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I R Journey

My I R journey could most probably be described by the metaphor of learning how to swim. Scientists believe that new born babies already know how to slim. In fact, I've seen myself how babies are able to float themselves in the water, but for a short period of time. Our inborn talent of swimming is because of the fact that during the earliest time of our infancy, we were already swimming in a pool. A different kind of pool, our mother's womb.

As we grew older and got adapted to living on dry land outside the womb, we begin to forget how to swim. And as the years go by, we completely lose that knowledge and that is why many people admitted that they do no know how to swim.

It takes courage (interest, and curiostity) to return to the pool and take a dive. To learn how to float our bodies and then to learn all the techniques of swimming, breathing, diving.

Just like the pool, the internet like a vast open water. Although we were not born with the inborn talent of knowing how to browse through the internet, the children of my generation grew up with the internet. The internet has been there throughout most of our lives.

But learning about the vast internet through this module, is just like learning how to swim in the water. We must learn how to swim through the vast waters of internet and dive deep to find whats relevant. But we cannot just jump into the water and frantically kick and paddle the waters. We must first learn the correct technique, the correct strokes in order to swim our way through smoothly.

This module is just like that. And after the lesson has ended, I am more able to swim smoothly by myself, taking the correct strokes and kicks. The water seemed less intimidating and with the correct technique, I can happily swim in internet's vast waters without getting lost and fear of drowning in over-load of information. The waters now look clean and clear from where I am swimming.

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The music trend among Asian teens shows quite an interesting trend, especially for teens in the region of Singapore and Malaysia. Recent years show massive interest and steep trend in preference for other Asian music scene, particularly Japanese pop music and Korean pop music, or better known as J-pop and K-pop respectively. The import of J-pop and K-pop music is perhaps driven by the demand among teens as this age group is considered a large group of consumer of the latest music trends. Teens who are hooked to Korean and Japanese drama shows (such as "Boys Before Flowers") are also exposed to the Korean and Japanese theme songs of the shows. From there, they delved deeper into J-pop and K-pop music genre.

The import of J-pop music continued into later of last decade and is evident when a certain popular all girls Korean group, Wonder Girls burst into the scene with their song "Nobody But You" and suddenly, the whole nation is swept away by the sweet, demure looks of the girl-band and their dancing. One example of how K-pop has boomed into a cultural trend among Singaporean teens is when popular local podcaster, Mr. Brown did a parody of Wonder Girls' popular song when the world was hit by the deadly pandemic of the H1N1 swine flu. The song was so popular that it no longer was just a trend among teens, but for the younger generation, in general. Following the success of Wonder Girls and their appeal to the Asian masses, especially among teens who look to these artists for fashion and music, Korean has continued to produce and export numerous boybands and girl groups to tap into the market of teen K-pop music. Groups such as Super Junior, 4Minute, FT Island and 2PM are just a few of the K-pop groups consisting of young, handsome, pretty, fashionable and talented singers who are packaged for international audience as they have such appeal towards teens and masses, alike.

Teens as major consumers of this genre of music is willing to spend a lot of time searching for such music. Some fanatics would buy tickets to see their favourite K-pop artists and groups. Teens are not only willing to spend time chasing after their favourite stars, but also willing to splurge to watch them perform.

With such appeal against the teens, there seems to be no stopping the popular trend of Asian music next big thing among teens in this region. In fact, by browsing through the numerous blogs and fansites as well as youtube videos posted by fans, it is safe to say that the K-pop invasion has arrived and taken ground amongst the people, especially among teens who find the Korean culture so intriguing and K-pop artists themselves so appealing.

Citizen Journalism

Welcome back to EIR~

So what's the hype about citizen journalism? Apparently, in this day and age where a camera is just a flip away, everyday people are using their freedom of speech (or technology use) to good...or maybe not so good. Depends on how you judge it.

With the technology of camera phone and the fact that almost everyone nowdays own a camera phone, people are using their power and their phone to capture and post whatever they feel is news-worthy. Whether its the public's bad habits or behaviour, or queer observations, everyday people are finding some sort of joy in posting on the internet what they want others to see. Speaking of which, this could as be seen as society reflecting upon itself, whether its seeing the ugly truth about society or the beauty of society.

