Memorial Day

Please complete the self-assessment on your blog today.  I realize there are some stragglers that need to finish desk work.  iPads are away.  If you still need them you will need to see me.

1.  Please write an introductory paragraph.  Introduce the project to your readers.
2.  For each task you completed (including blog posts) please write a separate paragraph.  Tell us what you did, how many points you should earn, and why.  Click here for possible points.
3.  Conclude with a summary paragraph.  How many total points did you earn?

When done please start the Memorial Day project

Your assignment is to make a poster about Memorial Day.

More information on Memorial Day can be found here: Wikipedia entry Be sure you understand the purpose of Memorial Day before tackling this assignment.

Your assignment is to design an image that could be posted in schools. You will use Fireworks and choose the appropriate tool or tools for your image.

Assignment parameters:

1. You set up the image size when you create a new document: Height=300 pixels, Width =600 pixels.
2. Your images MUST be non-copyrighted.

3. You must be able to defend your choice of a tool in your blog post.
4. You must include "Memorial Day" somewhere in your image. You might decide to include additional text (date, slogan, etc..).
5. You must finish by the end of the period on Monday 5/21.
6. Save in Udrive when done (bschneider) as a .jpg file. All students will save in the same folder so be sure you name it correctly in the WDrive BEFORE you copy it to the UDrive. Be sure to test your work in the UDrive.

Now, lets recognize that there are several functions this week (music trip, honors breakfast, etc...). Plan your work accordingly so things get done. I anticipate adding a Flash component to this assignment on Thursday.

Good luck!

Grading

I will begin grading your projects today.  This will be a bit cumbersome as I need to find them all.  Please be sure you have emailed me your book, shared with me your game, posted your showme on our Seymour High page, put your Flash in the Udrive, and/or finished your coding.

All 9th-11th graders need to fill out this form today.

Click here to see the eBooks as they are published.  You need to view books from an iPad.  Give link to your friends.

Project

Here is your project.  Good luck.  Work hard.

iPad reviews

You must have the Flash replication project done and the two coding courses done to do todays assignment.

I would also like you to help a classmate who may be struggling with the Java work if they need it.

Today we will work on doing some iPad reviews.  There is some issues with wifi connectivity in the computer lab so I may send you away.

Please write a review of three iPad apps on your blog.  This review must include:

• Link to iTunes page for the app.
• Educational uses for the app.
• How easy was it to use and any other review.

Some of the iPads dont have all the apps.  Apps to choose from:

• Six Strings
• Morris Lessmore
• DustBuster
• My Story or Scribble Press
• Noteshelf (or any other note program)
• Skitch
• Guardian Eyewitness
• Molecules

You can write your reviews right on the iPad if you choose (and we have internet connection).

If you complete the iPad reviews you should head back to codeacademy and work on a new course.

Coding

We will finish up the initial part of codecademy today.  The javascript is hard!  Keep using the help section and the hints.  It helps to go back and redo some sections to remember the code.  Many of you noticed how easy the HTML section is.  Hopefully the javascript will be easy soon.

I will grade you today:

4 = HTML and Javascript courses finished

3 = One course finished, have over 50 pts.

2 = No course finished but over 40 pts

1 = under 40 pts

0 = under 20 pts

If you finish up you can:

• Start a new course.
• Work on your blog.
• Do some Flash or Fireworks tutorials.

Codecademy

Please finish the Flash Replication project first.

Today will start working on learning Java Script using the website Codecademy.  Java Script is a modern code that runs a lot of technology including websites, computers, and apps.  This is how you will learn how to program your robot.  It is important to learn.

I'll be doing it along with you!  I've forgotten Java Script and I think its time to relearn using this new site. We can help each other.

I would like you to create an account on the site.  This way we can keep track of your progress.

Some of you will really get into this.  After we get the basics down we will have a project option to develop computer programs and apps.

