Are you looking for unusual attractions in New Jersey that offer discovery, education, a hobby, or just a different form of fun?
New Jersey has many popular leisure attractions and natural wonders that are widely promoted and visited by the masses. This article will provide information on the little known or offbeat places that are of interest to people with special interests, and for school teachers that are looking for a field trip to supplement their children’s education curriculum.
The Best of New Jersey’s Unusual Attractions
Cowtown Rodeo
780 Route 40, Pilesgrove, NJ
856-769-3200
May-September, 7:30 PM, Saturday nights
Enjoy quality Western Rodeo entertainment by touring professional cowboys. Includes; Bareback Bronc Riding, Calf Roping, Steer Wrestling, Girls Barrel Racing, Brahma Bull Riding.
Franklin Mineral Museum
2 Evans Street , Franklin, Sussex County, NJ
973-827-3481
The Franklin mine is a zinc mine known for its unique display of mineral fluorescence, (glowing rocks) and variety of rare species. They have thousands of mineral specimens on display with a huge fluorescent presentation of brilliant and glowing colorful minerals.
The museum also has demonstrations and examples of the mining methods used during that period of operation. Although the primary focus is mineral science, geology, and local mining history, they also cover the science of archeology and anthropology with field collection and mineral identification. The museum welcomes teachers and school tours and can create a curriculum to fit your schools educational interest.
Grape Expectations
25E Kearney St. Bridgewater, NJ
732-764-WINE (9463)
Create your own quality table wines, using some of the finest varieties of California grapes. Experience the atmosphere of a winery and the enjoyment of the hobby of wine making. You will be involved in the complete process of wine making from the crushing and pressing of your grapes to the racking and bottling of your oak-barreled, specially prepared wine.
Northlandz
495 Highway 202 South, Flemington, NJ
(908) 782-4022
Home of the Great American Railway, Doll Museum & Art Gallery;
They have over a hundred miniature trains and eight miles of track running past mountains and bridges. See the ninety four room dollhouse with many features found in real life mansions. Ride the Raritan River steam Railway replica as it travels through nature filled scenery. Visit the Doll Museum with over two hundred dolls from different countries.
The Pequest Trout Hatchery and
Natural Resource Education Center
605 Pequest Rd. Oxford, NJ
908-637-4125
See a video about the trout hatching process from conception to stocking. Experience a self-instructional tour that shows the trout rearing and an exhibit hall with live fish. Hiking trails and Picnic areas are also available. Great for children and school tours.
Rankokus Indian Reservation
Rancocas, NJ
(609) 261-4747
Situated on 350 acres in the town of Westampton, NJ, is the Indian nation’s administrative and educational, cultural, social programs center that has been established to help the people of the State of New Jersey, and school children in particular, to understand the Rankokus Indians and their ways and history through a tour of the reservation, its museum, art gallery, and the many exhibits and nature trails. Learn about Indian history from the native Indians and the true story of the Pocahontas myth. Popular with teachers and school children who are looking for a field trip to supplement their educational curriculum.
By: Frank Dalotto
With higher education costs increasing at double digit percentages an effective college savings plan for your kid’s education is becoming much more critical. Most parents will find that their kid’s future college costs will be much more than they have planned. This leaves many kids to be faced with obtaining financial aid to compensate for a portion of their higher education costs. This article will explore the pros and cons of 4 common college savings options. This article will also seek to show which of these 4 options are a better option if part of your kid’s higher education costs are to be funded by financial aid.
529 College Savings Plan: Since January 2002, 529 college savings plan have become a new option for achieving tax free college savings. These plans are state sponsored investment programs that offer special tax treatment. It allows just about everyone to save for their kid’s college education. While there are many benefits of a 529 college savings plan, perhaps the most important is that your investment earnings are tax deferred if you use the funds for qualified education expenses. Additionally, another big advantage is that the maximum amount you can contribute to a 529 savings plan can go as high as hundreds of thousand dollars but be aware these are based on your States specific guidelines. If for some reason you do not use the investment funds for college, you can still withdrawal your investment earnings, but you will have to pay a federal penalty of 10% and federal income taxes on your earnings. The penalty can be waived if your child receives a college scholarship, or in the event your child becomes disable or dies.
