Week 12 Blog

Lecture Summary:

Social & Ethical Issues

The risks of identity theft for those who publish to much personal information on social internet sites

These are issues due to the open protocols or the internet, and the lack of enforceable standards on a global level, there is also no control on bias, or unethical information, internet users are either smart or dumb and their decisions are based on their experience or inexperience with the internet.

Problems with the internet – intellectual property, copyright, plagiarism, security, privacy, and freedom of speech

Intellectual property – inventions, ideas, music, movies

Copyright – “the right to copy” music, images, movies etc


Plagiarism – using others ideas and words without acknowledging their work

Privacy – freedom vs. protection of information, rights of individuals and/or organisations publishing particular information

Security – hackers, virus contamination, spam, spyware

Tips on protecting yourself on the internet, firewalls are essential, and regular virus scans are essential to ensure your pc is optimised and safe from hackers and virus attacks, beware of spyware, and dodgy email attachments


Workshop Write Up:

Visit the website for the Australian copyright council. http://www.copyright.org.au/ review five information sheets that will be or are relevant to you.




Broadband Content – contains key information regarding to the use of other peoples material on your website, the licensing arrangements you will enter into, how you or your broadband provided will be protected from infringement, moral rights in regards to the creator of a particular piece of material

Databases, compilation, tables and forms – copyright protects compilations, catalogues, databases, dictionaries, and tables, you do not need permission to reproduce particular facts from a compilation, for example telephone numbers

Videos and DVDs Copying and downloading – it is legal for someone to copy a videotape he or she owns onto a DVD for private and domestic use, If you download a movie from the Internet for free, it may be a pirate copy, which means you infringe copyright
by downloading it.

Music copying mp3’s, cd - It is now legal to copy recorded music you own (such as a CD) to play on a device you own (such as an iPod), Subject to certain conditions, If you agree to certain conditions before downloading a music file, those conditions still apply; they are not overridden by the new provision in the Copyright Act which allows copies of recorded music.
I found that the information sheets gave a detailed account on the issues of plagiarism and copy right, as well as the consequences involved. The information sheets also gave brief examples of cases.


After that we had to go to the APRA website and learn about music downloads. The site basically states that copying music off the internet for 'free' is similar to stealing as the songwriters and the artists don't get paid




Using the following sites to write a plan to protect one’s self from the threats of viruses, spyware, and hackers http://netsecurity.about.com/, http://computer.howstuffworks.com/virus6.htm, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2100282,00.asp

The evolution of technology sees a new breed of viruses, spyware, and hackers. There are many different ways of combating these.

To protect yourself against viruses, purchasing virus protection software or equivalent firewall and combined virus protection software to prevent unwanted files and users gaining access to your personal information. Avoid the use of programs for unknown sources ensure the quality before installing, never open email attachments that are .exe files as these often contain viruses that will upload to your computer.

Spyware is most commonly associated with fraudulent web pages, or phishing scams which are often fake emails or account confirmation pages and steal user information and spam other users. In the case of bank accounts what is commonly happening is a fake email from your bank is being sent, and asking the user to confirm their account details the phisher than using this to gain access to the account. There are not many ways to prevent phishing but installation of a SPAM email client to reject phishing emails, reporting of phishing web sites.

Hackers are highly computer literate individuals who have immense skill in breaching a computers network security using complex scripting procedures and clever methods of breaching ones computer security. There is always a way for a hacker to gain access to your computer, but methods to deter them, or slow them down, are installations of encryption systems on a pc, quality firewalls to block intruders and so on.

