Key Factors to consider when buying a laptop...

Ict – Key factors to consider when buying a laptop for my course

Weight – weight will be vital to consider, especially if one is making a commute to college and bringing their laptop with them. Prices usually have inverse relationship with weight of a laptop ie. The lighter the laptop the more expensive it will be. However, if the laptop has a powerful graphic card or larger screen it will be heavier. And, a large screen and good graphic card would be good to have for modules such as Multimedia and design.

Battery life – This is very important for users on the go. My advice for someone doing our course would be to buy a laptop with the best battery available as a lot of our modules are to do with computer use, e.g. cyber psychology and ict.  Also a long lasting battery will be essential as there aren’t many plugs available in the library or around the college and a lot of the course content is on blackboard and one needs a computer to access this eLearning facility. The average laptop has 2.5-3 hours battery and a good laptop will have around 4 hours battery. What’s important to note is that power consumption varies from model to model and manufacturer to manufacturer.

Video RAM(Random Access Memory)-In this course we will do  graphics work (multimedia and design) , so RAM  might be a good idea but is not essential so shared memory should be fine. If you have a choice, aim for a graphics chipset that shares at least 64MB of system memory.

Connections- Ports, especially USB ones are essential because you will be transporting info from college computers to laptops via usb stick. My advice would be at a minimum, look for two USB ports. FireWire is a method of transferring information between digital devices. If you’d like to use a digital camcorder or Ipod with a netbook make sure it has a FireWire (IEEE1394) port. This is not essential for our course per say but is just an extra nugget of information.

Processor- My advice regarding buying a laptop for this course and in general would be to go with the fastest you can afford. I would recommend the Intel Pentium M CPU line. The Intel Pentium M CPU line offers speed while having long battery life.

Warranty- Each laptop computer should come with one year warranty from the manufacturer covering only defective equipment. You can also get an extended warranty covering any accidents you may have. If you are carrying a laptop in and out of college on a regular basis which you probably will on this course I advise extending the warranty for safety.

Memory- Your laptop should have at least 1 GB of memory. However, you can get a notebook with 512 MB and work with Windows XP. The more memory the better as in this course you will be doing a lot of work on your laptop using the likes of Microsoft window and PowerPoint.

To conclude Laptops increasingly are decreasing in price. However, a cheap laptop isn’t necessarily a good laptop. My advice would be to buy the best you can afford. Ensure that the laptop you buy meets your computing needs for this course by carefully considering the above factors before making your purchase. I also advice that you take into consideration the fact that you will need Microsoft office and may want to purchase adobe Photoshop. The acer aspire laptops are ones that I would recommend for this course.

Interesting article on young people using social networks unsupervised

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1012/1224305642046.html

Summary of article

 This is an article from The Irish Times newspaper published on the 12^th of October 2011. The subject of the article is children being online without guidance. Journalist   Kitty Holland reports and reflects on a survey published by the Minister for Children. The study was conducted by Viewpoint research, with 18,116 participants, all young people in primary and secondary schools across Ireland. And also with children in harder-to-reach areas such as those being schooled at home. The article is composed mainly of facts and figures of the study.

Holland opens with a dramatic finding, and immediately grabs the reader’s attention.  Holland informs us the reader that the survey found that more than 16 % of young people met up with people they had met online. This is followed by informing us that 44% of those surveyed had access to the internet unsupervised in their bedroom.

The article continues with a plea from Frances Fitzgerald (Minister for Children) on behalf of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Fitzgerald claims that the findings require a “response from all of society”

Research found that the extent to which young people adhere to safety precautions while online is cause for great concern in 21^ST Century Ireland.  Research found that over one-third of young people did not know how to keep their social network account private, with only almost one quarter of older people in a similar predicament.

Holland goes on to inform the reader that a shocking number of people handing out personal details (full name, photos and/or phone numbers) to someone online they did not know.

