Getting Into Web Design

I believe this was the most difficult module so far. When trying to make a google site, I was confused on more than one occassion. In the assignment we were supposed to have a background color. I tried working on this for twenty minutes. I was unable to figure out how to do it. I did find some helpful websites while during this project. The one I found most interesting was Articles on Web Accessibility.


My first google site

Fun with Movies

Imaging: Learning Module Number Five... Almost Done!

Learning module 5: Imaging for the web and introduction to web 2.0 was quite interesting. The first lesson on file sharing was something that all college students are familiar with. I love the Kid Rock video that said we should just go out and steal things. I love people with dry sense of humor. I was surprised when the poll results came in for the file sharing. When I was in high school and CDS just became popular, it was expensive. I feel record labels did charge too much for music before. Because of all the P2P sites have blown up, the music companies have reduced charges for songs and albums. I don’t really mine paying the current prices. This lesson also tied in with a previous module on cyber security.

There are some interesting sources I used to find out more about the issue on peer to peer file sharing. The main website I use when I want to find articles is usatoday.com or timemagazine.com

 The lesson on image optimizing was informative.  I did not know that you need to reduce the size of images to be put on the web. For all of our assignments in this module were lengthy but didn’t feel like it. Work is so much easier when you enjoy it. I loved making the slide shows and the page on the Coliseum in Rome. When school is over, I would love to eventually make my daughter a page. I think when she gets old she will enjoy it. Goodness knows what kinds of technology will be around when she starts college. I used Google’s Piscasa.com a lot in this module.

The thing I enjoyed the most was being able to see my classmates work.

Four New Words

Image Optimizing-  Making images smaller so they can be viewed on the web.

Tag Clouds- This groups terms together with other related terms. Which helps you search better and get better results. And have related information

Online Slide Show- A group of related photos that captures the eye of viewers

Bit-Mapped Images- It is an image that is displayed as colored points on a grid

Mod 4

I this module we learned alot about email and social netowrking. This is information which I was aware of already. I spend much more time on this module then the last one. I realized after my late assignments I needed to be more devoted to my classes.
I like that I was familiar which the majority of information in this mod. I am not a blogger so I did learn about that. I didn't realize that there are so many. I couldn't believe that there were several blogs about one certain subject e.g.cooking, business, fine art. It was interesting to go through the blogs and read others thoughts and feelings on issues. I highly enjoyed the assignment on microblogging. It reminded me why I don't use such sites as twitter. The test was a little harded than I would have thought because of all the terms. Even though I knew about e-mail and social networks, I didn't know certain terms.

FOUR NEW TERMS

Stop Words- These are words such as is, what, where, and how that search engines ignore.
Drilling Down- This is when you click on and visit different links thatare subtopics of what your searching.
Boolean Operators- Using small words such as and, not, and or can change your search results. I found this one interesting because I never thought to put "not" in a search inquiry.
Cyber Bullying- A new trend where middle school and high school students are being bullyed over the internet.

Module 3

Module 3 is one that I am not proud of. First off, I misread the course calendar and didn’t get my discussion post on time. Then I tried to do my Web Lab on searching the NCCC library website and my code wouldn’t work. I tried to contact my teacher via email but I didn’t get a response (you must have not seen it). Then I contacted the NCCC library and they told me that I had to go to campus to first set up the number. I didn’t end up making it because of the holiday weekend so now I get two Zeros for the module. I was going to throw my hands in the air and take a huge zero for the mod by not during my journal but that wouldn’t be very smart or responsible.

Even though I didn’t complete the majority of the assignments I did learn a few things. I learned to check date more careful and write them down. I also learned that I shouldn’t wait till a few days before the assignment is due to ask questions.  To be honest I knew all of this and somehow just didn’t follow through with how I normally tackle assignments.

I did read the assigned chapter (3) in the book and the lectures. I learned the importance of citing web sources in your papers. If you don’t cite your sources it could be considered plagiarism. Plagiarism is very serious. I believe the rules at my school is get caught once it’s a zero, get caught twice and you are kicked out of the class. I really don’t need to worry about this because I don’t do it. All a teacher has to do is search the web (which was also covered in Ch. 3). It is also important to know how to search the web so you can receive but information on the subject you are researching.

FOUR NEW WORDS

Deep Web- Didn’t know another name for the deep web was invisible web

Meta Search Engine- This is a major search engine that links other search engines together giving you a hits on what you are looking for.

Stop Words- These are words that are ignored in search engines. Examples: AND, WHAT, HOW, ABOUT, IS THE

Stop Words and Search Engines- Stop Words are not used in search engines because the words fill up disk space and the results are much slower without omitting them

Mod 2

This module was primarily based on computer security and the difference between web browsers. I learned a lot throughout this mod. I currently use Internet Explorer 8 for my browser and for our web lab #2 I was able to research the different features my browser have. I learned that I.E. 8 has a compatibility viewer. This viewer allows you to see pages that aren’t viewable in I.E. 8. It also allows you to add websites that you frequent on a list so when you return they will be able to be viewed. Internet Explorer also has a browsing tool that prevents I.E. from saving history, cookies and temporary Internet files. We also had a chance to try out a different web browser for web lab #2. I chose Goggle Chrome. I learned the different features that Google Chrome offered. My favorite was the “Pin-Tab” function. It allows you to reduce the size of the tabs for different pages that are open so more can be listed at once by showing a same image instead of the title for web pages. I found that you were able to look at much more information at one time.

            In web lab #3 we were assigned to find out information on different forms of online securities. I was able to find different tips for online shopping, protecting my privacy, and computer security. Computer security is one of the most important things you should know about if you are an Internet user. It is important to know what viruses, spy-ware, and cookies are. They cannot only affect your computer but your life. If someone steals your identity it can take a lot of time to repair.

            I felt that I put a good amount of time in this module and learned information I didn’t know. My favorite part was the Did You Know video. It was quite interesting; I even showed the video to a couple friends. We all need to know our lives are going to have computer systems in it, so we need to know how to use them.

Four New Words

SPY-WARE

TROJANS

PIN-TAB

TEMPOARY COOKIE/ PERAMANT COOKIE

Mod 1

Mod 1 was a simple start to what I believe will be very interesting class. I am not a blogger so this part of the class is very new to me. I never really thought to have an online diary. It is an interesting concept that I am sure when this class is done I will be able to reflect on.
In Mod 1, I was able to review all the necessary requirements for this class. Teachers make it so much easier for online students that lay out the plan for the semester up front. I was able to meet my classmates and understand why they were taking this class and what they hope to get out of it.
In the lecture I learned history of the WWW. I didn't know that Asia was at the top of the list for the number of people using the Internet. They are nearly half of the amount for the whole world (42.6%). I know Asia had many more people but I really did seem to think that the United States (North America) would have more people on the Internet.
This connection of networks (Internet) has done the human race so much good. As a students perspective, I am able to go to school at home. I do not need to visit the library every time I have to write a paper. It also gives students more ability to learn on their own then a teacher could. When you go through life you need to know how to find information and solve problems on your own. There is not always going to be someone to hold your hand.
My personal favorite thing to do on-line is to shop. I can never find deals at locate stores that I can find on the internet. I use website such as ebay.com, overstock.com, and nextag.com to help find what I need or want. It is also useful on days where I am looking for something specific and don't have to drag my daughter out to 5 different stores to maybe find.
I feel I spent a good amount of time of this module. I understand this is just an ice breaking mod to get all of us used to this class. I understand there is more work to come and I am going to do everything to try a complete it on time and with good grades.

FOUR NEW WORDS

BLOG
META-COGNITION
HYPERLINK
HTTP
meta-cognition