Mary's NET11 Blog

I've been busy all week working on my first assignment, the annotated bibliography of resources.

After deciding on a format ( a blog ) and finalising what content I had found, I cut it down by evaluating each Web site I had found, and finally came up with a short-list of 11 pages that I am now going to annotate.

One Web site I am sure to include is the wonderful Diigo, I cannot speak highly enough of how useful this tool is! the ability to highlight, take notes, and bookmark all over web pages and then being able to organise, tag, share or blog with your information has been fantastic - when I review my pages before writing the annotation I can 'interact' with the piece of writing by asking questions of the content (eg. I'll read "The balloon floats when filled with air" so I'll sticky note with Diigo it and say "why? note to self: find out") this helps me really evaluate and understand exactly what I am reading.

I also searched the net for pages that offer tips on writing annotations, as I find it very helpful to read 2 or 3 different ways of explaining how to do something.

- Mary

Labels: Reflections

After a break for Easter last week, my Saturday Reflections post is back! :)

I had a little bit of catching up to do with the tasks in Module 3 this week, as well as starting Module 4.

Module 4 is about effectively using the infosphere, and so far the best part about this unit has been the links to specialised databases - it is absolutely great that they have these virtual libraries to browse through! :)

I feel it has been of immense help for my preparation for Assignment 1, the annotated bibliography of resources, to have found these virtual libraries.

Searching around Google is fairly good, especially when you know what commands to use to get the best out of your searches, but searching around in a library is even better - they have already had 'human filters' deciding which pages qualify for listing in the library, which is turn makes the results I get from searching there of higher quality.

An interesting thread is taking place on our WebCT discussion board regarding the effective use of email, and specifically the use or misuse of the subject line.

I couldn't quite work out why I didn't like some people to email me without a subject line, and then I realised why..

"..So, for me - No subject line is
acceptable when you 'trust' or 'know' the sender, as in private work emails,
emails from very close family or friends. and No subject line is
unacceptable when I have never received an email from the person/company
before.. as why would I click on an email with no subject when they haven't yet
gained my trust." (Castieau, 2007)

The subject line of an email can easily be compared with links and downloads - if you don't tell me where I am going or what I am downloading, I'm not going to click! :)

- Mary

References

Castieau, M. (2007, April 12). Skilled or unskilled emailers. Message posted to NET11 Discussion Board, webCT. http://webct.curtin.edu.au/SCRIPT/305033_a/scripts/student/serve_bulletin?COMPILETHREAD+847

Labels: Reflections

Note: I wrote this as a draft Friday, as I had a swimming competition on Saturday, and forgot to publish it on Blogger until Monday afternoon.

Well I haven't updated my Learning Log very much over the past two weeks! NED11 Internet Design studies have almost completely taken over for now, as I have an assignment due in around 2 weeks.

Module 3 : Contributing to the Infosphere: e-writing?

I love blogging. It is a great way to have a diary of personal thoughts - especially if you are someone who uses the Internet a great deal - as I just wouldn't get around to writing a traditional text based diary!

Blogging is also a great way for everyone to have a 'voice' in cyberspace - no matter who you are if you write it, people can read it. And I think that because bloggers tend to read, comment and link to each other's blogs regularly is the reason why this form of writing and communication has become so popular.

Personally I find it a lot more interactive that the days of personal home pages on Geocities etc, as I feel a blog is like a mix of a personal home page, emails (people tend to write posts in a similar manner to emails), discussion boards (the comments section) and even to a small extent, instant messaging (if you manage to strike a time when you are replying to comments at the same time as your readers are commenting).

This mix, teamed with the fact that you need no HTML knowledge (most blogging Web sites make posting as easy as using a Web based email program) is why I think blogging will continue to be a very popular pastime for many Internet users.

Volcano Web - Task 1

I've been building the 'famous' Volcano web homepage - I guess this is to test our knowledge of HTML, or to teach us HTML if we don't know it. It is so easy that I type in the code in my spare time :)

I know I can just upload an HTML page to WebCT with a header, footer, links, meta tags, title etc., but I thought why not just make the whole Volcano Web Site for fun! :)

I'll be blogging again next week, with hopefully a LOT more updates,

- Mary

Labels: Module 3, Reflections

I didn't get as much study done this week as previously, as I have been concentrating more on NED11 (Internet Design).

The conversation about Email Lists v Discussion boards on our webCT discussion board was an interesting insight, all together I think more people preferred Discussion Boards to Email Lists.

