Part A Problems and victories dealing with the Internet.
Showcasing 12 students from former generations
These Students have been used for the report: 123456 7891012
Fear
Most students that have never used the Internet before report fear
and anxiety before starting. There are different kinds of fears reported
that persist through the initial contact with the internet.
most fears are overcome during the learning process. The following is
a quote from a student about the fear of deleting Fear Laura Izutsu
The greatest fear that I have is accidentally erasing or deleting something. You never know what could happen. The touch of a
single key could, send your file into never, never land. But you have to learn from your mistakes. And the anger built up inside
of you, should help serve as another incentive at trying to master the Internet. It is now May, and I did conquer my greatest
fear. "LOSING STUFF WITH THE TOUCH OF ONE KEY"! You have to learn some way?! I guess, you learn from your
mistakes, more fear Rudy Dolfo
This is very new for me and although computers are a lot quicker to get information it does have it's draw
backs. One in particular was trying to hook up into the university's system. It was one problem after the other and
I finally gave up and worked at home on my word processor, saved my work and finished it at school. I'm so use to
the traditional course work which involves the lectures, the textbooks, the research papers, the discussions and so
on. The dilemma I'm faced with is the change and I'm resisting because I'm use to the traditional system.
Frustration
Frustration is probably one of the most experienced emotions when
dealing with computers. The machine just doesn't seem to understand.
Frustration within the reports was mostly centered around searching
for topics on the internet. Here is a typical quote Frustration
Again, searches on the net turned out to be fruitless, except for the repeated hits on Lycos of my fellow Psychology 459
student's documents ( I even got my own report on aggression.) And again, I thought it would be fascinating to do a search on
Deja news. More frustration
Problems, Problems, and More PROBLEMS!
At this point I got the basic language down. So all I needed to do was to find time and a computer to do my work on.
Well here are where all the problems begin. First of all, I had just purchased a new computer and I wanted to set it up so I
could use it for this class. I was running Windows 95 on my computer and at the time no one could get everything set up to
do the things that I needed to do. The HELP desk did not have instructions for setting up communications on Windows 95.
So I improvised, I took the instructions that they had for the Windows 3.1 and I took the DNS addresses off of it and set up
my dial-up networking. The dial-up networking actually worked but my Netscape didn't. All I could do was e-mail, that
posed problem.
Since my Netscape wasn't working from home the only place that I could do my work was from school. Have you ever
tried working on a number of applications at the same time from a computer at school. It would drive you CRAZY! First of
all, most of the computers on campus are fairly slow so when you are running Netscape it takes a really long time for it to
change screens. This just made me more and more frustrated! Plus for some reason, the computers would always crash on
me. Is it just me?
Being forced to do my class work at school, you realize that everyone needs to use a computer at the same time that
you do so you end up waiting and waiting for the first available computer. By this time the waiting has sucked away 20
minutes out of the hour that you have in between classes.
Sheldon Tawata
Hawaii that much of a beautiful place where everyone has to move here? I
guess it's fattering for the islands put it's pissing me off. I heard in Oregon that they encourage visitors but they don't ask you to
move there. You can visit but please don't stay. We should do something like that. Sorry for the bitching but I'm doing it for a
few reasons. I could get the search engines to work because of the busy lines and I am still bored of the FAQ searches. Thank
God that there's only one more class of this. Sorry, but I'm losing interest FAST!
Information overload
The most positive aspect of the net which is the amount of data available
can easily turn into a nightmare. To many choices, not enough time and to
much to learn in order to efficient are basic conception that can lead
to the emotion of being overwhelmed by information overload. The following quote
describes a students first steps on the net. information overload
It took me about five minutes to get in the Netscape. I was anxious and nervous from the start because it was my first
time to get on the World Wide Web. I was actually afraid of it . I was worried so much about what if it doesn't work.
BUTTONS AND FIRST FOSSILIZED ERROR
I didn't know anything about it so I just clicked on "Home." When I saw the sign saying "Welcome to Netscape," I felt little
relaxed. I looked for buttons like "What's New?," "What's cool?," "Net Directory,"and "Net Search." And I felt panic because
there was no way I could figure out how to start with buttons. I began to worry about things that I was supposed to do. I
guess that was one of my fossilized error that I always try to take one step further and get panic wondering how I get there. I
should've taken step by step without worrying ahead. At that point I began to interpret the figure of buttons as they were
initiating the surfing in the net because whenever I click them I was able to continue to move on. However, I continued to click
on any buttons since I didn't know how to continue. I was little frustrated at that time because I wasn't really sure if I was on
the right track. I was just keeping moving but didn't seem to get into deep inside. I felt lost in the Net. I felt like I was loosing
the interest for a short time and got scared because I was worried what if I develop a phobia. That was the time when I found
myself in another fossilized error that I always get too serious about little mistakes and hinder with process. I guess I should
always accept any mistakes as a part of getting to know the Internet and be more generous about them.