5 rules for social media

5 rules for social media:

License Some rights reserved by Mister Norris

Flash Replication Project

Create/name a folder. Call it first initial last name flash (bschneiderFlash)

• Set up a basic HTML page.  Name it "home".  Title it "Awesome Flash Animations".
• Be sure all your items are in the same folder.
• Embed a shiny headline into the webpage.  When you create the movie be sure the canvas is the correct size (long and thin)
• Center it
• Use the <embed src="shiny text.swf" align=center> command to embed the movie title.  Note that you are embedding the Movie, not the Flash file.
• Create two Flash Animations
• Stick Figure I give you direction for this.
• Flowers I don't give you directions for this.  Solve the puzzle!
• Put the two animations in a 1 row table. You may need to play with the height/width of the movies.
• <Table align="center" border="1">
• <TR>
• <TD><embed src="stick.swf"></TD>
• <TD><embed src="flower.swf"></TD>
• </TR>

All of the tutorials (text, stick, flower) I encourage you to be creative.  Feel free to stick to the script, but once you "get it" I would like to see you take it to the next level.

Copy your folder to the UDrive.

Who is he?

Recently I got a comment via twitter and started an interesting exchange.

Cool.  New followers. 

So I spent a little time trying to find out who was this guy?  Twitter is interesting because I have so many colleagues on twitter that I never met (583 followers currently).  We exchange ideas, debate lessons, and support each other.  I have never talked to Jay, yet we exchange information.  He reads this blog (and your blogs?) and now I will read his.

And he has an interesting blog! Here is his school blog (leave him a comment? Get a red dot back?)

So we are going to find out some answers as a google review activity.  Find answers to each of these and post in an entry in your blog.  Each answer should contain a link, image, or video.  All of these answers require some thinking.  You should demonstrate that you can search effectively, process the information you find, select the best sources, and write about what you find in an interesting manner using links.

I guarantee he will be reading your answers.  Much of Moline High may read your answers as well.  Write smart.

1. Mr. Bohnsack teaches at Moline High School in Illinois.  Where is this school?  Find it in google earth. 
2. If he had to fly to New York which airport would he likely fly out of?
3. Estimate the total weight of his cattle.  His cattle are Herefords.  You will have to estimate how many cows he has and how much each weighs and do some math.  Show your work.
4. If you go to Moline High School which college team are you most likely to root for? 
5. If you lived in Taylor Ridge, Illinois and you wanted to take your wife out to dinner where would you be likely to go?
6. There are two Mr. Bohnsacks at Moline High School.  Are they brothers (this one is hard)?
7. If you were driving from Moline High School and drove west for six hours where would you be likely to stop?  How about south?  East?  Now choose your favorite of the three spots and why.
8. If you live in Moline what colors are your tractors most likely to be? (Hint: a big company is headquartered there).

Answers will be posted on student blogs.

Growing You Blog Audience

Step One

Your task is to create an audience for your blog.  How will you do this?  The best way is to comment on other people's blogs.  Creating an audience for your work is HARD.  It took me a long time to build even my meager audience.

Using the first page of blogmeister you should search for other blogs.  This is not an easy process as that search engine does not recognize new blogs.  One way to do it is to click on Featured Articles.  Or you can search by state, country, or age group.

Perhaps start here -- Leave a comment on a 1st graders blog,or here.  Be sure to log in first if on blogmeister and leave SUPER nice and SUPER polite short entries for the kids.

When you leave a comment be sure it extends the conversation about the blog post.  Don't spam them ("Hey, check out my blog!" or "If you click this link you can read my new eBook!").  But be sure the information boxes are filled out correctly (first name, last initial: leave email blank; your blog address).

Now, when they return to your blog do you have interesting content?  Will you have something for them to read?

How will we measure/grade this?  Write a blog post RIGHT NOW where you list:

• How many countries have visited your blog.
• How many red dots do you have.
• How many comments from non-SHS people.

Then we measure the growth.  Good luck.

Step Two

Each of you should have a blog post measuring the reach of your blog.  Some of you began your campaign to grow your audience by commenting on blogs.  We will continue this now.

Click here to go to student blogs.

We discussed the difference between spam comments and valuable comments.  We discussed the proper way to format your comment (no email, first name last initial, blog address).  We discussed the value of responding to comments.  We recognized how hard it is to build an audience.

