Archive for June, 2007
DIY Geekdom: XHTML, CSS, end of Day 3
More transparency as I learn what I’m sure to many of you is basic, using Ian Lloyd’s book from Sitepoint Press. (And I wonder if I’m going to kick myself for doing this, rather than putting this energy into simply learning Dreamweaver, which was installed on my new MacBook yesterday. It doesn’t hurt to know standards-based XHTML and CSS, I guess.)
Day 3/Chapter 4: Made the “feature” photo float in-line with CSS, added a “navigation container” from the wizard Ian Lloyd made, tweaked some padding and formatting, and changed a bit of wording. I especially like the Kurt Vonnegut quote from “Man Without a Country” added to the bottom of the page:
“The good Earth – we could have saved it, but we were too damn cheap and lazy.”
–maybe that should be part of the tagline?
Anyway, here’s the homepage as it evolved over the last 3 days:
Day 2 (end of Ch. 3):
Day 3 (end of Ch. 4):
And here’s the bottom half of the hompage (I just love turtblu’s picture from Flickr):
And the very bottom, with the Vonnegut blockquote:
Unless the institution finds ways to invalidate the obvious by requiring me to cough up money for that piece of paper, anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised.
DIY Geekdom: XHTML, CSS, end of Day 2
My last post had images of my websites-in-evolution from the middle of Chapter 3 of Lloyd’s excellent book. I just finished working through the last 22 pages of that chapter (to page 111), and this is how two of the pages look now (again, clicking on the pictures will open larger images in a new window):
Keep in mind this is after only two hands-on chapters (Chapter 1 is introductory and “setting up” type stuff), with nine chapters left to go.
I wonder where it will all end up.
DIY Learning: XHTML, CSS so far (day 2)
As I mentioned in my last post, I’m learning XHTML and CSS with the help of a lovely, fat, easy to read book.
For the heck of it, I’m going to throw screenshots of the websites I’m creating as I learn. It will serve as an archive of the steps along the way. (The book’s approach is to have you build an example website already chosen by the author, but I figured I’d instead design a website for the “Community Service 2.0 / Year of Global Cooling / Concerts for Cooling” project I’m planning.)
So here’s what the book has helped me do by the middle of Chapter 3 (page 81), using simple XHTML and beginning to plunge into CSS. If you click on the photos, you’ll see larger versions –
The Home Page 2 and 3 (bottom half):
The rest of Chapter 3 promises to add background color, more fine-grained styling options, and such. Stay tuned, if you want to see how quickly you can also learn this stuff. I’m finding it fun and, in a weird way, peaceful – kind of like how I imagine people feel when knitting or something.
Website Creation and Style "How-To" Book Recommendation
In case any of you out there are edtech geeks with a hankering to learn XHTML and CSS to build your own (or modify other) websites, I’m working through Ian Lloyd’s Build Your Own Website the Right Way – Using HTML and CSS (Sitepoint Press). I highly recommend it. It’s easy, it’s got a great support forum and website, and they offer discounts on other books they publish on Java, advanced CSS, php, mysql databases, and all the rest.
I’m loving it. If you think it’s hard, Lloyd’s book will show you you’re wrong. And if you buy it from the website, I think you get a discount on the Amazon price.
Just FYI.
Trying Ning’s Media Player embed of a Screencast-o-Matic tutorial
I’m falling more and more in love with Ning. When you embed videos posted on a public Ning, the Ning Media Player links back to your Ning (unfortunately, the Ning I set up for the “Year of Global Cooling” project is private, so I can’t embed anything from it–feel free to join if you think you can bring students in). So I want to see how it looks. I uploaded a tutorial I made on Screencast-o-matic that introduces Mac OS X to our students. “System Preferences,” specifically. It’s for an Apple Schools Asia Ning I’ve started. And notice the nifty logo you can personalize your Ning media player with. 
Update: Wow, Ning, I’m impressed! And a tip to other Ning users thinking about using Screencast-o-matic on Ning: Ning doesn’t allow iframes embeds, so you have to download the SOM file, which is converted to .mov format, and then upload that .mov file to the Ning video page. Be careful about the 100mb file-size limit on Ning. Go over 10 minutes at 800 X 600, and you’re probably too big.
