Effective Internet Research Blogs

I am a student from Temasek Polytechnic. My blogs will entail my experiences in the EIR module.

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Content curation : News Article

Using the Newslink available in the TP library database, I have done the research on the smart environment. Newslink provides articles from 16 Singapore newspaper in the form of PDF formats and images. I have chosen the article named “HDB fleshes out Smart Town framework” from the Singapore News, Business Times published on September 12,2014.

The article highlights the Singapore’s effort to strive towards becoming a smart city by applying the modern technology to the housing estates to improve energy savings as well as improve the livings for the elderly in homes. For example, the article states that “HDB will provide digital infrastructure in flats and residents can tap on applications developed by commercial companies. A potential application is an elderly alert system, with sensors placed in the flat that can help monitor the movements of the elderly.” This shows that the process of providing care for the elderly could be brought up into a whole new level with the advanced technology and smart livings. Therefore, this article is relevant to my research topic; the Smart Environment.

The source of the news article is credible and trustworthy as it is a local newspaper named Business Times and is well-known in Singapore and has many readers locally. It was founded since 1995 and is still standing strong today thus this shows that it is a reliable and trustworthy source.

The article is current as it was only published on the September 12,2014. Hence, this news is useful to my research topic of Smart Environment due to the presented reasons.

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Comparison between Google and the TP Library Database; ACM Digital Library (Part 2)

Both search engines are adjustable according to the research query. Since my topic is related to modern advanced technology, it is imperative to limit the search of publication dates to be within the current years. i.e. 2013-16.

As seen above, Google allows the user to narrow the search by customisation of the date.

This page shows the ACM Digital Library search page.On the left side of the page, the users can control the publication years of the sources according to their preferences.

Google is able to provide a collective amount of images in one place for my topic of research. By following the copyright rules, I am able to choose to use the suitable pictures based on my needs. However, It is difficult to find a collective source of picture illustrations for my research topic using the ACM Digital Library as it can only provide with the information in the form of text in the articles and papers.

For the available sources in PDF forms, Google does not display how many times it has been downloaded. However, ACM Digital Library is able to provide with the number of downloads for individual items and this helps me to decide whether the article is found as useful by how many other people as well. Hence, it helps me in decision making process as to whether I agree with the other users that it is useful or not useful within a short period of time.

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Comparison between Google and the TP Library Database; ACM Digital Library (Part 1)

In this post, I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Google search engine and the ACM Digital Library from the Temasek Polytechnic Databases.

Google sometimes direct the users to non-credible sources such as Wikipedia where anyone is able to edit the text and this makes the content lack credibility. This reduces the credibility of the sources and the user ends up wasting time when there is a limited duration given for the research only. ACM Digital Library, however, is able to provide the name of the author when I searched for my topic and the publication history of them. This helps me decide whether the source is reliable and whether it is a useful source of information for my topic of research.

Google is able to direct me to relevant websites to find out the information about the Smart Homes. ACM Digital Library on the other hand is unable to provide me with the links to the website to have a quick overview of the information needed for the Smart Homes as it mostly consists of full text articles that are a few pages long in PDF text.

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Effectiveness of the TP library database EBSCOHost to my research

While researching for a topic, it is important to list down the key ideas and concept of the topic and their synonyms. Hence, I have decided to list down the synonyms of my search query; the Smart Home Security Systems. This will not only aid me in finding relevant information but also maximise the range of search. The following will show several synonyms of my research terms.

Smart; intelligent, brainy, clever, genius, brilliant Home; Household, family, domestic, central, internal Security; Surveillance, safety, guard, shield, defence, Systems; Arrangement, structure, setup, order, whole

Using the EBSCOHost Library database, I have tried to research on the Smart Home Security Systems using the advanced option. While using the search engine, it is important to know the basic functions of the search terms such as AND, OR and NOT. “AND” is used to connect the words together, “OR” is used to group the synonyms and “NOT” is for excluding the certain words. For my research, I have used AND and OR in the search boxes. I have keyed in (Smart OR Intelligent OR Brainy OR Clever OR Genius OR Brilliant) AND (Home OR Household OR Family OR Domestic OR Central OR Internal) AND (Security OR Surveillance  OR Safety OR Guard OR Shield OR Defence) AND (systems OR Arrangement  OR Structure OR Setup OR Order OR Whole).

It is also acceptable and possible to just use one to two terms for synonyms. However, the more the number of synonyms, the wider the range of information that will become available in the search engine evidently seen in the example of search in the image shown above. There are a total of 3118 results shown according to the search. These texts consist of full text, scholarly journals and image quick overview, dating as early as 1872 to present;2016. Hence, EBSCOHost was effective in providing me with as much research items available as possible related to my topic.

However, it is almost the impossible task to go over every single one of these thousands of articles in a limited amout of time of research. To effectively select relevant results, I have decided to further narrow the search by refining the search. The refining includes the lmiting of texts to full text, scholarly journals and the publication date to be from 2013-2016 as my topic is about current and latest techology therefore articles as old as 2000 would possibly be irrelvant to my search. This reduced my search items to as little as 164 items as seen above.

From the example, it can be seen that one can adjust the features of search to suit his topic of research. If the topic were to be about historical events, it will be more beneficial to have the publication date of the items set to the earlier years. If the search were to be about modern day technology like my research is about, it will be preferable to choose the recent and current items from the results therefore adjusting the publication date according to the need of the user. In this way, I was able to have a more effective research due to the useful features of the EBSCOHost search engine.

