PSY 409a SPRING 1997 SUMMARIES
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Travis Trombone Abe
Looking through the Generational Curriculum, the first impression I got
was "This is choke stuff!" It was interesting to see how the imformation
was presented to me. With ALL this information on one site, you don't
want to just throw it all at a person reading it. You need a sense of
direction which is informative, yet not BORING! Leon James' page starts
as a table. I remember him saying that CGI maps weren't allowed, so
the table will suffice. It is pretty well organized, with colored
backgrounds and stuff in the cells.
I always thought of this place as overwhelming. Even with a tour guide
and HUGE index, I still feel lost. But I guess that is natural, since
after reading what the students from other generations thought, it
appeared they felt the same way.
As a member of Psy499, I am required to work on the DRA, or Daily Round
Archives. I think it is a cool idea to bring the student's past work onto
the on-line community. Soon we will have access to see reports done by
students from the 80's... The Daily Round Archives section is definitely
worth a look...
I also read the Cyberpsychology page of creating virtual presence. I
thought the basis of the on-line community was like just an idea or
something. After reading the article, it appears to be much more than
that... I truly see now where it has its place in the Psychological
realm. Have you read it yet? Geez, that thing is LONG!
In general, I think the GC could use a bit more organization. I mean, it
is easy to get lost in there. The navigation in finding something
specific would be kind of hard to do... But I can't think of anything
that could remedy this. This place is very deep and diverse. Perhaps
some computer junkie will create a search engine SPECIFICALLY for Leon
James' work. That would be cool. Laters, dudes.
Dan Hamamoto
The first thing that I noticed about the generational curriculum
is how it is improving and expanding with technology. I noticed that in
the first generation there were hardly any pictures and no backgrounds.
It was kind of sad in that they did not have the abundance of information
we now have access to of the Internet. As I traveled through the
generations in chronological order, I noticed that the home pages improved
in appearance. Generation 2 started to color their pages with backgrounds
and pictures. Generation 4 included many animated gifs, and Edward
Sugimoto even included java script. I am stressing the appearance of the
home pages, because I think that it is very important. It gives the
visitor a first impression, and ultimately, it may be the deciding factor
whether or not the page is to be visited again.
Another thing I thought about while viewing the generational
curriculum, is the amount of information it contains. The amount of
information is overwhelming. Eventhough this is my second class I am
taking from Leon, I still have not explored every link in the generational
curriculum.
As I looked at generation three, I liked the idea of the WIB,
(World Ideas Bank). I thought that it was pretty cool that the students
in that generation were trying to obtain responses from people around
the world, about certain issues. For example, a student was given a
topic like, "relationships". The student then wrote a short paper about
that topic, then left forms for visitors to fill out. From what I
understand, the WIB was advertised through search engines. I
am puzzled as to why it did not attract the attention of many people.
Browsing the generational curriculum can be kind of confusing.
Finding specific information was quite difficult. I noticed that Dr.
James has three introductions to his home page: an index, a tour guide and
a search through alta vista. But, I was curious as to why he did not have
some sort of introduction, or organizer to the HUGE generational
curriculum.
In all, I thought that this site was pretty neat. It is very
unique to have a community on the Internet. I have yet to see
another site that is similar.
Leslie-Ann S Francis
IMPRESSIONS OF THE GENERAL CURRICULUM
NOTE: I must apologize for not getting this up sooner. I had it on my
computer for the longest time, however I composed in Microsoft Word and
did not know how to copy it over. After speaking with Gary in the lab, he
showed me how simple it really is. I guess I thought that I couldnt copy
in PINE for some stupid reason (even though I was copying to and from CSS
and UNIX all the time -- Duh!). Heres my belated, cob web crusted
summary:
I had already started to look at the General Curriculum Navigation Table
(i.e., Dr. James Home Page) in order to get some ideas for my home page.
As most of you have noticed, my table looks very much like Mr. Kai
Hansjurgenss from Generation 4. I had already printed out a copy of the
Cyberpsychology: Principles of Creating Virtual Presence for our
assignment, so I didnt bother to go back into there. What caught my eye
was the explorational tour, which I immediately went to. Most of the
links were to pages from other generations (mostly Generation 4 I think)
which I had already seen, however the whole tour process was great in that
it leads you in a logical progression. My tour was cut short, however, by
a page which locked up my computer. I think it had a midi driver and midi
files attached to it, which some people dont have on their machines -- so
it bombed! That was when my tour ended.
I also looked at Diane Nahls Search Index page, which had some really
useful links. I especially liked the U.S. Postal Service Zip Code
Searcher link. You can put in any city and state, and it spits out the
correct zip code for you. Very handy for those of us who dont remember
zips (and half the time dont write them down -- like ME).
