First Aid Crash Course

Have you ever been in a position where you were required to render first aid? If there was a first aid emergency would you know what to do?

St John Ambulance Western Australia have set up a free Online Crash Course to get you up to speed on what to do in an emergency. This 30 minute course could help you save a life.

Click on the link or image above to be taken to the Online Crash Course.

Register for the course and fill out the required details, then you can start the course. The course is interactive, as you can see from the image below you are given the option to go through the course with sound or with subtitles.



The online course takes you through the major features of First Aid in an emergency and consists of lots of interactive activities and an online quiz to test your understanding.



One thing I will mention is they are yet to update the new protocol od DRSABCD but this certainly isn't a deal breaker. If you aren't aware of the new protocol take a look at the image below which is available from the St John website:



This is a great initiative of St John Ambulance Western Australia and I recommend everyone should log on and take a look at this FREE course. Although I recommend if people have the time and money they should go along to a full Apply First Aid Course as the skills you will learn in a classroom are invaluable. If you are interested in finding a course near you please check out the St John website or contact St John Australia on 1300 360 455.

A Quick Update

So it has been a while since my last post. I have been super busy with work, uni and my community engagements! Now this weekend I am involved in a blog writing workshop so I thought now was a great time to get going on my lastest blog posts - I have lots of ideas and not enough time to sit down and write them!

This weekend we have the Fringe Festival in Katherine - first one for the town and so far it has been great! I have met some interesting people and caught up with friends. Last night was the opening night with a Fire Show in the town square and it was very entertaining! If you are in Katherine be sure to get out and view some of the events going on around town!

Well that is all for my update at the moment. I will be working on my next review so stay tuned for that!

eBooks - your study buddy

Ok so one of the disadvantages of being a distance education student is not having local access to the University library. Before I go on I have to mention that you CAN borrow books from a Uni library and they post them out to you. You also have full access to their online database of journals and electronic resources and I highly recommend you take advantage of these tools available to you (see your University's Library website for more details). That being said I still find myself wanting to browse or read through more books without having to go via the library - or maybe you want to have books to keep for your own reference or for future studies. That is where eBooks come in.

eBooks are electronic books - they are an alternative to hardcopy books. They are gradually becoming more popular than hardcopy books with electronic book sales exceeding hardcopy sales in February this year. Now you don't NEED an eBook reader to access the millions of eBooks available (while they are useful and I will mention them later). All you need to get an eBook today is a computer, with internet access and some software which is available free. I will only be mentioning apps I have used before but there are lots out there don't be afraid to look around - most are free to download and install and the only cost involved comes when you purchase a book.

Why use eBooks?

There are many reasons you may want to use eBooks here are my reasons:

• Quick Access - You can download and read a book generally within a minute


• Cost - eBooks are generally a fraction of the cost of their hardcopy counterparts


• Easy Access - I don't have access to a bookstore or a large library in my town


• Searchable - easily search the entire book within seconds for key words


• Easy Notations - you can easily bookmark and highlight pages and passages

Some of the cons of eBooks - I don't have many perhaps because I am such a fan :)

• No resale value - unlike hardcopy textbooks you can't resell eBooks


• Brightness - unless you have a dedicated eBook reader long stints of reading from a screen can be hard on your eyes


• Technology - requires minimum a computer with an internet connection (although most students have these nowadays)

eBooks are an excellent resource and quick to access. As mentioned above all you need is a computer with an internet connection to get started. Here are the applications I have used to download and access eBooks:

• - by Amazon


• - backed by a number of large retailers


• - by eReader.com

There are more applications out there these are the ones I have used before. I find the best one to be Kindle as it has the largest selection of books to download and is used by other writers to publish their works. Generally it has been one of the cheapest ones too - it is all in US dollars but the AU dollar is going strong at the moment so it works out even better value. The three companies above also are available on multiple platforms; PC, smartphones, tablets and eBook readers.

The ability to search and bookmark eBooks is a fantastic feature for students making it easy to mark key passages and make notes allowing you quick and easy access. Further more if you do happen to have ereader apps installed on other devices then you will be able to sync them all together - meaning you can read a book on your smartphone or eBook reader away from the computer and mark anything you find useful then go back to your computer and your book can sync to the furthest page you have read and all your notes will be there.

I have eBook reader apps installed on my PC, iPhone and iPad plus I have a dedicated eBook reader (Kindle). Each have their advantages:

• PC - easy to read, search and highlight passages.


• iPhone (smartphone) - portable, able to read anywhere.


• iPad - large screen but still portable and easy to search and hignlight.


• Kindle - easy to read screen (no backlight - like reading paper) can hold hundreds of books.

If you are interested in reading more about the Kindle you can read my reviews on my other blog. It is definitely worthwhile looking into eBooks if you haven't already. You can download the apps for free and there are a lot of free books available at the big eBook retailers (Amazon, Kobo and eReader) to test out.

If you use another eBook reader device or App and want to recommend it please feel free to comment and let others know.

