E-mail

Project

The innovation which has transformed my professional life in recent years is the e-mail. At ADMC we faculty live and die by electronic mail. We send, every day, e-mails to people who are only a few desks away. In the past we would have gone to see these people in person or written hard copy notes to leave on their desks.

Electronic mail predates the inception of the Internet, and was in fact a crucial tool in creating the Internet. MIT first demonstrated the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) in 1961. It allowed multiple users to log into the IBM 7094 from remote dial-up terminals, and to store files online on disk. This new ability encouraged users to share information in new ways. E-mail started in 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate. Although the exact history is murky, among the first systems to have such a facility were SDC's Q32 and MIT's CTSS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail).

So e-mail has been around a long time but it is only in the last 10-15 years that it has played a part in my professional development.In fact, all aspects of life have been changed by e-mail. When I first went to Brunei (we landed in Bandar Seri Begawan, or BSB, the capital, on 1st January, 1980) there was no widely available worldwide web. No-one had a computer. E-mails were unheard of. There were no projectors in classrooms. There weren't even whiteboards or airconditioning units in classrooms. I used chalk on a blackboard. And this was in the Pusat Tingkatan Enam (Sixth Form Centre), at that time the leading academic institution in the whole country. We didn't even have air-conditioning in our staff room, and papers had to be weighted down on desks to prevent them being blown away by the fans.

The contrast with the situation here today in ADMC is striking. Every classroom has a/c, projectors, smartboards, whiteboards. http://www.admc.hct.ac.ae/internet/. I can communicate with all my students by e-mail; getting them to check and read their e-mails is a different matter.

E-mails have transformed not just my professional life but all aspects of life in general. Increasingly people in their everyday lives, as well as their professional ones, are switching from old-fashioned letter writing to e-mail. It would appear to be an inexorable progression from hard to soft copy. When, in 1986, I was studying for my Licentiate Diploma in TESOL with Trinity College, London, (http://www.trinitycollege.co.uk/), I received work modules by airmail, and returned the completed work likewise. It would take weeks for work to arrive, be completed, returned to London, get marked and sent back. The same tasks could be completed today by e-mail in a fraction of the time. The world has been transformed by electronic mail.

503 words


Bibliography:

"E-mail." En.wikipedia.org. http://www.google.com/. Web. 15 Nov. 2009.

"E-learning." www.admc.hct.ac.ae/internet. Web. 15 Nov. 2009.

http://www.trinitycollege.co.uk/

Magazine summary

England and Wales's welfare ghettos

The coalition government in Britain, led by Conservative leader and Prime Minister, David Cameron, has pledged to cut back welfare payments as part of its austerity package designed to deal with the mountain of debt inherited from the previous Labour government.

This article discloses research which suggests that the problem of welfare dependency has become endemic in certain areas and is getting worse, rather than better. Nearly 2 million people have been claiming out-of-work benefits for more than five years. this new research examines the smallest measurable units recorded by the Department for Work & Pensions, which contain about 1,000 people.

The North of England and South Wales are where most welfare ghettos are to be found. England's benefit capital is Central & Falinge in Rochdale, north-west England. It has one of the lowest average lofe expectancies in the UK and a higher proportion of incapacity benefit claimants than anywhere else in England: 84% are state-dependent, 77% on out-of-work benefits alone. Those who do work do so for drugs gangs, or for cash in hand, while continuing to claim benefits.

Rochdale Development Agency has spent millions on various schemes but to little effect so far.

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Howker, Ed. "Spectator Exclusive: Britain's Welfare Ghettos." The Spectator 10 Oct. 2010. Web.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/6359323/spectator-exclusive-britains-welfare-ghettos.thtml

Economic growth forecasts

In the portal, I accessed Library & Resources., then clicked on databases & e-books. I selected Countries & Cultures and then the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). I opted for Middle East/Africa and chose 3 Gulf countries, Bahrain, Qatar & the UAE. For each country, I selected the economic growth forecast. I then printed out the 3 reports, producing a word document of 1,034 words. This is the summary.

Economic growth in Bahrain will average 4.2% in 2010-11. Expansion in 2009 was only 3.1%, according to government data, due to lower regional growth and a decline in foreign investment and trade flows. Unemployment will rise in 2010. The number of Bahraini nationals in employment fell by 1% in the first quarter of 2010 but overall employment, including expatriates, rose by 1.2%. Government spending will slow in 2011. Investment will be underpinned by government spending in 2010 but, with global recovery, foreign investment should rise in 2011.

Qatar avoided recession in 2008-09 and the economy will expand in 2010-11 because of two things: first, the global recovery and, secondly, the near doubling of LNG production. The main concern is the fall in demand for LNG in Asia and the USA, and profit margins will be squeezed, ‘but Qatar’s dominant position in the market and low production costs should enable it to maintain export volumes’ (http://country.eiu.com=467427431&country=Qatar). The Al Shaheen oil field will expand and the Pearl GTL (gas to liquids) will boost growth in 2011. High government spending on education, health and transport will be maintained. Population growth, including immigration, will support domestic demand. Real GDP growth will surge to 19999.4% in 2010, dropping to 15.9% in 2011.

Real GDP growth in the UAE, by contrast, will average only 4.6% 2010-14, lower than the previous 5 years but ‘respectable by international comparison’. Oil will not be the only driver of growth. Dubai will shift focus from real estate and financial services to ‘building trade and tourism' (hhtp://country.eiu.com-167494001&country=UnitedArabEmirates). Strong government spending, especially in Abu Dhabi, and improved consumer confidence will boost private consumption. The Abu Dhabi 202=30 plan aims to develop the emirate as a manufacturing hub, with the Khalifa Port & Industrial Zone providing essential infrastructure. A virtually tax-free environment and good infrastructure will lead to foreign workers returning after a fall in the expatriate population in 2009. Even if oil prices failed to reach forecast levels, ‘the Abu Dhabi government would be able to use its vast overseas investments to sustain public spending’ (http://country.eiu.com=1674940018country=UnitedArab Emirates).

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Bibliography

http://country.eiu.com/article.aspx?articleid=467427431&country=Qatar http://country.eiu.com/article.aspx?articleid=1817422766&country=Bahrain
http://country.eiu.com/article.aspx?articleid=167494001&country=United Arab Emirates