I still haven't been able to have another ICQ chat with fellow NET11 students, although last Saturday, Helen managed to start a chat between her, Jon and I - my connection on ICQ dropped out as soon as the introductions started, so I'm hoping for better luck next time.

I did spend Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week doing some more research for my Annotated Bibliography - Cynthia did say in response to one of my posts that I can do it on more than one topic per module. So that expands my searching for good material a little bit. :)

I had a brief look over the reading for Module 3, the topic is writing in the Infosphere and I'm sure I'll enjoy that topic as I already have 3+ personal blogs and enjoy that form of communication.

- Mary

Labels: Module 2, Reflections

Week 3 is already over - wow time flies when you are studying! :)

This week I delved into the world of Email Lists, Newsgroups, ICQ and IRC.

Email Lists - well the more I read and learn about Email Lists the more they start to interest me, I'm sure if I found one which stuck to a specific topic it would be great to join it and follow along. However before I go joining any Email lists I need to get my inbox set up and organised so I won't be overwhelmed with Email list messages.

Using newsgroups is one form of Internet communications that is new to me, I had known they existed, but wasn't interested in finding out the what, why and how of using them.
Currently I'm following 4 different groups -

• Blogger help group
• rec.food.recipes
• comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html
• rec.sport.cricket

I found two of the groups through Google Groups, and the other two groups through my ISP's news server. I chose groups that had a high participation level as the discussion and topics will (hopefully) move along quite quickly and keep me interested.

I'll continue to follow the postings in these groups for a few more days, and then post on one of them.

I did manage to chat with a fellow student on ICQ! It was great chatting with Belinda, and we shared thoughts on how NET11 was going, compared studying online to on campus, and chatted about study in general. Although ICQ was the first instant messaging program, I must say I prefer the layout and usability of Yahoo! messenger or the very simply styled Gtalk.

IRC - As I suggested earlier in the week I'm not going to try IRC - too many variables for me to feel completely safe trying this type of 'open' Internet communication.

- Mary

Labels: Module 2, Reflections

This week I concentrated on reading for this unit rather than completing the tasks for Module 2.

The Complete Reference: Internet (2nd edition) by Margaret Levine Young has been a great resource for learning more about the Internet. This week I read chapters 5 to 10 and got a deeper understanding of Email, and Email lists. The chapter on Email lists was particularly interesting as I've never joined an email list before.

The reading for Module 2 was all about communicating over the Internet - I felt like it broadly covered 3 topics

• Netiquette
• Security
• Organisation

Netiquette includes making sure you have written a descriptive subject line, using quoting wisely, basic formatting to make the message readable and checking before sending attachments.

Security is making sure you are aware of the security risks when downloading unknown or forwarded attachments.

Organisation is an important part of using email for quick communication. If you have a sorting system (filtering or folders) in place you will be able to find your information easily and avoid wasting time.

- Mary

Labels: Module 2, Reflections

Every Saturday I'll give my weekly reflections on my study of NET11.



After reading the recommended links 'The Basic Process' and 'The Internet' on HowStuffWorks.com I couldn't help but compare some of the Internet protocols to my part-time work as a waitress at a restaurant. I'll draw a little cartoon to explain.



A waitress acts like our web browser.

So the waitress is the web browser, being the 'middle-man' for the customer, and from the customers point of view, that is all they want, 2 simple steps -

1) order the food (type in the URL)

2) receive the food (view the web page)

However once the waitress or browser has the order/page request, the part of the process that the customer doesn't see happens.

• The waitress assigns table number and order to customer (The URL is sent to a name server to turn the basic name into an IP address.)

• Once the table number and order are assigned, the order can be put through to the kitchen. (The browser connects to the server at that IP address.)

• The kitchen receives the order, and starts cooking the requested food on the order. (The browser follows the HTTP protocol to send a GET request to the server, asking for the specific file.)

• The kitchen sends the food out, ready to serve. (The server sends the HTML text for the web page to the browser.)

• Waitress checks for table number and delivers food to the table. (The browser reads the HTML tags and shows the page on your screen.) ¹
  

- Mary

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Reference List

In the above bulleted list, the Internet information is referenced from -
1 Brain, M. Behind the Scenes: How Web Servers Work, Retrieved March 3, 2007, from the How Stuff Works Websitehttp://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-server2.htm

Labels: Module 1, Reflections