Jack’s Online Communication Blog

Throughout “Online Communication,” I have learned about some things that I did not know before. We covered a wide array of topics such as blogs, polls, inserting charts, HTML, widgets, and much more. By using all of these skills, I was able to complete my final advisor project where I created a website for the Foran High School Natural Helpers.

I always knew how to work Windows Movie Maker, but I got to explore it a little more throughout this class. Most of the time I’ve used it before was to just string clips together. I never concentrated on the affect aspect of the program. This is my technology autobiography where I used my new knowledge of movie affects to enhance my presentation. I was able to add slides with color and learned how to make effective transitions between the pictures. Also, I never used Movie Maker to link pictures together. So, that was something different then what I have done in the past. I found out that it’s just as easy, if not easier, to make a slideshow with pictures.

I think Movie Maker-produced slideshows helps enhance a website, so I used it for my final project. I made a slideshow of pictures that I had from this past year in Natural Helpers as a “closing” application of the year.

A second skill that I learned more about was Power Point. We did a collaborative group tutorial where our group looked closer at how Power Point works. Not only did I learn how to make Power Points look better, I am now able to apply it to any project I have. Recently, I did a Power Point for my AP European History class where I was able to use enhancements to better my project. These skills ultimately made me able to complete the projects.

With my personal blog, I was able to explore the use of widgets. For example, the Voki was added using a text widget. Before this class, I had no idea what a widget was. Now I learned that all it is is a piece of code. These little pieces of code really add more substance to a website as opposed to keeping plain text.

My new skills from the linked projects will help me with future projects. I know that in senior year, and even college, I will need to create Power Points. Instead of just having Power Point’s full of text, I’ll be able to add effects that help not only my understanding of the topic, but my audiences understanding.

Another skill that I learned about that will serve me well in the future is the use of blogs. I never used a blog before this class but I check several blogs daily so I am aware of how they work. Now, if I ever wanted to create a blog for a class or for my own purposes, I know enough about widgets and code to make it something that people will actually want to look at. Most of the blogs I know of are full of information and enhancements such as MJ’s Big Blog.

The project I am most proud of was my advisor’s website. I’ve always liked Natural Helpers and working with Mrs. Hart so it was a beneficial experience for me to work with her on it. I also think that I added a lot of good widgets such as the Voki and Health Tip of the day. Natural Helpers are about personal health as well as the health of others, so I felt it was appropriate. I think my information page came out the best and will serve as the most helpful on the website. There are many issues there that even I am not completely informed about so I think it could help me, as well as others. Natural Helpers are apart of so much within the community that I think this website will help organize dates and information and be very useful to the club.

Overall, I am happy I took this class. I did learn a lot about blogging and how to enhance websites. I did feel that some of the things we learned were tedious. It just felt like sometime there was too much time spent on things like the website and polls/surveys where I felt as we could have got the same amount of work done, in a shorter amount of time. This would have allowed for us to work more on other topics we had not had the time to look at. I also wish we could have done more projects. I understand it is a half year course but I did think we were going to complete more then three projects. However, I am glad I took the class, and I would suggest it to people who want to learn more about computers and how to use them. I would consider myself naturally advanced with using computers, but even I learned some things that were beneficial to me.

It is nice to post that the website I have been working on for about a month now is finished!

I think the whole project process went very well. I would attribute most of the success of the website to my advisor. She was extremely helpful with providing me with my information and kept good communication with me. It also helps though that I CERTO for her and I am in the club that I made the website for.

I think having our personal blogs helped make it a success as well. I knew many of the controls for the website and how it functioned so I was able to add things very fast.

I really enjoyed the topic that we had to make our website on. I loved working with my advisor so I have no critiques on the topic of the project. The only critique I had was on time. I felt there was actually too much time given for the project. I liked the phase idea, but I felt that the project kind of went on longer then it should have. I know I finish things generally fast, but I felt that we could have produced a great website in three weeks time or so. I just felt like there was a lot of days where I didn’t have as much to do since I was already done. Some of the phases were short, like Usability. That could have been done in a day, maybe two at tops.

