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Creative Thinking Text

LA 1:Creative methodsRead the sections (see link) on "Creative methods" from Robert Harris and provide 1 example of each for the 5 types of Creative methods: Harris, Robert. "Evaluating Internet Research Sources." VirtualSalt. 15 June 2007.

Evolution. The wheel!

Synthesis. Woolworths Put, chemists, bottle shops and petrol up the road to get all our money...and there only a greengrocer

Revolution. Using the sun to power cars, using the energy from a treat mill to charge batteries to power light bulbs...(that’s my idea)

Reapplication. Using polymers to create modern more flexible surf boards instead of fibreglass

Changing Direction. A bad four way intersection, traffic lights to slow....lets build a circle in the middle and call it a roundabout..that’ll speed things up.



LA3:Brainstorming with bubbl.us
Produce a brainstorming diagram for a topic of your choice...go to bubbl.us and click the "Start Brainstorming" button...it's
free-to-use but you're obliged to PayPal them a donation."thinking tools" you'd find useful and describe each. To help you get started, find out what brainstorming is and what a brainstorming diagram looks like. Document your sources in the Word doc.

This is the back bone for my web site....should take about five years to do...!!!! ;o) 



LA 4: De Bono
Research "De Bono's Hats" and write a page describing what that's all about and determine what sort of hat you're most likely to wear.


Learning Activity 4: De Bono
Six Thinking Hats
Edward de Bono is a pioneer in the field of the teaching of thinking education. The six thinking hats method is based on his extensive experience and research into thinking skills across different ages and abilities, ranging from six year olds to senior corporate executives.
It is de Bono’s belief that simple methods used effectively are more valuable  than complicated methods that are difficult to understand and confusing to use.
When we attempt practical thinking, there are three fundamental difficulties:
1.       Emotions
We often have a tendency not to think at all but to rely on instant “gut feeling”
emotion and prejudices  as a basis for action.

2.       Helplessness
We may react with feelings of inadequacy: “I don’t know how to think about this. I don’t know what to do next.”

3.       Confusion
We try to keep everything in mind at once, with the result being a mess!
The six thinking hats method is an easy and practical way of overcoming all three difficulties.
Emotion, handled illogically, can be disastrous. The six hats method allows students to use emotions and feelings in a constructive manner.
Helplessness arises when we do not have any general purpose thinking actions that can be taken. Six hats method can define “next steps”.
Confusion arises when we try and do to much at once. Often when we try and think of something, our minds go in a hundred directions at the same time. The six hats method allows people  to take one direction at a time.

Six Colours Six Hats
In de Bono’s method, thinking is divided into six different modes, each represented by a different coloured hat.
RED HAT Represents Emotion- Intuition, feeling and hunches, how do I feel about the problem.

YELLOW HAT Represents the Good points- Why is this worth doing? How will it help us? Why can it be done? Why will it work?

BLACK HAT Represents the Bad points- Caution, judgement, assessment. Will it work? What are the weaknesses? What is wrong with it?

GREEN HAT Represents Creativity- different or new ideas, suggestions and proposals. What are some possible ways to work this out? What are some other ways to solve the problem?

WHITE HAT Represents Information- questions. What information do we have? What information do we need to get?


BLUE HAT Represents organisation of thinking- thinking about thinking. What have we done so far? What do we  do next?







The Campaign
Have a customer subscribe to our website
Send out a flyer one week before the specials flyer comes out
Flyer explains all about the new special coming out soon.
Tell customer to watch this space


Specials flyer has Information telling customer about specials
Customer can use flyer for cheap prices
Word of mouth will spread flyer
Net will spread flyer
Customers will come in and buy more than just special pricing



Pros
Customer will spread flyer on by net and word of mouth
Customer that subscribes to web site feels they are getting a bargain
Customer that subscribes feels part of a team
People will start to wait for the next specials coming soon
People can check the net for specials on products they need and not have to come into the store until they know what they want


Cons
People will just not read it
Not catchy enough, boring


Customer may get sick of emails coming in
Think that the prices are not cheap enough
It may take off and then we get the tall poppy syndrome




Learning Activity 6: Develop a user profile survey

Thank you for agreeing to fill out the User Profile questionnaire in which you will be asked questions on your range of products we sell. It will take approximately 2 minutes to complete.
Thank you very much for your time and support. Please start with the survey now by filling in your contact details
Given Names ......................
Surnames ......................
Email ...................... (Optional)

Q 1: Were did you hear about websites? A: TV       B: Newspaper        C:Magazine           D: Word of mouth E: Surfing the net                 F: Other ..........................................

