Putting my page together wasn't too bad once I figured out the css thing. I then just had to plug everything into my site. I'm really happy with how it turned out, I think it looks very professional and it looks like something I would have wanted when I was contemplating graduate school. I even got my message board to work. I'm not sure whay I did, but although it doesn't post the messages, it sends the responses to me, which is cool. I feel sort of accomplished in completing this project because it has been a long road to this end project. I feel like I learned a lot and hopefully I will get to utilize this new skill in my future endeavors!

After all of the hard work spend on establishing the style of my website, I think I'm ready to go and plug in all of the information I need for my site. We'll see how things go.

Wow I'm posting a lot today!

Anyone know how to add a message board to the site? I took a code from another site, but nothing gets posted when I try to use it on my site...

So the latest addition to my website is the rollover button that I created. I am trying to create a website that looks very profession and clean, so I didn't want to create a playful looking rollover button, so I decided to create a button that was actually text that changes color when clicked and this will be the intro page for my website. After playing around with Photoshop for a while and figuring out how to do the different layers and saving things differently I got it to work and I'm excited that it worked out.

I am amazed at how complicated some of these computer programs actually are. My students at Pratt are constantly using photoshop, but I had never used it until this class and it is pretty complicated to use if you don't know what you are doing like me. The cheat sheets helped a lot.

Ok so now with the official change in my topic, I have been spending a lot of time creating the design for my website. This process has been both creatively fun as well as frustrating at many times. I really wanted to choose a css from the CSS Zen Garden website and after spending HOURS trying to get it to work, I was unsuccessful and eventually I accepted defeat and looked for a design on one of the other pages provided on the class Wiki. It was very challenging for me to create this webpage because it was truly a culmination of all that we learned about web design in class, which at times felt a little over my head. But again after playing around with design and div tags I found a design that worked well and looks good and I actually got it to work properly. (Copying the html code in addition to the css code was a key discovery for me!) So now that I have my design template and now to come up with my content and then I'll just have to plug everything into the site.

So I've been a little delinquant with my blogging...it's a hard thing for me to get into. OK, well anyways since my last posting some things have changed with regards to my final project. Don't worry this isn't a new change at the last minute, I've been working on this new idea for a while now. While it is a new focus for my project, it is sort of a spin off of my original idea. So instead of focusing my project on me, I'm going to create a higher education resource page, which is something I wanted to include in my original project anyways. Because the field of student affairs isn't something that many people consider until they are in college, it is a field that they often need to learn more about at this time. Many people don't even know that you need a master's degree to work in higher education and student affairs. This page will provide these interested individuals with information about different programs and degree options.

I will also present information about the many different areas of student affairs and the professional organizations that exist for the different specialties. I also hope to include a message board so that students who are interested in student affairs or are beginning their graduate school experience can post about their experiences.

I'm really excited about this project and how it has evolved as this was something I would have liked when I was exploring this field.

The Project

OK, so I have been spending some time contemplating what I will create for my final project. I have decided to create my Capstone Project, or a suppliment to my capstone. This project will include information about me, and my experiences in my graduate school career. I am especially interested in creating a lot of resources for others to access regarding my particular experiences and interested in the field of higher education. This will include my research interests, which include first year programs, women undergraduate student leaders, and effective programming. As I near the end of my graduate experience, I look forward to creating this website as a culmination of my experience.

So to answer some of the questions more specifically about this assignment:
The site's content area:
Higher Education Administration, with a focus on Student Activities (Programming) and Orientation and First Year Programs. I will use my own experiences as a jumping off point for the content.
Your intended audience:
Other Student Affairs professionals. I hope to provide a streamlined resource for these professionals. My site can also serve as a resource for students who are interested in programming and first year experiences.
What you know about your audience:
I know that my audience will be a diverse group of people, from those with years of experience, to those who are just beginning to dip their toes in student affairs.
The instructional design principles that you plan on employing:
TBA

I was very optimistic going into the div tag activity since last week in class I thought that I was doing pretty well and I did ok on the style sheet assignment from a few weeks ago...

