Lab Reports
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Home Page of Tina Smith
Other Student's Lab Reports
Week 2 Lab Report
Anxiety!
Day One
Syllabus
Surprise
E-mail
Week 3 Lab Report
Creating Files
Navigation
Another Surprise
Linking
Not Finishing
Browsing
Go to the Top
Week 4 Lab Report
Information
Ease
The Weekly Comments File
Kicked Out!
Pessimism
Fighting Pessimism
Depression
Macintosh
Advice
Week 5 Lab Report
Erin Sabado's Reports
His Accomplishments
His state of mind
What I learned
Suggestions
Week 6 Lab Report
Traffic Links
Webcrawler
San Diego Traffic Report
York Traffic Web
Real-Time Traffic
Reactions
Go to the Top
Week 7 Lab Report
Student Comments
My Opinions
Comments on Pessimism
Taxonomic Inventory
Weekly Discussions
Getting Personal
Week 8 Lab Report
Psy 459 Students
Interesting Comments
Help!
Relationships
Tips
At Home
Books
Awards
I've Been There
Go to the Top
Week 9 Lab Report
Socialization Files
Topics
Professors
Poor Students
Participation
Cyberspace
Article
Week 10 Lab Report
Samples
Navigation Choices
Different Pages
My Alternate Home Pages
Week 11 Lab Report
Kuhlthau
Chapter Three
Understanding
Picking a Topic
Our Class Discussion
Week 12 Lab Report
Shocked
Achievements
My Feelings
Affect
Week 13 Lab Report
Week 14 Lab Report
Names
My Own Names
Other People's Names
Anchors and Subheadings
Keeping Track
HREF File Names
My Suggestions
Go to the Top
Week 15 Lab Report
What I Have Accomplished
Advice to the Instructor
My Future on the Web
Suggestions for Future Students
Final Word
Week 2 Lab Report=anchor
Anxiety!
This is the most difficult thing I think that I have ever
attempted during my college career. See it @ smith The first day of class
really scared me. I took two pages of notes that day and when I was
sitting in class I felt really anxious.
Day
One
Immediately after class, I went to the CLIC lab and started my
work. I could not do much yet because I had not gotten my unix
account yet, so I went ahead and checked out netscape. I found the
instructor's home page and read over the syllabus. I was very scared
but I was not the only one. See what Allison has to say.
Syllabus!
Reading over the syllabus made me even more nervous because I had
never heard of a lot of the words or seen many of the symbols. The
syllabus was very easy to understand and gave me a good idea of what
to expect from this course. Hence, the nervousness.
Go to the Top
Surprise!
The next time that I went to the lab, I had gotten my unix account in order. This time I was
to complete the homework given which was to send e-mail to the professor. It
sounded easy the way Prof. James explained it, but when I tried it
out, I found it very difficult.
I followed the directions and clicked on Netscape. I tried to
find some way that I could send e-mail through this system but there
was not one. I tried the help files which implied that I would be
able to send mail but I couldn't figure out how to do it. After about
an hour of going through different instructions and trying various
addresses, I finally realized that I must be doing something wrong. I
was extremely frustrated at this point and was desperate for help. I
decided to ask one of the attendents to help me out.
E-mail
I managed to find an available attendent and asked him to help me
send some e-mail. He was very nice and explained it to me step by
step. Needless to say, I felt very stupid when I found out that I was
totally doing the wrong thing. I did not realize that I had to go
through telnet to send e-mail.
After that was told to me, I had no problem finishing my homework. I
wish that Carol Alamares
had done her lab report before this because she gives great
instructions!
Go to the top
Week 3 Lab Report
Creating Files
This week I got the e-mail addresses of everyone in the class so
I really intended to create an address book for myself but I never got
around to it because of the homework. This week I had to create my
own home page, type my first lab report, and create a glossary file.
Leaving class that day, I was overwhelmed. After I had had so much
trouble trying to figure out something as easy as e-mail, how was I
going to complete everything else?
Navigation
I went to the CLIC lab immediately after class (again!) and
started this new task. Needless to say I got totally confused within
the first few minutes. I was having problems figuring out how to
navigate through all of the files. Sometimes I would find myself
opening files that I did not even need! I did not get anything
accomplished that day so I decided to just quit and try again some
other time.
Another
Surprise
The next time I went to the lab I was feeling a bit more
confident. For whatever reason, I do not know. I sat down at the
computer and realized that I was able to move around just by entering
smith.html. I had been entering the wrong file names before and I was
never able to access my own home page. Therefore, I was finally able
to create a home page for myself. After that, I created a glossary
file and a lab report file. I knew that I still had a lot to do with
links and everything but I felt really great just being able to do the
small amount that I did.
Go to the top
Linking
Now it was time to start trying to link my files together. This
is where I got really confused. I was trying to put anchors into my
files and then trying to link on to those. I did not realize at the
time that anchors could not be put in my own file to link it to my own
file. Does that make sense? Anyways, it took me a long time to
figure this out. I finally had to go to someone else's report, namely
Beauchemin's home page (Thank you, you are a lifesaver!) to figure out
what I was doing. To be honest, I did not feel comfortable doing this
because I felt like I was copying her work. I just kept in mind that
the purpose of this class was to learn together and help each other
out. Carol Alamares has something to say about this as well. See it!
Not Finishing
I did not have time to complete the homework for that week which
also upset me. The day that I had planned to do it, I could not get
into the system. I tried for about twenty minutes and finally gave
up. I felt terrible going to class the next day without having
finished my homework. I mean, it is not like I could say the dog ate
it! I have realized that I am not always going to be able to do
things the way I want to in this class because so much of it is beyond
my control. Alison Asahina agrees with me on this one. I hope I can deal with this.
