How to buy the right laptop or PC

There are many things you need to consider before buying a PC laptop. You can’t just but the one you think looks the best. It needs to be suited to your particular needs. The first question that students must ask themselves is will I get a PC or a laptop? I would definitely say a laptop. One of the main reasons for this is size. First of all many students would be moving away from home to go to college and they can’t be bringing down a big huge computer especially when they are most likely going to e sharing accommodation which itself probably won’t be very spacious. For this course I also think that it is important that the students have a laptop because again I think size is an important deciding factor. Many students bring their laptops to and from college and it needs to be fairly compact in that situation then.

An obvious factor of course when choosing a laptop is price. Being a student you don’t have much money so the top of line laptop is out of the question. As mention previously the size is important because you will be bringing you laptop everywhere with you so there is the possibility of it getting quite battered along the way.  However getting the cheapest one too is also not a great idea. For this course you are constantly researching or working on assignments and so can’t afford for your laptop to be always breaking down on you. So I would suggest a good quality one that is not likely to breakdown but not so good that you’re taking out a loan to get one.

The next question is though what kind of laptop? There are so many out there today how does one even begin choosing the one that will suit them. First of all you must consider what exactly you need the laptop for. For example with this course it is essential that the laptop has Microsoft Word or if not that it is able to have Microsoft Word. With this course you will be doing many presentations and powerpoints so you will need to take into consideration the RAM as you may need multiple programmes open at once.

For this course one of the modules deals with design and graphics and although it is not essential that you have it I would recommend a laptop that can download the Adobe programmes such as photoshop. You want to be able to work on your work where ever you are not just in college. But being able to work in college with your laptop is important too. But you must take into consideration the batter size. It is likely that you won’t always be able to charge your laptop in college as there may not be enough plugs so it is important then that your laptop has a long battery life.

I feel it is an obvious factor but an essential one none the less. The internet. I’m sure most laptops now come with the ability to connect to the internet but it is something you must check before buying. For this course it is essential that you can connect to the internet. Many lecturers put their notes up online or will ask you to submit work or assignments online. It is also important for research purposes. Some of your modules especially that of design and ICT make require you to do your work online and sometimes it is just not convenient to be working from college. Another obvious it that it be easy to use. You are going to be spending most of your time on it and doing most if not all of your college work and assignments on it. You can’t afford to be spending all your time figuring out how to open a programme or get something started.  For this reason I also recommend a PC laptop not a Mac unless you are actually used to dealing with them. Personally I find them very hard to use and not easy to figure out either.      

Article - Cyberbullying

Bullying, a deliberate and repeated aggression among peers, usually confined to the schoolyard but as the world of ICT has expanded so too has bullying. Bullying using computer mediated communication is known as cyberbullying. It is defined as hurtful and intended forms of communication using any technological device such as the internet or a mobile phone. Unfortunately as the technological world is expanding so too are the methods for bullying. Cyberbullying is becoming more common than regular bullying. It is a lot more appealing as the bullies can hide behind fake names or even use someone else’s screen name.

Cyberbullying is now an emerging universal issue. A nationwide random survey with 1500 participants showed that 9% of internet users between the ages of 10-17 have experienced online harassment. Results from a survey of 384 people under 18 years of age stated that 29% of participants had been victims of online bullying and a staggering 47% had witnessed online bullying.

The forms of online bullying include, being ignored, disrespected, called names, being threatened and having bad rumors spread about them. These studies show the extent that cyberbullying has grown and that it is distinguishing itself from traditional bullying. It differs from traditional bullying because it violates three implicit assumptions of traditional bullying: The victims know who their bully is, there is a power imbalance between the victim and the bully and bullying occurs on and around school grounds. Anonymity plays a big role in the reason for cyberbullying being so appealing. It provides a means of safety for the bully and a much greater chance of getting away with it.

