Assignment 4
Description: Go to Blogger. Create an account and follow the steps to create a blog. After posting your thoughts regarding the Literacy assignment, send your blog link to the class email list and invite your peers to check it out. Visit a couple of your peers' blogs and post a comment or two.
Use the following criteria to assess your blog.
The online discussion on the topic of Literacy actually proves the information literacy is already in a non-traditional way and we are soaking in the information world. The "information highway" is not fast enough and the “cyberspace” is no longer a new for us (Dyson, Gilder, Keyworth & Toffler, 1994). Futurist is putting hards on creating the society with a vision of digital inclusion (Meinrath, 2006) and we all are the member of this web 2.0 global society. Honestly, I will be overwhelmed by the information everyday if I don't have a priority.
The article below is the revised post on information literature, inspirited by the critical comments. Comments said that the analysis of the weakness of the resource was not strong enough and makes the article inbalanced. While reading the comments, I was wondering how I could pin-point the weakness of the resource while not being "rude". Thus, I have to think critically, which my culture taught that disagreement is not a good way to approach.
As a result, the multiple contradictions make the critical thinking more interesting for me.
When people in the culture avoiding “the critical thinking” encounter this information cyberspace, the government based censorship is necessary. Remember I was not agree with the censorship at all, and tried my best to help friends approach the information freely with some technique. Now I changed my mind though this chemical reaction of “critical thinking” and “agreement thinking”. A society with majority without ability of filtering out the useless information, the control is necessary and it requires the leaders in power have the ability and wisdom of filtering the most effective information. Is this fooling people? As long as the controller is thinking about how to educate the people critical thinking, it will reach to the point of zero-filtering.
Here is the example. When A was volunteering at the travel agency in Hawaii, she was asked by a visiting scholar B from an ancient Asian country C about the strip-clubs in Honolulu. A was shocked by the “open mind” of C, since A thought C is a very traditional country and condemns the immorality. After A gave C a lesson of sex industry and human trafficking in the world, the injustice and ignorance of the “consumer” and the misunderstanding between cultures, C changed the mind of looking for the information of strip-clubs.
Critical thinking education is necessary, especially for the culture focusing on harmony and agreement, valuing obedience and humbleness. In this information cyberspace era, critical thinking is the inner power of creativity.
Here is the entry I posted at online discussion in class. The blue part is the revised updating after classmate’s feedback.
Understanding Information Literacy
Liu Liu
Prof. Mike Mencraca
ETEC 698 - Summer 2008
Introduction
This blog entry will review author’s understanding of information literacy and its operation (or lack thereof) in website development and second language teaching and learning, this entry will The second part of the entry briefly describes the website http://www.iosn.net/ strengths and weakness.
Information literacy
Information literacy is ability to locate the information and use the information effectively. In this special era of information, the internet makes the information more approachable comparing we all can become an expert in three months if we grape the information literacy. As the world is filled with commercial ideas and dominant by all fun and cool ideas, as the educator, it’s time to rethink about the classroom. Make the school, classroom as a "cool" place to be, teach students thinking different and critical, while having a sense of the globe.
Website Design – Open Source
The open source really makes all programming works easier and more productive. In Communication & Information at UN website, there is a Portals/Directories for Open Source software & Free software where located most international open source systems information. The link is: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoft/. Open source systems make the program more efficient and the software more acquirable, while free software breaks the economic barrier.
Take my personal experience as an example: three years ago I made the website for an international organization in three months. The whole progress of building a website included every single step of developing an online system and especially when the customer revised the requirement, it would take me forever to fulfill the updated requirement. Years later, the same organization asked me again to make the site, and this time with the open source content manage system Joomla and related open source systems, the whole website only took one quarter amount of time comparing with the former one, with more professional functions and more friendly interface. Open sources are not free software, but it definitely, but it is a huge step to bridge the injustice. As Stallman R. said on GUN website and I am quoting here:
The official definition of “open source software” (which is published by the Open Source Initiative and too long to cite here) was derived indirectly from our (Free software) criteria for free software. It is not the same; it is a little looser in some respects, so open source supporters have accepted a few licenses that we consider unacceptably restrictive of the users. Nonetheless, it is fairly close to our definition in practice.
Computer-assisted language learning System in Mandarin
Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) originates from Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI). The philosophy of CAI or CALL is that the lessons should allow the learners to learn on their own using structured and/or unstructured interactive lessons. These lessons carry 2 important features: bidirectional (interactive) learning and individualized learning. CALL is not a method but a tool helping teachers to facilitate language learning process. The software assisting mandarin learning, the on-line mandarin learning communities, the instructional videos are different ways of CALL.
International Open Source Network http://www.iosn.net/
The International Open Source Network (IOSN) an initiative of the United Nations Development Programmer’s (UNDP) Asia Pacific Development Information Programmer (APDIP) and supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada. The IOSN is a Center of Excellence for FOSS in the Asia-Pacific Region. It shapes its activities around Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) technologies and applications. Via a small secretariat based at the UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok and three centers of excellence – IOSN ASEAN+3, IOSN PIC (Pacific Island Countries), and IOSN South Asia, based in Manila, Suva and Chennai respectively, the IOSN is tasked specifically to facilitate and network FOSS advocates and human resources in the region.
The vision is that developing countries in the Asia-Pacific Region can achieve rapid and sustained economic and social development by using affordable yet effective FOSS ICT solutions to bridge the digital divide.
The only weakness of the website is the limitation of open source, not the free source.
Technically, the site is built by the open source CMS Plone (plone.net). It offers customization options like all other CMS. One of Plone's greatest strengths is its accessibility: Plone is built following government standards such that it is user friendly with people with disabilities. Although Plone is a very powerful and highly extensible CMS, it’s incredibly hard to learn to develop for because of the poor documentation.
Regarding the website IOSN, the translation of the website hasn't done yet, with the list of language choices. Removing the undone language choices will help the visitors to get the information effectively without confusion.
This is the data from Alexa traffic details for iosn.net on June 7, 2008:
Iosn.net users come from these countries: | Iosn.net traffic rank in other countries: |
South Africa 20.8% | South Africa 52144,06297 |
India 14.2% | Iran 102,3114622 |
Iran 9.4% | Philippines 617614,213 |
Thailand 3.1% | Vietnam 3112665,296 |
Philippines 1.7% | Thailand 60140,482 |
Malaysia 1.0% | India 221,35478 |
Vietnam 0.7% | Malaysia 30334,463 |
Other countries 49.0% |
From the table above, the IOSN is well-known in South Africa, but the place like China, East Asia and Pacific islands have not ranked in.
Here are the other places linked to IOSN website: Google Directory: http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Open_Source/Advocacy/
BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3601710.stm
Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia-Pacific_Development_Information_Programme
I will apply the same criteria in scoring them. Your blog includes the following:
1. You did it.
2. You emailed the URL.
3. Freebie. Come on, we have enough going on and I had to make one assignment less rigorous!
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