By Pinkie, G17, Fall 2002
Dr. Leon James, Instructor: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/leon.html
Instructions for this report are at: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy17/g17research.html
Section
1: Introduction
All of the reports you will soon explore follow the same pattern of gaining Internet literacy. Basically there are 3 levels of Internet mastery: 1) Achieving Focus on the Internet 2) Achieving Engagement 3) Personalizing. The first level implies that a person is motivated to conduct search tasks after they acquire enough knowledge to do a basic search. Then, once the person becomes comfortable doing searches, they will gain confidence to learn more and increase their knowledge and abilities. The final level is when Internet mastery is finally achieved and a person now has the desire to complete more Internet tasks. Read through the following reports and notice each student’s movement toward understanding the Internet.
Please feel free to click on
the links so you can view each student’s report.
Ryan
Mitsui’s Report
Ryan breaks down the Internet learning
process into 3 phases: Confusion, Resistance, and the Spider Man Phase. The Confusion Phase is “for the novice or
beginner when we don’t really know what we are doing. It’s all trial and error.”
He says that we then move on to the Resistance Phase “when we want to
give up and call it quits. It’s when we
resist learning something new because we are unfamiliar with it.” The final phase he describes is the Spider
Man Phase. This is the point when
“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.”
I can totally relate to this
description because I went through those exact phases. When I started taking this class, I already
had experience using the Internet for searching, so that was no problem, but I
had no idea how to create a home page or upload things on the Internet. I didn’t know where to begin! I felt so lost and confused, which is
probably why I kept procrastinating and ended up doing my home page at the last
minute. Just the thought of making a
home page was enough stress for me! (A
home page?!? Aaaaaah!) But looking back on it now, I realize it
wasn’t that bad. Luckily, Dr. James
provided detailed step-by-step instructions so it turned out to be easier than
I thought.
This confusion, resistance, and Spider
Man pattern of development can be applied to other things besides learning the
Internet. Whenever we learn something
new, we feel confused, unsure, and lack confidence. If it turns out that we are unskilled (or just have plain bad
luck), we probably feel intimidated and question whether we should continue
on. However, once there is a glimmer of
hope that we will be able to succeed at it, that sparks the motivation to keep
trying until we become proficient. I
think we go through these phases in learning because if we are good at
something, we are inspired to keep doing it.
If we fail or struggle at it, we are more likely to quit or lose
interest in it.
Michelle
Alonzo’s Report
Michelle thinks, “Learning the Internet
at the very beginning was the most difficult thing I ever had to do.” She describes 5 steps to learning the
Internet: 1) Frustration and Anger, 2) Defeat, 3) You See a Glimmer of Light,
4) Motivation, and 5) Feeling of Success.
The
first step, Frustration and Anger is a great explanation because “with
everything that’s new, we all feel that emotion of ‘frustration &
anger!’ When learning something new, we
may not get the hang of it the very first time, with the exception of a very
few, and we become angry at ourselves, the computer terminals, the teacher, and
just the world!”
Defeat
is the next emotion that we feel (hence the name of the step), which usually
arises “when you’ve been working as hard as you think you can and things are
still going wrong and nothing seems to be working, you feel as if you’ve been
defeated, defeated my an inanimate object that you’re supposed to be smarter
than.” She goes on to say “you feel
like quitting, dropping the class, or just plain indulging in chocolate ice cream!”
Luckily
you can resist defeat and move because You See a Glimmer of Light is the next
step. This is when you discover that
“checking out and even copying other people’s pages and putting your own
information on them will help you learn the whole process.” The you find hope when “your page is
starting to come out the way you want them to, you feel a little spark of
confidence that can probably help you to go further because just the feeling
that something finally works may help you want to do more and make your page
look exactly the way you want it to.”
This
feeling of confidence fuels the Motivation step of the learning process. Michelle says, “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.”
The
final step is called the Feeling of Success since it encompasses “a great sense
of accomplishment. The fact that you
overcame the whole process is a great feeling.
It gives you the feeling that you can do almost anything if you
persevere.”
