Thursday, May 29, 2008

Social and Ethical Issues

This lecture will be focussing on social and ethical issues/problems involved with internet. Firstly we need to know why are there problems with using the internet and this can only be achieved by looking at the characteristicas of internet, its users and the information found on the internet: Characteristics of internet as an open protocol and that there are no enforceable standardsis a factor in the problems involved with internet. Secondly Characteristics of information found on the internet is also part of the problem since anyone can publish any work and the fact that there are no control on bias or unethical information. Finally the users of internet are part of the issue being disscussed as there is a number of smart people and also lowly educated people on internet which are all part of the problem. Having comprehended the characteristics of internet it is therefore important to know the actual problem that internet bring. Below is a list of the problems that the internet have:

Intellectual Property can mean inventions, ideas, music and movies.

Copyright means the right to copy

Plagiarism is using other people's ideas without acknowledging where the information came from. This problems can be dealt with by making sure that other people's ideas are acknowledged and make sure to always copy and paste the url that you got information from.

Security issues include content theft

Privacy include rights of individuals and organisations

You can protect your self from such things as content and password theft by installing firewalls and also install antivirus and learn about unsafe attachments.

Principles for protecting yourself and and your pc:




  • Do not give personal information about yourself
  • Do not reply to spam mail
  • Set online programs such as MSN messenger and internet browsers to maximum security settings
  • Update your anti virus software at least weekly
  • Always scan documents before openning them for the first time.
    •Freedom of Speech





Tutorial Summary

Task 1

One of the five information sheets is the introduction to copyright in Australia, I believe it is very important to know about the way copyright operates in Australia as an undergraduate, although one might have a fair idea about how copy right operates it is important to know the entire concept and that is why reading and understanding introduction to copyright in Australia will constitute my list of five.





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As part of my list of five I choose to include the research and study information sheet, this is because as Univesity studies wheels around research it is important to know what is right or wrong when researching a topic and by reading this information sheet familiarises one with how much information one can use form other people's work without plagiarism.







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As part of my list of five I choose to include Educational Institutions and introduction to copyright, this is becuase it is critical to know what are the limits when using information from other sources for educational purposes since if this is not done it can lead to plagiarism.









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It is also important to have an idea about copyright in America as most of the information found on the internet comes from the United States.






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Lastly I choose libraries and copyright, as an undergraduate library will always be the first place to go for information pertaining to assignments and it therefore means it very important to know copyright connected to libraries and information they provide.






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Task 2

Having looked at the website about music and the web and based on the information on the website it is simple and clear that music online is not free. Many people go online to download music while not knowing that song writers make money out of selling music and therefore it should be known that there is no free music online.

Task 3

Plan to protect myself from viruses and trojans

  1. Do not give personal information about yourself
  2. Do not reply to spam mail
  3. Set online programs such as MSN messenger and Internet browsers to maximum security settings
  4. Update your antivirus software atleast weekly
  5. Always scan documents before openning them for the first time

It is important for the above steps to be regularly done because if these do not happen it can result in data loss, identity theft and damage of computer files.

Reading One summary:







Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Building Knowledge


Lecture Summary





This week's lecture will be based at the topic of building knowledge, which will be subheaded by datum, information and knowledge.




Definitions of the three terms:









Datum is a fact or proposition and it is normally non judgemental, non inferential, transient, has no intrinsic meaning and has no intrinsic value as well. It is important that a data be valid and unbiased and must be quantitative rather than qualitative and must also be representative









An Information is a collection of facts or data that relate to each other, information is also summative, relational, dimensional, permanent, has meaning and uncertain value. It is important for an information to be informative and meaningful.









A knowledge is the sum or range of what has been percieved, discovered or learned. A knowledge can also be inferential, experiental, judgemental, subjective and very valuable. It is important for a knowledge to be clear in its origin and be a justification from the data and information.






