.com are selling for $15 a piece, plus shipping and handling costs. They are making a hefty profit on each shirt they sell.

I am not personally against CNN's decision on selling headline t-shirts, despite the fact that I believe their marketing efforts are not successful. The only inconvenience for website users would be an additional icon about 3 mm wide, which could distract users and be a severe inconvenience to navigating the website. Some may claim that innocent users are being ripped off when they click on the wrong icon, and may be lead to believe they must purchase the shirt to read the article. Aside from these reasons, I don't see why anyone would object to CNN's somewhat stupid decision of selling t-shirts of printed headlines.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 12:02 AM  

I guess I have started to think more about philosophical topics like religion, enlightenment and spirituality, which was prompted from discussions from my AP Lang class. I really started to think about my own beliefs, and why I follow the religion I do. As an Indian, people assume I am either Hindu or Muslim. When I tell them I am a Jain, they say they have never heard of Jainism. I would like to get my beliefs down in writing in order to identify my beliefs and also help others better understand them.

Religions are formed to develop a system of values, invoke discipline, help maintain peace and help people find true happiness. But perhaps the most important function of a religion is to explain the unknown. Religion helps guide people when they are not sure what is right or wrong, or how the world works. Everyone creates their own philosophies based on their beliefs, and people with similar beliefs have come together to follow the same religion. One question that is central to almost all religions is whether there is a God, or something that transcends or is greater than human kind.

At the age of about 10 years old, I began to go to meetings for the Interfaith Association of Central Ohio. Although some may say these meetings were boring, long sessions of prayer and sermon, I would have to say the experience I had through these meetings was valuable and priceless. In this time and day, in a country founded on diversity and freedom, it is important to gain a better understanding of the beliefs of yourself and the people around you. I remember how thousands of people of different religions gathered in front of the Ohio statehouse the day before the United States declared the “war on terror.” Some of these people believed in a God while others believed in another higher power. Whatever they believed, there was something that brought together so many people of different faiths together that day, to pray and symbolically show their opposition against violence and war.

Many of the conflicts between religions seem to come from their disagreement on who this higher power is, or if there is one at all. I have shaped my philosophy on whether there is a higher power based on my religion, as most people do.

I am a follower of the Jain philosophy, also known as Jainism. It is not just a religion; it is a way of life. My beliefs on whether there is a God or not come from my understanding of Jainism. I believe that there is no God, nor is there any thing that transcends or is greater than human kind. Jainism is an eastern philosophy that shares the idea of reincarnation, nirvana and karma. There is no thing that transcends humankind. The only power that transcends humankind is the soul, which is not a thing. The universe consists of six substances: Space, motion, rest, time, matter and the soul. The first five are properties of existence, while the last is of non-existence. The soul does not physically exist therefore it transcends humankind.

So what is the soul? The soul could be defined as the difference between life and death. When a person dies, nothing physically leaves the body. Based on my belief of reincarnation, the soul would populate another body and live another life, until the person manages to remove all karma from their soul and attain Nirvana. Since the soul is not physical matter, it does not need to move through space or time, so it will move from body to body instantly.

The idea is that all people are actually their soul. They control their own destiny through their actions. They accumulate good and bad karma based on nine different dimensions. Karma is based on a person’s thought, speech and action and the person can do any of these things themselves, tell another person to do it, or encourage someone else to do it.

The reason I believe in karma is because I find it hard to believe one being could have so much control over the entire universe. How do they gain so much power, and why do they have a chance at that power while I don’t? I know people that are very pious, yet they are still having troubles in their lives. What could explain this if they were only living one life, then going to either heaven or hell? Why would an all-loving being create a life that is unfair? The best explanation I have found to these questions so far has been the karma theory. Religion explains the unknown and I have chosen to adopt the Jain philosophy on life because to me, it seems to be the most logical explanation of why life is the way it is.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 4:59 PM  

Part of the reason behind the downfall of the U.S. economy is the irresponsible spending and poor decisions made by its citizens. The mortgage crisis was fueled by irresponsible home buyers purchasing homes outside of their budget. When time to renew their ARM (Adjustable-Rate Mortgage), they are suddenly hit with reality: interest rates are now higher than what they originally paid. Soon foreclosures start popping up, and due to the state of the economy, it is difficult for people to sell their properties. These properties are then seized by banks, who also are pressed for liquid assets. The falls of major lenders like Bear Stearns are a result of the lack of liquid assets. Bear Stearns' assets were tied up in real estate properties that were not selling. The government should educate the public to help prevent many of the economic problems today. Students should know the basics to personal finances before they graduate high school.

Unfortunately, many high school students don't know the basics of personal finance. Although one can always argue that smart students that go to college will learn how to manage their money, this information may be presented to them years down the road. Almost everyone makes financial decisions in their day-to-day lives, and those decisions become more important as students graduate high school. At the age of 18, many students go to college away from home, where they must make financial decisions on their own. Financing college may be a challenge for many students. These people need proper training to make financially sound decisions. I believe high schools should be responsible to prepare students for the real world that will hit them as soon as they graduate. The government provides free public education to people so they make sound decisions and help the community grow in a positive light.

Linworth's personal finance class has recently received a large amount of attention from Ohioans. Much of this attention is as a result of the state's attempt to improve the financial savvy of Ohio high school students. A few weeks ago, the treasurer of the state of Ohio came in to Rick's personal finance class at Linworth to speak to high school students about the subject. ONN also ran a story on the news, interviewing Linworth students and staff about the personal finance class. Linworth's personal finance class is one of few in the state, and something that Ohio educators are hoping to use as a model to set a statewide standard of financial savvy.

The Linworth philosophy of education is that students learn best when they combine theoretical concepts with real world experience. The experience and application part of the process teaches the kids the importance of learning in the classroom, and its relevance in their own lives. It is easier for people to learn when they can relate the material presented in class to concrete examples and situations rather than dealing with abstract ideas. The personal finance class is a great example of information taught to students that is relevant, practical and useful in making day to day decisions. Money is all around us, and no matter how wealthy people are, everyone should know how to manage, save and spend it responsibly.

