The
purpose of this course was for students to “understand
the basic web design and web authoring skills in addition
to the technical expertise required for creation and
publishing of HTML documents.” Well, I certainly made
improvements in understanding basic web design and
web authoring abilities, as well as making great gains
in the basic skills required for creating sites in
HTML. Although I have worked on web sites before, prior
to this class I had only used a web editor and had
never actually created a page strictly in HTML code.
This aspect of the course was invaluable to me because
I am now better equipped to generate more functional
and accessible pages.
Two factors that provided scaffolding for my successful completion of this course
were the detailed assignment descriptions and the
timely support provided by Chia-chi through feedback
and requested explanations. My very basic assignments page provides
a mini portfolio that illustrates progress made
throughout Introduction to Web Development. You
can already see improved HTML skills by the additional
requirements for Mini Project 1 which included background color and a graphic. Project
criteria continued to increase incrementally. In Mini Project
2, inserting a table and multiple text styles were new
expectations, by Mini Project 3, cascading style sheets
were a necessary component, and in Mini Project 4, an embedded
video was required. The fact that in less than a month, I
was able to progress from a very basic first page
to one that
not only incorporated a
video
but was also written entirely in HTML code without
the aid of a Web editor provided a
great
sense of
accomplishment. But the course was only half over!
I had begun planning for my final project early on. Since the last month of the
course was dedicated to its creation,
I wanted
it to
be something
that
would be needed and utilized by teachers and students
in my district. The required planning and evaluations proved invaluable in this effort, and I still get
great feedback from both teachers and students who
frequent the site.
During
this well scaffolded process, I believe I developed
an “eye” for the design and
layout
of web sites and because of knowledge gained here,
I am now more competent in their creation. The preplanning
strategies
and
utilization
of web site accessibility features acquired in
this unit of study will make my web pages more user
friendly
and content relevant. In fact, I now approach web
sites differently than I did before taking the
course.
My new motto is “Simpler is Better”. Everything
from contrasting backgrounds for improved readability
to small graphic size for quicker loading have
become
top priorities so that viewers can focus solely on the content of the site.
I still want it to be aesthetically appealing -
just streamlined.
In
addition, I like understanding why I'm doing what
I'm doing in web site creation. The balance required
for proper coding and validation is almost poetic.
Given more time, I will enjoy exploring that in greater
detail.
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