Edison as a Patent Troll, or Where is California Going in Stem Cell Research?

In March 2006, there was renewed concern about the patent system, manifested not only in discussion of the NTP v. RIM (BlackBerry) case, which settled for $612.5 million but also on the fate of the use of injunctions in patent infringement cases, to be reviewed by the Supreme Court in eBay v. MercExchange. The Wall Street Journal wrote that U.S. patent law is “deterring research and penalizing innovation,” and that the patent system is “fast becoming a detriment to U.S. competitiveness, not to mention basic fairness.” The idea that patents are not central to innovation can also be found in the philosophy of some venture capitalists, who will directly tell you “patents are not why we are investing.”

Although some people, such as Adam B. Jaffe, and Josh Lerner, suggest the patent problems are of recent origin, with changes in the last 20 years which have led to a decline in patent quality but a strengthening in patent rights, the empirical evidence for this is thin. Many of the issues we see now have been around for a long time.

In the following, aspects in the history of the light bulb are discussed. Consistent with the viewpoint of the VCs, J.P. Morgan invested in Edison, the man, before Edison’s key patent
issued. To attract attention of the influential, Edison set up the first commercial electric power plant near Wall Street, much as RIM (BlackBerry) has attained impact through the opulence of
its customers. After a commercial beachhead was established, the patent wars began. Edison’s final success in the patent wars was established both offensively and defensively, and was greatly
assisted by his high profile. It is suggested that certain legal issues that confronted Thomas Edison in the 19th century will soon appear before stem cell workers in the 21st century. [Of various suggestions that Edison was troll-like in his behavior in not making product, one observes that Edison himself obtained the funds from investors to set up the first electric power plant, and then created the power plant. He made product. Whether he was actually the inventor of the light bulb is a different story.]

DID EDISON INVENT THE LIGHT BULB?

Although not widely discussed, the application for Edison’s famous US Patent No. No. 223,898, granted January 27, 1880, was involved in an interference with competing inventors Sawyer and
Man and Edison lost on the contested point.

Following up, the successors to Sawyer and Man challenged Edison’s patent. The basic claim of Edison read: An electric lamp for giving light by incandescence, consisting of a filament of carbon of high resistance, made as described, and secured to metallic wires, as set forth. The trial court noted that Edison “was the first to make a carbon of materials and by a process which was especially designed to impart high specific resistance to it; the first to make a carbon in the special form for the special purpose of imparting to it high total resistance; and the first to combine such a burner with the necessary adjuncts of lamp construction to prevent its disintegration and give it sufficiently long life.” The trial court also noted, somewhat
cryptically, “There are many adjudicated cases in which it appears that the inventor builded better than he knew; where a patent has been sustained for an invention the full significance of which was not appreciated by the inventor when it was made. In the case of the Bell telephone patent there was great room for doubt whether the speaking telephone had been thought of by Mr. Bell when he filed his application for a patent, but the court said: ‘It describes apparatus which was an articulating telephone, whether Bell knew it or not.’” Edison’s patent survived. A problem with the court’s analysis is that the distinctly long life of Edison’s filaments arose from the use of
bamboo, which was not disclosed in Edison’s patent.

In a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court, the relevant patent of Sawyer and Man, asserted against the interests of Edison, did not survive. The first claim of U.S. Patent No.
317,076 (related to patent 205,144 ) read: An incandescing conductor for an electric lamp, of carbonized fibrous or textile material and of an arch or horseshoe shape, substantially as
hereinbefore set forth. The Supreme Court noted: “It is admitted that the lamp described in the Sawyer and Man patent is no longer in use, and was never a commercial success; that it does not
embody the principle of high resistance with a small illuminating surface.” Getting to the broadness of the Sawyer/Man claim, the Supreme Court stated: “But if woods generally were not adapted to the purpose, and yet the patentee had discovered a wood ossessing certain qualities, which gave it a peculiar fitness for such purpose, it would not constitute an infringement for another to discover and use a different kind of wood, which was found to contain similar or superior qualities.” The court further noted that Sawyer/Man “made a broad claim for every fibrous or textile material, when in fact an examination of over six thousand vegetable growths showed that none of them possessed the peculiar qualities that fitted them for that purpose. Was everybody then precluded by this broad claim from making further investigation? We think not.”

