Aero Penguin

Two YouTube Videos

2008-06-01T01:48:00.001-07:00

Problems Found

2008-05-29T23:29:00.001-07:00

Throughout completing this task I used Times New Roman, I had a lot of difficulty with using blogger.com as it can be unstable at times and change the formatting that I have done. I used Times New Roman and a normal font size for the first eight or nine blogs. When I started to use references in the tenth, eleventh and twelve I realized I could not use the centre text function as according to the APA referencing guide this would not be an appropriate way to reference. So the last three blogs are all aligned to the left. If I had more time I would have gone back to the first nine blogs and change them but as formatting takes a lot of time and effort as all the text and screenshots are centred. I would have used the same formatting as the last three blogs with larger fonts.

The text should be in New Times Roman throughout the blog with no other font present. The main text should be large and the sub headings for the Tasks, Lecture, Tutorial and Readings of the Week. There should be two breaks or enters between tasks, lectures, tutorials and readings. Important terms or words have Bold function added to them so that they will stand out.

Week 12

2008-05-29T23:29:00.000-07:00

Task 1 – Reviewing Copyright Information Sheets:

The task required me to go to the Australian copyright council, when it loaded I opened the Copyright Information section and clicked view All Information Sheets.

I chose five information sheets that may be associated to me as an undergraduate.

The first information sheet I decided to choose was Journalists and copyright G081.

Copyright protects four pieces of work by a journalist these include: press articles, reports, scripts and interviews, though information, ideas, styles and techniques are not protected by copyright. It is possible to do research and take data and ideas from a source and write about them but as soon as this is copied completely this will cause an infringement of copyright (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 1).

Titles and sub titles of documents are not protected from copyright (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 1). Copyright in Australia is automatic and free so therefore no registration needs to take place. The owner of writing material have the right to publish their work to the public, broadcast it to the public in other ways, reproduce the work, perform in public or make a translation or draw an image (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 2).

The owner of copyright in print media before 1st May 1969 is to that of the publisher, after this date and before 30th July 1998 the publisher owns the work for the production in a newspaper, magazine or other journal but the rest of the rights are owned by the employed journalist. On or after 30th July 1998 the journalist has the right to photocopy or reproduce the works in a book whereas the publisher has all other writes; the journalist has no control over digital files but can come to agreement with their employer (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 2).

A piece of work can be written by joint ownership which is where two or more authors have created it and what each author has contributed towards it cannot be defined it is given this title. If the writers are freelancers and someone wants to reproduce the works they must ask permission from all of the writers though if they are staff journalists the copyright goes to the employer (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 3).

Copyright owners can sell or permit others to their work so they can be used with certain rights depending on what the contract is; this must be in writing and signed to be accepted (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 3).

Writers have moral rights if their work is affected in any way where they can take action if not properly authorised or offended. Copyright for the works of the journalist occupation lasts a lifetime plus seventy years (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 4).

The second information sheet I decided to choose was Moral rights G043.

Morals rights are rights that a creator has to their works (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 2).

The types of material that it applies to includes: literary, artistic, music, dramatic, computer programs and cinematograph films. Moral rights come automatically into play and therefore no registration needs to be made (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 2).

The moral rights last a lifetime and generally an extra seventy years on top of that. Moral rights can be assigned so that works can be reproduced but cannot be sold. Creators of artistic, dramatic, literary and musical works have the right of a credit when their work is used. The creator needs to be attributed or credited when reproduced, published, shown in public or adapted (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 3).

Attribution does not need to take place when the creator has consented that they wish to not be identified or it is reasonable not to include their name (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 3).
The creator also has a right not to have the authorship of their works falsely attributed. This occurs when the writer has been credited incorrectly or the works have been altered but no indication as to which part (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 3).

Creators of artistic, dramatic, literary and musical works have the right to take action against a person who criticises or insults a piece of work after 21st December 2000 not taking into account when the work was published or written (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 4).

The third information sheet I decided to choose was Quotes and extractions: copyright obligations G34.

A quote can either be a section or an entire quote from a piece of writing. In both instances it needs to be acknowledged. A quote can be important and used to backup another piece of writing. In some cases a phrase or term is too short to quote and therefore is not protected by copyright. There are two exceptions to infringement where copyright does not need to take place which is in criticism/review or is study/research (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 2).

In the purpose of criticism or review an extract of literary work can be made but to make the exemption the work and author must be clearly stated. For the purpose of study or research a piece of work can be used without the permission of the copyright owner. Ten per cent of a text may be used and it is possible to use a quote or extract for an essay without providing acknowledgement (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 3).

When reporting the news a piece of work can be used in the form of communications but when it is a print median that work and author must both be stated. Creators of works have moral rights so they have rights to being attributed properly for their work and if they do not believe this is so they can take action (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 3).

The fourth information sheet I decided to choose was Writers & copyright G13.

No process needs to be taken to have your work protected as it is automatically copyrighted. The person who creates copyright material may no be the owner. Writers have moral rights even if they do not possess copyright of it (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 1).

When an agreement has been made in writing it will say who has copyright rights. If you are part of staff the employer will own the copyright. If under freelance stance, or contract this document may say who has copyright rights. Though when someone has paid you for a piece of work, they have the right to use the work it was commissioned for but will not have ownership of it (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 2).

As a copyright owner this is the only person who can release the works into public either for the first time or as a reproduction, as a performance, or translation or image form (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 2).

Copyright rights can be assigned to another person, which is where the rights are being sold or transferred to them. Licensing a work means that you still have ownership rights but some else uses the work in forms that have been agreed on this may include for different publications such as in a book (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 2).

Moral rights are in play of writers and copyright where the writer can take legal action if their work is not attributed properly or it has been offended. Copyright lasts a lifetime plus seventy years but if the work is not published then there is no expiry date (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 3).

The fifth information sheet I decided to choose was Research or study G53 v07.

Copyright will not be infringed if used for the purpose of research or study and is used fairly this does not mean you have to be in a course. In certain cases a librarian can copy material for you as long as it has to do with research or study (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 1).

For a text or printed music which has ten or more pages it is considered fair to copy ten percent of the number of pages or one chapter. For a text in electronic form, it is considered fair to copy ten percent of the number of words or one chapter (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 1).

A periodical article can be reproduced or more than one article if they are all in the same area of study or research. If copying more than the allocated amounts of fairness then some factors need to be thought about such as the purpose of the research (much fairer for a course rather than using it commercially), depending on the level of work or degree, obtaining the work cheaper (such as photocopying the entire book) and whether copying large sections that are important compared to a small section which is unimportant fair or not (Australian Copyright Council, 2006, p. 2).

Task 2 – Online Music Copyright:

Any use of copyrighted music requires appropriate acknowledgement from the creator or copyright owner as music can be downloaded for free on the internet, musicians do not paid for their work. Copyright owners have several rights which include the reproduction to their own music and the right to release music to the public, therefore wherever music is available to download or to be streamed these rights are exploited. There are several associations which deal with online licences such as AMCOS and APRA which can help musicians obtain royalties by online streaming, digital online music downloading and mobile phone caller tones.

Task 3 – Plan For Protection Against Attacks on Privacy and Security:

I went onto the About.com Internet /Network Security section and looked through several of the articles that were located on this main page, these lead me to other articles until I found the information I required to complete part of the task.

Tony Bradley [n.d.], discusses three simple steps to protect a user’s computer whilst online. The first is to install anti-virus software, update the program regularly and scan your system on a weekly basis. The second is to not open suspicious emails, delete any that are not from some one you know or if it is and it has an attachment contact the person to make sure they did send it to you. The third step is to make sure that there are no vulnerabilities and that there patches on your system so that they are always updated such as internet explorer, email programs or 3rd party tools.

Tony Bradley [n.d.], gives instructions on configuring internet explorer security where Internet Explorer places websites into four different zones which include: internet, local intranet, trusted sites and restricted sites. From here there are different four different levels listed: low, medium low, medium and high. Each of these levels will affect the types of online material that can be accessed. The higher the restriction level the less websites the user will be able to access, it is recommended to leave the levels at the Microsoft default settings.

Tony Bradley [n.d.], describes five steps to avoid Spyware these include:

Be careful where and what you download.

Always read the End User License Agreement (technical and legal information).

Click okay or next only if you have read setup instructions thoroughly.

Use a scanner which can search for all the problems: worms, trojans, vulnerability exploits, jokes, viruses, hoaxes, spyware and adware.

Scan your system as some spyware and adaware can still get through. Some programs have a live option which runs while you are online but these usually have to be paid for unlike the free ones which you have to scan manually.

Tony Bradley [n.d.], states another way to protect a users email account by using an encryption method. You have a Public Key Infrastructure which allows you to send emails to only people that it is meant for, and only this way will the recipients know that if they receive mail without your encryption on it that is not actually from you. If they want to send a message to you, they will also use your encryption key so that you are the only one that can read it. If you only use the key for important information a hacker may realize this but if all your messages are encrypted then it will be too much bother for a hacker to go through hundreds of messages to find nothing.

According to PC Magazine [n.d.], Symantec has made a thorough check on Microsoft Vista and compiled research papers. The User Access Control that features on Windows Vista was the main point of discussion as it allows users to accept or decline programs from running on their system but Symantec claimed that malware or another harmful unwanted file could affect it. In Microsoft’s defence it was said that it is a program to make you think about what you are going to run and it was not designed to stop harmful software that is where antivirus programs come into play.

Marshall Brain [n.d.], believes that by following several steps you can avoid viruses. These include:

If you are worried about viruses use the operating system UNIX which contains a security system which keeps viruses and hackers away from the hard drive.

If you own an unsecured operating system purchase virus protection software.

Avoid programs or downloads from unknown sources, just use commercial ones.

Have the Macro Virus Protection enabled on all Microsoft products and never run macros unless you are sure you know what they do.

