This course will prove to be one of the most interesting I will ever take. The first assignment for me is to send e-mail to Dr. James. That proved to be a not too hard assignment thanks to the help of Nicole Gustie. when we confronted the situation of not being able to get into the Keller lab to dothe assignment, she told me about the CRITIQUE Lab over in Kuykendall Hall. We got there and the monitor assigned us passcodes and even helped us to get started in pine. It was my first experience using Windows and I discovered I really don't have nor necessairly want to develop the dexterity for using a mouse. We were able to get the mail sent and look through the syllabus some before calling it a day.

As far as any affective behavior, I found that I was not as nerveous as I anticipated being. Having looked over the reports of the student from last semester seemed to help ease and anxieties. I was not prepared, howver for the amount of time I would have to put into this class. I am computer "stupid" and don't own one. My schedule is really jam packed this semester for the days that I am on campus and it is really going to be a challenge to find the time to get the work done. But I can do this!
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Week Two

The asignments this time were a little more complex and numerous. There was a problem with sending e-mail for the class as a whole, so we had to do them over and send a copy to Kevin as well. We also had to logon to the CSS server, which is located in Porteus. Again, the Keller lab was closed for a class, and I found out I could not access the server through the Critique lab. After finding time to get back to the lab and getting a terminal, I was finally able to log on and start my assignments.

Earlier, I had visited the CLIC lab where Kevin was holding session. All of the students seemed to be having trouble getting into the dummy files set up for Kwock and Gustie that Dr J. made for us to use as examples for our own files. When I got to the Keller lab, I decided to try to access those files by going through the directory tree ../../psy409a/gustie.html. I was immediately able to get the file, view it and through the list of students attached see the Kwock file. I also had no problems getting to the files for the Psy459 class that we were to view.

Setting up and typing out my own files were another matter altogether. Getting into emacs was no problem at all, but after I got ther, the problems began. I first tried to creat my home page. I entered at the www prompt emacs moore.html. I tried to save the file without making an entry, but the system would not give me a y/n option after hit control-x control-c. I tried that a few times and after no success, I exited the system and came on again, assuming I had to enter text. I sent e-mail to Kevin and Dr. J. as king if the assumption was correct, and proceeded to try to enter text due to the time constraints. During the course of trying to type the text, I encountered lots of problems with the commands. A couple of times while I was trying to figure things out, I got the message Auto Save. I exited the system and come on again to find that there was no text. After getting the same scenario twice and running out of time, I entered anything (a guy from the 459 class tried to help me with proper formatting) and saved it hoping to pick up on the following week Monday.

I was fustrated, to say the least this week. The directions in the syllabus seemed so simple before I started to actually do them. Then it seemed I forgot everything and had to keep going back to my notes or the actual syllabus for help, which only heighten the confusion. In a bit of desparation to have somethin in my file for the week, I tried anything and hoped for the best.
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Week Three

Lecture today was very enlightening and I thought I know what I had to do to correct any mistakes and get on with getting into the real fun of the Internet. When I got a chance to go to lab. I found that I could not access anything I had done. I thought it was perhaps because I forgot to Chmod 775* after I entered my text, but found out that wasn't necessary. I sent mai to Kevin for help fixing the problem, but he couldn't figure it out from the info I sent him. We agreed to get together the next day to figure things out. Meanwhile, since I came in on a day that I am not usually on campus, I decided to dig around in Gopher. I breezed through some interesting stuff, movie schedules, weather forcasts, information on Gopher, electronic books, ect. Having some time before I had to be in a meeting, I decided to look through some White House files. Read through some proclamations and appointments and found them to be quite boring. Checked out the assignment for the week, and decided I had enough on my mind for now, trying to figure out the PAST assignment. Had to quit - no more time.

