Week 5: Using Search Engines

Lecture summary

This lecture was about using search engines. Including an introduction as to what a search engine is and the types of search engines. The lecture also had information about web directories and how to use them.

Tutorial summary

In the tutorial we visited the site http://www.monash.com/spidap.html, we had to list strategies on how to structure a good search. We also had to do a history quiz, we had to use a variety of search engines to find the answers.

Tutorial Task

http://www.monash.com/spidap.html

Four strategies to help you structure a good search:

If you are searching with web directories, it can help you narrow down a broad subject. Each time you choose a subject it will come up with a list of sub headings and then under that another list of sub headings until you narrow your topic down to more specifics.

Searching by using search engines will give you a large selection of information usually not related to your topic, so you need to determine the keywords, use quotation marks and operators such as NOT and AND. If you are looking to find the exact phrase such as the famous line from Hamlet To be or not to be , you will have to place the phrase between quotations as search engines will not search unimportant words or words that are too common.

Quiz results

My History Quiz results
Quiz located at http://www.siteseen.co.uk/questions/historytrivia/

Readings

Robert Harris-Web Search Strategies

This site gives a number of very valuable techniques and strategies when searching the web.

The History of the internet: (Chap 4-Search Engines)

This site also provides many search techniques and strategies when using the web. This site also has some detailed information about the history of the internet.

Search Engine Optimization for companies

This site also provides the reader with many search strategies that you can use when searching the web.

Week 4: Using the WWW

Lecture summary
This lecture was about using the World Wide Web. Who developed it and when it was developed and what tools you will need o access the internet.

Tutorial summary

In the tutorial we visited three websites and had to evaluate their authenticity and reliability. We had to give clues to prove that the site is a spoof. (a site not to be taken seriously)

Tutorial Task
In week 4 we visited 3 websites
http://www.martinlutherking.org/
http://www.molossia.org/
http://www.haggishunt.scotsman.com/

First we went to haggishunt website.

We had to evaluate the site and give 4 clues as to why this site is a spoof!! ( a website that is not designed to be serious, as in its a joke)
First clue is that the animal (haggis) does not exist
Second, In the haggisclopedia there is a drink recipe in which the haggis is one of the ingredients
Third, in the shop you can't buy anything
Fourth, Commercial site and links do not work
Fifth, the animal is drawn, there are no real photos of the animal

On the http://www.molossia.org/ site

On the site there is a Shop link, in the bank it has the currency details. The currency is cookie dough
At the start there is a teachers login, it says that the site is fake
If you search it on a web browser, you see that that country does not exist.
Presentation is not good.
Then we went to the Martin Luther King website on http://www.martinlutherking.org/

What I would except to find before I entered the site:

I expected that there would be information about Martin Luther King, since it has an .org at the end, it would be a organisation.

[The site keeps changing my font size

My impressions of the website:

It has links to rap lyrics and black invention myths. The website is a spoof because of the links mentioned.

Readings:

A brief history of the internet

This site provides the reader with a detailed history of the internet.

History of the world wide web

This site gives a more in-dept history of the internet under the five headings. “The Development of Computers till 1960's”, “From ARPANET to World Wide Web”, “History of Electronic Mail”, “Search Engines” and “Basic Net Data”.

Week 3: Online Libraries and Databases

Week 3
Lecture summary
In the lecture we learned what online databases are what you would use them for, the types of dtatbases, the advantages and the limitations of online databases.

Tutorial summary
In the tutorial we learned how to use the library's online databases and visited the Lourve online museum archivfe and the Medline Plus online database.

Tutorial Tasks
In todays tutorial we visited the ECU library web page and explored some of the support functions available on the site. We also learned how to access online journal articles. You can access the online journals via the ECU library website by clickng on the Journal Articles(Databases) Link

You can search for journal articles by a variety of categories. For example by Subject or title
Here are some useful search tips

1. Determine the key term
2. Check the full text and scholarly journals boxes
3. You can use quotation marks to find the exact phrase or word
4. Use only AND function, not OR function
5. Change criteria from abstract to document text
6. Keywords will be highlighted
7. If you are looking for a certain date, you can choose to change the Date Range to your desired choice
8. You can change the Databases drop down list to choose from which database you want the web to search in or you can leave it to search through multiple databases
9. Maybe change some keywords to narrow down your search results
10. Change the search criteria until you can narrow your search down to only a few

Journal Article - 'Economic impact of global warming on businesses'
Search results are above


Afterwards we visited the site www.medlineplus.gov and went through the health topics and did some of the interactive tutorials

MedLine Plus Home

The arrow indicates wher the interactive tutorials are:
Here is the list of the many interactive tutorials that you can read through
Here is a screenshot of the "What is Neurosurgery?" tutorial


And who do I think might use such a service? A pharmacist or chemist
Here is some info about Medline Plus



Readings
Finding what you want on the web
This site recommends that you do not only use Google, but use other search engines too. The site makes it clear that Google is not the only search engine on the internet.

