Week 2 Journal Entry

This week, for Journal 2 I read a lot of useful information that can be helpful to me while working on my webpage. I found many different ways on how to create websites. As we are working on the webpage one is able to use any method as long as it is from the ground up. I read about three types of web creation that is available to one. These include From the Ground Up, Semi-Form the Ground up, and Semi-Semi from the Ground Up. Then I read about many of the websites one can choose for the Web 2.0 Service. I found that I will have plenty of web services to choose from. After reading this article, I found that I should begin at the bottom and work your back to the start page. I want my start page to be user friendly. I thought the 10 step process was helpful that was provided. Step 1: brainstorm all of the items and ideas that you might consider putting on your website. The list of the links that were provided helped me get an idea on how to get started on a webpage. Some of these I thought about using for my sitemap would be home, biography/contact me, photo, assignments, for parents, and for students. Step 2 is grouping how one is going to group the categories together. I found step 5 very helpful for one to develop a flow chart to be able to help one with a site map. I want to make my webpage easy to navigate through which is step 6. I think it would be beneficial to have a navigation bar that would be available for viewers to access. I want to be sure that I keep it simple for the ones viewing it. A website wireframe is just a sketch of what one wants their website to look like. It’s mainly for one to get their thoughts and ideas down. One can simply write down their ideas on a piece of paper. I learned that wireframes can be used for other things besides websites. I found and learned that the Weebly for Education is a good resource and I also learned that School Rack offers a free service for teachers who want to build their own classroom websites. Students and parents are able to create free accounts to be able to communicate with teachers. I read about many different tools one can use or create when making a website. Before reading about the iCloud I kind of already had an idea of what it was. I knew it was something that backs up one’s device. I did learn more about where and how the data is stored including what it is. The iCloud works similar to a drop down box. Overall, I learned a lot of useful information in week 2. I found useful information that will help me get started on my website from the bottom and work my way to the start page. It was helpful to look at the 10 steps that were included in building a website to make sure I will not leave any of these out. I learned the difference between a sitemap and wireframe. I had never heard of these words before so I was a little confused about what they were. This week I learned about a Dropbox and how to use it effectively. For my website I have picked 2 sites that I may use to build my own website. They are Weebly for Education and School Rack. I continue to look up more information for my website. For the most part I have picked out the site map for my webpage. The next steps that I would like to take are to work on the wireframe and get a good mock of the pages.