All of this is being entered Feb.2 because today I finally got thing figured out, I think. Kevin showed me how to get into my files through PICO. When I logged on with him, I was able to get to my home page, but not to my labreport file. He took me through PICO and that's how I am able to get caught up with my assignments. PICO is much more user friendly than emacs. I was able to access my labreport file and edit out the absolute junk I put in there, which turned out to be unreadable because the lines were all jumbled up. Hopefully I can now devote less time to getting my reports written up and more time to enjoying the Internet.
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Week Four

[Finding Info]

Finding information in a hypertext environment can be easy with the proper know how. Whether or I not I have that know how, you decide. My first step would be to just explore once I have logged on. Using our course as and example after getting to the Instructor's Home Page, I would select one of the highlighted links and choose further from the options. Finding this week's assignment required the I go from the Home page (mine or the Instructor's) to the section highlighted "Week Four Assignment". I am free to go from page to page or move to other highlighted links.

Pessimistic

How do I fight feelings of pessimism or depression? That's pretty easy for me. The trick is to keep things in prespective. The project is just that, a project. It is not the end of the world, I will not die if I don't get it just right or on time. My grade may suffer, but I'll live. That is not to say that fustration will not be a constant companion. But we should remember that fustration is a key to learning. New understanding always challenges our normal conceptions. Lack of time in one's schedule is another kind of fustration, but it need not lead to depression or pessimism.

Coping Strageties

The best method that I have found to cope with the fustrations of this class has been taking time out. As I said before, not quite getting the assignment is not exactly the end of the world. When I find that I am at a roadblock, I just get away from the terminal. Not having the thing staring at you is a major source of pressure removed. During that time away, I review my notes, and think through what it is that I have done. If I am sure that what I did was what I knew to be right, then I just try again. More often than not, I find my error more quickly with time out than by just looking at the material and overlooking the problem or error.

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Week Five


Exploring the Net
When I tried at first to start my assignment, I could not find all of it, so I decided to take the time to do a little exploring. Dr. James talked about the Webcrawler in class and I got an itch to check it out. While riding through the Web Documents and Address, I came across some interesting files likeTHOMAS, a service of Congress, National Public Radio, of which I am an avid supporter, SCOUT REPORT and Windows on Italy. The Windows on Italy is one that I am looking forward to exploring in more depth.

Attitude
Having the opportunity to read the labreports from last semester was an eye opener for me. The student, Omar, voiced my feelings exactly when he stated that he was ready to give the class up. However, he was willing to give it a try and decided, at least to me, to have a positive attitude. And that is what is most improtant for me in this class. The discoveries he made about himself and the information to be gained throught the internet, made me anxious to get the basics down and start exploring in earnest. I'm not sure that I have the basics yet, but every now and again I try to do hald an hour's worth of exploring at each session.

Hints from Omar
Reading the report of Omar helped me to know certain things about the class that I could have never anticipated. Omar made me aware of the enormous amount time that the course required, and he was not doing his work directly on the internet as we are! ( The time factor was also noted by Cheryl Rematta's student's paper.) I also learned, as you already know, that there is so much information to and so much to learn that I can hardly wait to really get into it. I find that I m more aware of media reports on the Internet, and I no longer just pass them off. ( I noticed that Joleen Lai had the same experience ). I am more open to what I have to do, and more willing to put up the frstrations of getting the job. It's more than just getting an assignment done, it has become for me finding something new and exciting out there. Who knows, maybe I'll get plugged in.

Suggestions for others
The best advice I can give tho those who will follow in this class is to stay open and enjoy the ride. Especially if you are computer illiterate as I am. It's a lot of fun, nothing to be afraid of (I found out I can't really hurt anything), and there's a pretty interesting world out there in cyberspace waiting for you. (See Grant's remarks for more suggestions).
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Week Six

Info Shock!

The assignment for this week was to search for three traffic related documents and to create hot links to my home page. Dr. James gave us lots of hints for finding these reports, but they were not as easy to find as I at first thought. Going through an enormous amount information can be trying to say the least. As I was preparing this assignment, I thought of some of the things Kulthau mentioned about browsing. I found that there was just too much information, even though I thought I was going into the assignment with a specific focus.

Searching

I tried the Webcrawler first to search Gopher via Veronica. That go me nowhere. I entered a string (traffic) and got no matches. I could not think of a way to be less general in my search , so I tried my search through another avenue, Web Address-still no luck. I decided to give up and try another day, when I was more refreshed, and met with better success.

