My UIR blog

2007-01-24T23:51:00.000+08:00

This is practical 8's reflection, and I am supposed to complete two tasks:

1). Evaluating the Smithsonian Institution website
2). Reflections on the most important lesson that I have learned from UIR

This would be another opportunity for me to put my UIR website evaluation skills to the test, and to further improve it as well, and make myself to have a keen sense of judgment to judge websites according to standards that I would have set on websites, after I have learned UIR.

Smithsonian Institution Website
Rating: 9/10

This website is based on the Smithsonian Institution, and when I enter the site, the graphics are nice, appropriate, and serves to enhance the image of the site. There are even many different topics and sections provided by the website, such as Art & Design, History & Culture, and Science & Technology. Surely, this would be the place to go to if we ever have any general needs to fulfill for research!

Upon clicking on any of those categories, different sub-categories would unfold, and be made manifested to us in topics of our choosing. Furthermore, all the different sub-categories are interesting, appropriate, and are even fun to read/or view.

Practically, the arrangement of the website is splendid! Each category is not only thoroughly described with words, but also, added along with it are frames that depicts the category and topic of choice. Being small in size, the frames serves to enhance the quality of the website without distracting the viewer. All the links leads us out to various sites that contains all the information that we need, upon clicking on those topics. The images and text are also arranged and presented in a much orderly fashion, and the soothing background colour, which isn't exactly pure white, blends in together completely with the pictures and text. This soothes the eye of viewers! Furthermore, the website also portrays to the viewers a much ancient and historical feel to the site, together with it's cultural heritage and diversity, through the use of appropriate retro colours which blend together harmoniously.

The left column of the website also have navigational features that is logically arranged and presented in a manner that is easy to use and navigate around, therefore the website usability is high in terms of ease in using the site. Furthermore, there is a search feature that could be used, and it's ease of using is also great, as searches can be made rather easily.

The accessibility of the website is very high, as not only it is presented in english, but users can also select the type of language the website is presented in. This would allow users that do not understand english to access the site in a language they do understand in. The site and all the articles it provides are free to use and there is no need for registration, though registration entitles the members to some key benefits in real life, such as discounts and all. So, there are no original information and free information that is of different content and information variance. It is at least better compared to other sites which requires the signing up just to receive the information content in it, so this site is very accessible and good.

There is even a shopping service online for the viewers to purchase items online.

Overall, the purpose of the website is to entertain and provide information for us, and it also falls under the category of organizations as it is an organizational website, the Smithsonian Institute

Now, I would reflect on the most important lesson that I have learned in UIR. There are lots of new things that I have learned from UIR, such as the existence of meta search engines and search directories, use of appropriate keywords when searching and website evaluation, and to learn how to blog about research issues. I have a personal blog, and frankly, I do not blog about what I have done or research, and evaluate websites and give my comments on them. This is also what I have learned and practiced in UIR.

But I think, the most important of all these would be the evaluation of websites. As mentioned in my previous blog post, the evaluation is website is a very effective tool in helping us to know whether a site fulfills the standards that I have learned in UIR, or whether would it fail in the standards that I have learned in UIR. It also helps me to cultivate a habit of doing reflections. My core diploma course is already very busy and has a demanding schedule, but through UIR, it has help me in my time management as I have to use my time more wisely and cultivate this habit of doing the UIR assignments on a weekly basis. It also teaches me to put an effort into my work, especially into my blog posts and my weekly assignments. I have seen people who blog about shallow and useless things without giving much careful thought to it, so I have learned to blog thoroughly and long so as to be able to communicate the information in my blog effectively to my viewers who read it.

Evaluation of websites is a very effective tool that I have learned through my course in UIR. It helps me to read through information on websites to see whether they are useful or useless. Furthermore, it also teaches me that use of not only evaluating a website based on it's good source of information, but rather to see whether it is well-organized and logically arranged in a nice manner.

