Website - Evaluation

Criterion A
For Criterion A, we were supposed to learn basic skills of using HTML, investigate what topics were used to create websites, and research on some sample HTML websites that were made by others to learn what kind of design would be the best for creating our own website.

We firstly took a look at a website called “Thinkquest” where different designs of user-made websites are able to be viewed. We then chose some websites that we liked or disliked, and made comments on colors, contrast, font, navigation, photos, etc. for each of them. I think it was a good opportunity to learn what designs will be preferred by people and easy to utilize. I was able to learn the importance of using contrast of colors to give an effective look to the website, using a simple font so people can easily read the content, and putting a good navigation that works perfectly. Also, I learned that adding too many animated files or movies would not make the website look good, and it will take a long time to load the page, so it is not that recommended.

After that, we read three articles on HTML. Since it was my first time using HTML, I thought reading these articles would help me to create a better HTML website. The assignment was to make notes on what I read about, and I made some notes on my blog. However, there were some parts that I did not fully understand, so I just skipped them and continued reading. Also, I was not paying attention to the last article because it was way too detailed and had a lot of information which just made me tired. Therefore, I did not read it carefully but just skimmed through the articles. I think I could have made some further research on the content that I did not understand in order to broaden my knowledge on HTML. It would have helped me when I was having trouble with creating a HTML file of my website. Also, even though I was not in favor of reading the articles, I should have at least read it carefully, and understand what was in the content. For the next time, I should take my time to investigate to get a better result on creating HTML website.

Criterion B
When we were done with investigation, we were supposed to come up with at least three different potential topic that we would like to make a website about it. I came up with three ideas which were:

• The wild animals (information about animals and their habitats)
• ISU Grade 10 (about our class)
• Travel Around the world (information about different cultures, foods, clothes, holidays, etc)

Then I decided to make a website about our class since this school year will be my last school year at ISU, and I wanted to create it as a keepsake of my memories of living in Mongolia. After I decided my topic, I created a paper design of the website to briefly sketch how my website would look like. I wanted my design to be unique, so I drew it as creative as possible; however, while I was actually creating the website, I realized that the design that I made was almost impossible to create with my knowledge and skills of HTML. I think I could have done better on this part. I could have drawn some more paper designs as a mean of alternative sketches since it is almost for sure that some designs will not be able to create.

After that, I came up with my own design investigation which was:

• Neat but interesting formats such as the entire website design, background, proper fonts for the content, etc.
• The font for the menu can be decorative, but the font for the content should be neat, such as (but not limited to) arial, calibri, times new roman.
• The colors for the website should not hurt readers' eyes. Contrast of black and white will be okay, but the website should avoid using bright colors like red, yellow, bright green, etc.
• Appropriate images that suit to the website
• Music if it is required, but there should be a way to stop playing so that the users can play and stop the music by themselves
• Menu that is easy to navigate with a suitable design
• Contents that are not way too small or big, and there should not be too many texts on one page

I also made a list of what should be included in my websites:

• Student individual photos for the background of the website
• Sign up page
• Profile - Brief profile of each student and homeroom teachers such as: name(or nickname), date of birth, email address, phone number, profile picture, etc. (If they do not want to show their identity, then I'll skip them)
• Discussion - Free discussion forum to share ideas, have discussions on any topic and to know what's going around the school
• Homework - what homework we have, including the deadlines, etc.
• Photo - anyone can put pictures
• Suggestion box - to get suggestions from people in order to improve the website

After I created the website, I realized that I followed most of design specifications and the required content list. Since I used a CSS format file, I did not make the background of the website by myself because the template is already made for me. There I did not have to worry about the contrast of colors; the contrast of white and green was okay for me. For most of content, I used Calibri as the font, and for some menu icons, I downloaded decorative fonts from "dafont.com". I think each page had enough amount of content and images added to the website were appropriate. I did not put music because it was not necessarily required, and I think it would just made the website viewers annoyed due to the continuously playing music. Overall, even though I did not include Sign-up page, and changed some information that I wanted to put, I included most of the content onto my website, so I think I did pretty good on criterion B.

Criterion C

There were a lot of changes made. I firstly made my original plan, but there was a change of duedate and I had more time to work on my website, so I needed to change my plan based on the new due date. Also, I turned out to use CSS form instead of using just HTML, so I was quite behind than the plan that I created. In the end, it was really hard for me to follow the plan.

I think this criterion was the one that I did not do well. I was not familiar with using HTML, so I had to spend more time to learn about it than I planned, and some failure on making a website slowed down the progress on creating website. If i made a plan that is more detailed, not just writing about general process but with more details, I could not have rushed in the end, and worked better on making a website.

Criterion D

Criterion D was the part that everyone had to spend a lot of time creating a website. We used Coffeecup and created our own pages. I firstly started with a blank page and typed html codes to add images and content; however, it was much harder than I expected, so I changed my whole plan to use CSS form instead. It was not so easy to use a css form html either, but it was much easier than using a blank html page.

I also used powerpoint to create menu buttons, and some page designs, some other programs that can make a forum and a photo portfolio. I realized that there were a lot of souces where you can decorate your website easily. How convenient :)!

While I kept working on the website, I was getting used to using Coffeecup which was a great improvement for me. However, the problem with using Coffeecup was that it was only a 30days trial, so I had to rush in the end to finish creating the whole pages within the deadline of the expiration date.

I think a way to improve Criterion D would be having a plenty of time creating HTML websites. Because most of our classmates are not familiar with using HTML, we all had difficulties at first. Therefore many people had to rush in the end to finish their websites before the due date, and some people still did not know how to utilize Coffeecup well by editing the codes of HTML. If there was a more day to learn about HTML, then we all could have created a better quality websites. Also, since I have not used any other HTML Editor programs before, I thought that Coffeecup was pretty easy to handle, however, we should try out a different program if there is a better and easier one.

After creating my website was done, our class had a competition.My intended audience was my classmates, and since they tested my website, I think it was a great chance to see their reaction toward my website. They made comments such as:

"Your website is also very pretty to look at. It had a lot of colors which matched together!"

"You have tons of information on everyone and everything. Love the homework journal. The forum doesn't work as well as the suggestions, though."

"You display lots of text as image, which is not always practical, but overall it's easy to use:)"

"Fancy."

"Easy but got lost somewhere."

