My 4 Favorites from the Online Generational Curriculum:
Surfing Back to Generations!
Table
of Contents
My Selection Number 1
Gender Differences in Driving:
Does Sex Matter?
by Kristin
Ching, G9
Why I Chose
This Report
The first thing that impressed me about Ms. Ching's
report was her aesthetic presentation. Her homage has so many cool
icons that were moving, blinking, and blowing up. What I also liked
was the beautiful, little, yellow orange, flowers that were blooming.
I couldn't resist, I just love flowers...sorry I'm just a sucker for romance.
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The Steps
That Lead Me to This Report
In order for me to make it easier, I'm going to put
it in a step/list form. Through this tactic, I hope it will be gentler
on the eyes, you know how it goes when you're on the computer for a while.
Your eyes get all out of wack. Okay here goes:
1)
Under the G10 Instructions Page for All Reports and Due Dates,
I clicked on Index
to All Generations
2) In less than a second, another page will appear and
it will have a list of all the
prior generations of traffic and cyber-psychology.
3) I then clicked on each generation, starting from generation1.
4) After I clicked on the generation, I randomly clicked
on a student's name.
5) If the student's homage caught my eyes, or if
I knew the student (lets say a
friend of mine), I bookmarked the cite. How do you bookmark?
6) After going through all the generations, I bookmarked
about 12 of them.
7) I then went back to the 12 that I bookmarked and thoroughly
looked at each
one. If I found the cite uninteresting, I simply skipped it.
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This whole process took a while
so it's not wise to do it all in one day. It took me about a week
to actually get what I really wanted. It is very time consuming but
bookmarking helps because you don't have to go digging through all the
generations again. Another great thing about bookmark is that you
don't have to memorize the address. This process is sort of
like a
pre-screening and elimination round. You
are left to focus with the ones you like, instead of wasting your time
over the ones that you were not so fond of.
As for this particular report,
it contained the subject of gender and driving. I always hear men
commenting about how women can't drive and this report contained materials
of that sort. Therefore, on top of the great presentation, I was
drawn towards the subject matter.
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My Summary
of This Report
Ms. Ching pondered upon the question
if there exist a gender difference in driving. To help her with this
question she looked at Ms. Lucey's (a previous generation student) report.
Ms. Lucey took a survey of a total of 16 people (8 males, 8 females).
Ms. Lucey found that women seem to be less aggressive when it comes
to driving. According to Ms. Ching she feels that there is a slight
difference between males and females when it comes to driving. She
feels that men are more aggressive drivers than females due to earlier
childhood rearing. She goes on supporting her point by saying boys
are raised to be tough and aggressive, while girls are raised to be gentle
and passive. This then is reflected upon them when they are driving.
However, Ms. Ching feels that this gender difference is very slim.
She continues saying that women are learning to be more aggressive due
to the harshness of society. She then hypothesize that in the near
future there will be no sex difference.
Also in Ms. Ching's report,
she included a newsgroups that discussed driving gender differences.
The postings were from men who were complaining about how women drive.
Some men find women to be bad drivers, and at the same time, some men find
women to be good drivers. Another issue that was brought up was ethnicity.
Some students were saying that people of ethnic background drove more aggressive.
Ms. Ching coming from an ethnic background, strongly disagreed with that
notion.
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My Reaction
and Involvement of This Report
First of all, I do not think that
there is a gender driving difference between
males and females. What makes us believe that it exist are the stereotypes
and norms that society create. Society always seems to want to genderize
everything. Does this dichotomy really exist? Does everything
really fall into a male or female category? I do not believe so.
The thought of males being aggressive and females being passive is primitive.
The truth is that there does exist aggressive females, just as there are
passive males. It is not right to say that males are more aggressive
than females. I for one feels that everyone should be taken as an
individual. Male or female it does not matter. Therefore, I
feel that there are as much aggressive male drivers as there are aggressive
female drivers.
I understand Ms. Ching's stance
on how child rearing influence the agressive/passive behaviors of the child
as an adult. However, I do not completely agree with her. We do have
to think about the child's inherent temperament. The child's biological
make-up is also a factor to consider when determining the child's overall
personality. Some children (both male and females) are born with
specific behaviors that influence them as they are reared. At times
these inherent behaviors are not completely diminished. Therefore,
we can't say that males are more aggressive than females and vice versa.
