(Note: as I'm writing this I feel a migraine coming on so I might not make it to class tonight.)
The Net Neutrality readings this week were really interesting. I've never quite understood what it all meant but I have a little more of a grasp on the meaning now. "The Skinny on Net Neutrality" (and especially the comments on the article) helped as did the "Nuts and Bolts of Network Neutrality". This PDF did a really good job of explaining the technical aspect. I get what they're talking about with high and low priority packets and delays.
I understand the point of net neutrality but like one of the comments on the "Skinny on Net Neutrality" article pointed out, it's not always best to get government involved in something they might not completely understand. The "Nuts and Bolts" article agrees that regulations shouldn't be made at this time, as competition between service providers seems to be working.
At the same time, I can understand how service providers could implement delays of certain packet types in order to discourage customers from using some applications (the example of internet phone services helped me understand this. I thought of services like Vonage phone and how that works if your internet provider is Comcast--who also has an internet phone service).
There are a lot of good arguments on both sides of the issue so I'm not totally sure what side I'm on yet. Although, this might be an issue where you don't have to be "all or nothing". I don't know...
On the webdesign/textbook chapter side of things for this week, it was kind of a review for me since I studied this chapter when I was creating divs for my website. My site can certainly use a little more style so I'll be working on that in the weeks to come.
Since I might not make it to class tonight I'll go through tonight's class session & lab pages.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Learning Blog 7
Whew! Done. Finally! What a busy week. Between the website and the table talk I did a LOT of work for this class in the last couple weeks.
I'm ready for the table talk and hoping I don't have TOO much to talk about :)
My "simple" website is basically done. I don't have all of my content done, but enough to meet the simple website requirements for this week. It's pretty time consuming to write up the lessons and exercises...but I'll definitely have everything completed by the final due date! I'm sure some editing and revising will need to be done, as well.
My "ah-ha" moments this week all had to do with CSS. I have to admit, CSS almost out-smarted me a few times, but I managed to get things worked out the way I want them (for now). When I originally planned my site with the left-side navigation bar, I didn't think about how I would get my content into the center of the page without using the old "(center)" tag. So...I flipped through the textbook until I found the chapter on creating "(div)"s. It was certainly a learning experience! But I feel like I have a good intro understanding of how CSS works.
What I learned about webdesign this week...that it is VERY time consuming!! I spent about 4 hours last night making sure all the links on all the pages were valid, then uploading and validating all the pages as XHTML. This is in addition to the 3 or 4 hours I spent on Sunday figuring out how to create my sidebar with CSS.
It's all very detail-oriented work! I have a lot of respect for professional web-designers!
I'm ready for the table talk and hoping I don't have TOO much to talk about :)
My "simple" website is basically done. I don't have all of my content done, but enough to meet the simple website requirements for this week. It's pretty time consuming to write up the lessons and exercises...but I'll definitely have everything completed by the final due date! I'm sure some editing and revising will need to be done, as well.
My "ah-ha" moments this week all had to do with CSS. I have to admit, CSS almost out-smarted me a few times, but I managed to get things worked out the way I want them (for now). When I originally planned my site with the left-side navigation bar, I didn't think about how I would get my content into the center of the page without using the old "(center)" tag. So...I flipped through the textbook until I found the chapter on creating "(div)"s. It was certainly a learning experience! But I feel like I have a good intro understanding of how CSS works.
What I learned about webdesign this week...that it is VERY time consuming!! I spent about 4 hours last night making sure all the links on all the pages were valid, then uploading and validating all the pages as XHTML. This is in addition to the 3 or 4 hours I spent on Sunday figuring out how to create my sidebar with CSS.
It's all very detail-oriented work! I have a lot of respect for professional web-designers!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Learning Blog 6
Social software, Web 2.0, and Library 2.0 really interesting topics that I've studied for previous classes. I think Web 2.0 technologies are important to libraries, especially as a way of engaging the community in library activities, etc (I did a paper/presentation on Library Teen Services and Social Networking for my Intro class).
I never really thought about 2.0 technologies as a part of journalism so I'm interested to hear what the panel has to say about that tonight. Although, I should have thought about this topic because my husband is always saying that blogs give him more political info than newspaper websites do...
My biggest challenge this week has to do with the Table Talk next week. I emailed my group members yesterday (since no one has said anything to me yet about our presentation...) suggesting what we can talk about (3 different aspects of the digital divide). I have not received a response yet (as of 3:30 Thursday afternoon). I will bring all the articles I collected for the Table Talk with me to class (I have a few more that I emailed to myself that can be accessed in class if needed). As for the abstract...if my group mates haven't thought about it yet, I'll just go ahead and write up the idea I put in the email yesterday.