Summary of Readings:

EFF’s top 12 ways to protect your online privacy

1. Do not reveal personal information inadvertently
2. Turn on cookie notices in your web browser
3. Keep a clean e-mail address – for sites which require an email address use a disposable one hotmail, Gmail etc, keep a ISP email address for personal needs
4. Don’t reveal personal details to strangers or just-met “friends” – if you meet someone online, there are risks associated. People often aren’t who they are online, they change certain facts about themselves
5. Realise in the workplace you may be monitored, avoid sending highly personal emails, keep sensitive files on home pc – most employees have little privacy at their place of work regarding email, and computer communications they are part of
6. Beware of sites which offer a reward in exchange for you contact information or personal details – often the companies on sell your information for more money, and you don’t often win or receive you prize
7. Do not reply to spammers – replying to a spam email, only furthers the problem as often that allows them to gain access to your address book and spam your contacts without resolving the initial issue
8. Be conscious of web security – never submit credit card details or personal information, to sites that aren’t trustworthy, or do not have sufficient encryption
9. Be conscious of home computer security – ensure your homes high speed DSL, or Cable connection to the internet is properly firewalled, or virus protected as these means of high speed internet access, also leave you open to high speed data theft and security breaches from hackers
10. Examine privacy policies
11. Remember you alone decide what information to reveal about yourself
12. Use encryption – use quality encryption on all matters for your computer

Monitoring

Types of monitoring computer users are susceptible to:

• Workplace monitoring
• Keystroke logging in the work environment
• The pros and cons related to monitoring within the workplace environment and legal implications in the event of ‘privacy’ breaches, and at which point the monitoring crosses the line.
• Who should actually be monitored in the workplace environment

Intellectual Property Overview

Methods of protecting intellectual property

• Utility Patents, Plant Patents, Design Patents
• Trademarks
• Copyrights
• Laws regarding computer software have evolved over time, as technology changes. Some aspects of computer software that have been possible to patent such as the methods involved in data compression and transmission
• Domain names also have the ability to be registered as trademarks.

Week 11 Blog

Lecture Summary:

Building Knowledge

Datum – fact or proposition

Information – collection of facts or data that relate to each other

Knowledge – sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered or learned

Data is factual, non judgemental, non inferential, transient, no meaning or value
Information is summative, relational, dimensional, permanent, has meaning and uncertain value

Knowledge is inferential, experiential, judgmental, subjective, and very valuable

The importance of data, information, and knowledge is invaluable. Data is a collection of valid unbiased data, which is representative of something. Information is relational, meaningful and informative. Knowledge is a logical conclusion to a particular topic.

Data is individual facts or propositions each with their own limited value, information is a collection of facts that establishes trends and draws results, and knowledge is how human experience and understanding of a topic is portrayed.

Data is raw information, information is data that has been given meaning by relational connection, and knowledge is an appropriate collection of information with the intent to be useful.

Strategies for assignment work

Workshop Write Up:

Browse the following webpage http://www.success.co.il/is/dik.html find a online dictionary to retrieve definitions for the terms, data, information, knowledge, and wisdom.

Using the website dictionary.com retrieved definitions for the following terms

Data – a single piece of fact, information, or a statistic related to a particular topic

Information – knowledge communicated or received concerning a particular fact or event

Knowledge – a fact or piece of information that is known to an individual is said to be Knowledge

Wisdom – scholarly knowledge or learning

Outline the relationship between data, information, and knowledge

If an individual can understand the relationship between data, information, and knowledge they will have learnt the most effective way of utilising the information that they are learning within their chosen topic.

Types of organisations that collect information from their users are Banks, myspace, magazine subscriptions to ensure data integrity, and a means of contacting an individual for any reason deemed neccesary

Summary of Readings:

Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom

Systems theorist Russell Ackoff has stated that the content of the human mind can be classified into five categories, data, information, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

Data represents raw information, it exists and has no significance beyond itself

Information is data that is given meaning by relational connection

Knowledge is the appropriate collection of information, which its intent is to be useful as for this knowledge to be retained by an individual it is necessary for it to be useful to ensure it is retained

Understanding is the analytical process by which an individual begins to deconstruct and comprehend the newly acquired information to convert it to knowledge

Wisdom is a combination of the previous 4 categories in an effort to help the individual understand fully what was previously not known, and how to put that new understanding to use in a practical situation

Information Literacy Tutorial

This is not an article. It is an online tutorial that gives lessons on how to write essays other papers. It also has quizes to help people understand the skills they have learnt

Week 10 Blog

Lecture Summary:

Information Management

A major problem faced by individuals is a way to manage their information, in an effecient way, and organise it logically.

