Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Reflections (Week 11)
Have you ever participated in a discussion forum?
This week’s EIR lesson is an e-learning week, and we have to post our views on the given topic: "how Internet has enriched your academic and social life" in the OLE discussion forum.
I had a wonderful experience interacting with my fellow classmates through this forum through the sharing of views. From this experience, I’ve found out that many of my classmates actually do share the same views regarding the topic. Not only that, I was also able to express my own views and get replies from classmates in return.
Online discussion is definitely different from traditional face-to-face class discussions. By discussing online, I am not able to see my classmates face-to-face, but I am able to get a better understanding of their views towards the topic. This is because when having face-to-face discussion, there is no “record” of the discussion and I might not remember what my classmates have said. In contrast, online discussion requires us to type our views out, so as to communicate our views to everyone. There is somewhat a “record” of the discussion as I can refer to their posts on the discussion whenever the need arises. Online discussion has certainly brought a new dimension to the traditional form of class discussions.
I feel that this e-learning activity is indeed meaningful as it has provided with a wonderful experience on online discussions has also sparked my interest in online discussion forums. With this positive experience, I will definitely participate more in discussion forums that are available on the internet.
Success in EIR! ;
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Reflections (Week 7)
Have you ever heard of TalkingCock.com?
Its Singapore's most powerful satirical humour website!
In the last EIR lesson, i was introduced to this website so as to use it as a basis for evaluation.
To evaluate TalkingCock.com, several criteria are used, such as purpose, coverage, currency, accessibility, presentation and arrangement of the website.
Purpose was chosen as criteria because I feel that purpose is a fundamental criterion that should be used in evaluating all websites. A website cannot exist without a purpose and a purpose defines the objectives for the existence of the website, such as talkingcock.com.
Next, coverage was used as criteria because every website has a scope of areas that it covers and I feel that this is essential in evaluating talkingcock.com.
Then, currency was also used as criteria as I feel that it is also an important criterion to use when evaluating website. It can tell us whether the information on talkingcock.com consists of up-do-date information or old archives.
Accessibility was used as criteria because the speed of accessibility exists in every website. For certain websites, it takes a long time to access them, while for others, you can access them in the shortest time possible. Thus, it is important to evaluate talkingcock.com based on accessibility.
Lastly, presentation and arrangement of talkingcock.com was used as criteria because every website has a certain arrangement of their navigations and content and this criteria evaluates whether the website is well-organised or not. As such, this is also a significant criterion because when websites are well-organised, it is easier to read the content available.
In terms of purpose, it was stated at talkingcock.com that their main aim is to “celebrate all the nonsensical parts of Singaporean life”, thus they make fun of people in a completely democratic way.
As such, it can be seen that their aim is to provide humor to readers so that they can perhaps take a break from the stresses in life and have a good laugh from reading their stories.
Their intended audience would be for Singaporeans in general, and those living in Singapore because most of the stories are based on Singapore and Singlish is also used in the website. This indicates that the website has a strongly Singaporean context, which might not be understood by people from other countries.
In terms of coverage, they cover news in different aspects such as local news, politics, business, sports, the arts, news in brief and community news. The news comes with them a sense of humor targeting on different issues.
In terms of currency, it contains up-to-date news as the news articles in the website is updated at least twice a week, and in the main page of the website, there are updates everyday or every two days.
In terms of accessibility, the website is easy to access as I did not take much time to access the website, despite the website having large images. No additional requirements are needed to access the website.
The presentation and arrangement of the website goes like this:
As you can see, there is a top horizontal menu, and side columns on both sides of the website. The navigation icons are quite well-displayed as it allows for clear reading of the navigation icons.
Overall, it is quite organized. I feel that the website presentation is also quite consistent. A search facility is also available for users to search for information in the website. However, there is no site map available that might facilitate the retrieval of information from the website.
The website would definitely be sustainable in the long term due to its clear purpose, and the frequency of its updates. Since it is updated frequently, the website would most likely be sustainable and will continue to provide interesting reads for audiences.
Then, the next activity that was done in class was the role plays.
In this role play, we were all divided into groups and had to assume one of the roles such as the Singapore's Prime Minister, a Singaporean, or a foreigner working/studying in Singapore and share how we would react upon seeing talkingcock.com.
My group took on the role of a typical Singaporean and we classify Singaporeans into three types, because we feel that the reactions of Singaporeans would differ depending on whether they support the government, or not.
In this website, it might be clearly stated that everything is just fiction and meant for humor purposes, but if I were a Singaporean who supports the government, I might feel that the website is an insult to the government and do not like this website, because in the website, the government is being called “Gahmen”, and it sounds like “garment”.
Apart from that, this is another quote from one of the website’s news:
"Let’s face it,” said Mr. Low Lee Kong, a spokesman for the Minister Mentor’s Office. “Most people accept that MM Lee is a political genius, but he doesn’t have the most approachable image. People look at him, and they think, what a sourpuss. Some more, over the whole SIA thing, a lot of people think he’s damn kiam."
This quote might be hilarious, but it might be insulting in the minds of Singaporeans who support the government.
Then, the second type of Singaporean, those who do not exactly support the government, would probably find the website humorous and interesting and enjoy going to it on a daily basis since it is pretty hilarious as everyone in the news is being made fun of.
Lastly, the third type of Singaporean is those who are neutral about the government. They might probably find the website useless and consists of articles that are not exactly worth reading since it might not appeal to them, and might not even be interesting to them.
Perhaps they would feel that it is better to visit other websites daily instead of talkingcock.com since it is pretty nonsensical.
Overall, I feel that the role play was fun as it promotes us to put ourselves in others’ shoes and think about how we would feel towards the website.
This promotes our critical thinking skills.
Not only that, it is also interesting as it sparked off a mini debate in class about the different reactions of each role upon seeing the website.
As such, the role play is interactive as everyone presents their different perspectives and points of view and promotes interaction among everyone.
I look forward to more role plays in class. :)
Success in EIR! ;
