Week Five

This week's lecture was about Information Management.

The lecture today was about Atoms and Bits. Justine told us what they were she also told us about the pros and con's of both Atoms and Bits. She also gave us some examples of both. Justine also gave us some principles of organising your bits. She also told us about how we should learn about the most common file extensions. She also talked about search engines and how they can help you get things organised.

In toady's lecture and tutorial I learnt these knew things:

1. First thing I learnt about today was what atoms and bits were.
2. The second was i learnt about the pros and cons about atoms and bits.
3. Third thing I learnt about today was file extensions.
4. The Fourth thing I learnt about was search engines and how you look up things in groups.
5. And the fifth thing was how to do favourite folders and bookmarks.


Today during the tutorial we put website we use a lot into our own favorite's folder. Here is a screen shot of my favorite's folder:

The next task we had to do was read "Being Digital" and then write a short review about the information we got out of the archive and write about 250 words about the pros and cons about "atoms" and "bits".

The pros and cons about atoms are:

Pros: We can see it (we know it exists), we can find it easily enough, we know where it is, we can hide it if we want, we can protect it, difficult to copy and change.

Cons: It's bulky, costs lots, difficult to edit and distribute, inflexible you can't interchange it.

The pros and cons about bits are:

Pros: Very flexible, very cheap, easy to edit, easy to mass produce and broadcast.

Cons: Privacy is an issue because you can copy and steal to easily, authenticity easy to fake and edit information to make different and unsolicited broadcast - SPAM.

Well that's all for this week check for next week for more :).

Brittany Abbott

Week Four

This week's lecture was about communications and how they have changed in the last 20 years. It was also about the applications we use these days to keep in contact with each other.

The main points from the lecture are:
Justine this week talked about how the communication styles and networks that you can have while communicating. She also told us about the four different communications styles. Justine showed us a few examples of ICT uses e.g. Mobile phones, Ipods etc. She talked about emails and the different types of email types you can use. Justine also talked instant messengers e.g. MSN messenger. Also talked about discussion boards and forums. She also informed us about Internet relay Chat. She told us about podcasts, blogs, wiki webs. She also told us about what social networking was which Myspace, Friendster etc. Justine also told us about when emailing that we need to be careful with what we do with them. Also about how we can use emotions and abbreviation's when talking or writing on the Internet or in emails. Another thing Justine told us about was electronic journals and newsletters. At the end Justine just did a little of a summary of communication and how it can benefit university students.

The five points I learnt from the lecture and the tutorial this week are:
1. Firstly I learnt about all the different email systems you can use.
2. Second thing I learnt was about what Instant Relay Chat were.
3. Thirdly I learnt about the major issues that are with sending sending and receiving emails.
4. Fourth thing I learnt today was about how to do group searches.
5. The last thing I learnt about was what a podcast really was and how they can be very useful to people.

In the tutorial this week one of the tasks we were asked to do was make folders in our email accounts. Here is a screen shot showing that I completed this task.

The second task we were asked to do was go to Google group and search a topic that interested us. I searched farming and I found discussion boards with people asking question on what should they do with things that are happening on their farm or what they want to do on their farm.
Then we had to investigate what was in the discussion boards. I found that people were just looking for advice on what to do on their farm. e.g. One farmer's neighbour wants to lease his farm and put sheep on it but the farmer is unsure because he has been told that having sheep brings flies so he just wanted advice about what to do. Most farmers just want advice on how look after sheep or their farm or what to do with their land.

The last task we did was go and look at a few podcast websites. Which I did. Then we had to answer this question: What are the potential benefits of podcasts for university students?

Some of the potential benefits are:

• If a university student missed their lecture if it was recorded as a pod cast then they would be able to listen to it.
• Also if a student wanted to listen to the lecture again for future reference they would be able to if it was available as a pod cast.
• Again if a student didn't understand something the first time going over it again would be beneficial for the student.

Well that would be all for this week. Check for more next week :).

