Why this student?

I chose this report because I was impressed with the amount of information that he presented. Other student?s sites were nice as well, but this student seems to have put a lot of work into his reports. I was also very interested in the subject, so I was looking for any report that seemed to have been well researched.

Retracing the steps

I read numerous reports before stumbling onto Gavins. Generally, I was searching for people I know who have had the class before me, reading what they had, and moving on if it wasn't what I was looking for. I must have read at least six reports before I chose this one, and I admit, I was getting pretty burnt out on the whole project! I'm pretty sure I read at least 75% of each report before I passed judgement on it. I think I only read about half of Gavins when I decided that this was the one to write on.

The Topic
 
 

The topic of the report was Road Rage, a condition that I happen to be very familiar with. It included other student's reports, e-mail from other student's, reports on search engines that he used in research for the report, comparisons to other students from his generation, suggestions, and finally, conclusions. The report included gender differences in driving, as well as some interesting statistics. I thought it was well organized.

Reaction

I thought that the student did a good job in the research of the information in the report, but the overall presentation could have been a little stronger. A majority of the report was presented as if it were just a research paper, not a publication to be shown on the web. I guess maybe just a little more "flash" would have rounded out the project better. Overall, it was well presented, ordered, and informative.

Comparisons

As to be expected, most of the sites that I saw looked to be fairly similar. I assume that this is because all were following the same directions in the class. There were, however, some exceptions. Chang's report was very different than others I had seen. His whole site was just a bit "different". It was entertaining, and refreshing, and I liked the way he wrote. Again, some people take more time that others in arranging their sites. That's the main difference.
 

IreneLau
 
 

Why this student?

I chose to report on Irene because I liked the way she arranged her information. The first thing I noticed was the huge star cluster she had as an icon on her homepage. I thought that was pretty cool. Also, the just the way her page flowed was not only easy to follow, but aesthetically pleasing as well.

Retracing the steps

I probably spent half the time finding this report as I did finding the other. The most obvious reason for this is that I spent so much time trying to find all these sites to write about, after a while I was just going back to the sites I had book marked instead of searching all over again. I had seen this site earlier (that's why I book marked it) so it didn't take me long to find the next time around. I guess I spent a total time of about three hours looking for all of them.

Topic

Irene's topic was how music effected one's driving.  I found this of special interest to myself because I'm a big music fan, and I firmly believe that music can alter anyone's mood (whether it be positive or negative). I think I first became aware of the effects of music when I began traveling from LA to San Francisco on a regular basis. It was always better to travel at night because it was a long trip, and you could drive faster. My friend and I would start blasting some hardcore techno music, and before you knew it we would be doing 95-100 mph! I've also noticed that many times on my way home from the gym, I like to listen to jazz, or Hawaiian music. It helps me unwind after a hard workout.

Reaction

I thought that Irene did a pretty good job overall. I think it may have been a little better if she would have researched the topic in terms of possible experiments that may have been published. She may have, I don't even know that those experiments exist. Other than that, a job well done!

Comparison

I specifically chose Irene's report because of her style of presentation. Compared to numerous others in her generation, I thought she did an exceptional job on this topic. Her overall page was aesthetically pleasing, and I enjoyed reading her article.
 

Leigh Yokohama

Why this student?

I chose this student because of her style of writing. Although her page is pretty straight-forward (no frills), I found her information to be well thought out, and comical as well. It seems that she spent some time conducting her research (her quality driving circle), and her results were conducive to her theory. I t was funny to hear how she made these observations of her family and friends as she classified them into driving categories (from the slow, patient driver, to the speed demon.)

Retracing the steps

Of course, by this time I've been all through the older generation over and over again, so there's not a whole lot I can say that I haven't already. I think that it was the ease of locating and reading the information that ultimately lead me to chose Leigh's page. With big, bold print it was hard not to find what you're looking for, and by this time I didn't want to search anymore than I had to!

The topic

The topic of this report was a review of the previous generation's reports, and to compare these reports to the reviewers own driving habits. Later, the author was to develop a "quality driving circle" which would consist of a group of people that would come together to discuss their driving habits. I take it that the goal of this circle was to recognize, and improve on each of the individuals bad driving habits.

Reaction

I thought that she did a pretty good job with the report. It may have been a little better if she had gone into greater depth with the results of her circle. I think I would benefit from a circle of my own, being that I have driving problems of my own. I think that if I were to create my own driving circle, I would publish a journal with all the results of each individual day that we went out. Maybe if I were to do this, I could show a progression in driving habits (hopefully for the better). That may make for a better report.

Comparison

Compared to other websites that I have seen, Leigh's site was pretty ordinary. In some ways this was helpful to me because it made searching for information a lot easier. The only drawback to this "Plain Jane" approach is that in this time of animated graphics and spectacular homepages, one may lose interest in her page before they get a chance to read the information that she offers. The flipside of this is that some other pages are so complicated that you may miss useful information because you're caught up in all the graphics.
 

Chang

Why this student?

There was one simple reason why I chose this student - his graphics. On his home page there is a picture of someone (him) hanging from a noose and swinging from side to side! I admit that this caught my attention immediately (as demented as it may seem) for the simple fact that it was original. If you continue reading his site, you'll find that he has a very interesting site, specifically his research on satanic sites! OK, really it's research about on-line communities, but it does have a link to his e-mail account (shaft@satanic.org) .

Retracing the steps

Well, what can I say that I haven't already?  I think I've seen about every site that every student in every generation has ever built!  Same process again, nothing new to report.

The topic of the report

The topic of Chang's report was on following newsgroups.  Under this topic he covers the concept of on-line communities, different types of newsgroups and how they work, and examples of groups that he has followed in the past.

My Reaction

I thought his site was OK.  His picture of a man hanging from a noose at the top of his page wass attention getting, but the rest of his page was pretty straight-forward.  Overall I'd say that it was very readable, but a bit less than interesting.  Maybe if he were to add some color to his pages, or added more icons it may have been a bit more attention getting.