Week Seven, 11th April 2008: EndNote Libraries

Lecture
This week’s lecture was on Endnote. For things such as assignments the most time consuming job is to reference. Now thanks to Endnote this isn’t the case anymore.

Endnote is a database that can be used as a reference manager. It can be use in two ways, as a standalone program (reference manager) or integrated into MS word (bibliography manager)

How Endnote works;
Endnote it a flat-file database system, the content is displayed in chosen fields (columns) i.e. author, etc. It can also be displayed in chosen style (ECU uses APA 5th style).

Endnote is downloadable from the ECU library website. The reasons you should use Endnote is that, it handles a variety of types of references, searchable records of references associated with a specific project, it can also be integrated with Microsoft word, which makes it easier when referencing during an assignment.

Tutorial (Work Shop Seven)
The first activity this week was to read through the online referencing guide and then to list five example of different electronic references.

This is what I came up with;

1. Web page-
   Technical specifications (iPhone). [n.d.] Retrieved November, 2007, from Apple: http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html


2. Aggregated database- (e.g. ProQuest)-
   Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & White, L. A. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 443-449. Retrieved October 23, 2000, from PsycARTICLES database


3. Email-
   Office of Research and Development. (1995). ARC large grant guidelines. Email December 2, 1995, from t.lampard@cowan.edu.au/Get ARCLG95


4. CD-ROM-
   The Australian Business Index [CD]. (1993). Nedlands, Western Australia: CD-ROM Publishing.


5. eBook-
   Wilkinson, R., & Marmot, M. (Eds.). (2003). Social determinants of health: The solid facts (2nd ed.). Retrieved December 2, 2007, from http://www.euro.who.int/document/e81384.pdf

The second task was to complete the Endnote exercise for Vista. The three references I created are below.

The last task was to complete the “Cite While You Write” exercise. My finished product is also below.

Screenshots

Screenshot of the three references I completed

Screenshot of the completed "Cite While You Write" exercise

Readings
Resource Summary One: ‘Endnote’
The first resource was a guide to endnote for users at ECU. It included such things as how to build an endnote library, making citations and generating a reference list using endnote on MS Word, etc.

Resource Summary Two: ‘Some additional endnote help’
The second resource was a website to help those who don't understand how to use endnote, it as downloadable information for those people.

Week Six, 4th April 2008: Evaluation & Authentication

Lecture
In this week’s lecture we learnt the values of evaluating a website and the Information Quality (IQ) on the World Wide Web. Information quality or more commonly known as data that is “fir-for-use” is a multidimensional concept. Data that is “fit-for-use” implies that IQ considered appropriate for one use my not possess sufficient attributes for another use, it also that it gives IQ a context.

There are two type of information context on the World Wide Web. The first is Open Protocols, which allows swift and convenient information change, anyone with access to a computer can create web content, also the information published on the web bypasses traditional filters previously used to ensure a degree of Information Quality, which now allows unreliable sources to make web pages that are just spoofs.

The second type of context on the World Wide Web in Open Architecture, which has no enforceable quality control, it doesn’t have enforced classification and meta-tagging systems, it has dynamic/fluid content structure which causes 404 errors, it also has partial index representation.

These two types both has no control of, who publishes on the web, why publishers publish on the web and what exactly is published on the web.

Here are some principles to consider when surfing on the web on how to determine the quality of the content we search is reliable;
- What is the content you are measuring
- Why does the information resource exist?
- Consider if the information is fit-for-use
- Consider the accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency and the coverage.

You should also, when coming across a website consider the authentication.
- Where is it? (Domain type)
- Who wrote it? (Name, position, credentials, etc)
- The source and validation information, and also the references.

This week's leture was very informative and taught me that not every website is reliable and you should always be aware of any website that may look like a spoof. Remember, when in doubt, doubt!

Tutorial (Work Shop Six)
After reviewing the ICYouSee website on http://www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think.html, this is what I came up with as a strategy to evaluate a website;
- Make sure you are in the right place
- When in doubt, doubt!
- Consider the source
- Know what is happening
- Look at the details
- Distinguish web pages from pages found on the web

You should also, always consider, the authorship, accuracy, objectivity, currency, coverage and value. All these tips should be considered when evaluating a web page.

These are all very good tips, and after reviewing the INCO 48 web page on http://www.taftcollege.edu/newTC/Academic/INCO48/sec6-4.htm, I came to find that it too had quite the same tips. There was one tip that the ICYouSee web page did not have that the INCO 48 web page did, this was that when looking at a page, always look at the domain types. Refer to the screenshots section to see the different domain types and their description.

