Lab log # 8

The Digital Divide

The gap, caused by students/children that have access to the internet at home and the ones that do not, is called the digital divide. As today's society further advances to being more dependant on computers, those who do not have a computer are left in the dust. Many teachers at school assign homework that can only be completed by using many different resources. Students that have internet can easily pull up these resources at home and complete their homework quickly and with ease. The students that do not have this advantage have to stay after school, or go in a t lunch to use the school computers or books. This can cause an issue as it is cutting into a part of the students time that they would rather not be spending doing homework, while other students can go hang out and then complete their assignment late in the night if need be.

The lack of internet at home also effects the level of in-depthness of the an assignment or project as the student has less time to work on it and therefore rushes through it. This can greatly affect a students learning in comparision to their fellow classmates. Students that have to rush through their work do not have time to absorb the information or comprehend it and instead just hand in their paper hoping that they will get a decent mark. Students that do not use the internet regularily can't efficiently manuever about the web with the same proficiency than the students that do. This causes them to get their assignments done later and not to be as involved as they could be.

Students that do not have readily available usage of the internet do not know many of the dangers they face on the web daily. They do not know about the dangers of clicking into pop-up ads or how to stay clear of sites/offers that are not legitimate. These students will read something and automatically beleive that the information is correct when it could just be any old drivel that someone had posted.

Schools are now starting to make sure that there is an acceptable amount of computers available to the students to work on projects, and have teachers that can explain how to mauever through the sites easier. At LVR for instance they are starting to replace the old out-of-date computer and putting in new ones. They have a library, computer lab, and homework help room that allow students with access to the internet. In the community, the municipal library has computers that can be used for research on any possible subject.

I beleive as a person that uses the internet quite frequently, that it is unfortunate that so many are denied the quick and easy access to so much wonderful resources that are available at just the click of a mouse. It really is amazing to see how much the internet has changed the lifes people live in the past couple years. I think that the communitiy should try to provide more access to computers to further aid these students that are internet deprived. Or that teachers should provide more class time for internet-based porjects so students do not have to rush throught hem as much. I also beleive that people who don't have the internet need to figure out alternate was of getting access to the internet. By either going to a friends, asking a friend, taking the time to stay at school; they could finish their assignments quickly and with a higher degree of excellence if they so choose.

My sources
Myself
Breeanne
mother
bryton

Module B Assignment # 7

The subject/sentence that I chose to research was: How do chlorofluorocarbons effect the stratosphere.



1- Google



Google found 190, 000 hits in the time period of 0.27 seconds for this search. It quickly identified the key terms and used them to find the sites best suited for my search. Google indexes it's searches in a library list format. Webpages that have the most of the important terms stated in your search appear closer to the top of your results page list. The webpages that have little or no relevance on the otherhand are placed further down the list, usually several pages from the first. Google rates it pages by putting the pages that contain the precise sentence you wrote down or words that you searched, or the pages that contains the biggest number of words of which you searched. Many pages appear on the list due to what is known as word hits. This meaning that the word(s) you searched are randomly being found on these sites. Another reason that irrelevant sites will appear near the top of you results list is because they are sponsored. This means that the site owner has paid google to have their site appear near the top of your search, even if your search has nothing to do with the site. For some searches, links appear at the top of the page boxed in yellow. These are known as sponsored links and the only thing they do is get in the way of your search. These "sponsored links have little to do with your search and generally involve buying their product.



2- AllTheWeb



A total of 328,000 hits in a short time period appeared for this search. It quickly identified the key terms and used them to find the sites that it beleived were best suited for my search. Many of the sites shown on the page had little to do with the actual concept I was researching. Despite this the AllTheWeb has good features. The search engine allows you to specify your search to certain areas, such as audio, video, and image. This allows for a more accurate results on your search. Its indexing is done the same way as Google does, in the library list format. In comparison AllTheWeb has a site that looks more professional, and newer than that of Google's home page. The pages that appeared near the top of the page had very less relevance to the search than that of the sites pulled up on Google. The advertising on the page goes straight to the page ahead. A site owner dcan pay for their page to be at the "top of the list".



3- Yahoo



Yahoo found 337, 000 hots in a time period of 0.36 secs. While typing in my search into the search box it provided several similar searches that had been recently been searched on the same subject. This I think is a useful feature because if you are doing a research project it would help you to find the best pages. Yahoo also indexes it's searches in a library search format. The site finds the best possible match for your search putting the sites with either the exact statement you searched or the most word hits. It then places these more relevant sites ate the top of the page for easier access. Yahoo filters out alot of the pages that have little importance to the search. The short blurb that comes with the site's link is helpful and tells you exactly what you can expect to find on the page. Unlike Google, Yahoo does its advertising differently. The difference is that instead of the ads being placed at the top of the page, the sponsors are placed in a column that runs the length of the right side of the screen. This allows you to do your search with out them being immediately in the way.

Google, which is one of the most used search engines known, ended up showing the least amount of hits. Despite being helpful, it wasn't as helpful as the yahoo search engine. The yahoo search engine came up with a significantly bigger number of hits than Google and it filtered out the less relevant sites so as to avoid frusteration by going to those such sites. Yahoo overall was more reliable, fast, convienient and had the most amount of hits.

I think that Yahoo was the best choice as it provided quick, reliable service and helped me to find the information that I needed instead of sites with little relevance. The filter feature was definetly very helpful.

Lab Log # 7

LEO' s or Low Earth orbiting satellites can often be found in satellite consellations. One of these such satellites covers a very small area, and cover higher angular velocities so as to maintain its orbit. Since the area that is being covered by these LEO satellites is small many are needed to maintain continuous coverage. These such satellites are deployed into satellite constellations. An example of this kind of constellation that a LEO often travels in is a GPS. These GPS's allow people to find their way from one point to another when driving, hiking, or boating somewhere new and don't know the turrain.

MEO's or Medium Earth Orbiting satellites ornit in the area between 100 and 1000 miles above the Earth's surface. These satellites are farther away from the earth than a LEO satellite, but still lower than a GEO satellite. Unlike the LEO satellites quick orbits, the MEO satellite can take any where from 2 to 12 hours to complete its orbit around the Earth. The speed and altitude remain constant throughout its orbit, as its orbit ensures that by being a perfect circle.
Earth based transmitters that have low frequencies are able to reach these satellites. Using several MEO satellites it is possible to have global wireless communication. In comparision to the LEO satellites coverage, it would take seven LEO satellites to cover the distance that one MEO satellite can cover. An example of something that uses the MEO satellites are cellular phones, as they provide communication on a global scale.

GEO's or Geosynchronour Earth Orbiting satellites are the satellites that pass points on the Earht constantly on a regular basis. A GEO satellite that is found over the equator is known as a geostationary satellite. GEO satellites are generally stationed over parts of the equator, for transmitting and receiving of antennas on Earth that will work without tracking satellites. One example of an antenna that a GEO is responsible for revolving are ones that involve weather forecasting, global communication, and television broadcasting. Though GEO satellites are useful they also have their faults. Due to the huge distance that the GEO satellites are away from the Earth, radio signals take a quarter of a second to reach the satellite and return to the Earth. These radio signals could possibly interfer with the Earth's telecommunication, thus making it harder for people to communicate with one another.