Second.Life.Virtual.Holiday.Experience

~ Virtual Holiday~

My Holiday destination in Second Life is to New York City and i also went to see the New York Town.

Screenshot below is taken when i arrived at New York City, with their many buildings and shops around.

Below is screenshot of another section of the street along New York City.And if you are able to see, along the roads by the pavements are actually parking ticket machine. Where people slot coins to get their parking ticket.

Below, i had taken the screenshot of a hot dog stand which are commonly found over at New York City.

 In this screenshot, is one of the shops found at NYC. If you are able to see the poster of the shop it actually says "New York City - Bikes, Outfits & More". There are a variety of shops in NYC.

 Below is a screenshot of the New York City taxis i took.

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 Below 2 screenshots are over at New York Town. As you can see below, the first screenshot with the area so messy and deserted with no one at all.

 and over at this screenshot, if you are able to see there is actually a body of a dead person in half with the blood all over. I didn't realize that in Second Life we are able to kill other users. LOL!~ ^_^

To compare my virtual experience traveling to other country like New York City  with traveling in real life is that , in virtual traveling i am able to travel anywhere i want at anytime. Need not worry of money for flight tickets etc as i am able to teleport to anywhere i wish to go to. Virtual traveling however, does not give users with the full traveling experience meaning that we are not able to see the actual country or place. This is because in the virtual world, everything is designed to look alike to a certain place but it will not be exactly the same. To conclude, virtual traveling is positive as it can happen anytime without the need of preparation however, the negative side is that it does not project/provide a full experience of the place or country we are going to.

I only managed to get a few screenshots as My Second Life Viewer keeps on hanging and the response is very very slow :( Hope the pictures above will show you how the virtual New York City and New York Town looks like.

~`Pratical.8&9`~ !My Dream Holiday!

~!My Dream Holiday!~

My "Dream Holiday" is 

*Walt Disney World Resorts*

I have chosen the Walt Disney World Resorts to the ideal Dream Holiday for me because at Walt Disney World, it gives you 24/7 of Fun, Entertainment, Enjoyment and lots more which would make me or anyone else extremely happy and satisfied to regard this as a Dream Holiday. I also particularly choose Disney World apart from other Disneylands around the world is because there is only one Disney World in the World meaning its the best of the best! ((=

Disney World is a place for family, friends and everyone of all ages will enjoy a holiday to Walt Disney World. Personally, i choose my Dream destination was because since i was little i had dreamt of going there and over the years i managed to get to various Disneylands.Thus, Walt Disney World will no matter what be My Dream Holiday Destination. 

After doing my research for multimedia websites relating to my Dream destination, I decided to choose the website which provides me with the upmost and interesting information. I have chosen the main "Walt Disney World Resort' homepage; its URL is 

" http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/ ".

This website is the main website for 'Walt Disney World Resort'. Here, they provdie various kinds of information. With different tabs to indicate the different 'Parks' available, different 'Places to Stay',  'Things To Do', 'Where To Eat' and 'Tickets and Packages'. In each of these tabs are sub-groups providing much more information in detail of what to expect over at Walt Disney World. Basically, this website provides users with the best and current as well as complete information in every aspects.  Everything that is to know about Walt Disney World Resort could be found at the website with interesting description and exciting images as well as animations.

Below, are some screen shots of a few web pages in the website. For further details of the Walt Disney World with all the attractions and entertainments ,you can visit the website with the URL above. (:

Screenshot below is the homepage of the website displaying the four different themed parks found over at Walt Disney world Resorts.

Below is screen shot of a video being played as an introduction on the main homepage of the website. It briefly shows glimpses of images throughout the resort.

 Below shows the description the website provides on individual and respective attractions, entertainments, shops, dining and other important information for example; operating hours of the parks etc etc.

 The consecutive 5 screen shots below shows the sub-groups when i scroll my mouse over each tab. These sub-groups provides more detailed information on different sections or parts of Walt Disney World Resorts.

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 Below 2 screen shots are screen shots of few other pages in the website.

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This screen shot shows the overview of the resort itself and provides information on other places to go to.

 Whereas, this one below shows the variety of dining places with brief description of what to expect in each and every ding places found in Walt Disney World.

This last screen shot below shows the web page where users are able to book their vacation.

 

In addition, i have evaluated my Dream Holiday website with respect to the evaluation criteria and below i briefly explain how i identify the most important criteria i used to get information on my Dream Holiday and why are they the criteria i had chosen to evaluate my website.

