Week Twelve

Social and Ethical Issues: Protecting yourself and your PC on the World Wide Web

Lecture Notes

For this lecture Justine was sick so we had a different lecturer. This was interesting I thought as we were getting the same information just from a different persons angle. She involved us (students) in the lecture more and asked us questions and for our opinions. Whilst doing this we talked about the problems of the Internet and why they are problems.
Intellectual Property are things that come from your mind, and to protect your property, your work, you can put a COPYRIGHT © on your work.
Whilst discussing the problems with security on the Internet we where talking about emails, and I learnt that they don't go straight from one computer to another. It goes through a router first. I learnt that an Avatar is a virtual representation of ones self. And that security is a huge issue on the Internet, especially when it comes to emails.

Tutorial Tasks

Task One
Australian Copyright Council www.copyright.org.au
The information sheets that I think will be relevant to me in my Undergraduate course and University.
1. Education Institutions
2. Music
3. Quotes and Extracts: copyright obligations
4. An introduction to copyright in Australia



Task Two
US Department of Justice's Intellectual Property
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/ipcases.html
U.S vs Sankas
Sankus was in the market for illegally distributing pirated software, games, and movies over the Internet, through his online site of DrinkOrDie. His online name was eriFlleH (hellfire backwards). He, and his fellow friends in his online gang where caught and Sankas plead guilty, and was sentenced to 46 months (3 years 10 months in gaol).



Week Twelve Readings
1. EFF's Top 12 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy http://www.eff.org/Privacy/eff_privacy_top_12.html
This site is informing the reader about ways to protect themselves on the Internet. It offers different examples and strategies for doing this and ways in which you could be giving out information that is not needed. The site has twelve steps you can follow to protect yourself, these being:
1. Not to reveal to much of your personal information
2. Use cookie management software on your computer, and to make sure it is turned on
3. Have an email address that is appropriate to you, for example don't have an email address that is hot4you@hotmail.com
4. Don't reveal information about yourself to new people or new friends or have met on the Internet, they could be anybody
5. Keep your personal emails to your home computer and your work emails to your work computer, as your work email may be monitored
6. Be wary of sites that say they give rewards for you telling them your personal details
7. Ignore, Delete and definatly don't reply to spam emails and messages
8. Constantly be conscious of sites you are on and your web security levels
9. Be conscious of home computer security
10. Always read the privacy policy and agreements in regards to everything on the Internet and emails
11. Remember that you have the power, as only you can give out your personal information and,
12. Choose only passwords you know. Put codes in them if you have to. Having your password to your bank accounts on the Internet as Password or your name, isn't as safe as having a password like your mothers birthday or the date you moved house.



2. Ethics in Computing http://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/social/workplace/monitoring/
This page is just eh connecting site to other pages on similar topics. On this particular page it talks about different types of ways you can monitor your computer, personal information and Internet, Privacy Issues and Suggested ways to protect yourself. I found it useful as it covers all areas of ethics with computing on the Internet everyone should know.




3. A History of Computer Viruses, and The Open Architecture of the Internet http://myecu.ecu.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=%2Fbin%2Fcommon%2Fcourse.pl%3Fcourse_id%3D_38602_1
This PDF file is all about computer viruses and where they started from. It discusses a brief history of viruses and how they got the name virus. It goes on to talk about how they not meant to initially destroy computers, but how they were to just get into computers and life off it as such. I found this page to be very interesting and I read the whole page without thinking when it was going to end.


4. Brown and Michaels Intellectual Property Overview http://www.bpmlegal.com/overview.html
This web page informs of ways to help people protect their companies and work on the Internet. It covers all aspects, from Copyright, to Trade Mark and which they have called a 'trade secret'. I think this would be excellent if you own a business and want to set up your own web pages to help your company. I will definalty be referring this page to my Dad, who owns businesses and has web pages for them also.



5. Pro-Music: Music Copyright and the Internet http://www.pro-music.org/copyright/faq.htm
This web page is all about music on the Internet and all the different copyright laws and are associated with it. The site lists a total of fourteen questions that you can click on and is linked to the answers. It answers all fourteen of these questions rather basically, but gives enough information that if a teenager went onto the site and was enquiring about the music they download, it would answer all their questions. My sister downloads a lot of music to out onto her iPod so I will defianlty be telling her and showing her this site.