Surprise...I attempt to do the activity and I don't know what I am doing. It starts off that I don't know the difference between an internal and external style sheet. Last week I believe in class we created an external style sheet, and obviously I know the difference between the words internal and external and I am assuming that an internal style sheet is within the given page that I'm working on and not available to other pages...it can't be linked like the external style sheet. But I don't know how do do this. I also don't remember ever hand coding the style sheet, which I don't thing we did with the styles last week, did we? I just don't know how I am supposed to type it in in the manner it is on the activity sheet. I tried it, and it didn't work or look correct. I feel like this is way over my head...

I am also having trouble following the cheat sheets because when I attempt to create a div tag, I get a box that I need to fill in certain perameters, and the sheet does not lead me through what I am supposed to type in (such as the ID and class and where to insert it)

I am sincerely trying to be successful at this activity, but I think that the fact that I have absolutely no experience with webdesign is working against me because it often seems that for many of these activities there is an assumed foundation of knowledge, which I don't have. Hopefully we can address some of these issues in class. Maybe we can have some more work time in class to go through these activities because it seems that I would be more successful at a homework assignment if we first go through it in class. I'm sorry to sound so frustrated, but I feel I am trying and not succeeding and not understanding is frustrating.

I finally completed the CSS style sheets tutorial and although it was difficult for me to get through, due to some difficulties that I encountered along the way. I guess I can see the relavance of using a style sheet when creating a web page due to the fact that it makes it look more organized. I still had some trouble that I couldn't solve, which was kind of frustrating. Most notable, the type at the bottom of the box would not center because for some reason there is a text box within the text box. I went back and tried to re-do it several times, but each time it came out the same wrong way. But finally, as in just a second ago, when I checked the page, it looks pretty good I think. I think that one of the keys is to really be meticulous about following directions and make sure that everything is done correctly. I can really be challenging.

I am also stressing a little bit about what I am going to do my project on because right now I have no idea...

I think that "Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning" by Mayer and Moreno presents some intersting considerations. The article breaks down 9 specific ways cognitive load can be successfully broken down so that those viewing the page are not overloaded with information and can effectively learn all that the page is set up for them to learn. As someone who is taking their first venture into the world of web design, I think that it can be easy and tempting to want to create web sites that have a lot going on, which can obviously lead to cognitive overload. This article is very helpful in that it brings the potential problems of having too much on a web page to my attention.

I was excited when I was reading to come across mention of the "Voyage of the Mimi." I used to love watching this when I was in 5th or 6th grade!

OK so now onto the more purposeful part of my post...I found much of this reading again to be reinforcing to what I expereinced as a school teacher. I circled the part from Chapter 6 that read " A challenege of implementing good assessment practices involves the need to change many teachers', parents', and students' models of what effective learning looks like." This is so important and yet so hard to accomplish today. As the reading discusses, sometimes the best learning cannot be reproduced on standardized tests, so there is much pressure on teachers and schools today to simpy teach so that the students score well, even if they don't really understand the material. With the increased attention on these test scores, I can offer no remedy to this problem, but I think that in a way this type of teaching is cheating students today.

The Chapter 9 section focused more on the specifics of using technology for learning purposes, which was also interesting. I laughed when I read the line that says, "Because new technologies are interactive, it is now esier to create environments in which students can learn by doing, receive feedback, and contunially refine their understanding and build new knowledge." I think that this is a great aspect of technology, however because of the prevalence of technology in our lives, the attitude of immediate feedback inevitabley feeds into other arenas. People are no longer expected to wait for anything, and even students in young grades have experience with technology from television, video games and computers, that they expected immediate results. This is not a bad thing, it is simply an observation.

Additionally, while reading about all of this available technology available for educational purposes, I couldn't help but think of the extreme cost of implementing such technologies in school districts throughout the country and that much of what is available is not there for those in certain social strata due to extreme cost. Simply another observation.