Week 12- Social and Ethical Issues

Week 12- Blog 12 Friday 23rd May 2008

Lecture Summary:

This weeks lecture was all about protecting yourself and your computer from the internet. For example viruses an hackers that can gain your personal information.

Helen covered some of the basic problems such as:
•Intellectual Property
•Copyright
•Plagiarism
•Security
•Privacy
•Freedom of Speech
And how you protect yourslef from falling victim to either one of these.

She then finished off with a quiz about the lecture.

Tutorial:

Task 1:

The first task we had to do was visit the Australian copyright council http://www.copyright.org.au/ and choose five information sheets that will help me as an undergraduate student:

The first sheet that i picked was An Introduction to Copyright in Australia . This sheet was very relevant as it Explained the laws and rules about copyrighting in Australia and how important it is as well as warning you that there is consequences. Here are some key points the sheet shows: Copyright protection is free and applies automatically when material is created. There is NO registration system for copyright in Australia. Copyright does not protect ideas, information, styles or techniques. Copyright does not protect names, titles or slogans. There are no general exemptions from copyright law for non-profit organizations.

The second sheet that i picked was the Databases, compilations, tables & forms sheet. The main points that I found from the sheets were: facts and information cannot be protected by copyright, but the tables, dictionaries, databases and catalogues can be protected by copyright. This may mean that you can use the information that is provided but you cannot use the table or form that it is produced in.

The third sheet that i picked was the Quotes and Extract: Copyright Obligations sheet. This one was very relelvant as it covered certain topics and key pointys such as: Whether or not you need permission to use quotes and extracts will generally depend on whether or not what you want to use is a “substantial part” of the work from which it comes.
The concept of a “substantial part” is judged by whether or not what you want to use is important, essential or distinctive. There are some situations in which you can use a “substantial part” without permission.

The fourth sheet that i picked was the Internet: Copying and Downloading material. The key points from the article are: material on the internet may be protected by copyright, as may e-mails. If the material on the website is not copyrighted, permission to use the information will usually be provided on the website it’s self. The most important point from the document was that you may receive the information from someone else, but they may not have permission to use the information, so my them sending it and you using it, may interfere with the copyright laws.

The fifth sheet that i picked was the Research or Study sheet. This article contained information about using copyright material for research or study as well as underlining what is considered fair when using other peoples information. The main key points are
You will not infringe copyright if you use material for the purposes of research or study, provided that your use is fair. You do not need to be enrolled in a course – you could be researching or studying something for yourself. In some cases, specific provisions in the Copyright Act allow people working in libraries to copy material for you if you need it for research or study.

Task 2:

Task 2 was all about visiting the APRA site http://www.apra.com.au/music-users/online_mobile/online_mobile.asp and explain in our learning log what we need to know about music and the web:

The site mainly explains how we breach many conditions when using or downloading music from the internet. The rights that may be exploited are the reproduction of muscial work and the communication to the public of muscial work.This can include anything from using songs as your background music, downloading ringtones for your phone or downloading music to your i-pod/mp3.

Task 3:

This task was all about writing a plan to protect ourselves from attacks on our privacy and security from the web. It had to cover the threats of viruses, Trojans and how you can protect your own personal information. We used these three sites for help: http://netsecurity.about.com/ - http://computer.howstuffworks.com/virus6.htm - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2100282,00.asp

Here is a very sufficient and reliable plan to follow in order to keep as safe as possible on the net from viruses etc.

• You should never double-click on an e-mail attachment that contains an executable. This means documents that may come in the form of .JPG graphic file attachments or a file with an extension like EXE, COM or VBS.Files from microsoft word and other microsoft programs usually come virus free such things as Word files .DOC, spreadsheets .XLS, and images .GIF.


• Never give any personal information such as credit card detail, full name, bank or date of birth out on the internet. Even if you know the person you are directly sending it to, you may not know who is recieving all or parts of it on the way.


• To protect youir self from virus’s and trojan’s you can do numeraus things, using one or more of these things may increase your computers ‘immune system’ and therefore lead to less virus’s and takes you and your computer out of any possible danger.


• Enabeling macros in microsoft documents is recommened, and avoid anything with macros.

