Reflection on NET11

When we started the course I found many of the initial tasks annoying, as I would already have considered myself an 'advanced internet user'. Many of those Mod 1 tasks I was already very familiar with as I started using computers over 20 years ago.

I tend to have a very hands on approach to maintaining my personal computers. This means I have often had to research and learn many of the aspects we covered in the early modules. On reading many threads on the discussion board, I was, not exactly surprised, but maybe perplexed, by many other students who found these tasks either challenging or very enlightening. I should know from my own experience in helping people, that many computer users turn on their computers and never want to know what goes on in the background. Incidentally, it is these people that keep my brother's business busy and continually growning.

Usually they are frightened by the fact that they don't know much about how computers operate. I have come to believe NET11 or a study program like this would be good for a large part of the population that need to use computers, particularly in the work place. Ignorant computer users in the work place cause many lost hours of work, because they're unwilling to learn how to do the basic tasks that we covered in Modules one - four.

Some of module three and all of module four is where the unit became interesting for me. Particularly Boolean searching etc, probably because of my library background.

IM chatting was not something I have ever been interested in but I did push myself to do a little with MSN and I will continue to make an effort when it comes to continuing my NET studies.

Nor I have ever been interested in having my own blog previously, which is why I chose do two blogs: one for my resource assignment as required and obviously one for my learning log. I found it easier to use blogger for the convenience. However, I will look at a different blogging tool for the local community house website, which want to have an interactive aspect to their site.

To continue extending my comfort in blogging I am going to record my studies in creative writing and my creative arts course in a blog http://jmurraywritingart.blogspot.com/ while I take SP1 off.

Until SP2

ciao
Jennifer

Module Five - Info-Communication Concepts

The concept of an information ecology wasn't surprising to me, but I hadn't actually thought about this too much. In my working life I have always been involved in an educational information ecology. With a library background, particularly in the education sector, I have always just accepted the different information ecologies that the internet & web have or comprise. Long before the Web became commonplace, I studied Information Ecologies, yet that term was not used. Therefore, I have always viewed the internet & web in that light. For me it has meant easier access to those sources of information that we find in 'the deep web', 'the invisible web'. I have always known it was there as I was creating and typing up abstracts for databases twenty years ago.

Info-Communication - P2P
I no longer have an involvement in P2P networks, but I did back in the day when I wore a patch on my eye and had a parrot on my shoulder. That was many years ago. However I am interested in Freenet. With the time that I have in SP1 I am going to spend it exploring the Freenet P2P system. I want to learn more about the use of P2P in Academia.

Info-Communication - Publishing
I have read The Age and other online newspapers and magazines, both Australian & overseas for at least the last four & five years. I buy and use e-books all the time.

I am excited by the changes and growth in the social information exchange. In large part, this is why I am studying, so that I can combine my library history and knowledge and advanced studies of an academic nature in knowledge management. With a deeper understanding of the Internet gained through this study, I want to be able to guide this generation and the next generation of secondary students to be able to think beyond Google.

Module Four - Evaluating the web

Barker, J. (2006) Finding Information on the Internet: Table of Contents. Retrieved 29, 2007 from
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html

As a prominent university library site, the reliability and authority of this site is fairly high.

It covers several broad areas of the Internet that are of important interest to academic students. It explains cleary what the Internet is and what the World Wide Web is. It clarifies for those who may confuse the two that the Internet and the Web are two different, but complimentary services, and without the Internet we couldn't have the web. It covers the different categories of search tools, different search engines, meta-search engines, subject directories, the how and why of web page evaluation, citation, plagiarism and a glossary of Internet & web jargon is detail, as well as providing further links to explain terms.

The site page "About this tutorial" gives information on the history of the site and the why of the Teaching Library created it. The objectives of the site are spelt out quiet clearly.

This site is an excellent resource for all Internet Users. It is clear, concise and gets the information across to the reader without confusion.

