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Now a day’s one of the most utilized gadget in the world is the cell phone. It’s not only a source of communication but this high tech; dashing and trendy machine has multiple functionalities e.g the ability to surf the Web, pump out tunes, capture your memories, and play full-length movies and TV shows. Mobile phones have become more than miniature long-distance walkie-talkies, utility of this electronic tool has further been complemented by cell phone accessories, making it not just a phone, rather a mini computer. Phone accessories are as high in demand as a cell phone itself.

Making a fashion statement in the technological world of telecommunication, style and chic are extended to accessories of cell phone as well. Today, the market is flooded with a sprawling range of cell phone accessories from hard ware to software. All famous cell phone companies design cell phone accessories to attract high number of customers before designing a new model. Accessorize your phone with cell phone accessories like colorful cell phone cases, cell phone holders, hands free kit, Bluetooth headset etc not only provides functionality but also adds beauty and style.

In addition to being an integral part of the gadget, cell phone accessories enhance the appearance of Mobile phones. You can add a touch of your personality to your cell phone when you choose the right faceplate, case or cover. High quality and affordable cases can provide a new look for your existing cell phone. These cases are available in almost any style imaginable. Equipping your cell phone with a nice fitting durable case will greatly enhance the lifetime of your phone as well. Face plates also comes in a variety of colors and styles so you can easily find one that suits you and makes your mobile phone stand out from others, while protecting the original face of your cell phone.

Purchasing an additional car charger is another must-have cell phone accessory, as it will prevent you from being stranded with a dead cell phone. Many people, especially travelers don’t properly care for their battery, due to which there mobile go dead in the middle of a call when they are between locations. These chargers will fully charge your battery in under an hour. Sometimes if you’re lucky you will receive one with your phone upon purchase but don’t count on it.

The handsfree kit has become one of the ultimate cell phone accessories, especially if you find yourself needing to talk on the phone while you are driving a car. Some of the headsets are equipped with inbuilt microphones and provide excellent sound quality with deep bass. They also feature noise canceling facility that cut down the ambient sounds. More over if your phone has Bluetooth capabilities then you will be able to get a wireless set up which is a pretty slick way to go. If your cell phone can handle stereo Bluetooth streaming, you are probably on the lookout for different ways to pipe music to your ear holes. No more inconvenience of tangling headset wires you can answer calls, dial by voice, and chat hands-free while driving with this minute device that stays in your ear quiet unnoticed.

Cell phone accessories also include keypads, data cables, antennas and memory cards. These accessories are not only functional but decorative and add spice to your phone. Data cables are must for camera phones and all those with MP3 capabilities. The data cables works as a communication medium between your PC and mobile. It allows you to transfer data and other media files from your cell phone to computer and vice versa. The memory cards are also must for the same types of phones so you can store more music and pictures before having to download it to your computer. Some phones allow memory cards to be plugged directly into the phone. This will increase the capacity for photos, music, or anything else you want to store on your cell phone. Antennas will give your cell phone reception a boost which will increase the received signal a couple of times, so you’ll never worry about a call dropping even if you have dropped off the map. Wide range of Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola, HTC, Palm, Sony Ericsson, iPhone and BlackBerry accessories are available online at a nominal prices against the functionality they provide.

Whatever the cell phone accessory there’s one that fits every personality. All you need to do is shop. With high quality and affordable pricing many cell phone accessory wholesale websites will help equip you with the hottest accessories in the market. Accessories add to the performance of a cell phone, they offer practical solutions to data-connectivity, make driving safer and add class to your cell phone.

Do you spend a lot of money maintaining your fax equipment? Is your fax machine often down? Do you wish you can receive faxes even if you are away from your place of work? Do you wish you had free fax service?

If you answered yes to a minimum of one of the above criteria, you will Most certainly be interested in online faxing

 

What is online faxing?

 

This is an online or computer based electronic fax service which makes use of email,

Fax software and different web applications to deliver faxes online.

It’s also referred to Internet fax or Efax

 

As an online service, no fax machines or fixed land line is critical to

Sending or getting faxes. All fax transactions are done online. All you

Have to try and do is log in to an email account to send as well as receive faxes.

 

The Various types of online fax services

 

There are actually two basic types of online fax services:

 

Fax to email

Email to fax

 

Fax to email

 

Also known as fax2email is definitely inbound or incoming internet fax service that allows the user to acquire faxes via an e-mail account. This service is mostly offered free.

 

Email to fax

 

Also called email2fax. This is a web based faxing service that allows you to fax from your e mail account. Documents are basically attached on email and also faxed directly to the fax machine via the World Wide Web.