Through Gopher directory, I found a list of travel topics and decided to try a few. Travel in Israel looked interesting, but I was never able to wait long enough to get a connection. I also tried Maintoba but couldn"tt get a connection. I was able to look around the travel directory for New Albany, NY., but didn't find anything exciting. I had found one interesting report on Dr. James' old bookmarks on the traffic on Driving in California. This file covers almost any question one might have on driving in California, from speed traps to registration.

Time In Between

Time in between may seem a strange anchor to some, but if you're like me, a commuting student with not a lot of time and not the owner of a computer, you understand. I had a problem with the link above in that after I entered the address and completed the comment I was making, the resulting entry showed a complete sentence, as I intended on the front portion of the page, but was incomplete on the back side. There was a problem in the way the address was entered, and with some help from Kevin I was able to get past that problem. I thought I would be able to move along, but, working in the CLIC lab for the first time, I encountered a problem when scrolling through my text. I kept getting booted out! For whatever reason, the computer did not like what I was doing. To avoid major fustration and the feeling of having wasted my day, I decided to try again on Monday. (Why ruin an entire Saturday?)

And Now the Rest of the Story

Finally to finishing this assignment!! A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to Diane Beauchmien and she told me about Yahoo. After I got it on my home page and decided to have a look around the file, I was able to find a file on the What's Cool link on traffic conditions in the San Diego area to serve those commuters who are connected to the InterNet. It allows them to have a real time idea of what the traffic is like before they leave their offices. It included altenate routes and maps. Myabe Honolulu could use a service like that in the near future. Becuase of my problems with getting results using a traffice string in Veronica, I decided to look around in Dr. James' files from the Traffic Psychology course. (I noticed thatRebecca Ross was able to make a connection using Veronica. How did you get through?) To be honest, by this time I was tired of looking and reading the self reports of the students didn't give me much. I chose to read What is Traffic Psychology the general course description and got a better understanding of what the objective of the course is.
Feelings This Assignment
To say that this was one of the more challenging assignments is an understatement, to say the least. It seemed that if Murphy's Law (seeKaneshiro for definition) was working overtime for me. But as I looked through the report of others in the class, I was encouraged by a comment made by Bev Diaz. She suggested taking a break if things aren't going well. I know this is good advice and have given it to others. But when you feel under the gun with tons of dealines, sometimes you forget the advice you've given to others. Thanks Bev for reminding me. Carol Almares also reported that the course has given her more awareness of how she is feeling. I agree with her there, and it is helpful for keeping things in prespective. Being able to work through your feelings is a major step to working through whatever caused those feelings.
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Week Seven

Where to start???

This week's assignment allowed me the opportunity to review the files of other class members at a more leisurly pace. I really got a lot form them and the organization was inspirational. Organization is not my strong point.

When looking through the list of lab reports, starting at the top is the logical place, right? Well, for some reason I decided to look at the last file and found out that we've been negelcting Linda Wong. She sent out a Hello hoping for a response from the rest of the class. Honestly, I didn't think that being the last name on the class list would mean that no one would respond to her files. But when I think of my search procedures, after the first few entries, I'm not inclined to look through the entire list of possibilities if I already have what I feel I need. From now on, I'll try to start at the bottom and work my way up just for you Linda. (See what Carol Almares has to say about this.)
Trying to look through files that I usually don't get to look through much, I picked Ryag Higa. His entry More words from the wise really brought somthing home to me. There really are some things about this course we can control and some we cannot. I have learned to control my thoughts about my feelings of fustration or anger. But things such as time constrictions, being able to get into the lab and work without problems and interruptions are sometimes not under my control. Like just now. The lab monitor just announced that the room has to be cleared in fifteen minutes so that a class can use the lab. Oh well! Ryan was also able to get results from his search on the last assignment on traffic. I just don't know where I went wrong! (Yes I do! I didn't give it enough time!)

