Reflections

"Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime" - Anonymous

This will be my favourite quote that aptly sums up my reflections for the entire EIR module.

In the past, everytime i needed to use the net to source for any important information, I would always rely on my friends and peers to help me. I guess it was an impromptu decision when I saw Effective Internet Research as one of the choices of the CDS selection, I immediately chose it without thinking.

In retrospect, this was perhaps the best CDS I've taken in the 3 years of my poly life. It was fun and tiring. The classmates were all shy initially, but gradually opened up to each other. Besides valuable knowledge on the World Wide Web, we also take away friendships and fond memories of this exciting class. I'd like to thank Miss Faridah and P01 for making this journey with me so sweet and surreal.

Nevertheless, though this trip with the class has ended, I guess this is only the beginning of being able to fully grasp the importance and usefulness of harnessing the Internet as a powerful tool.



“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.”
Zixuan

Hawaii!

Hi! My dream holiday will definitely be Hawaii!!

Here are just a few of the awesome website that showcase the multitude of attractions at this famous island.

http://www.gohawaii.com/
www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g28932-Hawaii-Vacations.html
www.hawaii.com/
www.hawaiibeautiful.com/

I've always loved the sun and the sea; Hawaii simply is the epitome of it! Its sandy beaches can stretch miles after miles and every dawn and dusk will be memorable with the one you love.



The whale watching there is also awesome. The humpback whales love to swim in the protected waters there, and really come close to the ships. It is even possible to take a trip in a submarine there to take a closer look at the wonders of Hawaii's crystal-clear waters.



I would really enjoy sitting beside a campfire everynight, singing songs of songs of love and life with an ukelele, and merrymaking with the clangs of resounding glass when beer is toasted throughout the night.










Peace!
Zixuan =)

Sparked

This week, we logged into Temasek Polytechnic's Digital Library Portal Research Gateway via spark.tp.edu.sg.

I realised that the Academic Search Premier returns highly useful academic journals for my research topic. It has professional journals that include extensive information and bibliographies for references. It even includes many forms of primary research that the authors of the journals have conducted, including surveys and focus groups.

What is most amazing about these journals is that they even include limitations on their own reports, which makes these journals extremely useful.

STOMPed!

Today we evaluated Stomp, a citizen journalism site that has won countless media awards in Singapore already.



Stomp is a website where Stompers post articles, pictures and photos of anything of interest online. It is up-to-date and provides a fresh alternative to the usual news we get on newspapers.

However, there are some regards to privacy. Some people take snapshots of unknowing and innocent parties and post them up on Stomp.

Others also use Stomp as a platform to show their anger and dissatisfaction at people they meet or know. For example, Stompers often snap photos of inconsiderate MRT commuters who do not give up their seats to pregnant ladies or such.

Though Citizen Journalism has many advantages and plus points, there are also certain issues that we cannot avoid.

Meta Search Engines and Subject Directories

M e t a- Search Engine

Dogpile has two additional tabs – Yellow Pages and White Pages. Yellow Pages searches for businesses specifically, while White Pages enables one to search for a particular person. However, both tabs do not serve this Research Topic any purpose.

Dog pile searches through four search engines, Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com. However, most of the searches come Google and Yahoo. 8 out of the first 10 searches were deemed useful and the site took approximately 2.03 seconds to retrieve the date requested.

Dogpile states the search engine that the webpage was found at. This would be useful to see where to continue the search perhaps. For example, if one finds that Yahoo stores extensive information on Online Gaming, one can decide to switch to use Yahoo instead.

Subject Directories

Yahoo Directories took approximately 1.93 seconds to retrieve the selected data, and offers very different information from the other sites. Only 2 out of the 10 sites were valuable information. It would take even longer to sift through the directories one by one discover extensive findings. However, one cannot rule out the criticalness of this information.

Yahoo Directories provides related directory categories for one to look into to seek human-classified information. However in this case, most of the directories include pages about online games instead of its effects on adolescents.