I support the State's notion to ensure every student knows basic personal finance concepts. I do believe there will be some students that are already financially savvy, so if this class becomes a graduation requirement, students should be able to test out of it. The goal is to make sure students leave high school knowing this information, not to waste a period of the school day learning things you already know. With this extra bit of practical information, we will be taking another step towards fixing the country's problems.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 11:01 PM  

My last A.P. exam is finally over. For three of my classes, the whole year has been centered on learning, getting good grades and preparing for these exams. The morning of exam day I woke up and the first thing I thought of was, “gee, I probably should’ve listened to Mr. Miller.” I was not completely stressed out, but I would be lying if I said I had a good eight hours of sleep. I was at Cedar Point for the entire day Tuesday because it was Physics Day. I did not realize the Cedar Point trip was the day before the AP English Language exam when I initially signed up and paid for tickets. I guess it was poor planning on my part because I had all my AP exams marked on my calendar, yet I did not check the calendar to see if the physics trip was conflicting with anything.

I ended up making the best of the situation. Of course I was not totally exhausted Wednesday morning, but I would like to have slept a little more. I had to make the best of the situation, so I took a teaspoon of ginseng tea in its most potent form, which gave me plenty of energy for the next few hours. I also took 120mg of ginkgo to enhance my mental alertness.
I arrived at the testing facility (the WEC) ten minutes before the suggested arrival time. There was a constant pool of students spilling in, but it was apparent that the Thomas students largely outnumbered the Kilbourne students. It was great to still see several familiar faces to break the pre-exam tension. Immediately after entering the exam room, I was glad I dressed in layers, since the temperature was rather cool inside.

Once inside and situated, it was time to wait until the proctors were ready to administer the exam. There were the usual jokes about the flaws in the College Board system, and how there are so many ways for people to cheat that they have not addressed. The seat I was instructed to sit at was directly next to the clock, which was a pleasant surprise to me. However, I later learned that the clock was taped to the window with masking tape, and would periodically fall off. There were several other flaws in the administration of the exam.

The proctors administering the AP exams in Worthington need to be trained to properly administer standardized tests. The first issue with the exam was the testing environment itself. There were far too many students in the testing room, so the student’s desks were placed too close together, resulting in discomfort during the exam. Also, there were no aisle ways to travel horizontally across the room, so students were constantly distracted when they needed to make room for people leaving the room. The proctors were very rude and terse while giving instructions, snapping stern commands to the students, which added pressure to the testing environment. During the test itself, the proctors would stand over individual students’ shoulders for prolonged periods of time, which distracted many students. There was also a discrepancy between the three clocks in the room. They all showed different times, so it was difficult to figure out exactly how much time was remaining.

Although there were many flaws in the administration of the exam, the experience was not as terrible as it may sound. The multiple-choice section of the exam was not as difficult as I had expected it to be. The first section was the hardest, and each subsequent section became easier. I paced myself relatively well, because I finished my last question about thirty seconds before time was up. During the practice tests in class, I usually finished about five minutes behind schedule. The essay prompts were also easy for me to understand and relate to. One of the prompts was about corporate partnerships and advertising in the school setting. I have been working with administrators over the past couple weeks to try and convince them to open up to more sponsorship opportunities, so I had plenty of ideas on what to write about. I spent most of my time analyzing the passage for the prompt that required me to identify rhetorical strategies used in the passage. The provided passage used a wide variety of techniques to further its message. I believe I effectively analyzed the significance of the strategies used, but I may not have identified every strategy with its technical term. The third prompt was a synthesis essay on whether the penny should be removed from the U.S. currency or not. I decided it would be easier to argue that it should be removed. The prompt was a little unclear, so I did not like the question. I spent the least time on that question, because I believe I had the potential for a higher score for the other two essays than for the penny essay. I ended up using all the time given for the essays. I finished on time, but I tried to utilize every minute given to me.

Our group finished the test almost an hour behind schedule. After the administration was over, everything wrapped up pretty quickly. Aside from the poor administration of the exam, everything else went rather smoothly. The exam itself was not as difficult as I expected, but that doesn’t imply that it was easy.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 9:54 PM  

I am a strong proponent of technology and its role in educational institutions. The Linworth AP has taken a huge leap this year by implementing WiFi throughout the school available to all its students and staff. As with almost any privilege given, there is always the risk of abuse. With the popularity of social networking website like Facebook and Myspace and access to email and instant messaging, there is always a risk of this abuse. Students around Linworth regularly use these services to stay connected with the world around them, often times keeping up their friends or using these tools to maintain a healthy social life. I believe these tools are essential in this new world of web 2.0 applications, and when used responsibly, can help people achieve great feats by instantly connecting people all over.

I believe Linworth should keep the network open and unrestricted to its students. The Linworth philosophy is to create a tight-knit community based on trust. This encourages responsible behavior from students. There are no filters currently installed to regulate student activity online and through the network and students seem to be using their resources responsibly. There has been tremendous criticism over the internet filters implemented at both the home schools in Worthington. They block relevant educational research material and filter important information. I personally remember researching information on body decomposition for BESS (Biology) last year. BESS, the firewall (yes it has the same name), would not display the website because it was related to death.

Of course along with any freedom or privilege, there is inherently the risk of abuse. The Linworth community has its own system of checks against people abusing their privileges. Instead of policing students, the community has instigated an honors system, so if one student violates the rules, another student will see that as unfair and take action.

I believe students should only check their email, use facebook or myspace, or access YouTube if they are doing something constructive and useful. I do not necessarily believe that all bandwidth used by students must be for academic purposes, since Linworth's philosophy is based on experiential learning. There are many things that students can learn outside of the school environment, and the internet is a great resource. I cannot count the number of times I have looked up tutorials or demonstrations on YouTube, or collaborated with students on Facebook to seek help on homework or hold meetings. Technology is an important part of the daily lives of students and staff alike. As long as this technology is used responsibly, there should be no reason to revoke the privilege.