Brittany Abbott

Week Three

This week's lecture was on oral presentations.

Main Pionts from the lecture are:
Today Justine talked about the different types of presentations you can have. She talked about how we can structure are presentation in a good way also how we can prepare for our presentation as well. Justine also talked about visual and audio tools how to get them to help you during your presentation not just take up most of time because most people think that it makes the presentation more interesting for the audience if they have something to look at or hear. Justine gave us some strategies to help us get the audience involved in the presentation.

During the lecture and tutorial this week these are five new thing I learnt:
1. The first thing I learnt was that the audience remembers 10% of what they see, 25% of what they see and hear, 40% of what they hear, see and write down, and 60% of audience involvement.
2. Some strategies to help audience involvement.
3. Just use Microsoft Powerpoint as a backup and a summary of what you are saying.
4. I learnt about the good ways and the bad ways to give a presentation during the tutorials.
5. I also learnt about how to set up a good introduction for a presentation.

Tutorial Activities for this week:
Five Top Strategies To Give A Good Oral Presentation.

1. KISS (Keep it simple stupid)
2. Get the audience if possible involved some how because they get more out of it.
3. Practice your talk over and over again so you know what your going to say and just so you know what your talk is about.
4. Have goals during your speech what do you want the audience to get out of what you say.
5. Prepare for your talk don't leave it to the last minute or rush it all at the end. (not a good thing to do!)

In the tutorial this week we had to make a slide show about our selves. Here is a screen shot of my slide show.

















Thats all for this week. Just wait for next week :)...

Brittany Abbott

Week Two

This week's lecture was about the common tasks that we would be required to do while being at University. Also told and shown a few of the applications we would be using to carry out most of the tasks. We were told about a few of the other things we would be learning about in lecture's coming up after the mid break.

We were told about common PC tasks we would be learning about and the applications that we would do the tasks in. Justine also explained that various tasks require different skills and knowledge depending on what task we would be doing. She also explained the importance of file management and how it is easy to find things if you have a good file system. Justine told us about how when doing a word document at a university level that's there's a bit more to it then just writing it and printing it out. Justine then went on to tells us a bit about Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Also Internet Explorer. She told us about KISS (Keep it simple stupid). Which I think is a good rule. Justine also told us about the skills we will need for this course and the ones that we will acquire along the way during this course.

During the lecture and the tutorial I learn 5 new things.
1. I learn a few new things that you can do in Microsoft Word and Excel.
2. The second thing I learnt about is that there is more to just writing and doing a Word document at a university level. There are a few other new things you have to do.
3. The third was I learnt about the skills I would need/ and or acquire.
4. The fourth I learnt about was how not to over do things when using some applications.
5. Fifth thing I learnt today was keeping things simple is a very good thing.

In the workshop this week we had to do a Word document and edit some information and also do a Excel spreadsheet.

Here is a screen shot of the Word document that I did.





















Here is a screen shot of the Excel spreadsheet I did.



























Well thats all for this week. Just wait for next week :)...

Brittany Abbott

Week One

In this week's lecture it was just a bit of an introduction about the course and about the Unit UPC0004 Accessing and Organising Knowledge.

The main points of the lecture were: The lecture was about how us students should know how to use the ECU website and get to know our way around the campus. We were informed that there was six modules in this unit and three assessments to complete. Also learnt some of the responsibilities we should have. We were told about Module One: Using Computers and what computers these days are used for.

During the lecture and the workshop I learnt a few new things that I didn't know before. One thing I learnt was that all results may be scaled at the end of the course. Also learnt what a weblog was and how to start one up. I learnt that there is a thing called image shack where you can store images on the Internet and how to do that as well.

In the workshop I checked to make sure that my email was working. Here are some screen shots showing you this.































Next I set up my online blogger account. Here is a screen shot of what it looks like.

After that I set up my image shack account. Here is a screen shot showing my image shack account.

Well that's all for the moment. Just wait for next week :)...

Brittany Abbott