Building an audience is one of the most important skills we will work on.  Nearly every product, service, and idea is sold via the web now.  You MUST know how to get your work out there to survive and eat.  This blog is practice for that.

I'm also hoping to raise the level of work on your google profile.  For many of you your twitter feed is your #1 result on google.  For many of you this is NOT good.  Seriously.  And remember, swearing is bad.

Today you will do three things:
1. Write blog posts to increase the quality of your blog (see topics below).  You need posts that people will link to, email their friends, post on twitter.  We want people to be saying "Read this!".
2. Comment, comment, comment.  Using blogmeister or google you will find blogs to comment on.  You will leave comments everywhere.  You will make the comments interesting and they will extend the conversation.  
3. If you find an interesting blog post you will write about and link back to the original blog.  This is "polite blogging".  This is how traffic gets generated.

Suggested blog posts (remember to include links, a cool title, embed video/images if needed).  Choose one or all:
1. If you are a football player: Explain when you would punt the ball and when you "go for it" so anyone can understand it.
2. If you are a cheerleader: Is cheerleading becoming more dangerous?  Describe how cheerleading has changed over time.  Where is the line between OK and too dangerous?
3. If you are a musician:  How have headphones and iPods changed music?
4. If you are an artist/photographer: How has the internet changed how we view art?  Does the internet help or hurt art?
5. If you eat: What should we eat?  Should we be allowed to eat whatever we want?  What if we know what we eat is slowly killing us?
6. If you breath: Whats in the air that you breath?  Is it safe to breath?

Additional Flash Work

I will pass out grade sheets today for the third marking period.  If there are errors or omissions please let me know.  Some of you lost 7-10 points off your grade because you didn't do some blog entries.  I don't get that.


You need to complete the basic tutorials form the last session first.  Be sure to understand shape tween, motion tween, layers, and masking.

Today please try to complete the following.  These are much more complicated.  Some of these are video tutorials.  Be sure to use your headphones to respect your neighbors.  I suggest splitting your screen when doing the tutorials (tutorial on left, Flash on right)

Zoom In Zoom Out
Shiny Text
Drag and Drop (action Script coding)
Basic Slide Show
Importing Sound to Flash

And.....how to stop your movie!  

Want to do something else?  Search on google or YouTube and find a tutorial.

Flash is dead, but....

Flash is kind of dead.  Adobe just pretty much killed it.  But, we have the software and I think it will be an excellent way to introduce you to animation.  We will explore several tools.

Save your Flash documents in the WDrive (make a Flash folder).  Save them in two formats.  First save the Flash document as an .fla file.  Then save the Flash Movie as a .swf file.  Then you will have two files for each project.  You can edit the .fla file.  You watch the .swf file.

Flash is probably new to most of you.  GO SLOW.  Skipping a step will cause your project to crash.  Coding is about being patient, paying attention to details, and seeing the big picture.


Please complete the following tutorials at a minimum on Monday:

• Motion Tween
• Shape Tween
• Layers
• Mask
• Ball Bouncing

Students who have those completed should work on:

• Rotating Globe
• Fog Effect
• Zoom in

If you get excited please start more tutorials (see link on right).

TED Talks and Writing Effectively

I am on a field trip to WCSU today to rehearse iAlchemy.  I am eager to see what you write about these subjects.  There is plenty to write about! This is your first grade of the fourth marking period.  Write well!

Today's objective is to write three blog posts about these TED talks.  I would like to see that you can:

• Title the blog post effectively.
• Format a link correctly.  Like this.  Not like http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_links.asp this.
• Write a post that interests your readers.  Each post should be between 50-100 words.

You must write about THREE of the videos.  This should take you just about exactly 85 minutes.

1. Keith Barry.  This will blow your mind.  How is brain magic different than regular magic?

2. David Blaine.  Is he crazy, or determined?




3. Robert Lang and his origami.  Why has origami changed?



4. Bryan Stevenson and injustice.  Reflect on the connection between this talk and the Trayvon Martin case.



And a few extras if you have time:

Rives 1, Rives 2  This guy is a great storyteller.