We discussed as a class about what we think citizen journalism means. And Ms Faridah concluded that our answers could fit under 3 big umbrellas:

i) Freedom of speech
ii) Contribution of info/user generated content
iii) People's viewpoint

We also discussed in groups about effectiveness of the Stomp website for ctizen journalism. Stomp provides everyday people who wants to post something on it more political freedom. Each and every user is free to post and comment on it. With this freedom, it is important that users know their responsibilities and post and comment responsibly. Sensitive issues such as race and religion should be handled carefully and tactfully so as to not offend others. Although there is much freedom in citizen journalism, as responsible and mature citizens, people must know how to comment in a critical and fact-based manner. People should not comment and post according to their emotions and judge without analysing a certain topic from a few angles. It also boils down to the education of the users on the site. With wide knowledge and understanding of a certain topic, people are more likely to post or comment something that is relevant and constructive, instead of just rambling whatever is on their mind.

In conclusion, I find this week's activity rather refreshing. Being an international student here in Singapore, I have not taken note of how famous this Stomp website is among the citizens. It is a place where people observe people and more comment on the topic. There are good sides and bad sides of it, but if put to effective use, the website could be useful in publishing up-to-date news with the views from the local people themselves. It was quite an eye-opener and I realised that this website will truly help foreigners see and analyse certain topic through the eyes and mind of the locals, if its true potential is reached.

This week in IR...

This week in IR, we learn about the vast and deep abyss of the invisible web. We were introduced to several invisible web sources such as MEDLINE, EBSCO and SJ Library.

Some examples of databases that are stored are:
  • Public Company Filings
  • Telephone numbers
  • Customised maps and driving directions
  • Clinical Trials
  • Patents
  • Out of Print Books
  • Library Catalogs
  • Authoritative Dictionaries
  • Environmental Information
  • Historical Stock Quotes
  • Historical Documents and Images
  • Company Directories
During class, we were given the freedom to try out the different invisible web sources and compare each one. We also compared the databases using the web sources of invisible web. Based on what I can see from the results, web databases basically provides more offline articles and scholarly materials. We are also reminded that these databases could be used in our respective diplomas for our projects or research.

I find the databases quite helpful especially in my course, Biomedical Informatics and Engineering, as we will be doing various reports and research that require scientific and scholarly articles to help with our research. The databases will provide a wide range of useful and relevant articles and sources. With the knowledge I gain from learning about researching databases, I can implement them when I am doing projects or research :)

This week we were also introduced to using wiki. Mdm Farida explained to us about the usage and the purpose of using wiki. She also asked us to summarise, reflect and post the things we learn in this module on our blog. She urges us to find joy in writing and reading up on various topics. I find her encouragement inspiring as I think teens and youths today need to read up more on serious issues and reflect upon it and realise what impact are we making in the world today. We cannot just live by everyday not thinking or worrying about tomorrow. Reflections also help us learn better not just about this module, but ourselves and our interest.

Ms Faridah pointed out that we were to do a discussion on our tutorial class' wiki space. Our topic of discussion would be on e-counseling. The distribution of workload is done by two of our class mates Ridwan and Meng Hock. I volunteered myself to be in charge of finding and researching on visual aids that contributes to the discussion of our topic.


That's it for this week :)

This week in I R

This week's CDS, we were exposed to the usage of different search engines, mainly Google and Google Scholar and to compare the both. Google is used by many of the internet users to search for anything and everything from education, research, news, entertainment, etc.

I also learn about the different keywords and Boolean operators I could use in order to narrow down my search results. Boolean operators are such as AND, OR and AND NOT. Some search engines uses the "+" and "-" signs.
Keywords especially help a lot in narrowing down my searches. Using suitable boolean operators, I managed to select and choose the best search query for my research topic.

This is the search query that I had come up with:
(impact OR effect*) AND (child* OR kid*) AND (violence OR aggression) AND mass N/2 media

Online Shopping (but unfortunately it's virtual)

This week, my lecturer said the she's giving each one of us $500 to go online shopping! Now how exciting is that?! Imagine all the things I could buy with that amount of money! *swoons*

Well, there is a catch to all this free money. Online shopping is a virtual activity, no matter how real you want it to be. But, normally, after you've confirmed your purchase and transacted the money, your item gets delivered to you. The catch for this week's activity is that our virtual shopping stays virtual. Meaning our "item" that we "bought" online stays virtual and non-real. FOREVER (at least until we've earned enough money to really buy the item ourselves).

The first item that came to mind when I knew I was going to shop online was "GRAHPIC TEES!". It costs around $18 to $25 a piece and is avaible in different sizes for men and ladies. At threadless.com, they offer not only tees for men and ladies, but also hoodies and sizes for kids, onesies and infant tees.