I experienced the emotions mentioned
when I made my home page and found myself frustrated because the background
that appeared after I uploaded it wasn’t right. It was totally pink, rather than going from dark pink and
gradually getting lighter. I didn’t
know what to do! I checked to make sure
I had uploaded the folder with the images I needed for the background. After realizing that I did everything the
way I thought it was supposed to be done, I felt like giving up—what else could
I do?!? Then I decided to try deleting
everything and uploading it again…and it finally worked!!! That gave me the confidence to know that I
can do all these hi-tech computer things!
I don’t have to stress about it, I just have to take it step by
step. I was very proud to see that I
had created my very own home page!
Frustration and anger results from not
knowing how to do something or how to fix a mistake. This stage usually leads to defeat because we feel like there is
no way out of this bad situation.
However, if we continue to work at it, we will discover a glimmer of
light that will lead us in the right direction. This sense of hope will motivate us to continue to develop what
we initially came up with, and this will ultimately lead to a feeling of
success! These patterns are proof that
perseverance will result in success. If
we keep trying to improve and refuse to give up, we will be able to achieve our
goals.
Kai
Hansjurgens’ Report
Kai presents 4 problems and victories
in dealing with the Internet: Fear, Frustration, Information Overload, and
Getting Motivated/Possible Addiction.
The first problem, Fear, appears before starting your very first
Internet search. He says, “there are
different kinds of fears reported that persist through the initial contact with
the Internet. Most fears are overcome
during the learning process.”
Frustration, the next problem, “is probably one of the most experienced
emotions when dealing with computers.
The machine just doesn’t seem to understand.”
Our
first thought is well, the more the better, right? Not when there’s Information Overload! This problem “can easily turn into a nightmare. Too many choices, not enough time, and too
much to learn in order to be efficient are basic conceptions that can lead to
the emotion of being overwhelmed by information overload.” However, Kai says, “Once the initial fears
are overcome we are getting ready to explore.”
This is when the Getting Motivated/Possible Addiction part of learning
the Internet comes about. He cautions
that “we will go beyond what is asked for in class and dive deep into the
matter but be aware addiction to computers is a reality.”
I found the new aspects of learning
the Internet to be very true. When I
started searching, I was overwhelmed with all the sites that were related to my
topics. I didn’t know exactly what I
was looking for, so I couldn’t narrow down my search. I was definitely overloaded with information! My searches were usually longer than
expected because there were so many interesting sites to look at. I know that using the Internet can become
addicting because I’ve spent hours online.
Whether it’s to check e-mail, chat with friends, listen to music, or
just surf the net, it’s amazing to see how easily I lose track of the
time. There is so much to do, see, and
explore on the Internet so it’s always a novel experience.
Information overload and getting
motivated/possible addiction arise from the fact that there are so many things
to discover while surfing the net. Even
if you’re looking for one little thing, there could be hundreds of sites that
contain it! How overwhelming is
that!?! There’s a little bit of
everything that will satisfy everyone’s taste.
People don’t realize how addicting the Internet is until they experience
it for themselves. There are sites on
practically anything you can think of!
This Internet addiction problem comes from the fact that we realize the
potential uses of the Internet. We can
play games, go shopping, look up information on anything, check our e-mail,
book a flight to anywhere, and much, MUCH MORE!
Christine
Marchadie’s Report
Christine discusses 4 stages that many
students went through while learning the process of using the Internet: 1) Are
You Frustrated Yet? 2) Feeling a Trad
Bit Stressed? 3) Anxious Yet? 4) Depression…How to Overcome It. In the Are You Frustrated Yet stage, she
says, “I experienced frustration when my links weren’t working properly, and
then when my icons weren’t loading up correctly.” This led to the Feeling a Trad Bit Stressed stage, where she was
“up to the point, nah no need do the reports, got plenty time.”
Emotions
continue to run high through the Anxious Yet stage as “many students, including
myself, found it irritating when a homepage took forever to load up.” The final stage, Depression…How to Overcome
It, is best explained by Shane Akagi who says, “I just take a break from the
typing that I’m doing…I find that a long hot shower does wonders for me.”
