LECTURE:
Week four lecture was about all the modern different types of communications of today. We learnt about synchronous and asynchronous types of communications as well as the different types of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) that are available today. I learnt that synchronous communication is when everyone has to be presently engaged in communication at the same time, such as MSN messenger, phone conversations and web caming. Asynchronous communication is basically the opposite of synchronous, where people take their time to communicate or reply, such as e-mailing, answering machines and writing letters. The most common types of communication technologies between people are mobile phones, e-mail and video and teleconferencing. Micrsoft Outlook and Outlook Express is one of the most wide spread ways of communicating as it connects with other popular microsoft products.
It is obvious to me that instant messaging is extremely popular, especially to teenagers, and the most time consuming, especially on MSN messenger, which everyone i know has an account on through hotmail. This is one of the most affective ways of communicating with people as you can directly chat to another person that is "online", and if they are not online you can simply send them a e-mail to their hotmail. I've always just known about MSN, but this lecture showed me that there are much more ways of instant messaging, such as ISQ and AOL. One instant messaging program which interested me was "Trillian" because i dicovered that it allows users of MSN, AOL and ISQ to insert all their programs into one place. I found that "Trillion" can be very useful if i was to ever have an instant messaging account, rather than juist MSN.
We then learnt about discusion boards and forums, such as Bulletins. I was familiar with this topic as i know that that discusion boards are used for posting one's opinions or ideas, commenting on peoples opinion and ideas, questioning other people and answering to the questions asked.
WORKSHOP:
In week four workshop we went through and performed some basic communication skills via the student web mail, discussion boards, bulletins and of course face to face with a classmate. In the student web mail i had no trouble creating new folders for all my units eg. UPC0001. I made four new folders for each of my units and practiced sending and receiving mails to and from my classmate, as well as locating the mails to a specific folder that i created. I found this task quite helpful as i learnt how to create folders in my student web mail to categorize all my emails for each of my different unit. Also because my inbox is always full of mails from different lecturer's and classmates from different units, it takes longer to find a specific mail that i want to view, therefore this task has shown me how i can keep all my mails more organised.
Task 1 ---> Create and organise files in student webmail
After the basic communication skills task, we were given another task where we had to go to the
Google web site and enter a topic of our interest under the "GROUPS" tab. My topic of interest was beef jerky, so i typed in "how to make beef jerky". When the web page came up, i was suprised and intigued by the groups that came up. There were so many bulletin boards and comments posted from so many different peoples around the world that had the same interest and love for "beef jerky" as i do. I read some of the comments and conversations between people that were posted on different dash boards and found that some of their opinions and questions were very interesting and helpful to me, as i want to learn how to make beef jerk for myself =)
I got so carried away into reading all the posts because their were so many comments and advice that focused on beef jerky down to the specific. My two favourite groups that i most enjoyed viewing were
alt.support.diet.low-carb and
rec.food.cooking , because these two groups contained posts involved with "How do you make beef jerky at home" and "anyone ever make beef jerky at home"? It was exactly what i needed to know. I found some very useful hints and tips such as how to cook beef in an oven or a dehydrator, what marinade and seasoning are most popular, how thin you should cut the meat for tenderness, how long you should leave it in the fridge in order for it to be cooked properly, and much much MORE!! There were a lot of questioned asked by people and a lot of questioned answered by people, as well as nice comments like this one from
marce...@studentvoice.net "Thanks a lot for your generous offer and great explanation of the process". There were also bad comments on some of the advice given by people that made me aware not to take on these advices given.
To be honest i've never noticed the "groups" tab on google, but now i do! I found this excercise enlightening and interesting as well as extremely helpful for my beef jerky making mission! now i cant wait to try out the new ideas that i observed from other peoples advice, opinions and experiences! >_<
Task 2 ---> Googling in "Groups" on topic interest to me... "BEEEF JERKY"
Thirdly i visited the
http://podcasts.yahoo.com/ site, which allows you to listen or view a audio recording that is posted online. I entered "Cirque du Soleil" as my search term and had a listen to one of the broadcasts. the audio taked about:
-How much the company makes
-The average consumers they get per show
-The leadership skills required to carry out the show
After that i visited
http://podcast.osx.ecu.edu.au/ and had a browse around it. This site basically showed me what is podcasting at ECU and how to podcast at ECU.
Podcasts for a university student may be beneficial because:
- It allows student to take information in a more focused approach, through hearing rather than just reading and recording information on pen and paper.
- It enables students to access information in a broader variety as well as a different aspect of learning, like on Dictionary.com, even that this site has podcasting!