Other than this, things are going fine with my website. I'm eager to get some CSS on the pages to make them look a little less one-dimensional.
I worked quite a bit on content this week but I don't want to add it to the pages until I figure out how to get everything aligned how I want it on the pages.
I don't see any problems having everything done (with the website, anyway) next week.
I don't know if I really had any "ah-ha" moments this week. Maybe a small one as I read chapter 7 of the text and got the explanation of how XHTML is different from HTML and why we should use it.
I never really thought about 2.0 technologies as a part of journalism so I'm interested to hear what the panel has to say about that tonight. Although, I should have thought about this topic because my husband is always saying that blogs give him more political info than newspaper websites do...
My biggest challenge this week has to do with the Table Talk next week. I emailed my group members yesterday (since no one has said anything to me yet about our presentation...) suggesting what we can talk about (3 different aspects of the digital divide). I have not received a response yet (as of 3:30 Thursday afternoon). I will bring all the articles I collected for the Table Talk with me to class (I have a few more that I emailed to myself that can be accessed in class if needed). As for the abstract...if my group mates haven't thought about it yet, I'll just go ahead and write up the idea I put in the email yesterday.
Other than this, things are going fine with my website. I'm eager to get some CSS on the pages to make them look a little less one-dimensional.
I worked quite a bit on content this week but I don't want to add it to the pages until I figure out how to get everything aligned how I want it on the pages.
I don't see any problems having everything done (with the website, anyway) next week.
I don't know if I really had any "ah-ha" moments this week. Maybe a small one as I read chapter 7 of the text and got the explanation of how XHTML is different from HTML and why we should use it.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Learning Blog 5
It's been another busy week with an odd schedule due to my Tuesday class being moved to Monday because of the ERP visit. Half the time I wasn't sure what day of the week it was!
The browser articles gave me some info I already knew, but it was interesting to read the article that had the author give his top browser picks. I agree with him about Google Chrome. It's what I use on my laptop and has some nice features that are different from IE. I didn't know it was so secure! That was good to hear! But, I suppose it's not really fair for Google to make a browser that only works on PCs. At least Mac users have Safari. Who knows what will come next.
The articles on cloud computing were really interesting! I've heard the term before, but never really understood what it meant. Between the You Tube video and the NY Times article, I think I'm starting to understand. Sounds like there are a lot of pros & cons so it will be interesting to hear both sides of this debate--in class and in future articles.
My biggest challenge this week: trying to figure out the content for my website! I know my own methods for getting started with a writing project, but I'm not sure how well I can articulate it. I got a few fiction writing books from the library and have some of my own so I'll start looking through them for ideas to use, to build on my own methods.
I uploaded all of my files to the mlis server last night and validated them all (as strict). It wasn't difficult to do, but I don't have a whole lot on the pages yet! My "ah-ha" moment was probably when I discovered that some html codes that I'd learned way back in the '90s aren't compatible with html 4.01. For example, the (center) and (u) codes--two things that I included in the original html of my website pages. The W3 schools website shows what works on strict dtd. That was helpful.
I uploaded my scenarios & prototypes files to the Wiki, but not as a page--I forgot how I'd gotten my planning document into my project folder as a page...I'll be in class early to get things moved around. But the files with my scenarios & prototypes are uploaded in my project folder.
The browser articles gave me some info I already knew, but it was interesting to read the article that had the author give his top browser picks. I agree with him about Google Chrome. It's what I use on my laptop and has some nice features that are different from IE. I didn't know it was so secure! That was good to hear! But, I suppose it's not really fair for Google to make a browser that only works on PCs. At least Mac users have Safari. Who knows what will come next.
The articles on cloud computing were really interesting! I've heard the term before, but never really understood what it meant. Between the You Tube video and the NY Times article, I think I'm starting to understand. Sounds like there are a lot of pros & cons so it will be interesting to hear both sides of this debate--in class and in future articles.
My biggest challenge this week: trying to figure out the content for my website! I know my own methods for getting started with a writing project, but I'm not sure how well I can articulate it. I got a few fiction writing books from the library and have some of my own so I'll start looking through them for ideas to use, to build on my own methods.
I uploaded all of my files to the mlis server last night and validated them all (as strict). It wasn't difficult to do, but I don't have a whole lot on the pages yet! My "ah-ha" moment was probably when I discovered that some html codes that I'd learned way back in the '90s aren't compatible with html 4.01. For example, the (center) and (u) codes--two things that I included in the original html of my website pages. The W3 schools website shows what works on strict dtd. That was helpful.