I
definitely felt all the emotions described in Christine’s report. I was frustrated because my home page wasn’t
working properly at first. This led to
stress because I had to figure out what was going on. I felt anxious when it took me longer than expected to make my
Annotated Bibliography Report. I knew
it was going to be long, but I didn’t think it would be that long!!! I felt a little depressed after finishing my
Annotated Bibliography Report because I knew it didn’t come out like I had
expected. I was very disappointed, so I
wasn’t as motivated to do more web searching for a while.
Stress, anxiety, and depression came
about when things didn’t go right.
Either when searching the web or uploading my home page. They are normal reactions when faced with
problems or hurdles that inhibit your movement toward a specific goal. The main thing is that you can overcome
these barriers and make progress in order to succeed.
Section 2: Self-Observation Data
During some of my search sessions I filled
out a form that evaluated my feelings and what I did during my Internet
search. Feel free to click on this link
and explore it: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459f2002/pinkie/forms.htm
Gathering data was fairly simple. Basically, I used a search engine (Yahoo,
Bonzi.com, or 37.com) and searched for information on “distracted driving” or
“workplace rage.” There were many sites
that showed up in the results, so I just looked at the ones I thought would
provide the most useful information. I
made sure I searched for web sites, as well as scholarly databases, online
newspapers, discussion forums, and weblogs.
By doing this, I came up with a variety of information, along with point
of views from other people. When I
found something that caught my interest, I took note of it and wrote about it
in my weekly forum. Here are the
instructions for the forum so you can see what it’s all about: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy17/g17forum.html
After weeks of collecting information, I created an Annotated Bibliography Report to show the various sites I found while searching online. This report contained a summary of the content I discovered, my initial reaction, my opinion, and details of each item (scholarly databases, online newspapers, discussion forums, and weblogs) from my searches. You can view the Annotated Bibliography Report instructions by clicking on this link:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy17/g17bibliography.html
Filling out the forms felt repetitive
because my feelings during the sessions remained pretty constant. It made me more likely not to want to
conduct a search because the form was so long, and it dragged out my search
session. There were many questions to
answer so I was so happy when I finally reached the last question! I wish the form was shorter because then the
search session would be more enjoyable, rather than suffering through all those
questions. The data was fairly accurate
in describing my search session, although they all sounded similar. My basic search style was the same for every
task I conducted, so the answers on the forms reflected that fact.
In order to analyze the data from my
forms, I created a table that briefly summarizes the answers I gave on question
numbers 6-26. This is what the results
look like:
|
Question: |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
|
9/19 |
10 |
9 |
6 |
10 |
9 |
9 |
4 |
10 |
7 |
6 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
9 |
9 |
1 |
8 |
quality |
yes |
|
9/19 |
9 |
8 |
2 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
6 |
10 |
9 |
5 |
2 |
6 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
1 |
7 |
quality |
little |
|
9/26 |
6 |
7 |
2 |
9 |
9 |
8 |
6 |
10 |
9 |
6 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
1 |
9 |
quality |
no |
|
10/2 |
8 |
8 |
7 |
5 |
9 |
8 |
7 |
10 |
7 |
8 |
6 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
10 |
9 |
10 |
2 |
10 |
quality |
no |
|
10/9 |
6 |
7 |
3 |
9 |
10 |
10 |
8 |
10 |
9 |
6 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
10 |
10 |
1 |
9 |
quality |
no |
|
11/6 |
4 |
6 |
3 |
9 |
10 |
10 |
3 |
10 |
10 |
6 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
9 |
10 |
1 |
5 |
quality |
no |
|
11/12 |
4 |
9 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
10 |
6 |
10 |
10 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
10 |
10 |
1 |
2 |
quality |
no |
|
AVERAGE: |
7 |
8 |
4 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
6 |
10 |
9 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
9 |
10 |
1 |
7 |
quality |
no |
There were certain questions that had
consistently high ratings. I always gave
10s to the statement that computers and search engines make it easy for people
to find what they’re looking for (question 13). I am very thankful for computers and search engines because they
allow me to find information quickly and almost effortlessly. This feeling was linked to the question,
which asked how supportive I am of the search engine or computer facility and I
used (question 22). I always answered
that I was very supportive of them because they help me find anything and
everything. It’s amazing how much
information is contained on the Internet!!!
