The End

This is the last entry in my learning log for this Unit.

I found this log a rewarding experience. It's the first time I have ever used a blog and I have been really impressed with how easy it has been to use and its intuitive feel. I really have had no problems at all when it comes to publishing my work.

Another thing I enjoyed about this learning log was the logistics of the whole process. If I had been recording everything in some kind of a folder or notebook there would have been issues with misplacing it - leaving it at home, or forgetting to take it to work etc. I could imagine there would also have been problems decipering my messy handwriting and an overall disorganised look and feel. I could also envisage difficulties referring to notes a few months down the track.

Using the blog has beena a clean, simple and logical solution to recording my learning progress throughout this unit. I will almost certainly be accessing various posts into the future.

Assignment completed

Thats it.

I have made my last little tweak to the essay and I am happy enough with it.

I'm pretty sure my work is of passable standard and I feel like I have addressed the question sucessfully. Because this is my first essay in 18 years there are still some nagging doubts.....It will be interesting what the Cynthia thinks when she marks it.

I have just filled in the coversheet and I will read it through once more before I post it this evening.

Assignment 2 finished

I pretty much finished the essay this weekend. 1660 words or so and about six references in my bibliography section. This is the first essay I have had to write since 1989, so I am feeling fairly tentative about it at the moment.

I think I have followed Cynthia's guide quite faithfully. But I'm not too sure if my exploration of the concepts, and how they relate to the examples I have provided, are deep and thorough enough. Perhaps I have explored them on a shallow level only.

The essay is not due untill friday, so I shall use the next couple of days to re-read it and iron out any creases etc.

The grading of this essay will be interesting. It has been so long. I will be happy so see it receive a pass.

Assessment 2: Essay progress continued.

Still making steady progress on the essay. Almost 900 words in and feeling reasonably confident I can make the word count without running out of examples.

I have found an excellent source to draw upon for one of my examples:
http://www.privacy.gov.au/internet/email/index.html
Guidelines on Workplace E-mail, Web Browsing and Privacy (30/3/2000)

It's a site which I first found when sourcing material for the first assignment. But I should be able to quote some material in my essay.

I am aiming to have the essay complete at about 1700 words by friday night. Then I can go through over the weekend and edit it, read it, edit it again etc untill I feel happy with it.

Assessment 2: Essay progress.

It been about a week since I last added to this blog, so with feelings of guilt, I am now recording my activities of the past week.

Last weekend I officially started working on my essay. This involved reading the materials suggested in the cirriculum / assessment details of the curtin uni webct website.

The materials I read and revised were:

B.A. Nardi & V.L. O’day, Information ecologies: using technologies with heart.

Purdue, Jeff, "Stories, Not Information: Transforming Information Literacy."

Of these two resources, I enjoyed the work of B.A. Nardi & V.L. O’day the most. I found their work in comparing the internet to a biological ecology to be quite an engaging read.

Although I had spent a lot of the weekend reading, I still felt very confused about the essay topic and I really needed some clarification. Fortunately Cynthia came to the party and posted a message on one of the threads in the assignment section, which has pretty much cleared up any confusion I had been feeling.

In this thread, she has pretty much provided an essay plan so I am now feeling like I have a lot more direction.

Module 5: Concept 31: Hypertext: links or structure?

While the WWW depends on hypertext, most of it uses hypertext merely for navigation (as in the first kind). Individual documents and even sites generally look much like linear, paper-printed materials. But, the whole of the web is rather more like the loose, unstructured ‘hypertext’ of the second kind. This suggests that hypertext is about both linking in the traditional way, but more effectively; and about structuring in a completely new way, based on this technology.

As advanced internet users we should address the new ways in which information is presented to us. This of course involves the use of hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are not the only method through which we navigate the various pages of a site. Hyperlinks also address the way in which we will absorb and view information from a particular document. A document or souce of information which was once linear, in that it had a beginning, middle and ending has changed. Through the use of hyperlinks, we the reader are now in control of the narrative structure of the information.