After this task, we were to complete an assignment on the ICYouSee web page http://www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think60.html. There was a list of five web pages, and had to only choose two to evaluate. I chose American Cultural History on http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade60.html and also the Psychedelic ‘60’s on http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/sixties/index.html.

Make sure you are in the right place: Is this site a good source for the information you need? Was the page worth visiting?

- The first webpage I visited on American Cultural History was a good source of information, it had all aspects of life in the sixties in America, such as art & architecture, theatre, film & radio, & television, books and literature, fashion and fads, education, music, events and technology, and sports. If I was looking on information on American History in the sixties, this page would have definitely been worth visiting

- The second page I visited, Psychedelic ‘60’s is also a good source, and it has everything from the sixties, from the Vietnam War to the rock music that was listened too. This page is also worth visiting if information on the sixties in needed.

When in doubt, doubt: Do you have good reason to believe that the information on the site is accurate? Are the facts documented?
- Both webpage were well documented, the information on them I believe are accurate, web page one has the reference it used on each subject.

Consider the source: Who are the authors and who is responsible for the site? What is their expertise? What is their bias?
- Web page one was written by Susan Goodwin, and designed by Peggy Whitley, they are both from Kingwood College.

- Web page two what written by George Riser. His expertise is not included but the site was from the University of Virginia.

Know what's happening: What is the site's purpose or point of view?
-Both sites have the same point of view, all the history of the sixties. There is one difference though, as site one only focuses on the American History, where as site two focuses on all history from the sixties, from the war to all the trend that were made.

Distinguish Web pages from pages found on the Web: Was this page designed for the Web, or is it something else, such as a government document or a journal article?

- Both pages were obviously made for the web, but on site one, all information was taken from books.

Overall this week was very informative, and will help me through out my University studies.



Screenshots

Domain types and their meaning

Screen Shot of web site one, American Cultural History, 1960-1969
Web page two, Psychedelic 60's

Week Five, 28th March 2008: Using Search Engines

Lecture
this week’s lecture was all about search tools. Search tools fall into two main categories; search engines and directories.

What is a search engine?A search engine is a web-based application on the internet, creating indices of websites, usually from the textural information contained on them. Sites are usually indexed according to keywords.

Some examples of search engines are; google.com, yahoo.com, altavista.com, alltheweb.com etc.
There are also many problems to do with search engines, which we learned in the lecture. They are; that search engines may return too many results, some of the websites many have little relevance or quality.

What is a directory?A directory is human-edited, the web pages that are submitted are reviewed and added by manual submission, and this ensures the quality of the web site. After completing the submission process, web pages will be queued for reviewing by a human editor to listing.

Some examples of directories are; dmoz.org, directory.google.com, dir.yahoo.com, looksmart.com, about.com etc.

Tutorial (Work Shop Five)
this week in the tutorial we were to go into http://www.monash.com/spidap.html, a web site. After looking at the website we were to list four strategies that would help structure a good search.

This is what I came up with

1. Use more than one keyword when searching, make sure it is of relevance to what you are searching
2. When searching a phrase remember to use (“”), if this is not done the phrase you type will bring different results than expected.
3. Give some thought into what you want to search. Are you just beginning to just collect different information about a subject or have you got a particular objective in a broad subject.
4. Use the words “and” or “or” in your search criteria to make it specific.

After this task, we were to try an online quiz on history. I managed to finish it by using the four strategies I mentioned above. These strategies had a good effect and worked very nice. In this module I have learnt a lot about search engines and how one phrase without been search specifically can bring in a wide range of results that has nothing to do with the subject in the first place. When searching something, make sure to make it specific so the results are significant. Remember the World Wide Web is filled with many reliable and unreliable sources. It is always best to search something using thought, rather than guess or you will come upon a website that is completely off the topic.

Screenshots

Print screen shot of my finished quiz

Print screen shot of monash.com

Readings

Reading One: ‘Robert Harris-Web Search Strategies’

The first reading on web search strategies included such things as, an overview on the internet, categories you can find on the internet, search tool types, and various search tips. Which is all very informative.

Reading Two: ‘The History of the Internet: (Chap 4- Search Engines)’

The second reading include things such as how to find information on the web, types of directories, search engines, databases and library catalogues.

Reading Three: ‘Search Engine Optimization for Companies’

The third reading is very similar and includes topics to help you make a better search. For example the website tells you to 'set you benchmark'. This site is one you have to pay for, which is called a hidden website.

Week four, 21st March 2008: Using the WWW

Lecture
The lecture this week started off with a few questions, when the internet started, who invented the internet and what WWW stands for. All questions were very informing, I founnd what TCP and IP stand for, which was very useful. The whole lecture was about, the internet vs the web, historical perspective and definging the WWW.

