I chose this report because it was well organized and it provided an introduction that explained what the report included and some questions for me to think about as I viewed the information. I think that this is a good approach to starting off a report because people who are not familiar with the course or structure of the assignments can still grasp the general gist of the site. Diving right into the report might leave the viewer with feelings of apprehension about reading the rest of the report if there was not at least a brief statement about the contents. This is why the link should also contain a title, not just Report 1, on the Homepage.
I wanted to see what G9 did over the summer because summer sessions are always so crunched with regard to time. I was very impressed by the abundance and quality of the reports considering the time constraint and workload. The topic of Gender and Driving caught my attention right away, so I looked around to see who had done a report on the issue. I actually looked at all the student reports, but only scrolled down the reports on gender differences and driving. I read over each of the selected reports briefly, examining them for any phrases or comments that interested me or new information I found controversial. I guess I would calculate the time at about 10 minutes each. I had to keep jumping back to all the reports on gender because it was hard to remember what each site contained since they aren't tangible papers that I could thumb through again and again. I made my decision the next day when I had more time to jot down the pros and cons of each report.
Ms Murai's report is on the gender differences in driving. She does a review of Cara Lucy's report from a previous generation. Her summary isn't as long as the other G9 reports, but is a good one that highlights the main points of the Cara's report. It left me with the desire to read the actual report myself. I think summaries should not be a regurgitation of the original work because the purpose of summarizing is to give a skeleton of the work and maybe some kind of interpretation. She doesn't add any personal reactions, which might have clued me in on how she enjoyed or didn't enjoy reading the report.
Ms Murai writes on reading e-mail postings from G7: "Although reading previous reports on gender differences in driving is necessary to understand the topic, examining people's views about the issue is necessary as well. Examination of other people's thoughts and beliefs on the subject can help you look at the subject from different perspectives and perhaps even cause you to change your way of thinking"
I agree with her understanding about the importance of learning through more casual text material, like conversation--whether face-to-face or online. People can be more honest and less restricted in conversation. The issues that surfaced during the e-mail exchanges include: gender and aggression, biases in testing, secret aggressive drivers, social norms and gender roles, and aggression minus the gender factor. The last issue made me think about ways to look at aggression on the road without making references to gender or even race and age.
The Usenet, Web, and ERIC information was lacking, but she did have links to websites about fatalities on the road and gender. She didn't discuss the Usenet postings, leaving them to be self-explanatory. Her Rothe book section was insightful. "One of the areas I found interesting was a section on children's or teenagers' perceptions on how their fathers drive. They described their fathers as individuals who had complete disregard for the the law and safety (47)" I never thought about asking kids how they felt as passengers or how they perceived driver behavior. I wonder how much of that observation is later reflected on how those kids drive as adults. Hmm·
I read the report in its' entirety, but I pieced together my understanding of the text in front of me on the screen by picking out lines that made think (which is what academic work is supposed to do right). I had to use a pen and notebook to outline what was said in the report, again because I couldn't read process it with out seeing it on a piece of paper.
I have added some reactions in the previous sections, but I think my overall they are positive or else I would not have chosen initially. I think I could have achieved the same quality of work that Ms Murai has in her report. She could have added a bit more personal response to the material that she used in the report, but her explanations were clear and brief. I can have a conversation about the controversies in gender and driving issues, but I can't say that I am well informed after reading the report. It served as a means to begin my own exploration of the topic. The lack of links was one thing I felt the report lacked. I had no way of accessing the actual e-mail postings or G9 reports from her page. The Rothe book and Cara Lucy's report are two resources on the topic that I could use to further my research. I would probably want to pursue the child witnessing topic.
All of the reports followed the same format and, with the exception of one, they all looked similar in appearance. White backgrounds were used and the font colors were varied. I think that maybe time constraints and inexperience with the Internet could have hindered progress with a lot of the reports in their content and aesthetics. The real difference among the students was in the design of the Homepages, not in the reports. Ms Ching's, although more colorful and filled with neat backgrounds, was difficult to read because I had scroll to the right and then to the left to read the text (it didn't fit in my window). The similarities are probably due to students helping each other learn the techniques of web publication and sharing resources and styles.
