Tutorial 1

Getting Started

Week 2 Introduction to IT

This week we will start to look at using IT more effectively as a university student. Answers to all tutorial activities should be kept in a single word document called IntroPortfolio<studentID>.docx Note <studentID> should be YOUR student ID. For example, IntroPortfolio7654321.docx Your document must include page numbers and a Table of Contents (with each activity listed). For example, Table of Contents Activity 1 Citing Websites....3 Activity 2 Google Scholar. ..4 etc

This document will uploaded in Week 11 for marking. You will be able to submit before the deadline to check for any plagiarism using Turnitin.

Activity 1 Locating templates

You are required to use a Word Template for your portfolio answers. Locate and use a template for your portfolio. (Remember you need page numbers and a Table of Contents). You can find templates by selecting New from template or browsing at http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/templates/ Each activity that requires a written response should only include the Tutorial number and the Activity number. For example, Tutorial 1 Activity 2 The + operator is used for ....

Please do NOT include the questions as this will give an artificially high similarity reading with Turnitin. Marks will be deducted from the portfolio assessment if you do not follow this instruction.

Locating & Evaluating Information

During your time at university you are going to have to conduct a lot of research via the Internet. However, it is surprising how many people who use the Internet everyday have very limited skills in this area. This section of the tutorial aims to help you become a more productive and efficient user of the Internet. (An added bonus is that this will assist you in your other units as well). Putting a term into a search engine can return a bewildering number of results. For example, a Google search for introduction to information technology returns 158,000,000 results. A similar search for the term free returns 18,780,000,000 results. To find the most relevant information for our needs often requires advanced searching techniques. While these are called advanced they really are very simple to use.

Activity 2 Improving Your Search Results

Read Using Search Engines, Search Basics, pages 219 - 221 in the textbook or go to http://www.sc.edu/ beaufort/library/pages/bones/lesson7.shtml a) Explain the use of the following search operators +, - , , *, AND, NOT, OR b) Give an example of a complex search that uses at least three of these operators.

Activity 3 Locating other documents

You can use Google to search for documents such as PowerPoint files or PDF documents using Advanced Search. a) Use advanced search to locate a PowerPoint presentation for any topic related to your degree.
b) Correctly

cite the web address or URL in your portfolio document.

Note This tool can help you correctly cite a URL in Harvard format http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/refs/HarvardWebRef.html Learn more about how to cite references http://library.uws.edu.au/citing.php

Activity 4 Locating scholarly documents

As a university student, you should be making use of scholarly documents. You can find these in the library, but Google Scholar is also a useful source. Use the Google advanced search in Google Scholar (not plain Google) to locate a journal article related to one of the topics you are studying in your degree. Google scholar is located at - http://scholar.google.com.au a) Correctly cite the journal article in your portfolio document. b) Describe the advantages of using Google Scholar for a university student.

Activity 5 Evaluating information

Much of the information on the Internet is questionable. Some of it is just plain wrong. As well as biased and un-evidenced opinion, there are many deliberately fake websites. How do we find out which information might be worthwhile? a) Examine the following fake websites http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Try searching some topics in this content-free version of Wikipedia http://www.dhmo.org/ Sounds like a very dangerous chemical indeed. It's actually H2O, but if you're not of a scientific mind this site will get you every time. http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ Save the tree octopus.
b) Read

through the following guide to evaluating web sites http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

c) Locate 2 websites. One that you think is genuine and has useful information and another that is questionable. d) Download the Evaluation Checklist (available from the vUWS Course Content page in the Tutorial Resources folder). e) Complete the checklist for the two websites you have chosen. Copy and paste the checklist into your Portfolio document.