Week 4: Images, Reflective Journal, and Technology Blog

This week was one of my favorites so far. I think a picture truly is worth a thousand words, so knowing how to insert images and other media properly is essential to web design. We also started creating blogs this week. I really did enjoy the usability of this Blogger website. Although I can see the usefulness of creating a blog, I am not a big fan of them yet. The final portion of this week’s assignments was to create a technology blog which will be of great use in the future. For the blog assignments I find it is best to play around with all of the different features to get acclimated before actually getting started on the assignments. Overall I spent about 8 hours this week.

Week 3: Formatting in HTML; Using GeoCities

I found learning the formatting information for HTML pretty cool. I dabble just a little with graphic design so I found this section very informative in helping spiff up websites. One thing I found helpful when choosing font styles was to open up Word to check out what possible fonts to choose from (if you are on a MAC you are lucky, you probably have a font book on your desktop and don’t have to go through the trouble of searching for font styles).

Now, when it came to working on the “what you have learned so far” section, I’ll admit I had to cheat and use my notes and the book. I am a big fan of copy/paste so I found that it is a real time saver when working in HTML. Why reinvent the wheel? You just have to be careful of what you are pasting and where – spend a couple of extra minutes to double check everything. The GeoCities part of this assignment was my favorite to date. It was the chance to be a little more creative and use what we have learned. Overall, I spent probably close to 4 hours on this week’s assignments.

Week 2: Creating Links-Internet Assignment

This week’s assignment was very informative, almost to the point of information overload! Although, I can understand the importance of getting the basics down of learning HTML and XHTML by exploring probably the most powerful resource tool, internet. A helpful site that I found that I would like to share is by Web Design Group at http://www.htmlhelp.com/ ~ Be sure to bookmark, it comes in handy.

The highlight of this week’s assignment was the chance to set up a Wiki account (which was a first for me). It was fun, easy, and fast to use. My poor family, they all became victims of instant wikisites – no one was safe, even my sister’s dog George now has his own site too! Here is a link to the one we created for class. Overall, this week probably spent between five to seven hours working on the assignment.

Week 1: Creating an HTML Document

This first week was a little intimidating. There was quite a bit to read and understand. I recall laughing when I read that HTML was easy on one of the websites. I guess I was not convinced because when you first see all of the code it kind of like reading ancient heiroglyphics. It seemed nearly impossible to read. But then, once you break it apart and understand the openings, middle, and closings it relatively simple. I found that the cheat sheets and assorted help links were true lifesavers. I just couldn’t help myself, the more I learned the more I was eager to try out. Overall, I probably spent about 6 hours working on the first assignment.