~Meta Search Engines and Subject Directories~

Meta Search Engines :

Dogpile          

MetaCrawler              

 Ixquick Search

Above are just some of the examples of Meta search engines. I have tried exploring both the Dogpile as well as Ixquick search. Meta search engines compromises of multiple number of serach engine like Askjeeves, Google, Yahoo etc.

Below area is only a brief description on the 2 Meta search engine i explored and used on:

Firstly, Dogpile has a number of different tabs to further enhance the searching of information. They are images, news, yellow pages, white pages, video and web. In addition to that, Dogpile has an advanced search tool as well as a preference tool whereby both tools helps to filter out information in depth to get more accurate results. Dogpile has also displayed two categorized forms named 'Favourite Fetchs' and 'Quick Start', showing users the popularly searched information and a quick start to searching for respective topic groups.

In Dogpile, the results found based on my research topic was minimized to only a few result meaning that it only shows the results which are mostly closest to what i am searching for. One interesting feature about Dogpile is that it has a 'Share' button feature which allows users to share the research information through networking sites like Facebook or Twitter etc. (: This is helpful and useful for users as they are then able to share information among other users easily.
This screenshot as you can see has the 'Share' button being circled.

However, over all of these positive facts on Dogpile, it weakness is that is gathers information from multiple search engines meaning the results found might be huge and some of which might be irrelevant .


Secondly, I tried using and exploring Ixquick search a meta search engine, the results i found were quite promising too as the ones i found on Dogpile as most of which is quite useful or as accurate as i wanted it to be. But i needed to choose one meta search engine i i choose dogpile.
As seen below is a screenshot of the results found using Ixquick search.

And as for subject directories, i also managed to find a few different subject directories like About.com, Google directory, Yahoo directory, Infomine etc. I then decided to use About.com for my research.

I choose About.com because it is one of the more interesting  subject directories to use as it has various different helpful features/functions.Screenshots below, i have circled 2 different parts which helps users to further improve their search and also for users own knowledge.

 The portion which i had circled, it actually shows users the different types of topics with different articles related to the topic. and as you can see one of the is categorized as 'Have Fun' and the article on it is 'Our 5 Favourite Sitcom Aliens'.

 This other circled portion is a drop down scroll menu which is in 3 different sections, Browse our Channels, Explore our Topics and See what's Hot Now. In the first section, contains the different types/varieties of categorized groups to search on for example Entertainment, Lifestlye, Food&Drink and etc etc.

On the second  section of Explore our topics is actually different types of subject topics in alphabetical order for users to choose from; for example African History, Alcoholism, Air Travel etc etc.
Lastly, the section on See What's Hot Now compromises of the currently most visited/most popular information that is being searched.


Hope you enjoyed the Post! :)

Will post on this weeks reflection of Meta Search engines soon!~ :))

Will Be Posting Soon!~ ((=

how to upload screenshots? :(

How can i upload screenshots ?

EIR Secondlife ELearning Activity-1 ~(:

E-Learning On Secondlife~ (:
I firstly chosen the island/shopping site 'MIA' but then i changed to the island 'Port Seraphine'. when i first went to MIA shopping site i did not  quite get how the virtual shopping works as the layout  was unclear without any signs or posters to indicate the different items there. Hence, i then decided to choose Port Seraphine.

Below is my description and screen shots on my virtual shopping, Enjoy!~

Over at Port Seraphine , i gradually managed to understand and learnt how the virtual shopping works.
Firstly, Port Seraphine offers a variety of products and all of them were categorized ranging from Menswear, Dresses & Outfit, Separate, Pool Wear and even to a section Sales (items which were on sale).
 
In the Menswear section, there were different types of clothings like Sweim Trunks as well as different designs and genre of jeans and tops(e.g. vest, shirt, long-sleeve etc).

It is mainly similar for the other section, however some sections like the Dresses & outfit provides Womens Wear and section Separate also provides Womens Wear. As seen below is the screenshots of Dresses & Outfit section and what could be found in here.

Over at the Sale section,individuals are actually able to buy skin tones for their avatar to add on to the appearance settings. Below is the Sales section and what could be found inside it. Male or female clothing's are available from tops to bottom jeans to long sleeve shirts etc.

Screen shot below is when i tried to actually purchase the items but do not have enough virtual cash ~ They prompted me to purchase more virtual cash.

