My 4 Favorites from the Online Generational Curriculum:

I decided on Jay's page because I was interested in the topic. When it comes to computers, I'm definitely not the one to go to for answers. Since the world is now moving into an age where having a personal computer is the norm, and computer skills and knowledge is must... I figured that I'd better get onto the bandwagon fast. And since I'm such a novice, I figured that I'd better start with the basics... understanding what cyberspace is all about. One thing I also liked about Jay's page was that it was very simple and straightforward. That is important for someone like myself who needs to have things said in layman's terms.

Finding My Way

When I first started looking for reports, I randomly picked a generation. Once there I clicked on names, looking for anything that seemed interesting and not too complicated. When I saw his subject, Cyberspace and the Mind, I decided to look through it. After skimming through, I bookmarked his page and continued to look at other reports from students in his class. After looking through the others I decided to choose Jay's report because it was plain, and easy to read.

A Summary of Jay's Report

In his report Jay tries to explain the concept of cyberspace and how it relates to the mind based on student reports from Generation 4a, as well as from Dr.Driving himself, Dr. James. He links the mind and cyberspace together stating that "both the mind and cyberspace are used for organizing data, topics, or ideas. Both are also used to communicate the stored data, topics, or ideas to others." Jay also taps into two other ideas he found in Dr. James' report which are connected to cyberspace, spirituality and the communal mind. I thought the idea of a communal mind was quite interesting. He explains that a communal mind is "a mind created not by one person, but by the ideas and interests of many people." Also in his report are links to pages dealing with cyberspace and the mind, which he found using the search engines.

Reactions to Jay's Report

I found that his report was enlightening. I liked the way he linked cyberspace and the mind saying "cyberspace is like a mind's imagination or dreams. Only in cyberspace can these dreams and imaginations, come to life, or kind of come to life." I too see cyberspace as a place for imagination to take shape. But cyberspace takes imagination one step further, allowing others as well as ourselves, to see what our imagination holds. And unlike dreams which are easily forgotten, cyberspace has a way for you to hold on to them.

Comparisons

Compared to his classmates in Generation 5, Jay's report was plain and simple. He didn't really have any flashy graphics, which I thought made some of the other reports look too cluttered. For the most part, however, everyone had the same basic format. One problem I had was reading the reports. Some of the students used a background color or image that made it difficult to see the text, and the links. Jay's page used one solid color that wasn't too dark so it made the report easy to read. Also, it wasn't so lengthy where I might get lost moving through the screen. Like psychology always says "parsimony"- say it in as few words as possible.

Selection 2 - Quincy Tan

My Impressions

Things I liked about Quincy's report was that it was very attractive, and yet simple. I liked the way he did his background... which was a bit dark, but it helped to enhance the font colors he used. I also enjoyed reading his report which was actually interesting, and not too long.

Finding My Way

I stumbled upon Quincy's page, when I was going through his classmate Earl Cachola's report. I had sifted through their classmates' pages looking for anything that attracted me, and decided to read the report by Earl. I skimmed it deciding that his was the one I would pick when he mentioned Quincy's fabulous page... I just had to see what it looked liked. I liked what I saw, and decided to select Quincy's report, but at least give credit to Earl's. Thanks Earl!

A Summary of Quincy's Report

His report gives readers an idea of what Traffic Psychology and Cyberpsychology are all about. He begins by explaining how the Generational Curriculum works, by summarizing ideas on mapping from student reports of 409b G5. He also gives his thoughts to what those students say. Next, he briefly explains the history of the Generational Curriculum Archives, while adding in his own thoughts about being a part of it. Quincy then goes into explaining what it is each student is doing for this course- creating a virtual reality book. One section I was especially interested in was the section where Quincy address the issues facing the Curriculum in the future. The 3 main issues are: the security of the files in the CSS server, uniformity vs. individuality... choosing between freedom of creativity and artistic chaos, and navigating the ever expanding book (that I'm sure will get into the Guiness book of World Records.) He then ends with suggestions and comments for classmates and future generations.

Reactions to Quincy's Report

I thought that Quincy had published an excellent report. I liked the way he kept his entire web site uniform. (Hmm... must be an attempt to persuade us into following his push for the uniformity issue- good job!). He not only made his site attractive, but he gave some innovative ideas for mining the Generational Curriculum. I too had thought about the security of our files. Especially with the advancing technology we have today, is there a way we can really be sure that our files will stay in tact and still be able to retrieve them? I'm not sure, but I'm staying positive.