6. Tinker-tech.com http://www.tinkertech.net/tutor/virus.htm
This web page is informing the reader about attachments on emails and viruses. It has pictures and shows the reader the picture they will get in their email if it has an attachment and then goes on to explain whether it is safe or not to open the attachment with the specific picture it has. I think this site is a wonderful idea and should be more commonly known. I showed it to my Mum and she said that she had learnt something and to only open file attachments if you know what they are.

Week 11

Week Eleven

Data, Information and Knowledge

Lecture Notes

This weeks lecture was all about Data, Information and Knowledge: Conceptualising the gap between cognitive-space and cyber-space. We discussed teh definitions of Datum, Information and Knowledge, and came to the conclusion that the lecture was information: a collection of facts and data that are all connected and related to each other.

Datum is the single word for Data.

We discussed some examples for each of the three, data, information and knowledge, and the realtionships between tehm all.

We looked at strategies for assignments and how to the three to our work.

Tutorial Tasks
Task One

DATA–noun
1. a pl. of datum.
2. (used with a plural verb) individual facts, statistics, or items of information: These data represent the results of our analyses. Data are entered by terminal for immediate processing by the computer.
3. (used with a singular verb) a body of facts; information:
—Usage note Data is a plural of datum, which is originally a Latin noun meaning “something given.” Today, data is used in English both as a plural noun meaning “facts or pieces of information”
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Definition: Data

1. factual information: information, often in the form of facts or figures obtained from experiments or surveys, used as a basis for making calculations or drawing conclusions
2. information for computer processing: information, e.g. numbers, text, images, and sounds, in a form that is suitable for storage in or processing by a computer.


Defintion: Knowledge

1. information in mind: general awareness or possession of information, facts, ideas, truths, or principlesHer knowledge and interests are extensive.
2. specific information: clear awareness or explicit information, e.g. of a situation or factI believe they have knowledge of the circumstances.
3. all that can be known: all the information, facts, truths, and principles learned throughout timeWith all our knowledge, we still haven't found a cure for the common cold.
4. learning through experience or study: familiarity or understanding gained through experience or studyknowledge of nuclear physics
5. communication transmission of information: information services and the storage and transmission of information, especially within a large organization


Definition: Information
Knowledge communicated or received concerning a particular fact or circumstance; news: information concerning a crime.
2.knowledge gained through study, communication, research, instruction, etc.; factual data: His wealth of general information is amazing.
3.the act or fact of informing.
4.an office, station, service, or employee whose function is to provide information to the public:
Computers.
a.important or useful facts obtained as output from a computer by means of processing input data with a program: Using the input data, we have come up with some significant new information.
b.data at any stage of processing (input, output, storage, transmission, etc.)
The above three definitions are all from dictionary.com Retrieved on 28th May 2007.



Task Two

Graphical Representation, drawn by me, of the terms Data, Information and Knowledge.


Task Three

I know that by understanding the relationship between data, information and knowledge can help me in my future studies at University. They can do this by helping me to understand the relationship betweent he three and how they can then relate to assignments and projects I may have in my future studies.



Task Four

Five organisations that collect information from their clients/customers, and from the public.

1. Mobile Phone companys, eg. Virgin or Vodaphone

2. Internet Connection Companies, eg, Telstra, iinet

3. Centrelink, for up-to-date customer circumstances

4. Research groups, could be collecting information on family circumstances or how many people in particular households work

5. Government agencies.

All these different organisations/companies would collect information to keep up-to-date on their client information and so that everyone can be contacted without any hassles.



Week Eleven Readings



1. Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom

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

The useful information posted on this web page gives definitions for the words that we are talking about; Data, Information KNowledge and Wisdom. It then offers an extended definition of each word and explains how they relate to each other in more detail. It shows the relationship between them all wiht a diagram, like the one I did above, offers some examples, to help the reader understand more clearly what is being told. I found this site top be very useful and put it into my favourites folder on my laptop, so I have it for future references.



