Course Content

This Cycle is long enough to give you enough time to develop a substantial final website with plenty of links, multimedia and great content. The expectation is that you will utilize either Drupal or WordPress to create your site and need to show evidence that you have a fairly good understanding of which ever CMS you chose.  Make sure you check the due dates so you can get everything in on time. For these assignments, there is no grace period for late assignments… we simply have run out of time.

•  Due Nov 27: Please provide in the drop box in Canvas, a five-six slide PowerPoint presentation (with the URL link) showing screen shots of the significant pages from your final project site. I will be stacking these ahead of time prior to our Adobe Connect session so we can show everyone’s final project. I am asking for the slide show because this is what you will be uploading, along with your final reflections to Livetext. We ask that you upload these files to eliminate the need for you to keep the actual Website online but remains as an artifact entry for your e-portfolio.
•  Due Nov 29 (7PM): We will be hosting our final Adobe Connect meeting for the term. You will get the chance to show off your final projects (using the PowerPoint slides), provide a few tips and techniques, and share your trial and tribulations with the product.
•  Due Nov 30: We have two reading assignments this cycle. One asks for your comments about the future of the Internet, the other is an introduction to the concept of Net Neutrality. As we have so many things to do this cycle I am only asking you to comment on one of them. I introduce the Net Neutrality to you because it is in the news lately and you should have some idea as to what it is all about and the controversy surrounding it.
  I saved this lesson until the end of the course because you may not have understood some of the terminology used in the Wikipedia article below prior to doing the readings from earlier in the semester. In short, the conflicted feelings tie directly to an earlier topic: Open Source and a free Internet (see if you can make that connection). I am not asking you to comment on it, but Wikipedia actually did a great job in covering the points in a non-biased way.
  1. Here is the link to the final set of readings/lessons that you need to comment on:The Future of the Internet and supplementary materials. Some of the information is a couple years old but much of what is being said is still relevant. When finished, post an audio reflection on Canvas. PLEASE KEEP YOUR COMMENTS TO TWO TO THREE MINUTES.
  2. Here is the link to Wikipedia page covering Net Neutrality. It is truly interesting reading. You do not have to make any comments but we may bring it up in our Adobe connect meeting.

     In case you don’t get what the controversy is all about, here is an article/blog/commentary that explains it in fairly succinct fashion.
•  Due Dec 02 (Two activities): 

  1. If you have taken a class with us before you know how much stake we have in reading and absorbing your final reflections. We take them very seriously. We know there are some who do not like the fact that we utilize a separate site for providing course content. In this case it provides an opportunity to show off some of the features of WordPress. Let us know how you feel you did this semester, what were your most important/significant moments, what you feel you still need to learn and any others’ notes/comments in the interest of helping to improve this course. We look forward to reading your comments and take them to heart. You should post your reflection in the text area you make it easier to review and grade. It should be easier to write it up in a word processing document and then copy/paste it there.
  2. Post into Livetext your PowerPoint slides that you presented in the Adobe Connect session. On the title page (or on last slide) insert the link to your actual site. We are waiting until this date in case you decide on any changes as the result of the Adobe session.

Below is your final reminder regarding the specs for the final project:

Final Project Outline

In this Cycle you will be working with your second content manager. You will probably not need as much time for the second experience because you will not have to re-do the storyboard. You still should work on a site plan, as it MAY change based on the capabilities of the second content manager.

1 – First, I think it would be very useful for you to peer review what your classmates said about the 5 pages that suck. On canvas, click on the peer review link to the right of this assignment to see who has been randomly assigned to you. Take a look at what they said and make comment or two if you care to.. Do not make a big deal about this, just I think useful for you to see what others think is good or bad design to help you plan your own site.

2 – Here is the link to our readings/lesson for this cycle: The Web Literacy Project, sponsored by the Mozilla Foundation. Review the readings and answer the questions on this topic in the drop box set up in Canvas.

3 – Next, pick your second content manager (WordPress or Drupal)… the one you did not pick in last cycle. Spend the next three weeks learning it. There is less time devoted to this cycle because the thought is that you have already done the planning and story boarding. What you are doing this time is converting content to discover similarities and differences between the two CMS systems. Take the same content from last cycle and convert it. This will challenge you to compare the two. To that end, you pick one of them and use it for your final project. You will then spend the last two weeks of this term fine tuning and refining your site and turn it in as your final project.

