The Research Begins...

This week’s tutorial task is to figure out which question you’re doing for the research assignment and then to make a start on it. Easy.

My essay will focus on the first question which is Marc Prensky's "Emerging online life of the digital native" and David Weinberger's "A New World" both present different views of contemporary internet users. In light of your own experiences with new technologies do you think they are accurate portrayals? Discuss why or why not with specific examples.

I’ve found an online copy of Prensky’s work and ordered the book by Weinberger so have to wait for that to get to Mt Gravatt. Next thing to do is to read both of them and then I can start researching.

Week 9: Lecture

This week’s lecture brought with it some strangeness thanks to Jason Nelson but I have to say this by far has been the best lecture yet. He really should have had some more lectures because he made this weeks topics of CyberUtopia very interesting.

As Jason tried to tell us about the dot com crash he started to reminisce about his first kiss with a lovely Sandra who no longer is lovely because she looks strange. What does Sandra have to do with anything you’re probably asking yourself? Well Sandra was worth 2 million dollars in December of 1999 and then in February she was only worth 500 dollars. Quite a large difference wouldn’t you say? This happened due to the fact that companies didn’t know how to use the Internet in a constructive way so companies were pumping money into the net but then no money was being pumped out meaning that investments crashed. The result? The dot com crash.

After Jason reminded us about Sandra a few mores times and got upset that a girl sitting in front of me left the lecture we moved onto the wonderful and very strange world of networking sites. Now I only say they are strange because the ones that we looked at were. For all of you out there who fantasies about being an elf and living in an elf town you now can! Welcome to Elftown or if you’ve always wanted to teach others how to be a psychic vampire because you are one you can join the world of Vampire Rave. It makes me wonder though. If we think that sites such as Elftown or Vampire Rave are strange would people who join these sites think that Facebook or MySpace as weird?

The lecture finished with Jason showing us some of his work. Take a look at Secret Technology. Very interesting site.

A big thank you to Jason for not only teaching me something but also making this the best lecture.

Tute Week 8

This tutorial starts off with an overview of the lecture since we didn't have an actual one. Daniel brings up some interesting points about how there are no movies, which don’t contain some sort of warfare. When was the last time you watched a movie with no guns or explosions of some kind? I know I can’t recall one. So after some more interesting points we move onto this week’s tutorial task.

They are listed below:
Sign an e-petition
I’ve done this before a few times. One was joining Sunrise’s Earth Hour petition and the others I don’t remember. This doesn’t mean the causes weren’t worth signing and remembering it just means that my memory is bad.
Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.
Done this as well. I usually leave some comment on News.com on stories that I find interesting.
What is Barak Obama up to today?
He is telling the world to stop whinging about America. "Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world, cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone," Mr Obama said. Read the article here
Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are.
State: Chris Bombolas

Week 8: Lecture

No lecture this week! That means I don’t have to do a blog right? Wrong! We got the lovely lecture notes posted onto the Learning @ Griffith site and had to come to our own conclusions about things from there. That’s fine enough because we had to do the same thing thanks to the Ekka holidays. However what I don’t like is the fact that this week’s topic is CyberPolitics and eDemocracy. I don’t like having to think about Politics and Democracy as it is and just because it’s to do with the online world doesn’t make this topic any less interesting.

Reading the lectures notes is quite an effort until I get to the section about Cyberpunk Themes. The first section discusses technology and mythology. This section raises some important points the main one which got me thinking was technological advancement comes at a price, as can be seen in the human cost of the industrial revolution and in the environmental problems that have arisen with industrial development this century. This is very true. We’ve learnt from being humans that something always comes as cost.

An earlier question raised was whether we would care if machines took over? I think we would. Machines do play a larger part in our lives and in society but if machines took over what would humans do? Do we stop living our lives and just wait to die? I know I don’t want that. Machines should be created to help make life easier but I don’t want things to get so easy that I don’t need to do anything because a machine is there doing it for me.

