Week 12: Improving Your Homework
11/15/95
Curtis Nakao
PSY. 409
Dr. James

Section 2.

How difficult was this week's task?

Very easy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Very hard
This week's rating= 1

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= 4

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 Very likely
This week's rating= 10

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 tasks?

Gave up 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Refused to give up
This week's rating= 8

Section3.

This week's task was a very simple one. We just had to compare and contrast the team reports, both our own and a few of the other students, from the first half of the semester to the reports from the second semester. ( The reports that are up for the second semester anyways. ) Along with my team reports, I decided to look at the team reports of Ina Miller and Nitsa McCarthy. I will be comparing and contrasting team reports #1, #2, and #9 for Ina and team reports #1, #2, #9 and #10 for Nitsa. My team reports will be #2, #5, #11, and #12. (The reason for the differences between the numbers of my reports and the reports of Ina and Nitsa is because in our team we took turn writing each weeks reports and I thought that it would be best if I looked at the reports that I wrote. ) These are the first two reports that were done and also the last two reports that were done so far.

There was a little more negative emotions than anticipated this week :( My Winsock program was going a little haywire, the lines to connect were very busy, more responsibilities at work ( I just got promoted! ), and sleep depravation due to the inability to logon at an earlier time. There were no negative emotions about the work itself but all of those extra little tidbits did take it's toll on my psyche.

The importance of this task is the basic knowledge that you are improving and progressing as the semester rolls on. No student, or any person for that matter, should ever be satisfied with standing pat. By doing this week's task, of comparing and contrasting, I will be able to tell whether or not my skills are improving. Also, by looking at the other students team reports I will be able to see the areas that I may need to improve on, it will probably be quite a lot, and how well my team reports compare with their's. This task will be especially valuable because I am a Psychology major and will be using this method quite often.

I should be getting pretty good at this type of task because I do tend to get quite a bit of practice on it particularly during the school semester(s).

The satisfaction level of this area took quite a fall this week. With all of the Winsock problems and the inability to logon I did not feel that I was able to give this area a very good rating. Maybe I should download a better Winsock program. I'll ask Dr. James about doing that when I see him in class.

I don't think that I tried as hard as I would have liked to this week. I had a lot problems with my software applications and the demands on my time were pretty tight. I probably could have, actually should have, stayed up a little later if I tried hard enough but I've got to sleep sooner or later. ZZZZZZZZZ.....

Comparisons of my team reports.
It seems as though my team reports only progressed a little from #2 and #5 to #11 and #12. The main progressions are the amount of information that is given and the number of links that are present. I always try to include the link to the search engine(s) that I used any relevant links that are present within that particular site. I did not include any references to social psychological use but I will start to do so with team report #12.

Comparisons of Nitsa McCarthy's team reports.
Nitsa's team report #1 was basically an introduction to what she was attempting to do in the team reports and what the focus of the team was: The Internet itself. There were no links contained in this report except for the mail links to herself and her partner Ragna Borries.

Her team report #2 began to show the processes by which she began looking for her information, the Yahoo Search Engine, and what link(s) she used to find her required information, Business and the Internet. There were links present in this report.

By the time she reached team report #9, her reports really began to look good. There was quite a bit of information about the her what search she used, Savvy Search, what she looked for, world's flags, and what she found and it's links, World Flag and Flags.

Her team report #10 a little more information and a better overall look. She had links to the All-in-One Search Engine, the World Wide Events Database, the Deja News Service, and the links she chose, the conferences link that lets search the upcoming conference schedules by topic and the Internet Law Symposium which discusses the Internet itself and the laws that govern it.

She had a link to her partner's team reports on her team reports page but I think that a direct link within the reports might be better. Overall, I think that she had made tremendous strides as far as writing team reports is involved.

Comparisons of Ina Miller's team reports.
Ina's team report #1 was your basic "just looked around and explored" report. There were no links in her report itself but there were links to her partner's,Yoon Cho and Gina Domingo, Home Page, the instructor's Home Page, and the mail link.

By team report #2 she had the same links on her report page but none in the report itself. She just described what she looked for, what she found, and how she found it.

Her team report #9 was the only active link so I'll use that as a comparison. In this report, I could see a marked improvement in the way that it was presented. There were links to the Galaxy Search Engine that she used, the links that she used to click on to find her information, Fatherhood and Fatherlessness and Elementary My Dear Watson! Love and Marriage = Horse and Carriage, and what information she found there.

I think that a direct link from within each team report to her partner's reports could have made it a little better. Or maybe a link from her team report page to her partner's team reports

Although the improvement was not as big as Nitsa's was, It was still a big improvement. ( Probably better than mine. )

All things being equal, I think that everyone, including myself, has shown some kind of improvement from the first half of the semester. Threports are becoming more detailed and there are more links present.

Principles governing the construction of team reports.
I believe that the team reports should try to be as detailed as possible without being to "wordy". They should give as much pertinent information as possible without overwhelming the potential reader. The relationships to social psychology should be recognized as best as possible. It was hard to relate social psychological relationships with learning the Internet. Most of it will probably deal with relieving stress (distress) or learning in general.

Comments...?
There's no place like home......
Go to topical index.
Go to week 11 report.