Mining the Generational Curriculum

YoonWhan's report discusses how psychological concepts relate to Web page design and architecture. He starts off defining what a home page means to him. He says basically that it is a structured, organized medium through which people are connected to other people and through which we define ourselves and come into "existence". He comments on being "linked" to other people through a sort of spiritual communication, "And if we both know about the existence of each other and made links to each other's home pages then it is a two way flow of information. But most fascinating about this flow of information is that there can be a mediator or medium who can connect each other even if they don't know about each other." YoonWhan also emphasizes how existing in cyberspace entails a much greater identity then one realizes. "When I first began to get involved with making a home page I only thought about the significance of making a home page in a small sense as a class member, but my view began to expand as I thoought about generations of this class. Later, I began to think in an enlarged sense as a member of the whole cyberspace and realized my existence in it."
YoonWhan ends his report commenting on the need of people for self-expression and self-involvement and how creating Web pages satisfy this psychological need. He delves into predicting how this medium will affect the future of human interaction and expression. Both good and bad effects may come about by the further development of the Internet. But one thing is for certain, it will change our lives.

My initial impression with YoonWhan's report on the psychology of Web design was that he made some very informative and insightful comments on the driving force behind making Web pages and on the connectedness between people that the Web fosters -- spiritual communication. He did a good job of raising interesting points and questions that I had not previously thought of. For instance his comment on how connectedness can develop between two people even if they have no clue that each other exists made me start to think about the whole concept of one big Internet community and how our generational curriculum is fostering the same kinds of bonds. I did become a little confused when he tried to define his "spiritual communication" term. I think he was trying to so the similarities between the spiritual and the Internet.
If I had to make suggestions on his report I would say that he try to condense some of his paragraphs because a few of them seem to run on and on, and I tended to get confused. I would have also either changed the background color or the color of the links because it was hard to see the blue links on the blue background. The white text, however, was a nice touch. In addition I would have liked to have found out more about how connectivity between Web pages develop over time and what the implications are. Perhaps YoonWhan tried to fit to many topics into his report instead of focusing in depth on one or two issues.

As I mentioned earlier, overall generation 2 Web pages were a vast improvement over generation 1 pages. They were much more colorful and they made use of more backgrounds, pictures and other html techniques. Though this may be more due to the development of new technology and code than to the lack of knowledge or initiative by the first generation. YoonWhan's page is no exception, it is better than the previous generation. However, compared to other generation 2 classmates, his page was not as creative or interesting visually. His topic and his thoughts though were better and much deeper than the rest of his classmates. Overall I think he did a good job. The rest of his generation also did an excellent job and I could feel a sense of accomplishment and real pride through their Web pages as I could see how far they had come since the generation before them.

Why I Chose Takeshi Hiraoka's Report

I was very impressed with the overall quality of his page relative to the other student's pages in his generation. It was inviting, easy to read and navigate. Also it looked fairly professional and so it made me want to explore more. His report page was simple (in a good way) not too much clutter so it was easy to read.

How I Found His Report

I started off exploring the psychology 459 home pages because I needed another page from this section. I randomly selected generation 5 and proceeded to view several student's home pages. I didn't expect too fancy and complicated pages because generation 5 was a while ago. The first two pages that I checked out were straightfoward and simple. One of them was difficult to read because of the background color that the student chose. I only quickly spent about 30 seconds scanning the pages to get an overall impression. The third page I clicked on was Takeshi Hiraoka's page. I was impressed with the layout of the page. It was not as simple as the other ones. He included a moving image of a car and several other images, as well as pictures for links on the bottom.

The topic of Takeshi's report was Internet resources on driving and traffic psychology. He basically reviews all of Dr. James' Web page while commenting on how different concepts and ideas relate to his own life. He starts out by reviewing snipets from Dr. James' book Inner Power at the Wheel . Among the topics discussed here are nine personalities related to driving, the relationship of psychology and psychological concepts to everyday life, and the difficulty of modifying behavior. Takeshi then talks about his driving personality in highschool and the confusion he encountered while taking a drivers test. Next he introduces the rest of the page including: Media Interviews with Dr. Driving, Three-Step Program to Healthier and More Zestful Driving, Dr. Driving Says...Problems and Solutions, About the Authors:Leon James and Diane Nahl, Driving Personality Chart and Comments by Visitors. Some important points from this section include the three steps: Acknowledge, Witness, and Modify, that are necessary to change driving behavior, and the real life testimonials found in Problems and Solutions. These testimonials make it easier for other people to change their behavior because they can see that other people are dealing with the same issues and they can get hints on how to improve. Finally he goes on to give links to other driving sites both from the Dr. Driving Web page and from his own personal collection.

