Monday, May 31, 2004
Janine helps a student on the National Parks project.
On Thursday, I took more video of Janine and her students. Later in the week I finished the video I hope to show on the 3rd when we meet with parents. I'm learning more about iMovie and some of the features of the Mac as I work.
Being a PC power user makes it a little frustrating when I go to do some of the things I do without thinking. All of a sudden I am at a roadblock and have to figure how to get around it. For example, I wanted to capture a screen shot of the video to put here. With the PC, it would have taken me about a minute to hit Print-Screen, capture the screen, paste it and crop it with Paint. With the Mac I had to go to the Help menu, do a search, and move on from there. It took a while, but the result was positive in two ways. I found that the Mac process is more powerful in some ways (less in others), but most importantly, it put me in the shoes of the teachers I am working with and gives me a deeper appreciation for their efforts.
If all goes well, the picture should be on top of this entry.
Being a PC power user makes it a little frustrating when I go to do some of the things I do without thinking. All of a sudden I am at a roadblock and have to figure how to get around it. For example, I wanted to capture a screen shot of the video to put here. With the PC, it would have taken me about a minute to hit Print-Screen, capture the screen, paste it and crop it with Paint. With the Mac I had to go to the Help menu, do a search, and move on from there. It took a while, but the result was positive in two ways. I found that the Mac process is more powerful in some ways (less in others), but most importantly, it put me in the shoes of the teachers I am working with and gives me a deeper appreciation for their efforts.
If all goes well, the picture should be on top of this entry.
The job was both bigger and smaller than I had anticipated. I've made and posted changes to exactly 101 pages and the relationship between the 101 Dalmations and the spots I'm seeing before my eyes is not lost. LOL
The change makes the left hand menu consistent throughout the site. If you see a page I missed that has a different menu than the rest, please let me know.
Actually the changes went quickly and the left side menu change was the "smaller" part. I didn't do the "larger" part which is remove the text navigation menus at the bottom of the pages. As you do work on your pages, I'd ask you to remove those menus. Right now they cause no problem, but they too are inconsistent and will cause confusion as the propagate.
So as you continue to work on pages you can remove the bottom text navigation menu. DON'T make any changes to the button links on the left side of the page, but feel free to build navigation buttons on your own pages. For example you might have a page that links to two or three other activities you created. You might want to put a "Back" button at the bottom of each of those pages.
Well that's it for now. Feel free to make changes to any pages without fear of me overwriting them.
See you on Thursday.
Art
The change makes the left hand menu consistent throughout the site. If you see a page I missed that has a different menu than the rest, please let me know.
Actually the changes went quickly and the left side menu change was the "smaller" part. I didn't do the "larger" part which is remove the text navigation menus at the bottom of the pages. As you do work on your pages, I'd ask you to remove those menus. Right now they cause no problem, but they too are inconsistent and will cause confusion as the propagate.
So as you continue to work on pages you can remove the bottom text navigation menu. DON'T make any changes to the button links on the left side of the page, but feel free to build navigation buttons on your own pages. For example you might have a page that links to two or three other activities you created. You might want to put a "Back" button at the bottom of each of those pages.
Well that's it for now. Feel free to make changes to any pages without fear of me overwriting them.
See you on Thursday.
Art
Hi Ladies,
As I'm writing this, I'm downloading the Star-W web site to my desktop, because I'm going to make some major changes in the menu structure. It is IMPORTANT to let me know if you make ANY changes to ANY pages in the next 24-48 hours. I'll be making changes to the files on my desktop and then uploading them when I am done. This means if you make change without letting me know, I will be over writing your changes. If you let me know, I will handle your change individually. I'm going to try to make all of the changes today, but there is a lot to do and I'm not sure if I will finish.
The changes are necessary, because my original site design was done with a powerful program that allows me to make changes to pages globally. For this reason I was able to make a variety of navigation menus to fit each section. I could give you the long geek explanation, but I'll simply say that unfortunately with Contribute, this scheme doesn't work. Therefore, I'm going to change the menu structure considerably to make it more uniform. It's a lot of work, but a small price to pay for the freedom and power that Contribute offers you.
This has been a learning experience for all of us. Designing a web site for use with Contribute, especially with a changing structure such as ours, requires significantly different design than a more typical or static web site.
Last night I made a few simple changes before deciding to attempt the major upgrade. You'll notice that on the Teachers menu, the name Tomasella has been replaced by Alden and there is a new entry on the home page. I created a Star-W Sampler page. The main reason I created it is to use with the parents on the 3rd. Claudette, you might want to include a paragraph about the link in the material you are creating. It will provide parents with a quick peek at two pages/activities created by each teacher.
As I'm writing this, I'm downloading the Star-W web site to my desktop, because I'm going to make some major changes in the menu structure. It is IMPORTANT to let me know if you make ANY changes to ANY pages in the next 24-48 hours. I'll be making changes to the files on my desktop and then uploading them when I am done. This means if you make change without letting me know, I will be over writing your changes. If you let me know, I will handle your change individually. I'm going to try to make all of the changes today, but there is a lot to do and I'm not sure if I will finish.
The changes are necessary, because my original site design was done with a powerful program that allows me to make changes to pages globally. For this reason I was able to make a variety of navigation menus to fit each section. I could give you the long geek explanation, but I'll simply say that unfortunately with Contribute, this scheme doesn't work. Therefore, I'm going to change the menu structure considerably to make it more uniform. It's a lot of work, but a small price to pay for the freedom and power that Contribute offers you.
This has been a learning experience for all of us. Designing a web site for use with Contribute, especially with a changing structure such as ours, requires significantly different design than a more typical or static web site.
Last night I made a few simple changes before deciding to attempt the major upgrade. You'll notice that on the Teachers menu, the name Tomasella has been replaced by Alden and there is a new entry on the home page. I created a Star-W Sampler page. The main reason I created it is to use with the parents on the 3rd. Claudette, you might want to include a paragraph about the link in the material you are creating. It will provide parents with a quick peek at two pages/activities created by each teacher.
