Finally, I manage to complete all of my assignments for Computer in Education. At first, this subject is a really challenging course for me as i am not a technology savvy at all. I feel frustrated whenever I faced technical problems and also feel down when I faced obstacles in doing assignments. However, after few weeks of studying Computer in Education, I found that I have really gained a lot from it. All the knowledge that I have learned in this subject is undeniable important for my career in the future. I have learn a lot of skills and I really feel glad that I get a chance to be exposed to various issues of ICT.
Here, I would like to show my appreciation for those who had helped me and guided me a lot in this subject. First of all, I would like to thanks our coordinator from UKM, Dr. Siti Mohd Yassin and our lecturer Mr. Muhammad Fariduddin Wajdi Anthony. Besides that, I would like to appreciate the cooperation and hard-work of my partner for all my assignments, Chong Xin Txin. And last but not least, I would like to thanks all my course-mates as they are willing to guide and help me whenever I face problem.
Examination is just around the corner and I am feeling like a little bit reluctant to do Assignment 8 & Assignment 9 due to lacking of time. However, I still manage to finish all of my assignments before the exam week. In assignment 8 (a), we need to create a simple one year personal financial management by using Open Office Spreadsheet. We faced some problems when we wanted to link the formula between the sheets.
Assignment 8(b) is the task which we need to create a document by using Microsoft Excel. The spreadsheet should contains students’ grade and score analysis. I have learned the ways to use “VLOOKUP”, “STEDV”, “AVERAGE” and also “COUNTIF”. I really feel glad that I get a chance to learn about all these as those skills will be needed in preparing the report cards of my students in the future.
Moving on to assignment 9, we were asked to plan, create and edit a simple database for student management information by using Open Office Base. By doing this assignment, I learn the ways to link the information between tables and also the ways to create forms and reports.
This week, we are assigned to create a presentation kit by using Impress. Impress is one of the software available in Open Office. The functions and the ways of Impress are very similar to Microsoft Office. Hence, although I am the first time user of Impress, I did not spend much time explore on it. However, there are also some differences between Impress and Microsoft PowerPoint. For example, if we use animation in Microsoft PowerPoint, we can only view the animation in the form of slides show. However, in Impress, all the animations can be viewed straight away at the slides.
The presentation that my partner and I have done is on the topic “Original and Licensing Software”. Again, the contents of the presentation include the issues of original and pirated software in Malaysia. The presentation that we have done must contain hyperlinks so that we can view any slide easily.
Insert hyperlink in presentation is a pretty easy task as I just need to highlight the words and click “Insert Hyperlink”. After that, I just need to choose the page, document or slide that I wish to hyperlink to. After we have done our Impress, we need to upload it to Google Doc and share it with our lecturers and also course-mates. However, I failed to upload it to Yahoo Groups as the size of files had exceeded the standard size of files fixed by Yahoo Groups.
Besides that, we also need to produce a video clip on the topic chosen. First of all, we looked for some pictures from internet and use Microsoft Paint to edit the pictures so that those pictures can be related to our topics. After that, we used Window Movie Maker to arrange all those pictures, insert the subtitles and make it become a video clip. We also use Audacity to edit our music. This is the first time I use Audacity and I found that it is very convenient as we can cut and edit the music easily. Apart from that, we also did an interview with some teacher trainees regarding their opinions on Original and Licensing Software. From the interview we had done, every teacher trainee has their own opinion on the topic but most of them agreed that price of original software is the main reason why a lot of people choose to use pirated software.
Moving on to week 5, and this week I am going to finish my both assignment 6(a) and 6(b) with my partner. I like doing assignment 6 as this assignment is something to do with designing. First of all, we need to read some information on 2D Graphic Editing Software. There are several types of Graphic Editing Software which include RGB& CMK, Microsoft Paint and so on. Inside my laptop, I have Microsoft Paint and Adobe Photoshop that can be used to edit graphic. I choose Microsoft Paint to do the editing job for graphics because I think it is easier to use compared to Adobe Photoshop. In Microsoft Paint, I can insert text to the picture, draw pictures and also change the colour of background and so on.
After the exploration on Graphic Editing Software, my partner and I need to design a brochure and booklet. We decided to make a brochure for a campaign which promotes the using of original and licensed software. We were asked to design the brochure by using Microsoft Office Publisher. Microsoft Office Publisher is really easy to use in designing. After opened the program, I selected “brochures” as my types of publication. Then, from the list of templates design, I chose my desire design for the brochure. After that, I started design my brochure. Designing brochure by using Microsoft Office Publisher is really convenience and easy. We just need to type the words and insert the pictures in the boxes that are available on the template.We also used the picture that we have edited in Microsoft Paint in our brochure.
After that, we designed the booklet again. We use the essay “Report on Issues of Original and Licensed Software in Malaysia” as the content of our booklet. We need to design the booklet by using Microsoft Office Word.Actually, both my partner and I never use Microsoft Word to design a booklet and hence we spent some time on exploring it. Actually, I do not prefer to use Microsoft Office Word to do designing task. It is because we cannot move or modify the picture easily. However, I found that textbox is easily move-able. And hence, before I inserted a picture, I always create a textbox first and after that I pasted the picture in the textbox. By doing this, I could easily control the size of the picture and also move the picture easily.
As a conclusion, I really enjoyed doing the task of this week as I like to deal with graphics.
