Tuesday, November 30, 2010

EIR Lesson 5

We learnt about researching on our topics through using crawlers. These webpages return results are from different search engines and personally, I feel that searching through a crawler, it would be more effective.

I had also went to the wiki that EIR has. I got shocked when I came to understand the full meaning of a wiki. All along, I had the idea that wiki actually meant wikipedia. But to my surprise, wiki seemed to meant a collaboration of work combine together to form information. It was something new which I learnt today. This new found of mine actually inspired me to contribute to the wiki!

We also learnt about how to create a site feed by editing html codes. Notice that I've added Chris's blog on the right hand side of my blog page. By using atom.xml, we are able to NOT show the full website. By doing so, it is able to load the blog page faster.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

EIR Lesson 4

Second Life

For this week lesson, there will be no physical lesson conducted for EIR. So how is attendance taken? Very good question! This blog post explains it all. The attendance is taken through this blog post. So what did we do for the lesson? We were given the chance to interact with HK PolyU students on Second Life.

Initially, I was quite worried about the meeting with HK students as I was afraid that no one would want to talk to me, or that there will be language barriers. But upon finding my "partner", I realise that it was actually a fun experience as we shared a lot of different experience with each other

My partner, his name is Adam. His nationality is from China, but he went to HK for studies. With regards to the first week of EIR, he told me that he himself like to read alot of books. And being IT savvy like most of his classmates, he purchases book online through www.taobao.com. Adam feels that by getting a product online, the product will be cheaper and it will be more convenient. He also did mention that a lot of his peers go to www.taobao.com to get their desired product.

I also did questioned him about how would he be able to stay in contact with new friends he had meet. He replied that he would take down their msn and email. This is what we did. We exchanged each other's email and msn. He was pretty nice, in a sense that we shared a similiar interest in IT.


Screen Shot taken

What I liked best about this experience would be that it is VERY rare for a student to interact with students from oversea. The only way for you to get interacted with other students is to go for OCP and etc. But through Second Life, we are able to expose ourself to students from all over the world. At the same time, observing your behavior and mannerism I feel that it is necessary even if we are meeting people in real life. Adam was pretty amazed when I mention that eBay.com is one of the most popular eShopping site in Singapore. Most of his peers will visit www.taobao.com. I learnt that through online experience, we are able to mingle with students outside Singapore. This will actually allow better understanding of another country or school culture. We also talked a little bit about the difference between HK society and Singapore society. The most challenging experience I had was that trying to get a HK students to talk to. I had quite a hard time looking for a HK student, as no tags were indicated about an avatar's nationality. But all was good when I managed to find a partner.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

EIR Lesson 3

Facebook Group Discussion



By expressing your views about a certain topic through online, I feel that is a good way to get yourself started on facing certain obstacles, like for example, chit chatting. Through the virtual PC, a person do not have to face another person face to face, and this actually creates a scenario where a person is less likely to feel shy. For those people whom are afraid of talking to other people, I feel that the Internet would be a good way to express themself and share their ideas freely. I've came to know this friend of mine who is very shy in reality. But through the computer, she's able to contribute ideas freely, and its a good way to break their limitations. I believe right now she's still trying very hard to talk to people face to face.

When it comes to a class discussion, it is common to find students not responsing to their teachers in class. This is the kind of culture where we are brought up in, where students are afraid of how others will look at him or her. For example, when a teacher asks a simple question, deep down in the student's heart they know the answer. But they do not dare to express their views freely, as they are shy and afraid how others might look at him if he answers wrongly. "What if my answer is wrong, will people laugh at me?". I believe this is the kind of mentality where students have when it comes to expressing their views. But through virtually, students tend to NOT face these kind of obstacles. Personally, I feel that sharing discussion through Internet is better through face-to-face classroom discussion.

Of course, by conducting a class virtually would be meaningful as students get to participate more actively and at the same time, contribute more towards the lesson and the objectives.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

EIR Lesson 2

If I had $500...



This is called the PlayStation 3. Yes I know its boring and "uncool" for ladies, but personally I'm quite into gaming. So recently there's been a lot of topics regarding exciting and fun PS3 games, so if I had $500, this game console is the first item I would like to purchase.

Upon hearing that I will be able to have the "virtual" 500 bucks, the first thing I did was to visit eBay.com and see what they have to offer me. eBay is one of the best marketing website, where users post and complete transactions every single day. Of course eBay will be the first place to visit to get something online.

Today's lesson was pretty fruitful. I get to learn about the different types of website, including informative, advocacy, news, marketing and entertainment. Through understanding these different types of website, it allows me to filter and create a better platform for me to conduct my research.

EIR Lesson 1

Self Introduction

Hi. My name is Kiat Siang, from Diploma in Info-Comm, ENG.

Basically I am a person who is interested in IT, as well as sales and marketing. My interest would be swimming and going outdoor to enjoy the sun. Of course being in a course with comes in contact with programming, I spend my free time on the computer checking out latest update from technologies site. My favourite sites are IT sites for example,
www.channel9.msdn.com
www.engadget.com

Well, this may be kind of boring, but my passion is to do programming. For individuals whom are interested to take up programming, do visit
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com

To contact me,
(@) kiasu_siang@hotmail.com
(fb) facebook.com/kkiats