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Section 1: Introduction -----
Most students feel fear, confusion, anxiety, or
frustration, when they start learning the Internet in psychology 409 and 459 at
the beginning of the semester.
Their frustration increases as the course progresses. Some students even think about
withdrawing from the course.
Nevertheless, the time when they overcome those problems comes. They seem like reborn as an Internet
expert. Eventually many of them
report confidence and joy of working in the cyber world.
How do the students view themselves while
learning the Internet? How does a
novice become an expert? In this
section, I will discuss a developmental phase in learning the Internet. The students become Internet literate
through facing novice-related stress phase, facing searching-related stress
phase, and getting over stress phase.
Phase 1: Facing Novice-Related Stress
l
Ohta, Mitsui, and Christine’s Point of
View
During this phase, the
students view the learning of the Internet as stressful because they are often
at a loss as to what to do with it and how to utilize it. Most students in this course are
novices in learning to adapt to the Internet. They often feel fear, confusion, or frustration at beginning
of the semester due to lack of knowledge such as how to create web pages, how
to load it up, or how to create the links between various sites.
CAROL
N. OHTA says, “I didn't even know what
e-mail was or how to do it. So I
decided to make it a point to spend as much time as I could to prove to myself
that I could over come my fears about the Internet and e-mail.
Ryan
Mitsui says, “Well, learning the Internet can be quite difficult in the beginning. At first putting up a page is really
confusing because you can't just type exactly what you want, threes all sorts
of rules and mark up tags that you have to learn.
Christine
says, “Before taking this course, I only knew about the internet and how to
"surf" it. I experienced
frustration when my links weren't working properly, and then when my icons
weren’t loading up correctly.
l
Reaction
I had the same experiences
as the other students who had fear, confusion, or frustration. Although I was familiar with e-mail and
surfing on the net, I had trouble trying to create a home page. The first stress I felt was that I
feared all procedures would be complicated. It was like when I arrive at a town in a foreign country for
the first time. I feel myself
completely stranger there, and of course I do not know which way to go unless I
ask somebody. Things look chaos
until I grasp the general structure of the town.
Second, I was confused
when I read the FTP
instruction and creating a home page.
I was not able to picture what creating a home page and uploading are
like. I thought there should be
special software to use to create a home page and FTP is related to these
software.
Therefore, I was not
able to understand the instruction and felt frustrated. Then, I asked a friend and finally
understood that creating a home page and uploading were separate
procedures. I felt much better
when I knew I could use software familiar to me such as Microsoft Word to
create a home page.
l
Cause and Hypotheses
The students view the
learning the Internet as stressful because they have no previous experiences in
constructing a home page. People
usually feel fear when they get into unknown world. Many students might remember when they became college
freshmen, they felt some kinds of frustration until they got used to new
environment.
Uniqueness of the
Internet may increase novice-related stress. The Internet consists of two differentiated aspects. One is computer. We have to be familiar with computer in
order to handle the Internet.
Other is communication.
Through computer, we communicate with people all over the world. As we borrow information from websites
of other people, somebody will see our websites.
These two aspects,
technology and communication, may confuse us because they seem to look
contradictive. Working on the
computer is isolated task. People
work individually on each computer.
Nevertheless, once we log in the net, we automatically connect with a
large number of people. These two
contradictive aspects may create vague image that is difficult to picture for
novices, and then increase fear.
Phase 2: Facing Searching-Related
Stress
l
Hansjuergens, Andrews, and Ohta’s Point of
View
The frustrations are
more serious than those the students felt at the beginning because after
getting to know something about the Internet, they have trouble handling
it. Even after getting over the
novice-related stress, during the second phase the students view they have to
be more patient especially for searching.
Further experiences are required to become familiar with searching. Even if they technically know what to
do for searching, they sometimes feel overwhelmed.
Kai
Hansjuergens says, “Frustration is probably one of the most experienced
emotions when dealing with computers.
