Final CTEC 115 post - E-books

The Rise of E-reading

This article is based on surveys completed by the Pew internet & American life project. The survey used included multiple demographic groups. Based on information found in this article I concluded that E-books have made an impact on the amount people read.

Device owners read more often. On any given day 56% of those who own e-book reading devices are reading a book, compared with 45% of the general book-reading public who are reading a book on a typical day. Some 63% of the e-book device owners who are reading on any given day are reading a printed book; 42% are reading an e-book; and 4% are listening to an audio book (Web).

This article not only discussed whether people are reading more with E-books, but also included:

1.       The general reading habits of  Americans

2.      Americans and their E-reader and tablets

3.      The state of E-book reading

4.     Where and how readers get their books

5.      The differences among E-book readers

Positively impacting E-book usage is the ever increasing amount of available titles not only for sale, but also for rental or check-out from the public library. What I did not see was a detailed discussion regarding the impact of usage of E-books for textbooks.

I found that not only were people reading more now, but more and more people have E-readers or other devices for reading, and those that read E-books , read more books than they had previously. The print portion of the book market has 72% of the market share.

Lee Rainie, Kathryn Zickuhr, Kristen Purcell, Mary Madden and Joanna Brenner. The rise of e-reading. Pewinternet.org, 13 Sept. 2007. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012/04/04/the-rise-of-e-reading/

The article I reviewed above was my open web resource. I used Google with the search term “Are people reading more because of eBooks?” This gave 153,000 results, several of which referenced the Pew Research studies. In lieu of using second information (and because I already Pew to be reputable) I went directly to their website www.pewinternet.org & use their site search with eBooks as the search term.  They had many studies/articles available for review, but this one was closest with the information I needed. Pew is a USA based non-profit research group. This article is current (10/2012), relevant and relevant.

The article that I found with my deep web search through ProQuest actually utilized the same Pew study in the article above. I used this article because I was having difficulty locating appropriate article that did not reference Pew for their data. This particular article discusses several key points with eBooks that the Pew article did not, such as:

1.       Public libraries

2.      Academic libraries

3.      McGraw-Hill

4.     E-Textbooks

5.      Knovel

6.      E-books for business & law

7.      Pricing

My search terms to locate this article was “ebook AND (read OR reading)”.This article was relevant and complimentary to the other information that I found It was published this last summer (2012) and it is an industry trade journal.

Sabroski, Suzanne, and Marydee Ojala. "Ebook Updates." Online 36.4 (2012): 37-40. ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry; ProQuest Research Library. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.

Unit 10 - Final CTEC 115 Blog Post - HTML

Here is the link to the web page I created for CTEC 155 http://twoplayfulotters.com/student/shanelucas.html.

Several years ago I had the opportunity to create my own, very extensive retail web site and I did so using Microsoft Front Page. That was quite an adventure and a great learning experience. Until returning to school this year I had not had the need or desire to use HTML. This quarter I had two classes (including this one) that required the use of basic HTML to create a web page for familiarity with process. I think this is a fun exercise and very easy to learn with the free and readily accessible tools.

In the context of our digital age (free web 2.0 tools) and education, I do not know that the average student would/will have need to use HTML, however I think this basic exposure is relative to our course material since everything was Internet based. It is also helpful to give a general understanding of what makes a web page work. I found it to be a time worthy class period. By the way I did not use the same web page for both classes, I used some of the same elements and framework, but make significant variations as well.

Thanks for sharing knowledge Instructor Bullock. I would recommend for students to enroll for this class during their first or second quarter, and definitely before taking any ENG& classes if they wish to receive maximum benefit.

Open web resources - unit 9

For my open web searches I used Google, since I found better ways to use it more effectively it is always my go to; the Boolean is pretty easy and their advanced search tools and other options are great. In an effort to try to explore with Bing, I did try it first and they do not have advanced search options available, though in fairness I did not try just straight Boolean operators (until now). I just tried .edu with the same search phrase listed below, except in the Bing search field and it returned 39,000 results (compared to 93,500 Google), and with two ads versus one. I also appreciate how Google give you a half screen page preview as an option.