Module 5: Concept 30: Frames: the information-display challenge

Advanced Internet users are alert to both the techniques and issues involved in managing and using the web, learning about such technical features; they then interpret and undestand what these features mean in terms of the arguments and disputes around them.

Advanced internet users are aware of the various pros and cons of constructing and implementing an effective way of displaying information on the internet. Very rarely are things black and white when it comes to what makes an idea work and what makes an idea fail. An advanced internet user will recognise these issues and consequently be able to display information on the internet in a way which will make it accesible to as many people as possible.

Module 5: Concept 26: Privacy and Security

The Internet is a profoundly ‘open’ system and advanced Internet users are cautious about either accepting or sending material from and to unknown sources and are careful in releasing information about themselves in any form. Conceptually, the Internet challenges us to take greater responsibility for the protection of privacy and security than perhaps we are used to when dealing with the media.

An advanced internet user recognizes and benefits from the fact that the internet is an open system. However as an advanced internet user, we also have to be aware that this openess can also be a problem for issues like security. An advanced internet user can easily manipulate security issues by falsifing personal details as a way of protecting their privacy. We simply recognize intances when it is in our best interests to control the amount of personal details we provide.

Module 5: Concept 18: Non-speech communication through text: audience and authors' responsibilities

The Internet imposes responsibility on all its users to be both effective 'speakers' and 'listeners', who are each aware of the differences between internet chat and face-to-face communication and who compensate for the learnt preference of humans for a communication style that involves gestures, intonations etc that cannot be directly transmitted over the net.

This concept refers to the users of electronic communication being aware of the differences between face to face communication and remote computer communication. The sucess of this communication lies not only with the author but also with the audience of this communication. Both parties working on making it a rewarding experience through their input.

Module 5: Concept 15: Metaphors of use and communication differentiation

Internet communication technologies draw for their appeal and legibility (ie how they care understood) on metaphors and practices from non-internet communication. We use them, we understand them as versions of the latter, finding or creating differences between them that are not actually technically there since the net reduces all information flows to an identitical format (with small variations) as it actually works.

Metaphors are a great way for people to grasp technical concepts using descriptive (non-technical) language. Getting our heads around the technical aspects of the internet and the various communication processes become much more appealing when using metaphors.

Module 5: Concept 7: Netiquette

Good communication practice on the Internet is not something one 'learns', but something one 'practices' so as to teach others, less familiar than yourself, how it is done.

This concept refers to the 'rules ' one adheres to when communicating online. Netiquette is about setting a good example for others to follow. We have to understand that no one is in charge of the internet, therefore it is up to us to operate inside acceptable boundaries for things to keep flowing smoothly.

Module 5: Concept 6: Reading the difference between 'surface' metadata and 'implied' metadata

While the header contains the 'surface' metadata, understanding email messages may require you to interpret the implied, hidden metadata cued into the body of email messages.

This is quite a heavy concept to grasp. I think it is saying that meta data is being manipulated by marketers and advertisers. Although in the past, meta data related directly to the content of the email/website, this may not be the case. It can be quite deceptive and misleading.

I will need to look at this concept again. Not quite sinking in...

Module 4: Reflective Communicative Practice

Sending and receiving emails effectively is only possible if you consciously consider communicative issues and problems.

This concept addresses the constantly changing nature of the internet. To be effective in the area of online communication you should always be on the lookout for improvemnts and ways of doing things more efficiently. In other words, do not allow complacency to slip in. One way of taking advantage of technological improvemnts is if you are actively searching for them.

Concept 3: Effective Internet communication combines technical and communicative competence

Because Internet technologies for communication are so much more powerful in their ability to manipulate, transform and process data (a pen, for example, can't store words as well as write them), information processing and communicative skills must be developed in concert.

Communication on the internet is not just about having the skills to compose a comprehensive email message. Likewise good online communications skills are not about having detailed knowledge of the technical side of your email programme and using it efficiently. Being a good communicator on the internet will involve being efficient at both of these things. Of course with the technical side of the online communication process developing all the time we should search to improve our skills and not allow complacency to slip in.

