More examples with comments
Examples I commented on for Week 2 homework
Example One
Example Two
Example Three
Example Four
Example Five
I want to be able to design websites and code them properly. I want to be a packaged deal where you have someone who loves to design and loves to code too.
I’ve been coding and designing for eleven years now. My father taught me the basics and I didn’t think to type it on the computer. I sat down with paper and pencil and began to design and code it by hand. Thanks to that I now have code committed to memory which has helped me immensely since then.
I even had an event where out Multi-Media teacher in High School was gone for our class. He left notes for the substitute telling him to have me teach the HTML lesson, so I’ve got a bit of experience and I continue to grow in my knowledge.
HTML versus XHTML:
Honestly is depends on what exactly you are doing to the site you are coding. I’ve yet to actually use XHTML or XML before and have little knowledge to this webterm, but I have had 10 years experience with HTML and found it easier for me to use.
HTML however, does not allow you to code to all browsers like XHTML does. You can chose to code to one specific browser, but then again you have to look at it and see that not everyone is just going to have one browser. There are still people using Netscape! That’s right, it hasn’t disappeared yet!
There are so many things that HTML and XHTML can do that either one can’t, and it’s a pretty long list I’ve come to find out.
So until I dabble into XHTML some more, which I’m sure later on I will be, I’m still a little confused myself on what the difference is between them. Looking on line I get explanations in a language that I am completely foreign too. Perhaps I can get some light on this?
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS):
CSS is a tool for web design. When making a web page you create how it will look, how it will act with certain content in it. CSS is a way to take the specific attributes you’ve put into a web design and either allow you to keep the style embeded inside the HTML code page or you can save it as a seperate document and simply reference it, or even both!
It’s an easy way to get a website to act a certain way you want, and to keep coding organized. You simply reference your CSS and all the hastle of having to scroll through so much text and coding to find where you placed certain styles. It’s a time saver, and time when web designing is crucial, it means money.
Web Standards:
Web standards is the basic set rules of developing the web. Not just websites in general, although that is the more common practice. They’re the basic set guidelines in making the web more user friendly, more functional and helps sets the foundations of maintaining it.
Webstandards are important for the fact that with out them, the web would be nothing but chaos, it more than likely wouldn’t even function with out them.
The standards are constantly changing and it’s easy to get left behind if you’re not careful. A website for keeping up with updates that I found was http://www.w3.org/ there they have various things you can check up on, make sure what you’re creating is up to par with Web Standards.
I highly recommend for any one who is creating a website to always have a validator book marked. It’ll save you time and a headache when creating a web site.
http://validator.w3.org/ <— This one is one I use a lot.
My Resources:
http://www.webstandards.org/learn/articles/askw3c/oct2003/
http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/HTML_vs._XHTML
http://reference.sitepoint.com/css/css
I’ll have to admit, I like very few podcasts for the fact that I’m not very into it myself. I couldn’t even think of a reason why anyone would have padcasts on their websites or do one myself. Well digging further into what podcasts are and why you would use one I’ve come to the realization that it would benefit me greatly!
I’m trying to become a voice actor and what better way to advertise myself than making my own podcast to put on to my own personal website? If I don’t use it for that I can surely come up with other neat things I can possibly do to better my website and others, grab more viewers, get more hits on a page! It’s a perfect idea for when you don’t really think you’re site is complete.
It’s simple, it’s easy, and it doesn’t take up much bandwith!
My resources:
So researching collective intelligence I came to the conclusion that it has affected me greatly. I use it almost everyday when I’m playing World of Warcraft, speaking over Ventrilo we talk about what better ways to complete a quest. We come up with strategies to better our raiding group or even our own personal characters. I’ve dueled at least several times with my friends and they’ve seen quite an improvement when it comes to Player vs Player, but that is only because they’ve provided me information on how to better it while I ask several questions.
Collective Intelligence is seen almost anywhere, I looked up on Google and found people researching it with insects! Boggled my mind for a bit but none the less it pretty much proved to me that it’s everywhere, not just an online thing.
My resources:
http://www.community-intelligence.com/blogs/public/
http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2008/chapters/collective-intelligence/
I’m still a little confused on this topic. I mean I did read as many sites as I could, read many of the other class blogs, but this still baffles me. I understand the technicalities of it but I’m still having a bit of a hard time trying to define how it would affect me.
I don’t use any information trapping tools, in all honesty I never even knew they existed until it was mentioned in class. This maybe something I’ll have to look into more to understand better, and to give it a try. I mean what’s learning the terms if you don’t actually learn to use it, right?
My resources:
http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/2008/02/05/information-trapping-the-followup-and-the-big-idea/
http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/2008/01/29/information-trapping-2008-style/
http://futureperfectpublishing.com/2007/09/03/information-trapping-an-interview-with-tara-calashain/
I happen to really like Twitter, and when I remember to I post on it as much as I can. It’s a good way for me to keep up with my friends and family, and a good way for them to keep up with me if I ever go M.I.A for a bit because of school. It has a great impact on keeping in contact with others for the fact you can see what they’re up to whenever they post to their twitter, just as they can see what you’re doing.
I do find value in having this tool, you can keep up with what’s going on with those you hardly get a chance to talk to. You don’t lose complete contact with people you no longer live close to as long as both parties are posting. You can even reply to another’s post! Sending simple messages back and forth to each other when you get just a few seconds. A few seconds! That’s only a little chip off of the time we have in our daily lives.
Community of Practice to me is working together to figure out a problem, complete a project, or spread the word. A community of practice isn’t just limited to being online. It’s in the classroom, on the job, road trips, just about anywhere you go you can find some form of community practice. It encourages people to further their knowledge. It’s building workshops and having guest speakers that know what you’re discussing come and present more in full detail. It’s kind of like a club, but not a club of interest in movies or such… but a club of practioners who want to work together to solve something, share knowledge, gain knowledge, and better their social networking.
My resources:
http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
http://www.xplanazine.com/2004/09/distributed-communities-of-practice-in-e-learning
Becoming a professional blogger is something I’ve never quite heard before. I mean, I’ve blogged several times before on just random topics.. but there are people out there making money doing just a simple entry everyday. I dug deeper into the matter and found many interesting sites that tell you how to become a professional blogger, they share many of the same requirements.
Have compassion in what you’re writing.
Time is everything, you need it to blog.
Grammar, grammar, grammar. This one was especially important.
They also seem to go on about having the knowledge in what you’re writing about. Getting yourself out there is also of key importance. I think I may just stick to writing blogs for fun though, I enjoy doing it and I love reading what others have to tell me to help learn more about my researches and topics. The money factor… well I’ll come to that bump when I’m ready to.
My resources:
http://www.kbcafe.com/adwords/makemoney.html
http://www.dailyblogtips.com/10-requisites-for-professional-bloggers/
http://iffect.net/2007/05/19/be-professional-5-vital-elements-of-successful-blogging/