Downloading Goods and Services

There are numerous different types of items that you and your families can download from the internet. The following is a list of things which can be downloaded:
· Music
· Films
· E-books
· User documentations
· Software

The following are a list of reasons why you did this rather that buying the physical goods:
· Cheaper
· Takes up less physical space

These services fulfill their purposes in different ways for example when buying music and films online you have to wait a couple of days for the item to arrive, as it is not instant, whereas when you download it instead this is almost and instant method of receiving your goods.

However, there are problems with downloading and consuming online files; the following illustrates these problems:
· It may contain a virus if it is not downloaded from a reputable site
· You don't have a hard copy of the product

Government Services Online

I have researched the local and national governmental services that can be undertaken online in the UK.
The following table categorises these Information services:


The services are ranked in order of usefulness to a consumer, considering the benefits a consumer would get from the services.

According to a Cabinet office report in 2004, the UK Government hopes to have saved £1.3 Million within three years by migrating its services online and to have saved consumers £1 thousand million. This saving is possible because less staff will need to be paid, and have office avalible for them to use because their work can now be done by the public at home. This will mean that a number or jobs will be lost.

My internet usage in the last week...

Once again, the fact that I have not regularly posted my internet usage on my blog is not s sign that I am not taking advantage of the fantastic services available to me. The following is a summary of my internet usage:

Online Education - My Sites

I am an experienced consumer of education. I have found five different types of online education on the internet. These are ranked in order of how best I learn via each:

1 - BBC BITESIZE
This is my favourite website for education on the internet; this is because when revising for my exams I found the site a useful resource, especially with the level of detail which the site contains and in a short and concise fashion. Especially as there a number of online simulations which again paints a picture in as few words as possible.

2 - WIKIPEDIA
I enjoy using as an educational resource. This is because you are able to find information on a whole range of topics on one site. In addition, I like the format of the site and the images which are included with the articles.

3 - GEOGRAPHY AT THE MOVIES
This is a website which I again enjoyed using for revision. This site contains a number of movies which are user generated (mainly by geography teachers) for use as you see fit. These are a fun way to recap on a topic and to broaden you knowledge of a particular field, plus I agree that facts are retained when learned in this fashion.

4 - PRIMARY GAMES
This site I have not used for ages, this was a site which I used at primary school. The site contains a number of fun educational games for maths. I enjoyed these games because at that age I suppose I thought that I was not learning as I was too much fun, whereas in reality I was having fun and learning, engaging pupils.

5 - BAY HOUSE VLE
In the past three weeks, a website which I think I have used the most is the school’s virtual learning environment. This is because subject teachers upload work onto the site for you to use, this can be accessed at home and school. Teachers upload PowerPoint presentations, worksheets, work-to-do and other resources. In addition, you are able to upload your work for them to see. I think that this is a useful website, but can only be accessed by the members of the school which means that the site can be trusted.

Use a Learning Object

I have used the simple demonstration Flash viewlet “formatting using the toolbar and format menu”. These types of flash and Qucktime movies are marketed by a number of companies to the educational market as “learning objects”. Teachers or students package a number of them to create a unique learning package. This is a good way of helping student to learn because as I mentioned in my last post pupils are more likely to retain information by learning using media and gives demonstrations.

Macromedia has a much larger and more developed view of these types of flash learning objects, again these can be an important learning tool in the school environment because they are an additional learning resource and a different teaching methods which can appeal to children.

Macromedia Virtual Classroom

I have visited Macromedia’s website, and found their virtual classrooms. This exciting technology is a great tool for the discerning learner as this gives you the opportunity to listen to e-learning recorded seminars or even join a virtual classroom if the timing is right.

This site is useful to both teachers and students as it captures and keep learners' attention and is said to increase knowledge retention by making the experience fun. You are able to quickly create online classes with customiseable layouts and reusable, archived content. You can even connect students with audio, video, and interactive simulations to address a variety of learning styles.

The advantages of a virtual classroom is that it can offer a number of things that a traditional classroom cannot, for example you are able to engage with classes that are taking place all over the world and are able to learn when the time is right for you as access is available 24/7 unlike a conventional classroom.

However, as with all technologies there are a number of disadvantages, the largest factor is that everyone within a learning community must have access to a computer and an internet connection; and most importantly know how to use the resource.

An Online Simulation, NetFrog

I have visited NetFrog, which is an online simulation of the dissection of a frog. I think that this is a useful website as you are able to practice before you really do dissect a frog, or use the site instead of actually dissecting a frog. This can be useful as you may not be able to get hold of a frog to dissect, and it can be hard to have a class of students all dissecting a frog. As this site uses real images you are able to see the dissection and it is not a computer generated simulation as these can often be.