A 529 plan can typically be easily purchased through an investment broker or mutual fund company like Vanguard or Fidelity. Please be aware that one of the biggest disadvantages of a 529 plan is that investment options can sometimes be limited. However, as 529 plans become more popular it is likely that more plan options will open. For instance, the State of Ohio just announced the option for bank CDs and saving accounts for 529 plans. One last main advantage of a 529 college savings plan is that the money in the plan is classified as a parents assets so less that 6% of the value counts against your kid’s eligibility for financial aid.
Coverdell Education Savings Account (CESA) (formerly known as an Educational IRA): A Coverdell Education Savings Account is a savings account created as an incentive to help parents and students save for higher education expenses. A Coverdell Education Savings Account is easy to set up at most financial institutions and banks. A Coverdell Education Savings Account is similar to a 529 college savings plan, but different in the contribution limits. With a Coverdell Education Savings Account you can only contribute $2000 per child per year and to qualify your adjusted gross income must be less than $110,000 if you are single and less than $220,000 if you are married filing jointly. For financial aid eligibility a Coverdell Education Savings Account is classified as a parent’s asset so less that 6% of the value counts against your kid’s financial aid eligibility.
UGMA/UTA Custodial Account (Uniform Gifts to Minors Act/Uniform Transfers to Minors Act): A UGMA/UTMA account allows someone to make gifts to a minor without setting up a trust. While there are benefits to a UGMA/UTMA account the first limitation is that these types of accounts offer very little federal tax advantage. Secondly if your child is 14 or under only the first $800 of income is tax free, the next $800 is taxed at your child’s tax rate and after that there is no tax benefit at all. The other big disadvantage is that an UGMA/UTA Custodial Account has to be set up in your child’s name. This can create a big problem if your child needs financial aid since all of the assets will be reviewed at a 35% rate. As a result, a UGMA/UTA Custodial Account is not advisable for those who may need to qualify for financial aid eligibility.
The main advantage of a UGMA/UTA Custodial Account is that there is no limit on the investment contribution and it is very easy to set up at most major financial institutions including some insurance companies. However, as can be seen above the disadvantages of a UGMA/UTA Custodial Account far outweigh the benefits.
Taxable Investment Accounts: Taxable investment accounts can be a broker account, a mutual fund, a certificate of deposit or just a regular savings account. Essentially it is just a regular account that earns taxable interest, or investment income. A benefit of a taxable investment account if set up in the parents name is that the assets are classified as a parent’s asset so they do not count as a negative in the financial aid formula. Additionally, taxable investment accounts offer lots of flexibility, and are easy to set up at any financial institution. However, the big limitation to taxable accounts in saving for college is that they offer no tax advantage for college savings.
In summary, a solid savings plan for college is a very important undertaking for parents to consider. The above 4 education investment options can be highly useful in the college planning process. Furthermore since some of these investments offer substantial federal tax advantages and do not count against financial aid eligibility they can maximize parent’s investment resources.
This article may be freely distributed as long as the copyright, author’s information and one of the below live links is published with the article:
http://www.motorcycle-financing-guide.com/motorcycle-loan-refinan ce.html
http://www.motorcycle-financing-guide.com/credit-card-motorcycle- financing.html
By: Jay Fran
INNOVATIONS IN EDUCATION – KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
ABSTRACT
This paper seeks to identify knowledge management concepts that relate to the implementation of Knowledge management Practices in education and also in collaborative arrangements. It also discusses about the challenges facing in higher education in India and the concept of Knowledge management in education and the new trends of education. It also explains about the Knowledge management and types of Knowledge management and their trends and new innovations of Knowledge management in current education scenario. Educational trends and tasks are towards more learner- centered materials. In response to these trends, colleges and universities are offering new courses at a distance and forms traditional delivery. The effort to share the most recent understandings about Knowledge management in education is the changing roles and challenges for higher education. The increased productivity required by faculty are driving forces for the development of more diverse and efficient teaching method.
