The Dynamics Involved In This Class

Introduction

This paper will explain some of the motivational dynamics involved in getting through this class successfully. I will discuss several of these items and then explain each. This paper will also discuss some conflicts I have experienced and other related topics dealing with my successfulness in this class.

Motivating Sources

Let me start out by saying that this class is extremely challenging and time-consuming. I found that the material wasn't the difficult part. The difficult part had to do with finding the necessary time to start and complete the work. This class took up a tremendous amount of time and energy. I found the motivation from a number of things that helped me overcome the obstacles that I encountered. Obstacles that would have stopped me from completing my work. My first motivation came from my love and enjoyment in working with computers.

Ever since I have entered college I have been attracted to computers. I enjoy using them for almost anything and it soon became a hobby. So when I entered this particular class, I felt excited and grateful that they offered this course on-line. I thought to myself, "wow, I get to do all of my work via computers and the internet. how much better can this get." This motivation didn't leave me one bit throughout the semester and I really enjoyed learning new technologies and a lot of things about the internet and how to better use the tools available. As a result of this motivation, internal motivation, I found it easy to tell myself to get the work done and be successful in this class.

Another source of motivation that I have experienced in this class was that there was so much new and fascinating technologies to learn. HTML alone has a lot of different things to learn and also the language is always constantly changing. For example, at the beginning of the semester no one hardly used or knew how to use frames in netscape's browser. But by the end of the semester, I find that this technology is being widely used by a number of web sites, including our teacher's web site. These kinds of advances and changes in the technology of the class and the internet easily holds my interests and my motivation.

The final and probably most important source of motivation for being successful in this class would be that I am working hard to get a good grade and graduate with my degree. This class is one of my requirements for my degree and obviously I want to do extremely well in passing this course. Just the thought of getting a good grade and having a tremendous amount of fun while working for it makes it simple to find the motivation and dedication to my work and learning.

Conflicts I Have Experienced

There were quite a number of conflicts I've experienced in this class. They ranged from conflicts I could easily handle and learn from to conflicts that I have to deal with over and over again because I could do nothing about it. These conflicts were sometimes easy to handle but most of the time they were very difficult to handle and solve.

One conflict that I experienced the most was that I couldn't find enough time to keep up with all the new and exciting advances in the technology and my school work. There was such a tremendous amount of work to do that I could not possibly do everything I wanted to do for my website and my class. I did manage to get everything that was necessary done though, which is a good sign. But there were things I wanted to do to website to make it more appealing to the cyberspace web surfer. I couldn't do it because I didn't have enough time to get this done. This made me feel a little uneasy because I would always ask myself, "what if I had done this, I would have a better looking site." The internal conflict I felt from not being able to do everything I wanted was not that great. It didn't affect my work but I did feel uneasy at times. I also felt frustrated because of this but at least I could handle these feelings well.

Another conflict I've experienced in getting this website up is the inablility to connect over modem to do my work. This really hampered my timing, since I always needed to do my work from school instead of doing it in the comfort of my own home and at late hours of the night. Connecting over a modem to the UHnet provides a lot more convenience and ease to get my work done. But the UH modems are always busy and are always bombarded with too many users. This was a source of extreme frustration in the beginning of the semester but as the semester progressed I got used to not using the dial-in feature and using the computers here at school. So my frustration has eased and I solved the conflict by avoiding the source of conflict.

Demands and Challenges of the Class and the Internet

If I had to rate the demands and challenges of the class on a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate them a definite 9. This class demands a lot of time as I have mentioned previously in this report. I found this class to be very challenging to both on an intellectual as well as an artistic level. Just when I thought I was finish designing and setting up my page, there would be something else to do or something else to change. The web site, I am convinced is a constantly evolving and dynamic substance. I had to find the intellectual brain power to learn all the different commands and remember them. I also had to find some artistic abilities to set up an attractive and easy to read site so that visitors would be happy to come to my site. I definitely didn't want my site to become a big mess where nobody could find anything.

Worthiness and Value of the Class

There is no question that I found and will continue to find that this experience and tools I have learned to be invaluable to my future. There are a large number of jobs in the workforce that require people to know how to use computers and be able to use the effectively. I feel that I can do this and use my skills to take advantage of these types of jobs that require the usage of computers. I have also gained a greater understanding of the internet in this class and some of the psychological processes involved in learning and using computers, the internet, and the world wide web.

Depth of My Involvement with the Internet

Before I took this class I had some knowledge and involvement with the internet. I used e-mail consistently and had done very little browsing on the WWW. Now I find myself not being able to get along without looking at the web for longer than a couple days. A large part of the information I gather is from the web. I read current news, magazines, sports, and technological advances all on the web almost everyday. Sometimes, when I have the time, I enjoy surfing the web and going to interesting personal home pages. So yes, I would say that since this class I have increased my involvement with the web by many times. It's a great source for new and exciting information and it's fun.

My Image of the Internet

I see the internet as a communication channel for the entire world. Anybody has the ability and access to a wealth of information. Potentially billions of people around the world can communicate and share ideas, cultures, stories, and anything to others. Therefore, the internet is a great and potentially important tool in our society. Just as television and radio have increased communication channels, the internet will add to these channels. For me and probably a lot of other people who use the internet, the internet has made computing and general information gathering a lot easier and opened up the lines of communication wider.

I see the internet exploding in size and volume for many years to come. As everyone tries to get connected, technologies will probably grow together. Technologies such as television and computers. In fact this is already happening as companies find a way of transforming televisions and computers into one hybrid machine. This is fantastic, I believe and this is going to make home usage very easy and accessible.