Dean’s Blog

               Over the course of the semester, I’ve learned a whole lot about the Internet and most of everything it has to offer all thanks to my Online Communications Class.We started from scratch like learning the basic internet language called HTML to creating our very own website/electronic portfolio. At the beginning of the class year, I did terrible, but as the year progressed I did better and my knowledge increased. We covered many different things in class and all of that transitioned to some of my projects. A skill I’ve been using throughout this class is just taking what I learn from my instructor and apply it to everyday things I do on the computer. Before I didn’t know what HTML, Widgets, or even Javascript was, but now I have a better understanding, and to top that I’ve learned how to use the EduBlogs wordpress blog pretty well. Most importantly, dedication and hardwork are demonstrated in some of my work that I’ve completed.

               My first two projects were done poorly and one was incomplete. I learned the steps and lessons on what to do for my technology autobiography, but I didn’t really have sufficient time to do it, and I didn’t understand it really clearly. It ended up being half way done, with only images and no audio. My second project was the same case, but it was completed but had many errors in it. We used Windows media encoder to record a video tutorial on how to use Windows Photostory, I thought we did a good job , but it was inapproriate for viewing so there is no link for it. By far the task that i’m most proud of is the creation of my advisor’s website which can be found here and my own website (which you are on now). I did it all of its content completely on my own, with the help of my instructor and advisor. My previous projects affected my grade immensely, so I knew I had to put it alot of effort and hardwork to get a better grade.  After this class is completed, I’m still going to expand my knowledge of the internet and learn as much as I can. These few months can be described as challenging, difficult, and most of the time joyful.

              The project I am most proud of is my advisor’s website. I did all the required things, and I tried my best to make it very useful to my teacher. I stayed afterschool, spent hours working on the website, trying to make it more personalized to her liking. Its full of interesting things relating to her curriculum and I think it’ll be very useful for her in the future. The regular things I’ve learned in Online Communications helped alot with the development of my advisor’s blog. I’ve encorporated 3rd party applications, Widgets, Games etc. for her.

Final Thoughts?
I dont have any questions about the lessons or the projects.

What went well during the collaborative process and what went not so well?

During the collaborative process, I think it went relatively well in my opinion it could have been better, but my advisor and I had responsiblites to attend to , so we didn’t have alot of time to work together, but we had a sufficient amount. I think we did a good job and its all up to her if she wants to use it really. Every time I would meet with my advisor she would be in a hurry, so I couldn’t teach her much and I had to hurry so I couldn’t teach things in much detail.

Please suggest solutions to improve the project for next year.

For next year, I have some suggestions to improve this project. Don’t do this at all, some advisors won’t have much or any time to meet with students and discuss what they want, but for the advisors that do have time, would give an unfair advantage to other students that have an advisor with a busy schedule.

I would propose a project, something similar to this, but all students would create it for you, for simplicity’s sake. You can check it, and tell them what you want and they can do it for you. You might already have a “vision” already in your head on how you want the project to be like, and you can critique the student depending if their page they’ve created for you is similar to the one that you’ve “envisioned”

Discuss two or three sections of the advisor’s website that make you most proud. Provide links and explain.

The section that I’m most proud of is the Cooking Equipment Page, and Fun and Games Category. The cooking equipment page, took me a ton of time to finish. I had to type out all the definition, but the hard part was finding the image url and pasting it several times. It was very dull, but after all that time, I was proud of that accomplishment. Also I really liked the Fun and Games Category i’ve added. When a student clicks on it, they’ll have an option of playing a word search or crossword puzzle. I put a decent amount of time into each one making it challenging and fun.