Natasha Oswald

Week 12 - Social and Ethical Issues.

2008-05-20T03:30:00.001-07:00

1. Lecture Summary
2. Tutorial Summary
a. Review 5 information sheets from the Australian copyright council website (http://www.copyright.org.au/) and record your findings.
b. Using the APRA website (http://www.apra.com.au/music-users/online_mobile/online_mobile.asp), explain what you need to know about music and the web.
c. Write a plan to protect yourself from attacks on your privacy and security. This plan should cover the threats of viruses, trojans and how you can protect your own personal information. Use the following sites for reference:
http://netsecurity.about.com/http://computer.howstuffworks.com/virus6.htm http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2100282,00.asp
3. Reading 1 Summary: ‘EFF's Top 12 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy’
4. Reading 2 Summary: ‘Ethics in Computing - Social Justice Issues: Electronic Monitoring’
5. Reading 3 Summary: ‘Brown & Michaels - Overview of Intellectual Property’

week11 - Conceptulising the gap between cognative space and cyber space

2008-05-20T03:25:00.000-07:00

1. Lecture Summary
Today in the lecture we were asked to complete a pop quiz before we started talking about conceptulising the gap between cognative space and cyber space. The questions were as follows:

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 web?
6.What are the 5 top things you have learnt about the use of technology at University?

After answering the questions we were given some definitions of datum which is the singular word for data. A datum is known as a fact or propersition. Information is a collection of facts or data that relate to each other and knowledge is the sum or range of what has been percieved, discovered or learned.

The rest of the lecture was based around these three words, Data, Knowledge and Information and how we use it in everyday lives and how it is the basis of businesses and assignments.

In a business setting Data is the foundation of all research and presentations and makes up a large proportion of the research and presentations next is information followed by knowledge. It could be said that the reason behind businesses wanting to use more data and information in research and presentations could be because they would prefer to have all the facts and know its right rather than go off of personal knowing and not be sure if they were right.

2. Tutorial Summary
a. Based on your research, define data, information, knowledge and wisdom.
b. How can the understanding of the relationship between data, information and knowledge assist your university study?
c. List 5 organizations that collect information from their clients or the public. Why do they collect this information?
3. Screen Shots
a. Graphical representation of data, information, knowledge and wisdom (Using MS Word)
4. Reading 1 Summary: http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm
5. Reading 2 Summary: http://camellia.shc.edu/literacy/index.html

week 10 - Information Management

2008-05-20T03:06:00.000-07:00

1. Lecture Summary
This weeks lecture is all about information management in this current day and age when everyone requires their stored information to be easily accessable and reliable.
2. Tutorial Summary
a. Do you think Negroponte’s ideas are still relevant? Why? (150 words approx.)
b. What are the pros and cons of using ‘atoms’ and ‘bits’?
3. Screen Shots
a. Favorites list (showing 3 folders, each with at least 2 websites)
4. Reading 1 Summary: ‘Grazing the Net’

Week 9 - Communications

2008-05-01T19:27:00.003-07:00

1. Lecture Summary

2. Tutorial Summary
a. What term did you enter and what did you find?
b. Investigate the messages posted on the topic and record your findings.
c. What are the benefits of podcasts for university students?
3. Screen Shots
a. Podcasts search results page
4. Reading Summary 1: Guide to using e-mail
5. Reading Summary 2: The problem with SPAM

week 8 - presentation strategies

2008-05-01T19:27:00.001-07:00

1. Lecture Summary

Today in the lecture we watched a video on the myspace videos page titled life after death by power point (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1529637984) The video was a stand up comedy about the multiple mistakes you can make when presenting with PowerPoint. After watching the video we were asked to compile a list of 10 things that we took from the video that would help yourself in creating a better presentation my list was as follows:

1. Change the font from the default to make it look like you paid attention to every detail when putting together the power point. As mentioned in the video what font you use says lots about what sort of person you are.

2. Use colours that are not distracting to an audience and that don't clash. Using bright colours in power points may draw peoples attention to the power point but they wont look at the content they will spend their time looking at the colours.

3. Don't put every single word on your PowerPoint that you intend to say in your presentation because not only is it distracting but it becomes boring for the audience and easier for them to 'tune out' because they already know what your going to say and chances are they arnt going to listen to you because they can read faster than you can talk.

