online entertainment - why so great?

I have been on multiple online PS3 games Such as Resistance fall of man, Sega superstar’s tennis and Dark sector while also using the internet for watching videos on places such as YouTube.

The purpose of this technology is to provide entertainment to people who are willing to be entertained by certain experiences such as playing a multiplayer first person shooter such as Resistance by playing a game of tennis using your favorite Sega characters.
The target audience is mostly the younger generation as they are more in tune with the internet and its many capabilities and as the many games online are rated 12 and up many people playing online games are 12 or older.

It is enhanced by being online as it provides more entertainment by providing extra things such as online multiplayer or unlimited videos on certain subjects to watch it also allows developers to increase their knowledge on what the consumer like while also making changes via patch which allows quick changes that can be made instead of buying extra software.

The current limitations are that some changes made on certain games can affect the players such as new people complaining about a weapons power or characters ability which must be changed to accommodate their abilities whereas the more experienced players must now get use to the change which can affect them and make more problems through the online community and some updates can affect the way the game is played by increasing slowdown as the patch has been recently made making the developers have to create more changes instead of perfecting extra material such as add-ons or character skins

The online entertainment fulfills it purpose really well as it provides the player or customer with extra things to do when they have finished a game of have set up an account this gives things more replay ability.

[Pictures taken form wikipedia. All chracters belong to insomniac games]

Investigation in to Downloadable goods and services

The different types of items me and my family have downloaded of the internet are software, images, music, updates for my PS3 and some PS3 games and demos.

We have done this instead of buying the physical goods is because it is easier to retrieve of the internet then it is to get in a shop, the items are never out of stock and can be downloaded multiple times whereas physical items can be out of stock and might not work, Some items are only available on the internet like the PS3 updates and PS3 games and are not available in store or will be but are not released for a while.

The downloading fulfilled its purpose as I was able to get items I would not be able to get in physical form plus it also allowed me to get items quicker then having to wait for them to be released.

The only problems I have found are that some downloads take quite a while and sometimes don’t work as you need other software to work them which can take time finding which is frustrating, also some items can contain viruses that will affect the computer making it slow or unusable.

PS3 awesomeness

I recived an PS3 system update for firmware 2.34 which has been the quickest system update i've had must me they have sorted out the low download times now. The only thing about the update is that it did not specifiy what i was getting o well they must have improved some of the service (hopefully the PS store it been taken some time to load now and then).

Researching e-learning sites

I have researched 5 websites and put them in order of how good they fufil their purpose.

1) http://alison.com/ - allows people to register and set up places for people to learn and also allows people to access other peoples learning area and look at what they can learn.

2) http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/ - gives multiple hyperlinks to different subjects and has an option for adult learning.

3) http://teaching.shu.ac.uk/hwb/chemistry/tutorials/ - gives information certain scientific experiments and information.

4) http://www.reonline.org.uk/ - give lots of information on RE subjects which is useful to people learning about religion.

5) http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/ - allows users to search the site for information to learn.

E-learning - why?

I was unable to find the macromedia website so I used http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro/elearning/virtualclassroom.html which still did the same thing.

The purpose of the webpage was to give people some information on virtual classrooms and what they would do if used as part of a business through the use of a multimedia video and some information was written further down the page reinforcing what was shown in the video,

Using this webpage as an example of e-learning it shows it to be very useful in allow people who are unable to make it to say school they could log on to a computer and learn the lessons from home allow students not to fall behind in their studies. It also provides an environment that is easy to traverse as it is quite simple to understand and it also allows some people to talk to other people via video calling allowing students to listen to what they have to do instead of reading.

What E-learning can provide that normal learning cannot is that it allows people to learn where there is a computer with the appropriate software making education more accessible to other people for different countries and backgrounds. It can also allow students to go over information they may have missed.

The disadvantages of E-learning is that it would ruin students people skills as they would not need to talk to anyone as they would type everything making getting jobs harder as they would not be able to answer, also if students do not understand the information they are given they can ask for help but if they still do not understand they would be unable to actual see there teacher as the would be in a different location.

Online simulation - why use it?

I have used the website http://frog.edschool.virginia.edu/Frog1/ to review its purpose.

The purpose of the site is to show people how to practice dissecting a frog and can also give brief demonstrations via a multimedia download which is played using QuickTime. The student is also allowed to practice what they have learned on a picture of the frog but I have found this to be very unresponsive in certain areas of the picture e.g. the practice information told me to click on where I believed the frog should be pined I was able to click on top limbs which were at the top but the bottom limbs always came up with “this is incorrect” making the practice frustrating.

The site is very good on helping students understand what they have to do before dissecting a frog but the site is highly unusable for dissecting a frog as it is pictures taken and u the student is asked to click on areas that are unresponsive making the student learn nothing as the dissection would not work also because there is no animation the student does not know whether they have dissected any part of the frog as it only says “you are correct” or “you are incorrect”.

What this site shows me about online simulation for education is that it needs more work as the site is unresponsive in allowing students to proceed and as there is no animation nothing can be shown as the student progresses so dissecting a real from is the better way at the moment.

Learning simulations and objects - why use them?

I have been using the website http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/ to find out the purpose of the site.

The purpose of the site is to educate people on certain periods of time such as the 1960s to 2000 and what were the major events during that time period such as the creation of personal computers and information networks. By going to the time line option on the main page the user is able to chose a period of time and learn about the major events which is what I had to look at, by choosing a sub option on a period of time it give detailed explanations on what happened throughout that period for it to happen while also including interactive portions for more information that the user can interact with.

What it teaches us about online education is that children can learn large amounts of information on a website like Making the Modern world as it allows interactive interaction between the user and the information allow children to gain an understanding at their own pace by being able to back and forth between information just in case they don’t understand.

Weather results - using real time information

The results for the past 5 day’s weather are:

Saturday – Sunny
Sunday – Sunny
Monday – Sunny Intervals
Tuesday – Light Showers
Wednesday – Moderate Showers

These weather results are very slightly different as 1 of the days is not the same as the 5 day forecast I looked for. This could be because the amount of time that had been forecast was to far in the future for it to be correct as many changes in wind direction and clouds could cause a quick change in weather also I should of checked back once in a while to see if they had changed the forecast for Wednesday as it was the only day not to follow the forecast

Online Banking - How useful?

The two online banks I will be investigating are Barclays and Lloyds TSB.

The purpose of online banking is to be able to check your account balance, transfer money to other accounts or people, set up standing orders into accounts or bills that must be paid over a certain period of time and many other useful extras that can all be done at home instead of at the bank you use.

The target audience of online banking are over sixteen’s as they are eligible for a chip and pin card which is used in Barclays new updated online banking as they must use there chip and pin card in a device called PINsentry where they put in their card into the device and must put in their pin and they are given a code to access their online account the codes are always random and the PINsentry has also recently been introduced to increase security but to receive the device and card they must go to one of the branches banks whereas Lloyds TSB allows customers to register online, by telephone or going to one of the many branches but to register online you have to put in all your card details and personal details and if the website was a scam website then this could lead to people having their account details stolen as there does not seem to be to much security.

Both websites fulfils these purposes its just Barclays seems to be more secure as they offer another line of security then Lloyds but since I do not use Lloyds my statement may not be correct as they may include extra devices or other security.

The major advantages of using online banking is that it is easy and quick, does not involve going long distances to get to one of the branches, can be done almost anywhere where a computer has an internet connection, some online banks offer extra protection and it allows people to set up standing orders for bills to business like British gas.
The limitations are that certain people set up scam websites meant to look like the proper official bank website which they use to recover card details and information to make counterfeit cards they do this by sending an E-mail to a certain customer say that something has gone wrong and that they must in put there details again.

Online banking could be improved by making sure that bank websites are official by putting a non-copy and paste image that show that the websites are official and stops the theft of online details and increase security to stop accounts getting hacked into.

EBAY - why so successful

The major purpose of eBay is to allow people to sell products they own for a price they like and allow other people to bid on the product over a certain period of time, it also allows some users to set up shops to sell specific product such as clothing (like the socks I have)

The target audience of eBay is for older and more matured people as products are of interests to collectors of antiques or are trying to find cheap presents for the friends or family as some prices for products such as games and DVDs are a lot cheaper on eBay compared to other online retailers.

The action process is quite simple really the person selling the item chooses a price they are willing to sell the product at, add P&P (post and packing) if they want as they can gain money lost in this process and allow people to bid. To bid is just as easy as the person willing to buy the item must be willing to pay the price of the object plus post and packing without being out bid this is helpful is the person does not wish to own the product as they don’t need to bid more.

It fulfils these purposes very well as there are lots of online stores which allow people to buy products at lower prices then they could find anywhere else on the internet, also this allows many people trying to find rare products to buy them as they may be a collector of a fan.

The benefits of using eBay is that the prices on some objects are very low in price allowing people to save money, collectors are able to find products they are looking for, it lets people who want to sell the products they don’t want for a price they like which allows them to gain money and people are able to get products from different countries by sellers in different countries.
The limitations of using eBay is that is someone gets in to your account they are able to buy anything (which has been shown on the news with children accessing eBay accounts and buying toys), some people sell ridicules items which make find some product frustrating, some people lie by selling an item when they actually aren’t leading to people losing money and no refunds as the site does not take responsibility and some people sell items that can be found at high street and supermarkets for very high prices which makes find low prices hard (this has been seen with the releases of some games consoles with someone selling a Nintendo Wii console for £1000)

eBay is so successful as a shopping model as it allows normal people to sell items they do not want any more for some money they may need and also allows the to set up shops without the need for a building or high street shop and as the internet is become more accessible to lots of people more people will buy from the website allowing people to become more economically sufficient.