Browsing
Go to the Top
In between the times that I was actually doing my homework, I
decided to browse around the World Wide Web. My father is in the Air Force so I wanted to
see if he had an E-mail address. There is a listing of most of the
Air Force addresses in the Government files on Netscape. I saw many
names but my father's was not there. These addresses were only for
those people who worked on Hickam and my father works on Camp Smith so
that explains why I could not find his address. I was quite amazed
though at all of the pretty personal information that one can find on
these people who work for our government. It is actually kind of
scary.
Go to the top
Week 4 Lab Report
Information
I do not really have that much problem finding information from
the course files. In fact, the first day of class, I was able to find
Professor James' Home Page on Netscape. That day I figured out how to
use the keys to click back and forth throughout a document. I took
Professor James' advise and browsed in three different ways. First, I
went page by page which is called Global Browsing. Then I tried to Navigate 1st Depth. After
awhile, I just started clicking around like a madwoman. As stated
earlier, I was very intimidated by the Syllabus!
Ease
At first, finding information took a little bit of time. I would
have to type in the name of the document that I wanted to view and
sometimes have to space bar through the entire thing to see what I
wanted. This was okay but, fortunately, there is an easier way to do
this. Now that I have created my own files and have started to link
my files to other files, I can navigate through documents much faster
and with greater ease. I have currently linked myself (that sounds a
bit strange doesn't it?!?) to our Professor's Home Page, his Weekly
Comments File and soon I will link to some of my classmates files.
Now, whenever I want to see the homework that I am probably not going
to finish, (this is just a bit of pessimism!) I just go to my home
page and click to Professor James' Weekly Comments File.
Go to the Top
The Weekly Comments
File
I usually try to browse through this file once a week. It just
keeps growing and growing. This week I was surprised to see my name
in the file. There was a request for me to link to that part of the
file, so I did with no problem at all. I feel really good about that.
Now I can just click back to that anytime I want to and so can anyone
else who happens to stumble upon my files.
Kicked Out!
There is one thing that really irritates me. When I am trying to
edit my own files in emacs by using the right and left arrows to move
around, if I hold the keys down for too long, it just kicks me out of
the whole system! It is really bizarre! It does the same thing when
I hold the up and down arrows down for too long. Why does that
happen? It really kills me because every time that happens, I lose
whatever I have typed in without saving, and I have to do the whole
log-on process again. What is really stupid about it is that I know
that this is going to happen but I still hold the keys down for too
long anyway! I guess I just get impatient sometimes.
Pessimism
I am a pessimist in my every day life which is something I have
always struggled with. I am constantly trying to catch myself and
prevent it from happening. I have gotten better at controlling it now
that I am older but I must say that this class really pushes it! I
always feel like I am never going to catch up with the rest of the
class in terms of homework. There are so many times when I get stuck
on one thing that takes up all of my time. Consequently, I start to
wonder if I am going to graduate. I feel really pressured because all
of my family is coming from the mainland to see me get my diploma and
I am not so sure that I am. I find myself thinking that I only have
to get a C in this class and I can make it. This really bums me out
because I have never thought like this in any other class. I usually
strive for an A.
Go to the Top
Fighting Pessimism
The only thing I can do to fight my pessimism is keep going to
the lab and working on my files. Usually, after a lot of trying and
work, I can figure out what I am doing. This gives me a great feeling
of accomplishment which, unfortunately, lasts only until I try the
next task. I hate to say this but going to class also helps me
because it is comforting to know that other people are having problems
too. Some people have bigger problems than I have. I also have to
look back on my life and realize that I have come very far. I have
conquered many problems and one college class is not going to stop me
from accomplishing my goals.
Depression
The only thing that makes me really depressed is the thought that
I might not graduate because I can not always complete my homework on
time for this clas. I have never had this problem before. If I got a
poor grade in any other class it was because I really just did not get
what was going on. I was always able to finish homework and felt like
I was trying my hardest. I feel that way in this class too but it
just seems like I should have grasped things by now. I have to a
certain degree but I want more! Fighting my depression is
accomplished by not working on my files at all for a period of time.
I know that is probably not the best way, but for now that is how I
deal with it.
Go to the Top
Macintosh
Another thing that made me depressed was trying to work on a
Macintosh computer. I always work on the IBM but sometimes at the
CLIC lab there is a waiting list for those computers. So instead of
waiting for one, I decided to try to work on a Macintosh. I was
feeling pretty daring that day I guess. So I sat down and I had to
ask the guy next to me about how to turn the thing on. Then I sat
there for about 45 minutes trying to figure out how to get onto
telnet. Eventually I figured it out but I had to go to my next class.
I could not figure out how to turn the computer off! I had to go ask
the lab monitor to do it for me. I was totally disgusted with myself
that day. I thought, how am I going to figure out the internet if I
cannot even work on a different type of computer. Anyways, I decided
to try it again and then again and at this very moment, I am working
on a Macintosh computer and writing my labreport! Needlass to say
that bout of depression has been conquered and I feel much more
confident. It is nice to know that if there is ever a waiting list
for IBM that I can go ahead and switch to Mac.
Go to the Top
Advice
There is much to say about this course. The most important thing
though is that whatever you do, you should try to look at things in a
positive way. Keep believing that you will get through this and keep
pushing yourself. I know that it is really hard to stay motivated
when you have no idea what you are doing but you just have to hang in
there. Beverly Diaz
concurs with me on that one. Realize that you are very lucky to have
the oppurtunity to learn about the internet. It will be a very
important tool in the future and you will have an advantage over many
people who do not or will not know anything aboout it.
Go to the top
Week 5 Lab Report
Erin Sabado's Reports
I read one student's lab reports from the psychology 409 class of
last semester. His name was Erin Sabado and one interesting thing was
that while I was reading the reports, I thought the student was a
girl. In fact, I thought this until I did my oral report and Kevin
Bogan told me she was a he! Anyways, needless to say I was very
intimidated by what I read. This person had to teach himself how to
use a computer first and then tried to figure out how to use the
internet. I had an advantage over him because I know how to use an
IBM computer which I'm sure has made this whole ordeal much easier for
me.