2. Information Literacy Tutorial http://camellia.shc.edu/literacy/index.html
Aswell as the site above, I found this one to be very helpful and useful too. It offered a lot of new information and ways to help remember and study the information with the quiz's it provided. I did one of the quiz's and read through one of the handouts and learnt something new about journals.



3. Data Information and Knowledge Dr Jim Mullaney

This PDF file I found to be an overview of everything we had learnt in the lecture. It offered dictionary definitions for the words at hand and talked about the relationship between all three. It discussed questions to consider when talking about Data, Information and Knowledge. The site says that it isn't always easy to answer questions and that it should be thought about with depth. I found this site to be a good revision point for me.

Week 10

Week Ten

Using Online Libraries and Databases

Lecture Notes
In today's lecture, instead of writing down the notes that I thought where appropriate, I printed out the lecture slides from Blackboard, and highlighted and wrote little additional notes next to the slides.Online Libraries and Databases can prove to be a useful source of information and are very similar. Some vary in that they available by subscription only, and others are free.
We discussed the different types of Online Libraries, which are:
Musical, Electronic Books, Online Text Repositories, Online Journals and Artworks.
There are some limits with online libraries though, these being, that the information you have found in this particular library, may only be in an electronic form, which can be hard for someone, who wants to read a book that is only found online. Another downfall of Online libraries is that you may need to subscribe or have permission to view their contents.
Online Databases are similar to online libraries, which have data collection and distribution. There are different types of databases online and these are:
News and Media, Government, People, Email, and Map and Atlas Databases, all being self explanatory in what they offer.


Tutorial Notes

Tasks One and Two

ECU LIBRARY-some of the functions and supports it offers

1. Library Catalogue


2. Referencing and Referencing Assistance


3. Searching Strategies


4. End Note


5. Multimedia resource help


6. Document Delivery Service


7. Information on how to borrow materials from the library


8. Database and material searching


9. Links to other parts of the ECU web pages


10. Getting started at the Library

Tasks Three, Four, Five and Six

MEDline Plus www.medlineplus.com

When on this site I found that I was picking out all the drug names that are most common to me ( I work in two Pharmacies). It was interesting to read about what some of these drugs do and what they are treated for. This now makes it easier for me at work, but also for the Pharmacists I work with, as now, I can answer some customer questions and queries without having to pull the Pharmacists away from their other duties too much.

I think pharmacists would probably be the most common users of this site. They can look up information for themselves or for customers and print it off. Also students could access and use this site for their studies, as it is trustworthy and can be relied on for facts and information.

Week Nine

Queries, Strategies and Selecting Results

Lecture Notes

In today's lecture we discussed the different categories of information on the Internet and Search Engines.
The three categories of information on the Internet are:
The free, visible web; these are the sites that search engines will find.
The free, invisible web; these are the sites that search engines can't find and,
Paid databases over the web: these are commercial, like libraries and the ECU database system for example.
We learnt that search tools fall into two main categories, Search Engines and Directories.
Directories have been checked by people and edited to a certain level, so the results received from this kind of search would be more accurate.
There are many, many different search enignes on the Internet today, and they all work differnetly. No two search engines will return exacly the same results, thats why we were reminded to think beyond Google, when doing research on the Internet. Search Engines work by having 'spiders' that 'crawl'. These spiders as such search the web for new, and already existing sites that aren't already in their index.




Google Ask Jeeves All the Web Turbo 10

Search engines such as Google, Hot bot and UltraVista have an index of over 1 billion pages, which has both positives and negatives. Some negatives are that you can receive too many results and un related information when searching. Search engines can't delete pages fom their index's so they jsut continue to grow and grow, so you get results of 'broken' or expired pages.