Never opening email attachments that contain an executable file, as soon as these are open they can do what ever damage they want to do.

Therefore by completing this task I have come to the conclusion that a user should be sensible by using anti-virus programs, not opening unknown sender emails, sticking to known programs and websites, backing up all your information and using passwords should help avoid viruses, Trojans and any other unwanted problems.

Reference List:

Australian Copyright Council [2006]. Journalists and copyright. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from: http://www.copyright.org.au/publications/G081.pdf

Australian Copyright Council [2006]. Moral rights. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from:

http://www.copyright.org.au/publications/G043.pdf

Australian Copyright Council [2006]. Quotes and extractions: copyright obligations. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from: http://www.copyright.org.au/publications/G034.pdf

Australian Copyright Council [2007]. Research or study. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from: http://www.copyright.org.au/publications/G053.pdf

Australian Copyright Council [2006]. Writers & copyright. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from: http://www.copyright.org.au/publications/G013.pdf

Australasian Performing Right Association [2008]. Online and Mobile - ONLINE MUSIC, DOWNLOADING and MUSIC COPYRIGHT. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from: APRA/AMICOS: http://www.apra.com.au/music-users/online_mobile/online_mobile.asp

Bradley, T [n.d.]. Security Basics For Home Computing. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from About.com: http://netsecurity.about.com/cs/generalsecurity/a/aa100803.htm

Bradley, T [n.d.]. How To Configure Internet Explorer Security. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from About.com: http://netsecurity.about.com/cs/tutorials/ht/ht020203.htm
Bradley, T [n.d.]. Protect Yourself From Spyware. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from About.com: http://netsecurity.about.com/cs/generalsecurity/a/aa050204.htm

Bradley, T [n.d.]. Why You Should Encrypt Your Email. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from About.com: http://netsecurity.about.com/cs/emailsecurity/a/aa051004.htm

PC Magazine [n.d.]. Security Watch: Check Your E-Mail and Save Your Domain - Vista and Malware. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from PC Magazine: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2100446,00.asp

PC Magazine [n.d.]. Security Watch: Check Your E-Mail and Save Your Domain - Top Phish of the Week. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from PC Magazine:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2100447,00.asp

Brain , M [n.d.]. How Computer Viruses Work. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from How Stuff Works: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/virus6.htm

McCandlish, S [2002]. EFF's Top 12 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from: Electronic Frontier Foundation: http://www.eff.org/wp/effs-top-12-ways-protect-your-online-privacy

NC State University - Department of Computer Science [n.d.]. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from NC State University: http://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/social/workplace/monitoring/

Brown & Michaels [n.d.]. Overview of Intellectual Property. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from Brown & Michaels: http://www.bpmlegal.com/overview.html

Richards, J [2008]. Google could be superseded: Berners-Lee. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from AustralianIT News: http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23368264-16123,00.html

Lecture:

In this week's lecture there were several questions to be answered these included:

1. What are the characteristics of the internet that’s cause problems for users?

2. What is the intellectual property and what are the ways it is protected?

3. What is plagiarism and how do you avoid it?

4. What are some of the security risks associated with using the internet?

5. How can you protect yourself from these issues?

This week's lecture mainly spoke about problems that can occur on the internet and how to avoid them. It covered the problems of fine line between reality and cyberspace.

Tutorial:

This week's tutorial was made up of our tutor speaking of problems with the internet and how to go about completing our workshop. Our tutor helped with explaining how to insert a video into blogger.com properly.

Reading of the Week:

EFF's Top 12 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy by Stanton McCandlish states twelve tips to protect your online privacy. These include:

1. Do not reveal personal information

2. Turn on the cookie function in your Internet explorer.

3. Have an email address which is different to your user name/s.

4. Do not give information to strangers or internet friends.

5. You may be under surveillance with each step you take at work, avoid sending highly personal emails until you are at home and keep important files on your home computer.

6. Beware of websites that offer rewards and prizes for personal details.

7. Do not reply to spammers.

8. Be wary of Web security.

9. Know your home computer security.

10. Read through privacy policies.

11. “Remember that YOU decide what information about yourself to reveal, when,
why, and to whom”.

12. Encryption can be a valuable tool to keep unwanted guest out.

Electronic Monitoring by NC State University - Department of Computer Science contains many links to the area of monitoring but the links on the actual site did not function properly and gave HTTP 404 Error’s. The only link in relation to the actual website was the main link which brought me back to the main page of monitoring. There were however many links to other websites.

These included:

Types of Monitoring:

Workplace Privacy and Employee Monitoring
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs7-work.htm

CNN.com - Career - Monitoring employees: Eyes in the workplace
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/trends/01/02/surveillence/

Blogging is all fun and games, until the boss finds out
http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/14/news/economy/blogging/

Technological Surveilence in the Workplace
http://www.fwlaw.com/techsurv.html

Keystroke Loggers Save E-mail Rants, Raising Workplace Privacy Concerns
http://www.calbaptist.edu/dskubik/security.htm

Legal Issues:

Monitoring in the Workplace: Legal Entitlements
http://cse.stanford.edu/class/cs201/projects-95-96/electronic-monitoring/LegalEntitlements.html

Right to Privacy in the Workplace in the Information Age
http://www.publaw.com/privacy.html

In Defense of Employees:

Employers OK with e-surfing
http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/ebusiness/story/0,10801,55344,00.html
I was fired for Blogging
http://news.cnet.com/I+was+fired+for+blogging/2010-1030_3-5490836.html

Through the Keyhole: Privacy in the Workplace, an Endangered Right
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=14172&c=132

In Defense of Employers:

Monitoring in the Workplace: Legal Responsibilities
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=14172&c=132

Monitoring in the Workplace: The Bottom Line
http://cse.stanford.edu/class/cs201/projects-95-96/electronic-monitoring/The%27BottomLine%27.html

Workplace Privacy? Forget it!
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/advice/20050718a1.asp

Cases:

Case 1
http://www.gahtan.com/alan/articles/monitor.htm

Case 2
http://businessjournal.net/stories/030697/monitoring.html

Suggested Policies:

Blogging employees? Get a policy
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/other/0,39020682,39187238,00.htm

Who to Monitor - Ask the Expert
http://www2.cio.com/ask/expert/2005/questions/question2053.html

CNN.com - Avoiding getting fired for Blogging
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/Careers/04/05/blogging/

Privacy Resources:

Privacy International
http://www.privacyinternational.org/

Epic's
http://www.rewi.hu-berlin.de/Datenschutz/EPICAlert/Guide.html

The Electronic Messaging Association
http://www.ema.org/

How Workplace Surveillance Works,
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/workplace-surveillance.htm

Overview of Intellectual Property by Brown & Michaels spoke about how to protect patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets and also went into more depth about the legal side of computer software and domain names.

Google could be superseded: Berners-Lee by Jonathan Richards, describes that the semantic web could shut down Google as it is only a search engine that finds pages. Whereas the semantic web will allow a user to do so much more finding exact street names or the example that the writer used which was what happens if bank statements can work with a calendar. The future of the internet lies with the semantic web according to Richards.

Week 11

2008-05-29T23:26:00.000-07:00

I had difficulty changing the font for this week's blog as it changes from the Times New Roman style I have been using throughout the entire blog to Arial. There should be two breaks or enters between tasks, lectures, tutorials and readings.

Task 1 – Finding Definitions for the Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom Terms and Rewording Them:

I browsed the website called “Knowledge Map of Information Science: Data, Information, Knowledge” which contained a compilation of different professors from around the world with their ideas on the terms: data, information and knowledge. The next seven screenshots have the professors giving different descriptions of the terms.

I looked these four definitions up on Dictionary.com and came up with the following:

Data - individual facts, statistics, or items of information.

Information - knowledge gained through study, communication, research, instruction, etc.

Knowledge - acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation; general erudition: knowledge of many things.

Wisdom - the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight.

As the task asked me to I generated my own definitions for theses terms, even though it was very difficult in doing so, they included:

Data – is small or single pieces of information in the form of statistics or writing.

Information – is a group of data which can include wording and numbering.

Knowledge – is the amount of information absorbed which can be used to explain in writing or speech.

Wisdom – is also the amount of information absorbed but the more information and knowledge that a person has means that they have more experience about a topic.

Task 2 – Alternative Way to Show These Terms in Graphical Representation:

I had a look at the lecture slides and some examples of ways to represent graphical material on the internet and used this model:

It shows data becomes information, information to knowledge and knowledge to wisdom. A person cannot have wisdom about a topic if they do not have any knowledge or information on the subject. Therefore the same sort of relationship will always be present in knowledge management between the four words, as they are all required for the process.

Task 3 – Relationship between data, information and knowledge and how it can assist in university study:

Being able to use data, information and knowledge can assist in university study in a very beneficial way. As data is collected, this then becomes a group of information and finally turns into knowledge which can be used over and over again. The three points work together, as a starting point needs to be made otherwise there would be no knowledge of the subject present.

Task 4 – Organisations Which May Collect Information from a Person:

These organisations will all require a name, date of birth, where a person lives, where they come from and other information. But more specifically these are what these organisations would need to obtain:

University – to find out where to send important information to, to see whether a student is still attending a course, for passwords into the computer system, immigration information.

Teacher/Lecturer – to understand students, and create a positive relationship so that learning can take place.

Police – for criminal activity, to help the community be a safer place.

Government – to see what the public believe on a certain topic.

Employer – to find out whether someone is a good worker, where they come from, to see if it worth hiring the person, to create a relationship with the employee to make a positive work environment.

Bank – so that an account can be created and kept for you, certain information is required from you such as passwords.

Gym – to find out who you are as a person so a relationship can be made between people in the gym, to find out where to withdraw money for payments.

Lawyer – to gain knowledge of the case and defend the client.

Psychologist/Psychiatrist – to have a stronger understanding of a client so that the correct methods can be used to help them

Doctor – to help create a record with information about you as a person, what medicine can be used when a patient become sick or drugs that may help.