His
Accomplishments
I read the reports from the last half of the class. I think by
this time he was well on his way to figuring out some of the bugs in
the way he was doing things. He was able to teach someone else how to
use the internet which shows that he was somewhat knowledgable, even
if he did not think so. He was able to get information about jobs on
Maui and also some business information from that island. I think
that towards the end he might have been frustrated still because he
had not mastered the internet (which is pretty impossible) but I think
that he learned a lot about it. Not only about the internet itself
but I think he learned some things about himself. If he truly set his
mind to something than he could accomplish a lot. Feelings of
frustration could be worked through in order to gain the desired end
to the problem. These are things that are useful not matter what you
are attempting to do. Additionally, writing about them can help you
to work them out. Overall, I think he learned many important things
that he will be able to use in areas beyond Psychology 409.
His state of mind
Go to the Top
Erin's state of mind varied depending on what he was doing. When
he was doing things just for himself, there was not as much pressure
so he was able to deal with failure better. When he was trying to
accomplish an assignment, he became more upset when he could not
finish. I think that this is where he really got stressed out. He
would try to start things with an open mind and if he could not be
successful he would take a little break. I think that he was very
eager to learn but sometimes his emotions would get in the way.
Overall he was positive with occasional pessimism.
What I learned
I was very impressed with the accomplishments that Erin made.
Unfortunately, I was not able to read the reports from the beginning
of the class so I was not able to see his success on a full scale. As
I stated earlier, I was very intimidated by these reports when I first
got them. They were long, full of information, and took a long time
to read. I got some helpful hints from Erin though. After reading, I
decided to try to start my work each day with a positive attitude and
try not to let failure bring me down. There were not many hints on
actual commands to use for certain tools but I could figure those out
for myself. I just looked at his state of mind during the three weeks
that I read about and took from that what I could get.
Suggestions
If anyone else was to read those reports, I would definitely have
to say "Keep an open mind!" Just because one student had trouble does
not mean that you are going to be just as bad off. Sometimes, it is
possible to learn from others how to cope with things and reading
these reports will help you. It is nice to know that someone is
having trouble as well, even if it is not on the same things. The
internet is a complicated thing. I do not think that even its
creators have figured everything out yet. Do not get discouraged.
Keep an UP attitude and do not procrastinate!
Go to the Top
Week 6 Lab Report
Traffic Links
I was a bit confused by the instructions for finding traffice
links. I wondered why we needed to do this since we are not in the
Traffic Psychology course. However, after I tryed using the search
tools that Prof. James' gave us, I could see that it was a test to see
if we could find anything. I had a very hard time.
Webcrawler
I chose to use the Webcrawler when searching for my traffic
documents. As a search word I picked traffic and typed that in. Soon
after hitting return a list of about twenty five documents related to
traffic was displayed on the screen. I decided to check out a few to
decide if any of them appealed to me and if I wanted to link them to
my home page. Clicking through the documents, I was very confused at
some of the things I read. I did not know that traffic also referred
to the traffic on the internet. So I just kept clicking until I found
one that I liked.
Go to the Top
San Diego Traffic Report
I found the San Diego
Traffic Report. This document is full of good information if you
live pretty much anywhere in California. There are maps that will
show you areas of congestion during rush-hour traffic. There is also
a list of closures on the freeways. This is helpful in case you might
be driving somewhere and you could possibly change your route if you
checked this out. There is information for travelers who might be on
their way to Sacramento. The best thing I thought was the list of
accidents. This could be really helpful in avoiding big backups in
traffic! In fact, something like this could be helpful in Hawaii if
they do not already have one.
York Traffic Web
The next document I found was the York Traffic Web. I did this by
typing rush hour into the search space on the Webcrawler. This
document comes from England. The York Traffic Web is a group of four
members who have come together to help others figure out how to stop
traffic congestion. They are all professionals with some kind of
experience with defeating traffic in urban areas. This would be
helpful if you worked in a big city on traffic. The information they
have is there for the taking by anyone who needs it.
Real-Time Traffic
The last document I found was the Real-Time
Traffic Report. This document is very similar to the San Diego
Traffic Report except that it concentrates on L.A. It tells you about
the areas of congestion in areas like L.A., Orange County, Sacramento,
and San Diego. In fact, you can even click onto the San Diego Traffic
Report from here. There is a list of images of places that have high
congestion but for some reason I could not click onto these.
Reactions=anchor
I was not to fond of this assignment. It was really interesting
to see all of the information available to people about the traffic
but I would have preferred to search for something that applied to me
directly. Is that selfish? Anyways, this assignment did help me to
get the chance to use the Webcrawler, which I had never had the
oppurtunity to do before. Now I know how to find the things that
interest me on the internet, or at least some of them! Rebecca Ross seems to
agree.
Go to the top
Week 7 Lab Report=anchor
Student Comments=anchor
This weeks assignment is to check out some other lab reports and
make some comments on them. I really enjoyed this one because it gave
me a chance to finally sit down and do something relaxing. Reading
about other people's problems is quite satisfying! HA! HA! Barry Kwock mentions this
in his report. (please make a link to this paragraph The one area in
everyone's files that I concentrated on was Pessimism. This is the
area that I have had the most trouble with. I thought it would be
good to link these comments to my file so that later, I could go back
quickly and know that I am not the only one!
My Opinions=anchor
The first week was very frustrating for everyone. However, I
think that Beverly Diaz (please make
a link here) expressed herself well. In one of her first paragraphs she
talks about how the first week really got to her and it kept getting
worse. I could really relate to this. I had a really hard time
getting started as well.
I also had problems dealing with not being able to finish my
homework and keeping up with the rest of the class. Grant Harada (please make a link here) had the same
types of feelings. Apparently, he missed a class and felt really bad
that he was not ahead of the game. Read about it.
