Education evaluation. . . .

Activity 18 - write up your list of five educational websites (in order of preference, giving reasons) on your blog.

1. http://www.youtube.com/ - an educational website with any type of video you wish to view from how to do maths equations to how to make PC's. This is my top preference as its a visual website which enables users to be educated easily and efficiently.
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/bitesize/ - an educational website that teaches GCSE students subjects such as maths, science and English. This is my second preference as it uses fun, interesting games that enable users to learn using fun methods.
3. http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/ - an educational website on geography and the planet we live on. This is my third preference as it teaches kids basic and interesting facts of the history of our planet that are important and of significance using videos, games and photos. 
4. http://www.funbrain.com/ - an educational website that enables users to learn about important subjects in a fun and exciting way mainly using games; therefore it is my fourth preference.
5. http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/index.html - an educational website on the well-known National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It teaches users all about science and space which encourage the public to learn about interesting facts they may not necessary already know which is why it is my fifth preference. 

NetFrog. . . . .

Activity 15 - Use a simulation.

NetFrog was set up for Biology high school students to use in order to gain knowledge of the anatomy of a vertebrate animal such as a frog. The web programme allows users to dissect a simulated frog and its objectives are to correctly identify the locations involved in the dissection procedures and correctly identify the locations of the major organs within the body cavity of a frog, given a list of the organs.

NetFrog was set up to educate students, allowing them to practice before dissecting an actually frog. Not only is this useful as many students do not particularly like the actual experience of dissecting a real animal but it uses creative and effective means in order to do so. The simulation allows users to feel engaged in the programme using a hands-on approach and in doing so the students learn efficiently and progressively.

Therefore, this website is a good example of effective online learning as it is apparent that through the simulation and animation, students are able to learn the information quickly and adequately rather than perhaps that in a classroom.

Net Frog Choice Page: Old or New?:


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Making the Modern World

Activity 14 - Explore learning objects and simulations.

Making the Modern World is a website designed to help A-Level and vocational students on the Facts and information of PC´s, the internet, the dot com gold rush etc. The website is packed with demonstrations, activities and rich media experiences. You can travel back in time through guided tours to follow stories and paths as well as viewing over 400 everyday articles manufactured between 1750 and today to view how much technology has developed over time. The website also states popular icons of invention and interesting stories to capture the real essence of technology over it´s time. Making the Modern World is a common example of an educational website that allows users to gather useful information about important topics in an interesting way. The website if full of diagrams, pictures and animation which allow the user to gather more information efficiently.

Making the Modern World:

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Ebay as we know it. . . . .

Activity 12 - Write a short document about Ebay and it's major purposes.

• Ebay is the world's largest global online market place where people can trade anything from Books to Private jets.
• It was founded in september of 1995. 
• Ebay's target audience are regular people, small businesses and large business all over the world.
• The auction process works using three methods; 

1. Auction-style listings allow the seller to offer one or more items for sale for a specified number of days. The seller can establish a reserve price.
2. Fixed price format allows the seller to offer one or more items for sale at a Buy It Now price. Buyers who agree to pay that price win the auction immediately without submitting a bid.
3. Fixed price format with best offer allows the seller to accept best offers. If a buyer submits a best offer, the seller either rejects or accepts the best offer. If the best offer is not satisfactory, a seller may submit a counter offer to the buyer. Best offer is not available for auction style listings. In addition, best offer is not available in every category. Sellers also meet specific requirements in order to sell with best offer.

• You have to pay E-bay a monthly service fee for your ebay store, and you will pay the fees when you list items and sell items.
• The Benefits of Ebay are that you can leave feedback when an item is bought, giving the seller a score of one to five stars (five being the highest rating and one being the lowest rating) over shipping, communication, product description etc. This enables other users to be aware before buying an item from the same seller. Also, you can list items that can run for months at a time, which can make a lot more sense than running an auction that will and is seven or 10 days.  More so, you can simply shop for items (anything and everything) within the comforts of your own home at a relatively cheap price.
• The Disadvantages of using Ebay is that some people are set out to scam others. They advertise an item which doesn't exist just to receive payment.  Subsequently, it is then hard to even leave negative feedback for the very worse sellers, for fear that they will retaliate and leave a black mark against your own account. International postage costs are also often disregarded but can be massively costly and as well as shipping taking a long time.

Overall, whatever you want to buy, whether it's large or small, cheap or expensive, everyday or just plain weird, the chances are you can find it on eBay.

Sunny Spain?

Activity 11 - Look up the weather forecast for your local area for the next five days using the BBC weather  site. Write your results in your blog and then every day compare the results to those shown on the website. 

Day 1 (Sunday, October 2nd, 2011) - The weather forecast shows that it should be sunny and 27 degrees; however, the weather seems to be windy, cold and overcast.