The machine just doesn't seem to understand. Frustration within the reports was mostly centered around
searching for topics on the Internet.”
Ginger
Andrews says, " My how
time flies on the net. These last
weeks I have been at the lab for an average of eight hours at a time. My boyfriend probably thinks I am
having an affair. He has been so supportive though. He makes dinner for me anticipating my butt dragging through
the door. I wouldn't of done as
well without him. Thanks Damian.”
CAROL
N. OHTA says, “I accomplished the five
files I had to make and I'm almost finished with my topic on Police Liaison
site. Believe me, that was the
toughest file to get going because I was visiting so many sites and at least
twenty places I visited didn't pertain to my topic. So I went on searching for more places and sites to visit
and at times I wanted to throw the computer out the door and into the trash can
because I was so frustrated and tired of ending up on the Internet at a dead
end.”
l
Reaction
I understand how the
students felt frustrated and overwhelmed during this phase because I also often
felt frustrated during searching sessions. After I understood how to create a home page and upload it,
I was released and thought there were no more worries. However, when I started searching for
the report 1, I realized I had other problems. Searching was not easy as I expected. Searching for specific topics and net
surfing were totally different.
l
Cause and Hypotheses
During the second
phase, the students view they need further patience for searching because
searching is a difficult task.
Searching for specific topics means aiming goals. More topics are specified, less chance
to reach goals. We have to find
limited resources among tremendous amount of information on the net. Discovering diamond buried in thousands
of junks requires great effort and is sometimes painful.
Experiences of the
students in searching for simple topics may make them feel that searching for
specific topics are difficult.
When we search on the net for personal purpose, we hardly chose
complicated topics. For example,
whenever I planed to take a trip, I try to find information about destinations,
typing in cities’ names such as Honolulu and Hilo.
This kind of searching
is simplest. We easily can get
what we looked for.
Such an expectation
that searching is easy may increase our feeling of difficulty and stress when
we cannot easily find what we looked for.
Phase 3: Getting Over Stress
l
Mitsui, Ohta, and Alonzo’s Point of View
During this phase, the
students view they get over novice-related stress and searching –related
stress. After understanding and
experiencing a sequence of procedures for handling the Internet, they feel
confident. Now that everything
becomes clear to them, they feel they can cultivate further skills in handling
the Internet. Once they get it
over, chaos is transformed into pleasurable and systematic figure in their
eyes.
Ryan
Mitsui says, “In this phase students become more familiar with using the
internet and are confident and no longer have to bumble around, wasting time
and getting frustrated. They are
like a worm that has blossomed into a butterfly. Or like a baby bird that just
learned to fly.”
CAROL
N. OHTA says, “I'm starting to feel
good about the Internet and the computer world because I've learned how to look
up information and create my files.
I'm even helping my friends who want to know how to e-mail and create
files on the Internet. Reminds me
of myself when I first started out on the Internet. I'm looking forward to getting contributions from anybody as
soon as I'm done with my tpr file.”
Michelle
Alonzo says, “Once things begin to come together for you, you feel a sense
of motivation. You see that you
can finally make everything work and you feel the urge to make your pages look
a lot nicer than they already do.
This motivates you to look around the entire Internet to find things
that you would like to add to your page, in the hopes that someone will land on
your page and say "Wow! This page is nice!" or something along those
lines.”
l
Reaction
Unfortunately, I have not reached this phase yet. I understood and experienced most procedure in handling the Internet. However, I still do not have confident. Probably I concern more about contents than the skills in handling the Internet.
Because
I sometimes feel overwhelmed due to difficulty of writing for this course, I
cannot hold enough energy to pay attention to whether I became Internet
literate. As long as I keep
writing, I will not be able to truly recognize my improvement in the
skills. I hope I will experience
feeling of becoming like a butterfly at the end of the semester.
l
Cause and Hypotheses
During
this phase, the students view they got over stress they have had because they
have had enough knowledge and experiences in handling the Internet. Acquiring the knowledge only is not
enough to become Internet literate.