Tutorial Activities

Task One

From reading the tutorial on the web page http://www.monash.com/spidap.html these are the four strategies I found to help me structure a good search on a search engine.
1. Make sure I have a specific objective or aim in mind in regards to the kinds of information I want to find. Try to narrow down my topic.
2. Entering my words I want to search as a phrase, rather than separate words. This will give me a bigger chance of receiving sites that I am looking for.
3. By placing your search words, or phrase in quotation marks, (" ") the search engine will only return sites that have those words in order on its pages. This is helpful because it refines your search even further.
4. This web page also says that it is sometimes better to use a web directory that a search engine. "If you are clear about the topic of your query, start with a Web directory rather than a search engine. Directories probably won't give you anywhere near as many references as a search engine will, but they are more likely to be on topic" (Barlow, Monash University, 2004).

Task Two

I completed the online quiz found at http://www.siteseen.co.uk/questions/generalknowledgehard/ . Below are my screen captures from the quiz. An example of what kind of questions where in the quiz and a capture of my certificate I received when I finished it.




Task Three

The strategies I used to complete the above quiz are ones that I learnt on the day of my lecture and tutorial. To use keywords in searches and to put those keywords in quotation marks so I only received results with those words in that particular order in them. I found this to be very effective as everytime I did a search this way, I found my answer everytime, and just from the headings on the webpages. I only used one search engine, Google, and that was because I found all my answers here so I didn't need to go anywhere else.

What I have learnt so far about this Module, is that there are so many more search engies out there on the Internet than I thought there where. And that when doing a search, if you type words like and, if, not, like, in CAPITALS, they become involved in the search. I also learnt from Justine that if you are searchign a topic, like Dogs for example, you can find more, and maybe more relevant information if you also include words like, Cocker Spaniel, Goldren Retriever or Poodle in your search. By doing this you are searchign for more keywords and it helps the search engine as well as yourself.


Week Nine Readings

1. Internet Search Tips and Strategies http://www.virtualsalt.com/howlook.htm
This reading is all about search tips and strategies for search engines. It discusses teh differnt types of web there is, like the invisible and the visible web, and goes on to talk about the different types of search tools that are available on the Internet. These are Search Engines and Directories. It then goes on to explain in detail different search tips and ideas to help the reader perform a better research search.



2. A Helpful Guide to Search Engines www.monash.com/spidap.html
This web page discusses different ways in which you can use a search engine. It has links to search engines of all different types. When clicking on a link to a connected page also talking about Searching strategies, it says that we need to remember that we are smarter than computers, and that search engines are fast, but dumb. The web page also explains that you should know where to look and to 'fine tune' your search phrase or keywords.


3. Search Engine Watch http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2156611
This website, I think would have a lot of useful information for people who are just starting to research this topic. To me, it outlined a lot of the basics involved in this topic, but they were still very useful. This page is like a home page as such for other sites, that it connects users to. It has three sites that it recommends through its own search engine, and then it has links to other sites from other sources.



4. Search Engines, Chapter Four http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/ivh/chap4.htm
I liked the fact that this site explains the history of the Internet and search engines to the reader. I feel as if this made me feel more involved and appreciative of what search engines do. This page also has screen shots, and I think if a reader out there was to see this they would appreciate it very much, as it helps to explain what they author is saying.

Week Eight

Searching and Finding Quality Information on the World-Wide Web

Lecture Notes:

In todays lecture I found it a bit hard to absorb infomormation. I didn't totally understand what the lecturer was saying and I was finding it hard to decide what notes to write down. The first notes that I did write down where these.
'Always check who the author of the website is. And if you can then check who that person works for or who they can be connected to.'
I think I wrote this because I remember the lecturer asking us about the Martin Luther King website from last weeks Tutorial activity, and then telling us who was behind publishing that website.
Information Quality is described as data or information that is "fit-for-use".
Fit-for-use is the information that is considered appropriate for use in one place, but maybe not another.

