Thursday, 25 June 2015

Section Parents

1. A Mighty Girl Your go-to site to find empowering and inspirational books, toys and movies for girls of all ages. Founded by two American women who were tired of searching for the right gifts for their nieces, A Mighty Girl puts all their girl-powered picks in one place.

2. Art Games This delightfully interactive and fun website is hosted by Buffalo, New York’s Albright Knox Art Gallery. Kids from 4 to 12 will have a blast creating their own masterpieces and playing art-operational games.

3. BBC Kids your mini anglophile will be all over the Canadian online home to the BBC Kids TV channel. The website offers ups listings, a selection of tv shows and games from across the pond.

4. Brain Pop This American site offers fun and educational animated videos and games to help reinforce the school curriculum from kindergarten through grade 12. (Check out Brain Pop Jr. for grades K to 3.) A subscription is required to access the entire site but there is still plenty of content available for free.

5. Build it’s a virtual Lego set for the little Lego lover in your life. Lego and Google Chrome teamed up to create a site for master builders of all ages to build their own creations. And no clean up required!

6. Canadian Geographic Kids This is a great resource for fun and learning about all things Canada. It’s the online home for kids of the popular Canadian Geographic magazine and offers games, videos, animal facts, kid-friendly articles, avirtual atlas and more.

7. CBC Kids There’s games and videos galore starring your kidlet’s favourite CBC Kids characters. Enjoy peace of mind knowing the CBC offers quality programming for young and old alike.

8. DOGOnews Kids can catch up on current events with news stories written just for children. Started by a San Francisco mom, DOGOnews is a great resource for homework, projects and curious minds.

9. Doodle.ly This is essentially and ultra-simple virtual sketchpad that any creative kid would love. You can choose to publish the drawings on the site or older kids can share them to Facebook or Twitter. It’s also an iPhone and iPad app!

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Did You Know

Monday, 22 June 2015

Additional information

Social Capital and Social Skills

When someone actively participates in a social media site such as Facebook or LinkedIn, they are building what is called social capital in addition to enhancing their basic social skills. Broadly put, social capital refers to the resources accumulated through the formation of interpersonal relationships. Depending on the extent to which one’s relationships span, their level of social capital could prove to be very valuable to them, especially if drawing on these relationships leads to an increased ability to do things like find employment or gather information.

In the scholarly study The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites, it was found by surveying a group of 286 Michigan State University students that there is an extremely strong correlation between the use of Facebook and the possession of social capital. According to the study, students with Facebook accounts found it easier to maintain ties with old friends or acquaintances, as well as to strengthen newer connections. While this much may not seem incredibly surprising, the more interesting information comes from the study’s conclusion that the amount of social capital that any particular student has can be significantly predicted by the intensity with which they use Facebook. This being said, those who spend larger portions of their time on social networking sites ultimately find it easier to utilize and benefit from their relationships with both close friends and mere acquaintances. Essentially, the more one is able to actively participate in social networking sites, the greater success they will have in activities such as organizing groups, being involved in their community, and finding easier routes to employment.

Relating this back to what was discussed in the section Social Media’s Impact, it is now apparent that those without high-speed internet connections in their homes will undoubtedly fall behind in the development of social capital. This phenomenon still occurs whether or not one has a social networking account, as the ability to frequently access an account is what is important in determining the benefits one receives from social media. As such, social media participation rates often give off a false sense that social media is helping to bridge the digital divide, when in reality it is leading to a new form of expansion. As more people than ever are now unable to improve their social situations strictly because they fall into demographics that lack internet access, they are unable to socially keep up with those that are able to fully participated in social networking.

In addition to an increase in social capital, boosted usage of social networking sites is also correlated to an increase in basic social and communication skills. Additionally, according to the Digital Youth Project and findings from June Ahn’s research, usage of social media sites also leads to an increase in general technical literacy, a skill that will prove to be essential for skilled higher paying employment moving forward. Thus, those who lack high speed internet at home will generally display decreased proficiency in general social and technical situations.