Summary of on-line resources
1) The first reading was tips and recommendations on how to protect yourself and the types of soft ware that may help you protect your computer and your files on the internet. It was written by Stanton McCandlish, EFF Technology Director

-posted on http://www.eff.org/wp/effs-top-12-ways-protect-your-online-privacy

It provides some tips and some of the more descent ones are like: -Don't reveal personal details to strangers or just met "friends". Keep a "clean" e-mail address. And don't reply to spammers, for any reason what so ever.

2) The second reading was : http://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/social/workplace/monitoring/

this site has links to other sites that have documented facts about monitoring internet usage in the workplace. The documents were form a wide range of sources and were for and against boss’s monitoring workers internet usage.

3) The final reading was about protecting your private property such a photos, names and products and the site we had was written by Brown and Michael's.

The site was: http://www.bpmlegal.com/overview.html

The webpage outlined procedures and the types of protection that you would need to cover certain documents or files. The three main types of protecting something are:

COPYRIGHT: protects work of composition, authorship or artwork. This may be in the form of photos, pictures, movies or records.

TRADEMARKS: they protect the name and logo of something. This could come in the way of, the packaging of a product, the logo designed especially for the product, or even the sound for a product, such as a theme song, or a signature sound.

PATENTS: this is for methods of doing something, or can be described as ‘useful’ things. Under patents there a three sub patents which cover a range of things such as plant material or discover new plants (Plant Patents.) Design Patents can be described as covering not the usefulness of something but the shape or model of something. For example a car manufacturer may put this on the body shape of a car. The last of the subheadings is Utility patents, which covers the invention its self, or method of doing something.

Week 11 - Building Knowledge

Week 11- Blog 11 Friday 16th May 2008


Morning Lecture:

The week 11 lecture was all about data, information and knowledge. It revolved around conceptualising the gap between cognitive-space & cyber-space. Dr. Cripps asked us a few random questions such as what is a Boolean search? What strategies can you use to give a great presentation? What criteria can be used for evaluation of websites? etc. Then the rest of the lecture she explained definitions of datum, information and knowledge. As well as the relationship between them and looking at them from different perspectives. She then finished up with strategies for assignment work, for example finding data and information as well as using your knowledge to create a very good assignment.


Tutorial/Workshop


Task 1

We had to search web dictionaries and find definitions for the terms data, information, knowledge and wisdom. Then from these definitions we had to make our own and here they are:

• Data = Information which is usually factual and can come in the forms of measurements and statistics which can be used as a basis for calculation, reasoning or discussion.


• Information= Facts or knowledge provided or learned, it can come in different forms and provided for different topics.


• Knowledge= The amount of skills and information acquired and remembered either through education or experience
  
• Wisdom= The body of knowledge and experience that develops within a specified society or period.

Task 2

This task was all about creating a different way of presenting these terms in the form of a graphical presentation. Below:

Task 3

We had to outline briefly how understanding the relationship between data, information and knowledge could help our university studies:

The relationship between data, information and knowledge I would say as collecting large amounts of data, which can be written down or slightly remembered, which can lead to receiving more information, after collecting and receiving information and using it repeatedly it becomes knowledge to you. This way at university if you have to note down plenty of data and information you the more you use it, then it becomes stored in your brain and can be classified as knowledge.

Task 5

Making a list of five organisations that collect information from their clients or public and why they might collect this information:

1. Well firstly the schools own "Blackboard" is trying to collect data and information in order to better the site. By sending out surveys to students an teachers alike they fill these surveys in and when received they go over them and see how they can improve blackboard in order to benefit its users.
2. Optus, collects information from its users mainly through phone surveys and they mainly get asked what they think about the company and how they compare to other telephone companies, they also ask them how they could stand out and what would appeal and attract more customers.
3. World vision, this organisation collects data and information in order to show other countries around the world the statistics and downside of living in a third world country, this way they can get more people to donate and support these less fortunate countries.
4. ECU is also sending out surveys in order to see how effective and efficient the University Preparation Course is. They sent the surveys out through e-mail and we fill them in online and send them back. This way the students can express their thoughts and let the school know how effective the course is.
5. McDonald's sometimes has surveys for the public on what they thought about customer service and how they were treated as customers. These surveys help the managers decide on how well staff works and how their restaurant rates compared to others.