 

Other Online Fax services

 

These include:

 

1. Desktop to fax

2. Web to fax

 

Desktop to fax

 

This simply implies sending faxes using internet fax software. This free fax software allows the user to print the fax document into the fax printer driver and provides a field to enter the destination fax number. The software then sends the faxes as images over the Internet to the targeted destination fax.

This method which is also known as Pc2Fax is a more simplified approach to faxing than the attachment method of email to fax. In addition to web to fax the one drawback is the software has to be installed to make use of this service

 

Web to fax

 

As the name suggests it is a web based application which involves the

User login straight into her online account, affixing the fax documents in addition to destination fax number and sending over the internet. An email account is not required to send through this method. The progress of the fax can be tracked and confirmations received on the website.

 

The benefits associated with Online Fax

 

There are a wide range of benefits of using the various online faxing services. Some of which may include;

 

Portability- receives your faxes on any online device including mobile devices.

Privacy- faxes are generally delivered right into the email inbox

Environmentally friendly- documents are printed only if necessary

Saving in fax paper, toners, line rentals and fax machine repairs.

 

How to get Online Fax

 

There a wide range of internet fax service companies worldwide. If you would like to have a local Kenya fax to email number click here. These numbers are offered totally free.

 

Once you signup, your own working fax number will instantly be emailed to you. You may then send your clients or suppliers your new fax numbers. All faxes sent to the fax2email number will be received within your email account.

You may also assign about five additional email addresses if you would like the Faxes copied to many recipients.

Over the last few years, as broadband internet connectivity has become quite popular in both rural and urban areas. Plus, there has been a rapid take-up of this service amongst business owners to access the Internet quickly and consistently, download files faster and send and receive emails without hassle.

Here are some of the benefits of business broadband plans:

High Speed:

A business broadband internet connection can easily send & receive data of high capacity. And that too without the long wait which usually happens with a conventional dial up connection. It’s a fact that business broadband services are almost 9 times faster as compared to a dial-up connection for receiving data and 3 or 4 times quicker for sending data.

Lower Contention Ratio:

With a business broadband plan you get to enjoy a lower contention ratio than home broadband connection. This means you get faster download speeds and a more stable connection when users share the same line. With business broadband Internet plan you will never have to worry about slow connection speeds at peak traffic times.

Greater Value:

Business broadband internet provides a free domain name and a static IP address. This helps small businesses to create their own content with their own name. With a static IP address, users can access their PC anywhere in the world and run their own email server, web server and private network.

High Reliability:

Business broadband offers far greater support than home broadband. In this highly competitive online platform, an unreliable internet connection can cost your business a lot. And with broadband internet connection you get 24/7 uninterrupted connection and don’t need to dial up a connection every time you want to surf the web, send email etc. Plus, as broadband Internet allows using your telephone and the Internet at the same time it becomes highly beneficial when used for business purpose.

Increase in Sales:

With the help of broadband Internet connection you can update for website faster, respond to events, customer requests quickly and complete your online deals faster. This can help in increasing the overall sales of your company or business.

Cost Effective:

For using a broadband internet plan you need to pay once in a month. As the cost of a broadband Internet connection is fixed one plan for the expenses more easily. More of your employees can be connected to broadband internet without increasing your Internet cost.

Reduce Travel Costs:

With broadband Internet connection you are in a position to allow your employees to even work from home (telework). This way the urgent works that are important for your company’s success can never get delayed.

More Online Business:

With good broadband services you get to utilize e-marketing, e-sales, e-delivery, e-recording, e-invoicing, e-accounting and e-purchasing. All these surely help in getting more business online.

Increase productivity and competitiveness:

Faster transfer of data files between far away locations, enables a faster communication between you and your customers. In the long run, this helps in increasing the productivity level of your business.

All these benefits enhance the Internet surfing experience in a business atmosphere. The benefits of broadband Internet far outnumber any other mode of Internet connection. And this is why even it is bit costly as compared to other types of broadband connection; business owners are looking for broadband internet provider.

One of the Prevalent and Usually used Sorts of interaction Currently is cellular phones, some times Known as mobile phones, wireless Mobile phones or simply phones. Approximately Ninety nine percent of the People in US uses cell phones in their every day Life exclusive of babies and Children.

Because these mobile phones or cell phones were Manufactured to Help consumers, to give more Ease, numerous developers have Planed several different ways. The just One word which can be do to State these latest ways is Accessories. IPhone accessories were manufactured long instance ago along with Mobile phones to produce the utilize of Mobile phone more consumer gracious. In the older years simply few cell phone accessories were existing, as, hands-free to Listen calls but with the passage of period and developing during years, here are millions of various iPhone accessories existing in the market Now a days.