Leaving Trails
Alison Ashahina had some comments on navigating that I could relate to. It has been excting for me, too. One comment I heard as we review the Generational Cirriculum reports was that the students found lots of neat things, but didn't leave "roadmaps". For me, just knowing that they found them made me want to find those files and more.(Carol Almares feels that the students should leave precise instructions for their followers in cyberspace) Looking for myself, I found things along the way that last semester's students didn't even mention. I agree that there is a degree of confidence gained from the navigation practice. I think I have the skills to find anything on the net. Having the patience is another matter... Speaking of the Generational Cirriculum reports, Diane B. mentioned that hers was a little difficult because she was one of the first presenters. I agree that remembering what was done was difficult, but for me more because I read my papers the first day and was more impressed by Omar's attitude than any of the technical stuff of getting around on the net. It's too bad his work is not on line. I think everyone would have enjoyed and gained from his attitude.

Finally, another student had problems with the assignment on traffic reports. Dellia Badua reports multiple starts and other problems with finding traffic info as she asks the question Where is it? She helped me to see that my problem was in waiting for the material to come up!
Part Two
The second part of this assignment was to read the Instructor's aticle for this course. When looking at the weekly instructions, Dr. James had a likn to Fujii's report, so I read what he had to say first. I agree that from the reading, there was more of a sense of togetherness in getting the work done. I suppose because we work directly on line, it is a little harder to get that feeling of unity that the face to face, hashing it out method of the last group. Any comments? Also one thing that I didn't give much thought to but noticed in the article was the mention of grades. I have noticed that some reoprts are very formal and others, like mine, are less so. I wonder about the format - which is preferred. Finally in the article I could definitely agree with the desire to master the internet. I have always been a person to want to walk away from an encounter with some feeling of accomplishment. I need not have perfected my ability, but feeling that I am somewhat proficient is very important to me.


Week Eight
Fustration Sets In! The fustration level in this class is really rising!!! I like being proficient at what I do, and for me that only comes with understanding what I do. As I have gon through this semester, I have tried to fit the pieces of my actions and my thinking together in working this class, and they are not quite connecting!! The time I spend in front of the terminal is often mixed with feelings of having this thing together and the fustration of not being able to see the mistake in my markup. None of this makes me feel any less as a person, even if things I say in fustration would lead one to believe that this is the case. this class has caused me to work with a technology that I have long resisted becoming too intimate with, and writing these weekly reports are forcing me to become something I'm not terribly comfortable with - being a person of many words.

Writing has been for me a very concise practice. Say what I wish to communicate withas few hidden meanings as possible. Being direct and to the point is one of my trade marks. Figuring out how much to put in the weekly reports has been a problem for me. But if chatty I must be, chatty I'll try to be. I hope those of you who read my ramblings (meager though they be) are able to make sense of them and me. BACK TO THE HOMEWORK!
This week's assignments required browsing through the reports of thos in the Traffic Psychology class. While I found their work less interesting to read than reading the expereinces of those who were going through the same assignments as I was ... my thoughts and writing are broken here due to technical difficulties. I was thrown out of the system and tried as I might could not get back into the program. After a couple hours' break, I'm back to try to remember what was wiped out befor I could save it.

More Fustrations

As I was trying to say before I was interrupted...I could relate to Nicole Yoshimitsu'ssuggestion of relaxing and taking time to explore. Although today's experience makes me want to do anything other than working on the Internet, it really is good advice . Cyberspace has a lot to offer. By the way, if you're into checking out funeral costs check out Carlos Howard Funeral Home on Yahoo. Best seen through Netscape for pictures of their inventory.

Another feature of both this and Psy459 is the self-witnessing done by the students. Being able to share those things with others is not only a releif to the person expereincing the emotions, but also to the person reading the accounts. Michelle Ota relates that she is comforted knowing that there are others out ther who are just like her. While I do not consider myself a crazy driver, I can relate that there are other out there, like the woman who cut me off in traffic yesterday...

