{November 2007}

{January 2008}

{February 2008}

UIR is my last CDS and I think that its knowledge are very useful and widely aplicable to other aspects of studies and even life. Through UIR, I have learnt many things about research via the internet. Internet contains wide range of information, or rather, any information under the sun. Also, it is some form of 'neccesity' in my life now, be it for studies or entertainment purposes. Therefore, able to retrieve relevant and reliable information is the most important knowledge I have gained. I now not only know how to evaluate the search engines, but also the resources. This would come in handy when I doing my other projects and it could save great deal of my time and effort to find informaiton. It would be easier for me to get what I want much faster and easier during my leisure as well. In short, I find UIR is a rather useful CDS where the knowledge learnt could be applied to many other aspects.

Written on: 7:38 AM

Alcohol and public health – underage drinking. (n.d.). Retrieved December 30, 2007, from Department Of Health And Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Website: http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/quickstats/underage_drinking.htm

Alcohol and your health. (n.d.). Retrieved January 11, 2008, from AMA Youth Health Advocate Program and The Commonwealth Bank Website: http://www.ama.com.au/youth/code/alcohol.html

FocusAS. (2007). Focus adolescent services. Retrieved January 18, 2008, from Focus Adolescent Services Website: http://www.focusas.com/Alcohol.html

Leadership to keep children alcohol free. (2007). Retrieved January 3, 2007, from National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: Leadership website: http://www.alcoholfreechildren.org/

Hanson, D. J. (1997). Children and young people. Retrieved January 11, 2008, from State University of New York: Sociology Department Website: http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/youthissues/index_YoungPeople.html

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (1997). Alcohol alert. Retrieved January 18, 2008, from National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Website: http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa37.htm

Stop underage drinking portal of federal resources. (n.d.). Retrieved December 28, 2007, from StopAlcoholAbuse.gov Website: http://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov/default.aspx

The cool spot. (n.d.). Retrieved January 3, 2007, from thecoolspot.com website: http://www.thecoolspot.gov

Written on: 7:20 AM

This is the first lesson since the start of term 2. Today, after we have done out class test 2 which i scored 12/15, our tutor gave us back our Assignment 1. I scored A! I was so happy. Then, our tutor look through the wiki to remind those who have to upload the practical 7.

I actually have already done it last week. However, it was wrong. Firstly, I should not create a new threat. Secondly, I sould write summary for the links I am using for Assignment 2 instead of summary of what I have learnt from the researching on the topic. Therefore, I then edited and post at the correctly place.

As for this week's practical, we are suppose to compile our group's reources and do a bibliography to be put on wiki. So we did bibliography based on the APA guides given in the lecture individually, then send to Su Ling to post it up. Here's my bibliography:

Leadership to keep children alcohol free. (2007). Retrieved January 3, 2007, from National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: Leadership website: http://www.alcoholfreechildren.org/


The cool spot. (n.d.). Retrieved January 3, 2007, from thecoolspot.com website: http://www.thecoolspot.gov

Written on: 7:45 AM

Our group has chosen the topic on the development of alcoholism among youths. Alcoholism is also known as alcohol dependence with symptoms of craving for alcohol, loss of control, physical dependence and tolerance. It increases risks of certain cancers due to its damage to the liver, brain and other organs. It can also cause birth defects and increases the risk of death from car crashes and other injuries as well as the risk of homicide and suicide.

There many causes for alcoholism in youths. One of which is living in a family environment with alcoholic parents. Also, as children move from adolescence to young adulthood, they encounter dramatic physical, emotional, and lifestyle changes. Developmental transitions, such as puberty and increasing independence, have been associated with alcohol use. Another factor is the peer pressure. And mothers who drink alcohol during pregnancy would increase the risk of the child being alcoholic as well.

In other to curb the underage drinking, government has implement limit on minimum age on drinking, alcohol free campaign and at the same time educate the youths in school. Treatments and helps for youths with alcoholism are readily available in the country as well. Also, family play a role in preventing alcoholism and it would be very useful as family members are the closet to them and would impact them greatly as well.