We are to look at each person individually for we are all different.
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My Comparison
of This Report
Compared to Ms. Ching's fellow classmates, I find
that her report was very informative. She has good organizational
skills that allowed the reader to follow with ease. Again her presentation
and use of icons made a big impact compared to her other students.
My Selection Number 2
Tailgating Behavior Fair
or Unfair
by Kathy
Teruya, G6
Why I Chose
This Report
Okay I admit, the reason why I
chose this report is because Kathy is a dear friend of mine. I remember
she told me that she took a traffic psychology course and so I browse to
see what she had to say. Although it was an unfair and biased act,
I'm glad I did because she had a lot of good points. Her report really
helped me understand tailgating behavior better.
The Steps
That Lead Me to This Report
I took the same 7
steps that were indicated earlier. Again the the subject of tailgating
was what kept me glued to Ms. Teruya's report. Her explanation
of tailgating behavior tremendously increased my knowledge.
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My Summary
of This Report
Ms. Teruya points out that everyone
has a different meaning when it comes to tailgating behavior. Some
feel that tailgating is following less than one car length for every 10
m.p.h. Dr. James says that tailgating is following too close with
the intention to coerce or punish another driver when you think you've
been wronged. Ms. Teruya herself feels that it's some jerk riding
her too close. Ms. Teruya breaks down tailgating behavior in three
domains, (a) affective (feelings, emotions), (c) cognitive (thoughts) and
(s) sensorimotor (actions). She continues to give examples of these
three domain from the acts of previous students.
Ms. Teruya admits to being
a tailgate at times, it depends on the situation. She purposefully
tailgates not to punish the person she's tailgating but rather to punish
other drivers who is trying to cut in front her when there is a long wait
in traffic. When drivers don't wait there turn and cut in front of
her, she feels cheated and violated. She feels that it is the lack
of manners and everyone should wait their turn.
However, Ms. Teruya really
hates being tailgated due to an accident (which I feel she is still bitter
about) a few years back. She gets nervous when people tailgate her
because she can't trust their reflexes. Therefore if there is be
a sudden stop in bumper to bumper traffic, she would be a victim because
there was not enough room to stop. To conclude she says that we should
think twice about tailgating and try over rule the anger and vengeance.
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My Reaction
and Involvement of This Report
I don't consider myself to be
a tailgater but there were times when first time passengers would tell
me that I follow too close. When they said this, I was shocked to hear
such nonsense. I refuse to believe that I am a tailgate! But
there was an incident when I was driving around the island (note there
is only one lane). The van in front of me suddenly pulled over
to the shoulder lane and as I was passed, the driver stuck the middle finger
at me. I was confused for I had no idea of what I did wrong to have
made him do that to me. Then my mother suggested that maybe I was
following to close. What???? No way I was just driving, enjoying
the view, and was not following too close the van. My sister who
was the front seat passenger agreed with me, she also felt that I was not
following too close.
This incident really hit me
and made me think that maybe I do tailgate but honestly was not aware of
it. Is there such a thing? Is there a difference between purposefully
tailgating to coerces the person in front of you and not seeing it as being
too close while other drivers think you are? So would that make one
more justifiable than the other?
Ms. Teruya and I both discussed
this matter that I brought up. She says that if I am following less
than one car away then, yes it is still considered tailgating and it still
wrong even though I do not think of it as being close. But tailgating
has such a negative connotation to it that it makes me cringe every time
I think of me being one. But what if I am in my opinion following
more than one car away and the person in front of me feels that it is not,
then is that still considered tailgating? It all depends each persons
perspective.
Therefore I feel that it lies
in the hands of the person being tailgated to take action. If one
feels that the person behind them are following too close, then get out
of their way. I know it seems hard to do and you want to teach the
tailgater a lesson but behind that lesson may come some serious damage.
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My Comparison
of This Report
Ms. Teruya did a thorough job of providing information
on tailgating behavior. Compared to the other reports, hers was easy
to read. It helped that she added a bit of humor to it. She
did lay out good examples of the three domains to tailgating behavior which
was helpful.
My Selection Number 3
Identifying Attitudes Through
Newsgroups Messages
by Christopher
Sumiye, G7
Why I Chose
This Report
The reason why I chose Mr. Sumiye's
report is because it was easy to read. His points were clear and
simple. He didn't have complicated icons to obscure his report.