A number of 16 teacher trainees have answered our questionnaires. And I found that pirated software is very popular among teacher trainees. Our survey shown that 12 out of 16 teacher trainees have pirated software inside their laptop. Most teacher trainees agree that price is the main reason that they do not want to use original software.
In the process of writing this report, I have learned a lot. I learn how to analysis data and convert the data into graphic form by using SPSS. Also, I was managed to know that how are our teacher trainees views toward original and pirated software. From the survey I have done, I know that most of us still do not have a clear view towards pirated and original software.
Teacher Trainees’ Intention in Using Pirated Software in Malaysia
Chong Xin Txin & Ting Suk Hua
B. Ed TESL IPGKS-UKM
Abstract.As Malaysia moves toward the computer era, the use of technology becomes a necessity and it is inevitable in our everyday lives. As a result, the nationwide use of software increases as well. Yet, little effort of research has been done in Malaysia on the tendency of using pirated software among teacher trainees in Malaysia. Hence, this paper reports on a study on teacher trainees’ intention is using pirated software. The study was carried out on teacher trainees at Sarawak Teachers Training Institute (IPG KS) in Miri, Sarawak and Dato' Razali Ismail Teachers Training Institute (IPG KDRI). It was found that Malaysians have a high tendency of using pirated software due to the unaffordable price of original software. Subsidies and persuasive advertisements can be an effective way to promote the use of original licensed software among our people.
1 INTRODUCTION
Software is an immaterial property created by an individual or a company. Hence, laws are implemented in certain countries to protect the owners’ rights towards the original software they created which is known as the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). For example, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) are international organizations that enforce laws to protect copyrights of original software against pirates.
However, due to the different cultures and believes between countries, not all countries agree to oblige to the Western versions of IPRs which are mostly practiced by the First World countries. Countries such as Brazil, China and other Second World countries have tried to oppose the enforcement of foreign IPRs as they consider acknowledging foreign IPRs as being detrimental to their own development (Kai K, Kimppa, 2005). On the other hand, societies in the developing countries see the need to spread innovations in the society as being more important than granting IPRs (Steidlmeier, 1993; Spinello, 1995). For instance, Malaysia sees the importance for society to override IPR holders' rights in certain situation. Thus, pirated software are allowed in Malaysia to encourage the general use of computer and also for educational purposes in the year 2002 (Weckert and Al-Saggaf, 2003). Even though conflicts exist among countries regarding the issue of IPR, we should respect whatever method that is chosen by the countries.
Policy changes with time. Recently, on February 15, 2011 Malaysia has come up with a 2011 Special Report on Copyright Protection and Enforcement for the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA). In other words, our country Malaysia has raised her concern towards the issue of copyright and piracy with the development of technology. Software piracy has thus, become a popular issue of discussion. Yet, it is a complicated problem for the government to curb. For instance, in 2006, about 61% of the computer software used by Malaysians is pirated software. Malaysia has among the highest piracy rates in the world and has been listed on the United State Trade Representative's watch list. The government is trying to reduce the percentage of pirated software used by implementing different initiatives.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
Gan and Koh and Van Belle, Macdonald and Wilson suggested that piracy is highest among young people especially of those who are studying in universities (Linda Spark, 2010). These students do not have affordable income to support them with the use of their desired licensed software, yet they often have the knowledge and tools to pirate them. From the survey suggested by Gan and Koh and Van Belle, Macdonald and Wilson, we may therefore place our target on universities' students to carry out our effort to reduce piracy in Malaysia. When considering about the ways to overcome, we will need to understand the reasons why computer users tend to use pirated software rather than the original licensed ones. Thus, this paper reports on a study that investigates the factors that successfully persuade teacher trainees in Malaysia to use pirated software.
3 RESEARCH APPROACH
A survey has been conducted as the research approach. Survey forms are created using Google Docs and distributed via e-mails to students of Sarawak Teachers Training Institute (IPG KS) and Dato’ Razali Ismail Teachers Training Institute (IPG KDRI). Teacher trainees from both institutes are urged to give their full cooperation to respond to the questionnaire in order to obtain an effective result. Facebook is also used as a medium to provide links for teacher trainees to have easy access to the questionnaire.
4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
Here we explore the questionnaire findings in relation to the appropriate variables indicated.
Percentage of teacher trainees who are using pirated software.
Q: Besides the window you are using, do you use any other pirated software?
A: 0 – Yes
1 – No
Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Valid
100
86.2
86.2
86.2
0
12
10.3
10.3
96.6
1
4
3.4
3.4
100.0
Total
116
100.0
100.0
Fig. 1a
Fig. 1b
Fig. 1a & 1b Percentage of Teacher Trainees who are using Pirated Software
From the above analysis, it is obvious that most teacher trainees choose to use pirated software to complete their daily tasks. A result of 75 percent and 25 percent differences proved that pirated software is popular among students especially of those in their tertiary education. Hence, it is definitely a wise choice to place our target on universities' students to carry out our effort to reduce piracy in Malaysia.
Reasons.
Q: If the answer is "yes" for the above question, what is the reason that you are using pirated software?
A: 1 – Price of original software is not affordable
2 – I do not think there is any difference between original and pirated software
3 – I do not know where to purchase original software
4 – When I reformat my laptop, the technician readily installed pirated software, so I
