WEEK 4

Before every lecture actually begins , Helen gives a quiz to ponder on. Usually the weekly quiz is about what this weeks lecture would be about. For this week it was who invented the internet.



Week 4 entailed the following:

•Internet vs. Web



•Historical perspective of the Web



•Defining the WWW



•Web Protocols



•Web Browsers/Interface



It notified me on how to search in more detail and how to use advanced search and new search engines. It also informed us on what (.org), (.net), and (.co.uk) they each stand for. It also furthered our knowledge of abbreviations.





















I visited the ABC website, and listened to a pod cast of the Triple J network radio. Podcasting is a great technology that only now seems to be being used to its full. Podcasting for university students could be extremely helpful because podcasts unlike any other multimedia file types can be automatically downloaded to someone’s computer or even MP3 compatible mobile phones. This means that students can listen to audio lectures, or helpful information saved as podcast at a later more convenient time.






Reading Summary 1



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


The website mentioned above is an online challenge from Scotland to spot a certain animal taking the main subject of the website, haggis. There is an opportunity to win great prizes if you can spot a haggis on one of the live webcams. There are a few reasons however that people may doubt it's authenticity. For starters, Haggis is actually a consumable and Scottish dish, NOT an animal. However, if people are unaware of this, the website also gives off the following hints that it is not what it seems:



There are no contact details for this particular challenge.


It comes under a subdomain, which indicates that this person has simply signed up under the name of the main website scotsman.com; it could be anybody.


Some of the hyperlinks on this website are inactive. Including information regarding the first prize.


Reading Summary 2


http://www.molossia.org/


The website molossia.org features information about a country that is made to appear realistic. The Republic of Molossia and this website have the ability to fool someone, however it is clear to understand that the country is non-existant, and therefore the website is fictional by noticing the following:


Lack of contact details


Current time in Molossia is incorrect for the region it is located


The layout of the website seems unprofessional


When the keyword Molossia is searched elsewhere, there is little information relevant to prove
that the country is indeed real. (Google search finds limited results).


Reading Summary 3


Martin Luther King


Martin Luther King was an influential individual in America a few decades ago. He was an activist to create peace between Black and White Americans. When I see the website url:


http://www.martinlutherking.org/


I immediately think of the Martin Luther King and then I notice the DNS reads .org, so I would imagine that it is an organisation in memory of MLK, and possibly a peace organisation. Upon opening the website, my first impressions are that it is a website dedicated to his memory and that it is an examination of his life and it references material which concerns him. In reading through the articles on this website, it is clear to notice that MLK was an influential individual in American history, however this website is a false and misleading representation of his life, and short time before his death. It seeks to uncover falsities and negative occurances that have no solid evidence to prove that they actually occurred. However, having already had previous knowledge regarding this figure of American history the website proves to be an interesting one in increasing my knowledge through the huge database of texts, but does little to swing my opinion on MLK because of the emphasis placed on his apparent bad behaviour.



Reading Summary 4


A Brief History of the Internet -


http://www.isoc.org/

The reading mentioned above points out how the internet has evolved over the years in operation. It is a lengthy document, covering professional research which has been conducted by the authors. As readers, we can learn a large amount of information from the text, as it covers important dot points regarding the history of the internet.


Reading Summary 5


http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/ivh/frame_theorie.html - A comprehensive history of the internet...


The website provided is from a university in Europe which covers a comprehensive examination of the internet and many aspects about it. In comparison to the previous article it is a large expansion of knowledge that can benefit readers who are searching for information. Internet, Search engines, email and www are all closely analysed by Richard T. Griffins, the authour, and even comes supported with images through history. Email is an interesting concept which is covered in this reading.

WEEK 3

Week three lecture discusses online libraries and databases, and also the different types of presentations you can have.

Helen also talked about visual and audio tools how to get them to help you during your presentation not just take up most of time because most people think that it makes the presentation more interesting for the audience if they have something to look at or hear.

Helen gave us some strategies to help us get the audience involved in the presentation. During the lecture and tutorial this week these are five new thing I learnt:

1. The first thing I learnt was that the audience remembers 10% of what they see, 25% of what they see and hear, 40% of what they hear, see and write down, and 60% of audience involvement.

