Introduction: What Is Different about my report
The traditional way of writing the generational report is by stating: why you chose the report, steps that led you to the report, summarizing the report, commenting on the report, comparing it to what other student did, and finally give suggestions to students of future generations. Instead of doing each selection separately, I treid to giave a comprehensive review of all. I thought it would give some sort of "theme" to my report if I tried to associate my selections. I attempted to do a report that I would like to have read. I thought this format would make my report easier to follow and I think it utilizes the information from the generational curriculum much more. I thougth I'd give this a try.
I used this format in my first generational report for G10. The second time around, it was hard for me to select any four reports unless it had a huge impact on my expectations of myself in G11. As I browsed through the generational curriculum, I tried to hunt specifically for topics I wanted to investigate much deeper. There are some points I think is relevant to the curriculum that I wanted to include in this report for the sake of "adding" to the generational curriculum.
Why I chose the following reports:
I chose the following reports becuase thy were of particular interest and of use to me. Each report contained an element or two that helped my understanding of things I needed to know for this course.
Steps that led me to my selected reports:
It was our instructions to select two reports from Psy 409 and two from Psy 459. Each report needs to be from a different generation. Since this was the case, I literally clicked on G1, G2, G3...I then clicked on different student names provided under each generation in the "All Awards" Page. I would like to have searched for reports by SUBJECT or TOPIC , but unfortunately this isn't possible. This led to my concern about PROBLEMS that the curriculum might endure over time. I think it has already endured some.
Suggestions for future generations:
I am part of G11 and it looks like the generational curriculum is getting larger and larger by the day, hour, minute...NAVIGATING through the curriculum is getting much harder because the only thing that is really organized is the students directories by generations. What if we could find all traffic reports, all cyber-psychology reports, or any specific topic under these in an orderly fashion. If a search engine isn't possile for the generational curriculum, the only thing I can think of is changing instructions. If instructions are changed then students may not have the freedom to do what they want. How can we use our creativity in web design, but keep reports identifiable by having similar home page designs for each generation? Oh well, just a thought.
My Selections from the Generational Curriculum
Finta Exemplifies Excellence:
Social Psychology of Web Architecture
Ms. Finta did an excellent job with her home page and her reports. I like everything about it and I strive to excel like
her. If you look at her reports it is easy to read since font size and type are well chosen. It is amazing how easy it is to
read her reports. I can actually stay online and read it without getting sore eyes. I haven't come across any other reports that
are as neatly formatted as Ms. Finta's. I often wonder how much time she puts into her reports. She is doing top notch work and it
seems as though she would be an asset to a web design company. She could actually have her own
business as a web designer. I chose Ms. Finta's report as an example of EXCELLENCE because I have used her work as a guide as I do
mine. Her work exemplifies good appearance and good content. Her explanations are very detailed and to the point.
The Social Psychology of Web Design
I first came across David's report when I was doing my generational report for Psy 409b, G10. I had no idea what I was doing, where to start, or how
to get started. I wasn't sure if I should practice HTML for doing web design or if I should keep surfing the net so I could get more practice
using the internet (prior to taking Dr. James' course I have never gone on the internet). I came across David's report by searching for help on web designing.
I looked through the generations and David's report was the only one I could really connect to. A lot of reports gives tips on how to do this and that, but I think
what I needed was confidence to get started. I had no idea how to do anything. Anything meaning I didn't know HTML, I could barely use email, and I was confused with
getting hooked to the internet to start with. I would get really depressed after looking at the various reports from the generational curriculum because they were intimidating.
Even if I could copy the reports I wouldn't know how to do it because I was so frightened by HTML. David explains in his report how he survived his first experience
in web desgin.
David admits his difficulty as a rookie web designer and he is honest with the problems he encountered. However, he shows his accomplishments after
sticking it out. He expresses how he felt after completing the course and what he felt is what I was striving for. For beginners David's report is incredibly handy because
it doesn't include too advanced work. It displays the basics. Once you get the basics down, I believe you can build on what you already know.
Once I knew that the basics were okay, I didn't attempt to do something that was out of my reach. I sticked to the basics and didn't expect too much of myself. At this point, I used
David's report as a guide. In a nutshell, I think David's report ENCOURAGES you to try, but to try within your means. I think it told me that if you set realistic goals, you
can definitly achieve them.
The Generaional Digital Library
Quincy's report points out important facts about the generational curriculum. I have encountered the problems that Quincy has mentioned. Navigating through the generational curriculum is becoming harder because it is growing rapidly and the organization of the archive isn't established. Quincy points out that: "the indexes that exist are too confusing, the tour guide idea stinks, and the search engine is only good for visitors that already know what they are looking for". I totally agree with this because if you use the search engine provided, you need to already know what you're searching for to be able to get a match. It isn't for people who aren't in the same frame of reference.
In addition to providing valuable information, Quincy challenges what exists rather than just looks at what is beneficial about the generational curriculum. I take interest in this because in order for us to really understand concepts in education and in life, we need to try to go beyond the scope of what is presented to us. I think we all have encountered problems as we mined the curriculum, but not too many of us tried to give solutions as to how problems can be minimized. Quincy's displays knowledge in the field of computers and how they can be used to make things more effective. His suggestion of using Tree Browse is implemented on Search & Index Site of Dr. James' main page. Here is Tan's Tree browse idea that organizes students folders by generations.
