Emerging Technologies: Meeting the Environmental Challenges of the 21 st Century

Renato M. Sorolla, Ph. D.

Because of technologies, business has been able to advance in such ways that allow
communication across to travel around the globe without leaving their respective offices and homes. They
can send and receive information instantaneously. Consider how emerging technology has impacted in
organization in the follow way like web conferencing. As we all know that technology advances at rapid
paces each day or maybe evert hour. Organization finds that web conferencing is an effective, cost-
effective way to handle overseas business. They can hold group meeting, doing a real time-training just
by via internet. It helps the organization to ave a great amount of money in traveling cost while increasing
productivity.

Innovation in nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology is already helping solve

pressing challenges as diverse as efficient “renewable” energy sources, malnutrition and hunger, access
to clean water, disease diagnosis and treatment, “green” technologies, and global climate change and
sustainability.

Generic Soft Skills for Life

Dr. Renato M. Sorolla

Carlos Hilado Memorial State College

Generic skills are high-order, transferable skills that are common to almost all complex endeavors.
They include skills such as communicating, problem-solving, curiosity, patience, flexibility, purpose,
persistence, resilience, courage and creating – that apply across all specific fields. They enable us to
organize, adapt, and strategically apply our specific skills in new situations and circumstances.

Generic skills also enable us generate new skills (not to mention new products, services,
relationships, communities, etc.) that help us succeed in novel situations, manage and adapt to change
and to flourish by creating what matters even in the face of adversity.

They are important today because work and life ae in flux. Both are getting more complex. Both
require flexibility, initiative, creativity, emotional mastery and the ability to take on many different tasks
– and to learn from your doing and your experience.

Developing one of these skill sets makes it easier to develop the other, and vice versa. Together,
they greatly increase your chances of creating the kind and quality of life and work you truly want, even
in these rapidly changing and often confusing times.

Responding to the Challenges of Education and Training for the Next Generation of Learners

Dr. Renato M. Sorolla

SUC President II

Next Generation Learning Challenges supports the educators who are reimagining public
education – from helping them take what they know about learning and apply it to school design, to
issuing challenge grants that enable practitioners to completely redesign their schools. NGLC recognizes
that in order to make education more about learning and less about teaching, we need to support those
educators with the vision to transform their schools and the passion and courage to pursue it.

At Next Generation, we believe that a nurturing, fun and safe learning environment are key to a
child’s long term success. Our goal is to partner with parents and offer a developmentally appropriate
educational environment where children can thrive to grow emotionally, physically, socially and
intellectually.

Instructional Leadership for Employment Opportunities and the World of Work

Dr. Renato M. Sorolla

SUC President II

CHMSC

Among school-related factors, school leadership is second only to teaching in its potential
influence on student learning. Instructional leadership is critical aspect of school leadership. The work of
instructional leaders is to ensure that every student receives the highest quality instruction each day.
Doing so requires that instructional leaders lead for the improvement of the quality of teaching and for
the improvement of student learning.

The role of the instructional leader should also be expanded to incorporate a shift away from
just “management,” or working in terms of administrative tasks, and move toward an emphasis on
leadership. In order to achieve this objective, a strong principal with solid ideas is not enough; success
will require a redefinition of the role of the principal. Barriers to leadership must be removed by
reducing emphasis on bureaucratic structures and procedures. Relationships must be reinvented.

12 Key Strategies to Achieving a Work-Life Balance

Striking a healthy work-life balance is a difficult challenge even in the best of times, but it is all the more
daunting and necessary during times of economic stagnation and uncertainty.

The Great Recession, with its subsequent cutbacks and layoffs, has left many employees putting in longer
hours and working harder than ever. Worried for their jobs, workers are intent on proving they are an
indispensable part of the team.

Adding to the pressure, today's portable electronic devices have obliterated the line between work and
home. Gone are the days when leaving the office or shop meant leaving our work behind. Today
employees are available to their supervisors, coworkers, and customers around the clock.
The coupling of increased workloads with technology that keeps us constantly connected to our jobs finds
an increasing number of workers feeling overwhelmed, discouraged and depleted.

In 2006 53% of employees felt they had a good work-life balance, according to a Corporate Executive
Board (CEB) report. That number fell to 30% in the first quarter of 2009, the CEB reported. Many
employees today are so busy making a living that they have no time to make a life.

In contrast, numerous studies have shown the most productive employees are well-rounded professionals
with full and well-balanced lives -- both in and out of the workplace. Likewise, the most successful
companies are those that foster employee health and well-being while enhancing organizational
performance and productivity.