The links I am using will be:
http://www.alcoholfreechildren.org/ This website is sponsored by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). This initiative aims to prevent underage drinking. It contains updated factual information about underage drinking to create awareness of the public. Areas of information include current situation, causes, effects, legislation and prevention actions.
http://www.thecolspot.gov/
This is the youth section of NIAAA initiative that targeted at youths aged 11-13. This website has many colourful garphics, interactive media such as video clips to attract the young readers. It contains general information about alcoholism, current situation and real life stories. This is a rather interesting website that integrate information with graphics which makes it different other organizaitonal websites.After researching on the resources, I have learnt that:Alcoholism is a common drug abuse that is also known as alcohol dependence. It has symptoms of craving for alcohol, loss of control, physical dependence and tolerance. It increases risks of certain cancers due to its damage to the liver, brain and other organs. It can also cause birth defects and increases the risk of death from car crashes and other injuries as well as the risk of homicide and suicide. There many causes for alcoholism in youths. One of which is living in a family environment with alcoholic parents. Also, as children move from adolescence to young adulthood, they encounter dramatic physical, emotional, and lifestyle changes. Developmental transitions, such as puberty and increasing independence, have been associated with alcohol use. Another factor is the peer pressure. And mothers who drink alcohol during pregnancy would increase the risk of the child being alcoholic as well.In other to curb the underage drinking, government has implement limit on minimum age on drinking, alcohol free campaign and at the same time educate the youths in school. Treatments and helps for youths with alcoholism are readily available in the country as well. Also, family play a role in preventing alcoholism and it would be very useful as family members are the closet to them and would impact them greatly as well.

Activities Reflection
Since practical 6a and 6b is the first time I am doing the resource evaluation, I am not very sure if I am on the right track. Therefore, I sent my work to my tutor for checking. After receiving her comments, I then start on my Assignment 2. And I hope to finish it by next week so that I might be able to send to my tutor for final check. Before I do the practical 7, I actually look at other people's work on how I am supposed to go about writing it. However, later I was told that what I written am not what is exactly expected and is post on the wrong place. Therefore, I edited it and re-post it again.

In short, this week’s E-learning taught me how to evaluate the relevance of difference resources. I believe this would be come in handy as there is so much information available online. And I am now able to know hoe useful and reliable the resources are. This would enhance my research for other projects as well.

Written on: 7:18 AM

My second resource:
http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/

Purpose
Yes, under its 'Organization information' of NIAAA states that it aims to conduct research collaborate with related bodies to promote alcoholism prevention and treatment. As stated, it contains researches, news and publications about alcoholism. It aims to promote alcohol-free to the general public, specifically people in USA.

Coverage
The subject area is alcoholism. It contains research, news&event, resources and publications. It categorized information and its breadth covers almost everything on alcoholism, such as, current facts and prevention. Each category is further breakdown more in depth details can be viewed. It also has information regarding NIAAA. Its content has as recent as 2007 and as early as 1960. It also has links to websites sponsor by NIAAA as well as other related websites on alcoholism. Its intended audience is the general public and thus it does not contain much professional jargon. It has much information on all aspect of alcoholism in text form.

Authority
This resource is managed by National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) which is part of National Institution of Health of USA. Since it is a governmental organization, authority and reputation can be verified. NIAAA’s contact number, email and address for enquire and form for suggestions and comments is available as well. Sources and references of the information are clearly stated. However, no review on the resource is available.

Accuracy
Its content is all factual information and findings. Since its content is mostly research basis, there is little/no biased opinion. Sources and references of the information are clearly cited as well. The information is also stored in a secured database with only authorized editing is allowed. There is no grammatical error as well.

Currency
Its content is up-to-date with latest information on 2007. And under each category, last update/review date is shown at the bottom, with latest update on October 2007.

Accessibility
It is freely accessible as anyone can view the content without having an account with the website. Thus, there is no bookmark and cookies. Also, it does not need specific hardware or software to access to the full version. However, it can only be viewed in English, except for some document that has another language version. And its content is mainly in text format and some graphs and charts.

Presentation and Arrangement
Its content is mainly in text format and some graphs and charts. And its content can be viewed in different front size, that is, S, M and L. It categories and navigations enable users to retrieve the information they want easily. The content is arranged based on time with latest information on the top. Also, it has search function and FAQ as well. However, little/no images or media is available. Nevertheless, its language is simple and easy to understand without much professional jargon.

Usability
The resource is user-friendly and intuitive. This is because users can navigate and locate information easily and even have search function to find information based on keywords entered. When encounter problem with the resource, FAQ is available and alternatively, users can send email or submit the comment form. Moreover, its categories headings are quite clear and I can then retrieve the information I want quickly.