All in all, Dr. James page was packed with information, maybe too much (in
reading some of your summaries I see that we all agree). However, in
trying to think of how I would logically organize my numerous studies and
interests, as well as my colleagues and friends related numerous studies
and interests, I would probably do about the same thing. Maybe rather
than a table with lots of wasted space, I would simply use text and create
interest by using an icon or two -- like our 409a, 409b, and 459 home
pages (except I would use the same size font at the bottom). But then,
thats just me...
Kathi Kei Fujii
My impressions of the Generational Curriculum were overwhelming.
I thought that there were too much information for us to "sink into," but
it was worth reading. It was interesting to see other people's home pages
and also their reports on traffic psychology and also cyber-psychology.
I especially enjoyed looking at other people's pages. I thought
that it was cool to see different graphics and images. I was impressed
with the student's creativity and images. I really liked the images that
moved on your screen. By having this experience, it gave me some ideas on
how I can make my home page more attractive for the viewers to see.
I read the article, Cyberpsychology: Principles of Creating
Virtual Presence, and I really agreed with the point about the level of
communication between people has risen. Some of my friends are in the
mainland and I think that e-mail is the best way to communicate because
it gives the person the information faster and easier. You also wouldn't
need to pay for stamps nor pay for shipping charges. By having e-mail, it
made my communication with my friends easier in such a way that it seems
as if they are on this island instead of a thousand miles away from me.
By having e-mail at work, it is more convenient to talk to my friends
instead of calling them up or writing to them.
David K Kahoaka
After viewing all that I could possibly see in the past 4-5
generations, there has been much change. It is really interesting to see
how something can change so different in just a matter of a few years. I
kind of made me wonder that what I am learning at this very moment is
going to be obsolete in a matter of a year or two. I guess this is one of
those things where learning is a continuous process.
From Generation 2, I noticed a very plain (relative to the web
pages that I see today) web cites. There backgrounds weren't really
something to brag about and they had hardly any graphics, not to mention
any animated graphics that are just so popular on the web today. But as I
moved on in the timeline of the web, I found a considerable change in both
web designs and more or a personal touch to it. Very similar to what Dr.
James said in class, about that the web page is like a reflection on one's
mind. It gives other people a chance to see what is eactly going on in
your head. It is like a non verbal vent, for some of us who are more shy
and can't really express ourselves through speech, but rather through the
web. I just thought that this was just so interesting.
Besides just looking at the generational Curriculum, I also viewed
some of Dr. James's links. What was interesting to me is that whole notion
of me getting caught up in it. The Web can be extremely adicting. Like a
drug, I just can't stop using it. It keeps me just clicking and clicking,
and I find myself doing things, that I would never dream of. The net is so
big, now I understand when Dr. James says to spend at least 10 hours a
week, I think that is easy!!!
In short, I think I have learned alot about technology and how
something can get better and better over a very short period of time. I am
hoping that it is not to late for me to become a part of this web we call
the internet.
Kristie Y Kwon
WOW! There is my first impression. The work that the past
generations have done on their home page is just amazing. Did you see the
graphics on those masterpeices? I am still new to computers and haven't
been on the internet and now I realize how much fun I have been missing
out on. This is so cool. I still can't stop raving about how wonderful
the students' pages are. It looks as if they did some hard work. I hope
when I'm done with my home page, it will look as good if not better.
I thought at first, what the heck am I doing taking a course on
computer. Believe me it's not easy; however, it's very interesting. I
am learning so much in this class it's amazing. Can you believe it, I am
actually part of Cyberpsychology in the works. Other people, strangers,
are able to probe and poke their eyes into my work as I have done to
theirs. I am so flabbergasted by the connections we are able to make
with one another through our mind and thoughts.
Besides the home pages of the previous generations, I've also
viewed Cyberpsychology. It was interesting how I was able to see all
the internet words such as "virtual reality", "cyberspace", "communal
mind", and many others which I only heard of. I learned quite a bit here,
especially on virtual reality. I really liked that one. If I am
correct, virtual reality is like creating reality online into the computer
or our cyberspace, right? Soon we will be able to create all the things
we want in a person, a pet, or even a place the way we like it. Wow, am I
the only one who feels that this internet thing is advancing so very
fast.
Naoyuki Maruya
Impressions of the Generation Curriculum
At first, I felt that there was a vast amount of information and I thought
to my self, how would anyone find anything? I especially felt this way
when I visited the "Complete Topical Index." But as I started to explore
each of the Generation's homepages, I noticed a system of orginzation, and
was very impressed. A page that really caught my eye was Edward
Sugimoto's. It was very well orginized and had a lot of nice graphics.