Since there are more than thousand of mobile phones in the markets, that is why there are thousands of uncountable accessories obtainable used for them. Various cell phones support different sort of accessories which are Expressly manufactured for them. Consequently it is necessary for a consumer to buy the particular accessory Manufactured for his specific Apple iPhone. While there are various accessories which are Commonly accepted (they are supported by all cell phones.) All these accessories are plug-and-play small gadgets with lowest visual effect. Some of the major regularly used iPhone accessories contain: Bluetooth headphones which are supported just by Bluetooth facilitated cell phones, Memory cards and card readers for those mobile phones which give an choice to Develop the storage ability, mobile phone Body cases which can be do as a alternate of original mobile phone Body, and protector covers planned to defend the mobile phones from Agonizing damages and scratches and a lot more. The objective of all these accessories is Matching but their Working is different, cell phone chargers; both wireless and wired planned to charge the chargeable Cell phone batteries and a lot more depending upon the wants of consumers.

Talking about the reason of certain of the accessories, I would like to say that Wireless Bluetooth gadgets manufactured for Bluetooth facilitated cell phones are a giant HIT! They give an easiness to keep on linked with the mobile phone at each moment and everywhere while too giving an choice to listen calls without even popping the iPhone out of the pouch. They are usually used by persons in cars as use up of cell phones is Illegal by Worldwide traffic Rules Appropriate in Many countries. People while driving use up Wireless Bluetooth headphones to stay in connected with their mobile phones and listen calls.

The next majorly Popular accessory among consumers is mobile phone Body cases and protector covers. Users with high Tech. Mobile phones have paid for them a lot and doesn`t aspire them to get Scratched that is why they remain their cell phones in protected place for all time. Mobile protector covers are pouches planned to give an additional highest security to the Mobile phones. While those who require to convert the look of their cell phones can use Body cases obtainable in various forms, colors and styles. All particular Mobile phone have a Exclusive body design and can simply be Altered by a exclusive mobile phone Body case expressly planned for that particular Cell phone.

There are several other iPhone accessories which can be used with cell phones. These contain cell phone chargers, automobile kits, and external convenient speakers, parking docks, Data cables and a lot more. All these accessories are manufactured to make the mobile a convenient, helpful and fun gadget.

Queinnise Miller & William Allan Kritsonis, PhD 

 

Introduction

Unprecedented change is taking place in schools all over the world. Schools are increasingly being managed like businesses. Without effective strategic planning principals will be involved in crisis management (Van der Linde, 2001).  As schools engage in strategic planning, professional learning communities should be heavily depended on to help districts move from infancy to maturity in their quality of instructional and overall educational success.  By using the Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (Kritsonis, 2003) as a guide for professional learning communities this will increase the success of professional learning communities and their impact on strategic planning. 

 Purpose of the Article

The purpose of this article is to explore professional learning communities while taking a look at how they impact school improvement and their place in strategic planning in education.  This article will address how the Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (Kritsonis, 2003) is implemented in the core of professional learning communities.  By utilizing the six realms in professional learning communities, leaders and teachers will be able to achieve the highest excellence possible in educational achievement.

  Professional Learning Communities

 Professional Learning Communities (PLC) has over the last few years been almost a house hold name among educators of all levels.  In fact, the term has been used so ubiquitously that it is in danger of losing all meaning (DuFour, 2004).  Each word of the phrase “professional learning community” has been chosen purposefully. 

Dufour and Eaker state:

 A “professional” is someone with expertise in a specialized field………. “Learning” suggests ongoing action and perpetual curiosity….. In a professional learning community, educators create an environment that fosters mutual cooperation, emotional support, personal growth as they work together to achieve what they cannot accomplish alone (as cited in Thomas, Gregg, &  Niska, 2004).

   Most all professional learning communities follow the same protocol.  Within each community the teacher as well as leaders is encouraged to pursue personal and professional development, integrating it as part of their regular job responsibilities.  For example, the Alief ISD implements PLC time into the school week by creating a weekly early release day for students and utilizing that extra hour for mandated sessions for teachers to be in their specified professional learning community. Within professional learning communities, leaders have incorporated professional development by asking teachers to discuss and share differing classroom applications.

   From those interactions, teachers are enhancing their professional knowledge in a more informal approach to professional development.  True professional learning communities follow different protocols to evoke dialogue between team members.  In some professional development settings, teachers are asked to read books or educational articles as a catalyst to encourage reflection, inquiry, and sharing. Individual and team judgment is valued more than rules, policies, forms, and procedures. Most importantly, everyone is encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning and development and this is considered to be a norm of the school’s culture (Thompson, 2004).  