Mechanic – to find out what model your vehicle is so correct materials can be purchased if there are any faults.

Sony – find out which products are being sold and which aren’t, to find out what the general public want in a product.

Record Companies –find out if a band would sell a record, how many can or will be sold.

Reference List:

Data [2008]. Dictionary.com. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Data

Information [2008]. Dictionary.com. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Information

Knowledge [2008]. Dictionary.com. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Knowledge

Wisdom [2008]. Dictionary.com. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Wisdom

Lecture:

Week 11 focused on three terms which were data, information and knowledge. But before moving into the presentation a pop quiz took place which contained six questions:

1. What is a Boolean search?

2. What strategies can you use to give a great presentation?

3. What criteria can be used for evaluation of websites?

4. What are the advantages of atom based information?

5. What was the original purpose of the internet?

6. What are the 5 top things you have learned about the use of technology at university in this unit?

This lecturer spoke a lot about different types of data and went on to talk about bit and atom based types of text.

Tutorial:

This week's tutorial was about completing the workshop and what needed to be included in our blogs up to Week 11. The class then set to work out our weekly tasks.

Readings of the Week:

Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom by Gene Bellinger, Durval Castro and Anthony Mills describes knowledge management in two ways. The five different sections that the brain can be divided into include: data, information, knowledge, understanding and wisdom.

The first way, is quite a complex explanation given to these words trying to tell the reader about knowledge management.

But the second is a much simpler way of expressing with the example of ‘What is it?’ that is given, each sentence is a piece of data, together it becomes a group of information and finally with our knowledge of what the product it is we can figure it out that it is a refrigerator.

Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom by Oregon Technology in Education Council explains with several points the four terms; data, knowledge and wisdom.

Then the rest of the document is divided into three sub headings. The first, is organizing the terms into graphs and diagrams to show the relationship they have with one another. Secondly the business view and lastly the educational view on these terms.

Week 10

2008-05-29T22:36:00.000-07:00

Task 1 – Favourites Tutorial Exercise:

I went onto the website Internet Beginners Tutorial, read and completed the instructions that were present. I clicked on the Favourites icon and added the website as required.

I then clicked on Favourites to make sure that I had added it successfully which I had. The next point that was asked of me was to add the website into a folder, which I did by clicking on Add Favourite and then Create in I typed in ‘Favourites Tutorial.

I went back to have a look at my favourites to make sure the folder and website had been added properly. The next step was to rename the file I just created by going through the Organize Favourites option.

I opened it and renamed the file to ‘A Tutorial in Favourites.’ I then clicked close and opened my Favourites to check that the file rename had been successful.

Task 2 – Creation of Folders and Adding Websites Exercise:

I used the information from the tutorial to crate a favourites list with three folders with two websites favourites in each. I went onto Google and typed in Tutorial in Favourites which brought up several results. I added the Step By Step Microsoft Internet Explorer Favourites Tutorial and Tutorial: Organizing Favourites in IE6 to the ‘A Tutorial in Favourites’ folder I had created in the Task 1 exercise.

I then typed in Internet Tutorials in Google and selected these links to add into a folder these were: Internet Tutorials, Internet Beginner's Guides Tutorials refdesk.com and Finding Information on the Internet: A TUTORIAL - Table of Contents, Internet Tutorial, and Internet Tutorial [English Online]. I used the ‘Add Group Tabs to Favourites’ method as it is a lot faster process than adding each one separately.

For the last folder I typed into the Google search bar Information Technology Tutorials, I added the following websites to a folder:

Information Technology (IT) Tutorials, IT Tutorials, Computer Technical Tutorials and Information: Free Computer Tutorials, Weblinks / Information Technology / Tutorials, Weblinks / Information Technology / Tutorials / Microsoft, Network Topics - Information Technology Tutorials and Information Technology Tutorials. I then used the ‘Add Tab Group to Favourites’ again under the folder name of Information Technology Favourites.

I was not happy with the small amount of favourites I had in the ‘A Tutorial in Favourites’ so I found some more links to add in the folder which were: eLouai How to Add to Favorites in HTML and Firefox Help - Firefox Bookmarks Tutorial (The Mozilla Help Site).

After adding these two websites to the Favourites, I opened all three folders to check that all the websites I had added were all in the folders.

Task 3 and 4 - Being Digital Article Reading and Review:

I then went and read the parts of the “Being Digital” which was available on the website from the Workshop task. ‘The DNA of Information’ which spoke about Bits and Atoms in communication technology is very similar to the ideas that were told to us in the lecture where a book may have advantages over the internet but there are cases where its vice versa.

The paper text may be very easy to access and be in your hand like that whereas the internet is not made like that. But a book can easily go out of print but a text on the internet will always be available. He also predicted that media would be come digital and it would happen fast. Now there is digital video, images, messages, music and much more. On’ Prime Time Is My Time” the writer claimed that in ten years time the video cassette would go out of business, in saying this he was correct to a certain degree. They still exist but the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) has taken over instead.

References:

Negroponte, N. Being Digital - The DNA of Information [1996]. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from Being Digital:
http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/nn/ch01c01.htm

Lecture:

This week the lecture concentrated on using technology for accessing and organising information. The questions that the class received include:
List 3 main points from the article.
Do you think the internet has its limits?
How would you define information overload?
List your technological sources of information.
What are some of the strategies you use to manage information?
Society is vulnerable when it comes to many things such as if there were no truck drivers, there would be no food and therefore the shops would be empty. If the power went out, nothing would work and if there was a problem with the internet millions of people would be affected. As most people rely on the World Wide Web. Physical matter is atom based which can be touched; it is difficult to change but can be costly to have transported. Whereas digital form is not atom based and cannot be physically touched but is cheap and fast to transfer from place to place. In the past books used to be hand written and could take days or ever months to finish, they were valuable but if they were destroyed there was no way of bringing it back unless there was another copy of it.

Tutorial:

This week’s tutorial involved our tutor showing the class how to do the first part of the task which was adding WebPages and creating folders in the Favourites section in Internet Explorer.

Readings of the Week:

Grazing the Net: Raising a Generation of Free Range Students by Jamie MacKenzie describes the valuable source that the internet has on students for their assignments, research, etc as it is such a high in nutrient place for information. When the article first appeared in 1998, this information is still very relevant today but there is still a problem of students going off topic and not doing their work and just sitting in front of a screen all day.

The BBC website I was unable to access, the video would not load up properly. I believe that this was the video that the class watched in one lecture which contained information about Wikipedia and how it isn’t an appropriate website to reference from.

Week 9

2008-05-29T21:57:00.000-07:00

Task 1 - Using Groups and Searching For a Particular Topic:

I opened Google.com and brought down the drop down menu to find the Groups link which I clicked on. In the search bar I typed in “The Beatles” as the task asked me to find a topic that interests me.

For an exact Group title matching that of what I searched there were 171 items. There were 10 Groups on the first page that included the word “Beatles” and many other pages of Groups that had somewhat relation to what I had searched.

The 171 items were under different subtitles such as:

Topic:
Arts and Entertainment (37) Recreation - Collecting (1) News (1) Other (2) People (2) Schools and Universities (1)

Region:
Central America - Costa Rica (1) Caribbean - Dominican Republic (1) Europe (2) Latin America (3)

Language:

Chinese - Chinese (Simplified) (2) Dutch (3) English (94) French (4) Indonesian (1) Italian (3) Korean (1) Polish (2) Portuguese (10) Romanian (1) Russian (1) Spanish (31)

Activity:

High (1) Medium (2) Low (167) Members:1000+ (1) 100+ (1) 10-100 (11) <10>

Task 2 - Investigating Messages in the Groups on Google:

On the most recent page of messages, some very off topic ones were found they included:

Gig Search Engine - come & check it out
Having nothing to do with The Beatles but about looking into new bands.

some jordan shoes for wholesale
Has nothing to do with the topic.

Backmasked satanic messages in hard rock music
Off topic.

Question on Beatle Remasters
Actually speaks of remasters about The Beatles and a group called The Purple Chick who have released unofficial versions of several Beatles albums.

OT: Hey Firefox users!
Off topic

13th Floor Elevators Photographs
Has something to do with photography, not related to the Beatles.

OT: The drug use of my youth is coming in handy now
Off topic

WWW.VOGUESONLINE.NET WHOLESALE CHANEL PRADA D&G LV SUNGLASSES ETC
Off topic.

This is supposed to be an election where all the votes are counted, not a Madonna concert !
Off topic.

"I Wonder If You Can"
Somewhat related to The Beatles, it is about a cover of a solo John Lennon’s song.

On the second most recent page there are more posts on topic such as:

Minor Question Re: Ringo's Sandwich in AHDN
Actually speaks about The Beatles personal life.

What would the Beatles have done
Talks about what The Beatles may have done or would ahev done if they hadn’t become musicians.

The Greatest song from the punk era
Speaks nothing of The Beatles, speaks of punk music which they were never apart of.

Wonderful New Article On George Harrison In "Pure Inspiration" Magazine
Speaks of topic related to the Beatles.

Maybe on Group boards the actual topic isn’t the main point of discussion but the people who like a certain topic can talk about things besides a certain topic they all may like.

Task 3 – Visiting and Viewing Two Podcasts:

I went to the Podcasts section on Yahoo.com and entered “The Beatles” in the search bar but the results that I received were not what I was looking for.

So I typed in “How to Use PowerPoint” which brought back no outcomes. I then decided to type in just the term “PowerPoint” which brought back several results, which I clicked on the fifth item on the list.

The page brought up two links, I clicked on the first and it took me to a page with a file consisting of “040825WE.ra.”

My computer does not play “.ra” files so I went onto the ECU Library podcasts to have a listen to some on there for the task.

When I tried to Download one of the podcasts from the ECU Library the link was not found so I could not continue with the task.

