Module 3 - ftp

This task was so much easier than I thought it would be. I think I thought that because I struggled to get going with the other ftp task. It goes to show that once you have been introduced to a concept it does not take much to gain a familiarity with it. I never knew I could do things like this!

My URL is http://student.curtin.edu.au/~~14149832

Module 5 - Information ecologies

How might the metaphor of an ‘ecology’ impact on the way you think about, understand or use the Internet?

The metaphor of the Internet being a form of an ‘ecology’ fits in well with the concepts that have been addressed during this subject. The definition of ‘ecology’ is “The relationship between a living organism and its environment” (Gibbs Kidd 2000). In the case of the Internet the living organism is human beings and the environment is the Internet. Human beings use the Internet as a way of communicating in many different ways. When using the Internet now I have a different perspective from when I first started this subject. The metaphor of an ecology impacts on my thinking in a number of ways. Firstly I see the Internet as a community of human beings that are behaving in another form of environment. The article talks about a number of dimensions in the information world. These dimensions are social, linguistic, no pure information, information is blind, fragility and historical (Capurro 2000). By viewing these dimensions it opens the opportunity to understand the ecology of human beings and the Internet. As a result I now see the Internet as an environment that fosters all types of information in the form of communication. It is not just an information source but it is also a communicator.

How are the concepts ‘information’ and ‘communication’ understood within the framework of an ‘information ecology’?

The concepts information and communication are interrelated within the framework of information ecology. The Internet is a community that fosters information. The communication is how this information is presented within the Internet community. The information being presented and the information seekers are what create the ecology. The Internet is the tool that allows this form of information ecology to happen. Therefore information ecology consists of two main sectors, information and communication. The information is what creates the community. The Internet is a source of many different kinds of information that can relate to just about anybody. By human beings communicating on the Internet they are constantly creating new information and as a result creating an information ecology.

Why don’t we talk of a ‘communication ecology’?

We do not talk of communication ecology because communication is not the end result within the community. As mentioned above communication is how the information makes it to the internet. It is the information that makes it an ecology and the communication enhances the information and fosters the information community.

References

Gibbs Kidd. L. (2000) Wolf source: glossary, retrieved 9 August 2008 from http://www.wolfsource.org/?page_id=63

Capurro. R. (2000). Towards an Information Ecology, retrieved 9 August 2008 from http://www.capurro.de/nordinf.htm

Module 2 - Newsgroups

I found this task quite interesting. I have always understood that people have their own opinions and they are entitled to them but I never knew that people could be so passionate and really put their opinions out there. The news group I joined was austv. People discussed different shows they have watched. One of them was on the documentry that was conducted about drugs being readily available in China. One of the commentors claimed how ignorant people are to listen to these men and then made a comment about blaming teachers. The comments that then followed about the use of teachers and that they are worthless then followed. I was shocked to see what people thought of teachers. This was a good experince for me because I learnt a new form of commuinicating on the internet as well as just how serious people take these discussions.

Record the message in your learning log


Go back to group pagePost reply Go to next unread message
Subject: Re: Tonights story on ACA about drugs at the olympics
Author: JaneDate: 04:08 am
Ref: 1 2 3 4 5 6

ArseClown wrote:
> > "Sammy Montrose" wrote in message> news:OaOdnZz7v_ZdvgrVnZ2dnUVZ_uednZ2d@supernews.com: >
> > > > "TG'sFM" wrote in message > > news:9b4fdc4d-b48c-4806-8716-6b86b212e3d8@n33g2000pri.googlegroup> > s.com...
> >> On Aug 4, 8:11 pm, "Mr.T" wrote:
> >>> On Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:54:47 -0700, TG'sFM wrote:

> >>> > How stupid do ACA think we are? The fact that I'm the first to comment on this indicates that perhaps they are right, and that the general population IS that stupid. I blame the teachers. Given that teachers are among the lowest paid professionals in Australia, it's hard to blame them for the general level of ignorance, let alone that of ACA reporters.

MrT.> >>> >> Shirley you aren't serious? The ONLY professional govt paid employees paid more than teachers are nurses. And look at the problems we have in the health dept. The answer is to pay them less, and try to get better professionals, but give them better conditions. Pay rate is NOT everything.

Better conditions? As in working in rooms other than classrooms?

As in working a 6 hour day.......as in having every weekend off....as in having a shitload of holidays.....


I find it quite funny to hear what you all have to say about teachers. Iknow a few and they are some the hardest workers I know. They definately don'tget every weekend off and half their holidays are preparing for the next term.It isn't easy being a teacher, I tell you what I bet most of you wouldn't lastmore than 5 minutes in a classroom.
Jane

Posted at http://www.usenet.com.au/

Module 4 - Evaluating the Web

Record your annotation in your learning log.

Ross, S. T. (1990) Netiquette, retrieved August 1 2008 from http://www.albion.com/netiquette/

The purpose of this site is to inform people of the netiquette guidelines as well as keep up to date with the issues of Netiquette. It provides information on what netiquette is, a quiz to test your netiquette knowledge, and a netiquette mailing list for those that want to discuss issues relating to netiquette. The site is created by albion.com, which provides a range of information on how to use the Internet safely and correctly. There is a link that gives information on the author of the site. He is a qualified in the area of Internet security. His qualifications and experience demonstrated that the page is a reliable and academic source. The information does not seem to be biased. The information is quite factual with an opinion in the introduction. There was no other sites that were linked to this site, therefore it has not been recognised by other sites. The one downfall of the site is that the information is not as current as other sites. It was created in 1990 and copyrighted until 2006. There is nowhere on the page where it states when it has last been updated and therefore it may not have been changed since 1990.