Screen shot below is me looking at the Sales section on Men's jeans ^_^
 

Screen shot below is a screen shot of 2 other unique section in the shopping site where mostly Womens wear or Womens lingeries etc are sold.

Over at the Pool section, individuals are able to purchase not only swim wear or bikinis but they are also able to purchase swimming pool boards/ pool chairs etc. Screen shots below is how things in the Pool section looks like.

Secondly, The shopping environment/ambience at Port Seraphine is very stylish and relaxing. Currently, during my visit here there were not much people around. The design of the place is very interesting with nice decorated layouts and some chairs/sofa somewhere in the centre.The place made me feel happy and relaxing as i get to roam around freely to explore the various items available.
Screenshot below is how Port Seraphine looks like when i teleported there (:

 


Thirdly,the accessibility to the products/services offered were very easy to access as they were in reach and the steps to purchase was also very simple and straight forward. However, all the products here at Port Seraphine were chargeable but i managed to get to know another user who helped me out in bringing me to other shopping sites for free stuff (: 
Below screen shot is a free place where i went to get free stuff~

Above screen shot show my inventory with the landmark of the place where i get free stuff (:


Fourthly, the user-friendliness and flexibility of the shopping site  is very high because it has different sections being separated and named accordingly for easy selection. Unlike the shopping site i visited earlier on MIA there were no indications of sections which made me feel lost.





Lastly, during my virtual shopping at Port Seraphine i managed to get to know another avatar user named Nicole Wigvald. However, i did not get to meet any other Temasek Poly users during my virtual shopping. I approached Nicole Wigvald and she offered me help to bring me around to places providing free items like clothes, sneakers, hairstyles and etc. ((: In addition she brought me to a place oroviding free AO which is Animation Override which enables me to improve my scope of movements.
Below is my screen shot on the other shopping i went to with Nicole~

My Summarized Experience on Virtual Shopping~

Question: "What do you like best about this virtual experience which you cannot get in real life?"

The best thing about this virtual experience is i am able to dress up anyway i want and at any point of time i want to. I can change my appearance every single time without restrictions as compared to real life this things could not be the same. I could also be anyone i want to be and change into a different person at any time which in real life is not achievable. To conclude, this virtual experience made me feel free and relaxed to do anything i want to and be anyone i want to which in real life it is not possible. (:

Comparing virtual shopping experience with online shopping~
In comparison with the E-Shopping spree i did earlier on for my Practical 1 & 2, it is different in the sense that in online shoppingeverything is chargeable and it is occurring in real life but as for virtual shopping, it is literally not real and there are places to get things for free and to add on, in virtual shopping i am able to get a much more variety of items at one time as i am in a virtual shopping site.Thus, i feel that virtual shopping is much more fun and also safe as i will not get cheated off my money.

What have i gained from this learning experience?
From this E-learning experience i learnt to experience what is Virtual shopping and get a feel of what it is like to be in control and be or look how i want it be like. But at the end of the day , i understand that virtual world is a good place to enjoy oneself and a place to relax.

What is the most challenging experience i had?
Apart from acquiring virtual money to purchase the items/goods at the virtual world as one of my most challenging experience, the other challenging experience for me besides the virtual world was to actually post my SCREENSHOTS into my blog. I have no idea how to do so :(

EIR Practical 3 ~ (:

Soo Soorry For the Late Post ,here is my post for EIR Practical3 ^_^

For EIR practical 3, i have completed my tasks for activity 1 activity 2 as well as activity 3, this posting would be for activity 4~
Before i begin my reflections, i would like to post on the difficulties i faced when doing activity 2 which is Cite and Compile of Bibliography of Resources. I am not able to identify the type of resources and which APa style format to follow. For the rest of the activites i managed to get it done (:
*NOTE: Will be updating more screen shots of my discussion in the forum,meanwhile i have updated a few first~

Reflections:
Based on activity 1 , I needed to explore both the search engine 'Google' and 'Google Scholar'. Both are very interesting and i managed to compared both in one way or another. I was impressed with Google's features and functions because it is very user friendly in the sense that it has a number of different tabs which helps users to further improve on their search. Not to mention it has an advanced search option allowing users to actually make their search more in depth and accurate by filtering out all the unwanted information.

Below is the screenshot of the Google homepage:

 As seen above, Google has different tabs and an advanced seraching tool to help in further search of related topic.