Go to the Top
Comments on Pessimism
There were three lab reports that I read that contained
information about how they handled pessimism. As stated earlier, this
is very interesting to me because I have had many problems with this
throughout the semester. Ryan Higa
(please make a link here) wrote a really good paragraph about how he
copes with depression. He
talked about how he had to keep things in perspectice. Trudy Moore (please make a link here) said the same thing in
her report. For more
informative ideas about pessimism read Cheryl Renata's lab report.
Taxonomic Inventory
I really enjoyed reading Professor James' article titled
Taxonomic Inventory of Affective and Cognitive Behaviors While
Learning the Internet. It was really interesting to see how he is
using the things that he learns from this class to help him with the
Internet. I have taken one of Professor James' classes before and I
had to write a Self-Witnessing report. This was a great tool for me
to get to know a little bit more about myself. I also agree that
writing for this particular class is also very helpful. Especially in
that we are writing it for future
generations. When I know that someone else is going to read this
because they might need my help, it is much easier to write about how
I feel and let them know that others have experienced the hell that
they are now going through!
Go to the Top
Weekly Discussions
Later on in his paper, Professor James discusses the weekly
discussions that his class has and how they are beneficial for the
students. I totally agree with this. See it! When I am sitting alone at the computer, trying to figure out
what I am doing, I start to feel a bit lonely. However, going to
class every week reminds me that there are other people in class who
are having the same feelings that I have. It brings a sense of
oneness to the class. We are all going through the same thing.
Getting Personal
I liked what one of the students said about getting
personal. IT is really great searching the net when you can look
for things that you want to see. I prefer things about music and
travel. In fact, I have linked my home page with a few spots that I think are very
interesting.
Go to the Top
Week 8 Lab Report
Psy 459 Students
I feel really sorry for the psychology 459 students. Not only do
they have to learn about psychology and how it relates to traffic, but
they also have to learn the Internet! I am so glad that I took this
course instead! Good luck to all of you 459ers!
Interesting Comments
One of the first lab reports that I read was done by Jo Allen
(please make a link here). In the first paragraph, she (I hope she is
a girl!) talks about the molestation
of minors on the Internet. I had never heard this story before and I
was quite shocked when I read about it. I am also very glad to hear
about the existence of the Internet Police. I guess that just goes to
show that you have to be careful no matter where you are, even in
Cyberspace.
Go to the Top
Help!
I could really relate to Shane
Akagi (Please make a link here) when he said that the instructions
he had for working with emacs were very vague. I totally agree with
this statement. I had a really hard time with E-mail the first day
because I did not have the right instructions. Luckily, one of the
lab attendents knew how to do it so he helped me out.
Relationships
Jae Isa (please make a link here) asked some really good
questions about how people present themselves ont he Internet. Do
people try to make themselves look better on the Internet. I think
that they do to a degree. I mean we all try to do it when we walk out
of the house with certain clothes on or with makeup on. We are all
disguising ourselves in one way or another. Being on a computer
cannot stop that.
Tips
Joleen
Lai (please make a link here) had a really great tip on how to
edit your files. Doea anyone know how to move through lynx quickly
without getting Kicked Out! of the
system?
Go to the Top
At Home
Michelle
Ota (please make a link here) gave some good advice to future
class members. She suggested trying your best to work at home. I
would have really benefitted this semester by having a computer at
home. I would have been able to keep up with my work a lot
easier.
Books
Terri Slaughter (please make a link here) said
some funny things about the frustrtion level. It was also mentioned
that he had checked out some books from the library that really did
not help him at all. I have done the exact same thing. I checked out
Unix for Dummies. I did not understand anything in that book. Maybe
they should write a book called Unix for the Morons who did not get
the first book!
Go to the Top
Awards
I was going through Professor James' Weekly Comments file and I
came across those of you in the class who have won awards. I would like to
personally congratulate you for doing so well in your work. Have you
guys had experience with computers before? I got a chance to look
through some of your lab reports and they are really good. I hope I
can catch up with you at some point in the semester.
I've been there
Professor James has his Weekly Comments File linked to Cheryl
Remata's lab report because she felt like smashing the computer. I
can totally understand how she feels. I have never attempted to work
on PACX before but I remember at the beginning of the semester when I
would come into the lab and all of the IBM computers would be taken.
I sometimes waited but once I tried a Macintosh. Boy was I sorry! I
had no idea what I was doing. However, after working on it a few more
times I got it wired. Those cute little computers are totally
smashable, aren't they!?!
Go to the Top
Week 9 Lab Report
Socialization Files
I really enjoyed reading this file. At first, when I saw how
many pages it was, I was dreading reading the whole thing. In fact, I
put it off for a week during spring break. However, once I sat down
and started reading, I was surprised at how quickly I got through the
file. I found myself wondering how this file was started and how
people came to know about it. I am not too familiar with the PLATO
system so I was confused about how all of these people were aware that
they could repsond. Later I realized that some of them were in
Prof. James' class and then I understood. I felt knid of sorry for
these students who felt that they were bogged down with the work on
Plato. I'll comment on that more later.
Topics
I was very interested in the topics that these students were
writing about. I liked one of the first ones about multiple choice
questions. I agreed with the girl who wrote the first note. I agree
that essay tests are much more reliable than multiple choice tests. I
feel that multiple choice tests are simply requesting a regurgitating
of information. I never really feel like I have learned anything
after I have taken an MC. In fact, I do not usually study for a
multiple choice test because I know that if I have attended class and
read the material at least once during the semester, I will be able to
figure out which one of four answers is right on a question. As soon
as I have finished taking the test, I forget everything that I have
learned that semester. I agree that when a class is very large it is
very difficult to do anything besides multiple choice tests and in
these cases I think they are necessary. I would not want a professor
who has already read 50 papers to read mine. Obviously he/she will be
very tired and will not be able to be as objective about my paper. I
am glad that that once you move into upper-level classes the number of
students decreases because that is where I feel I have learned the
most about my major Psychology.