While going over each items, it is ineffective to complete reading all of the text give that there is a limited time constraint for the research. Therefore it is crucial for the me as a reader to quickly skim through the abstracts provided by EBSCOHost to evaluate how relevant the item is to my topic of research in a short amount of time.

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Effectiveness of  Google’s video feature to my research

From the topic of Smart Environment, I have decided to zoom in to Smart Home security. By making use of the Google search engine, I put in the keywords of the main concept together and typed in “Intelligent Home automation systems” in the search box as shown below.

The search feature of Google, the “Videos” option was effective in aiding my research.

Firstly, it provided the websites to visit to have the system searched to be installed at home for the interested customers as seen in the image above. This saves time and money for actual consultations in person as the websites can provide with the majority of the information that the companies can offer for the customers and the customers can self-educate about how the merchandise or systems work before considering to purchase it. In this way, this feature of Google was effective in providing information in a short time for the intelligent home security systems available at the moment.

Secondly, it provided with numerous links leading to pages with the videos as its primary purpose entails. The thumbnails and the short titles of the videos give the researcher a quick overview of what the videos will consist of and what can be expected of it. For the auditory learners, this is a pretty great offer from Google. The video search quickly classifies relevant videos such as how the home automation systems work and how to build a smart home from the keywords searched. By also looking at the duration of the videos, the website visitors can make a quick prediction of the amount of information included in the videos. The dates indicated beside the videos help the user to check its currency of the video of the topic. Therefore, Google’s Videos feature was effective in helping the user to quickly analyse the videos results shown and deciding which video is the most suitable at the time of research by deciding its relevance and currency.

In short, it can be seen that the individual search features of Google have their own specific benefits to the user for the respective researches that they are carrying out.

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Content curation : Video

This video features how the smart living environment is working out for Daniel and his family. The video is relevant to the theme Smart Environment as it talks about the feature included in a smart home; security and living etc. This video will interest those who are keen in transforming your home into a smart home or just want to find out more about how a modern smart home works. In just a few minutes, the video gives an insightful story of a smart home owner’s review and his feelings about having a smart home.

The video is trustworthy as it has direct evidence to all of the statements made in the video and it is featured by a website that designed the Daniel’s household Smart Living systems; the SmartThings. The authority of the website is reliable and trustworthy as the SAMSUNG SmartThings is a company well-known globally and has a wide consumer field all around the world.

It is also current as the post was only in 2014. Therefore, it will be very helpful to the users for their different purposes in viewing the video.

The primary purpose of the video is to promote the smart products offered by the SmartThings which is a company aimed at providing intelligent living to its customers.

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A home automation system from Control4 can turn your home into a smart home. Learn more about automating your home today!

Control4

Control4.com is a website of a company providing both the software as well as hardware services needed for a smart home environment. It aims to provide the users with the ease of control of the desired location in peace. The site educates the visitors about the smart products and their functions. It also allows one to plan for a Smart Living environment with their specialists. Hence, it is a relevant website for the topic “Smart Environment”. Please click the link above to view the website page.

The authority of the website is trustworthy as the company is based in the Salt Lake city in Utah and is  a global trademark in 73 countries. This shows that the company has a large number of customers all around the globe and this shows that the company perhaps satisfies the customers’ needs well. It is also publicly held and traded on the NASDAQ stock market which is the second-largest exchange in the world by market capitalisation thus adding on to its credibility.

The website is current as it has the latest events lined up just on the 8 March 2016.

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Smart Environment

The topic chosen for research is the Smart Environment. The basic definition of Smart Environment is how the people interact with the advanced and invented technology to make everyday living better and easier. In everyday aspects such as travelling, working and living homes, Smart technologies can be found nowadays. For instance, in homes, we can install sensors and control the switching on and off of the lights from a tap on our hand-phones with a software installed. In this way, humans do not need to physically up and go to the manual switches on the walls because the technology is doing for them. Have you forgotten to switch off the electrical appliances while going to work in a hurry? Fret not for the technology will ease your worry of home safety and prevent the electrical bills from going rocket high. To further aid the research on the topic, a few terms I have chosen to be used in the research are listed as follows.

1. Smart security for households 2. Intelligent Home automation systems 3. Smart Home Safety 4. Intelligent Home Security 5. Home security management

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First day at EIR

I am Ya Min Thu and  I will be studying the Information Technology. First day in new CDS, the Effective Internet Research, I anticipated it to be all about computer work and dull activities lining up in classroom. However, this is not entirely what happened today. The first group work with my new classmates were engaging and intriguing. While trying to adapt to each other, we learnt new things about each other and worked well together.

Our first task as a group was to plan a trip to see the Northern Lights. Questions such as where can we see it? How do we get there? What is the budget like? The accommodations? And cost of the trip? sprung to our mind. We had to consult the google as usual and we were brought to numerous websites to get the desired information. For instance, we were brought to travel websites and found out how the hotels there are like and how expensive they were charged per night. We read the blogs from the previous travellers and what they would recommend us to do if we went there. We searched for the best location to view the Northern Lights and decided Norway will be the most suitable choice according to the map and flight information. As such, our attempt at planning a trip to see the Northern Lights was fruitful and successful.

Our assignment for the day was to create our own blog and I was shocked to find out that none of my classmates are bloggers. With many teenagers nowadays being fluent in the social networking sites such as Instagram, twitter and facebook, one would expect them to be familiar with blogging as well. However, it is not the case and this has intrigued me much.

To sum up my first day experience at EIR, I would rate it to be a pleasant one as the new classmates are outgoing and friendly. This make it very easy to work with them and I feel fortunate to have them as my new CDS-mates. I am looking forward to having a fun-filled and interesting learning experience in this EIR module.