Q 2: What products are you looking for? A: Tiles     B: Mirrors        C: Floor Heating          D: Bathroom ware        E: Other ..........................................

Q 3: What would make you leave a website? A: Poor navigation             B: Time to load     first page           C: Lack of information    D: To much information E: Other.........................................

Q4: Our email newsletter is sent out when there's specials in-store, would you like to
subscribe to this?" A: Yes          B:No          Other..................................


Q6: Does the appearance/ function/ useful Information of a website, affect weather you
would buy from that company A:Yes           B: No  C: Other ..........................................

Q8: What would be the one thing that keeps you at a website? A: Appearance
B: Function           C: Colours     D: Information       E: Brand name          F: Product
G:Other ..........................................

Q9: Do you believe advertising influences
your choice in choosing a website? A: Yes B:No



Q10: Do you trust purchasing goods
online A: Yes B:No C:other..............................

Q11: Have your online experiences
Been good or bad A: Good B: Bad C: Other.............................

Q13: Would you consider buying all your goods
online, instead of visiting the store? A: All the time B: Some of the time C: Never

Q14: Do you trust the information
on the website to be correct? A: All the time B: Some of the time C: Never

Q15: If you had a good experience
With a website would you? A: Tell a friend B: Book mark it C: Tell nobody
D: Other......................................................................................

Q16: Do you believe surveys
help to build better websites? A: Yes B:No C: Other.....................

Q17: What are you thoughts on surveys? A: Don’t like them B: Informative C: Waste of time
D: Help build better sites E: Never use them
F:Other......................................................................................
Thankyou for taking the time to fill in this questionnaire.



Your information will be processed and will contribute to the building of a better website service





Google Docs:

You can easily do all the basics, including making bulleted lists, sorting by columns, adding tables, images, comments, formulas, changing fonts and more and it's free.
This is perhaps the most frequently mentioned processor of its kind, simply for the fact that it is a Google based product. Google Docs is quite capable of replacing virtually all common tasks that your typical desktop-based whiteboard can manage.


Zoho Writer:

Is a Web- based online office suite containing word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, CRM, project management, invoicing and other applications developed by ZOHO Corporation
Additional products, such as spreadsheets and presentations, were incorporated later into Zoho
Software utilities are hosted on remote servers rather than on personal computers. The user accesses the utilities via a web browser. This application is superb in all sorts of ways. It runs neck-and-neck with Google Docs as features go, yet it’s has the added appeal of being an independent option. In a manner of speaking, Zoho Writer has big talent without the big title.


Word Press:

Is an open source CMS, often used as a blog publishing application powered by PHP and MySQL. It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a templating system. Used by over 12% of the 1,000,000 biggest websites, Word Press is the most popular CMS in use today.
Renowned for its simplicity, openness and extensibility. WordPress.com is a hosted blogging service of immense popularity largely because it’s free.

Twitter:

The most popular and most recognized micro blogging solution presently in play, Twitter has many functions. It’s used as a marketing engine. It’s used to talk to “followers.” It’s even used to chronicle poems and verse, as well as brief novella-like inventions. NYTimes reporter Matt Richtel is one figure who employed the platform for creative ends.


Think Free Office:

Think Free Office includes a word processor (Write), a spreadsheet (Calc), a presentation program (Show), and a WYSIWYG HTML and blog editor (Note). Think Free Office reads and writes to Microsoft Office file formats (.doc, .xls, and .ppt). Think Free Office has a look and feel similar to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, providing a degree of familiarity to new users.
It doesn’t get spoken about very often, but Think Free Write application is able to swim with bigger fish if it’s tasked to do so. You may like or dislike it for various reasons, but technically speaking, it’s quite fortuitous.