Tutorial Activity

Task 1:
The website ICYouSee (www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think.html) is a website that tells you how you can successfully decipher accurate information on the Internet from information that may not be as accurate or true. The website informs the reader of six steps you can follow if you are not so sure about the website. These are AUTHORITY, ACCURACY, OBJECTIVITY, CURRENCY, COVERAGE and VALUE.
These all mean:
AUTHORITY: Who wrote and constructed the web page? Do they have the authority or qualifications to be telling the things that they are in the website?
ACCURACY: Do you feel the information is accurate? Do you believe what the author is saying?
OBJECTIVITY: What is the point or information that the author is trying to portray to the reader? Is it appropriate to the purpose of the site?
CURRENCY: This is the originality of the information. When was it first published and has it been kept up to date?
COVERAGE: Is the information appropriate to the kind of information you are looking for? Is it appropriate to your research? Also, look at the type of language used in the web page. Is it to a high standard?
VALUE: Does the web site look professional? Does it have any spelling mistakes? Did it have the information you where looking for?
If you followed these simple five steps, it can be a lot simpler to find out if the information is real or not. It's all about evaluating the information proposed to you.




Task 2:
Reliving the Sixties: Website Evaluation Assignment

Kingwood College Library, American Cultural History

1. Is this site a good source for the information you need? Was the page worth visiting?
This website appears to have a lot of useful and informative information. If I was to do an assignment on this topic I would definately be visiting this site to help me out with some information.

2. Do you have good reason to believe that the information on the site is accurate? Are the facts documented?
Yes, I do feel that I can belive the information on this site because it has a list of all the references it used to get the information listed and it has links to other sites aswell.

3. Who are the authors and who is responsible for the site? What is their expertise? What is their bias?
The author's of the site are listed at the end of the page. They are, Susan Goodwin, and the site was designed by Peggy Whitley. Both of these people are connected to the Kingwood College Library in Texas.

4. What is the site's purpose or point of view?
This sites purpose is to inform the reader about all the different aspects of life in America in the 1960's. It talks about Education, Sports, Music, Art and Achitecture and many more.

5. Was this page designed for the Web, or is it something else, such as a government document or a journal article?
I think this page was designed for the web. It is connected to a Library, which, may be publishing some of it's information on the web to help students.



The Psychedelic 60's

1. Is this site a good source for the information you need? Was the page worth visiting?
This site was a good source of information, but not the information I felt I was looking for. It was still worth visiting though, otherwise you don't know if it is useful or not.

2. Do you have good reason to believe that the information on the site is accurate? Are the facts documented?
Yes, I feel that I can belive the information on this website because it was put together by people at a University in America.

3. Who are the authors and who is responsible for the site? What is their expertise? What is their bias?
It was made by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. The website doesn't say what their expertise is and if they have any, but it appears that the point of view that they are trying to portray is, the sixities from people that lived through it. It appears that Proffessor's that work at this University that made this website have discussed what they thought about the Sixties and put it into a website.

4. What is the site's purpose or point of view?
The sites purpose is to inform and educate.

5. Was this page designed for the Web, or is it something else, such as a government document or a journal article?
I think this page was designed for the web, but maybe more for personal use, so the information can be used between a group of people that all have access to the Web.



Week Eight Readings

1. Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources.

This reading makes you think about what needs to be considered when viewing web pages. It discusses the topics of Content and Evaluation, the source of the information and when it was posted or last updated, and also the structure of the web site and its pages. By reading the information on this web page, it opened my eyes a little more to what needs to be considered when getting information off the internet, and also at the fact that not everything is true, or factual.




2. Five criteria for evaluating web pages.

This web page, which is from Cornell University Library, in New York City, is discussing differenet ways of evaluating a web site. It talks about Accuracy, Authority, Objectivity, Curreny and Coverage. When these five criteria are put together and use it for evaluating a web page you could get a page with valuable and appropriate information.




3. Evaluating information found on the Internet.

This pdf format web page offers the information also for evaluating web pages and sites on the Internet. It explains in detail and asks the reader to consider a list of things when looking at information on the web.
These things are:

1. Author?



2. Publisher?



3. Point of view?



4. Other sources referenced?



5. Curreny?



6. Accuracy of information?



7. And ways to decifer the real facts and information from the fake misleading ones.
   
   
   
   
   
   4. Evaluation Criteria
   

This web page, just like the others, is the topic of evaluating information on the World Wide Web. It expands on the five topics of, Authority, Accuracy, Objectivity, Currency and Coverage. The site gives you questions to ask yourself and to apply to the web page or site on the Internet that you want to evaluate.



