CYBER LANGUAGE: FEATURES & IMPLICATION

What is Cyber Language?

The technology of electronic communication has provided a third medium, which occupies the middle ground between spoken and written language, and reflects the fact that the Internet is electronic, global and interactive. In other words, cyber language is written language, but reads as if it is spoken language. The nature of the language does, however, depend on the technology being used and the recipient; email messages, for example, may resemble a traditional letter or written speech.

Examples of Variation on Abbreviations, Emoticons & Smiley


Variation on Abbreviations:

ASAP    As Soon As Posible

BRB       Be Right Back

BTW      By The Way

FYI        For Your Information

AKA     Also Known As

FAQ      Frequently Ask Questions

Emoticons & Smiley :

Atom Bomb    @==

Sad                : (

Kiss               : *

Happy            : )

Yawn            : 0

Mustache      : {


Situation :

A person cannot express their feeling toward other internet user (usually friends, bloggers, chatters & etc) directly through internet. But using abbreviation, emoticons & smileys, they can show their feeling toward other. This will make internet users to express their feeling at that moment to other, although they are staying in different place. 

INFORMATION SHARING

Information sharing is describes the exchange of data between various organizations, people and technologies.

There are several types of information sharing:

• Information shared by individuals (such as a video shared on Facebook or YouTube)
• Information shared by organizations (such as the RSS feed of an online weather report)
• Information shared between firmware/software (Such as the IP addresses of available network nodes or the availability of disk space)

There are several top information sharing tools in the internet. I will give you the pros & cons of each site in order to have a clear view what is the usage of each site in the information sharing terms.

1. DROP BOX APPLICATION


Advantages of Dropbox:

• 2GB free (only signup required)
• Has its own folder within Windows Explorer or the Macintosh Finder so you can easily drag-and-drop files and folders into the 'Dropbox' folder
• Continues to synchronise files even if you modify them
• Allows you to recover deleted files and folders via the Dropbox website
• Allows you to make specific files and folders public via the 'Public' folder; upload screenshots, etc
• Allows you to upload and download files and folders via the Dropbox website at any time
• Low cost paid plans starting at $9.99 per month (can be purchased in the UK too) for 50GB of space. And you can upgrade your plan to a maximum 100GB space (if you require more storage you'll need to contact Dropbox about it for a bigger plan).
• Available on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (apps are also available for iOS, Android and BlackBerry).

Disadvantages to Dropbox:

• Microsoft's Windows Live SkyDrive offers 25GB of storage versus Dropbox's 2GB of storage.
• The service provider did not responsible if any information leaks through the storage system.

2. Social Networking

Advantages :

• Facebook has become a professionally developing site rather than just a social network.
• Social Networking has revolutionized the way we think and opened wider perspectives.
• Social Networking are global and 24/7.
• Social Networking should be harnessed by 21 century teachers with enthusiasm.
• Use Facebook for personal contacts and wide our contact around the globe .
• Social Networking are an extension of discussions. 
• Social Networking create friends which lead to face to face meetings.
• Share worksheets/mind maps for students, time-saving.
• Twitter tags can inform parents’ of students’ progress.
• Non-native teachers are also exposed to real language in the modern world.

Disadvantages :

• All Social Networking are time-consuming.
• Some teachers find Social Networking too daunting to tackle.
• Social Networking can become addictive. They can take over your life, leaving little time for family and friends. Knowing when to stop is crucial – try to switch off!
• A person can be cheated by a fake user profile.
• A person can be stalked by others users.

Situation

We all being shocked by earth quake in Aceh recently. The earth quake happened in 5pm (local time) but before 7pm (local time) most Malaysian who has FB,Twitter & other social networks has being alert about the earth quake and potential Tsunami that can hit west Malaysia especially Penang, Langkawi. This news spread fast via social networks, without those social networks it is impossible Malaysia can be alerted about the earth quake because prime news in Malaysia only on air in 8pm. 

Online Communication

Synchronous & Asynchronous Communication

Using internet, we as user can interacting via 2 ways. The 1st way is by Synchronous and the 2nd way is via Asynchronous. What is both bombastic words means? Here I have elaborate details in words & table to make a better understanding from the reader views. 

Synchronous Tools

Synchronous tools enable real-time communication and collaboration in a "same time-different place" mode. These tools allow people to connect at a single point in time, at the same time. Synchronous tools possess the advantage of being able to engage people instantly and at the same point in time. The primary drawback of synchronous tools is that, by definition, they require same-time participation -different time zones and conflicting schedules can create communication challenges. In addition, they tend to be costly and may require significant bandwidth to be efficient.