Module Four - Organising search information

Choose the best three sources found in the previous task. Using whatever software or tool you think appropriate, record the following information about those sites:

* URL.
* author,
* institution,
* blurb/ summary / screen shot

Record this information in your learning log, and also detail how you saved this information, what software you used and why

URL: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html
AUTHOR: Joe Barker, Librarian, The Teaching Library, Program Coordinator Internet/Web Instruction
INSTITUTION: University of California Berkeley Teaching Library
SUMMARY: The library provides Internet Workshops year-round. It provides both the beginner and the Advanced Internet user with information on a miriad of sources such as specialised directories, databases, search engines and meta-search engines. Its' pages have extensive information on the Internet & WWW including boolean searching, a glossary of internet & web jargon and how to "evaluate web pages" and much more.

Reference: Barker, Joe Retrieved January 29, 2007
Website:

This site was found using Google Advanced search. Google brought up Vicnet as the second hit. The title shown was - Advanced User's Internet Training Resources.

The Teaching Library FindInfo link was the sixth link of the list on Vicnet. see image below

URL: http://www.thelearningsite.net/cyberlibrarian/searching/ismain.html
AUTHOR: Angela Elkordy, Present: Director of Learning Technologies, MIA (Michigan Islamic Academy?)
INSTITUTION: Previously: Assistant Professor, Librarian & Coordinator of Electronic Resources, The Sage Colleges, Albany & Troy, NY.
SUMMARY: The stated objective of the site is: "To explore a variety of Web tools and search techniques in order to find useful information in a variety of formats." Angela Elkordy states it is "not" an advanced course, although some advanced techniques are used. While it may not be an advanced course it covers many important and useful subjects. Directories, search & meta-search engines, web indexes, evaluating & selecting resources, search techniques including boolean as well as how to find images. It also gives assignments so that users can put into practice what they read about. Both Berkeley Library and the Albany Library at the outdated URL are both given as Internet tutorials that are especially recommended. It seems that the site has not been officially updated since 2000, although the copyright statement is up to 2001.

Reference: Elkordy, Angela Retrieved January 29, 2007.
Website:

It is important to make some effort to substaniate a persons claims, particularly if they purport to be learned on a subject. I do not consider a hotmail email account as an only means of contact, to contribute to being taken seriously. I had to do a little research to track down what MIA was. My best guess is Michigan Islamic Society. On finding this I decided that perhaps due to the political climate permeating the western world and the USA in particular, it would be understandable for Ms Elkordy to be cautious.

This site was found using Google Advanced search. Google brought up Vicnet as the second hit as seen previously. The Web Searching, Sleuthing and Sifting link was the twelfth link of the Vicnet list. see image below

URL: http://www.livinginternet.com/
AUTHOR: William Stewart
INSTITUTION: s.l.
SUMMARY: The Living Internet was written from 1996 through to 1999, posted on the web in January 2000, and last updated August 28, 2006. It provides 700-odd pages of in-depth information on the Internet, Web, Email, Usenet, IRC MUD's (Multi User Dungeon - adventure games with multiple players) and lists. The site covers the history, design, use, advanced features, key features, security, help and more on each of the previously mentioned applications.

Reference: Stewart, William Living Internet Retrieved January 29 2007
Website: http://www.livinginternet.com/

Module Four - Boolean searching tasks

Task: find the following using the search term "advanced internet users" = 'aiu'

To get the biggest number of hits relating to "advanced internet users" I choose to use the boolean or implied boolean operator AND. I did this because the phrase was "Advanced Internet Users' not 'advanced' 'internet' 'users'. Not internet users, but advanced internet users. In looking for "advanced internet users" we are not looking for general internet users, or advanced users of any kind other than of "the internet".

• the biggest number of hits relating to 'aiu'
1. Google Advanced Search - Results 1 - 10 of about 45,200,000 English pages for advanced internet users. (0.11 seconds)
2. Clusty - Top 216 results of at least 2,990 retrieved for the query "advanced+internet+users"
3. Dogpile - 1 - 20 of 62 Results for "advanced internet users". Search Engines: Google, Yahoo Search, MSN Search, Ask.
4. Windows Live Academic - advanced+internet+users 1 - 3
5. Seekz - 1 - 10 of at least 54,500,000 results for advanced+internet+users.
   
