Author Archives: Thomas

WordPress Explained

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WordPress.org

Assignment

Make sure you have done the following before returning to class next week. We’ll be moving on to new topics next week so you should have all blog related issues and assignments squared away.

  • Make sure I have your Blog URL
  • Customize your blog
    • Apply a new theme
    • Customize the sidebar
      • Add a few widgets.
      • Display an rss feed from a site that you frequent.
    • Try using a shortcode in a post or a page.
  • Completed About Page
  • Created a Custom Menu

Soft Skills

After completing your Myers Briggs Personality Indicator, please go to www.truity.com and locate your personality type. After reading the descriptions, please answer the following questions on your blog:

  1. Based on what you have learned about your MBTI profile, what do you need/expect in your work environment?
  2. What type of leader do expect to be and how does this profile reflect that?
  3. When working on a team/in a group, how do you think knowing the other peoples’ profiles would change the group interactions?

Please complete the following communication survey before class next Tuesday. It should take 5 minutes.

WordPress Explained

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WordPress.org

Chromebooks

  • Verify Network Access

Assignment

Customize your blog. Apply a new theme. Customize the sidebar. Add a few widgets. Display an rss feed from a site that you frequent. Try using a shorcode in a post or a page. Begin working on your about page. If you have not submitted your blog url to me please do so.

Soft Skills

Please complete the following communication survey before class next Tuesday. It should take 5 minutes.

Structure, Content, Design, Behavior

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Assignment

Evaluate your favorite web site based on our discussion of Structure, Content, Design, and Behavior. This is a written assignment that should be emailed to me (tswallace@ualr.edu) no later than 8-28-14. Make sure you discuss the following elements: Site URL, An assessment of the Structure, Content, Design, and Behavior of the site, Things you like about the site, Things you would change.

WordPress Explained

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  • Verify VM Access and troubleshoot
  • Introduction to WordPress
  • Blog Settings
    • Applying a Theme
    • Customizing the Sidebar
    • Widgets
    • RSS Feeds

Assignments

(Due 8.25.14):

Customize your blog. Apply a new theme. Customize the sidebar. Add a few widgets. Display an rss feed from a site that you frequent.

Write your first blog post reflecting on your personal expectations for the semester. Make sure you categorize and/or tag the post. If you are feeling adventurous try adding a photo to the post.

Send the URL of your newly created blog to tswallace@ualr.edu

(Due  9/8/14)

Watch The World is Flat 3.0

http://video.mit.edu/watch/the-world-is-flat-30-9321/

Write a blog post reflecting on your thoughts of Tom Friedman’s The World is Flat 3.0 video. Do you agree or disagree with the author’s perspective on globalization? Please do a through review of this piece and share your thoughts on the topic. This should be a thorough review and critique.

Chromebook Orientation and Introduction to WordPress

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Homework

Homework (Due 8.26.14): Write your first blog post reflecting on your first week in the program and your personal expectations for the class. Make sure you catergorize and/or tag the post. If you are feeling adventurous try adding a photo to the post as well. There is no length requirement for this assignment.

Soft Skills: Please complete the MBTI located at this web site (http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp).  Save your results and bring to class with you next Tuesday for a debrief. Have a nice weekend.

Course Overview and Introduction to WordPress

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Homework

(Due 8.25.14): Write your first blog post reflecting on your personal expectations for the semester. Make sure you categorize and/or tag the post. If you are feeling adventurous try adding a photo to the post.

Send the URL of your newly created blog to tswallace@ualr.edu

Project Wrap Up

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Team Assignment

Project managers, please submit the following information as a shared folder on Google Drive. This folder should only contain the requested information.

  • Final Project Presentation
  • Completed Access Database
  • A compressed folder containing the web site and related files
  • Final version of the project plan

These are the materials that will be graded for your team project grade. These are due no later than Monday at noon. The folder should be shared with the entire faculty team.

Individual Assignment

  • Fill out the peer assessment form. This is your opportunity to provide the faculty with feedback regarding your teammates. Make sure you fill out the entire form and provide written feedback on each teammate. Due Monday at Noon – Download Form
  • Due to lack of time we were unable to provide you time in class to fill out the course evaluation. Please take 10 minutes to provide us feedback on the course and your experience this semester. If you have additional comments regarding the technical difficulties this semester please mention those in the additional comments section along with any additional feedback you wish to provide. We have enjoyed having you this semester. – Please complete by Monday – Course evaluation

Important Dates

  • Web Pre-Assessment Lab – Tuesday, May 6, 11:00am-1:00pm – EIT 219. Bring your completed pre-assessment with questions.
  • Web Assessment – Thursday, May 8, 1:30-3:30 pm – EIT 219
  • Access Assessment – Tues, May 13, 10:30am-12:30pm

jQuery Lab

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Assignment

Find a jQuery tutorial/technique  on the web. When evaluating the script make sure that the page is still usable without Javascript enabled. You should pick something that can be integrated into your current site to meet the above mastery requirement. Submit the URL to me via email of the working script. Due Wednesday.

