Final World Wide Web Project Instruction Sheet

Social Trends and Problems: Sociology 142

California State University, Long Beach

Fall, 1999

Working in small groups of 3 to 4 students, you will publish an electronic “term paper” to the Internet’s World Wide Web. Your goal, as a group, is to define and attempt to provide solutions to a social problem of your choice. Almost everyone has already chosen a group, and is already working on the content of the project, but we must now go into more detail regarding what your site is expected to look like.

Content:

You must do the following in your attempt to define and solve your social problem:

1) Explain why you consider the issue at hand a “problem.” Explain why others may have also considered it a problem, and why. If others do not think the issue at hand is a social problem, explain why you do. Remember to use your “sociological imagination” in defining the problem. Refer to sociological theories we’ve discussed this semester in class and in your reading.

2) Describe the history of the social problem, where it has been a problem (for instance, is it just a problem in the U.S., or is it a global problem?).

3) Present data on the problem at hand. This data may be in the form of already available information, or you may collect new data of your own. We will have more than one segment in class describing how sociologists go about doing this.

4) Describe how others have tried to solve the problem in the past, or how they are presently trying to do so. Discuss the ways these solutions have apparently succeeded or failed. Talk about any debates surrounding these past and present solutions.

5) Finally, tell how you and your group would solve the problem.

Length: Each member should contribute the equivalent of 4 to 8 double-spaced pages of pure text. If you include photos or other graphical material in your contribution, the amount of text may be reduced. If you include presentations of statistics, or graphs of statistical information, the amount of text may be reduced. You may divide the work in the following ways: 1) Each person takes on one aspect of the problem (see above), or 2) Each person is responsible for one aspect of the final product (one person will do text, another data collection and presentation, another graphical presentation, another the technical part of the presentation), or 3) You may collaborate on all aspects of the final product.

Quality:

Each web project should enlighten web surfers about the social problem at hand. They should leave your site knowing all the necessary details about the given social problem, about what people have done to try to solve the problem in the past, and you should try to convince them that your solution is superior to others. This is primarily how you will be evaluated. I will imagine that I am an ordinary web surfer looking for information and informed discussion of the particular social problem in question. If the site satisfies me and gives me what I need to know about the problem - and challenges some of my perceptions about the problem, you will get a high grade. If I don’t get the information I need, and if the explanations are not adequate, you will not get a high grade. That’s all there is to it.

Style:

Your site may be as “plain vanilla” (even to the point of having only text, if you wish) or as elaborate as you wish. I am encouraging you NOT to let the style overwhelm the content. A flashing picture (easily found on the Internet) will not automatically give you a higher grade, UNLESS it somehow contributes to my better understanding of the social problem you are investigating. Photographs should help to enlighten web surfers; they are not there just to take up space. Take the time to explain your graphical material, and explain the statistics you present. A chart is nice, but it has to mean something - it’s not just a decoration. It is easy to decorate a web site; do not rely on this ease to dazzle me with eye-popping elements.

On the other hand, a sharp, stylish site will help to draw web surfers to the issue at hand, and to clarify your points. Use graphical elements that will heighten the effect of your content. I will provide you with sample sites that do just that.

Uploading:

Most computer labs on campus (especially those in the North Campus Library) have a program on them called “WS-FTP” This program will enable you to copy your files to the web with the push of a button. I will show you how to use the program, and I will place an instruction sheet on the site explaining any further details. It is very easy. You launch the program, fill in the blanks to tell the program where your web site directory is, and then you copy files. All pictures and graphics are “BINARY” files, and you must transfer them by clicking the “radio button” for binary files. Other than that, all you have to do is select your files and hit the arrow pointing toward the destination directory on our CSULB web server (which is ftp.csulb.edu ) After that, all you do is tell the program your user name and password. NEVER choose to save your password, unless you are working at home. Each group should use only one directory for the placement of most of your files, including the “index.html” file that is the default. Your main page MUST be called “index.html” and MUST be placed in the “htdocs” sub-directory that you will find in your own web server directory. The index page is the main page, and then you may place other pages and pictures in there, and “link” to them. All of this is very, very easy and you will have plenty of opportunities to practice uploading your files. Any time you have a question, ask me.

Always check your site on the web to make sure that everything looks the way you planned.