In general, many people liked my website which was a good thing. Some people gave me critical comments on navigation. I realized that I put the link of navigation wrong, so some of them did not work well. I should have checked it before I let people test it.

I think my website would be able to help our ISU class of 2012 community since they can have a discussion on the forum, and check their homework. Even though this website is only for our small community, I still would be satisfied that my website can help students in a social way in terms of interacting with each other online.

This unit was the last MYP Technology project for me, and I think it was the hardest project that I have done. However, I was able to show my creativity by making my own website with the design that I wanted, and the information that I wanted to include. Also, I think this unit was very helpful for me since HTML is often used in peple's everyday life, and I became a part of those people who know how to utilize HTML.

Website - Plan Changed

There were a lof changes made while I was working on my website.

This is the changed version of plan (Criterion C)

Website - Plan

Plan for my website:)

Website - Design map

This is my sketch for the website. It is the image of the main page. Because I scanned the image in a wrong way, the picture is divided into three sections, but actually they all are on one paper.

The background will be decorated with classmates' pictures and there will be a white outline around them. The title that I wrote is ISUG10; however, because G10 is almost over, I'm going to change the title into ISU2012, the year that we will graduate.

The menu from the design includes: home, class profile, forum, homework journal, photo and suggestion box as I mentioned while I was brainstorming on my design. The menu icons will be in different colors, but I have not decided what colors to use. Roughly, I think I'm going to choose yellow, light blue, light green and some other light colors so that the text on the menu can be shown up easily.

Under the menu, there is a sidebar on the left side which has an image of the school logo, assignment deadlines and updates. This sidebar will be always there whenever you load different webpage. The right section will be the part that the contents will be shown up. For the texts, I'm going to use simple fonts such as arial, calibri, or times new roman. Also, if it's possible I'm trying to make the title font and the menu font to be more decorative.

For other pages such as class profile, homework journal, the content design will be different than the main page. I'm not fully developed with all the other page designs, but I think I can be creative while I'm actually working on my real website design.

So far, I like my sketch for the website, but I'm not sure whether I'll be able to create it exactly the same as the design. It is my first time creating a website, and because I'm not skilled enough, I'll try my best while I'm working on it.

Click the image to view it larger

Website - Week 3

The final topic that I chose for the website will be about Grade 10. Since I really like my G10 school life at ISU, I wanted to create something that will keep the memories of my class and classmates. Even though more than half of G10 school year has passed, I think it will still be a good online place to share school "gossips", memories, events, and some academic talks. Also, if this website got popular among our classmates, then I can also use the same design skills to build one for next school year :)

Before I start brainstorming for my website, I made a simple design specification.
I believe that the website design should have:

• Neat but interesting formats such as the entire website design, background, proper fonts for the content, etc.
• The font for the menu can be decorative, but the font for the content should be neat, such as (but not limited to) arial, calibri, times new roman.
• The colors for the website should not hurt readers' eyes. Contrast of black and white will be okay, but the website should avoid using bright colors like red, yellow, bright green, etc.
• Appropriate images that suit to the website
• Music if it is required, but there should be a way to stop playing so that the users can play and stop the music by themselves
• Menu that is easy to navigate with a suitable design
• Contents that are not way too small or big, and there should not be too many texts on one page

So the things that I want to include in my website are:

• Student individual photos for the background of the website
• Sign up page
• Profile - Brief profile of each student and homeroom teachers such as: name(or nickname), date of birth, email address, phone number, profile picture, etc. (If they do not want to show their identity, then I'll skip them)
• Discussion - Free discussion forum to share ideas, have discussions on any topic and to know what's going around the school
• Homework - what homework we have, including the deadlines, etc.
• Photo - anyone can put pictures
• Suggestion box - to get suggestions from people in order to improve the website

To be continued...

Website - Week 2

For week 2, we are supposed to read three articles that give some tips to create a website. All of them were pretty straightforward which make me easy to understand, and I think all the information listed on these three websites will be very helpful as well as useful in terms of making a website.

1. "About.com: Web Design/HTML - Readers Respond: What Design Scares You?"
The first website is from About.com, and there are several responses made by different users, and they are based on a question that what factors make a website to scare them. The answers gave me an idea that what things that I should NOT include in my website design such as:

• Putting too much animation/flash - I often find out that some Korean websites tend to have way too much animation to 'advertise' their products, and I just get tired of waiting the main page to load. Too much flash make the users be annoyed for taking long time to upload the website, and it is not interesting of fancy at all but make your eyes get tired.
• Playing music that keeps playing again and again without any pause - I totally agree with this response. Whenever I enter a website and it plays annoying music forever, I really want to leave the website or I sometimes blame for the creator of the website for putting such lame music. If you are trying to put music to your website, your website should have at least a stop button to pause the music. For some websites that I know, they stop playing songs when I press the 'Esc' key. Maybe people should consider about using that way as well.
• Way too strong contrast between the background and the contents - It will just make your eyes be extremely tired if you have to read a text that is written in bright red or yellow from the black background. Well, these color contrasts would be suitable when you create an artwork, but for a website, wouldn't they be way too much for your eyes? Therefore, people suggest that a white background with black texts is the best way.
• Dragging the mouse over the text to see the content - I strongly think that people are supposed to 'view' the text from the website without dragging the mouse to see the content. Maybe some people did it in order to make the website to be more 'interesting', however, nonsense! It is just an annoying job to do.
• No Navigation - Some websites do not have navigation system, which makes website users have hard time to find the information that they are searching for. In order to visually aid the users, many people believe that there should be a proper navigation on the website which I also agree with them.

2. "Web Style Guide 3rd edition - Sidebar: A List of Reminders"

This website also tells me about some reminders to follow in terms of creating a web page. It tells some tips of website design, and how to put good quality of contents. There are some advice that I like which are:

• "Know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and for whom you’re doing it before anyone touches HTML or Photoshop" - Even though adding decorations and making your website look interesting are important factors, the first and foremost thing that you should do is to figure out the purpose, and the specific users of the website.
• "Do not overwrite" - People do not enjoy reading a web article that has such small fonts; small fonts are uncomfortable to read. Also, if a website is just full of texts, people will easily get bored of reading the contents. Therefore, an adequate amount of writing will benefit the website users and viewers.