Another Week Another Video

It's now week 7 and this weeks tutorial task is do another video like we did last week only this time we need to make it longer (3 minutes all up), it needs to be done with video we've shot as well as pictures and our own audio. I'm sure you can tell I hate it already. I think I lack the creativity that most people have but in saying this I did do it.

The video is meant to tell a story and it does...in a strange way. It's dedicated to my friend Sarsha who turned 19 a few weeks ago. Hope you like it.

Week 7: Lecture

I did not attend this week’s lecture as I was sick. I’m sure my presence was missed. Reading over the lecture notes it seemed like a good and interesting topic that I missed. Topic discussed in this lecture was creative commons and open source software.

Creative commons is a non-for profit organisation, which works on the basis of “some rights reserved” instead of “all rights reserved”. Using this systems means that creators of a program can choose licensing options for their programs such as non-commercial, no derivatives and ShareAlike. This means that others are still allowed to use your program and modify it but with only some restrictions instead of having all the normal restrictions which are usually placed on people.

The next topic being discussed was open source software. I love open source software. I bought my new Mac this year for around $1600 and on top of that I also bought Microsoft Office for it for $200 not realising that there are awesome programs such as OpenOffice that you can get for FREE instead of wasting your money. You can say I’m a little bit peeved that this class wasn’t held at the beginning of the year. I guess I’ve learnt my lesson now. Out of the other programs that were mentioned in the lecture slides such as Firefox, Linux, VLC I’d only heard of Firefox, which I’ve actually been using for a few years now. I prefer it to Internet Explorer and even Safari. Don’t know why but just seems a lot easier to use then the other two.

There was a homework challenge to download an open source software program and use it for 10 days. I downloaded GIMP but have no idea how to use it. I will also download OpenOffice and see how I go with that. Like I already mentioned I already have Firefox and love it so I guess I’ve kind of completed the challenge already even if I did cheat a little. Keep an eye out to see how I go with GIMP.

Tute Video Time

This weeks tute began with us receiving our marks for our blog. A high distinction (88%) was something I was definitely not expecting from my blogs but I have to say I was very happy and excited to have received such a great mark even though I still don’t understand how that happened.

Here is the feedback I received on my blog: A fabulous blog, even if the matte pink background is gaudy as hell. The vivacity of the entries is truly wondrous, and the inclusion of links, media, and emphasis is very tactful. This is the sort of standard a professional blog needs; the style alone is easy to navigate and stands out in a reader's mind as something like "I'm going to read 'Adult Subjects again today".

I would like to say thank you to Daniel for calling my layout “gaudy” so now I have changed it because I don’t like to be tasteless. Hopefully this layout is better (although I still like the pink).

This weeks tutorial task although fun and creative was a pain. Mostly because being creative requires me to think. As a Uni student this is a bad thing to admit. I decided to go back to my heritage and show you guys where I am from. I was born in Bosnia & Herzegovina in 1989. Due to the war that started there my family moved to Germany and then 11 years ago we moved to Australia. The video contains photo’s taken by my friend Mike who went to Bosnia for a few weeks half way through this year. Big thank you to him for letting me use his pictures. Hope you enjoy it.

Week 6: Lecture

Consumption and production was the wonderful topic that was discussed in the week 6 lecture. What did I enjoy the most? The videos we were shown. Everything else just bored me. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the Lecturer. I had an issue with him last time as well. He makes interesting ideas seem quite dull. At least that’s my opinion.

We watched the short film, which won the 2009 New York Tropfest. Loved it. The concept for it was great. The fact that it was done just by using different words you can find on signs on the street. Watch it below.


I’d also like to say a big thank you to all of you who have fish on their blog’s. Like some crazy person I’m amused by this and keep feeding other people’s fish instead of reading the blog’s. I am trying very hard to stop. You know what they say. First step to dealing with a problem is admitting you have one. I have one!