 These concepts of professional leaning communities may sound simple to implement, this is not always the case.   Implementing professional learning communities is  challenging.   For  starters,  they  require a  deep  cultural  change  within  the  school  ( Honawar, 2008). 

   How Professional Learning Communities Impact School Improvement

There are cascades of strategies, theories, district initiatives, and many other ideas to improve student learning.  Teacher collaboration is hailed as one of the most effective ways to improve student learning (Honawar, 2008).  This can be debatable like most issues.  According to Thomas, Gregg, and Niska (2004), many K-12 school are working to become  professional learning communities in the hope that student learning will improve when adults commit themselves to talking collaboratively about teaching and learning and then take action that will improve student learning and achievement.  Other leaders in the field such as Mike Schmoker (2004) believe that “…the most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement is building the capacity of school personnel to function as a professional learning community” (pg. 424). 

For former superintendent Richard DuFour (2004) in Educational Leadership, attributes the successes and record gains in his near Chicago school district to goal oriented collaborative teams.  DuFour believed that collaborative teams were the engine behind each schools improvement efforts.   Mike Schmoker said:

 In the nearby but less advantaged Chicago Public Schools, those with strong professional learning communities were four times more likely to be improving academically than schools with weaker professional communities.  We can no longer afford to be innocent of the fact that “collaboration” improves performance. (pg. 431)

 Such simple effort, teachers teaching one another the practice of teaching, leads to what has to be one of the most salient lists of benefits in educational literature:

 Higher-quality solutions to instructional problems,

Increased confidence among faculty, Increased ability to support one another’s strengths and to accommodate  weaknesses,

 More systematic assistance to beginning teachers, and

The ability to examine an expanded pool of ideas, methods, and materials (pg. 430).

 We believe that an unknown author said it best, “I cannot improve my craft in isolation from others.”

 The Role Professional Learning Communities Have in Strategic Planning

 For some people, the term strategic planning brings to mind a disciplined and thoughtful process that links the values, mission, and goals of a school system with a set of coherent strategies and tasks designed to achieve those goals (Reeves, 2007). According to Weindling (1997) strategic planning “is a means for establishing and maintaining a sense of direction when the future has become more and more difficult to predict” (as sited in Van der Linde, 2001, pg. 536). 

Professional learning communities embodies this process and allows for a triangulation of planning, goal setting, and result evaluation.  Communication is the element that makes strategic planning such a success.  Through professional leaning communities, this element of communication is evident as teachers begin to talk and create communities that focus on the specific needs of a campus, department, or classroom. 

Implementing “Symbolics” in Professional Learning Communities

The first realm of meaning is symbolics. “These meanings are contained in arbitrary symbolic structures, with socially accepted rules of formation and transformation, created as instruments for the expression and communication of any meaning whatsoever (Kritsonis, 2007, p. 11).

Professional Learning Communities use communication as the backbone in which its purpose is fulfilled.  Within professional learning communities this first realm is evident with the “ordinary language” that is required for effective communication to take place.  In all professional learning communities, there is a discourse employed in the everyday speech and writing of education.  Without the knowledge of this language and the knowledge of its meaning, educators within these communities cannot make progress in their journey to student improvement.  “A person knows a language only if he understands its meanings” (Kritsonis, 2003, p.109).  Gamble (2008) postulates that teachers must learn the vocabulary and apply the concepts of a PLC.  They must talk the talk and walk the walk in lesson preparation and lesson presentations. Teachers must model the dynamics by stating clearly the objectives to the students, and make frequent use of formative assessments, using graphic organizers whenever possible. The use of graphic organizers is the implementation of symbols, which according to Kritsonis comprise another of the outer faces of language.  These symbols are spoken sounds or written marks that convey the meaning to be communicated (Kritsonis, 2007). 

The realm of symbolics expresses that different languages reflect multiple ways of organizing experiences.  This is implemented in professional learning communities,  by the collaboration  effort between  teachers as they share experiences

              The Implementation of “Empirics” in Professional Learning Communities

 The second realm empirics, includes the sciences of the physical world, of living things, and of man. These sciences provide factual descriptions, generalizations, and theoretical formulations and explanations that are based upon observation and experimentation in the world of matter, life, mind, and society. (Kritsonis, 2007, p. 12)

 As educators collect and analyze data from students to produce better results they are functioning in the empirical realm. 

The educators involved in