I used the same strategy as I did with selecting my first favorite. I found a topic that interested me, and then I browsed around for reports on the same subject. The instructions for this report: Acquiring Cyber Space Citizenship, was a neat idea. I loved the fact that these students could integrate the course material with the logging of sentiments and experiences. I looked at the format and content of the reports again, and I ultimately chose Dana's report because I liked the catchy titles. I also thought she did a good job of balancing information with creativity and legibility. The introduction to her report, the varied fonts, and divisions between text were also reasons for choosing her report.
I went to Generations 7 because there was a link to Ms Rho's page on one of the instructions for report 2. From there I was able to access the class homepage and start looking around at different topics that this generation focused on. It seemed like almost everyone did this report, so I had many to browse through before making a final decision. I guess now that I look back to why I chose Dana's report had something to do with reading it first, and more carefully too since it was the first one (Hasn't it been proven that humans usually remember first and last items in lists better than those in the middle?). Even though I had already read through her report once, I did two more times in order to finish this selection assignment.
The report is a log of data collected over the course of the semester to rate the experiences of the student's responses to learning the Internet. Dana recorded her emotional and cognitive activity during different sessions in front of the keyboard. As the assignments began to increase with difficulty, she became frustrated and agitated. She felt a sense of helplessness because her hours spent in front of the computer were not producing any results--she had nothing to show for all her work so far. She tried to resolve this conflict by talking to classmates and forming a support network with them. Once she was able to see her first work published on the Net, she gained a new sense of empowerment and confidence.
"We'd rather rush ahead to the end and bask in the glory of completion. What we don't realize is that the walk to the finish line is just as important as the goal itself." Dana makes this very important point about the whole learning process. I can relate this to my own experience with learning all the technology skills. I wish that it was easy and that I didn't have to go through all the agony of failure and struggles, but it wouldn't be valuable if I didn't take the walk to the finish line.
Again, way in which the information of the report was processed in my mind took on the same process as it did for the other selections. I read the report for its enjoyment, to gather new information I did not know previously, and to relate the material to my own experiences.
I responed to her learning process because it was similar to the one I am engaging in this semester. She did a very good job of presenting the topic visually and in the content. Her logic in describing the entire experience and then offering an interpretation in the conclusion was important. She ended her report with some ideas that I incorporated into my understanding of learning the Net. She states that TIME is needed to adjust, adapt, and cope with using technology like the Net. I will need more time to make this transition.
The strong qualities of this report are listed in the reasons why I chose the report. In addition to these, though, is her effort to give comments and analyze the work of her fellow classmates. I could advance the topic myself by using the same approach she did except collecting data from other students took and creating a mini-experiement. I could also have someone who is accustomed to the Net already do a self witnessing type of journal to help me see future issues I might encounter once I've learned the Net.
Chie Ghama also had an excellent report and I enjoyed her unique use of background and colored fonts. She was my second pick. Christopher Sumiye used a chart in his report to show the analysis of his experience in learning the Net. Clever idea, I thought, because it gave his report a professional feel and it meant that he took the assignment one step further than required--this shows effort and involvement. All of G7/459 students tried to combine creativity with the pages, Dana's pages are examples of the work and gains in doing these reports.
Irene's homepage caught my attention because of the large cosmos picture at the top. I wanted to see what research was done on the subject of music and driving because I love music and I was thinking about doing a report on it myself. I thought I could "kill two birds with one stone" by browsing through the reports on this topic so I could use what I gained. ( I had to go back, of course, because I couldn't remember specific detail later when I actually did my report)
Once I picked the topic of interest to search for in G8/459, I started evaluating them for content. The format she used for the e-mail postings is what attracted me to this report (issue, e-mail, personal comments). I found it easy to follow because it was organized. It was hard to pick one out of the many excellent reports on the subject and I spent a good twenty minutes looking at each Music and Driving report before making my decision. The one thing I noticed about my selection process this time was that I didn't have the patience for pages that took forever to load. I found myself wanting to skip them.
