Deep

Week 12 - Social & Ethical Issues 22/10/07

2007-10-30T19:38:00.000-07:00

Lecture Summary:

In this week's lecture the key points addressed included of problems with using the web such as :

Copyright
Intellectual Property
Plagiarism

There are ways to protect yourself from getting in any of the above situations. Some of these ways include of:

Install an anti virus software and update it monthly
always have the firewall ON
always check your attachments are safe
avoid spyware
Always scan documents before viewing them

Workshop Activities:

This week's workshop was quite easy and more "chilled" atmosphere because it was our last tutorial for the semester and in this course. Before I go further, I'd like to thank our tutor Mr. Patryk for all the support and help he has given our class in the last 13 weeks and it's been fun being in his class.

Anyways, our first task for this week was to access the website http://www.copyright.org.au/ and make a list of the information sheets relevant to us as undergraduates.

Quotes and explanations:

If the information not yours then it must be acknowledged. All direct and indirect quotes ideas and explanations must be acknowledged to avoid copyright.

Databases:

Information contained in Databases is the property of that database and the original author. If using information from a database, students must ensure they reference it correctly or obtain permission to use that information from the original author.

Libraries:

There are a number of copyright laws in place when it comes to obtaining information from a library. These copyright laws relate to the following topics:

Literary works
Artistic works
Musical works
Dramatic works
Cinematographic works.

Libraries above an individual can ensure that information they use in an assignment does not get them into trouble with the copyright commission and lead to them having to suffer the penalties put in place by this organisation.

The second task for the workshop was to write a brief summary on the case titled Us vs Sankus from http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/ipcases.html.

Us vs Sankas refers to a copyright case where John Sankus, Jr., aged 28, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison, for conspiring to violate the criminal copyright laws as the leader of one of the oldest and largest international software piracy rings on the Internet.It was said that Mr Sankus was illegally distributing pirated movies, computer software, games and music files on the Internet.Pirated digital copies of copyrighted works distributed over the Internet are commonly known as "warez," and those who engage in this illegal conduct are said to be in the "warez scene."Operation Buccaneer which led to the capture of Mr Sankus was the first federal prosecution to successfully target the suppliers, crackers, and leaders of a major Internet fraud organisation.The sentence imposed on Mr Sankus was the longest ever given to a person involved in organized Internet software piracy.

Readings:

Privacy:

http://www.eff.org/Privacy/eff_privacy_top_12.html

I found this site provided some very basic information on how to protect your privacy. I did not spend a lot of time looking at this reading as I know how to control my virus on my computer and enough about protecting my computer from viruses.

Ethics in Computing - Social Justice Issues http://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/social/workplace/monitoring/

This website had too many links that led pages outside the main home page, and therefore made me confused and found it harder to navigate around this page, therefore I did not use this reading in any way to help me complete this week's tasks.

Computer Viruses and the Internet:

Knight, S. (2003) A History of Computer Viruses, and The Open Architecture of the Internet

There was a link in this reading that led to a PDF file which detailed a complete history of computer viruses. In addition to that, it also outlined the viruses and worms that run wild on the Internet today. Quite worth reading this one!

http://www.bpmlegal.com/overview.html

The above website provided some excellent points on how to protect your intellectual property. The major focus was on discussing Patents, Trademarks, Copyright and trade secrets. This site also explains the process of how an individual must go about to protect his/her personal Intellectual property.

And this sums up the whole course/unit in the last 12 weeks. I am Deep Kanabar and once again a big Thank You to MR. Patryk for guiding us through the past 12 weeks.

Week 11 - Building Knowledge 15/10/2007

2007-10-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

This week's topic was Building Knowledge. The key concepts in today's lecture included of data, information and knowledge. I found this lecture hard to understand and I feel that this might be the hardest topics we've covered so far in the unit, therefore everything had to be clearly defined by our lecturer. Knowing how to define data, information and knowledge is important, as they might be questions that may appear in the exam.

Data: A fact or proposition

Information: A collection of facts or data that relate to each other.

Knowledge: The range of what has/had been discovered and/or learnt.

