A summary of some topics

This week marks the end of the course ICT Developments and Applications in LIS. It has been a wonderful semester. May you check a summary of what we have covered by clicking the below slide show.

Exit Blog and Twitter, Enter Wiki

This week marks the end of the blog and Twitter projects. As a teacher myself, it has been a worthwhile experience that will remain as one of my teaching aids in my teaching. I started these projects from scratch but I can happily declare myself as an expert in blogging. In have accumulated a lot of blogging and tweeting skills. Having also done a topic on evaluation of Webpages  I have noticed some of the shortcomings of my blog based on those evaluation criterion. 

Though the project ends today, I wand to assure my dear readers that I will keep on writing interesting entries on this page. There are some who requested to follow me on Tweeter but I did not approve because of the purpose of this blog. I can now assure you that I will allow you to follow me so that together, we can uplift the Library and Information Science profession. 

Let me thank all those who made this blog interesting and educative. I thank the lecturer, Dr. Sandy Zinn for her technical support and continuously encouraging us to work hard on improving our blogs. I also thank my classmates for their constructive criticism through their comments that they posted on this page.

It is my hope that the Wiki project will be as educative as many of us expect. This course has been tough but very educative. I have noted it has been a practical course throughout and it motivated students to be exploratory and innovative - it has been challenging but worth doing. The Wiki project proves how practical this course has been. 

Research Essay Presentations: Marvellous

  It was another week of leaning new concepts in ICTs Applications in LIS. Listening to well-presented research essays, one could easily notice that Library and Information Science master’s students at University of the Western Cape are not just able to absorb the pressure from their lectures but are also intelligent. I personally learnt many new concepts from the presentations. I am now aware the use mobile technologies in academic libraries, application of generation Y in libraries, application of the cloud computing in libraries, digital gaming in libraries.

I was particularly interested in how mobile technologies can be used in academic libraries. All along, I thought mobile technologies simply mean cell phones but having listed to this presentation, I am convinced that mobile technology means a lot and we can harness it as a potential too for efficiency operations of our libraries.

Presenter came up with many interesting presentation styles which attracted my attention too. Their slides were professionally designed  decorated with touchy colours, fonts and images which added meaning and value to the content they presented.  

The major task this week was presenting the assignment on the trustworthiness of information transmitted via social media during periods of crises. Below is a full presentation. The task has helped me acknowledge strengths and weaknesses of my presentation skills based on the feedback from my classmates.

Evaluating web pages, some tips and techniques: Week 7 lecture

Week seven of my studies was as beneficial as other previous weeks. Having learnt tips on evaluating web pages when I was an undergraduate student, I was back in class for a similar lecture but this time as Masters Student. As usual, the lecturer for the course was so composed and offered the best by asking the whole class to participate. 

Considering that there are millions of web pages on the Internet, the lecturer warned the class against believing in any information they access on the Internet. The lecturer then shared some techniques for evaluating websites which include the following: validity, reliability, authority, relevancy/ coverage and comprehensiveness, accuracy, currency/durability of information, navigation and design.

I just noted that elements such as publisher, author, reputation, timeliness, content are also applied when evaluating books and other print materials but the most unique element which attracted my attention is the domain name of the web page. 

I just learnt that it is important to pay a particular attention to the domain name ending when evaluating websites. This element can be helpful in identifying the type of site or page being dealt with. For example, the URL for the University is http://www.uwc.ac.za. The domain name ending .ac indicates that it is an academic institution. Consider the following figures:

The following video tutorial offers some extra web evaluating techniques and tips.

Cloud computing: a concept worth adopting in libraries?

I learnt many new things in the week ending by but the most interesting one is cloud computing. A well prepared and tailor-made presentation for LIS postgraduate students by a senior lecturer in the department of information systems at University of the Western Cape was so beneficial to me.  click  here to watch a video on cloud computing.

I am now very aware that compared to a traditional computer that requires me to be in the same position physically accessing it as storage devise, the cloud takes way that arrangement. With the cloud technology, the cloud provider can both own and house the hardware and software and run my home applications. 

I just noted that once connected to the Internet; I can retrieve, edit, store and access any document on the cloud hardware at any time and indeed, anywhere. 

The presenter also talked about the type of the clouds that I can subscribe to depending on my needs and they include the public cloud which can be accessed by any subscriber with an Internet connection and access to the cloud space for example Google Drive, private cloud  which is established for a specific group or organisation and limits access to just that group,  community cloud which is shared among two or more organisations that have similar cloud requirements and finally, a hybrid cloud which is essentially a combination of at least two clouds, where the clouds included are a mixture of public, private, or community. 

Applying the concept of cloud computing to librarianship  

I personally feel that he library community can apply the concept of cloud computing to increase the power of collaboration and to form a significant, unified presence on the Web. When library systems are deployed as open cloud solutions, then the library community itself can step up to create extensions to their core services and share them throughout the community using cloud solutions. Secondly, libraries can get out of the business of technology and focus on collection building, patron services and innovation. This can improve the delivery of library services to its clients. 

First practical experience with turnitin and a fruitful holiday

I am writing this entry during a mid semester holiday.  Despite having the whole week as a holiday, I am so busy with academic work.  I am not going to class but I have several assignments that I have to submit by 25th of this month. 

I am doing a research essay on the credibility of information transmitted via the social media as compared to information transmitted via conventional sources of information. during periods of crises. So far, my findings are that during periods of crises, people do rely on both, information transmitted via conventional sources of information and social media. Though conventional sources are seen as more reliable, there is a degree of interdependence between the two categories of information sources.  I have noted that during periods of crises, social media transmit information which could be regarded as either reliable or unreliable depending on who posts that information.

You may wish to know dear readers that I have had the first opportunity this week to submit my assignment to turnitin and I am amazed to see how magical this software is. I had heard about it but I never knew that it would reveal all the information that I copied on the Internet. I would say I am so impressed with this turnitin because it is there not to frustrate me but to improve my writing skills as a postgraduate scholar in this prestigious department of Library and Information Science.

Despite being on holiday, I am not having a chance to chat with friends because of how busy I am with the assignments. 

  Finally, I wound like to state that it has been a holiday well made use of.

Many ofices have such sign posts this week at 
University of the Western Cape.