GCDL--The Generational Curriculum Digital Library

What It's All About

Table Of Contents

Getting to Know the Generational Curriculum: The First Step

History of the Generational Curriculum: The Beginning

The Virtual Book in Cyberspace: Floating Text

My Proposal for Mining the Generational Curriculum: Digging for Stuff

Conclusion and Recommendations

Instructions

Getting to Know the Generational Curriculum: The First Step


Getting to know the generational curriculum was a little bit scary. When I first registered for this class, I thought it might be kind of easy, boy was I wrong. It was difficult to figure out what to do, with me being totally computer illiterate. But after reading some prior students reports, it kind of relieves me to see that they felt the same way in the beginning. In Yuko Inoue's report, she too thought it was overwhelming, but after going through the process, it became easier for her. She also talks about how the GC is ever expanding, a building block for future students. How we can look back at prior students work and build on what they have done and avoid the mistakes they encountered. Just like I am doing now. She also talks about tour guides, how it will help first time users. It does help, but it was also fun to go exploring by myself, to just go and click and see where it takes me. She also talks about search engines and CGI maps, which are easy and fun to use. Another student, Kimberly Oshiro, also talks about how the GC is ever expanding. She also talks about front ends, which she believes shouldn't be too busy. I think that's true, because if it's too busy it's too easy to get lost and confused. She then talks about search engines and the advantage of being a 4th generation student. That she can learn from previous generation's mistakes and display better graphics. Well, then I guess I'm at a better advantage because I have more generations to look back upon and have plenty of nicer graphics. It's good to know that we're not the first generation with problems and that we can help future generations with their work.

Upon looking at the prior students' Generational Curriculum files, I was happy to see that they shared some of the same opinions as me. For example, Kathy Teruya mentions that there are a ton of links on some of the pages, and that when she gets through them all, she'll let everyone know. Exactly, there were so much links, I couldn't go through them all, it was mind-boggling. Her discussion of each link is full of what you need to know about each page, and her personal comments at the end of each summary makes reading it a little more interesting, as was Gary Uno's file. These reports also had many other opinions that I hadn't thought of. I wish I had thought of looking at other generation's GC files before I did my own, I could have gotten a lot of useful information that I could have used for my file. Maybe if I have time, I'll go back and check some out to try and improve my file before the end of the semester.

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History of the Generational Curriculum: The Beginning


The history of the GC is long and laborous. A good source to look at is Creating An Online Learning Environment. This article, which by the way is very long, "presents the results of analyzing various aspects of an online generational community of students who enroll in an Internet-integrated college course." To get all the details go check it out.

To get back to the GC's history, it all started back in the 1970's, when there was no online community. The students enrolled in the class had to type all their papers and each succeeding generation had to go back and look at these papers for references. This all improved in 1993, when all the activities "were conducted on the World Wide Web." This made everything prior generations had done more easily accessable. No more looking through old reports on paper, now all it takes is the click of a button.

This is all great. This is the first class I have taken in which you use prior student's reports to help create your own. It helps because you get to see first hand what other students went through, and that what you are going through now, other generations went through also. I am also glad that I am in the generation I am in now. I realize how hard it must have been for the first couple of generations to do their work, how time consuming. To realize that we have it pretty good. With all the improvements, better equipment, accessibility, everything.

What's most notable to me is the teacher and students. Dr. James is very willing to help out if there is a problem. He understands what we are going through and that there will be problems. He's willing to compromise and not be so rigid like other professors. And the students, they are very helpful. Those that are in the class with me are very helpful and are very willing to help me with any problems that pop up. Plus, in this class, you get to know the other students, personally, unlike other larger classes. Other students from prior generations also help, through their reports that we look at and improve on and learn from their mistakes. Also that you get to know the computer. You get to learn the basics of using computers and doing some great things with it. It makes you feel good. Plus you get to learn about some things you never really thought much about, that kind of opens your eyes to everything around you.

