Week Twelve - Social and Ethical Issues

Lecture-

Todays Lecture covered the risks of identity theft over that may occur over the internet. As the internet is an open forum it is accesible by anyone. Many people have created email or sites to collect personal information about a person to use to their advantage. On the internet there are copyright laws but there are still chances of things being plagiarised due to poor security and privacy. As there are many computers connected to the same server the message being sent to a certain destination can easily be intecepted by other computers.

Above is a screen print of a lecture side presenting how other computers can intercept information that is being send to another destination.

There are many ways in which a person can protect themselves and the information stored on their computers. The installation of firewalls can make it harder to intecept information. Taking care whilst using the internet is also and important part of protecting infomation. Not giving out any personal information over the internet is a start but making sure the website that are asking for infomation are authentic. We can do this by evaluating the website and any attatchments that are linked.

Tutorial-

In today's tutorial we visited the copyright website. We had to read 5 copyright information sheets that may be relevant to our under graduate degree.

I chose to read the following;

Disabilities: copyright provisions

Education institutions

Research or study

Databases, compilations, tables and forms

Internet: copying and downloading

I chose the first two articles as they may be relevant to my specific degree(Sports Science). The last three i chose as they may be relevant when i am researching for an assignment. I found all of these copyright information articles useful to me and my future as an undergraduate. These articles not only outline the principles of copyright for each of the headings, it provides readers with in depth explanations as to why there are copyright laws against certain things. These articles made it clear why student and people in the workforce must copyright their work.

The APRA Website-

There are many things that people need to know about music and the internet. When people download music of the internet the artist of that music does not get paid. If an artist is producing music as their job and they are not getting paid than it is not fair to them. When people are downloading musci off the internet they must be aware that they are breaching copyright and breaking the law.

Above is a screen shot of the APRA website.

Protecting My Security and Privacy
There are many small things that i can do to protect my privacy and security on my computer. To start i must update my viruscan every week. This allows my computer to search for possible threats or viruses that may be on my computer. Secondly i can delete all emails that are not from anyone in my address book. This stops emails carrying viruses, or emails that may be phishing to enter my computer. By delteint these emails it also prevents me form replying to them. If i was to reply to a phishing email it allows the receiver to know that my email address is valid, resulting in many more emails coming to my address. Thirdly i can shange my internet security level to high. By doing this my computer will not let any links or attatchments open from unsupported sites. By following these few, simple steps i can minimise my chance of picking up a virus whilst using the internet.

Below is a screen shot of how i can maximise my security levels.

Reading 1 -

This website presents Electronic Frontier Foundation's top 12 way to protect privacy. The most important tip on this website is not to reveal personal information on the internet.

Reading 2 -

This reading covers tips for privacy when in the workplace. The types of monitoring that are carried out in offices, the privacy issues that may occur, the different policies and the recourses for privacy.

Reading 3 -

This website explains how a person can protect their ideas or expressions. The 3 main types of patents are covered and how to trademark ideas.

Week Eleven - Building Knowledge

Lecture-

In the lecture today we addressed the connections between data, information and knowledge. We learnt about the characterisitcs of each and how they connect to eachother. The relevance of each to a university student was also addressed. There are many different meanings for data, information and knowledge. At university we need all three of these aspects in order to becoming a succesful post graduate.



Tutorial-

Data-The word data is used for to express the information stored on computers.
Information-This is data that has been expressed as esufal to a particular point.
Knowledge-This is the general understanding of the information and data collected.
Wisdom- Having the ability to differentiate between truth, fact or opinion.

Data, information and knowledge are an important part of studying at university. Students need to find data that is reliable and that relates to the topic being researched. Data that is colledected should assist in forming ideas and back up any opinions. Information relates to the building of an assignment. Once data has been collected, parts are then collated and different patters emerge. This assists a university student to become knowledgable about the topic. To create an understanding on a topic a student must have collected basic data and assesed information to become knowledgable.

Data Collecting Organisations

Many banks collect data from their clients to keep their sales targets on track and work out why they are not making particular targets. Phone companies collect data from people to keep statistics on who is with what phone company. Phone companies collect this data to collect more customers or upsell their products. University's conduct surveys on students to collect data on how they can improve their courses. Scientists collect data to test their hypothesis and then correct it according to the knowledge discovered from their collected data. Many other companies take surveys and collect data to improve their products or service.

Reading 1 -

This reading presents most of the topics that were presented in the lecture. The point being that data, information, knoledge and wisdom are all linked together.

Reading 2 -

This website contains many quizes about information and the organisation of information.

Week Ten - Information Management

Lecture-

Todays lecture discussed various stratagies we may use to manage information. This lecture is based on 'Using technology for accessing and organising information'.
There are two information formats that we use to manage information.

Atom-based- this includes books, papers, reports or things we can see.

Bit-based- these are digital reproductions and electrical content.



Bit-based is very efficient and cheap although authenticity and SPAM are some of trhe problems that may occur. Atom-based information is bulky and costly and hard to edit.



