Week Five blog entry

Week Five





Lecture Summary





This lecture was about how to manage information and how to organise and retrieve texts and documents. There are two types of information formats, and in the lecture both the pros and cons of these were explained. The first format explained, Atom based i.e. books, papers can be explained as something that is real.





The way that we can now change atom to bit form was explained and that was through computer screen to paper. There was information on how to manage your folders. Instead of having a folder with many sub-headings, the folder should contain all the same information i.e. lecture notes for UPC0004. The principles for organising your bits, such as the abbreviation of files that are that are found in your computer files such as .doc= word document and .ppt=PowerPoint were provided. It was also advised to name your documents under the function rather than the content.


The pros and cons of this format are:





Pros





Exists in space...We can see it.





Easy to protect.





Cons





Resource implications.





Difficult to edit.





The second format is Bit-based i.e. digital reproductions





Pros





Very flexible-easily move between formats.





Easy to edit.





Cons





Privacy-easy to copy and steal.





Authenticity- Easy to fake, alter and edit.



Workshop Entry


This weeks workshop told us the outcomes that would be covered in this weeks blog entry. The tasks for this week are all about bookmarks, and adding 3 folders to your favourites, that include at least 2 Internet sites. It then said to write a short review on an achieve "Being Digital" containing at least 250 words, using 'atoms' and 'bits' as a reference.

Short Review







After reading the article The DNA of Information, Atoms and Bits by Nicholas Negroponte i found that there are many pros and cons that deal with 'atoms' and 'bits'.







The pros of atoms are that it is less likely to be copied taken by somebody else. You are able to view the work whenever you like without having any complications. Some Cons of using atoms is that it is more cost effective and heavier if their is a lot of information. When the information is in bits form it is harder to change, it has to be re-written for the contents that change and it is time consuming.




The pros of bit based information is that the information can be easily edited. The programs are flexible and a lot of information can be stored without the weight increasing. The production of bit based information is cheaper than atom based. The cons of bit based is that the information can be easily retrieved by a 'hacker' with the right technology. Your privacy may be exposed on the Internet and the information published on a informative website on i.e. 'the effects of milk on a lactose intolerant individual' may not always be legible.



Technology is becoming even smaller and atoms are storing more bits than ever. After reading


Negroponte's article you find that even though it is very efficient to place your information on anatom it isn't always as reliable as you would hope it to be and there is always a down side on relying on technology.




Reading One





The first reading shows a website that needs to be added to favourites. It then shows how to add it to favourites and displays screen shots of what each stage of how it is performed.


Reading Two





Just like the lecture, reading two was all about managing information data so it is easily and quickly accessed. The article had main headings and these were 'Organisation' and 'Copying and Pasting'. The main points mentioned in the section organisation were about adding useful internet sites to your favourites or bookmark. It also mentioned the program, EndNote, which stores your references in correct order according to what style you choose i.e. APA. The second section, copying and pastings discussed 'atoms' and 'bits' and how technology is converting atoms to bits (computer screen to paper). The article also talks about plagiarism and being careful when printing out notes that you do not take a sentence or phrase and try to pass it out as your own.

Week four blog entry

Workshop Four

Lecture Summary

This weeks lecture was based on the types of applications for university students. The types of communications were explained and who the communications are between i.e individuals or individuals and organisations. All communications are between networks whether it is through chain network or even an all-channel network. The four types of communication were Synchronous, Asynchronous, Place dependent and place independent. A grid was shown to demonstrate the link between them. Examples of the use of ICT was explained.
Some of the examples were:

E-mail clients
-Microsoft outlook and outlook express
-Netscape e-mail client
- email alternatives

Instant message clients
- MSN Messenger
- AOL instant messenger
- Podcasts
- Blogs

The article also explained the use of ICT and the benefits of it.
Some of the benefits were:

Discussion boards

Podcast

Chat

Electric journals, newsletters and broadcasts


Workshop entry

The workshop had information on what was expected for this weeks blog entry. We were told about the Google research and about going on and looking at podcasts and then writing about both of the Google and podcasts experiences. We were also told to write about the potential benefits of podcasts for university students.