The court noted that Edison “found suitable for his purpose only about three species of bamboo.” After discussing the amount of work Edison did with bamboo, the court asked: The question
really is whether the imperfectly successful experiments of Sawyer and Man, with carbonized paper and wood carbon, conceding all that is claimed for them, authorize them to put under
tribute the results of the brilliant discoveries made by others.”The court brought up the “infringement if later, anticipation if earlier” argument: “if the patent were infringed by the use of any such material, it would be anticipated by proof of the prior use of any such material.”

Although the Supreme Court did not address the issue, there were allegations by Edison at trial that Sawyer/Man had amended their application to conform to Edison’s work: “no such invention
was set forth in the original application, but was introduced for the first time more than four years after it was filed, and after the same material had been used by Edison, and claimed by
him in an application for a patent.” The trial court agreed, saying “after Edison’s inventions on this subject had been published to the world, there was an entire change of base on the part of Sawyer and Man, and that the application was amended to give it an entirely different direction and purpose from what it had in its original form …. [Testimony] shows that the idea of claiming carbons made from fibrous and textile materials was an after-thought, and was no part of the purpose of the original application.”

Of the issue of inventorship, text within the court cases manifests diffidence as to whether Edison was, or was, not the inventor of the light bulb. In 1875, Henry Woodward and Matthew
Evans patented a light bulb, the rights for which were purchased by Edison. In 1878, Joseph Wilson Swan invented a light bulb whose lifetime was about 13.5 hours. Edison’s bulbs in 1880, derived using a filament derived from bamboo, lasted 1200 hours.

The issues in the 1895 case are not unrelated to those in LizardTech v. Earth Resource Mapping, 433 F.3d 1373; 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 137; 77 U.S.P.Q.2D 1391 (CAFC 2006) and are not
unrelated to issues in the current discussion of alterations in the practice of continuing applications.

[Endnote 13, which appears here in the text, states: 71 Fed. Reg. 48 (Jan. 3, 2006). Abuses of applicants while awaiting developments in similar or parallel technology caused by amending the pending application to cover developments. If the
amendments are covered by the disclosure, this practice is allowed. PIN/NIP, 304 F.3d 1235.]

STEM CELLS

The situation faced by the courts in the 1880’s, in trying to figure out who made the step-out invention with the light bulb, will soon be faced by the courts of the 21st century, in trying to figure out who has made the step-out invention in embryonic stem cells. Although there are presently numerous patent applications on somatic cell nuclear transfer [SCNT] in various phases of generating embryonic stem cells, there are presently questions of scope of invention and of enablement, just as there were in the 19th century. Although many people are now claiming
large, with perhaps limited enablement and written description, the ultimate winner will be the person, who both identifies the insight to make the entire system happen and obtains patent
protection thereon.

UPDATE TO “YOU ONLY LOOK TWICE”

In the November 2005 issue of Intellectual Property Today, I presented some data on continuing applications for FY 2004 from the PTO, and noted the USPTO is evaluating the possibility
of limiting continuations, which crystallized in the Federal Register in January 2006. Two readers from Chicago, Kevin Noonan and Paul Reinfelds, sent along data for FY 2005, and noted, with the small number of “second” continuing applications, that the PTO proposal limiting continuing applications, even if effected, would not likely solve the problem faced by the PTO.

[Endnote 18 stated of the data for FY 2005: There were 63,000 continuing applications, which included 44,500 cons/cips and 18,500 divisionals. Of these, 11,800 were second, or subsequent, applications. Separately, there were 52,000 RCEs, of which 10,000 were second, or subsequent. Thus, 21,800 applications of
384,228, were second or subsequent, which is 5.7%. As for FY2004, RCEs were the single most abundant “continuing” form, 52,000 of 384,228 [13.5%]. All “continuing” forms combined
constituted 115,000 of 384,228 [30%]. The contents of Endnote 18 were cited in comments made to the USPTO about proposed rulemaking in the area of continuing applications:
www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/dapp/opla/comments/fpp_continuation/ebert.pdf.
The comments referred to my April 2006 article in Intellectual Property Today, which unknown to me at the time of the comments, was not actually published by Intellectual Property Today. These comments to the USPTO objected to the proposed limitations on second, and subsequent, continuing applications on the basis that, even if implemented, the proposed limitations would NOT resolve the application backlog problem AND separately would adversely impact many reasonable uses of continuing application practice.]

Of Carhart’s book, “Lost Triumph,” the publisher is Putnam, not Putman. Two other reviewers have discussed the novelty of the book, even though the theory about J.E.B. Stuart’s possible
role had been published years before Carhart’s book.

