*Instructions for this report*

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Report 1 - MaryElizabeth Pacheco's "Web Search Engines and Me" (G7)
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409bf97/maryeliz/report2.html

Report 2 - Fred Yuen's "Psychology of Online Virtual Relationships" (G8 )
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as98/yuen/report1.html

Report 3 - Irene Lau's "How Music Affects Drivers:  Past, Present and Future" (G8)
 http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459s98/lau/report1.html
 
Report 4 - Ray Shintani's "Cyberspace and Mind: Identifying Some Characteristics of Virtual Reality:  Can an Object Exist Without a Physical Form?"
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/409as97/shintani/shintanireport1.html
 

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 Report 1 - MaryElizabeth Pacheco's "Web Search Engines and Me" (G7)

*Why I chose this report:

I chose this report because I was interested in the topic. I am always trying to do searches on the internet and often end up running in circles. I find that I sometimes get frustrated with searches. I looked up this topic to see if I could find some helpful hints or suggestions to better searches.

*Steps that led me to this report:

I found this page when I was browsing the different generation's home pages for topics that interested me. I started with Generation 7 because it wasn't too far back. Mrs. Pacheco's home page is what caught my eye. (Her web page is really well done). After finding her web page, I checked out all of her links, and eventually came to this report.

*What this report is all about:

MaryElizabeth's report is about search engines. Her report is based on clicking through the internet for hours and hours, using the search engines. She begins by listing four different search engines she used for the report: Yahoo, Excite, Infoseek, and Lycos and provides links to them. She states that after doing this report, she favors Infoseek and Yahoo.

Next, MaryElizabeth gives detailed data sheets that give details on the following: search topic, search engine, day/date/location, her mood or affective state, search statement she used and why, number of hits, reaction to these results, evaluation of the hits (what was relevant), how she felt about it (influences), and ratings for these searches. This section is really long, but it is neat to read.  She accurately records her moods and reactions, and so it is neat to read how these change from search to search.

What follows this section is a section with links to reports from previous generations. She gives brief summarizations of these previous reports and shares the many great ideas that they offered. She also comments on how their pages differ from hers, what kind of problems they shared and gives helpful hints that these previous students had. 

Next comes her conclusion. In her conclusion, she shares with her readers what she got out of the experience. She feels that she gained appreciation and knowledge of the internet through this assignment.  She also offers suggestions to the future generations, which was to have an open mind, to learn from these assignments as much as you can, and to take advantage of help that the search engines can offer you.

*My Reactions to this report:

I think that this report was very well done. I thought that it was a very interesting topic and that the way she went about learning about the topic was great. She learned through experience which is the best way to learn! The page was clean and easy to read. It was well organized. She explained things briefly (I wasn't overwhelmed with looong paragraphs) and thoroughly.

*Comparisons to other reports:

There have been many other reports done on the topic of search engines. Another one of my favorites on this topic is done by Jill Umetsu called "What are Search Engines" Jill's page offers much more detailed information on what a search engine is and how to use it, compared to MaryElizabeth's. MaryElizabeth's report is mostly a report on a personal learning experience. I think that the two reports put together would make an excellent report, being both detailed information and a detailed experience using this information. Another thing that I like about Jill's page is that it is really simple. Her table of contents at the beginning tells you exactly what you will find in this report. There is no background, no distracting fonts or pictures. The page is broken down into short sections that are easy to read. She also offers a lot of links to search engines and other student reports on the topic.

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Report 2 - Fred Yuen's "Psychology of Online Virtual Relationships" (G8 )

* Why I chose this report:

I chose this report for a couple of reasons... one is that I know Fred. The other is that the topic interests me. Online virtual relationships are so common now days, so I think that it is a topic that needs to be discussed.

*Steps that led me to this report:

I found this report when I was searching through the different generations. I came to Generation 8 and I saw the name, so I went to check out the page. Since I was interested in the topic of his report, I went to check it out. I also saw this topic pop up in a couple of  other "Mining the Generations" discussions.

* What this report is all about:

First, this report briefly discusses the basics of virtual relationships: why people behave the way they do, who they choose to talk to, false identities, core identities, sub identities, virtual communities.  Fred agrees that people do act differently, but questions why people go to extremes on the internet. His reasoning is that "they have no limits.  No one is there to tell you that you are stupid, and if they do you can simply change your identity.  There really is no punishments for actions."

