My job aid and crazy spring break

OK, so I couldn't finish the dreamweaver tutorial as I promised myself.

This spring break I was and still am overwhelmed by the assignment loads. I contribute most of my time on finishing the job aid and our major project. Yeah, that's right, although major project does not due until some time in April, our group needs to finish creating the whole instructional website by this Monday so we can do trial run next week on W200 class.

Tired, but rewarding week!
Although this spring break feels nothing like a break (been staying up for several nights), I am contented with how much I learned through working on my job aid and the major project. I feel that I am getting a better sense on color and spatial arrangement than I used to be at the beginning of R541 class :)



My job aid:

 

Week 10- Lynda.com Tutorial

Dreamweaver CS6 Essential training

I have not created or designed a website before, but since our major project is going to be an instructional website for PLN, I figured learning some web design skills might be helpful. I have finished the first chapter of Dreamweaver CS6 Essential training on Lynda.com.

Some take-aways includes:

1.  How to manage my workspace
• Panel arrangement
• Different screen display: code, split, design. I can even split the screen into two code windows. One shows HTML and the other shows CSS ( Go to application toolbar and select split screen view).  
2. The difference between HTML and CSS 
• In HTML, you are just giving commands.
• In CSS, you are creating styles through sets of commands.  
3. How to use functions in the "property" inspector including
• Designing your text (font, typeface, bold or Italic...)
• Matching the text color with certain color  
4. How to use functions in the "Insert" panel 
• Create description and title for my webpage (in Meta tag) 
• Preview my design in certain browsers 

This is only the first chapter, so basically what I am learning here is just to get myself familiar with the workspace environment. I am planning to finish the whole 9.5-hour-long tutorial during this spring break. I might spend one day watching the video and practicing the exercise and another day reviewing and applying what I learned through creating a self-introduction webpage. That's my plan for the spring break and I WILL ACHIEVE THIS GOAL!!! 

Week 9- IST conference 2013

Even though I am not a student from IST department, I sure did have a very great time participating the 2013 IST conference . This conference has become the highlight of my week for sure :) Thanks to every IST people who make so many efforts in organizing this event.

During the reception diner, I joined Dr. Curt Bonk's talk in regard to MOOC. I was pretty confused at the beginning because I had never heard of MOOC before...actually it was until I went home and checked it online did I realize MOOC, Massive Open Online Courses, is a general term for online course systems rather than one specific website like Udacity or edX... Still, it is good to learn what MOOC is, its business potential, learning potential, and how it may change the game of higher education. I checked some of the MOOC websites (Udacity, HarvardX...) I really like their website design. In each course, they provide a introductory video at the beginning, which is visually appealing and creative. The Introduction to Computer Science course definitely used the common craft technique.They also provide class summary, skill requirement (There is no prior programming knowledge needed for this course!! <-- This sentence makes this course so appealing to me), and what knowledge we will acquire after completion. These designs no doubt make the course attempting for learners. 

In today's conference, one of the most interesting sessions I attended was Khendum Gyabak's round table which talked about "digital tools utilized to enhance literacy practices among the digitally under-served population". This is a very meaningful research and I like the idea of empowering students through creating their digital stories. Though I like her research very much, I sort of played the devil's advocate and challenged some of her points, after all, I am literacy education majored, should not let people get away from this topic too easily lol. Khendum answered my questions very well, which I felt I should totally learn from her. But at the same time, all the presenters did a great job and I totally learned a lot from everyone of them. Great experience. My mind has been fed :)