Students should be free to use the tools available on the school machines, but they should not keep other students from finishing their work. I believe you can learn from every life experience, especially from browsing the internet and reading things. School bandwidth, when used responsibly, is the best investment in the education of its students. Since Linworth didn't have the budget to buy new machines for the school, by opening up WIFI the students can now bring in their own machines and utilize the resources on the internet. These resources are extremely valuable, since the internet is an endless source of information.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 10:00 PM  

Malcolm Gladwell manages to effectively organize his ideas about the factors that cause an idea, trend or social behavior to tip and spread. After reading The Tipping Point, I have gained a clearer understanding of the big picture on what causes epidemics to start. Although many of the ideas may seem obvious, I have never connected them together into a coherent set of guidelines, as Gladwell does in his book. Gladwell's book was both informative and interesting because he provided numerous examples and case studies to support his ideas. This book was particularly helpful to me because I am planning on starting some viral marketing campaigns in the near future.

Throughout most of the book, Malcolm presents and supports his three rules of epidemic. The first rule is the Law of the Few. He states that it's a small percentage of the population that fuel the epidemic the most. This rule is also known as the 20/80 rule, where 20 percent of the people cause 80 percent of the problems (or solutions).

The second rule is the Stickiness Factor, which means exactly what it sounds like. For a message to turn into an epidemic, it must be sticky, or easy to remember. Gladwell dispels a common misconception by explaining that the stickiness of a message is determined by quality of the presentation of the message, not by the quality of the message itself.

Gladwell's third rule is the Power of Context. The surroundings, environment and situation contribute largely to the outcome of an epidemic. Who knew that cleaning subway cars could result in a lower crime rate? I have noticed from my own experiences that the environment I'm in has significant influence over my actions. When I'm in my room studying alone, I can get far more done than when I'm not. This summer I plan on moving my business operations into a commercial office space, even though the extra space is unnecessary and it would cost a large sum of money. The work environment and vibe created in a commercial office setting should force me to work seriously and discipline myself to get things done. During my interim this year, I learned the importance of culture and the surroundings within a corporate setting. The company I shadowed at, Knetwit Inc., spends tens of thousands of dollars a year to maintain a relaxed, fun environment for their mere 20 employees. That says something about the importance of the work environment. Again, the idea is that the context of the situation greatly affects its outcome.

Gladwell goes on to elaborate on a specific aspect of the context. He introduces the Magic Number, 150, which is the largest number of people that can work effectively in one group. He has come to this conclusion by analyzing the human social channel capacity. A typical human can only maintain 150 close relationships. Everything beyond that number is usually just an acquaintance, or a person with whom you have "loose ties."

In sum, The Tipping Point was worth reading, as it offers insight and reasoning on why some things can achieve widespread appeal while others can't. For anyone who is planning on spreading an idea, trend or social behavior and wishes to achieve viral growth, The Tipping Point is a must read.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 8:05 PM  

Interim is an incredible experience where students get one week off from school to conduct an independent study. They can learn anything they would like to learn that cannot be learned in the traditional classroom setting. It encourages students to become independent and responsible, since they are in charge of finding their mentor and usually doing everything on their own.

Previous Years

I have had an incredible experience with interim in the past years. Interim and walkabout (a semester long version of interim) were the main attractions that lured me into Linworth in the first place. Freshman year I went to King Business Interiors (KBI) and EventCo Productions for my interim. I spent the week learning about two of the things I'm passionate about: Business and music.

Every year I've been able to take what I have learned from interim, and immediately apply it to a project that I start after interim. Freshman year I shadowed KBI, where they focused on selling office furniture to small to medium sized businesses. One week after interim, I implemented a few changes within my own business. I started targeting SMB (Small and Medium-sized businesses) with my marketing efforts. I made the largest single sale in my life that week: almost $25,000 in digital cameras and memory cards to a medium-sized corporation. This was a direct result of the knowledge I gained during my interim.

During my interim sophomore year I spent one week at EventCo Productions. I learned about artist bookings and event management and production. Soon after, I founded Masala Entertainment, an artist management and entertainment company. Although the company launched last spring, I am still in the process of developing a business plan and marketing strategy that will be launched within the first two weeks of summer vacation, enabling Masala Entertainment to book events nationally. The business currently has regional reach, which will soon become national. Again, much of what I needed to know specifically about the entertainment industry came from what I learned at EventCo.

This Year

I am going to be at a dot com startup venture named Knetwit, which is located in Chattanooga, TN. Knetwit.com is a social networking and knowledge collaboration website that enables students and professors to share ideas, issues and content centered around their educational journey. Anyone with a .edu email address can sign up and use knetwit.com for free. Also, anytime someone downloads the information you post, you get paid! Within the last 9 months, Knetwit has gone from a valuation of nothing to $88 million. I hope to learn more about how startups work, how they get funding, and how they can move at such a fast pace to develop the company. I am also interested in learning more about management and communication techniques.

This year I'm currently working on a project to rebuild Worthington Kilbourne's website. It looks very outdated and is not very functional. The new website needs to be a complete solution that is fully integrated with existing social networks and other websites in order to place powerful tools, for both students and staff, right at their fingertips. Currently the three person team has been working on ideas for the website, but nobody on the team knows what they should be doing, and the whole process is very unorganized. There is no official leadership, nor is there a road map to guide the other two students working on this project. I plan on taking what I've learned from Knetwit to figure out what kinds of features we can implement into this new site, as well as where to look to research the trends of new web 2.0 websites. Also, I would like to take leadership and create a road map for this project. I would like to look at the website from a businessman's perspective. It should be a solution or product that I am trying to sell to someone. There needs to be a reason people want to use it. It needs to be convenient, fully integrated, and fun to use. It's just like any product: if nobody uses it, you're wasting your time producing it.

Again, interim is one of the best experiences I've had at Linworth thus far, and I believe every student should make the most of it. It isn't just a week off from school. It is an excuse to give to people that would normally not allow you to come and work with them for a week. It is also a time where you learn more than just information. You learn how to live life, communicate with people and solve spontaneous problems that seem to sprout out of nowhere. You are exposed to the real world, and if you try a little, you will quickly learn that people will go out of their way to help you. All you have to do is ask, and show them they have some sort of value in helping you.

