Friday, February 1, 2008

Episode 9 - Finally... Last Episode

Throughout the entire UIR journey, the most important lesson is Using Internet as a Research Tool. From this lesson, I learnt the presence of Meta search engines. My research resource used to be Yahoo! and Google only. However, UIR had taught me to use Meta search engines like MetaCrawler. It not only can perform search on Google and Yahoo! at the same time, it also perform search from MSN and Ask. All 4 at the same time, extracting the best information of all 4 search engines. Research had been made better and easier for me ever since i learnt to use it.

And, UIR Assignment 1 is some how related to this topic, which requires me to used the evaluation criteria learnt from the lesson, Evaluation of Internet Resources, to evaluate 3 main types of internet facilities. My evaluation in the project again proves to me the usefulness of a Meta search engine.

I feel that the combination of these two topics taught me new knowledge and better research skills which achieve my main objective of taking up UIR as a CDS. I had never knew internet research can have so much theory behind it. In conclusion, I have learnt skills to judge the quality of the research tool in order to do better research. Not forgetting, the lecturer had been very approchable and patient in guiding me through the projects and understanding the lecture notes.

Signing off... Celestine =P

Posted by iMcelestinE at 9:07 PM

Friday, January 18, 2008

UIR Episode 8 - Last Post, I Thought...

Class test 2 was not very well done. I am quite unprepared for the test too due to the heavy school workload this week.

I have uploaded my research result on the impact on physical appearance and grooming and its bibliography, to Wiki. Bibliography was quite easily done as it was taught before in one of the semester in communication skills lesson and it is always a practice in other project submissions.

My group is yet able to compile as some of my group member are not completely done yet, so now I will have to focus on my individual component as they are half done only. Due to my last minute changing in resource usage, I will have to redo one of my evaluations which should take me another half a day to complete. My blog is updated weekly but now have to transfer the post into Microsoft Word as it will not be very visible with print screens.

Hopefully I can get everything completed as soon as possible. And guess this will be my last posting as Episode 9 would not come in time for Assignment 2 submission.

Marking an end to Episode 8

Posted by iMcelestinE at 7:52 PM

Friday, January 11, 2008

UIR Episode 7 - E-learning week again!

I do research on the impacts of youth drug abuse. With the combination of information from two resources, I summarized the impacts and symptoms of drug abuse into a few paragraphs and posted them on Wiki.

I learnt the different types of impacts that I had never expected. I understood how much harm drug can bring about. Drug can bring about a total change in a person personality, behavior, character, interest, appearance, grooming and most importantly, health. Speaking from a youth point of view, I think of course health impact is the most critical one and following next is physical appearance. Hence, I will be doing research on the impact of physical appearance and grooming for my group report.

Marking an end to Episode 7

Posted by iMcelestinE at 9:52 PM

Friday, January 4, 2008

UIR Episode 6b - E-learning week

Wow… Although this week’s practical assignment is almost similar to last week’s one, but I find it even more tedious. A lot of information to be included as compared to last week’s one. Guess, it is due to the difference in websites used. Last week I used a website with information abstracted from a book but this week’s is an organization website. Hence, more things are needed to analyze.

First entry on a discussion forum and it’s a great experience. I had always thought that discussion forums are some useless sources for information. But today, when I really have to look into a discussion forum then I realized its use. As it is named “discussion”, it really meant discussing your topic online. In addition, people really do reply. I had never expected that to happen. As I need to prove my participation, hence I posted some question based on my topic and based on my curiosity on the topic.

Lastly, today’s e-learning asked about how internet has enriched my academic. If it were not for the presence of internet, I would not be able to blog the past few entries and this entry now. It had helped me in a lot of project. Without internet, we will have to do research from books. As a result our resource will be very limited. Internet can provide the same resource to a large number of people at the same time. We can also narrow down the results through keyword search. Hence, research is no longer as tedious as before. Technology had lead to invention of MetaCrawler which has the ability to at one go, retrieve relevant resource from a few search engines. This makes research more efficient.

Marking an end to Episode 6

Posted by iMcelestinE at 7:51 PM

Friday, December 7, 2007

UIR Episode 6a - Key Variables

I learnt something called key variation today. I never knew that research keyword for impact of drug abuse on youth can be written this way…

(impact OR effect) AND (youth OR Adolescence) AND drug AND (abuse OR misuse)

And it really will widen the search. With the key variation help, I found a few more relevant resources.
Then, I chose http://www.sacsconsulting.com/book/chapter4.htm
to complete the attached evaluation template.

I got the hints on the template and with my printed out lecture slides in front of the monitor, I proceed with the evaluation. I learnt the different evaluation criteria (Purpose, Coverage, Authority, Accuracy, Currency, Accessibility, Presentation and Arrangement, Usability and Overall Quality) in detail and looked out for the relevant parts in the website. I identified the difference in this website such as the lack of search facility required in Presentation and Arrangement and hence, it mean that this website can be further improved. There are also other flaw discovered which will be further listed and explained in my Assignment 2.

To be continued…

Posted by iMcelestinE at 12:50 PM

Friday, November 30, 2007

UIR Episode 3 - Summary - Reflection

From what I understood today, Information is referring to website providing to readers factual details, conveying a particular message across. Business/Marketing will be the marketing strategy conducted across websites to bring awareness to readers and attract more businesses. Lastly, Personal website will be websites containing details on personal point of view which means it not necessary be factual.

So happy! I learnt how to add links to my blog today. I had been trying to make a blogskin for my blog since the first lesson, but did not manage to get it done. Finally, I gave up and got someone to assist me with it.
Why so happy? I finally edited something on the template script with my own ability and also because today is a short lesson. For the past few lesson, I have to bring back homework to complete. Finally, this weekend can get me away from UIR and focus on other projects that are submitting soon...

Marking an end to Episode 3

Posted by iMcelestinE at 1:00 PM

UIR Episode 3 - Identifying their purpose...

Today's lesson, we went through lesson 1-3 as a class. Recalled a lot of detailed information that I learnt and forgotten during the last few lab lessons. Then, we moved on to our practical tasks again. But this week's practical task is quite easy. Not many researches are required. We just need to retrieve the research resources from Lab 1 and 2 practical tasks to complete today's practical task. And then, identify each of their purpose.

The first resource --- http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/pointtaken/2007/11/families-are-first-line-of-defense.html.It is a resource for Personal use. As it is a website providing information of personal view. It is not factual information as people view things differently.

The second resource --- http://www.nationalyouth.com/substanceabuse.html.It is a resource for Information use. It provides factual information concerning youth drug abuse. For example the symptoms, how it is treated and how drug abuse youth behave.

The third resource --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeQ9hAotlcM.It is for Business/Marketing use. It is marketing the food that the particular restaurant provides. Its purpose is to create awareness and attract business out of it. However, it is not a reliable source of information.

The fourth resource --- http://taiwanjournal.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=21754&CtNode=122.It is again for Personal use. It is a personal comment on how the 3 women who have achieve success through western food in Taipei. It is not a reliable source of information.

Very quickly I got it done, so do people around me. And, today's lesson very quickly came to an end.
To be continued...

Posted by iMcelestinE at 12:30 PM