Comparisons

One main thing I noticed about Quincy's report which made his stand out from the rest of the class was that he kept his reports very simple and uniform. All his pages had the same distinctive background, and type of font. The only real variation I saw were the colors of the font, which were used to distinguish between the different people speaking. Moreover, it helped to make his report even more visually appealing. Some of the students used a variety of fonts on one report. I thought that was a little distracting for me as a reader, and didn't feel there was any real purpose for it. Aside from Quincy's page, another one that caught my eye was Reid Nakamitsu's. His background makes the text a bit hard to read, but he has Quincy's idea of uniformity in mind.

Selection 3 - Phuong Wataoka

My Impressions

When I clicked on to Phuong's report, I thought it was really neat how she had made her page into frames. Only one frame had an actual use, still it was different and I figured it might be useful for myself sometime in the future. Also, her topic seemed interesting... especially since I'm only now getting acquainted with Traffic Psychology, and I thought it would be good to check it out.

Finding My Way

As usual, I picked one generation, and clicked on names at random to get an idea of each student's page. One thing I didn't like doing was waiting for the homepage to come up. As nice as their pages looked, if it took longer than 30 seconds to load up... forget it! This assignment has a deadline, and I need to look at stuff fast! When I got to Phuong's page, I liked the way it was set up. My sister told me it was in "frames." If she wanted to, she could put things in the other frame as well... but she didn't. Anyway, it was neat so I bookmarked, and clicked on a couple more names. I didn't really see anything else I liked, although many of the other pages had nice pages. I went back to Phuong's page and decided to look at her topic for her first report. It sounded like something I should learn about, so decided to pick her report.

A Summary of Phuong's Report

First, a brief and simple definition of Traffic psychology is given, which Phuong states as "how people's behaviors are affected and influenced when driving or sharing the road." The report then goes on to review each of the 13 sections on Dr.Driving's web site:

Inner Power at the Wheel Book Chapters
Interview with Dr.Driving on Road Rage
Three Step Program for a Healthier, More Zestful Traffic Life
Dr. Driving Says... Problems and Solutions
Introductory Statement about Dr. Driving Says...
About the Authors
Chart of the Nine Zones
Comments by Visitors
Driving and Traffic Resources on the Internet
Psychological Principles to help us be Rational and Humane Driver
Self-Witnessing Exercises
Index of Topics on Driving and Drivers
Dr. Driving Selection of Traffic Safety Issue

After each summary, she adds her own comments about what she received from that section. Phuong's report goes further by reviewing another section of from Dr.Driving's page regarding debates on driving safety issues. Two topics are brought to attention. The first was "Slaying the Dragon" inside you, which basically meant to eliminate the hostile and aggressive part of you. The second was speeding, hostility and anger. The report ends with the Phuong's favorite resources for Traffic Psychology:

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
The Arts of Driving
Highway 17 Page of Shame
Universal Driver Training
Driving on Information Superhighway
Principles of Traffic Psychology
Health and Driving Issues
Driver's Self Analysis
The Poetry of Traffic
Types of Traffic Relationships

Reactions to Phuong's Report

Since the assignment for this particular report was long, I was especially happy to know that the summaries for each section were not too long. I also appreciated her own thoughts of what she had just summarized because sometimes you need to know what else is going on, aside from what you see written. For me, sometimes I need to have an explanation of what the purpose is. Overall, I didn't see anything wrong with her site, since it was basically a summary of the Dr.Driving web site. One suggestion would be to add something in the "welcome" frame. Oh, and to check all the links to make sure they work because I clicked on one and it wasn't working.

Comparisons

As I looked through the other students pages in her class that were doing the same report, I noticed that her page layout with the two frames stayed pretty much the same. I liked it because it made her entire site look very uniform. I guess sometimes it's nice to have some order. Another thing I noticed was that for the first topic she put a table for the first section on Dr. Driving's site. I thought that was interesting because I didn't see it in any else's page. I found out it was links to chapters of that book which could be accessed. Overall, there were some nice pages in her class, but I opted for hers because it was easy to read and understand, and because I liked its appearance.

Selection 4 - Kathy Teruya

My Impressions

One thing that attracted me to Kathy's page was her topic. Looking over her table of contents, I found a few things that sounded interesting. One was "Reinforcing the Behavior," and the other was the "Sucking in Effect." Another thing that made me want to read her report was that it wasn't too long. One thing I can't stand is reading long reports that seem to make no new points. I feel like it's a waste of space and time. Besides, I tend to lose interest after I feel like I'm not reading anything worthy of my attention.