"Public Access" (open OR wireless) (network OR wifi OR wi-fi) site:.gov

I went with result #3 of 150,000. This was exactly the type of resource I would be looking for and the type of information I would expect to find on a .gov website. There was ample, free information, with specific reference to a private citizen’s security while using public access wi-fi services. There was no legal mumbo jumbo or citation of specific laws on this landing page, however two of the four topics of focus were consumer tips for “Don’t Assume a Wi-Fi Hotspot is Secure” & “Protect Yourself When Using a Public Wi-Fi”. The page itself was dated September 2011. As the title would suggest, they also had lots of information about protecting yourself online in general. I would use this as a resource for research.                       

http://www.onguardonline.gov/articles/0014-tips-using-public-wi-fi-networks

Many of the others sites that appeared in the results were disclaimers or how-to-access specific government localities various public access wi-fi networks. There was one sponsored ad at the top of the results.

"Public Access" (open OR wireless) (network OR wifi OR wi-fi) site:.edu

I went with result #7 of 93,500, which is a pdf handout from University of AZ. It provided wireless security information, which I would consider relevant reading for anyone researching the topic and is available for public access. The document was not dated but contained, what I know to be current references and terminology and the .edu domain lend it credence as well. Then I magically deleted the beyond the .edu domain and hit the jackpot. More related information than I could possible surf through and amazing credentials available for the contributors and faculty. I would use this site for reference.

http://www.security.arizona.edu/files/wirelesshandout.pdf

Very similar in nature to the .gov domain results is the type of information most of these .edu sites contained, specific to particular institutions or their policies and FAQs.

"Public Access" (open OR wireless) (network OR wifi OR wi-fi) site:.org

I went with result #NA of 542,000 and ended up changing my search terms by adding personal security at the beginning. The original search was only returning private policies. This was closer to the mark, on page two, result 10 (after 4 ads total) I found a useful potential source. This actual link is to a guest blog on the site, but I started poking around just before scrapping link, I was quite surprised by their mission statement, board members, and (org) sponsors. There were far too many to list, but included almost every name you would recognize in the industry and this lends credibility to the site and their distributed information as an industry sponsored .org. The information was also current and provided links to multiple additional resources.

http://www.staysafeonline.org/blog/guest-blog-making-public-wifi-safe

"Public Access" (open OR wireless) (network OR wifi OR wi-fi) site:.com

I went with result #NA of 4,999,000; yeah, not going to look through 5,000,000 commercially sponsored websites, got it covered for now with the other four domain types.

"Public Access" (open OR wireless) (network OR wifi OR wi-fi) site:.net

I went with result # of 2 of 119,000 & found great information, which was in fact quite interesting and a slightly different angle than I had previously considered (personal security risks), as this covered site covered liability issues from a business perspective (this site belongs to a PA law firm) in the form of a client (or potential client) newsletter. Even considering that this is a corporate (for profit) website and that they are licensed for a specific state(s), they provide ample references and citations of/to current federal laws and all information was free of charge and without solicitation of personal information. This particular article was from a 2007 issue however, the site was itself was current. There was also contact information and lots of additional resources and links. I would verify the laws cited were still current before including in research, but definitely a great resource.

http://www.mbm-law.net/newsletter-articles/wi-fi-hotspots-and-liability-concerns/1229/

            The first site I went to was completely commercial and was a FAQ section html. Many of the other sites appeared to be forums or html disclosure statements for individual entities or businesses (these could provide useful in some aspects). There was one sponsored ad at the bottom of the results.

            I feel that by the time I completed this exercise, all of the results I mentioned could be helpful in some manner, however specific to which type of domain returned the most relevant results off my search terms and needs, I would use the .gov, and follow up on the information from the law firm website. Adding a domain type stipulation is a great search tool if, especially if you kind of now what you are looking for, but even if you do not it can provide good ideas too. If the summary on the results seems at all relative, back off everything in the domain name until you get to the highest level (.edu,.gov.com, etc…) and see what the site has to offer. I think a helpful Boolean operator or search field would be “with citations”.