I finally succeeded last night to get on to an ICQ chat (thanks Tess and Ausi1). Up until last night I have been struggling to get on to ICQ to connect with the NET 11 SP4 group. There was obviously a problem with my computer as I was being invited into the chat by other students but I was not seeing the file allowing me to accept the invitation. Finally, however, it worked last night and it was great to chat to other students about how they are going with the course.
As I am a novice to chat sites, it was interesting to see how fast the chat moves with everyone typing in their comments as quickly as one is posted. My only experience with chats has been observing my daughter chatting on Facebook. As I had such difficulty in getting on to the chat site, I had an opportunity in the previous week to look over the ICQ program and familiarise myself with the site. I think the ICQ site was easy to work around, once I was able to get on.
I enjoyed the chat experience and think it would be great fun to be involved in a chat group and can understand how people can get quite involved in various chat sites.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Module 3 - HTML Tags
I'm having great problems upload my webpage on to the presentations page. I have had a number of attempts and each time the file appears as if it will be uploaded but is not listed against my group number. Have asked other students for help and hopefully will get some more insight. I have read the discussion threads and they're great, but still no success for me. I'll keep trying and keep you posted.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Module 2 - Email Lists
What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?
My experience with emails lists is solely through my work in a school where I manage and am part of a number of emails lists. These emails lists are based on specific groups of staff who meet regularly to discuss particular aspects of the delivery of education in a school environment.
The pros for the email lists are:
· Members of the list constantly check their emails
· The information is sent to all members at the same time
· Using the ‘reply all’ function allows response information to be received by all members at the same time
· Information is readily available in the Inbox
The cons for the email lists are:
· When the servers are down, we are not able to access emails
· When responses are given, the threads that need to be followed to have an understanding of the response can be very long and tedious to follow
· Large number of emails can be received
· Unless managed appropriately, with relevant folders, emails can be overlooked when receiving large numbers of emails on a daily basis
· In managing an email list it is necessary to ensure that appropriate members and their addresses are accurate and regularly updated
Discussion Boards
My experience with discussion boards has been with the University of South Australia discussion board and with the Curtin’s webct discussion board.
The pros for the discussion board are:
· Discussion board is sorted by a topic
· Threads can be easily started and followed
· Ideas and help can be easily obtained through discussion boards with threads providing alternative viewpoints
· Selection of topic to be followed is able to be done easily
The cons for the discussion board are:
· Following threads can often be long and repetitive
· Comments can move off the topic
· Need to search for relevant topic
My experience with emails lists is solely through my work in a school where I manage and am part of a number of emails lists. These emails lists are based on specific groups of staff who meet regularly to discuss particular aspects of the delivery of education in a school environment.
The pros for the email lists are:
· Members of the list constantly check their emails
· The information is sent to all members at the same time
· Using the ‘reply all’ function allows response information to be received by all members at the same time
· Information is readily available in the Inbox
The cons for the email lists are:
· When the servers are down, we are not able to access emails
· When responses are given, the threads that need to be followed to have an understanding of the response can be very long and tedious to follow
· Large number of emails can be received
· Unless managed appropriately, with relevant folders, emails can be overlooked when receiving large numbers of emails on a daily basis
· In managing an email list it is necessary to ensure that appropriate members and their addresses are accurate and regularly updated
Discussion Boards
My experience with discussion boards has been with the University of South Australia discussion board and with the Curtin’s webct discussion board.
The pros for the discussion board are:
· Discussion board is sorted by a topic
· Threads can be easily started and followed
· Ideas and help can be easily obtained through discussion boards with threads providing alternative viewpoints
· Selection of topic to be followed is able to be done easily
The cons for the discussion board are:
· Following threads can often be long and repetitive
· Comments can move off the topic
· Need to search for relevant topic
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Module 2 - Email Tasks
1. What information about a user’s email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?
A user’s email message displays the sender’s name, their domain, who the email is intended for, the date and time the email is sent, whether a copy of the email has been sent to other people and the subject heading. Using an email message received through Outlook at my work and through checking the properties of the email message, the following information can be gleaned:
Protocol:` HyperText Transfer Protocol
Connection: Not encrypted
URL:
http://mail/exchange/FITZPAN/Inbox/February%20training%20update%20-%20Business%20SA.EML?
Size: Not available
Created: Not available
Modified: Not available
2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the ‘cc’, ‘bcc’ and ‘reply all’ functions of email?
The ‘cc’ function of email can be used when the information that is being sent to a person or group of people needs to also be available to another person or persons, for information purposes only and not for actioning. The ‘cc’ refers to a presumed ‘carbon copy’ being available to an interested party. In a school environment, this can be used when a memo is being sent regarding changes to teaching loads and another member of staff needs to be aware of such changes.
The ‘bcc’ function of email can be used, similarly to the ‘cc’ function, only this time the person or persons receiving the copy is not known to the recipient. The ‘bcc’ refers to a ‘blind carbon copy’ being available to an interested party. This can be particularly useful in situations where information that may be sensitive and is emailed to a particular person or person needs to be shared at an executive level in order that appropriate care can be taken taking into account sensitivities.
The ‘reply all’ function of an email is used when a response is sent to both the sender and to all the recipients in the ‘To’ section of the email. In this way the subject heading is automatically inserted from the original email and all parties are privy to the response. This can occur when a meeting is set up, where the agenda items, date and time of meeting is circulated to a group of people. When difficulties may arise in all members being able to attend the meeting and alternative day/time needs to be worked out, all members are reading the thread of information being circulated at the same time rather than individual messages being sent.
3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?