[After March 2006, the Supreme Court decided the case eBay v. MercExchange. Therein, the Supreme Court made clear that entities such as universities and individual inventors, who don't make product, could satisfy the four-factor test and obtain permanent injunctions to bar infringement of their patents.]

Lawrence B. Ebert is a registered patent attorney located in central New Jersey. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford, a J.D. from the University of Chicago, maintains a blog at IPBiz.blogspot.com, and is the author of LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM THE HWANG MATTER: ANALYZING INNOVATION THE RIGHT WAY, published in the Journal of the Patent & Trademark Office Society [88 JPTOS 239 (March 2006)]. The above material is based on a submission to Intellectual Property Today [IPT] which was supposed to have been published in April 2006, but which was not published. Most endnotes of the IPT submission have not been reproduced here. The contents of Endnote 18 of the IPT submission did appear within comments to the USPTO concerning proposed rulemaking about continuing patent applications. Ezine draft submitted June 16, 2006.

Two More Examples of Hype

I recently came across an on line site that said ” certified psychics, as registered with the United States Government.” I found this to be very interesting because there is not any way a psychic can be registered with the government. As I have previously stated, it is a completely unregistered industry and there are absolutely no guide lines. Upon reading further, this site proudly displayed their registration. What was registered was their name. They patented the trademark ‘certified psychics.’ So, in essence they are telling the truth. They are registered with the government, but not as psychics. This is another case of ‘hype’ to manipulate the unwary public.

I also love it when I see ‘board certified’. I could never find any board which certified a person is a psychic. It reminds me of becoming a Reverend. There is a site on line where you can instantly become a Reverend. I did, as well as Bubba and Kitty. In case anyone is unfamiliar with the latter two, Bubba is my dog and Kitty is my cat. I do not address them as Reverend Bubba or Reverend Kitty, although I do have their papers proving same.

For a price, from the same company, I could have documentation proving I was an Arch Angel, Arch Bishop, Rabbi, Guardian Angel, High Priestess, Soul Therapist, Wizard, etc. I got the feeling I could have had papers saying I was the reincarnation of any God or Goddess from mythology if I paid enough.

So, if anyone comes across sites, or psychics, that claim to be ‘certified’ check the fine print. Odds are they might be certified the same way Bubba and Kitty are.

Athena_louise

athenalouise.com athenalouise.com

School Teachers Get a Helping Hand Planning Outdoor Educational Field Trips

Planning an outdoor educational field trip can be a painful and time consuming project for any teacher. There is the budget to consider, risk management to prepare and logistics to plan. All this background work must be done in order to gain the school board’s administration approval.

In Southern Ontario a different approach is being taken to gain business from surrounding schools. Outdoor education companies have taken advantage of the fact that their area of expertise is something a teacher often lacks or does not have the time to research. So they have created a program called “Teacher’s Aid” which custom designs field trips to meet the teacher’s needs… free of charge.

The process works by having the teacher submit the outdoor curriculum requirements; minimum expected students, the time frame, available working budget and required safety standards. These are the main ingredients needed by the “Teacher’s Aid” to design an educational outdoor field trip.

The outdoor companies then use their experience and skills to design a program tailored to the school’s curricular needs. And within one week return a draft with a possible matched field trip within the working budget and safety concerns. With the curriculum outlay is also included a risk management plan, a complete price quote and a written itinerary that can be delivered to the school’s administration for approval.

In return the outdoor educational company asks that if the draft is approved; they are reimbursed in the venture by receiving the school’s field trip business. It is also understood that if the school chooses not to do the field trip, there is no charge and the school/teachers are always welcome to inquire about a quote for another program idea.

For the teacher this is minimum work… and for the learning adventure companies this is maximum business. This successful approach is an excellent working venture for any business in the outdoor educational field wishing to develop a working relationship with schools.

Garth Pottruff specializes in outdoor learning experiences relating to school curriculum. He believes outdoor field trips add a needed dimension in learning… seeing, believing and applying become very real within a field trip.

He goes further then just writing field trip itineraries… he offers complimentary trips at no charge to teachers interested in developing field trip programs. He feels it is important for teachers to meet his staff and to see first hand what they do.

He instructs canoeing, kayaking, camping and how to do wilderness canoe trips. He also does hikes that teach native and settlement history, edible & medicinal plants, environmental concerns, wildlife and trees.

For Garth building a successful working relationship with teachers is based on integrity, flexibility and competence. He does not believe in promising what he cannot do well.