I therefore decided to type Podcast into the Google search bar and find what items would turn up, I found CNN had a section so I decided to open the link as it’s a trustworthy organisation.

I found a section for Audio Podcasts. The first podcast I chose to listen to was by Ali Velshi mainly about oil, Saudi Arabia and President George Bush Jr.

The second podcast I chose to listen to was called You Can't Make This Stuff Up by Jim Ribble. The presenter spoke about several topics such as an artist who gets thousands of people to strip so he can take a photograph of them it occurred in Austria this week, a blind man who plays tenpin bowling, “Walk A Mile In Her Shoes” for a domestic abuse shelter the participants were a group of men in high-heels, a man who wants to build a theme park like Disneyland in Baghdad, a man whom is arrested for throwing an M&M chocolate at a police officer.

Task 4 - What are the potential benefits of podcasts for university students?

The benefits of podcasts to university students would be that a lecture can be recorded and if they turned up late or missed a certain detail that the lecturer was talking about then they can use the podcast to find this information. It would also be a lot easier to reference what the lecturer has said as there is proof of it as it has been recorded. The downside to having just a audio podcast is that some students prefer to see the lecturer making hand gestures or show emotion on their face. Though there are video podcasts but I would be unsure as to how many lectures would want to be video recorded. It is up to the lecturer whether they feel comfortable with people recording what they say.

Lecture:

This week consisted of the subject Information Communications Technology. There was only one activity for the class this week which was:

You have been asked by your manager to draft an email to Big Com’s customer to concerning a recent spate of identity thief of Big Com’s Customer.

In groups of two people the class completed the task, and the lecturer asked several people basically what they had said in the letter. The rest of the lecture consisted of Information Communications Technology as well as tips and information on the exam.

Tutorial:

The tutorial involved our tutor going through the basic steps of the workshop task, showing how to find different podcats and play tyem. The podcast can be accessed when ever and where ever a person wants to view or listen to. Our tutor also explained the parts of out blogs and what should be found on them.

Readings for the Week:

14 Email Do's and Don'ts - Ways to make your messages more efficient and effective by Amit Asaravala speaks about when being the sender decide if it’s the correct tool to communicate with, ask or say what you want without rambling on, make sure that the person knows what your trying to say and don’t assume they know something and use correct English when writing an email.

It is explained when being a recipient that should not assume or jump to conclusions until you have read the message thoroughly, don’t create a war of words if something doesn’t sound right sort it out maturely, if something is not understood ask what the sender meant, setup your email to organize your organize your messages in a specific way and you don’t have to respond to a message straight away.

Essential Email Etiquette - Avoid common pitfalls when composing your messages by Wenkai Tay describes different problems that may arise in messages through email such as:

Use a suitable subject title,
Speak to people with appropriate levels of language, tones and titles,
Re-read your message before sending it off making sure you have said everything you wanted to and that there are no spelling errors.
Ask a recipient before sending attachments.

Email Etiquette found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BvC3ajgs60

Says that people need to make sure they realize what they are saying through an email as it may come out the wrong way when the recipient reads it. The video also states that a new language or abbreviations have been made by teenagers and people in their twenties. It states that there is a problem with what may be said in an email if its spelling mistakes, grammar, tone, etc. Writing skills are either non existant or fading away with the use of abbreviations and this can cause major problems when speaking to bosses, or teachers. It is also stated that before pressing send make sure that what you have written as once you click it, there is no turning back.

How To Practice Good Phone and E-mail Etiquette At Work by Howcast found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmVd8MT9XyA

Describes several steps in how to be a good worker by
Not sending personal emails in office hours,
Do not use the loudspeaker on the telephone,
Avoid background noises when making an important telephone call,
Make sure that when leaving voice mail that it is straight to the point and some personal details are left.
Knowing what you are going to say before make a telephone call.
Keep the subject line in an email, brief and straight to the point.
Use spell check for grammar and punctuation as it can give a bad impression to the reader.
When forwarding an email to a co-worked make sure there is some explanation in the subject line of what it is all about.

The Problem with SPAM by Caube.com.au is a website against Spam or bulk mail. Which details the problems of spam, what can’t be done to stop it, being arrogant by thinking it's not my problem if it hasn’t effected me and solutions that may help to stop Spam mail.

Week 8

2008-05-29T21:23:00.000-07:00

Task 1- Observe Several Websites on Making a Good Presentation:

I went onto “Online resources for how to prepare and deliver a presentation” by Laura Guertin and looked at the different resources that were present. They included:

How to make a great talk, by the American Association of Plant Biologists.

Oral presentations, by Lynchburg College.

Oral presentation advice, and how to give a bad presentation, by Mark Hill (University of Wisconsin-Madison).

How to give better presentations, by James Hayes-Bohanan (Bridgewater State College).

Preparing an oral presentation, by Jeffrey Radel (University of Kansas Medical Center).

The Top Five List of Strategies to Help Deliver a Good Presentation Include:

1. Keep each slide simple, and brief
2. Use as little text on slide as possible
3. Make a speech and not read off the presentation slides.
4. Make sure your ideas and points are clear and valid
5. Understand and know your topic.

Task 2 – Construction of a Low Impact Presentation:

I created a low impact PowerPoint presentation with all the faults that should be made for a bad presentation as asked by including:

Title slide:

Introductory slide:

3 ‘Main body’ slides:

Summary slide:

Reference slide:

Graphics and 2 animation effect that enhance the presentation:

Lecture:

This week’s lecture consisted of presentation techniques where the class satarted with a video of a person presenting a PowerPoint presentation and putting across all the bad techniques of presenting it. The methods that were spoken of in the lecture include: structuring, preparing your presentation, using Microsoft Word and getting the audience involved.

Tutorial:

Our tutorial this week involved our tutor going through several options in PowerPoint to show the class the different features that were available so we could complete our task.

Readings of the Week:

How to give a bad presentation by David A. Patterson describes ten steps in which you should follow to create a bad presentation, under each point it is given a bit more description. This webpage is for students to open their eyes up when giving a presentation. It was from the circa of 1983 so the information seems to still be relevant, it could have been written yesterday as it still is applicable.

10 ways to give a bad presentation by Guest Contributor speaks of ten steps in how to create a bad presentation. I feel that this website was not as efficient as David A. Patterson writing as his was straight to the point whereas this one seems to be rambling on. Though this article was written quite recently for the internet but the other was not originally for the internet.

How not to give a presentation by Richard Smith gives four points on how to give a bad presentation which include:

Preparing for a bad presentation
Aids to a bad presentation
Delivering your bad presentation
Winding down

PowerPoint Tutorial by http://www.actden.com/pp2003/ gives help on working with PowerPoint, creating slides, adding images, creating animation, adding sounds, rehearsing for presenting a PowerPoint and several other areas.

Week 7

2008-05-27T21:42:00.000-07:00

For this week's blog I had trouble with thr formatting as some would change from Times which I have used throughout my entire blog to Arial, this has occured several times throughout each of the weekly blogs.

Task 1 - Finding Examples of References:

The first part of this week’s workshop required me to review the Edith Cowan University referencing guide.

And to find five examples of electronic data which I came up with the following:

BBC News. [n.d.] Retrieved May 22, 2008, from BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Cripps, H. (n.d,). UPC0004 lec04 081v3 Lecture Notes. Retrieved May 22, 2008,
from Edith Cowan University, Blackboard Academic Suite: http://myecu.ecu.edu.au/@@550ADAED359B64CAAB5ED3D4ABDB2F2 6/courses/1/UPC0004.2008.1.ALL/content/_743415_1/UPC0004%20lec04%20081v3.ppt

Engle, M. [1996]. Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools. Retrieved May 22, 2008,
from Cornell University Library: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/webeval.html

Grassian, E. [2006]. Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources. May 22,
2008, from UCLA College Library: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/critical/

Harris, R [2007]. Evaluating Internet Research Sources. May 22, 2008, from
VirtualSalt: http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm

Kirk, E. E. [1996]. Evaluating Information Found on the Internet. May 22, 2008,
from Sheridan Libraries: http://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating

Meola, M. (2004). Chucking the Checklist: A Contextual Approach to Teaching
Undergraduates Web-Site Evaluation. Portal : Libraries and the Academy, 4(3), 331.

Task 2 - Endnotev11 Exercises for Vista:

Firstly I opened the Start Menu so I could Configure EndNote, I did this by typing the words ‘Configure Endnote’ in the Search bar it appeared and a new tab opened.

The program asked me to either Configure EndNote Components or Remove them.

I chose the Configure EndNote option which took me to the next part of the setup asking me whether I wanted to Cite While You Write with Microsoft Word and use the program as a Default reference manager for MS Word which I selected both options.

The next tab allowed me to click Finish and start using the program.

I then looked at the next exercise for the Workshop which was Exercise 1.

I then went to EndNote and clicked the icon ‘New Reference’ which opened a new reference for me which I opened, changed the reference type to a book and then inserted the information that was given to me.

For Exercise 2, I was asked to go to a link on the ‘How Stuff Works’ website where I selected some text to add into the Notes section on EndNote.

I inserted the title, URL, current year so there would be some sort of reference, as there was not a lot of information to use.

Exercise 3 asked of me to go to the ECU library website and to the Journal Articles (Databases) to select a journal by title.

I found ProQuest 5000 International as this was the journal database that I had to use to find the reference.

I then typed ‘The New Arab Conversation’ in the first field and clicked the icon Search which took me to a list of results, I could not find the heading so I went to the second page and found it as the fifteenth title.

I clicked on the title to gain access to the article, there was a tab located at the top of this article that read My Research which I clicked.

I then was given more options which I selected Export Citations which lead me to another page where I chose Export directly to EndNote.

In EndNote I saved this reference to a library which I had created beforehand and selected the Electronic Article for the reference type. I then copied and pasted the quotes from the EndNote notes section into a Word document and created an in-text reference.