Most websites also have information that are untrue or useless, or biased to a particular point of view. This helps me to learn how to evaluate a website to know whether the information provided is true, and it has also taught me to check through the cited references and sources of information the site obtains its information from.

It also helps me to learn about the coverage of the website. Because in my search topic for "Discuss the Impacts of Nutrition on Health", I am provided with websites that only give general statements and general overviews on health. But after learning UIR, I learned to be specific in my search results and learn to focus on the coverage of the website. Therefore, instead of finding sites which gives general nutritional statements, I have found various specific nutritional websites that are placed in my portfolio. Such as nutrition issues such as obesity, school's nutrition plan, and to manage and improve our heart health through nutrition. This has overall taught me to be more specific in my searches and not get a very small coverage which only tells me "Nutrition is the science of food that specialises on improvement of our health."

I have also learned the purpose of the website is also very important. This is because some organisations have advocacy purposes, and it only persuades people to suit their point of views for their own personal motives. This is a very bad kind of behaviour. An example would be nutritional websites that wants people to embrace their style of eating nutritiously. Such as eating protein and fat food and skipping carbohydrate diets, just to become "slim," while ignoring the fact that eating fat diets results in a much fatter being. However, through most of my research done, none have used advocacy to such a condescending level.

Therefore, I have learned most would be the accuracy and currency of websites through UIR. Currency is always needed as the world evolves each day and more nutritional and health claims and finds are made and there needs to be sufficient evidence to support the information that is publicised at sites. And accuracy is even more needed to accept or reject those truths, according to their truthfulness. This is because claims and finds that form no basis of research is unacceptable, and through learning UIR, I have learned to evaluate them, and I realised they tend not not to have cited references to back them up, so cited references and sources of information plays a crucial part in evaluating them.

I am glad that I have chosen UIR as my CDS as my core diploma is a science subject, Applied Food Science and Nutrition, I would have to do research often, and learning UIR, despite having a busy schedule and limited time, it would help me to research much more efficiently and would enable me to find out truthful, appropriate, specific and useful information at the same time.

2007-01-24T23:30:00.001+08:00

This week's practical is much more tedious. The previous week, I only need to evaluate one website based on it's purpose, coverage, authority, accuracy, currency, accessibility, presentation, arrangement, and usability. This week, I have not only have to evaluate one website, but three websites! But overall, through this experience, I have improved in the area of evaluating websites. The sites that I have chosen, fortunately, have generally good content and is up to the standards of surving the test of website evaluation. I have realised that the more evaluation of websites I make, the more critical and judgmental I become.

Being critical and more judgmental, it has allowed me to increase my exposure and experience to accessing many more different kinds of websites, and there would be a set standard of criteria that websites have to fulfill, before I give it a "pass" in my evaluation. An example would be sites that have overwhelmingly large amount of information, but most of it is redundant. This would enable me to broaden my experiences with all those useless jargon, and in turn, when I go to any website next time, I would be more sharp-eyed, and be more alert and know instantaneously whether the site does or does not contain useless information.An eaxmple would be http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_determinants/life_style/nutrition/platform/platform_en.htm Of course, all these abilities need fine-tuning and I'm improving as I improved on my abilities to evaluate websites.

I also learn how to evaluate websites based on their presentation and arrangement, which is actually pretty important. Some websites have interesting, straight to the point, and factual information, but however, they are disorganized. An example would be http://www.mercola.com
Advertisements, interesting facts, products, frames fill the site, but however, all the information is good and precise. The only thing lacking would be their organization of their information.

I have also learn that accuracy is very important, as in the real world, accuracy and relevant facts that are truthful are important, especially for subjects such as the sciences, health, and nutrition, where many people get deceived these days due to misguided conceptions. Therefore, learning to check the sources of the information and the cited references would be useful for my course of study as it is needed for me to be alert and know that the information that I utilise would be credible and true.

