Report Four:Analizing the Generational Curriculum
It Takes A Seed To Plant A Tree
Years ago, Dr. James had an idea/seed to create/plant a curriculum which would encourage students to write authentically. Authentic writing is writing with an oral and written communicative competence. In order for this to happen, the students' work
s needed to made public. With the current Generational Curriculum, this is possible through the World Wide Web where students post their private works for the world to see. You can't get any more public than that.
The first Generation of Dr. James' Traffic Psychology and Cyber Psychology course resemble the beginning branches of the tree. As the years past, more and more branches are formed. Presently, the Generational Curriculum Tree is still growing. Similar t
o a natural tree, the Generational Curriculum continues to grow rapidly in all directions where nothing is planned and nothing is predictable. Students are allowed freedom in what links to put and how they want their page to look. This provides a fruitf
ul abundance of unique and creative pages found within the Generation.
Examining the Tree From All Angles
When we add future generations to this site, the tree will grow larger. The information accumulates providing users with a collaboration of ideas and insights. However, because of the rate of growth there is a slight implication for disorganizati
on. The massive amount of information will distract users from continuing after the first page. The solution to this problem lies in the front end to the site. Providing short cuts such as "tour guides" and links to indexes present an effective front end
, and tailors the site to the on-line audience.
Another tool useful in the organization of sites are search engines. Search engines helps to group homepages together based on the similar subjects. This tool is probably the easiest to use because of the instantaneous results. It is also the most usefu
l because most users don't know the exact address a site is located at.
A Community of Individuals
This site differs from other sites on the Web because it consists of a community of individuals with a common goal. These individuals are students of the Curriculum and the goal is to learn and keep up with the fast paced technology on the Web. Th
e Generational Curriculum is a time line of accomplishments and failures. Future generations are able to learn from past ones and improve with the new knowledge they gain.
Personally, I feel that the greatest benefit of being a part of this Cyber-Community is that I am never alone. Trekking through this wild frontier called the Internet can be very scary sometime, but knowing that my classmates and past generations have al
l started where I did gives me comfort. For the future, I hope to leave my mark in cyberspace in hopes that someone will find me and read what I have to say. Until then, I will continue to expand and contribute to my page as past generations have done a
nd future generations have yet to do.
Blast off to Report five
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