[...] though he probably would not have appreciated being deployed as a weapon in Israel's public-relations war, the presence of his independent voice, a counterintuitive opinion not filtered through any official source, said a lot about the power of Middle Eastern Web logs to expose a hidden trove of multiple perspectives in a world that the West often imagines as having only one perspective - that of the "Arab Street," a place of conformity, of mass acquiescence to singular passions, be they blind support for a dictator or seething hatred of Israel. Whether it is a Jordanian student discussing the taboo subject of the monarchy's viability or a Saudi woman writing about her sexual experiences or an Egyptian commenting with sadness at an Israeli blogger's description of a suicide bombing, each of these unprecedented acts is one small move toward opening up these societies.(Beckerman, 2007)

"Think about a "normal Web site." It usually has a home page, with links to lots of sub-pages that have more detail. HowStuffWorks is like this, with thousands of information pages all organized under a home page. A small business site follows the same format -- it might have a home page and five or 10 sub-pages. Most traditional Web sites follow this format. If the site is small, it is sort of like an online brochure. If it is large, it is like an electronic encyclopaedia."("How Blogs Work ", 2007)

“El Nino has clearly arrived on the world stage. But while it has belatedly achieved a widespread awareness, few people still understand what the phenomenon is all about”.(Couper-Johnston 2000)

Reference List:

Beckerman, G. (2007). THE NEW ARAB CONVERSATION [Electronic Version]. Columbia Journalism Review, 45, 17, from http://0-proquest.umi.com.library.ecu.edu.au/pqdweb?did=1199324601&Fmt=7&clientId=7582&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Brain, M. (2007). How blog works. How Stuff Works Retrieved 17/05/07, from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/blog.htm

Couper-Johnston , R. (2000). El Nino. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
How Blogs Work (2007). from: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/blog.htm

Task 3 - Cite while you write Endnote exercise:

The first reference I added to Endnote talked about the prominence of El Nino. The authors stated that, “El Nino has clearly arrived on the world stage. But while it has belatedly achieved a widespread awareness, few people still understand what the phenomenon is all about”.(Couper-Johnston 2000)

The second source I added to my library was from the ‘How Stuff Works’ website ("How Blogs Work ", 2007)and was mostly a description and introduction to blogging. Brain ("How Blogs Work ", 2007) describes the emergence of blogging as follows:
"Think about a "normal Web site." It usually has a home page, with links to lots of sub-pages that have more detail. HowStuffWorks is like this, with thousands of information pages all organized under a home page. A small business site follows the same format -- it might have a home page and five or 10 sub-pages. Most traditional Web sites follow this format. If the site is small, it is sort of like an online brochure. If it is large, it is like an electronic encyclopedia."

Finally I added a source to my library from an online journal which I accessed through the Library link on the ECU homepage.
The article described the new discourse in Middle Eastern politics which is developing through the use of blogs. Endnote even imported the following abstract into the reference.
[...] though he probably would not have appreciated being deployed as a weapon in Israel's public-relations war, the presence of his independent voice, a counterintuitive opinion not filtered through any official source, said a lot about the power of Middle Eastern Web logs to expose a hidden trove of multiple perspectives in a world that the West often imagines as having only one perspective - that of the "Arab Street," a place of conformity, of mass acquiescence to singular passions, be they blind support for a dictator or seething hatred of Israel. Whether it is a Jordanian student discussing the taboo subject of the monarchy's viability or a Saudi woman writing about her sexual experiences or an Egyptian commenting with sadness at an Israeli blogger's description of a suicide bombing, each of these unprecedented acts is one small move toward opening up these societies. (Beckerman, 2007)

When I had entered these references I used the in-text citation buttons on the endnote toolbar to add citations to this exercise. Endnote automatically generated a list of references
The only thing I need to do now is to remove the hyperlink marking on the electronic source reference before I print as the underlining is not a part of the ECU referencing standard. If I right click on the hyper link and choose remove hyperlink on the menu that appears, that should fix it!

References:

Beckerman, G. (2007). THE NEW ARAB CONVERSATION [Electronic Version]. Columbia Journalism Review, 45, 17, from http://0-proquest.umi.com.library.ecu.edu.au/pqdweb?did=1199324601&Fmt=7&clientId=7582&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Brain, M. (2007). How blog works. How Stuff Works Retrieved 17/05/07, from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/blog.htm

Couper-Johnston , R. (2000). El Nino. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
How Blogs Work (2007). from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/blog.htm

Lecture:

This week consisted of details of the EndNote program on how to use it and what its capabilities are. As it was a new subject and program to the class we did not have any questions this week that we had to answer. But before getting into the facts, the group assignment was spoken of briefly beforehand about what was required of us in a bit more description. EndNote is a database which can be used as a program on its own or with Microsoft Word. And the class was told a story by the lecturer that she knew someone that has hundreds of references on her thumb drive and lost it and therefore it is very wise to backup all your files.

Tutorial:

The tutorial supported what had been explained in the lecture but went into far more detail about EndNote. Our tutor went step-by-step in how to configure and use EndNote efficiently. Also explained, was the different parts of the program and that Microsoft Word and Excel saves the data in files whereas EndNote saves a library.

Readings for the Week:

EndNote - Technical Support & Services is a website that deals with helping EndNote users with information or any problems they may have with the software. But as the website title states it is a technical support section of the EndNote website, so it will mainly have help points to it. There is a section for: product downloads, news, help problems (system requirements and compatibility information), information pages and EndNote discussion forum.

Week 6

2008-05-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

Task 1 - Assessing the Strategies for Evaluating the Information Found on the Internet:

ICYouSee Critical Thinking:

On the ICYouSee Critical Thinking page, there are six main points which are offered, these include:

1. Make sure that you are using the right resource for the purpose of your task.

2. When in doubt about a website, question how accurate it is, as anyone can put up information on the World Wide Web.

3. Think about who wrote it, try to find some information on them to see if they are a legitimate source.

4. Find out the purpose of the website, why was it created in the first place?

5. Looking for certain details to show that it is accurate and can be a trusted source. For example is the language used simple or complex? Or appropriate use of grammar and correct spelling?

6. Find out whether the original source was for the internet or if it was a composed originally as a paper source. An online source may be missing parts that the paper source had or vice versa.

The framework for evaluating internet websites is listed as well these consist of: authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency, coverage and value.

INCO 48 Offline Information Competency - Evaluating Internet Sources:

On the INCO 48 website a different approach was taken to that of the ICYouSee Critical Thinking page. On this one the URL is spoken of first; its counterparts which are the domain names and what they mean. The second section speaks of “who, why and when.” And finally something called the “Ten C's For Evaluating Internet Sources” which include: content, credibility, critical thinking, copyright, citation, continuity, censorship, connectivity, comparability and context.

On the INCO 48 website there are seven points which the other website did not include or had not written in more depth. These points include critical thinking, copyright, citation, continuity, censorship, connectivity and comparability. I believe that this website is more efficient and looks more professional than the other in its presentation. The same data appears here but in a more complex form.

Good, the Bad and the Ugly or Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources:

Similar information appears on the Good, the Bad and the Ugly website but the difference between this website and the other two is, there is information present but on the Evaluation Criteria section the links do not take the user to more information from that website but to another website as an example.

Though the “Good, the Bad and the Ugly” has References to the work whereas the other two do not.

All three websites come from educational backgrounds:
INCO 48 is from Taft Community College
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is from New Mexico State University Library
And ICYouSee Critical Thinking page is from Ithaca College.

Task 2 - Reliving the Sixties: a Web Site Evaluation Exercise:

When starting the "Reliving the Sixties: a Web Site Evaluation Assignment" exercise I decided to use the American Cultural History: 1960 – 1969 and Almost Great Society: The 1960s websites.

For American Cultural History: 1960 – 1969:

This website was the right place and worth visiting as the information about the Sixties was quite relevant. It included information about:

Art & Architecture
Theatre, Film & Radio, & Television
Books & Literature
Fashion & Fads
Education
Music
Events & Technology
Sports

I believe that this website is an accurate one as it is an educational website from Lone Star College-Kingwood Library (Kingwood, TX). Just to make sure I typed the name of the college in the search bar on Google and had a look to see whether it would pick up more than one link, which it did. The facts seem accurate about the assassination of John F Kennedy, his brother and Martin Luther King and the music section for example.

I searched Susan Goodwin’s name, the writer of the webpage, into Google and I found a list of people who work at the college and she was named as a Librarian. I then looked through other links and found on a website that she is a Reference Librarian. It seems that this writer has some knowledge of referencing.

The purpose of this site is to inform the reader about the topic. Under each topic there are references and different resources for the user to look up if they decide they would like extra information on a subject.

I have a feeling that this website was made specifically for the internet as it can be used to backup other information on the World Wide Web and paper form material.

For The Almost Great Society: The 1960s:

This website does give some of the information that I may be looking for when looking for History of American politics but it is not in a great order so it is difficult to follow. Though, the Webpage is worth visiting as it is an educational website.

I believe that the information on the website is accurate as it was composed by Stanley K. Schultz (Professor of History) of University of Wisconsin. The facts seem to be well documented with different areas of The Almost Great Society: The 1960s. There would be a slight bias in this document as everyone has a different point of view on a particular subject but it is not easily picked up. But there does not appear to be a strong point of view but a factual view.

The webpage’s purpose is to inform students about the American politics of the 1960s. The document was designed for a university or college, as a lecture to a class and then released on the internet for students to gain extra knowledge or for the notes on the topic.

Task 3 – Evaluation of Two 1960s Websites:

The Psychedelic Sixties:
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/sixties/index.html

ACCURACY:

The information that appears on this website seems to be accurate as a university would not offer information to their students which was false. It was created by several people whom work at the university so information they would release on a university website would have to be correct.