Firefox set-up screencast for students, using Screencast-o-matic
I’m making some screencast tutorials on Screencast-o-matic.com to walk our high school students through the set-up process for their new MacBooks when our school begins it’s first year as a 1:1 Apple Laptop school (*grins*).
It’s originally 800 X 600, but one cool feature of Screencast-o-matic is that it allows embed codes for smaller sizes. So here’s a 500 X 420px version. Let’s see how fast it loads, how well it looks and sounds. [Update: It loads pretty slow here in Korea. So maybe viewing it on my Channel will give faster results. It looks nice and sharp, though!] It’s 10 minutes, it makes me sound like I have a lisp, and there are a couple of bonehead moments in it. That’s either a warning or an enticement, depending on your mood.
SOM has some bugs, I’m noticing, but the service is young, and I’m sure they’ll iron them out. It’s already quite useful. If you want to use this and more tutorials for student MacBook bling, my SOM channel is here. I’ll be building it up over the summer.
Daily Diigo: Socially Conscious Computer Games
- Very interesting article about educational games promoting socially conscious learning.
- post by cburell
Karl Fisch’s "Did You Know?" — 2.0 Version
Contributing to the next wave for this new version of Karl Fisch’s original product.
By the way, if you don’t subscribe to Xplanazine, they’re an awesome resource for “presentation and collaboration 2.0″ tools and tips. They’re in my NEW blogroll, way down on the right sidebar.
Call me crazy, but I kind of liked Karl’s original music choice….
Daily Diigo: Ning Blog’s "8 Steps to Creating a Great Social Network"
Ning Blog – 8 Steps to Creating a Great Social Network
- Ning is starting to grow on me…. Thieir blog is fantastic, as this page shows.
- post by cburell
Daily Diigo: "Reinventing Project-Based Learning" and Student Press Initaitive
Student Press Initiative at Teachers College: About Annotated
- Thanks to Suzie Boss of Reinventing Project-Based Learning (listen to our podcast here) for the tip.
– post by cburell
About SPI
The Student Press Initiative is designed to develop, foster, and promote writing across the curriculum through student publication.
SPI is built upon the premise that writing for publication provides young people with authentic audiences. When students realize the power and potential of an audience of their peers and the community at large, writing becomes purposeful thereby inspiring them to produce their best work. We believe that when a young writer finds an audience, she will find her voice.
Flickr: Reinventing Project-Based Learning Annotated
- From the website (see other clips in this post more more on this project)
For each photo, please:
* Include a caption that briefly describes the project.
* Add a tag “reinventingpbl” to your photo
* Add a geotag so we can see where the project takes place
* Do not include identifying information for any children (first name and grade OK)
We will be excited to see pictures that illustrate how rich projects transform the learning experience – We encourage pictures that show kids learning together in interesting places using powerful tools and creating unique work.
Flickr: Reinventing Project-Based Learning Annotated
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From the Flickr Site:
About Reinventing Project-Based Learning:
This group illustrates what project-based learning can look like, especially when digital tools help students break free from the confines ofteacher-driven and classroom-bound instruction.Group administrator Jane Krauss and colleague Suzie Boss have just coauthored a book “Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age”. In writing the book we visited with teachers from around the world who are transforming the learning experience through meaningful and rigorous projects. We hope
you will submit photos that capture the spirit of project-based learning. Please read the group rules for details.
Please join us!
Meet us on our Reinventing Project-Based Learning blog at the address below:
http://reinventingpbl.blogspot.com
– post by cburell
About Reinventing Project-Based Learning
This group illustrates what project-based learning can look like, especially when digital tools help students break free from the confines of teacher-driven and classroom-bound instruction.
Group administrator Jane Krauss and colleague Suzie Boss have just coauthored a book “Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age”. In writing the book we visited with teachers from around the world who are transforming the learning experience through meaningful and rigorous projects. We hope you will submit photos that capture the spirit of project-based learning. Please read the group rules for details.