Vance Mizuba
Where Did I Begin?
The first problem I had was not to easy in terms of starting a whole, entire web site from scratch.
Faced with a number of possibilities
Getting motivated /possible addiction
Once the initial fears are overcome we are getting ready to explore.
Most likely like it happened to me we will go beyond what is asked for
class and dive deep into the matter but be aware addiction to computers
is a reality. The following quote is illustrates the beginning joy of surfing.
Getting motivated
This week's task was difficult for me because I had absolutely no knowledge of the Internet, let alone e-mail, when I enrolled
in this course. My difficulties came from simply starting. It was overwhelming. I had no idea how to begin; but after I did, and
began tackling one task at a time, each moved into the other. Once one task was done (or was firmly begun--I wasn't too
picky at the time), there was an enthusiasm for the others, and each sub-task became a natural progression. I was amazed
that it seemed easier and easier, and I went faster and faster. I felt fascination, as though it were a labyrinth that never ended.
This resulted in my exploring beyond what was the Week 1 task. More motivation
The conflicts I experienced
Although I had some powerful motivation to help me through this class, I did face some very big conflicts. The biggest
conflict I faced was learning to do mostly everything myself. When the semester began I thought that we were going to be led
step by step through the process of constructing our home pages. We were given some instructions on file administration for
our UNIX and CSS accounts, but when the time came to begin home page creation, I and most of my classmates were lost. I
soon learned that Dr. James wasn't going to baby us. I needed help and it was my job to go out and look for it. Everything
was so new and I was blind as a bat. My expectations going into this class and the reality of it was certainly the biggest
conflict I had to face while taking this class. Soon enough things settled down and I got the help I needed. Much of this is
further detailed below in the Demands and Challenges section.
Another conflict I faced was staying focused on my classwork. Some may say that staying focused shouldn't even be a
problem. But I had many distractions. As soon as I got the basics down I wanted to learn more. I wanted to attract a web
surfer's attention and I needed graphics. So I searched the web for graphics and before I knew it I was in a chat room talking
to strangers about Star Trek. I would eventually get what I wanted, but it would take more than double the actual time
because I would get distracted. I finally realized what people meant when they talk about becoming addicted to cyberspace.
The fact that my database for this class was Recommended Web Sites-For Being Shocking allowed me to go out and surf the
web for web sites that were shocking. I once spent over seven hours straight surfing the web for shocking sites. The problem
was that I would get so distracted that I would forget to bookmark or link to a certain cite. Whereas I should've had over
100 related sites, I had only 20. But as the semester wore on I began to realize that I was spending way too much time on the
Internet. My work for this class and my other classes were suffering. I had to solve this problem so I went cold turkey. After
midterm grading for this class I stopped surfing the web for almost two weeks. Fortunately it worked and I was able to get on
with this class's work and the rest of my life.
ROBIN MILLER'S
WHAT HAS MOTIVATED ME IN PSYCHOLOGY 409?
There was not just one motivating factor in Psychology 409. Learning the Internet
and how to construct homepages was very motivating--and also frustrating; experiencing
the same disappointments and achievements as my classmates was also motivating.
Before I took this class I was always hearing about the Internet and the benefits it
brought with it. However, I didn't know the first thing about it. And, now, with
confidence, I can tell people I am proficient on the Internet. I have even found myself
answering questions that people have about the Internet. I guess this just goes to show
that learning is the ultimate motivation.
As I stated above, motivation also came in the form of working together with
others in the class. The teamwork that I experienced in this class was one of the most
fulfilling I have had in my collage career. Everyone was pretty much at the same level
when we began the class, but some caught on quicker than others. But, I can't recall
one instance when I was stuck or completely frustrated and didn't have somebody there
willing to help me through it. RAHNELLE'S
As you can see from my table, I believe that my search was pretty successful. From the start I
never believed that I would have any problems conducting my search. The way the search engines
are set up, makes it very easy to use. I also, was able to find a lot of interesting and valuable
information about phobias and spiders. I think that in the future, I will be able to use search
engines, to find what I want effectively. Michelle Ota
would suggest that future generations get onto Netscape first, to see all of the great things that they can do, and maybe this
will get people a little more motivated and excited to get onto system. Also, as I said earlier See Here, start early and don't
procrastinate. I started off in this class with some computer knowledge, and the desire to learn more, and I have learned much
more about the Internet then I could ever imagine. The only thing that I would have done differently, would have been to get
onto Netscape earlier. I think that I could have done so much more if I had a little more time. I also think that I will continue to
explore the World Wide Web, even after I finish school, there is just so much out there that I haven't even touched on, it's kind
of exciting.