Assignment 3 Summarise a podcast

Pod cast from: Triple J

Featuring: Sandy with Dr Alastair
Reynolds & Dr Karl Kruszelnicki

Topics: Space/ Space elevators/ Black Holes and Time travel

Pod Link:

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/science/podcast/scienceontriplej/scienceontriplej20100909.mp3


Pod cast on Space elevator/Nanotubes:

(Nanotubes have been constructed with length-to-diameter ratio of up to 132,000,000:1)

Dr Karl and Dr Al start of talking about Space opera. Which are grand vistas of space from galaxy to galaxy, covering time cloning, modifying people into different shapes and cultures. Machine people and conjoining people through there brain. Also weapons and toys.

Today the first question is: Space elevators.

A space elevator is sending a satellite into geo stationery orbit, then attach a piece of string to the satellite, then sending the string to earth, then bolt it to the ground. Then you can go into space up the string for the cost of electricity.
You need a piece of string that can support itself for 36,000 kilometres long! Steel can only support itself for 5 kilometres long.

Carbon Nanotubes can do the job on paper; the trick is to spool out a Nanotube 36,000 kilometres long with no floors in it. At present this can’t be done. Only small scale whisker lengths have been made so far. But we are closer now than ten years ago.

Podcast. cont...

Second question is on: Distance from one side of the universe to the other.

A light year, is the measurement used for such vast distances, In say that a light year is the distance, light travels in a year.

The light from the sun takes 8 minutes to get to the earth, 4 hours to Pluto. It would take humans years, to reach such vast distances.

The universe started as a spec of infinite density about 12 billion years ago and has been expanding ever since.

One calculation is 40 billion years. In a period called super inflation and the guy who did that was Guth.

The radius of the universe is 40 billion years but it is believed to be smaller 13.7 billion years, as the fabric of space time expanded faster than the speed of light.





1. What is readability? Suggest 2 useful online readability testing tools.

How easy text is to read www.addedbytes.com/code/readability-score/
www.juicystudio.com/services/readability.php#readingresults





2. What are "Gunning Fog" and "Flesch Index" ?

The Gunning Fog Index Readability Formula, or simply called FOG Index, is attributed to American textbook publisher, Robert Gunning
The Gunning’s Fog Index (or FOG) Readability Formula

Step 1: Take a sample passage of at least 100-words and count the number of exact words and sentences.

Step 2: Divide the total number of words in the sample by the number of sentences to arrive at the Average Sentence Length (ASL).

Step 3: Count the number of words of three or more syllables that are NOT (i) proper nouns, (ii) combinations of easy words or hyphenated words, or (iii) two-syllable verbs made into three with -es and -ed endings.

Step 4: Divide this number by the number or words in the sample passage. For example, 25 long words divided by 100 words gives you 25 Percent Hard Words (PHW).

Step 5: Add the ASL from Step 2 and the PHW from Step 4.

Step 6: Multiply the result by 0.4.

The mathematical formula is:

Grade Level = 0.4 (ASL + PHW)

where,

ASL = Average Sentence Length (i.e., number of words divided by the number of sentences)

PHW = Percentage of Hard Words

The underlying message of The Gunning Fog Index formula is that short sentences written in Plain English achieve a better score than long sentences written in complicated language.

The ideal score for readability with the Fog index is 7 or 8. Anything above 12 is too hard for most people to read. For instance, The Bible, Shakespeare and Mark Twain have Fog Indexes of around 6. The leading magazines, like Time, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal average around 11.





3. What are the 4 distinct writing styles?
Creative writing. This can be a story, a poem, a play, or anything else you chooses to make up. Creative writing is fun because you can use all of your imagination.

Explanation. This is also called expository writing. It is used when the writer wants to share information with the reader. It can be how to put something together or how to solve a problem. Clear writing is the key. The reader of an explanation should come away informed, not confused.

Personal essay. This is a written monologue. In a personal essay, you can tell about something you believe in or have experienced. Clear, organized language is still important.

