Journal 4 - Project Plan

Here is the Website Project Plan for my Curriculum Project

• Site title - ESL Basics for Teachers.
• Developer - Nadine Elhaj
• Rationale or focus - The purpose is to give ESL Teachers some basic, workable ideas about what to teach and how to teach.
• Main features outline - images, text delivery, navigation between pages, internal hyperlinks, and CSS 
• Content - There will be six main webpages:  Home page, Video page, Story Lessons page, Dialogue Lessons page, Vocabulary page, and Evaluation page
• Target audience - My target audience is first-time teachers
• Design considerations. I want the layout to be plain, basic, and very easy to follow.  I want the teachers to feel like the navigation of the pages is highly intuitive.  I want to minimize any struggle they may have in regards to backtracking and locating information
• Limiting factors - The limiting factors are my minimal knowledge in web design.

Here is the Wire Frame

Journal 3 - The Case for Social Media in School

I believe that social media is an important part of the educational process.  Students feel that their teachers are out-of-touch dinosaurs until proven otherwise.  What better way for a teacher to speak her students' language than to engage them in social media activities.  The teacher will be transformed from a dinosaur to a rockstar.  This isn't a popularity contest; but it is a contest to win over and capture students' attention and focus.  Teachers can either innovate or lose their audience.  Anything can be used for both good or bad.  It's time to draw out the good that social media can do.  For example, a teacher can post a lesson on Facebook-like social media outlet.  Students can upload their assignments.  The experience can be interactive between teacher and student as well as student and student.  Of course, there would have to be established boundaries and consequences for bullying or inappropriate behavior; but I think that students would be so overwhelmed with gratitude towards their teacher's efforts to engage them that most of the students would probably behave without much warning.

Blogs where students can post responses to teacher questions and gather teacher and peer feedback would be another idea.  The exciting thing about blog posts is that students can also see who else out there is reading what they have to say.  Many students feel that education is a daunting experience.  I feel that blogs and other social media outlets can help students learn topics in bite-sized chunks, voice their confusion, gain perspective from teachers and peers, and eventually contribute something of value themselves.

Q:  Do you think that there is any good that can come out of using social media in the classroom?
A:  Yes, I believe if a teacher is creative, she can use social media to catapult the learning curve.  Learning can become a game.  Students love games.  They especially love games that they can play with their peers.  Who doesn't like a little friendly competition.  A teacher could potentially create a 24/7 educational portal if she is clever enough.

Q:  How could you ensure that students do not use social media to bully each other?
A:  A teacher can establish "game rules" and hold herself and all her students responsible for reporting any breach.  Teacher and students can use a breach as an opportunity to discuss internet safety and bullying.  With established and enforced rules, the teacher is covered, the students are covered, and social media is open to be used for educational purposes as well as for entertainment and friend-connect purposes (already being utilized by students).

Journal 2 - Affinity Group and Digg Stream

 

 

 

 

Affinity Group:  

I joined the affinity group, Teachers Pay Teachers at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/   I first heard about this group from Dr. McGarvey in class.   I think joining a collective brain trust or think tank, even at the level of an interest/affinity group, provides people with an outlet for their creativity.

I am also all about repurposing knowledge for cash. This can be my “retirement plan”.  I can help myself while helping others.  Besides the monetary reward, it is very affirming to share ideas and potentially have people say how much they appreciate you.   

Digg Reader:

Digg Reader is a wonderful, timesaving tool. The topics that I find fascinating at the moment are ESL and investing.  I currently teach ESL, own a great penny stock (ticker symbol JAMN), and day trade (in simulation for now).  This week, I saw job postings for ESL teachers, learned about the latest hot penny stocks, and read an article about billionaires and how they think and do business.  I am excited to continue logging in to Digg in the upcoming weeks to read the articles it has retrieved and to continue to add areas of interest to my list.  

Question 1:  Why is it important to join an affinity group?

Answer 1:  It is important because it connects you with likeminded people who may or may not exist in your geographical area.  It gives you access to a more “global” community and allows you to learn and share on topics of mutual interest.

Question 2:  How can Digg Reader become an invaluable tool?

Answer 2:  If you are always on the go and in need of the latest updates on certain topics, accessing all that information in a “one-stop” shop is priceless.  You can always add new areas of interest, delete old areas of interest, or refine your search criteria.  It is a great way to save time and energy in retrieving information that could potentially put you one step ahead of the crowd.

 

 

Journal 1 - Chapters 1, 2 and 3 - Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Web Graphics

Robbins, J. (2012).  Learning web design:  A beginner's guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and web graphics (4th ed.). Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly.

Chapters 1 through 3 provide us with a basic foundation for understanding websites. 
Web design has become much more standardized which is invaluable in light of the fact that people will be accessing websites from a variety of device  

A web designer creates a base that can be read by any device or web browser; then adds layers upon layers of features.  This layering approach allows all to at least access the basic information on all devices.  Then, depending on the person's device capabilities, more and more details can be seen. 

A person can be a jack-of-all trades or can specialize in a specific area of web design.  The main aspects are related to:  design, development, content strategy and multimedia.

I am extremely interested in creating websites, both by hand and by using out-of-the-box technology.  I want to put them side by side and see if I can tell the difference between an original and a cookie cutter.  I think the main things that would be different are the graphic elements.  If someone is a true artist and knows how to translate that art into digital media, the visual element will be far superior to an out-of-the-box basic design. 

Still, I want to perhaps, outside of class, put together an out-of-the-box website so I can quickly identify all the moving parts, focus on SEO and selling a product; and then backtrack, using this as a model, to create an original that is more intricate and pleasing to the eye.

Question 1:  When a person says "web design" does it mean just one or all of the below?
Visual (graphic design); user interface and experience design; web document and style sheet production; scripting and programming; content strategy; multimedia.

Answer 1:  It means all of those things.  A person does not have to do all of these facets.  A person can pick a specialty and utilize a team for the remaining items.


Question 2: What are the 4 main categories of web design?

Answer 2:  Design (how it works), development (document, style sheet, scripts, images), content strategy (website text and its organization), and multimedia (sound, video, animation, interactivity)

Question 3: What are the basic suggested tools for a would-be web designer?  

Answer 3:  a computer, memory, large monitor, scanner, digital camera, 2nd test computer, and mobile devices for testing.