Technical Professional Development – Part I: The Idea
Overview: Develop a working knowledge of HTML 4.0 and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) 2.0 to produce full, W3c standards compliant web sites based on strict XHTML 1.0 coding and CSS 2.0 stylesheets.
Rationale: A discussion from a class I had during Spring 2006 with Dr. Ferdig (Educational Technology and the Teacher) led to the notion that while many of our peers have websites, most had not considered usability or accessibility guidelines for our audiences. The discussion made me wonder how hard it would be to create a standards compliant site that would not only be aesthetically pleasing, but provide the best opportunity for a member to enjoy the site's content as intended while still conforming for basic accessibility guidelines for user's with various disabilities.
The Problem: I have NEVER been formally trained in HTML! I've had a basic knowledge of HTML skills and table usage that I've put cobbled together over the past couple years. And sure, the site is viewable, and the content is there for any audience member to explore who drops by my personal website: TransBat.Com. However, the site NEVER looks the same between the different web browsers (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera). I read that CSS helped make web sites vary less in their appearance, and thus tried to incorporate (pronounced hacked and slashed) some CSS style into my pages. Alas, this didn't yield much success.
My personal website is a source of much joy to me, but posting content on it has been constant source of frustration because I never know if what I post will provide the presentation I want for my audience. Combined with the fact that I am now archiving and building my professional development portals and information on my site, I desperately want to have a presentation layout, style, and user-interface that is pleasing to the eye, and easily accessible for my family and peers.
If I were able to learn these skills, it would be of great benefit to some future projects and endeavors that I hope to begin soon in regards to online instruction and the integration of podcasting into face-to-face and distance learning.
I decided to peruse the web searching for some type of book/guide that would help me grasp the concepts from my dated knowledge of HTML and send me towards the future web design and creation utilizing a harmonious blend of XHTML and CSS. I found a book that I believe will suffice quite nicely:
Head First: HTML with CSS & XHTML | Amazon Book Link | SlashDot
I'll post some on this topic once I've fleshed it out enough to create a contract for the goals of my Technological Professional Development plan.
3 comments:
Good luck with the W3C standards. Are you going to translate it into every world language too? ^_- I wanted to let you know that http://www.htmlgoodies.com is a great site if you need help with html as well. I learned everything I know about html from it back in high school.
If you still have electives to spare, I would highly recommend you look into Professor Carlson's Electronic Publishing course. It's in the College of Journalism, but I like taking classes all over the place. The main thrust of the course is writing strict (x)html and CSS while developing a personal home page and research project page. I too have learned html in bits and pieces, but I am working on constructing a personal page coding everything from scratch. It's a whole different ball of wax.
cheers
People are often hesitant to work with a business coach because they are not sure what to expect. Well, at the most basic level, the coach is there for support. A coach never tells you what to do. They just prompt and encourage.
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jackspar.
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