Starting tomorrow I will begin calling you over one at a time to talk about your vision for your website. You will create a vision statement and we will go over what that means for your website layout and design. This one-on-one meeting will hopefully also help you start to define your role as both web-designer and content-creator. Take today to continue adding content to your website. I will interrupt your work in about 20 minutes to show you how to design your homepage.
Happy Friday everyone! Remember that on Wednesday we set up a structure for your webpage that will allow you to make all of your updated postings to your blog. We are fooling our visitors into thinking that each of your menu items is its own separate page, when in fact it is simply a sorted view of your news blog. However, this is all wholly reliant on making sure that when you create a blog post, it is tagged with the correct topic. If you would like to add topics to your website, and menu items go for it! However, you also want balance. I never want to click on a menu item on your webpage only to see that you haven't updated that topic in over a month! Today you have the entire hour block to work on your new website. Make sure you start getting some interesting things posted and make sure that the things you post on your blog are then "advertised" on your homepage. Good afternoon! Today is an exciting day. I have posted your website assignments on the board in class. This means that you can check the category you have been assigned and begin a whole-site makeover today. This means your website needs to go from looking like your personal blog space, to a professional looking site focused on a genre of information. Change the Name, change the photos, change the layout, change EVERYTHING. Especially focus on changing the Page titles. For your menu bars you will need to add pages to reflect the different content categories of your webpage. You also should delete all of the blogs that you have posted up until this point unless they directly relate to your new topic. Today's Instructions: 1. Before you do ANYTHING ELSE, click over to the forum and answer the two discussion questions I have posted. One is called "a viral world" and the other is called "digital relationships and respect" 2. Change the look of your site. Colors, theme, and name. It should look professional. 3. I will show you how to add a logo. You will need this link. 4. Change the images on the homepage (if you have them). It might not be a good idea to have a giant picture on your website. Instead you might choose to show your top headline with a picture (kind of like the LA Times. 5.Create new pages for each of the menu items you need. See the Web Categories page for details. 6. You should have ONE blog (the same blog you already have). I will be showing you all kids of stuff today. So be prepared for lots of interruptions :-) Guess what! I'm giving you a free day. First though, let me explain once everyone is seated.
Today we start the real curriculum of this course. The world began an information revolution when the internet was created. You, for better or for worse, will grow up in this world. I hope to teach you some of the ways you can thrive in a digital world. Watch the YouTube video above. Ask yourself: are you ready to grow up in a world like this?
YOUR DIGITAL WEB PROJECT: Up until now we have only been scratching the surface of the power of weebly. We have been posting blogs at random, and testing out the features that weebly offers us. Today we are going to take things even deeper by beginning to provide a topic and focus to your webpages. You will notice in my menu bar I have created a page called "web project." This page currently has 8 categories that your website could become. All of you will be required to begin remaking your pages within the 8 parameters I have provided you. I have attempted to make 8 categories that would appeal to all of you. Once you have perused the categories, click the google survey below and provide me with your first, second, and third choice. I am only allowing 4 web sites per category. Please be prepared to be assigned one of your three choices. I will do my best to assign you your first or second choice. The better you fill out the survey, the better your chances are of being assigned your first choice. Google Survey Good luck to you. Today's Secondary Assignment: Yesterday you looked through a few websites that were focused on both good and bad design elements when designing a website. Today I would like you to revisit the design links and analyze them in relation to your website. Ask yourself this question: Are my website colors, fonts, and design theme going to help or hinder my ability to earn repeat visitors? If the answer is "yes, maybe, or not sure" then you need to change some things today. Do you have hot pink font on a black background? Is your font cursive and enormous? Is your theme placing a box frame around your information so you have to scroll within the frame? Fix these issues. Just for fun, here is a link I want you to click on today. READ IT, Laugh. It's all about annoying websites. Next: Post one final thing to your blog today. It can be about ANYTHING! Just to remind you, when you post something, you must provide some context for it. What is the article about? What is so interesting about it that you felt the need to post it? What do you want readers who click your link to focus on as they read it? Without context, there is no credit. (50 points) Good Afternoon! This week we will be starting a website project that will take you the rest of the semester to really finish. We will talk about the details of the project later this week (possibly tomorrow). However, part of your grade for this class project will come from your ability to generate page views for your site. If you want people to actually visit your website and read your work, you have to make it easy for them. Today I am going to have you research some important information about web design and layout. I am having you do this because a poorly designed website will not get visited by people. While you visit the links below, I am expecting you to use the provided college-ruled paper to generate at least a full page of notes about web-design (do's, don'ts, and other tips). Today's Links:
After you have read those links, jump over to our new "Forum" and create a profile (forum is listed in the drop down menu titled "more"). Click the "sign-in with weebly" button once you are there. Please use your First Name and Last Initial when creating your profile. Respond to the topic I posted today (20 points). Then, back on this page, ANSWER THIS QUESTION BELOW IN THE COMMENTS BOX: What do you like about the design and layout of your favorite web sites? What do you dislike seeing when you go to a website? Finally, post something on your blog today (20 points). Respond to things people wrote as comments on your blog yesterday. In other words, maintain your website today. Things are going to get really busy this week and next. Thats a ton of stuff to do, huh? 1. visit links and take notes 2. post to the forum 3. post to the comments on this blog 4. post something on your own blog Hey everyone, this is the only day we meet this week so we are going to keep things simple. Check out the comments that were posted to your website last week. Respond to them if questions were asked. Make suggested adjustments if people commented on them. Use the "comments" button on your blog to see if there are any pending posts that need to be reviewed. Once you have done that, I would like you to create one more post today about a current events topic that you research on the internet. It can be an "all about ____" post or a news post. If it's a news post please share your own thoughts about the news. 25 points. You may get headphones if you need them. Next week we are going to begin our class projects (more on that later) and do some activities around internet safety. |
AuthorMr. Griswold is one of the most powerful Digital Citizens to ever walk the planet Earth. His powers are both terrifying and awe inspiring. Archives
January 2014
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