<img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b119/whitkit/WEEK4.jpg">

This week’s lecture was basically about the different types of communication used on the internet/computer. The examples included in the lecture are email, instant messenger, forums, blogs, wikiwebs and social networking. While these six were included in the lecture, there are probably more types out there. Students were informed about what types of communication there are and why exactly a particular form of communication falls under a certain type. For example, a chat room is place dependant and synchronous because you must be in the same place on the internet at the same time to be able to chat to people. A bulletin board, however, is place dependant but asynchronous because while you must be in the same place on the internet, you don’t have to be there at the same time as somebody else to communicate with them. Examples of alternative emails and instant messengers were given. Also included in week four’s lecture was ‘netiquette’ which was basically giving students a general idea about how to behave when using email and such. For instance, BCC generally means ‘blind copy’ and it will not show emails entered into that field when sent.

For week four’s workshop, students were firstly asked to organise their ECU emails a little as well as get to know how to use it. To do this, four folders were to be created (one for each unit, e.g. UPC0004). Then, we were to send an email to somebody sitting next to us. Because I did this activity at home, I sent an email to myself. That email was to be sent to the UPC0004 folder. To see a screenshot of this activity complete, view the screenshot below (click for full image):


The second part of our workshop required students to search a topic under the ‘Groups’ section of Google. I chose to search Arabian horses. I found that the majority of the messages posted were simply sales or owners of Arabian horses posting behavior problems. There was the odd question about the history of the horse breed and such, but no topic in particular struck me as terribly interesting. There was, however, a message posted about an elderly woman who had become sick and wanted to sell her 50 Arabian horses to loving homes. I was interested enough in this post to read the entire thing. To view the screenshot, see below (click for full image).


Students were also to visit a podcast website (http://podcasts.yahoo.com for example) and search something. I chose to search for my favourite show Metalocalypse. I was really happy with the search results returned. Some of the things that I was able to see were promos, episodes and some audio including their songs. To view a screenshot, see below (click for full image):


I believe podcasts could be particularly beneficial to students in that lectures and such could be recorded and posted if students were to miss out on a day. This would assure they would have the best opportunities to learn.

The first reading for week four was information on the different things you should remember when sending emails to people in your workplace. It included information for both senders and recipients. The second reading included knowledge on internet relay chats. This was helpful in that it included many of the dos and don’ts. For example, you should avoid typing in all capitals because people regard it as shouting. The third reading was on SPAM. It was filled with information on what is bad about SPAM, why it is such a big problem and a possible way to stop it.