6. Surfwax - Displaying 27 of about 74,900,000 pages found.

Surfwax Results Stats - Prepare: 12 milliseconds, Search: 5998 milliseconds, Processing: 19 (16 for safety checking)milliseconds, Display: 20 milliseconds, Total Time: 6049 milliseconds.

[Found: 41, Displayed: 27, Invalid: 12, Bandwidth: 1, Duplicates: 1, Stale: 0 ]
Yahoo: source not currently returning results (100)
AllTheWeb: 10 pages found in 367 ms (parsed in 2 ms)
WiseNut: 10 pages found in 336 ms (parsed in 1 ms)
YahooNews: source not currently returning results (6)
CNN: 10 pages found in 905 ms (parsed in 8 ms)
LookSmart: 11 pages found in 2831 ms (parsed in 3 ms)
MSN: source not currently returning results (100)

• sources relating to skills-based information on 'aiu'

This question is a little loose for my liking. What 'skills-based information' on "advanced internet users" am I looking for.

• Google - Results 1 - 10 of about 260 English pages for skills and"advanced internet users". (0.50 seconds)
  

Using Google I've found my own, Dewa's and many other past and present NET11 student blogs.

Now I will look at different types of skills-based information relating to "advanced internet users"

1. Your search - skills-based "advanced internet users" -net11, -assessment, -module, -net -11 - did not match any documents.
2. Google - Results 1 - 10 of about 188 English pages for skills OR based OR ftp "advanced internet users" -net11, -assessment, -module, -net -11. (0.40 seconds)
3. Google - Results 1 - 10 of about 25 English pages for ftp "advanced internet users" -net11 -assessment -module -net -11. (0.06 seconds)
   
4. Google - Results 1 - 10 of about 407 English pages for skills OR based OR email "advanced internet users" -net11, -assessment, -module, -net -11. (0.37 seconds
5. Google - Results 1 - 2 of 2 English pages for "advanced internet users" telnet -net11 -assessment -module -net -11. (0.35 seconds)

I chose to try an eliminate any student blogs, which appear to have been reasonably successful, more so than finding skills based information for advanced internet users.

• information on 'aiu' coming only from university sources

1. Google Advanced Search - Results 1 - 10 of about 4,140,000 English pages for advanced+internet+users+university. (0.12 seconds) - the term "university" doesn't mean the results will be from university sources.
   
2. Google Advanced Search Australia - Results 1 - 10 of about 498,000 for advanced+internet+users+university. (0.10 seconds) - the term "university" doesn't mean the results will be from university sources.
3. Google Advanced Search - Results 1 - 10 of about 376 English pages for college OR university "advanced internet users". (0.07 seconds) - the term "university" doesn't mean the results will be from university sources.
4. Google Advanced Search - Results 1 - 3 of 3 English pages from edu.au for university "advanced internet users". (0.28 seconds) - the search terms "university" & "edu.au" means the results will be from Australian universities.
   

The above results vary greatly. If I did similiar searches on the differing search engines that I used in the previous task I would likely get varied results as above. Any sort of database searching involves constant modification and often narrowing of search terms.

I don't require any results that are not in English. If I require results relating to Australian Universities, I wouldn't use the term "college(s)" as in Australia we call our government run academic tertiary institutions "universities". ie Curtin University.

The term "college" is generally considered to be an American term for their tertiary institutions, or for many of our secondary schools.

If I wanted to cover all tertiary institutions I would then start adding search terms such as "tafe(s)", which would widen the search. I would definitely contain my search to australia and I would also use as a search term "edu.au", which would narrow my search.

Module Four - Boolean searching

I learnt Boolean searching over 20 years ago. It has been a long time since I have used it properly or in any depth.

