Sept 13th, 1995
YoonWhan Cho
Psy409
Dr. Leon James
How difficult was this week's task (lumping all the sub-tasks together)? circle one.
Very easy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Very hard
This week's rating=10 How much negative emotions 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=10 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=10 How likely is it that you'll be getting good at this week's tasks?
Not likely 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Quite likely
This week's rating=9 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=5 How hard did you try to get through this week's tasks?
Gave up easily 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Refused to
give up
This week's rating=10
TOTALLY LOST First of all, I was having a
difficulty with publishing my
reports on the WWW.
The
instruction that I had didn't work. Whenever I tried to follow steps and
command, it said, "No such file or directory." I kept asking labbies and
classmates but nobody knew why the instruction didn't work. I was incredibly
frustrated. I couldn't even go to sleep. I was so lost but I kept
trying in a
hope that somehow it would work out and I could figure it out. But
it was
impossible. I tried every ways and kept trying. Was I stupid? All I need was
the answer, the clear answer that why it doesn't work. I was ready to accept
any miracle. I thought and thought if I work this hard it would work out. I
was loosing my confidence when the real problem was such a seemingly easy task.
Even now I know that I have made not much mistakes but I think that it didn't
work because of me. This thinking gives me a headache. I began to think that
I might loose the interest in learning the Internet. I was afraid but
meanwhile I thought that I could do anything if this puzzle could be solved
with any means.
GREAT WISDOM BY
DR.JAMES I am still not aware of why it didn't work by any chance. Is
my attitude wrong? Am I stupid? I came to think about what Dr. James
told me that it is not your fault. At that point, I just hoped that if
it would work out somehow I promise myself that I can be the
master of Internet. I had to do something not to loose my interest and
confidence. I knew the great wisdom I learned from Dr. James would work
out somehow.
I decided to get into "Using UNIX and Pine." I tried hard to figure out and interpret all the figures one by one. But some of them happened to be related to the part that I was having problem with. I realized that I have developed a serious aversion to that part. I was doing O.K with interpreting other figures using e-mail and Fetch. But when it comes to the part where converting rtf to html, I just didn't even want to start. I was actually sick of it.
INTERPRETATION BY
OBSERVING DIFFERENCES
I was interpreting other figures by observing differences from the figures that
I have acquired how to use and it was much easier when I figured out that
there's not that significant difference. There were no notable differences
among the sub-tasks except the problem part. I didn't even want to try after I
have wasted almost 10 hours of my time to figure it out somehow. I was playing
with meaningless puzzles which needs simple commands to be solved. I was
frustrated again when I thought that the task was not that important to waste
my time on. I had to console myself somehow. I was pretty persistent
with working with new stuffs. By being persistent, I could interpret
new
figures and different sub-tasks.
AFFECTIVE AND COGNITIVE FACTOR
One day, I came to think about myself loosing control for strong affective
factors such as pride, frustration, and aimless persistence. I realized
my
fossilized error that I loose control whenever I get challenged by any
problem
with assumably easy answer. Maybe, it's my pride that gets challenged. But I
had to keep focusing on learning Internet so that I can find the motive to
persist and restore my pride. I had fossilized this error and made it as
repeated lapse. My repeated lapse in a cognitive way could be that I identify
myself as the problem. I felt lacunae that I may correct this same error.
I thought what I need to do is to be simple. I need to be more relaxed with my
emotion or affective domain. Also, I need to try not to identify myself as the
problem. To be frank, I can not note any progression or developmental trend in
my acquisition since my frustration is too much to handle. But the concept and
knowledge that I can note is in both
affective and cognitive part that
I need to be simple as I deal with the machine and need to learn how to
handle emotions by trying to be dull. I shouldn't emphasize the situation or
trouble that I'm in. My conclusion is that I'm too tired to figure out by
myself so I'm going to wait for good Samaritan. The resolution is
to be simple and not to get frustrated.