ECI 575 - Web Development for Educators - Agenda for Week of September 6

Tasks

• Search Tutorial and Exercise
• Introduction to HTML and Exercise
• Assignments

Searching and Bookmarking Files

No on ever knows enough about searching for information on the web. There are countless search engines that employ zillions of different strategies. Most of us just use one or two search engines, type in a few words, and take what we get. As the readings imply, we can do better.

Searching and Finding Resources

First read Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial. Then complete all sections of this exercise.

• Exercise to help find things

Search Exercise

At the end of the above exercise you will be asked to complete this exercise:

Write out a search topic you are interested in. For the purpose of Assignment One, select a topic that you are especially interested in, and/or a topic that relates to your teaching. Try to find and bookmark 10 sites (5 will be OK to start, but you'll eventually need 10). Be sure these are quality Web sites that would be of use to someone. Save the bookmark file to a disk.

Place it in the Digital Drop Box for me to review.

Tutorials for exporting bookmarks are:

• A general tutorial is found in Course Material - Tutorials in our Blackboard site
• Exporting Bookmark Files from Internet Explorer Versions 5 and 6 (Windows)

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An Introduction to HTML

Now that you've gotten a simple Web page written, let's learn a bit more about the language. True, most of you will be using a tool like Dreamweaver or Frontpage for most of this class, but you still must learn enough HTML to make a simple page. There are a number of reasons for this:

• No graphical editor is foolproof, and often you will need to fix the HTML code "by hand."
• All graphical editors realize this and give you access to the HTML code
• Graphical editors tend to lag developments in HTML by about a year.
• There are times when you need to enter HTML code, such as in BlackBoard messages. They can be much more expressive if you use the HTML option.
• There are times when it is faster to just write the code.
• I require you to do it

HTML Basics

Read and work through Castro Chapters 2 and 3. Be sure to download and save the .zip file with all the source code and resources she uses throughout the book. This will be a great resource for you. Also refer to my reading notes.

For yet another perspective and a chance to practice some more use Webmonkey, a site full of web authoring tutorials. Note that these pages are constructed to allow you to print them out if you wish. The directions are a bit chatty, but give you a quick introduction to the subject.

First, read through the following to get a general understanding of HTML

• The HTML Basics

Then, use the Webmonkey Teaching Tool to learn the following skills and tags:

• View Source
• Paragraphs
• Headlines
• Bold/Italics
• Blockquotes
• Aligning Text
• Line Breaks
• Background Color

In each case, be sure to practice the tag by completing the "try it" link at the end of the article if one is present.

Exercise

Create a simple web page (or expand the page from last week) that introduces yourself. It should use the above tags to create a pleasing format. Content should include:

• welcome message
• grades/content you intend to teach
• hobbies and interests
• a short biography
• other content along this line

You should use paragraphs, headlines, and background color as basic organizing elements. Experiment with bold/italics, blockquotes, aligning text and line breaks to give a more distinctive look.

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Assignments Due Week of September 13

Exercises

• Exercise to help find things
• Complete a bookmark list of 5-10 thematically related web sites
• Simple Home Page
• Create a web template file (explained in Castro Chapter 3 reading notes)

Readings

• Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial
• Castro Chapters 2 and 3
  • Chapter 2 Reading Notes (pdf)
  • Chapter 3 Reading Notes (pdf)