AUTHORSHIP:

The main author of this website is George Riser a librarian at the University of Virginia. Stephen Railton (Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Virginia) contributed the introduction and Kathryn Morgan (Associate Director for Special Collections, University of Virginia) wrote the Foreword part to this website but the rest was written by George Riser.

The Psychedelic Sixties was designed by Josie Pipkin (Web Manager of the University Library), Gretchen Knight assisted with the homepage logo and George Pipkin completed the CGI image load scripting.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this website was to briefly describe and inform the user or student about important parts of the 1960s era. There will only be about a paragraph of data on a certain topic but no more than this.

DETAIL AND DESIGN:

It does not cover every part of the era or every piece of information. In fact there is a limited amount of information on this website; it may have been that it was created for a starting point to students who want to do any study into the era. The design of this website fits the subject matter but it does not seem to be that professionally composed. Once a user has clicked on a certain topic they will be taken to the subject and several linked images will be located with a paragraph of text. It is expected that there will be even more detailed information on the topic when clicking on the image but in fact this is not the case just a larger version of the image.

OVERALL WORTH:

I believe that there are much better resources out there on paper or on the internet about the 1960s, as this website has a restricted amount of information and has more images than informative data.

A Trip Through the Sixties:
http://www.hippy.com/php/sitetopics.php?topic=1

ACCURACY:

On the articles presented on this website the information appears to be correct but as most of the pages have no details present about who wrote it or edited the document anyone could have done so; either an academic writer or non-academic writer. But if an academic writer were to have written it their name would be on the page somewhere, as these documents are usually copyrighted. Only some of the pages have a source as where the information came from.

AUTHORSHIP:

The website seems to be owned by http://www.hippy.com/ which is also a forum website. The author of these articles of the 1960s is not actually stated on most of the pages and therefore is not a source which should be trusted or used for referencing in any academic works.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this website is to inform the users on the history of this era, nothing more and nothing less. But it has to be questioned how accurate and trustworthy is this website.

DETAIL AND DESIGN:

The information on this website is quite in depth and covers a lot of areas of the 1960s era. The font type and colouring are quite effective and suit the theme. A few different colours are used on the WebPages but the same font is consistent throughout except for the heading style which is given a ‘hippy’ design. Several photographs are present on each webpage to give an idea about what is being spoken about.

OVERALL WORTH:

This website is useful to someone who wants to casually read up on the 1960s but as university or academic work goes it is not an appropriate source as there is hardly any publication dates or writer’s names present. The only item that would be benefited from this 1960s part of the website is the suggested reading at the bottom of each page which gives a published source that will give and explain in more depth about the topic which would have proper references.

Lecture:

This week’s lecture looked at evaluation and authentication. True or false questions were asked of the class they included:

1. Anyone can put up a website.

2. WebPages can be about anything.

3. All WebPages are kept up to date.

4. There is no quality control.

5. Most sites are “peer-reviewed.”

6. Websites are trustworthy as scholarly publications.

Several areas were covered in this lecture about evaluation and authentication. Fit-For-Purpose was spoken about being useful in one area of study or research, may not be in another. There is no control over who, what or why something is put onto the World Wide Web. In Roman times it took days to get to its location but now it takes seconds, this has disadvantages and advantages. No one person owns the internet; this can be a positive thing and also a negative thing.

The Smithsonian was compared to Wikipedia and NineMSN to BBC. The BBC and Smithsonian are far better known worldwide for their authenticity and accuracy as trustworthy sources. Whereas NineMSN and Wikipedia can be changed and written by absolutely anyone, therefore being inappropriate resources for academic works.

Some people on the World Wide Web can write anything they want and be whomever they like to say they are without anyone knowing.

Tutorial:

In the tutorial, our tutor went through the different points that the class should have on their weekly blogg up to Week 6 and also went into depth about the different parts that are in our group task. Gary our tutor also spoke about different functions in Microsoft PowerPoint and how to use them efficiently.

Readings for the Week:

The five different sources of this week all contain very similar information on the evaluation of the internet, these include:

Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources by Esther Grassian provides many questions to think about when using an internet resource. There are forty listed to be exact with four different sub titles which are Content & Evaluation, Source & Date, Structure and Other. There are some very good points on how to evaluate a website when writing an academic paper.

Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools by Michael Engle gives different points and sections on evaluating websites such as the situation in which a person is using the internet and the context that the internet has to other sources. There are several dot points about different ways to evaluate a website and a bibliography of resources that were used.

Evaluating Information Found on the Internet by Elizabeth E. Kirk includes area of internet evaluation such as authorship, publication of document, point of view, referencing to other pieces of work, accuracy, currency, picking up when information is incorrect and being able to understand the different parts of evaluating the internet.

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources by Susan E. Beck has been arranged into 4 sections. The first point is Examples which as the title states, contains examples of some areas of social problems. The second section which is titled Suggestions gives different points to teachers to guide or help them with their students and successful internet assignments. The third part of the website contains evaluation points for the internet which include: authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency and coverage. And finally a Bibliography section is present for all the sources that were used.

Evaluating Internet Research Sources by Robert Harris speaks of many different points but basically the whole document contains information credibility, accuracy, reasonableness and support.

Week 5

2008-04-23T04:23:00.000-07:00

Task 1 - Four Strategies in Making an Efficient Search in a Search:

For Task 1 I visited the Monash University’s tutorial on search engines. I clicked on the link “Page Five--The Web Search Wizard” as it seemed the most appropriate for the task at hand. Several strategies to defining a good search includes to have a positive keyword, as this is what the internet will look up and it needs to be straight to the point of what you are looking for.

Depending on what you are looking for, there are many specific databases or directories for certain areas of subjects. Such as a Computer website like Apple McIntosh would be appropriate for looking for the latest Apple software but not to find a brand of car or television.

Another good way to do searching is to use the Boolean method where you get an exact phrase in what you are looking for by using quotation marks and the words “AND”, “OR” and/or “NOT.” For example: “Rainfall” AND “Climate.”

Another method is to use the "query by example," or "find similar sites” that are available on some search engines. This allows you to search around the topic if you like what you see.Before actually typing anything into the search engine visualize what you would like to see a result and try to look up the terms that may appear in the heading.

Task 2 - The Answering of the Online History Quiz:

I went onto the Online Internet Quiz and clicked on Enter to start the quiz. It was a History Quiz which I used Ask.com to find the answers.

For Question 1:
Which one of these famous people was born in 1879?
Albert Einstein

For Question 2:
Which of these religions is historically linked to the Indus Valley?
Hinduism

For Question 3:
In what year did the "Boston Tea Party" protest take place?
1773.

For Question 4:
On which of these did work first commence in 1859?
The Suez Canal

For Question 5:
Who were the first to use the Chinese invention "gunpowder" in firearms?
The Chinese

For Question 6:
Which of the famous people below died in 1939?
Sigmund Freud

For Question 7:
What piece of real estate did the US force the Spanish to sell them in 1818?
Florida.

For Question 8:
What year was the Red Cross Organisation founded by Henry Dunant?
1864.

For Question 9:
Who invented Dynamite?
Alfred Nobel

For Question 10:
Hitler's invasion plan "Barbarossa" was aimed at which country?
USSR

For Question 11:
The Fall of Constantinople was achieved by cannon fire in which year?
1453.

For Question 12:
On what date was the Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima?
August 6, 1945.

For Question 13:
The "Holy Roman Empire" was ruled by which of these leaders?
Successive German kings

For Question 14:
The famous poet William Wordsworth was born in 1770, what age did he live to?
89.

After the last question was answered correctly a new page appeared congratulating me on answering all the questions correctly.

Task 3 Strategies in Finding Answers And Summary of Learning Process:

I’m not sure what strategy I used to find the answers but basically what I did in the Ask.com search engine was type in 1879 – testing all four names to see which one had association with the year. I typed 1879 - Albert Einstein and I found that he was the one that was born in this year.

Or when searching for the "Boston Tea Party", I typed Boston Tea Party – with a certain year. So I typed in Boston Tea Party – 1773 and it came up with what I was looking for. I think this method was quite effective as either in the title of the webpage or in the sub text summary of the webpage what I was looking for would appear. Using the Boolean method is probably the best way to find something without having to go through pages and pages of links that are of no use to you. From this exercise I have learnt how to use search engines more effectively.

Lecture:

This week’s lecture looked at using search engines. The questions that were asked of the class include:
1. List at least four search engines.
2. What are some of the problems you encounter using search engines?
3. What are some of the strategies you can use to overcome these problems?
4. What is meant by Boolean search?
5. What are some of the features of an advance search say in Google?

We discussed how databases should be the first place to look as students at university. There are three areas of the internet subscription, visible and invisible. Quality of results need to be carefully monitored as the same page can be brought back several times just different areas of that web site or broken links may appear which are of no use. Sometimes there is too many links to look through so the search needs to be narrowed down, then on other occasions there may be too little or nothing appear which is when you have put too much specificity in the search.

Different websites, journals, etc are meant for certain areas. Such as Emerald has different journals to ProQuest or The Chronical.com is a higher educational jobsite. Certain websites are not appropriate for the subject that you are trying to research. The reason behind this lecture was to broader our minds when it comes to search engines and the choosing of particular material.

Tutorial:
In out tutorial class this week we discussed a bit more of the technical side when it comes to Search Engines such as the parts that make up the internet. Like the protocol, the logic behind the URL, domain names and servers. Gary went into detail of what made up a URL and how a web server works. I knew a fair bit of the area but only the basics, I didn’t know about chips such as the one by Intel had different power sources. It was an interesting tutorial.

Readings of the Week:
Internet Search Tips and Strategies by Robert Harris describes all the basics about searching over the internet. On this webpage there is a brief summary of the internet, the types of information that is available such as Invisible/Visible information and Databases. Search engines and Directories are spoken of shortly. Examples are given to show what types of searching should be done when looking up certain topics as a short help guide. There is an explanation of using different types of word searching helps the efficiency of what you are looking for such as the Keyword Search, Phrase Search and Boolean Operators. And six points on how to make an effective search.