Bare Bones Lesson 7 :Basic Search Tips
This site tells you how to get more out of your search engine such as using "the plus (+) and minus (-) signs in front of words to force their inclusion and/or exclusion"
+meat -potatoes is the example given by this site.

Week 2: Office Applications

Week 2

Lecture:

We started off with how many Microsoft applications you can list and how many internet browsers you can list. Also some tips on creating power points and viewing adobe pdf files.

Tutorial:

We did the excel and word exercises from BlackBoard. We learned how to create a table of contents, make headers and footers and how to insert page numbers.

Tutorial Tasks
In class we used microsoft word.
We learnt how to create a coverpage and a contents table and also how to make headers and footers.


Here is how to create a coverpage in word

Click on the Insert tab on the ribbon, then click on Coverpage and choose yor coverpage
To create Headers & Footers
On the ribbon, click on the Insert tab

Here you will find the Header and Footer option

here you can select built in header styles, the same is for creating footers

To remove or edit your header and/or footer go to Insert tab--Header or footer, at the bottom of the menu you will find Remove Footer/Header and Edit Footer/Header

To create a contents page

On the ribbon go to the refernces tab, click Table Of Contents, a list of styles will appear, choose one

When you create headings and sub headings, you can update the contents table by clicking on the contents table then by clicking update table. always choose update entire table.


Here are some keyboard short-cuts
Ctrl + up arrow- will take you to the start of the paragraph
Ctril + down arrow - take you to end of paragraph
Ctrl + left/right arrow- allows you to jump between words
Ctrl + Shift + Home - takes you to the start of the document
Ctrl + Shift + End- takes you to end of document
Ctrl + N- opens a new document

Excel Excercises

We also had to do some excel excercises.
We had to make a table of activities such as eating, sleeping and travelling
Including a pie chart showing the average number of hours spent doing each activity per week
We also had to make a bar graph of the hours we spend socialising each day

Here are the charts

Readings

Using MS Word for APA tasks
This reading gives you general tips on how to use word, including how to create hyphens and dashes, highlighting words, how to set up the margins and line spacing. It gives you step by step instructions on how to do a variety of things in MS Word.

Graphic File Formats
It tells you what bitmap (.bmp), CompuServe (.gif), Jpeg (.jpg), Tagged-Image Format (.tiff) and photoshop document (.psd `.psp`.spp) file formats are and what they're used for and when they're used.

Week 1: Introduction to University Computing

Week 1

Lecture & Tutorial Summary

Lecture:

The lecture provided us information about where to find BlackBoard and the library home website. An introduction to the unit was also in the lecture.

Tutorial:

In the tutorial we created our blog and set up an account on the Imageshack website.


Tutorial Tasks
In our first week we learned how to make our blog

here is a step-by step how to create it:

1. Go to http://www.blogger.com/

2.This screen wil appear


Then click on the Create Your Blog Now


3. Then the Create an account page will come up
On this page you will need to create a username, which should be unique

Create a password

Create a display name-this should tell people who you are, but don't use your name

Then type your email address so blogger can register you

Accept the terms & conditions and continue the next page


4. Next you will need to create your blog name

On this page you will name your blog which is the blog title.

Your blog address which is the blog url. This will be you blog's address at blogspot

Then copy the random letters shown and continue

6. Next select a template for your blog.

You can preview it, so you can see what it looks like.....you can always change it later.

Click on to continue
7.Your Blog will now be created
8. Oce this screen appears you can START POSTING

9.Next you can update your profile in the settings page

Save your settings

You can now create posts and view them by clicking on view blog

How to access your student email and Blackboard

First of all go to the ECU main website, then to the Current students link, her you can access your ECU student email account. You can also access Blackboard from the student home page.

Student Home
Blackboard




Student email

Readings

PC Lube & Tune summary

PC Lube & Tune is a service and convenience store established in 1994. This site has links to topics relating to computers, such as an introduction to computer hardware, computer programming languages and other links including introduction to TCP/IP (internet protocols).

How PC's work summary
This site explains the basics of computers, including the hardware such as the mouse, keyboards etc. and the software, the memory, the central processing unit and the operating system. Also the future of PC's and the many personal portable computing devices.