A major fustration that I am having in this class is feeling that I have learned. I don't mean producing the results, but getting something. Becuase we do not have a learning lab, the effects of whatever is reviewed in class looses some of it's effectiveness because there is no immediacy of application. Someone may have had the same problem that you have, but because of the delay of hours or days between receivng the information, the effect is not there. ( Again, maybe just me.)This obervation is what caused a comment made by Jae Isa stand out for me. She had trouble finding her links for an assignments and just copied someonelse's. I have been guilty of copying the format of others as well, but found the only thing I got out of that was the correct answer, and if I do that enough times, I'll memorize a format that really has no meaning for me.. Jae also states that the clues are given in tha assignment, but perhaps, like her, I couldn't see them.
What a difference
I have to admit that nothing is beter for fustration than a break!! I've had two already and I can even enjoy reading the reports of others and not feel that I have to gather information to get this assignment done. As I was going through some of the other Psy 459 labreports, I especially enjoyed the portion of Terri Slaughter's that I read. She really hit the nail on the head right off by stating that that we should allow time for every aspect of our lives. I must admit that I never thought of taking into account the amount of time that it takes for the elevator or for the car to warm up, she makes an excellent point. If time is of the essence for you, take it all into account. Terri also makes a point that my husband really should take into account- the feelings of the passengers as well as the other drivers. If you really want a thrilling ride, ask my husband to drive. Disney couldn't do better! Finally from Terri, she makes an excellent point about male dominance on the roads. But then again, behavior society accepts and makes excuses for in males is generally frowned upon in women.

Looking through the comments in the instructor's files was somewhat interesting. Some days it's hard not to feel depressed since I seem to be so far behind in comprehending this system than my fellow class mates. Takitani offers some advice for depression that sounds good, but for some of us, impratical. He suggests that we set realistic expectations for our time tha twe spend on line. That's easy enough to do. Another suggestion is that logon times be shorter and more frequent. That's the hard part. Has anyone ever been really into a session, have something come up to disrupt your work, but feel that you really have to get this "thought" down or you'll loose it?? That is often the case for me. I will make an entry into my file, and find that a link doesn't work. Then I'll spend more time trying to locate my error, then I'll need to finish what I was working on, and before I know it, three hours has passed. eye strain and muscle ache are my best friends when I'm working on this class. They're sometimes the only indication that I have that I'm still alive.

Week Nine
Exploration

For this week's assignment, we were asked to explore the files form the 1991 Course Integrated Online Socaliaing Files. On the whole I foun the sections that Iread through somewhat interesting. While an online format was interesting, I would have loved to have been in a face to face discussion. Somehow faceless communication is not my idea of socalizing.

One topic I found interesting was the discussion on test and classroom formats. Most of the respondents seem to favor essay versus multiple choice tests. While that too is my choice, I wonder along with the person who questioned such subjective grading. What makes a good essay, and what if the respondent gives an accurate account of his/her comprehension of the materials and the it is not what the professor thinks should have been comprehended??? Another issue that I found interesting was that of the way in which materials are presented by professors. I feel that professors are asked to cover too much material in a short period of time, leaving the students with only the barest of information. When I started college over 20 years ago, core courses covered two semesters rather than one. I fell this allowed more time to cover the material, since what was not covered in one semester was continued the next.

Feelings and Reactions

When reading through the responses, I got the feeling that the format used allowed the students to be more free in their expressions. Some of the critisims that I read I have only heard when talking to other students who owuld never find the nerve to voice them to their professors. However, I dod no think that this is something that I would want to participate in. There is something about the immediate feedback, and the ability to see how what is said affects the hearer that makes intercourse more stimulating. I do not even care to write letters to my friends. Something is just lost for me in the delayed response. While computers are the wave of today, so much is lost when we move away from race to face communication. I know that in many cases, it is more expedient to use technology, I don't know how it would fit into socalizing. Is socalizing just talking to others, otr is there something of the physical proxmity that adds to what we call socalizing? When we use technology, can we say we are truly socalizing??

Experimenting with the technology
Finally for this assignment, we were asked to design an experiment for future use of this approach. As I stated above, I do not think that this is an ideal appraoch for socalizing. I suppose the technology is not too far away where there will be real time video to go along with cyber communication. I dont't know. I just know there is something about physical nearness; the ability to directly observe how we affect others that makes me somehow reject this as a form of socalizing.