Some examples to get you started…

Progressive Enhancement

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Assignment

Begin looking for ways you can implement jQuery into your final project. Identify what is it you’d like to do (image gallery, carousel, lazy load etc.) and begin researching what it takes to get it implemented. Your assignment for the weekend will be to get something working you can submit to me next Wednesday.

Resources 1 | 2 | 3

Introduction to jQuery

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Additional Reading and Study – Javascript 101

Read the following Article on Progressive Enhancement. Send me an email (tswallace@ualr.edu) explaining progressive enhancement in your own words. Please discuss why it is important to use progressive enhancement and include a link to another article you found and read relating to the topic. Due before class Monday.

Bootstrap Wrapup / Final Project Lab

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Today I’d like you to put the finishing touches on your Bootstrap wireframes and submit the URL to me for a grade. You should also spend some time working on your final project. Be prepared to give a status update on your final project in class on Thursday.

Site Planning and Prototyping

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Assignment

Refine your site concept and create a preliminary sitemap for the site/app using a service discover in class. Experiment with one of the prototyping tools we discussed in class and build a prototype of the mobile view of your new site. This only needs to an outline.

Use Kuler or a similar tool to generate a color scheme for your web site. You should make note of the hexadecimal color values of your scheme. If you need more information check out the following post on deciding on good colors.

Submit the sitemap and color swatches to me via email by Thursday. You should have a wireframe of the homepage in both desktop and mobile views by next Tuesday.

Creating Imagery for your Site

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Assignment

Create Banner image for your sample page in Fireworks. The image should be as wide as your container div and between 80px and 200px tall and less than 40kb in size. Emailed tswallace@ualr.edu before class on the Monday following Spring Break. Have fun with this. You can make an image for anything. It could be a company, an event, a hobby etc. I’d like to see the following elements present in your design. Typographical Element, some sort of photographic element or vector artwork, and a consistent color scheme (Try Kuler).

Next class I’ll show you how to integrate this image into your template page properly. Please bring the file to class.

Responsive Images Wrap-up

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  • Review Responsive Images Lab assignment
  • Discuss Final Project

Assignment

I’d like you to come up with and idea for a final project responsive web site. I’d like this project to incorporate the the use of responsive design practices and utilize some of the new html5 api’s. I’ll give you a clear list of technical requirements after spring break. This can be for a fictitious client or a real world client or project. Be creative. Pick something you are interested in learning more about. I’d like you to write a paragraph or two explaining the project and what you hope to accomplish/learn by completing the project. Please email this to me before class on the Tuesday following Spring Break. Be prepared to discuss your idea in class.

Working with Fireworks

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  • Fireworks Workspace
  • Creating Shapes
  • Working with Typography
  • Cropping and Resizing

Assignment

Complete the following tutorials and submit the folder icon you create in the 3rd tutorial.

You should email this icon to me before class on Monday, March 31, 2014. Late submissions will not be accepted. I do not expect you to perfectly replicate the icon in the tutorial but I would like to see a solid effort from each of you. This is a challenging assignment so I encourage you to not wait until the night before it is due. Good Luck! If you’d like you can download a 30 day trial of Fireworks on your own computer so you can work off campus.

HTML5 Microdata

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In-class Lab – Please Complete the following Tutorial and submit your online Resume to me via Email.

Note: If you are uncomfortable with sharing any personal information with me  (or Google!) feel free use fictitious information. You may skips steps 8-10 if you’d like.

Assignment

Submit your resume via email prior to class on Tuesday.

Responsive Resume Lab

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I’d like you spend today’s lab building out a desktop view to the mobile resume we created in class. If you need help in creating the proper media queries make sure to reference this article. This assignment is graded and should be submitted to me by Monday so I can look it over prior to class on Tuesday. Please send the url to the project and remember to make this your own. It doesn’t need to look exactly like the initial resume we built. Personalize it. This might be someones first impression of you. Good luck and have a nice weekend.