This site shows that online simulations are a good idea as pupils are able to learn via the internet, for example this could be set as homework, because it is unlikely that they would be able to dissect a real frog at home. Plus, all pupils would get to see the simulation in detail as it could be viewed individually on separate machines or viewed via a projector to the whole class.

Research Online Education

I am an experienced consumer of education. I have found five different types of online education on the internet. These sites are ranked in order of how best I think I learn via each.
Prepare a short presentation to share your results.
Write up an overall evaluation of the best sources in your blog.

Online Services, EDUCATION

I have visited the science museum’s Making the Modern World Learning modules site. Which is designed to help A-level and vocational students. I have found my way from “Stories Timeline” to “personal computers and information networks” and have followed this through to the stories on PCs, the internet, the dot com gold rush etc.

This site meets it purpose as it educates the user about the life of computers from the first up to the current day. I agree that it targets A-level students due to the level of detail which it contains. The site is enjoyable to browse through as it does not contain masses amount of information and includes a number of images relevant to the topic.

It teaches us that you can lean online, as some of the information which I encountered I had not come across before. Online education can take place anywhere, proving that there is a computer and access to the internet. In addition, online education can be interactive which can help to engage learners.

My Internet Usage in the Past Week

In the past week I have not been posting as much as I should have been, this is not a sign that I am not using a number of online services, more the point that I am not realizing that I am using them and so have not documented their usage. Here is a rundown of what I have used:

• Bay House VLE
• Amazon - purchase
• Ebay - research
• HMV - purchase
• BBC Weather - research
• Highways Agency - research (real time infomation)
• RAC Route Planner - research (real time infomation)
• South West Trains - research (real time infomation)
• First Group - research (real time infomation)
• Transport for London - research (real time infomation)

Ebay - The Online Market Place

The major purposes of ebay are to buy and sell products by a community of individuals and small businesses. Ebay has a presents in 37 markets including the United States and the UK.

The target audience of ebay is anyone who has access to the internet and the ability to buy goods over the internet. I feel that it has such a diverse target audience is because of the wide variety of precuts which are auctioned. Ebay describe its audience as ‘unique’ and in February 2008 it had 13.2 million members.

The auction process works by:
1. You register with ebay
2. The seller creates an advert for an item and lists the item on the auction site. In the item listing the seller specifies the length of the auction and the minimum bid they will accept for that item (reserve).
3. A potential buyer selects the item and specifies the maximum amount they will pay, this must be greater than the seller’s minimum bid.
4. Ebay informs the highest bidder that they have won the bis, then the seller is responsible for arranging payment, when payment is received the seller send the item.

Ebay fulfils its purpose as an online market place because it has a record amount of buyers and sellers, their visitor numbers speak for themselves when asking how successful the site is. There are a number of benefits and limitations of the service. The benefits are that you are able to buy almost any item at a reasonable price, and you can sell items which you don’t want anymore. The limitations are that not all buyers or sellers are genuine and that there is a selling fee for selling your goods. In addition you are only selling to people that have access to the internet and are willing to buy goods in this way.

Ebay is so successful as a shopping model because it has made local small markets into global ones at a low cost to the seller. People like buying used and collectible items at car boot and garage sales, however, has now made this available to almost everybody in the world 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and can be done anywhere.

Weather for Gosport

Saturday = Correct

Sunday = Correct

Monday = Correct

Tuesday = Incorrect as there has been no light rain

Wednesday = Incorrect as it has been overcast and rained in the evening.

Travelling From Bay House to To Tottenham Court Road in London

By Car:
I have used RAC Route planner to plan my journey, it can be found here.
From: PO12 2QP (Bay House School)
To: Tottenham Court Road
Total Distance: 82.46 miles, about: 1 hour 57 minutes
You can view real time traffic infomation on the Highways Acency's Website this would be useful to look at before travelling, all infomation is from the National Traffic Control Centre.
Unforunatlty when travelling by car into London you will need to pay the Congestion Charge, you are able to pay by a number of different methods for example SMS or post. The congestion charge is £8 per day, per vehicle.
Cost:
Car - £10.38
Congestion Charge - £8
TOTAL - £18.38

By Public Transport:
You are able to catch a bus from Bay House School directly to Fareham Railway Station, this is the number 34, this bus leaves Bay House at 12:07 and arrives at the station at 12:40.
You will catach as South West Train service to London Waterloo, which departs Fareham at 12:53 and arrives 14:49. When you arrive at Waterloo it will be necessary to catch the London Underground. A train departs at 14:55 and arrives six minutes later at the destination.
Live travel news for London (public transport), live train arrivals and departures.
Cost:
Bus - £2.50 (approx. value as no fare details avalible)
Train - £26.10
Tube - £1.50
TOTAL - £30.10

Most websites which I visited contained real time infomation, which was accessible and easy to understand.