3. "HTML Source: HTML Tutorials - Accessibility"

This website is about accessibility of websites. In order to access a website well, there are some major factors that I think people should take into consideration such as:

• Navigation - It is important to guide the web users such as where the information that they need is located. Navigation also shows the depth of your website such as how the information is demonstrated through the website. In order to navigate the readers, a good sense of structure and organization is required.
• Content Accessibility - With appropriate use of information and proper codes such as HTML, the content should be accessed to everyone even for those who are handicapped. The content will be better if its more objective than subjective because every reader is qualified to read it.
• Logical Style - Unfortunately, I did not understand the information of logical style fully, but what I have understood so far is that using appropriate logical elements (that gives functions to the web pate) and block-level elements (ex: <>, <>) would help the website be more organized and be in order. Basically, I think it is more related to the functions of website creation with using HTML.
• Testing your pages - Checking whether your websites have the same fonts, designs, sizes, etc. would help you to organize the information as well as the website, and it will benefit the readers to understand the content better in the end.

Works Cited

Kyrnin, Jennifer. "Readers Respond: What Design Scares You?" About.com: Web Design/HTML. 21 March 2010. http://webdesign.about.com/u/ua/webdesignbasics/what-design-scares-you.htm

Shannon, Ross. "Accessibility." HTML Source: HTML Tutorials. 21 March 2010. http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/accessibility/

"Sidebar: A List of Reminders." Web Style Guide 3rd Edition. 21 March 2010. http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/1-process/5-list-of-reminders.html

Website - Week 1

(1)
• LEAD Portal
(http://library.thinkquest.org/08aug/02289/#?page=defining-leader§ion=perception)

Colors – There are different colors are used in the website. For the menu icons, colors such as green, blue, yellow and purple are used in order to grab the viewer’s attention. Since the background color is dark, the bright colors used for the website is showing out very well, and make the website to be interesting and colorful. When I scroll down the website, there is an animated menu with different colors, which makes me to be interested about it and gives me a desire of clicking one at each time to figure out what information they contain.

Contrast – There is a significant contrast of colors demonstrated in this website. Firstly, the people icon at the top of the website is in colors that can be showing out well from the dark brown background. Since the content background color is white, the menu icons which are in blue, green, yellow, and orange make a good contrast of colors. Because of these contrasts, the website is able to make the website user to be more interested of the website design and the contents of it.

Photos – There are not many real photos are used in the website, but some characterized icons. On the top of the website there are diagrams of people in different colors. On the side of the website, where the menu icons are, there are also some images of cartoonish looking drawings on them as well as on the bottom of the website. Since realistic photos are not used for the website, I think it makes the website to be less serious and give friendly look to the website users. Also, since the topic is about leadership, which may be boring and even hard sometimes, I think it is a good idea to give some cartoonish view to the website so that people will be able to enjoy reading the information on the website.

Font – Fonts are simple and not fancy, which makes viewers to read the information without having any reading difficulties. For the texts on the menu icons, they are decorated with some colors that match with the colors of icons, and for the information texts, they are in black and simple fonts.

Navigation – When you click any menu, it did not open a new browser, but it directly linked to the information on the same page. Therefore, it was very easy to organize what information I wanted to find, and the website did not become very messy even though I clicked on different categories for several times.

Overall, I think that the cartoonish design of the website was the most appealing. Since I am a visual learner, I prefer websites that have some good graphic designs so that I do not become bored out of reading information on the website. Nice choose of fonts and use of simple icons to visually aid the menu were another part that make the website to be a successful one.
 
• Portable Partners (http://library.thinkquest.org/08aug/01589/home.html)

Colors – There are not many colors are used for this website. Different tones of red are used for the general website design. If LEAD Portal one used different colors, this one tends to be simpler and more organized due to simple color choice. The background has a light tone of pattern, and the main website color is red, which makes the red part to show out better. Even though only one color is used for this website, it grabs viewer’s attention because the color is red and it’s very bright. However, if you just look at the title part for a long time, your eyes start to hurt a little bit because of its brightness.

Contrast – The background is covered with small round pattern, and the main website part is in red. Since the pattern tends to be dimmed, the strong red color makes a good contrast with the background.

Photos – All the information that is included in the website, there is a picture in order to give a visual effect to the information. I think it is a very clever choice to put some pictures to the information because it makes viewers to be more interested in the website rather than just reading a long article.

Font – Like the previous website that I visited before, this website also has a very neat and simple font. It helps me to find out information much easier, and makes the website to be organized. However since the website itself already has a very simple design, I think it might have been better if the website had fancier title image.

Navigation – The website was very easy to navigate. The topics were divided into different menu icons, and when you click it the information is directly linked from the previous website, which you do not require a new online browser to read the information.

The reason why I think this website is a good one is because A) it has an organized website design, which I was able to figure out information conveniently, B) the use of simple portable device icons as a visual effect of menu was very unique and cute.

(2)
• The Simphony of Chocolate (http://library.thinkquest.org/08aug/00696/intro1.html)

The first reason that I did not like about this website is its poor quality of graphics. There are some animated icons as the menu, and they look terribly bad. The image of chocolate box looks like it just got its shape from a photo. I think it would be better if they just used a simpler version of graphical images. Also the font to describe the menu is sort of hard to read. The colors that are used for this website are different tones of brown, but since everything is in brown it is hard to find some good contrast between the background and the information. Lastly there is a spelling mistake. I think it should be Symphony, not Simphony. Overall, the website is just full of animated icons with bad quality. I wonder how it got a first place from the competition.

(3)
My possible topics are:
• The wild animals (information about animals and their habitats)
• ISU Grade 10 (about our class)
• Travel Around the world (information about different cultures, foods, clothes, holidays, etc)

Website

We started a NEW UNIT! It is called "Website". In this unit we are going to learn how to make a website using html and make our own website that the topic is based on a topic that intrigues us. In order to learn some website creating skills, we are going to have online learning using a program called "Moodle". We will have a class discussion as well as some personal discussion with Mrs. Wilson. Since we are learning about websites, I think it is a very good idea that we are going to have a discussion online instead of having a face-to-face traditional form of discussion :) After we make our website, we are going to have a class competition to figure out who's website is made the best, and I think it will be a very interesting process since the competition will lead us to enlarge our knowledge on creating a website in order to win the competition :)

We chose Approaches To Learning as our Areas Of Interaction because we are learning skills of creating a website through using various methods; online class discussions, investigations, and visiting some sample websites. We then chose Inquirers as our IB Learner Profile since we will be able to acquire skills that are required for the new unit.