Furthermore, researches have found evidence that supports the general claim that Facebook users have an overall higher degree of psychological well-being. According to a 2011 article from the LA Times, Facebook users who log into Facebook daily are three times more likely than non-internet users to believe that most people can be trusted, in addition to having larger friend groups and a higher sense of self esteem. Essentially, frequent Facebook users tend to be more “satisfied with life”, while those who are not online “have the smallest social networks, are more socially isolated, get the least amount of social support and are least likely to vote.” According to Keith Hampton of the University of Pennsylvania, “The real digital divide today is a social network divide.”

These conclusions are all clear evidence that social media is in fact widening the already large gap that is caused by the digital divide. It is therefore essential in moving forward that we as a country institute new policies that would enable all citizens to be online and to contribute and participate in all aspects of society. If this were to happen, the United States would see a major economic boost as well as an increase in overall citizen satisfaction, as cheap online education and social networking would lead to increases in innovation and productivity while simultaneously decreasing our current day poverty gap. Essentially, if America wants to remain an international superpower, the digital divide must be addressed.

Digital law

Digital Law

Digital Law is defined as the electronic responsibility for actions, deeds which is either ethical or unethical. Digital responsibility deals with the ethics of technology. Unethical use manifests itself in form of theft and/or crime. Ethical manifests itself in the form of abiding by the laws of society." It is basically about what you are and are not allowed to do while surfing and using the Internet

Everybody should respect the law and abide by it. Not following the law can result in serious punishment. Examples of this behavior are like hacking into people’s personal details, pirate software, downloading music illegally and creating viruses or Trojan horses. http://coe.k-state.edu/digitalcitizenship/

Identity theft is becoming a rising problem. Studies show that one in five families have been victims to this in the U.S. The thieves can steal your credit card number allowing them to buy or rent various products using your information. The worst thing is that you don't realize what is happening until you are sent bills or receive calls about different transactions. It takes months to restore all of your information and secure it all. Therefore everyone should take precautions.

Spoofing generally means to convince people to provide personal or financial information that lets the hacker commit credit card/bank fraud or other forms of identity theft. Spam criminals often use spoofing as an attempt to get into someone else's computer.

IP Spoofing" is a technique used to get access to computers, where the intruder sends a message to a computer with an IP address telling them that the message is coming from a trusted machine and person. To stop IP Spoofing packet filtering is a programm that blocks other packets getting into your network. This prevents an outside attacker from gaining access to an internal machine.

Software Piracy is copying and selling of unauthorized computer software, movies etc. This happens a lot in the Mexico, China, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil and Zimbabwe but many other countries are also involved. Most of these countries have Copyright Infringement Laws but many citizens do not abide by them however some countries are more strict about them than others.

There are 4 types of software piracy;

Industrial Piracy: An individual or group attempts duplication and distribution on a large scale for profit.
Coporate Piracy: Unprotected contents are shared through net works such as peer-to-peer, LAN and Internet.
Reseller Piracy: Involves computer hardware companies selling ma chines with illegal copies of software preloaded on their hard drive.
Home Piracy: Includes everything from trading disks with friends to running a not-for-profit bulletin board for the purpose of illegal software distribution.

Computer hacking is the practice of changing computer hardware and software. People who are involved with such activities are often called hackers. Since the word “hack” has long been used to describe someone who is not able to do their job very well. Some hackers claim this term is offensive, since they are very skilled in their topics.Computer hacking is most common among teenagers and young adults, although there are many older hackers as well. Many hackers consider computer hacking an “art” form. They often enjoy programming and have expert-level skills in one particular program.