Go to the Top
Professors
There was another topic that really interested me. This was the
one called "spitting info." This person stated that it felt like some
professors were just spitting info at you and didn't care whether you
understood it or not. I have felt like that myself. I took a
Psychobiology class one semester and I had a professor like that.
Psychobiology is a very hard topic to grasp and a student needs to be
taught not just talked to about the subject. This professor would
stand up there and go through a chapter an hour just running off about
the material. Most of us were just sitting there in a total daze
wondering what the heck he was talking about. Most people stopped
coming to class because it was easier to just sit down alone and try
to figure the book out for yourself. Another thing that he did was
not show up for class about five times and he would have his wife come
in and substitute for him. I think that this is okay maybe a couple
of times during the semester, but five times is too much in my
opinion. It was really obvious that he really didn't care about the
class. I suspect that he was only teaching to get the federal grants
that a professor can get only if he is teaching. I totally disagree
with the person who said that students do not seem to care. I do not
think that this is true, however, whether it is or is not, students
pay to go to school. They should be able to take on the attitude that
they want as long as it does not interfere directly with the
professor's teaching. On the other hand, a professor is taught to
teach and that is exactly what he should do. Even if it seems that
most of the students do not care, I am sure that there are at least a
few who do so why not concentrate on those? I really wish that I
could have commented on this topic!
Poor Students
Prof. James asked for the reactions of the students on how they liked the Plato system. The reactions were mixed, but I saw many students who complained about there being too much work. I thought Prof. James' response was really funny when he asked them if they would rather have another paper. Anyways, my personal feeling is that these students should have felt greatful that they were given the oppurtunity to work with computers like that. It is very improtant in today's job market that you have at least a little bit of experience with them. Sometimes I feel that I have too much work in this class, but that is only when I cannot figure something out and I am stuck. I do feel really lucky that I got to take this class, especially since I am graduating this semester. I just made it!
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Participation
I wish that I could have participated actively in this discussion
group. I am sure some of the students would have liked to respond to
my last paragraph. I have had some experience with this type of forum
on the Prodigy system. I really enjoyed it. I used to talk with
others about the music that I liked and I was able to get a lot of
useful informatin from them. One topic that was especially fun to
talk about was the abortion issue. Everyone gets so emotional about
this subject that it is hard to talk face to face and get a word in.
On that computer, I could write what I had to say and not worry about
being interrupted. That is one thing I think is good about computers
is that they are not too personal. That can be bad as well, but
sometimes it is better when emotional issues are discussed without too
much emotion. Does that make sense? Things can be more easily
understood when they are on a computer screen. That is my personal opinion anyway, and I can type this without really worrying about what others are going to think about it.
Cyberspace
I think that this type of forum should continue to be built in
Cyberspace. I have watched talk shows where people have met on the
computer and falled inlove. I do not know personally if that is
possible, but I think that it is a good thing and it is due to they
ways people interact in Cyberspace. I am not really sure what type of
experimental design I would create. I would think that a kind of Dear
Abby file would be good. We can already do something like that with
E-mail but not everyone can see it. If we could get people to write
in and ask questions or describe their situations we could get a
Cyberspace talk show going. In fact, I think that I would call it
Tina Talk. It would be done in that regular talk show format starting
with someone speaking about there problems followed by questions and
comments by the audience. It would all be done live so that reactions
could be given immediately. I think that it would work out really
well if it could be done in an orderly manner. We could even get
sponsors who flash their screens occasionally as commercials to pay
for the whole thing. This would be good because someone could sreen out all of the personal remarks that people make on regular talk shows. Also, people might be more honest knowing that noone could see them. Who knows. I guess it is an idea!
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Article
After reading the article Prof. James wrote about the Socializing
files it was easy to understand why he included Plato in his course
requirements. I understood some fo the reason before, knowing that
computers are an important part of our future. I did not realize
before that these students were given a training
session. I wonder if they realize how lucky they were. If they
had to take this class where there is no training session unless you
need special help, they would have appreciated that part of their
course more. I agree with the part about student's needing secret names. That kind of goes along the same lines that I stated
earlier. People are more likely to be honest on a computer if they
know noone will know who they are. These students probably found it
easier to make comments under a secret name. Additionally, I agree
that affective education is important. It gives a student that extra edge that others do not have. I feel very lucky to have taken this course
because I am better able to understand the emotional aspect of working
in Cyberspace. My dad asked me how computers and emotions relate and
I was able to tell him that it is very easy to become emotional when
working ona computer. For example, when things do not go your way,
you get angry. It is important to be able to understand why this
occurs. Realize that it is just a reaction you are having to an
object and that it will go away soon. After I explained that, he
understood the connection between psychology and the internet. Even
if I do not get a job in the field of Psychology, I have gotten a lot
of experience with computers from this class!
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Week 10 Lab Report
Samples
I looked at many of the home pages using netscape. I would say I
have probably seen around 50, maybe more. There are so many that have
interesting titles and subjects that it is hard to stick with just
one, especially when there are links to everything else. I liked to
stick with the more simple ones though because I think that when there
are too many pictures and images it is hard to concentrate on what you
are reading or trying to look for. Additionally, that is just my own
personal taste, I like to keep things organized and simple. I did not
only look through the sample pages that the professor recommended to
us. I searched with the Webcrawler for a few pages that I thought
would interest me. For instance, I found the home page of my favorite
musical band. There wer lots of great pictures on those pages. I
also looked at a few that the Webmaster recommended. I even copied a
few things from the art page. I didn't want to take any of the
pictures because I felt kind of like that was stealing, but I copied a
blue bar onto my artistic home page. I really enjoyed creating the
artisitc home page. It looks so much better than the normal one. The
only thing is that the font is so much bigger. It looks a little bit
too big, but it still looks organized and interesting.