I believe every student should be required to do their own interim, not work with other students or classmates. Every student has his own passion, and no two students are the same. Also, a large amount of what students learn during this process occurs outside of the actual week off designated for interim. Calling to find a place, presenting yourself as a passionate student, and convincing your mentor to teach you and allow you to shadow them is a big part of the experience, and I believe every student should go through it on their own. All people have times in their lives where they will need to ask for help or favors. It is important for people to learn how to effectively communicate and build relationships that reciprocate favors to build trust and provide mutual benefit. Interim is a great start to this learning process.

Posted in 3 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 8:57 AM  

I'm not sure how this post is supposed to be done as an assignment, so I have just pasted my comments I have made to other blogs so it's easy for Jen to grade them. I really prefer commenting directly on the other people's blogs because then the author gets the little notification on their account that tells them that what they write has relevance to other people.
Also they don't have to browse my blog just to know what I think of what they think.

Person: Zach
Post: "[ the oc part i ]"
Comment: You know what really troubles me? As an Indian, my family is really frugal. We buy things in bulk when they are cheap. Unfortunately, since so many teens are irresponsible, we are no longer able to buy over the counter medication in bulk when it goes on sale. I can only buy two bottles of Nyquil at once, how sad is that? And I'm not even planning on abusing it, just trying to save some money. Man, what is this world coming to?

Person: Melissa
Post: Consumerism and qips about quantum computers
Comment: I love how the U.S. economy works. You're right, we are pack rats, but we seems to be fueling our economy by our own stupidity. Take fast food for example: People buy it because it's cheap, convenient and seems to taste good. They waste their money on eating out too much, then get fat and spend their money on diets. The diet companies spend money on marketing and provide jobs for researchers and people to take care of operations. When diets fail, the doctors and hospitals get business, which in turn fuel the health care sector of our economy. It even gets us to build more schools and support education. The chain goes on and on, but my point is all this can happen just because of the typical American's obsession with "stuff."

Person: Melissa
Post: So I guess I am warming up to Malcolm...
Comment: I guess Gladwell is finally writing about stuff we can relate to right? I mean it's nice to know that erasing graffiti can stop crime, or that things need to be "sticky" in order to stick (duh?), but this chapter finally seems to explain why things work the way they do and what relevance these ideas have to our own lives.

Person: Laura
Post: OC #1 for this week
Comment: Yikes, I feel sorry for that kid that went to Larry at this point in time. Wayne seems a little worried about interim as people have yet to decide what they want to do, and when I spoke to Josh he seemed to be having a fit over it as well. I don't blame them. Laura I think the video documentary is a great idea. What kind of programs are you looking at using? From what I've heard the complicated programs like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro take quite some time to learn, but I know several people that make real professional looking movies through programs like Windows Movie Maker and Apple iMovie. If your goal is to create a documentary, it may be more efficient to use a user friendly program, while if your goal is to learn how to professionally edit videos then it would be beneficial to learn how to use the industry standard programs. I'll keep my eyes open for people that know video editing real well.

Person: Kyle
Post: "OC#1: Reservation Road, the movie"
Comment: Wow man, I had no idea you were in a movie. You must be really well connected to get into a movie like that, and getting to meet and work with such high profile people. This sounds like an amazing experience. I checked out the trailer and the movie looks pretty interesting, I'll be sure to watch it.

Person: Katie
Post: The Rule of 150
Comment: I really like this idea of yours of the social networks. It's a great way to look at how we are all connected. I was looking at Linworth as one of these networks that work effectively because we have about 150 people (which follows the rule of 150), but I never looked at it as small groups of people that know each other well, bridged by connectors who open us to hundreds and hundreds of acquaintances with whom we can carry "loose-ties." Ok Ok, my point is I like the way you think.

Person: Michelle
Post: "O+C:Materislism"
Comment: Non-possessiveness is a religion to me. Literally. My religion is based on three fundamental principles: non-violence, non-possessiveness and non-absolutism. My goal is to practice these principles in my own life. This may seem strange coming from me considering I can't imagine living a day without my Macbook Pro and that I become extremely agitated when I run out of hair gel. I have a long way to go, because clearly I haven't discovered what life is really about. We come into this world with nothing and we leave this world with nothing. There's no use hoarding materialistic junk with us because nobody can take that stuff with them once they die. I think your idea is one that everyone should incorporate into their lives, because by transcending the materialistic things in life, people can experience the true value of life.

Person: Dylan
Post: "Book vs. Movie"
Comment: Agreed. The book is better than the movie because the beauty of reading books is having the ability to create your own mental image of the story. It's like having a guided dream, where you illustrate the scene with your own interpretation of what the book is like, yet the everyone follows the same storyline as you. Movies hinder people's creativity because they are fed what to think and see.

Posted in 1 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 10:48 PM  

Recently I have been helping out with fund raising efforts at our Jain temple. I am part of the Jain community, a small group of about 100 people in central Ohio that practice Jainism. Due to the lack of funds and size of our community, our temple is really a unit within an office complex which has been converted into a place of worship. We are getting closer to our goal of raising enough money to buy some land and build an independent temple. This spring the temple's executive committee has decided to put together a dance drama fund raiser to raise money for a new temple.

The show is titled Mahavir, which is a drama choreographed by a wonderful dance instructor in the Columbus area and performed by dozens of kids from our own community. Everyone has been hard at work trying to make this event happen. I have contributed my design and promotion skills by designing tickets and helping promote the event, while others have contributed to planning the logistics of the event, and still others have provided monetary support. I believe the cause for the event is great but in the back of my mind, as much as I hate to say it, I believe this event is not going to be successful. I don't mean to be pessimistic, but the idea is flawed, and unfortunately adults never want to listen to kids' ideas. The committee has put too much time and money into the event to turn back now.