Digital Commerce

History of ecommerce

History of ecommerce goes back to the invention of the very old notion of "sell and buy", electricity, cables, computers, modems, and the Internet. Ecommerce became possible in 1991 when the Internet was opened to commercial use. Since then thousands of businesses have taken up residence at web sites. At first the term ecommerce meant "the process of execution of commercial transactions electronically with the help of the leading technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) which gave an opportunity for users to exchange business information and do electronic transactions". The ability to use these technologies appeared in the late 1970s and allowed business companies and organizations to send commercial documentation electronically. it took approximately four years to develop the security protocols and according to all available data, ecommerce sales continued to grow in the next few years and, by the end of 2007, eCommerce sales ACCOUNTED for 3.4 percent of total sales.

http://www.ecommerce-land.com/history_ecommerce.html

Importance of ecommerce

Ecommerce proved its importance based on the fact where time is essence. In the commercial MARKETS time plays an important role to both the business and consumers. From the business perspective, with less time spent during each transaction, more transaction can be achieved on the same day. As for the consumer, they will save up more time during their transaction. Because of this, Ecommerce steps in and replaced the traditional commerce method where a single transaction can cost both parties a lot of valuable time. With just a few clicks in minutes, a transaction or an order can be placed and completed via the internet with ease. For instance, a banking transaction can be completed through the Internet within a few minutes compared to the traditional banking method which may take up to hours. This fact obviously proves that Ecommerce is beneficial to both business and consumer wise as payment and documentations can be completed with greater efficiency.

http://webdesign.vinsign.com/what-is-ecommerce-importance.html
Plagiarism guideline

Plagiarism is due to when an individual does mot acknowledge that the work that they have written is not of their work. Can also be known as unauthorised collaboration of work. Work is not see a plagiarism is the individual references with details of where the information comes from.

ONLINE AUCTIONS and tips

ONLINE AUCTIONS are places that people can go and order to buy or sell goods or services online for a small fee. Anyone can sell an item and anyone can bid on an item.
https://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/commerce/auctions/study.php

Tips to ONLINE AUCTIONS is that:

One should do research about the product they wish to PURCHASE.
One should have a limit of how much will be spent.
Keep their eye on the dead line.
Pay up quickly to avoid losing the product.
Last but not least enjoy the experience.

Saturday, 20 June 2015

Digital Rights and Responsibilities

Rights and Responsibilities
All the students has the right to an education, but it is their responsibility to come to class, do their homework and assignment and to study for tests.
All users must protect VC's E-Resources from unauthorized access. Specifically, all users must:
• Take responsibility for the security and integrity of information stored on any personal or assigned desktop, laptop, or handheld system;
• Take care to access E-Resources only from secure environments and to log out of sessions before leaving any computer unattended;
• Take all appropriate precautions when accessing confidential or restricted College data to protect the data from unauthorized disclosures and from threats to its accuracy or integrity;
• Comply with requests from the IT Staff and other authorized personnel to cease use of E-Resources that compromises the E-Resources or the College; and,
• Cooperate with system administrators during investigation of improper use.

AUP for IIE and penalty guideline
The College makes E-Resources available to support its academic and administrative goals, and uses of E-Resources to advance those goals take precedence over all others.
The staff of the Varsity College's Information Technology department ("IT Staff") is responsible for the administration of this policy.

This Policy applies to all information-technology and other electronic resources of Varsity College ("E-Resources"), including without limitation:
All computers, systems, equipment,software, networks, and computer facilities owned, managed, or maintained by the College for the handling of data, voice, television, telephone, or related signals or information;
Any access or use of the College's electronic resources from a computer or other system not controlled or maintained by the College; and,
The creation, processing, communication, distribution, storage, and disposal of information under the College's control.

All use of VC's E-Resources must comply with:
• All College policies, procedures and codes of conduct, including those found in the student, faculty, and employee handbooks;
• All laws and regulations applicable to the user or the College; and,
• All relevant licenses and other contractual commitments of the College, as modified from time to time.