4. Spell check all your work thoroughly before presenting it because you can have stupid spelling mistakes in there that can lead to your mispronunciation of the word which can make you seriously embarrassed in the middle of your speech.

5. Don't over do the bullet points. Bullet points are used for key words only that act as a memory jogger for you to know what you're talking about and it also acts as a header for those that are writing notes in your presentation.

6. When using graphs don't clutter the graphs with multiple labels and overlays because not only is it distracting but no one can understand what the graph is actually there for in the first place.

7. Data should be kept to a minimum and be kept specific to the topic that you are discussing. Too much data indicates that your not really sure what your talking about so you've put lots of data in to try and prove to the audience that you know what your talking about.

8. Use minimal amounts of slides too many slides just drags out a presentation and can become boring and tedious for audiences.

9. Animation should also be kept to a minimum. Some animation does help visual learners to learn more and remember more but it becomes distracting after a while and looks tacky if there is too much. Also putting in animation is time consuming and it takes more time away from the content of the presentation.

10. Your choice of wording should be decided based on your audience. Who is your audience? Teenagers or Elderly people. Obviously these are two distinct age groups which use different terminology in every day life you couldn't talk to teenagers like their grand parents would you would not get their attention and would probably get laughed at.

After noting my 10 points for a great presentation from the myspace video we went on to discuss what should be contained in presentations to make them successful and the diffrent types of presentations you can have it also discusses points for audience involvement so they don't fall asleep half way through and tips on the structure of your presentation.

Content

The content of your presentation should be well balanced between interactivity with the audience, audio, and visual aids becase it has been said that 60% of audience remeber more of what they see hear and learn by writing rather than the 10 % that learn from just listening.

Types of Presentations

There are three diffrent types of presentations there is the self contained presentation which is presented through a cd, web page or video. Then theres the written presentation which comes in the form of essays and papers. And lastely theres the standing oral which is a presentation done oral in front of an audience.

Audience Involvement

Some strategies for audience involement are:

Know your audience and change your presentation with diffrent audiences
Use relevant examples and Annecdotes throughout your presentation that are relevant to the audience to help them make a personal connection
Ask questions. It keeps them awake and helps them learn better.
Make eye contact because it makes the audience feel more connected with your presentation.
Dont be afraid to stray a little from the palm cards you have prepared it makes you seem more humainsed and less robotic.

Structure

2. Tutorial Summary
a. List 5 strategies that will help you deliver a top-notch presentation.
3. Screen Shots
a. 6 PowerPoint slides on how to give a low impact presentation. Include a title slide, introductory slide, 3 main body slides, a summary slide and graphics.
4. Resource Summary

Week 7 - End Note

2008-04-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

Lecture Summary

Today we discussed the group assignment at the start of the lecture and then we moved onto the basic tutorial on end note. During the tutorial we answered 3 basic questions.
1. What is end note?
2. How does end note work?
3. Why use end note?

What is end note
End note is an online archive of references that can be accessed at any time. It is searchable through author name, abstracts of text, year of publish and much more.

How does end note work?
End note works as both a stand alone program and an integrarated program through microsoft word on both vista and xp. End note is able to create the perfect refrence and changes for diffrent styles.

Why use end note?
You should use end note to keep all your references orgainsed. It is much easier to find the reference to go with that quote stuck in your head through end note than it is to look through pages and pages of references. It is also useful to change styles of referencing quickly and aquratly.

Tutorial Summary
Today in the tutorial we discussed further the program called end note. We were given references to put into end note and then we had to use those references to create the cite while you write document. By using end note it made the cite while you write document alot easier to edit because with just a click of a button you could insert the correct citation and an automatic end text references would be put at the bottom of the page to go with the in text reference.

Screen Shots

Here are the screen shots of todays work. Please click on the words to go to the screen shots.

~ End Note
~ Cite While You Write 1
~ Cite While You Write 2

Week 6 - Evaluation and Authentication

2008-04-10T19:01:00.000-07:00

Lecture Summary

Today in the lecutre we discussed ways that we could evaluate and authenticate the content of webpages. It is important to look at the content of webpages before deciding if it is useful in your research. In order to evaluate and authenticate a webpage it is nessisary to put together a framework that you can follow. A framework may consist of multiple questions you may ask yourself in order to decide on the reliability of a source.

