News Report 5

News Report 5

“The Wired Campus”, The Chronicles of Higher Education

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Virtual-Medical-Training-Comes/7277

November 24, 2009

Erica R. Hendry

Virtual online medical training is something that has been around. Now of days it as upgraded but still has some of the same features it used to have. The Second Life application has changed how it works so that now trainees and graduates can get more of a real life situation, and the chance to discuss their decision with doctors and other professors.

For the looks of it there isn’t to many boundaries when using Second Life. Sooner than later there will be more application like this just for everyday use in the classroom. Then again there might not be a classroom to go to anymore. With the Second Life you create an avatar to be about of this on-line world. This sort of reminds me of the XBOX 360 gaming console. You create an avatar to join million online to network and communicate with.

One key benefit of training like this is the decrease in the cost of doing it. For instance no actual people are hurt or harmed in the training, less man hours used, and give you a legit second chance to get second opinion or go over a mistake if one ever happens. All this process of the Second life is already being used at universities across the nation.

No one ever thought that technology would advice this for that medical students would be doing training online. There are some people that a not sold on the idea and would things the more traditional way of training. In all I don’t think the training will eventually go all the way online. There still are some issues that should be done in person for example running real test or finding cures for certain diseases.

Reading Report 5

"Information Navigation 101"

Andrea L. Foster, Chronicle of Higher Education

3/9/2007, Vol. 53 Issue 27

http://chronicle.com/free/v53/i27/27a03801.htm

Technology now is an everyday thing. It also changes so often there is not anything new for long anymore. My generation now has advanced technology so far that we are sometimes the only ones that can use it. For example with the cell phones that now have access to the internet, text messaging, and tons of other application with cell phones. We now have facebook, myspace, and other website that we use to talk to people and find old friends. My generation is great at all these things but is horrible at using the technology at doing academic research.

If we can not access the research through google or any other basic search engine we tend to not care anymore and end up gathering a bunch of the same information. In the article here the California State School system is having classes and donating time for the student’s to learn how to do academic research. Its just so easy for students to go to Google and type in a key word and millions of hits pop up. We want something that it fast and quick. Students hate to spend long hours in any library doing research. After awhile it is easy to loss focus and use those non-academic search engines.

I don’t agree with some of the things the school system is doing to make students better at gathering information. The program of giving students test I totally disagree with. I feel as if there should be academic research class that is part of your basic studies and how well you research it yourself stand for the grade.

John T. Carr
October 20, 2009
Reading 4
“The Infodiet: How Libraries Can Offer an Appetizing Alternative to Google”
Steven Bell
Chronicle of Higher Education 02/20/2004

In Steven Bell’s article he talks about the comparison of Google’s easy research and the academic library research. Both are totally different. I use Google research everytime I do have a research paper to do and also do use the scholarly searches also. The article argues that student do want the scholarly research to be easy to access like Google as it. To me it would nice to have the ability to look up something easy and something like Google does. The only bad thing about this is when you do use Google to find something it give you usually a broad search.

The broad searches that Google give me I use them in academic research databases to get more specific. Majority of college students want it right in there face not having to work for it, like traditional “old School” researchers want. Steven Bell that admit that he does want libraries to Googl-ize some of the research process that each one has and make some what universal. Honestly I feel like it would never happen because for one libraries pay for the articles and academic research they have in their systems. I wouldn’t want my stuff to be easy to access for anyone. Another reason is the research time the people spent to have the research. Someone had to do the research first for it to be available for everyone else and they may have taken years.

Google itself has made a lot of things easier in the last five to ten years. It’s to the point now that I hear and know professors that want you to use Google first or other search engines. Google can be a first palce to start just like Wikipedia is. Somewhere you can start but not finish all research. Using academic research engines or databases are the best to find true and accredited research.

Reading 4

Blogger will not let me copy my work over from word.....

Reading Report 3

“The Future of Libraries”
Thomas Frey , Futurist Speaker.com
November 2006
http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2006/11/the-future-of-libraries/

The article here discusses the history and the changes the library is going through now. Libraries have been around for centuries. The article itself starts with an abstract about the history of Leonardo De Vinci and his work.
Libraries have changed just like anything else man has made. From being a place to do research and study, it’s now a place maybe you start the research then finish it at home because so much stuff is put online. Regardless of how much is online though libraries will always have the best and most reliable resource to do research.
The ten trends they have in article are correct. I have been around long enough to see some of things happen. For instance the cell phone situations and that CD’s are going away. I work in an electronic and computer store. Technology changes about every four to 6 months updating, to something we want to do the work for us. Libraries are now getting the bad end of stick with all these advances in technology. It’s to the point now that communication has taken a toll on the libraries system also. Overall I still feel like libraries will always be around forever because they provide you with the resources and artifact found nowhere else. Trend 10 is another reason why libraries will stay. If they could become more of diverse culture in each library there wouldn’t be any concerns for anyone.