The next part of the lecture focused on how we can apply data, information and knowledge to our studies. Data and information applies to research in our studies. Statistical data can be used to backing up statements, opinions and ideas related to a particular topic. Researching information can also provide us with background information on a topic. Data is important also when forming conclusions.Knowledge is required when forming your own opinions, judgements and conclusions. Without prior knowledge, an individual cannot form an opinion, judgements or conclusion on a researched topic.

Workshop Activities:

As mentioned earlier above in the lecture summary, Data , Information and Knowledge can be defined as :

Data : A fact or proposition

Information: A collection of facts or data that relate to each other.

Knowledge : The range of what has/had been discovered and/or learnt.

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Data, information, knowledge:

Data, Information and Knowledge is the key to study success. It is important to know how to collect reliable data on a given topic so that you can back up your ideas, and make statements or opinions about those topics. With data comes information and having credible information sources allows you to back up your ideas, opinions and judgements and prove that you have deeply researched on your topic. The result from doing the above well, is Knowledge which is the result of good data and information.

Readings:

http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm

This reading was not in my reach of understanding. I found this reading extremely uncomfortbable to understand and follow what was happening and being said, however it might have some relevance to information and this week's topic.

http://camellia.shc.edu/literacy/index.html

This was a good reading, because it helped me into some ideas on how to achieve the best out of information literacy. Although I found this site similar to the lecture content, it was still a good reading with key points to note for questions that might come up in the exam regarding this topic.

Week 10 - Online Libraries & Databases 08/10/2007

2007-10-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

Lecture Summary:

This week we the lecture was on Online Libraries and Databases. This week's lecture was given in two parts. Firstly, we were told what online libraries are and how they can be useful to us. Following that, we got to see some examples of online library resources for example electronic books and journals. In the second part of the lecture, we got to hear some of the goods and bads of using online libraries as source of information and issues related with online libraries. Furthermore, we learnt about how to use the online databases.

To begin with, we first got told the definition of online databases and some examples. Some examples of online databases include of email directories, maps and government websites.

From that, we gathered that it is better to use Online journals than search engines as online databases have been filtered therefore ensuring quality information.

Workshop Activities:

Our main activity in this week's workshop was to browse through the ECU website and find ten useful functions on the website. Below are the ten useful functions I found from the ECU website.

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Books, CDs and more (Catalogue)- A link to the ECU catalogue containing all the books, CD’s etc. from all the ECU campuses.

Journal Articles (Databases) - A link to the ECU database home page, which contains many databases filled with reliable, academic information on numerous topics.

Reserve Readings - Access to the reserve readings which is an online collection of highly used material at ECU.

Journal Titles - A link to a search engine dedicated to finding journal titles.

Websites - A link to frequently used websites.

Library Resources by Faculty- A link to the library sections dedicated to particular facilities at ECU such as business and law, education and arts etc.

Students -A link for students to access their ECU emails, course details and results.

Library Podcasts - Links to pod casts available on the library catalogue.

Loans Services- A link that enables students and teacher to manage their loans of library material.

Academic Staff - A link for teachers to access their email, course information and content and update their student results.

In addition to the above task, we were also required to visit the MedlinePlus website and find a particular drug or condition of interest to us and use the built-in search engine to find out more about it. My drug of interest that I chose was Becaplermin.

http://medlineplus.gov/

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Becaplermin is used to treat ulcers of the foot, ankle, or leg in patients with diabetes. It comes as a gel which can be applied to the skin. It is usually applied once daily to the affected areas. Seems that Rash is a side effect of this drug. Most commonly known brand name that sells this drug is Regranex.

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Who would use such a site?

It seems quite clear that this website can be used by many parties. Doctors, nurses , medical graduates and students in the medicine field and also patients who want to learn about their drugs more and treatments. Lastly, this website can be useful to those looking to change lifestyles and live a healthy life because the website information on good health and lifestyle. In short, the website is of great help to ALL PEOPLE WHO WANT TO LEAD A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE AND HAVE A CONCERN FOR THEIR HEALTH.

Week 9 - Queries, Strategies & Selecting Results 01/10/2007

2007-10-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

Week nine lecture focused on Queries, Strategies & Selecting Results.

Lecture Summary:

In the lecture we discussed search tool types, examples of some common search engines. Furthermore, problems that are associated with these was disccused.

