Report
#2
MY
ADAPTING TO THE INTERNET
By
Darin K. Kawamoto
Before I enrolled in Psychology 409 and 459, I
had no knowledge of the internet. I didn't even
know how to compose and send e-mail. So far, I
learned a lot about the internet from the two
classes. Even though the work load is a lot, I have
become really interested in the net. However, there
was a lot of frustrations and effort involved from
the start of the semester until midterms. Sometimes
I felt like throwing the computer to relieve some of
the stress, but it would just make matters worse,
because I would have to buy a new computer. It is now that I realize
that the internet is very popular. A lot of my friends are begining to
use the internet and e-mail. Now instead of asking my friends for their
pager numbers or home numbers, I ask them for their e-mail address. I am
surprised that a lot of my friends have e-mail addresses. This class has
been beneficial in teaching me the basics, and I can teach a lot of my
friends. I noticed that the internet is big news in Washington D.C.,
because President Clinton is getting involved. He wants to ban all of
the obscene visuals and text from the internet. I don't know the rules
of the internet. When I started using the internet, I wasn't aware that
there were rules for the internet. It seems like these rules are
unspoken, because a list of rules does not appear everytime I log in to
Netscape and the World Wide Web. I think it would be hard to control
what people put on the internet, because it is so huge and the user
numbers are countless.
Week one was stress free, because I
didn't know the work load involved. My first assignment was to
get a unix account from Keller Hall. I bumped into
my friend who works at Keller, and he couldn't
believe that I am only now getting a unix account.
This week was an introductory week, and I was
relaxed and calm. We were learning easy unix
commands, and becoming familiar with the content and
objective of the class. I signed up for both Psychology 409 and
Psychology 459, intending to drop one. I was carrying eighteen credits
during the first week of school. I needed to drop one of my classes,
because I was not intending to take eighteen credits. I previewed both
classes to see which I would drop. Both of Dr. James' classes were
similar. I would probably make a decision by the day of the class,
because one was on Tuesday and the other on Thursday. However, there was
another class I was taking, which I expected to enjoy, but I didn't. Now
I was in a dilemma, because I wanted to drop this particular class that I
did not enjoy. Dr. James' said that 409 and 459 were liasons, and a few
students were in both classes. I decided to stay in both classes. Now I
have three 400-level writing intensive classes and a fifteen credit work
load.
Week two was a time when we
were expected to practice on the net. I had no clue of what we were
supposed to be practicing. All I knew how to do was
e-mail. I still was calm and relaxed because
everyone else in the class was lost and in the same
boat I was. When we went to the lab, I would read
my e-mail and browse through netscape. I wasn't too
familiar with browsing through netscape. I only
stayed in my
instructor Leon James' home page. I visited
generations one and two, and discovered I will have
to do this soon, but how? Professor James and
individuals from previous generations would help us,
but we needed to asked specific questions and I didn't
know where to start. I was totally lost, yet I had
a feeling that I was going to pull through some how. I was in a
situation of mild panic, because I was in a double whammy situation. I
was enrolled in both classes, and if I didn't know what was going on in
one class, I surely wouldn't know what was going on in the other. I hate
the feeling of not knowing, especially when I'm being graded. I noticed
that a few students knew what they were doing, yet a lot of students did
not even know where to start. The class description of the course stated
that computer novices were preferred. However, when you think about it,
almost everyone in the world are computer novices on the internet. The
internet is a new frontier to be conquered. I noticed that even Dr.
James does not have all the answers, but he sure knows more than me.
Week Three was still a time of confusion, but
frustration had not kicked in yet. I felt
comfortable because most of the students in my class
were just as lost. I also had the reinforcement of
being enrolled in two classes that were liasons to
each other. Some of the veteran net users in the
class were already putting things up on their home
page. I thought to myself, I'd better get on the
ball. I could not see how everything we were doing
in class was intertwined. I had notes and commands
written on paper, but I could not visualize how
these notes could produce a home page on the net.
It was hard for me, because I didn't have a
foundation of knowledge about the internet. I was
lost, because I didn't know where or how to start. The first few weeks
of the semester was a time of practice. However, I knew that our
practice weeks were limited, and soon we were expected to do some work. I
noticed that the class was still laid back, and a lot of students were
still not doing anything. I started to get a little worried, because I
knew we would be graded on the work we did. However, I did not know what
to do. The class objectives were still vague in my mind, yet I knew I
had to get on the ball and not procrastinate. I knew that both Dr.
James' classes were writing-intensive, so I knew I was going to do a lot
of writing. I started to get the impression that Dr.James' classes
resembled computer classes than psychology courses. I didn't mind,
because what I am learning now is much more applicable to the real world.
With the fast pace of technology, I have to keep up and Dr. James'
courses help me to do that.
Week Four was a
time when I had to take things into my own hands to get help. I sought
help from Lori Morita, a generation two student who
already accomplished the class with flying colors. If you would like to
see Lori's Topical Index, click here.