Since I never tried making a website before, I think this unit maybe challenging, but interesting. I believe that if I know some basic skills of creating a web page, they will be very helpful for me later on because I could use the skills to make my own website about my hobby/interest or even for my career or jobs. I hope I enjoy all the steps to create a website.

Wikiality Evaluation

1) Evaluate Wikipedia group project against our own Method and Design Specifications


The method that we came up was:
1. Choose a topic/subject that we’re familiar with
2. Check if there is a wiki page on it
3. Check if the information on the wiki page corresponds with the information we know
4. Find a reliable source to back up our theory (News sources, books, magazines, web etc.)
5. Once we’ve found an error, print it out and ask Mrs. Wilson if we can change it.


Our design specifications were:

•The information should be cited properly, using MLA format
•The information should be accurate enough that no additional changes are required
•The information should be from valid source, so that it is reliable enough

The topic that we changed on Wikipedia was about Thailand. We all agreed that Thailand is a great place to spend holidays, but I do not think that we did not have further information about Thailand except how famous the country is for a vacation. Therefore, I think that even though the topic was very interesting and intriguing, it was not 100% familiar for us in various ways.

Despite that the topic was not very familiar, we were able to find valid source on the surface area of Thailand, because there were some governmental websites that provide the most accurate information about countries, such as CIA factbook. We could not use any other sources but websites because 1) we could not fine any articles from paper source, and 2) we did not have much time to look thoroughly to other sources. If we had more time to work on the project, we could have probably added more changes since we could have investigated deeply about the subject.


After we added a change to the Wiki Thailand page, we put a proper citation using MLA format. Then we went to the page again, and found out that our change was not changed again, which means the information that we added was accurate! :) Even though it was a minor change, we actually helped Wikipedia to have more accurate information.


2) Evaluate each stage of the project (Cr. A, B, D)


Criterion A - Investigation

Before we started working on research, we firstly made our wiki page and had an experiment how it felt when someone else changed our information. I often made some funny comments on others' wiki pages, and in fact, it was very funny. However, I noticed that I definitely should not put any silly comments or changes on the real wiki pages because I will give disadvantages to other people who might need to use the information. When others added changes on our wiki page, we thanked for those who made some correction on grammar, etc. But others who put weird information just made us feel ridiculous. I think this activity was a very good to learn how we should use wikipedia in terms of editing information in a proper manner.

When the activity was done, the class members are divided into different groups, and I was working together with Sonya and Elise. We then worked on research of Wikipedia. There were two categories of question types; the first one was a individual work, and the second part was a group work. The individual work was mostly based on the questions that were more personal, and asking for one's thoughts and reasons.


There were six questions for the group work process, and each of us took two and answered them. After we answered the questions, we put the information on each one's blog and told other members to copy the information to combine together. While I was working as a part of the group, I felt that I really should be responsible about the topic that I chose, and I should be good at time management. I often procrastinated while we were working on the investigation and I was keep asking a pardon for being procrastinated. I finished investigation on time, but I needed to make other group workers wait for me to put my information on the blog. Next time, I should push myself to work hard during class times so that I would not make other people to feel uncomfortable with working together with me.


Criterion B - Design


For criterion B, we searched for a wiki page that we could possibly make changes, and find sources to prove that the change that we are going to make is valid. Then we created our design specifications.


When we were looking for information that we could add a change, Elise came up with the idea of checking the information on Thailand. We all agreed, and found out that there was a wiki page about Thailand, and there was a minor error on the surface area of Thailand. We found out valid information from CIA factbook and Mundi, a website that provides all the countries' profiles. Then we decided to change this information, then came up with three design specifications.

I think I was able to finish criterion B very quick because my group members provided so much information to me. They were really good at researching, and finding out information that they are needed. If the project was an individual work, I would probably had difficult times to what to choose for my topic. Furthermore, I learned the benefit of group work, which is we can come up with different ideas and solve a problem in a shorter time.

Criterion D - Create



As soon as we started working on criterion D, we went to Wikipedia Thailand web page, and logged on to the website. We added changes to the total area of Thailand, and then checked later again if there was another change made. The whole process of changing information went very fast (in fact it took only 10 minutes to finish Criterion D!). However, it was sort of complicated to change the information because the page was not like an ordinary web editing page, but full of HTML and other information. So we needed to find out where the information of the area is located, and the work cited page of it. After tried for more than 3 times to change the information, we finally saved the wiki page, and we were done with the process.

Overall I learned that changing information on a professional, or popular wiki page is really easy, therefore, people should be award of the validity of the information. Even if the website is a well-known one, there might be some flaws found in it. The entire process of this project went very quickly, but it was very interesting. What is going to be the next project?!? :D

Wikiality Investigation Possible Topics

List of possible topics that we can work on this project

• Nicholas sparks
• Disturbia
• Hitchcock
• Confessions of a shopaholic
• She’s the man
• William Shakespeare
• 10 things I hate about you
• William Shakespeare
• Mongolia
• Comparison between book version and movie
• The proposal
• ISU

Wikiality Investigation 2

For this project, I'm working with Sonya and Elise. We are going to explore the world of Wikis and make a correction on one of wikipedia pages after that. The questions and answers below are individual work that is done by me. :)

What is a Wiki?

A wiki is a website that can be edited by any web users. It is run by a type of server software that allows to create and edit information freely. Wikipedia uses this software and made an online encyclopedia that everyone can be an editor of any web pages.

Who creates them?

Any wiki pages can be created by ANYONE. Since wiki is an "open-editing" website, anyone who wants to share their knowledge can create a wiki, allowing other people to get sources. It can be created by a student, a company, or by professionals as well.

Why use them?

People often use wikipedia because:

1. Wikipedia has works cited page, so the information is accurate enough.
   
2. Some of information that can bring a controversy is edit-protected, and the information is edited by both sides of an argument. Therefore it is unbiased.
   
3. Wikipedia pages update often, putting latest information.
   
4. Wikipedia is convenient to find information that using paper sources. It works as a good encyclopedia.

Who edits them?

Like I mentioned before, wikipedia is "open-editing" web page. Therefore, everyone can edit information from wiki pages. When they figure out some false information, or trying to add information, they can easily edit the website. Furthermore, any administrators from Wikipedia have rights to fix the information as well in order to create a clean wiki environment.

What is your task?