Holland continues by telling us the society’s chief executive, Ashley Balbirnie described the findings as “absolutely terrifying” Balbrinie is seriously concerned by the number of young people who spend hours unsupervised on the internet, young people handing out personal information and in some cases even meeting up with people they have met online. Balbirnie concludes by telling the reader  that “The figures clearly show that young people are not taking necessary and available safety precautions while online and are leaving themselves open to some extremely dangerous situations.”

The article itself is concluded by telling us there is no single answer to this problem but it does however offer suggestions for making the internet safer. Suggestions included a “panic button “on social networking sites such as Facebook. This would mean that young people could inform operators of improper and/or unwanted contact. The society also called for parents to be more watchful of their children’s activity online and for legislation to be passed.

In my opinion this was a very interesting article, I think it’s better written than the other article I read regarding cyber bullying . The content of the article was more surprising to me personally than that of the other one, so I learned something now which is always a plus. The structure of the article is more appealing, it has a great flow to it, no waffle and all relevant information.

An interesting cyberpsychology article

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/aug/01/cyber-bullying-victims

Summary of Article                                                                                                                                             

This is an article from the Guardian newspaper published on the 1^ST of August 2011. The subject of this article is cyber bullying and the impact it has on young people. The article is reflecting on research done by academics at Anglia Ruskin University. What is important to note is that the statistics are relevant to English teens and not Irish ones, but I’m sure they’re in close correspondence with Irish figures. The article states their findings.

The article is structured using short punchy lines which give a dramatic effect. The article opens with the statement “Nearly one in five UK youngsters have been the victim of cyber bullying, with girls affected more than boys, research suggests” and follows with the research to support the statement. The journalist goes on to tell us that the information is based on a study carried out on 500 young people aged between eleven and nineteen.

These specific researchers found that a fifth of the participants they carried out research on admitted that  they had been subjected to  cyber bullying by the use of internet or mobile phones. What I found interesting was that findings also suggested that females are a more likely target to cyber bullying. In this particular research 273 females were questioned and of those questioned 60 said they had been subjected to cyber-bullying. Of the males questioned (200) only 27  admitted that they had been subjected to cyberbullying.The journalist goes on to tell us that 66% of participants admitted to having seen or known someone who had been cyber bullied.

The article then begins to focus on the young people who had been, themselves affected by cyber bullying . The victims were asked what the impact of cyber bullying had been on them, with results showing one third replying it affected their confidence “quite a lot” or “very much”.  52% of these 87 victims claimed it had an effect on both their emotional and mental wellbeing. The journalist then informs the reader that of the victims just over a quarter had admitted to staying away from school and more than a third had stopped socialising outside school.

Of the victims less than 55% would not look for finding help with the reasons being they were afraid it would make the situation worse.

The conclusion at the end of the research form head researcher Steve Walker "While most online interactions are neutral or positive, the internet provides a new means through which children and young people are bullied."…Way to state the obvious Steve.

For me the facts in the article didn’t come as a surprise, sad but believable. As a person within the 11-19 age group I’m not surprised having personally witnessed cyber bullying on social networks on numerous occasions.  For me the article only confirmed what I thought. In my opinion the article is a bit sensationalised and over dramatic, the ending lacks insight. The researcher should in my opinion end with insightful and reflective thoughts on his research but instead he points out the obvious.

A handy crowd to be in with for my course...

http://www.psihq.ie/

Oh OooooOops , It's rude not to introduce yourself .....

So I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Aoife and thisa is my first blog ever. Not gonna lie I'm having a bit of trouble working this, but hey.....practice makes perfect so here's hoping ;)

Chris Rene To Win X-Factor USA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYPTS_39I8g 

MY PICS OF RIHANNA V FEST 2011

 

Sex,Drugs,& Raves:Rihanna unleashes

her greatest video to date, “We Found Love”

My First Blog post ever

I LOVE this video so much, doesnt the guy look strangely like Chris Brown? I'd love to now if that was on purpose            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg00YEETFzg