In addition Google has a Web history enabling users to trace back to the webpages they had visited on google (: this will make things easier for users in case they have forgotten to save the information on the webpage.

In addition, Google has options like 'Google Scholar' , 'Google Blogs' and even ' Google Updates'. Google Scholar provides digital or physical journal articles based on scholarly publications and Google blogs provide users with blogs related to the research topic and as for Google Updates, it provide realtime updates on current on-going post etc.

An example of google updates is as seen above. :) current/recent on-going posts.

Therefore, to conclude i really prefer and love to use Google as a search engine for my research and not to forget Google search engine is the biggest search engine with more than 25 billion web pages.

Secondly, based on the activity 3 which is to participate in an online discussion forum, i managed to sign into the 'Classroom 2.0' an online discussion forum and i uploaded a new post discussion as well as participated in an on-going discussion on using Twitter in education.

I feel that discussion forums are very useful and a good way to voice out individual opinions and views on certain topics. It is a place where everyone has a say to their thoughts and to share answers as well as brainstorm for ideas amongst each other. I feel that discussion forums are indeed helpful for my research as i would be able to retrieve different answers and information henceforth, widening my knowledge on the related topic.

Feeling anxious talking to other people i do not know is something i feel only at first but as i begin to get involved more in the discussion, the anxiousness is no longer present :)

The screenshots of my participation in the discussion forums could be found in my EIR_Practical3 word document :) more screenshots will be uploaded/updated soon!~

This image is the homepage of the discussion forum Classroom 2.0, i am not able to upload my screenshots here. Sorry!

Thirdly, based on activity 2 on doing the Citation and bibliography. As mentioned earlier on i faced some trouble figuring out what format is for which resources that i have. I understand the need to cite is because to prevent from plagiarism and it is also to acknowledge the source of information. Not to forget it is also an essential feature in our research work so that we are able to locate and identify where and what information we have actually taken.

Lastly, Do cheek up on my Twitter profile SOON!~ i'll tweet some of my experiences there too~ Cheeers!! ((= 

EIR Tutorial 1 and 2~

Activity 1 was to get involved in the group discussion on the facebook groups and i had done so (:

Activity 2: Individual Blog Activity

I feel that my opinion is not wrong when i am posting in the facebook group discussion forum and that different people share different views as well as some people share the same views too but in a different prespective depending on the way they think and feel personally. In addition, when i post my own views, i am able to express my views freely. Whatever it is i wish to say with what i think or feel i could simply just post it in.

To compare an online discussion experience with a traditional face-to-face in-class discussions, one point would be;

in an online discussion individuals might not be afraid or uneasy to hold back their opinions and views as no one might know who he/she is that had posted the post. However, with a face-to-face in-class discussion some individuals who are more quieter might not participate in the discussions as they might feel uncomfortable giving their own views thinking that it would be wrong and they would be criticized by other individuals. Hence, from this we can tell that comparing an online discussion with face-to-face in-class disussion, individuals will be much more open and loud with their thoughts and more variety or views could be seen as compared to face-to-face in-class discussion.

I find this online activity meaningful because as said earlier on, almost all individuals will participate and post their own personal views and opinion hence, there would be a much wider scope of answers/thoughts to share with one another. As compared to traditional face-to-face in-class discussions, not all individuals might participate and only limited views could be gathered. Therefore to conclude, i feel this activity is meaningful to get all individuals to participate and voice out their own views. (:

Practical One (:

Activity 1 :

I have selected the Topic Discuss the Development and Usage of Twitter in Education.I have a hard time trying to figure out what are the different categories of sources which I got my research from at first , but gradually after reading and got help from the lecture slides i managed to somehow figure out their differences.
I then started to search for information based on my topic with the use of different categories of research sources which are organisational website, blog, E-Magazine/Journals and Dicussion Forums. As i search information based on all the four different research sources, i found out some differences and some good as well as bad points among one another.

Firstly, i used the Google and AskJeeves search engines to search for information on my topics.For personal preference, i prefer using Google as i am more used to using it and it is also user friendly in the sense that its main page has more option tabs like Web, Images, Maps, Books, News, Translate and many more whereas for AskJeeves has only Web, Images and Videos.