Reading One

The first part of reading one was about email and how to send them correctly without sending the wrong message to the receiver. The article talked about how a email can be misread if the tone or the punctuation is incorrect. Some advice that the article gave when you are the sender was:
-Make sure that the email is the right communication tool for the job.

-Get to the point right away

- Don't forget the rules of grammar and punctuation.

The article also informed you of when you're the recipient not to make any assumptions on how the email is written and if you think there is a certain point of the email that you need to clear up with the sender ask them so there is no misunderstandings.

The second part of the reading was on email etiquette and how to write a email that is clear and concise the other reader. It advises to avoid sarcasm and irony as the reader may misinterpret the message and to always edit you r work before you send it.

Reading Two

This article was about IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and how it works. The article explains what some abbreviations were for when a email was sent i.e. lol-laugh out loud. The contents of this article were: What is IRC and how does it work
-Some details

-Talking and entering commands

-Where to go

-Some smilies and jargon

-Some advice

-IRC server problems and choosing a server

-More detailed help

-A word of warning


Reading Three

Article three was about Spam and what are the problems caused by spam and the causes, what it destroys and what to do when you receive spam. The technical name for spam is Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE). UBE is free, destructive and intrusive. This article explains what spam is and why it is used and why it destroys emails when it enters them.

I find podacts very useful to university because not everybody can make it to their lecture or tutorial as there are complications in life. They are easily accessed and do not take very long to download, depending on how fast your computer is. It can be stored onto your computer so that if you didn't have enough time to look at the whole podcast the first time it is still there to go and look back on.

week three blog entry

Week Three


Lecture Summary



The outline of week threes lecture was on oral presentataion and how to be prepared and confident. We learnt techniques that would teach us how to act more confident and interesting when we are presenting a speech. We learnt how to attract the audiences attention by speaking clearly and acting confident even though we may not be. The interaction between you and the audience makes that speech more appealing and the audience is more likely to enjoy it. The lecture also discussed the liklyhood of the technology not working on the day of the oral presentation and to never rely on technology and to always have a back up such as a print out of your work.



Workshop


In the workshop the weekly blog entry was explained as we had to make up a power point presentation on anything we desired to write about. It had to include a title slide, Introduction, 3 main bodies and a summary slide. It also had to incluse graphic photos and animations to make the slides more interesting.







Reading One


This weeks reading included advice on oral presentations, how to give a well presented on and how not to. The section on how not to give a good presentation included the 'Ten commandments'. These commandments were one's that somebody would do if they did't want a good presentation.


Some of these included:


I. Thou shalt not be neat.


V. Thou shalt not write large.


VI. Thou shalt not use colour.


VII. Thou shalt not make eye contact.


X. Thou shalt not practice.



The section on preparing a well presented presentation stated to address the audience and to practise your speech in public. It also gave an outline on what was included in a power point presenation to perform well. It stated how many minutes each area of your speech should include.



For example:


Title /author/affiliation (1 slide)


Outline (1 slide)


Result (4-6 slides)


There was an extra section on academic interview talks. This included how many minutes a certain section of a interview should include i.e. Take a 20 minutes conference talk


Save 5 minutes for questioning.

Week two Blog entry

UPC0004


Lecture Summary


At week two's lecture the common PC tasks that we are all expected to know were outlined. Microsoft programs such as word processing and the different ways to do this. Examples of this is Formatting, document and mapping, creating/editing spread sheets, presentations using MS Power point, e-mail and other useful tasks that are performed everyday. We we also told that we need to be very knowledgeable about how to use the internet and save certain web addresses to our favourites as it saves time. The outline of the lecture was about PC tasks that are used everyday and are very useful in completing university assignments.


Workshop

In the workshop it is explained what to do for the readings, Microsoft and excel exercise that need to be completed and how a screen shot is to be captured and placed onto week two's blog entry.




Reading One

In the first reading there are many helpful hints and tips in how to improve your word document and how to change the format and settings to suit a certain assignment. All included pictures that informed you where to go to adjust a certain format.
Just some of the guides and tips include:


Typeface

Margins and alignment

Alphabetize reference list

Indents

Page headers and page numbers

Customize auto formatting for lists and..