Tutorial Summary

Readings summary

readings 1: chucking the checklist - a contextual approach to teaching undergraduates website evaluation.
This article is all about not using a checklist to evaluate the usefulness of a website. It argues that librarians have been saying for years that students should be taught to use a more contextual method of website evaluation. The librarians believe that teaching correct website evaluation is nessisary because anyone can publish on the world wide web and they dont have to go through a filter to make sure that what they are posting is authentic. The entire argument is basically the debate between the librarians and the general public over wether or not the internet should have so called 'gate keepers' to make sure all information posted is of an authentic and reliable nature. It also provides a look into the 27 questions created by Jim Kapoun under the headings of accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency and coverage.

readings 2: Thinking critically about world wide web recourses.
this article provides more evaluation questions that you should ask yourself

Week 5 - Search Engines

2008-04-03T19:30:00.000-07:00

1. Lecture summary

Todays lecture was all about search engines. Most of us use one search engine and we use it without the knowledge that there is not much use in the first few pages of work that comes up with our generalised search of for example fashion. At the start of the lecture we were asked to answer a few simple questions:
* List at least 4 search engines ?
- yahoo
- google
- dog pile
- ninemsn

* what are some of the problems you encounter when using search engines?
- information that is un-truthful & wrong
- Getting the first page filled with irrelevant things that you accidently use
- you generally choose the first listing and use it.

* what are some strategies that you use to over come these problems?
- use the advanced search option that is on most search engines
- take a look at say the 3rd of 4th pages of search results because you can find some really good information there.
- dont just use the first two listings that you get because it doesnt mean they are truthful and reliable it could just be that the person who owns the site paid the search engine and thats why they are on top.

* what is meant by the boolean search?
- The boolean search is using such words as and or not in a search term. For example Mercedes not Car [so you would get all listings that wernt about the car but about perhaps the name] and apple and ipod [this way you wont be getting any irrelivant search results to do with the apple as in the food & you will get the results you want]

* what are some features of the advanced search in google?
- The advanced search option in google is great. You have the choice to put in a general web search at the top and then you can type in the exact phrasing that you would like to be in the results and then you can type in the type of document you would like to be found wether it be a slide show or a pdf.

Overall from the lecture we have learnt how to use search engines more wisely and treat all inforrmation we get from them with catution. And that google is not the only search engine out there and sometimes you can get diffrent results from diffrent search engines.

2. Tutorial summary

a) How to structure a good search according to www.monash.com/spidap.html :

* If you are unclear as to where you should start searching if you are doing an assignment you should use an open directory such as google or yahoo; However if you have a clean idea as to what it is you are searching for you can use a web directory and this will provide you with more concentrated results.

* To search you should use keywords that are common to the subject your are searching but un-common to most other things to minimise the amount of un-useful search results.

* You should attempt to use the advanced search option of open directory to make sure that all information you get is relevant to the subject.

* Try using a boolean search; this means including words such as: and, not, & or; by doing this you reduce the amount of search results.

b) list the strategies that you used to locate your answers and explain their effectiveness:

I didnt really use a strategie to find the answers to my questions i basically just used google, because the questions had common knowledge answers to them. It was highly effecitve as i found all the right answers.

c) summarize what you have learnt during this module about information found on the internet and ways to find tinformation using search engines.

During this module i have learnt that i need to refine my searches alot more that i do through open directories to make sure the information i get is authentic and reliable.

3. screen shots.

quiz results page

4. reading summary 1 - robert harris - web search strategies

Through the reading of this article i have learnt that There are diffrent types of web catagories. they are:
- The free visible web which is basically what you can find through search engines.
- The free invisible web which is articles and documents free to web browsers if they can find it.
- Paid databases over the web which are a collection of journals, articles and documents but you can only access them if you pay money to the host of the database.
There are also two diffrent types of search tools those are the search engines such as google and yahoo and then there are directories which are lists of websites that are chosen by human editors these websites should be always usful and reliable.