5. Evaluating Internet Research Sources

This web page offers a lot of information that is useful to pre-read before you start to look for information on the web. It explains how to pre-evaluate a web page and and to test the information for quality. This web page also offers a little acronim, CARS. Meaning to check all web pages for Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness and Support. Of all the five reading above, I found this one with the most useful information and helpful.

Week Seven

Today's lecture was all about the World Wide Web (www). We were informed that not all the information that is on the WWW is real. When I started to think about this I realised how true this statement was. There are so many bogus sites out there it makes it hard to differentiate between what is real and what isn't.

• The World wide web and the Internet are different things. The Internet is bigger than the web, where the www is only a part of the Internet.
• On the Internet you find computers, where as on the Web, you find information.
• The Internet is the network, where the web gets its information from.
• The Internet was developed by Tim Berners-Lee, an employee at CERN, in 1989. He invented the Internet so he could share research information between sections of the CERN laboratories.

Some definitions that I knew of, but didn't know what they stood for:

• TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol
• HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
• DNS: Domain Name System
• URL: Uniform/ Universal Resource Locator

I also learnt that the web address for a site isn't just a bunch of letters and numbers put together. They actually mean and understand something, when they are broken down. For example: www.hotmail.com.au

www stands for world wide web, the hotmail is the server, the com is because it is a commercial site and the au, because it is an Australian site.

Tutorial Task

In today's tutorial we handed in our blog from weeks 1 through to 6. We then chose our groups for our next assignment. After that we had the opportunity to do our Tutorial task in class.

Task 1:

From looking at the sites www.haggishunt.scotman.com it appeared to be authentic. I thought this because it had links to a facts page, a merchandise shop, and a winners page for the games you could play on the site. But looking at the site in more detail, I noticed that the pictures of the Haggis creature appeared to be digitally edited. This is so because Haggis isn't really a creature. When looking through the graphics it had on the site it showed a picture of what was labeled 'cooked Haggis'.

We also had to look at the site www.molossia.org as a part of our task. This site straight away said to me DODGY. It did not look professional enough to be a web site for a country. It had a link on the site to its new national anthem, which I couldn't even open. And when I tryed other links, I couldn't get any of them to open, on the computers on campus at Uni, and on my home computer. Also the fact that it had a .org and the end of the web address, which would mean that it was an organisations website, not a country's.

Task 2:

www.martinlutherking.org . From just looking at this web address its seems the site is going to be about Martin Luther King. Especially with it having .org on the end. But from the activity we are doing, I have a feeling that the address is a spoof and is going to totally lead us in the wrong direction.

Task 3 & 4:

So after looking at the site for a while, it appears to me to be someone trying to demoralise Martin Luther King. I came across a brochure on the website, that is trying to promote school students to print off and pass around school or leave in public places for people to find.

I later found out that this particular site was put on the web by a terrible anti-negro group in America. So from that point in time I closed the website and forgot about it.

Week Six
Information Management continued

In today's lecture it was a continuation of last weeks lecture which was also on Information Management. I learnt a few new things about Bibliographies and Reference Lists, and what is and how to use End Note.

• I learnt that there is a difference between a Reference list and a Bibliography. A reference list is the things you have made direct references too, so the places you have got quotes from. And a bibliography is a list of all the materials you use, to gather your information for your work.
• End Note, is a database that is on all the computers on campus at Uni. It can be used as a reference manager, and a Bibliography maker.
• End note is a flat-file database system, so the only content that is displayed when searching is what is in the chosen fields.
• As students at ECU, we should use End Note because it can help us keep track of a growing number of references.
• We were told it can be a hard program to master so not to expect to understand it first time.
• It may be easier to master if we could each figure out our own routines to using the program and seeing what is easiest and most comfortable to us.

Tutorial Task

In today's Tutorial, we had to make our own End Note Library. Below is a screen shot of the library I got when I entered all the references from today's task.

I don't think I have fully mastered the use of the program but all it is is practice. So, I feel that if I keep on top of everything I should pick it up fairly quickly.