For more information on Learning Adventures offered by Garth visit:
grandriverrafting.ca grandriverrafting.ca

Toys and Children - A Path To Education

While you may think the most basic of toys is useless you will be surprised at what will actually help your child develop. You want to help your child learn and prepare for school. You also will want to help your child or children learn skills while they are in school. The best way to prepare a child or children for school is to buy Preschool Educational Toys they will enjoy.

The child may not understand the toy is meant to educate, but you will have that security. Toys and children go hand in hand for most families. The difference is the types of toys you may have for your children. Some will have the latest toys on the market and others will be content with the items around the house. My brother is a key example of finding something around the house to play with. At first he started out with pots and pans to play drummer with and he moved on to taking a part household items that no longer worked.

Toys and children should be in some way educational, but that doesn’t mean they have to always be servicing the educational aspect. The child can just have fun with playtime and imagination. They need both time to play and you will find when given the opportunity to play with reschool_Educational_Toys, the learning will happen inevitably. Having a plan where your child has the opportunity to have fun and learn, will create more opportunities for your child’s success in school. You will also want to keep changing the Preschool Educational Toys you buy for your child, as they get older.

Make sure that you find toys that are for their level. While they may still enjoy playing with some of the toys from their earlier childhood you should begin to trade out toys with more complex toys or you can even take the younger toys a step further. For example, old and easy puzzles can all be mixed together to provide a more challenging task. Most toys have age levels printed on the package so that you can be certain you are buying for the correct age.

Written by Samantha Gibson. Find more information on

Towards A Better Teachers’ Performance Management in Nigeria: The Balance Scorecard Approach

Introduction

Education is sacrosanct to national development. Education and national development are the two sides of a coin that mutually reinforce and challenge each other. Jega [1997] affirmed, “Education is generally regarded as a necessary and essential requirement for national development. It is central to socioeconomic and technological advancement, and it is critical to self-sustaining and self-generating process of positive transformation of modern society.”

The government appreciates the significance of education to national development and will marshal its resources to attain its avowed goal of a reinvigorated public service. Odumosu [2004] said, “Education in Nigeria is … a huge government venture that has witnessed evolution of government complete and dynamic intervention and active participation. The Federal Government has adopted education as an instrument per excellence for effective national development.”

It is antithetical that service delivery in the education sector is unattractive despite its strategic role in effective national development. It is palpable that the sector is a not-for-profit public enterprise. There is, however, a general consensus among stakeholders ranging from government supervisory agencies, practitioners, parents and the press to learners that the standard of education falls far below expectations.

Who is a Teacher?

Achimugu [2000] stated that Nigerian Teachers Union NUT (1994) defines a teacher “as a person who has the registrable professional qualification, which enables him to be appointed to teach at any appropriate level of recognized education in any nation and who is of sound mind and who is mentally alert.”

The World Book Encyclopedia [1985] expanded the scope to include “those of a school counselor, school psychologist, general supervisor or supervisor of a subject area, reading specialist, coordinator of guidance, school principal, director of vocational education, teacher of handicapped children, superintendent of schools, director of instruction, dean of students, college administrator, or teacher in a demonstration school.”

In Search of A Better Performance Management System

The traditionally appraisal method of evaluation that polarize the performance of teachers between qualitative and quantitative indices is an annual or biennial ritual in the school system today. Unfortunately, it has become a routine. It is ineffectual because of the prevalence of teachers’ suboptimal performance and poor service delivery. The method is subject to abuse by supervising officers who disregard meritocracy for the ‘Nigerian Factor’ variables such as nepotism, length of service and godfather syndrome to adjudge teachers’ performance and promote the lucky few despite glaring gaps in output and absence of total quality management.

The major problem policy makers and administrators face aside getting teachers with requisite quality is that of guaranteeing quality service from these teachers. The recommendation of Afe [2001] that “When well-qualified people are recruited into teaching, high standards are ensured” cannot achieve this objective. The performance of these qualified and productive teachers will not be measured and sustained if the system of performance management is defective.

Concept of Balanced Scorecard

Kaplan and Norton [1992] developed Balanced Scorecard [BSC] in 1992 at Harvard Business School in United States of America. The Balanced Scorecard is a strategic management system that enables institutions to spell out their vision and strategy, and transform them in actions capable of achieving its mission. It is fundamentally used to determine organizational performance using financial and non-financial measurement in four perspectives: financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth.