I would like to conclude that overall, evaluation of websites is a very monotonous activity, but it is needed, as it helps to differentiates the bad websites from the good, and the good websites from the excellent ones! All these evaluations would eventually fine-tune my ability and improve my ability to critic websites and evaluate them.

2006-12-29T19:57:00.000+08:00

This week, I learned about how to evaluate a website. I learned that to evaluate a website, it must be evaluated based on factors such as aim/purpose, coverage, authority, accuracy, currency, accessibility, presentation and arrangement, and usability.

So, the website that I have chosen is from one of the twelve resources that I have compiled, which is the "Nutrition for Health: An Agenda for Action" website.

After evaluating the website, I realise that to evaluate a website is a very important tool for reflection as it makes us to think about the overall usefulness of the website. Like, we learn how to evaluate the information that we find on websites by asking ourselves such questions, "is the information up-to-date", "is the information based on facts or rather, on opinion", "is the information credible"? By asking ourselves such questions, it would evoke a strong sense of emotions as we learn how to evaluate.

One new thing I learned about evaluating a website would be that of coverage. Before learning UIR, I never did notice the source and bibliography of websites, but after, I have learned that the information that are provided from websites would be credible if they have a good source, and further links about subjects that are of familiar interest.

The other factors such as currency, purpose, authority, accuracy, accessibility, presentation, arrangement and usability are what I have came to know about, even before I learned UIR, but however, I never did ever pay any attention to such details on them for evaluating a website. Such as, accessibility, would be some websites have lots of songs, backgrounds, images and all cluttered up on one single webpage, and that would cause the computer to lag, and subconsciously, it'll make me feel like "I'll never want to enter that site again." I didn't even knew that such a site could hold negative connotations in evaluation such as "messy and too flashy" and can be used by critics as a negative feedback in rating a website in regards to presentation, arrangement and usability(in terms of too much materials that jamm up the computer.)

Back to my topic on Nutrition for Health: An Agenda for Action, it is a website that meets up and upholds all the standards and criteria for evaluating a website. The coverage provided by the website is extensive and even have a bibliography and their sources where they take their information is stated out properly. The other links remain useful as they are relevant and similar to the topic of nutrition and how it would impact our health greatly. The aim of the website is also clearly written out as an advocacy website, as the website is based on the Federal department of Canada to persuade and to campaign for their cause for good health in Canadians by eating and maintaining a nutritious diet and thus, having a healthy body.

As stated in the above paragraph, the authority of source would be of the highest standard possible as it is from the Federal department itself, which means, it is a derivative of the body of government in Canada, thus information provided would both be precise, accurate, up-to-date and truthful. There are even reviews about the website.

Click here for a site that gives a review

References, bibliographies, and even the names of people from the committee that contributed the information is written clearly, and proved that the information is up-to-date and would remain current, and not obsolete, as time goes by. Extensive research is also done, as the article in the website also states the causes and effects of a lack of a nutritious diet upon our health. The site is accessible, and does nto require log-ins, registration, and the information provided is even for free! What more we can expect?

The information is presented in a clear-cut fashion as we have headings in the article that we can click on to zoom into the respective areas of the topic on "Nutrition for Health: An Agenda for Action" which we would like to read on. The only cons would be that of the length of the article.

The website is easy to use and can be navigated around easily, coupled with a user-friendly search engine, it scores high in the term of usability.

Overall, I conclude that my reflections on evaluation have been a very happy and successful one as the website that I choose to evaluate has high standards, and with that in mind, I could use it as a reference point to compare it with other websites, so I can see whether what other websites fall short in which categories and what this website may appear to lack in minor details that I might not notice.

2006-11-27T07:14:00.000+08:00

This week, I learned about a search engine that searches search engines which are known as meta search engines, which I previously did not know. I also learn about site feeds in blogs, which I do not know how they looked like nor how they work, and now I have learned it. These are the two aspects that I have learned in UIR.