Navigation Choices
As I was browsing thorugh the home pages, I tried to choose links
that sounded interesting. I really know what Professor James was
talking about when he said that titles and names are important on the
web. Sometimes I would pick something that sounded really cool, but
when I got there it was a total disappointment. Sometimes I think
that people should not try to be so goofy when they pick names, unless
the subjects are truly goofy. If one page looked really interesting, I
assumed that the pages linked to that would be too. That was generally
true.
Different Pages
Most of the pages that I saw should be considered artistic pages.
There were lots of pistures and icons that added to the organization
and looks of the pages. I really liked the pages with pictures that
you could click on to. Sometimes they pictures were really small but
after you clicked, it would give a really big version of that same
picture. I thought that was really cool, especially if it was a
picture of a place and you could see things much better. I took a
tour through Portland and each picture could be enlarged if you
clicked on it. I was pretty happy because I am planning on moving
there next year and I've only been there once. I got to see some of
the things that I missed on my trip. Some of the pages were just
standard pages that were pretty much for eudcational purposes. The
home pages like these were okay, but unless you had an interest in
what they were about, they were not very fun to look at. I hated
getting to these types of pages because it would be hard to get back
to something interesting. They are usually linked to other boring
things as well. The ones I liked the most were the home pages with
pictures of people on them. Home pages for bands usually have that
and they also have pictures of album covers. I have to admit that I
have pretty much concentrated on music home pages. I like to read and
see things concerning the music that I like. There are a lot of these
pages too so I was happy about that.
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My Alternate Home Pages
I haven't got the slightest idea what I am going to do with my new home pages. I want the artistic one to look nice, but I don't want it to look too busy. I think I might just stick with the bars and bullets that I have on there now. It looks colorful but organized and it is easy to read (especially since the font is so huge!). The standard one is going to be pretty easy to do however, the indexical is going to take a long time because there are so many different things to type in. I am not sure that I really understand all of the different types of links , but I think as I go along I will get it. I just have to keep linking everything together. I want everything to look neat and organized. There is nothing I hate more than looking at a home page that is messy. It is hard enough to look at a computer screen for long periods of time. I think a person should work to to keep cyberspace user-friendly. It is kind of like the theory behind earth day but apply it to cyberspace.
Week 11 Lab Report
Kuhlthau
The Kuhlthau book was pretty interesting. I am not really sure
how it related to this class though. I mean I understand that
information is the key to the Internet and so was the book, but I
would have preferred a book that addressed computer issues. This book
is about finding information seeking and the various issues related to
it. The first Chpater is about the affective and cognitive processes
that people go through when they have to find information. The
uncertainty principle was discussed and I could really relate to that.
I looked at the uncertainty principle as the feelings that I get right
when I find out that I have to do simething tha entails information
seeking. I get nervous about what I am going to look for and how I am
going to find it. It is kinf of like the feelings I got when I was creating files. I think that a lot of
people experience this. Chapter 2 discussed the learning process from
three different perspectives. This part of the book was kind of
technical and I didn't really relate to it that much.
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Chapter
Three
After reading Chapter three though, I felt kind of relieved. I
was starting to be able to really relate to this book and it didn't
seem as boring. The researchers were starting to find a model that
fit for information searching. They divided it in to 7 stages and I
understood each one, especially the three middle stages where a person
at first feels confused, but as they work along things become more
clear. Later, after they did more research, they cut the stages down
to six, ending them with search closure. I know exactly what they
meant by search closure. I have been feeling those feelings and
thinking those thoughts for the past few days. I have had to do a
couple of research papers for the end of the semester, and I feel
really great now that they are all finished. That feeling relates to this class alot. See what I wrote in my Another Surprise paragraph.
Understanding
As a matter of fact, I started to do these papers after our class
had finished going over the Kuhlthau book. My particular part of the
book was the last part of Chapter three where the researchers outlined
their final model. I had kept this in mind after I did my report
because I felt that I knew what they were talking about. When I went
to do my papers, I kept the model in the back of my mind and I felt
much better. As it is with anything, it is better to know that you
are not alone when you are feeling insecure. I hate it when a
professor assigns a research paper because I always get this feeling
of dread. I tend to be a little bit pessimistic. Then, after I have chosen my topic I feel a little bit
better. I get confused again though because I am not always able to
find pertinent information on the topic that I chose so I start to
doubt it.
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Picking a Topic
Additionally, sometimes I pick a topic and then I don't even use
it. I did this for my English paper. I had to turn in a topic before
I did the paper so I chose "The revolutionary politics of Henrik Ibsen
and how they manifested in the character Hedda from the play Hedda
Gabler." I started doing research and I couldn't find hardly anything
tha had to do with politics and Henrik Ibsen. This was one of the
topics that our professor gave us to pick from so I was sure when I
picked it that there had to be information somewhere. I just found
the general area of the library where they had put the books that had
to do with Henrik Ibsen. Then I picked up each book that was there
and looked through the table of contents and the index and found four
books that had interrelated topics. This whole process took forever
because there were a lot of books and I couldn't always remember what
each one contained. Global Browsing would have come in handy here. Searching on the computer is much easier. See it! It is kind of like going through some of the
files on the net. See it! Eventually, I narrowed
it down and my ultimate thesis was "Ibsen's beliefs about society, the
emancipation of women, and the individual are relfected in the
character of Hedda Gabler." I was pretty disappointed because that is
not nearly as controversial as the other topic would have been. But I
got the paper done and handed it in so I am happy about that.
