plan for thursday, 4/14

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Carrie

What you will concentrate on in class tomorrow depends upon where you are with Web project #1. You should complete the tasks in the following order:

  1. finish your resume webpage (project #1) and submit the files to me for upload (see previous post for instructions)
  2. complete your two-page reflection for project #1 and submit it to the appropriate folder in the Writing Studio dropbox.
  3. Work on your design plan and storyboards for Web project #2 (scroll to the bottom for a description of what storyboards are). I will bring printouts of the storyboard templates and colored pencils and markers for you to use during classtime. If you prefer to complete your storyboards electronically, you can use the software on our classroom machines to do so. We have Photoshop, Illustrator, Powerpoint, and Word. If you are not able to finish the design plan and storyboards during class, please complete them for homework and bring them to class Tuesday.
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taking your resume live

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Carrie

Today in class we have two tasks:

  1. upload our resumes (Web project #1) to the online space I have set up
  2. get started on Web project #2

I know that some of you are ready to upload and some of you are not. That is fine. If you need assistance finishing the project, I will be available in class today and Thursday. I am also available after class and during office hours on Wednesday afternoon.

If you are need assistance today, please sit in the row on the same wall as the doors across from the screen (or as close to it as you can get), so that I can work with you all as a group. Remember that web project #1 becomes part of web project #2, so if it takes you a little bit longer to finish this stage, you will still be on task to finish project #2.

If you are ready to upload, check the following and when your files are ready bring them to me on your thumb drive.

  • Make sure that your XHTML and CSS (print and screen) are commented so as to explain what each block of code is for.
  • Delete any code you are not using from the RPK XHTML and CSS files. This is where commenting can help. If you don’t know what a block of code is doing there, check to see if you need it.
  • move your XHTML and CSS files (print, screen, reset, and screen-ie) to a folder titled with your last name all in lower case letters. You do not need the media or js folders unless you are using javascript or images in your resume page.
  • change your stylesheet file paths to: /resumes/yourfoldername/stylesheetname.css


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Some web design advice

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Carrie

After today’s class I put together a list of suggestions that will help those who are having trouble wrapping their heads around XHTML and CSS (see below). The most important thing that we can do on Thursday is be a team. My job is to walk you through some important things you need to understand in order to design your web page. Your job is to listen first and edit the code second. We got a little bit carried away today and it was hard for folks to listen because others were coding and having a little too much fun with their side conversations. We will have plenty of days where you will do nothing but code your sites and ask me and your classmates for help when needed. Thursday still needs to be primarily a listening day.

Once we get past the basics, I will call on my “geek squad” (you know who you are, and yes that is a compliment!) to assist others. You have been warned. :-)

  1. Don’t let the “strangeness” of the code freak you out. This is not Nam; there are rules. Code is like a logic puzzle. There are rules and patterns. You just have to figure them out. And you can do it.
  2. The best way to figure out the rules and patterns of XHTML and CSS are to experiment. If you are a hands on learner, go to the W3Schools website and read through their explanations and then play with the tutorials. Start with the HTML tutorials, then read through the XHTML section (remember, XHTML is based on HTML, so you need to understand HTML first.), then go through the CSS tutorials. Just remember that in the CSS tutorials, the XHTML and the CSS are combined into one document with the CSS at the top of the screen and the XHTML below it so that you can view everything easily. We are designing our web pages with the XHTML and the CSS in separate documents that are linked together.
  3. Reread Part Three of Stolley’s book and stop to edit the RPK files in the same way that he does in those chapters so that you can see first hand how adding things to the code changes the way the web page displays.
  4. If you are still confused about how all this works after class on Thursday, see me to set up an appointment.
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post break reminders

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Carrie

Just a friendly reminder that you have reading due for Tuesday. We are starting the web design portion of the course (unit 2), and will be reading Karl Stolley’s fantastic new book to guide us in this process. Remember that because the book does not come out for another month, Karl was kind enough to make the manuscript available to us as a PDF for free. This is an unproofed manuscript, so you will see a few typos, and it is in manuscript format rather than a pretty published format. But it is free and incredibly up-to-date.

The first assignment web project is to design your resume as an HTML document viewable and printable on the web (more details in class Tuesday). Because the content is simple and short, the assignment allows us to focus on learning how to code this one document according to the web design standards Stolley lays out in his book.

If you have a resume already, bring an electronic copy of it to class every day starting Tuesday. If you do not have a resume or if you want to improve your current one, take a look at the following resources for ideas and advice:

If you have no web design experience, don’t get bogged down in the technical details in the portion of the book you are reading for Tuesday. Focus on the rhetorical argument—that is, focus on why it is important for your purpose and audience that you write for the web according to current web standards.

Finally, if you did not turn in the draft of your Wired essay before break, it is due Tuesday as well. Please upload your draft to the appropriate folder in our Writing Studio dropbox. If you need help doing this, bring your Word file to class and you can upload it during class time.

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a few TED Talk announcements, etc.

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Carrie

I wanted to clarify a few things that may have gotten lost in the whirlwind of today’s class.

  1. On the Wired Essay project page I state that you will turn in your essay via the Writing Studio. Many of you are already familiar with the Writing Studio, but for those of you who are not, this is a course management system designed for writing courses. We will use it primarily to submit longer assignments like this electronically so that I can provide you with faster (and more legible!) comments. Sometime before class Thursday you should receive an email from the Writing Studio inviting you to join our class site. This email will come from the annoying address “DoNotReply.” It is not spam. Please open it.
  2. For those of you not presenting Thursday, remember to read the Keen-Bell debate and bring your completed take-home quiz to class. The debate has a printer friendly link at the bottom of the page for those of you who want to print it.
  3. For those of you presenting Thursday, please remember to give me an electronic copy of your visual materials before leaving class.
  4. I wanted to provide you with a reminder of the CRAP (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, & Proximity) principles and how they apply to basic presentation slides, and to post our whiteboard notes about what not to do when preparing your visuals.

the basic CRAP principles

 

don'ts for presentation visuals

 

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