Readings Summary:

The first reading was from the site : http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm

This site had a very straight forward outline towards data, information, knowledge and wisdom. It summarised each topic and i found it very efficient as it helped me understand the definitions of each. The site was very managable and basic, making it easy to use and understand with graphs as well as references at the end.

What i found very relevant and interesting on this site was Russell Ackoff's , a systems theorist and professor of organizational change, and how the content of the human mind can be classified into five categories:

1. Data: symbols
2. Information: data that are processed to be useful; provides answers to "who", "what", "where", and "when" questions
3. Knowledge: application of data and information; answers "how" questions
4. Understanding: appreciation of "why"
5. Wisdom: evaluated understanding.

The second reading was from the site: http://camellia.shc.edu/literacy/index.html

This website mainly focused on knowledge. It contained lessons on knowledge and quiz's accordingly to the topic. Some topics covered the organization of knowledge as well as the production of knowledge even how to cite the sources. The site also has assignments that it suggests you should attempt, but only after completing the lessons and quiz's, this way it will make it easier for you to complete the assignment.

Week 10- Information Management

Week 10- Blog 10 Friday 9th May 2008

Morning Lecture:
The morning lecture was all about Information Management and using technology for accessing and organising information. We reviewed an from article from the BBC named Warnings of Internet Overload and Dr. Cripps asked us a few questions such as listing three main points about it and what we think information overload is.


Tutorial:
The first task we were asked to complete was to visit the site http://www.inette.com/aibtinette/favoritesI.html and complete the tutorial on saving favourites and bookmarks. Then we had to use the information in the tutorial to set up a favourites list that has three folders in it, each with at least two websites marked as favourites.



The next task we were asked to do was to read Negroponte's famous "Being Digital" archive online, and create a short review about it and see if some of his information is relevant today:

I believe Negroponte's ideas are still relevant, as he has outlined the pro’s and con’s of both arguments and they are still issues that are relevant in today’s society. The comment about the "digital media and how its self may not be worth $200 but the files and documents contained within it are priceless". I think that he has touched up on some very relevant and interesting information that can be linked to things even to this day, even though he has written it about 13 years ago the pro's and con's of atoms compared to bits are still true today.

ATOMS
Pro’s.
-they are easy to protect.
-difficult to chage, meaning that the information still remains factual.
-difficult to replicate.

Con’s
-they are bulky, such as books and big reports.
-they are costly to reproduce.*they are difficult to change, meaning that the informaiton can not be eaisly updated.
-they are difficult to distribute.

BITS
Pro's
-they are flexible
-cheap to run and exicute.
-easy to edit, and update factual information.
-easy to mass produce, meaning that they can be reproduced to convey to a wide array of media.

Con’s.
-there may be privacy issues
-authenticy issues may arise due to the fact they are easily changed and edited.

Readings Summary:
The online readings provided outlines on the fact that young people are not entirley thinking for them selves these days, and the internet is a big contribution to this as it supplies them with irrelevant ideas and information.
http://www.fno.org/text/grazing.html

We also had the BBC video on knowledge management and the web.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7200000/newsid_7209800?redirect=7209805.stm&news=1&nbwm=1&nbram=1&bbwm=1&bbram=1&asb=1

Week 9 - Communications

Week 9- Blog 9 Friday 9th May 2008

Lecture:

Week nine lecture was combined with the week eight one because of ANZAC day, the lecture was all about communications and how Information and Communication Technology has changed the way people can communicate not only within offices but around the world.
-Their is all sorts of different people that need to communicate:
-For example it can be between individuals
-between individuals and organisations
- within a business
- between a business and an external organisation


We also had some examples of ICT - things such as Mobile telephone (3G network), Video and tele-conferencing, ipods, mp3, lap-tops, Electronic Mail (e-mail), Multi-media communications.
We also skimmed on ICT programs such as msn messenger, discussion boards and forums as well as Internet relay chat and podcasts.


Even the blogs we are creating are forms of ICT and another major one is the e-mail. With people receiving more then 60 emails a day, its by far one of the largest forms of communication in companies an business’ today.
We also looked at the benefits and drawbacks of ICT and how they effect certain people and companies.