News Report 3

News Report 3
The Wired Campus
Can removing Computers from Classrooms improve teaching?
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Can-Removing-Computers-From/7279

The article I found was about an university thinking about taking the computers out of it's classrooms. In today’s time I totally disagree with this. We are in an era of technology were computers are part of everyday life and make life easier. I couldn’t imagine going to most of my classes and not having the instructor use a computer. That would be an extremely boring hour. Me personally I would, be knock out in no time. On the other hand professors do tend to just use PowerPoint and just lecture from that. That’s up to the teacher. Speaking from my own experience I have done better when a professor does use PowerPoint and I don’t have to write down eight pages of notes. Another point if the professor themselves would get more involve and include open discussion questions with the PowerPoint the computers could stay and students could get that open discussion we all like to do.

News Report 2

The future of libraries, with or without books
John D. Sutter
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/04/future.library.technology/index.html

The stereotypical library is dying -- and it's taking its shushing ladies, dank smell and endless shelves of books with it. Books are being pushed aside for digital learning centers and gaming areas. "Loud rooms" that promote public discourse and group projects are taking over the bookish quiet. Hipster staffers who blog, chat on Twitter and care little about the Dewey Decimal System are edging out old-school librarians. And that's just the surface. By some accounts, the library system is undergoing a complete transformation that goes far beyond these image changes.
Authors, publishing houses, librarians and Web sites continue to fight Google's efforts to digitize the world's books and create the world's largest library online. Meanwhile, many real-world libraries are moving forward with the assumption that physical books will play a much-diminished or potentially nonexistent role in their efforts to educate the public.
Some books will still be around, they say, although many of those will be digital. But the goal of the library remains the same: To be a free place where people can access and share information.
"The library building isn't a warehouse for books," said Helene Blowers, digital strategy director at the Columbus [Ohio] Metropolitan Library. "It's a community gathering center."Think of the change as a Library 2.0 revolution -- a mirror of what's happened on the Web.


When I read this article the first thing that came to my mind was the other day at work. An older man came into the store and was asking for an ebook. At first I looked confused and thought about our service on campus. Then I realize he was talking about the ebooks that Sony and Amazon makes. The older gentlemen easily said, “I hate to go away from the standard way of reading but this ebook is pretty convenient when you are older because having the ability to read in dark is a plus and you don’t have to worry about carrying two or three books around. The article is discussing trends that are according around the country. People now don’t want to wait and read a book about information. It’s now a time in age where getting the information as quickly as possible and the old school way is no longer needed. I feel like libraries are going to stay around with some making the change especially in those rural areas were the library is the place of history for that town.

“Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade”

John T. Carr
September 17, 2009
Reading 2
“Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade”
Brock Read
Chronicle of Higher Education 10/27/2006

The article main purpose is to see if Wikipedia could ever be used as a reliable source or not. Wikipedia is similar to an online encyclopedia. Many people think it’s not a great source or reference for anything because anyone can update or alter the information. On the other side other claim it has been said that it is 90% correct just like encyclopedia. Speaking from my own experience my friends and I once tried to update a search ourselves. As soon as it was submitted, about two minutes later it changed back to its originally form because of the information we put in was wrong. Wikipedia stays updating its site continually. Wiki knows that people are doing that so there regularly updates are plus to keep the site operating.
I feel personally that Wikipedia is a source that you can use in research. If you are to use it as a resource just be sure to cross reference it. I do that with all sources. It’s just like an encyclopedia so either one is not a source any scholarly paper that I do will not be accepted as a reliable source. I use wiki about everyday to first get a glimpse of something I’m looking for. It’s fast and easy and since I started using it, hasn't given the correct information. From something scholarly I wouldn’t use because wiki doesn’t provide any material like that. To me it gives you a general background for you to start your information. One last fact that this article shows is that Britannica Encyclopedia has one less error that wiki does.

