Putting it all together

Last week's class was a good introduction to PhotoShop. I think I will try and do a collage and use it as apart of my portfolio piece on the informational site, which unfortunately I have not started :(. I do not quiet understand how to link the two.
This week I have a lot of work to do :(

• Review peers' comments and make suggested changes that I agree with.
• Add more content to the Instructional website
• Find out how to create a template so I can have the navigation bar on each page
• Start planning what to put on the informational site and start creating it.
  
• Apply video editing lessons learnt this week to either sites or both.

Unfortunately the trial version of DreamWeaver that I downloaded has expired, and I really do enjoy working from home as it is very convenient and my brain works better. Then, another application has been added, PhotoShop, so I guess I better get use to using the lab more if I want to complete this project :)

Reflection

The resources for this week's class were very informative. The Webstyle guide website seems to be the most useful of them all, but as mentioned in the syllabus it contains a lot of information. Scanning gave me an idea but I guess as I go along I will examine the relevant sections in more detail.

Most WYSIWYG editors have a section for alternate text when you upload an image. I always wondered what was the point of this. From observation I noticed that when you hovered the mouse over an image with a alternate text, the text came up. However, now I know it's an accessibility feature. I did not even consider accessibility features when I was building my website. Will bear that in mind now.


Second, I found the experiments on Multimedia learning very useful. I liked the fact that the findings were not based on just literature reviews but actual experiments done. In addition, I like the fact that it combines Instructional Design principles with psychology principles. At this stage in my web design the information is not directly applicable to me but if we were to design some multimedia activities I would definitely apply these principles.

Learning

This week I did not make any changes to my website but I have been doing some work in terms of trying to conceptualize and frame the site. I found one of the sub-links for one of the links that we were given useful, it has some pointers about how to create a website.

The questions that were asked this week on the discussion board had me thinking about my users and their needs. I guess I have taken a backward approach, so my plans for this week are

- to make a list of my potential users and there needs
-think about their communication
-reflect on the way the information is organized and determine if the navigation, layout, and content needs revising.
-source more information for the site.

Confused but going

This week one of my main draw backs was me not knowing what my website would be about. The second draw back was that the installation of the DreamWeaver trial version gave me some problems initially.

This week I started from scratch with DreamWeaver as before I was using FrontPage and I do not have that at home.

Well I have finally accomplished something. For next week these are my goals:

-Learn how to use some more advanced features of DreamWeaver
-Learn about color combinations for backgrounds. (I think I am not doing a good job with this)
-Add more content to my pages
-Learn about creating websites on a whole

Dreamweaver to the rescue

I am very happy that we have been introduced to Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver has a trial version, which means I can download it and work from home. I am not quite sure what I want my site to be about and I feel a bit lost. I guess I need to go back to the drawing board. So this week I will work on a plan so that I will have enough content to fill six pages.

Wanted to be a good student :(

I felt like being a good student and had the inspiration to complete my assignment by today (Sunday). I did not want to waste time, so I decided on a topic for the instructional website and did an outline of some of the content that I would include. I decided how I would arrange the homepage and I did a sketch.

I then went in search of some appropriate pictures for my web pages and saved them all in the same folder in "My Documents". I remembered that I needed the FTP application so I went to the SIUE Help Desk page and downloaded it. So I was ready to go creating my 3 web pages hurray!!!....only to discover that I d0 not have FrontPage on my computer.

So that leaves me to resort to doing it in the Lab on Monday......how lovely :(.

So my things to do for this week were:

1. Come up with a topic/concept for my web pages
2. Search for appropriate content and images
3. Sketch the design of the web pages
4. Download the FTP application from SIUE Help Desk
   
5. Create pages in FrontPage
6. Ensure that all the requirements of the rubric are met
7. FTP to my SIUE web space
8. Check pages in browser to make sure all the links work and are not broken.

When I attempt on Monday I guess I will have more to reflect on and say.