Types of information formatting:
Atom Based, Books, Journals, Reports

• Pros – we can see it, easy to conceal, easy to protect, hard to modify, difficult to copy


• Cons – Bulky, Costly, Difficult to edit, and redistribute

Bit Based, digital reproductions, electronic content

• Pros – flexible, cheap, easy to use an edit, easy to mass produce


• Cons – Privacy, authenticity, unsolicited broadcast

The Changed face of goods and services – internet banking, email, mp3 players

The changing face of goods and services – TV, music, shopping

Principles for organising your computer

Tips on how to search and categorise your information

Workshop Write Up:

Complete the tutorial on http://www.inette.com/aibtinette/favoritesI.html regarding how to make a favourites list

Use the information to create your own favourites list

Read Negropontes famous “Being Digital” article http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/nn/bdcont.htm and write a 150 word summary on the information covered and its relevance

Negroponte’s opinion was that over time the events or actions within the real world, will eventually become digitalised so that things are all available on demand when a particular user requests them, without delays of manufacturing, and delivery, or purchasing of books, or media etc. Atom based media has been designed to be relatively in expensive and available to those who request it, a disadvantage in the case of a book, is often if a book is popular or substantially old, that text will not be in stock and will have to be reprinted which costs more money an requires more time.

Bit based media which is based on digital or electronic formats of particular items, has been developed as an effective means of distribution of a particular piece of information globally in the most reliable way possible. In the example of a book, in online format it always there an available to anyone, located anywhere in the world. The negative is this type of information is easily modifiable, and can often be inappropriately used by those who view it.

Summary of Readings:

Grazing the Net

Information on the raising young individuals to think and explore, and make meaning of the information they discover on the internet.

How to develop students as infotectives, and enhance their ability to distinguish reputable information from non peer reviewed sites

Teaching them effective methods of information recovery, and effective searching tips to retrieve reputable and relevant information to their desired topic

Tips on how to manage information, and how to assess its quality

Week 9 Blog

Lecture Summary:

Communication:


Communication in the world has changed since its initial conception due to advancements in Information and Communication Technology


Communication can be – between individuals, and organisations


Communication takes place within a chain network, circle, wheel, or all channel networks


Types of communication synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous all parties have to be engaged at the same time, asynchronous parties take turn in their own time


Examples of ICT use – mobile phone, video tele conferencing, iPods mp3’s, e-mail, multimedia communications


Merging technology is seeing one device incorporating many to enable individuals to carry one all in one piece of equipment which satisfies all their technology needs.


Types of ICT applications, Messenger, Discussion forum, and bulletin boards, internet relay chats, podcasts, blogs, wiki webs, social networking

Netiquette and chat abbreviations commonly used in instant messaging and forums and discussion boards

Benefits of using ICT, electronic journals, news articles, podcasts, real time communication vast storage of online media, available all the time

Workshop Write Up:

Visit google.com click on the groups tab, an search for a topic of interest, I searched for mobile phones

The results then displayed are a list of blogs, bulletin boards, and pages dedicated to the discussion of that search term.