Our Class Discussion
I do not want to end this lab report without addressing the
discussion our class had about the librarians. It was suggested that
the librarians should be able to help us more than they do. I agree
to a certain degree because I have been frustrated by the lack of
knowledge of the individuals who work inthe library. I have to say
though that it seemed as if some people expected librarians to select
a topic for them. I think that is asking a little bit much. I have
found that usually when I ask a bonafide librarian (not a student
helper) I am able to find what I want. I agreed with Professor
J. when he said that librarians should be eduated in other fields to
be able to help more. I do not think that this is very realistic
though because it would cost more money to hire people like that and
obviously the university does not care because, otherwise, they
wouldn't be cutting the funds for student services. One thing I am
glad about is that Ia m graduating and I do not have to deal with this
topic anymore, that is until I go to Graduate or Law school. I would really like it if the Professors could offer help but that is not always an option. See it!
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Week 12 Lab Report
Shocked
I do not know what I expected from the Swedenborg Discussion
Files for Psychology and Theology, but it certainly wasn't that! I
hated it! I am not a religious person at all. In fact, I question
religion all the time. I certainly did not expect to read the
opinions of a bunch of people who do not really know what they are
talking about! Some of those people are total weirdo, religious,
funky people. The basic topics of the conversation were good
vs. evil, God, and homosexuality. I found myself wondering why these
people were discussing such boring topics. They were just exchanging
basically the same ideas back and forth and did not realize it I
think. I think that these people must have known each other because
names kept on coming into the picture. Sometimes these people were
just downright insulting to each other. Some of the things some
people wrote wer rational. If you raead them and believed them, they
made sense. But others were not quite so articulate. They just
started blabbing on about god and evil and all of that stuff. I do not think that any of these people got anywhere. They sure did not convince me.
Achievements
I do not think that these people accomplished anything. I am sure
some of them were able to get their feelings out, but to me the whole
religion thing is useless to talk about because there is no way to
prove anything until one dies. I suppose talking about his issue over
the computer is better because everyone can feel like they can say
whatever they want without being persecuted. Also, there is noone
around to interrupt you and you can get your whole point across. I
think in this way talking over the computer can be a very positive
thing. I would have liked to participate in something similar with a
better topic. I thought it was intersting how some people took on a
very serious attitude about heir topic. They tried to be intelligent
about what they were saying and did not resrot to personal insults.
Others were probably just participating to get a rise out of someone
else. The sad thing is that they usually succedded. You could see it
because usually the really short comments would be smart remarks and
they were typically followed by long responses. I thought that was
pretty funny. Who was this satan person anyway? I couldn't figure
out which side he was trying to persuade. Was he supposed to be god? I don't know. That was the problem with the whole thing.
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My Feelings
I really did not get too much out of this reading. I learned how
truly ignorant some people can be and are. I wish that it could have
been on another topic, then I would have been more interested in it.
I can't stand discussing religion because I do not practice one and I
don't like people trying to persuade me otherwise. I don't believe in
God either. At least I don't think so. I don't know, but I have to
find out for myself. I think that the forum was pretty good. As I
stated earlier, I really like that one could say anything and not be
interrupted or immediately attacked. Myabe they should try
somethinglike this for Politicians. We could all just hook up our
computer during election time and browse through what the candidates
have to say until we come to something that we are interested in or
that pertains to us directly. Mayber we could avoid having to hear all of the nasty things the candidates have to say about each other and all of the dirty laundry campaigns. It's just a thought. Or should I say a dream?
Affect
This really did not have too much of an affect on me. I was kind
of disugusted by the remarks about homosexuality. I thought that we
had gotten over that stupid issue already. These people are human
beings just like anyone else, and they should have the right to get
married if they want to. I was surprised to see how many people are
still living in the Dark Ages. This is a really big world and there
is enough room for everyone. I hope people start to realize that
soon. I don't want to be searching the Web 20 years from now and read
that kind of stuff. I really don't want to read about religion and
god either but I am sure that topic won't go away. I did wonder what
this had to do with psychology. I understood the theology part, but
not the psych part. I guess it was supposed to be kind of like this
class. Learning to express your feelings about god on the internet! HA!HA! I bet in the future we will have support groups and stuff like that on here. The possibilities are endless!
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Week 13 Lab Report
This week we were just supposed to clean up our files. I had to make sure that all of my links worked and that my files looked organized and neat. So far, I think they look okay, but there are two more lab reports so read on!
Week 14 Lab Report
Names
I must admit that I am very excited that I am at the next to the
last homework assignment. This week I am to discuss the naming of the
various files and documents that there are on the Web. Relating to
titles and file names can be easy or difficult depending on the
person. Some people really know how to name their files well. I
expect the name of a file to tell me what I can expect to be in it.
For example, I named my lab report file labreport.html because that is
exactly what it contains, lab reports. My glossary is named
gloassary.html because it is a glossary. As I have been srufing the
net, I have taken note of the names of the places that I look at.
Sometimes the names of the files are accurate. Other times I wonder
how these people came up with these names. I really do not mind what
people name their files, but it is easier to remember an address if it
has something to do with what the file is about. For instance, if I
am looking for a picture of someone, I think that the person's name
and the fact that it is a picture should be included in the address.
That way, I do not always have to go back and check the address, I can
remember it.
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My Own Names
When I create names for my files I try to be fairly accurate
about naming them. Sometimes it is difficult to come up with a name
becaue there are so many different things in the files. As stated
earlier, lab reports and glossaries are easy because that is exactly
what they are. Home pages are easy too. However, if I was to name a
file where there were a lot of ideas in it, I would pick the main idea
and name the file according to that. Hopefully, I would be able to
relate my ideas in the title. I would want other people to be
interested in it. When I search with Webcrawler, it gives me a list
of file names. I usually pick the names that interest me. If my
address or file name came up on that list some day, I would want
someone to be curious about it based on the name. I think that a file
should be named so that it says exactly what it is and it is
interesting.
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Other People's Names
When I see other people's names and addresses, I expect them to signify what the file is about. Sometimes I get really upset because the names are deceiving. Some people try to come up with these really exciting names when their files are totally boring. That really ticks me off because sometimes it takes a very long time (in computer time anyway) to get to a place. If I am disappointed with the file, I feel betrayed and I will not go back to that file again. I think that other people should try to be accurate about their file names and be honest. Mayber some of these people are just in really wierd moods or something. Anyways, it kind of upsets me. I really appreciate it when someone names their file responsibly though. Then I know whether I want to visit that file or not.