 

Prepare for study for FREE

If you are completely new to study or are returning to study after a long absence and you're not sure where to start I have some information that will make your life easier! A Tertiary Enabling Program is great for getting you prepared for your future endeavours into Academia. What is even better is that you can do a Tertiary Enabling Program for FREE. Yes that's right it is free. So now you can see if you are ready for university without spending hundreds of dollars on a course you aren't sure of.

Charles Darwin University provide a Tertiary Enabling Program free of charge that can be completed either full-time or part-time to suit your needs. It also can be completed in as little as one semester and provides the minimum entry requirements to most courses offered by CDU. To make the offer even better, you can complete you studies from anywhere in Australia externally, no need to be in the Northern Territory to take advantage. The majority of CDU's higher education courses are also available externally so you can continue your studies with CDU if you choose to (however there is no obligation to do so).

So if you never completed year 12 (or haven't studied in a while), over 18, and are an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or Humanitarian Visa holder then you could start preparing for your future career now!

To find out more information please click here to be taken to CDU's information and sign up page.

 

Open Source Resource

You can actually get something for nothing in the online technology world. Welcome to Open Source software! Basically Open Source allows a user to use download and use the application at no cost. Developers produce applications and make them freely available to the community (with some guidelines in place, see The Open Source Definition for more details). What this means for you is that you don't have to pay big dollars for software! Below I will mention some of my favourite Open Source software initiatives but there are thousands of open source applications out there (see SourceForge.net for ideas and downloads) and I encourage you to search and see what is available!

Operating System:

You do not have to deal with Microsoft if you really don't want to - or Apple for that matter.
Linux is one of the most widely known Open Source Operating Systems available to users. In saying that there are many many different versions and spinoffs of Linux as the Development code is made freely available for other developers to use and edit and redistribute freely. Popular versions include Debian and Ubuntu. If you are new to Linux I would recommend checking out Ubuntu it is easy for new users to set up and use and you don't have to have any programming knowledge to get it going.

Productivity:

Again no need to deal with Microsoft or hand over hard earned cash just to get software to write your assignments!
Check out Open Office for a great, free to use productivity suite. Open Office is the leading Open Source office suite software. It provides functionality for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. It is easy to use and is now compatible with other major Office suites meaning you don't have to worry if the person you are sending your work to can open the file!

7-Zip is an Open Source file compression program. It allows you to compress large files or combine multiple files to make them easy to store or send via email.

Looking for a program to create PDF files try PDF Creator (which I have mentioned before). Another PDF alternative is Cute PDF.

If you are looking for an alternative to Adobe for viewing PDF files try Foxit Reader.

Need some software for image manipulation? (better known as photo editing!) There is no need to hand over hundreds of dollars for PhotoShop or Corel Draw. GIMP is a powerful Open Source image manipulation program that has plenty of tools for image alteration. There are plenty of online help forums and how to procedures to help you learn how to use GIMP.

So there are some of my favourites - I hope you find that list useful to start you off in the Open Source world! There are plenty of other applications available so look around, more projects are being developed all the time so it is always wise to keep and eye out. If you use any other Open Source software you would like to share with everyone post a comment!  :)

 

Long time no Post

I will start by apologising for it being over a month since my last post - this is because I have been busy working on my other blog The Professional Student to get it ready for my uni assignment. It has now been submitted so I can spend a little time on here before working on my next assignment.

I will re-post some of the articles I wrote for The Professional Student here so people can read them but I also have some new reviews I am working on and will try to get them up in the next few weeks so stay tuned...

SugarSync - Online Storage Solution

So last week I reviewed Dropbox as a quick and easy way to store and sync your valuable files to protect yourself from losing your data. I have since found out about another online storage website call SugarSync, so I thought I would check it out.

I thought Dropbox was good - turns out SugarSync is even better :)

It is just as easy to use as Dropbox AND has more functionality. The online set up guides are really easy to follow so even those who have never used a service like this before should have no issues setting one up! SugarSync has some distinct advantages over DropBox:

• Sugarsync offers 5GB of free storage vs. DropBox's 2GB


• SugarSync allows you to select which folders on your computer you want to sync vs. DropBox providing a specific "DropBox" folder


• SugarSync offers the ability to email a file to your SugarSync account (not offered on DropBox)


• SugarSync offers the ability to edit your files online using a service called websync - handy if you are away from your normal computer


• In addition to iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, and Android mobile versions SugarSync also works on Windows Mobile and Symbian devices


• With referral bonuses you can earn up to 10GB of free online storage with Sugarsync vs DropBox's 5GB

And there you have it - definitely a worthwhile service for any student! If you are interested check it out for free! By clicking this link you will be taken to a referral page where you can sign up and receive a bonus 500MB of data - then use the "Get Free Storage" option to recommend to your friends and family to get more bonuses (they get bonuses too so it is win-win!)

I haven't written up any how to guides here for this service as there is lots of information available on the SugarSync website including videos!