COMPUTER VIRUSES: AN ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT PERCEPTIONS

TLS: COMPUTER VIRUSES: AN ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT PERCEPTIONS

What is Ubuntu?

UBUNTU |oǒ'boǒntoō|
Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning 'humanity to others'. It also means 'I am what I am because of who we all are'. The Ubuntu operating system brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the world of computers.

Where did it all begin?
Linux was already established as an enterprise server platform in 2004. But free software was still not a part of everyday life for most computer users. That's why Mark Shuttleworth gathered a small team of developers from one of the most established Linux projects – Debian - and set out to create an easy-to-use Linux desktop, Ubuntu.

The vision for Ubuntu is part social and part economic: free software, available free of charge to everybody on the same terms, and funded through a portfolio of services provided by Canonical.

Ubuntu releases
The Ubuntu team broke new ground in committing to a programme of scheduled releases on a predictable six-month basis. It was decided that every fourth release, issued on a two-year basis, would receive long-term support (LTS). LTS releases are typically used for large-scale deployments.

Ubuntu is different from the commercial Linux offerings that preceded it because it doesn't divide its efforts between a high-quality commercial version and a free, 'community' version. The commercial and community teams collaborate to produce a single, high-quality release, which receives ongoing maintenance for a defined period. Both the release and ongoing updates are freely available to all users.

Governance
Version 4.10, codenamed the 'Warty Warthog', the first official Ubuntu release, was launched in October 2004. Global interest in Ubuntu was dramatic from the outset. The year following the Warty Warthog release saw huge growth in the Ubuntu community as thousands of free software enthusiasts and experts joined.

The governance of Ubuntu is somewhat independent of Canonical, with volunteer leaders from around the world taking responsibility for many of the critical elements of the project. It remains a key tenet of the Ubuntu Project that Ubuntu is a shared work between Canonical, other companies, and the thousands of volunteers who bring their expertise to bear on making it a world-class platform for the whole world to use.

Ubuntu today
The first version of Ubuntu was based on the GNOME desktop. We have since added a KDE edition, Kubuntu, and a server edition. All of the editions of Ubuntu share common infrastructure and software, making Ubuntu a unique platform that scales from consumer electronics to the desktop, and into the cloud for enterprise computing. Developers can work on their desktop of choice, and smoothly deliver code to cloud servers running the stripped-down Ubuntu Server Edition.

In recent years, special emphasis has been placed on netbooks for lightweight, connected, mobile computing, and on the cloud as a new architecture for data centres. Ubuntu is a pioneer in both fields, with Ubuntu Netbook Edition and Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud setting the standard for easy deployment and management. Ubuntu is hugely popular on Amazon's EC2 and Rackspace's Cloud, and is pre-installed on computers from Dell, Lenovo and other global vendors.

Ubuntu still is and always will be free to use, share and develop. We hope it will bring a touch of light to your computing – and we hope that you'll join us in helping to build the next version too.

Source:

http://www.ubuntu.com/project/about-ubuntu

How computers affect student performance, the good and the bad.

Computers and Education and how it affects the students with their learning process. Regular use of computers can have an effect on student performance on standardized tests, according to a new study by researchers at Boston College and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Analyzing test performance and computer uses of 986 fourth grade students from 55 classrooms in nine Massachusetts school districts, the study found that the more regularly students use computers to write papers for school, the better they performed on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems (MCAS) English/Language Arts exam. This positive effect occurred despite the fact that students were not allowed to use computers for the test.

Conversely, the study found that students' recreational use of computers to play games, explore the Internet for fun, or chat with friends at home had a negative effect on students' MCAS reading scores. Similarly, students' use of computers to create PowerPoint presentations was also negatively associated with MCAS writing scores.

This study of students' MCAS performance is part of the "Use, Support and Effect of Instructional Technology" (USEIT) study conducted by the Technology and Assessment Study Collaborative of the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. Funded by the US Department of Education, USEIT is a three-year assessment of educational technology that occurred across 22 Massachusetts districts.

The MCAS achievement component of USEIT is the most sophisticated analysis of the relationships between students' computer use and test performance conducted to date. Building on several shortcomings of past research on this topic, this study collected detailed measures of a variety of student uses of computers in and out of school, controlled for differences in home learning environments, separated effects of teachers' instructional practices, and controlled for differences in prior achievement by using third grade MCAS scores.

In addition to analyzing the effect of a variety of uses of computers on students' total MCAS scores, this study also examined the sub-scores provided by the MCAS test.

At a time when standardized testing is playing an increasingly important role in shaping the learning experiences of students and instructional practices of teachers, the researchers believe this study provides evidence that students' computer use does have an impact on student achievement as measured by tests like MCAS. More importantly, they say, the study demonstrates that different uses of computers have different effects on student learning.

"Specifically, this study finds that students' use of computers throughout the writing process had a statistically significant positive effect on MCAS writing scores," said the study's director, Michael Russell of BC's Lynch School of Education. "Using computers simply to type in final drafts of essays, however, had no effect on students' test performance. These findings are consistent with past research and demonstrate the importance of allowing students to use computers to produce rough drafts, edit their papers, and to produce final drafts."

