a. How has Twitter (micro-blogging) enhanced your learning of EIR?

I think twitter would have enhance my learning experience of EIR is by the means of sharing your thoughts/views/knowledge with other people who are also using the website too. It's like teaching and as well learning at the same time.

b. Compare this with your blogging experience using Blogspot.

Blogging is sharing your thoughts and experience by a form of your own way and means of how you want to put it. But also it's weaker in information sharing as you control the main post. People can comment about your post, but the highlight of it, you're in control of your page. Unlike twitter where the topic is for everyone to share their thoughts and views.

c. How can you use Twitter and Blogspot for research purposes?

I think twitter is a good source for sharing information and trading ideas. In a way you're surveying how people feel about the topic you shared and seeing what's their reply. Where else blogspot uses a 'single-way' of sharing your thoughts. But also can be accurate and precise if you've done your research.

My Dream Holiday, Japan!

My dream holiday would be Japan! I always wanted to go and visit the country since then. Why i would want to go there is because of the beautiful sight seeing scenery and culture!

pictures of places i would definetly go:






Mount Fuji! The iconic mountain that represent Japan!







Ginza, Tokyo, Where the heart of the nightlife of Japan is!







Japan's finest castle - "The White Heron" in Himeji.










Imperial Palace, Tokyo - A must visit place in tokyo

















The beautiful Hokkaido, Japan!


















A must visit Okinawa, Japan!

Dream Holiday Evaluation

http://www.worldtravelguide.net/country/131/country_guide/Far-East-Asia/Japan.html

I have planned to go to my dream holiday which is japan after I've finished my studies from Temasek Polytechnic. So by researching a website which is the above link, I've found a pretty detailed website i came across using Google search engine.

I've used the following criteria to evaluated this website : Authority, Presentation and Arrangement and Accessibility.

Authority

The authority belongs to a company called Columbus Travel Media Ltd. So this is quite straight forward because the company has their address, contacts and legal license to promote the website. By clicking "About Us", there's more information about the company and their contacts for further details.

So this website is safe for it's authority.

Presentation and Arrangement

The Presentation and Arrangement of this website is neat and simple. The links ranges from all kinds of interesting information from about the company to event flight booking details! Extremely convenient to go about this website and well detailed information which makes the trip to japan easier!

Accessibility

Accessibility of this website is easy too. Details of the places you want to view is free and no registry is required. If you're booking, they have auto link-up to a booking website for you to book your desire trip too.

Most Important Evaluation Criteria

I would say it would be Authority. Because without Authority, i don't think i can trust the website to handle my request for such things. Dealing with money through online is very risky and with such risk, the first thing i look for is the authority that is behind it. But it's safer to go through websites that are recommended through friends or websites that are local and trustworthy.

Practical 7

Which criteria did you use to evaluate Stomp.com?

i have used the following criteria : Accuracy, Purpose and Coverage.

For Accuracy, I find that it is accurate in certain details. For example videos is a proof of accuracy, because the event occur and stamp prove its evidences. But for what's written, i think that it is not accurate because of how the person sees the situation. Because they write what they feel about the situation and did not clarify the situation, this is where accuracy has its downfall.

For Purpose, STOMP main purpose is actually to "connect, engage and interact with Singaporeans in a style and approach that is different from conventional news websites." - This is what is written in STOMP "About Us" page.

It also stated that STOMP "have unparalleled reach into the hearts of Singaporeans and the resources to tailor-make approaches to maximise your brand."

From this perspective points, i can understand that STOMP creates this page for us citizen to share our daily news about within Singapore. Therefore, the purpose of this website is clearly correct. But of how people go around interpreting their points of view is wrong and abusive of insults hurled at the event, i think the website has become more of a laughing stock rather then a great website to view for everyday news.

For Coverage, STOMP has other links that is quite good for example, National Library Board and Speak Good English Movement.

The website also have other links like "Singapore Seen", “Talkback” and “Star Blog”.

The coverage of STOMP is quite good because of all these links, they have covered alot of interesting topics to look at.

Why did you choose these criteria? What lessons have you learnt from this activity?

I've chose these criteria because they are the fundamentals of evaluating a website. I also have understood these criteria before i evaluated other websites.

What i have learn is that we are ought to be more aware of the accuracy, purpose and coverage of the websites.

So with all I've written, we will be more protected from irrelevant information posted and question ourselves before agreeing to the posted that we've just read on the internet.

Practical 6

Q: Do you think it is more effective to search the invisible web (databases) than using search engines, meta-search or subject directories? Why?

A: Well if the invisible website has the topic that I'm looking for, then yes. It really actually depends. Sometimes it's easier to search through search engines because they give a wide range of results but at the same time, junkies. That's why searching through invisible web might be good because of the accuracy that it gives. But bad because it might be only related to a sort of database kept inside which will not hold the resource that you are searching on.

Q: Will you use the invisible web (databases) for research in your own respective Diplomas? Why?

A: Yes, if they have the topic that I'm researching on, why not. It's a resource that is much more accuracy and trust-worthy. Thus cutting down time for confirming that the information given is correct.

Q: What have you learnt from your wiki experience during this practical?

A: I've learn that working with people is not that easy, especially with someone you don't know well enough. Well, it's because you don't know what he/she's thinking. So how i feel about wiki needs alot of time and effort to create the information well presented. And of course once the information is complete and done. The sense of achievement is always there. horray~ V^_^V

Sharing my research findings at EIR class wiki

We were to research on our topic that we have chosen and to update it onto EIR subject wiki at www.eir-rawkz.wetpaint.com.

My research topic which is on Spending Habits of youths. Which is....a challenge i would put it. Firstly, there are suppose to have like...tons of results in Google, yahoo..etcetc But somehow or rather, I'm amused that the topic i chosen isn't! haha!

But yet, it's a challenging research and i enjoyed researching on. Which also amuses me alot on this topic!

So updated onto the EIR subject wiki, i feel that sharing my knowledge with others is like being part of the community. But in a small scale way because this cohort for this semester is rather small. But i can't imagining myself sharing with millions in the main website! But that will never happen because I'm scared to! =p

Practical 3

Q: Were you impressed by Google’s search functions/features? Why?

A: Before when i used Google search functions for the first time, I was actually using yahoo search for researching or browsing through other stuff. I was aware that Google was getting popular, but i didn't want to shift to Google because i find that yahoo was better at that time. But since when i tried Google search, i was impressed by the numerous search results that it gave. Compared to yahoo, Google had a huge results that return compare to yahoo. But also giving a downside of unrelated topics which yahoo doesn't really does that. But for me, i like such functions because i like to sidetrack to take a look at those unrelated topics that the result shows.


Q: How do you feel about participation in discussion forum? Is it helpful for your research? Do you feel anxious about talking to others you do not know?

A: To me, I never liked typing in a discussion forum. It is because i know that I'm a introvert and thus i never really like this sort of stuff. Whether is it helpful for me in a research, i prefer to search through resources on the net then to type. And do i feel anxious? Hnmnm...i would put it in a way more towards scared because anxious is mixed with excitement and fear.

Q: Why must you do citation and bibliography?

A: In order to prove that you have done your research and proves that you're not copying off from someone's work. which is called plagiarism.