To sum it all up there is a large range of communications available to university students today. They have the potential to provide: Great sources of information, communication tools to suit many purposes and a variety of contexts.

Tutorial:

Visiting Google and finding a topic that interests me, i had to investigate the messages posted on the bulletins and record what i found in my blog:

I entered "soccer" in the search term under groups and the groups that i found were

• rec.sport.soccer


• alt.obituaries


• alt.games.video.sony-playstation2


• ne.general


• Society's Child

After viewing some of the messages and bulletin boards i found out that most of these topics revolve around the sports popularity and its effect on society. They also point out how soccer is the most popular sport in the world and how you need to use your brain and not just your body. One of the sites actually compares soccer to footy and explains how much better it is.

Benefits for University students in relation to podcasts:

Podcasts could be real life savers for uni students as it can save them a very long drive or even missing a lecture. For example if a student lives very far away and the only thing they have at uni that day is a lecture, it saves them time and petrol because they can just watch it online. Also if a student can't make it to uni that day because of some other reason then they can again just watch it on the podcast.

Reading Summary:

This weeks reading was all about spam mail. It pretty much explained how useless spam mail is and what it is. SPAM is other wise known as electronic junk. The website provided information about spamming uses and functions, also giving us detailed descriptions about the types and uses.
http://www.caube.org.au/problem.htm

The other two reading were

1) Article: 14 Email Do's and Don'ts - Ways to make your messages more efficient and effective: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page6175.cfm

2) Article: Essential Email Etiquette - Avoid common pitfalls when composing your messages: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page4815.cfm

Week 8- Presentation Startegies

week 8- blog 8 Friday 2nd May 2008



Lecture


During week eight we had a public holiday because of ANZAC day there for Dr. Cripps went through both week eight and nine lectures in week nine’s one.
The week 8 lecture was about power point presentation strategies and how to present oral assessments. We viewed the different types of presentations as well as how to structure one. Things like the introduction, body and conclusion, also using audio and visual aids. Preparing the presentation and yourself was also discussed; Dr. Cripps gave us strategies on self preparation and audience involvement.

Workshop/Tutorial


Part 1- For the week 8 tutorial we were asked to go to the site http://www.personal.psu.edu/uxg3/blogs/undergraduateresearch/2008/02/online-resources-for-how-to-pr.html and use this, as well as information from week eights lecture, to make a "Top Five" list of strategies to help us deliver a top-notch presentation.


TOP FIVE LIST:


1) Obtain relevant and important information for your topic
2) Structure your presentation correctly
3) Prepare for the presentation
4) Use audio/visual tools to enhance your presentation
5) Include strategies for audience involvement


Part2- We were asked to produce a 6 slide power point presentation on our ideas of how to give a low impact power point presentation and post it on our blog:

slide one:

slide two:



slide three:



slide four:



slide five:



slide six:



Reading Summary:

The online resources for week 8 were some online tutorials designed to improve your power point skills.There were 3 websites on how to give a bad presentation. The first was David A. Patterson Computer Science Division, University of California-Berkeley Circa 1983.His webpage was designed as the 10 commandments, the site was really helpful and i didn't bother looking at the other sites because everything i needed to know was on Pattersons site.

http://www.presentationhelper.co.uk/badpresentation.htm

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10881_11-6107629.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=tr

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/321/7276/1570

Week 7- End Note Libraries

Week 7- Blog 7 Friday 11Th April 2008



Morning Lecture:

In the morning lecture Dr. Cripps again helped us with the assignment and explained a bit more about it. Then she started the slides and they were all about end notes. What is an end note? How is it used? How does it help? When do you use it? etc.

For example an end note is a database that can be used as a reference manager and a bibliography maker. It can be used in two ways- as a standalone program or integrated into MS word.


Tutorial:


Task 1

Referencing five different types of electronic formats

1)

CEI Launches National Ad Campaign on the Impact of Al Gore’s Global Warming Policies [Global warming. Org]. Retrieved April 11th, 2008, from CEI:
http://globalwarming.org/


2)

Farson, R. 9n.d.). Management by design. Retrieved July 4, 2006, from
http://www.wbsi.org/farson/com_mgtbydesignr.htm


3)

Chen, G., Liu, C., &Tjosvold. (2005, March). Conflict management for effective top management teams and innovation in China. Journal of Management Studies, 42(2).