Today work-life balance ranks as one of the most important workplace attributes -- second only to
compensation, and workers who feel they have a better work-life balance tend to work 21% harder than
employees who feel overworked.

Steps to a Work-Life Balance

Achieving a healthy work-life balance requires managing our professional and personal life in sustainable
ways that keep our energy flowing, our minds and bodies healthy and our whole selves happy and content.

It means giving due attention to all of the things that enrich and fulfill us including work and career, health
and fitness, family and relationships, spirituality, community service, hobbies and passions, intellectual
stimulation, rest and recreation.

To get there:

1. Track Your Time

Analyzing your present situation is the beginning step in achieving a balanced life. Keep a time log of
everything you do for one week, including work-related and personal activities. This data will serve as an
eye-opener, helping you understand how you are using -- and where you are losing -- your time.

2. Determine Your Priorities

Spend some time seriously reflecting on what is most important to you, and make a list of your top
priorities at work and at home. Then analyze your time audit by asking yourself these key questions: What
do I need to start doing? Stop doing? Continue doing? Do more of? Do less of? Do differently?

3. Set Specific Goals

Take your list of priorities and turn them into concrete and measurable goals. Block time into your
schedule for activities just like you would for an important meeting or a doctor's appointment.

4. Schedule Scrupulously

Successful people plan their work and then work their plan. You have one life, so have one date planner.
Whether paper or electronic, this is the vehicle by which you turn your priorities and goals into reality. Set
aside 10 to 20 minutes at the beginning of each day (or the night before) to plan your tasks and activities
for the day and evening ahead.

5. Establish Boundaries

Set fair and realistic limits on what you will and will not do both at work and at home.

Clearly communicate these boundaries to your supervisor, coworkers, partner and family. For instance,
you might commit to not working late on certain days unless there is a crisis. Additionally, set aside a time
at home during which you will not check or respond to work-related emails or voice mails.

6. Take Care of Your Health

Your health should always be your No. 1 priority. If you are not in good shape physically, mentally, and
emotionally, both your work life and your personal life will suffer. Take care of yourself by eating healthy
meals (especially breakfast), exercise at least three times per week and sleep a minimum of seven hours
per night. While you may not think you have time to add exercise and extra sleep to your jam-packed
schedule, these practices relieve stress, raise your energy level, increase your stamina, improve your
mental clarity, boost your immune system, and make you a happier, more engaged, and more productive
person. Additionally, refrain from the excessive use of alcohol, tobacco, or drugs to relieve stress. These
substances only tend to keep the body in a stressed state and cause even more problems.

7. Nurture Your Family/Relationships

Relationships with family, friends, and loved ones are, by far, the greatest source of inner satisfaction. If
your job or career is damaging your personal relationships, both areas will ultimately suffer. Sure there
will be days when you will need to work overtime. The issue becomes problematic when these days
become the rule, not the exception. By making your personal relationships a priority, your productivity
and effectiveness on the job will actually increase.

8. Make Time for You

As much as work, health, and relationships take priority in your life, it is also important to schedule time
for your own renewal. Indulge in some small pleasure daily. Take at least 30 minutes of uninterrupted
"you time." It will do wonders for your well-being, and your relationships and your career will benefit too.
Connect with your spiritual source. Belief in God, or a higher power, can be a deep well from which to
draw inspiration, guidance, and strength. Setting aside a weekly day of rest can be helpful, as well.

9. Leave Work at Work

Develop a mental on-off switch between work and home. It helps to establish a transitional activity
between the two realms. This might consist of listening to music or recorded books during your evening
commute, exercising at the fitness center, running errands, or keeping personal appointments. Scheduling
such activities immediately following your normal work hours also prevents you from spending that extra
twenty minutes at the office which then turns into several hours.

10. Exercise Your Options

Many forward-thinking companies today are creating policies and programs that facilitate work-life
balance. Find out what options your business offers in terms of flex hours, telecommuting, a compressed
work week, job-sharing, or part-time employment. You may find an arrangement that allows you to work
more productively, while at the same time cutting stress and freeing-up valuable personal/family time. If
your company does not yet have a flexible scheduling program, consider proposing one.

11. Work Smarter Not Harder

Using time more efficiently is an important skill that everyone from the receptionist to the CEO can learn.
Adopting the right combination of time-management practices can cut stress and save you up to an hour
a day. This can include the use of technology to become more organized, grouping emails and voice
messages, avoiding procrastination and learning to say "no."

12. Know When to Ask for Help

If you are overwhelmed at work, and it is causing undue stress don't suffer in silence. Shed the
Superwoman/Superman image and explain your situation to your boss or supervisor. Untenable work
situations can usually be alleviated, but it will take some assertiveness on your part. Similarly, if a balanced
life continues to elude you, or you are experiencing chronic stress, talk with a professional -- a counselor,
mental health worker, or clergyperson. Take advantage of the services offered by your employee
assistance program.