The next section is dedicated to "Places to interact". This section mentions chatrooms, forums, clubs, lobbies, conferences, game rooms, internet cafes, etc. Fred talks about his experience in a chatroom (which he did to learn more about the subject). He says that he learned a lot through this experience.

This section is followed by Fred's personal opinion on virtual relationships. He has positive comments about it.  Fred comments that he would rather be himself in a chat room so that people can learn about the real him but he also says "I also feel that fantacy is a good break from reality and is healthy for my brain."  There are also comments from past generations on this topic. My favorite is: "There is another reality in the mind.  In fact there can be severeral  depending on the person and the situation." Shintani - G5 ).

* My reactions to this report:

I think that overall, this page is more of an opinion than it is informative. There are a couple things that I liked about it, which were comments from past students and a description of Fred's experience with a chatroom. I think that this page needs to have a little bit more information. If I were to add to this page, I would add a bit about addictions or attachments to chatrooms and the people that you encounter in them. I would also discuss further into detail relationships such as "cyber marriage" or even "cyber sex". I think that the page was set up well in relative sections. I didn't care for the red back ground and yellow or blue print. The color contrast made it difficult to read, it gives me a potential headache.  (Also a spell check might have helped).

* Comparisons to other reports:
A report on the same subject that I liked was done by Brandon Suetsugu.  Brandon's page was very different.  It was less casual.  I found it very informative and very interesting.  Brandon's report on virtual relationships were based on different web sites and also MUD games.  He talked about virtual communities (some like support groups), online therapy (including identities), help groups, chatrooms, the psychology of cyberspace, online cults, and a lot more.  I think that Brandon's report touched a bit more of the psychological aspect of virtual relationships rather than just casual meetings online.  As a psychology student, I find Brandon's page to be more educational and practical for my use.
Another report that I found interesting was a different topic, however I find them to be related.  A report on "The Psychology of Virtual Communities", done by Synthia Lopez talks about online relationships through these communities.  She comments on online relationships, cyber citizenship, etc. with a lot of links to other student reports.  I think that this page is very informative and worth taking a look at.

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 Report 3 - Irene Lau's  "How Music Affects Drivers:  Past, Present and Future" (G8)

* Why I chose this report:
I chose this report because I can relate very much to the topic.  I am one of those drivers who has to have music in my car, otherwise I go nuts!   I wanted to read more about this topic to learn how music affects my driving.  I read a couple of different reports on this topic but I chose to write about Irene's report because I found it easy to read, and enjoyable.

* Steps that led me to this report:
I found this report when I was searching through generation 8 for some interesting topics.  I went through the list of the students in this generation.  When I first clicked on Irene's page, I stopped because I liked the appearance of her home page.  I noticed this topic, which was her report 1.
 
* What this report is all about:
This report uses past email postings of student opinions on the topic.  Irene comments that she thinks that many students don't realize that their aggressive behaviors are due to factors in the music that they listen to.  She makes this conclusion through the reactions of the students.  Irene gives many examples of these student posts.  She used Usenet (newsgroups) in her study.  With this she did searches of music and the affects that the specific type of music has on a driver. She gives quotes from the newsgroups and also gives her opinion following them.  She also used a search engine called Yahoo for her study.  And presents the article, "How Music Affects Us" (which was a dead link, so I couldn't read it).  She gives a summary about the article, which was great.   Next, Irene gives the reader links to other student reports that pertain to this topic.  She has a little section that offers information from her text book that is about music and driving.  Following this, she gives journal article references.  Lastly, Irene gives her reaction and a nice conclusion.

* My reactions to this report:
I thought that of all the reports that I had gone through, this was one of the most complete report.  Irene offered a lot of information and also a lot of opinion.  This makes the report well rounded.  Her references and links were pretty awesome.  The page structure was very nice.  The background color was light, not distracting at all.  Her text was an easy to read set up, black for her comments and green or italics for her quotes.