What to do —> There is an assignment drop box posted on Canvas worth 40 points. Your task is to write up a side by side chart listing each CMS. Maybe selecting 10 points to consider… then vote with comments as to which one ‘wins’ for that category. .. (ease of use, number and types of plug ins/add-ons.. theme selections, etc..) Then summarize at the end which one you would chose and why. A single page would do.. If you write out on a word doc that is fine but be sure to copy into the text area in order to help me minimize the number of clicks I need to get to your responses. I will leave it as an ‘open’ assignment so you can see your classmate’s’ responses. No need to comment on them as we are out of time. Looking forward to your comments.

Again, we provide a reminder as to what the final project is all about:

Final Project Outline

In this Cycle we introduce our first Content Manager (CMS). It will take you about this long to become familiar with it. There are also two sets of readings and a Peer Review from last cycle. To get the most out of the experience, it is recommended you do the readings in order and do the Peer Reviews before you spend too much time on the content management system assignment:

1. You have been randomly assigned four peer reviews to complete from the Web Standards reflection from last cycle. To find your assigned list, go back to last cycle’s drop box, and click the Peer review Link to the far right side of the screen. Take a look/listen (some offered audio responses) at what they have said and comment on their input. Hopefully, it will help round out your understanding of this set of readings.
2. Review the following two lessons on Web site design:
   • Part 1: Good Web Design
   • Part 2: GUI Bloopers

   When finished, take a look at the five Web sites and post in Canvas a short review of each one outlining what you think is good (if anything) and poor (if anything) about the design/look and feel/navigation of that site. The purpose of this activity is to make sure you have internalized some of the ideas put forth in the lessons and are beginning to develop a visual ‘eye’ for good Web site design.

3. Next, we are looking at Content Management Systems (CMS). There are several good ones to pick from, the major ones being Alfresco, WordPress; Drupal; and Joomla!. I like the last three  three actually (Alfresco is losing market share and is too cumbersome to install, IMHO). I am more experienced in WordPress, as I made the choice early on to become well versed in it use.To provide you a little more insight as to the differences and specifications, I offer this comparison among Joomla!, Drupal, and Alfresco that was done a while ago by one of my former students. It is a bit dated (and actually was done without input about WordPress, which was in its infancy at that time) but hopefully, will give you some things to think about.

   In this course we only have time to play with two of them. I picked WordPress and Drupal based on input from current and former students. I am more familiar with the former but have had some experience with Drupal. All I can tell you is that all three have their passionate proponents. I am allowing you to take a look at least two of them and decide on your own. For this cycle you need to pick one and spend the next three weeks learning about it. Next cycle, you will have the opportunity to review the other one. For your final project you will need to pick pick one and use it. The idea is that you use these next six weeks doing a preliminary review of both, select one, and to get to know the product better.

   The learning curve to understand the backbone (i.e., Dashboard) can take a while and may seem overwhelming at first. But the ease of implementation of subsequent new pages and sites is what will make it all worthwhile. Take your time and work at it a little bit at a time. Whatever you do, do not wait until the last minute. The intent is that you will have enough time to attempt some type of conversion of content and in order to figure out the major differences between the two products.
   
   THE DELIVERABLE IN EACH OF THE NEXT TWO CYCLES IS TO PICK EITHER DRUPAL OR WORDPRESS (SEE THE TUTORIALS BELOW), CREATE A WEBSITE FOR PRACTICE, THEN POST IN THE DROPBOX A LINK TO THE PRACTICE SITE THAT YOU DEVELOP.. You MAY (but are not required to) use the newsletter you created in the last cycle so as to compare the interfaces.

Here are the tutorials for the two CMS options:

• Drupal
• WordPress

You will use one of the CMS for your final project. Below is a reminder as to what the final project is all about:

Final Project Outline

This cycle is two weeks long. There are two reading assignments, four activities, plus a peer review from last time on copyrights and fair use.  It is recommended that you do these activities in order: . It is also important to explore all the links provided in each lesson. How deep you dig into each is up to you but understanding the full import of the content is best served by exploring a little deeper than what is found in the lessons themselves. There is a lot to cover these two weeks!