As i did my research, i managed to find an Organisational website on the topic named Faculty Focus. The good points of an organisational website is that they provides a Full-Text document for us to download on a more in-depth explanation on the searched topic. In addition, it provides Facts and Figures on their information.(For eg. Statistics, percentage etc).Hence, we need not worry that the information provided is untrue or an assumtion etc.
Link to an organisational website: http://www.facultyfocus.com/

Next was an e-Magazine/Journal category and the resource name i found was eLearn Magazine. As for e-Magazines /Journals , the good points is that it provides multiple links for further related links. This makes our searching easier as we will be able to locate more related articles on the topic much easier and being able to obtain more info.And since it provides materials based from newspaper articles, it would be reliable to our research.
Link to an e-Magazine/Journal website: http://elearnmag.org/

Next was the Blog category and the resource name is Blog By Carol. For research information on blogs, the good points is that some blogs tend to provide personal experiences as information on our research topic which would be useful.(for eg. A university professors blog about his teachings and various learning topics which could be similar&useful to our research). However, on the other hand i feel that blogs at times might not be accurate and provide irrelevant information. 
Link to a blog website: http://cooper-taylor.com/blog/

Lastly, was the dicussion forum category and the resource name is eduFire. The good points of online dicussion forums is that it compromises of different people's veiws and opinions on the topic, it's where people share their own thoughts.This is good as it gives different number of information and wider range to choose from. However, the bad thing is that the information might not be true and incorrect as they are not actual facts from books etc. So, we need to be more careful in filtering out the more relevant info which could be quite troublesome and at times we might even make mistakes.
Link to a discussion forum website: http://edufire.com/content/articles/

Activity 2: 

BlogShopping.

I started off with going through some websites like eBay and Shopping.com as what was instructed in the eLearning video of Pratical 1 Activity 2. After browsing through the 2 internet websites, i was able to get hold of some items which i wanted to buy. Below are the items i wish to purchase along with their individual costs and the URL where i go to:

Royal WES2000 Wireless Speaker System. Costs: from $87.16
URL:http://www.shopping.com/Royal-29298R/info

It is a 900MHz, RF technology,weatherproof for indoor/outdoor usage,auto on/off and auto tuning function,operational distance up to 164ft.

ARAI Redline Motorcycle Racing Jacket. Costs: $65.00
URL:http://www.olx.com.sg/arai-redline-motorcycle-racing-jackets-brand-new-iid-114919527

The material is thick-padded with inner double lining, semi-waterproof/windbreaker, comes with mathcing ARAI jacket sling bag.


DC Men's Court Graffik SE Skate Shoe White/ Dark Shadow Plaid. Costs: $59.95
URL: http://www.shopping.com/dc-mens-court-graffik-se/

Foam Padded Tongue and collar for added comfort/support.Soft tricot lining.Internal plastic tongue holder for added foot stability.Highly abrasion-resistant sticky rubber cup sole. Multi-tone bottom with DC's trademark "pill" pattern.Very durable.


Special Blend Strike Snowboard Pants. Costs: $98.97
URL: http://www.amazon.com/Special-Blend-Strike-Snowboard-Pant/

It is waterproofing and critically taped seams to keep dry.Inseam vents could be unzipped to cool down during hot weathers.It has a relaxed fit with plenty of cargo space.

I also did some blog shopping where i went to search for online blog shopping sites where they sold a variety of Tee Shirts etc. Below is one blogshop where i found some nice Tee Shirts i wished to buy:
URL: http://asterixtees.wordpress.com/

Rock The Labyrinth Tee. Costs: $32.90

Age Innovation Tee. Costs: $34.90

Guilty Pleasures Tee. Costs:$29.90

As seen above are the Tee Shirts i found out in a blogshop which are very cheap and has great designs.
The purpose of the online shopping website i had visited is to look for different sources where i could find cheap but good quality/nice designs items. It is also to get to understand the differences in blogshops as compared to other online shopping sites like eBay or Shopping.com or Amazon.com. Their differences may varies in the form of price, layout of the items, design of the website which makes it more interesting, user-friendliness in purchasing/pre-ordering of items.

And as for the other shopping sites i visited like Shopping.com or Amazon.com or eBay, the purpose is to

better understand the different ways we could search out for information like shopping for items.It is also to be able to compare the different websites in finding out which one gives the best price etc.
Therefore, to conclude, the main purpose for the websites i visited is to allow me to understand the different forms of categorized websites to further enable me to gather more reliable information.

What I learnt today~
-Different forms of sources to retrieve information
-Benefits of each and every form of categorized website
-The use of search engines and its effectiveness
-How to filter out the correct information