While they have more and more experiences of making errors or
recognizing what makes searching easier, the knowledge genuinely becomes parts
of the student little by little.
The
ability to see improvement may bring the student to feeling of confident. Although
they seem to suddenly be enlightened, their gradual improvement submerged in
many kinds of stress merely appears into the surface at one point. Now that they are able to notice their
improvement, even when they have frustration, they can see positive aspect from
negative consequences. Therefore,
they feel they got over stress.
-----
Section 2: Self-observation Data -----
l
The Forms:
records of searching
l
How I gathered the data
I gathered
the data following the Instructions
for the Online Forum Discussions and the Instructions
for Annotated Bibliography Report for this course.
Ø
The students are required to
do searching on the web in order to post a research topic message in the forum
discussions every week. The topics
for a research topic message must be one of the approved topics for the
annotated bibliography report. The
message also should contain our searching experience
Ø
The annotated bibliography
report must contain a minimum 2 approved topics with 5 items each. Therefore, I started searching for 2
topics for both the forum discussions and the annotated bibliography
report. One topic I chose is how
and when do people express rage in their normal daily settings. Other is what are the forms of
spirituality in our society today.
We are encouraged to find some connection among items so that the report
can be coherent and informative.
Ø
To gather data for the
annotated bibliography, the sources we use for search should cover a variety of
types such as scholarly databases, web sites, online newspapers, magazines,
online discussion forums, and case histories and self-initiated information
pages.
Ø
The students are required to
fill a form before, during, and after each search session. The form is to record our search
sessions in objective ways.
First of
all, I felt reluctant when I filled the form each time. Filling the form means I have to
concretely think about what to do on searching. For example, to answer the fourth question - what you’re planning to do and why?, I have to think of specific goal of
this search session.
However, when I start searching, usually I have
vague thoughts about searching and just start without planning. Then, when I happened to find good
items, I feel myself lucky. This
is the same as the way I take a trip.
I tend to give priority to my feeling over following an itinerary. I do not even want to decide what time
to get up in holiday morning.
Therefore, you know how I was reluctant to fill the form before each
session.
Nevertheless,
I have to admit filling the form much influenced my search session. Having the goal at beginning of session
made search sessions organized.
Since I decided to look for one specific topic at the beginning, I was
able to know whether or not particular database have enough information on the
topic. If I found there is not
much information on the database, at next session I should change the topic or
try on other databases.
For
instance, I found some items for the topic, rage in school, but I found no item
for the topic, rage in hospital on the EBSCO host research database. If I did not fill the form, I might
have tried to look for rage in many kinds of setting using several databases or
search engines at a time as the mood took me. Then, I am sure I would have forgot what rage in which
settings I searched before, using which search engine.
Therefore,
the data represents what I actually did searching fairly well. The data records specific topic I
searched and a database and search engine I used. It also records when and how long searching took and how I
felt frustrated before and after searching. Moreover, the data implies causal factors why searching went
well or not well, or my attitude change toward searching.
For
example, during the first search session I was constantly optimistic. However, at the end of the session I
realized the item I found was not relevant to the topic. Then, during the second session, I
become more careful about searching.