INTRODUCTION:
Knowledge management in education is the collection of processes that govern the creation, dissemination and utilization of knowledge. In one form or another, knowledge management has been around for a very long time. Practitioners have included philosophers, priests, teachers, politicians, scribes, Liberians etc., Knowledge management is not “A technology thing” or a “Computer thing” if we accept the premise that Knowledge management is concerned with the entire process of discovery and creation of knowledge then we are strongly driven to accept that Knowledge management is much more than a “Technology thing” and that elements of it exist in each of one Jobs. Knowledge management comprises a range of practices used by organizations to identify, create, represent and distribute knowledge. It has been an established discipline since 1995 with a body of university courses and both professional and academic journals dedicated to it. Knowledge management is frequently linked to the idea of the learning organization .Knowledge management refers to a range of practices used by organizations to identify the higher levels of innovations in education. The sharing of knowledge in industry, colleges , universities and, almost any institution in this country will make reference to the capturing of knowledge.
DEFINITION
“Knowledge management is the discipline of enabling individuals, team and entire organizations to collectively and systematically create, share and apply knowledge to better achieve their objectives”
Knowledge management education is the process of constructivity using the information and knowledge that is inherent to any organisation –be it a school, university or multinational company. In order to enhance its performance, its management and its operations. This process of learning to know what we know is one that has brought great benefits. Particularly to many commercial organizations.
MAARTEN SIERCHUIS: -
Knowledge analysis: In knowledge analysis we model a knowledge source in such away that we can analyse its usefulness, its weakness and its appropriateness within the organization. Knowledge analysis is a necessary step for the ability to manager knowledge. Within knowledge Analysis we can use knowledge modeling and knowledge acquisition techniques.
ROBERT TAYLOR:-
The vital importance of knowledge in business has always been recognised but, up until now, organisations haven’t felt able to manage it because they understood neither the problems and the opportunities nor the strategies and solutions. This picture is gradually changing as models, methods, tools and techniques for effective knowledge management are becoming available and as organisations realise the importance of knowledge and thinking to their capacity to adapt to the changing world.
WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT? : –
A proposition that responsiveness and innovation can be improved through the leveraging of collective wisdom and experience.
“Knowledge Management (KM) is an effort to increase useful knowledge within the organization. Ways to do this include encouraging communication, offering opportunities to learn, and promoting the sharing of appropriate knowledge artifacts.”
This proposition is supported by:
New process specific to the management of knowledge Organizational structures that create accountability for km Applications that support km processes Enabling technologies
THE CHALLENGES FACING HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA : –
Expansion of Higher Education in India :
The success stories of ‘green revolution’, ‘space technology’, ‘nuclear energy’ and ‘information technology superiority India has achieved’ - we owe these all to the higher education system as it evolved during 60 years of India’s independence. It can not be denied that it is Indian higher education system that to a significant extent has contributed to India rising to become the World’s second fastest growing economy, the World’s third largest economy, fastest growing mobile phone market, owner of the largest bandwidth capacity and contributing second largest portion of scientists and engineers in the world.
Expansion with Equity :
India has experienced appreciable growth in the number of institutions of higher education during last six decades and particularly since 1990. This growth has already been because of expansion of number of State Universities and institutions deemed to be Universities. The period since 1990 has also seen the emergence of private Universities. The expansion of central universities has rather been slow and skewed in terms of regional distribution. It also mentioned that a significant majority of Universities, particularly managed by the state governments ate affiliating in nature. Given the current number of universities in the country the burden of affiliating colleges per University is unmanageably high and incongruous, in some cases the number of colleges affiliated to a University runs as high as many hundreds. Thus despite appreciable growth in number of universities there is scope rather need for further expansion in the number of universities and also colleges.
Inclusiveness and Equality :
The participants in the Diversity, Inclusiveness, and Inequality track represented a great deal of diversity themselves and included faculty and students from a rich variety of research institutions, private liberal arts colleges, and community colleges. While participants engaged issues and strategies in each of the three substantive area—diversity, inclusiveness, and inequality in education (DIIE)—the bulk of our conversations focused on diversity and inequality.
