Monday, October 29, 2007

Week Twelve, Social & Ethical Issues, 23rd October 2007

Lecture
The final blog entry today. The lecture began with problems that are associated with the Internet, Internet information and Internet users. These problems are due to copyright information, plagiarism, security and privacy. The lecture today also stated the characteristics of these problems and what happens when someone disobeys or misconduct. Here in ECU any misconduct or plagiarism results in assignments not being accepted or in a more serious case expelled from the University.
Reading
The last reading consisted on Viruses, Threats and Trojans and how to protect against these things. The reading also mentions a brief history of they are created and how they are distributed through via E-mail. The reading also metioned the Copyright and the Internet Laws that one must adhere in order to prevent any misconduct.
Workshop
The final workshop activity and blog entry of the semester. Today the workshop consisted in looking at laws of misconduct and plagiarism.
I think the most relevant for an undergraduate is the Assigning and Licensing Rights and Internet: Copyright and Downloading. This is important as the assignments that are submitted in ECU falls under this and saying that the assignment is entirely your work. By signing a sheet in ECU's case a cover sheet. Some other rights that be relevant are
The Assigning and Licensing Rights.
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Media and Music Studies
  • Film
  • Music
  • Dance

Art

  • Artwork

Computer Studies

  • Computer Software

The next activity consisted in having to do a summary of the Australia vs U.S copyright laws.

The Australian vs U.S copyright laws says that they have somewhat an identical laws with different exception. In saying that it consist of copyright laws that can be done without permission in U.s can't be done in Australia. This is probably some the most recognizable copyright laws. All in all they are somewhat the same having same laws for copy right materials.

The last acivity is plan to protect myself from threats, viruses and trojans

Having a good Internat security such as Norton Anti Virus is a good way to protect myself from Viruses and Trojans, By having a daily routine checks of my computer. Also having spam blockers is good thing to prevent my computer from being spam.

Week Eleven, Building Knowledge, 16th October 2007

Lecture


Today the lecture was about Data, Information and Knowledge. The lecture began by giving a brief definition of Data, Information and Knowledge. Each had a different characteristics in and how they are different. As the lecture proceeded these each are connected as Information must be relevant to the Data and Knowledge must be a justification of both Data and Information. These three can be Incorporated with the assignments using different strategies.

Reading
The reading consisted in a complete explanation of Inforamtion, Data and Knowledge to expand on the breif explanation in the lecture today. It also consisted more information on how it these can relate to Assignments and help a student gather information.

Workshop


The workshop today asked me to find dictionary meanings of these terms: Data, Knowledge and Information.


Data - Is a form of factual information which has no bias, and has no intrinsic meaning or value.


Infromation - Has no uncertain value, but has strong meaning and it is permanent and it summarizes everything.


Knowledge - Is extremely valuable and can be subjected to bias it can be general or specific.


the next part to this was to draw a representation ot these term which is seen below

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As shown on the diagram Data any Information are connected since having data is pretty mush useless without the information. By having knowledge of these two you summarise both information and data. This has been proved to be very useful when gathering information for a student, since finding data and having information helps me gain knowledge and understanding of it.
The last activity for this workshop includes 5 organisations that might collect data, information and knowledge.
  1. Fast Food Restuarants - They collect it for things such as records of sales, money earned in a month if the restuarant is profiting or losing profits
  2. Banks - Collect information on their customers such their withdrawal and deposits monthly.
  3. Retail Outlet (Coles/Myer/K-Mart) - Obtain information on stocks also the same as a restaurants check for profits.
  4. Schools - Check records of students and how well they are going with their studies.
  5. Medical - Medical records shows history of patients to help treat patients.