Tutorial Summary






The tutorial will be exposing students into the meanings of the words datum, information, knowledge and wisdom and their importance to the students in their further studies. Students would be exposed into a range of definitions to the four terms and then students will record




definitions they feel more comfortable with. Below is a list of selected definitions to the four terms:







Taks 1



Datum is the representation of concepts or other entities, fixed in or on a medium in a form suitable for communication, interpretation, or processing by human beings or by automated systems (Wellisch, 1996). Prof. Elsa Barber






Information is data that has been processed into a form that is meaningful to the recipient (Davis and Olson, 1985). Dr. Hanne Albrachsten






Knowledge is embodied in humans as the capacity to understand, explain and negotiate concepts, actions and intentions. Dr. Hanne Albrachsten






Wisdom is the power of judging rightly and following the soundest course of action, based on knowledge and understanding.



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Task 2





Knowing the relationship between data, information, knowledge is critical to university studies and can help one especially in situations where there is a research assignment. Knowing the difference of these four terms results in confident attack to assignments as you know the data that to be used and the resulting information from conclusion of data pertaining to the assignment. Doing this successfully will result in a building of knowledge as an understanding has been built from the relationship between data and information.





Task 3





Transperth normally takes information from its clients mainly to know if they are providing the services that the customers expect form them.



Department of Education would normally ask parents to comment on the way schools are run and taught and if they would like to see some changes put into place to make better.



Police takes information from the public to seek ways that they can coorporate with the public to stop crimes.



Shopping Centres will try to collect information from the public to acquire public's view on the services they offer and by doing this they can better their services based on what is the public's perspective.



Political parties traditionally rely on the public to provide them with the guide to their policies, they collect information to know what are the most important issues with the public on the day.





Reading Summary:



This reading is pertained to the topics of data, information, knowledge and wisdom. According to professor Russell Ackoff human mind is classified into five categories, data which is a symbols, information which is the data that is processed to be useful, knowledge which is the application of data and information to achieve answers and wisdom which is an evaluated understanding. Ackoff indicates that the first four categories relate to the past; they deal with what has been or what is known. Only the fifth category, wisdom, deals with the future because it incorporates vision and design.









Thursday, May 22, 2008

Information Management







Lecture Summary




Since there is now millions of information sources available online this has led to people get as amuch information as they want, the problem that this brings is that how do we manage the information for easy use and easy identification. This can be done by using computers to organise our information in the form of:




  1. text


  2. documents


  3. images


  4. WebPages,
    bookmarks


  5. presentations


  6. assignments


  7. citations & references






Some principles to know for organising your information:




  1. Learn the most common file extentions and what they stand for


  2. Create and name folders of information according to function rather that content


  3. Use the Properties tool to create metadata about your documents


  4. Use the "Search" function when trying to locate files


  5. Install a desktop Search Engine (e.g. Google Desktop)


Tutorial Summary:



Being a Uni student you tend to know how to create information but when it comes to managing it can prove to be a difficulty. This tutorial will be focusing on ways to manage information effectively. The tutorial will also look at organising web based references using bookmarks/favourites.

Task 1


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Task 2


Even though this work was published thirteen years ago I think the ideas are relevant to what we have today. Having atoms based information or bits based information both have invaluable positives. As Nagroponte pointed out that trasporting atoms based information can result in information not reaching to its location safely as compared to bits where one can almost be hundred percent sure that the information will be recieved, and this would be a positive of bits over atom. Atoms based information are inexpensive as compared bits, for example a text book, but books can ran out of print where as bits based books do not. Bits based information also have an advantage over atoms based information, this can be seen with the inconvenience of video casettes where one has to return atoms based cassettes to the video library and if not then you are fined for not returning the cassette this would not happen with bits video cassette. An area of irrelavency in this work comes in when the author starts to predict that businesses will start to become digital very soon, it is already being done as many business is done on line and through emails.