Boolean searching
A precise method of searching online indexes and databases, the Library catalogue and the WWW using 'Boolean Operators' (the words 'and', 'or', 'not', 'with', 'near') to link search words and combine them in various ways to narrow or broaden a search as required.University of Melbourne, Library Basics

Simple, non boolean logic:

• one concept, can be expressed by a single term.
• I want to find some information on Alzheimer's disease.
  
• alzheimers
• I want some information on aluminum (American spelling only).
  
• aluminum

Simple boolean logic:

• more than one concept, but each term can be expressed by a single term.
• I want to find information on the role of aluminum (American spelling only) in Alzheimer's disease.
  
• aluminum AND alzheimers
• only one concept, but can be expressed by more than one term.
• I want to find information on aluminum (American spelling) OR aluminium (British spelling).
  
• aluminum OR aluminium
• I want to find information about Alzheimers disease, but I do NOT want anything which mentions aluminum.
• alzheimers NOT aluminum
  

Complex Boolean or nested logic

• more than one concept, and at least one concept can be expressed by more than one term.
• I want to find information on the role of aluminum (American and British spellings) in Alzheimer's disease.
• alzheimers AND (aluminum OR aluminium)
• The use of parenthses in boolean searching is the same as in the basic mathematics we learnt as primary students. Process what is in the brackets FIRST. This is required for proper processing of the boolean operators AND's and OR's. If the parenthses are left out many search engines read the query left to right. This would result in it finding pages with alzheimers and aluminum on the same page and all pages with aluminium.
  

Taken from: Colgate University Libraries.

• AND is used to narrow a search
• can be written as "AND" or "and"
• synonyms: &, +
  
• OR is used to broaden a search
• can be written as "OR" or "or"
• synonyms: |, ||, comma, ;
  
• NOT is used to narrow a search
• can be written as "NOT" or "not"
• synonyms: -
  
• "" double quotes turn search terms into exact phrases
• * an asterisk is a wildcard operator, it can replace one or more characters
• ? a question mark can replace a single character

Module Four - Woe is me

On Wednesday I installed Copernicdesktopsearch v.2.02 and Pagesucker. By the evening I had lost all my bookmarks! The last backup of bookmarks was in early December.

While studying each module, I have been recording bookmarks in folders such as:

• NET11 Module 1
• NET11 Module 2 etc...
• NET11 Referred sites
• NET11 Blogs

I've lost nearly all of these. In this log I've often recorded a decision I've made to not install a particular program or piece of software etc... due to this very type of thing.

I used the opportunity to update my Firefox browser to version 2.0.0.1. I will update the Clusty add-on, which I don't mind using for searching. Clusty is the web search version of Vivisimo.

It was a bad evening made worse by the fact I managed to slam my thumb into the door. This before I realised I had lost my bookmarks.

Module Four - Searching the web: search engine task cont...

I've gone back to the WebCT NET11 discussion board to check a problem. I have installed Copernic Meta. This only works in IE. I normally try to use Firefox only, unless checking how a web site I'm creating works in IE. Anyway after reading the board posts regarding 'search engine task' I've decided maybe I should have installed Copernic Agent Basic. I was sure I had read Copernic Meta. So I'm about to install more software.

2. Using copernicus or similar, set it up to search at least three search engines (including one that will search the 'deep web') and repeat eactly the same search

• record the number of hits in your learning log, and compare to your first search. What differences did you notice? Why? Which search, on first glance gave you the most promising results?

Well I've been searching for the last nearly three hours using Copernic Meta & Copernicus Agent Basic and I can say if I did this at work (I'm a Library Technician who specialises in creating sites within Intranets for secondary students) my boss would string me up for not getting the job done. What a dratted waste of time. All I've found, mainly, is previous NET11 students' blogs.

I will be uninstalling what I've installed today and breathing a sigh of relief. I won't be changing my searching style overly much, that's for sure.

