Practical VI & VII

Reflections

After using the template of evaluating internet resource and refering to the slides in the lecture notes, I realise how difficult it really was to make a useful website. I didn't know that there were so many points to consider if a website is good or not, whether it has reliable facts or just opinions of others, whether it is easy for user or too complicated that users would not want to come back to it, and whether it is well-presented and arranged or just anyhow whack. Not any websites can be counted on for a particular information. Cross-referencing with other websites and sources are very important.

After these two excercise, it made me much knowledgable in the world of the internet. Both in the aspects of using the internet as a research tool and in the many hidden facts about alcoholism!

Discussion Forum

http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ab-alcoholism&tid=9807

Practical IV & V

Reasearch Topic: Discuss the developments of alcoholism amongst youth

Search Engine: http://sg.yahoo.com/

Keywords Used: alcoholism amongst youth

URL & Purpose:
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/alcoholism/108936-i-need-views-about-alcholism.html
Advocacy - The purpose of this website is to share views on alcoholism
Comments on search result: excellent




Meta Search Engine: http://metacrawler.com/

Keywords Used: alcoholism amongst youth

URL & Purpose:
http://alcoholism.about.com/b/a/2003_10.htm
Information - The purpose of this website is to inform people about everything there is to know about alcoholism.
Comments on search result: excellent




Subject Directory : http://directory.google.com/

Keywords Used: alcoholism amongst youth

URL & Purpose: http://www.cadas.co.uk/
Business/marketing - The purpose of this website is to inform people about everything there is to know about alcoholism. It also provides a service for those who needs help.
Comments on search result: excellent




Reflections on Comparison and Evaluation on search effectiveness

Compare the search results. Identify 2 characteristics that make all 3 search facilities similar or different from one another.

All of them showed the results within a second and all showed relevant results.

Do you find any strength/weakness of each of them, in terms of search capability?

Yahoo had more search results than the rest.

Overall, which search facility best meet your searching needs? Why?

Yahoo. It had a wide variety of what I wanted to find.

Comment whether your research topic has any co-relation to the purposes of the resources retrieved.

All of them had very relevant results to what I wanted.

Practical III

Resource 1: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/5110630.stm
Purpose of resource: News
Reasons: To know what is happening around the world.

Resource 2: http://www.hjventures.com/writing/Alcoholism-drug-Business-Plan.html
Purpose of resource : Business/marketing
Reasons : For help on Alcoholism

Resource 3: http://www.alcohol.org.nz/AlcoholIntroduction.aspx
Purpose of resource : Information
Reasons : For knowing more about alcohol

Resource 4: http://www.thesite.org/alcohol.html
Purpose of resource : EntertainmentReasons : For help with quitting alcohol

Reflection on searching acitivity
There are many different categories for only one topic and there are so many resources in the web, I never knew surfing through search engines could give so much understanding.

Practical II

Selected Topic: Discuss the developments of alcoholism amongst youth

From Personal types of websites,
http://www.focusas.com/Alcohol.html
This website tells us about the abuse of alcohols among youths. It lists some of the reasons why youths start taking alcohol, which includes reasons like, '...initiation tests that qualifies a youth to an adult or manhood...', '...most convenient pass time...' The website also includes the personal opinion of Rudolp Dyal, about the alcohol abuse among youths. He also suggested some solutions to prevent and minimize youths from abusing alcohol. In my opinion, Rudolph Dyal's intention in writing this report/article is that he's concern about the increasing number of youths taking alcohol and wanted to offer some solutions to help the youths.

Subject based,
http://www.mtsu.edu/~tsbrown/aay1110_files/frame.htm
The website gives us the necessary information such as 'Effects of alcoholism' and 'Prevention of alcoholism'. It also includes a survey done by the researcher on when do youths starting drinking etc.

Organization,
http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/InTheNews/UnderageDrinking/1116634926.html
This website tells us that alcohol-poisoning in youths are very rare, which is about half-dozen per year. It also tells us that an alcohol-poisoning death in youths happens in those who have the least knowledge and experience with alcohol and drinking. In my opinion, i think that this website is credible and up-to-date. This is because the article is updated on the 18th April 2006, and it is uploaded by the State University of New York. Therefore, the facts listed should be current and credible.

http://www.addiction-help-line.com/alcohol_addiction.html
This website gives some startling statistics such as, '...Average age when youths first try alcohol is 11years for boys and 13years for girls...', 'over three million youths are out-and-out alcoholics...' This makes us wonder what will happen in the future, when the alcoholic youths grow up and enter the working society. This website definitely has credibility, as the information is provided by the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information.

Discussion Forum,
http://www.ayn.ca/forum/threadView.aspx?id=369
A discussion forum on native youth and alcohol where people share their views on this topic.

Reflection
After searching about this topic, I've learnt so much about alcohol, the causes, the effects and also the help provided online to stop addiction.

Practical I

Wai Sau Fu aka Æ

Matric No: 0403235E

Diploma in Mechatronics, Year 3

Living in a family of 5, I am the second child and the only son.

My hobby is dreaming, at times I make them come true.
I do blogs too... I make personalize ones...

About my favorite links,

I like watching movie and Golden Village is a good place to watch. I often go to their website...
I also like learning new things especially words so if I see a new word, I would go to an online Dictionary to find the meaning of the word or the Thesaurus to get more interesting words.

Golden Village is a great place to look for movie updates, the location for the nearest Golden Village cinema is in Tampines Mall which is very near to my school, Temasek Polytechnic, so going there for a movie after school to chill out is great!

Dictionary.com might not seem to be an interesting website but I often go there to look for the meaning of a particular word that I happen to think of or come upon while surfing the internet.
Thesaurus.com would be more useful for bloggers like me who prefers using very nice words to blog with yet still have the similar meaning.