If anything does not work or is blocked please use google to search for the video.  Make it happen.

Catch-Up

I will be catching up on grades today as I close grades for 1st marking period.  I will pass out grade sheets.

If you notice errors, let me know.  If you notice anything missing please submit to "MISSING WORK" folder in the UDrive-WebSchneider.

Many of you have lots of missing work.

Good job

I was about to give Caitlin a zero for manipulating her Fireworks image. I thought "she just took a picture and didn't change it". Then I read her blog. Cool.

Check out some of our images (I'll add more).

HTML and Fireworks Exam

Here is your marking period exam.  This is worth 20% of your grade and is due by the end of class.

Please prepare an HTML website using notepad about the October Snowfall.  I am looking to see that you can use your new Fireworks talents to enhance your website.  The site should include:

1. Create a website using HTML that demonstrates the following:

• That you can use proper HTML codes.  

• You can create links that work, are effective, and efficient.

• You demonstrate attention to those with vision issues by including alt text for all images.

• A modern, usable design.

2. You must include a table or other device that shows how this snowfall ranks all-time. Cite where you obtain your data.
3. You must include an image or animation that has been manipulated using Fireworks. This image must be obtained using Creative Commons (Flickr,wikicommons, etc...). You may create the image yourself if you choose.  Save the link, you'll need it later.
4. A summary paragraph.  You must include at least one link to valuable information about the storm.
5. Your audience is 5th graders in Seymour.
6. Your website must be free of bias and be highly usable.


How to save your project:
1. Rename your folder in the WDrive. Name it first initial-last name-test (bschneidertest).
2. Copy folder.
3. Find class folder in UDrive. (Udrive-WebSchneider-Class-TEST)
4. Paste folder into UDrive.
5. HAVE NEIGHBOUR TEST WORK TO MAKE SURE EVERYTHING WORKS!! Format the links correctly! Remember, just use the file name (don't add w;drive in code....).
6. Saving correctly is one of our standards.  I will not grade your test if I can't find it!



Blog Post:
1. Where did you get the image?  Include link.  If you created it yourself then please state that.
2. What aspects of coding or image manipulation have you gotten better at?
3. How did you manipulate your image in Fireworks?
4. What do you need to improve on?

Website 80%, Blog Reflection 20%

Rubric


You have two things due.  Test and Blog post about test.  The bell is your deadline.  Do GREAT work.

Tuesday

I am in Manchester to today visiting their high school.  Please ensure your FINAL copies of your folders are saved correctly to the UDrive.

Please complete the following activities today.  Each activity has a corresponding blog question that should be answered in separate blog posts.  If you do not finish in class then you have homework.

You MUST include link to the topic in your blog entry.  It should be formatted correctly! If needed then a video should be embedded to your blog.  Create blog entries that people will want to read.  Tell a story!

I will try to approve your blogs during the day, but I'm not sure I will be able to check.

Answer 5 of the 6 questions.

1. Draw A Stickman.  Do the new story (you did the first one in January).  Why does this work?  How does it keep you on the page?

2. Read this: Facebook/Twitter Shoulder-surfing.  Are you prepared to have a college interviewer have you log in to your Twitter or Facebook page?  What you write on the internet or text is there for ever.  Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is public.

3. Watch this video about green men.  Would you do that?

4. Watch this video about an escalator.  Do you know people who are like that?  Someone who just will not walk up the escalator?

5. Should students wear pajamas and slippers to school?  Are they sloppy/lazy or are they just being comfortable?  Take a side.  Where is NOT ok to wear pajamas and slippers?

6. Do teens who text 100's of times per day have a need for attention?  Or do they have a lot to say and people are listening?  Take a side.

Blogs?

I think your blogs are active.  Finally.

Please update them today with some of your prior work including your analysis letter to Mrs. Goodrich, your accessibility and usability questions, TED and games questions and anything else that you can find.  Double check spelling, spacing, links, etc...

I expect much of the project to finish today.  Do not turn in a new folder yet, we will do that next week.  If you want to have me check something then let me know.