Comment on Dr. James' Article

Reading through Dr. James' article on the work of students on Plato two things struck me. One was that there was hands on training for the students in the course. I feel that if this class had supervised in lab training in the use of the Internet and html formatting, a lot of the stress of getting the work done would have been releived. I know it would have been for me at least. Another thing that I found interesting, though not surprising, was the boldness of expression noticed when students were allowed to use another persona. Why is it that not having to give a personal account for our remarks seem to release us of all inhibitions?? Too bad we live in a society where we can only feel free to be ourselves or the selves we wish to be in secret.


Week Ten

Do WHAT???
This week's assignment involves work on alternate home pages. Just the thought of working on three additional home pages when the first is still very much under construction was more than enough to send me into a near panick!!! Going through the work of the other students in the class let me know that I am not really as far behind in getting things done as I may have thought!! For me that is a major relief. The greasest fustration that I have had in this class was that I didn't have the time to give proper effort to the work and would be miles behind everyone else. Thanks guys for making me feel normal in that respect.
Looking Around

When I started looking around at others' home pages I naturally started with the other members of the class. I admired those who had gotten as far as beginning their construction of alternate home pages, but Bev Diaz has done a really fantastic job with hers!! (See her second alternate home page!!!) Not to be outdone is Diane Beauchmein. I always enjoy her work. She has a habit of adding a bright spot to one's day. If you've never visited her you should.

Looking at other home pages gave me a really good idea of what my own should do for anyone who wandres by - make them want to stop and stay awhile. And there was on in particular that did that for me. Peter Yu's home page was one space where I spent some time (actually about half and hour. I found him under a What's New listing on Yahoo under, of all things cartoons. Check him out in Netscape and enjoy. Looking at other pages through the Home Page Browser was a more trying task. I found myself stuck in a cycle of returning to the main screen and waiting a long time for the info to download. The system was running very slow and I never got to have a look at what was available. After losing about 35 minutes trying to find my way out, I gave up.

Construction Begins

Now I begin to work on my own alternate home pages. I feel a little inadequate seeing the others and knowing I'm not happy with or have completed the first, let alone come up with others. But I shall go on undaunted. I have started my Indexical home page and that is starting to shape up. I don't know about this creative one. I've been looking through icon files and, well......we'll see. Please keep looking, because construction is going up!!!

Week Eleven

Kulthau Readings

This week's assignments involve insights gained from the readings from Dr. Kulthau's book "Seeking Meaning." The author deals with the process of how one goes about obtaining information. Reading through the book gave me insight on how I got through the search process and was most helpful, not only for this class, but for others as well. I laerned that fustration is a good thing as I wrestle with processing the new. She also talks about formulating and reformulating in our search process, an improtant point since most people come into a search process with what they feel is the information they wish to find, and when they don't find it the way the have formulated it, often give up the search.

Hot Debate!

Our class got into a couple of hot debates when we came to the topic of the place of a mediator, in this case the librarian, in the search process. Some felt that the responsibility for clarity belonged to the information seeker and others felt that the mediator should be more sensitve to the situation that the seeker finds him/herslef in; needing information, but not give much to go on from the person giving the assignment. I take the position that the seeker must do give more thought to how they will go about the search before consulting a mediator. If one just has a topic and no ideas on how one wants to deal with it, how can anyone help you in a further exploration of the topic? The discussion was one of the high points of class discussion. I"m not sure if we solved the issue, but we got to hear from all angles.

Did it Help?

I'm not sure if by the time we got around to discussing the book I was too much aware of the principles to help me. We were assigned inthe beginning of the semester and once I got cought up in trying, rather unsuccessfully, to keep current with my assignments, I'm not sure I remembered much of the book. I do know that my initial reading helped me to understand that searching involves a process, and that I should not regard fustration as unusual. See what Bev, Kyle, and Noguchi has to say.