Facebook to Change...

As I was catching up on the news of the day after getting home from a very long and tiring day at Uni I came across an article talking about changes to Facebook. Being a Facebook user and after only yesterday discussing Facebook and its terms and conditions I had to see what was going on.

It seems that after talks with Canada's Privacy Commissioner on Thursday, Facebook has agreed to give its worldwide users better protection over their personal information. This means that users will have better control over their personal information and accounts will not only be able to be deactivated but also deleted meaning that personal information would in fact be removed completely. These changes are to take place worldwide and not just in Canada.

All I can say is it's about time!

For the full article click here

IM vs 3D

Week 5’s Tutorial question asks what the differences are between the regular IM program and the 3D one? This is somewhat simple to answer. IM programs use primarily text forms to communicate whereas the 3D environment uses both text and visual graphics to communicate. In a 3D program you are able to create an avatar for yourself so that the person you are talking to has a 3D image of you to look at.

In both IM and 3D you can be the person who you want to be and you are the person you created. It’s the same thing I talked about in my previous post. When using these programs to talk you can be who you want to be instead of being who you are. If you are normally a shy person you can use these programs to be more confident.

This might seem like a good thing however many people use this to become not only more confident but also more aggressive and abusive which is why Cyberbullying is such a big deal. You might not have the guts to tell the person who you dislike how you feel when you are with them however given the chance on IM or 3D program's some people might. You are able to be more brazen because you cannot see the other person's reaction to the hurtful things you are saying making it seem like it's not that bad when in fact it's even worse.

Week 5: Lecture

This lecture began with a discussion on Social Media and Web 2.0 and then become more somber as a slide titled Identity Play was shown. This slide seemed to strike a chord with most of the students who knew just how true it was. You could be anyone online. The following video helps to prove that point.


I’m sure most of the students doing this course use MSN and networking sites to chat to friends and stay in touch with them but some also use it to meet new people which is dangerous as the video shows. MSN offers people the chance to be someone they are not. This could be as harmless as being less shy online then you would be face to face or maybe it’s a little more then that. People need to remember that as fun and interesting as the Internet can be it can also be very harmful and unsafe.

Another interesting topic that was mentioned was who owns the stuff you put online? Is it you or the website that you have that information on? This topic was looked at when considering Facebook. Facebooks owns what you put onto their site whether that’s your photos, status updates or anything else. Even after you leave the site you have not actually left it. It uses a cache to store your information for an unknown period of time. Scary huh? You think once you go your stuff goes with you but in this case it doesn’t. It is still there for Facebook and others to see and use.

This lecture was the most interesting so far because it made me think about my privacy and whether I actually want people to have access to my pictures and others things that I have on Facebook. I don’t agree with Facebook’s policy on this but that doesn’t mean I will delete my account and stop joining networking sites. I guess its up to you to decide whether you’re okay with that. They allow you to make an account for free so that you can stay in touch with friends and family and share your photos and in return you give up your privacy and personal photos. Is it really worth it? I’m still deciding.

The Mystery of Search Engines

Search engines are a wonderful concept but can also be very frustrating especially when you’re trying to decide which one to use to give you all the best sites. How do you choose between Google ,Yahoo , Wikipedia , Ask Jeeves and the rest of them? It’s hard.

For me I made a choice and have stuck with it for a few years now. Yahoo. I find it gets me the best results and is easy to use. I used to always use Google but for some reason Yahoo won me over. I think it’s because I can do more on the page then just search for things. For example I can check my horoscope, see what’s happening on the news, see what the weather is like and even decide what to watch on television that day thanks to the useful TV Guide. It just makes the site more interesting to use instead of having to search for all of these things in the Google search engine. Plus it’s more colourful. I am a sucker when it comes to those kinds of things. You know how companies make pretty and colourful packaging for things to try and grab the consumer’s attention and make them purchase that product? Well I always do even when I don’t need that item.