I took some time to read the article on Cyberpsychology and was also
impressed. The article had personal relevance to me. I agree with the
statement that the computer is a extension to the human mind. It is not
anti-social to spend time on the Internet. My friends and I all have busy
schedules, and we all have a hard time getting in contact with each other.
Many times, the only time we can talk to each other is when we are on the
Internet during work, where we can talk to each other electronically, over
the "Net." As for Virtual Communities, I have seen this phenomena first
hand. I work at the English computer lab in Kuykendall, we run a program
that creates a Virtual Community, allowing students to critique other
students essays and reports in cyberspace. Even though they have no
"persona name," they do develop a "virtual idenity," and interact more
freely that they would if they were not Online.
I also enjoyed reading the traffic psychology pages, with people's
opinions about tailgating, the stages to a driving persona makeover, the
taxonomy of driving behavior. . .
Gaile Nakano
My first impression of the Generational Curriculum was "oh my God, how am
I going to get through all of this?" The first page that I looked at was
the Generational Curriculum Principles for Assignments which stated the
intent and structure of the class. The one thing that caught my eye while
reading through this was "generational virtual superdocument" because now
I realized that not only was I taking Psychology 409, but now I was part
of the "generational virtual superdocument." The topic "generational
virtual superdocument" sparked my interest so I clicked on it, but sadly,
the link did not work.
After reading through all of the text, I wanted to see what kinds of
things the previous generations had done so I went to the student's home
page. There were a few home pages that really impressed me. The first
was Christina Kealoha of Generation 3. Her background, pictures, and
content was very well done, you all should check it out. The second home
page was Dan Hamamoto of Generation 4. He had all kinds of pictures and
images moving that it was a fun way of going through while reading what he
had written. I also viewed my friend's home page and got to see what she
experienced and learned while taking this class.
In the section on Virtual Reality, I really liked the analogies of how
cyberspace is like the mind, and the brain is like the hard drive. These
all are fascinating ideas of how the mind and cyberspace are similar in
their interactivity and organization. Technology has and still is
increasing the similarity between human and computer. Isn't that a scary
thought?
Asako Shinagawa
I feel like I am just repeating what others have already said, but I
was also amazed to see how much stuff was there in Dr. James' home page.
I can't even imagine how many hours Dr. James must have spent in front of
a computer to put this page together. I tried to look at every pages at
least once, and it took me about 3 days. I was definitely exosted after
that and didn't even want to sit in front of a computer for a while.
Did anybody read his Spiritual Psychology? Anyway, the things caught
my attention was his discussion of a life after death. Basically
according to Dr. James, when you die, your spirituality continue to exist
even when your physical body is not there anymore. I guess that what
some people call heaven, but Dr James said that after death of a physical
body, one's spirit exists in virtual space or even in cyberspace. I didn't
quite get it how it is possible, so anybody interested in his theory,
check it out.
I also looked at previous generations home pages. Between generation
1 and generation 4, there was a big difference in how it looked. I
personally like colorful fun pages, so I felt bad for the generation 1. I
am sure they couldn't do much to improve their pages' appearance since
the technology back then was limited. In a future, when the technology
advance even further from now and we become capable of doing a lot more
stuff, I would like to come back to my web page and make ...
Ryan Shintani
i just finished reading prof james home page. i guess i was
putting it off because it looked like so much information to try to
digest. At least my prayers were answered because it wasnt boring and i
didnt fall asleep when i was reading the articles.
i found that if you dont use a system to keep track of where you
have been you can find yourself going over the same links. i know that
when you use a link that it changes color and that should be a esy way to
remember where you have ventured before. The thing is that i dont use
netscape a lot, so i didnt know that it keeps a record of the site and
what links that you have clicked on already. so when i first found prof
leaons home page i just clicked on most of the links to see where it would
take me. thinking that it would revert back to the orginal color the next
time i visited the site. WRONG VERY WRONG!!!!!!!! so i found out the hard
way that it keeps a record of your movements. so i had to use a pen and
paper to keep track of what links i had already been on. i think that it
would have been easier if i hadgone in a clockwise fashion in using his
links. i didnt do that either i just went to the topics that i though
would be interesting first and left the borings ones for last. i learned
from that experience so i will try to use a more logical search pattern
when i visit other peoples sties from now on.
as for the home page it's self. i thougth that it was constructed
in a way that made it look well worked, but it was simple to use.
everything was a button to click on and the titles on the buttons gave a
good idea where you were headed. the page loaded up rather easily, even
form my home terminal. i have gone to a few home pages that take have a
year and a day to load up. i mean they had a lot of cool stuff on there
pages, but the time it took to load really didnt make it seem worth the
wait. one girls site that i went to made the wait a little easier to
bare. she had loaded midi files to play whiel you waited for the page to
be loaded on your screen. so the thing that i learned is to keep your
home pages simple.
the other thing i liked about prof james home page is that you can
source his page and it gives you a lot of the stuff that he is asking for
in the assignments. so i just had to read the script lines and copy the
ones that i wanted to practice using in my own home page.
i really enjoyed read all of the things on prof james home page.
even though it was a good page it still doesnt compare to espn's home
page. now that is the best home page on the internet today...
