Tombi

Week Eleven

2008-05-27T00:07:00.000-07:00

Lecture Summary
This weeks lecture was mostly explaining the difference between data, information knowledge and wisdom it explained that data is pretty much information without meaning so its just numbers or symbols but has no context, information is data with explanation, knowledge is the understanding of information and wisdom is the experience of this knowledge or understanding the principles of knowledge.

Tutorial Summary
Based on your research, define data, information, knowledge and wisdom.

Data is a collection of valid and un bias material that does not yet have meaning for example, (18 34 3 7 5) is data

Information is the data but explained to have meaning, so the numbers 18 34 3 7 and five are room numbers at a motel this is information

Knowledge is understanding this information, for example these are the rooms that john has stayed in while visiting the motel, now you know and understand what the room numbers mean this is knowledge

Wisdom is understanding why this information is important of experiencing this knowledge, for example jack stayed in these rooms with john so he has wisdom on the subject unlike someone who just knows that jack was in these rooms.

How can the understanding of the relationship between data, information and knowledge assist your university study?

Understanding the relationship between data, information and knowledge can help in studies because the student can make sure that they fully understand a topic instead of just having the information or data, it also helps the student to find knowledge from data while researching.
List 5 organizations that collect information from their clients or the public. Why do they collect this information?

Hospitals, to keep a record on the patients medical history.

Shops, so they can let the customer know when specials are on and to advertise

Blood bank, so one donor cant be donating more than the allowed amount and so they can
contact the donor

Police, so they can contact or find the person and to keep track of their record

Schools, so they can contact the homes and families to let parents know if the child is sick, not at school, to send news letters etc.

Below is a screenshot of the graph that relates data, information, knowlegde and wisdom that I created in MS Word

Systems Thinking
This is a web page that points out the differences between data, information, knowledge and wisdom it gives examples of all four and explains as clearly as possible what makes each one itself it explains data as: symbols, Information as data that are processed to be useful; provides answers to "who", "what", "where", and "when" questions, Knowledge as application of data and information; answers "how" questions, Understanding as appreciation of "why" and Wisdom as an evaluated understanding

Camellia
This webpage is based on knowledge, what it is and what your knowledge is, it provides a tutorial and quizzes to show any persons general knowledge level. I understand it is part of a course for students that will help to improve their assignments

Week Ten

2008-05-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

Lecture Summary
This week’s lecture was based mostly on how to manage your information on a computer using files searches favourites, bookmarks etc. I found it to be mostly things I had learnt before but it is a good touch up because it reminded me of some good habits that I hadn’t used in a while and also encouraged me to clean up my desktop and files at home.

Tutorial Summary
a. Do you think Negroponte’s ideas are still relevant? Why?
Yes although the internet and technology is forever changing the basics are still the same most of negroponte’s information is still accurate.
b. What are the pros and cons of using ‘atoms’ and ‘bits’?

Atoms
Pro’s: Exists in space, We can know where it is, Easily concealed, Difficult to Change and difficult to copy.
Con’s: Bulky, costly, difficult to edit, difficult to distribute, inflexible.

Bits
Pro’s: Very flexible, Very cheap, Easy to edit, easy to mass produce
Con’s: Privacy, Authenticity, unsolicited broadcast

Below is a screenshot of my favourites files showing 3 files with 3 links in each file

Reading Summary: ‘Grazing the Net’
Grazing the net is an article on having networks and internet in schools and how this will effect society or mainly the children in the schools, it also goes onto questioning how the schools are going to teach the students and make sure they don’t fall into the trap of unauthentic sites and unfiltered information

Week Nine

2008-05-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

Lecture Summary
I found this week’s lecture to contain plenty of information I didn’t already know about ICT but was also a bit dull at points so I had to read over the slides again in my own time, the lecture pointed many points in internet security and things to be weary of while using ITC.