Kaplan & Norton [2002] said,

“We created the Balanced Scorecard because financial measurements had become insufficient for contemporary organizations. Strategies for creating value had shifted from managing tangible assets to knowledge-based strategies that created and deployed an organization’s intangible assets, including customer relationships; innovative products and services; high-quality and responsive operating processes; skills and knowledge of the workforce; the information technology that supports the workforce and links the firm to its customers and suppliers; and the organizational climate that encourages innovation, problem-solving, and improvement.”

The Balanced Scorecard is a performance management approach that is flexible and adaptable to fit any size institution. It aligns vision and mission with stakeholders’ expectations and the day-to-day activities of the institution, manages and evaluates strategy and guides operation efficiency plans. It also assists to develop organization capacity. The scorecard allows the institution to measure financial and customer results, operations, and organization capacity as shown in Figure 1 below:

Figure 1: Balanced Scorecard Links Performance Measures [Source: Kaplan S. R. & Norton P. D. [1992] The Balanced Scorecard – Measures that Drive
Performance, Harvard Business Review Magazine – January-February 1992 Edition, Boston, Massachusetts]

Figure 2: Howard Rohm’s Design of Balanced Scorecard Performance System [Source: Performance Management in Action – A Balancing Act. Perform Volume 2, Issue 2]

Balanced Scorecard in Education

The Balanced Scorecard takes into cognizance that mission is the key driver of the performance of institutions in the public sector. In application to the education sector, therefore, the scorecard framework will change from profit making in Figure 2 to reflect its mission-driven nature stated in Figure 3. The Federal College of Education [Technical] Akoka as a not-for-profit institution has a mission to train quality teachers that would in turn educate learners in lower levels of the education sector, and empower entrepreneurs to establish micro businesses to boost the economy of the nation. Balanced Scorecard will entrench strategies to measure the performance of teachers in the College to determine their operational efficiencies in curriculum implementation and classroom teaching towards the actualizing of its mission.

Figure 3: Design of Education Sector Balanced Scorecard [An adaptation from Howard Rohm design of public sector balanced scorecard]

There is a paradigm shift of emphasis in the focus and positions of the perspectives of the basic design of the public sector scorecard system in Figure 3 in contrast to the generic Balanced Scorecard performance system in Figure 2 because of the emphasis on Mission in the former. Employees & Institutional Capacity in Figure 3 substitutes Learning & Growth in Figure 2 to underscore the relative significance of teachers as a leading element to synchronizes other components for achieving institutional mission. Again, budget in Figure 3 is preferred to financial perspective in Figure 2 because of the importance of budget formulation and execution processes in the management of government funds.

Balanced Scorecard Benefits to Education

1. The Balanced Scorecard invents the concept of continuous learning in performance management system of the institutions. It aligns all the staff to strategy in a single framework and eliminates multiplicity of strategy institution-wide implementation. It involves the selection of metrics for the measurement processes, selection of initiatives, cohesively mould these initiatives into a single platform for strategic deployment and Spartan allocation of resources to eliminate waste.

2. It entrenches strategic planning as a way of life rather than as a convenient alternative. It helps to build a rational budgeting system in a tightly regulated economy with finite national financial resources. It ties resource allocations to performance and replaces reliance on intuition in decision making to a systematic fact-based executive decision-making. It forecasts future outcome by generating cause-effect predictions and creating scenarios.

3. It assists to improve the institution’s facilities, perception and rating of teachers in the mind of the stakeholders as well as raises visibility of teachers’ activities in implementing government’s reform programmes, facilities feedback and entrench a culture of public accountability.

4. It enables institutions to benchmark best practices in terms of teachers’ performance and output of service delivery by using performance measurement data collected as a basis of comparison with global data resources.

5. It alleviates the funding burden on government. Education is not only a costly venture but also an economic venture without immediate return. Balanced Scorecard will clarify the budgetary goals of the institution and accelerate its budgeted economic returns. As Colleges of Education gains funding autonomy, the scorecard will entrench a culture of budgetary prudence and fiscal discipline.

Building & Implementing A Balanced Scorecard

This paper proposes a seven-step framework for the implementation of balanced scorecard for measuring teachers’ performance in the education sector in Nigeria.

1. Select Balanced Scorecard Team

A team should be selected and charged with a responsibility to design and implement the balance scorecard. The team will evaluate the institution’s mission, core beliefs, public expectations, budgetary position, short- and long-term goals and outline value creation parameters for stakeholders. It should obtain resource requirements to develop and sustain the scorecard, and develop a rollout communications plan for teachers’ buy-in and resultant support for the changes from stakeholders. This communications plan will involve internal and external public information activities to educate teachers and stakeholders about the Balanced Scorecard initiative and how it works.