Week Ten, Online Libraries & Databases, 9th October 2007

Lecture


Today's lecture was about the introduction of online libraries and databases. The lecture was divided in two parts Online Libraries then Online Databases.
The first part of the lecture gave a brief introduction on how online libraries work such why we should use it and the types of online libraries. The lecture also gave us multiple examples of online resources. It also stated the limitations of online libraries and why it should be referenced correctly to avoid copyright issues.
The second part showed how online databases work which are almost similar to online libraries. It also gave us examples such as E-mail directories, people searches, maps and atlases etc. Some of the advantages and disadvantages were shown for the online databases.
Workshop
The workshop consisted of me looking through 2 websites and finding any useful functions it might have.
The first website was the ECU library website where I am to list 10 useful functions of the site.
  • Journal Articles
  • ECU Referencing Guide
  • Quick Catalogue Search
  • Websites
  • Books, CD's and More
  • Library Podcast
  • Resources for Students
  • ECU Library
  • Ask the Library
  • SIMO

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The second activity consisted in finding out who might find the interactive tutorials useful.

I think that this website is design to give information about the topic chosen from the list whether it is AIDS, Hepatitis or Malaria etc. This website is useful for anyone who want to obtain any information on these medical topic just although not brief it just like a online lecture introducing and giving out the main ideas of the topic.

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Week Nine, Using Search Engines, 2nd October 2007

Lecture

Today the lecture showed how to use a search engine such as google, yahoo, alltheweb etc. These search engines help when researching a topic or finding information. The lecture also showed the problems of search engines which is that too many results appear when searching something in the web, the limited filter quality meaning you might only get 3 different results whilst having 300 of the same thing. This can be fixed by limiting your search by adding phrases such as +and And in conjuction with keywords.
Reading
The Reading had consisted mostly of Tips and strategies for using a search engine such as refining your search by using keywords. It also provided some good search engines that are recommended by people to find information. The reading also included a brief history of search engines and how they came to be.
Workshop
The workshop consisted in creating four strategies that will help structure a good search.
  • Know where to look first?
  • Fine tune your search
  • Be refined
  • Anticipate the answers

The second activity consisted in answering a questionaire in the web whilst searching the answer. The answers to the quiz are bleow:

  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

After answering the quiz I recieved a certificate.

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I used mostly google and yahoo search engine, I limited my search by finding keywords in the questions and using them in the search engine to obtain my answers.

Week Eight, Evaluation & Authentication, 18th September 2007

Lecture


The lecture explains the quality of getting information from the web by giving us some hints such as Accuracy, Authority, Objectivity, Currency and Coverage. The lecture also introduces us what to look out for when identifying a website. Also a brief introduction on the IQ Context was also mentioned.
Reading
The reading mostly on how to evaulate a web page using tips and strategies and what to look out for in doing an evaluation for a web page. Each readings have different methods of approach and by combining these strategie I can evaluate a web page using these strategies.
Workshop
The workshop had me evaluating webpages and checking for their authentication also a summary of the strategies of researching.
When using the web as research tool one must be careful. By using these strategies one can get the right information on the right topic. Make sure you are looking at the right place since the web is a massive information based system any information can placed in the web. Since almost anyone can use the web read research materials and look for ambiguity, manipulative reasoning, and bias. Examine assumptions, including and perhaps especially, your own. Try to find out who wrote the source such as the name of the author or the agency and something that indicates they are a good author. Try to identify why the wenpage was created and it's reason probably to persuade you or sell something. Look for internal clues such as spelling and grammar also take note of the depth of material covered. See if any data or statistics are placed and are actual data not made up ones.
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The next activity had evaluating two sites:
The link from American Cultural History: 1960 - 1969
The website was plain and had no design but the research material covered was in depth as it talk about the cultural history of america in the 60's such as fashion, lifestyle, sport etc. Each material covered were reference from books. This webpage was probably made to show the reader of how people lived in the 60's.
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The link from the Almost Great Society: The 1960's
Although the website had a design to kook like a notebook, the research material covered were in depth but showed no evidence of reference or where the author obtain the information the only thing he referenced were pictures. Although it looks accurate the material might be made up since no real evidence shows such as reference. The purpose of this was probably to show someone the about the history of the Civil War in America.
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