* Comparisons to other reports:
There were quite a few reports done on this topic.  My favorites were:  Jacy Taylor's "How Music Affects Drivers:  Good, Bad and the Other",  Jeff Takiue's "Music and Driving" , and Synthia Lopez's "Music and Driving:  How Music Affects Drivers".  All of these pages are well done.  Jacy Taylor's page is simpler, but her information is good.  I like that she presented the positive and negative issues dealing with music and driving.  Synthia's report is full of quotes and references much like Irene's report. She has a lot of good links on her page.
What I like about Jeff's is that he talks about volume of music, tempo of music, and no music at all.  He also presents his own music history and personal experiences.

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Report 4 - Ray Shintani's "Cyberspace and Mind: Identifying Some Characteristics of Virtual Reality:  Can an Object Exist Without a Physical Form?"

 * Why I chose this report:
I chose this report because of the title.  The title was really interesting and it drew me in.  I like the way that the title is made up of a question because it makes you want to read the report to somehow find an answer, whether it be from fact or opinion.

* Steps that led me to this report:
I found this report when I was going through the generations awards page.  I knew that this page was probably great since it was on the awards page!

* What this report is all about:

This report is about the relationship between cyberspace and the human mind. In this report, Ray talks about what cyberpsychology means, what it means to "surf the net", interactions on the internet, reality and the internet, the internet as a great big highway of information with no real physical sense. A comparison that helped me understand Ray's topic was the comparison of hardware and software, and the brain and the mind. The brain can be thought of as hardware and the mind as software. The way that Ray's report is set up is really logical. First he makes an introduction, defining cyberpsychology.

Next he has a summary of Dr James' view of the topic. This section is where he talks about the hardware/software analogy mentioned above. He says that "Virtual reality does not have a physical form, but it is created by interactions of a user and his computer."

Next he talks about what he has learned about the topic through articles, which is a very informative summary. Following this section is a few quotes from other student reports that he had read. These students were from Generation 4. Here you can see the difference from the opinions of some earlier generation students and a later generation student (Ray). Rays definitions are a bit more detailed and developed.

Next, Ray puts the term into his own words using a hypothesis: "So I guess that my working hypothesis: Is that cyberpsychology is the study of cyberspace and it's relationship with the human mind. And how cyberspace and the mind can exist without any physical form due to the theory of dualism. (dualism happens when an object, image, or emotion exist without a physical form)." Ray also did searches to find other opinions on what exactly cyberpsychology is and what this relationship between cyberspace and the human mind is really about. Ray's findings support his hypothesis.

Lastly, Ray includes a section called "final thoughts". In this section, Ray includes what he had learned from this study.  His views had changed. He says, "When I started this report I had the idea that the only definition of cyberpsychology was that cyberspace is equal to the mind. And that cyberspace had no physical form.".  He also says, "A computer may be considered an extension of the human mind, but does not have all of the capabilities andcapacities that can be found in the human mind." and  "as for cyberspace equaling the mind. I believe that the mind and the brain both have a part in creating cyberspace. The mind thinks of something to put into cyberspace, but it is the brain that move the hands and fingers that programs the computer to make the thought appear in cyberspace. So, I feel that cyberspace is a creation that is formed by the union of the brain and the mind."  Ray also offers a few links to help you search further on this topic.

* My reactions to this report:

I thought that this report was pretty good. It was very informative and Ray included a lot of different points of view (rather than just his own opinion). The page began with a very detailed table of contents to let the reader know what exactly he would be discussing. He also included a clickable index that allows the reader to check out links and follow up on where he got some of his information from. The page was set up in sections that were kept at a good length, (not too long or too short). The page was presented well with a light background and heavier text that was readable. Some of the links were a little harder to read since the font was a lighter blue than the background.

* Comparisons to other reports:

There were a couple of other related pages that I really liked also. The first is one called " Cyberspace and Mind: Identifying Some Characteristics of Virtual Reality: One Life, Two Minds-An Out of Body Experience" by Dan. This report was very similar to Ray's report. His report included: a definition of cyberpsychology, the professor's (Dr. James) view, views from generation 4, Dan's view, other views found through searches on the internet, and a final summary. The information on this page was a lot like Ray's report. It even looked similar. The other report that I found interesting and informative that relates to Ray's report was called " Cyberspace and Mind: Identifying Some Characteristics of Virtual Reality: The Computer-Mind Connection" by Marini. The set up of her report was a lot like Ray's and Dan's however, it was done the following year, and some of the information is different, more recent. I think that Marini's report was easier to read than Dan's or Ray's report. It was formal but it had a hint of humor to it.

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