2. Clarify Institutional Strategy & Objectives

The institution will design a number of overarching themes that will be crafted into specific institutional strategies. Examples could be to Improve Teacher Education, Upgrade Quality of Teaching Materials or Create a New Venture. Certain level of creative thinking from the rank and file of teachers is required in order to achieve results at this stage. The team should collation of these themes. In the process, it should not impose any premeditated themes on the process. This will eliminate hidden agenda from any interest group and allow for effective selection of specific strategies for adoption.

The next level is to split the chosen institutional strategy smaller components is called objectives. The objectives are the basic building blocks of strategy, that is the components that make up complete strategies. In this instance, the strategy of a central theme of Improve Teacher Education or Create a New Venture could have such objectives as Deploy effective teaching methodology and traditional discipline, Increased Teacher trainers expertise, skills and abilities, Improved Technology Capacity or Effective and Effective and Efficient Corporate Governance, Improved Service Value, Reduce Reliance on Government Allocation among others.

3. Design Strategic Map

The team, at this stage, will build a strategic map for the institution’s overall business strategy. This map is the mechanism that shows how an objective [effect] is dependent on another objective [cause], and how, taken together, they form a strategic thread from activities to desired end outcomes. It usually will use the cause-effect linkages [i.e. if-the logic connections]. Thereafter, the components [objectives] of strategy are connected and placed in appropriate scorecard perspective categories. The relationship among strategy components is used to identify the key performance drivers of each strategy that, taken together, chart the path to successful outcome as will be perceived through the eyes of customers and stakeholders.

4. Develop Performance Measures

The team will develop performance measures to track both strategic and operational progress. At the stage, the desired outcomes and the processes that are used to produce these outcomes are clearly spelt out. Desired outcomes are measured from the perspective of internal and external outcomes, and processes are measured from the perspective of the process owners and the activities needed to meet customer requirements. Relationships among the anticipated results and the process needed to get the results should be fully understood before the team can assign meaningful performance measures. Specifically, the Strategic Map should be used to develop meaningful performance measures for each objective.

5. Champion New Initiatives

The team will now identify new initiatives that are needed for implementation to ensure that the new strategies evolved are successful in the institution. The focal point of Steps 1 to 4 is that it will lead the team to evolve new initiatives. These new initiatives developed at the end of the scorecard building process are more strategic than if they are developed in the abstract.

6. Implementation

This stage involves the implementation of the new initiatives developed through the balanced scorecard by transmitting the details of implementation milestones and responsibilities throughout the institution to the various schools and departments, and ultimately to teachers, non-academic staff and students. The corporate scorecard will be translated into the various schools and departments scorecards that are aligned with the institutional strategy. The team should note that the most effective way of achieve this is to start with the objectives and measures from the institution-wide strategy map, and develop supporting objectives [and measures] for the various schools and department, teachers, non-academic staff and students.

7. Post Implementation Review
At this stage, the Balanced Scorecard gains advantage over other traditional methods of appraisal because it allows of the inbuilt mechanism of post-implementation auto-evaluation. The success of the institutional strategies adopted is reviewed to determine whether the anticipated results have been attained. The team will need to align the overall strategy of the institution [that is, the mission] to ensure that there is no deviation. Feedback mechanism is created to test the strategy assumptions to determine their effectiveness. This feedback is analyzed and public expectations are factored into the analysis for effective review.

Recommendations

The following recommendations are offered to the Federal Ministry of Education to consider Balanced Scorecard approach for achieving better teachers’ performance management in the education sector in Nigeria.

1. Balanced Scorecard should be adopted as a performance management system for teachers and administrators in the school system. The scorecard is not expensive to implement because it can build on existing appraisal methods and synchronize methods into a single platform of performance management.

2. A national central working committee comprising of team of seasoned professionals drawn from the academia and Organized Private Sector should be set up to advance the study of Balance Scorecard beyond the precursory template of this paper and conduct extensive research with the objective of designing a national strategic map for the different levels of educational institutions in Nigeria from the Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education. Competent and resourceful professionals should be appointed into the various scorecard teams at the national and local levels.

3. A phased introduction and implementation of Balanced Scorecard over a period of twelve to twenty-four is advocated. This will allow for effective orientation and dissemination of the communications plans to carry along all stakeholders. Change management will be effective to eliminate resistance and sabotage of the scorecard will be taken care of with this strategy.