The History of the Internet: (Chapter 4 - Search Engines) by Richard T. Griffiths has six sections of information. The first part starts off with the origins of the search engine with where it was invented, who started it and the early developments of the system. The second part gives six steps on searching for data on the internet. The third speaks briefly about directories. The fourth section discusses Search engines about what information entered into the search bar will bring certain data results, statistics on how many WebPages there are and three examples of search engines. The last two sections talk about Databases and Library Catalogues. The Databases section has several links to electronic journals as examples.

Search Engine Optimisation by WebSight Australia is a very short page about helping small businesses to have more efficient web sites. This company looks to find out whether wording/keywords are effective so that the site can be found easily. Setting links on other websites so that people can find you from other means besides the search engines. This section of the website is based on helping smaller businesses to be more efficient so that they can find more customers in which ever area they work in.

Week 4

2008-04-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

Task 1.1 Haggis Hunt Website:

The internet site http://www.haggishunt.scotsman.com/ has appeared to look authentic just by looking at the website address but upon opening the website I changed my mind quickly.

I found some sort of animal placed on the main page, from this I know perfectly well that haggis is a Scottish traditional dish and is not an actual animal.

There is a fair bit of data that can be picked up which is incorrect. The images of the supposed animal the ‘haggis’ on the website look more like a manipulated platypus.

If the website was actually a Scottish website it would have been http://www.haggishunt.scotsman.co.uk/ and not http://www.haggishunt.scotsman.com/. As most American websites end in .com and British websites end in .co.uk. On the Part 2: Facts section the ninth point reads “Haggis fur is waterproof but not showerproof.” This fact is faulty as water and showerproof are exactly the same, where they both protect from water. But in saying that “Haggis fur is waterproof but not showerproof” it shows how amateurish the website is.

If the habitat of the Haggis is only in Scotland, then why are there webcam images of England and United States which promote that the animal lives in these locations as well.

Also if this was an official and authentic site it would not have sections for “Jobs, Property, Motors, Dating and Money” at the top of the main page. As it would be only showing the topic that they are trying to get to the people who are interested in their product.

Task 1.2 Molossia Website:

Upon reading the website address of http://www.molossia.org/ I really didn’t have much of an idea what it was going to be about. Something about Moss or some sort of disease or plant.

I pasted the link in the address bar and pressed enter, a website of Republic of Molossia appeared and a Java Script popped after I had clicked on enter website. I clicked Okay and I was taken to the main website.

It did look like an official site but what struck me was the location of Molossia as it read 226 Mary Lane, Dayton, NV 89403. Dayton, Nevada is a real place but how is it possible for a nation to be located in another country’s state. Also by having an actual address I found a bit odd as well because a nation/country will only have a country name not a number and street name. By this false information I realized that the website was not at all authentic.

Underneath the wording “Republic of Molossia” there is foreign writing. If it was a place in America it would be an English speaking one or it would be close to the English language such as a Latin language not one that looks Greek.

Also in several photographs on the website it shows winter and it snowing but how is it possible for it to snow in the desert as that is pretty much where Nevada is located. Under the General Information when I was on the About Our Nation if it were a true website about the country it would be made easy to move back and forth between the different pages but all that is present at the bottom of the page is a way to go back to the main menu.

On the Visitors to Molossia page why would it say “We will give you directions to Molossia?” when the reader already has the directions of its location which are in Dayton, Nevada. This is another point that proves that it is a fake website. The military suit worn by an official to me looks very fake, one that could be hired or bought.

On several of the pages, the background of the webpage changes and I find this not very genuine for an official nation’s website.

A website for a country is usually a government run one which I can clearly see that this one isn’t.

Task 2 Expectations of Martin Luther King Website:

Before opening the website of http://www.martinlutherking.org/ the task asked me to think about what it would be about.

I believe that it contains information about Martin Luther King which should include that he was a leader for the black people notable for the famous “I Have A Dream” speech. It should also be noted that he was assassinated in the late 60s, and conspiracy claims have be made that his assassination as well as President John F. Kennedy and his brother are all some how related.

Task 3 First Impression of Martin Luther King Website:

The website looks quite genuine with the information present. As an .org website it should have authentic information about the subject but it does look amateurish of course as it is a non-profit website.

The item that put me off was the “Rap” lyric link, as I know perfectly well Martin Luther King was not around in the age when “Rap” music had been created. I was quite disturbed by this section as it had nothing to do with Martin Luther King and was promoting hate crime. As I’m sure Martin Luther King was not for but against the issue.

Other than that the website looked accurate overall without actually reading any data as I only have a very limited knowledge about the man.

Task 4 Examining Other Sources and Reflecting on the Website After Doing So:

By the looks of this website and glancing over several other Martin Luther King websites, this website has a sort of bias view. I would have to do more research but it looks like the creator of this website possibly dislikes the man or instead of showing all the positive parts of them man, they are showing several negative things. Such as Martin Luther King using plagiarism on his “I Have A Dream” speech. I am guessing that the writer wants to put across the two points of view and not just a bias one.

The screenshot here I found off a website with rumours about Martin Luther King, the part taht I wanted to capture was the copying of his "I Have A Dream" speech.

The one thing that does make this website credible is the use of references.

Lecture:

In today’s lecture the main point of discussion was the World Wide Web. It spoke about the internet, the history of the web and definitions of certain parts of the World Wide Web including networks, protocols and Domain Name Systems. The internet browser is explained with definitions, some examples of browsers, certain parts that make it up and a few shortcuts on the internet.

Seven questions were on the projector at the beginning of the class they were:
1. Who invented the internet?
2. What year was the first website constructed?
3. What does WWW stand for?
4. What are TCP and IP?
5. What is html and what does it do?
6. What does URL stand for?
7. List at least 3 domain endings other than “.com”

Tutorial:

A more in depth look at the internet in the areas of URL’s, protocol’s, servers and domain name systems were discussed.

Readings for the Week:

On the website Internet Society in the section; Origins of the Internet gives an overview of the beginning to the internet which the original idea was brought up in 1962 called the "Galactic Network".

The information on this website is quite complex unless you are able to understand a lot of computer terminology. In 1972 was the first time this new technology was released to the public and the same year the email or “electronic mail” was produced.

The website History of the Internet, Internet for Historians by Richard T. Griffiths from Leiden University has five chapters which speak of the internet and its development.

The first talks about what the internet is and the “development of the computer”. The second chapter deals with the development of ARPANET to internet and finally finishing with the World Wide Web. Chapter three looks at the history of the Electronic Mail or “Email”. In the fourth chapter, search engines are mentioned and how they can be used as well as directories, databases and library catalogues.

In the final chapter user internet data is present.

Week 3

2008-03-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

Task 1 and 2 Exploring ECU Library and Finding A Journal:

On the Blackboard Academic Suite under Useful Links there is a link to the ECU Library page I clicked on this.

Once on the ECU Library page I clicked on Journal Articles (Databases) which took me to a page which allowed me to go to select which way I wanted to search for the journal article I wanted.

I chose title and it took me to a list of Online Databases.

On the Online Library Database page I clicked on ABI/Inform Global (ProQuest) as Gary our lecturer had requested we use this specific one. Then in the advanced option I wrote “Global Warming” as this is what the task for the week asked me to look up.

15,494 items came up in the search so I went back to the advanced search and typed “economic impact” under the second search panel underneath “Global Warming”.

In this search 214 documents came up, this was still far too many journal articles to look through.

So I went back to the Advanced Search where “Global Warming” and “economic impact” were still in the Search bars and changed one of the scroll options to “Document title” and just above More Search Options were two boxes under the title of limit results to “Full text documents only” and “Scholarly journals, including peer-reviewed” which I selected. In the first screenshot here the Document text has been selected. In the second one the two boxes for "Full text documents" and "Scholarly journals" have both been selected.

The search brought back 7 documents. I then went back to the Advanced Search and added one last item which was “business” as this is what part of the weekly task asked me to do. This brought back one document on Global Warming.

In this last screenshot is the very first journal article out of seven that appeared when searching for "Global warming" AND "economic impact" and also the only article that appeared when searching for "Global warming" AND "economic impact" AND "business. Which is essentially what the task was asking from me in the first place.

If this was not what I was looking for I could easily go back and change the search options such as instead of having a “Document text” I could have it as a “Document title” or “Abstract.”

Task 3:

10 Useful Functions or Search Tips:

Depending on what a user is looking for Journal Articles are usually the most up to date sources, as they are always releasing new text. Books are good for looking up information for anyone but it does save your eyes from looking at a screen for long periods of time when looking for a journal article.

There are hundreds of Databases to look through when searching for a journal article. ABI/Inform Global (ProQuest) is a good one to use. You can make your search more efficient by making your search very specific by only looking for the subject as a Document title, Document Text, as an Abstract and then limiting results to only “Full text documents only” and “Scholarly journals” which will bring the user back a very precise search. If the information is not sufficient enough, change some of the search options such as from a “Document title” to a “Document text” or reducing the amount of extra words you have in your search. As the first line of words is crucial but the extra spaces underneath where you can search for extra options can be cut down if necessary.

The more specific you can be about your search the more precise the results will be. If you know a title or an author this may be a more efficient way of finding a book or journal rather than going to keyword and trying to find it that way.

Task 4, 5, 6 and 7 Exploration of MedlinePlus Website:

I went onto the MedlinePlus website and had a look at some of the health topics and drug information. Shown in this first screenshot in the Medline Plus website and in the second is a screenshot of the Health Topics page which I had a look through.

As the task asked in Task 5 I clicked on the “I” in the alphabetical ordered letters as I wanted to look up Influenza Vaccine.

I found it under “Influenza Vaccine, Inactivated” and l read through the information that was present.