Funny

Cyberbullying

I wonder why people feel its OK to be mean. Take a moment and reflect how you talk about other people.

Fireworks Projects

We will be doing fireworks projects for a few weeks.  Of course you could use any image manipulation software but we happen to have fireworks on our machines.

I've taken ideas from past projects and from my colleagues to develop this.  I've tried hard to find projects that are fun and that you can be creative.

Create a new folder and name it (first initial, last name, project).  bschneiderfireworksproject

Major Options (do at least 2):

• Design the front and back of a postcard that might be sent from the location of a work of fiction. Both sides of the cards must be created as graphics.
• The front should use graphic design elements that provide a sense of place or use the classic motifs of old postcards (“Greetings from ______”)_, both pictures and text. The back of the post card should contain a stamp and postmark that fits with the theme of work, as well as an addressee and a message that fits the plot as well.
• How big is a postcard?  What would the stamp look like? Were they different sizes in the era of your fiction book?
• Be sure to author the postcard as if you are the character.  Use their style of writing.
• This is TWO canvasses (front and back) and TWO separate files (bschneiderpostcard1, bschneiderpostcard2)
• Design the cover of your autobiography. What pictures or graphics would you include? What would you title it? Make sure it really shows off who you are and what you want your audience to see in you by the cover.
• How big are book covers?  What is on a book cover?
• You can use my camera to take pictures.
• Create a minimalist poster of any work of fiction, fable, or allegory.  Example 1. Example 2.  I don't want to show you too many examples as it can ruin your ideas. 

Minor Tasks (do all):

• Take this picture of Molly.  Change her outfit so its the same color as the girl in front of her.
• Change the H to an S.
• Change STOP to GO.  Make it green.
• Use a text tool to make your name super cool.
• Put President Obama in a crowd at a Yankee Game.

Funny

Fireworks Continued

Today we will continue the Fireworks Tutorials.  This is sandbox time.  Please complete 8 tutorials today and have the completed products in your Fireworks folder.  Now, some of these might not work perfectly as the software has changed.  If somethings not working, please substitute another tutorial.  Take your time and FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS.

Some of these will be blocked.....

1. List of tutorials (choose one or all)

2. Another list (choose one or all)

3. More tutorials (have fun!)

You should have 13 examples of images tutorials by the end of class today.  This will be the end of sandbox time, we will start our projects on Tuesday.

In addition, I believe our blogs are opened.  I would like you to take some of your saved work (usability questions, web analysis letter to Mrs. Goodrich, etc...) and put that content on your blog.    This will involve some copy and paste.  Be sure to work on your links and include interesting titles.

Plenty to do today.  There should be no down time.

I think this might work?

A new unit starts today as all classes will work on Fireworks tutorials.  Whether this is new or review I would like all to do the same work to start.  You should move straight down the "image effects" category.  Then move to the other categories.  This is sandbox time today and Friday.  Create a fireworks folder to save all of your work.  Every thing you do should be named, saved, and put in a folder.

Everyone must complete (at least):

• Image Color 
• Photo Frames
• Old Photograph
• Pencil Drawing
• Fading  

A few hints:

• Read the directions.  If you call me over I will just read the directions for you.  Take your time.
• Choose photographs from Clipart that are high quality and appropriate for the task you are trying to complete.  Some photographs do not work very well in some tutorials.
• Save and label everything you work on in a Fireworks folder.
• Help your classmates.

If you finish please start on the text tutorials.  

I'm not sure...

I'm not sure how the filter will be working today.

I have copied some of the Fireworks Tutorials to our wiki site.  I would like you to complete all five of the fireworks assignments on that page.

1. Are your blogs unblocked?
2. Does the video (last assignment) play?  If so, watch it.
3. Can you reach the tutorials from last Wednesday?  If so, use that link.

Option 2:

TED and Games

Theo Jansen: Freaky. Mind-blowing. But pay attention. What is life? Can you make something that lives out of PVC pipe? He does. Cyborg alert!
Wear your headphones.