Report 1: Portrayal of Driving Behavior on TV
Kristy's report on Portrayals of Driving Behavior on TVis a good example on good observations and good analytical writing skills. She is had very detailed descriptions and she does a very thorough job. She gives a summary of cartoons, commercials, music videos, television series, and movies and analyzes them. This report really interested me because it dealt with the concerns of driving behavior and the influences it has on children. She makes an important plea: to send messages out to the public to spread awareness of this problem of bad portrayals of driving behavior. I think many parents have heard about screening TV shows or movies, but maybe we need to start thinking about screening TV period! We may focus too much on the content of programs and we may forget about advertisements. Kids watch everything that is in their view. Children may be more observant than adults too. I think Kristy does a good job in making this topic one of great concern. This topic may seem harmless since it's just "watching TV", but duplication of behavior is what we want to be concerned about.
Instructions for the Report on How Music Affects Drivers
I chose Ryan's report on how music affect drivers because I have a great interest in it. There were many reports done by other students, but Ryan's report seemed to be much more convincing. Ryan gave a list of articles from journals and magazines that dealt with the topics of music and driving or the effects of music. Most of us might agree that when they drive they prefer to drive with the radio or stereo playing loudly or softly or not at all. I think we may also agree that having music vs. no music does something to the "atmosphere" in our automobile. It may keep us awake, keep us entertained in a long commute, or it may calm us or give us hype. Some articles contained studies like:
I was amazed to see so much research being done on the topic of music and driving. Amazing! If researchers are studying this topic, then I think it is definitely someting we should all be aware of. I realized that those studies are very valuable to larger problems that we are trying to understand such as road rage, aggressive drivers, tailgating behaviors, etc. Ryan's report gives some insight to how complex an issue such as road rage can be. There are so much factors that can be part of the problem and we need to address it. We can't assume A caused B. A & B may cause C.
I came across a lot of dead links. How can we ensure that the links are brought to d Dr. James attention? Dr. James asks his students to inform him and he checks on them.
We upload things to the CSS server. We are given passwords so we can access the server. How do we prevent information from being lost? Anyone who has enrolled in the class can delete any files. We have back up disks, but what if files are lost after a certain generation has past?
What Other Students Have Said & Suggested about the Generational Curriculum
G7 All Awards Page contained a lot of reports on Mining the Generational Curriculum. It is here that I found problems and potential solutions. I found Rebecca Ross' suggestion in G1. There are much more said, but those that follow are ones that pertained to my report were said much more often. I hope students of the future can use this information as a signal!
** Any suggestions on changes for next semester's generation? "The only suggestion, that I can think of, is for the Professor to try to incorporate a little bit more freedom into the homework assignments. I know this is probably very difficult to do, but I know for myself, this would have made a difference. One suggestion might be to instead of assigning 6 links to classmates reports, 3 links to classmates reports, and 3 links to anything you want. I know links to individual places of interest should be rewarding in and of themselves enough to inspire students to do it, but the time factor needs to be considered. I would recommend an award for the most remote link. Although, know that I think about it, that might be difficult to judge. In parting, I must say, I have never been happier about having chosen a particular class, I have never learned as much in a class, and I have never walked away with as much, as I have from this class."
"There is only one way I know of The GC being mined for it's rich and growing information, that is get more people to know about it. Not many people know about the GC unless they have taken a course from Dr. James. You also have to get people interested in the topics of the GC in order for people to go and visit. Until then, it will be unnoticed by the majority of individuals. The GC will ultimately keep growing, and it will provide excellant information for others. Information that individuals can benefit from, to make their lives healthier and richer. But as the GC grows, problems will definately arise. As it gets more full, it will get more complex, which will make it difficult for users to navigate. Their has to be more simple pages or more tour guides to help the first time user."
Quicy Tan is BEST so far "How am I going to find that needle in the haystack?"
"Finally, the biggest potential problem of all: navigation. As the curriculum continues to grow, the current method of navigation will become useless. The curriculum is already so big and confusing to navigate through. Despite the table of contents or index on each page, it's very difficult to know where I am and what I'm doing at the page I'm on. I know that Dr. James doesn't seem to like frames on a webpage, but perhaps this may be the only solution. The navigation of each generation of each user can remain on the left pane while the content changes in the right pane."
Kris Burlem says the same "As it get more complex with future generations, problems would arise. I think one of the problem would be confusion in navigation. There would be so many links that a visitor can go into that it may lead the visitor going into places they do not want to go into. The information that has been created by the past seven generations is so emense. Figuring out how to maintain it is unfortunately beyond me. On the other hand one of my classmates, Quincy Tan has an idea that he will be further developing in the Spring semester of 1998. I wish you luck Quincy!!!"
I attempted to look at the generational curriclum and find ideas that students of prior generations gave. One common problem was navigation and I think it will continue to be a growing problem. What I think we need to do is try to "add" to the information that already exists by updating topics that exist. I think information because obsolete because everyday something new happens that changes things. However, the ideas and concepts presented never becomes obsolete because it gives us a foundation in which to further our research. Use this report to update web desgining principles, find solutions on the navigation of the generational curriculum, on spreading awareness of aggressive driving, or use it as means to get inspiration if you are a first-time web designer or even a first time student of Dr. James. I hope that my report will make it easier for the next generations. Don't be afraid to challenge what is present. The only way that all of this will survive is if you be critical upon it. Good luck!
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