Overall
I think this resource provide wide range of factual and detailed information on alcoholism. However, I think it is very wordy for most of its content and I would lose interest in reading after some time. So I believe it would be better if it provide a summary for each document/content would be a great help as this would save time for readers to know if the information is relevant or not.

Summary of activities
I have already post on the online OLE discussion board but I have not sign up for any online forum on my topic. This is because I am not very sure what forum should I signed up. But I will discuss with my group mates and sign up soon. After having the resource analysis for 2 resources, I now have a better idea of how to evaluate the 2 resources for my Assignment 2.

Written on: 9:54 PM

After the test we have done, we formed our group for the Assignment 2. My group consist of Shawn, Su Ling, Tai Miao and me. We actually wanted to do the topic on development of drugs abuse among youths. However, another group has already choose that topic and it is a first come first serve basis. Therefore, our group chose another topic, that is, "Discuss the development of alcoholism among youths". After we have chosen our topic, we listed down the keywords we are going to used as well as their variations. After which, we exchange numbers for communicaiton purposes. Then, we let every member to go home find their own resources and sms every member the links so to prevent members evaluating the same resources.

Written on: 7:29 PM

Summary
Based on the 3 links I have retrieved, I navigate through the website and analyze them for their purpose. In this practical, I learnt to use the different types if search engines to find websites/information on the topic i have chosen. I realized that all the search engines results vary in terms of size, relevance and ranking methods. Also, they have both strength and weaknesses. Thus, I could make use of their strength and weaknesses to help mi in doing my assignments as well as future research function.

Type of Search facility
Search Engine :http://www.google.com/

Keywords used
impact AND "drugs abuse" AND youth

URL of the resource
http://www.ycwa.org/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1151576970

Comments on Search Results
Size : 18,300
The results are quite relevant as it only display results contain all the keywords I entered.
It index in specialized area of impact of drug abuse.
It index mostly text and image files.
It displays the title, website and the brief content that contains the keywords entered.
It ranks the results based on the relevance to all the keywords. Results that contain most keywords would display first.
By entering keywords in full sentence, the search engine will display all results contains any one of the keywords. This would make the range of results very wide.

Type of Search facility
Meta Search Engine: http://www.mamma.com/

Keywords used
“drug abuse impact” AND youth

URL of the resource
http://www.globalchange.com/aidsafrica.htm

Comments on Search Results
Size: 37
It displays results that contain any keywords I entered.
Its results majority are index in specialized area of impact of drug abuse.
It index mostly text and image files.
It displays the title, website and the brief content.
It does not rank the results base on their relevance to my keywords.
By entering keywords in full sentence, the search engine display less results.

Type of Search facility
Subject Directory: http://dir.yahoo.com/

Keywords used
Topic:
Health
Teen Health
Teen Substance Abuse

URL of the resource
http://www.teens.drugabuse.gov/facts/index.asp

Comments on Search Results
Size : 17
The results are quite relevant to the category
It index in specialized area of impact of drug abuse on teens.
It index mostly text and image files.
It displays the title, website and the brief content of the results
It ranks the results based on popularity. Results that are visited by most people would display first.
By entering keywords in full sentence, the search engine will display all results contains any one of the keywords. This would make the range of results very wide.

Evaluation

Similarities
Results displayed would contains keywords that i entered Most results are relevant to my research topic.

Differences
The results are ranked differently. Yahoo.com ranked them by relevance while dir.yahoo.com ranked them by popularity. Unlike the other 2 search engines, size of result shrinks when i searching in mamma.com using the full sentence.

Strength and Weakness
yahoo.com is good as it ranked the results by relevance to the keywords. However, keywords must be specific so that the result range will not be too big. dir.yahoo.com are based on the chosen category, thus is very relevant and the size of result not very big also. However, it ranked it based on popularity which I think is not as useful as based on relevance. As for mamma.com, its results size are not large. However, some results displayed are not very relevant.

Best engine for me
I like directory search engine (dir.yahoo.com) the most. This is because its display results that are within the category chosen and can further specify by entering keywords. This would make my research of relevant website much more easier. With a relatively small and category focus results, related information can be retrieve easier as well.

Written on: 5:38 PM