Reading Summary:




Students as Infotectives: The first step toward a sound program is to think of students as infotectives. Infotective is a student capable of asking great questions about data in order to convert it into information and eventually turned it into insight.




Issues of reliability and adequacy: Schools must teach students to graze and digest the offerings thoughtfully in order to achieve insight. They must also guide young people away from undue reliance upon the "free Internet." Students will learn that a printed book or a "pay for service" is more effecient than the free internet.




The Question is the answer: Questioning may be the most powerful technology we have ever invented and can give to our students. Questions are the tools required for us to "make up our minds" and develop meaning. We must teach students to start their explorations with "essential questions" in mind. They then develop a rich web of related questions that organize and direct the search for insight.




Preparing Students for Cyberspace and Intenet competencies: Students need to learn literacy skills. "We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning." Students must be taught to frame essential questions, identify subsidiary questions, plan a cyberspace voyage, ask for help, ask for directions, analyze data, scan from the crows nest, synthesise, SCAMPER Substitute, combine, adapt, modify, magnify, minify, put to other uses, eliminate and reverse. We need to raise students who are free range students, those who have learned to feed on the wild grains and fragments available on the Internet or the shelves of the local library.






communications

Lecture Summary


This lecture will be looking at the new ways of communications that we have today and also look at the past communication. Communication is very different today compared to twenty years ago simply because of the new technology we have today that has brought variety of communication tools. Communications can be between individuals or between individuals and organisations. There are four types of communications: place dependent , place independent , synchronous and asynchronous. In place independent communication parties can be anywhere in cyberspace, in place dependent all parties have to be in the same place, Asynchronous all parties take their turns in their own time and Synchronous all parties have to be engaged at thesame time eg phone call. Types of communication use:


  • Mobile telephone (3G network)
    •Video and tele-conferencing
    • ipods, mp3, lap-tops
    •Electronic Mail (e-mail)
    •Multi-media communications



More examples of communication use:


social networking through Myspace, Freindster and Facebook.


There are also issues involved with communication notably in sending emails: Emails should not be used to send confrontations or complaints because they are easily forwarded to other people.


Benefits of using communiction are that students can discuss their assignments while in different places. They are also great sources of information.



Tutorial Summary

The tutorial will focus on enhacing students communications with their fellow students especiallyat situations such as at group assignments. Students will have a chance to use variety of tools to use in communication with other students, tutors and lecturers. The tutorial also requires students to list benefits of listenning to podcasts which are listed below.


Task 1





The topic of interest to me is Basketball and therefore my search term was "who is the best all round player in the NBA at the moment"


Everyone who posted their opinions agreed on Kobe Bryant, however I was expecting some competition from players like Lebron James, Chris Paul, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. It was interesting to hear from some messages posted that Kobe wouln't have won the most valuable player if he was on a non contender team because he would have been focusing on hitting 81 points every game and not bringing his teamates into the game.










Task 2

Benefits of listenning to podcasts include:





  • Students can listen to lectures as they become available online


  • Students can listen to important speeches and take notes


  • Student can listen to audios that pertain to their assignments





Reading Summary:


Email spam is the form of advertising which has no incremental cost to the sender, but imposes costs on the recipients and has the potential to destroy the value of electronic mail. There are many problems which are associated with the so called email spam: Spammer has the potential to cost people unlimited amounts of time to deal with, it has the potential to drown out legitimate communications, thus making electronic mail useless for its original purpose. Statistics reveal that this problem is increasing at an alarming rate and has led to people abandoning their email accounts because of it. Spammer is different to other forms of spammers such as junk mails as sending junk mails cost more than that of spammer. It is unrealiseable that recieving a spammer costs the recipient money and doesn't cost the sender, thus that is why we need to be wary of emails that we recieve. It makes sense because if the sender is not paying for emails being sent than somebody must be paying for it. UBE is an alternative name for spammer wastes a load of time, this happens when you have email program that notifies you of new messages and the flow of what you were doing is broken and can lead to massive loses of productivity from employers point of view.