On the other hand, there were
questions that scored consistently low ratings. This was due to the fact that I found the search engines and
computer facilities to be very easy to use (question 23), which consequently
was revealed in my lack of frustration and rage during my searches. Of course there were a few bad days when I
just wasn’t in the mood to conduct any searches, but other than that, I had no
problems with the search engines that I used.
For the most part, my search tasks went smoothly. I was able to find relevant new information
every time I searched on the Internet (question 21).
One
thing that I found interesting was when I first started my tasks, I thought it
would take longer than other searches that I did in the past, and in the later
forms, I thought my searches would take less time than the other ones (question
6). I usually overestimated the amount
of time I thought it would take for me to complete the task (question 5). However, my tasks took approximately 50, 30,
42, 145, 80, 86, and 60 minutes respectively (questions 2 and 3). This showed that I had shorter search
sessions in the beginning, and they lengthened as time went on.
The
numbers and averages corresponded well with the explanations that I gave
immediately following them. I tried to
make sure that the numbers I chose, so it made sense when I wrote my
explanation, accurately represented my thoughts and feelings. I wanted to keep from contradicting myself,
or else my answers would be invalid and unworthy to be analyzed.
The data I collected provides good evidence that I have a lot of confidence in the Internet and search engines. This confidence is seen in my rare glimpses of irritation, anxiousness, frustration, and my absence of rage. Overall, I’d say that my Internet searching experience was a pleasant one, and throughout my sessions I assured myself that I would become good at search tasks with continued practice.
I could see my gradual movement toward Internet literacy as I became less frustrated when conducting searches. I could see the presence of the 3 levels of Internet literacy (which I will discuss in more detail in section 4) in my experience because I was focused in my searching, I gained confidence in my abilities, and that gave me a desire to complete my search tasks.
Computers
and search engines…what can I say about them?!? They’re GRRRREAT!!! J Talk about being a
life (and time) saver. Computers open
up a whole new world of possibilities.
I remember back in the days when I used to watch my mom type on the
typewriter…she was really good at it!
She could make it look nice with all kinds of fancy indentations. I tried using it a couple of times…man was
it a pain! If I made a mistake,
sometimes it wouldn’t let me erase it, so I’d end up using the white out,
waiting for it to dry, then I’d try to line it up right and retype it. You’ll never truly appreciate the computer
until you actually use a typewriter.
Search
engines would not be possible without the creation of computers. I have always been very supportive of search
engines because I believe that without them, I wouldn’t be able to find the
things that I found on the Internet. My
search techniques are very basic and simple, so I feel that it was not the
factor that led me to the information I discovered—I give all the credit to the
quality of the search engines and databases that aided me in my tasks. They are created simple enough so even the
novice searcher can figure out how to use it, and possibly develop skills
necessary to transform them into experts.
Section 3: Counseling Session
During the session, my partner and I
were given 3 very specific sets of questions to answer. We had 10 minutes to search and answer each
question, using the Vivisimo search engine as our tool. We were searching for things about the
disappearance of the Mona Lisa, tobacco settlements, etc. After each set of questions, we were given a
short list of questions that analyzed our thoughts and feelings about searching
the Internet. When the 30 minutes
ended, we were given a more in-depth list of questions that resembled some of
the questions that appeared on the forms we filled out at home.
The counseling session helped me
confirm the fact that it is possible to find very specific things on the
Internet. I also learned that Vivisimo
is a useful search engine to use because it contains great web sites and also
lists the sites in clusters by the information they contain (in a window on the
left side of the page). This makes it
easier to narrow down my search, rather than clicking on every site and having
to read through the whole thing. I had
never heard of Vivisimo prior to that session, but I’m glad that I did because
I will make good use of it now. The
counseling session was not what I expected because I thought they would give us
advice on Internet searching strategies.