Internet vs web-The internet finds computers and the connections are by cables between computers, where as the net you find documents and the connections are by hypertext links.

Historical Perspective-The internet firsy started in 1989, by Tim Berners-Lee (a researcher at CERN). The reason for the internet was to facilitate sharing research information.

Defining the WWW(world wide web)-The web allows people to access information which is available on the internet. Linked together by a common protocol, network servers allow access to millions of hypertext resources.

WWW protocols-
TCP/IP- Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol
HTTP- Hypertext Transfer Protocol
DNS- Domain Name System
URL- Universal Resource Locator


Tutorial (Work Shop Four)
Each website contains the copyright and the latest edited year. Also each website have a menu which is a usually what an authentic website consist of.

4 clues that give each website away-
http://haggishunt.scotsman.com/
1. The subject is unusual
2. Advertising, an authentic website would not contain unusual advertisements.
3. The quality of the pictures of the haggis are not real, they are probably off the internet.
4. Haggis is not exactly real.

http://www.molossia.org/countryeng.html
1. The marqee on the website seems too over the top.
2. The website does not look very professional for a republic.
3. The official site of a rebublic or any country for that matter would have matters concerning the people, but instead this site only contains unauthentic material such as media, 'special links' etc.
4. "The Government of the Republic of Molossia takes no responsibility for the content of external links" this taken from the site also proves it is a spoof, as an official site would not contain external links containing content not safe to computers.

At first, looking at the URL i thought that http://www.martinlutherking.org/ would be an informative website about Martin Luther King and what he did to become so well known. After looking at the website for the first time, it was clear that the website was a spoof. There are gramatical errors and also unrelevant links to so called 'rap lyrics'

From reseaching other material from Martin Luther King and taking a closer look into martinlutherking.org, it was evident that this web site was written by a person who does not have authentication on the subject.
The biography of Martin Luther King is everywhere and has no coherance what so ever, it is very ammateur and looks like it was made by someone most probably around my age.This is obvious because, by looking at other websites they seem more reliable as the grammar and use of languange is much more understandable and the websites are more trust worthy.

Screen Shots

Print screen shot of the Martin Luther King website

Readings
Reading One: 'A Brief History of the Internet'

This reading (as the title says) just gives a brief history of the internet, on such things as its origins, the initial role of the internet, etc.

Reading Two: ‘ History of the World-wide Web’

The second reading is also on the history of the World Wide Web. It includes such things as, the development of computers, the history of electronic mail, information on search engines, etc.

Week Three, 14th March 2008: Online Libraries & Databases

Lecture
This week we learnt how to get resources on the library, www.ecu.edu.au/library. There are many research options on the ecu website that can used.

There are database where you can findelectronic journals/articles, which is very helpful.

There are many types of libararies which we also learnt in this weeks lectures, online text repositories, online journals, electronic books, musical libraries, and artwork libraries.

There are also many types of online databases, for examples, people searches, online directories, maps and atlases, government information and statistics, and news and media.

This lecture was very useful and informative, as I found out instead of using sources such as google to find information that can sometimes be very unreliable, I can use the ECU databases and find resources that is authentic and at the same time reliabe.

Tutorial (Work Shop Three)
This tutorial gave me a lot of insight on different ways to search things on the internet, instead of using less reliable search engines such as google.

10 useful functions or search tips from the ECU library are:

1. The "imformation about" ecu library can give someone insight on how the library works, any quesries they might have and also opening and closing hours for those who want to come in after lectures/tutorials or on their days off.


2. "resources for" can help students, other researchers, staff with numerous amount of things, such as end note or even get academic tipsheets.


3. "the services" some services the ecu library provides is, loan services, reference guides and document delivery.


4. The "find" function can help students to fine online journals or articles to cite on or to find online catalogues for books, cd's etc.


5. The "learning assisstance" function can help students with any questions on getting started at the library or when the next library work shops are on.


6. The "quick link" function is an easier way to get around the ECU website, for example instead of going back to the homepage to get in to simo, i can easily just click the link on the page and it takes me staright there.


7. Academic tip sheets can be found on the ECU library page, where students who have queries about referencing, plagiarism, or anything at all to do with university.


8. You can also access IT services from the ECU library


9. The "news updates" functions gives information on what is happening at ECU, either at Joondalup or Mt Lawley.


10. There is also a quick search on the ECU libraries if a student is looking for a particular catalogue online.

After searching the economic impacts of global warming on businesses, I found that without narrowing down the search there will be too many results which will make it hard for a person when researching. So by putting punctuation marks on the words you are search the search becomes more to the point and not so wide. After doing this my search results were not so much and Ionly ended up having a final result of 38.