I went into the Health Topics section as I wanted to look up Eye Injuries. Here are two screenshots from my searching. The first is actually looking up the topic and the second is going into the sub section of "Eye Injuries."

Someone who may use this service would be a patient who has been prescribed a certain medicine and they want to find out more about it and what it does. A person may hear about a particular drug that can help someone who has certain problems and inform them of this so they can talk to their doctor about it.

Information included on the drug information sections include:
What does it do?
“Why is this medicine prescribed?”
“How should this medicine be used?”
Precautions and safety procedures
Side effects

When in the health topics section a person who may be experiencing pain can find out what it is and what might be causing the problem so they can inquire about it to their general practitioner. It would be useful website to anyone who is looking up medical information as it is an authentic website with a “Dr. Donald A.B. Lindberg, Director, National Library of Medicine” behind it.

It could also be used for other doctors to look up information or students to use for their assignments as well. Parents who have children with prescribed medication may want to look up extra information of what their child may be taking.

Lecture and Tutorial:

The only difference between the two classes was that in the lecture three questions were on the board otherwise both classes pretty much taught the same information about the use of libraries, databases and journals. The three questions that were present before class in the lecture include:

1. What are online Libraries or Databases can you name some?
2. What would you use Libraries or Databases for?
3. What are their advantages and disadvantages?

Readings for the Week:

The first reading of the week from BBC World titled “Finding what you want on the web” written by Bill Thompson explains that as a user Google can be a very efficient tool if used properly as there is a lot of material out there that can be used for research and that he does not need the use of his encyclopaedias right by his side. There are two sub headings “Wide-ranging web indices” and “Searching well.” “Wide-ranging web indices” deals with a search engine not being able to come across all websites such as Medline. He explains that Google is a good tool with several functions which he likes and usually comes back to after finishing with other search engines like Yahoo and the old HotBot search engines. The “Searching well” sub heading discusses ways Google does its job and problems with it as well.

The second reading of the week “Bare Bones Lesson 7: Basic Search Tips” gives examples of how to improve a way a user searches for certain topics in a search engine. Keywords, Double Quotations, Wildcards and the plus and minus techniques are all mentioned here as well as the Boolean method. The words “AND”, “NOT and “OR” are also included and should all be in capital letters so no confusion is made with the search engines even though most will understand the terminology.

Week 2

2008-03-09T01:19:00.000-08:00

Task 1 Microsoft Word Exercise:

In the Workshop for Week 2 I was asked to do two exercises the first was to work with Microsoft Word I was asked to copy and paste a piece of writing into a black document.

I read the PDF document that was accompanied by the Word Exercises so I could understand what I was going to be doing.

Firstly I changed the Typeface to Times New Roman, Regular and size 12.

I then went to Page Setup and made some adjustments. Under Format dropdown menu I used Paragraphs to make sure that the Headings would stay with its text and did some adjustments to the Indents and Spacing.

I then added Header/Footer and Formatted the Page Numbers by using the Header/Footer function like I had been asked to.

I copied and pasted the Reference list underneath the two paragraphs of information I had collected before.

I then went to Table and sorted the References so that they were in Alphabetical order.

The last piece of text I copied and pasted was the Contents page which I put before the two paragraphs of information. I set Tabs so that a page number could be placed next to the different sub-headings.

The second last thing I had to do was to find an appropriate image for the task which I also referenced and placed this in my reference list.

Task 2 Microsoft Excel Exercise:

The second part of this week’s task was an exercise in Microsoft Excel which I was required to copy a similar table in the PDF with the week’s instructions onto Excel. It included activities and Days of the week.

Column widths and row heights had to be adjusted as well as formatting of the cells so that the borders and alignment were similar to that of the example.

I then placed data into the cells from Monday to Sunday so there would be something for the program to work on.

I made a formula which I used for Monday that calculated the activities in 24 hours; I did this for the other six days of the week.

I used a similar sum to calculate the Travelling for the whole week, which I used the method to add the amounts up for the other Activities throughout the week.

In the Averaging column I used the formula ‘=AVERAGE(..:..:..:..:..:..) to give an average of hours done for each activity throughout the week.

I changed the decimal place value so that only one would appear as having six numbers after the decimla point looked a bit out of place.

After finishing the table I then went onto doing the Pie and column charts using the information in the tables that I had created.

This final screenshot is what the final table came out to look like.

Lecture:

Due to five questions being present on the white board ranging from basic to somewhat complex answers, the class started off into discussion.

“What Microsoft applications can you list?”
“How do you get to MS Word?”
“List as many internet browsers you can”
“What new websites have you been on this week?”

The questions asked about different programs, internet browsers and this is what the lecture was based on. The class was told of some of the things that had to be done for the class such as assessments, when items were due, certain programs that we could use and different file formats.

Tutorial:

This class involved an explanation of some of the functions that Microsoft Excel and Word have to offer. In Microsoft Word the class was shown how to insert a Contents page, page numbers, Header/Footer, Line Spacing and a Cover Page. In Microsoft Excel we were shown how to insert information into cells, how to increase the size of a cell, some of the buttons in Excel like the “Sum” button.

Readings of the Week:

Microsoft Word Training and Microsoft Office Online Overview both give an in depth explanation about the program and would prove quite useful if a user was unsure where or how to find an option on Microsoft Word.

Microsoft Excel Training has the same deal with an in depth explanation on how the program works and where all the functions are. This would prove useful to someone who is unfamiliar with the Excel program especially the 2007 version.

Week 1

2008-03-08T01:51:00.000-08:00

Task 1.1: (ECU network and SIMO):

Firstly I typed into the Google browser ECU and clicked on the link which brought me to the main University’s website.

I then clicked on the link that said “Current Students” that took me to the Student Information section of the website where I saw the wording “SIMO (enrolment)” which I clicked on.

This took me to the SIMO homepage where I clicked on Login, I typed my name and password in taking me to the Welcome page which told me that I had accessed the site correctly and I could look through the many links available.

After finishing what I was required to do, I clicked on “Logout” where it can be found on the left hand side of the website and a Logout Page appears which allows the user to click close this window which is what I did.

Task 1.2 Accessing Email Account:

On the Student Information Homepage after entering the ECU website, a link under the subtitle “IT and Systems” called Student Email allows Students to access their email account.

After clicking this, a Login page appears which I entered my details (Login ID and password).

The Inbox can be seen after logging in and I clicked on the link “Compose” where I sent a Test email to my home email address to check that the ECU email works properly.

I then went to my Hotmail account and opened it to find the Test email which I replied to.

I then went back to my ECU email account to check whether the email had been received it had, so I had done the task which was asked of me. By sending an email from the ECU account and from my home account this shows that my ECU account is capable of receiving and sending emails.

Task 1.3 Ability to Access Unit Resources and Assessments:

Once clicking on My ECU (Blackboard) on the Students section I was taken to the login page.

On the left hand side I clicked on a link titled “UPC0004 2008 1. ALL Accessing Knowledge” which took me to the Unit’s main page. I was then able to click on the Unit Resources and Assessment links so I could access the data that I required.

Task 2.1 Set Up of Weblog:

As the task asked me I went to http://www.blogger.com/ and clicked on “Create Your Blog Now” which I assumed was the right link to click on to create an Account.

As it read three easy steps to create a blog and the first was “Create an account”. It then took me to “1. Create a Google Account” where I filled the form out with my email address, a password, display name, word verification and a clicking of a box to accept the Terms and Conditions.

I then clicked on the orange arrow at the bottom which said continue that took me to the following page which read “2. Name You Blog” I filled in the data required and clicked the orange continue arrow at the bottom of the page.

Which directed me to a choosing of a template which I chose the “scribe” style as I liked the older look.

One last continue took me to the final page that told me that my blog had been created successfully.

I then clicked on “Start Blogging” and I was able to start entering my first blog into their system.

Task 2.2 Template of Weblog:

As I was unsure how to make a Template and save it to the hard drive I was unable to do so. When I originally signed up I chose a template style I wanted and I have stayed with this one. It is a “Scribe” style as I like the effect that it shows.

Task 2.3 Imageshack:

Gary our lecturer told the class not to use www.imageshack.us as there are problems with it such as if you move an image in the website it will not work where you have set the link up. So I uploaded the screen captures from my computer and did it that way which has proved to be a success.

Task 2.4 Producing Screen Captures:

I have made screen captures for several parts of the task that I was asked to do for Week 1. To show how efficient I am at creating a Screen shot; I have used the main blogger.com page as an example.

I opened the Application; MS Paint and the blogger.com website and made a print screen of the page.

I then went to MS Paint and “pasted” the screen shot, I then took the edges off that were not apart of the actual website but apart of Internet explore and Microsoft and then saved a copy of the edited and original screen shot image as how I wanted it.

In this screen shot, I was editing the image in MS Paint by removing the unnecessary parts from Internet Explorer and Windows.

This screen shot shows the final image that I made in MS Paint.

This image shows the final edited screen shot image in Windows Photo Gallery.

Lecture:

In today’s lecture it was a basic introduction to the UPC0004 course. Learning Outcomes, Course Structure and Assignments were all spoken about as well as skills we will have or will adopt throughout the course. Plagiarism was also mentioned and contact details of Lecturers and Tutors were also shown on the PowerPoint Presentation.

Readings of the Week:

PC Lube and Tune is a place of business specialising in the computer. The website contains information about history, the basics to the expert level of computing. And all the ins and outs of computing to a certain degree as no one website can contain every piece of information about everything.

Howstuffworks “How PC’s Work” is a website with a self explanatory title; it contains 8 different chapters or links explaining different things about a PC. Such as the different components of a computer, connections, how the computer actually works, the history and future of the PC. The last two chapters are more to finding other links about PC related material such as “How Microprocessors Work”, or “How Graphics Cards Work” or even “How Operating Systems Work.”