(http://robyngigc.weebly.com)

Digital Citizenship and Digital Access

The Digital Divide – a Socio-economic Divide
The first issue surrounding access is that of the ability to access, in general, data and information through the use of digital devices. This access is known as the Digital Divide, or sometimes referred to as those that have and those that ‘have-not’ (Dutton, 2004).
This divide is often associated with socio-economic factors, but as the gap between developed countries and developing countries, the digital divide is also associated with geo-demographic factors; developing vs. developed countries. This is relevant in the case of Internet use, where nations vary widely in the number or ratio of the public with access to the Internet.

The Digital Divide – a Divide in Infrastructure
Continuing along the theme of developing vs. developed countries lies the issue of infrastructure. Developed countries have a far greater penetration of appropriate and up-to-date infrastructure than that of the developing countries. Quite simply it is about the infrastructure of the developing countries that often impedes the broad range of access, in addition to the socio-economic factors. A prime example is that of South Africa’s poor electricity infrastructure that is under such extreme pressures, that we are experiencing rolling blackouts.
At the time of development Eskom was threatening to move to level 3, complete national blackouts! Coupled with this is Telkom’s stranglehold on the telecommunications infrastructure, where it sells its customers bandwidth that the infrastructure is not capable of providing. However, it should also be noted that South Africa, a developing country, is a juxtaposition of both first world and third world environments, intrepid entrepreneurs seeking solutions to these problems.
Due to infrastructure restrictions, coupled with socio-economic factors, people in townships and rural areas utilise their mobile phones as a point of access to the Internet. However, this is a costly exercise, resulting in the digital divide deepening. As a result there are many projects underway, mainly undertaken by entrepreneurs who are passionate about the country, in ensuring that townships, and hopefully rural areas as well, are able to gain access to the Internet at little or no cost. There is the Khayalitsha-Mitchell Plain Fibre Optic project, Project Isizwe – which is creating ‘WiFi’ in townships in a non-traditional manner, as well as the Dabba project of bringing low-cost voice and Internet access to townships.

The Digital Divide – a Divide in Content
According to Dutton (2004) nearly 70% of the websites are in English. Although this has changed substantially, the fact of the matter remains that English dominates the web.

The Digital Divide – a Gender Divide
According to a 2013 report the Internet gender gap is notable in developing countries, with very real consequences to the girls and women of those communities. The statistics show that, on average, women are online in developing countries 23% less than that of their male counterpart. In some cases this gap is over 40%. What are the consequences? People derive huge benefits through the use and access of the Internet. These include economic and educational opportunities, access to support communities, as well as accessing career opportunities. Furthermore, by providing access for women to ICTs, nations are better able to empower women and provide equitable development (Women and the Web, 2013).

The Digital Divide – a Skill Divide
Having the skill to operate a computer is probably the biggest opportunity or hindrance to the adoption of technology for development. Although accessibility is increasing, skills are not necessarily conforming at the same rate of increase. These skills relate to digital literacies. This is perhaps a greater issue than that of physical access, as those that are disadvantaged due to socio-economic factors have less exposure to digital technology, thereby impeding their ability in education and in the job market. However, it should be noted that despite socio-economic factors playing a role in the level of skills, it is not all bound to social strata but also personal factors.

The Digital Divide – the Universal Access Divide
Another issue pertaining to Digital Access is that of those who are physically disadvantaged. Those that suffer from some physical disability are often disenfranchised when it comes to access, both from skill but moreover the hardware and software utilised and available. Furthermore, the cost of such hardware and software is also exorbitant.

The Chronicles of Digital citizen

Digital Citizenship and Digital Access

Thursday, 25 June 2015

Section Parents

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Did You Know

Monday, 22 June 2015

Additional information

Social Capital and Social Skills

Digital law

Digital Commerce

Digital Commerce

Saturday, 20 June 2015

Digital Rights and Responsibilities

Digital Rights and Responsibilities

Digital Citizenship and Digital Access

Blog Archive

About Me

The Digital Divide – a Skill Divide

Digital Commerce