Hawaii Board Rejects Monthly Two-Day Closures, Furloughs
Gordon Flagg 09/14/2009
http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2009/september2009/hawaiiplanbstalls090409.cfm?persistent=&expy_dt=

The Hawaii Board of Education failed to approve a proposal September 3 to address a $5.7-million cut in funding by closing all public-library branches at least two days a month and furloughing employees twice a month. The plan also called for the elimination of 72 vacant job positions (which would curtail use of temporary workers in those posts), a reduction in operating hours, and intermittent temporary branch closures due to staff shortages. The plan was submitted by State Librarian Richard Burns after the board rejected a proposal in July to permanently shut five branches and directed him to present a new plan to that did not include library closures.

Cutting libraries down is now something states are doing. It’s either dealing with shutting some down, closing some for a period of time and also making changes with how their books are arranged and disbursed. According to the article the Hawaii Board just rejected another plan brought towards them to help with their library crisis. With this happening now people in the system are being temporary laid off twice a month and branches being close two days a month. That hurts people with families they have to take care of. I thought a library would never be the one that has to shut down. It’s a public and state operated. People use it mostly everyday to check on something from current news to even thing in the past that may be relative today. I feel as there are other ways to help the Hawaii Librarian system rather than just closing some branches. Students lose the ability to go to library now and not worry if its going to be close tomorrow or if the library in their city will be close for good.

Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and Other Spurious Information on the Internet"
Our first reading report title Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and other Spurious Information on the internet is about sites that are made to mimic and misled information by using the web. It also it used as a tool to make people lose their beliefs and opinion on issues and even people. The article goes into detail explaining what is the different in each one of the different malicious sites that are out there. The sites that do this fall into these categories: counterfeit, malicious, product, fictitious, parodies/spoofs/entertainment, hacks and disinformation.
The article starts by talking about how counterfeit sites attempt to pass themselves off as real sites. These sites mimic the feel of the original site but are geared for misleading information trying to catch those doing research. The example they use in the article was the Martin Luther King website. It tells about how he supposedly was with several white women the night he was murdered. If you looked onto the site in more detail you would notice links to other pages and emails. Clicked upon them and you would be taken to pro-White America webpage.
The article goes into farther detail about how you could publish more malicious and misleading information. People do this by hiding behind the first amendment, which is the freedom of speech and by using the web to show it off.
I really didn’t know it was that many ways to mislead people. I honestly don’t see the enjoyment out of doing something in ways to misled or to slander someone else’s name and legacy. Its good that we do have agencies out there that monitor sites that try this. I always would maybe see pop-ups about joining something about getting a free computer or some type of electronic. People do the thing with those sites also. The web is a huge book with a lot of misleading information. Truly I think there should be violations and for those who do more harm than good to someone by doing this.

News Report 1

News Report 1
“eBay Sells Most Of Skype For $1.9 Billion”
W. David Gardner , InformationWeek
September 1, 2009
http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/voice/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219500766

A move by eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) to drop its planned IPO and unload control of its Skype Technologies VoIP unit to a group of private investors for $1.9 billion would likely eliminate sticky litigation with Skype's founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who have been seeking to purchase Skype. eBay will retain a 35% equity position in Skype in the deal, which values Skype at $2.75 billion."Skype is one of Europe's greatest startup success stories," said Volpi Tuesday. "In 2004, we recognized its potential as a global telecommunications leader and we've been captivated by the business since we first invested." In addition to London-based Index Ventures, the investors acquiring Skype include Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm led by Marc Andreessen, a co-founder of Netscape, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB.) When eBay purchased Skype in 2005 for $2.6 billion and later considerations for a total estimated at $3.3 billion, the online auction company neglected to obtain rights to important underlying software for Skype, whose founders recently initiated litigation against eBay. The peer-to-peer software in question is owned by Joltid, a firm controlled by Skype's founders.
Wow, Skype being sold. I guess money does really talk. Skype has grown to become a program that everyone uses and loves. It’s now install on more than half the new computers being sold. In the article though it looks like there are some legal issues trying to be worked out that eBay forgot to obtain in their purchase of the program in 2005 dealing with software. It seems as eBay didn’t get all the rights for the software. I didn’t know that Skype was developed in Europe and now is world known. Now with eBay selling most of Skype I wonder if you will get the same benefits of the program you got before because everything was actually free and paid for by advertisements. Now the question will someone ever become the sole owner of both the software and programs. Several companies have brought their share of the company. I hope you can get the same benefits and even more with more companies buying into it.

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