Some solutions to this problem have been suggested, but they have also been found to be flawed. It is suggested that when you recieve such emails just delete them, but deleting just deosn't stop emails being sent to you and by the time you delete the message the damage has already been done. What can be done to stop this problem from growing even further, there are easy solutions that work:


  1. ban the practice of transmitting Unsolicited Bulk Email;

  2. ban the sale of tools designed for spamming, and ban the marketing of tools as being suitable for the purpose of spamming;

  3. provide a right of action to the recipient, together with suitable damages, say $750.00, payable to each recipient of the UBE - a private right of action being required because requiring a government agency to take action would place additional demands on federal revenue while guaranteeing less effective enforcement than a private right of action can provide;

  4. express the damages in terms of penalty units;

  5. provide for damages to be multiplied by a factor of 3 for wanton violations;

  6. cover offshore spamming by Australian interests; and

  7. provide for attaching to the outgoing revenue stream of foreign interests which spam Australians for the benefit of the spammers' revenue stream.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Presentation Strategies









Ten strategies to a great oral presentation





  1. Make sure you show believe in what you are presenting






  2. Reherse your talk






  3. Arrive Early to the venue






  4. keep it simple






  5. Make your audience earned your respect






  6. Keep your audience in your talk






  7. Know your audience






  8. Your start to the presentation must be popular with the audience






  9. Conclude with something that the audience will think about






  10. Finish early


Lecture Summary


Oral presentation is an oral, public presentation of an assessment. There are three types of presentations, one is a self contained presentation a web page or a video. Written presentation normally in an essay format and the oral format. This lecture will be focusing on how to construct a great oral presentation. In an oral presentation there has to be an effective introduction which constittute six components to an effective introduction; attention getters, thesis statement, audience adaptation, credibility statement, preview and transition to the body. Secondly an oral presentation must have an active body. The body includes main ideas and references to outside research. And lastly a conclusion, review the main points and leave the audience with something to think about. In preparation to your presentation make sure you have a back up to your assignment, rehearse your talk, arrive early to the venue and more importantly keep it simple. Always know your audience and know how they respond to different things.












Tutorial Summary:







The tutorial will be focusing on how to produce effective oral presentations. The tutorial will also direct students to information sources that provide many ways to give a top notch oral presentation and also make aware students on common mistakes that occur during oral presentations and ways to avoid this mistakes.







Six Slides Powerpoint presentation












































Friday, May 2, 2008

Endnote Libraries

Endnote Libraries
Referencing: Deferentiates ones ideas form other people's ideas and also enables other people to follow up on the source if they are interested.
Citing and quoting refereces: Refering to material in your work bieng of other peoples work.
A reference list also known as Bibliography is an alphabetical list of books and references all used in your work.
Endnote: reference manager can also be called bibliogaphical maker. Endnote can be use as content is displayed in colummns eg Author and publication.
Opening Endnote library: Choose and create Endnte library, save it as a seperate file, go to references and say new references. You use Endnote to keep track of growing list of references, helps to handle a diversity of references.
Tutorial Summary: The tutorial is is going to be exposing students into how to use endnote as a referecing maker and storage. The tutorial will also expose students into using endnote write and cite at the same time. Moreover students will learn how use endnote to intext reference their work.
  1. Gal, B. (2007). "THE NEW ARAB CONVERSATION." Columbia Journalism Review 45(5): 17.
  2. Couper-Johnston , R. El Nino. London, Hodder and Stoughton.
  3. History of Higher Education for Higher Ed 101*." Retrieved May, 17, 2008, from net.educause.edu.
Examples of intext references

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has led to most western world countries labelling the countries of the Middle east as having a one sided view to the conflict “each of these unprecedented acts is one small move toward opening up these societies” (Gal 2007).

world that the West often imagines as having only one perspective (Gal 2007)

though he probably would not have appreciated being deployed as a weapon in Israel's public-relations war, the presence of his (Gal 2007)




Gal, B. (2007). "THE NEW ARAB CONVERSATION." Columbia Journalism Review 45(5): 17.