Purpose: Rating 5/5. The purpose is clear and concise, which is to promote Walt Disney World Resort to people to come and visit. As a form of entertainment, vacation and enjoyment.

Coverage: Rating 4/5 .It covers a range of important and useful information. Basically, everything we need to know about Walt Disney World Resort from their attractions to their accommodations to dining to the shopping  a other variety of information which we need to know when going there for a holiday.

Authority:  Rating 5/5. I gave this a full rating as the website is safe and secure and fully authorized by Disney itself, since the website is Disney's All Rights Reserved.

Accuracy: Rating 5/5. Since the website is an official website, hence the accuracy of the information is vey well accurate and relevant.

Currency: Rating 5/5. Full rating as such official website will be regularly updated and maintained.

Accessibility: Rating 5/5. Easy access as there are no security restrictions. Website is open to the public to view and read upon.

Usability: Rating 4/5.  User friendly and easy usage with step by step  and clear indications to various information.

Presentation and Arrangement: Rating 4/5. Very organized with balanced amount of information as well as images and video plus animations.

The most important criteria i used to get information about My Dream Holiday is 'Coverage'. This is because  i need to ensure that the website provides me abundant yet useful information which covers on what is expected of My Dream Holiday in this case; Walt Disney World Resort. I need to ensure that this website provides information that covers various topics for example; the attractions, the entertainment available, what other places to go to at Disney World, what things to eat, what and where to shop and much more. This are all the important information a website needs to cover in order to provide me with secure information on My Dream Holiday. Hence, i would then be able to know what to expect there.

In my next blog post , i will post screen captures of me travelling to another country in second life. And i will compare the virtual experience travelling to the country.

EIR.Practical~7 ^_^

Blog Reflections:

a. Which criteria did you use to evaluate Stomp.com? Why did you choose this criteria? What lessons have you learnt from this activity?

The criteria which i had used to evaluate Stomp.com are purpose, coverage, authority, accuracy, currency, presentation and arrangement.

I choose these criteria because from the "Stomp" website because for 'Purpose' i am able to see clearly that the targeted audience is mainly for everyone as anyone are able to read the news and comments posted. It is also inclusive of the 'Stompers' users who have their own account to post stories or comment on other stories.

The main intended scope of the website is also clearly seen which is a form of entertainment for users. Providing local gossips and stories seen in Singapore, other foreign stories and many more interesting and eye-catching talks on various topics.

The website's aim to get anyone and everyone involved in the website is a success with people posting new stories every now and then and more people commenting and voicing out their thoughts on respective issues. Its objective to share stories of everyday lives are also met.

As for 'Coverage', the subject area that "Stomp" covers are quite a number from educational news to serious news to informal news and even unimportant news. Easy to say, "Stomp" covers everything and anything. The breadth and depth of the coverage is not that deep as it provides minimal/brief description on the various topics. The news/postings are also regularly updated whenever the users (Stompers) want to post any stories. It also has hyperlinks to other related news stories. The coverage of intended audience is met and it does satisfies the needs of users to voice out and comment on different stories and in addition, able to select if the stories are enraged them, could not be bothered, amusing, sad etc etc.

As for 'Authority', "Stomp" could be accessed and editied by any viewers and memebers of the website. The website was brought up by Singapore Press Holdings thus, news could be true and reputation could be verified.

For 'Accuracy', the users just need to sign up a free account to be able to post stories and comments.Even if the users need not want to sign up they are still able to read the stories and comments. Hence, the reviews or comments might not be credible enough and some might be unimportant.As most stories posted does not have cited reference since it is based on personal views or incidents, the source might be biased.

The 'Currency' of the website, by which the "Stomp" website is up-to-date will regularly updated stories and postings. With users frequently commenting on the stories and keeps on updating on the news/gossips.

As for 'Presentation' and 'Arrangement', the website really captures the attention of users with nice arrangement of different grouped tags and images along with animation of advertisements. The consistency of arrangement is there throughtout other webpages of the website. Categorized logically and orderly for easy access to different categories of stories and more.However, some news might be quite lewd and mature which might be offensive to some.

b. If you were to create your own version of "Stomp" in relation to your research topic (eg ethics on cloning, genetically modified food etc) :

          

                 i. How would you apply Citizen Journalism differently?