Quality and Excellence :
Ensuring quality education demands structural and institutional reforms in addition to committing enhanced financial resources. Imparting quality education would entail better infrastructure; greater use of ICT; teaching and learning in smaller groups; granting autonomy to the faculty, department and individual teachers. But more than that, imparting quality education requires ‘faculty development’ or what many call ‘faculty recharge programmes’ so that the faculty does not go stale, it retains its vibrancy and dynamism in doing research, in learning, and innovating and in devising new methods of teaching.
In the modern technological world quality education has become a necessity. Governments all over the world are appointing committees and commissions to bring in excellence in education. Curricular are being revised and improved to include more and more relevant knowledge in the curricula of schools and colleges.
Funding of Higher Education :
The importance and need of setting up these new institutions of higher and professional education can hardly be ignored, but investing in existing facilities and institutions should be no less a priority.
Fee hike suggested by many can hardly bring the required resources. We by no means are suggesting that fee need not be rationalized. In addition it is suggested that there is need for building a robust and strong private – public partnership for funding and improving the quality of higher education. We have no hesitation in endorsing the suggestion as we see the practical and mutual advantages to private houses, industries on one hand and the higher education institutions and recipients of higher education on the other. For example, the Universities and research institutions can do the research and innovations which may provide competitive edge to Indian industry and industry may provide on the site based experience to students.
Academic and Administrative Reforms :
Unlike expansion, equity/inclusiveness and quality/excellence, where efforts are in making, the policies concerning reforms in the arena of academics, administration and governance are already well formulated and publicity announced.
While these recommendations about credit system, semester system, more of international assessment and less written examination component, teachers evaluation by students, inter-institutional mobility etc have been generally accepted, quite a few of them have not been implemented and operationalised as yet. Some of these have been tried and failed while some others have been implemented on selective basis. As a result there is a lot of institutional variations in admission, examination, faculty and governance related practices.
Role of Private Education :
The spread of higher education was achieved through active state support whereby public funding was considered necessary in order to provide equitable opportunities of higher education to all. It has, however, been a proclaimed policy of the country to also encourage private investment in higher education so long as they are driven by charitable and non-profit motives. While universities have largely been in the public domain, India has had a history of having large number of colleges established and maintained by private management. In recent times, the private self-financing institutions colleges and other degree awarding institutions have gained prominence. At the same time, there has also been witnessed a tendency among the public funded institutions to start and run courses on self-financing basis. More recently, the private universities, either under state legislature or through the deemed university mode have also come to be established.
Internationalization of Education :
The issues concerning internationalization of higher education can be discussed into two broad heads, which represent two broad dimensions of the issue. The first aspect deals with the demand for opening Indian higher education for international service providers while the second aspect deal with the internationalization of Indian higher education. Going abroad for higher education has long been the most cherished goal for students of underdeveloped and developing countries. While most foreign students were known for their diligence and dedication and were often a source of pride for their universities, they were seldom seen as a source of revenue. But things have changed a great deal in the post WTO/GATS regime.
Developing countries are now seen as a market for higher education and foreign universities from other countries are competing each other to increase their market share. As the demand for opening the higher education sector in India for international service providers is increasing, the issue of providing appropriate regulatory framework for international education providers is under consideration of the government. Effective regulatory mechanism is required to ensure quality higher education with equity and accountability. It was also felt that Indian universities and colleges should be permitted to form strategic alliances with international universities and other institutions of repute and that universities in India should be permitted to take up collaborative research with foreign universities but the arrangements should be such where Indian counter parts share Pattern Rights and copyrights.