For this project, Sonya, Elise and I are going to understand how wikipedia works. After that we are going to choose a topic that we all are familiar with, and trying to find out some biased information on its wikipedia page. After that we will get confirmed from Mrs. Wilson whether we can change/edit its information. If it is okay to change, then we will change the information without putting any other biased information. Then we will check whether the change is still remained on the page.

Why is it important for you to learn about Wikipedia?

Learning about Wikipedia is important for me because I often use Wikipedia to find sources for research. Even though I've already realized that Wikipedia sometimes give you biased information, I do not know in what was the information is inaccurate. Therefore, if I investigate about Wikipedia and the validity of information, I will be able to learn to figure out in what ways the information is right or wrong. Furthermore, learning about Wikipedia will give me a moral that putting biased information should not be happened. I can learn that Wikipedia is a open information source that should be stayed with a high rate of accuracy as much as possible.

Works Cited

"Wiki." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 12 February 2010. 23 February 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

"What is Wiki?" wiki.org. 27 June 2002. 23 February 2010.

http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki

"Wikipedia: Why use Wikipedia." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 29 December 2008. 23 February 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_use_Wikipedia

Wikiality Design

An example that we found from Wikipedia was the inaccuracy of information of Thailand’s wikipedia page. We found out that the surface area of Thailand was inaccurate.

This was the information from Wikipedia about Thailand.

According to the image, the total area of Thailand is 513,115 sq km.

After that, we went to the CIA world factbook to see if the information was wrong.

(Click the image to view it larger)

In the CIA world factbook it said that the area of Thailand is 513,120 sq km.

We went to another website called "index mundi", a website that also shows accurate country profiles, to see if the information on CIA factbook was correct. According to the website, the area is also described as 513,120 sq km.

Therefore, the information on Wikipedia was invalid according to our investigation.

Our design Specifications are:

• The information should be cited properly, using MLA format
• The information should be accurate enough that no additional changes are required
• The information should be from valid source, so that it is reliable enough
  

Works Cited

CIA World factbook. 2010. 23 February 2010.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html

"Thailand Area." Index Mundi. 2010. 23 February 2010.

http://www.indexmundi.com/thailand/area.html

"Thailand." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 23 February 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand

Wikiality Investigation Method

1. Choose a topic/subject that we’re familiar with

2. Check if there is a wiki page on it

3. Check if the information on the wiki page corresponds with the information we know

4. Find a reliable source to back up our theory (News sources, books, magazines, web etc.)

5. Once we’ve found an error, print it out and ask Mrs. Wilson if we can change it.

Wikiality Investigation Group Work 3

Answered by Elise

Where does Wikipedia get its information?

Wikipedia can get its information from a range of different websites. It can get it from personal blogs, twitter, or any other website that are either personal or public. However, it is important that the information on those websites is valid so it won’t be removed soon after.

Who is in charge of deciding what goes into an article and what gets removed from an article?

Even though the Wikipedia program is processed by its administrators, every user can edit every source on a wiki. If someone believes that the information is incorrect or invalid, that person can change or remove the information. Also, administrators have the rights to remove the information in order to keep the web environment reliable.

Wikiality Investigation Group Work 2

Answered by Sonya

How would you know whether a particular article really is accurate?

You can check the ‘for more research’ link. This will give you a list of different books/websites that may go into more detail about that specific topic. Another link that can be used is ‘sources’. You can go to the websites where the information on Wikipedia came from. If the information is similar and makes sense you know that the sources are correct. Before completely believing all the information you should check other sources like Encarta or encyclopedias for more research.

How would you go about discovering whether an article contains inaccurate information?

Once you have found out that Wikipedia page contains false information you can change it. Once you change something you should put your source so that other people can see that you changed the information for a reason.

Wikiality Investigation Group Work

"If there is some debate about whether a particular bit of information should or should not be included in an article, what is the process for deciding?"

When Wikipedia checks the reliability of a source, they use certain criteria to evaluate the information which are:
• Accuracy of information included in the article
• Appropriateness of the images provided with the article
• Appropriateness of the style and focus of the article
• Susceptibility to, and exclusion and removal of, false information (a criterion specific to the Wikipedia process)
• Comprehensiveness, scope and coverage within articles and in the range of articles
• Identification of reputable third-party sources as citations
• Stability of the articles
• Susceptibility to editorial and systemic bias
• Quality of writing

If an article does not match with these criteria, then the editors/administrators consider it as invalid information, and it will be eliminated from Wikipedia.

How reliable do you think Wikipedia actually is?

I think Wikipedia is a pretty reliable source in certain areas such as science fields or profiles of celebrities. In 2005, a report from the journal Nature included that Wikipedia had a similar level of accuracy on its scientific sources compared to Encyclopedia Britannica with a similar rate of making errors on the information. Even though there was a controversy over the validity of this information, it is still believed that people think that Wikipedia can be a good source. However, since Wikipedia can be edited by every user, there is a high possibility of creating false information. Wikipedia in English has a lot of information with a good accuracy of work sources. You can view the same webpage in a different language, and I think there can be some mistakes while people are translating the information into a different one. For example, there is a very long and accurate English Wiki page while only basic information is included in the Wiki page in Korean. Therefore, Wikipedia is a source that the reliability depends on what information the user is going to find out.

Furthermore, Wikipedia can be a reliable or unreliable source based on different age group. For example, students who do not have a lot of information on certain topics may believe that the contents in Wiki pages are 100%true. On the other hand, professionals will be much easier to fine out errors or false information from Wiki articles since they know more information than the other does.

Works Cited

“How reliable is wikipedia?” Yahoo! Answers. 2009. 23 February 2010.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090313101943AAc1mgS

“Is Wikipedia Reliable?” Dummies.com. 23 February 2010.
http://as.dummies.com/how-to/content/is-wikipedia-reliable.html

“Reliability of Wikipedia.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 22 February 2010. 23 February 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia

Wikiality Investigation 1

Wikiality Investigation

We firstly made a group wiki website. I was working together with Sarah and Brooke. We went to a website called "PB Wiki" (http://www.pbworks.com) that offers free wiki. We made an account using Sarah's email address, and we put a nickname called "Bobella" :) as our name in order to hide our identity. We decided that everyone on this website is allowed to add or edit things on our wiki web document.




After we created our wiki called "BOBELLA", we put Sarah's fictional podcast script as our web document. Then, we went to other groups' wiki websites individually, and we made either a comment or added changes on their script or wiki front page.