Week Twelve

The Swedenborg Zone

This week's assignment required a trip through the Swedenborg Home Page. I chose to start with the discussion files and looked through them for a while. While it was somewhat interesting, I think that I would have rather not gone there. When it comes to the topic of religion and theology, I have found that that is a topic best left out of debates. Trying to follow the exchange was about as much fun as trying to follow the Plato exhcange. I'm not sure if any of it made sense except to the persons involved at the time. Reading the exchanges was almost like coming in at the middle of an action adventure movie - you don't quite know where you are in the plot and the pace has picked up so that you can't keep up. I also looked at New Church Outreach file and only skimmed through.

Where was this all going?

I tried to guess where the discourse was leading and decided to come to my senses. A debate of tis type always goes around in a circle. When one begins to debate rational thought and religion, there is never a last word. As Carol Alamares states, faith is a hard thing to dispute, and it is hardly rational. For more thoughts see Joleen Lai and Bev Diaz. I don't know what the goals of the particiapnts were - to voice their views on religion and rational thinking or to convert each other - , but I'm sure they were not reached. The debate proved too long and convoluted for me and I gave up after several pages. For more on Swedenborg see Jill's remarks.

Week Thirteen

This week's assignment entailed cleaning up my files and making sure that everything worked. This was a little problematic in that as some of my classmates were cleaning up their files, they changed things that caused previously working links not to work! Alos there were other links outside of the class files that had "fallen" and that was no fun. But I got them fixed. Hopefully, they"ll work for you, the reader, when you get to them.

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Week Fourteen

What's in a Title Anyway?

This week's assignment refers to how we relate to titles. At first, it seemed strange to me, but after thinking about it, I came to realize how much I depend on the information available to me in a title. First, the title tell me what is found in the text. As simple as it seems, this is the key function. But on thing that I didn't really think bout when I relate to titles, is the affective characteristics of titles. When we all try to think of a title, we try to think of what will catch the readers eye. What gets the attention, what will make the person want to read on.

When thinking of titles for my work, I try to think, what will make someone stop here? And, judging by the titles I've looked through during the semester, the writers think the same way too. Making up titles is somewhat difficult. First, they have to be short, yet relay the meaning in a catchy sort of way. I try humor (but really have noe sense of humor at all), or use catch phrases or cliches. When titling my files, the standard format for me is one word tell alls.

Trying to figure out what others are doing with their file names can be interesting. Take this class for instance. Some have very dry titles, such as "Navigating", or "Sensorimotor behavior". Those I don't read often. But the more humerous ones pique my curiosity and they get read (like Linda Wong's "Hello").Top
Week Fifteen

The Ending

The final assignment is here!!! Looking back over the semster - WOW!! What a ride. I must report that I was not too happy with the trip, but more on that in suggestions. I had a lot of hopes of exploring the system and finding all that I could in one semester. This was not accomplished because I had no real idea of what would be involved in this class ( the amount of time, problems getting to lab, ect. See hints section and Takitani for more). However, the trip was not totally a washout. I did get some time to have fun, and have highly recommedned this class to others should the opportunity present itself in the future. I started this class with very little computer experience, and leave with very little computer expereince ( only kidding!!). Would I do it again? Maybe with a few changes.

Suggestions

Knowing that this class was a first of it's kind at UH, I do not have a lot of criticism, but if you would like to improve on the process Dr. James: 1. Give instructions in the lab for the first few sessions. 2. Related to 1., schedule a lab time for the class on the free day of the week (Thursdays). 3. Make assignments due in two weeks instead of one. There is a lot of ground to cover in completing an assignment and one week just doesn't cut it. 4. It would be helpful if you and your assistant would be more sensitive to where the students are in this process of learning in cyberspace. Trying to help us with technical termonology or regaling us with where you are in the process doesn't help unless we are your peers in the process. 5. Incorporate the readings sooner and more often in the course. Reading a book at the beginning of the semester and not knowing it's purpose until mid semester was not helpful for retaining and applying the principles we read. 6. It would be very helpful to know what is a properlength and format for the document, as all of the class files vary. It is hard to judge what is required in that area for a passing grade. Now, having said that, I will say it really was fun and somewhat interesting. I wanted more than I got, but hopefully others will learn from the problems of this class and really get to enjoy the wonders of cyberspace.

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