There are some direct issues that need to be addressed before a community can take on an event like this. The idea seems great, but it has not been thought out completely. The first issue with the fund raiser is that they want to charge tickets at $25, $50, $75 and $100 levels. The pricing seems a little steep, and when they have the ability to charge as little as just a few dollars for the show, there is no reason to inflate the prices so ridiculously high. The fact of the matter is that people will come to the event for entertainment as well, not only to support the community. The reason I say that is because there are 100 families in the Jain community, but they are trying to sell over 700 tickets for the show. This means people from other communities are going to have to come to this event in order to meet the goals set, and these people have their own fund raising goals. Raising money for another community's temple may not be one of their main goals. Especially if they are not Jain or do not believe in Jainism. There is no celebrity talent or anything, and don't get me wrong, these kids are very talented, but when you are charging big money for events, people expect big names.

Another issue is that the event does not have mass appeal. The drama will be performed through classical Indian dance, which is beautiful but does not have widespread appeal. The event also has high overhead, since the Indian dance choreographer is being paid for every practice, and on top of that, they get free advertising to thousands of Indians within the Columbus area. I would say that is a poorly negotiated deal, because anyone getting that much advertising for a professional dance academy can more than make up their losses due to their hourly choreography fees by the new business that this event will bring them. They should be doing their part to help out because after all, this is a fund raiser.

Aside from the apparent issues with the event, when you dig deeper you find many more issues with all this fund raising. I am always told to help the community, because that is what a good person does. I have always heard people at the temple say "give and you'll always get something in return." I started thinking of what this really meant. Obviously the temple is doing a lot of fund raising to build a new place, so they are telling the whole community to give to the cause, and they will get back the experience of spiritual enlightenment and other good stuff.

I started look at the Jain temple as a non-profit organization. If they are always telling me to give and help others, then the same should apply to our community as a whole. I am having trouble finding any specific example of a time when the people of our temple have gone outside of our own community and helped others. The temple should give, and people will surely give back. I look at these Christian churches, the Muslims and Jews and I can't help but appreciate all that they do for the community. They look beyond a person's religious affiliation and into that person's heart and soul. I see Muslims helping Hindus and Christians helping Jews all the time. They have open soup kitchens, help the homeless, teach people how to read. And our temple seems to be out of the loop, caught up in our selfish goals of building a new temple. Do we really need it?

I am proud to worship at an office building turned temple because it is better than nothing, and we have a small community that the building has been able to accommodate without any issues. I think our temple needs to look beyond our own goals and give to the community first. What goes around comes around, but if you don't send anything around, you'll be sure to get nothing in return. Successful communities rely on each other. They are proud to help others, and not shy to ask for help in return. I believe someone needs to open our community's eyes to realize that there are things more important than money, even if it is for building a temple, and that there are people that we could be helping. Unfortunately, there has yet to be anyone bold enough to challenge the community and its ways, but someone needs to do it. I hope to be that someone.

Posted in 1 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 10:10 PM  

This article regarding college applications was published in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/education/17admissions.html

As the end of Junior year is getting near, I have found myself spending a lot of time worrying about college. My parents are of Indian origin, and Indians are extremely competitive when it comes to academics. A smart kid is usually seen as better than an athletic one. If your child isn't one of the smartest kids in his school, then he's looked down on. The fact that I'm a DJ in high school makes matters worse, because I get a lot of pressure from my parents and the community to do well in school. There is a stereotype that kids that are interested in music and arts are not smart academically. My parents want me to go to a well known big name school just to show people that I'm not a stupid kid that spent all of his high school years partying.

Right now for me it's all about GPA and standardized test scores. It's no longer been about what I like to do, it's more about what I need to do to beat the system and get into a big name school. The big name schools are getting harder and harder to get into, as the popularity for these schools is constantly going up. In 2009, the largest population of high school students in our nation's history will graduate. As a high school student it is really hard to figure out this whole college game. I have no idea what the colleges are looking for, because they all say that academics are important, but they also look for well rounded students.

The increasing applications and competition for college admissions is not solely due to the increase in the college age population. Students are applying to more colleges than ever. The average student used to apply to 3 or 4 colleges. Now the average student applies to five or more colleges, and it is not uncommon to see students applying to 10 colleges. Also, big name schools have expanded their marketing reach to middle and lower class families. They do not want to be seen as elitist colleges, so they reach out to large populations of people. All of this contributes to the increasingly competitive nature of college admissions, and adds a considerable amount of stress to the average high-school student.

I feel that the whole college admissions deal is a big game. My goal is to show that I have a strong work ethic by taking a full load of challenging classes and doing my best in them. I do not believe standardized testing gives a true measure of intelligence and knowledge. I believe anyone can coach themselves to do really well on the SATs and ACTs, and that is exactly what I plan on doing. The scores are nothing but numbers, so it is pretty easy to beat the system. GPA is also a joke, because anything above a 3.5 is hard to distinguish between different districts. Every district has a different method of calculating GPA, so the number doesn't say much to colleges. In terms of extra-curricular activities, I do not participate in many activities that go through the school, because they are not aligned with my own passions. I believe students should choose activities that display their passions and demonstrate leadership. Students should also have a strong impact in the community, because these are the people that will be successful in their lives. Colleges want people that are both smart and driven to achieve success.

The issue I've been having is that I have stopped being myself. I am basically coaching myself for something that has no relevance to my own life, other than the fact that I can get into certain colleges. I do not believe in doing activities I don't enjoy, just for the credit. Students should be driven to learn, and not pressured to learn by threats like grades and college admissions. They should learn the core subjects to be successful in life, but think beyond just the classroom. They need to learn to think for themselves and be creative. The issue with the education system right now is that students are taught to model their teachers. They learn everything that is taught in the class, but they never think for themselves or come up with their own ideas. Colleges are currently measuring students' intelligence through standardized methods which means everything is based on the numbers, so as long as students can take information in and regurgitate, they will get into the college they want. The competitive colleges have such a high volume of applicants that they must use some sort of formula and base their decision off test scores, GPA and class rank. This means that smart, driven individuals that have significant impact in society, but may not measure up with the student that memorizes everything and learns to beat the system and return stellar test scores will be cut out by these filters the colleges use. They may be better students, but they will not get the chance to get into these colleges. The education system is completely flawed, but the issue is one of efficiency. If there are too many applications, there needs to be a quick way to cut out all the junk, and the easiest way to do that is to look at the numbers.

