Week 7 - Using the World-wide Web 11/09/2007

This week's lecture was on the World-wide Web. The Web is is a universe of accessible information stored on computers throughout the world. All this information is available through a massive network called the Internet.

Lecture Summary:

Below are some of the key points from the lecture this week.



-The difference between the Internet and the Web was the first thing we discussed in the lecture this week. The difference between the two is that the Internet is the framework which allows the web to function. However, the Web consists of everything within the Internet.

- The World-wide Web is a universe of accessible information stored on computers throughout the world.

- Some of the Protocols related to the World-wide Web include of :

• TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol


• HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol


• DNS - Domain Name System


• URL - Universal Resource Locator

It is important to recognise some of the WWW resources so that information we look for can be easily understood and time can be saved when looking up information. The DNS sometimes can help us pin point the exact information we need to be looking for. For example:

• .com, .org, .net are top-level domains


• .au, .uk, .nz are all country codes

All domains have a particular purpose in regards to the information that might appear on them. For example :

• .com - commercial (of a commercial nature)


• .org - organisatoin (usually non-profit)


• .net - network (when ".com" is not available)


• .gov - government and


• .edu - education

The above can help us narrow down the websites we visit when looking for information. For instance, if we were to look up on the education system in a particular field, we woudl rather go to a website that had the domain at the end ".edu" since that shows it is a website related to education.

To get on to the WWW and using it, it is essential to have some key tools. These include of:

• Computer


• Modem and


• Telephone line

Week 7 Workshop - Finding and Using Web-based Resources

www.ImageShack.us" />

This weeks workshop activities required us to have a look at some websites and evaluate them to see if they were authentic websites or spoofs.

Authenticatoin of websites :

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

http://www.molossia.org/


Haggishunt website has attempted to look authentic in the ways that authentic sites are suppose to have some sort of a LOGIN box or a members area.



www.ImageShack.us" />




1a) The website http://www.haggishunt.scotsman.com/ gives away several clues that trigger the mind of the user to think its a spoof website. Some of these clues include of:

- the URL - the URL has a funny name

- The language used in the webpage - Some words such as "MOORS" and "ghillie, Farqhuar Farqhuarson," are not commonly heard in the english language. Most readers will not understand what these words mean or if they are names of places, where these places are.

Below is a screen shot showing the unusual language and names used to give away spoofyness of the site. The words highlighted in RED are the funny words that seem unformally unsual to the reader.


www.ImageShack.us" />



- The other clue includes of "false information." This is evident when we try to ask the question who or what is "Farqhuar Farqhuarson" and we click on the link leading to that name. When taken to another page this link says that......

"Farquhar Farquharson is the Haggis Hunt’s Chief Ghillie. He is the man who will check the validity of your sightings and make sure your details are added to the draw for our great prizes.

Sadly we cannot identify him pictorially lest his impartiality be compromised in a “drams for prizes” scandal."


Below is a screen shot showing that there is some extensive sort of lies in the site informatoin about this person called "Farqhuar Farqhuarson."



www.ImageShack.us" />



- The other clue giving the site away as a spoof, is that the website has many different links that lead to another topic that is not logical to the users/readers of the webpage. Use of humour in the names of their organisation such as "Haggisclopedia" can instantly hint to the users of the site that this site is a spoof.

SITE NUMBER II (www.molossia.org )


The above website also looks spoofed to the user because of several clues provided in the site. These clues include of:

- the independence of this "country" - 26 May 1977 1 - 26 May 2007 XXX??

- New national anthem 19 April 2007??

- Use of the decades ago figures and dates mixed with present dates. For example "In August 2003 XXIV"??? such numbers can confuse the readers to think there have been presidents to the lenght mentioned "XXIV"

- the site is not consistent with its use of language, for example roman numbers mixed with plain numbers . Below is a screen shot that highlights and backs my argument .


www.ImageShack.us" />



- The name of the country sounds made up to the readers because of backup reasons behind such names. This is evident in the statement below :

ABOUT THE NAME:"Molossia" is a corruption of the Spanish word "morro", which means small rock or small hill, the suffix "ssia" being added because it sounds "good"....???

Below is a screen shot that backs up my argument about countries named because of a reason that is "sounds good".




www.ImageShack.us" />





Therefore, these clues definitely give away the site's spoofyness.



In addition to that, the final activity from this week's workshop required us to have a look a website and write down what we would expect from the website and then actually visit it and compare our impressions.



