Week Four
Main Points from the Lecture:

COMMUNICATIONS

• Today we did Applications, protocols, and the benefits of Information Communication Technology
• Communication today is very different to how it was 20 years ago, because of ICT.
• Communication can be between individuals, individuals and organisations, or within a business and external organisation.
• Synchronous: All parties involved and engaged in communication at the same time, for example a phone call.
• Asynchronous: Parties take turns in communication in their own time, like writing a letter.
• I learnt about more Microsoft products today aswell, like Outlook and Outlook Express, and Netscape. Netscape has better security than Outlook.
• Some examples of Instant Message Clients are: MSN Messenger, ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and Trillian.
• Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a live chat room area of the cyber world in which real time conversations happen via the IRC software.
• PODCASTS: pre-recorded audio that's posted on the Internet to be downloaded and listened to or furthermore downloaded onto iPods.
• BLOGS: which I know all about because I am now an expert on them. It is short for Web Log.
• WIKI WEBS: Similar to a blog but can allow several users to to bring all their information or whatever it is they are posting on the Internet together to share in the form of a website.
• Social Networking: Myspace, Friendster, Facebook are some examples
• BCC: Blind Carbon Copy, meaning you can send an email to multiple people without showing every email address on the email, like on a forwarded email.

Tutorial

In today's tutorial, i was absent but managed to do the activities at home.

I created the Unit files in my email account and are proving to be very helpful.

After doing this I went onto the Google website and followed the instructions from the Tutorial Activity. I searched for groups under the topic name of 'ALF Football Tipping', and i came up with 719 hits! It was showing all different types of groups under this topic. I got things like 'how to win footy tipping', 'how to start up a footy tipping competition', and things like, 'Football tipping software'.
Many of the groups I viewed had only one or two messages posted on them. Mostly, people asking for advice on that years Premiership winners and things like that. The oldest post I saw was from 1997.
A podcast is an audio recording posted on the Internet, that can be downloaded onto an iPod or other mp3 playing device.
I think podcast's can help university students by allowing them to listen to lectures again if they need to, or if they couldn't make it to the lecture they get a chance to here what the lecturer has to say, apart from the notes that are posted on Blackboard. I think it is a good idea, but i don't like the fact that students could just sit at home and listen to the lecture every week instead of going on Campus.