Tutorial Summary
a. What term did you enter and what did you find?
I typed in MMA which stands for Mixed Martial Arts and found the following groups; rec.sport.pro-wrestling, rec.sport.pro-wrestling, rec.sport.pro-wrestling
b. Investigate the messages posted on the topic and record your findings.
There were lots of writings about specific martial arts and not much on just MMA fights this is slightly disappointing because it didn’t really give me the groups I was looking for but I think a more specific search would work well and the groups tab is still a helpful option.
c. What are the benefits of podcasts for university students?
Makes it a lot easier to find information and or just interesting things that they will use in their own time, podcasts are very helpful to students because they can use them almost anywhere which helps with the busy lifestyle.

Below is a screenshot of a yahoo podcast's search

Guide to using e-mail
Techsoup.com is an online forum for discussion the 2 particular pages we were given are based on email do’s and don’ts and gives a fairly in depth guide and useful tips when using email.

The problem with SPAM
At Caube.org they discuss SPAM including what it is, how to get rid of it, how it works and why it is so bad. The site talks all about SPAM and is on a mission to get rid of it completely the site would probably be ignored by most readers because there is a whole lot of unwanted information contained but if you had a serious SPAM problem this site would be very helpful and informative.

Week Eight

2008-05-25T01:55:00.000-07:00

Lecture Summary
This week’s lecture was all about using PowerPoint and how to make an effective speech or presentation out of it. It didn’t so much show us how to use the functions of PowerPoint but told us what needed to be in the presentation and I assume that the tutorial will be more based on how to use PowerPoint. The lecture also contained a video which made it much easier to remember and concentrate.

Tutorial Summary.
1. Use the correct structure for your presentation, including: Introduction, Main body and conclusion.
2. Keep the PowerPoint simple, don’t distract the audience with unnecessary animations or sounds.
3. Prepare for the presentation, read it to yourself or friends before the day.
4. Generate energy, be awake and grab the audience’s attention.
5. Try and include the audience because this is where they will remember best.

Screen Shots
Below are 7 screen shots of my PowerPoint showing each slide and the notes underneath them, I chose to slightly change the title to show how to make an impacting presentation instead of a low impact presentation, it has also been overloaded with pointless images, layouts, backgrounds, animations etc. just to show I understand how to use these features

Resource Summary

The online PowerPoint tutorial is an extremely helpful site that goes though how to use PowerPoint it shows in detail how to use all its functions and options also it explains as if the audience has never used the software before so it is easy to go though for anyone, it is also well layed out which is useful if you just want to find one piece of information

Week Seven

2008-05-18T23:02:00.000-07:00

1. Lecture Summary
This lecture was a brief introduction into endnote and how to use it, it outlines what endnote is used for and the advantages of endnote. This lecture helped as I had no idea what endnote was or how to use it and now I know all I need to know to use it for referencing, citations or bibliographies.

2. Tutorial Summary
This tutorial was very helpful as I thought I understood how to use endnote from the lecture but there was a lot that I didn’t quite understand yet but understood after following the tasks, I can now make quality endnote libraries as shown below

3. Screen Shots a. ‘Endnotev11 Exercises for Vista’ (showing 3 references)

b. ‘Cite while you write Endnote Exercise’ (showing both pages)

4. Resource 1 Summary- ‘Endnote’
This is a link that goes through all of the functions of endnote and how to use it, the site is like a guide or owners manual and is very helpful to read through before using endnote or to use to find out how to do something with endnote that you cannot work out yourself.
5. Resource 2 Summary- ‘Some additional endnote help’
This site doesn’t so much show you how to use endnote although it does contain a discussion forum where this sort of thing would be discussed the main purpose of the site is for technical support and services, it also provides other downloads that may come in useful.

Week Six

2008-04-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

LECTURE

This weeks lecture was about the evaluation and authentication of information found on the internet. When searching for information on the internet, it is crucial to understand that is no owner or moderator of the entire internet, and just because information is online, doesn't make it valid or reliable.