Search tools can be categorised into two:

Search engines and

Directories

Firstly, before discussing any further on search tools, it is important to know what search engine is. A search engine is a web-based application(program) that crawls the internet, creating indices of websites. These sites are usually indexed according to keywords.

Some common types of search engines include of :

Google - http://www.google.com/

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Yahoo - http://www.yahoo.com/

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AltaVista - http://www.altavista.com/

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AlltheWeb - http://www.alltheweb.com/

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Other common search engines include of:

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With search engines, there can be quite a lot of problems associated with searches made. Some of these problems include of :

Too many results may be returned

Below is a screen shot of such an example where the word "cricket" was searched in google. Note the results returned.

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Some of the types of Queries include of :

Keywords

Phrases

Boolean

Advanced/engine features

An example is shown in the screen shot below.

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Some search tips that can help with better returns of results are:

Use several search tools

Read search tips or help information at each search engine

For keyword searches, use several words

Guess a location

"Select the wheat from the chaff" by thinking what you want and

Back up to find where you are

This was the lecture for week nine.

Workshop Activities:

In our week 9 workshop, we did activities on using the search engines to find answers to questions. Our major activity that helped us learn how to use search engines, was answering a quiz in which we had to search for the answers using search engines such as google.

Below is a screen shot of the the quiz from the following website.

http://www.siteseen.co.uk/questions/generalknowledgehard/

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The aim of the activity was to be able to use search engines successfully and find answers to these questions from the quiz. Below is an example of how a question from the quiz could be answered using search engines.

For example the first question in the quiz asks 'What civilisation is associated with the once great city of Machu Picchu the spectacular ruins of which were rediscovered in 1911 ?"

Now, in order to get the answer to that question, a search engine must be used if person doing the quiz has no knowledge on that field - history.

The first step to finding the answer to the question is choosing a search engine. For demonstration purposes, if google is used, then below are the steps to finding the correct answers.

step 1 - choose a search enginge (in this case, google)

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The next step is to identify the key words from the question and use them on google to find information on that topic. From the question, we could try and use "Machu Picchu" as a term to search in google.

Below is a screen shot showing the above process.

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The next step is to look for the results that are most helpful and contain the words "Machu Picchu" in them next to each other.

In the screenshot below, the results are displayed, from which the search results returned information on "Machu Picchu".

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Click on any result and the then try finding the information and answers that you require through reading those results. Below is a screen shot that shows how the correct answer was found to be "INCAS" from wikipedia.

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This was our workshop activity for week 9 - using search engines to find information correctly.

Answers to the Quiz:

1. Incas

2. Violet

3. Birchard

4. Tennyson

5. Shells

6. maps

7. Puccini

8. volcano

9. Basenji

10. Bosch

11. Waterloo

12. ants

13. leo

14. siam

15. mushrooms

16. Orangutan

17. Pluto

18. Benito

19. lizard

20. Napoleon

Readings:

The readings in week 9, discuss the variety of search engines and search tips on the internet along with strategies to finding good information.

Below is the URL of the first reading which discusses the Internet search tips and strategies.

http://www.virtualsalt.com/howlook.htm

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This reading outlines the two key questions that researchers using the internet to find information, have on their minds. These two questions are :

How can I find what I want? and

How can I know that what I find, is any good to me?

The article on this website focuses more on answering the first question by disccusing the ways to find what you want. According to the article, you can find just about anything you want through the use of little creativity, some patience and a few search engines.

Creativity in this context, refers to the ability of being able to generate some synonyms for the topic you are finding information on. In addition to that, patience in this context refers to understanding that because of the variety of information spread out on the internet, you need to allocate time to read and understand and evaluate the information you read. Variety of search engines in this context refers to being able to use various tools to find your information, and not just one tool.

Categories of Information:

The article also suggests that before finding the correct information you are looking for, it is important to understand the different types of categories of information on the Web. These categories are:-

The Free, Visible Web. - Includes all the publicly mounted Web pages which are indexed by search engines. It is suggested that a really good search engine be used to find information from this category or perhaps a directory.

The Free, Invisible Web. - Webpages that cannot be accessed throuhg search engines, unless directly visiting them. Appropriate database knowledge is required to access such information in this category.

Paid Databases over the Web. - Includes of commercial databases that libraries subscribe to, containing scholarly journals, newspapers and court cases etc. Access through these webpages must be enabled with a password or some sort of security coding system.