Posted in 5 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 8:15 PM  

The magic number is 150. It is the tipping point between groups that work effectively and ones that don't. Why 150?

The brain has a limited amount of space to store certain kinds of information. This limit is called the channel capacity. Phone numbers are seven digits because the human mind can remember up to seven digits before they start making mistakes, so their channel capacity for information is up to seven numbers in one group. The same concept applies to social and emotional relationships. Humans have the capacity to hold a strong relationship with a limited number of people. This limit is determined by the size of a particular part of the brain called the neocortex. A British anthropologist by the name of Robin Dunbar came up with a ratio between the size of the neocortex and the social channel capacity of a living being. When Dunbar plugged the ratio into the equation, he found that the social channel capacity for homo sapiens including humans was 147.5, or about 150. This means that the maximum number of people we can have a genuine social relationship with is 150. Beyond that, our friends are just acquaintances, but we don't truly know them well. Gladwell says that "The rule of 15o suggests that the size of a group is another one of those subtle contextual factors that can make a big difference" (182).

So humans can have a maximum of 15o close relationships with others, but how does this have to do with an idea tipping and turning into an epidemic? To find the answer to that Gladwell writes of a case study done at Gore and Associates, the company that manufacturers GoreTex fabric and Glide dental floss. Gore does not have any bosses or positions within the company. Everyone in the company is an "associate" of equal importance. The only way this is possible is by creating a community small enough to create loyalty. They abide to the rule of 150 by capping all their operations to 150 employees. When they reach this limit, they create a new plant and have a completely different team working together. Since every employee knows the other employees working in the company, this creates a sense of peer pressure to get your work done right. Employees are encouraged to work hard because what they do matters. People know them personally, so they can't get away with doing something and not being noticed.

People can draw many parallels between Linworth and Gore and Associates. Linworth is a small community with just over 150 students, so almost everyone knows everyone else. There is also a sense of social responsibility within the community, so people can't get away with doing things anonymously. At Worthington Kilbourne I have caught myself on numerous occasions, doing the minimum necessary because I know none of the teachers really know. At Linworth I truly need to work hard because all my teachers are close enough that I know that my work ethic can be seen even when I'm outside the classroom. And with class sizes as small as they are, I can't be that kid that sits in the back of the classroom going unnoticed, texting people with his cell phone. There is a real sense of equality at Linworth because the teachers do not hold themselves in a higher position than the students, and at town meeting, their vote is worth the same as any student's vote. Also, teachers and students are both called by their first names, so there is nothing to distinguish teachers and students. Everyone is treated equally.

One of the biggest advantages companies, organizations and groups can tap into by following the rule of 150 is the ability to collaborate and learn from each other. Everyone has their own memories, but many of the memories people have are stored outside of their own mind. Other people hold certain details which provoke your own memory. Your mind puts the bits and pieces of a scene together to give you the memory you think you have. Every person picks up on different things, and when people know each other well, they can rely on each other to remember things because they know who remembers what kinds of things. This allows people to remember specific things and collaborate with others to recall further information. Since the mind has a certain capacity to remember things, the more information you can get from others, the more room you have to remember new unique things. As a group, this allows people to learn new things and rely on others to fill in details that they don't remember as closely. Once the group size passes 150 though, people don't know each other well enough to know exactly who knows what, and they are forced to use up their own memory.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 1:01 AM  

Gladwell uses the Broken Window Theory to explain what really causes crime. The criminologists who developed this theory argue that "crime is the inevitable result of disorder. If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes (141). The broken window theory supports the notion of how the environment people are in affects their actions.

I believe the broken window theory explains the cause of many of the crime epidemics today. It is just another way of saying people are shaped by their environment. I know I personally act different based on my environment. My use of language is significantly different when I am talking to a friend or peer than it would be if I were talking to an adult or person of higher authority. The environment sets a precedent for people to follow. If a window remains broken and is not fixed, people will notice it and feel that this kind of behavior is accepted. Soon one thing leads to another, until people are robbing each other and committing serious crimes.

I believe one of the best ways to fight crime is by improving the environment. There is a reason cities pay grant money for companies that are willing to renovate old abandoned buildings, or pay developers to redevelop old land. These areas, if kept the way they are, will experience a dramatic increase in crime based on the conditions of the area. We should continue to fight crime by taking this idea of the broken windows theory to improve our neighborhoods and cities. Currently the issue is that crime is already out there, and law enforcement agencies are probably putting more time toward prosecuting the existing criminals than they are putting toward improving the environment to reduce the number of criminals. They need to shift their focus from physically restraining criminals to changing the way these criminals would think psychologically. It is always better to prevent crime than it is to punish it.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 11:37 PM  

School rampages are becoming all too common these days. The nation was in shock when we first heard of the devastating Columbine shootings. Another shooting came closer to home, at Case Western Reserve University. Last year the Virginia Tech massacre took dozens of lives, and most recently the shootings at Northern Illinois University have put students in shock once again. School is supposed to be a safe place to learn and explore. This world seems to be getting more and more dangerous, where even a school building is no longer safe. We need to find a way to somehow end this trend of killing sprees and bring back the notion of safety in our schools.

The first step in preventing deadly attacks and rampages is to identify what triggers them. Psychologists and sociologists make a career out of this task, and yet they have failed to prevent such acts from happening. Almost all of these shooters have some sort of mental condition or illness that allows them to act in such an irresponsible manner without feeling guilty of it. They stereotypical school shooter is a loner who is depressed and has been locking in their feelings and allowing them to accumulate, until they reach an intensity where they become deadly. They are usually insecure and don't communicate well. Although this may be the stereotypical "loner" kid, sometimes the killer is not easy to identify. The NIU shooter was a perfectly normal kid, and nobody suspected that he would do such a thing. He did not have a record of any previous violations with the school or the law. He maintained good grades and received his degrees. Although the signs leading up to the killing spree weren't obvious, they were there.