For about three hours we covered
the basics from exporting e-mail from pine to putting up things on
my home page. Still, after three hours of help, I
was still fuzzy on using pine, pico, netscape, ftp,
etc. However, I was beginning to feel happy, because I was starting to
become competent on the internet. When Dr. James said to pick a
statement that described our predicament on the internet, my statement
was "I feel
bad, I'm lost, and I need help." It was true, I did feel bad because I
felt incompetent on the internet. This made me stressed, because I knew
I would be graded for my competence on the internet. Now I was beginning
to feel better of myself, because of the extra help from Lori. It was
really nice of Lori to take time out of her busy schedule to help me.
She told me that she spent forty hours a week on the net when she took
one of Dr. James' classes. Oh boy, and
when she found out I was enrolled in both of Dr. James' classes, she made
a funny face. Oh no I thought to myself, what did I get myself into.
Yet I still had a positive attitude.
Week Five was a time of
enlightenment,
because I started to see the light. I met with Lori on two
different days during the week, about three hours each day. I finally
began to see what was involved in creating my files on Netscape. The
process of making a home page and all of the other assignments we had
took a long time. I found myself spending more time in the lab. I
thought to myself that I might make it after all. I was very proud of
myself, because it just hit me. I guess a little confidence goes a long
way. After my last session with Lori, I was still uneasy about working
on the computer independently. However, one day I went on the computer
by myself, and it all came to me. I actually was doing something on the
net. Something I thought would be impossible for me to learn, just a few
weeks ago. I was still behind some of the other students in my class,
but I could actually help my fellow peers on the internet. Just a few
weeks ago, I was the one that needed to be helped. My new found
knowledge was just in time because Dr. James began to assign more and
more work. I found out that Generation One and Two students were graded
weekly, but Generation Three is graded by a midterm and final. I think
this puts more pressure on us, because we are being graded on only two
things. If we screw up on one of the grades, it is all over. At this
point, it is still unclear what Dr.James wants in his criterias for
grading. The instructions have been changed constantly. We have to do
as he says, because he is the one grading us.
Week Six was a time when I started to get really serious. I went to
Keller Hall to get the PPP Kit so I could install Trumpet Winsock into my
computer at home. I had a few problems when I got home, because the disk
they gave me was not formatted. I went back to Keller Hall and they gave
me another disk. This time I checked the disk on the computers at the
Help Desk. The one I received still wasn't formated. Finally they
copied the program onto a new disk right then and there. It wasn't a
problem installing the Trumpet Winsock into my system. I started to use
my computer at home as well as the ones in the lab. At first, my
computer started to make a screeching sound after dialing for a few
moments. I thought something bad was happening to my computer, so I shut
it off. Then I found out that certain modemns make a screeching sound
when they connect with the host server. I often got connected rather
quickly, because I never had to wait more than five minutes. It was strange
for me to hear people waiting up to an hour to get connected to the
pearl server. The pearl server is terrible, and it was the cause of my
frustrations at home. A lot of the times the pearl server is not in
service or breaks down. I found out that there are about 157 users per
line for the pearl server, while other servers only host about ten per
line. I guess for free service, you are bound to run into problems.
The worst part about it is that it is hard to complain, because I'm not
paying for the service. I notice that I spend about 99% more time on
my computer at home than before I enrolled in Dr. James' courses. My
brother is saying that I am addicted to the computer, but actually I'm
doing my homework for class. I'm not one of those who spend hours on
the internet for chatting purposes, so I wouldn't call myself addicted.
Week Seven was a time of experimenting and learning. My computer at
home would not reload when I used pico. I asked the Help Desk, and they
told me to change the cache settings to zero. I did and it worked. I
wanted to download the Netscape Navigator to my system, and I was having
problems with that. The Navigator took a long time to download from the
ftp site, and I wasn't sure if I was doing the downloading correctly. I
couldn't save images on the regular Netscape, so I asked the Help Desk.
They told me how to download the Navigator so I could save images.
However, it took several trips to the Help Desk before I downloaded the
Navigator successfully. You could say at this point, I was really
getting into the net. Not only was I concentrating on my midterm
projects, but I was experimenting and trying new things with my
computer at home. Dr. James and other students would send e-mail on
the different things you can do on the net. It was fun trying them
all. I learned the internet is fun to pass the time and learn about
different things, because the internet is full of informative pages and
sites.
Week Eight is crunch time, because midterms are here. It's funny
because it seems you can spend hours on the computer, yet only progress
slowly. Now I know why home pages are always under construction. I
tried downloading more things to my harddrive. I tried downloading the
Netscape Chat. Actually, I successfully downloaded it. The real
frustration comes not because of the work load, or the frequent change of
directions by the professor, but it comes because of the computers.
Every computer is different and will not always do as asked. The
computers that really frustrate me are the slow computers. I found that
the CLIC computers are slow and the mouses don't work efficiently
either. However, the CLIC lab is the only lab open on weekends. It is
hard to work at home, because the pearl servers are not very reliant.
Even the people at the Help Desk say that the pearl servers get a lot of
complaints and break down a lot. I'm glad that the there was an
extension for midterm grading, but I am still worried. I don't know what
Dr. James' grading criteria is.
INSTRUCTOR'S HOME PAGE: CLICK HERE
FOR Dr LEON JAMES' HOME PAGE
MY HOME PAGE: CLICK HERE FOR DARIN'S
HOMEPAGE
PLEASE LEAVE ME A
MESSAGE!
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