And it feels great to be a part of it. To be doing things that others will be looking back at someday. To be able to communicate my ideas to everyone and get feedback of what others think about it. To be connected, not just be able to communicate to those around me, but anyone in the world. There are no boundaries, it's limitless.

I can't see anything for this but expansion. I believe it will keep expanding for as long as possible. It may possibly expand to where other universities will start having classes like Dr. James'. Until someday all classes will be like this, where everything is done on a computer and the students look at other student's work to do their own.

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The Virtual Book in Cyberspace: Floating Text


The Virtual Book is kind of like a story. It's about how Dr. James is trying to convince another person that the internet is more than just files. That it's like another home. He incorporates home pages, links, content, etc. to try and convince this other guy, but to really see what he's trying to convey, click on it yourself and read it to see.

A "virtual book" is a book that is simulated on a computer, but it is more than just words. It is more than words because it can be manipulated by the user. The user can click on certain things and go where they want to go. The user becomes involved in the process. The user can also add things, contribute to the book. Also it is more visually stimulating and is always changing and growing.

The main problem people will have with hypertext navigation is they won't know where to go. They may go somewhere and not know hoe to get back to where they started. They may get confused with all the things around them and get flustered. The more complex it is the more confused the user will be. It should be easy to see, simple with not too much stuff, yet it should be attractive enough to keep the user interseted.

Erin Tanaka's report was fun to read. She discusses how she had no clue of anything, just like me, so I can relate. She then talks about Jeffrey Glover's page and gives some suggestions for improving your home page. Some very intersting tips, I need to go look at his page later because I think I really need to improve my page a lot. Her report then takes a personal note and she talks about how she was scared in the beginning, but as the class proceeded, she improved. She was glad she took this class because it helped her to learn about computers. In a sense, I'm also glad too. It's good to learn about computers, since in the future everything will be done on them. Now I can say I know a little bit about it. I'm not computer illiterate, but I still don't know too much, I'm still a novice.

Kendra Morgan's report talks about the same things, yet she has some added information. She talks about improving your netscape browsing experience, which I thought was very helpful. As was all the other information she had. It added to what I read in Erin's report.

It's kind of funny when I read other people's reports. When I go to their home pages, their pages look way nicer than mine. So the information they had was very helpful. Now all I have to do is change my page around so it looks good. Yet, it's good to know that they shared the same feeling I had at the beginning of class. They stuck through it all, and so can I. I feel I have grown with all I've learned so far in this class, but I know there is much more to learn.

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My Proposals for Mining the Generational Curriculum: Digging For Stuff


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.

Dan Hamamoto summed it all up as to why the WIB didn't work, and those are the same ideas as mine. It probably didn't work because not many people knew about it except those that created it and their friends. I never heard about it until I took this class. Another reason why it probably didn't work was because of the topics. Maybe they weren't interesting to the public so no one responded. Also maybe because it wasn't as easily accessable, so if people couldn't get to it, they didn't respond.

Again, Dan Hamamoto pretty much summed it all up. There needed to be more advertising about the WIB, from putting up bulletins all over campus and around town, go out and talk about the WIB to organizations with computers (like Internet Cafe, etc.), get it on to more different search engines, and increase the topics. Make the topics more intersting, things people talk about, in the beginning. Then as more people get involved, increase the topics to more serious information.

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Conclusion and Recommendations


To all you G8 students, don't give up. No matter how you feel, it will all be worth it in the end. And don't be shy, if you need help, ask for it. Either Dr. James will help you or the other students in your class will help you. And once you get going, click all around to see everything, believe me, it helps. Because I believe they'll take this as far as they can. They will only improve on what we have done and make it even better. Dr. James, just keep doing what you're doing, because everything seems to be going well, so far, but if anything comes up, I'll add it on shortly.

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My Exploration of the Generational Curriculum Labyrinth | My Home Page | Report 1: GCDL--The Generational Curriculum Digital Library. |Report 2: Web Search Engines and Me. |My Newsgroups Report |My Bookmarks File |My Icons File |My G7 Class Home Page |Dr. Leon James' Home Page
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