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The Steps
That Lead Me to This Report
After completing the seven
steps, Mr. Sumiye's report stood out because even with the use of very
few simple icons, his report was very well put together. It was simple
yet informative, which I find is very difficult to do.
My Summary
of This Report
In Mr. Sumiye's report he briefly
describes what newsgroups are to him and the past generations. He
then identifies the attitudes that exist through newsgroups messages.
The attitudes in newsgroups messages he found were: Flaming, Delusions
of Grandeur, and Sincerity. Along with the definition, he included
text from newsgroups that display these attitudes. He found newsgroups
to be fascinating due to the lack of an editor. Therefore,
people are able to write freely and express their feelings without fear
of physical confrontation.
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My Reaction
and Involvement of This Report
Due to the simple presentation
of Mr. Sumiye's report I had an easy time reading it. His paragraphs
were not long and wordy, therefore, i rarely used my mouse to scroll down.
Instead he tactfully focused on his main points and goals,
which were the attitudes of newsgroups messages. He gave excellent
examples that made it clearer in the description of what the attitudes
were. This really helped me because I am one who is clueless of
what attitudes exist in newsgroups. In fact I didn't even know that
such words existed for a certain attitude. However after this report
I am much more knowledgeable on what they are and mean. Now I will
be a be able to identify them much more easily.
However, I am curious if there
are more attitudes than just the three that Mr. Sumiye described.
I also would like to know if the terms for these attitudes universal.
Are they used by everyone who uses the internet? Who came up with
the terms or is it just a slang?
My Comparison
of This Report
Compared to the other reports
I found that Mr. Sumiye's report well written and organized. I like
organized reports because it won't confuse me. Also compared to the
other reports his use of simple icons really worked well for his report.
It gave it enough "flare" without taking away from his report. In
other words it wasn't too fancy...simple and effective.
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My Selection Number 4
Psychology of Online Virtual
Relationships
by Fred
K. Yuen, G8
Why I Chose
This Report
One thing that intrigues me about
the internet is the relationships that exist. I am quite fascinated
by virtual relationships therefore I had to chose this report.
The Steps
That Lead Me to This Report
I went through the seven
steps and what lead me to My. Yuens report was again the topic of virtual
relationships. It was also because I know Mr. Yuen. It helps
when I can put a face with the name.
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My Summary
of This Report
In Mr. Yuen's report he said there
is little known about the virtual life, thus there are no clear reason
why people act the way they do on the net. He continues by saying
that one reason could be false identities. That is pretending to
be someone else on the net. Another reason could be sub identities,
which is people acting different dependent upon the situation. There
are a lot of places where people can interact on the net such popular places
are: Chat rooms, Forums, Clubs, Services, Lobbies, Conferences, Game
rooms, and Internet Cafes.
My Reaction
and Involvement of this report
To me the reason why people interact
on the net is because they have the desire to socialize. Humans are
social beings, we need to interact. Interacting has come a long way
with the invention of various communication tools. We are no longer
limited by proximity and space. With the computer people are open
to people out there.
My Comparison
of This Report
Mr. Yuen's report compared
to the others was reader friendly. His language was very welcoming
and conversational. When I am on the computer this really makes a
difference because in a sense it seems like the author is there rather
than the computer screen.
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My Opinion
of My Classmates
When I first started this page,
I was not so sure on how to lay it out. That was hen I turned towards
my classmates. I checked out everyone's page and thank goodness for
the students who got it done. I used the other students page as a
model for mine. I also got some ideas to add to my page. At
times I felt a little guilty for it seemed to be "stealing" their ideas.
But I trued my best to personalize it as much as possible. I got
to say though that some of my fellow classmates pages are so awesome.
It makes mine look so average.
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Suggestions
For Future Generations
All I got to say is start early.
When working on the pages time fly by so fast. If you have a computer
at home that really helps because you can work on it anytime. But
if don't have a computer, I suggest you write out all your information
on paper at home and then transfer it. By doing it this way you don't have
to waste time figuring out what to write. Also I know it is tempting
to focus on the aesthetic portion of your page but try do this last.
Get all the information that Dr. James require on the page first then work
on he colors, fonts, images etc. Gook luck!
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