The web address for this activity was http://www.martinlutherking.org/





www.ImageShack.us" />



My first impression before I visited the website were:



My first impression of this website was that it was going to be a website of a biographical nature on Martin Luther King. From the URL, I gathered that this website would be created by an organisation and therefore, it will be "selling" an idea, in this case Martin Luther King's life achievements.



After having visited the website, I actually found that my first impressions without looking at the website were correct. It does seem to be a website selling out an idea i.e. "the greatness of Martin Luther King."

My first impression after looking at the website was that it looked a little bit too dark for a website that is suppose to show the life achievements of a man with the stature of Martin Luther King. This in turn made my decision on evaluating it's authenticity even clearer, because halfway through the home page, there was a video clip of some African American men fighting each other which seemed extremely inappropriate for this website.

In addition to that, the writing in the website seemed negative and foul. This also helped make my evaluation of the website easier.

Readings:



This week's readings come from the website listed below:



http://www.w3.org/History.html

www.ImageShack.us" />


This website shows how the WWW came about and brief history in chronological order beginning from 1945 when Vannevar Bush writes an article in Atlantic Monthly about a photo-electrical-mechanical device called a Memex for memory extension, which could make and follow links between documents on microfiche and up to today when WWW has become an everyday thing in everybody's lives. Its interesting to read that so much had started changing in the early years, when I thought all these had happened recently.

The second reading comes from the website below:

http://searchenginewatch.com/resources/article.php/2156611

www.ImageShack.us" />

The above website provides links a link to collection of articles from search engine watch that give advices the proper use of search engines. Personally, after having learnt and gone through a week's lecture on search engines, I felt confident in not reading further as I have now the skills good enough to use search engines myself.

The final reading comes from the website below:

http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/ivh/frame_theorie.html

www.ImageShack.us" />

The above reading is similar to the first reading as it provides history of the internet and how it came about and also the history of search engines. However, this website looked more interesting because it covers the history in a greater depth.

This was basically this week's session.

Week 6 - EndNote Libraries 04/09/2007

This weeks lecture was on Using EndNote, which is a flatfile database system that can be used as a reference manager and/or bibliography maker. It is an extremely useful software for all university students primarily because it helps avoid the penalties of "mistaken" plagiarism.

Lecture Summary:

- It is important to distinguish our own ideas from those of others and acknowledge our sources.

- A reference list is an alphabetical list of the books and other references which you have used in your work located at the end of your dissertation.

- EndNote is useful because it displays a variety of recognised STYLES of referencing.

- It handles a variety of types of references and

- It can be intergrated with Microsoft Word.





In this tutorial we learnt how to use EndNote which is a flatfile database system that can be used as a reference manager and/or bibliography maker. Below is a screen capture showing the exercise carried out in the tutorial.


www.ImageShack.us" />

Exporting Citations/References to EndNote:

To access EndNote, the following steps need to be taken:-

- launch internet explorer

- go to http://www.ecu.edu.au/library/endnote/index.htm

The following screen should appear after entering the above URL.

www.ImageShack.us" />

After having found your articles that you want to reference, you need to select and check those articles by placing a tick on the left handside of the journal title in the small box. Below is a screen that shows that

www.ImageShack.us" />




After having selected and checked your articles, now you need to click on MY RESEARCH button at the top hand side of the screen. This is shown in the screen shot below.

www.ImageShack.us" />

Now you should be able to see a list of all the references you have selected. Next step is to select "Export citation". Below is a screen shot showing where to click.

www.ImageShack.us" />

Click on the 3 rd option on the new page you are taken into : Follow below.

www.ImageShack.us" />

After that, you will be required to click on the 1st option on the next new page which will ask you if you would like to directly export your citations to endnote. Follow the print screen below to proceed further.

www.ImageShack.us" />

Next, a dialouge box will come up and ask you where you would like to save your library to. Select a library of your choice and save it.

www.ImageShack.us" />

You have finished now and can use your library and citations in your document.

Week 5 - Information Management 28/08/2007

This week's lecture was on Information Management. Information management is all about managing your information in a quick and easy way so that it can be easily accessed. That is why we use computer processing power to manage our information.

Lecture Summary:

- Information can be managed in several ways; texts, documents, images, WebPages, bookmarks, presentations, assignments, citations and references.

- Information can be of two types of formats - atom-based or bit-based.

- Each format type has its PROS and CONS.

- Goods and Services in todays world is changing - more atoms is changing to bits.

- It is always useful to leanr the different file extensions and what purpose they serve.

- Have folders named or create metadata about your files.

- Use the search function on your Operating System and

- Always try to make a habit of using Search Engines - e.g. google etc.



In the tutorial this week, we learnt how to create Favourites that can save time looking for website previously browsed on the world wide web.