Evaluation and Authentication

Week 6: Evaluation and Authentication

Lecture Summary: Inforamtion quality is often regarded as any information that is healthy to use. The www is an open protocol meaning anyone can create a web content and thus that is why it has never been important to know the skills to evaluate wed based informatio. Information on the web is in three questions who relates to authorship, why relates to bias, accuracy and trusworthiness and what relates to currency, coverage and reliability . History of www in 1969 points to four host computers, 1971 23 host computers, 1980 200 host computers and 1984 2000+ host computers. How would it be possible to find worthy site on the internnet: Principles to know: what is being measured, content, visual feel, navigation and ease of use. Why does the inforamtion exist: Would you deem the information fit for use (fit for purpose). Criteria to use
Accuracy; Authority; Objectivity; Currency; Coverage. Never look at any web until confirmed if it is either personal or a site, also look at the domain. Find out why the page was published. Always make sure that sources of information are cited on the website.


Tutorial Summary: The tutorial will be covering how to evaluate web based informtion and the skill needed to evaluate information from web sites. Simply because anyone can publish their work on the web it poses questions of such kinds as what is these people's academic bakground to be able to auhor such work, and therefore if so how accurate is the information they present, also one may ask what is the purpose of the information and how balance is it.




Criteria For Evaluating a web site:




Author: Find out who authored the information and find out what is there academic qualification to be able to author the information.




Accuracy: Why do you believe information being presented is true i.e. is there anything on the page that makes the information accurate.




Objectivity: What is the purpose of the information being presented and find out the the author's stance on the information presented.




Currency: Look for the date when the information was first published and then see if the information has been regulary updated since then.




Coverage: Does the site deliver information that appeals to the topic being researched. Is the inforamtion of your level or too sophisticated.




Value: Now after visiting the website what is your final assessment of the information being presented, was it worth looking at. Is the site well edited and there are typing mistakes and poor grammar.




After comparing the two strategies from both websites i think knowing if the author is reputable or not is important point to be added in to the criteria of evaluation.








Evaluation of the website American Cultural History 1960-69







ACCURACY ~ The information on the webite shows accuracy in presentation of the information and in the facts presented about the 60s in America. Moreover, the coverage of the period in terms of cultural factors translates into how accurate the information being presented.




AUTHORSHIP ~ The author of this work is The Kingwood College Library, although their work as demonstrated in website is of a high quality their expertise to be able to author such work is not provided leaving one with questions of their worth.




PURPOSE ~ The purpose of this website is to help readers gain a broader understanding and appreciation for the culture and history of 1960s which I think it does.




DETAIL AND DESIGN ~ The website has been designed in a simple manner to allow for easy identification of critical information, this is shown through using headings and sub-heading to distinguish between important information. This is one of the important characteristics in reliability of webpages.




OVERALL WORTH~ This website is of a high quality both in the presentation of the information and the content of information. Having read the content in this website I now have a broader understanding of the 60s in American culture. Thus this webste was worth consulting








The Almost Great Society: The 1960s



Authorship~ This work was authored by Stanley K. Schultz a professor of History in the United States of America. Given his expertise as a professor of history there is reliability in this work compared to a one by a medical doctor authoring such work.




Accuracy~




Purpose~ The purpose of this website is to immerse readers into gaining an understanding about Lyndon Baines Johnson a president of United States of Amercia and his philosophies and political methods. This website gives readers an understanding about the civil rights protests and African American rights which it does but in little quantity of informatio.




Detail and Design~ The design of this website allow for easy identification of important information which is good for overall worth of the website. Moreover, the detail put together in this website covers the topic of LBJs presidency extensively.




Overall Worth~ This website was worth having a look, but in saying so there are many other sources that can be better than this source.