Evaluating The Smithsonian Institute website

Reflections

The website was something new to me as I did not know that such a website for the museums existed. There were plenty of links to other Smithsonian museums and found a few interesting ones.

The purpose of the website isn't clearly stated and I thought that it was just a website with lots of links to other museums. However, after looking through it for a while, I found that it contained quite a lot of interesting items. The information was properly arranged and categorized, making the website very neat and tidy. Users can even register for the free newsletter that the website has every month.

Evaluating 3 Websites

Reflections

I've found that evaluating websites isn't an easy task. We have to check out the website, look for errors, try the links, look at the presentation and arrangement of the information, its accessibility, whether users need to register or log-in to use the website, whether its free to use or not.

It was a troublesome task to do, but I've managed to get by and learnt a few things.

Wiki Writing

Reflections

It was my first time writing something into a wiki and it was interesting. I couldn't really think of much to write for the wiki, but after looking through my previous work, I managed to put up a few sentences which then became two paragraphs.

The bad side to a wiki is that other users can edit the items I have written. This could also be a good side as there may have been errors in things I have written for the wiki.

Description of self

Name: Lemuel Tay Yi Xian
Age: 19
Date of Birth: 24th April 1987
Religion: Christian
Likes: Swimming, Watching TV, Playing Video Games and Going Out.
Dislikes: Smokers, Gangsters and many more.

Two Favourite Websites: www.explosm.net/comics / www.reallifecomics.com

Description of myself:

I'm currently studying in Temasek Polytechnic, Diploma in Internet Computing. This is my 3rd year and my timetable is quite empty for this semester. I'm taking MBDP and UIR this semester.

Practical 4&5

Search Enginge 1: Google.com
Keywords used: "Effects of online gaming"
URL: http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/05/0809videogames.html
Purpose: Information

Description:

Discussion on whether there are any strong links between violent video games and aggression.

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Search Enginge 2: Metacrawler.com
Keywords used: "Effects of online gaming"
URL: http://wcco.com/specialreports/local_story_055165633.html

Purpose: Information/Advocacy
Description:
A publication of a special report to inform others about being addicted to online games.

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Search Enginge 3: Yahoo.com

Keywords used: "Effects of online gaming"

URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4273125.stm

Purpose: News

Description:

Opinions from 2 people on whether online gaming is bad for you. One is a gamer, while the other is a gaming counsellor.

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Reflections

I've found that although Google.com and Yahoo.com return plenty of results for the search query, only a handful of about 10-15 results are useful, while the remainder is useless. On the other hand, Metacrawler.com returned only about 95 results and most of them are quite useful. Percentage wise, I would say that Metacrawler.com is more effective and effecient when searching for stuff online.

Google.com and Yahoo.com also mostly returned the same search results.

Week 4 Practical 3

Resource 1: News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4273125.stm)

Purpose of resource : News

Reasons :
The site article from BBC contains personal opinions on the topic “Head to
Head: Is Gaming Bad For You?” from a gaming counselor and a gamer.
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Resource 2: Electronic Magazines (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A952300)

Purpose of resource : Entertainment

Reasons :
The article is from an e-magazine, and made available for readers to just
read during their leisure time.
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Resource 3: Journal(http://www.angelfire.com/oh5/falcongimp/dan.html)

Purpose of resource : Personal

Reasons :
A personal website done by Dan Nawrocki on Online Gaming.
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Resource 4: News(http://www.redorbit.com/news/display?d=206846&source=r_scifi_gaming)

Purpose of resource : Information

Reasons :
Information is provided on whether there are any strong links seen between
violent video games and aggression.
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Reflections:
I was only able to get results for News and E-magazines from my search of the different resources, however, they had different purposes, which made it much easier to do the practical.

Week 3 Practical 2

1) Subject-based www.news.uiuc.edu/news/05/0809videogames.html
Research by Andrea Lynn on links between violent video games and aggression

2)Personal http://skyee.bol.ucla.edu/results.htm
Personal research by Stephanie yee on online forums/communities/discussion boards. Survey with a ‘gamer’version and ‘non-gamer’ version.

3)Organizational www.mda.gov.sg/wms.file/mobj/mobj.579.parents_vide-effect.pdf
Article on the positive & negative impacts of video games for the parents to read.

4)Personal www.personal.psu.edu/users/r/d/rdh160/283-projects.htm
Website with MS documents regarding the psychological effects of online gaming.

5)Discussion Forum http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=mvpgeneral&thread.id=4262&page=3
Thread on online gaming addictions.

These websites were quite difficult to search for as the keywords used returned lots of different results, some which were not useful at all, and some regarding online gambling. However, I was still able to locate the websites out of the many irrelevant websites that were given to me. I've learned to use different keywords when trying to search for something specific in the whole topic, like adding "discussion" to the keywords to search for results that returned websites for discussion forums.

Tweaked

I added a tag box and tweaked some of the items on the blog. That's all I did for my whole day @ home.

LOL.

Oh, and some TV too.