There are small clues which can help you to evaluate the authenticity of a website. It is also important to consider the URL, because a '.com' can be owned by anyone, and a '.gov' is a government website. These are important clues to identify how reliable a website is. Also check to see if the information is up to date. Information generally looses relevance as time passes, and look up the author to check if they are credible.

It is important to remember that there is little control of who publishes information, why it is published and what is published on the internet.

There are also several issues with the accuracy, authority and currency of the information found on the internet. The problems stem from two root causes:

» There are no rules as to who can publish information on the internet.
- There is not always someone to check the accuracy of the information.
- Not always web standards to ensure accuracy.

» Publication dates are not always included.
- Information may not always be relevant.

» Sponsorship isn't always indicated.
- Check who the sponsor is.
- Check how reputable the sponsor is.
- Check for information about the sponsor and/or author.

This week there were two workshop activities. Firstly, we were asked to summarise the website ICYouSee.

There are five main steps on evaluating the authenticity of a website, as listed on ICYouSee.

» Make sure you are in the right place.
Make sure that the website you are on and the information you are reading addresses your topic.

» When in doubt, doubt.
Because almost anyone can put up almost anything on the Web, not everything on the Internet is factual.

» Consider the source.
It is important to take into account two things: the author and the URL. The URL generally gives a general indication of who wrote the article. Check to see if there is background information on the author.

» Know what's happening.
Why was the site produced? Consider it's purpose, and whether it was created to sell you something, persuade or inform you.

» Look at the details.
Check to see when the page was last updated, and if the website is organised with working links.

WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES

Finally, we were required to evaluate two websites using the criteria and websites found here. The websites chosen were Kingwood College Library and University of Virginia.

» Kingwood College Library

This website appears to be a good source of information, mainly because it is an library website, and has an 'educational' domain name.The website was last updated in December 2006, not long ago, and it is clearly visible at the bottom of the page. The author is Susan Godwin, and an email address is provided to contact her through. All this is clearly visible towards the bottom of the page. All the hyperlinks on the website are relevant, and it seems this website was created for educational purpose There seems to be no bias or opinions that are strongly conveyed through this webpage and thus, it appears even more reliable.

» University of Virginia

This website is also being displayed on an educational domain. The page was last updated only a few days ago, and there is very good reason to believe that the information is credible and accurate. The website was selected for various awards such as 'Site of the Week' on many websites, and was developed by several authors, whom are all contactable through the library homepage. It is more of an insight to the 60's era than facts and statistics, but it all seems reliable. The website presents facts without bias and slanting, and was designed purely for educational purposes.

Week Five

2008-03-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

LECTURE

This weeks lecture was about online search tools. Search tools may fall into one of two categories: search engines or directories.

Search engines are a web-based program that allows users to quickly locate specific information online. Information is collected from online documents by using scripts, which allow the search engine to crawl and index websites. They are usually sorted by relevance and keywords. Examples of search engines include; Google, Yahoo, AllTheWeb and more.

Whilst search engines can be an extremely useful tool, there are many problems associated with them.

» Search engines yield too many results.
There are hundreds of thousands, and even millions of results that appear at the same time.

» Limited quality filtering.
Often it is hard to filter exactly what is relevant and what is not. It is not uncommon to see pages and pages of irrelevant information appear.

» Broken links.
Sometimes websites may be listed on the search engine that are broken and do not work.

» Misuse of ranking system.
Depending on the search engine, websites can modify their page to become the first website to appear. This can sometimes be done by adding irrelevant and myriads of meta tags and keywords on the page.

To help refine search results, there are multiple basic queries that can be used. These include searching using: keywords, phrases, Boolean (shortcut symbols eg: plus or minus a keyword, or the use of quotation marks) and advanced search engine features.