2. Some strategies to help audience involvement.

3. Just use Microsoft Powerpoint as a backup and a summary of what you are saying.

4. I learnt about the good ways and the bad ways to give a presentation during the tutorials.

5. I also learnt about how to set up a good introduction for a presentation.

Tutorial Activities for this week:

WORKSHOP

In workshop today, we had to do some activities in order to get use to online libraries and databases on the Internet. We did some research on "Global warming" .

I used Proquest for this search. I thought this would give me some good journals, essays or articles. Below is a picture of the article regarding 'Global warming'.

We were then asked to write down 10 tips to help us search for articles on specific topics.

1) There are search operators such as: - And, Or, Not, Near or Within etc. This makes the search much better as it narrows down the search results.

2) The search statement describes your search and includes the main keywords and operators.

3) It would to be good idea to start your search with the most precise terms. If you think your topic needs more information than just use broader terms.

4) Take advantage of thesaurus. This helps you to classify related keywords.

5) It is useful to note that the journal title is often in a field labeled JN or SO.

6) Select the details that are important and is related to your assignment.

7) Truncation is used to shorten by or as if by cutting off. This saves time and is much better.

8) There are two useful options to watch out for:-- Buttons or icons to return you to the results or marked list- Arrows which direct you to the next step. These will also help to save time in order to your search to appear quicker.

9) Be aware, you must always record if you are using someone else’s work. This is important as you would need to reference it in your reports or assignments.

10) Choose databases that covers your topic the best, once this is completed, you are ready to begin your search.

Readings

1) "Finding what you want on the web"The information on the BBC website is trustworthy, as the author Bill Thompson is recognized. He is a general reporter on the BBC World Service Programme Go Digital. Hence, he has well known and respected person. This website was last restructured on the 2nd of January 2004, which means the information is still useful for anyone who wants to use it.There is a negative side to the Internet. That is the constant increase of information on different websites. The web content is thought to be hidden behind firewalls or subscription services. As a result, when we search on the Internet, we must investigate efficiently. This is because we won’t leave any of the interesting information out there.

2. "Bare Bones Lesson 7: Basic Search Tips"

Even though the web page on South Carolina USC Beaufort Library does not show an author, the website is still believed to be reliable. In my opinion, I would trust this site as I can see it’s useful and pretty good because it allows me to find great ways to search for information in search engines. This consists of the following:-

1) Using double quotation marks

2) Using truncation

3) Combining phrases with keywords

4) Using Boolean

WEEK 2

Week Two's lecture is mainly about what taskes are required to be done during university.
We were also shown some common pc tasks, such as word processing and other certain applications that go with it.

Before every actually begins Helen provides us with and an early morning quiz, which surelly brightens everyone up 8.30 on afriday morning. the quizes actually helps one to understand different concepts on how internet browsers are used and how many questions we can answer on Microsoft applications.
The questions vary every week to try and broaden our understanding and acessing our knowledge.
Helen also told us about the skills we will need for this course and the ones that we will acquire along the way during this course.

During the tutorial we had to complete two Mircrosoft exercises for word and excel.
what i learnt during this tutorial is how there are different methods to use word and excel and how not to go over board whilst using it.







WORKSHOP







In lab today, we did activities on Microsoft Word to create a document which consist of table of contents, header, footer and references. We also had to work on Excel to make tables, formula's and charts. Here are the pictures of the work I have done on both of these programs.

















































































WEEK TWO READINGS

In today’s reading, we had to work on Adobe Reader document. This was done to notify students of the several sorts of Graphic Formats. The following are the five different formats and a summary of what they are:-

1) Bitmap (.bmp):BMP is the standard Windows bitmap image format for PC's.

2) CompuServe (.gif):GIF is a compressed format (max 256 colours) that is designed to minimize file transfer time over phone lines.

3) Joint Photographic Experts Group - or Jpeg (.jpg):JPEG format is commonly used to display images on the Internet. Unlike the GIF format however, JPEG retains all the color information in an RGB image.

4) The Tagged-Image File Format (.tiff):TIFF is used to exchange files between applications and computer platforms as it can be read by both Macintosh or IBM compatible / Windows (PC's) computers.

5) PhotoShop Document (.psd ~ .psp ~ .spp):The image formats discussed previously are all flat images. That is, they have one layer of visual data. Layered image formats are formats that support more than one layer of visual data.