Day 2 (Monday, October 3rd, 2011) - The weather forecast shows that it should be sunny but slightly overcast; however the weather seemed to remain fairly sunny throughout the day and stayed hot - 28 degrees.

Day 3 (Tuesday, October 4th, 2011) - The weather forecast shows that it should be sunny and 27 degrees; however, although the weather seemed to be fairly sunny, there was a slight cool breeze.

Day 4 (Wednesday, October 5th, 2011) - The weather forecast shows that it should be sunny, no clouds and 27 degrees - this reading was fairly accurate.

Day 5 (Thursday, October 6th, 2011) - The weather forecast shows that it should be sunny, no clouds and 27 degrees; however there was a slight chilly breeze.

It is apparent that not all weather forcasts are particulary accurate, although we get the general idea on more or less what the weather will be like, which comes in handy if you like to be organized. It is said that if you pay for certain weather forecasts like that of the Met Office´s weather sevice that you get a more accurate day to day reading; however I dont necessarily think this is the case as weather can always be unpredictable.

Around the globe. . . . .

Activity 10 - Plan a journey from your hometown (Winchester) to Tottenham Court Road.

Contrast the journey by car and by rail.

The Above map shows the journey from Winchester to Tottenham, Court road via car. The Journey currently takes 1 hour and 30 mins taking the motorway (M3). The total cost of the journey includes that of the toll road (london congestion charge)and fuel which equals to £23.24 going at 68.3 miles per hour.

The Above map shows the journey from Winchester to Tottenham, Court road via rail. The journey currently takes 2 hours and 19 mins taking  the bus, 2 subways and walking. The total cost of the bus fares and subway fares equal to £12.50.

So, it is most obvious from planning my journey from winchester to tottenham road that although it is most cost effective to travel via rail, it adds another 49 minutes onto the journey which depending on time and circumstances could be a major set back.The resources I used were heathrowairport.com, Londontransport.com and google maps. This gave me a good idea of the price, times and dates I needed in order to work out my plan for travel.

eBay. . . .

Activity 7 - Add web links to you blog.


eBay - one of the UK's largest shopping destinations:

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Haiku Madness. . .

Activity 8 - Create an sms Haiku



Cries wth a meow

Hnts lyk a hiddn tigr

It hs no remrse

                By Mercedes



The Haiku was sent using

• sms
• chat
• email

I found the most efficient and easiest way of sending the Haiku poem was via chat as it was instant and I didn't have to wait around for the internet or a text to come through.

The Overall Opinion. . . .

Activity involving the exchanging of thoughts over email and its uses via msn.


Love it or hate it, there's no debating just how much email has changed the way we communicate. Therefore, email has many benefits such as;

•  Accessibility - email is simply a click away to communicate with one another from the own comforts of your home.
• Speed - it takes less than a minute to send an attachment or file via email rather than the old use of postal services where you rely on the postman to deliver a parcel or letter, which can take anything from a few days to a few weeks. 
• Cost - you can communicate globally at low cost.
• Growth - allows businesses to grow i.e. advertising to a wider audience and distributes information quickly.
• Social - social interaction all over the world.
• Job opportunities - enables job seekers to search for job/career opportunities.

However, what must come up must come down. There are always benefits and disadvantages to anything and email has some disadvantages such as;

• Time consuming - using email can cause complications like that of spam which causes the recipient to receive unwanted information that clogs up their inbox.
• Tone - no tone enables wording to become misread.
• Internet connection - emails relies on good internet connection, if this is poor no emails can be sent or received.
• Viruses and Hacking - viruses can be sent over email which can erase all memory off the computer or even worse people can hack onto your email, resulting in identity theft or stolen documents.

It´s all about Email. . .

Email

Email is basically the alternative way to sending documents or files and communicating to one another in this modern day and age, unlike traditional postal mail. There are many advantages to using email such as:

·         Convenience i.e. instead of using pen and paper you can just use your keyboard on your computer to write a short and brief email using the email programme.

·         More reliable i.e instead of taking your time to collect a stamp etc. and relying on the postman to deliver your letter. You simply press send on the email programme and it takes a matter of seconds to receive.

·         Speed i.e. you open up the email seconds after receiving it or you can use modern technology that devises a system to alert you when you have new mail instantly.

·         Attachments i.e you can attach any file to an email regardless of its size all around the world and it costs you nothing to send or receive.

The disadvantage of email is mainly spam. Spam is unsolicited emails that are sent in huge numbers and clog mail servers as well as email programs. They are inconvenient but you can get many software programmes (sofisticated filters) knowadays that sort spam into junk mail and wanted messages.

Welcome. . .

Welcome to my blog it´s all about online services and the information age