215-216, 128 Relational summaries

Message no. 215[Branch from no. 209] Posted by Thomas Culhane (1311520071) on Saturday, February 3, 2007 5:37pm Subject: Re: Relational Summary

Hi all -- Adrienne has made a good start here swimming in these unfamiliar waters, but to get to shore, Adreinne you've got to really link your thoughts to quotes from the text book and also to outside readings. I suggest you all check out Patricia's Relational summaries for chapter 1 and chapter 2 (which I think are even better than the models I posted in the course content area!) and use them as your guide. She liberally uses quotes from the book, relates them to her observations and provides links to outside readings.

As time goes on, if we all help each other, we will converge on a style and a method that will make these not only fun and enlightening to read, but a pleasure to write and informative to all. Keep up the good work, and keep upping the ante!

Message no. 216[Branch from no. 209] Posted by Thomas Culhane (1311520071) on Saturday, February 3, 2007 5:42pm Subject: Glossary poetry

Thanks for being the first to answer my query about the intro to my post Adrienne --

yes, the words all came from the glossary and what I tried to do was to take every single vocabulary word in the D section and use them creatively but correctly in a single sentence (or, at least, in a single paragraph!).

My English teacher at Dobbs Ferry High School, Jack Holly, made us do that every week with our vocabulary lists and I found it to be a delightful exercise. It really made me learn those words and concepts because I had to think so outside the box by staying in the box (of one sentence or one paragraph).

I provided that as an example of an offbeat way to do a 'relational summary". I simply related all the words from two pages of the glossary in the text book to each other, stringing them together to create meaning. Try it sometime, you guys! Message no. 217 Posted by Thomas Culhane (1311520071) on Saturday, February 3, 2007 5:57pm Subject: Relational Summary Chapter 1 Pat Friedrichs

Subject: Relational Summary Chapter 1 Pat Friedrichs Message no. 128 Author: PATRICIA FRIEDRICHS (pwakeman) Date: Saturday, January 27, 2007 1:28pm

Patricia Friedrichs Environmental Psychology Assignment 3 week 1 relational study of the first chapter

Ok, I start with page one which explains that our environment “provides us with basic needs, is modified by our actions and contains natural and built surroundings. Affordances are possibilities allowed or provided by the environment and helps determine our behavior.” I automatically thought about my home and my ability to take online classes. A week ago a sketchpad and colored pencils were laid out around my room and desk area. This week my computer is consistently on and the sketchpad is replaced with textbooks and notebooks. The computer and books are affordances in my environment that allow me to go to school online. On Tuesday, I still didn’t have all my books and this affected my mood. I was worried and concerned about falling behind, bur then on Wednesday, I received my books and my mood changed to excitement about reading and learning new things.

Right now, even in Texas it is cold and the weather helps me to appreciate not having to go out to class. Also, even though gas prices are dropping, I am happy that I do not have to financially find gas money to attend class. I have built my classroom setting in my dining area. One wall was perfect for the computer desk. The wall is an affordance in my environment. However my environment has one major flaw and that upsets my mood at times and my learning process. That is the desk area is directly connected to the living area where the TV is located. When my children are the noise in my built classroom setting makes it intolerable to study and work. I then must move to my room, which does not have a computer and thereby limits me to hand written assignments, until I can get back to the computer, and reading. This can sometimes be frustrating, especially if my children are using the computer also for schoolwork and I cannot get back on when I need to work. The apartment is small and when the three of us share one living space, we often interfere with each other’s personal space and tasks.

When the book spoke of the experiment about crowded living conditions it made me think of my own crowded space. The apartment complex I live in has tight quarters outside and we must all share the space. There are only 4 working washing machines and 4 dryers for over 100 people. This creates a competition in the laundry room. Where we must determine the most appropriate time to do laundry. This is a problem focused experimental design on how to resolve the issue of limited laundry issues and its influence on behavior. This is a link to public use laundries in apt complexes. Brightening up the laundry- More prefer to use laundry room for economical reasons http://www.housingfinance.com/housingreferencecenter/Laundry_Room.html We could do an observation about how many residents use the laundry room at any given time of day. But you would be sitting there for 7 days and nights recording data. As the book suggested, cameras would be more efficient.

Now I read on more in the chapter and they mention simulated environments and I think of my secondary virtual classroom, where I fell connected t classmates and instructors even though we never meet. In this case, my instructor can travel anywhere in the world and not skip a beat in teaching our lesson. Here is a link to the history and advantages of the virtual classroom. http://www.und.ac.za/users/clarke/rto/vt2.html

Then I enter a third environment, which is Second Life. Here I can accomplish more than I can in my real life. I already have a house and new car and clothing and it was all-free. I am content as I walk around, meeting people and completing tutorial tasks. I have a choice whether I want to stay in the help land or move on to the game. Right now, I choose to stay and explore the help land a little more. However, in my real environment I am getting a little frustrated because I must use the keyboard to move around. I cannot afford a game pad yet, so my virtual environment is a little slower, and harder to use. This doesn’t differ much from my real environment where I have to use a cane. I am handicapped so to speak in both settings. However, when I can afford it I will get the game pad. Here you will find a survey that someone did regarding keyboard use vs. controller game pads. My frustration with the keyboard might come from inexperience using the keyboard for gaming and also the lag in my computer. The following link you may have to copy and paste into the address bar- for some reason Webct won't hyperlink the whole address.

http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message? board.id=NonGameplay&message.id=421373

Once I do get a game pad this affordance will allow me to travel more efficiently in my virtual environment. This means to me that there is a correlation between device used and level of frustration in real time environments.

In heading back to my laundry room as part of my understanding of experimental design, there is another factor to take into consideration. Whether or not someone is using just the washer or just the dryers because they may have the other in their apartment. Someone might own a washing machine and bring their clothes only to dry them. Also whether a person uses the machines regularly or is just using them because their machine just broke and they are waiting on a replacement. These are confounding effects that would change the outcome. Therefore the problem would have to be more specific.

Then, I began to think about how to perform an experimental design in my Virtual World. How could I get statistics? Well maybe I could open a store and sell 2 similar products such as a convertible car vs. a regular closed car and see which one sells more in the virtual world. As the book mentioned, experiments have been done using simulators that model everyday driving conditions as well as experiments of flying. An experiment could be to test how long a pilot can fly a plane before fatigue and poor judgment occur.

In this type of study participants are aware they are being studies and most likely signed an informed consent. In contrast do my laundry room participants have to be made aware of being in an experiment? Would being informed change their behavior? I don’t think it would. No matter whether someone is keeping track of people using the machines, the bottom line is that they still need to do their laundry. Secondly, they would not have to do anything else but wash their clothes, which is there task anyway. The results would indicate good times when the machines are available. If I wanted to I could just set time limits on the experiment such as between the hours of 6am- 10 pm. Once the results are known, it might change peoples laundering habits resulting in a change of affordances available in the environment.

This all goes in line with the book, which states, “ that our behavior is affected by the environment as much as the environment is affected by our behavior.”

Pat