When done check out the educational games and simulations. Can you find any other quality games?

• 3rD World Farming: Can you succeed as a farmer?
• 3D Architecture: Can you build a successful house.
• Tall Buildings: Super-cool site about tall buildings
• Power Play: Can you build a better mousetrap?
• Check out the Ayiti game.
• Driven to Distraction don't crash!
• And finally we will review the game Darfur is Dying.

Questions please answer in a MS Word document.  Put name on and print out for teacher:
1. Are the the Jansen creatures alive?  Why or why not?  This is a really hard question to answer--what is life?
2. Review each game in a 3-4 sentence paragraph.  What is the game, what is trying to teach you, and did it work?
3. Do games help learning?  

Great Video

I love this. How graphics, music, and video come together to tell a great story.

And Everything Nice from John Jensen on Vimeo.

Fireworks Unit

A new unit starts today as all classes will work on Fireworks tutorials. (this is blocked today?) Whether this is new or review I would like all to do the same work to start.  You should move straight down the "image effects" category.  Then move to the other categories.  This is sandbox time today and Monday.  Create a fireworks folder to save all of your work.  Every thing you do should be named, saved, and put in a folder.

If you are feeling behind--study!  I do not assign specific homework.  I expect you will be working on any issues that you have.  If you need to practice coding, then practice!


I think your blogs are working?  If so, we will start posting old work later today.

Happy vacation

If you need to catch up, today is the day.  I'm giving you 87 minutes and no new assignments.

If you are caught up have some fun (quiet fun).  If you haven't watched all the videos I have posted yet or done all the reading take the time to do that now.

I may call you up and talk about your work and ask you to fix a few things.

Last html

Today is your last major HTML assignment.  You will create a four page website about your favorites.

A few notes:

• Pay attention to the order that you do the codes.  Be neat.  Be exact.
• Be sure the links work.  Links should include just the file name.
• Keep the design of the pages in the website the same.  They should look like they are from the same website.
• Maybe include video?
• Think about using a table for your page layout.
• Spend some time in the tutorials.  Are they any codes you should add to your page?
• Be sure to name your folder and save your files correctly.

HTML: American Flag Assignment

With the HTML practice I am trying to do the following: 

• Get you accustomed to naming files, saving them, and opening the pages.
• Understanding basic structure of code.
• Switching from one teacher (me) to many teachers (you).
• Have you acknowledge what a good website, good writing, and good design looks like.  

So.....

• I will guide you, model some items, but I will try not to give you the answers.  This is a coding class, which is problem solving.  You need to learn how to solve the problems.
• I will begin to insist on your best work.  Some of you will struggle and I will say "try again".  Don't get frustrated, I do that because I know you can do better.
• At just about anytime I will allow you to work on your own projects.  Some examples of student led projects include this music video or maybe creating an advocacy campaign to change the world.  Seriously, this is your chance to really think about what you want to do.

We will make our first webSITE today. Until now we have made webPAGES. Today please do the following:

• Create a folder in your WDrive-Web Design. Label it correctly (first initial, last name, assignment) "bschneiderFlag".
• Download a clip-art or Creative Commons image of an American Flag. Save in flag folder
• Create a two-page website.
• Title Page 1: "American Flag". Add heading, background color, and flag image.
• Center image.
• Title Page 2: "American Flag History". Add heading. Add short description of Flag history with two links to further information.
• Link pages together: Make image on Page 1 the link to Page 2. On Page 2 include a "home" link back to page 1.
• Does your font choice matter?  Read this.
• Save both pages. Test links.
• Save entire folder to the UDrive-WebSchneider folder.  Find your class and the flag folder.

When done:

• A Google A Day
• Put in your headphones and play with Bobby or Incredibox
• Watch this these awesome grandparents send their grand son a birthday video.  Yes, that is tap water catching on fire at the end.  
• I get amused when people tell me they play guitar.  Really?  Check this out. Or this.  Stop talking, start practicing.
• Read some stories.  Try this one about plastic bath toys.

Nobody finishes early.  There is always something to work on.

Web Design: Introductory Quiz

Today's quiz #1 is a letter.