The second reading comes from the website - http://searchenginewatch.com/resources/article.php/2156611

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The above website was looking more complicated to navigate around. There were too many links and therefore I did not spend much time on the website. However, if there were less links then the website could have been more user friendly and therefore of greater help.

The final reading came from the website below: - http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/ivh/chap4.htm

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The above website showed a detailed look at the history of the search engines. I found it interesting to learn about how it all began and about the first search engine. From the above website, a lot can be learnt on databases, library catalogues and directories that can be useful when doing research.

Week 8 - Information Quality 18/09/2007

2007-10-29T07:18:00.000-07:00

In our lecture of week eight, the subject we covered was Information Quality. Some of the key points from the lecture were :

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- Information quality is a multi-dimensional concept (Klein, 2001).

-Commonly described as data that is "fit-for-use" (Wang & Strong, 1996).

Information Quality context : The World Wide Web

Open Protocols on the World Wide Web allow information to be :

easily exchanged

accessed by anyone with access to a computer

The open architecture of the WWW also influences information quality because :

Information has no quality control enforced

Information has no enforced classification

Information Quality in relation to the WW
Information on the WWW can be written by anyone, therefore there is no control on who publishes information. This relates to the information's authority, authorship and authenticy.

Bias, accuracy and trustworthiness of the information is often at doubt due to the fact that anyone can publish anything without a purpose

Information in relation to currency, reliability and coverage can also be affected because we cannot tell who is publishing what on the WWW and how long ago they published the information.

Evaluating Information on the WWW

If information on the WWW if not evaluated as authentic and authorised, can sometimes affect its quality. Evaluating information on the WWW involves principles to be put to test. These principles include of:

consider what you are measuring?

why does the information resource exist in the first place?

is the information "fit-for-use"?

Issues regarding Information Quality on the WWW

Information quality on the WWW can raise some issues. Such issues include of :

Authority

Accuracy

Objectivity

Currency and

Coverage

This was a summary of our lecture in Week 8.

Workshop Activities:

When visiting a webpage, there are certain questions that you need to ask yourself before accepting what you see on the website. These questions can help you evaluate the website and get you the information that you are looking for.

When looking for information from a website, always ask yourself these questions and try finding the answers from the website you view before accepting information from the website. These questions include of :

- Are you in the right place?
- Do you think the source is valid?
- Do you know what is happening in that website?
- Do the details in the website look clear and concise to you?
- What is so unique and good about that website from other web pages on the web?

Furthermore, you should also use certain criterias that can help you evaluate your website as a good or bad source of information. These criterias are:

- Authority
- Accuracy
- Objectivity
- Currency
- Coverage and
- Value

Below is a print screen showing where I summarised my information above from.

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Below is a summary of each of the above criteria's relation to the source of information being viewed.

Authority - Who is the writer of a certain page and what expertise or authority do they have to write that page?

Accuracy - Do you feel that the information shown on the webpage is factual and accurate?

Objectivity - Why has this certain author written this webpage?
- What is his point and what message is he trying to get to you?

Currency - How old is this source of information? When was it last updated and viewed? How current is this webpage?

Coverage - Does this webpage cover the subjects that you are looking for?
- Does the webpage have the correct content that is related to your subject of information?
- What style of literature is the webpage using? Is the language formal (academic or scholarly) or informal?

Value - Were you able to say that the webpage you visited was worth the effort and time to visit?
- Was this webpage free of common errors such as grammar mistakes and spelling errors?
- Did this webpage offer you anything informative?
- Did you find this webpage unique from other webpages?
- Was this webpage valuable in that you felt there were no grammatical errors that could have made it hard for you to absorb the information you read?

Below is a screen shot showing the above information wrapped up as brief dot points.

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Readings:

Each week, apart from having lectures and tutorials (workshops), we get readings on topics discussed in the lecture and workshops. These readings help us furthermore in our understanding of our topics. Week eight's readings are on the evaluation of websites and information on the World Wide Web.

The first reading comes from the website - http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/critical/

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This website discusses some points to consider when looking at a website. Some key points outlined in this website include of :

Content & Evaluation:

Who is the audience?

What is the purpose of the web page?