Rather than aimlessly putting in a query into a search engine, I would find the relevant authorities, education institutions, specific organisations & libraries and search within their sites, ensuring authoritive information.

Module Four - Searching the web: search engine task

1. Choose your most commonly used internet search engine and do a search for the words: advanced internet users.

• record the first hit and number of hits in your learning log

Results 1 - 10 of about 118,000,000 for advanced internet users. (0.30 seconds)

Well like many, I commonly use Google. The results are as follows:


Advanced Internet Users Tutorial - CIESE
Information about using your internet browser's Help Menu is available and linked ... Choose what web page will be shown when you start Internet Explorer. ...
www.k12science.org/tutorials/advanced/ - 16k - Cached - Similar pages

The tutorials may well be useful to some but I wouldn't consider them 'advanced'. Nor could I find a date on the page or in the code.
However, I will explore the main site www.k12science.org later.

- Advanced User's Internet Training Resources
VICNET Internet Training - More Advanced Users. Been connected to the Internet for a while? Want to get more out of the services it offers? ...
www.vicnet.net.au/training/advance.html - 15k - 28 Jan 2007 - Cached - Similar pages

This was a list on VICNET. While some links were dead, others were quite good.

Advanced Internet Users, School of Continuing Education ...
Advanced Internet Users. Nearly everyone knows how to use the Internet, but are you an expert? Can you find the number of people currently living in the ...
www3.uwm.edu/sce/course.cfm?id=6835 - 13k - Cached - Similar pages

After a quick peruse, I didn't find much to excite me.

News @ Cisco: China Supports Advanced Applications for Internet ...
Professor Li Xing, deputy director, of the CERNET Network Center said, "With the increase in the number of Internet users and the development of advanced ...
newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/global/asiapac/news/2005/pr_09-21.html - 48k - Cached - Similar pages

This was a link to a news page on the CISCO site.

China Supports Advanced Applications for Internet Users and Educational Centers

Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System Chosen to Power China's CERNET

BEIJING, September 21, 2005 - Cisco Systems® today announced that the China Education and Research Network (CERNET), the world's largest education network, will deploy the Cisco® CRS-1 Carrier Routing System to upgrade its national backbone network and enhance overall network performance. CERNET is a nationwide education and research computer network funded by the Chinese government and directly managed by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

StatCounter Free invisible Web tracker, Hit counter and Web stats
Detailed visitor stats and a choice of graphical counters. An invisible counter is also available.
www.statcounter.com/ - 20k - Cached - Similar pages

Totally irrelevant. Nor could I find the word "advanced" on the page.

I have put the first five results of this search rather than just the first as this was the better result, of this task and the next.

Module Four - Using the infosphere: taking & organising

Basic applications for reading different file formats:

1. PDF files
I have Adobe's Acrobat Reader v. 5. I had thought it was a later version but apparently not. I will update this soon. I have this set as the default to read any pdf's I download or receive by email. As I don't generally have a need to make any PDF's I haven't downloaded and used any opensource PDF applications.

2. Flash / Shockwave Players
I have the Flash player as standard as I have in the past made Flash movies. It is also quite simply a required 'plugin' for any browsing. My second computer particularly has Shockwave, as it is our games computer. I will check what versions etc and update if necessary.

3. Media Players
I have Windows Media Player, although I haven't updated it recently. As well as iriverPlus2 which is required for one of our MP3 players. iriver is our default for music on the main computer. And I also have Quicktime, of course. I don't bother with Real Player as in the past I have found I had continual problems with it and I don't have the time to spend on computer system maintainance. I will update WMP when I acquire a copy on disc.

4. Search Managers / Combiners
I have downloaded Copernic Meta for PC & Glooton 1.5.1 for Windows. Neither are installed as yet. I need to create a restore point in XP before installing either application. As I use Firefox I have also started using the search option.

I am trying to upload a jpeg to demonstrate the search option in Firefox but at the moment blogger isn't cooperating. oh well! Will upload it when it decides to work.

Here it is.