People who might use the Medline plus tutorials on the website would be those who are interested in a particular drug, or are concerned about anything they might or might not have. Also people who have a prescription drug may want to know about it or whats in it.

I researched Angina on the website and it came up with alot of informative results and the active tutorial was very useful for those who don't like spending time reading off the computer and would rather have it spoken out for them.

Screen Shots

Print screen shot of an online journal of the economic impacts of global warming on businesses

Print screen shot of an active tutorial on Angina

Readings
Reading One: ‘Finding what you want on the web’
This reading just clarifies that a good search does not include google and that there are various other ways to search the internet, rather than using google.

Reading Two: ‘Bare Bones Lesson 7: Basic Search Tips’
The second reading just point out different search tips you can use when searching on the web. Such things as using quotations to make it clear it is the phrase you are looking for, use the words 'AND' or 'OR'. Basic tips like these can always narrow down your search.

Week Two, 7th March 2008: Office Applications

Lecture
This week in the lecture i learnt about some of the different internet browsers, for example mozilla, fire fox, safari and netscape.
I also learnt how use the new microsoft word(2007) to make a cover page, it was very confusing at start as i am so use to the 2003 microsoft word. Luckily you can save a 2003 version in the 2007 version.

Tutorial (Work Shop Two)

During the tutorial, we learnt about powerpoint, and completed some activities on microsoft word and exccel.

The tutorial activity consisted of changing the document(two paragraphs we were given) around to suit the proper style of the document according to APA. Also in the activity we were to do some tasks on excel.

After this activity we were to put some reference in alphabetical order.

We also went on to microsoft office website and viewed/listened to the tutorials on the website on how to use excel. To get into these tutorials on the microsoft office website, just follow these steps.

Screen Shots

a. original document

b. Adjusted typeface

c. Adjust the margins and alignment

d. Adjust line spacing

e. create headings

f. Keep headings with text

g. Include header and footer

h. references in alphabetical order

i. End product of my excel activities(table, pie chart and graph)

Readings

Reading One: 'Using MS Word for APA tasks’

The first reading for this week was also used in the tutorial activity. It is all about the apropriate use of APA tasks on Microsoft Word. For example when referencing, the list of references should always be in alphabetical order, this reading shows you how to do that automatically.

Reading Two: Graphic File Formats

This reading tells you the different formats on a computer. For example, a commonly know file format, Jpeg or also know as Joint Photographic Experts Group.

Week One, 29th Feb 2008: Introduction to University Computing

Lecture
First week of uni and the first lecture for UPC 0004. My name is Sofia and that's all you need to know. The lecture today basically introduced us into what the course is about and what we will be doing, ie. what the assignments will consist of and what is expected of us in this unit, for example attending all lectures and tutorials, handing in assignments on time, the importance of not referencing etc.

This unit teaches us all the basics of computing and the essentials of PC's. We will start from workshop 1 in our tutorial and keep a journal each week with different activities to complete. This week;s workshop is the introduction to university computing.

Tutorial (Work Shop One)
Our first task was to explore the ecu website and sign into SIMO and blackboard, also to sign into our email accounts and check if they are up to date and working. Gary asked us to get 2 people to exchange emails.

Our second task was to explore blackboard and to try out each of the quicklinks to find out how to get to unit resources, which is where all the future workshops will be.

Our third task was to set up a blog on http://www.blogger.com/ where we will be recording our on going journal. Each week the blogg should consist of a summary for the lecture and the tutorial, screenshots(using the print screen function on the keyboard) and a summary of the readings given each week in the links on unit resources.
Our fourth task was to creat an account on image shack(http://www.imageshack.us/).

Screenshots

print screen shot of blackboard

Print screen shot of my student webmail

Print screen shot of my blogger all set up

Readings
Reading One: PC Lube and Tune-(PCLT)
PC Lube and Tune is a Service Station and convenience store. The PCLT objective is to supply usable introductions, tutorials, and education on technical subjects to the large audience of computer users. The method is to supply system independent hypertext files through the Internet and World Wide Web.-(PCLT)

On this website, it hold a various amount of interactive tutorials that may help many with questions they may have towards things such as, PC Hardware, Graphic User Interface, etc.

Reading Two: How Stuff Works
How stuff works is a website that has information on just about anything you can think of, from things such as human biology to technology. This week the reading is on How PC's (Personal Computer's) work. A PC is a general purpose tool built around a microprocessor. It has many different parts, such as a memory, a hard disk, a modem, etc. This article is mostly about PC's in the general sense and all the different parts that goes in to a PC.

This is a print screen shot from the website, explaining the different parts of a PC.