So how do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet? I’ve never really though about that until this class. Guess I am learning something after all. There are a few different things that will lead a certain site to be ranked higher then others. These being:
Key terms - the term you type into the search engine
Title - title of the document or webpage
Description - outline of what the page is about
Keyword meta-tag - list of key words for that site
These ideas where discovered at Yahoo Help and there are more useful tips which i haven't mentioned.

So now that you have some information about the effectiveness of search engines you can now try and make you’re site the highest ranked site on the Internet. Good luck!

Scavenger Hunt

1. What did Alan Turing wear while riding his bicycle around Bletchley Park? Used AltaVista to get this answer. Alan Turning wore a gas mask whilst riding his bike. To see the article click here

2. On what date did two computers first communicate with each other? Where were they? Could not find.

3. What is Bill Gates’ birthday and what age was he when he sold his first software? I used Yahoo to find his date of birth which is 28th October. Couldn't find the answer for the second question.

4. Where was the World Wide Web invented? Once again used AltaVista to find out that World Wide Web was created at CERN in 1989.

5. How does the power of the computer you are working on now compare with the power of a personal computer from 30 years ago?

6. What is the weight of the largest parsnip ever grown? No idea

7. When did Queensland become a state and why is the Tweed River in New South Wales? Since this year its QLD's 150th birthday im guessing it became a state in 1859.

8. What was the weather like in south-east Queensland on 17 November 1954? It was raining. That year was when the 1954 Floods occurred. Knew this one without having to even look it up.

9. Why is is Lord Byron still remembered in Venice? Used Yahoo to get this answer. He is still remembered because he lived there for six years and wrote some of his most famous works there.

10. What band did Sirhan Chapman play in and what is his real name? Used Ask.com for this question. First looked up the band and found that it was called The Black Assassins. I used Ask.com to try and find the name and made an interesting surprise. Another 1501HUM student had posted a blog about this very thing and his answer was that Sirhan Chapman is in fact our lecturer. His evidence seems genuine but I'm not sure what to believe. Take a look at the blog here.

Week 4: Lecture

As there was no lecture in Week 3 due to the Ekka holiday this week's lecture began with a quick run down of Week 3's lecture all to due with Cine Speak and learning the language of the cinema.

The lecture on this topic wasn’t as interesting as I though it would be. The subject interested me but the way the lecture was presented made the subject seem pretty dull. I don’t know whether it was the lecturer who presented it but it just didn’t grab me like I though it would.

After the week 3 lecture was recapped we moved onto the week 4 lecture to do with from the big screen to the small screen. This topic was a bit more interesting.

Some movies where looked at and discussed which were big hits even though they were only posted on the internet.
Movies such as:
Troops
Awesometown
405 The Movie
The Fanimatrix
Take a look at some of them. My favourite would be Awesometown. Those three guys are geniuses when it comes to comedy.

Networking Sites ...

To start this post I have to make a confession. I am one of those people who has MySpace , Facebook , Tagged , Bebo …you name it I got it (except for Twitter although I will eventually get hooked on that too). So now that you know that I can start this post.

The first social networking site I joined was Bebo about 5 years ago. Then it was MySpace, Tagged and last but certainly not least, Facebook. I joined each network at different times but always for the same reason. It’s an easy way to keep in touch with family and friends. It’s also a lot cheaper then phoning and texting people all the time. I do try and see my friends as much as I can in person but when Uni gets hectic and work is taking away my social life it’s easy to just comment someone asking them how they have been and to find out what’s going on their life but in saying that I would choose to see someone physically over just commenting them online.

I heard about Bebo from my friend Nicole who lives in New Zealand. She came to live in Australia for a while and while she was here she created a Bebo account for me so I could stay in touch with her when she went back.

MySpace was a new craze that started that I had to latch onto and it was great. I loved being able to post pictures online for people to see and comment, I could stay in touch with friends and see how my family overseas was doing. That was also my reason for joining Tagged.