To help refine searches, there are are a few tips to keep in mind. There is no need to limit yourself to only one search engine! Often search engines such as Google provide tips to help you find exactly what you are looking for. Use several keywords rather than just one or two. This helps to specify not only what you are looking for, but more so in what context! Quotation marks search for a specific phrase rather than keywords, which can be useful in reducing the amount of irrelevant information. However, make sure you know exactly what it is you are looking for before you search! This will save time, and help you locate information quicker!

WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES

As part of this week's workshop activity, we were required to complete an online quiz. The quiz was intended for us to use search engines to find our answers. A screenshot of my final result can be found below.

Week Four

2008-03-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

LECTURE

This week, we were given four workshop tasks to complete. The first task required us to visit the two websites, "Haggis Hunt" and Molossia.Org.

At first glance, both these websites appear to be authentic. But after only following a few hyperlinks it is obvious that they are 'spoofs'. A dead giveaway on Molossia, is that the weather is that of Dayton in Nevada, and not of Molossia.

The Molossia website.
» There’s a link on the front page addressed to teachers that says inside that the site is authentic despite what other people say. They shouldn’t have to do this if the site really was real.
» In the president’s speech he doesn’t talk about the republic but instead talks more about the site.
» The address of the republic doesn’t seem right
Republic of Molossia226 Mary Lane,Dayton, NV 89403
» The site has its own language even though Molossia is surrounded by the United States, also the letters are just a symbol font from word.

The Haggis Hunt website.
» The haggis facts are ridiculous.
» The word haggis actually means stuffed intestines
» The pictures of the animals on the site look like they have been edited and don’t actually have and pictures with backgrounds.
» The URL is .com meaning anyone could have made it unlike sites that are .gov .edu etc.

WORKSHOP

Task 2
a. Based on the URL www.martinlutherking.org I assume that the website will contain information on MLK and his political life. Also this is a .org site meaning it is intended for use by organizations that don’t have the requirements for other gTLDs, .org sites can be created by anyone so there is a chance the site isn’t fully authentic and could be a fake.

Task 3
My first impression by just reading over the home page is that the site is not authentic. This is mainly due to the yellow writing to the left of MLK’s picture saying things that don’t seem true about MLK and also the quote “I’m not a negro tonight” by MLK which I find very hard to believe just from what I have heard about him.

Task 4
I looked up MLK in Google and read a bit about his history, his speeches and what he has done politically and I am now fairly sure that this site is a fake, there is no way he could have been such a success if what this site says is true also if they had decent evidence to what they say then more people would know about it.

Week Three

2008-03-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

LECTURE

Today's lecture outline online libraries and the reason they are used. Online libraries are used for three main reasons: convenience, currency and accessibility. This basically means that they are available, anytime, anywhere, requiring little effort at all to access it. There is a wide diversification of information of different styles and topics that are readily available. They are also more kept up-to-date with the relevant information (as compared with books which become out of date quickly), and can be copied and pasted easily, to assist in note making.

Online libraries take many forms including: electronic books, online journals, artworks, musical pieces and online text databases. They are most likely more convenient than anything else and can prove to be extremely useful.

However, there are limitations and downsides. Most of the time, only the catalogue is available online. This means that you may only browse the collection and not use the information. Some times databases can be accessed for a small fee for using their resources. As with music and artworks, you are viewing copies, and as a result, the resolution and quality may be reduced.

Of course, when using someone else's work or ideas, referencing is essential. Online libraries can be referenced using APA format, or by using EndNote, which requires APA 5th standard.

Online databases are quite similar to online libraries. They are a collection of full text documents, citations or abstracts which can be searched to find what you're looking for. E-mail directories, news and media archives and web portals, are all quality examples of online databases, as these all have archived documents and data which can be browsed via the internet.

Online databases hold many of the same advantages that online libraries do, in the convenience sense, and are still searchable and up-to-date.

Again, there are disadvantages, which include the high amounts of advertising, the compulsory subscription, navigation problems and at times, the overload of unnecessary information.