I uploaded my scenarios & prototypes files to the Wiki, but not as a page--I forgot how I'd gotten my planning document into my project folder as a page...I'll be in class early to get things moved around. But the files with my scenarios & prototypes are uploaded in my project folder.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Learning Blog 4
It's been an interesting day of file building and image designing today! My front page is very basic right now. I'm trying to decide where I want to put things, but think I decided that I want to have the navigation bar on the left side of the page. Once I have some of the content decided I can build more sub-sub folders :o)
I tried uploading my files to the mlis server but got this error message (I'm using FileZilla)
Status:Resolving address of mlis.stkate.edu
Status:Connecting to 140.225.55.247:21...
Status:Connection attempt failed with "ECONNREFUSED - Connection refused by server".
Error:Could not connect to server
I'll try again tomorrow afternoon.
The articles for this week were interesting. Especially the one about terms & vocabulary that library patrons find confusing.
Also, the article that said you shouldn't have a link to the page you're already on because it might be confusing. I think I've seen this on sites before, though. Ones that have a banner at the top of the page with a link to the homepage even when you are on the homepage. I don't think that's confusing, but maybe that's just me. It IS nice to know what page I'm on, though, and having tools like breadcrumbs (page>>subpage>>anotherpage) can be very helpful.
Major challenges this week...none, really. (except maybe uploading my files if I keep getting that error message!) Putting together what I have on the pages so far was fairly easy, though I have to admit I was excited when my external link opened in a new tab :o) That's one code I'd never used before. I like that the text book lays it out so you can just copy the code into your own file.
Not sure if I can call this an "ah-ha" moment but I'm starting to understand when to use the "../file" element. Most of my files are in sub-folders of sub-folders so I had to use this a few times. Trial and error! :o)
As a note: I may be late for class this week. One of my favorite authors is doing a signing in Stillwater at 5pm. I'm going to try to be there early, get my books signed, and go. But, I don't know how traffic coming out of Stillwater will be at rush hour...
I tried uploading my files to the mlis server but got this error message (I'm using FileZilla)
Status:Resolving address of mlis.stkate.edu
Status:Connecting to 140.225.55.247:21...
Status:Connection attempt failed with "ECONNREFUSED - Connection refused by server".
Error:Could not connect to server
I'll try again tomorrow afternoon.
The articles for this week were interesting. Especially the one about terms & vocabulary that library patrons find confusing.
Also, the article that said you shouldn't have a link to the page you're already on because it might be confusing. I think I've seen this on sites before, though. Ones that have a banner at the top of the page with a link to the homepage even when you are on the homepage. I don't think that's confusing, but maybe that's just me. It IS nice to know what page I'm on, though, and having tools like breadcrumbs (page>>subpage>>anotherpage) can be very helpful.
Major challenges this week...none, really. (except maybe uploading my files if I keep getting that error message!) Putting together what I have on the pages so far was fairly easy, though I have to admit I was excited when my external link opened in a new tab :o) That's one code I'd never used before. I like that the text book lays it out so you can just copy the code into your own file.
Not sure if I can call this an "ah-ha" moment but I'm starting to understand when to use the "../file" element. Most of my files are in sub-folders of sub-folders so I had to use this a few times. Trial and error! :o)
As a note: I may be late for class this week. One of my favorite authors is doing a signing in Stillwater at 5pm. I'm going to try to be there early, get my books signed, and go. But, I don't know how traffic coming out of Stillwater will be at rush hour...
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Learning Blog 3 note
One more thing:
I used the "list tag," but it wouldn't let me use the "ordered list" or "unordered list" tags. Must be a Blogger thing.
I used the "list tag," but it wouldn't let me use the "ordered list" or "unordered list" tags. Must be a Blogger thing.
Learning Blog 3
It's been a busy, busy week! Lots of school work and such. But, I did manage to spend time planning my website project.
The articles about information architecture were very interesting and helpful with my planning document. In the past when I created websites, I never really planned in advance. I had a basic idea and built from there with whatever came to mind! I understand now that a lot of planning goes into creating a successful, professional website that meets its users' needs:
And lots and lots of other things to think about and plan before diving in!
I think my major challenge this week was time management! Fortunately, I managed to get everything done in time and I like my planning document (I think I included all the necessary pieces for the plan...>
Some of my "aha!" moments of the week came from the textbook: discovering what FTP means and does. Also, the destination anchors. I've seen the # used before and knew it meant to take you to a specific place on one page but didn't know what it was called or how it was done. Very interesting!(and helpful for some of those websites with lots of text/sections on a single page. It's nice to "jump" to certain areas without having to scroll down the page, searching.)
One thing I'm curious about is the "_blank" target attribute. Wonder if that is for opening new tabs or just opening a new, full window. I like having links open in a new tab. Haven't had time to experiment with this yet, but I will and I guess I'll see what happens!
I'm super excited about my website! I think it will be a lot of fun to put together the content and experiment with all the new HTML codes I'm learning.
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