In this letter you must:

1. Include links and examples where necessary.
2. Provide evidence.
3. Be persuasive, yet friendly and helpful.
4. Your letter should be between 100-150 words.

Please evaluate the design bias, usability, and accessibility of the Seymour High School website. This letter should show evidence that you paid attention for the past few lessons.

You might want to look at some examples of other schools:

1. Science Leadership Academy
2. Naugatuck High School
3. Lewis Elementary

Compare and contrast the sites.  Why do you go to a school website?  Who is the audience (teachers, parents, students, community, etc...).  Can you find what you are looking for?

Start your letter with "Dear Mrs. Goodrich".  


Save to your W Drive Web folder (on blog if blogs work..).  Print out for teacher.


Quiz #2 is HTML

The quiz for web 1 will be due by the end of the period on Monday. Some of you will finish early, some of you will have to work fast...

You will create a one page website about your current class schedule. This website should include:

• A title in the header code.
• A clear heading on the page.
• A list of classes.
• A brief paragraph describing yourself (junior at Seymour High School, etc...)
• Background color other than white.  Keep the color light (no bright red, black, etc...if you disagree go back and look at the bad websites)

If you do the above correctly the maximum you can score is 3/4.  You must do at least one of the extras to be able to score 4/4.

Extras:

1. Can you include an image that you created?  Remember that the image must be in the same folder as the webpage.

2. Can you place the schedule in a table?

3. Can you create a link to Seymour High School?

Usability

Today we will finish our introductory unit (test to come shortly).

Usability involves design and it involves hardware. First I must have enough bandwidth to get my information to the user. Bandwidth is the "size of the pipe" that carries information. The larger the pipe, the more information I can send. Second I need to think about the hardware at the end of the line. Is my user viewing the information on a phone or through a dial-up connection? Is my user using high speed DSL?

Here is what bad design looks like according to Vincent Flanders: Check out the worst website ever and his checklist for how to ruin your website.

Top ways to ruin a website:
1. We've designed our site to meet our organization's needs (more sales/ contributions) rather than meeting the needs of our visitors.
2. It takes longer than four seconds for a man from Mars to understand what your site is about. Example.
3. Our site looks like we've never seen another web site. Example.
4. We use design elements that get in the way of our visitors.
5. Our site doesn't make us look like credible professionals.

1. Read the following article. Save it in your favorites. Web Usability Guidelines.  The chart at the bottom is awesome.

2. Skim this basic article about usability from Great Britian.

3. What's wrong with Google?  Wouldn't you like to learn how to do that?

Please answer the following questions on your blog:

1. Define the following. Provide definitions that make sense to your readers.

• bandwidth
• web usability

2. Which of the following websites has a higher usability for teenagers. Why??

Newsmap 
Connecticut Post

3. Find a website that you think has a high usability rating. Provide a link to this website and explain why you think its usability rating is high. Possible examples: Bobby (use headphones),  Baby Names (blocked??) Tall Buildings.

All three assignments (bias, accessibility, usability), the evernote biography recording, plus the two HTML webpages are due Tuesday.  Work hard today and produce your best work.

Accessibility

We will start the HTML Tutorials today.  I will start with a bit of a group lesson and then I will see what you can do.  Most of the class time will be reading time today.

There are four main categories we are covering in this unit; bias, accessibility, usability, and ethics. Today we will focus on accessibility.

Read this article. Introduction to Web Accessibility. The website contains lots of useful information. Take your time reading it.

We will watch this CBS News Video together in class.

Read some of how Apple focusses on accessibility.

Answer the following questions:

• Of the four major categories of disabilities (visual, motor, cognitive, hearing) which one do you think would pose the greatest challenges for a computer user. Why? Include specifics.
• Dealing with a disability can be frustrating. What are three ways a web designer can design a less frustrating website for those who have a disability?
• Try getting to the CNN website without using your mouse. How did that change the experience? Did you get frustrated?
• What is our obligation to serve those with disabilities?

Post to your blog.  Please include any needed links.

When done here is your first HTML assignment.