Why was this webpage created?

Are the links and information provided accurate?

What is so good about this website and its information in contrast to other website on the same topic?

To what depth is the coverage?

Is multimedia appropriately incorporated?

From instincts, is the webpage valuable?

Source & Date:

Who is the author or producer?

From what authority or expertise was the website created?

How knowledgeable is the writer of the webpage?

Is any type of bias evident in the information provided?

When was the website last updated/reviewed?

Are the links up to date?

Is contact information about the writer provided in the website?

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Structure:

Does the website follow good graphic design principles?

Do the graphics serve a purpose in relation to content or are they for decorative purposes?

Does the text appear to be grammatically incorrect?

How usable is the site? (can users get the information they need from the minimal number of links?)

Other:

Is appropriate interactivity available?

How secure is the website when wanting to send confidential information through the site? ( i.e. does a secure coding system exist?)

Are there links to a search engine?

The above points were disccused on the this website. These points discussed should be kept in mind when evaluating a website and its content in order to get the best information for use.

The next reading on the topic of Evaluating websites, comes from the website below.

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/webcrit.html

Below is a screen shot of the website itself.

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In this website, five criterias of evaluating webpages are discussed. These five criterias are:

Accuracy:

Who wrote the page and can you contact him/her?

What is the purpose of the document and why was it produced?

Is the writer qualified to write the website with the information he/she has provided?

Authority:

Who published the website?

Are the qualifications of the writer provided?

What institution has published the document? (check domain)

Objectivity:

What goals/objectives does the page meet?

How detailed is the information?

What opinions are expressed by the writer? (if any)

Currency:

When was it produced?

When was it updated?

How up to date are the links? (if any)

Coverage:

Are the links evaluated and complement the document's theme?

Is it all images or a balance of text and images?

Is the information presented cited correctly?

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

2007-09-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

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

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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.

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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.

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- 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."

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- 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 .

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- 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".

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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/

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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

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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

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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

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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

2007-09-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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

Week 5 - Information Management 28/08/2007

2007-09-10T06:25:00.000-07:00

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.

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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".

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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.

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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

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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

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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

2007-09-10T05:54:00.000-07:00

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.

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

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

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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:

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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:

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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

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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

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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

2007-09-03T22:59:00.000-07:00

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:

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:

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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:

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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.

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Week Two - Office Applications 07/08/07

2007-08-20T21:42:00.002-07:00

In week two of UPC 0004, we focused on the applications that can be used with computers. The application we used this week was Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. The main points from our lecture this week were:

- PC's are commonly used to achieve tasks such as :

File Handling

Word Processing

Creating Spreadsheets

Creating Presentations

Accesing Internet

Writing e-mails and

Viewing PDF's

Each of the above tasks require use of different applications. Just to name a few, File Handling is usually achieved by the application Windows Explorer where as Word Processing tasks are achieved by Microsoft Word. Microsoft Excel helps achieve tasks such as creating Spreadsheets while Microsoft Powerpoint helps achieve tasks related to presentations.
All applications require general knowledge and skills regarding which applications suit which tasks. It is important for the users of these applications to understand how to operate these applications to achieve and get the best results from their tasks.

As students in this course UPC, we are required to gain the skills and knowledge on how to operate these applications so that we can successfuly communicate with our peers and lecturers or tutors. Furthermore, we require these skills to successfuly create word documents and powerpoint presentations that are of university standard so that we can succeed in our assignments.

In the tutorial, we learnt how Microsoft Word works, and the different tasks that it can help achieve. We had an excercise to complete in the workshop whereby certain tasks related to the application were set and we had to demonstrate we could perform those tasks by reading through a manual guide. Below are some of the tasks the exercise required us to do:

Adjust the TYPEFACE

Adjust the MARGINS AND ALIGNMENT

Adjust LINE SPACING

Create HEADINGS (using the "document map" feature)

KEEP HEADINGS WITH TEXT

Include a HEADER/FOOTER

Creating Dot Leaders and

Inserting an image using clip art.

Below is a screen capture of the excercise relating to the Microsoft Word application.

The red circles show the above mentioned tasks performed as per exercise requirements.