4)

Finkelstein, S., & Jackson, E.M. (2005, Sep/Oct). Immunity from implosion: Building smart leadership. Ivey Business Journal Online. 1.


5)

Goldsmith, M. (2006, June). Where the work of executive coaching lies.

Consulting to Management, 17(2), 15.


Task 2

-complete the “Endnotev11 Exercises for Vista" which i have done!

Task 3

-Using the End Note library you have created complete the tasks in italics in the document.

Here is a screen capture below-

These are the End Text references-

Today's Tutorial didn't have much theory, it was mainly practical so therefor our blogs didn't have as much written product. But the whole point was to explain end notes as well as in text citations and how to use them in assignments etc.

No Extra Readings to Summarize.

Week 6- Evaluation and Authetication

Week 6- Blog 6 Friday 4th April 2008


Morning Lecture:

In today's lecture Helen went through the lecture slides, as wel as through the new assesment (2), the group assignment , and explained what is expected as wel as briefly outlining the three parts. We went through the lecture slides, indicators of quality, stratigies for evaluating and principals to concider.

Tutorial:

Task 1: In the tutorial we were asked to visit the "ithaca" site and review the strategies for evaluating information found on websites.

• make sure that you are where you want to be.



• if in doubt, doubt it!



• consider the source, dose it appear to be credible?



• look at the details, such as the author, date, publication details.
  

After these first initial steps, to further critique you need to think about:

Authority: the authors or publishers and what gives them the right or expertise to write the information.

Objective: what is their point of view and is it bias?

Coverage: dose the site cover aspects of your research that you are looking for? Is the language of higher levels and is the information of good standard?

Value: was it worth visiting, would you go back their for information?

Text analysis: is the text free from spelling and grammar mistakes and careless errors?

All the above information is from ICYouSee Critical Thinking page, this compared to the information that I found at the INCO 48 which I didnt find as well put together and useful, the website at INCO 48 is neater and pleasant to look at.

Helen also told us to look at and gain tips of the http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html website:


I scanned the site for information and it was pretty basic and very similar to the previous two webpages. So there is really no point of repeating the information above.


Task2: In the second task we were asked to complete the "Reliving the Sixties: a Web Site Evaluation Assignment" on the ICYouSee website.

The first site i picked was D- "The Psychedelic '60s"



Accuracy: The information on the site appears to be very factual, well structured and researched. The webpage was copyrighted for 1998, but updated in January 2008 which leads me to believe that it is well maintained and new information is updated regularly.

Authorship: it gives details of the publishers and where they are from, which is a very good credibility point. And the fact that it was produced by a university also goes along way to help its credibility.

Purpose: the purpose of the site is to inform and update people’s knowledge of the sixties, it is in no way bias or pushing any point of view about the era.

Detail and design: the design of the web page is very well thought about with clear links to the specific topics about the sixties, the color scheme is very “sixties” with rainbow colored links. The layout of the webpage is very easy to use and to maneuver through, with the homepage having the links on either side of the main heading.

Overall worth: Descent page, all of the information was researched well and as it was recently updated which means it is well maintained and looked after, I would recommend this site to anyone doing a project on the sixties or if they need information about the sixties.

The second site i picked was E- "The sixties project"



Accuracy: The information on the site appears to be well researched, but completely useless. Another thing is that the site isn’t well maintained, it is completely safe to say this because the site was last updated in January 1999 over 9 years ago.

Authorship: the publication details for the webpage seem to be very clear and concise with contact details such as an e-mail and a postal address, a long with information about the company that designed the website.

Purpose: the purpose of the webpage is to simply inform people of today about some of the things that happened in the 60’s and also they have stories that you can read from other people that have visited the site.

Detail & Design: the detail and design is very well thought about, with certain things that remain the same throughout the whole site like where the links section is placed, and the color scheme, font and text size but is dated and a bit on the tacky side!

Overall worth: the web page for what it’s worth is out of date, it was published in 99 , and for example it is using the old school tacky black background with hyper colored text.I don’t know that it was worth visiting, for the simple fact that it is useless information.


Summary of Readings:
We were told not to summarise the readings for this week, but instead pre-read them because they will help us prepare for our group assignments.