Facebook was a bit of a different story. I did it because everyone else was getting into it. So I though I might as well do it so my friends would stop annoying me. Now it’s become the main networking site I use. It’s a lot easier and cleaner to use compared to the others. Although I do have to admit I hated it at first.

With all of these sites I usually don’t add people if I don’t know them. I just don’t think it’s safe to add strangers. I would also never meet anyone I’ve met online in person. I know other people who have and I think it’s stupid and very unsafe. You never know what people are like and who they could turn out to be.

The Future?

For the Week 3 Tutorial we needed to find a video to embed on our blog to do with communication. This is the one I found.



I think some of the ideas that the video talks about are very possible. It’s true that the internet already has so much influence over things now. You no longer need to get the paper newspaper because you can read it online. I use News to get all the information I need as I usually don’t have time to watch the actual news when they are on. It's the same with some of the TV shows I watch. Instead of watching them when they are on I can just continue my study or whatever else I'm doing and come back to it later that night and not miss out on anything. The Internet has become something very unique. It's both good and bad in a way. It's good because the Internet is such a powerful tool but it can also be bad because of that same reason.

The knowledge that is out there is great for assignments and gathering the information you need. It’s now easier then ever to keep in touch with family and friends whether they are here in Australia or overseas somewhere. Those are some of the things that make it great but then there are also reasons why it isn’t always the best thing either.

Crimes using computers and mobiles are more commonly heard of now then ever before. These can include Cyber bullying, Cyber stalking, child pornography etc. As the video mentions anyone can be someone else online. Who is to stop someone from pretending that they are in fact another person? Laws are being developed and improved to include the new crimes that haven’t been seen before. It makes me wonder what other ways people are going to come up with to help aid them in their criminal activities.

Week 2: Lecture

The second lecture for this subject is over and to be honest with you I though this course would be a lot more interesting. Don’t get me wrong I love using the Internet and computers. I don’t know what I would do without them but I don’t really care about who made them, how, when etc… I just want to be able to use one.


The one part of the lecture, which I did find pretty interesting, was learning about Alan Turing. Although his life was short lived it was interesting to hear how much of a genius he really was. It was also strange that although he was gay (that’s not the strange bit) that he was so open about it. I always assumed that in those days you didn’t talk about those kinds of things. I mean homosexuals in this day and age are still looked down upon by some people and yet here is a man born in 1912 that doesn’t bother hiding it.

Week 1: Lecture

First week back at Uni and it all begins the same way no matter what course you’re doing. Course outlines get handed out, read out (for those of us who still can’t read I guess), introductions get made and work begins. The joy's of being back!

I figured something out in this first lecture. The world revolves around money and communication. We didn’t talk about money but we all know it does. Not only is communication a vital part of my Psychology degree it’s also the first thing that was discussed in this weeks lecture. Some definitions were offered for speaker, message and transmitter. While they were being offered all I could think about was the fact that this was just a repeat of last semester.

Another thing that reminded me about last semester was the run through of the assessment items. Critical thinking comes into play just like it does in Psych. I should be an expert at it by the time I finish this and all of my Psych courses.

Then it was time for some entertainment. We got to watch a video bout Jesus and cocaine. Watch it below…



It was an entertaining video to watch. The end is pretty good and didn't see it coming. Only thing that could be improved is how fast the words appear and disappear as I’m sure just like me you had trouble with it too. Some of it was a bit too fast to read so had to pause it to read it properly.

So that’s a wrap up for the first lecture. Let’s see how the rest go.

About Me...

Hi,
I'm Anita, 19 and currently undertaking my first year as a Psychology student at Griffith University. I was an Arts student for a year in 2008 but decided to change courses because I felt I would enjoy Psych more.

I chose to do 1501HUM as an elective mostly because it seemed like a fun course to do and the assessment items didn't seem too bad. Guess we'll see how I go!