Psy 409
Dr. Leon James
9/25/95
Week 5 Report: Putting up a Homepage
How difficult was this week's task (lumping all the subtasks together) ? Circle one.
Very easy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Very hard
This week's rating=9
How much negative emotion did it cost you, all in all?
Very little 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Very much
This week's rating=9
How valuable for later use is this knowledge or skill going to be for you?
Not useful 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Very useful
This week's rating=9
How likely is it that you'll be getting good at this week's task?
Not likely 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Quite likely
This week's rating=8
How satisfied are you with the computer and Internet systems?
Not satisfied 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Very satisfied
This week's rating=7
How hard did you try to get through this week's task?
Gave up easily 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Refused to give up
This week's rating=10
This week's assignment made me feel like an idiot..I actually spent around five hours in front of the machine, not getting anywhere. Wow..how stupid can you feel??!!
Since I had been ill last week I must have missed major hints given by the instructor in class (maybe?) about the tasks to be completed for this week. I tried to connect all the information I had gathered so far, and also asked the clic aids, however, nobody was able to help me in successfully completing the transfer of a student's homepage (generation1) to my CSS account. On Tuesday, after having tried to find the answer for two days, I was tired and desperate-with much negative emotion in my system. I actually thought I was never going to get anywhere, and I would have to GIVE UP (I don't like giving up!!!). Well, I was lucky. I found an angel, who else, of course, than Lori. She helped with the transfer, and I had to almost laugh at myself because it was so EASY. I had simply not put together all the knowledge of the past weeks in the correct way. She certainly was on target!
To complete the task I chose Diaz' homepage - I loved her flower image. The first step I needed to perform was to save the file onto my disk. I used FTP and my remote host {ragna}1. The transfer from the disc to CSS was quite easy, too. I opened my CSS account through telnet, and then filled in www.soc. as the host, when using FTP. Simply clicking on the arrow sent my selected document over to CSS. WOW...I was amazes of how smooth everything went. To modify my file I used Pico. However, when I tried to view it in Netscape it did not show the images. I saved it as html but still I did not succeed in viewing the pictures. Well, I guess this is my next question for class tomorrow.
I rated this task as hard because I really felt lost at a certain point. It is not clear to me why exactely I could not figure out my problems. I realized that it was realistically not a hard task to perform, but somehow this was not my week, I guess. Therefore, I had extremely strong negative emotions about this week. Imagine spending three days (about two hours each day) in front of the computer without any results. Nothing moved - I was stuck..However, I finally managed to win over my bad mood and found the answer to my questions. Knowing how to modify files and tranfer them from my diskette to the CSS account is indeed very valuable to my future work. I am planning to get a communication graduate degree. Thus I will be confronted with Netscape, telnet etc. constantly. I might as well figure my mistakes out now.
My fossilized error of not being able to complete the transfer was created by my inability to connect what I had learned. I should have also asked for help as soon as I realized I was not getting anywhere. Thus I could have avoided the strong negativity that developed throughout the unsuccessful days of struggle.
It is certain that I will be getting good at this week's task. If I learn how to use my time more efficiently, and connect with the "pros" earlier, I will be able to learn much more. The computer will also appear less foreign to me as time goes by.
One problem that I notice each report is that I do not know how I am doing. I see some people exallerating, and putting in 30 hours per week. I am simply not able to do this. Since I "only" complete the assignments, and do not perform extra steps, I have started to feel incompetent and somewhat pressured. Maybe it is through this pressure that I feel overwhelmed and blocked. I must keep telling myself that I have just started to work with Internet, Pico and Netscape, and that this class is about learning how to use it-not about already knowing everything. As you might notice I am getting quite frustrated! Maybe my reaction is quite normal according to social psychology?! Whatever it takes to succeed I am willing to try. However, right now I feel depressed because I was unable to figure out the task by myself. I understand more about working together by completing the tasks. Especially in this course it is very essential for us to help each other. Although communicating with the computer is rather impersonal, I do see that this work brings us more together. When I approached Lori for help I had no problem to admit that I simply did not know what I was doing. I hope that I will be able to help her sometime.
Hopefully next week will be easier. I guess the workload has been too heavy ( I am carrying 18 credits this semester). I am glad that we have next week to catch up on our assignments and are given time to thoroughly complete the work.