5. reading 2 summary - the history of the intenet (chap 4 - search engines)

This article showed us the various things that have been created along with the web throughout the years. As well as the information on how to find just what you want on the web which is basically what the last article outlined and went over. This article provides the same information about the web that the last one did but it also included a list of directories and their urls which was helpful.

6. Reading 3 summary - Search engine optimization for companies.

this article is mostly aimed at those that own companies and it tells them how to get the top spot in search engine searches with multiple keywords. It explains the need to set a benchmark for your companies website and show how much some key words are getting searched, this way you can monitor your companies popularity and see which words are not getting searched. This article is aimed as a selling point for companies that cant set up their own website and that want to have the best chance at getting searched in search engines as possible.

Week 4 - Using the WWW

2008-03-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Summary of lecture

Questions answered at the start of the lecture:

1. Who invented the internet?
Tim Bernas-Lee

2. What year was the first webpage invented?
1989

3.What does WWW stand for ?
world wide web

4. What are TCP and IP?
TCP = transmission control protocol IP = Internet Protocol

5. What is HTML & what does it do?
Hypter text markup language - A markup language created for the creation of webpages with hypertext and other information on the net.

6. What does URL stand for?
uniform resource locator.

7. List at least 3 domain name endings other than '.com'
.net
.au
.edu
.gov
.org

During the lecture today we learnt about :
the internet vs the web
hisorical perspect of the internet
defining protocoles
web browsers
web protocols

what is the diffrence between the internet and the web?
the internet is something physical that you can actually see. it is the connecting of comptuers. the web however is what we actully call the internet its where you find google. the web is what you cant see its the connections of hypertext links where you can find anything you want.

did you know: the the first paper on packet switching theory came about in july of 1961. (packet switching theory: the transfering of packets between computers)

Summary of the workshop
Today we were asked to have a look at a couple of websites and discuss why they looked authentic and why they didnt apear authentic at the same time. it was part of helping us understand how websites can look real but they are really not.

summary of haggishunt
http://www.haggishunt.scotsman.com/

4 reasons why the website appears authentic.

* They offer instructions to the haggis hunting ground.
* They have a merchandise shop which most websites do have.
* They have prizes for those who find the haggis
* They have webcams set up for the enthusiastic hunter to watch the haggis all year round.

4 reasons why the website appears a fake.

* The website does not own its own domain name it is set up through a free website maker and hosted through scotsman.com a real website would have brought its own domain name.
* When you click the webcams it takes you to another website that is for peoples general fun to have a look at whats happening around the world.
* the haggis looks suspiciously like a cross between an echidna and a playtpus.
* The text content of the website is written in a joking manner which makes it hard for the reader and enthusiast to take it seriously.

evaluation of mollossia
http://www.molossia.org/news.html

4 reasons why the website appears authentic.

* They have a news link which every government website displays.
* They show the current time and temprature in mollossia.
* They have a 'president'
* They give the location.

4 reasons why the website appears fake.

* The layout of the website is cluttered and un-proffessionally set out any government would have a professional desgin the website.
* The content of the website suggests that the republic of mollossia have not yet made it to this century.
* The content is very over exagerated.
* The website is at a .org address when all governments have theirsl isted at .gov

evaluation of http://www.martinlutherking.org/

thoughts before i had a look at the content of the website: I think that this website is going to contain biographical information on martin luther king and maybe some pictures and a time line of his life.

first impressions: This website is all about Martin Luther King although its not about as much the past as more about the present and what we can do to help.

After Research: I believe that some of the things that were written in regards to King using church money to hire prositutes and beating them is ridiculous. King was all about bringing the peace and i cant see why he would something like this it totally contradicts what he was about. This website is trying to portray king as someone he wasnt.

Reading summary 1 : A brief history of the internet

This website talks about the first memos that were put on the internet. Leonard Kleinrok(MIT) was the first person who published a paper on the packet switching theory. The packet switching theory is about the first computers who were able to send information between them, they were small wide- area computers and only 4 were linked up in the beggining, but after three years of improving their work 26 computers were able to be linked together.
APERNET originally grew into the internet, the idea that they had was to have multiple individual networks and they were eventually able to achieve this.