From last cycle’s readings you were to answer the questions posed about copyrights and fair use. Open the drop box for the copyright/fair use assignment on Canvas. To the right is a link to open up the peer review activity. Your six assigned reviews will be listed.

In this cycle you are randomly assigned five of your peers to post comments about their answers. Please post whether you agree with their responses, particular the need for copyright laws to change to fit the times. What do you think? Do you agree or disagree that the copyright law is behind the times? Are copyright laws fair?

1. Read over the materials on Evolving Web Standards. This short lesson will provide you insights as the whys and wherefores regarding the development of CSS style sheets, php and xml.

Please do these in order:

2. Review the instructions and tutorials on CSS style sheets. This lesson demonstrates one of the first steps in stripping away content and formatting from navigation during the evolution of Web standards and eventual Web 2.0 development.identifies the difference between Java language and Java scripts and how they add interactivity to Web sites.
3. Review the instructions and tutorials on Java Scripting. This lesson identifies the difference between Java language and Java scripts and how they add interactivity to Web sites.
4. Review the instructions and tutorials on php.
5. Review the lesson on xml and MySql. This lesson ties it all together and explains in part why, for example, Microsoft Office changed their file extensions from .doc to .docx etc. xml continues to emerge as a fundamental way that content becomes searchable.

1. Please respond and comment on last week’s reflection (Assignment #1 regarding browser selection) for the classmates that were randomly assigned to you. This is found using the peer review button on the top right side of the page when you open that assignment. The peer review rubric is to provide guidance and not to ‘grade’ each other … In the future we MAY decide to use it in grading but for now the idea is for you to open up some conversation with some pf your classmates.
2. Review the lessons on open source movement and ethics in Web design, and the one on fair use. These lessons are very important to complete understanding of what content you provide on your site and whose content you will utilize and how to ethically cite it.
3. Review the Tech Ed Module on WYSIWYG visual editors for web page development. This is the next step in our progression form HTML coding to using content managers that will be taught in future cycles.
4. Once the page/site is completed, we now need to be able to upload the files to a server. This Tech Ed lesson will cover that process as well as file management.

This cycle is two weeks long. There are four assignments/activities. The readings and activities will take you most of the time. It is recommended that you do these activities in order

 NOTE THAT WE HAVE SCHEDULED A SYNCHRONOUS MEETING ON August 22(next Monday) VIA ADOBE CONNECT.  WE WILL BE RECORDING IT. THIS IS A CHECK-UP TO BE SURE EVERYONE IS ON BOARD WITH THE PROCESS AND ASSIGNMENTS DUE THIS TERM. Details on how to log in, etc. will be posted via email on Canvas.

1. Review the Syllabus and Introduction Materials for this course. Become familiar with the learning cycles and due dates for this course and the relationship of the immersive-learning.org site and Canvas. Email me with any questions.  Once completed, please confirm your acceptance using the survey located in the drop box on Canvas. 
2. Make sure you purchase the textbook by the end of this first cycle.
3. Read over the materials and view the videos in the Primer on HTML. Follow the instructions on creating a browser readable page created using a text editor. Post a confirmation via your taking the T/F quiz located in the assignments page on Canvas. You may submit your coding via an attachment.
4. Read the materials on How the Internet Works. Then go ahead and read over the materials below. A reflection is due on your ah-ha!moments from both sets of readings.
5. Do the lessons on How Browsers work. There are three lessons.. please do them in order… Upload/post a text or audio limited to 2-3 minutes please!) reflection and post them in the Drop Boxes set up on Canvas. The third reflection will be assigned as a peer review at the beginning of next cycle.

Final Project

I am providing information on it now so you all know where we are headed. Just to be sure it is not all overwhelming, I have broken the project deliverables into three phases:

1. Phase 1  is Due September 14 : which is essentially a basic set-up that includes your selecting a hosting ISP, and providing a preliminary storyboard for your site.
2. Once you have gotten the hang of either WordPress or Drupal then you should begin to decide on some of the basics: a theme and some of the major plug-ins/add-ons for example. By  October 12  send me via Canvas, a more detailed outline and your decision, a revised sitemap that outlines your finalized premise/plan for the site. (What’s the story you are trying to tell us about your product/service/course?)
3. The final project  is due November 28 .

Click here for a description of the Final Project