Visit a podcast hosting site such as http://podcasts.yahoo.com/ search for a topic of interest and listen to at least one blog from the results




View the library’s website containing information related to podcasts http://www.ecu.edu.au/library/services/podcasts.html contains a few of the helpful uses that podcasts can provide, what equipment is needed to listen to the podcast, and also the podcasts available through the ECU library page (library tours, information about the types of journals, purpose of annotated bibliographies)





Summary of Readings:

Guide to using email:

14 do’s and don’ts:

1. Ensure the email is the appropriate method of communication


2. Be direct to the point, avoid wasting the recipients time with unnecessary information


3. If asking a question be sure the recipient will be able to understand you need a response


4. Specify who should respond, in the event of a group email users included in that ‘group’ if not specified will often use that as a way of not doing work, specify who you are asking to complete a certain task


5. Ensure you are clear about when you need a response, end of the day, end of week etc


6. Provide a suitable context to outline the message


7. Ensure you use correct grammar and punctuation, ensure you utilise spell checker


8. One topic per message, don’t over crowd messages with more than one topic of question as this can lead to confusion and questions being overlooked


9. Provide a summary when you forward an ‘FYI’ email, explain to the recipient why you are forwarding this to them, and what information in it is related to them


10. Don’t make assumptions about the senders emotional state, unless specified they are angry with you for something you have done, don’t assume there email was intended to be rude, or critical


11. Avoid escalating conflicts by replying with an emotionally charged response


12. Ask for clarification, if unsure of the sender’s original intentions.


13. Use your email softwares tools to help organise your messages


14. It is not necessary to respond to every message straight away

Essential Email Etiquette:

1. Think of an appropriate subject


2. Address Recipients properly


3. Select an appropriate tone


4. Avoid the uses of irony and sarcasm


5. Edit your message


6. Keep messages short and simple

YouTube videos:

Contains ‘common’ sense tips about basic email etiquette or ‘netiquette’ in the workplace and how to distinguish between, the workplace environment and the home or friend environment where your style of messaging must change. As the method in which you communicate to your boss or co-workers varies greatly from that to communicating with your closest friend or “BFF”

Week 8 Blog

Lecture Summary:

Presentation Strategies:

Types of presentations:

• Self contained – web page, CD-Rom, video


• Written Presentation – essay, paper


• Stand and Deliver – Oral Presentation

Visual messages are not enough on their own they require further explanation.

Structure of a presentation: Introduction, Body, Conclusion (summary recommendations)

Six components to an introduction: Attention Getters, Thesis Statement, Audience Adaptation, Credibility Statement, Preview, Transition to the body

Four components to the body: Main ideas, Organisational Patterns, Connective Devices, References to Outside Research

Three components to the conclusion: Re-assert/Reinforce the Thesis, Review the Main Points, Close Effectively

Preparing for a presentation: Professional appearance, always have a backup, rehearse your talk, if possible test your PowerPoint slides before hand at the venue to ensure they work.

Don’t make the PowerPoint Presentation the main point, use it as a means of reinforcement your talk should contain more information than your PowerPoint.

Ensure you only add relevant items to the PowerPoint – choose subtle contrasting backgrounds, suitable texts, use animation effects consistently, don’t use sounds, don’t use irrelevant graphics.

Strategies for audience involvement: Knowing your audience, use relevant examples and anecdotes, make eye contact, speak clearly, and follow structure.

Workshop Write Up:


Visit Laura Guertin’s online resource for how to prepare and deliver a presentation http://www.personal.psu.edu/uxg3/blogs/undergraduateresearch/2008/02/online-resources-for-how-to-pr.html



Create a top five list of strategies to aid in delivering a good presentation

1. Enthusiasm is essential, use humour but use it wisely


2. Planning and preparation is vital


3. Pay attention to the type of audience you will present in front of, ensure your presentation is tailored towards them.


4. Keep your presentation slides simple, don’t overload with information


5. Take your time!

Create a PowerPoint presentation on how to deliver a low impact presentation.

Slide 1

Slide 2



Slide 3



Slide 4



Slide 5



Slide 6



Summary of Readings:

Meeting PowerPoint in the classroom

Contains useful information and tips for a beginner’s introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint.
How to use the functions PowerPoint offers:

• Animations,


• Effects,


• Transitions,


• Sounds,


• Timing,


• How to rehearse


• Most importantly how to transport your presentation and ensure all information is retained, and external links are not lost