There are a few steps involved in creating a favouriet for a website. These steps are :

- visit a website

- at the top of the tool bar, click on the FAVOURITES BUTTON which is the forth option from left. Below is a screen that illustrates where to click.


www.ImageShack.us" />




After having clicked on the favorites icon, the following small screen will come up asking you where you want to put the website and name it. We want to put it in a new folder therefore we have to click on the small screen on the right side button "NEW FOLDER".



http://www.imageshack.us/" />



Click on the "NEW FOLDER" button on the small screen on the right side of the frame.

The next screen that will come up will ask you to name your new folder and where you would like to save your favourite to.





http://www.imageshack.us/" />





And, this is how you create a favorite for a website and create it in a new folder with a name.


In addition to the above task, we also had to read a famous article by Negroponte titled "Being Digital" and write a short review of 250 words from the information in his article.

The article itself comes from the URL provided below:

http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/nn/ch01c01.htm


www.ImageShack.us" />


In his article, Negroponte talks about the two types of information formats - Bits and Atoms. Even though today we are no doubt living in the age of information, yet a lot of information even today gets to us in the form of Atoms, such as Books, Papers, reports etc. Our economy might be changing everyday more towards becoming information economy, but despite that, we still write our business accounts in Atoms format - for example balance sheets.

One thing to be noted is that information in atoms format may not be worth a lot, however the bit information formats are almost priceless. A perfect example of this is explained in the article when Negroponte gives his example of the laptop.

Also the other point to be noted from the article is that, it is not easy to change atoms to bits. In a perfect example, Negroponte says that "Beam me up Scotty is a wonderful dream, but not likely to come true for several centuries" (Negroponte, 1995.)

From the above quote, we can understand that core businesses will not change and also the products will not transform from atoms to bits. The point to note from this is that it takes time to change information formats.

Therefore, from Negroponte's archive, we can certainly understand that information formats have their own purposes in their own places. Both can be argued upon to see which one is more suitable in today's world, however, both have pros and cons.

Below are some of the pro's and con's of both:

PROS of Atoms:

- They exist in space - they can be seen.

- Easily found - we can tell where they are.

- Easily concealed - we can hide it .

- Difficult to edit or manipulate .

- Difficult to copy.

CONS of Atoms:

- Bulky - E.g. Encyclopedia Britannica.

- Costly - Resource Implications.

- Difficult to Edit.

- Difficult to distribute.

- Inflexible - not interchangeable.


PROS of Bits:

- Very flexible - easily moved between formats.

- Very cheap - Resource implications much less.

- Easy to edit.

- Easy to mass produce and broadcast.


CONS of Bits:


- Privacy - easy to copy.

- Authenticiy - easy to fake, alter and edit information.

- Unsolicited broadcast - SPAMs.


Readings:

This weeks reading discusses on information management. The reading this week comes from the resource below:

Information Management & Electronic Environments - Dr Jim Mullaney



www.ImageShack.us" />



This article talks about information management and how information can be organised using favourites and bookmarks for example. An example for favourites in my personal case can be, creating folders for each of the units I am enrolled in, and therefore each file from each unit can be stored for quick access into its own unit folder.


Copying & Pasting:

There is a general rule of thumb known as 'atoms vs bits' which states that whenever information remains as "bits" it is quite easy and inexpensive to change or manipulate around with. However, whenever information is converted to "atoms" there is usually a cost in time and resources. An example of this is the Bank. Most banks today have online facilities on their website, this has become "bits" now from originally "atoms". This means that its more convinient for the customers to quickly log onto the internet and check their balances and any information regarding banking. However, before "bits" was there, customers would have had to personally go to the bank to do all that. This proves the rule of thumb in the regard that there is usually a cost in time and resources when "bits" is converted to "atoms".


This was the main reading this week.

Week 4 - Communications 21/08/2007

This week's lecture was on Communications. Communication in today's world is very different compared to about twenty years ago. This is because of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Lecture Summary:

- Communication can be between individuals, individuals and organisations, within a business or between a business and an external organisation.

- Communication takes place within NETWORKS. Some examples of these networks include of chain, circle, wheel and all-channel network.

- There are four main types of communication - Synchronous, Asynchronous, "place" dependent and "place" independent.

- ICT use examples include of mobile telephones , ipods, E-mail and Multi-media communications.

- Podcasts - A Podcast is a pre-recorded audio program (can include images ) that's posted to a website and is made available for download so people can listen to them on personal computers or mobile devices for example ipod.



This week in our tutorial, we learnt how to access the different communications management systems. This included of the ECU web enrolment, email and learning management systems.

