My 4 Favorites From The Online Generational Curriculum:
A Journey Through The World Of Technology

Donald Lee, (G8/409a), My 4 Favorites From The Online Generational Curriculum

Table of Contents

Report Number 1

Why I Chose This Report

I chose the report "The Speed Limit Debate -How Do I Stand?", by Raeder Kinney of G6 for several reasons. First of all the title of the report really got my attention. For many years I've heard debates concerning the speed limit. Whether it should go down, stay the same, or go up. As a driver myself I always wondered what it would be like if the speed limit went up. I became curious about where this issue of the limit stood and how close we were to raising it. Another reason I chose Raeder Kinney's report was because she related this topic of the speed limit to herself. She spoke of how the negative effects of speeding had tragically taken the life of her uncle. You hear of hundreds of motor vehicle related accidents everyday, many caused by speeding, but I guess you really don't see how dangerous speeding really can be until it effects you directly. After reading her report it gave me missed feelings on the issue of the speed limit. At first I just thought it would be cool to have the speed limit raised. Wouldn't it be nice to get to places faster. Just the thought of going faster sounded exciting. Then you hear stories like Raeder's uncle and think, is it really worth risking lives. I didn't really know where I stood when it came to the speed limit debate so I wanted to read on and get the opinions of others on this issue. How they felt and why.

Steps That Led To This Report

The processing of choosing this particular report wasn't in my opinion too difficult of a task. As the instructions said, we needed to pick a report from different generations. So I just decided to go to any generation and pick the report that I felt was the most interesting. In this case it was Raeder Kinney's of G6. When I got into the Generation 6 reports I just briefly browsed through each of the reports and chose topics that really sounded interesting. From there, I read the first paragraph or introduction of each report and quickly skimmed through the rest. I also took into consideration how easy it was to read the report. For some of the reports, although I was interested in the topic, some of the reports just seemed too difficult to read because of the dark background. This process of skimming through each of the reports took around 3 minutes each. And for these reasons I chose this particular report because it fulfilled all my requirements of being readable, well written, and most importantly the the topic interested me the most.

Brief Description of This Report

Raeder Kinney's report "The Speed Limit Debate-How Do I Stand?" , began with a very sad story of how the negative effects of speeding tragically killed her uncle and how it has effected her personal views and feelings on the issue of speeding. Obviously she is against it. The next section was entitled, "Quotes From Prior Generations On The Speeding Issue". This section included the opinions of a few students on the issue of speed, half for it, half against it. It also included links to these particular student's pages. This section enables you to get different views and perspectives that you may not have thought of. The next section was entitled "My Feelings About The Speeding Issue" and it contained exactly what the title says. Raeder tells us why she thinks speeding is bad by mentioning such things as the deaths it causes. She also mentions that speeding correlates strongly with road rage and that this road rage can be handled through QDC's or "to quell the need for speed." Instead of this QDC, focus should be directed toward the individuals ACS, affective-cognitive sensorimotor, which is our feelings, thoughts, and actions.

My Reaction and Involvement With This Report

I really feel that Raeder Kinney did a wonderful job introducing the speed limit issue to us. For me personally, it made me realize how important the speed limit really is. According to the report just the matter of raising or lowering the speed limit can save thousands of lives. There were several things that I liked about her report. The first thing that I noticed that really got my attention was the reports introduction. In the introduction she related the topic of speeding with her own experience of how speeding killed her uncle. She describes how she felt after she heard about her uncle, so well that it made me think how I would have felt in her situation. The introduction really moved me and it made me want read on. The report was organized very well and covered all or almost all of the topics you could think of when it came to the issue of speeding. The topics in the report included her thoughts and feelings about speed and other web sites that discussed speeding. It was good to know that her report was backed up by facts and stats. The report also included a section of quotes from fellow drives and their opinions about speed, which I found interesting. Overall I enjoyed reading Raeder Kinney's report on the speed limit issue. However I thought that there could have been a few things added to her report to make it a little better. For instance, after I read the report I couldn't help but to be curious of how the speed limit issue stood at the present time, especially in Hawaii since this is where we live and drive. Another thing I was curious about which was not included in this report was the reason of how and why they made speed limits in he first place or what the reasoning was or is to setting a specific speed limit to a certain area and not others.