Hyperlinks

An example of what was explained is dot leaders. In the article it explains that dot leaders are 'dots from entries to their page numbers', and when you go to insert dot leaders they automatically insert the dots by pressing the TAB key. It also explains how to set the dot leader and where to go to find it.


Reading Two

It is said in workshop two the tasks that need to be completed have to have a screen shot in them for the task to be completed. The reading shows you how to do this with step by step instructions and screen captions that lead you through the way. There are images of what your screen should look like at certain points. Step two explains how to save the screen shot and where to save it in. The article is very explanatory and has screen shots all the way through.


Reading Three

This article is all about Adobe Photoshop and the different types of graphic file formats. It explains what types of pictures are suited to each format and describes each of them. A brief outlines as explained in the reading of each of the formats are:


Bitmap (.bmp): Standard windows bitmap image format
CompuServe (.gif): 'Compressed format (max 256 colours) that is designed to minimise file transfer time over phone lines'.


The Tagged- Image file format (.tiff): High quality images that has a lossless compression and graphic format that is used for professional printing.


Photoshop Document- (.psd.~.psp~.spp). This discusses layered images and how all of the other image formats explained in this article are flat images, and not layered images like this format. The article explains how to save layered images and edit them and when to use this type of format and in which program.


Joint Photographic Experts Group or Jpeg (.jpg)- This program is most commonly used on the Internet when displaying images and explains the different storage sizes for the format.

Week One Blog Entry

UPC 0004 Accessing and Organising Knowledge

Lecture Summary

To become an organised and efficient student you should become familiar with the ECU website. You should become well acquainted with getting to know how to access Unit Materials, Blackboard, E-mail, library services and timetable changes. The main focus of the course will be learning how to search for information using technology and completing an essay or report at university standards. There are only three hours a week spent in contact time but it is advised that for every 1 hours spent in class two hours are spent studying or revising notes. By completion of this course the student should be able to use a wide range of sources to complete an assignment, essay or report at university level, have greater communication skills with peers and have greater confidence with their work.

There are three tasks to be completed in this unit before they are able to pass the course. For every day from the due date it is late, their is a 5% penalty. If the assignment is not handed in after one week of being due the final mark for that task is zero.

For students to pass this course it is expected that they turn up for 80% of the lectures. The tutorials are not compulsory but students gain a lot more than if the read it of a screen. Students must check blackboard and their E-mail regularly for updates about room changes or due dates.

Remember that when you learn new information about technology it seems difficult at the beginning, but the more practice you have the better you get, and the more successful at it you become.

Workshop Entry

Get to know how to work SIMO so that you can access timetables. room changes, send and receive e-mails and use the ECU website.

Tasks for week one workshop:produce a blog at www.blogger.com

register onto www.imageshack.us and send emails to friends to see if you can send and receive them.

Reading One

The first reading showed me how to create screen shots and then place them on my blog. It had step by step instructions that also included screen shots.

Reading Two

This reading discussed how to create a blog. Just like reading one it has step by instructions that included screen shots.

Reading Three

Week one was all about starting up and beginning the process of the weekly blog entry. The third reading showed me how to create my image shack account that i will be using each week to transfer my screen shots onto my blog.

Reading Four

The PC Lube and Tube is a computer website that educates those on computers and its hardware. The articles are supplies from independent hypertext that can be read on the Internet.

You are able to read articles such as:

An Introduction to PC Hardware

Exception handling in Java and c#

The graphic user interface

Computers, Video files, and HDTV

Technical Perspective on the Microsoft Antitrust case

Character Encoding and Web Standards

And much more...

Reading Five

Computers are the most commonly used technology and is used all around the world.All computers contain a microprocessor(MP). An MP is a silicon chip that contains a Central Processing Unit (CPA)

There are seven major components to a computer. Which are :

1. Mother Board- Also known as the 'Heart' of the computer. Everything connects to the mother board.

2. Central Processing Unit (CPA) -The "Brain". Everything that is done on a computer is overseen by the CPA.

3. RAM (Random access memory) Storage of data. The more RAM the more speed

4. Video Card- Translates image and data in a way displayed to the monitor screen.

5. Power supply-Supplies the power that the computer needs.

6. Hard Disc- Holds information from programs and documents saved to the hard drive in large capacities.

7. Optical Drive- Reads and writes CD's and DVD's