Reading summary 2: History of the WWW

This article talks about computers in the past. The theorys that people had, that resulted in the WWW exsisting today. It mainly talks about the transition from APERNET to the WWW, saying how APERNET was created and by who, and then how the WWW came into exsistance, which was by linking together 4o computers that were in different locations. In 1972 the first person to person communiction took place, which we now call email and then a common laungage was developed so that different networks could communicate with each other.

Week 3 - Online Librarys and Databases

2008-03-13T17:44:00.000-07:00

Summary of the lecture

At the start of the lecture today we were asked to answer the following questions:

1. what are online librarys and databases?

An online library and database is a place to go and find books journals and references.

2. What would you use online librarys and databases for?

You would use the online librarys and databases to locate books and to see what library they are stored at and where in the library they are stored.

3. what are the advantages and disadvantages of online librarys and databases?

advantages

* less time consuming than walking around searching for books without knowing where they are

* open 24 hours a day 7 days a aweek

* always updated / very current

* convienent

* electronic format journals allow for easy cut and paste.

disadvantages

*makes you lazy

* the book may not always be in your area.

* some databases are subscription only.

* most web search engines do not access database and library indexs so you have to know how to find them and have the password to access them.

throught the lecture we discussed the ins and outs of the online librarys and databases. there are diffrent types of online librarys they are:

* online text respositorys

* online journals

* electronic books

* Music

* artworks

to refrence online librarys is always difficult, accurate referencing is vital as marks will be deducted for incorrect referencing. Edith Cowan University uses the APA referencing system. Through the use of a program called EndNote you can create references to the correct ECU standards.

Summary of the workshop

Some of the functions of the ECU online library are:

* academic tip sheets are all located on here

* journals database

* books cds and more database

* library pod casts and tip sheets

* a link to many diffrent databases from all over the internet

* ask the library link

* the ECU referencing guide

* tips to getting started in the library

* A link to liberty: learning to find information

* a list of library workshops and tools

We had to use the online database to find a journal that related to global warming and the impact on businesses. Here is the screen shot of the journal i found through proquest.

Journal

and here is the link to view the journal in full.

journal full view

after we had finished with finding the journals we were asked to go the the mediplus website and search for information about a disease or condition that intereasted us. i searched alopeica.
here is a screen shot of the results.

alopeica at mediplus

here is a link the results from mediplus

mediplus

the mediplus website would be used mainly by people either studying medicine or nursing or people who are affected by illness and those close to them. the mediplus tutorials offer information on diffrent diseases and conditions.

Summary of article 'finding what you want on the web'

the article 'finding what you want on the web' describes one mans new years resolution not to use google and how he overcame the difficulty by creating his own non-self intrest powered web searcher that searches for all academic websites. He finds that google is un-reliable as

link to the article finding what you want on the web

Evaluation of Basic Bones Lesson 7: Finding What You Want On The Web

This article provides great help in the struggle to conqer the search engine results page. It provides useful tips for those that always find they get search results for things they didnt want. Here are some of the tips contained in the article.

* use the plus and minus sign on your keyboard to make sure you get the inclusion you want and waht you dont want is left out. for example : +chicken -pork - make sure that there are no spaces between the sign and the word.

* use quotation marks to get results with a specififcally worded quote on the page. for example "i have a dream" this would ensure that in your results you would only get pages with those exact words on.

* Try all search terms in both lower and upper case letters as you can sometimes get diffrent results.

* You can use the astrix to indicate that you would like diffrent variations in the spelling of a word for example color*

Week 2 - Office Applications

2008-03-06T16:35:00.000-08:00

summary of lecture

today the lecture started off having just a few technical problems so helen asked us to answer some questions to kill time whilst she figured out how to fix the problem; the questions we were asked to answer were.

list all the microsoft office applications
* outlook (email and calendar)
* access (for creating and using databases)
* word (for creating typed documents)
* powerpoint (for creating slideshows)
* front page (for creating webpages)
* excel (for creating spreadsheets and charts)
and
* publisher (for creating documents to publish like phamlets or booklets)

list all the internet browsers
* moxilla firefox
* internet explorer
* safarri
* opera

new websites i have visited in the past week
* blackboard
* blogger.com
* image shack.us

Once we had finished answering all these questions the slide show was fixed and we got on with the lecture.

we discussed common pc tasks today and the things you could do on the pc, we also in this topic learnt about the functions of windows vista.