Both resource libraries are very similar. Whilst some require payment, some are also free to use at the same time.

WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES

In today's workshop activity, we were asked to evaluate the ECU library web page, and list ten functions which were useful to us.

1 - Quick Catalogue Search
Allows users to quickly search the website to locate online catalogues. It is possible to search by keywords, title and author.

2 - 'Learning to Find Information'
An interactive package which easily briefs users on how to find the information they are looking for and gives tips on how to search properly.

3 - Information About the ECU Library
This provides information to the user ranging from the library's opening and closing times to how to navigate the library website.

4 - Referencing Guide
Handy for students who need referencing guidelines, and can also be used as a backup copy incase the referencing book goes missing.

5 - Library Podcasts
This link provides information on how to listen to a podcast and what podcasts are available.

6 - News Updates
Provides the latest bulletins in relation to the university so users are kept informed.

7 - SIMO
Allows students to change their details upon logging onto the system, and provides information about enrollments etc.

8 - Multimedia Resources
This link provides help and support to those who either are having problems with equipment or have questions.

9 - Websites
Provides a list of key websites that have been selected by the ECU librarians.

10 - Loan Services
This link provides details on the procedure of loaning a book from the library.

For the final part of the workshop activities, we were required to head over to Medline Plus and complete an online tutorial. I selected the topic of memory, as it is a topic that I find extremely interesting. People suffering from memory related problems and disorders may find this information useful, along with people who with to learn more about it, such as myself, and those studying or researching the subject.

Week Two

2008-03-03T17:11:00.000-08:00

LECTURE

This week's lecture focused on the different tasks and applications for creating and handling presentations, reports and other academic documents. Such applications included Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. The lecture also outlined the various skills required for undertaking basic computer tasks, such as renaming and moving documents, along with other similar every day computing skills. required for most applications.

WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES

Below is a screenshot of the first exercise created in Microsoft Word. This involved me changing formatting details such as font, colours, sizes and more, and also required me to use some of the advanced features to alphbetise the references.

Following that exercise, we were all required to use Microsoft Excel to complete a short exercise. The task involved creating a table and adjusting the formatting particulars, such as the column widths and add borders and shading. We were also required to input formulae for certain cells using basic commands to find the averages and the sum of the data.

Using this data that was entered into the table, we then had to generate a pie graph, which illustrated what exactly we spent our time on. Using the data included in the table, we had to generate a graph showing our social activity for each day for the entire week.

Today's tutorial and lecture were both a great refresher of my skills, as I have done most of this before. It was also a great indicator of what is expected in the future in terms of the ECU assessment standards!

Week One

2008-02-25T19:04:00.000-08:00

LECTURE

This lecture went through the basics of the unit UPC0004 and included a brief introduction to university in general. Some of the main point brought up were: Where to find things in the university, what we will get out of the course, responsibilities of a student and Assessments.

WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES

Week one lab has been fairly simple we were asked to set up a simple blog at blogger.com, register and use image shack, and shown how to use screen shots. Almost everything that we were shown in this lab I had already been shown before but it was good to go over some of the things and touch up on my memory, also I hadn’t been to the image shack site before or used a site like it so this was new to me. So far I have set up my blog and created an account with image shack but haven’t had an email back from them yet.

Here is a screenshot of my blog, I would do one of my image shack account but they still haven’t sent my password to get in.

READINGS

PC Lube and Tube
PC Lube and Tube is a website that offers online tutorials on how to use computers and other technical subjects including hardware, software, video files etc. The site gives links to other web pages that contain the information and instructions. All their services are free of charge.

How Stuff Works

Howstuffworks.com is a web page providing information on how computer parts work and what they do, the site mainly focus’s on PC’s but stresses the fact that many other things use computers with similar components. Howstuffworks gives a brief explanation on what computer parts are and what they do and then offers a link with a more detailed explanation. The site assumes the reader has no previous knowledge of computers, making it easy for people to understand.