We learnt how to access the ECU email and manipulate around it to create folders in our mailbox. We created a folder for each of our units and requested a friend to send us an email that we can move to our folder.


To access the ECU email, the following steps need to be taken:

- go to http://www.ecu.edu.au/
-click on the link that says "current students"

-below is an image that illustrates where to click.


www.ImageShack.us" />



Having done so, the next page will open up with the following screen:


www.ImageShack.us" />



The next step is to fill in your login details and below is the page which you should be having done the above steps:



www.ImageShack.us" />


After you have logged in, the following page will display your mailbox and folders.


To create a folder in your mailbox, click on the folder link on the left. This will lead to another page where you will be required to name a folder and ADD it. Below is an illustration of this:



www.ImageShack.us" />



You can now name your folder and add it to your mailbox folders.


In our second task, we were required to visit the Google website and enter a search term on any topic of our interest. The purpose of this activity was to show us the usefulness of bulletin boards. Bulletin boards can be of great help when looking for quick information and advance knowledge on a specific topic that other people might have researched on before. It is like a discussion forum.

For this taks, I went to Google and entered the term "cricket" in the groups tab. From the several results I found the bulletin board below:

www.ImageShack.us" />



www.ImageShack.us" />


In this bulletin board, several users associated in the group discuss players forthcoming matches around the world. Bulletin boards as I have mentioned before, can be useful in finding quick information to have a quick start to researching.


Readings:

There were three readings in this week's folder, the first of which comes from the website below:

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page6175.cfm

www.ImageShack.us" />



In this reading, the major points covered all relate to the "DO's and DONT's" of emailing.

Below are some key points that are addressed in the reading that can be very helpful for new email users.

- Make sure the email is for the right purpose - the email is used as a correct communication tool for the specific job

- Get to the point right away

- When asking a question, always be sure to ASK the question.

- Always clarify on who should respond back to your email should the need be and

- Always provide context to frame your message.

These were some of the main points addressed to the readers in the artcile from the first reading.


The second reading comes from the website below:

http://www.caube.org.au/problem.htm


www.ImageShack.us" />



This reading basically discusses the main issues related to SPAMS. Also known as UNSOLICITED BULK EMAIL (UBE), they are common forms of marketing tools used by many which are cost-less to the sender, but costly to the recipients.

The article outlines that the major concerns regarding SPAMS include of:

- Because its free for the sender, it costs the recipients the money, time, and destroys the value of the email.

- SPAMS also deny you as a user of email the choice of how your electronic mailbox can be used.

The safest way to beat the SPAM crisis, is to have the Government impose a legislation that can ban the practice of transmitting UBEs.

These were the readings from this weeks folder.

Week 3 Powerpoint 14/08/2007

This week we learnt how to work with Microsoft Powerpoint. This is a program that can be very effective and useful with presentations.

In the lecture, these were the main points addressed:

1. There are three main types of presentations - Self Contained, Written and Stand and Deliver.

• Self Contained presentations inlcude of examples such as Web Pages, CD-ROM and Videos.

• Written Presentations include of Essays and Paper related presentations and

• Stand and Deliver presentations include of Oral Presentations.
  
  

Furthermore, in the lecture it was discussed that all presentations in the form of informative speeches have three parts. These are :

• Introduction
• Body and
• Conclusion

In addition to that, a presentation can be made to look more professional by using audio and/or visual aids. By doing so, a presenter can make his/her presentation look more professional and engage the audience into the talk.

To begin with how to open Powerpoint,

- click start
-programs
-microsoft office
-microsoft powerpoint

below is a step by step guide with a print screen:

www.ImageShack.us" />



after having done so, your next screen should open with the actual powerpoint program. Below is a print screen showing what the program looks like when opened:



www.ImageShack.us" />



The things we learnt about powerpoint this week were:

-creating slides with written information on them
- shortcuts that can be used e.g.

CONTROL M = New slide

CONTROL N = Launch new powerpoint

CTRL Y = redo

CTRL Z= undo

F5 = slide show from start

SHIFT + F5 = slide from current slide

F12 = Save As

Furthermore, the workshop activities required us to make a powerpoint presentation of a biographical nature in which would be included :

- A title slide

-An introductory slide

- Atleast 3 "main body" slides

- Summary slide and

- Graphics and 1 animation effect that would enhance the presentation.

Below are the screen shots of the powerpoint presentation that I had created.

www.ImageShack.us" />

www.ImageShack.us" />

www.ImageShack.us" />

www.ImageShack.us" />

www.ImageShack.us" />

www.ImageShack.us" />