Now, back to this week's resources:

http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_determinants/life_style/nutrition/platform/platform_en.htm
It is a news website that discusses the health of the public and encourages people to exercise and eat nutritious food so as to maintain health. However, it is still a news website and not an advocacy website as it focuses more on the aspects of people's initiative to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle. There are further links as well.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/100555/awardwinning_animated_guide_on_nutrition_and_eye_health_now_available/index.html
It is a news website that covers how nutrition can improve the health of our eye as well as various sciences such as optometry, which deals with our eyes. The article consists of further guides that can be found by emailing the respective people in-charge and requesting for it. Therefore, it is a news website and not a business website as you don't pay for acquiring the information.

http://www.in-cites.com/journals/PublicHealthNutrition.html
An information website about public health where the editor-in-chief comments on the improvement on their research, reviewing of information and the addition of a forum to inculcate and discuss good nutrition and healthy habits to teach the public. Their role is to enable the people to eat well and to make good choices.

After searching for all the resources that I needed, I can conclude that I prefer search engines over meta search engines and directories. That is because search engines have a higher number of hits, and if you supply the correct keywords, you could find tons of information that you want that are related to your search topic.

Meta search engines, however, gives more variety and different kinds of search results, enabling a more diverse kind of search results; results that are related, as well as results that are quite similar to your research topic.

For me, directories are a no-no. The results are few, and some are even irrelevant, making the choices for search results few! Often, directories provide results that are not related to the research topic at all.

Overall, I prefer search engines as they are generally something that I am familiar with, and with proper keywords, it is quite easy to find the information that I want. I would actually prefer meta search engines over search engines as the information they contain has more variety, but prior to UIR, I don't even know that meta search engines exist! Naturally, that would result in me preferring search engines over meta search engines as I am much more well-versed in using them. Furthermore, I find that search engines are more user-friendly as most people know about their existence and their ease of usage.

2006-11-19T19:51:00.000+08:00

http://www.health-heart.org/
There are facts provided in the website. Furthermore, the information
provided covers a comprehensive and a wide range of nutritional information by the relevant authorities in Canada. And it is classified as an information website.

http://www.eldis.org/health/nutrition/index.htm
It is an advocacy website seeking public support to the suffering in Sub-
Saharan Africa where the children living there suffers from malnutrition. They
promote causes and awareness in regards to the children living there.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/living/food/15898473.htm
It is a Website covering news on percentage of nutrition value of certain
types of food. It is a new information about nutrition that are part of current
events(news).

http://www.mercola.com/
A Website designed by a personal individual to give us his personal
information and research about issues relating to nutrition.

2006-11-12T14:58:00.000+08:00

So, this week's UIR research is based on our own topic of choice, and my choice was "Discuss the impacts of nutrition on health", as well as to search and collaborate my findings on this blog and to give my own reflections on my findings. (Click on the title for each search findings to go to the respective websites that contain the information.)

Nutrition For Health: An Agenda for Action
The site is about nutrition for health. About how nutrition would have an impact on health and what benefits does it brings, and why is there a need for nutrition

Nutrition Cafe
A very fun and interactive site with fun facts about nutrition and health. Games and activity line-up for further knowledge of the type of food we consume for healthy living. You can try to see whether you have the knowledge of which kind of food provides a well-balanced diet here, as well as to check out what kind of food provides a nutritious and nourishing meal for people.

School Health Issues: Obesity and Nutrition
Information about nutrition in food for students in school, and the relationship of food and nutrition in regards to obesity. With many links to other sites on the impact of nutrition and what causes obesity. Article is very short, but has links to other sites that provided further information in the subject of obesity in school children, and that nutritious food plays an important role in avoiding obesity in school children.

WHO: Nutrition
The World's Health Organization article on nutrition for health and development. There are also other various articles on nutrition. How nutrition would play an important role for our health and it is needed to maintain good health and to avoid diseases and to strengthen our immune systems.