To ensure that an attachment can be easily opened by the receiver requires that the attachment is sent in a format that can be opened by the receiver. This can be done by enquiring what format the attachment should be sent in or alternatively, the attachment is sent as a PDF document. With the easy availability of the PDF free reader downloads, accessibility to attachments should not be a problem. Alternative ways of sending attachments could include sending them in plain text or RTF however my preference is sending attachments externally is as a PDF. Internal attachments at my work are sent in word, excel or publisher formats.
4. What sorts of filters or rules to you have set up, and for what purpose?
In my work environment I currently have the rule that any email message that is sent to me sends a message back to the sender stating that “I am out of the office currently and will return on … Any enquiries are to be directed to …” This ensures that the sender is aware that I am not disregarding their email and have offered an alternative should the situation require immediate attention. Spam filters are also used at my work to ensure that junk emails do not reach my inbox and only acceptable email addresses are allowed in my inbox.
5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?
My folder structure is set up in specific subject areas that I am currently working on. For example, any emails I receive that apply to changes to the handbook for staff are filed in that specific folder for later reference. I use this approach to the majority of my emails where action is not needed immediately but the information will need to be referred to at a later time. Emails that require immediate action remain in my inbox as I then know that I need to work on this promptly.
Reflection: - even though I use emails constantly throughout my work day, reflecting on the above topics has highlighted more efficient processes I can undertake to make managing my emails more efficient such as setting up rules to redirect my emails to specific folders rather than going to my inbox.
A user’s email message displays the sender’s name, their domain, who the email is intended for, the date and time the email is sent, whether a copy of the email has been sent to other people and the subject heading. Using an email message received through Outlook at my work and through checking the properties of the email message, the following information can be gleaned:
Protocol:` HyperText Transfer Protocol
Connection: Not encrypted
URL:
http://mail/exchange/FITZPAN/Inbox/February%20training%20update%20-%20Business%20SA.EML?
Size: Not available
Created: Not available
Modified: Not available
2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the ‘cc’, ‘bcc’ and ‘reply all’ functions of email?
The ‘cc’ function of email can be used when the information that is being sent to a person or group of people needs to also be available to another person or persons, for information purposes only and not for actioning. The ‘cc’ refers to a presumed ‘carbon copy’ being available to an interested party. In a school environment, this can be used when a memo is being sent regarding changes to teaching loads and another member of staff needs to be aware of such changes.
The ‘bcc’ function of email can be used, similarly to the ‘cc’ function, only this time the person or persons receiving the copy is not known to the recipient. The ‘bcc’ refers to a ‘blind carbon copy’ being available to an interested party. This can be particularly useful in situations where information that may be sensitive and is emailed to a particular person or person needs to be shared at an executive level in order that appropriate care can be taken taking into account sensitivities.
The ‘reply all’ function of an email is used when a response is sent to both the sender and to all the recipients in the ‘To’ section of the email. In this way the subject heading is automatically inserted from the original email and all parties are privy to the response. This can occur when a meeting is set up, where the agenda items, date and time of meeting is circulated to a group of people. When difficulties may arise in all members being able to attend the meeting and alternative day/time needs to be worked out, all members are reading the thread of information being circulated at the same time rather than individual messages being sent.
3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?
To ensure that an attachment can be easily opened by the receiver requires that the attachment is sent in a format that can be opened by the receiver. This can be done by enquiring what format the attachment should be sent in or alternatively, the attachment is sent as a PDF document. With the easy availability of the PDF free reader downloads, accessibility to attachments should not be a problem. Alternative ways of sending attachments could include sending them in plain text or RTF however my preference is sending attachments externally is as a PDF. Internal attachments at my work are sent in word, excel or publisher formats.
4. What sorts of filters or rules to you have set up, and for what purpose?
In my work environment I currently have the rule that any email message that is sent to me sends a message back to the sender stating that “I am out of the office currently and will return on … Any enquiries are to be directed to …” This ensures that the sender is aware that I am not disregarding their email and have offered an alternative should the situation require immediate attention. Spam filters are also used at my work to ensure that junk emails do not reach my inbox and only acceptable email addresses are allowed in my inbox.
5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?
My folder structure is set up in specific subject areas that I am currently working on. For example, any emails I receive that apply to changes to the handbook for staff are filed in that specific folder for later reference. I use this approach to the majority of my emails where action is not needed immediately but the information will need to be referred to at a later time. Emails that require immediate action remain in my inbox as I then know that I need to work on this promptly.
Reflection: - even though I use emails constantly throughout my work day, reflecting on the above topics has highlighted more efficient processes I can undertake to make managing my emails more efficient such as setting up rules to redirect my emails to specific folders rather than going to my inbox.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Internet Tools
I have often wondered how information is able to
reach from one computer to another on the Internet. Reading "How Routers Work" and understanding how to trace a message has given me a better insight into how much internet traffic exists, the process involved in moving from one router to the next and the speed with which the information can be received.
I used the site http://centralops.net/co/ to do a traceroute to the site curtin.edu.au using the IP address 134.7.32.100. There were 21 hops and the average time took 253 milliseconds from the centralops site to the curtin server.
I enjoyed understanding how traceroute worked and being able to work out the answers!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
After downloading FileZilla easily enough, I had
great difficulty in working out what and where I needed to enter any information to be able to get to the file "README". After a number of attempts and following the helpful hints on the discussion board, I was realised that I needed to enter the host name (recall.curtin.edu.au) with the username as "anonymous" and then go to Quickconnect. To find the file called "README" was not so complicated. However, my difficulty came in not being able to download the file. Each time I tried to download the file the message
Error: Failed to open "C:\readme.txt" for writing appeared.
Reading other student's blogs has shown that the answer to the question is "According to the readme file, 'capitalization matters' is the response. However, I was not able to find this myself.
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