This study also indicates that using computers for recreational purposes had a negative effect on test performance, particularly for reading scores. The authors speculate that this occurs because students who spend more time using computers for recreational purposes at home may spend less time reading at home.

Similarly, the study found that use of computers in school to create presentations was negatively associated with writing test scores. According to the researchers, this negative relationship may result from students spending less time writing during class time and more time creating and revising multimedia projects that contain relatively small amounts of written work. In essence, time spent creating presentations may detract from time available during class to develop students' writing skills.

"These findings are important for two reasons," said Russell. "First, at a time when schools are under increased pressure to raise test scores, yet are also facing budget shortfalls, this study provides evidence that investments in computers can have positive effects on student achievement. Second, it shows that teachers and students must be thoughtful about how computers are used and what types of learning they expect to impact."

"When examining the effect of computer use on student learning, it is important to consider how well a specific use is aligned with the measure of learning," added the study's lead author, Laura O'Dwyer of the Graduate School of Education at UMass Lowell, formerly a researcher at Boston College. "While this study found that use of computers to create presentations was negatively associated with writing scores, it does not mean that students should not be creating presentations with computers. Creating presentations may be a positive learning experience, but such effects are not captured by a test like MCAS that measures reading and writing skills."

Adds BC researcher Damian Bebell, the study's third author, "Although this study finds some interesting effects of students' use of computers, teachers in this study generally did not use technology to teach. As more and more schools, districts, and states provide teachers and students with their own laptops, it will be interesting to see if teachers are able to use technology more in the classroom and if these uses add to the effects of student technology use."

SOURCE:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/19387.php

COMPUTER VIRUSES: AN ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT PERCEPTIONS

Computer viruses have become a major security issue during the last few years. They pose a threat to the reliability and validity of many aspects of computing (Hafner, 1988; Highland, 1990a, 1990b; Zajac, 1990; Alexander, 1991; Thimbleby, 1991). No system is immune from contamination: Viruses have been found on stand-alone microcomputers, networks, minicomputers, and mainframes. They are transmitted through many sources, including disks shared by individuals, bulletin boards, disks from vendors, and shrink-wrapped disks from a variety of sources.
Some of the better known viruses are products of college students or have experienced pronounced proliferation on college campuses (Highland, 1991). For instance, the BRAIN virus surfaced at the University of Delaware in October 1987 and was followed 1 month later by LeHigh University's COMMAND.COM virus. The first strains of the Jerusalem virus were found at Israel's Hebrew University. Robert Morris, Jr.'s Internet worm, perhaps the most celebrated virus, began at Cornell and infected thousands of computers on the Internet in only a few hours (Highland, 1990b).
There is little or no research that addresses the role of business school education in combatting and preventing the spread of computer viruses. We undertook this study to begin to fill that void, although our report is primarily exploratory and descriptive in nature. The purpose of the study was to assess business student awareness and perceptions of computer viruses. In this article, we hope to provide information that may be used by educators to heighten awareness of the occurrence and implications of computer viruses. Without this type of education, students are entering the work-place unprepared to deal with a very real and rapidly growing destructive phenomenon.
Conclusions and Implications for Educators
Computer viruses will continue to invade college campuses for some time to come. Teachers who expect computer use in their classes have a responsibility to discuss CVs with their students. The impact of knowledge about viruses cannot be overlooked. Results indicate that when students are more informed, they understand more thoroughly the importance of scanning, the insidious nature of viruses, and the danger of sharing disks with other individuals. Education can certainly make a difference by making students aware of the nature and effects of computer viruses.
If students do not fully understand the scope of damage and the potential sources for viruses, then they are more likely to be lax about virus detection/containment activities during their college careers and will continue this bad habit when they enter the workforce. Without education, it is difficult to control or contain the potential damage that CVs can cause.
Here in lies a major task for educators who shoulder a responsibility for computer virus education. This responsibility is heightened in educational environments because of the extent of software and data sharing (whether ethical or not) that take place among students.
There are three primary areas on which educators should focus. First, they should make students aware of the multiple sources of CVs, such as disk sharing, downloading, and shrink-wrapped software. Second, instructors should describe to students the breadth and extent of damage of existing CVs, not only in educational institutions, but also in the other public- and private-sector environments. Viruses are everywhere, and their effects can be devastating on an organization. Third, instructors should inform students of virus detection and removal methods. These may be provided through different sources, depending on the particular campus environment.
In addition to these three areas, reinforcement, as with other teaching strategies, is vital for virus education. Attention should be given to these findings by instructors in all classes that require student use of computers. Reinforcement in additional classes will increase student awareness of viruses. This awareness will result in more secure working environments for the students not only while they are in college but also when they enter the workforce.

Source:

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=7&sid=df61174d-924f-438c-9579-acd905118c2f%40sessionmgr14&vid=11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=9209210716