4. Government should have the national will to approve the adoption of Balanced Scorecard and make adequate funds and resources like technology, and literature available for its successful implementation.

5. There should be knowledge exchange programme through the use of resource community at the local and international level. This activity will deepen the knowledge and competence of the local and national teams that are empowered to facilitate the introduction and implementation of the scorecard.

References

Achimugu, L. [2000], The agonies of nigerian teachers: nut – friend or foe.
Kano: Baron Press Limited

Afe, J.O. (2001), Reflections on becoming a teacher and: challenges of
teacher education. University of Benin: Inaugural Lecture Series 64

Aghenta, J.A. (1991) Teacher effectiveness in the nigerian educational
system. Edited by B.C. Emenogu, O.V.N. Okoro et al Onitsha, Orient Publishers Ltd.

Berkman, Eric [2002] How to use the balanced scorecard, CIO Magazine Issue of
May 15, 2002. International Data Group Company

Federal Republic of Nigeria (1998). National policy on education. Lagos,

Jega, A.M. (1997): The state and education in Nigeria today, paper presented at
the “Kano Week ‘97, organized by the Kano State Students’ Association,
Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, September 15.

Kaplan S. R. & Norton P. D. [1992] The balanced scorecard – measures that
drive performance, Harvard Business Review Magazine – January-February
1992 Edition, Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press

Kaplan S. R. & Norton P. D. [1996] The balanced scorecard: translating
strategy into action, Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press

Kaplan S. R. & Norton P. D. [2001] The strategy-focused organization: how
balanced scorecard companies thrive in the new business
environment, Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press

Kaplan S. R. & Norton P. D. [2002] Partnering: the new face of leadership,
AMACOM

Odumosu, A. I. O. [2004] Basic principles of education and methods of
teaching. Ibadan: Olu-Akin Publishers

I am 35 years old and hold HND Secretarial Administration and an MBA in Management. I have also received professional development training from Lagos Business School, Ghana Institute of Journalism, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA and Boston University, USA. I am a certified teacher, an Associate Member of Nigeria Institute of Management and registered with Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria.

I am the Acting Managing Director of XL Management Services Ghana Limited and have had over a decade work experience spanning executive office management, human resources and HR outsourcing in banking, SMEs, consulting and services industries. I have been involved in enterprises at emerging or turnaround stages and played key roles in the areas of innovation, strategy crafting and execution, communication planning, process reengineering, leadership, learning, business coaching for all levels of staff, human resource management and entrepreneurial marketing.

I’m Sorry! Blame-Game or Accountability?

A powerful tool for health as we approach the new year can be to focus on giving and/or receiving only real apologies when we want to heal a rift with a family member, friend, or co-worker. We hear apologies all the time, but I don’t think many of them are sincere. An apology has to be real to heal.

Trang Lei spent the day helping Martha buy furniture and art for her remodeled living room, but Martha never even offered to buy Trang Lei’s lunch and so she felt unappreciated. Later when she told Martha she felt hurt, Martha said, “I’m sorry. I was just so excited about what I was buying that I didn’t even think about it.” Trang Lei did not feel better. In fact, she felt worse.

What was wrong with Martha’s apology?

Martha’s apology came with a built-in excuse, implying that however she behaved was unintentional—beyond her conscious control. Moreover, Martha has an expectation that Trang Lei will accept the excuse. Thus, Martha perpetuates the original problem by continuing to be more focused on herself than on Trang Lei. I call this kind of apology “Sorry-Excuse.”

Even Martha wasn’t consciously manipulating, her goal was not to take responsibility but to find a way out of it. In most cases, if you don’t accept other people’s excuses when they apologize, they will quickly get irrupted at you, blaming you for not being understanding.

When we receive a counterfeit apology we often sense it and so rather than the hurt being healed, it is deepened—as in the old saying, “adding insult to injury.” I think almost all of us give such apologies. And we model it for our children.

Guidelines for making real apologies:

One: Identify common formats for apology that are” counterfeit.”

If you clearly various types of bogus apologies, it will help you recognize when you give or receive an one. Here are some examples of common phrasing.

“Sorry—Excuse”

Example: “I’m sorry I didn’t call—I’ve been really busy.”

Translation: Please be understanding about the fact that other things were more important than you.”

“Sorry—Denial of Intent”

Example: “I’m sorry you took it that way. It wasn’t what I meant.”

Translation: I think it’s too bad that you had difficulty understanding me correctly.

Example: “I’m sorry if I offended you.”

Translation: I can’t think of anything I did wrong, but if you think so, I’d be happy to apologize so I can get back in your good graces.