READING:
No1.In week four reading i went into the site
http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page6175.cfm. This site showed the 14 emails of "Do's and Donts" when sending an email to someone. out of the 14 emails i browsed through i found 6 handy tips about sending an affective email to someone, by affective i meant that when that person recieves my email, they are able to simply understand it, would not get board half way reading it and are more enclined to respond to me as soon as possible.
-As the sender i learnt...
1.that emailing is not synchronous like telephone calls or in-person conversations, therefore it may not be very affective on the receiver to make a immediate response.
2.When i want to ask someone a question i should just straight away get to the point and be concise rather than just eaxplain in detail which may confuse, bore or fustrate the person.
3.If i needed a response from the reciepent by a specific time, i will need to be direct and clear on the deadline, for example its bad to say "reply ASAP", but its good to say "Reply by 6pm sharp". Always make sure my gramer is correct to decrease the chance of mistunderstanind by the reciever.
4.When sending a important email i need to stick to one topic per message to avoid loosing track.
-As the recipent i learnt that...
1. I should never assume what was on my sender's mind or what he or she felt when sending me the message. For example just because i automatically think the sender is angry at me, i shouldn't send a rude email as a response.
2. I should use my email software to organise my messages, locate specific mesages and keep my inbox from getting full of unneccsary emails.
This first reading has made me notice my bad email habbits and showed me the importance of sending an affective email. Even though ill stillalways be using acronyms and typing an email without editing it in depth for a while, its good that i learnt and keep in mind of these handy tips for future uses, especially if my future job pays me to send and recive emails.
No.2In the second reading i entered
http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page4815.cfm site, this reading was about avoiding common pitfalls when composing your messages. By learning the proper email etiquette can help me be persuasive and inoffensive as well as increase my chances of writing a top notch email message by following the basic rules.
I learnt that:
-I have to make sure my subject is an appropriate one, and never leave the "subject" line empty or els it will give me a poor impression on the reciever, as i am not introducing my message.
-its always more polite to adress the recipent as Mr, Ms, Miss or Mrs, instead of their first and last names. i should only address them by their first and last names if the recipent adressess me by my first and last name.
-Use an appropriate tone of voice to demonstarte formality, if neccessary. Avoid using too many acronyms unless the message is just for a friend. Using smily faces ;D =D =) are good to lightenen up my tone.
- Avoid Irony and Sarcasm, because emailing is not impersonal, its hard to show your true emotions and therefore the recipent can take the joke or sarcasm the wrong way.
-Edit your message! you can never be too sure!
By learning some of the email etiquettes, it has made me realise that by taking more thought on the way i present my email to my recipent, i can make my email more affective and presenatable to them.
No.3Thirdly i visited
http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/new2irc.html, this site contained information that introduced me how to use Internet Relay Chat (IRC) chat which allows me to chat to numerous of peoples around the world at one time. As a user i can be connected to one of the IRC nets after running a programme called "client". When i am connected to IRC i will be joined to at least one "channels" and start conversations. There are two different types of conversation, public, where all the channels included can view what im typing or private, where only two people can view what each other is typing, two peoples in private can be from different "channels".
This reading did not really interest me as chatting with people all over the world is not really in my best interest, and i dont think i would enjoy it as much as MSN to be honest. Although you can learn and share a lot of different things from many different people i still probably would not use IRC.
No.4Lastly i viewed the
http://www.caube.org.au/problem.htm site, this reading was about SPAM and Coulition against Unsolicited Bulk Email (CAUBE). I never knew what SPAM really was untill now because i always though it was some kind of virus, but now i know its a "Unsolicited Bulk Email". I learnt a lot about SPAM, which i never thought it was as serious after finding out that SPAM:
- poses no incremental costs to the send, infact the sender can tranfer a million messages for just the price of sending one message. However it does pose a great deal of costs on the recipent as it has the potential to destruct electronic mail, thus making it useless for its original purpose.
-UBE can increase a recipients internet bill by increasing the amount and time it takes for the recipient to download. Most internet billing in Austraila is charged by the amount you download, or the amount of time you use the internet. by UBE increasing both, it is obvious that the recipient's next bill will also increase.
-UBE can take control of your electronic mail box beacuse they often need storage space for their advertising materials. Even when you are paying for it, SPAM can deny you the previlidge of how to use your mailbox.
- Technical solutions, enforcement by the ISPs (internet Service Providers), hitting the "delete" button, self regualtions and industry codes do not come into any help when it comes to fixing SPAM.
-The most effecient ways that will help fix the problem is:
1. BAN experimentation of transmitting UBE
2. BAN the market and sale that provide SPAMMING tools.
Now I understand what SPAM really is, and i am also more aware that this unacceptable behaviour can occur any time and at almost anywhere on the internet.
