World Wide Web Group Project
Goal:
To locate sites on the World Wide
Web (WWW) that help answer
eight questions central to the first
unit of the course.
Steps:
(1) Searching.
Using Alta Vista or other search engines, find sites that help
answer the eight questions.
(2) Listing.
Create an annotated list of the sites that can be read by a word
processor or web browser.
(3) Answering.
Write brief answers to the questions, referring to the information
in the web sites, and submit both an electronic copy by email
and a hard copy in person.
Details:
(1) Searching for WWW sites.
Students will be taught how to use WWW search engines in class.
Each group will determine how to share the work involved in locating
and annotating sites. Because each group has about eight members
to answer eight questions, one obvious strategy would be to have
each member research one question. Many other alternatives are
possible, however. For example, your group could divide into subgroups
of two, three, or four persons, all of whom research the same
two, three, or four questions. Class time will be provided for
groups to meet to decide how to share the workload.
However a group decides to divide
the search task, all group members should keep each other posted
regularly on how the search process is going. This can be done
by email or, possibly, directly from the web browser. Eventually,
when the First Class communication software is installed, groups
will be able to post notes to their group's folder for a continuous
record of discussion. I expect group members to help individuals
who are having difficulties.
Your group will decide how often
to meet in person in addition to electronic conferencing. I will
provide some class time for in-person group meetings during the
first three weeks of the course. After that you must arrange for
additional in-person group meetings outside of class.
(2) Creating an annotated list
of sites. Through electronic
and/or in-person discussions, your group will settle upon a final
list of sites relevant to the eight questions. You must have at
least one site per question, but listing more than one site reflects
industriousness and may help your grade for the project. Don't
overdo though; listing too many sites will be too much work for
your group and for those of us who will read your list.
To annotate means to provide a very
brief description of what is found at the site. The descriptions
should be just long enough to tell a reader what can be found
at the site. Two to four sentences will often be sufficient. Again,
the group will decide who writes these descriptions. You might
decide to divide the writing evenly, or you might decide that
those who spent less time searching for sites will do more writing,
or whatever your group wants to do.
The end result of the writing will
be a single document that is the product of the entire group's
searching and writing. The document should be produced with a
word processor such as Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, or Clarisworks,
all which exist in both Macintosh and IBM-compatible versions.
KEEP THE DOCUMENT SIMPLE: do not use special characters, fonts,
boldface, italics, underlining, centering, or tab stops. These
features do not always translate well when documents are emailed
or read by a word-processor different from the one used to create
the document. Save the document as a plain text file (all word-processors
have this capability).
Only one copy of your groups' annotated
list needs to be emailed to the instructor. These lists will be
collated and published on the WWW as our class's contribution
to future introductory psychology classes.
Please understand that, although
your group's list is a course requirement, your grade will not
be based on the annotated list per se. Rather, each individual
student's answers to the eight questions will determine his or
her grade.
(3) Answering the questions.
Your answers to the eight questions should be produced electronically
so that you can email your answers to the instructor (see instructions
about creating a plain text document above). You should also print
out a hard copy to deliver in person. Please turn in all eight
answers at the same time in one document.
Your answers should be only long
enough to address each question. Remember, I must read nearly
200 of these papers. None of the questions has just one absolutely
correct answer. Some answers to the questions can be found in
our textbook and in my lectures, but your answers should refer
to the information in the sites your group located. You will be
graded on the thoughtfulness of your answers.