Four Reports From The Online Generational Curriculum:
My Voyage Through
Cyber-Space
I chose Travis Abe's
School of Offensive Driving report from the Psychology 459b generation 7 as my first selection.What Impressed Me About Mr. Abe's Report
When I spotted his homepage I thought to myself that this person must have took a lot of time to make this web site. The graphics that he used seemed to be really complicated and I had never seen anything like it before. The aloha.jpg that he used at the bottom of the page with the mirrored lake reflection and the skull wallpaper was really unique. I thought that he invested a lot of time into the creation of that page.
Well, I just went to the
Internet Literacy Exercise Page and clicked on Instruction For All Reports. I then clicked on Index for all generationsThen entered each generation individually. Once I got to Generation 7 of Psychology 459 "Mr. Abe's HomePage in PSY409b generation 7 I then clicked on Mr. Abe's report where I briefly went through it. I then continued through the rest of generation 7 and when I was completed I returned to Mr. Abe's report where I read through it extensively.In his report
Mr. Abe had three separate distinct sections of multimedia which he used to collect data from, then he rated each accordingly. In the first section he rated videos according to what he perceived was influential on the driving population. In the second section he used the same rating system as he tried to find correlation between cartoons and the influence that they had on children. Finally, he used commercials as a source of information in which he extracted instances where the advertisements, and the companies involved with them, may have some kind of effect on the consumer.Mr. Abe's report was not what I had expected. I initially thought that he had invested a lot of time into his web page and I did not feel that he did the same for his report. In his report he used a rating system that was supposed to reflect the probable correlation between bad driving and the media. However, he did not use any scientific data that might have proved this point in depth. In fact, I found that he acted more like a movie critic than someone who was trying to get factual data about bad driving. Had he used actual information from other sources such as the Department of Transportation or Even Dr. James, he may have indeed found that in many instances television and the media does have some kind of influence on the way people drive.
Without a doubt,
Mr. Abe's web page was the one to beat. I looked through the entire generational curriculum and found that his page was the one that stood out to me the most. However, his report did not have the same substance that I thought was essential for him to make a connection between driving and the mass media (even though I agree that there is a correlation). He did not incorporate the vital statistics necessary for his report to be complete. Had he put that information into his report it would have been more authentic and less incomplete.What I Liked About Ms. Rapoza's Report
I liked the fact that she went through many different search engines to obtain the vast amounts of information that she incorporated into her report. For example, she used Excite, Lycos and Yahoo as some of the resources to extract the information that she needed. I also felt that she had spent an enormous amount of time looking at the psychological aspects of her report by focusing on the responses in the newsgroups. By being able to observe what was taking place in "real time," she was able to furnish a more concise account of an individuals disposition.
The Steps That Led Me To Her Report
I browsed through each generation in the 409-What is Cyber-Psychology? menu and stopped when I got to hers. There was no special reason why I chose her report except for the fact that I once had a friend in Waimanalo who had the same last name. I thought that she may somehow be related to my friend. I read through
her report briefly then continued on through the rest of the generations. After completing my search I finally decided to return to her report.The report was extremely well organized and provided vast amounts of information for the reader. For example, she included excerpts from actual conversations that had taken place in a
newsgroup setting and then commented on how each respondent had faired. She also added input on both the positive and negative aspects ofroad rage, and how each had an impact on our daily lives. She did this by taking messages that were left on the newsgroups that had negative connotations such as verbal and physical threats by aggressive drivers, to the flamming of people who had not supported someone else's opinion. She then compared them to messages that left a positive impressions on the reader with responses such as "Show your intelligence by backing off and living another day."Overall, I think Ms. Rapoza did an outstanding job on her report. She included many resources, information and data that was prevalent to her topic by using both search engines and links to other pages. Her links to other reports and sources made it easier for the reader to find information that was more closely associated with the types of topics of road rage that they were interested in. I never would have thought that topics such as road rage would be something that I would be even remotely interested in (even though I had been an instigator of road rage many times in the past).
Her report was very simple and to the point. She did not incorporate many graphics into her report but the amount of information that was there more than made up for that shortfall. I guess I can be discribed as a visual person that is more likely to visit a site that may have graphics that are unique. However, after what happened in my first selection where I "judged the book by its cover," and found that the information in the book was inadequate, I also have to look at the content and be more mindful of what the article is trying to convey.
Well, I liked the fact that she had a lot of links to additional information and data throughout her report. For example, at the very beginning of her report she stated that she had used other generations as a source of information and then she linked those reports to her own report. When I went to those links they indeed provided information that was relative to Ms. Pacheco's report.
