TQVM

THE CHOSEN GEEKS.

YOU have been chosen to do this nicenicenice survey. (:

Nicole X

In which it's commented

Yo Geeky GEEKS.

Feedback are comments or constructive criticisms used for improvement (in this case, our learning). It is very crucial because well, none of us are perfect and we have our flaws. And sometimes, you don't really notice these flaws, unless someone points it out to you: this is where feedbacks come in handy. 

Good feedbacks are not necessary feedbacks which make people feel good. Good feedbacks are feedbacks and comments that people can learn from. And by making good and productive feedbacks, this may help your peer to improve. And who knows, it might help you too. 

Bad feedbacks doesn't really help someone improve their learning. Some are just random statements which, well are very useless. And there's absolutely no point for putting in bad feedbacks because it just wastes space (internet virtual space) and wastes time for the learner to read the useless comment. 

Blogs are a good way to give feedback because it's virtual and the comments can be reviewed. Feedbacks can be done on a blog and it is certainly a positive reinforcement. Critiques can also be made and it helps students to improve. Also, it is a great and easy platform for students to exchange views on their work and communicate different ideas. Besides that, blogs are a great thing for people who are too shy to comment or critique about someone else's work. It can be a viable substitution for students who prefer not to give critiques in front of the other learners.

Generally, I have been giving rather constructive comments (although there were a few useless stupid ugly sad comments). For example, after my comment on Zahir's very short first post, he posted another post entitled "Response to Grumpy People", which was of course more well explained than the first post. Clickkie here to see his nice post after I gave him a nice constructive critique. I have learnt that by giving people proper comments, regardless whether the learner would treat it as a tip to improve (which most of them will), unconsciously, I am also helping other people to improve too.

This is a good feedback that I've made. This is a good feedback because aside from telling the learner what I think was good about his post, I've also pointed out what could be improved. This comment can help the learner to improve on elaborating more about the stated points. 

Nicole X

Lemme ask you this

You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.- Zig Ziglar

The Questions
 1. Do you use water-saving bathroom equipments at home (eg low flow shower head, dual flushes toilet) If not, are you willing to spend some money to install these features?
2. Do you use showers or baths more often?
3. What do you do when you brush your teeth?
4. Do you insulate your water pipes?
5. Do you monitor your water bill to check for leaks in the house?
6. Other than used toilet paper, do you throw any other rubbish into the toilet bowl?

Bryan the Abandoner replied via Skype

"Your questionnaires are fine, but for Question 3, you should add some responses to it. Not yes/ no responses, but for example like 1- Use a glass 2- The tap just runs etc etc. "

Maxwell the Dinoboy replied via Skype

"For Question 6, it's too personal. What if people didn't just throw toilet paper in? What if they flush other things in? What if it's too personal to be revealed?"

Zahir replied via Skype

"For Question 6, what if they threw other stuff in too? And for your responses, you should let respondents to state reasons for their choice."

I agree with them. Yes, in a respondent's point of view, Question 6 would definitely be a little touchy and some people might not feel very comfortable about this question. However, as surveys can be anonymous thus I don't think respondents will really mind to answer the personal Question 6. But all the same, I tried to rephrase my questions so that the survey would be more effective and it doesn't intrude other people's privacy (I'd say).

Questions. Leave it after my speech (:

Yo geeks.

A questionnaire is very useful because it is simple to administer. Anyone can create a questionnaire. Besides that, they are very simple for respondents to complete. Just a few ticks which takes up maybe less than 1 minute: you have a questionnaire done. Simple as that. Also, some respondents may not be very comfortable around perky interviewers, so questionnaires can definitely substitute those irritating interviewers. Not just that, as respondents are not required to give in their replies immediately, those who want to have a think over the questions may do so, before submitting their replies. Questionnaires are very versatile, and it suits people of all ages, anywhere, anytime. 

Top Tips on creating an awesome questionnaire

1. Have a good introduction

This is very important because your introduction in your questionnaire tells people your objective of having their views and what are you going to use it for. A good introduction should also be attention grabbing, maybe as attention grabbing as this:

so that your respondents will be like this: 

and thus you can achieve maximum results with your questionnaires.

2. Put your questions in the order of importance

In online surveys, there are huge chances that your questionnaires are too redundant and seem very unimportant so respondents decide to well, abandon it. To avoid this, put the most important question as the 1st question in your survey and leave those demographic/ unimportant-but-required questions at the very end of your survey.

3. Use easy words

In a questionnaire, you do not need to show off your language, just like how peacocks struts and shows their beautiful feathers. (Males, I repeat, only MALE PEACOCKS do that.) Keep it simple and plain and do not use jargons. Respondents might feel that you are trying to show off or trying to imply that they are stupid not as smart as you- and feel offended and abandon your survey. Again, keep it short and to the point and simple. 

4. Randomize the responses

Whenever possible, change the order of the responses in your questionnaire in order to avoid 'order bias'. Some random kids might be clicking away random on your survey, so in order to avoid that, randomize your responses.

5. No graphics, please and thank you

Imagine yourself having a hard day at school. And Bob, your best friend, asks you to do a survey for him. Being your best friend, you can't possibly say no. You access your mail- and mind you, the internet is horrendously slow. You open your friend's message, which takes you 5 minutes. You click on the link, which takes you another 10 minutes. You hate the internet and you're very frustrated. When the page finally loads, you find yourself staring at the left hand corner of the screen, saying 'loading 1 of 100 pictures'. Damn it, you close your laptop. 