Tool	Useful for	Drawbacks
Audio conferencing	Discussions and dialogue	Cost, especially when international participation is involved
Web conferencing	Sharing presentations and information	Cost, bandwidth; may also require audio conferencing to be useful
Video conferencing	In-depth discussions with higher-touch interactions	Cost, limited availability of video conferencing systems
Chat	Information sharing of low-complexity issues	Usually requires typing, "lower touch" experience
Instant messaging	Ad hoc quick communications	All users must use compatible system, usually best for 1:1 interactions
White boarding	Co-development of ideas	Cost, bandwidth; may also require audio conferencing to be useful
Application sharing	Co-development of documents	Cost, bandwidth; may also require audio conferencing to be useful

Asynchronous Tools

Asynchronous tools enable communication and collaboration over a period of time through a "different time-different place" mode. These tools allow people to connect together at each person's own convenience and own schedule. Asynchronous tools are useful for sustaining dialogue and collaboration over a period of time and providing people with resources and information that are instantly accessible, day or night. Asynchronous tools possess the advantage of being able to involve people from multiple time zones. In addition, asynchronous tools are helpful in capturing the history of the interactions of a group, allowing for collective knowledge to be more easily shared and distributed. The primary drawback of asynchronous technologies is that they require some discipline to use when used for ongoing communities of practice (e.g., people typically must take the initiative to "login" to participate) and they may feel "impersonal" to those who prefer higher-touch synchronous technologies.

Tool	Useful for	Drawbacks
Discussion boards	Dialogue that takes place over a period of time	May take longer to arrive at decisions or conclusions
Web logs (Blogs)	Sharing ideas and comments	May take longer to arrive at decisions or conclusions
Messaging (e-mail)	One-to-one or one-to-many communications	May be misused as a "collaboration tool" and become overwhelming
Streaming audio	Communicating or teaching	Static and typically does not provide option to answer questions or expand on ideas
Streaming video	Communicating or teaching	Static and typically does not provide option to answer questions or expand on ideas
Narrated slideshows	Communicating or teaching	Static and typically does not provide option to answer questions or expand on ideas
"Learning objects" (Web-based training)	Teaching and training	Typically does not provide option to answer questions or expand on ideas in detail
Document libraries	Managing resources	Version control can be an issue unless check-in / check-out functionality is enabled
Databases	Managing information and knowledge	Requires clear definition and skillful administration
Web books	Teaching and training	Not dynamic and may lose interest of users
Surveys and polls	Capturing information and trends	Requires clear definition and ongoing coordination
Shared Calendars	Coordinating activities	System compatibility
Web site links	Providing resources and references	May become outdated and "broken"

Basic Search Technique 

Everyone who want to find information in the internet want the best answer for their inquires. But not most of the internet user know how to get specific information they wished for. Here I wrote steps how internet user can get the precise answer from their inquires :)

1. Identify your concepts

When planning your search, break down your topic into its separate concepts. Let's say you're interested in the effects of global warming on crops. In this case, you have two concepts: GLOBAL WARMING and CROPS.

2. Make a list of search terms for each concept

Once you have identified your concepts, list the terms which describe each concept. Some concepts may have only one term, while others may have many.

global warming
greenhouse effect
greenhouse gases
climate change

crops
crop yields
crop production
food supply

These lists are a suggestion. Depending on the focus of your search, there may be other terms more suited to what you're looking for.

3. Phrase Search and Exact Word Search

Some words naturally appear in the context of a phrase, for example, freedom of the press. To search on phrases in most search engines, simply enclose the phrase within quotes: "freedom of the press".

Try this search yourself! You should get results that are similar to the ones shown in the screenshot below. 

Phrases are especially important when there are STOP WORDS in your search. These are "little" words such as a, and, the, in, it, etc. Most search engines tend to ignore these words. If you want to be sure they are included in your search results, enclose them with the rest of your search within quotes.

In fact, whenever you want to search any word exactly as you have typed it, enclose the word within quotes:"president". In many search engines, this will ensure that only this exact word will be searched. The search engine will not look for any variations, such as presidents, presidential, etc.

4.Field Search

Field searching is an optional way to focus your search results. With general search engines, you're searching the full text of many millions of pages, and field searching can help you retrieve results that may be more manageable. For example, you can search for words that appear within a particular Web site, within the URL (Web address), in the page title, and so on. The exact technique for doing this can differ among search engines, so be sure to check out the Help pages before proceeding. Let's consider a couple of examples on Google.

A title search can bring you more relevant results than merely searching for words that appear anywhere on the Web page. It's more likely that a document that contains your search words in the title will be more relevant that a document that does not. For this reason, many search engines use title words as an important way of ranking search results in order of their relevancy.

5.Title Field 

Let's look for Web pages that contain our search terms in the page title. Again, we'll use Google to try this out, revisiting its advanced search page. Here, you need to open up the page to display all its options by clicking on the plus sign (+) near the bottom of the page next to the options for Date, usage rights, numeric range, and more.

Where your keywords show up gives you the option to select in the title of the page. Let's search forhurricane caribbean deaths.

Notice that Google translated this search into allintitle: hurricane caribbean deaths. If you memorize this search syntax, you can conduct this search from Google's main search page.

6. Site field

Searching on the site field is another useful way of finding relevant results. In this case, you search on the top-level and second-level domain names together, and then use AND logic to add topical words to your search.

You can read about domain structures in the tutorial A Basic Guide to the World Wide Web. Briefly, to take an example shown below: "nasa" is a second-level domain, and "gov" is a top-level domain.

Examples of sites:

nasa.gov
mit.edu
microsoft.com

Let's look at an example of a site search. Let's say you are searching for information about spacewalks conducted by NASA. Try this: spacewalks site:nasa.gov. This search will limit your results to pages on the NASA Web site.

Try this search yourself! You should get results that are similar to the ones shown in the screenshot below. 

Notice that all the results come from the site nasa.gov. You can also go to the advanced search page on Google to conduct this search.

This is the top 5 best search engines last year. You will get a reliable information searching through those search engines :)  

Top Search Engines for 2011

1. Google – Founded in late 1997, Google is the Big Daddy of Internet. It offers everything on web which no other search engines have offered till date. “You name it Google has it”.
800,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1 - Complete Rank |      
1 - Quantcast Rank | 1 - Alexa Rank.| Updated 7/1/2011 |

2. Bing – Unveiled on May 28, 2009 by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, bing (previously in time Live Search, MSN Search and Windows Live Search) is now a search engine. It is advertised  as a “Decision Engine”. Also Bing now powers Yahoo!.
165,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 13 - Complete Rank | 16 - Quantcast Rank | 22 - Alexa Rank.| Updated 7/1/2011 |

3. Yahoo! – Yahoo! is another popular search engine which founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo which was incorporated on March 1, 1995. Being an American Internet corporation, its headquartered in California(CA), United States. Along with Web Portal, Yahoo! Offers Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Video and many more.
160,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *8* - Complete Rank | *28* - Quantcast Rank | NA - Alexa Rank.| Updated 7/1/2011 |

4.  Ask – Also known as Ask Jeeves in UK. This search engine is basically focused on Q&A. It was founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California. In late 2010 Ask faced   insuperable competition from Google so the company outsourced its web technology to a third party and came to the basics Q&A site.
125,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 11 - Complete Rank|          14 - Quantcast Rank | 52 - Alexa Rank.| Updated 7/1/2011 |

5.  Aol. - Aol. earlier known as American Online, is an American company which is a Internet services and media company. With over 30 million members worldwide, Aol. is  headquartered in New York(NY) and was founded on 1983 as Control Video Corporation.
33,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *336* - Complete Rank | *240* - Quantcast Rank | NA - Alexa Rank.| Updated 7/1/2011 |

2. BROWSING STRATEGIES


2.1 SURFING THE NET/WEB

To navigate through the World Wide Web or Internet, usually byclicking with a mouse. The term also has a generic meaning ofspending time on the Internet.

2.2 SEARCH ENGINES

A. The Different Types of Search Engines

Although the term "search engine" is often used indiscriminately to describe crawler-based search engines, human-powered directories, and everything in between, they are not all the same. Each type of "search engine" gathers and ranks listings in radically different ways.

B. Crawler-Based

Crawler-based search engines such as Google and Yahoo, compile their listings automatically. They "crawl" or "spider" the web, and people search through their listings. These listings are what make up the search engine's index or catalogue. You can think of the index as a massive electronic filing cabinet containing a copy of every web page the spider finds. Because spiders scour the web on a regular basis, any changes you make to a website, or links to or from your own website, may affect your search engine ranking.

It is also important to remember that it may take a while for a spidered page to be added to the index. Until that happens, it is not available to those searching with a search engine.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to making changes to a website so that it can attain higher search engine positions for specific keyphrases in organic results.

Organic results refer to the regular search engine results displayed by crawler-based search engines; as opposed to sponsored results which are paid advertising.

C. Directories

Directories such as Open Directory depend on human editors to compile their listings. Webmasters submit an address, title, and a brief description of their site, and then editors review the submission. Unless you sign up for a paid inclusion program, it may take months for your website to be reviewed. Even then, there's no guarantee that your website will be accepted.

After a website makes it into a directory however, it is generally very difficult to change its search engine ranking. So before you submit to a directory, spend some time working on your titles and descriptions or hire a professional to submit to directories for you.

D. Pay Per Click (sponsored results)

PPC advertising is the name for the ads you see at the top or on the right of the organic results in most search engines. Services such as Yahoo SM, Google AdWords, and MSN AdCenter allow you to pay to show your ads on their search engine results page. How much you pay (your bid), along with the click-through rate of the ad (CTR) and the relevance of the landing page, determine the ranking of your PPC ads.