This is a table compiling all the different search tools I have been using in these past few weeks.

Comparisons of Search Engine

Search Tool	No of. Results	Time Taken	No of relevant entries in Top 10 Searches	Special features
Google	34,100,000	0.75s (0.12s as stated)	8	Similar Cache
Yahoo	6,500,000	1.42s	3	Cache
Meta Search Engine – Dogpile	Does not state	2.03s	8	Search Engine Information is found on
Subject Directories	203	1.93s (0.23s as stated)	2	Related Directory Categories

The effectiveness of Google

For today, we evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of using Google. Google is the most iconic search in the 21st century, the term 'Googled' being used in countless movies, for example YesMan or Hitch. It is easy to understand its popularity though. It has the most extensive sites under its belt, easily searching for millions of related sites in one click, often under 2 seconds. It also provides accessible buttons for finding specific images, news or even videos! As such, I was very impressed by google's search functions and features.

I feel anxious participating in the discussion forum. This is because I am not very sure who will read and reply or criticize my posts. However, it is definitely helpful as the research will not only be contributed by one person, but several. Others might post data critical that I might have missed out. It makes research less objective and more whole.

The citation and bibliography must be included in any report to acknowledge where the information came from. Imagine if others used your research without even mentioning your name? That must be horrible. Fortunately, I have previously learnt the APA Citation Style in my previous year and am familiar with it. Citations and bibliography also serve to inform readers where you sourced your information from, so that readers can judge for themselves whether the source is credible.

Knowing how to use Google and Wikis are crucial in obtaining valuable wealths of information through the Internet. Knowing proper citation techniques would also be equivalently critical to make sure that one does not plagarise. It was indeed an enriching experience to be able to explore these platforms during EIR lesson.

Imaginary $500

Hello! Today we were given an Imaginary $500 to shop online! What an interesting way of teaching us how to purchase things online, as this would likely help us in the future in whatever business we do. The Internet has already taken the world by storm by supplying information, entertainment and even business platforms since its revolution in the 1940s. This exercise helps to make sure that we would be able to negotiate, make deals and purchase online, a convenient a simple skill to have!

These are the two items that I would like to get!

Eastern Traildigger 2010 Complete BMX Bike - 20 Inch - Matte Black
$369.99

Epiphone Les Paul Special II Electric Guitar, Black
$140




I would actually prefer to buy a better guitar but since this is all the budget (in fact I already exceeded by $10) I have I guess it would do =)

Second EIR lesson

The Second EIR lessons was very interesting. We had to comment on two of our classmates' blogs and have a look at each other's works! I got to see many great blog designs and ideas!

For one of the exercises, we have to go online shopping with "$500" to experience shopping for things we like online. This is really relevant to us as an increasing number of buyers and sellers meet online for transactions. Not knowing how to buy things online is a serious disadvantage in any aspect of your life.

We also had to choose our research topic for our future projects and assignments; I chose 9 - studying how online gaming affects youths.

I chose this topic mainly because of the rising trend of adolescents and teenagers getting addicted to online games to such an extent that they live without the division of reality and the virtual world.

These are some of the most addictive games! (I've tried playing most of them before Hehe)

Dota


World of Warcraft


HellGate London

Hi!!

Hello. My name is Chen Zixuan. I am taking my diploma in Communications and Media Management.

My favourite bands include Circa Survive, Fightstar and Jet.

I love hilarious cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants and the Simpsons!

I often hang out and chill out at home.

My favourite internet sites are iloveeir.blogspot.com, youtube.com and wikipedia.org.

Some of my pastimes include sports like soccer, tennis, badminton and swimming. My favourite sport would definitely be soccer. A useful tip while playing soccer is to remember not to use your hands. Beginners usually forget about it and bring their hands into contact with the ball when they are forgetful and careless. That usually results in a foul, free kick, and even penalty kick in certain circumstances! Therefore, beginners are strictly advised not to use your hands when you play soccer =)

I Lurbbs EIR!! <3 <3 <3