5. Bookmark Managers
As Bookmark Buddy for Windows is not a freeware application I have not downloaded it. At present I am investigating freeware options. One of the options is NetVisualize. While looking for Bookmark Managers is ended up at Feedbus. This has loads of links to managers like, A1-Webmarks, Blinklist, Bookmark Buddy, Complore, & de.lirio.us, an open source clone of del.icio.us. I noticed that many were beta and unfortunately I simply don't have the time to explore very many of them.

6. Offline Browsers / Copiers
Well I have once again choosen not to download another application. Webcopier for Windows, as it only has a 15 day trial. Pagesucker seems very old, however I have downloaded what appears to be the latest version, 3.2.


Well, I've managed to do this much, but its taken all day. I haven't been doing much for the last 2-3 weeks as I apparently have Sciatica, and I got bitten by a spider, a White tail, I think. I haven't been able to sit at my desk for more that about 15 minutes, which isn't great when you need to be able to spend time and concentrate on searching. Oh well! I'm starting to get back to study, which I've missed.

Module Three - FTP continued

Well I have had no success in using Ipswitch WS-FTP Home.


I checked out the details in OASIS.

I put in the details as below.

next screen

the result: failure

Module Three - Blogs

As in a previous post I've set up my blog. You're reading it.

Below is the screen shot of my blog (Learning Log)


It is suggested that if we wish to continue with our blog we should consider the sorts of ‘bloggiquette’ that are emerging.

"Rebecca Blood has written about the ethics of blogging in her The Weblog Handbook, which suggests a list of standards to which bloggers should adhere."

In your learning log, record your ‘top five tips for new bloggers’

Taken from Rebecca Blood's blog rebecca's pocket

1. Publish as fact only that which you believe to be true.
2. If material exists online, link to it when you reference it.
3. Publicly correct any misinformation.
4. Write each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not rewrite or delete, any entry.
5. Disclose any conflict of interest. plus
6. Note questionable and biased sources.
   

The following are list of sources that I found on blogging & ethics

A Bloggers Code of Ethics. Cyberjournaslist.net
http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/000215.php

Code of Blogging Ethics Debated at AEJMC Convention. Blogging Ethics
http://blogethics2004.blogspot.com/

Code of Blogging Ethics at Desirable Roasted Coffee. Allan Jenkins
http://www.desirableroastedcoffee.com/codeofbloggingethics.htm

The blogging ethics and disclosure debate, the dark undercurrent among the bloggerati. A view from the Isle.
http://blog.larixconsulting.com/blog/_archives/2006/12/15/2575770.html

Bloggin and ethic. Miles Burke
http://miles.burke.id.au/blog/2006/07/17/blogging-and-ethics/

Blogs and your business.Open all hours. SMH.
http://blogs.smh.com.au/openallhours/archives/2006/11/blog_readers_an.html

Module Three - FTP

Well I've completed modules 1 through 3, apart for the FTP part, and am reading module 4 as of today.

I have gone through a tutorial to implement a style switcher. This tutorial can be found at CenterKey. This should be acceptable for the Javascript section of the html tutorial.

I've implemented several css style sheets and have updated my page for Student Presentations.

Next I will upload via FTP so that Module 3 is totally complete. I hope I don't have the same or similiar problems that some students have had regarding FTP and OASIS.

Module Three - Legal Issues & Copyright

First, visit the Copyright Website, which provides a good overview of copyright issues related to the net, with information on ‘fair use’ and ‘public domains’.

Next, go to the Curtin home page and find the policy documents that relate to copyright and IP in IT use.

http://www.copyright.curtin.edu.au/

Drawing on these sources, consider these questions:

* have you used images or words on your web page or website that contravene copyright laws?

No. I create all my own images, usually.

In a previous post on Newsgroups & Chat I found information supporting my stance regarding issues of security about MSN. I have sourced and linked where I found that quote text.

* Would you be in breach of copyright if you put the Curtin logo at the top of your web page for an assignment?