There are a few common skills and general knowledge that you have to possess to be able to complete common pc tasks these are:

* generic skills that apply to the use of most pc applications
* knowledge of how to perfom specific tasks within a specific application

there are many functions of windows vista these include:
* file management through my documents
* word processing through microsoft word - this program can be used for many other functions other than just typing documents it can be used for templates and file management also.
* spreadsheet creation - through microsoft powerpoint, through this application you can create spreadsheets for financing and you can also create graphs.
* powerpoint - through the microsoft powerpoint application you can create slides of information and put them together for a presentation.
* emailing - through microsoft outlook this is also a good application for not only sending emails but for also organising yourself as they have a calendar in the program.
* viewing pdf files - through the abode pdf reader you can read entire books and is really easy to post on the internet
* listening and watching audio and video - through applications such as windows media player you can watch your favorite videos and listen to music on your computer.

we were also told that during the course of the semester we would be taught how to use:

*End note - which i understand is a refrencing program that helps you refrence to the correct ECU standards
* and how to use the internet for academic purposes so that we can get the best out of it.

summary of workshop

this week in the workshop we learnt how to use microsoft word and excel effectivly to a university standard.

these links will take you to an upload of a screen print of my work

microsoft word document

microsoft word - contents page

microsoft excel document

Reading task 1 - graphic file formats

the article that i read today in the workshop contained tutorials on how to use programs such as abode photoshop. It provided an explanation of the diffrent types of photos and what the abbreviations of the photo type were for example:

.bmp = bitmap (when saving a photo in this format you can specify what bit rate you would like the photo saved at from 1 - 24)

.gif = compuserve ( gif is a compressed format photo it was designed to minimise file transfer time over phones)

.jpg = joint photographic experts group or jpeg (this is commonly used to display images on the internet jpeg images retain all colour)

.tiff = tagged image file format (this format is used to exchange files between applications and computer platforms)

psd & psp & spp = photoshop documents (all other mentioned formats are one layered photographs whereas theses are multi layered formats)

Reading summary 2 - using ms word for apa tasks

the article called using ms word for apa tasks was very helpful. it gave insight into how to do specific things through ms word. i learnt how to create dot leaders change the format of paragraphs and header & footers as well as how to insert images onto a word document.

Week 1 - Introduction to University Computing

2008-02-28T18:47:00.000-08:00

Accessing Knowledge - Lecture 1

Summary of the lecture

Today was an indroduction to the unit and an introduction to what we will be learning throughout the semester in unit 0004. We were given information on things such as modules, assessments, what is to be expected of us in the way of referencing & plagerism; these topics would be covered in later weeks. We were also provided with a list of the materials we would be needing for the unit. We were told that there was little leniancy with due dates for assessments and we should try not to apply for extensions, which shouldent be needed if we have organised out time properly - time management is the number one reason why people fail university.

Summary of the workshop

In workshop today we were introduced to blackboard and told about the functions of blackboard. Blackboard is an ECU online interactive community where students can access to get lecture slides and recourses for tutorials. We then set up blogger.com accounts, which would be our assignments worth 50% of our semester mark; in these blogs we have to write summarys of our lectures, the workshop, any articles we've read and any work we have completed, as well as upload screen shots of our completed work from the workshops to the blog. After setting up the blogger accounts we also setup imageshack.us accounts, these will be used to host our screen shots of completed work so that we can upload them to our blogs. We then read some articles called how stuff works and PC Lube & Tune.

Summary of how stuff works

Through reading the article 'how stuff works' i have learnt that an un-educated person perception of technology is merely "computers". A computer is a highly complexed machine, it contains many diffrent parts such as memory, hard disk and modems. There are computerised components everywhere in our lives, our cars have computers, our electrical appliances have comptuers, everything has computers!

Summary of PC lube and tune

this article provides the basic ins and outs of of your computer, it explains in basic laymans terms what everything in the computer is and who discovered or made it. the website provides many diffrent links to websites on the net that can help you in more depth with your computer troubles or just general enquires.

applications i learnt how to use in workshop (click to go to the screen shots)

and

links to the articles

pc lube and tune

and

how stuff works