                

                  I would apply and use Citizen Journalism in my own version of "Stomp" with relation to my topic on 'Developments and Usage of Twitter in Education' by having users to sign up an account and before they are able to activate and use their new account, I will need to allow the particular account to be activated. Hence, upon my consent and confirmation only then will the user's new account be activated and then only the user can log on to post replies and comments or start new postings. This way, not anyone could just sign up a free account and straight away post in my website. In addition, Citizen Journalism could be applied in my website differently to obtain and share more information on my research topic which i might not have found. This way citizen journalism could benefit me rather than only having other users views or thoughts on my research.

                          

                 ii. What topics/services would you include to ensure that your "Stomp"           effectively address the implication for teaching and learning of Citizen Journalism mentioned in the article.

The topics which i would include in my "Stomp" to ensure that my "Stomp" will effectively address the implication for teaching and learning are 'How Twitter are used in Classrooms?', 'What benefits does Twitter do in learning?', 'How does Twitter grow in classroom teaching?', Ways Twitter enhances learning' etc etc. These are some of the topics i would place to explain to users.

I would have theoratical as well as visual/audio services to enhance the understanding and explaination of my "Stomp". I will provide learning tools like online Quizes and Q&A section to answer to any queries and doubts. I will also have on my "Stomp" a section for users to post any comments to further improve my "Stomp".

Furthermore, my "Stomp" will need users to sign up a free account and get my authorization and confirmation to grant access before they are able to post any comments. Thus, unnecessary users will not be entertained. 

EIR Practical 6~ Activity4:

Activity 4 blog Reflection~!  (not finish yet since i am not able to use the invisible web to search for my information)

a. Do you think it is more effective to search the invisible web(databases) than using search engines, meta-search or subject directories?Why?

b.Will you use the invisible web(databases) for research in your own respective Diplomas? Why?

c.What have you learnt from your Wiki experience during this practical?

From this practical, for my Wiki experience i am able to understand the effectiveness of sharing information. Through this Wiki exercise, i am able to understand better and to get a range of different information based on my research topic. Wiki helps me to be more thorough in searching for information as well to avoid having found/posted the same information as other students.Wiki is also a good activity to learn from one anothers mistakes.

d. Comment on at least one of your classmate's blog post.

Commented on a few of my classmate's post. The blogs which are in my blog links. (:

ERI Practical 4&5~ Activity 3 (:

Site Feedings and Blog Reflections:

a. What benefits do you get when using different search facilities to search for resources related to your topic?

The benefits of using different search facilities is that i am able to obtain a range of variety of results of different types from blogs to news articles to journals to full text documents and lots more. This would then widen my knowledge of the topic i am researching on hence, i am able to get more information. If i were to use only one search facility, i might not get particular result which i might find in another search facility. Therfore, it is best to use multiple and different search facilities as i would then be able to get a much better idea of the topic i'm searching for.

b. How do you feel about using site feeds in your blog ?

I feel that it a a good way to connect to other people and share one anothers blogs. By having site feeds, i can simply and easily be linked up to another persons blogs may it be my classmate, teachers, families etc. This way, i feel that we are more connected and able to learn about the other person more through thier blogs and postings. With site feeds, i need not worry that i forgot my friends blog URL as it will be just a click away.

c. What do you like best about collaborating on wiki with other students who share similar research topic as you?

For me, i like most was to be able to read and get to learn from other students research information they have found. Since, my information found is not the same as other students information, by reading other students research information i would be able to get more knowledge on my research topic and hence be able to understand it better and look out for more better information. I feel that this way of learning from one another is a very good way for students. In addition, through Wiki , we students can exchange thoughts about one anothers work and findings and help one another.

Wikiii Collaborative Work ~ (Sharing My Research findings) ~

I Posted My summarized information on my Topic which is
Developments and Usage of Twitter in Education

I had a good time posting information on my related topic research and had some hard time trying to summarize the infrmation since i am able to post a maximum of 2000 characters only :)

nevertheless, i managed to get some information in and i will post another information based on my other link to a resource. Wiiki-iing is a good thing as it helps us to share information some of which might be common or might be very hard to find but found by others. From here, we are able to have a wider prospect on the research topic and thus, have a better view/opinion on it.

This also leads me to viewing diferent types of information posted, from videos, articles etc.

Below is the screenshot of my posting on EIR Wiikii (: will add on more soon to come~
Hope the information i posted is useful/helpful, will post different sources of information soon too. ((:

~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! :)