All of sources of infoamtion are included in hyperlinks under selected words.

Asian Tsunami of 2004

During the aftermath of the tsunami, information was presented in a variety of different ways. Information was shared quickly to a number or people and organisations, for example once the tsunami had struck people all around the world found out this information as it was posted to websites and was on the television. Due to this wide publicity many people felt the need to donate money, which could be done online through the special websites and blogs which were set up. . This shows that there is a greater interaction between people and organisations because so many people helped with aid and looking for survivors as this could be done online. This is because when a survivor was found their photograph was uploaded onto a website and people were able to find out where they were. Information could also be sent quickly via email and SMS which was done to tell people that they were fine and many people email charity and news organisations, for example the day after the event the BBC received 30,000 emails.

Google Groups - Digital Divide

Click here to see this discussion.

I have found a discussion on the digital divide about how social networks may subvert the digital divide.

One limitation of this is that anyone can post and you can be unsure if it is a genuine post, however, one benfit is that anyone can post so you are able to find out what a range of people think about the subject.

Messaging Services

Compare the purpose and functionality of each type of communication service and record your reflection in your individual blogs.

The three methods of communication I have looked at today are SMS (Short Message Service), email and instant messaging. I am now going to look at each service in term.

Short Message Service (SMS) allows short text messages to be sent between mobile telephones. The most common usage of SMS is person-to-person messaging; however the messages are often used by business to contact customers or employees with marketing or other information, which is similar to email. SMS messages can also be used to cast votes on TV. The main disadvantage is the cost implications as the average price is 10p a text, however, many people to receive free texts.

Instant Messaging is web-based email. To use instant messaging, you do not need any email software - just a computer connected to the internet. Users simply sign up to a portal such as MSN. They are given a unique user name and a personal mailbox on the portal's email server, and they can then send and receive messages via a special web page. All messages are sent and received instantly, like having a conversation. Instant messaging is usually used between two people, however, in recent times you can now connect to a group of friends.

In my group we decided to you use email as our form of communication, this was because we all had access and it is free. In my opinion all these methods work for different purposes, for example a SMS message can only include 160 characters or fewer which includes spaces, which means only a few sentences can be sent. Whereas, an email can be much longer plus you can attach files to them such as documents. In addition, instant messaging is used to have a conversation with your friends over the internet, you cannot send attachments. You are able to send more text than in an SMS message.

My Haiku Poem

a hiku is hr
4 u 2 trnslt 2
txt lngu 4 me

A haiku is here
For you to translate into
Text language for me

Email Homework

Email as it is commonly known stands for electronic mail, and this is a means of sending messages, text, computer files etc between computers via the internet. To be able to take advantage of this facility you need to have access to a computer, an internet connection, and account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and email software such as Outlook. ISPs give their clients an email account, password and a mailbox where their mail is sent. In addition you can set up email accounts from non-ISPs such as Hotmail and Google.

Email has a number of features which can be used by its users, these include the ability to instantly reply to messages the facility to forward or redirect your messages, being able to send copies to as many people as you wish and the capability to retrieve and file your messages and add addresses to an address book. In addition you are notified if your message fails, you can see the time and date which the message was sent and by whom. Lastly, files, graphics or sound can be sent as attachments in compressed formats.

There are a number of benefits to using email as a method of communication such as fast delivery of your messages, the service is available 365 days, 24 hours per day and you can send and receive your messages from anywhere in the world (providing you have access to the internet). It is cheap when you have broadband and it could be said that sending messages this way are free. Today you can now use webmail and mobile devices to send and receive messages.

However, there are some disadvantages to using email. Firstly you can only send messages to people who have access to the internet. There is the threat of viruses being attached to messages and hoax messages can be sent falsely claiming to be a legitimate company and scam the user into providing them with personal information. Lastly there is no guarantee that the message will be read and spam messages are also sent in this medium.

When you send an email message to someone your email software sends the message through port 25 of your internet connection, and then it is sent to the recipient’s ISP’s SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server, it is here where the email finds its destination, it is then sent to the recipients POP3 (Post Office Protocol Version 3) server where the message waits for them to download the message. The following diagram shows how you send and receive emails:

Amazon

I have just recieved an E-Mail from Amazon, which was confirming my order with them.

Tesco E-Mail

This morning I recieved an e-mail (HTML) from Tesco Direct, with their lastest offers and products.

Bay House VLE

Bay House VLE - Used in Economics & Business

Course: AS Economics and Business 3 hr: "Upload your powerpoint presentation here Assignment"

My First Post

Hello Everybody.

This is my first thought on my new blog. I'm going to start posting here soon.

Just as soon as I find something interesting to post.

Bear with me.