CONCEPT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN EDUCATION: –
Education for Knowledge Education for Information Education for Skills Education for Employment Education for Livelihood Education for Empowerment Education for Social and National Development
KEY TASKS INVOLVED IN EDUCATION FOR:
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
A. MICRO-LEVEL MANAGEMENT OF TASKS:
Course structuring and study material preparation Distribution and presentation of study materials Communication between educational actors (student-faculty, student-student) Performing instructional assignments, either alone or group-based Performance assessment
B. MACRO-LEVEL MANAGEMENT OF TASKS:
Organisation of the whole educational process Organising and managing information and knowledge flows within the educational organisation Keeping track of performance of students, faculty, courses, curriculum, and of the (allocation of) available knowledge resources Monitoring results in terms of goals and standards Dynamic changing of the educational program as feedback to discrepancies between goals and standards and obtained performance results.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOCUS :
“The focus on knowledge management is on ‘doing the right thing’ instead of doing things right’. It provides a framework within which the organization views all its processes as knowledge processes and all business processes involve creation, dissemination and application of knowledge towards organizational sustenance and survival”.
KNOWLEDGE TYPES:
It contains two types they are ;
Explicit knowledge Tacit knowledge
EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE
Objective, rational, technical Easily documented Easily transferred / taught / learned
TACIT KNOWLEDGE
Subjective, cognitive, experiential learning Hard to document Hard to transfer / teach / learn Involves a lot of human interpretation
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS : -
The process of Knowledge Management applicable to schools, colleges and universities. Some would argue that sharing knowledge is their reason of being. If that is the case, then the higher education sector should be replete with examples of institutions that leverage knowledge to spur innovation, improve services, or achieve operational excellence. However, although some examples exist, they are the exception rather than the rule. Knowledge Management is not a new field, and experiments are beginning to mature in higher education.
I believe there is tremendous value to higher education institutions that develop initiatives to share knowledge to achieve business or organizational objectives. What are the basic concepts of knowledge management, how the trends, and how it might be applied in higher education and whether higher education is ready to embrace it or not, we will know through this article.
NEW TRENDS IN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: -
Several trends will shape the field of knowledge management in the not-too distant future (even now):
Emerging technology solutions The convergence of knowledge management with e-business The movement from limited knowledge management projects to more enterprise wide projects Increasing use of knowledge management to enhance innovation Increasing use of tacit knowledge (rather than explicit knowledge)
INNOVATIVE SKILLS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN CURRENT EDUCATION SCENARIO: -
Using knowledge management techniques and technologies in higher education is as vital as it is in the corporate sector. If done effectively, it can lead to better decision-making capabilities, reduced “product” development cycle time (for example, curriculum development and research), improved academic and administrative services, and reduced costs. Consider the number of faculty and staff who possess institutional knowledge. For example, what institution does not have a faculty member who has led successful curriculum revision task forces? Or a departmental secretary who knows how to navigate the complex proposal development or procurement processes? Or a researcher who has informal connections to the National Science Foundation? Or a special assistant to the president who has uncovered (or generated) useful reports that individual deans or department chairs could use to develop their own strategic plans?
Relying on the institutional knowledge of unique individuals can hamper the flexibility and responsiveness of any organization. The challenge is to convert the information that currently resides in those individuals and make it widely and easily available to any faculty member, staff person, or other constituent. An institution wide approach to knowledge management can lead to exponential improvements in sharing knowledge—both explicit and tacit—and the subsequent surge benefits.
Is higher education ready to embrace knowledge management? A key ingredient in an institution’s readiness to embrace knowledge management is its culture—the beliefs, values, norms, and behaviors that are unique to an organization. Informally, it is the unwritten rules or “how things really get done.” Higher education is moving from the old culture that considers, What’s in it for me?” to a new culture that says, “What’s in it for our peoples?” And it is developing a culture that is ready to embrace knowledge management.
CONCLUSION: -
Innovations in knowledge management will improve the standards of all the institutions, develop the performance of students in all faculties and by which the progress of a nation can be viewed nakedly. Knowledge management refers to a range of practices used by organizations to identify the higher levels of innovations in education. The sharing of knowledge in industry, colleges, universities and, almost any institution in this country will make reference to the capturing of knowledge. By developing the knowledge management, the nation’s economy increases and can compete in the global scenario.
Article by:
X.Queen Shanthana Mary
M. Phil Scholar,
Department of management studies & research,
Karpagam University,
By: X. Queen Shanthana Mary