Finding My Way

I had gone through a lot of reports by the time I reached Kathy's. I felt I had seen almost every person's page in the last 3 generations for all three classes I had seen almost one from each generation for each class, and I was exhausted! So, by this time I was looking for something interesting and very straightforward. I picked a number, as usual and clicked on a few names. Then I decided to click on hers. I liked the topic "tailgating" and so I decided to take a look. Skimming through, I thought it was pretty good. I then clicked on the others in her class, and she was the only one reporting on that subject. It was then I decided that I would choose her report.

A Summary of Kathy's Report

Kathy's report focuses on Tailgating. With a brief definition of tailgating behavior by Dr. Driving, "following too close with the intention to coerce or punish another driver when you think you've been wronged," she goes on to discuss out why people engage in such a risky behavior. Two main reasons come to mind, the first is that tailgating is reinforcing. Because many tailgaters do not get into accidents, they leave the situation feeling like they got away with something. The other reason is to keep others from entering your lane, which is termed "sucking in effect." Next, Kathy offers a solution to the problem of tailgating. In brief, don't be a tailgater, and let the tailgaters pass. There's no sense in endangering yourself... now is there? She also goes on to determine whether tailgating behavior is fair or not. She decides for herself that it is not, whether the person is aware or not, that he/she is tailgating. Kathy ends her report by mentioning her own personal experience with tailgating, and some advice on driving for future generations.

Reactions to Kathy's Report

I really enjoyed her report because it was interesting, easy to read, and not too long, which helped to keep my attention. I was intrigued by the section on the "sucking in" effect. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this was the effect you get when you are following very closely behind someone who is driving at a very high speed. In gist, the front car sort of pulls the car behind because it creates a kind of vacuum that "sucks" it in. Well, I was mistaken but nonetheless the one she spoke about was interesting too. Another thought I had while reading her report was whether she herself had changed her tailgating behavior after doing this report. If so, I wondered how it affected her. I know that mentally she knows it is wrong, but when she is on the road does it influence her behavior? One other suggestion I would make would be to change the headings in the table of contents to highlight the section titles apart from the subtitles. Maybe she could use square bullets for the subtitles, or use a larger font size for the section titles. Another suggestion would be to add another subtitle for the paragraphs following the ones on the sucking effect.

Comparisons

One thing I noticed about majority of the students in her class was that their pages looked basically the same. This is probably due to the fact that it was summer, giving the students less time to complete their work. Having a simple standard format therefore would make publishing their reports much more achievable. One thing I really enjoyed about Kathy's report that made hers stand out was that she gave it her own personality. It sounded as if she was actually talking to me rather than just being some kind of informational guide. Her personal touch made her report easy to relate to.

Comparing My Report With Those of My Classmates

Since not all of the students finished their reports on time,(including myself) I couldn't really comment about everyone in general. However, I did see something I liked from each page that was put up... complete or incomplete. One that I especially liked was Holly Ishikawa's. Her report was detailed enough where you got the main idea as well as a few other important details. I also liked the way she put her page together. Her plain background was balanced by the image breaks she put between each section. I also liked Robert Nakagawa's report, which reminds me of Quincy's Page. One suggestion I would make for his page is to choose another font color besides red since his background is dark. Otherwise, I thought his report was pretty good too.

Suggestions for Future Generations

Withdraw this class as soon as possible! No, I'm only kidding! It is definitely a great learning experience, both in computers and psychology. The main thing is to start as soon as possible and to ask questions when you don't understand something. If you still don't get it, ask someone for help. If you're too embarrassed... or afraid to talk to the instructor, ask a fellow classmate. There are experienced students in almost every class. There are others out there who feel like they don't know what they're doing either, so don't feel intimidated. Don't give up!


Mining the Generational Curriculum	My Home Page	My Report 1 on:How Music Affects Driving
My Report 2 on:Gender Differences In Driving	My Report on the Psychology of Newsgroups	My Bookmarks File
My Icons File	Our G8 Class Home Page	Our G8 Index of All Reports
My Extra Credit Report	Dr. Leon James Home Page

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My 4 Favorites from the Online Generational Curriculum:

Taking a Spin Through Cyberspace

Table of contents

Selection 1 - Jay Sakoda

Selection 2 - Quincy Tan

Selection 3 - Phuong Wataoka

Selection 4 - Kathy Teruya

Comparing My Report With Those of My Classmates

Suggestions for Future Generations