When I was looking around others wiki webs, I intentionally made some "funny" comments on them. I was being one of those mean users who put false or silly information on wikis. I felt very interesting that I could change information so easily even though the website did not belong to me.

When I was done with commenting on other wiki websites, I went back to our group's wiki, and found out what changes have been made. As I expected, our script became very different to the original one. People added silly stuff, and some were even perverted... :(!! Our script had a short profile of the narrator, who was a teen girl, but now there is a profile of weird black guy who enjoys clubbing, not reading. I think people changed these things on our wiki just for fun because they already knew that our wiki belongs to one of their classmates, so it is okay to add silly stuff on it. Also, I do not think that they would do the same thing on professional wiki websites because all the information on those webs needed to be accurate as much as possible so that a lot of people can share each other. When I saw our wiki at first, I felt a little bit angry because we put our information in order to share each other, not just letting them to "adjust" information. On the other hand, I also thought that other people would feel the same as I do when they saw some weird changed happened to their wikis. And I felt guilty that I put so many silly stuff on others' wiki webs.

Luckily, Wiki owners are able to delete some usuless information on their web docments. For example, I could delete some information easily from the page history of our wiki. Furthermore, if owners think that it might be annoying to delete every silly information on their wikis, they can go back to the original (or older) version of their wikis. In order to change the wiki onto its original version on PB Wiki, 1) open recent changes page 2) Click "show changes" of one of the oldest version of web document. 3) Click the changed date that is shown on the top of the website. 4) Click "revert to this version". By using these steps, people can go back to its original version without having any problems :)

I think that wikis can be used in many ways. It can be used to: (Class opinions+my own)

-give resources, or information.

-advertisement

-survey

-debate

-create cooperated book

-create class websites/blog

-etc.

Wikiality

Today we started a new project called "Wikiality". It is going to be about investigating wikipedia and finding out whether the information we get it from there is valid or invalid.

Wikipedia is a type of online encyclopedia that all the individuals can put and fix the information on that website. It provides information in different languages so that many nationalities may share the same information with their mother tongue.

Personally I thought that wikipedia was a good research source that I could get all the different types of information easily. Most of the times, Wikipedia helped me to find out and understand information for my projects. However, one of the problems of wikipedia is that all the information can be adjusted by other volunteers. Therefore, there are possibilities that some information are false and are nonsense. Of course there are people who work hard to fix all the false information on Wikipedia, but there are some sources remained as biased.

In this unit, we are going to search for some of wrong information on Wikipedia, and try to adjust it without putting any biased facts. Also, the information should not be published maliciously.

This project is related to principled, one of IB learner profile, since we need to know some principles of using wiki properly. The chosen Areas of Interaction is "Health and Social Education". Even though it is not related to the "heatlh" part, it is closely related to social education since we are learning netiquettes of using wikis.

I think this project is going to be very interesting, since I'm a great fan of using wikipedia, and I would want to learn a lot from this project.

Podcast research URLs

Oops! I forgot to mention what websites I used to research about teenage suicide!

Here's the works cited page^^

Works Cited

“About Teen Suicide”. Kids Health from Nemours. June 2008. 19 December 2009. http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/suicide.html#

“Teenage suicide in the United States”. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 16 December 2009.
21 December 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_suicide_in_the_United_States

“Teenage Suicide Prevention”. TEEN SUICIDE. 21 December 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_suicide_in_the_United_States

Podcast Evaluation

A. Investigate


Before we started researching about podcast, we interviewed peers and one of our parents to ask about their teenage life. I interviewed five friends and my mom. While I was interviewing people, I was very busy since it was the time which I came back to UB from Seoul. Therefore I was rushing through all the processes, and I realized that I should have worked on these interviews while I was in Korea. Interviewing was not a hard work to do; creating some questions about adolescence, send the notes to people, and organizing and publishing their answers were basically all the processes I was supposed to do. However, bad time managing has resulted me being procrastinating, and cramming. Therefore, I thought a good plan and pushing myself to follow the plan were very important.


Investigating about podcast was a very interesting task, especially when I was listening to some examples of podcasts. I was supposed to research what podcast is and how it is made. Also I needed to listen to at least three different podcasts in order to get some ideas that what I should include in my podcast. While I was researching, I was able to learn a lot about podcast. I have heard of podcast, but I did not know much about how it is created. Through out researching, I got information of the definition of podcast, and how people, or an organization explain their thoughts or ideas through podcasting. (I firstly thought that podcast was one of products from Apple company :p) Furthermore, iTunes helped me a lot while I was struggling to find examples of podcasts. I listened to podcasts that were based on sciences and meditation for teenagers. All three podcasts were very informative, and I was very impressed by the way how they speak; very clear with nice music. No mistakes... (While I was recording my script, it was VERY hard to finish it without making mistakes!)


I think I could've done some more researches on podcast, because when I was publishing a podcast, the recording system was not in a very good quality, and it was pretty hard to record it without any noise. I could've researched what equipmetns that I could use in order to record in a better way. I finished investigating on time, but I was sort of rushing in the end. I always mention it on my evaluation, but I seriously need to manage my time better. From now on, I should make myself to work on a project everyday, even though I use only a few minutes on it, so that I can get used with good time management without procrastination.

B. Design

Brainstorming for podcast designs were very interesting. Since the topic needed to be related to adolescence, I wrote down some ideas; however, most of them were sort of depressing. (such as teen suicide, stereotypes, etc) Because I'm also a teenager, I think making a design on these topics tend to be easy. When I was working on some previous projects, I needed some further research in order to get some sketch, or design ideas. But for this one, a lot of ideas just came into my head.

My three designs were based on: teenage suicide, wild teen life (drugs, smoking...) and stereotypes. I thought these themes were very interesting for me, and since the I chose topics that I liked, it was pretty easy to organize what I'm going to put for my podcast.

The final design, which was about teenage suicide, was created well without any big problems. I didn't want to make my podcast to controversy (since the topic itself is already controversy), so I just organized some simple lists of what would be included as contents.

I posted the designs on time, and I think there were no big problems happened while I was working on the process. One thing that might be weakness of my designs is that I got some ideas from some of my friends designs. I did not exactly follow what I was going to put in my podcast, but when I couldn't come up with some topics, I looked into others' blogs and got a few from theirs. Lucklily, I do not think no body else worked on teen suicide for thier final product, but I think I could've come up with some more original ideas. Therefore, I need to spend more time to consider what topics might be original enough and creative so that I could make better designs.