Concept 1: Asynchronicity

Asynchronous electronic communication is not the opposite of real-time, synchronous communication: rather it describes forms of communication that appear differently 'located in time' depending on the perspective of the sender and receiver.

There is no definitive meaning for the term asynchronous and how it relates to the internet. It is important that we recognise that asynchronous communication is a matter of perspective when it comes to individuals involved in the communication loop. We need to recognise and address the differences between people in different time zones, making allowances and addressing new rules as we go.

Module 4: Concept 33: Information and attention

In the era of the ‘attention economy’, readers and users of Internet information must be carefully craft, in their own minds, the kind of metadata which will – almost instinctively – ‘fit’ with the metadata of the information sources they want, so that – in the few brief moments of initial exchange, when a seeker of information encounters information being sought, rapid, effective judgments are made that ‘pay off’ in terms of further reading, accessing and saving.

This concept is recognising the fact that anything you place on the internet is going to have to compete with the billions of other pieces of information already out there.

This is a complex idea to consider. It could be something like the meta data which a search engine like google uses to index and rank your site.

It could also be addressing something as simple as the layout of your web page - something which is instantly going to hold someones attention and make it stand out from the billions of other pages already out there. Making something concise and scannable to a distracted reader searching for information in a hurry.

Module 4: Concept 32: What is a virtual Library?

A library is, fundamentally, a system organised according to shared, accepted sets of classifications and organisations, and on the basis that it is impossible to access the information except through categories (either in a catalogue or by browsing collocated books on a shelf). The World Wide Web has no such shared system, and is technologically capable of a large degree of searching for information directly – ‘full text searching’. What advanced users seek to do is to exploit the advantages of the idea of a library in a way that suits their personal needs, effectively creating personal virtual libraries.

As an advanced internet user we should look upon the description of the internet as a library as being fallacious. It is simply not the case - at most we should view the description as being a harmless metaphor but certainly not a literal meaning.

The categorisation techniques used in actual libraries are far too technical and accurate to be applied to a decentralised body like the internet.

Bringing this level of sceptisism to the idea of viewing the internet as a library can only help us enhance and challenge our evaluation techniques as we search for information on the net.

Module 4: Concept 29: The challenge of ‘fast’ data

Advanced Internet users monitor, reflexively, the way they think about information, adapting to new opportunities, recognising the changing rules of the games of research, analysis, information use; but they do not uncritically accept that ‘fast’ information is better than ‘static’ information.

There is now a much greater volume of information which is easily accessible. Accessing information in the past would have meant a trip to the library, while this is still the case there is now readily available information from the internet to be obtained.

The problem for us is being able to evaluate this information effectively. Sure, it may be easy and convinient to obtain - but is it credible.

As advanced internet users we have recognise this and challenge the credibility of information we obtain from the internet.

Module 3: Concept 14: Cyberspace is informationally created 'space'

The sense of space is essential for humans - or at least many humans - to be able to express their identities in special and rich ways.

This concept is addressing the metaphors we use to describe our experiences of communicating electronically using online software such as discussion board software and Internet relay chat software.

It's something which has almost become a special language. For instance, we are not typing messages on a key board to one another , but 'chatting.' We are not simply engaging in asynchronous electronic communication, but 'meeting up with someone in cyberpace' or 'visiting a friend'.

I guess this kind of language evolves when people become quite passionate about something....in a way it must make the whole experience more real and normal - less alienating.

Let's face it - when you are 'visiting someone in cyberspace,' you are more than likely sitting by yourself in a room with the door closed.

Module 3: Concept 12: Communication and Information are related

Advanced Internet users actively create new contexts for the information they receive as part of asychronous communication (and other forms), and then give those contexts form and utility through mechanisms such as email folder filing systems; automated processes; etc.

In a way this concept is also talking about meta data. With the use of filing system we can create new metadata for communication, giving that particular piece of communication a new context simply by filing it away in a particular location.

A simple example would be filing some communication away under 'technical emails.' By doing this you have just interpreted the information, processed it and given it context for future reference - in this case as a technical email.