Try as we all may, work-life balance isn't an exact science. Each person must find his or her own way of
combining career, relationships, and personal care into an integrated whole. What is right for you now
will likely change as new circumstances arise, so periodically review your situation and adjust accordingly.

Don't get overwhelmed by assuming that you need to make big changes all at once. Even if you implement
only a few of the above strategies, they will have a positive and measurable impact in your life. Start with
one clear goal -- then add another, and another.

The process of achieving a healthy work-life balance is like becoming a professional athlete or training for
a triathlon. It takes a concerted effort to get in shape and a continued effort to stay that way. But those
who commit themselves to this quest reap enormous health and quality-of-life benefits.
It is possible to have a successful professional career and a fulfilling personal life. Take control of your
work. Be proactive with your time. Get a (balanced) life.

The Art of Questioning

I’m sure we can all remember more than one class in high school or college in which we struggled to keep
our heavy eyelids from shutting out an instructor droning on in an endless string of statements. Though
the teacher or professor was doing their best to share the information in his/her head, very little of that
information was entering ours.

Georgia-0416Is this an effective teaching method? Would the teaching be more engaging if the instructor
were to ask you a question to ensure your comprehension? How would your classroom behavior change
if the instructor asked you questions directly? What kinds of questions get you thinking about the subject
on a deeper level?

There seems to be a misconception among many teachers that teaching is merely passing information. It
is far more than that. It is taking responsibility for another’s learning, and learning is not like the storage
of data in a computer.

Learning requires connections to form in our brains

Those connections depend on having familiar information to build upon. By responding to questions, our
students are engaging these memories and connecting them to new ideas. The question then becomes
how do we, as teachers, get our students to do this?

Socrates determined thousands of years ago that true understanding comes through questioning.

Through the Socratic Method, a teacher continually asks questions to challenge a student’s assumptions
or understanding until they encounter a contradiction. In this way, the student can learn exactly why
his/her assumptions are incorrect. However, this method of teaching is useful in far more than
determining logical inconsistencies.

We can use the Socratic model in any form of teaching. The process of learning is an exciting process that
many children do not have the opportunity to experience because it has become a process of note-taking
and memorization.

True understanding, though, comes not from memorization but from discovery. Through the process of
confronting students’ current knowledge and working to expand it, they not only uncover ideas but they
develop the ability to engage in this process on their own.
Effective Teaching

Let me give an example. I have a young student (upper elementary school), who is still struggling to read.
He has a moderately large vocabulary and uses it very confidently. In fact, one of the challenges of this
class is getting him to quiet down.

However, when I ask him to read words on a page, he struggles and often guesses at words he doesn’t
know. I believe that this is a result of his previous teachers’ tendency to immediately pronounce the word
for him. Instead of actually learning to sound out a word (not always a simple procedure in English), he
would parrot back the word the teacher said.

I am not so generous.

I walk him through each letter and letter combination asking What sound does this make? Almost always,
he answers correctly, and it’s only a few seconds before he gathers enough clues in the word to identify
it and pronounce it correctly.

Though the process is slow, he is starting to do this on his own more often, developing not only literacy
but self-reliance, a skill that goes far beyond any academic setting.

Natural Learning

All that we, as a species, have learned about our world, we have uncovered using the base of knowledge
discovered previously. For individuals, it need not be any different. Of course, there are contrived
conventions that need to be taught, but these too can be taught by discovery and questioning.

If I point to the letter B on the board while making the sound “buh, buh, buh,” and then ask a student,
“What sound does this make?” I am fairly certain that they will catch on.

In that process, they are not just parroting what I told them. I have not told them anything. They are
making an inference using their own intellectual abilities to answer a question about their observations.

Human beings are naturally curious

Many of us have had that curiosity beaten out of us by years of rote memorization and acceptance of
stated facts, but education does not need to be this way. Indeed, it should be quite the opposite. Even in
learning language, students can make discoveries on their own, make inferences from text, or arrive at
conclusions based on their observations of us.

The Socratic method of questioning is not a panacea, but it is an integral part of the teaching process.
Often we will simply not have time to walk students through every logical construction, but to spend an
entire lecture telling the students what to learn instead of asking them to figure it out is a waste of our
time and theirs.

Take the classroom with the droning lecturer and replace him/her with a constantly questioning teacher,
who demands every student to make inferences and deductions based on previously established material.
Do you think you would fall asleep in that class? Do you think you would actually learn something?