EDLD+5365

5365 Web Design Reflection __Self-Assessment__

I was excited to take Lamar’s course on Webmastering since one of my job responsibilities is to create and maintain a website with resources for teachers in my district. My experience with web design was limited to a classroom website. I have used several different programs such as: Microsoft’s Publisher, Front Page, Dreamweaver, and now we are using a web hosting site called School Center. Most of my experience with creating a website has been through trial and error. I enjoy the creativity in placing graphics and content; but really did not know the proper way to design a webpage. In fact, this course taught me more about what I did incorrectly and things that I needed to revise. I wished I had taken this course before I had built my site. There were several mistakes that I had discovered on my own, before this course. Now I know how important it is to plan out your design before placing anything on it. “Publishing a school website is very much like opening the doors of your building and your classrooms to anyone who wants to come in and visit them. This is why it is important to plan your site carefully and to establish goals that you want to accomplish through your website” (Warlick, 2001, p. 1). The work that’s done first, we pay off in the end. __ Learning as a Learner __ The entire course content was very different than I had imagined. We had to learn a considerable amount of web site governance and policy-driven website administration. We were taught about project management practices and had to plan out our site launch, both before and after. I don’t think that I will ever actually be involved in that type of project, but the management planning will be helpful to me in the future with other projects. The course allowed me to delve into our web policy or lack of one. While taking the course, we formed a committee to evaluate our campus websites and created guidelines for web masters to follow. Our superintendent wanted all campuses and departments to have consistency in the design and feel of the websites. The information I learned in the course, allowed me to be more informed and to make suggestions that were considered as guidelines. I was able to learn who in our district had control over the content on our district website, and review our web policy. The best part of this course was our textbook, “Web 2.0 New Tools, new Schools”. “Solomon and Schrum describe ways in which these tools can be used in schools to promote active, student-centered learning” (Abshire, 2010, slide 6). I enjoyed the book so much and it has remained a great resource for me in my job. In the course, we were able to explore the use of wikis, blogs, and podcasts on our websites to enhance the interactivity on our webpage. We discussed how to support 21st century learning through a website. I did not enjoy the work we had to do on Newschoolspaces.net; the open source hosting partner. It was unreliable and very difficult to use. In fact, it is no longer accessible and all our content we created is gone. I think that there are other programs that are much better and more user-friendly. So many things in this course were new learning for me! We used the WYSIWIG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor in Amaya to create a web ready document. I had to follow the steps provided carefully to get it to work. Thank goodness that most schools use a web system so that we do not have to struggle with open source web authoring like Drupal. I think the most valuable aspect of web design I was able to learn, was the Kaiser checklists and the things that they suggested to do or not to do when creating your website. “ If you’re a web developer, designer, or project manager, by using these checklists you can be assured that you’ve delivered a site that follows accepted best practices and is of the highest standards” (Kaiser, 2006, p. x). Many suggestions that they gave, allowed me to make changes on my website and improve it during the course. I know that they warned about flashing and blinking graphics or signs, and many of our teachers use them. They also frowned on music and too many graphics that take long to download. I learned to consider findability on your website and that users will spend about eight seconds on the page. If they cannot locate what they need, they will move on to another site that has better findability built in. “It’s important to organize your web site’s information architecture so that users can find content easily. Information architects refer to this characteristic as the site’s findability. The findability of your content plays an important role in the success of your site” (Kaiser, 2006, p. 95). Another tip I learned was color combinations to use or not to use. I know that I have been able to give teachers tips immediately while taking the course. __ Lifelong Learning __ I believe that most of what I learned in this course can be used no matter what field or career I may have. My experience in researching and creating a web policy is knowledge that was valuable to learn. It is important to keep abreast of procedures and policies where ever you are working. Web design can be applied universally, not just in schools. Teaching and learning project-based management skills in this course can be applied to any career. I think that the assignments, charts, and schedules that we had to create were needed and can be used in any project. I appreciate the awareness of the World Wide Consortium (W3C) that sets standards to ensure that anybody, anywhere, on any connection, using any system, can access at web site and have them work as expected (2006, p. 148). I made me sensitive to those with handicaps that expect to access the same materials on the web that we do. I agree that we should make the efforts for this to be universal and giving them the same information that we take for granted. As I share some of the elements that are not recommended to others; I can bring out the fact that some people may be using assistive technologies and we should use best practices that make it easier for them to read our content. The work we performed using html coding was basic and made me appreciate that I am able to use programs and systems that transfer this for me automatically. I can go about working on the creativity portion of my design. I gave you a feeling of appreciation for those users who build websites from scratch now. I noticed that during this course, instructors were aware of the different skill levels of students, and gave extended challenges for those “accomplished” students during our assignments. I should always look for opportunities in my own workshops or trainings to extend the activities for those participants who may need the advanced activities. During this course, I had to rely on my colleagues as we problem solved through the activities. We were able to understand and improve our communication skills as we learned from each other. It always helps to know that others are struggling with the same tasks and as more are searching for solutions, it makes learning more exciting as we give each other positive feedback and encouraging words. References Abshire, S. (2010). EDLD 5365 Web Mastering. //Social Networking//. Beaumont, Texas, USA: Lamar University's EPIC system. Kaiser. (2006). //Deliver first class web sites: 101 essential checkists.// Collingwood,Vic:: SitePoint. Warlick. (2001, August 1). //District or School Web Publishing Policy.// Retrieved from Tech & Learning: http://techlearning.com/article/17406.