Task 1 – Essay PlanPost your essay plan: What is your topic? What is your position? Analyse the elements of the topic. Sketch your response to each of the elements. What conclusion does that bring you to? Summarise in 200 words. There you have a plan for your essay.
I chose a question:
Does the extensive use of computer/video games have an adverse impact on the health of young people? What are the most recent papers? Clarify what both sides of the argument claim and only then offer your reasoned opinion based on facts.
The reason why I chose this topic is that there have been a lot of controversies on whether use of computer and video games have an adverse impact on young people. Also, there are many research papers, journal and articles about this issue.
Pros:1) Children can become immune or numb to the horror of violence, imitate the violence they see, and show more aggressive behaviour with greater exposure to violence.
2) Risk factors for health and with poorer social skills and academic performance.
3) Significant reduced amounts of slow-wave (REM) sleep
Cons:1) Video games can develop the mathematical skills in children. Since for every game the kid tries to reach the next level, he will eagerly count the points that he earned..
2) It improves the player’s manual skills and computer knowledge. This improving technology is also providing the players a realistic experience of playing virtually through graphical techniques and improves the eye-hand coordination.
In conclusion, I am going to give a short recommendation of what parents can do to help children use computer/video games in a sound way.
Task 2 - Political participation1. Sign an e-petitionI signed an e-petition for WWF’s Conservation Action Network. The objective of this petition is to conserve tigers in the world.
https://secure2.convio.net/wwf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=OnScreenThanks&id=4052. Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site?There actually is no perfect security of privacy when using the internet, not only from emails but even other internet related things. Most of the sites ask for personal information in order to sign websites to use their programs.
“Your Email, Your Privacy and Your Blog”
http://www.blogherald.com/2011/07/15/your-email-your-privacy-and-your-blog/#comments3. What is Barak Obama up to today? Can you send him a message about the importance of freedom on the internet?Today President Obama struck a hopeful note in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on overcoming the numerous challenges that stand in the way of a lasting peace. He advocated for peace defined by more than the absence of war, saying: “a lasting peace -- for nations and for individuals -- depends on a sense of justice and opportunity, of dignity and freedom.”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/21/president-obama-un-general-assembly-peace-hard-we-know-it-possible4. What are the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")???Minister Conroy has announced that he will introduce “mandatory ISP-level filtering of Refused Classification (RC) –rated content.” The filter will be based on URL filtering of a blacklist of between 1,000 and 10,000 URLs. The list of URLs will be based on the current ACMA blacklist, and will be supplemented by lists from international organisations (probably IWF). RC computer games will be excluded from mandatory filtering until the completion of the R18+ review. Additional funding will be available to encourage ISPs to offer voluntary filtering systems.
http://nocleanfeed.com/learn.html5. What place does censorship have in a democracy?It is classification, not censorship. Democracies survive and thrive when they find ways to look at things that are confronting or disturbing or ugly or strange. One of the ways it does that is through the classification of material. What we are really doing, of course, is classifying people.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/29/1059244609141.html6. When will the NBN get to your place? What are the benefits?The government also committed to build fibre in regional areas as a priority, and to fast-track the introduction of wireless and satellite services so that regional Australia can get access to better broadband as soon as possible.
For regional Australia the NBN provides unprecedented opportunities for businesses to overcome the tyranny of distance and connect to distant markets, and for communities to connect to the world through high-speed broadband.
First release sitesOn 2 March 2010, NBN Co announced five first release sites on the mainland to receive high-speed fibre to the premises broadband, as part of live trials of network design and construction methods. The first release sites are:
• Victoria – Parts of Brunswick (Melbourne)
• Queensland – Parts of the Townsville suburbs of Aitkenvale and Mundingburra
• NSW – The coastal communities of Minnamurra and Kiama Downs south of Wollongong
• NSW – An area of west Armidale, including the University of New England
• South Australia – The rural town of Willunga
Second release sitesOn 8 July 2010, NBN Co announced 19 locations for the next stage of its mainland rollout. The second release sites comprise 14 new locations and five sites adjacent to existing first release sites.
The second release sites are:
• Victoria – Bacchus Marsh, South Morang (Melbourne)
• Queensland – Brisbane (inner north), Springfield Lakes, Toowoomba
• NSW– Riverstone (western Sydney), Coffs Harbour
• South Australia – Modbury, Prospect
• Western Australia – Victoria Park (Perth), Geraldton, Mandurah
• Northern Territory – Casuarina
• ACT – Gungahlin
Benefits:• households (" timesaving activities such as telecommuting, remote work and study opportunities, information gathering, price/product discovery and access to health services")
• businesses and not-for-profit ("drive productivity improvements, expand their customer base and enable jobs growth")
• environment ("access to smart technology to better manage their energy use")
• health and aged care("access individual electronic health records(...)
• remote access to specialists for patients in rural, remote and outer metropolitan areas (...)delivering telehealth consultations to remote patients")
• education ("develop and collaborate on innovative and flexible educational services")
• telework ("at least 12 per cent of Australian employees (will) report having a teleworking arrangement with their employer")
• government services ("four out of five Australians will choose to engage with the government through the internet or other type of online services")
• regional Australia ("the gap between households and businesses in capital cities and those in regional areas will have narrowed significantly").
http://www.nbn.gov.au/7. Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are. Send one a message.State representative: Southport, LAWLOR Mr Peter Joseph, Minister for Tourism and Fair Trading
http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/attachment/factsheets/fs357_government_members.pdfLocal representative: Hon Joe Ludwig , Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/senators/homepages/senators.asp?id=84N
Federal representatives:• Mr Bert Van Manen MP - Electoral Division of Forde (QLD)
• Mr Stuart Robert MP - Electoral Division of Fadden (QLD)
• Mrs Karen Andrews MP - Electoral Division of McPherson (QLD)
• Mr Steven Ciobo MP - Electoral Division of Moncrieff (QLD)
• The Hon Justine Elliot MP - Electoral Division of Richmond (NSW)
• Senator the Hon Joe Ludwig - Senator for Queensland
• Mr Scott Buchholz MP - Electoral Division of Wright (QLD)
http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/t_standard2.aspx?pid=4351#federal8. Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament.Joh for PM Campaign by Mr LAWLOR (Southport—ALP)
http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/hansard/2011/2011_09_08_WEEKLY.pdf9.Let your local member know what you think about their last speech.I agree that Joh was a remarkable political figure, there is certainly no argument about that.