The changed face of goods and services or the transition from atom to bit based has become apparant in recent years. We now see banking being done over the internet mailing or emailing instead of snail mail and also and evoloution of music on mp3 players.



However there are many changes to come. The changing face of goods and services include television (foxtel IQ), music purchased at online stores, and even shopping occurs online.





Tutorial-

For today's tutorial i created folders within my favorouties. The folders i created are;

• Drugs in Sport


• Essay UPC 0002


• Dunsborough Accomodation

I created these folder as they were what i wanted to research at the time. I used the first two folders to store my web references until i was ready to referece in my assignment. the last file i stored useful website that i would like to refer to in the future.

Abovew is a sceen capture of my favourites section. Withing the red box is the three newly created folders and the website within them.

This article expresses many important aspect when comparing atoms and bits. Considering this article was writien thirteen year ago the information is very accurate and true. The main point i found useful in Negroponte's article is when he states that while the atoms are not worth that much, the bits are almost priceless. This still applies in today's societies. As many major companies rely souly on the internet large amounts of expensive information is stored on their computer data bases. The computer this information is stored on may only be worth a few thousand dollars the information stored on the computer is priceless. There are many other points expressed throughout this article but overall the pro's of bits outway the way of atom based storage. Although this may be the case, 13 years on from this article there are still both forms of storage. Therefore both Bit based storage and Atom based storage are effective to many people in different ways.

Reading 1 -

This Video is off the BBC website. The video adresses the level of trust we should have for what we find on the internet. Online quality is casting a cloud over the internet. Not everything on the internet is good quality or true. On this video the presenter meets with the creater of Wikkepedia. Wikkepedia has become one of the largest encyclopedias that has ever been created. Anyone can add anything to this site whether it is true or false.

The point of this video is to inform people of that anyone can upload anything

Week Nine - Communications

Lecture-

This weeks lecture focuses mainly on communications. There are many types of communications that can occure. It way be between people or people and organisations. Comminication takes place through networks, chain networks, wheel networks and all channel networks.

There are four types of communications.
Place Dependent Synchronous- same time, same place- e.g chat rooms
Place Dependent Asynchronous- Different time, same place- e.g bulletins
Place Independant Synchronous- same time, different place- e.g Msn Messenger
Place Independant Asynchronous- Different time, different place- e.g email


Tutorial-
In this weeks tutorial we had to enter a topic into google groups. The topic i entered was sports science. The search returned two results. The first result was a miscellaneous health group with over 2000 members. The second group was sports science for undergraduates with only 15 members.


In group 1 there was 118807 blog posts with the most recent blog being posted today. Even though this group is highly active many of the posts are not relevant to health and fittness.



In group 2 there were only 57 posts. The last post on this site was in april 2007. The information on this site was also irrelavant to the group title. The posts were about how to create a blog that pays bills. This is certainly not of any interest to me.








Podcasts-
Podcasts are audio files which can be downloaded on the computer or on the MP3 player.
Students may find podcast beneficial as they provide campus tours and useful informatin about using the library.
Below is a sceen print of the podcasts that i listened to on http://podcasts.yahoo.com/.



Readings 1 -

This reading is based on the do's and dont's and how to write an email. There are many tips such as "get to the point" and "if you're asking a question, ASK the question". I found these tips useful as many poeple in email ten to stay from the point. This article also states that it is important to make sure the question is cleaar and is being sent to the right persin. One of the most important rule for sending an email is to make sure the grammer is correct aswell as the spelling. Although many people ten to use slang through chat, msn and emailing to friends it is important that when sending a corporate email the grammer is correct. This allows the receiver to take the request more seriously.

There are also many tips on how to understand emails. If the message in the email is unclear or the tone is not evident politely ask. As email is only words on paper it is often difficult to work out a persons tone, so things are interperated differently.

This site is designed to help students write emails correctly and become confident in communicating through email.

Reading 2

SPAM are email that are simply junk. The come into our inbox and fill it up very quickly. Otherwise knows as an uncolicited bulk email, SPAM is a cheap and easy way to advertise. For the advertising company there is no cost as email is free. There is the odd chance-1 in 1000- that people reply to spam and often get scammed into loosing money. SPAM can be dangerouse as it can delete valuable details.

Week Eight - Presentation Strategies

Lecture-

I the lecture today we learnt about how to do a perfect oral presentstion. in the Lecture we viewed a myspace video which gave us great tips on how to give better oral presentations. There are many ways presentations can be carried out. By using power points, videas and even web pages are a great way to involve the audience. The structure of a presentaion is very important. There should be three main parts. Introduction, body and conclusion. The most important part of this lecture was the final statement. KISS- Keep It Simple Stupid!

Tutorial-

In the tutorial we had to visit the website Undergraduate Research at Penn State Brandywine and Beyond! From this website we had to list 5 useful tips on oral presentaions.

1. Make sure you arrive early to rule out or solve any possible problems with lighting or computers. This time can also be used before your presentation to interact with you audience and make both of you feel more realxed.

2. Practice makes perfect. Make sure you practise out loud to friends or family. This will help you be aware of any possible mistakes and also monitor the timing.

3. Keep slides simple. Slides should only be important parts to keep the audience and presenter on track.

4.The use of humour relaxes the audience and keeps them entertained.

5. Enjoy yourself. If you are entertaining the audience will stay focused.

Below are some screen shots of my oral presentation. I found it easier to do my presentaion having these tips at hand.

Recourse Summary 1 -

Toolbars are buttons used in Powerpoint and other programs that link to different actions that can be carried out. Powerpoint 2003 has 4 main toolbars: the standard toolbar, the formatting toolbar, the drawing toolbar, and the picture toolbar. You can move toolbbars around to suit your own liking. Anything that is inserted onto powerpoint is called an object.

Week Seven - EndNote Libraries

Lecture -

In this week's lectcure it was all about EndNote, this programme allows students to insert refernces into word in APA style. EndNote is a flat-file database system, it allows students to keep track of references correctly, end note also caters to man y university referencing styles. On end note you can also search for certain references you have saved according to the assignment you are doing. Endnote is linked to MS Word which makes it quite useful. Also included was a website http://www.ecu.edu.au/library/endnote/index.htm. This website allows us to accsess more information on endnote and extra help.



Tutorial -

This weeks tutorial task was to poen end note library on our computers. First of all we had to configure endnote to MS Word. Secondly we had to insert references into word using end note.

Below is a screen shot of my endnote references.

I found endnote very useful as i had some trouble doing my references correctly.

Rescource Summary 1 -

This summary explains what endnote is and how it is used. This is a how-to guide for endnote. This is very useful as it is a manual with many different tips for using endnote.

Rescourse Summary 2 -

Week Six - Evaluation & Authentication

LECTURE-

In the lecture today we learnt about how to identify if a website is aithentic. We covered the accuracy, authority, objectivity, currancy and coverage. We went through the things that should be considered when evaluating a website. All of the things discussed in the lecture are highly relevant to our group assignment.


TUTORIAL-


In the tutorial today we viewed the website http://www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think1.html. On this website there are 6 strategies for evaluating the information found on websites.





First of all are you in the right place?


There is no point of sitting on the internet for an hour or two searching many different sites to find what you are looking for. Due to the internet being accesed by anyone accross the world, there is so much information that is not relevant and often false information. The internet has not been around forever so not every piece of information is going to be on the internet. There is some historical information on the internet but not every piece of information has been converted onto the internet.


Question all websites
As information on the internet can be created by anyone the information must be questioned. Many websites may claim that the information presented is factual but on another site the same information may be presented and false. It is vital to compare the information on one website with another to ensure that the sites are authentic. If you have any doubts about a site don't use it.

Who has Written it?
Most importantly the scource should be taken ito consideration. Try and research the author. Find out their qualifications and other articles or websites they have created. If the author is not listed or there is no other information listed, the authenticity should be reassesed.


The main purpose of the website.
Is the website trying to seel you something? Are they presenting only one side of the story? Make sure the aim of the website is not persuasive. The website is a major advertising market and many people use it for freedom of speech. Make sure the reason why the website was created is evident, not just a scam.


Assess the deatails.
The website may have many creative designs but are they all nessicary. As many scholarly articles are bland with little creativity, the information is raw and factual. Minor things like spelling and gramatical errors can be a major give away of the pages authenticity.


Web Pages or Pages found on the Web?
Many books are now publishe on the internet. There are many books that are accesible from the internet formally known as Web Pages. Websites created on the internet are pages that can be accesed through the internet. Check that the page is authentic and not just created for internet browsing.


The above information is useful as it makes you think about the information that i being presented to you. These 6 strategies are the main points that should be assesed when evalutaing a websites authenticity.


The website http://www.taftcollege.edu/newTC/Academic/INCO48/sec6-4.htm also has many other usuful tips for evaluating a websites authenticity. The domain name is also an important part that should be assesed. If the domain is .gov or .edu it is more likely to be authentic as these domain names are produced by the government and the education department.


This website also listed the 10 c's for checking websites authenticity.



Content
Credibility
Critical Thinking
Copyright
Citation
Continuity
Censorship
Connectivity
Comparability
Context


This website also contans many useful tips for evaluating different websites.



The link for A- American Cultural History: 1960 - 1969 would not connect.


The Almost Great Society: The 1960s


This websites accuracy is likely to be high as it has an edu. domain. The authors are clearly listed under the main title of the website. The purpose of this website is a lecture for a university. The detail on the website is basic but does have some graphics. The design of the site is easy to read and set out in logical order. The overall worth of the website is great. I know that it is authentic as it is a university lecture and all of the infromation is presented well.






Sixties Project


This website is also likely to be authentic as it also has and educational domain. On the opening website the authors contact details, including email are listed before even entering the site. The purpose of this website is to provide scholars with journal articles from the sixties. The detail is basic using black and white graphics. The design is well set out and easy to follow with links to different areas on the site. The overall worth of this site is also great as it is easy to find information and is well presented.