Mr. Edward Sugimoto's Report #4, Analyzing the Generational Curriculum, was one of those reports. In it Mr. Sugimoto showed the many different approaches that could be utilized when using the Generational Curriculum by carefully going over each step of the process. Mr. Conrad Moreno's Analysis of the Generational Curriculum also provided and in-depth look at the method by which one would view the generational curriculum by first providing a visual chart, then explaining how someone would use each part.The Steps That Led Me To Her Report
I went to the
g8exercises.html page, then accessed the Index of All G8 Reports. Once there I just thought I would try something new so I clicked on g7awards.html page where I started to view each on of the sites that were there. Once I got to Mary Elizabeth's name I noticed that she had won the Award Winning Home Page. This is the underlying factor that made me go to her page.Summary Of Her Report
The report was organized in a fashion that was easy for the reader to understand as well as get around. There wasn't any complicated links or other material that might hinder the progress of the reader when trying to go from link to other pages. The one drawback was that the first three links in her report did not work and had to be accessed manually. When I clicked on the those reports I received a 404 message then had to go through the process of accessing them step by step. Other than that, those reports that she used provided more than adequate data for her report.
Review Of Her Report
I have often heard the phrase that goes something like " those who have failed to learn from the past are doomed in the future." I should have been more cautious about the visual stimulation that I experienced when I viewed web sites that were well constructed. As in
Mr. Abe's report, I used the visual appeal to gauge how the report would probably be. I did the same thing here and found myself in the same predicament that I was before. Although Ms. Pacheco had an undoubtedly beautiful page that looked very good, the substance within her report was not what I expected. Throughout the report she complimented the different generations that had provided her with material relevant to her report. That was a good gesture on her part. What got to me was the fact that she was doing it so often that it began to sound redundant. Another thing that was disturbing was the fact that she did not clarify much of the emotions she experienced in her report. For example, she stated "I am so impress with the creation and the maintenance of the Generational Curriculum. I am very grateful, that I am a member of the 7th generation for several reasons. I am fortunate to contribute and participate in the expanding phenomenon. I am privileged to have visited the home Page of Dr. James and several other home pages of his students. I also appreciate the devotion, dedication and hard work Dr. James has invested in the Generational Curriculum. In my opinion, this whole idea of the Generational Curriculum was God sent." She never really expounds on why she feels the way she does.Although
her report was quite extensive, she did not have the quality material necessary to make her report stand out. She used more emotion in her report than was needed and that made the report a little "shallow." There was no depth to the report because she consistently made references to how fortunate she was for being in the generational curriculum. She did not clearly justify the reason why her report was of such importance.
My fourth selection was
Mr. Takeshi Hiraoka's report that I found in generation 459s97. His topic was about Identifying Attitudes Through Newgroup Messages.What I Liked About Mr. Hiraoka's Report
I liked the fact that Mr. Hiraoka used personal experiences that affected him as a younger driver and incorporated them into his paper. Many times throughout the report he reflected back on times as a juvenile that he broke the law knowing that it could cost him not only his drivers license, but also his life. The mere fact that he had accepted this behavior as not being normal, then trying to do something to change it was all the more comforting. As a juvenile I had similar experiences in which I used the law as an excuse to do some very foolish things. Now, I realize just how irrational my thinking was at that time and I feel fortunate to know that there are others that shared the same types of emotion.
I also liked the many different links that he used throughout the
report to get me to data that was both pertinent and informative. For example, he used a link called the Three-Step Program for a Healthier, More Zestful Traffic Life in which Dr. Driving gave advice concerning the use of altruism, judgement, and calmness as a way of overcoming our emotions on the road.The Steps That Led Me To His Report
I went to the
Index of All G8 Reports and accessed all the generations reports. Once there I just went through the list of reports from different generations at a more casually rate then I had in the previous searches. The reason for this is that I wanted to look for more quality, rather than quantity, reports. Upon arriving at Mr. Hiraoka's report I found that he had established both quality and quantity characteristics in his report by using many different attributes such as links and list resources.
Mr. Hiraoka's report was about the many different solutions that we can utilize to control the problems we encounter as we travel the highways of our nation. He used expert advice, such as Dr. Driving and The Detroit News as well as personal experiences of people, including himself, to document the many instances of "Road Rage" that Americans encounter everyday. He also used other resources such as the Database of Unsafe Driving (DUD) and the University of Barcelona's "Psychology and Road Safety" report to extract the necessary information to offer a more substantiated point of view.
Mr. Hiraoka's report was well written and organized. He used many different subjects within his report to keep the reader interested in the message that he was trying to get across. For example, He used charts such as Dr. Driving's Three-Step Program CHART of the Nine Zones, and the 64-Celled Ethnosemantic Matrix (8x8) for the Concept "Adequacy" (8 Directions) to show exactly where a person needed to be emotionally on the scale to insure a more relaxed atmosphere. He provided other sources of interest such as the WWW.Speedtrap Registry in which the reader could obtain information concerning speedtraps that were set-up by law enforcement agencies to catch speeders in every state in the union. The overall report was efficient and skillful.
Mr. Hiraoka provided an extensive amount of information for such a short report. All of his links worked and provided avenues to new sources of information relative to his subject. As I read through
his report I was relieved that the report was concise and to the point. He did not go off into other subjects that were of no concern to his own report. In fact, he stayed with the theme simply by flowing from one subject to another without losing track of what his main points were.