REPORT 2 Need Sense Of Direction

CONFUSSION ON THE WILD WORLD OF THE INTERNET

My Confussion

I came to school on Thursday January 11, 1996 with the thought that I was registered in the right class. Dr. James walks in and begins the class with the explanation of, "What we think the Internet has to do with Traffic Psychology?" WAIT ONE MINUTE! I'm in the wrong class. I meant to show up for Dr. James' Affective and Cognitive Processes while Learning the Internet. I was so embarrassed that I pulled Dr. James aside to explain and he told me to return on Tuesday the following week for the class I was scheduled for. I didn't realize the big shoes I was stepping into, while signing up for WI409. This showed me to pay attention to my schedule from the start.

FRUSTRATION

The first day of class was too much to handle for an inexperienced individual as myself. There were about thirty students in the class. In my mind every single one knew what the Instructor was lecturing on, but me. Dr. Leon James was an Instructor of mine once before for Traffic Psychology. I really enjoyed his class and thought this would be a very interesting course to take. Little did I know, I knew not one thing Dr. James was speaking about. He began with asking the students to give a definition on what we thought 'Internet' means to us. The class seemed to be going on a smooth level, until, I became breathless. The commands Dr. James was writing on the board was mind boggling, for example:

a.)Log on @ unix

b.)%telnet___www.soc.hawaii.edu

c.)login____

d.)password____

e.)www: emacs___(file name).html

f.)to save file: 'ctrl-x', 'ctrl-c', 'y'

I didn't have any clue what he was writing or saying, so I looked on the students paper next to me and he knew everything that was on the board. This only made me more frustated. In addition, we had to go to Keller Hall for our own e-mail address. What's e-mail? I never heard of this word in my life since I've been in college. Dr. James continued with more commands, more commands, and more commands. What was pine? What was pico? What was ftp.css account? What was unix? Can you imagine the frustration I had? Did the Instructor think we all knew what he was lecturing on? After class time was up, I told myself not to quit! I maybe lost, but I'll find my way. I'll just ask for help.

UPSET AT TEACHER

The second week of class was a shocker. I began to get upset at the Instructor. Dr. James was moving to fast for me. I went and received my e-mail address. This didn't help beacuse I was still lost. As the day went on, he began to write more commands on the board. I kept staring at the words and nothing was sinking in. I stopped writing because I had this fog over my eye's. I started to block everything Dr. James was lecturing on out of my mind. Instead, I was watching other students and realizing that I wasn't the only one lost. YES! This was a releif to me. I'm not alone. There was a problem, at this point I didn't care.

ANGRY AT SELF

The third week of class was worse. I knew that I needed to spend more time on the computer. Dr. James told us at the beginning that he wasn't going to give us deadlines every week like the last Generation's. This seemed to give me way to much space because I knew in my mind I could slack off and catch up later. Well, this idea was useless. I started to lay back and not bother with the inner voice in me saying, "Karla, you better get a move on."

TOO LAZY

The fourth week I came to class without any cares in the world about this course. I knew in the back of my mind that I needed to move on and hussel to get my sites on the Internet, but I was just too lazy. I asked my friend in the class, Rowney(check this out, it's Rowney's Database awesome) on what do I need to catch up? He said, "Don't worry, I'll help you." Then, it was a suprise that my report1.html, report2.html, wibx.html, hp.html, and topics.html was due in five weeks. I slacked off way to much. I was spending time on the computer Internet, but not enough.

MAD

I couldn't believe I was so mad at myself. This was week five and I needed to get the ball rolling faster. This was a week of Madness. I began to run around like a chicken without a head. This wasn't fun at all. I finally started to get my information on my disk. There was a problem again, I kept getting cut off. It was taking a long time to hook-up on the Netscape. I kept getting this, "There maybe insufficent sytem resources on the network maybe down(Reson: Winsock is uninifialized)." I gave up on it and told myself not to get mad, I still have next week.

OKAY

In the sixth week, I kept telling myself, "It's okay!" But, it wasn't okay. I kept giving up when it wasn't going my way. I had my computer at home with my modum, but I kept getting cut off. The time for waiting was ridiculous. I came to class and Dr. James embarrassed me infront of everyone, telling me that this was not an excuse. I can't give up. Basically, I think he knew in his mind I wasn't spending less time on the Internet then I was suppose to. The disturbing thing about this was, I kept saying not to worry and everything will be okay.

HELP

The seventh week was a bomb. It hit me! Why not look at other student's sites and try to figure out how to do what I was suppose to do from the first week of class. I was e-mailing Rowney Martinez and asking for help. He was a life saver. He left commands, commands, and commands for me. This was a big help for me. I kept asking him in class certain questions and during the Lab time he was showing what was what. He told me it's up to me now by getting my information on the computer.

FIND OUT ON YOUR OWN

This is the eighth week of class. Wowy! I am actually enjoying my time spent on the homework. I keep looking at the other Generation's as well as the student's in my class and finding so much things can be done on my own sites. This was getting fun. I finally realized that all I needed was to believe I can do it. I started to find that there is so much information I can use. It's remarkable. I know now that my lazyness was uncalled for. I'm a negative person. I don't encourage myself to move on when I'm stuck. I want all the people to read this report and not do what I did. You must keep up with the homework assignments, look to yourself to see where the problem lies, don't blame the Instructor for doing his/her job, get up off the sofa, ask for help, and most importantly, believe in yourself that you can find out on your own what needs to be done. I am enjoying myself now that, "I UNDERSTAND."

Here are a few Student's from Generation3 that I relied upon by reviewing everything they had to offer inorder to help me with my sites:

Calvin Cheung Sherman Lee Rowney Martinez Amy Lamb Denise Tanaka

If you have any time to contribute some comments, either good or bad, I know you want to do it "PRESS HERE!"

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