Week 5

Today in the lecture, we started off with a quiz, then we leant that there are two main categories of search tools: search engines and directories. We learnt that one of the main problems with search engines was the number of hits they returned, sometimes tens of thousands, Helen showed us how to narrow down our search terms and maximise our results.

In the tutorial we did three readings; "Robert Harris, Web Search Strategies", "The History of the Internet" and "Search Engine Optimization for Companies".

Robert Harris, Web Search Strategies- This was an informative article, but was quite boring and had a lot of writing, which possibly lost the reader's intrest. The article covered categories of information on the web, search tool types, a quick guide to choosing a starting place, word searches with search engines and search tips. Much of this information Helen had already told us about and we did in a previous weeks tutorial.

The History of the Internet- I did not find this reading helpful at all, it has been talked about before and the topic is getting very repetitive. The article provides brief tips on how to search topics with the use of various keywords.


Search Engine Optimization for Companies-
This website was quite useful it's main idea was that if you conduct a website analysis it will determine if your small business website is ready for search engine optimization. Keyword analysis, setting your benchmark, link popularity and measuring the progress are parts of the analysis process.

Week 4

It was a public holiday this week because of Good Friday so it was our responsibility to read the lecture slides and do the tutorial activities at home. The lecture was about the Net vs the Web. On the net- you find computers, On the web- you find documents, sounds, videos and information. On the net- connections are cables between computers, on the web connections are hypertext links. The web was developed by Tim Berners- Lee in 1989 to facilitate sharing research information. I found it interesting what the end of web addresses mean-
.com- commercial
.org- organisation (non profit)
.net- network
.gov- government
.edu- education
Web browsers are programs that allow users to access and explore the pages of the world wide web eg. Internet Explorer.

The tutorial activity was to compare two websites
http://www.haggishunt.scotsman.com/
http://www.molossia.org/

http://www.haggishunt.scotsman.com/ is a site where you look at a series of photos and see if you can pick if there is a haggis in the photo, if you can see a haggis then you click a link saying 'I saw a haggis', and then a generated letter is sent to their Ghillie, which i looked up the definition and it means a shoe worn by a Scottish hunter, the Ghillie's name is Farquhar Farquharson, which is a fake made up name. And if the Ghillie concurs with the time and place of the sighting of the haggis, he will enter your details in the prize draw. The website seems cheap and nasty with annoying adverts down the edge of the page. But it is genuine with links down the bottom such as- contact, terms and conditions and competition rules. I don't think I would ever trust a website like this one thought.


http://www.molossia.org/ is a made up nation, The Republic of Molossia. Molossia is actually a town in western Nevada USA. It shows how easy it is to put false information on the Internet. People may think that the site is legitimate because it is authentic looking and updated and maintained regularly. Who ever made this site has put a lot of time and effort into making it look presentable. This website is completely false but not malicious.

Week 3

Today, 14/3/08 was our third lecture and tutorial for UPC0004, Accessing Knowledge. The lecture was all about online databases. The definition of an online database is- an organised collection of information (data), characterised by the use of data fields, that provide procedural methods for retrieving information. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of using online databases, for example a major advantage is that people are able to access them twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. A disadvantage is that some of the online databases are subscription only. Something that I found interesting was that ITunes is classified as an online data base!

In the tutorial we found out how to actually access a database. First we went on the ECU home page, then to the library link, then to the journal articles (databases) link. It was easier than I thought it would be. I found one of my journal articles in the tutorial, for UPC0002, which took a little while to find but at least I got it done.There is a sample screen dump of a meta quest search below. Also in the tutorial we updated our blogger accounts. We did two readings in the tutorial "Finding What You want on the web" and "Bare Bones Lesson 7: Basic Search Tips". The first article, Finding What You Want on web, was about a man who's new years resolution was to break his addiction of using Google. He instead has chosen to use Yahoo!, HotBot, Kartoo, Fazzle and Vivisimo. The second article I found particularly helpful and interesting as it had tips that can maximise the return of hits on search engines.

Week 2

Today is the 7th of March 2008, and it is my second week at university and my second lecture and tutorial in UPC0004. In the lecture today Dr. Helen's lap top wouldn't connect to the projector so she asked us a task to discuss with the people who we were sitting next to.
1. List all of the Microsoft Office programs you know.
2.Name all of the Internet browsers you know.
3. Name some new websites you have visited in your first week at university.

Microsoft office programs include-
Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access, Front page, Publisher, Outlook etc

Internet Browsers include-
FireFox, Yahoo, Safari, Oprah etc

New websites I have visited include-
Black board, Blogger.com, my ecu

In the tutorial we worked in Excel making a pie graph on how we spend out time. We also had a demonstration of how to insert a contents page on Word and how to make a header and footer. Some time was also spent on adjusting and fixing up our blogger.com profiles.
We also did a reading about using microsoft word for APA tasks, the reading was very complicated and I didnt like the way it was set out, it was very confusing.

Week 1

Today, the 29th of February 2008, is our first lecture and tutorial for UPC0004, Accessing Knowledge. The lecturer is Dr. Helen, she told us about her university experiences, how she has travelled and worked overseas and how she has overcome dyslexia. Dr. Helen said that if she could complete her PHD without being overcome by dyslexia that all of the students in the UPC could and should do just fine. It was inspiring to hear that Dr. Helen didn't let Dyslexia stop her from going to university and obtaining her PHD.

Today was basically an introduction to the unit, there was a week by week planner that showed what topic we would be learning about in each week of the UPC. For example today's topic was an Introduction to University Computing. The lecture was interesting and Dr. Helen had so much to say that we ended up running out of time.

The tutorial was next, with Rachel who is my tutor for UPC0002 as well. First we playing around on Black Board, which is where students can obtain information and unit resources for any of the units they are enrolled in. Next we all made sure we knew how to log into our student email accounts as they are a vital part of communication around the university. Finally we made our blogs on blogger.com, which was a fun way to end the tutorial because we could make it any way we wanted and each of the blogs reflected all of the student's different personalities. Each week we are to post an entry on our blog about our experiences at university and particularly in this unit. We also learnt how to do a screen dump, there is an example below.


We also did a reading called, PC Lube and Tune, which provides usable instructions, tutorials and education on technical subjects for all computer users. I didnt really like the style of the website and the way it was set out. It was quite bland and nothing special.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog! I have made this blog for an assignment for UPC0004- Accessing Knowledge. Every week I will post an entry about my experiences in this unit. After completing this course I hope to study Communications, I'd really like to study journalism and possibly advertising.