Anchors and Subheadings
When I am naming my anchors and subheadings, I try to be accurate
about them. In my lab reports, I do not think that it is a big deal .
I usually name them according to how I feel about what I have written. If I feel quirky that day, then I'll have typed a lot of weird things so I can name the title in the same manner. If I am serious that day, I will name it in that manner. Lab reports are kind of a confessional and they are mine so I can name the according to how I feel. I try to be accurate, as always.
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Keeping Track
It is easy for me to keep track of things. I have written
everything down in my daily planner. Unfortunately, due to time
constraints, I have not been able to record all of this information on
to a file or in my address book. At the begininng of the semester, I
got the e-mail addresses of everyone in the class. I honestly meant
to put them all in an address book on Pine, but I never got around to
it. That was a very stressful time because I was trying to create all
of these beautiful files that I now have. I never got around to making a bookmark file either for the same reason. Hoever, I will try to do so in the future. I plan to keep these files and create some others when I get my own computer and unix account. There are so many things that I wanted to do, but I never had the chance. This is going to puch me finally into getting a computer.
HREF File Names
One very handy tip that I learned over the semester was to hit the equal sign and the backslash. When I hit the equal sign, I could get the totall address of the file that I had encountered. I usually wrote this down, in hopes that I would create a bookmark file, but anyways.... This was a really great feature when I was creating links to certain documents. It took the pressure off to try to keep track of where I was. All I had to do was hit the equal sign and I had all of the information that I needed. Another handy tool was the backslash. If I wanted to link to something within a document, all I had to do was hit the backslash ans I could get the name of the anchor that I needed. This was also very handy when I needed help doing something. I could look at a person's file who had accomlished everything that I wanted to and get help in dong my own. I took advantage of this at the beginning of the semester when I was creating my files.
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My Suggestions
I think that most people should take the advice that I ahve given
earlier. Be very careful about how you name your files because they
are important. A name can tell one many things about a doucment and
it should grab the viewer. Do you want people to read your files? If
so, try to make your titles interesting and true to the informtion
comtained in the dcoument. Make use of the equal and backslash keys
because when you are creating files, they can be extremely helpful.
Try to have fun with everything. I also suggest that you read the
article that my professor has written about titles and addresses. To check it out go go here.
Week 15 Lab Report
What I Have Accomplished
I started out in this class with just your basic knowledge about
word processing on the computer. I had heard about the Internet and I
took this class because I saw it as an oppurtunity to learn more about
it. Boy, was I right. I learned a lot from this class and I am do
glad that I took it. I started out with nothing on the World Wide
Web. Now I ahve many different files that I have created all by
myself, with a little help from other great students. I feel that I
have been very lucky to take this class because I have acquired skills
that I might have missed out on had I graduated one semester earlier.
This skill on the Internet is going to be very important when I go out
looking for a job. I think that compared to others in the class, I
was ble to accomplish a lot. I am very proud of myself for having the
motivation to come to the computer lab everyday and sit down and work
for hours at a time on this project that I was given. It took a lot
of patience to learn and create everything that I have. There were
times when I thought that the end would never come and I was not going
to graduate because I couldn't finish my work. Here I am at the end
of the semester having completed all of the work assigned to me and
learning in the process. I feel that I have acomplished a great goal
by getting through this class. Computers no longer intimidate me. I
have learned to work on a Macintosh computer, something I would never
have attempted before. Additionally, I have learned not to be afraid
to ask for help. I am very proud of myself for having gotten through this class.
Advice to the Instructor
One thing that I would suggest is that a textbook be chosen that
relates to computers. I think something that contains the html
formatting codes would be very helpful to future generations. I
bought my own book but it would have been nice if I could've had it
related to this course. I definetely recommend that you continue
building cyberspace with future students. They only have to gain from
this endeavor, there is nothing to lose (except of course all of your
files!). I am very appreciative of the fact that I got to take this
class and that it was related to psychology. At first I did not
understand that. Now I do. There is a whole realm of different ways
that the internet relates to psychology. I got to learn about this and
on a personal level. I was one of the guinea pigs. Thank you Dr. James for giving me the oppurtunity to take this class and teaching me vital lessons that I can use in the future!
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My Future on the Web
I feel very strongly that I want to continue with these files that I hae created. If I am not able to do that, then I will go out and buy a computer and create some new ones. I have never gotten around to buying a computer but now that I have experienced surfing the net, I want one right away. I had not idea how much information can be found. There is information there that I cannot find anywhere else unless I become a world traveler. But I can do this from my own home. I am going to create a file for my husband and I so that it can be kept up and updated throughout the future. Kind of like a family home page as Dr. James suggested in class. I can't wait to ge started, again!
Suggestions for Future Students
The future students who take this class should consider themselves very lucky. They will gain skilld from this class that will be very valuable to them in the future. They should learn to be patient and that motivation is important. Do not procrastinate when doing your homework. Be sure that you keep up with the weekly assignments so that you can put in all that you want to. If you wait, you will find that at the end of the semester, you will have to cram a lot of thought into a small amount of time. Also, do not get stressed out if you cannot understand something. Look to your fellow students for help and also Professor James. It is really easy to do, just e-mail any questions that you have. Also, be sure that you save your documents, you never know what is going to happen with your files. Most importantly, look at this as fun. You are creating something that is very important. Professor James allows you the freedom to express yourself in the way that you want to. Do not be afraid to let your personalites shine through. This will reflect itself in your files. Other people will be veiwing them so be sure that they are neat and organized. Try to enjoy yourself and do not get too stressed!
Final Word
I am finally finished! Thank you for this oppurtunity and happy Net Surfing!
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