My 4 Favorites from the Online Generational Curriculum: 
Cruising the 'Net

I chose this report by Nancee Aki because I have a problem with speeding. I'm not saying that I am some racer on the road; I just can't drive slow. This is an important aspect to me because speeding and agressiveness on the road can land you in hot water. I feel as if I need to slow down and take my time. Perhaps leave early to get somewhere, rather than drive 70mph on the freeway with traffic around. A speeding ticket can very drastically change my life.

Basically, I have an interest in Traffic Psychology and I randomnly picked G3. There, I came across Michelle Alonzo'slink to her page. Ms. Alonzo's description interested me because it dealt with speeding. I found a link to a G2 report by Nancee Aki. This searching took me about 30 minutes because I wasn't sure of the choice I made. However, when Ms. Aki's page downloaded, I knew I had found an intersting page I could relate to.

I found Ms. Aki's topics to be Tailgating, Speeding, Convoys, Agressive Driving and Driving Makeovers. Ms. Aki defines tailgating from the State of Hawaii's driver manual. She also gives links to other sites which talk of similar topics. Ms. Aki gives safe pointers on how to deal with tailgaters, especially because you don't want to make them upset. Ms. Aki's section on speeding is what attracted me to the page. She reports that the reasons people speed are largely due to their schedule. Other reasons include not wanting to be trapped in a boring existence, the fact that irritability increases in traffic jams, and the desire to conform to society(everyone breaks the law sometimes). Under convoys, she gives statistics about how cars may travel in packs. The reason why people travel in convoys is because they gain a sense of security. Ms. Aki also gives her own insight on why she dislikes convoys. In the section of Agressive Driving, she mentions that the reason people drive agressively is because they need to preserve their territorial space. They also feel a need to dominate others. Ms. Aki can relate to this because she admits being an agressive driver. Nancee lists ways to reform driving habits under the few links she provides in the Driver Makeover section. She readily admits being one person to follow through with the makeover techniques.

I reacted to Ms. Aki's report with applause. I felt that it was a detailed, parsimonious, and it answered my thoughts about traffic psychology. The quantity of data she found astounded me because I never imagined so much knowledge on what is a relatively new topic to me. Although the drawbacks to her page were minimal, I felt that she could have been more original in her design. Perhaps she could have experimented with colors and fonts. I would have also liked to see a section dealing with the number of people who are affected directly by "bad" driving habits. I personally could relate to her report because I speed to get everywhere, more now because I lead a hectic schedule. I also enjoyed Shane Akagi's insight because I too feel that I or my car is in danger when people tailgate me.

I found the other reports in G2 concerning the same topic, to be a bit lacking in informative quality. I concede that their web page design was a little nicer, yet I am concerned with what I can learn from this class. Perhaps the other authors could have spent a little more time on their data.

For future students, I feel they should all view this report and possibly update it with current information. I feel everyone encounters speeders and agressive drivers and this will help you deal with them in a non-threatening way. Being a G8 member, I enjoy the privilege of looking in to a topic which is just starting to be examined. 

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I found Dan Hamamoto's report to be interesting because he had an intriguining picture of a sports car coupled with the phrase, "How fast do you want to go today?" He is also a friend from another class and I was very interested in what he had to about traffic psychology.

First, I went to Generation 1 under Kevin Bogan, but I found his reports to be a bit short. Then I went to G3 under Garrett Chun's page. His topics were interesting but I seem to be partial to reviews on why people have road rage. This is the reason why I decided on Mr. Hamamoto's page.

Mr. Hamamoto's report deals with five sub-topics: Introduction, Observations, Analysis and Evaluation, Psychological Review and How the Report Influenced Me. Basically, he identifies statistics of the increase in road rage and hypothesizes that it may be due to the dramatic increase in violence on television. He then randomnly selects ten TV shows and jots down his observations. He includes a helpful rating system for the violence content and finds that there is a correlation between the increase in road rage and the increase in the amount of violence on TV involving high-performance driving or stunts with cars.

I thought Dan's article was very interseting because I enjoy watching NASCAR or an action-packed HBO movie like "True Lies." Maybe also because I have noticed my temper flares sometimes when a driver cuts me off or drives TOO slow. I liked the way the page was formatted and the layout was very good. I found the page to be easy to read and the fonts were the right size. I also noticed that the colors used did not clash and make it difficult to view. Perhaps Mr. Hamamoto could have changed the color of the sub-topic headings. Then people would easily realize that they are beginning a new area of the report. Also, support for his theory, "people model agressive driving," could have been supported by an expert or professor who has conducted research on this topic. This can make his argument much stronger and is also easy to fix. I found his ratings were a strong part of the report because it gives the reader something to gauge television with; perhaps even promoting self-realization about being an agressive driver. I would like the opportunity to continue looking in to this subject if I enroll in psy 459.

As I noted before, Dan's page held my interest because of the leading statement. I thought the content of his work was informative and thought-provoking. I had not realized that the television shows we take for granted could possibly be influencing our behavior to such a degree. I found some other pages to be equal in content, however their font colors made it difficult on the eyes.

I feel that the future generations of Psy 409 or 459 should take a look at Dan's page because of its informative nature. Also, his observations and thoughts are interesting which force the reader to think about the subject. The reader may formulate their own conclusions or inquire further about the subject. 