Persuasive essay. This is a written way to try to convince the reader that the writer’s opinion is the correct one. It should include examples that support the writer’s opinion. It may also include examples to show why opposite opinions are wrong

4. Describe writing techniques such as drafting, story boarding and name software tools that can assist in these techniques.
Drafting: Drafting is the drawing of objects to scale, usually a top view, main view and side view
Story Boarding: Graphic organizers such as a series of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing
Software tools: word illustrator Photoshop excel bubble.us piece of paper

5. What is Active Voice/ Passive Voice and when should you use them? Write a short sentence demonstrating each style.
When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the patient, target or undergoer of the action, it is said to be in the passive voice.
Example: Active: The army killed the civilian
Passive: The civilian was killed by the army







6. What's a Cliché? What are the pros and cons of using them?
Cliché : A phrase which has been used too often, and has become meaningless
Pros: People understand them quicker
Gives the main character significance
Easy to form a story line around
Isolate the character mentally and physically
Cons:
Repetitive
Sometimes unnecessary
Creates lack of care/appreciation
Predictable.
Boring

7. What's a caption? What's the characteristic of a "good" caption. Find a caption you like and present it here. Include the image.
What's a caption?
subtitle: translation of foreign dialogue of a movie or TV program; usually displayed at the
bottom of the screen provide with a caption, as of a photograph or a drawing
brief description accompanying an illustration
Good caption:
1. Identify the people who make the photograph
2. Describe what is happening in the photograph
3. Inform where the event occurred, and when
4. Explain the background, if need be
5. It must be written in the present tense
Caption


The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh lights the lamp to inaugurate the exhibition "The Master's Strokes: Art of Rabindranath Tagore", at National Gallery of Modern Art, in New Delhi on May 9, 2010 – PIB Photo.

8. Suggest formatting/ layout/ typesetting techniques to improve presentation (for any medium).
Grid is a set of guidelines, able to be seen in the design process and invisible to the end-user/audience, for aligning and repeating elements on a page
Template is more rigid. A template involves repeated elements mostly visible to the end-user/audience. Using a template to lay out elements usually involves less graphic design skill than that which was required to design the template.
Kerning and Tracking Alignment Measure Leading Ligatures Rag
Widows and Orphans Hyphens, En-dashes and Em-dashes

9. What is the "inverted pyramid" in the context of writing?


Most readers have neither the time nor the desire to read every word of every story in a newspaper. By using the summary lead, the JO focuses the reader’s attention on the news, arouses the reader’s interest and allows the reader to swiftly skim important facts.

10. Write 1 example of each of the 3 registers used in writing. Hint
Write for your audience: Who is your audience
Write for the medium: Less than 20% of users read word-by-word. Most just scan text.
Allocate, collaborate and iterate: Get others to read and review your work to ensure that it is clear and conveys an accurate message for its intended audience



11. List 5 things to consider when writing for the web/ screen. Describe how writing for the web differs from traditional writing.
Know your audience/ Decide why you are writing/ Headlines /Upper case / Choose the right words

Web pages have to employ scannable text
Highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and colour are others)
Meaningful sub-headings (not "clever" ones)
Bulleted lists
one idea per paragraph (users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph)
the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion
Halve the word count (or less) than conventional writing
Credibility is important since it is unclear who is behind information on the Web and whether a page can be trusted
High-quality graphics, good writing, and use of outbound hypertext links. Links to other sites show that the authors have done their homework and are not afraid to let readers visit other sites.
Also, credibility suffers when users clearly see that the site exaggerates.

12. What does semantics mean in the context of writing html? Why is it important to write semantically correct html?
In English, the word semantic means "of or relating to meaning." In the science of linguistics, semantics is more explicit: It's the study of meaning based on the historical and psychological significance of words and terms
While the academic study of markup vocabularies can be thought of as a form of linguistics, the real-world practice of marking up documents semantically follows the first definition; in markup, semantics is concerned with the meaning of an element, and how that element describes the content it contains. This issue was always meant to be part of HTML, but the hacking of HTML for presentational purposes made short order of any semblance of semantic purity within the language.




Chris, that was hard.....Can we go back to the drawing part!!
Vincent















Learning Activity 1: Introduction to Blogging systems

Answer these research questions (2 pages, A4, word processed):
1. What does the word "Blog" mean?
A blog a blend of the term web log is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

2. What is a Blog, what does it do?
Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites