Unit 1: About

Unit Description & Goals

For the first four weeks of the course, we will review the foundational language for advanced web authoring: HTML & CSS. You will be provided with a web hosting environment and instructional modules to guide you through this review.

The Main Goals I have for this unit are to r

  1. Set up and become familiar with your web development work environment – an editing environment, FTP software, and a a publishing space on a web server.
  2. Develop a web development workflow that you can use easily to update your dev space.
  3. Review web language basics, concentrating on HTML & CSS.
  4. Understand that on the web, Document Structure, Content, & Style can all live separately and what that means about how the contemporary web works.

Each student will be responsible for building a simple web development space – a page on your MSU Domains account - where you can post material for each of the modules in this unit. This is how you will turn in most of your work. There are five modules. Do each one and post the outcome on your Dev Space. Then, update your dev space front page to link to the new work.

You will also do some writing about your learning process. This writing can be public - for example, on a blog page in your portfolio site (which you'll also set up for the class) - or you can choose to share it just with me. But it is as important as the development exercises. There are three things to do:

  1. A Preflective piece where you write about what you know now and set some personal goals for the Unit.
  2. A Reflective piece that you do after you've completed the modules, looking back and re-evaluating your progress toward the goals you set earlier.
  3. A public-facing page for your portfolio that shows your web language skills.
Practice, Practice

One of the main aims of this module is to encourage practice. The key will be repetition. Think practice as in playing the piano or learning to tap dance. One or two times over four weeks is not enough to make a big difference. Thousands of times is. Hundreds of times is probably more what you should aim for. I am not kidding. If you don't practice much, you won't get far.

Criteria - How Can I Be Successful in Unit 1?

I've set this module up so you can practice a lot without fear of making mistakes. I want you to make mistakes and learn to recover from them, in fact. So when evaluating your work, I'll be looking at two things:

  1. Did you complete all the items for the modules and post them where I can see them? This is easy. It's yes or no. I can either see it or not.
  2. Have you written thoughtfully about your work, what you wanted to learn and what you did learn? I expect that you'll put some time into your Preflective, Reflective, and public-facing portfolio work. You should make the goals and criteria in this document clear as a scaffold for your own thinking in these pieces, but you should also personalize these and set some goals for yourself.
FAQ I have some experience with web authoring already. Am I going to learn anything here?

You should. Take this time to look critically at the four areas mentioned above - your working environment, your workflow, your knowledge of HTML & CSS, and your understanding of the foundations of dynamic web delivery. Now set some goals in these areas that are meaningful for you. Just like a musician can always improve their skill even when they are expert, you can too. But you need to challenge yourself.

Ok, I'm still feeling very new at this…can I survive?

Definitely. Remember that your evaluation will be based on your learning and reflecting on your learning. But the key is to practice. When you compare yourself with others, you want to be clear about how many hours of practice separates you. Don't panic. Just put in some more repetitions.

Why Are You So Focused on Reflection?

For a simple reason: your writing about your work lets you and me see, clearly, that you can index (point to) and name what you know. That means that you can not only do something, but you can explain what you are doing and even help someone else learn it. This kind of knowledge is the difference between a novice and a master. For this class - Advanced Web Authoring - we are working toward mastery.