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Travis Abe's Cyberspace and the Mind sounded like an interesting topic because I don't know the first thing about it. I saw the opportunity to learn a bit about the technical side of cyberspace from this report. I then decided to browse around inside and found what I was looking for.

To start off, I went to "All prior generations" and that is where I selected G5. Travis Abe was the first person on the list so I decided to enter his site. This took me roughly a minute because it was the first report. I didn't decide right away to search alphabetically, however when I read the title and description of the first report, I knew I found what I was looking for.

Travis includes six sub-topics along with some points of focus within a couple of the sub-topics. He has an introduction, instructor lectures with points of focus: Ideas to Ponder, Hypertext Navigation, Virtual Book and Communal Mind. He goes on to list the sub-topics, G4's thoughts, his own reflections and final considerations. Generally, Travis talks of his own scarce knowledge of cyberspace, what VR is defined as, problems with cyberspace, his own personal gripe, G4's thoughts on cyberspace and similarities and differences between the human mind and cyberspace.

I found Mr. Abe's website to be humorous and very informative. Now that I have gone through his report, I understand a little more about what cyberspace represents and what it is supposed to represent. I especially liked his reflection on the government meddling with the freedom of the 'net. I feel like the government should limit their interference, yet I concede that some censorship is unavoidable and necessary. I also agree with his reference to the mind being totally free, whereas cyberspace is free, yet restricted. I found his explanation of VR and the mind to be a bit confusing. Perhaps he could have been a little more parsimonious because for an internet illiterate like myself, things can be confusing. Again, I liked the idea of adding a bit of humor to the page because it maked the reader feel easier and more relaxed. For me, I was nervous coming in to this class because I don't know much. I didn't feel uptight or nervous when reading the content of his report. Honestly, I don't plan to advance or carry on studies in this area because like Travis, I agree that the instructor has said it all about this topic. I agree that there is one good way of explaining cyberspace and that avenue has already been declared.

In comparison with the other reports for the G5 409, I found Mr. Abe's site to be unique. Not totally outstanding, but different. I liked his use of "kiddie" fonts on his home page because most people want their fonts to be perfectly readable. I thought this showed a very relaxed manner and a fun time in the class. I thought his background color could have been better because it was just a different shade of the font color. I found this to be more bothersome than difficult to read.

I think that the future generations should browse through either this site or one of the other reports concerning cyberspace and the mind. I think it gives you a clear picture of what cyberspace was intended for and what it has become. I gained some knowledge from reading this report and any knowledge is good. As Travis would say,"Knowing is half the battle." 

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I decided on Erin Tanaka's report because I am a real beginner at web page design. In fact, I need all the help I can get because I don't quite understand the technical attributes of what Netscape reads to form the page. I figured I can pick up a few hints here and so I browsed through the report.

I took about 10 minutes trying to decide which generation to go to. First I went to G1, but their pages take too long to load probably because of the class picture. Then I went to G3, but remembered I never found anything interesting before in that one. Then I went to G6. I recalled selecting Travis Abe alphabetically in the previous report, so I decided to go the opposite way(kind of weird huh?). I selected Erin Tanaka and when I saw report #2, I knew it was going to be interesting.

Ms. Tanaka gives a well-thought out breakdown of her report. She begins with an introduction, then goes to web design principles, psychological aspects of web design and an index of web design. She includes general knowledge, pointers for graphics, Dr. James' thoughts on web design, her own experiences and troubles and additional information on design choices.

Now that I have read a report concerned with techniques to better a web page, perhaps I can make my own page better looking. I found her suggestions to be very interesting and "doable." Since I read about her experiences, I feel not as alone or lost in the class as I did before. It made me realize that other students are having just as much trouble as I am and that sharing of our fears helps all of us get through it. There was a part of her site that was a bit difficult to read because the pink font sort of became blurred by the background. However that is very minor and shouldn't be considered. I also enjoyed Dr. James' insight in to the psychology behind web page design. Some of my friends too ask me why I take so much time for the class and my page isn't even that good. Perhaps for my report I should discuss the problems I ran in to as a "green" student in cyber psychology. I know I would have many funny stories!

When I viewed other web pages in the generation, I found that Erin's page was more user-friendly by my standards. The links were very well oriented and spaced out to allow the reader easy access. I also liked the different color text she used when recaling something that someone else said. This gives the reader a clear perspective of what is going on. I also found Erin's sections to be very informative, especially the web design principles area. The content is straight-forward, making it easy to understand.

Web page design is difficult if you don't have a clue what to do. I suggest reviewing pages like Erin's because they are helpful. Also, reading her horror stories kind of gives you a sense that someone is having the same problems as you are. It lets you know that you aren't the only one screwing up. I feel that this is a confidence builder and allows you to charge in and learn. 

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Upon viewing everyone else's generations file, I found that my generations was about average, if not a little dull. Content-wise, I think that I have done an average job because I answer the every part of the question. Perhaps my some of my answers can be more in depth, but I was worried about the screen getting too full. I also noticed the same thing about some other people's reports, but that is not as important to me as the readability. The approaches to completing the generations report was interesting because there is a lot of variability. I looked for things mostly concerned with driving because I find the reports on road rage interesting. Perhaps some of my peers have interests in the online world or such. For the most part, my peers had very nice pages because they are creatively done. This shows my page as a bit dull, but I chose a white background so that no one would have any trouble reading it.