C. Plan

Creating plan was a very complicated process, especially for this project. I created a plan that I could work on my product during the break; however, the plan didn't work at all. The plan was specific enough, with all the steps I need to do and how much time I should spend for each day. But the problem was that A) since it was break, there were some other events that I did not expect, which I could not follow the plan as I planned, B) many people were on a trip to other countries, which made me hard to interview them. Even though I could contact them through the internet, the time difference was also a problem. On the whole, the plan seemed it was impossible to follow.

Then I created a new plan. It's not like a totally different plan, but I re-organized it. I wrote down the dates that I actually worked and followed the plan. After that I put some changes on it.

Making a plan always helps me to be organized and disciplined. However, I still need to be more used with following plans, and creating a realistic one.

D. Create

For create process, I wrote my scipt for the podcast, recorded it, and published the podcast. Writing script was very fun, and I really enjoyed writing my script. The information that I got from websites about teenage suicide helped me to make my script more interesting. I included causes of teen suicide, some interviews and ways to prevent suicides. I was kind of worried that what if people feel bored about my contents of podcast; however, after I asked for several people to read my script, the result was pretty good. People enjoyed reading my script, and they were looking forward to listen to my podcast.

Then I recorded my podcast. First, I used iPod voice recorder, but there were so much noises so my voice was not clear enough. Then I used my laptop recorder, and the quality of voice was better. The thing that annoyed me so much was that I made so many mistakes while I was recording. I tried to record the entire script without pausing the recorder, but it was impossible. I sometimes pronounced words awkwardly, and I often skipped some lines while I was recording. Then I decided to record one paragraph at one time. So, overall there were about 9 recordings, and I used moviemaker to combine them into one mp3 file. Since I recorded my script separately, my voice tend to sound different for each recording, so the flow of the voice was not smooth enough. I thought if I had a professional equipment to record the script, I think it would have been better. After I published my podcast and listened to it, I felt kind of funny since I was listening to the recording of my own voice :p. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting process.

The biggest problem that I faced while I was working on podcast was testing my podcast. My original plan was to publish on youtube and ask for people to listen to my podcast and make a comment either on my blog or facebook. I've sent messages to people so that they could listen to my podcast; however, it was exam week and everyone was busy. So, no one actually made a comment about my podcast. Therefore, I needed to ask my classmates face-to-face to listen to my podcast. I put the link on my blog and after they listened to my podcast, they made some comments. They were saying that my voice was not very clear, but the contents were interesting and very related to adolescence. So I think that the result of testing is pretty good, even though I had to change my testing plan.

To sum up, making a podcast was very new to me, and I learned a lot from this project. I learned not only about podcasts, but also some facts about teenagers and their lives. Sometimes I felt we spent too much time on this project, and I got sort of bored. However, after I'm done with all the processes, I think it was an unique experience that gave me a lot of information. :)

Podcast Plan with changes added

There have been a lot of changes occurring to my plan. The biggest change was about the interviews. I was going to interview people about teenage suicide during break; however, many of them left to other countries for vacation, and I was not able to keep in touch with them. Therefore, the previous plan that I was going to interview people during the break needed to be canceled. Also, I skipped some of plans during the break, and now I noticed that I was wasting so much time during the break.

Click the image to view it larger :)

Podcast Final Product

Dear Audiences :)

I finally published my podcast!
Here's the link:
http://hayoungr.podOmatic.com/entry/2010-01-18T22_18_37-08_00

Please listen to my podcast and make a comment on my blog^_^ Thanks!






"Teenage Suicides... Yes or No?"

Image Cited

"Schools Confront Teen Suicide". Edutopia. October 2006. 26 January 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_suicide_in_the_United_States

Podcast Script

“Mom, dad... I’m tired of everything… and now, I think it is time to end up. I love you, goodbye.” (Pause) Several months ago, I found an image of letter that was written with blood while I was web surfing. It was from a teen girl, making a farewell to her beloved parents, saying that she doesn’t want to live anymore. Then, there was a big argument whether it was a right decision of her to finish her life this early. Well, I do not know what happened to the girl after she wrote her letter, and yet I wished that she did not commit suicide.

(Short pause)

Hello everyone. My name is HY, and I’m an ordinary sixteen year old girl. Today I’m going to talk about teenage suicide. Many of you probably have heard of teenagers committing suicide on newspaper, magazines, and even on TV programs. Teenage suicide is becoming a big social issue and the rate of suicides has increased rapidly these days. Even though there is a low rate of children committing suicide, it starts to increase amazingly during adolescence. According to CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teenage suicide is the third-leading cause of death for 15 to 24 old teenagers and adults. If so, what would be the main causes for these “young adults” to commit suicide? People might just say that too much schoolwork or having a bad family relationship would be the main reasons. Well, they ARE some parts of the causes. However, I want to remind people that there are actually more than those two factors that teenagers finish their lives.

To begin with, I’m going to tell you some of suicide causes. The first one is bad family relationship. Adolescence is the time that teenagers become very sensitive and easy to get stressed or tired. Also, it is time which their parents should encourage their children from any hardships by giving encouraging words or some advice. However, if there is a crack on one’s family relationship, teenagers can easily get bad impacts. Divorce of parents, domestic violence, unemployment of parents or household financial problems may give fatal harms on teenagers both physically and mentally. Teenagers are not like little children who don’t know or don’t care about those problems. Most of teens are already mentally matured enough, and of course, they definitely would get pressured and depressed from bad house circumstances. They are afraid that something unexpected would happen to their family, like parents divorcing. Fear and anger toward parents… If teenagers are under these environments for a long time, they become mentally exhausted and reach the moment where they just want to give up everything by crossing the river of no return.

How would you feel after you had an argument with your friends? A bit frustrated, and depressed as well, right? Then how would you feel if you get bullied from others? What if you do not have any friends that can understand you and warm your heart? The second suicide reason is related to friends. Teenagers spend a lot of time with their friends sharing their interests and hobbies as well as telling their concerns and get cheered up from each other. In other words, teenagers need friends to express their thoughts. But what if friends turn their back on you? Personally, I would be VERY depressed. We, the humans, are social animals. We are not able to live without having any social interactions. Becoming a victim of bullying, or became socially rejected from others may give serious damage to one’s mental health. Hence, teenagers are very easily to get mental disorders, such as depression, since they can be very emotional at some moments. And if it lasts for a long time… unfortunately, yes, committing suicides might happen as a result.