Comparisons Of The Reports

When comparing Raeder's report to the other reports I noticed that she related a lot of the topic to her personal self which made it more interesting. It also seems that she did a lot of research on her paper cause she used many different sources. By doing this you got the opinions and views of all sorts of people from just regular students to experts on driving. Another thing I particularly liked about this report was the use of the picture of the car at the beginning. It made it more attractive and an eye catcher.

Report Number 2

Why I Chose This Report

There were many reasons why I chose Leslie's report, "Concept of Web Publishing". This maybe a bit bias but one of the main reasons I choose this report was because I know Leslie and I was curious to read what she wrote. Luckily, the topic of her report was something I was interested in. I'm not too familiar with computers but for this class, psychology 409, one of our assignments is to make a homepage I thought it would be good to get as much information as I could. I felt that after reading her report I was more comfortable with the concept of actually making my very own homepage. Where as before I was really hesitant and in a way scared to do it. In the report, Leslie mentions that she was like me before she took the class and that later on she became more comfortable with computers. Since we both had this in common I figured Leslie could relate to what I was going through and that she could help me out. Another thing that attracted me to this report was the way it was organized. The report was simple and to the point which made it easy to understand. Leslie's report was very informative and at the same time entertaining. She used a lot of humor which made the report less boring.

Steps That Led To This Report

Basically the steps that I took to choose Leslie Agena's report, "Concept of Web Publishing", was fairly simple. I just picked one of the generations and quickly looked at each of the reports and later narrowed my choices down by the topics that interested me the most. I think out of the whole generation, there were three that interested me the most. From here I just picked the one I felt was best written. I also took into consideration how easy it was to read the report.

Brief Description of this Report

The report, "Concept of Web Publishing", tries to explain exactly what web publishing is, how and what it is needed to actually publish a web site of your own and ends with her telling us about her experience and adventures of making her own homepage. For those of us who don't know too much about web publishing, this report does a fine job in explaining what it really is by comparing it with print publishing as in books and magazines. The first section of the report is high-lighted with the many advantages of web publishing compared to print publishing. One of the advantages of web publishing is that it is very easy and much less time consuming than print publishing. Also information can always be updated and current in minutes! And with more people having access to computers your web publishing can be viewed by thousands of people. In the next section, the report mentions some of the skills that are needed in order to publish a web site. The report mentions that it is good to know how to use such things as Pico and HTML. Not only do you have to know how to publish a web site but you need the equipment to do it. Obviously you will need a computer, web browser, server software, modemn, and an internet connection and you're ready to go. Lastly,

My Reaction and Involvement With This Report

After reading this report, I can definitely feel that Leslie's report helped me understand the concept of web publishing better. I thought it was clever of her to compare print publishing with web publishing. By doing this the reader can really see the advantages of web publishing. Overall, Leslie did a great job introducing the topic to the reader. The only advice or thing I wish this report could of included instructions on how to actually make a web or at least a link to a site that shows you how.

Comparisons Of The Reports

When comparing Leslie's report to others in her generation I would say that in my opinion that hers stood out. I really enjoyed reading not only about the subject matter but also the way she worded her report. For me, the report was really easy to read and understand. It was nice how she expressed how she felt and what she was going through when she was both researching this topic and actually making her web site. In this way I could really relate to Leslie and it made me feel better about working with computers.

Report Number 3

Why I Chose This Report

For my third report I decided to choose Keith Pedro's, "Cyberspace and Mind: Some Characteristics of Virtual Reality. These days with all the technology and everything you hear more and more words that deal with computers and technology but don't really know what they really mean. For me, "cyberspace and virtual reality", are some of these words. I often hear these two words in everyday conversations and it sounded interesting to me. As I was looking through all the reports I came across this report. I saw the title of his report and thought that this would be the perfect oppurtunity to learn and find out more about cyberspace and virtual reality.

Steps That Led To This Report

Deciding to use Keith's report, "Cyberspace and Mind" was fairly easy and quick. First, I just looked through all the reports in generation 5 and it just so happened that this particular report was the only one that really interested me. This whole process of deciding to use Keith's report took about 3 minutes.

Brief Description Of This Report

In this report Keith tries to get the opinions of several different sources to help define what virtual reality and cyberspace is. He begins with the definition given by the instructor of Psychology 409, Dr. James. Some of the things Dr.James mentions is that virtual reality is based on the premise of space. Space, that is without extension, distance, and has no mass. Another section in the report is entitled, "Acquiring Cyberspace Citizenship". In this section it mentions that some people may be hesitant to be part of this technological community because they are afraid of change or learning something new. The next section includes the comments and definitions on the subject from students who took previously took this class. Finally the report ends with Keith's own definition of what he thinks cyber psychology and virtual reality is and how it has and is changing the world.

My Reaction and Involvement With This Report

I found Keith Pedro's report to be very informative and it answered my question of what cyberspace and virtual reality is, very nicely. I thought it was good to get the definitions and feelings on the topic from different people. From the students you got a more simple definition whereas from the others such as Dr. James you got a more in depth explanation. Through this report I feel I've gained much knowledge on the subject and it has brought about new things that I have never thought of such as how cyberspace creates a kind of community.

My Comparisons

When comparing Keith's report to the others I noticed that his report was clean, well organized and easy to read. By easy to read I mean the size of the font and the bolding of the letters. Another good thing about the report is that he just kept to the topic of his report not drifting away to other things. I thought he did a very good job introducing us to the topic of cyberspace and virtual reality.

Report Number 4

Why I chose This Report

I chose Kris Burlem's report, "Portayals of Driving On TV, Does TV Affect Our Driving Skills?" For me, the title alone got my attention. I never really thought about it but, I guess the driving scenes on television can affect or influence the way you drive in a way. I was curious to see what she had to say on the matter so I read on. Interestingly, it wasn't really a report but more of an analysis on specific movies. She analyzed a lot of the movies and tv shows I have seen before so I wanted to see if I could relate or shared the same feelings as her. The comments pertaining to certain scenes involving the driving of the characters really made me look at the movie in a different light.

Steps That Led To This Report

Again, as I did with some of the other reports I just picked any random generation that I didn't already use and just skimmed through each of the reports focusing mostly at the title and subject matter. This skimming through the reports took about 30-40 seconds for each. For this particular generation I narrowed down to two reports. In the end I chose this report because of the topic and the way the report was arranged.

Brief Description of this Report

This report basically tries to prove that the driving behaviors on television affects how we drive on the road. She does this by analyzes a few particular movies which include: The Rainmaker, Eraser, Liar Liar, Suzy Q, Rocky and Bulwinkel, and commercials for Budget Rent A Car and Honda. For each of these shows or commercials she gave a brief desciption of the characters and the situation they were in. Then she ended with her own analysis of the type of driving that took place and how it may have affected the way we actually drive on the road.

My Reaction and Involvement With This Report

I thought it was very interesting and clever of her to write the report this way. It made the reading more fun and probably less boring. Reading this report made me realize that the kind of driving shown on television may really affect the way you drive. However, the one thing that I thought that she could have added or proved was if indeed these scenes do cause or influence us to drive in a certain way. It seems that much of the information is a reflection of her own opinions. Maybe she could of asked the opinions from her peers or other sources to help support her theories.

My Comparisons

When comparing Kris's report to the others I must say that she used a lot of creativity by thinking of choosing such a topic. I also liked the way she presented the report by making an analysis on each individual movie or show. This made it much more easy to read. The report was also well organized and neat which was a plus.

Impressions And Reactions Of My Classmates' Reports

After viewing the reports of my fellow classmates I was very impressed at the job they did on their pages. It seems as though they put a lot of work into it. I viewed some of the reports that I really liked more indepth and I got a lot of things out of them that I might use in my own report. It was interesting to see all the different ideas and personalities that were shown in the web pages.

My Suggestions for Future Generations

To the people in the future generations I would advice them to learn and absorb as much as you can from the class. The things you learn right now are not only going to be very useful later on in this class but will probably come in very handy later on in your life sometime. As for the assignments, I would suggest that you don't procrastinate. I know it's easier said than done, but it does make it a lot easier later on in the semester. And that's from personal experience. Well I hope you enjoy this class and good luck!


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