You see how frustrating it is to do a survey which takes a VERY VERY long time to load because of the useless pictures and graphics? Keep it clean, and graphics-free.

6. Thank you very much

Yes, the words behind the golden rule: thank you. Remember to thank them for their time and willingness to do your survey. After all, they are nice people who took the trouble to complete your survey.

Nicole X

A talk with Barack Obama

Hey Geeks. How're you doing?
I've decided not to change my ideas because I'm fine with this topic. (: 


Ideas for finding information about local views

• Casual conversations/ chats
• Brainstorm
• Surveys/ Polls
• Blogs
• Interview some famous people (but definitely not politicians)
• Reliable books and magazines
• Use safe social networking sites to get views from the public

Well, I think that having surveys would be most effective because I can have unlimited responses. Polls would also be great because when you want to accumulate your results, it shows you a visual image of what people voted for- making the results clearer.

Nicole X

To decipher the magic of the Blue Liquid

Yo Geeks.

Yes, the title says it all-

http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-save-water-in-the-bathroom-a54425

Very nice techniques but I think that they are not explained properly. .__.

Some parts seem very vague to me and being an absolute layman at these water saving tips and technologies, I couldn't understand some methods as proposed in the websites.

http://eartheasy.com

Cool techniques but it's too expensive! :O 
It's not really practical unless you are some multimillionaire in which you are willing to and can afford to spend chunks of millions in your bathroom.

I find that some sites are probably biased because the techniques mentioned sort of advertises the products that they are selling. However, I stumbled across this wonderful site: 

http://www.365waystogogreen.com/category/how-to-save-water/how-to-save-water-at-home/how-to-save-water-in-the-bathroom/

Okay, I don't admit. Though some of his ways are rather disgusting and unhygienic and unheard of and revolting and not recommended for you, but some of his 'demonstrated' ways to save water are pretty effective and well, original. It is not any other sites which require you to buy their 'water saving products' in order to save water. His daily narration on what he did to save water and save Earth will perhaps inspire you to start a project just like his. So do look around in his pretty-delicious-awesome site. :))

Nicole XOXO

01 The blue liquid

Hey geeks. :)

The Venn Diagram

How to save water in the bathroom?
Undeniably, the bathroom is the place where we use most of our water. Business done, toilet flushed; singing in the shower, come out an hour later; brush your teeth, tap is running. All these is done in the bathroom, and unconsciously, we waste more water than we can possibly use.

Do you know which action waste the MOST household water in our houses?

No, not doing your business, but the action all of us do AFTER that. Yep, it's flushing the toilet. 
Right after that are taking baths and showers.

There are many ways to save water in the bathroom.
I'll start of from the toilet WC.

1. Get a toilet which has a half-flush and full-flush function.

This really does save a lot of water in the long run because we use the toilet at least 6-8 times a day. The full flush uses about 4.5 litres while the half-flush uses 3 litres.


Imagine you went to the toilet 7 times a day and used full-flush all day.
7 x 4.5 litres = 31.5 litres


Instead, with a dual flush toilet, you may need to use 2 full-flushes and 5 half-flushes.
(2 x 4.5 litres) + (5 x 3 litres) = 24 litres


31.5 litres - 24 litres = 6.5 litres


Yes, you save 6.5 litres a day per person. It many seem insignificant but on the long run, it definitely saves a lot of water.


Imagine 4 people lives in a house and used the toilet each 7 times a day, used 2 full flushes and 5 half flushes.


6.5 litres x 4 people x 365 = 9490 litres


In a year, the family can save 9490 litres of water and that will cut off much of the amount on their water bill.


Save water to save money!

2. Check for leaks

That's is very important because at most of the time, we are unaware of the leaks and the water just drips and drips and drips on unnoticed. Therefore, we must be very careful and keep an open eye on any leaks  on our water devices. You can use your own water bill/ water meter to check for water leaks too. If you notice a sudden rise in water usage on the bill although you have not used water excessively, that suggests a leak- probably in your bathroom.

3. Turn off the TAP

Classic rule that still applies! Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth and soaping up your hands. When washing your razor/ retainer, don't put it under a running tap. Fill up a container with warm water and wash your razor/ retainer there. It's just as effective!

4. Insulate water pipes.

Yes, undeniably, it costs quite a bomb to insulate ALL your water pipes but it really does saves a lot of water. I think you should start by insulating the pipes channeling to your bathroom. Insulating pipes can reduce time for water to heat up, and at the same time, prevents you from wasting water while waiting for water to heat up. 

5. Install a low-flow shower head

Generally, low-flow means that it uses less than 2.5 gallons per minute. Also, shorten your shower time. Avoid singing in the bathroom because it is very likely for you to be so immersed into singing and forget about the time- coming out only an hour later. If you can, do use baths instead of showers because the baths prevents you from wasting as much water as showers.

6. Do not throw rubbish into the toilet

Rubbish ranging from cigarette butt, facial tissues, babies' pampers etc are often found flushed down the toilet. And because these rubbish are not supposed to be flushed down toilets, they are often stuck. As a result, more water is needed to flush these rubbish down. We have rubbish bins for a purpose and toilets cannot be substituted for rubbish bins. Every time you throw a rubbish into the toilet, it wastes approximately 5 to 7 gallons of water.


I have chosen to present my findings through Prezi because it would be easier for audience to access and it is more interactive. And if learners want to re-access my research, it can be done by looking back at my Prezi.





Loves,
Nicole. (: