The definition of naturally expanding phenomenon must be looked at and what it is, also the same with a planned artificial site. A naturally expanding phenomenon is not something which is planned and taken step by step, it grews sometimes with little steps and sometimes with leaps and bounds. This has a path which it follows but the path never seems to end always expanding and doubling. With a planned artificial site though the site has a specific purpose and this purpose is followed to the "T". A person states how the site is supposed to look and what types of information is needed on this site.

All in all a naturally expanding phenomenon has its benefits by allowing information to just adding without to much restrictions where it can grow at the rate it wants to. Much like an infant where the child learns at tremedous rates but somedays this child may slow down and others this child just remembers everything which happened that day.

1. Site Information for Leon James Home Page Hawaii

 
This site links together Dr. Leon James's home page and the student generational databases with a brief overview of what is in each of the sections. With the Traffic Psychology part consisting of modifying driving styles, confessions of visitors and students, and also directs to other sites in which people can look to for more information. In the Cyberspace Psychology part it consists of Social Psychology of the Web, and other links to similar topics which are discussed within the daily round archives (student generated research reports). Lastly Dr. Leon James has an overview of the Swedenborg's Spiritual Psychology part which consists of full text articles on Swedenborg's approach, glossary of concepts, a database for husbands to help them treat their wife within aspiritual marriage context, and a expanding list of home pages with related activities, discussions and full text access.
2. AnalyzingLinkage Structure in a Course-Integrated Virtual Learning Community onthe World Wide Web

 
This report deals with the World Wide Web as a source of information which is archieved and linked to the present generation. The idea here is that having a system which embodies past with the present allows for ideas of the students to flow and increase with its complexity of ideas. As each generation comes into play the present can look at past work done on the topic and try to expand on the idea. This allows for people visiting the site a source of new and interesting view of things, and ideas. Like a brand new sponge the information that is put into each generation is absorbed into this sponge for outside users or future generations.

This site differs from other sites on the web by giving information about what the Generational Curriculum is all about. The Generational Curriculum is a constantly growing event on the Web where each generation adds to the already exhisting ideas. Allowing it to be continuously changing and developing, unlike other Web sites which are usually set and have limited interaction between the people looking at the site. This is a huge benefit for many people such as myself which I feel allows me to see how the ideas have developed over time and giving me a sense of where to begin to add to the ideas and help them develop. Like an infant learning the "ropes" I feel myself trying to find my identity on the Web but within this Generational Curriculum it is like an infant getting a feeling by observing and then imitating or trying to be better.

The World Ideas Bank or WIB database, allows for people to leave a description of themselves behind. The WIB was started by generation three which gives many different types of databases depending on what a person wants to contribute. There are six groups of databases, A) moments to remember, B) confessions, C) good ideas for..., D) recommended web sites..., E) spiritual experiences, F) home page architecture -- do's and don'ts.
 

A) moments to remember  1.is what I'm proud of  2. is things that make me feel good B)confessions  1.my current concerns and worries  2.daily hassles that drive me crazy  3.what I'm afraid of  4.relationship things  5.cyberspace things

C)good ideas for...  1.new business or service on Internet  2.conservation education on Internet  3.improvements in procedures for  business and government D)recommended web sites...  1.for being entertained or doing things 2.learning useful things  3.for meeting people and networking  4.for being shocking  5.for being uplifted in mood  6.for searching for information  7.for getting things

E)spiritual experiences  1.in meditating or reflecting  2.in vision or aesthetic perception  3.in doing  4.in reading or studying  5.in ritual or worship F)home page architecture -- do's and don'ts  1.graphics  2.overall apperance  3.links  4.content  5.interactivity

 

I think that the WIB is a good way of collect and archieve data of people world wide. This allows others to see first hand how others think and what they think about. Also the topics on the WIB are quite interesting such as the topic "what I'm proud of.." I would write in this that I am proud of accomplishing the task of creating a web page of my own design. Later in life also a person would be able to look up what they had written and remember why they wrote it. I feel this is important, like writing in a diary you put a statement on this database of what you are thinking now. Unlike a diary though the WIB allows for it to be kept in good condition, the diary may degrade over time.

To continue the online database students of future generations need to look at what is being said. This allows students to look for new twist in ideas which might help to further the online database. Furthering it by allowing it to grow in the direction it wants to, like and infant growing up a parent may try to force the child into a mold but at some point the child will break free and take on a personality all its own. By allowing the online database to grow on its own, with a leading hand by students I think that it will become something of a place for people to write what they are thinking and being able to come back at a future date to look at. For other people also it is good for them to see that people think the same as them on a certain topic, this allows for their ideas to grow and develop without feeling a need to conform.

A method for objectively showing whether the generational pages are improving. A way in which this could be done would be to take each generation and set a guide line for comparison. This guide line would include eight measures, quality, depth, richness, technique, scholarship, connectivity, site integration, and navigation capabilities. For quality the comparision would be to past generation and see if there were any changes with clarity. For depth  utilize the same past report and compare how much more detail the person put into their report. Use the same report for all the others except for the navigation capabilities, which should be based on how the links from one report can lead a person to more information. This is very important because having the links allows one to search in greater depth and to verify the information which is on the report.

I feel that the generational pages are improving with the amount of information which it is gathering. As the next generation come in the data from which this new generation comes into contact with is bigger and allows for the ideas to develop into better ideas. Or maybe the thinking of the past generations were leading to the wrong outcome the next generation with a fresh outlook on things may bring light to the wrong lead and correct them. As each generation puts their data onto the internet, people around the world can see the progress which the students are making in collecting data and defining things in their own view.

The benefits and purpose of the online generation curriculum allows for students a platform for authentic student writing. Also allowing the college students needed instruction on basic literacy skills. This is defined as oral and written communicative competence. All this came about with the start of a project in 1975 in collaboration with Dr. Diane Nahl.

The generational curriculum is a collection of students work on many topic such as education, science, psychology, and lifestyles. Starting from 1971 to 1991 the students reports werre bound and kept as a collection which is called the aily round archieves. From 1992 this went online and students started publishing their reports on the World Wide Web. The reports on the World Wide Web is structured to allow for a more professionally done quality. This is located on the index of home pages of students. (see original document with more links)
 

There are many feelings about the online generational curriculum. David Chang disliked how the organization of previous generations were and that there was no description of the reports thus making it very diffucult. Thaddeus Oba wrote about having an open mind allowing a person to take criticism, and opinions, which makes you a better person. Scott Ginoza states that the generational curriculum takes much time to create and alot of hard work. These are some of the feelings about the online generational curriculum from a person looking at other generations, to a person talking about how he feels and felt about doing it.

Problems which most people have in learning and adapting to the internet which I have seen is that they have trouble creating a web page. This is seen in a sub-section of May Rose Isnec report "What It's Like to Become a Web Designer: Blood, Sweat, and Tears."  Also another problem was with students being afraid of actually posting thing on the web such as seen in George Higuchi's report under the sub-section of "What It's Like to Participate: Anxiety in Posting ." These are some of the problems which are really stood out. There may be more which are underlined be something else which I do not see.

In managing a project such as this one I would say continue what is being done right now. Except for how the information is obtainable. I think that there should be a system which can organize the data where a person can look up the topic and have a listing of all the people who have done a report on this topic. This would save a little time for the student and allow for everyones report to be looked at and utilized in continuing the growth of the online generational curriculum.

Also to organization I think that there should be some type of guide line as to what to look for when doing a such of previous generations. Such as what to look for when looking at depth, which this you would ask questions to get the student to think about how he or she would improve the report when doing the search.