Internet Security

For this week's class, we were exposed to internet security and one particular useful thing i learnt was how to differentiate between a virus, worm and trojans. So what are the differences??? :O

 Virus:

 A virus:

• a computer program. It's written by some individual or individuals, presumably with the intent of spreading and causing grief.
• makes the infected computer "sick" - in the computer sense, "sick" can mean poor performance, crashes, lost files and data, or more.
• replicates itself - just like you can copy a file from one disk to another, and now have copies on both disks, a computer virus is in part defined by its ability to make copies of itself. Typically the copies aren't on the infected computer, but rather on other computers, which leads us to the last characteristic...
• infects other computers - exactly how depends on the virus, of course, but another key defining point for a computer virus is that it can spread, on its own.

Computer Worm:

A worm:

• a stand-alone program
• can cause a great deal of trouble merely by getting passed from one computer to many others, and can clog up a network very quickly.

Trojan Horse:

A Trojan Horse:

• program that claims to be one thing, but is, in fact, another
• not a virus, per se, but may carry them.  
• For example many people consider Kazaa, the music sharing software, a trojan horse because it carries with it a bunch of spyware. 

So, locally, in Singapore, are companies in Singapore aware about all the cybercrime and stuff related to internet security??? :O

According to an article from CNET news, it states that:

Many organizations are focused on stopping random hackers and blocking pornography when they should be concerned with bigger threats from professional cybercriminals, according to a new cybersecurity report.

to read more: see this link.. http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62060776,00.htm

In short, many companies are misguided with relation to their security. To me, this is a big concern as the focus of companies are misdirected and imagine what cybercriminals are capable of if they know how lax the companies are with their security! Their companies could very much suffer a big loss should they be attacked by cybercriminals.. One can only hope that through news like this, companies would increase their security against potential internet cybercriminals. 

Internet tools

HAPPY CHINESE YEAR EVERYONE!! :)

For this particular blog entry, it's gonna be pretty exciting as i did a video entry of using an internet tool, in specific google maps. And it's even more exciting as i did it while i was on my chinese new year holiday in London! So please watch the video as it took me a while to piece together the pictures and videos i specially took for this video :) 

Before you watch this video, i would like to introduce the google tool which i am exploring so you have more knowledge about this internet tool. So what is Google maps? It is a basic web mapping service application and offers street maps, a route planner for traveling by foot, car, or public transport and an urban business locator for numerous countries around the world. So visually, it looks like the picture below when you type in a destination you would like to get to.. 

The most spectacular feature of google maps that i am very intrigued with is probably the street view.. Google makes use of a car with a camera attached on the top like the one you see here:

By so doing, it allows google maps to show us UP TO DATE (AMAZING ISN"T IT!!! :D) the pictures of the place! The pictures are very clear and allows us, the users to see the place and spot it easier when we look for it ourselves.. Is this tool cool or what!!

NOW, on to the main highlight:

My video on my experience using google maps! Hope you find it fascinating! :)

My experience making this video has indeed been quite a fruitful one as i learned more about how to use google maps and how to use it to enable myself to reach the tube station in the fastest time possible. Moreover, after making this video, i will probably use google tools again if i ever get myself lost! :) One of the best google tools created!!

Power of Internet for Learning

This week's class was on elearning which is the learning using digital tools and content. To bring in a more personal light, it's especially so for me as I am now doing an online course where my professor (MGO 302: Product and Operations Management ) teaches me through videos that she uploads in real time(albeit a bit outdated by a few hours, nonetheless, still very amazing that i can see her teaching even though she is many leagues away from me! :P) and students located in Singapore and London are able to watch her lectures. Personally, i do think this form of teaching is quite effective as she doesn't need to travel to Singapore to teach and YET is still able to teach us! Therefore, instead of having only 500 students from US, she has 200 extra students over singapore! And with the videos, it gives us the students the flexibility to pause and replay whatever material we missed while the lecturer was speaking! Now wouldn't we all wish that we had that in all everyday lessons where we can pause to copy notes and press play when our teachers talk too fast?? :P

HOWEVER(yes yes, there is always a "however" to almost everything!), there are some cons (at least for the students that are not "physically present" in class). For example, i ran into a problem with the videos uploaded. I discovered to my horror that I had been watching videos from last year 's curriculum!!! :( Apparently it was a technical error on the US side but due to the time difference, it took a while to fix (wasting some time on my part!). Besides that, there is always the problem of asking questions through email.. It's just that certain things are really hard to explain through email (especially stuff like diagrams!! OH MY!) and there's always the possibility that the teacher may misinterpret the question asked when trying to figure out what the email was asking.

Despite the pros and cons, i do find overall that im learning a vast amount from the course and im glad that i took up the course in my last semester! Really rewarding experience.. :)

Just a sidenote, i did manage to find out that there are some ways to make elearning more effective for those interested in it:

1) Add a face

Learners are usually reluctant to attend a soft skills training as they tend to think of it as being non-essential, as opposed to technical, work-related training. Already non-motivated, learners will resist a training that is imparted by a faceless, soulless monitor. 

Adding a friendly face to the course material will add a human dimension to the training. Introducing a coach, buddy, or a mentor at the beginning of the course will make it easier for learners to understand the learning objectives. Bringing him/her back at checkpoint and summary screens will be a good idea. Coaches can also help introduce scenarios in the training.

2) Answer WIIFM (What’s in it for me)

The most important question posed by the learners: What’s in it for me? (WIIFM)While most learning objectives address the question in concrete, technical terms, they fail to motivate and convince the learners how the training proposes to benefit them. An instructional designer or content writer should focus on responding to this question in a simple, mentor-like manner, explaining clearly the advantages of the training to the learner. 

3) Present scenarios

A soft skills training cannot be imparted with a series of dos, don’ts, shoulds, and shouldn’ts. A learner will not gain anything from the training unless the training responds to the corresponding whys and why nots. Well-illustrated scenarios can help explain the finer details of the soft skills.

4) Familiar territory

Use characters and situations closer to real life to present scenarios. A thorough audience analysis will help build strong and effective scenarios. Factors such as age, country, ethnicity, language, culture, even attire and food should be taken into consideration while creating scenarios. At times, non-familiarity with the audience could result in a well-meaning scenario giving offense to the learners.

5) Provide online help

This is the toughest challenge and is often not considered because of technical limitations. An always-available guide can help learners extract more from trainings. I am not referring to a physical guide here, but an online repository of information acting as an available facilitator.