The Curtin logo is the Intellectual Property of Curtin University. I am unsure if I would legally be able to use the logo on a site (for assignment) within the Curtin Intranet. I most assuredly would not be able to use it outside of the Curtin space, without written authorisation from Curtin Corporate Services.

Module Three - Rules for writing online

Think about any differences between the articles: for example, is the advice in Nielsen’s paper -- written in 1997 – still current?

In Nielsen's paper one of the first things he mentions is scanning. In all my Interface design for sites I alway keep this in mind.

While Nielson's ideas are relevant, they are insufficient if you wish to design an easily readable page. For him text is king and without any design I feel he throws out the baby with the bath water. The computer screen is not a paper page with text on it and you cannot design a page as if it is.

Nielson has some strange ideas, and I feel he refuses to budge, the result being I don't use his site as his pages are too hard to read. I find his pages to be one of the worst offends of visual presentation, making it harder to read. Reading a 17" screen which is approximately 30 to 33 cm wide is tiring. see below

If you have alot of text it is important to have a decent left & right margin. No more than 20 cm wide.



Optional Task 1

Make a summary of what you believe are the 5 most important ‘rules’ for writing online.

The list below comes from: Dennis G Jerz of Seton Hill University

1. Have your most important material first
2. Have clear, relevant and meaningful links
3. Consistent navigation
4. Consistent interface design
5. Scannable text

This list below is from MaxDesign and is what I tend to follow:

Basic Usability

1. Is there a clear visual hierarchy?
2. Are heading levels easy to distinguish?
3. Does the site have easy to understand navigation?
4. Does the site use consistent navigation?
5. Are links underlined?
6. Does the site use consistent and appropriate language?
7. Do you have a sitemap page and contact page? Are they easy to find?
8. For large sites, is there a search tool?
9. Is there a link to the home page on every page in the site?
10. Are visited links clearly defined with a unique colour?

Optional Task 2

Test your web page according to the W3C standards by going to their ‘validator’ page. If your page does not conform (it probably won’t!) record in your learning log why you think this is: try and identify the particular tags or code that are causing trouble. Are the problems related mostly to display, usability, or accessibility?

My webpage in the Student Presentation area passed XHTML 1.0 Strict validation. Yeh me! see below


Since we are valid xhtml we are proudly displaying the fact.

Module Three - Tasks Web Page & Blog

This module requires two forms of ‘e-writing’: a basic web page and at least a ‘test’ blog.

My web page is already up on the presentations area, and I am using this blog as my learning log.

For the web page component I have not done the html tutorial as that would be a regressive step for me. My page is written in xhtml with presentation controlled by css, all in notepad.

For the javascript I will perhaps look at a way of implementing user switching css style sheets.

When I have completed / updated the page to how I want it to appear, I will ftp it to the OASIS area required. I certainly don't exprect any problems in this module.

Module Three - Contributing to the Infosphere: e-writing?

This would be the part of this unit that I am probably most comfortable with. I have been creating and maintaining websites for approximately the last five years. I have just recently finished a major redesign of a private secondary school intranet. I was responsible for the technical aspects of the coding, particularly in the initial stages of the planning and design.

Web Standards are of particular interest to me in light of the redesign, and before that. Because there were many pages that were created in FrontPage by library staff with little idea of Web Standards, coding, colour or design and unfortunately a love of massive, intricate image-maps it made for a lot of work. Even then, it was hard going to implement standards, as some of those involved in the project didn't understand the importance of standards and so felt that they weren't important.

Ironically, that Intranet has been shown and demonstrated for the last 18 months, with much praise and admiration at several international conferences. While the PDF doesn't actually show the Intranet it does show all original images & design by yours truly. On slides 7 & 12 it shows a design I created to decorate a space 1m high by 11m long approx. on a wall in the library.

On actual writing as opposed to coding and designing, I am hoping to participate in a writing course to improve my writing, in the new year. My main writing experience has been abstracts and procedures manuals in the past.

