Technical
Use software and other tools appropriate to the task
EDTEC 541 – Educational Web Multimedia Design
Artifact – Living in Niger Website
EDTEC 541 – Educational Web Multimedia Design
Artifact – Living in Niger Website
Click the image to see PDFs of the pages
Context
For EDTEC 541, we were tasked to create an educational website on a topic of our choice. I spent two years serving in Niger, West Africa in the Peace Corps, and since returning, I had been longing to share my experience with others. I was so excited to get to build a website to describe my experiences and help people learn about the people and culture of Niger.
Outcomes
As I began to design the project and build my Site Map and Story Board, I found that there was a lot that I wanted to include in the site. At the time, I did not stop to think through whether I had the skills to implement all of the features in the time given for the project. I did not, but I was very determined
I had taken an Introduction Web Design course a couple of years before starting the EDTEC program, but I have to admit that it did not prepare me for what I hoped to accomplish in this project. The first challenge was to learn Dreamweaver and Photoshop, but I jumped in with both feet. I absorbed more and more each night and was getting quite good.
The second challenge was version control. Bob Hoffman spent an entire class on version control and how important it was. I thought I had paid attention, but having never had experience with version control in the past, I did not pay close enough attention. I thought I was doing everything correctly. I learned about half-way through the site development that I was not. I had multiple versions of files with non-sequential file names, bugs I had addressed began to show up, images began to disappear and there were other issues for which I had no answer. I went back to our class text and read the section on Organizing Files and discovered my error pretty quickly.
“Whatever you decide, you need to implement your system from the very beginning: that is, you should make all the folders you will need for the entire site before you begin. “ (Williams, 2000, p. 70)
I had not done this. I had to stop all development for more than a week to go through and identify all the latest files and get back to the last working version of the site and a few pages had to be done over. I have to admit that I was discouraged. It became clear to me that I would not be able to finish my full design before it needed to be submitted.
Lessons Learned
Needless to say, I am very stringent about version control today and it has proved to be very useful to me as a Project Manager and Development Manager in the years since learning this lesson. This project was more difficult than I had anticipated, but in the end it was very rewarding. Mastering Dreamweaver and Photoshop along with learning proper version control were essential in the success of the assignment. I ended up reducing the scope of my design for this project and turning in an educational website that I was proud of.
After the semester, I continued to work on the website and was able to enhance the original design scope. I even reached out to other former Niger volunteers to gather their stories, and photos. Word of the website reached some fellow volunteers that were still in Niger. They reached out to me to ask for help with a coming famine, caused by the minimal rain fall that year and swarms of locusts the year before that ate the crops. I was able to update the Home Page of my website to inform people of the upcoming famine and I included information on how people could help. We were able to collect almost $10,000 to help. It was a drop in the bucket of what they needed, but it did help.
This was certainly not part of my original design and was accomplished after 541 had ended, but in the end, mastering the appropriate software allowed me build an educational website that made a positive impact in the world. This is the project I am most proud of in all of my EDTEC classes because I was able to put it into good use in the real world. Unfortunately, the site is no longer live. I wish I had time to keep the site up and running and continue to help and share Peace Corps experiences, but I have not had the time to keep it up.
This project demonstrated that I have the capability and the desire to learn new complex skills and apply them to help others. This particular project taught me that creating an educational website is a very efficient way to share information. This does not sound like a big deal in today’s world, but when you think of it in a historical context, it is amazing how technology has completely opened the door for information sharing, both good and bad. Returned Peace Corps Volunteers before me would have had to publish a book or make a movie, to share the same amount of information I was able to share on my site. As educators, we need to embrace this ability and Educational Technology allows us to do this.
For EDTEC 541, we were tasked to create an educational website on a topic of our choice. I spent two years serving in Niger, West Africa in the Peace Corps, and since returning, I had been longing to share my experience with others. I was so excited to get to build a website to describe my experiences and help people learn about the people and culture of Niger.
Outcomes
As I began to design the project and build my Site Map and Story Board, I found that there was a lot that I wanted to include in the site. At the time, I did not stop to think through whether I had the skills to implement all of the features in the time given for the project. I did not, but I was very determined
I had taken an Introduction Web Design course a couple of years before starting the EDTEC program, but I have to admit that it did not prepare me for what I hoped to accomplish in this project. The first challenge was to learn Dreamweaver and Photoshop, but I jumped in with both feet. I absorbed more and more each night and was getting quite good.
The second challenge was version control. Bob Hoffman spent an entire class on version control and how important it was. I thought I had paid attention, but having never had experience with version control in the past, I did not pay close enough attention. I thought I was doing everything correctly. I learned about half-way through the site development that I was not. I had multiple versions of files with non-sequential file names, bugs I had addressed began to show up, images began to disappear and there were other issues for which I had no answer. I went back to our class text and read the section on Organizing Files and discovered my error pretty quickly.
“Whatever you decide, you need to implement your system from the very beginning: that is, you should make all the folders you will need for the entire site before you begin. “ (Williams, 2000, p. 70)
I had not done this. I had to stop all development for more than a week to go through and identify all the latest files and get back to the last working version of the site and a few pages had to be done over. I have to admit that I was discouraged. It became clear to me that I would not be able to finish my full design before it needed to be submitted.
Lessons Learned
Needless to say, I am very stringent about version control today and it has proved to be very useful to me as a Project Manager and Development Manager in the years since learning this lesson. This project was more difficult than I had anticipated, but in the end it was very rewarding. Mastering Dreamweaver and Photoshop along with learning proper version control were essential in the success of the assignment. I ended up reducing the scope of my design for this project and turning in an educational website that I was proud of.
After the semester, I continued to work on the website and was able to enhance the original design scope. I even reached out to other former Niger volunteers to gather their stories, and photos. Word of the website reached some fellow volunteers that were still in Niger. They reached out to me to ask for help with a coming famine, caused by the minimal rain fall that year and swarms of locusts the year before that ate the crops. I was able to update the Home Page of my website to inform people of the upcoming famine and I included information on how people could help. We were able to collect almost $10,000 to help. It was a drop in the bucket of what they needed, but it did help.
This was certainly not part of my original design and was accomplished after 541 had ended, but in the end, mastering the appropriate software allowed me build an educational website that made a positive impact in the world. This is the project I am most proud of in all of my EDTEC classes because I was able to put it into good use in the real world. Unfortunately, the site is no longer live. I wish I had time to keep the site up and running and continue to help and share Peace Corps experiences, but I have not had the time to keep it up.
This project demonstrated that I have the capability and the desire to learn new complex skills and apply them to help others. This particular project taught me that creating an educational website is a very efficient way to share information. This does not sound like a big deal in today’s world, but when you think of it in a historical context, it is amazing how technology has completely opened the door for information sharing, both good and bad. Returned Peace Corps Volunteers before me would have had to publish a book or make a movie, to share the same amount of information I was able to share on my site. As educators, we need to embrace this ability and Educational Technology allows us to do this.
References:
Williams, R. (2000). The Non-Designers Web Book: An easy guide to creating, designing, and posting your own web site (2ed.). (pp. 70-72). Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press.