Journal 4: Project Plan (Rough Draft)

Site title -  Golden Express

Developer - Diana Shaibi, with recommendations/design commentary from the high school students of PCHS tutored at New Dimensions Community Services

Rational or focus - This website is to launch the organization they have been working on since the beginning of the school year. Thirteen ambitious high school students would like to create a community service organization called the Golden Express in order to communicate with patience at local hospitals that will be there for a while. From young children to the elderly, if you're in the hospital and have limited interaction with the outside world, high school students involved in the Golden Express will write letters to you to cheer you up and befriend you (like pen pals). 

Main features outline - The main features include history of the organisation, biographies of the writers, testimonials, pictures, affiliated hospitals, the opportunity to join the organisation and to donate, etc. 

Content - 23 or more pages (considering I want each writer's short biography on a separate page)

Target audience - Ambitious high school students and community members who'd like to make a difference

Design considerations. I want to follow the rule of thirds and keep a "golden" color scheme. 

Limiting factors - I will know the limiting factors as I troubleshoot this project. As of right now, things seem like it is working out well. As for the pictures and biographies of the students, I will make sure I have written and signed a release waiver to allow for their information to go online from their parents. 

Journal 3: The Case for Social Media in School

Resource: Kessler, Sarah. "The Case For Social Media in Schools." Mashable. N.p., 29 Sept. 2010. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/>.

There is no doubt that the time students are spending on social media is on the rise. In the online article "The Case for Social Media in Schools," Kessler provides the example of a teacher who engaged her students via a social media network with remarkable success. It had the trickle effect of it spreading throughout her school which consequently engaged students a lot more and absentees were decreasing. The article discusses safer options for students to engage online including websites such as edublogs, kidblogs, edmodo, and so on. It also discussed using text messages as a means to communicate with students, in particular, the students who were late or absent would get reminders to come to school. 

I think in order for this type of educational networking to work, a teacher must first make sure that all her students have access to the internet. Chances are everyone well, but it's important to know for sure first - there is no doubt that if a few students are not capable of engaging with everyone else the feeling of isolation may be difficult on those children. Furthermore, I believe social media is an effective tool as long as the teacher knows how to introduce it and motivate students to use it properly. 

_________________________________________________________

Question #1:

Have you seen social media work successfully in a classroom?

Answer:

Yes. I have been on e-mail lists among students in Model United Nations sharing and discussing their position papers and their availability to come to our meetings. Also, in a class that I have observed a teacher was reading a novel and asked each student to create an instagram account portraying that character and talking/acting/posting as if the story character was real. That was really engaging and exciting for the students.

Question #2:

Are there any social media networking attempts with students that wasn't successful that you may know of?

Answer:

For an English class that I taught, I created a blog account for the students. They were all able to post an entry as members. I remember there were a few students who really enjoyed it and posted all the time, and there were some that asked me if they had to do it, because they would rather not. In hindsight, I should have assigned them tasks and subject matter to write about, but I simply opened it for fun to allow them to express themselves. It didn't work, to say the least. This is mostly my fault because of poor execution. 

If you're interested, here's a successful way of getting your students interested in blogging:

Five Tips for Blogging with Your Students

Journal 2: Affinity Group and Digg Stream

Edutopia - The affinity group I joined is called Edutopia. It is filled with interesting insight into teaching. There are a lot of articles on game based learning, hands on learning, and tips to being a motivational teacher and so much more. The link to this affinity group is: https://www.facebook.com/edutopia ~ I also included it on my Digg RSS reader, and I'm getting lots of interesting articles.


I Dig My Digg Stream: :) I added a bunch of sites I'm interested in on my digg stream and some proved to be better than others. For instance, Al-Jazeera, a news network that I love to read has posts up all the time, and I have enjoyed keeping up to date with their posts in such a nice way. I had a few blog websites and forums I enjoy, but they're not as active as I hoped they would be. I noticed that the top two places that I enjoyed reading from were Al-Jazeera's posts and Edutopia. It is nice to see updates from both on one screen.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Questions:

#1: Should it be mandatory for educators and other professionals to keep a digg stream to stay up to date?

I would have more trust in a professional who is constantly reading and staying up to date with whatever their profession is. If a professional is part of affinity groups related to their field, it makes me have more trust for their work because it shows they have an inner passion and interest in their field. I don't know if it should be mandatory, but it would heighten the level of trust that the consumers have with their service.

#2: Would it be a good idea to put which affinity groups you are in on a resume, or on linkedin?

I believe it depends on the affinity group you're in. There are affinity groups that are known for the quality of their work and have a great reputation - whereas others may not be so well recognized. It also depends on how many you're part of. If you're part of a good handful and keep up to date with them, it is better than being a part of hundreds and just skimming through them.

Journal 1: Part I: Getting Started

Robbins, J. (2012). Learning web design : a beginner's guide to HTML, CSS, Javascript, and web graphics. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly.

Summary Reflection:

The first three chapters of the book gave an overview of the language used in current technology, it discussed the way in which "the web" works, and the basic building blocks of web design. 

It is fascinating to see how the web, as we know it, is progressing and evolving. Flash is going on the decline as HTML5 is taking over, the format for our IP address IPv4 which can hold over 4 billion unique addresses is moving towards IPv6 so that it can take on trillions of numbers, not to mention device diversity from our desktop to our mobile device. We can only wonder what the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) will be looking over next!

Side Thought: Also, when I was reading about the diversity of devices, and how we need to keep in mind that when we design something it is going to be viewed from many different devices, there's a really neat website out that does a great job of helping us view how our final design will look both on mobile phones and desktops. It is called mailchimp.com, and it takes great care in making sure that whatever is designed on that site is accessible. I use it all the time for sending out newsletters to my students and parents - not to mention it lets me know who is opening my email and who isn't - that's the best part. :)

While reading about web accessibility for "everyone" the one thing that intrigued me was having Braille displays for the vision impaired. Just the thought of having something like that blew me away. 

Question #1: What does a braille display look like, and are schools with blind children required have this type of device available for students who are blind and what to participate in a computer course the rest of the students are taking?

According to http://www.ada.gov/cguide.htm which is "A Guide to Disability Rights" I found out that section 504 states that Section 504 states that "no qualified individual with a disability in the United States shall be excluded from, denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under" any program or activity that either receives Federal financial assistance or is conducted by any Executive agency..." and that due this, a visually impaired student in the classroom has the right to be able to learn and access what other students are learning. As I kept searching the web, I found this very short article: Ensuring emerging classroom technologies are ADA compliant which pretty much explains that an educator in a government setting must make sure not to discriminate against any of her students, even with technology. 

Question #2: What's the difference between XML and HTML?

I read page 14 again, hoping it would become clearer, but it still didn't connect. I found my answer in this site:  http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_whatis.asp. Basically, XML transports data and focuses on what data is, and HTML displays data and focuses on what data looks like.