Topics covered in first six weeks

[Javed Alam]

We have completed six weeks of the course so far. The topics we went over include use of communication tools also some publishing tools. We also went over the search and language translation tools. We can classify all of this in four categories

Communication tools i.e. e-mail
Collaboration tool i.e. Yahoo group, this network
Search and language translation i.e Google tools
Publishing, personal web page through Netvibe, Google etc

These are the four main categories and most of the topics in this course will fall within these four categories. In fact mostly the three :communication, Collaboration and publishing. Another distinction will be between asynchronous and real time communication. Internet communication tools works better in asynchronous mode. Real time communication is possible and we will spend some time in the future.

How about all of you write little about how the course has progressed so far and what topics you would like more emphasis placed upon. Internet being an ideal medium for asynchronous communication we will spend best part of time in that area. Use this discussion area to post your reply.

Some part of your grade will depend on the active participation within these topics.

[J Alam]

test post

[Chris Allen]

I am very satisfied with how this course has progressed so far, and I enjoy all of the exposure I am getting to websites (tools) I would have otherwise never used or taken a tour of. As far as what I would like more emphasis placed on, I don’t think I am able to answer this question because most of what we have done so far was new to me. I am not sure what category this would fall into (maybe none of them), but if I were to have one request it would be the following:

When I encounter an engineering problem at work and need to find some background on certain engineering fundamentals (for example: dynamics, fluid mechanics, etc) I try to find published lecture/class notes on specific topics so I can re-familiarize myself on the topic properly and ultimately find what I am looking for. When using search engines, it is almost by some form of luck that actual useful in-depth information is found from a credible source without having to first go through several websites. Sites such as E-funda, EngineersEdge, and MatWeb are ok, but I was hoping maybe part of a lecture could be dedicated to tools tailored specifically to engineers and scientists that provide in-depth information, not just general formulas and explanations.

[Javed Alam]

"I try to find published lecture/class notes on specific topics so I can re-familiarize myself on the topic properly and ultimately find what I am looking for. When using search engines, it is almost by some form of luck that actual useful in-depth information is found from a credible source without having to first go through several websites. Sites such as E-funda, EngineersEdge, and MatWeb are ok, but I was hoping maybe part of a lecture could be dedicated to tools tailored specifically to engineers and scientists that provide in-depth information, not just general formulas and explanations"

Chris your question will fall in the area of search for information. We do not have free tools available specifically tailored for engineers at this time. I think in the future we will see more specialization and we may get down to the level of each subject. There is Custom Search Engine that one can create for an specific topic provided that web pages are available on that topic. Here are the details http://www.google.com/coop/cse/

All you need to do is collect all the urls you use for the topics and and follow the procedure on this page. Within 2 minutes you will have a custom search engine that will limit the search to only those urls. Try it it only takes few minutes.

Alam

[Dimitrios Hazimihalis]

I am very pleased with the way the course has progressed so far. I have learned a great deal about searches, the use of email, the use of different websites and some of the features to tag or bookmark web sites and keeping notes on them. The course has been very helpful when doing research for other graduate level classes as far as organization and in helping find reputable sources.

After reading Chris's reply, the area I would like to see more emphasis on is in regards to detailed searches. When I need information regarding new products or new technology within my field it seems to take forever to find any useful or up to date information. I see that you have replied to Chris on what to do, hopefully we can go into more detail during this course.

[Javed Alam]

Again there are only very few students have replied to this section. Please write your comments here to complete this section.

Alam

[Dan Martin]

As far as I'm concerned, I feel I've accomplished a great deal in the past six weeks. Normally I would not have bothered inquiring about several of the tools we've used so far however now that I understand the capabilities, I try to make it a point to use tools learned during this course. In the past, I've spent a lot of time reading the paper to find out things like world news or financial market changes. Now with the tools I've learned during this course, I get automatic updates daily on my web page.

I'd like to keep the focus on learning more tools and their capabilities. I find that some are easier than other and the more I can learn the better.

Thanks,

Dan

[Leby Sassya]

I am very happy that I joinned this class. I thought I learned everything there to learn about the internet, but in reality I am learning so many thing that I did not know it exist.
The most intersting one is where you can use the internet as your platform instead of Windows, Macs, or Linux/Unix.
you can feel very independant from all those costly application /oftware. Now you can use them online for free. try google apps it is very cool.

[Looja Tuladhar]

I have heard about this course since from the beginning of my school at YSU (fall 2006). Finally in my last semester, I get chance to take this course. I am really excited with this course because I am learning lots of new tools in internet. Though I need to spend little bit more time compare to other courses, it is interesting and motivating. I am very much satisfied with this course. It’s like waiting for new excitement (new task) every weekend. It is more like surfing internet, learning new technologies and accomplishing homework in the same time. I think we also need to learn to built web page using proper coding like HTML. Hopefully we will get more exposure to the new software and applications as our class progress. Thank you.

[Phaneendra K Kolli]

This is the course what I am looking for. I like to know how to use the most powerful tool of communication i.e the internet in an efficient way. This course fulfilled my desire to a large extent. The topics covered so far are very useful.
This course taught how to use the search engines to get fruitful results. I haven't created a webpage or a blogging site so far , the topics covered on them helped me very much in creating one . The thesis or dissertation search will be very useful for my thesis. The google docs and the history are very useful in keeping track of our work. I would like to know more about blogs. So far course is very exiting to me.

[Purushottam Panta]

Now I am feeling very easy with a number of Internet applicatoins and tools. So, I have realized the efficient way to learn the use of new tools in information technology with this course. In addition, The topics that we have covered till now are in such an well organized way that its easy to grab the next and next works assigned by Dr. Alam.
The online study materials pointed by Dr Alam are also found to be better. In a sentence, I like this course much.

[Snezana Aleksic]

I am very satisfied with this course. Before I joined the course, my computer skills were average. I usually spend a lot of my time on the internet, since that is the place where user can find useful information related to his/her interest. I learned various interesting things during the past weeks through this course, and they helped me to do my work faster. For example, Zotero left a big impression on me, and now I use that program regularly in organizing my files. I am looking forward to learning more interesting and useful information in the next few weeks. Thank you!

[James]

Well I can see that I am not keeping up with everything very well at all. I'm not completely sure what I think about the class yet - and we are on week 11ish!! I really like what I am learning and and i'm learning a lot. I like the material of the course and all the different ways to communicate over the net. However, I cannot keep up with all the posts and all the emails. I just feel bombarded with post after post after post after response ... I struggle to keep up with it all. This is not a complaint, just my own personal struggle.
As for the topics, I liked the resources part of the course. For example, the social book marking tools. I think I will use those sites often. They are really efficient - as long as i can stay clear from spam.
Some things that I think there should be more emphasis on is organization tools. This just came to mind and i cant really follow up with example or anything. But this is something that i think would be really useful in the real world and with this class. thanks.