Compare your final analysis and annotation with the material you saved for the last task, and think about these questions (you may wish to discuss these questions in your group)

in terms of your own future use, which 'body ' of information (ie. the original 'snapshot' of the site, or your own, annotated, analytical version) would be most useful to refer back to?

For the use of the assignment I would refer to the snapshot and the information that I had done for the previous task. The information included in the summary gave more detail on the actual content of the site and how I could use it for my assignment. Whereas the annotation was more of a general overview of the website. By looking back to the information from the previous task I did not have to look very far to find the information that needed. With the annotation it still required me to go and look at the website and search through the content.

In term of external users (i.e. if you included this site as a hyperlink or resource on a website) which body of information would best help them judge if the site was useful or of interest to them?

The annotation would be best suited to external users because it gives a general overview of what the site is about. It provides information on what content is included in the site, how reliable it is, and what they might be able to use the site for. If viewed the summary from my previous task then they would only get a small snapshot into what was in the website. As a result they do not get a true indication of the purpose and content of the site.

Module 4 - Organising Search Information

LOG ENTRY:Record this information in your learning log, and also detail how you saved this information, what software you used and why

URL - http://www.albion.com/netiquette/
Author – Seth T Ross
Institution – albion.com

(Ross 1990)

URL - http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html
Author – Sarah Hambridge
Institution – Intel Corporation

(Hambridge 1995)

URL - http://www.sc.edu/bck2skol/fall/lesson11.html
Author – BCK2SKOL
Institution – BCK2SKOL

(BCK2SKOL 1999)

I used bookmark buddy to save this information. I created a folder called NET11 then within that folder I book marked the web pages that I thought were best for the concept of netiquette. I also saved the sites in my favourites in the web browser because I am new to the program bookmark buddy I wanted to have a back up. I named the sites concept 7. This did not give as much detail about the site, which meant that I actually had to look at it. I also saved the screen shots in my NET11 file with the rest of the information in a word document so I could refer to all of them at once. I found that this was the best way because it meant that I could see it all at once. I am not a fan of bookmark buddy. I found that it does not record the information that much better than the book marking in the browser or using word to copy the information. I used bookmark buddy because I thought it would be a good experience to try something different and learn a new program to enrich my learning experience.

References


BCK2SKOL (1999). A class on the net for librarians with little or no net experience: Lesson 11 Netiquette, retrieved August 1 2008 from http://www.sc.edu/bck2skol/fall/lesson11.html

Ross, S. T. (1990) Netiquette, retrieved August 1 2008 from http://www.albion.com/netiquette/

Hambridge. S. (1995) RFC 1855: Netiquette Guidelines, retrieved August 1 2008 from http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html

Module 4 - Boolean Searching Task

Discuss your strategies with the class and record the exact search terms you used in your learning log

There are a number of strategies that can be used when searching the web. The Boolean search strategy provides a way of searching for information and gaining exactly what you want out of your search rather than having to sort through pages that are not relevant. The strategies that can be adopted are as follows;

Use OR to gain as many hits as possible, the results would contain either of the keywords. For example n the prior task I had searched the word Netiquette. To gain more hits I then searched Netiquette OR Internet guidelines. This resulted in 21,200,000 hits whereas the first search only resulted in 10,600,000 hits.

Use AND to ensure that both of the key words are present in the search results. For example when searching for information on the concept of netiquette I searched Netiquette AND guidelines. This enables the search to be narrowed down to specific material. This search resulted in 338,000 hits.

There also may be times when you do not want a particular key word in the search. For example netiquette may turn up some hits that have etiquette present in the page. The way this can be achieved is by adding NOT into the search. For example I searched Netiquette NOT etiquette. This search resulted in 117,000 hits.

BY adopting all of these strategies I was able to maximize my search and gain all that I can from the search. There are times when searches turn up pages that are not relevant and as a result it is necessary to change the search to minimise the amount of hits in the results.

Module 3 - Web 2.0

What’s the difference between the two? What are the benefits? Which format do you think you would like better and why?

There was an enormous difference between the two versions of the Internet communications blinklist. The Web 2.0 was structured in a way where there were a number of sections with links, details of the information being presented as well as pictures to decorate the page. The page was in a variety of colours making it more appealing to the eye. The html version was very basic. There was not as much information available and the information was structured in a linear format. The details of the where the information came from was also missing compared to the Web 2.0 which had large amounts of details regarding where the information came from and what the information concerns.

The benefits of Web 2.0 is that it is more appealing to the eye and it seems that you are able to gain more information from the page. Despite this it can be diffucult to cipher through the information compared to the html version. The links are the key benefits of the Web 2.0. There are much more links available to further information than the html version. The benefit of the html site was that the information was linear and does not seem so confusing. The Web 2.0 can be quite confusing to navigate through than the html page.

I would personally prefer the Web 2.0 page because I find it difficult to use pages that are not appealing to the eye. I find it boring and that I am not as stimulated by the page. After navigating through the site and working the ins and outs I think it would be more beneficial for me to use due to the amount of information available.