In addition to the Microsoft Word excercise, we also had an exercise on Microsoft Excel. In this exercise we had to:

- moving quickly around Excel
- selecting cells and names of cells
- entering different types of data into cells
- editing a cell
- performing mathematical calculations
- adjusting width of column
- cell alignment
- operating with the auto sum icon
- automatic calculation
- creating borders
- merge and centre
-adding background color
-use of auto format
- auto fill
-format painter/brush and
- conditional formatting

Other things we learnt to do with Excel were:

- creating different charts from our data. These charts included of : Pie chart and Column Graphs.

These were the learning aspects of Microsoft Word and Excel that we covered in our tutorial this week.

Below are screen prints of the tasks performed in Microsoft Excel exercise this week:

Readings:

This weeks reading materials come from the web address below:
http://www.knight-web.net/tutorials/photoshop/
This week the reading is on graphic formats. From the reading, I have gathered the following:

There are several types of graphic formats. Some of these include of:

Bitmap (.bmp) - is the standard Windows bitmap image format for PC's. It is useful for wallpapers on desktops.
CompuServe (.gif) - is a compressed format of maximum 256 colours that is designed to reduce the file transfer time over phone lines. These formats are commonly used in HTML documents, over the World Wide Web and many online services. Furthermore, GIF file types support annimations.
Joint Photographic Experts Group (.jpg/jpeg) - Commonly used to display images on the internet. Saving an image as Jpeg, will reduce its size and opening it while decompress its file size.

These were some of the file types /formats that were discussed in the reading this week.

Below is a screen shot of the webpage where this week's reading came from.

This sums up everything we have learnt this week.

Week one - Personal Computing 31/07/2007

2007-08-13T22:52:00.000-07:00

In this first week in UPC 0004, we learnt quite a lot of useful skills to do with the use of computers. Some of these skills we learnt included of :-

Getting to understand how to use the ECU website and how it has various functions as a means of communications. Then we got presented with some slides on the projector in our lectures that showed us how to communicate with out tutors and lecturers through email. Being the first week, our lecture was mainly an introduction for us to this unit. The key points addressed in the the first week's lecture included of:

- This unit provides a project-based approach to accessing knowledge through library and information & communication technologies.

- Students and staff have two hours contact time per week.

In our tutorial, we got taught how to :

- access the ECU website

- use the SIMO system

- use the BLACKBOARD and explore all the quick links

Below is a screen capture of the ECU website.

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- use the email and learning management systems

Below is a screen capture showing the steps in accessing the email system on the ECU website.

First, you need to access the ECU homepage. Secondly, on the homepage, click on the link "current students". This can be seen in the screen capture below.

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The next step is to wait for the page to open and then click on the link that says "email".

Below is a screen shot that explains the process above.

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After clicking on the "email" link, you will be directed to another page which will require you to fill in your username and password. Below is a screen capture of the last page in the accessing email process.

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The most useful information we got taught was how to create a blog where we can record entries on our progress in this unit. Furthermore, we also learnt how to create an image shack account where we can store our images for our blogs.

Finally, we learnt how to capture a screen and paste it on the image shack by saving it as a word document as JPG file.

Every week, as part of our workshop, we have extra readings that relate to our weekly topics we cover in tutorials. These readings further enhance our understanding of what we learn by providing more sources of information such as websites and references.

In this week's folder, there are two readings. These are:-

- PC Lube & Tune and

- How Stuff Works.

Below is a screen capture of the first reading's web page.

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http://www.yale.edu/pclt/default.htm

This reading provides artciles that further explain concepts of:

- PC Hardware

- Exceptional handling in Java and C#

- Graphic User Interface

- TCP/IP and many other articles on the basics of PC operation.

The second reading comes from the following address:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/pc.htm

Below is a screen capture of the webpage's homepage.

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In this reading, it is discussed what a PC is and how it works. The components are addressed as well along with the basic functions they perform.

From the reading, I have gathered that a PC can be defined as general-purpose information processing device.

Furthermore from the reading, I have managed to gather the main components of a PC.

These include of:

- Central Processing Unit (CPU)
- Memory
- RAM
- BIOS
- Caching
- Virtual Memory
- Motherboard
- Power supply
- Hard disk
- Operating System
- IDE
- Sound and
- Graphics card.

These were week one's readings that further helped us understand the basics of computing.