The majority of Takeshi's paper is dedicated to previewing and reviewing Dr. James' Dr. Driving Web site. Takeshi basically breaks down the layout of the Dr. Driving Web site and presents the various sections and what they have to offer. This is an effective way to present an overview of the Web page without overwhelming the reader. It is not intimitdating because the description of each section is only one or two paragraphs long.
He is further able to hold the reader's attention because he relates his own experiences to the content of each section thus giving it a real life credibility. This particular page was also easy to navigate because the links to the various sections in Dr. Driving were incorporated into the descriptive paragraphs in purple; the links kind of served as titles for each section.
If I had to make one criticism it would be that his report page may have been overly simple. While I like the simplicity and cleanliness of the page, unlike his home page, there was nothing that really stood out that would impress a potential reader. I also would not have had a linked to the speed trap registry because it might actually promote the kind of behavior that a site like Dr. Driving is trying to prevent. Meaning, if people knew where the speedtraps were then they might be more inclined to feel like they can speed and break the law so long as they "behave" right before the police are waiting.

Compared to other reports in his generation, appearance wise his report is superior for many of the reasons that I have mentioned before such as nice easy to read white background and nice layout of the page. Content wise his page also does a good job of presenting the material clearly and concisely. Also compared to earlier generations it seems that on the whole most of his classmates' pages are better.

I happened upon Charles' page while searching generation 7 409a. I simply I tried clicking on random student's pages to see if I could find something that caught my eye -- either interesting information or a visually pleasing and easy to use page layout. Charles' page caught my attention mainly because of his use of frames on the left side of the page. I had wanted to incorporate something like that in my Web page so when I saw what he had already accomplished I became interested. Before finally deciding on his page I spent several minutes exploring the other students pages to see if there was anything good.

Why I Chose Charles Kam's Report

I chose Charles' report because I was interested in finding out more about newsgroups since I will have to use them for the next assignment. Furthermore I already knew a little about flaming, but I figured it would be neat to find out the psychology behind it. And maybe I could pick up some tips.

How I Found His Report

One of Charles' main points was that there is a definite community which develops in Newsgroups; much more than an exchange of information occurs. He also says, people create rules and punishments for not following the rules and emotional relationships also develop as people interact with each other. Regarding flames he says they are emotional outbursts which serve the purpose of conveying feelings.
Charles introduces the reader to three different perspectives towards newsgroups and flaming through the eyes of three students. The three general attitudes towards flaming in newsgroups seem to be indifference, dislike, and love. He then continues by identifying three personality categories for people who posts on newsgoups. These are the Emotional, the Thinker, and the Peacekeeper.
What he finds most interesting is that even with the physical element revoved, individuals are still motivated to form bonds. Charles next comments on Dr. James plan for dealing with road rage. This plan includes education, formation of a Chilren Against Road Rage group, and Quality Driving Circles where people can learn from each other.

Charles' page is simple yet pretty sophisticated compared to some of his other classmates' pages. He makes good use of frames and his links are set up so that it is easy to get to any other page. In his report page on newsgroups he made it easier to read by making the bulletin board posts from other people a different color so that it would be easy to differentiate. The only problem though was that if he made the color a little bit brighter or darker it would have been easier to read. Charles did an excellent job of commenting on community and its relation to newgroups. I can relate to how one can start to feel a sense of belonging to a specific group and then fight to make sure that everyone remains within the boundries of that group so as to not upset the balance that was created. I was a little disappointed with Charle's report though because although the title seemed to imply that he would be discussing flaming in newsgroups, he barely covered this topic. He focused mainly on building and maintaining a sense of community in newsgroups. There was minimal mention of posting styles and approaches, and not until the very end of the report was there any specific reference to flaming. I would have liked to learn more about the art of flaming and the interaction that takes place between the participants as well as the reactions of the rest of the community. It would have been good if he had shown a whole flame war exchange between two people and then commented on it.

Charles' report on newsgroups was fairly consistent witht the rest of the students in his class. I like the lay out better because of his use of tables to make the stationary column on the left side of the screen. As far as they layout of his text, it was comprable to others in his class. A couple of other student's reports that I looked at were easier to read because of the background and color of text. Another good idea that I saw on other pages but not on Charles' is providing links to the various newsgroups instead of just mentioning them. Compared to earlier generations generation 7 seems to be making improvements in the overall quality of the Web pages. They are able to manipulate the appearances in much more intricate ways. They also seem to be more in command of their topics that deal with the Internet, which shows that they were probably more exposed to this medium. In addition the Web pages seem to allow the students an outlet to express their frustrations as well as to "show-off" their accomplishments.