The report examines G7/459 discussions about how music affects sentiment and ability. She gives her personal reactions to the postings, none of which are argumentative. Her search on the web was successful. She gives some excellent snips of Usenet postings on the affects of music in general, ideas that I found enlightening. She also found a website discussing the different affects certain types of music has on people. Her integration of the class text (Rothe) with the subjects in the report was well thought out. The conclusion offers advise to future drivers and researchers on the topic. The use of self witnessing techniques to driving is one I can use in my life in many different contexts to evaluate the significance of music in my life.
I used the information as a starting point for my own report. I hope that I achieve the same quality that she did in this report. I didn't agree with some of her points, though, like her statement: "For driving, it would have profound effect if people steer away from listening to the type of music that promotes bad driving behaviors." She doesn't pursue this comment to add what she perceives as the type of music that promotes bad behavior. I would have liked to know what type she is referring to in this statement. She might have included more websites on different areas of people's lives that are influenced by music like she did in her Usenet search. I would give more personal input---hopefully I'll remember all of these points when I complete my report on the same subject.
The one comparison I made to her report was to Grace
Lumabao's report. Most of the reports were very similar and since it
was a new topic never explored by previous generations in this format,
resources and content overlapped too. Grace was my second pick. The content
was good, but the distracting background turned me away from reading it
carefully. I guess the attractiveness of the page aesthetically and spatially
do influence the sites popularity.
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Her presentation of the material in a text book format made it easy to read because it was like reading a book online, except the pages were purple. I wanted to find if I could learn anything about driver communication from the report. It was one of the G6 reports that I could actually access. I wanted to see Cara Lucy's, but Internet access at home was letting me download it.
I decided I would check out the Special Awards page to find my last selection, sort of the easy route to finding good reports. I looked at most of the different reports to see what topics I had to choose from. About four of the links didn't let me access those pages because of some error loading the file, so I picked from the ones I could view. Kristin's report was very impressive aesthetically, but I did like the text book approach.
Kristin writes about the different driver communication in three categories, visual, vehicle and verbal. She explains why interaction and awareness are important. Visual communication includes: turn signals (letting drivers know your intentions), yielding for others who share the road with you, making room for other drivers and asking for others to make room for you, tailgating and overtaking (only when it is safe and for a good reason, like an emergency), and racing. Vehicle communication includes: horns, blinkers, break lights. Verbal Communication includes: hand gestures (i.e. shaka, bird, or waves). She gives some suggestions for future communication. She talks about using flip signs, a concept I didn't quite understand, and telephones.
I understand what driver communications is after reading this report. It is important that I learn something from what I read. She provided a sort of reference source for the terms instead of an analytical approach. Her closing suggestions sparked my intrigue in the topic of cellular phone use while driving. I think telephone use in the car poses other driving issues beyond the scope of this report.
The other students in the G6/459 Special Awards page didn't do much on this subject, but I found other students used the same category approach to organizing the material for easy reading and comprehension. Kristy Sato is a another good example of effective presentation.
Stay tuned, alot of them are still working on it like I was!!!!
I would recommend looking at older reports, something that I did not do in this report. It would probably give you a better idea about the evolution of online curriculum. I think that finding a topic you like, and then finding reports on those topics is more practical than just looking at every report in every generation individually. Sorting through information requires a starting point and a purpose, otherwise you can get lost and feel overwhelmed. This same strategy is the one used to sort through Internet information or library catalogs effectively, as well as any database. Just a suggestion!
My experience this semester has been enlightening and challenging. I started out not knowing what to expect, and sort of having the false illusion that it wouldn't be that hard. Learning and publishing information online is no easy task. It means you have to be flexible and willing to change your learning process, adapting new habits with old ones.
Good luck to all future generations·keep adding to this scholarly network!
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