l
The Data Summary
|
Question # |
|
Average |
Ranges |
|
|
PART 1: FILL THIS OUT AT
THE START OF THE SESSION |
|
|
|
2,3 |
Actual time I spent
(minutes) |
39 |
60 |
|
5 |
Time I expected the task
will take (minutes) |
32 |
30 |
|
6 |
If you compare this task
to other search tasks you’ve done, how long should it take? |
7 |
4 |
|
7 |
How important to you is
this task today? |
8 |
4 |
|
8 |
How upset would you be
if you found nothing today? |
8 |
2 |
|
9 |
How sure are you that
you will succeed in this task? |
6 |
3 |
|
10 |
How likely is it that
you will become good at this type of task? |
7 |
1 |
|
11 |
How much luck do you
have in searching in comparison to other types of tasks? |
7 |
2 |
|
12 |
How motivated are you to
keep on trying today until you succeed? |
9 |
2 |
|
13 |
Computers and search
engines make it easy for people to find what they’re looking for. |
8 |
3 |
|
14 |
How likely is it that
there will be something specific on what you’re looking for? |
7 |
3 |
|
15 |
How much effort do you expect
this task to take today? |
7 |
3 |
|
|
PART 3: FILL THIS OUT AT
THE END OF THE SESSION |
|
|
|
16 |
How irritated did you
feel in today’s search task? |
3 |
4 |
|
17 |
How anxious did you feel
in today’s search task? |
3 |
3 |
|
18 |
How frustrated did you
feel in today’s search session? |
3 |
4 |
|
19 |
How much rage did you
feel in today’s search task? |
2 |
2 |
|
20 |
How much effort did this
task require of you today compared to other search tasks? |
6 |
6 |
|
21 |
How would you evaluate
the relevance of what you found today? |
7 |
6 |
|
22 |
How supportive are you
of the search engine or computer facility you used today? |
7 |
6 |
|
23 |
How easy was it to use
the search engine or computer facility today? |
2 |
2 |
|
24 |
If you compare this task
to other search tasks you’ve done, how long did it take? |
5 |
5 |
Rates are scaled between 1 and
10. For example, 1: not much 10:
tremendous amount
There are some patterns
in the data. As actual time I
spent for searching increases, rate of irritation, anxiety, and rage
increases. As the actual time
increases, rate of how supportive I was of the search engine or computer
facility decreases, but rate of how easy it was to use the search engine does
not change. Even when the actual
time is longer, rate of how I evaluated the relevance of what I found does not
change.
Difference between the
actual time and time I expected does not affect any rates scaled at the end of
the session. Even when the
difference is small, if the actual time I spent was longer, rates of
irritation, anxiety, and rage are higher than those of when the actual time was
short.
Rates of motivation,
importance of the task, and how I will upset if I found nothing are constantly
high at the start of the session, no matter whether rates of irritation,
anxiety, and rage at the end of the session are high or low.
When I used google.com,
the time I spent for searching is shorter than when I used the online
newspapers and magazines, the online discussion forum, the weblog, and the
EBSCO database.
Factor that was most important in getting the search result I chose at
the end of the session seems invalid.
In this data there is no constancy. I chose a) luck
6 times, c) the quality of the databases or search engines 3 times, and b) my search
technique once. No matter how I
rated luck I have in searching, and no matter how I rated supportiveness of
search engines, I often chose a).
I also sometimes chose c), no matter how I rated luck I have and
supportiveness of search engines.
There is the difference
between the numbers and average versus the explanations for my answer to the
question 9) How
sure are you that you will succeed in this task? Even though I rated 6 on average, most
of time I explained, “I’m not sure if I will succeed in this task but ….” If I was really not sure, I should have
rated lower than 5, close to “doubtful.”
l
Conclusion
I
tend to feel irritated and frustrated, as I spend more time for searching, even
when I expected the task would take long.
Motivation or how the task is important does not influence my emotional
condition during searching. Even
if motivation is high and the task is important to me, if the time I spent is
short, I rarely feel pressure. On
the other hand, even when searching takes much time, then if I am irritated, I
tend to fairly evaluate the relevance of resources.
The
time I spent for searching also affect how I am supportive of the computer and search
engines. As I spend more time for
searching, I am less supportive of the computer and search engines. However, I constantly feel
the computer and search engines are easy to use, no matter how long the task
takes.
Even
when I am not sure that I will be able to succeed in searching, I tend to have
hope always. The difference
between the numbers and the explanations for my answer to the question 9)
reflects contradiction between my anticipation and hope in searching.