Some days you learn things about your friends that reveal a shocking truth, a hidden secret about them, that you would never have guessed to be true. Today was one of those days for me. I have a friend who is incredibly smart. He learned to read at the age of three and knew calculus before entering high school. This kid really is a true genius, because not only is he book smart, but he has the ability to use his existing knowledge to develop new, innovative ideas. He is a true entrepreneur, exactly the kind of person I would want to hang around.

Today he told me a brief history of his dark past. He was always hated for being so smart, or for not fitting in. His parents were oppressive, and his teachers were offended because in some cases he would outsmart them. He had severe depression for most of his life, and has attempted to commit suicide more than just a few times. I was shocked to hear this, and the tone in his voice indicated that this was no joke or exaggeration. I would never have expected such a smart and successful student to even think of such a thing, just as most people say that they would've never expected the person to commit such ludicrous acts in regards to the school shootings. Although my friend doesn't have vested anger against people at school, my point is that it is extremely important for us to connect with the people around us and learn more about them so we can prevent any tragic events from happening. The kids that execute most school shootings seem to be perfectly normal people that don't have any outstanding problems with school, so it is hard to pick up on the signs of the attack.

Since it is hard to identify the troubled people in our society, I believe the only way to solve the problem of school shootings is to treat all the students on campus with respect. It is important to maintain communication will all kids, including quiet reserved kids, so signs of suspicious behavior can be recognized quickly, because these kids' actions are often overlooked. Building a tight-knit community would help improve the environment and surroundings, supporting Gladwell's Broken Window Theory. Most of these shooters have been somehow affected by their environment, especially their relationships with other students and acquaintances.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 12:20 AM  

I am enjoying this new blogging class and I think it is a very practical, innovative way to teach a class. Having class online is convenient and it helps us learn to better communicate in this technology driven age. The days of writing letters and flipping through pages and pages to find information are gone. Now a simple click online can pull up all the information you need, and with another click you can share that information with virtually anyone. I really like the way many things are done currently in this class. I also have a few suggestions for what we could do differently in the future.

Reading and Reflection

I understand that this class is for an English II credit, so there must be both reading and writing. I enjoy The Tipping Point and don't mind writing about it. I think we should continue doing what we've been doing with the reading and reflection posts. The problem with these posts is that it usually says there should be two posts, but all the criteria we are supposed to cover for the post is all related. I usually spend more time trying to figure out how to separate my ideas into two posts than I do for actually writing the posts. I believe it would work better if there were two different prompts for the two posts, or if they were combined into one long post.

Observation and Commentary

I think the OC posts are the most fun to write about, because they're really more about your own opinion. The assignments should be kept as-is. Everything seems to work alright.

Research and Linking

Let's just put it this way: I don't like looking for other people's blogs about subjects I'm not passionate about, reading and commenting them, then never returning to them again. I do believe there is value in doing so, since you can read and analyze the style and bias of other writers, learn from their ideas, and view multiple viewpoints on similar issues. However, I would prefer doing assignments that are not necessary related to blogs, such as the last assignment about researching and linking to the other alternative schools. This way students can still learn to use their resources to find information on the internet, extract important information from it, and form their own opinion about their findings.

Commenting and Posts

As many people have already mentioned, I would like to see more interaction. This could mean more commenting and less posts. The only issue I could see is that there are always going to be people that take the easy way out. They leave short comments like "I agree," that lack insight and show no evidence of critical thinking. I also feel that students are required to write a lot, since five posts are required every week. To get an idea of how much we have to write, I copied and pasted my last five posts into MS Word and removed all titles and spaces, and the end result was 11 pages of posts, double spaced at 12 pt. Times New Roman font. The only reason I go into that much depth in explaining this is to show how much we are writing each week. I understand that it may not be the best solution to reduce the number of posts required each week because there are always people that are going to take the easy way out and write short, unorganized posts that show no insight. However, I would rather write a few detailed thought-out posts than write a lot of short posts (Quality over quantity). The one good thing about writing so much is that I have learned to organize my ideas and write them quicker, because I'm the type of person that takes a long time to plan what I write before I even start writing. Now I am forced to get my ideas out quickly and make them concise, which proves to be a valuable skill when you get into the business world, where productivity is essential.

Future Reference

I would suggest that if you decide to do the blogging class again in the future, there should be some sort of way all the students can see each other's posts in one central location. This could be done easily through RSS feeds. Using a platform other than Blogger could allow more versatility. Platforms like WordPress would enable you to completely customize the blogging system and even allow you to submit all the students' grades online, so each individual can view their own grades.

Posted in 1 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 1:05 AM  

With the second semester kicking in strong, I have experienced an increase in the workload both at school and outside of school. One of my goals this year has been to learn how to manage time and work efficiently. I have tried many new things to achieve my goal, but the fact of the matter is that until I don’t sit down and analyze what I’ve been doing, what works and what doesn’t, I am not going to learn anything new. This is one thing I have learned from the interim experience at Linworth Alternative High School. Every year the students get a week off from school to do anything that interests them. The only requirement is to complete the 40 hours required and write journal entries to reflect on what was done and what you learned.

My mother always tells me that Mohandas Gandhi used to say that people think most clearly in the early hours of morning, and that following a routine is necessary to living a successful life. I have taken up my mom’s advice and followed Gandhi’s words this year. I am fortunate enough that my dad drops me off to school every morning, so I don’t have to wait for the bus. In previous years, I have reached school only a few minutes prior to class, taking advantage of every extra minute of sleep I have in the morning. This year, however, I have made it a point to get up every morning at 6 am, and be at school by 7:10 am, whether I needed to be there or not. I am not exactly sure what the psychology is behind this, but I have been wider-awake during class this year than last year, even if I have gotten less sleep. I have also maintained a routine during the weekends and resisted the temptation of sleeping-in until late, which has helped me keep a uniform sleep cycle during the weekdays.