Instead, they just gave us a list of the things to find, told us we had
to use Vivisimo as our search engine, and left us alone for 30 minutes.
I think in the future, they should actually give techniques to use when searching, rather than letting us struggle and try to figure it out. Some of us will never realize how to become better searchers unless we get help from others. It wasn’t really a learning experience because it was the same thing I’ve been doing at home. If anything, I think everyone should be able to work with a partner when attending the counseling session because it was helpful to have another person there so we could discuss things and both of us could be looking for the information at the same time. If I worked by myself, it wouldn’t have been as fun and interesting.
Section 4: The Psychology of
Information Literacy
Dr. James’ article on Generational
Curriculum discussed the passive classroom students transforming into active
self-directed students. This new generation
learned the necessary skills of Internet literacy by reflecting back on prior
generations and using them as aides.
They also took advantage of the community-classroom environment where
they were able to express their problems, concerns, and worries, only to be
reassured that the other students were all experiencing the same feelings. They were not alone!
By generating self-witnessing reports, they were able to reflect on their gradual enlightenment as they strived to achieve Internet mastery. The self-witnessing reports allowed the students to analyze the affective and cognitive skills, as well as the errors that they experienced. There were 3 levels that were identified:
Level 1: Achieving Focus on the Internet
- under the motivation to be accurate and persistent (affective skills), make
appropriate observations, and identify sub-tasks (cognitive skills)
Level 2: Achieving Engagement – user
becomes engaged, affectively and cognitively, by proceeding with
self-confidence to gaining mastery over Internet navigation and file management
techniques
Level 3: Personalizing – users begin
to accept the Internet by contextualizing and personalizing it in the presence
of feelings of attraction and desire for task completion
The online-community classroom served as a facilitator for the necessary actions that allowed students to experience personalizing, contextualizing, and a feeling of loyalty that guided them toward the path of becoming experts. This environment identified the presence of “technophobia” and resistance, which soon began evolving, with sustained effort, into a focused desire to create something innovative and creative. Perseverance really is the key to success, because once you obtain the skills necessary for performance, the rest of the way should be simple and even fun!
My Research Report involves some of the
aspects that Dr. James mentioned in his discussion I summarized above. In section 1, I read through a few of the
Generational student papers and related them to my experience of learning the
Internet. Then in section 2, I analyzed
the data I obtained from the forms I’ve been filling out during my search
sessions. In section 3, I described the
counseling session I attended and explained what I learned from it. All these sections reflect my developmental
process, as I used everything I could to help me grow into a more literate
Internet person.
I
found a great definition of information literacy on the University of Calgary
Library website. You can view it by
clicking on this link: http://www.ucalgary.ca/library/ILG/workdef.html.
It
states that information
literacy competency within the context of lifelong learning and the broad
information continuum, which ranges from data to knowledge to wisdom, focuses
on five broad abilities:
- to recognize the need for information
- to know how to access information
- to understand how to evaluate information
- to know how to synthesize information
- to be able to communicate information
This definition implies that it is important to not only find information, but you must be able to take that information, analyze it, and grasp an understanding of it so you can explain this new discovery to others. Without one part, it will be impossible to obtain information literacy. One part leads to another because they are all connected to each other, just like how the stages of development flow together.
My Research Report and the General
Curriculum have something in common.
They both use this definition of Internet literacy as a theme behind its
design. In my Research Report, I read
and evaluated some of the Generational student papers, and then I explained
them in my own words, being sure to incorporate my own ideas. Dr. James’ General Curriculum model
consisted of 3 levels (mentioned earlier) that seemed to resemble the points of
information literacy listed above.
Level
1 of the model recognizes the need for information, as you are motivated to be
persistent and make appropriate observations.
Level 2 integrates knowing how to access information since it involves
having the confidence to gain mastery over Internet navigation and file
management techniques. Level 3 includes
evaluation, synthesis, and communication of information, which is characterized
by contextualizing and personalizing the Internet in order to present new
thoughts and ideas. Information
literacy is very important in the desire for acquisition of knowledge that will
facilitate the learning process.