Healthcastle.com Community
Basically, a forum that provides us with sources for nutrition and information.

Through all the searching, I still sticked to my choice of using google, as I find it's the most efficient. Most of my friends prefer yahoo, but when I use it, it "branches" out to many various sub-topics for my search, making searches tedious. And furthermore, I prefer the results from using google.

From all these searching, I learn the importance of using keywords in my searches. They are very effective in helping me to find out the research information that I need. Without the use of such important keywords, searching would be more tedious and unfruitful. With such important keywords, searching the net and finding relevant information would be faster and less time will be wasted, making myself more efficient in the process. I have also learned that using the search engines to search are relatively easy, provided that you use the correct keywords.

Besides google, I find that using wikipedia is a good source of information, though it isn't exactly classified as a search engine, but rather, as a collection of information that all people of the world post in. The information there is comprehensive and understandable which is useful for research purposes.

2006-11-08T14:26:00.000+08:00

Pardon me for the lack of updates, as I was pretty busy with schoolwork. The first post that I posted seemed pretty incoherent and uncomprehensible as I was just rushing through the rituals of blogging hurriedly in class. So, one might like to be erudite and blog in a much preferred mannerism.

I am David from the applied science school, taking up Applied Food Science and Nutrition as my diploma subject. Formerly, I am from Tampines Secondary. I stay with my mother and my grandparents. On weekdays, when my uncle and aunty has to work, my two cousins will be always at my place. One of them is in Primary 2, and the other is in kindergarden 2.

My hobbies include badminton, playing computer games, playing various arcade games such as drummania, time crisis 2 and Marvel VS Capcom, reading, and spinning plastic on string(For me to know and you to find out ;) )

I am totally not new to the realm of blogging as I have my own private and personal blog in which I blog. I tend to blog seldomly, but when I eventually do blog, I tend to blog long posts. I try not to bore anyone with feeble and incessant posts such as "Today I went out with so-and-so and did so-and-so," which is plaintively common.

I love reading books, especially those of the medieval, fantasy and gothic genre such as Harry Potter, Lord of the rings trilogy, His Dark Materials trilogy, etc.......etc.....

Last but not least, I have a pet crayfish named Esther(picture below) :-D
Which is like 1 year + old. And crayfishes make very cute and interesting pets, compared to conventionally and commonly found pets such as cats and dogs. In particular, I somehow have an affinity to "water-based" pets, and prefer them rather than other pets such as cats, dogs, hamsters, and the like. Contrary to popular belief, you won't get your fingers hewn into two if you get "pinched" by a crayfish claw, but rather, it feels like "trying to use a plastic scissors to cut your own finger" kind of sensation.

Crayfishes are solitary pets and prefer to just live a sedentary life, so don't expect them to be running around amusing you or flying across tables and chairs like a dog. Occasionally, they will "build" their own homes with gravel and dig holes to hide themselves in. Being a crayfish owner, you also have to take careful precautions against escape measures, as crayfishes are escapists and will attempt to climb out of the tank to look for "adventure." So, if you ever do have a crayfish as a pet, and if you ever do have a water plant in your aquarium, make sure it ain't a "rope to liberty and freedom" for the crayfish. ;)

2006-11-02T15:24:00.000+08:00

Another website that is interesting would be http://www.youtube.com
It has many various and interesting videos that could be found on their website.

2006-11-02T15:20:00.000+08:00

One website that is of interest would be http://www.gamefaqs.com
Basically, it has many guides,walkthrough, cheats and information of almost all the games in the whole world,as well as individual forums for questions & answers(Q&A) for all the games. There are also public forums that people can also engage in.

2006-11-02T14:55:00.000+08:00

Greetings, I am David from Applied Food Science and Nutrition. This is my first year here. I mostly play computer games. I also like to go to the arcade to play drummania. I love reading books,especially those that are of the medieval and fantasy genre. I play badminton(though I'm not good at it.) This blogskin is based off a song in drummania.