In both cases of bullying it is centres around power. In traditional bullying power is associated with physical or social characteristics, in cyberbullying power is associated with computer literacy. The bully uses flaming, posting inflammatory messages and kicking someone out of a bulletin board. Gender also seems to be an important role in understanding the experiences of both cyber and traditional bullying. However the studies done on the significance of it are inconsistent. A final study in 2006 though did show no gender difference was noted in being of victim of either type of bullying but that more male students reported being a traditional bully or cyberbully. Therefore the main goal for the present study at the time of the article was to explore adolescents’ cyberbullying experiences by clarifying their links to traditional bullying with respect to gender.

But also regardless of gender differences, the relationships between being a cybervictim and cyberbully are significant and much stronger than the relationships between cyber and traditional bullying. This result suggests that the same adolescents who are victims are also bullies in cyber-environments. For both male and female students the results showed that being a bully in cyber and physical environments were correlated, but being a victim in cyber and traditional environments were not. The largest gender differ­ences for both cyber-victimization and cyberbullying were found for traditional bullies. For female students, there are no significant differences in cyberbullying or victimization among the four levels of traditional bullying. However, male students who reported being a traditional bully are more likely to report experiences of cyberbullying. Thus, the gender of students should be considered when examining the relationship between tradi­tional bullying and cyberbullying.

I found this article very interesting because it contrasted to the other article that I found in the benefits of Facebook. Essentially I don’t think that you can have pros without cons and these two articles show that. The role that anonymity plays in all this really interests me too. It brought me back to what you would always here about a bully actually being the bigger coward.  

Link to this article: http://nms.sagepub.com/content/12/1/109.full.pdf+html

Article - The benefits of Facebook

This article by Nicole B Ellison, Charles Steinfield and Cliff Lample looks at the benefits of social networking sites such as Facebook, Friendster and MySpace. It examines how these sites essentially boost social capital. Social capital refers to the connections within and between social networks centred around the idea that social networks have value. There are many benefits of a high social capital such as lower crime rates and more efficient financial markets. The research done for this article also found that Facebook usage had a positive impact on psychological well being. It provided greater benefits for those suffering from low self-esteem and low life satisfaction.

Social networking sites allow people to maintain connections with others. There are also many different types which can be centred around work, romance or a place for connecting those with shared interests. This article however deals with Facebook which allows us to interact with our offline friends online or meet new people. It was originally created to connect those at university in America but now has more than 21 million members worldwide. Although Facebook receives much negativity about privacy issues and identity presentation during the study for this article however it was shown that Facebook use among college students was significantly associated with measures of social capital. There were two hypothesis’ posed in this article the first being that,

 “Intensity of Facebook use will be positively associated with individuals’ perceived bridging social capital”.

 The internet provides vast new ways of communication to keep in touch with those whom we have strong ties with. It is also a way to connect with other people which you would not have the opportunity to do if it were not for the internet and social networking sites like Facebook. It is these connections that result in an increased social capital. In fact a 2006 survey reported that people who used the internet were more likely to have a larger network of close ties to those who did not use the internet. However as online and offline connections are relatively the same on Facebook it is unclear how social capital can occur in this situation. A second hypothesis was then proposed,

 “Intensity of Facebook use will be positively associated with individuals’ perceived bonding social capital”.

Online social network sites have become increasingly popular for those who have difficulties forming and maintaining strong or weak ties. Studies have shown that these sites can help those to form ties because the can lower barriers to interaction and encourage self-disclosure. To test this hypothesis the Facebook intensity scale was created (see tables in article). It was found that there was definitely a positive relationship between certain kinds of Facebook use and the maintenance and creation of social capital. Internet use alone did not predict social capital accumulation, but intensive use of Facebook did.

Link to this article : http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x/full 

Work from Photoshop

Hope these help!

Heres some websites i thought might be helpful, the first i think will be the most, its a site that helps with Refrencing
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/

Simon's Cat 'Cat Man Do'

I know i already posted the url for this but i then realised i could have the actual video in a post and its just so amazing it deserves lots of attention!!