“Sorry—Blame”

Example: “I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner. Have you been feeling Insecure about our relationship lately?”

Translation: If you are upset about my not calling, the real cause is your own insecurity, not anything I did.

Two: Only say “I’m sorry,” when you mean it and can specify exactly what you are apologizing for

When we give what I believe is a “healthy” or authentic apology, we can state clearly what we did that was disrespectful or inconsiderate without:

immediately explaining why we did it,

telling the person that however it looked or sounded, it wasn’t our real intention, or,

bringing up some other issue that suggests that the other person contributed to or caused the problem.

For example, instead of focusing on why she didn’t buy Trang-Lei’s lunch—her excuse, Martha could have taken full responsibility, saying,

“I’m so sorry I hurt you. There is no excuse for me to forget to buy your lunch. Even that would have been a small thank you for how much you helped me. And you spent your only day off doing it.”

Here, Martha uses her apology to show her real appreciation as well as her sadness that she didn’t do so earlier.

Three: Decline to accept an apology that is not given sincerely.

When you accept an apology, and then walk away knowing it wasn’t real, you enter a world of make-believe where you pretend an issue is resolved while harboring resentments. Gently, firmly, without anger, you can decline a hollow apology. For example:

If you believe that I simply misunderstood you, then I would rather not have an apology from you.

Only if you believe you did something hurtful would I want one.

When you refuse to accept an insincere apology, you refuse to surrender to being manipulated or pacified and you hold the other person more accountable—without having to argue or try to force an apology. You are likely to feel greater confidence.

Real Apologies Build Character and Respect

If we can change how we give and receive apologies, we can become less defensive, gain insight, grow wiser, and strengthen all of our relationships. We can also, then, be a strong model for others, including our children, teaching them that real apologies show strength of character, gain the respect of others, and have great healing power.

About The Author

This article is based on the book amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0972002103/qid=1064311361/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_4/102-1738917-9840106?v=glance&s=books&n=507846″ target=”_new Taking the War Out of Our Words by Sharon Ellison, available through your local bookstore or favorite online bookseller. Sharon Ellison, M.S. is an award winning speaker and international consultant.

mailto:DCOLE@GEMINICOLE.COM DCOLE@GEMINICOLE.COM

Distance Education while Living Abroad

I first discovered distance education in 1998 while my wife and I were living in the eastern African country of Uganda. After several years away from school, I had decided that it was time to go back and work on a graduate degree. At first, I thought my timing couldn’t be worse. My wife’s contract with her employer wouldn’t allow us to just easily pick up and leave, and I couldn’t see universities in the state accepting transfer credits from a Ugandan university. During a trip home, I started crawling around on the Internet to see which universities had the degree program I wanted. It was while doing this that I stumbled across an online course that sound of interest through the University of Colorado.

Living in Uganda in 1998 provided it’s own unique challenges to online learning. In-home Internet access was nonexistent. The first Internet café in the country didn’t start up until 1999 and in 1998 there wasn’t even a hint that one might be starting. When it did come it was 30 kilometers away in the capitol. Fortunately, my wife’s work did have e-mail and the course I took didn’t require any type of live chats or other forums. Instead, once we had registered for the course we got a list of books to read and a list of assignments. While still in the states I e-mailed the instructor to make sure she didn’t have a problem with the situation and she e-mailed back that she would love to have me take the course.

The course turned out to be a huge success for me personally. The keys to this success were the same keys that make online learning ideal for many individuals. Most importantly at the time was the mobility that it afforded. I could be literally half a world away from Colorado, sitting on the equator, doing assignments. I also needed flexibility. Anyone who has ever lived in a developing country knows that almost nothing happens on a strict schedule, and if there is any predictability, it’s that things are unpredictable. One of the things that I loved most was the convenience. I got the books while in the States, though I could have ordered them and received them in Uganda, and then I read them when it was convenient. Of course, because I was in an extremely unique location the themes of the assignments that I turned in, via e-mail, also tended to be unique which both the instructor and I appreciated.

Would I recommend online education to others? You bet I would. Since my days living in Uganda, I’ve gone on to get finish my graduate degree at a traditional university, but the projects that I completed for my distance education course are still the most memorable. Here’s an idea find an online degree program for a reputable college and move abroad. Guarantee you you’ll get more out the course than staying home and sitting in a class room.

For more information on distance education or other education check out these fine websites fmeducation.com fmeducation.com and educationaltec.com educationaltec.com