SAP Game

At the end of the game my team was ranked 5th overall.  We had a good amount for total sales but our net income was not were it could of been.  I believe we ordered to much of the stuff that was not selling as well as using way to much marketing in the beginning.  Our strategy if you can call it one was to work the prices so that it would be intriguing to buy.  Marketing wise we tried to work just one of the products in each region.  The products that we chose were the ones that were not selling as rapidly.  We thought this would be best to sell our products.  Profit is a very important factor when it comes to business but it is not the only one.  A high margin is better.  Our weakness was definitely marketing and not putting the marketing in the right region.  Our strengths I believe was our prices.  I learned that it is very important to see what products are selling best at what regions.  The other thing I learned that it is not all about marketing it is about knowing what products are going to sell because the teams that had the highest rankings barely used marketing.

Apple Firing

I think that Apple is fair in firing there employe because they perfectly state that there is no tolerance for posting about their brand whether it is positive or negative.  If I was apple I would have the same terms as they do now because it is there name on the line and they cant risk allowing an individual tarnish it no matter what.  As the employe no doubt I would be upset because I lost my job and if it was not for this class and the others I was taking I would completely think that Apple invaded my privacy.

Decision Making

Right now I do not use any type of software to aid me in decision making.  Instead I use a note pad and write down my assignments for the week and normally do what is due first.  If there is a test or quiz I normally study a few days in advance.

After some research I found a decision making software that I might possibly use.  This software is called VISA.  With this software you first build a value tree were you include all of your criteria.  After this you include all of the possible conclusions.  Next you will score each alternative.  After this you will weight each criteria and alternative on its importance to you.  Once all this is done the software gives you results in the tree form with scores deciding what is most urgent.

http://www.visadecisions.com/index.php

Plagiarism in College

Technology has made the process of plagiarism so much easier.  Can you imagine before google or even before the internet?  How could you find a paper that is on the same topic?  You would either have to go to a public library and search for one or hope a friend has taken the same class before you.  Now that there is the internet and pretty much everyone has one all you have to do is google your topic and instantly thousand of hits are a click away.  Once you find the one you like all you have to do is copy and paste or try and put it in your own words.  From 1993 to 1997 University of Berkley California estimated a 744% increase in cheating.  I can only imagine what the percent is now.  I know that my catholic school I went to in high school used turnitin.com as well as my English 103 class.  Also in my English 103 class since the number of students were small our teacher was able to see and recognize how we write and our tendencies.

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring2000/Overbeck/stats.html

http://orange.eserver.org/issues/5-1/kennedy.html

Ethics Put to Test

The first job I ever had was at a local Produce and Ice Cream store ran by my best friends grand mother.  As a favor to me and her grandson she hired me even though I had no experience.  Since it is a local store a lot of kids from the local high school work there.  Many friends of the workers know that they work there and know how old fashion the store is.  There are no cameras and ice cream can not keep inventory on.  So a lot of the workers normally hook up their friends with free ice cream, pretzels, hot dogs, drinks, etc.  Once my friends found out they were at the store constantly looking for free hand outs.  My friends put me in a bad situation always asking for free stuff.  This situation put my ethics to the test.  Since it was my best friends grand mother along with the fact that I have known her since I was six the simple answer was to say no to my friends even if it meant upset friends.  Even if I was not personally connected to the owner I would of said no because I believe in loyalty and honesty.

Americas Downfall in Education

When it comes to the matter of education in the United States I believe students are to blame as much as teachers.  As a student you have to want to better your self and do good in school.  You can not just rely on an invention or a crazy new website to make you rich or well off because that is very rare.  What students need to do is get an education and want to get an education.  They need to study out of school as much as they do in school.  I believe that the desire to do well in school comes from the parents or who ever the kid looks up to.  If parents or a role model push a student to do well and support him he will ultimately try to please them.  We also have to remember that not all teenagers care about school and would rather try to be cool and act like there above school.  Most of those kids you can not change and thats fine.

It is not just the students who are to blame it is also teachers and our educational system as a whole.  I think that tenure should be completely erased.  Teachers should never feel comfortable about their job security.  If they are not doing it properly and actually pushing there students they should not be teaching.  Also, they should be tested reguarly wether that is every two years or a year.  I do believe teachers have almost become baby sitters for the mischevious kids.  Who cares about the no child left behind.  If they do not want to learn it is there fault and keep moving because the world does not wait for anyone.  Furthermore, statistics are important to a point and we should not judge our students as a whole through these statistics.

Websites I used
-http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/9/14/141847.shtml
-http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/060327/27global.htm
-

Technology in the classroom

In classes I have personally not had to many were technology is a huge factor.  In some of my classes the teacher has used pandora slide shows and basic internet websites.  The only time any of my classes have used technology greatly is informations classes like this one.  This year though a teacher used skype so we could hold a class while he was away on business.  I did not like it because I prefer to actually interact with teacher instead of listen to him read of a slide.  Since slides have been introduced and whenever they are used in one of my classes I have it seems to me that teachers just read off there slides and theres no point of showing up.

I rarely use technology for studying.  When I study I rely on the notes I took for class and the text book.  If I do not exactly understand something or the definition I normally go to the internet which I am greatful for because it makes things a lot easier.

Personally, I dispise technology in a classroom because I think some teachers rely on it too much and do not try to elaborate or give their own examples.  It seems that they just take exactly what is in the text book and but it on the slide.  Also, some text books since they are all on line now have their own slides that teachers can use.