There are companies such as Red Carpet Web Promotion that set up and manage PPC campaigns for companies that bid on many keyphrases (which can number in the thousands).Contact Red Carpet Web Promotion if this or other web promotion services interest you.

Topic 2 : Virtual Vs Electronic

Reinventing the Universities towards new era

A virtual university provides higher education programs through electronic media, typically the Internet. Some are bricks-and-mortar institutions that provide online learning as part of their extended university courses while others solely offer online courses. They are regarded as a form of distance education. The goal of virtual universities is to provide access to the part of the population who would not be able to attend a physical campus, for reasons such as distance - where students live too far from a physical campus to attend regular classes; and the need for flexibility – some students need the flexibility to study at home whenever it is convenient for them to do so.

Program delivery in a virtual university is administered through information communication technology such as web pages, e-mail and other networked sources.

The Virtual University experience can be accurately summed up in the following excerpt:

"A post-secondary educational environment, delivered electronically through a communications medium, which mimics a real-world post-secondary environment in every aspect, resulting in an educational experience equivalent to one normally received by attending the same university in the physical world."

Lush, G.(2010), The Virtual University: Issues for administrators, p. 1, 2010

The Open University in the United Kingdom was the world’s first successful distance teaching university. It was founded in the 1960s on the belief that communications technology could bring high quality degree-level learning to people who had not had the opportunity to attend campus universities.

Teaching mode

When online courses first began, the primary mode of delivery was through a two way audio-visual network. Then as well as now, many of the virtual study programs were mainly based on text documents, but multimedia technologies have become increasingly popular as well. These web-based delivery modes are used in order to expand access to programs and services that can be offered anytime and anywhere. The spectrum of teaching modes in virtual education includes courses based on hypertext, videos, audios, e-mails, and video conferencing.

Impact of Virtual class room

“Virtual classroom it is an environment unlike the traditional classroom. In actual fact, the virtual classroom is wherever you and your computer happen to be. It could be in your room, in one of the University microcomputer labs, or at an isolated site far removed from the KSU campus. Your virtual class schedule is whatever time you want it to be” [http://www.cis.ksu.edu/cis10X/virtual.htm ] Virtual classroom provides a perfect environment for online training and gives a feel of being in the classroom itself. Virtual classroom integrates the best learning practices with the power of internet to provide a dynamic learning platform to the learner. The virtual classroom/e-learning has innumerable advantages and the most vital of which are the saving of time and cost, no interaction between teachers and students and no sense of peer pressure.

Of course, taking internet-based course at the pre-College/university level can have both pros and cons. Below will follow some of them that would make you decide if virtual learning is for you.

Positive aspects of virtual classroom/e-learning.

“Independence and time Management”

Students who take courses online often sharpen their ability to work on their own, and they also expand experience in managing their time efficiently. With nobody to stand over them and make them work, virtual learners tend to develop these skills more rapidly than if they were to learn strictly in a traditional classroom.

Advanced and specialized classes

In many cases, small school and rural schools simply cannot offer advanced or specialized classes. Virtual education gives students the opportunity to gain experience in areas that would otherwise remain out of reach.

Emphasis on the written work

Strong writing skills are essential to success in secondary and higher education as well as in the workplace. Virtual learning/distance education teaches students to communicate more effectively through writing, because the questions they ask and the work they complete is based almost solely on the written word. Virtual learning clearly gives students the chance to widen writing skills.

Problems

1.Lack of face-to face interaction

Some educators dispute that both teacher-student and student-student contact are essential to the learning process, and online classes eradicate these elements of education altogether. Also, students who excel at class participation need to deem that this piece of the learning puzzle will be missing as well.

2.The need to self-start

Virtual education actually lets students make their own schedules. Those who have a hard time with self-motivation will undoubtedly have problem in this type of educational setting.

3.Assessment Credibility 

We did not know whether the student is doing all the assessment or somebody else have done it on behalf of the student. The university and lecturer cannot determine is the student himself have done all the work without any helps from others.

Conclusion

Despite all the pros & cons of virtual learning the majority of students using virtual campuses to obtain online degrees are adults students for three main reasons:

§  Flexibility - Adults with full-time jobs and families would find it impossible to attend daily at a traditional school setting. Online classes allow students to work at their own pace and work around their busy lives.

§  Cost - The cost of an online degree is relatively cheaper than at a traditional college setting. Obtaining your degree online eliminates costs such as classroom costs and facility upkeep costs that traditional students are required to pay because they are using the campus. However, the cheaper cost of an online degree does not diminish the value of the degree.

§  Broad Choices - Students can remain at home and have availability to degrees that may not be offered by universities or colleges nearby.