Until now I have never had an interest or a need to have a blog. That doesn't mean I don't regularly read them. There are many excellent blogs on many different subjects areas that I read regularly.

After I finish this unit, I will be looking at various blogging tools that can be hosted on a server as part of the website rather than the blogger.com type of blogging tool.

Module Two - Newsgroups & Chat

I have been part of newsgroups for Photoshop & Illustrator in the past. I am not at present and for similiar reasons as below don't wish to have to join a newsgroup just for this. Too much System Admin work. I understand the process and will use them again as and when appropriate.

I have organised a ICQ no. and looked at Trillian, but ultimately have real issues having any of these on my computer. All of these utilities install on your system and are quite invasive. I point blank refuse to have MSN function on my computers. I looked at yahoo and installed that. Now I have to uninstall Firefox and update to get rid of the bloody thing. I'm that annoyed I've barely done any study for the last two weeks. Most of these types of utilities have vulnerabilities that allow code to execute on your machine. i.e.

"The susceptibility comes from an unchecked buffer in the code that handles the input of a parameter in the MSN Chat control. By invoking this parameter in a specific manner, an attacker could overflow the buffer and gain the ability to run code in the user's security context."

http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/1087191

If you have broadband, you have serious vulnerabilities. I don't want to spend all my time acting as a system admin for my home network.

I do have skype on my machine, which has a chat function. I have used this to chat & speak with at least 2 other NET11'ers. As an optional task in the future it would be good to have those students with broadband experience skype (IP telephony). You can chat & talk, see & be seen, bringing the online student community closer.
That would be Nikki.

Modules 1 & 2 Quizz

I've finally gone back to do the quizz, having forgotten about it. Might need to do a touch of revision already.

View Results

Name: Jennifer Murray
Attempt: 1 / Unlimited
Started: 08:00 24/12/06
Finished: 08:11 24/12/06
Time spent: 11 min. 12 sec.

Total score: 13 / 20 = 65.0%

Q7 The World Wide Web is currently being monitored and regulated as a whole by ICANN.
True or False?
Student Response: True
Score: 0/1

Q9 When you use a mail client such as Pegasus, your incoming messages are downloaded through the SMTP server. True or False?
Student Response: True
Score: 0/1

Q14 The Usenet is a distributed system of messages and is divided into ...?
Student Response: groups
Score: 0/1

Q15 When using ICQ, apart from nickname, first name, last name and ICQ number, what other parameter can you use to search for existing members?
Student Response: Not answered
Score: 0/1

Q17 WS-FTP, Bulletproof FTP and Fetch enable the transferring of files between computers and are examples of separate stand alone programs otherwise known collectively as ...?
Student Response: ftps
Score: 0/1

After checking the module 2 discussion board, Kerri Bennet in #952 said FTP Client, which suggest that I should use proper terminology, and not be lazy. She also suggested looking at the following site:

searchwebservices.com

Q18 If I don't have an account on an FTP server, I would need to logon as an anonymous user. To do this I would use [Answer1] for the username and my [Answer2] as the password. (The answer to this question needs to be in the following format: Answer1, Answer2)
Student Response: Not answered
Score: 0/1

Q19 I am interested in finding out the time it takes to send and receive a small text packet to a server. What command would I use?
Student Response: traceroute
Score: 0/1

So, I'm off to go do some more reading. But hey its christmas eve, I've done all my shopping and maybe i'll go and have a coffee instead.

Module Two - Lists vs Discussion boards

What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?

Email lists
I belong to a few email lists/groups on yahoo.

The benefit of yahoo groups is that you can choose whether or not to receive emails, an individual email, a daily digest, or to just have web access only. see image below


This is an image of a group (Southern Cross Quilters) I belong to click on image to see details


Discussion boards
A discussion board/forum is usually web-based. It can have several different areas. Usually you need to be a member to post, but can often view boards/threads without being a member or logging in.


Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?

I feel discussion boards are best suited to technical interests, web design etc. where you need a dynamic interaction. Or if you are actively looking for information.