Notice how the designer cleverly inserted I :love: you into a simple design


Geeky :)

I found that bustedtees.com offer a wide variety of very creative graphic tees...my eyes went all gaga because there were so many pieces that are so special and eye-catching. Here are some of my favourites.

I wouldn't want to get that note in my fortune cookie.


It reads: Facebook, where everyone knows your name. Even my high school teachers are my "friend" on facebook. Hm.

Which direction to the wilderness? Point to a zoo.



If people think you're hot, it's probably because Mother Earth is hot too.


After some fast calculations, I am left with $380 and 6 cool tees. I decided to shop more and the next thing that came to mind was to buy an acoustic guitar. I owned a classical guitar but I've wanted an acoustic guitar for some time now (but unfortunately it's still NOT going to materialise after this online shopping). I searched Amazon for a glitter acoustic that I've seen Taylor Swift used during some of her performances and yes! It has been found!

Amazon allows me to type in my search words easily and I can select whether to search in all departments or narrow it down to a group such as musical instruments. On the result page, they offer more results with links to related searches such as electric acoustic guitars and electric guitars. On the top of the result page, they also offer links to different categories related to my search. So I can easily narrow down my search to strictly on acoustic guitars or beginner's kits or bags and cases or even just strings.


On the page of the product selected, the product prices, stock details, delivery details and product description are displayed. Once I've decided on this item, I can add it into my shopping cart and go on shopping. On that same page, there are links to customer reviews, other related products and more guitar accessories. Basically, I can find infos on the item I want and so much more.

Now that my shopping activity is done, I'm very happy with my purchases and experience doing this experimental online shopping. Amazon is certainly a very good website to do easy searches on common products and to find more specific products from specific companies, I prefer to go online shopping directly on their page, but only for items such as the graphic tees.

I'm a happy shopper. Only thing not fun, I will never own those items I "bought". YET.

2nd week...

Entering second week of EIR. I'm getting a little more clearer about the things I'm about to learn in this CDS. We spent some time learning about the purposes of internet resources such as source of information, for entertainment, for marketing or for personal usage. I have better understanding now of how each website differs from the next in terms of its purpose. We also learn about the strategy involved in researching the internet. I will try out the methods stated so that my research is more effective.

Ms Farida asked us to select a research topic and after looking through the suggested topics, I decided to research on trends in the music industry for teens. Since I love music and I am a teen, the topic sounds simpler to me. I do follow the latest trends in music but I need to take into consideration the masses of teens' music trends in order to be more accurate in my research. I also need to take into consideration the regions when researching the music trends as teens in each part of the world has slightly different tastes in music, no matter how universal music is. Besides that, radio air play, internet and peer influence also has some degree of effect on trends in music affecting the teens.

After analysing these few points that needs to be taken into, I am a little more excited about my research topic and what the out come will be. I hope with Ms Farida's guidance, I am able to not only complete my research, but also do a thorough and comprehensive research on such an interesting topic.

Quote of the day:
There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another.
Frank Zappa (1940-1993) American composer and rock musician.

I intro into I R

Hello. This is my first post for this new CDS that I am taking called Effective Internet Research aka EIR. Let me tell you a little about myself in this first post so we'll get to know each other better :)

My name is Katherina Oh, aka Kat. I'm taking Diploma in Biomedical Informatics & Engineering aka BIE. This is quite an enjoyable course as we get to learn about how engineering skills could be applied in the medical field in order to save lives. But we have to put in a lot of effort in order to do well in this diploma. I'm sure it's the same for all diplomas as well.

I like listening to music as well. Oh how coincidental. Besides that, I also enjoy watching movies, TV shows, all things about entertainment and hanging out and talking with friends . Secretly, I enjoy playing guitar, but I'm too shy to admit it =s

I enjoy loud dramatic music as well as mellow and soft music. Recently, I've become a big fan of Leona Lewis. I feel that there's no reason not to like her music because she is so talented and has a great voice. She also puts a lot of emotions into her music. Some of my favourite TV shows are The Ellen DeGeneres Show simply because the host is very funny. There's also this show called 30 Rock that is very funny starring Tina Fey. My other TV time are filled with MTV, Discovery Channel and that's all =s

Oh, what am I good at? Er. I think once I start writing, I usually go on for too long. So, I think I need to curb my writing. Probably go more straight to the point. But I do enjoy writing. But that is another secret thing that I secretly enjoy and normally don't admit to. The only thing stopping me from writing a lot more is because I'm lazy. That is another thing I need to learn to improve. Well, not improve on my laziness, but improve on not being lazy, ofcourse.

Oh yeah, nice to meet you :)