Week Five
Information Management
Lecture Notes:

• In today's lecture we learnt about lots of things that I had never heard of before. It was all about Information Management, and different ways it can be organised.
• We learnt about Atoms vs Bits. Atoms being things like books and papers, which you can be holding in your hand. Bits being things like Digital reproductions, electronic content.
• The Good things about Atoms are: they exist, we can hold it, we know where it is, and they can be difficult to change.
• The bad things about Atoms are: they can be bulky, like an encyclopedia, difficult to edit, and difficult to distribute.
• The good things about Bit's are: very flexible, cheap and easy to edit.
• The bad things about Bit's are: easy to copy and steal, and it's easy to fake, edit and change the information.

Today's lecture was rushed because we had to fit two weeks into one. But I understand the general idea of what my lecturer was trying to say.

Tutorial Activity

I set up my favourites list in my Internet page, on my home computer. I've never used a favourites tab like this before and I am finding it amazing to use. It saves your fingers for having to type web addresses over and over again!

The DNA of Information

Bits and Atoms. What are they? Where do they come from? In regard to the topic at hand, Information Management, Bits and Atoms refer to the different information sources. Bits are electronic content, the 'things' that live in cyber space, where as Atoms, are the content that we can pick up, look at in our hands and flick through, like books for example. There are numerous pro's and con's for both Bits and Atoms, that can easily point out the difference between the two.

With the world turning digital these days, it seems like a lot of the atom based things are being faded out. This isn't totally the case. For example, when I go to work, I still sign in and out on a time card so my employer knows the times I have worked.

As it is discussed in the article, both Bits and Atoms are good, no one is better than the other. It talks about different scenarios where both the Bits and the Atoms have advantages and disadvantages. To give an example, the author of this article was at a conference and some Cd's and DVDs and so on where to be sent to the location were the conference was being held. The atom items didn't arrive on time because they where held up in customs. So, in this situation bit based items would be appropriate, because there is no hold ups, and no customs.

To conclude, bits and atoms have advantages and disadvantages. They are both good for the different ways they can deliver information.

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.

Week Three

Main Points from Lecture:
In Today's lecture we learnt about all different types of presentations.

• Self-Contained Presentations are in the form of a web-page, CD-ROM, Video
• Written Presentations can be like an essay ,report or paper
• Stand and Deliver, an oral presentation
• An audience will remember: 10% of what they see, 25% what they see & hear, 40% what they see& hear& write, and 60% of what they experience interactively
• That a speech is to be set out into three parts, an Introduction, Body and Conclusion.
• And that you need to create a big picture of the speech. Everything needs to connect, and to finish with a STRONG ending. To maintain an informative tone, be artistic, effective and creative, everyone likes an attention Getter.
• Using Audio and Visual aids can help with a presentation, yet it has to be remembered to have hard copy back ups. As a safety precaution, and because you can never trust a computer.
• Rehearse your talk. Over and over again.
• That it's better not to use visual or audio aids at all if you don't know how to use them properly.
• If using a PowerPoint presentation only use slides that are going to back up your speech. Don't add your whole speech word for word onto slides. No-one will read it and it makes it look boring.
• Speak clearly, and keep eye contact with the audience!

Tutorial: POWERPOINT

• Never use a font size less than 20, it can make it hard for people to read if it is.
• Avoid using bright colours, for the same reason.
• Some new commands I learnt for powerpoint are:
• Control M: Gets you a new slide
• Control N: Gets a new presentation
• F5: Takes you to full screen view
• Shift F5: Gives you a full screen on the slide you select
• Control 2: undo
• Control 4: redo
• Control S: Save
• F12: Save to another location

Workshop Activity 1

Heather's Top 5 List of Strategies for a Top-Notch Presentation!

1. Be CONFIDENT
2. Don't read directly from palm cards or notes. Use dot points or quick reminders on them. If you can do this and confidently talk about your topic, you look like you actually know what you're talking about.
3. Make it interesting for the audience.
4. Don't put information into your speech if at the last minute your not going to use it.
5. Practice your presentation as many times as you can.

Workshop Activity 2

All the slides from my presentation about me!