Marini D Singh
I was definitely fascinated by the Generational Curriculum. I found
everything to be beyond amazement only because there really is no end to
what you can access. There are plenty of links to delve one deeper into
this phenomenon called cyberspace. My experience of reading has become
enriched ever since I enrolled in this course. I have greater access to
other people's thoughts, feelings, and creativity. The students from the
past generations sure utilized more HTML cues and provided more indepth
information as the generational community expanded. For instance, I
observed more usage of graphics, text and background colors, and
generous information about search engines, "netiquette," UNIX, ftp, and
feedback on assignments completed.
It was reassuring to know that these students experienced the same
frustrations, anxieties, confusions, and doubts that I am experiencing
off and on now. Therefore, these are normal feelings. However, it was
comforting to read that one is able to overcome resistance and this
feeling of wanting to give up in order to feel a sense of
accomplishment. I understand how you can see the benefits to yourself,
explore your own interests, and obtain a sense of "personalization." The
more I practice, the more confident I am to confront our assignments for
the semester.
I found our professor's writings very extensive especially
concerning spiritual psychology and Swedenborg. He concentrates quite a
bit on virtual reality. I understand this as recreating something real
in an artifical format. His communal mind concept is interesting. When
people interact on the computer, their minds are striving together and
sharing the same space. He seems to imply that we all create one mind in
cyberspace by forming all our minds together. Cyberspace allows this.
I was impressed by the accumulation of writings Dr. James has
produced throughout the years. He has literature ranging from semantics
to bilingual education to cyberspace. I thought his traffic psychology
profile was beneficial. I liked reading about the rules of the road and
driving etiquette. There was so much information to browse, but I hope
to indulge in his writings more frequently.
Finally, I feel excited to participate in the Generational
Curriculum. It is a privilege to carry on the tradition. We are now
officially part of a cyber-community on the World Wide Web. Go forth and
conquer!
Chari Leigh Tamashiro
In completing the requirements for this section, the first thing I
realized was that it contained a lot of information and would take a lot
of time to go through on the computer. It was facinating though, to read
about the professor's opinions on various subjects dealing with cyberspace
and to see the progression of the generations on the development of their
home pages.
Regarding the professor's home page and articles, I am beginning
to understand his opinions and views about cyberspace and the mind,
spirituality, and the issues that may well deal with each of our lives. I
can see the correlation between the mind/cyberspace and the
brain/hardware. It is an overwhelming thought, one I hadn't even
fanthomed until recently.
All of the other generation reports regarding cyberpsychology
basically said the same things about the definitions of the sub-topics,
all basically agree with Dr. James. The one thing I observed is that
there were some that interjected their own personal feelings about what
each sub-topic meant to them. For example, Michelle Alonzo from
Generation 4 incorporated the concept of global or growing field of
psychology on the internet and Carol Ohta (also of generation 4)
interjected her experiences in dealing with each topic. There were some
reports that did not "call out to me" but many did, reflecting what
hopefully is their author's personality and feelings about the topics.
The generational home pages were terrific! I never say, let alone
surfed, the internet before this class. I was impressed with all the care
and work that each person did on their home pages. The colors, designes,
and graphics were indicators to each person and their personalities. They
were all facinating!
However, I am inclined to the simple home pages with light color
backgrounds (mostly solid color) with dark type and minimal graphics. The
others with their amazing graphics, backgrounds, and color changes were
wonderful to look at once I got them up (some took a long time), but I
liked the simpler ones better. My reasoning is that the simpler home
pages took up less time to boot up ( I have limited time on the computer,
I do not have one at home connected to the internet) and were easier on
the eyes. I do a lot of reading in my work and when I am exposed for
prolonged periods to the computer, I have found that lighter backgrounds
and darker type are easier on the eyes. But, I must agree, the graphics
are eye catching. There are both positives and negatives to using more
color and graphics.
I was also interested in the fact that each generation also
progressed along the same lines. Each person went through a period of
frustration, anziety, then development and increasing skill onthe
computer, internet, and e-mail. It will be interesting to see if I will
be able to progress as far and as well.
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