The first thing I hear with any time-management plan is to set goals and establish priorities. I have always heard this, and thought I was following exactly what the experts say. I was setting goals and establishing priorities… in my mind that is. Until now, I have not realized the importance of putting your goals and priorities down on paper. I have found legal pads extremely useful, since they are perfect for maintaining lists of things to do. I break each task down into little chunks and cross off each thing I accomplish, which enables me to see marked progress.

Until now, I have overlooked the importance of organizing your communications as well. It is important to set aside only a limited time for phone calls, emails and things of that nature. With two of my own businesses, it is hard to resist the temptation of constantly taking calls or answering emails to provide “good service.” I have learned to set my own business hours in which to work on business related tasks. My email responses have become shorter, more concise and to the point. I have also setup an online customer relationship management system so I can assign most of the work to other people to complete. Currently I forward most of my calls to my brother and cousin, who are in Boston and New York respectively. They take calls whenever I am not available. I am still working on creating a protocol to follow so I can outsource most of my repetitive, labor oriented “secretary work” at rates as low as $2/hr.

The only issue I am running into now is that I am putting high priority on important tasks, but there seems to be an endless list of “high priority” items on my to-do list. I never seem to get to the low priority items. For example, I would put a higher priority on homework due the next day than I would on a large project due in a week. This leads to procrastination, because the priority of that project does not go up until the last few days before it is due. I also need to continue working on getting more sleep, because generally people work more efficiently when they are well rested.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 12:52 AM  

After reading Gladwell's chapter 3 of The Tipping Point, the only thing on my mind was, "I want to make things stick too!" I've spent years trying to learn what makes things stick for people. One project I've worked on recently, promoting my annual new year's eve party, involved making things sticky.

Midnight Masala 2008 - Ohio's largest Indian new year's event

For the past three years I've been hosting a public new year's event called Midnight Masala, which features south Asian entertainment. The first year, I held the dinner and dance at a decent hotel ballroom, rented sound and lighting equipment and paid the hotel to take care of the dinner. The promotions for the event were very basic, with word-of-mouth advertising by telling friends, and a few posters around the Indian venues throughout Columbus. The event was sold out, with about 155 people, yet I didn't manage to make any profit that year. I was unhappy with the service from the hotel, and the event didn't seem to extravagant. The next year, our event budget quadrupled as I went all out. I spent over $10,000 for the next year's party, and admission was $50 per person with dinner and $25 without dinner. The product was far better than the year before, yet I did not get the turnout I was expecting, and ended up losing quite a bit of money. One thing I realized was that most of the people came for the party later in the night. This was something I took into consideration as I developed the plan for the next year's event. I figured out that people really want a good party, and there needs to be some way for me to get the message across that the party I'm throwing is something they need to come to. They don't really care about the food.

This past year I brought the party to an urban setting, at a venue in South Campus Gateway on the OSU campus. This year's event was the most successful because I did my research to figure out how people would react to the promotions, and how to make the message stick that Midnight Masala 2008 was the place to be, and they needed to get tickets. When I started promoting the event I had three goals:

1. Spread the word - People should know about the event AND tell others about it
   
2. Convince them it's the best - Get people to believe the event is the best place to be on new year's eve
3. Get them to buy tickets

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 1:41 PM  

I have always wondered what causes evil in the world. Many times, there is only a fine line between what makes something good or bad. A person’s actions may not be the only thing that determines whether they are doing good or bad, because their intentions could be just as important. I don’t believe this world has absolutes of right and wrong, because everyone has a different perspective of what is right and what is wrong, and it is impossible to judge what intentions a person has based on only their actions.

I posed this scenario to my mom earlier today: A person has stolen a rich, arrogant man’s wallet because the man refuses to help a poor man. The thief hands the wallet over to the poor man, who is nearly dying of starvation. Is what the thief did right or wrong? One way to look at this situation is that stealing is wrong, and so the thief should not have stolen from the rich man. Another viewpoint is that the thief saved the poor man’s life, which outweighs the sin of stealing. That idea sounds familiar actually. It sounds kind of like communism. I personally think the thief should have donated his own food or money to the poor man instead of stealing from the rich man. Again, there are multiple ways to view the same issue.

Since there are so many ways to view the same situation, I believe a person’s intentions are just as important as their actions. All bad things somehow relate back to ego. Most people think what they act. If they hit someone, they probably think about causing the person harm before they actually do physically. If they have not thought about it, the action was probably involuntary, in which case the person could not be held responsible for it. The same applies to speech. A person processes what they are going to say through their mind before it comes out their mouth.

Now that it is established that intentions are based on thought, it is important to understand how ego relates to everyday actions that may be considered good or bad. Consider the scenario about the rich man, thief and poor man presented earlier. If the thief stole from the rich man to prove to him that he wasn’t as good as he thought he was, that would satisfy the thief’s ego, and therefore be a bad action. Things like violence also relate to ego. A person would only intentionally hurt a living thing if they somehow feel superior to that being. This may be just the feeling that their own opinion is correct or their facts are valid, so they may inflict verbal or physical violence on the other person.

I can cite many instances where people I know have helped others and performed what seemed to be a good deed, but their intentions were not so great. Many of my friends volunteer for the credit hours, and not to actually help other people. Others may do it to appear to be a person with good character. I believe that even though they are helping someone, they are not performing a good deed. Their intentions are not to help others. If they were, they would help people and take no credit for it, because their true interest would be in helping, not getting recognized for helping. They would not volunteer for college credit hours, because people don’t need certificates saying they’ve helped someone else to feel good about themselves. Again, these intentions can all tie back to ego.

There is a sequence of thought that starts with ego, moves to greed, then deceit, which finally leads to anger. Here is a simple way to look at it: If a person thinks highly of himself, he is going to get greedy. He may want more recognition or may feel like he deserves more material possessions than others. Soon that greed will escalate to deceit, because he will have to lie or twist the truth to maintain his image or possessions. Eventually, when someone comes by and hurts his ego or takes away his image or possessions, he will end up in a state of anger. All of these ideas help explain why a person must overcome ego. Ego is the source of all bad actions in this world.

Posted in 0 comments Posted by Umang Patel at 12:57 AM