School is probably one of the most important things from a teen’s life. Teenagers learn new things and have social interactions at schools. Likewise, school will be the place that teenagers would spend most of their time except their homes. The problem is that, what if they do not enjoy their school life and get stressed every day? What if they get bad grades on their studies and starting to lose hope that they can do it better next time? There are some students who are very sensitive at getting grades, and if they are not satisfied with their grades, some of them just burst into tears and they are in a panic. Sometimes there are some teenagers who just end up their lives because they became depressed and thought there is no hope for them.

Drug abuse is also becoming a very big issue among teenagers these days. Some teenagers start going on drugs because of their ultimate curiosity or occasionally by peer pressure; however, they did not notice that drugs are very fatal that can lead them to death. Once teens are addicted to drugs, they just can’t help it. They want drugs more and more. The overdose of drugs just leads these poor teenagers to finish their lives so that they can get away from addiction.

So, you’ve heard some factors that lead teenagers to commit suicide, and now I’d like to ask you this question: how do you think of teenagers committing suicide? Five teenagers already have answered the question. For their personal privacy, their names will not be read out loud. Then let me read their responses.

Teen A responded that “Teen suicide is a very depressing topic because it’s extremely hard to try and relate to these teenagers. There are many different reasons why teens commit suicide and she thinks most of them are not feasible. You have your whole life ahead of you and of course there will be times when you are unhappy and have problems but that doesn’t mean that you should kill yourself. Whenever you have a problem the answer is not to kill yourself.”

Teen B said that “committing suicide is a way for some people to get away from their stress and problems. Since most of them take their life away because they feel bad about something or stressed out, she thinks it is a serious issue for those people and she would advise them to seek professional help. It is a terrific thought of taking away your own life and she certainly believes that there are other ways to manage with stress problems. There are still much better ways to handle this situation rather than committing suicide.”

Teen C also made a comment that apparently “girls tend to think about suicide twice as much as boy do, yet four times as many boys die from suicide. Teenagers struggle to see the point of dealing with some troublesome situations and/or feel as if they can’t handle them. She believes teen suicide is a waste of a life which still has so much left in it.

So, Teen A, B and C suggest that teenage suicide should not happen.

Then Teen D answered in sort of different way. “She doesn’t think suicide is something that she has much experienced with. She doesn’t know any people who have done it. However, through watching movies and documentaries she has seen some of the factors that indicate whether a person commit suicide or not. She does not think suicide is that common in her environment here in Mongolia because of the support we can get from friends, family and school, all things which can make a person commit suicide. Overall, she was in neutral whether teen suicide is right or wrong since she did not have any experiences.”

Lastly, Teen E replied with a lot of background information. He thinks that “teen suicide is a colossal problem in the world, especially in the US and East Asian countries. The major cause of this is stress from school. This is not such a great issue in the States, where the only problem teenagers face is the conflict between students, and assimilating into the school society, but in countries like Korea, Japan, and China, the issues are aggravated by the competition of “academics” for admission of college, as well as corporal punishment. It has been studied that one of the largest adolescent suicide rates come from Korea, where students prepare to go to college ever since elementary school.” Wow, thanks for very detailed info.

(Short Pause)

Most of responses tend to have negative image against teenage suicide. They suggest that teens committing suicide is not a very appropriate way, and therefore there should be some ways to prevent suicides. In my opinion, I also believe that teenage suicide should be stopped. I totally agree with what others have said. I am a teenager as well, and I also sometimes feel depressed, hopeless and desperate to give up. I also have thought that finishing my life would be the best way to have a comfortable rest. BUT, in fact, it’s NOT TRUE. One’s life is very worthy. It belongs not only to him or her, but also to his/her family, especially mom and dad. I would like to ask those who attempt to commit suicide whether they have considered about their parents after they end up their lives. Furthermore, we, the teenagers, are still growing both mentally and physically. After we grow up, we will be facing a lot of problems in our lives, and some of them might be even worse than the problems that we have now. Therefore, all the hardships that we are struggling at the moment are like some practices for our future. If we overcome them, then we will be able to enjoy our lives after we become adults.

Okay then, what should people do in order to prevent teenage suicides? Basically, the most important factor for family members and friends to help teenagers attempting suicides is to understand their minds and behaviors well. I found out that there are some warning signs of teens committing suicide. For example, when he or she talks about death or suicide in general, it can be one of signs that she is depressed or feeling guilty. Having no desire to participate in favorite activities or having a trouble to concentrate or think clearly may also be some dangerous signs. Furthermore, if he/she starts to make some self-destructive actions, such as drinking alcohol, or going on drugs heavily, you should be aware of him or her. Dramatic mood swing can also be a significant warning sign. If your friend or child seems to have a lot of mood changes, then you should consider whether he/she is having a trouble or depressed at the moment.

Parents should keep a close eye on their teenagers who seem very depressed and try to have more time to have a conversation with their children. Reassure teenagers that parents can be a help whenever they need for it. Also, Parents should be able to listen openly without making any judgments and believe what he or she says. Also parents need to understand seriously about the threats that are bugging their child. If teenagers do not feel comfortable sharing their concerns with their parents and try to avoid them, parents can suggest their children to talk to someone who is more neutral, such as other relatives, or school member.

Some parents hesitate to ask their teens whether they have thought of committing suicide because they may give the idea of suicide to their children. However, I would suggest parents to ask their children if they are thinking about suicide. Asking directly often helps people to talk about their concerns more easily. Likewise, teenagers may feel more comfortable to tell how they feel like when their parents directly ask them whether they think about committing suicide.
Furthermore, if teenager’s symptom of being depressed seems severe, it is better to take him/her to the psychologist and look for ways to cure his/her depression.

If you want to help a teen from committing suicide as a friend, having a serious conversation about a teen’s problem may help to release one’s depression as well. Tell him/her that you will be always there if there is a need of help. A comforting word can warm a teen’s mind and it will lessen the tension of depression.

For those who think of committing suicide, I would like to encourage them to think positively. I know it will be hard for them just to be optimistic when they are in blue mood; however, at least trying to think positive things would be able to give changes in their moods.

(Short pause)

This is all for today, and I would like to thank everyone who listened to my podcast. Also, I really appreciate for those who answered the survey question. You were listening to HY’s podcast, and I’ll be back with another interesting topic to discuss. See you!