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