One section of the website that I am proud of it the slideshow I made that is posted on the homepage. I really enjoy using moviemaker and thought it was a nice tribute to this year. The Natural Helpers is one of the few organizations in the school where everyone likes each other and it really is like a little family. So, seeing the seniors leave is a sad time and I think the slideshow reflects our year together.

Another part of the website that I am proud of is the “About Us” page. I liked how I turned it into a FAQ page in the view of someone who might want to apply for Natural Helpers. Since my concentration in this class was Buisness, I felt this helped advertise the website. I was glad I stuck to my concentration when I feel others may have strayed from it.

So, that’s it. The project is over, and I think it came out great!

Natural Helpers Final Project

This week, I put a lot of enhancements on the site. I made sure I added my five images to fit the rubric and all of them are relevant to the content on the page. I also made a slideshow that reflected back on the past year of Natural Helpers which I felt was is a good enhancement. I couldn’t really embed it as I wanted to since we don’t have youtube at our school, but I still uploaded it and it still counts for something. The website is basically almost complete. I also added a few posts and upcoming events to the calendar.

Make sure you watch my slideshow. I think it came out pretty good. I also tried to put pictures in places where it didn’t just look like I pasted any pictures in. I think I got a little creative.

Next week, I plan on having everything finished. I plan on finishing the website this weekend so that it follows everything listed on the rubric. Next week, I also plan on starting my documentation letter to my advisor.

I do not have many current long term goals since the project is coming to a close. I have to add a few more widgets and applications to my website this weekend. Despite that, I plan on making sure everything on the actual website is complete for next Friday. During next week, I am going to work on my documentation.

I do not have any questions about this next part. I think a lot of it is self-explanatory. The only comment I would like to make is that I think my website came out very good and can be very useful next year.

Much of this past week has been dedicated to our final projects and reviewing the rubric. Since the due date is next Friday, we reviewed the rubric a lot so everyone knows what to do.

One of the tutorials we did learn about was in regard to polls and surveys. Using a site called www.polldaddy.com, a person can make any poll or survey and then copy a code to put it on their blog. (See post, “What is your favorite music?”)

I think a poll would be very useful for my final project. There are many times when voting in a group is difficult and if everyone had a poll they could go to and only vote once, I think it would be easier. Also, there would be no conflict over how many people voted what, since the poll would tell us. For my purposes, a survey wouldn’t really be helpful. However, at the end of the year, I could use a survey to ask people what they thought of their year in Natural Helper so the officers that follow us can have feedback.

Edublogs also updated its dashboard in the past week. I personally like the update because I think it makes it easier to navigate around. I think they organized more things under less categories and it eliminated some of the clutter. I had no problem adjusting to it.

The only thing that did pose a concern at first was widgets. I was used to dragging the widgets and that isn’t quite what you do on the new dashboard. You have to click the “add” button and edit it from there. I suppose it isn’t really different, but enough to throw me off the first time.

Despite that, I like the update and find it more helpful to navigate around.

What is your favorite type of music?
( surveys)

This week, I don’t really feel like I got a lot done for some reason. All of my usability is done. I have a text only and audio posts on my site. I didn’t really want to place much emphasis on the pod cast posts because I don’t feel like it’s necessary for my site, but I let the option be available without much emphasis on it.

Make sure you look at my slideshow or lack thereof. I made a slideshow for my webpage and tried to embed it using the teacher tube code and it’s just coming up as a blank box…any ideas?

Next week, I plan on adding anything to make my web site more socially interactive. For example, I believe we are learning about adding polls, which I want to utilize. I want to work out the kinks in this slideshow to make sure it goes up. I’m also going to print a copy of the rubric off and cross off everything I’ve done so I can see what remains as the due date gets closer and closer.

My complete list of things to do is long. I feel like I could add more content if I dig a little deeper so I might do that. I have to get all the documentation going on the project and try to get this video to work. I will have a better idea of what I need to do when I print the rubric out probably Tuesday night. It just seems like there’s a lot of little technical stuff to try to fix.

My only question is that on the website, under categories, when I click on either announcements or introduction, it doesn’t show the exact post. Like, it shows part of it in standard font, not what I typed it in. Also, it isn’t in this entirety. Any ideas?

Since Phase 2 lasted two weeks, I feel like I got a lot done. I put all of the text content that I worked on with my advisor and made sure any colors I made the text didn’t make the site look tacky. I also added the Google Calendar application as one of my “extras.” So, all of my content is up and I think there’s a good framework to work from.

Make sure you look at the member’s page and make sure that was done properly. I tried to only post first names and last initials for security purposes. I think this is how I am supposed to do it, but you may just want to take a look at it.

Next, I plan on working on the usability. I already included a text only option so I’m a little ahead on usability. However, there is still more content I need to add. I need to add a few more widgets that I e-mailed by advisor about. Also, I want to make my slideshow of pictures. I hope I can get to that on Sunday (right after Prom!) so we’ll see how that works out. It’s definitely something that will take a while to make but I think it will be a good enhancement.

I have to work on Usability next. After that, I have to continue with the phases. I also have to make sure my website is community friendly. I also need to work on the documentation part of this project but that will be in a few weeks so right now I have to concentrate on completing the content portion.

One question I have is that is it okay if I put the member of the club’s last names? Or does something like that violate the confidentiality issue too much? Also, I was hoping I did my links right. I have categories and in each category is one or two links which pertain to the category.

A lot of this week was dedicated to working on our projects, but we did have a tutorial on Google Calendar which I found useful.

 The Google Calendar is very easy to embed because it gives a code. I think this is an extremely useful application since it can always be updated and it will update directly to the blog or website. It makes managing events and list of things to do easier so things can get done at a faster and easier pace.

This is extremely useful to my website and I already added it. Since Natural Helpers do a lot of events, the calendar is good since it would allow my advisor to post whenever an event is scheduled so people will remember. It’s also useful that you can have multiple calendars but maintain them all on one page with a color coded technique.

There isn’t really anything else I’d like to learn, but I will have to play around with the Google Calendar. There are many options about it that I’m sure I don’t know about yet so exploring these will make for an even better calendar.

     This week I planned out all the content that I wanted to put up on my page. I met with my advisor and we planned out certain things and brainstormed other ideas to make the website better. I also e-mailed my advisor concerning widgets and what I thought would be helpful. 

      Not really sure what this part means, but make sure you check your e-mail and see that I CC’d you the e-mail I sent to my advisor. 

      I plan on putting all of the content on that I planned out this week. Also, I don’t know if I will get to do this in class due to pages that are blocked, but I will begin to work on a slideshow of pictures from activities that the Natural Helpers do. However, I do need to get the code and stuff so I might begin to work on that the next weekend. 

     There is lots to do. I have to get the content up, make my slideshow, install my widgets, show my website so far to my advisor to look at it…That’s really what my main goals are right now, and after I complete my short term goals will I start thinking about other things that need to get done. I work step by step before I think about my long term goals but I’m 100% accurate that the website will come out just like I envision it to. 

     Are we going to have any more in class time to work with our advisors?

This week was a pretty unproductive week on my part. I have been working on gathering content for my final project since it is the middle of Phase 2, but more on that can be read on my Project Progress Analysis.

 As far as reflecting on what we did in class, not a whole lot was accomplished. One day we had a half day and didn’t do much and another day our teacher wasn’t here. So, during that time, I met with my advisor to talk about content and such for the website because there seems to be no other time when we get to do that.

On Thursday and Friday, I was not in class due to the AP Literature and AP European History exams so I missed two days of class due to those. I checked the website and I am aware of what I missed and what needs to be done over the weekend. So, my next step is to complete all of those things and continue to get my website together.

 This reflection really isn’t full of that much content but there isn’t that much to reflect on, so next weeks will be more promising.