Since
I constantly rate the computer and search engines are easy to use both before
and after the session, I should not attribute difficulty in searching to the
quality of technology.
Nevertheless, sometimes I am not supportive of the technology because I
did not satisfy with the results retrieved by the search engine and try on
other search engines, and then the task takes long. In terms of the time I spent for
searching, google.com is the best search engine that did not irritate me.
----- Section 3: Counseling
Session -----
l What is the counseling session?
The counseling session is a research project on Internet searching conducted by library and information science program at the University of Hawaii. The students who have enrolled in psychology 409 and 459 are required to participate in this session.
The students visit the computer lab located in Hamilton Library to see a researcher. They answer some questionnaires and perform some search tasks online. Two students are assigned to each session that takes about one hour.
l What I learned from the counseling session
The researcher assigned three search tasks to us. Although the first two tasks were smoothly done, we were stuck during the third task, and eventually not able to complete the task. The researcher said the third task was difficult. We needed to approach the goal step by step. I asked her how we could improve searching skills. She gave us following hints.
Ø Leave out prepositional words such as “in” and “on” for typing in.
Ø If words typed in does not bring to what we looked for, try other words. For example, try to use “tobacco” instead of “cigarette.”
Ø Try to use different combination of words.
Ø Always access some results retrieved and read contents of the sites, even if titles or sentences under the title of the results do not seem to fit what we looked for.
Ø Use clustered results. Vivisimo.com shows us clustered results.
Ø Narrow down the topic step by step.
The most impressive tip I learned during the session is to objectively observe searching session is important. I was little nervous because this was the first experience in which somebody was observing me during the search session. Therefore, I realized that as the researcher observed us, if I observe myself during each search session, I would become aware of what I actually did. Then, I will know what affect searching and what makes searching easier.
l Advice for future students
For improving the learning experience, I suggest to future students preparing for learning opportunities. For example, the counseling session is very good chance to learn Internet searching because you can ask any questions about searching to the expert. When you feel frustrated during your search session, think about what made you frustrated. There must be some possible causes of frustration. Specifically record problems you encountered so that you can ask the researcher. If you do not prepare, you will miss the chance to learn.
----- Section 4: The Psychology of Information Literacy -----
l The Generational Curriculum presented in Dr. James’s article
Dr. James proposes an innovative approach called “The Generational Curriculum.” Generations refer to the creation of a social learning cyber community in which each semester new students start learning in the course. In this curriculum, the students read and discuss generational reports posted on the websites of prior students. Their reports are also read by each succeeding generation. Thus, the community expands each semester.
The purpose of the approach is to improve students’ learning experience in an online environment. He analyzes students’ self-reports that they wrote as part of their class work and indicates that there are three phases students go through during the semester. Each of these phases consists of three behavioral areas. Three phases are 1) Becoming information literate, 2) Becoming self- directed autonomous, and 3) Exercising leadership and inventiveness. Three behavioral areas are affective, cognitive, and ensorimotor.
l My research report and The Generational Curriculum
This research report exemplifies how a student performs in the Generational Curriculum. In section 1, I review the students’ reports of the prior generation. I analyze their developmental phases in learning the Internet and compare to my experiences. In section 2, I analyze the data that is record of my own search sessions.
In section 3 I have further opportunity to look back my searching skills in presence of the researcher, and then give the suggestion to future students for improving the learning experience. In section 4, I deepen understanding of the Generational Curriculum by reading the instructor’s article and by thus reporting how my report fits the curriculum.
l Information literacy
According to Association of College and Research and Libraries, information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.
ACRL defined information literacy as they approve “information literacy competency standards,” which provide a framework for assessing the information literate individual, for higher education and seeks promulgation of the standards. They remark importance of information literacy in the contemporary environment of rapid technological change, since information of uncertain quality is expanding in society.
l Conclusion
As I create this research report following the instruction to be a part of the Generational Curriculum, I am given opportunities to improve information literacy.