Journal 4 : Final Project Idea

Site Title: K Trade Books

Developer: Karlia Villalobos

Focus: K Trade Books is an online site that will allow college students to do two things. It will allow students to trade books from the same campus and it will potentially allow them to network with college students that have similar interests. Many times students will not trade books because it has not been socialized to do so on campus. My site will make it easy for students to post and trade books they no longer need .

Main Features: My site will feature individual college departments blogs and the ability to rate professors. The point is to personalize each department within a college so that the student using this site feels informed and part of the community of their own department if they are not able to so in person.

Content: I started off thinking too big... for the purpose of this project I will narrow it down to just the CSU Pomona Campus.

I will have the

Home page

About page

Find Your Department Page

-  CLASS

- Engineering

- Agriculture

- etc... I still may thinking too big.. I need help on this section.

Target Audience: College Students

Design Considerations : Buttons, Slide Down Options, Search engine for page.

Limiting Factors: technical ability, time and changing the socialization attitude of trading books.

Journal 3 Social Media and Commercialization

I would like to talk about two points Freinsen made  in the article. The first one is in relation to Network Neutrality. I want to note ahead of time that my opinion may be biased as I am pro Net Neutrality. A couple reasons is because I believe non-profits would have a hard time paying for something I believe should be free and that is the speed at which a web page loads. This option would better serve the wealthy corporations. It is thanks to Network Neutrality that non profit news organizations exist. They help inform the public beyond entertainment news and are run by journalists.

The other point that was made in the article was that they're not in the business of educating. The students are not their customers the advertisers they sell to are their customers. He may be right about this, but I still believe students and educators can learn using social media networks and other outlets provided by the internet. Sure we may be bombarded by ads, but we can still make use of what is being provided to us. Perhaps it would be a good option to pay a fee to opt out of ads. Pandora is one of the organizations that has done this and I think it is a good idea.

In all, I think google, facebook and many others provide us tools and resources to learn, but it's up to us to utiluze them. I do realize they have an obligation as a business to make money. However , it is our right to roam the internet from site to sute  at equal speed.

1. What is Google's opinion on Net Neutrality?

2. How can ads be mofied to accomadate say elemenatary school children?

Journal 2

Using Digg is fun and an interesting way to personalize news. I also love that I can organize the categories into different folders. It is very user friendly! However, I get distracted really easy and I found myself adding categories about art , organization and political news. I am having a hard time using my RSS feeds in a way that can separate my  personal interests to the more relative information I need for this class. Also, I am very limited on the time I have available to read through the articles I find. It's easier for me to go through the lists of articles selected for me at one point of my day  and then go back at a later time to read them, but then sometimes I lose the article I intended to read.I really enjoy taking the time to read these articles, but I need more time to go through these on a daily basis. I found in my experience it's easier for me to do a weekly reading than to go through it daily in my current situation. Digg is a great way to get updated I just need to use it more effectively and integrate into my daily life.

The affinity group I joined is called Center For American Progress (CAP) this site employs an extensive communications and outreach effort that adapts to a rapidly changing media landscape. The reason I chose this group is because it covers education and I am interested in learning about teacher leadership. 

I would like to add another affinity group, but I am having a hard time finding one because I think I am too picky. I would like to find a group that is focused on developing applications for students something related to the growth of technologies for the sole reason of helping students. If someone knows of anything related to this  please let me know. 

Thanks! 

Q1.  How do I manage RSS feeds more effectively with time restraints ?
 It is a good idea to create folders according to what frame of mind you’re in at the time. For example, instead of just breaking down category of folders by theme.  Separate  them by current events, books, work related content, blogs and personal interest . This way it takes away the stress of feeling like your not reading what is most important or like you want to finish article, but do not have enough time. Separating these articles can help narrow the focus and allow you to get a just of how much time you might need to read a work related article versus blogs on your RSS feeds on Digg. 

Q2. How can I better search for an affinity group that matches my interests? 

One good way of finding an affinity group that matches one's interests is by reading the articles on your RSS feeds (Digg) and keep an eye out to see if that article has an affinity group tied to it in some way. Usually, you should be able to subscribe to the emailed articles and there are conferences one can attend to have more professional information regarding their career. 

Journal 1

Robbins, J. (2012). Learning web design: A beginner's guide to HTML, CSS, Javascript, and web graphics (4th ed., pp. 3-46). Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly. 

 Chapter's 1-3 

In the first chapter titled "Where Do We Start" we learn about the different roles and responsibilities of web design. As well as the group of people it takes to create a web site that works for it's customer. Particularly interesting to me is the concept of front end versus back end processes. It's description allows a person to microscope what type of work oneself would like to peruse in the future according to one's interests wether it be design or programs and scripts. 

In chapter two we begin to learn  basic terminology and some pieces of how the web works. We begin by reading the relationship of the Internet to the Web. We begin to learn how the internet works through a cooperative governed systems of standards. In that we learn about protocols such as , HTTP  that can be used to transfer images, movies, audio files, data and scripts. We then learn the role of HTTP in creating web pages. 

Lastly, we learn some big concepts about accessing websites on multiple devices and responsive designs. We learn about progressive enhancement as a strategy for coping with unknown browser capabilities that informs all aspects of design and production. One strategy called Responsive Web Design is providing custom layouts to devices based on size. In my opinion, this probably one of the more important ones  in our time as we grow into new technologies like web page designs that can be viewed through watches and sunglasses. 

Q1. How can one simplify the explanation of web page design? 

A simple way to explain web page design is through three separate layers of creating a web page.There is structural layer, presentation layer and a behavioral layer. The structural layer is the content of the document and is the foundation which other layers may be applied. The Presentation layer is  the style part and the way content should appear. The behavioral part includes the scripts that makes it an interactive piece. 

Q2. In regards, to accessibility when working for a campus ( federally funded) how can one make sure people with disabilities also has equal access to websites as someone without disabilities? 

Required by law are guidelines in section 508  that make sure electronic information is available to people with disabilities. Section 508 can be viewed at www.section508.gov . 

My First Blog Post

This is my first blog post for my GED 512 Introduction to Web Development class. Each week I will be posting a response.