I needed to comment on students' reports from the psychology 459 class so I decided to click on generation 10 first so I could see what the previous class right before me did for their reports. When I got to the Psy459 home page I randomy clicked on names to see their personal home pages. Bernadette's page was not the first one that I clicked on. I checked three or four pages before hers but none of them really caught my attention and some of them were hard to read. I spent two or three minutes browsing each student's pages and reports and reading what they had to say. I knew Bernadette's page was the one I wanted to comment on because as I mentioned earlier it is very eye-catching yet very easy to read. And she doesn't overdo it on the moving images. Furthermore her topic on the defintion of traffic psychology interested me since I was not really sure what traffic psychology encompassed.

Why I Chose Bernadette Jambaro's Report

I chose Bernadette's report on Definitions of Traffic Psychology because a)her home page was catchy, it had neat little animated pictures, stop lights and a car, that fit in to the theme of driving, and b)it was simple and very easy to read, the background wasn't overwhelming and the words were nice and dark.

How I Found Her Report

The topic of Bernadette's report was definitions of traffic psychology. In the report she began by giving her own personal definition of what traffic psychology is all about. She says that traffic psychology is the study of how we think, behave, and express our emotions when driving on the road. And she believes that the two underying factors are social and psychological. In addition there are three domains that are relavent to traffic psychology and these are the affective domain(feelings, motives), the cognitive domain(thoughts, judgements), and the sensorimotor domain (sensory input and motor output).
She then goes on to give five other definitions of traffic psychology from other people on the internet and comments on each of them. For example the first definition is from Chris Murakami who says a chief function of traffic psychology is that it serves to enlighten us. Bernadette agrees with his basic premise and says that an important aspect is change; traffic psychology allows us to become more in tune with our own driving habits, good and bad, and lets us address those that we wish to change.
The last part of her report is dedicated to her views as a driver, a passenger, and a pedestrian. She mentions how the class as helped her in her driving. She has become more of her own driving and has even changed some of her negative behavior. Finally, Bernadette feels less in control as a passenger, and believes in pedestrian safety and right of way.

As far as the layout and design of the page, I think Bernadette did a pretty good job. It is not exceptionally fancy and complicated, but that is what, in a way, makes it pleasing to the eye. The page is easy to navigate. In regard to the content of the report, I think she did a decent job of defining traffic psychology. Having different people's points of view was helpful because then I could see the differences and similarities. Many of the definitions shared common points or ideas and Bernadette did a good effort and summarizing and synthesizing all of them.
I liked the flowers that marked the beginning of each section. I think it tied the whole page together rather nicely. I do, however, disagree with some of her comments. For example, in the section My Experience As a Driver, she says that the environment is important to her because you can tell a lot about the person behind the wheel. I disagree with this comment because I think that it can be very misleading to assume that a person's personality behind the wheel is the same personality that appears under other circumstances other than driving. Many people take on an altered personality when behind the wheel and it would be a mistake to prejudge them. Over all I agree with Bernadette that becoming more aware of your driving habits will help you to change those habits. I think that people are more likely to change their behavior once they recognize it, agree that there is somthing wrong, and see that something can be done to change their behavior Traffic psychology helps them to do all of this.
I would advance the topic and its logic by asking other people to give their experiences as a driver, a pedestrian and a passenger, and comparing these responses to their driving personality. It would be interesting to see if, for instance, a person could hate pedestrians as a driver, and hate drivers as a pedestrian.

Compared to most other students in her class, Bernadette's page was superior because it was so inviting and easy to read (I know I mentioned this many times alread, but it is really true). A couple of other people had equally nice pages with easy to read pages and nice graphics. The content of her page was about equal to the others in her generation.

What Other Students in My Class Have Done

I looked around at what other students in my class have done with their generational curriculum report. Because this was our first report many of us may have had some difficulty creating the web page. Some people's pages were very simple with just a colored background and text. Other people got more fancy and added tables and different fonts. Overall I would say that it is a slight improvement over last generations' web pages and a good beginning.

Suggestions for Future Generations

To future generations: Here are a few of my suggestions for dealing with the Mining the Generational Curriculum project. 1) Get started early if you want to do a good job and not get totally stressed out. 2) A suggestion that I got from an earlier generation student's page is to type out the content of you assignment before worrying about layout, style, pictures, etc. 3)Learn as you go. Don't be afraid to just jump in and try stuff and learn from your mistakes. If you just read the html book it won't work. 4) The Generational Curriculum is huge (getting bigger each semester), don't get overwhelmed. Just find a starting point and explore until you reach a page that you like. 5)Finally don't get too frustrated. Just stick to it and you'll be surprised at what you can accomplish.