iThink Digital. iLearn Digital. iTeach Digital

Building Blocks of the Web Introduction to Web Development & Design

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 22:09:00 -0500

A one hour workshop on HTML, CSS, Javascript. This workshop was offered for two days at as part of the Code for the Community Project at the University of Maryland.

This is a result of a course-long project where the students...

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:34:00 -0400

Home Page with Javascript Slideshow

About page with Contact Form

Labs page with highlight.js

Glossary page with Javascript scrolling

This is a result of a course-long project where the students learned how to build websites from scratch with XHTML, CSS, and Javascript. This is an example of where one student’s creativity lead them in my course. Student Course Portfolio Submission for University of Maryland’s CMSC198 Young Scholars program Summer 2012.

This is a result of a course-long project where the students...

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Home page with audio files

About page

Glossary page

Lab 2 page with highlighted javascript of navigation bar

This is a result of a course-long project where the students...

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Home page with animated gif in background and fixed navigation bar

About page and fixed navigation bar

Lab 4 page highlighting the javascript used in the slideshow

Glossary page done in javascript

This is a result of a course-long project where the students...

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Home page with marquee in the header

Glossary with buttons for alphabet

Resources page with google search widget

Lab 3 page with highlighted syntax for javascript related to glossary page

This is a result of a course-long project where the students...

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Home page

About page

Glossary page

Lab 2 page with highlighted syntax for how to create the navigation bar

After a little break, I’m back in throws of teaching. The...

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:56:17 -0400

After a little break, I’m back in throws of teaching. The mini-mester starts on Monday and I’m looking forward to this 3-week intense course which meets daily at the University of Maryland. I’ll be teachingYoung Scholars in a course for the computer science department

The course is CMSC198 - Special Topics in Computer Science for Non-Computer science majors. I’m looking forward to this adventure as I transition from teaching at a for-profit school to a not-for-profit school. I trust that my delivery will engage students and challenge them as well. If they don’t leave the course with any thing else, I want them to leave the course with understanding the basics of how websites work.

The Vocation of Web-Development

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:27:00 -0500

The Vocation of Web-Development:

This quote is directly from the blog post titled “You don’t need a college degree to be a great coder” found on ReadWriteWeb on 1/7/2012 :

“Programming isn’t accounting. It requires creative thinkers and problem solvers, people unlikely to thrive in the confines of a college classroom. So why do hiring managers apply traditional methods to a nontraditional job?”

What a start to the new year. Last quarter ended with such a bang, I hadn’t had a chance to post. Last week started my first week in the new quarter at AI as a web development (javascript, php, mysql) instructor. While I try to stay away from over promising, I do have one resolution for the new year, and that’s to make my classroom more of a workshop/laboratory and less of a seminar. The main thing that I’m doing differently this quarter is to pay a little more attention to the curiosity and tenacity of my students and guide them through the course material like a coach instead of a docent.

Last week, one of my students brought up the fact that web development has become a vocation and less of a science however, when applying for positions in organizations it’s still a requirement to have a degree. I thought this was an interesting observation and a very really one.

This comment lead me to stumble upon a blog article about the very subject and I must say I concur…. Why do you need a college degree to be a web developer? This may sound strange coming from an college instructor, however, I find that the skills needed to be noticed and hired for most development jobs, are not taught in traditional classrooms.

First and foremost, you must be a creative thinker and problem solver. With that said, it’s not enough to be a good designer or artist. You need to be able to think somewhat logically.

Secondly, you need to have a good professional network. Without the right people in your network, you will not get noticed by potential employers or even pick up contracts…why? because the right people don’t know who you are or you what you can do.

These two points alone are survival skills that are not emphasized in today’s traditional academic courses. The average compuer science graduate or information technology or information systems graduate may not be able to break into a career in web development, for missing at least one of the two skills I already mentioned. It’s as if their degrees are working against them, but they also have the terrible trifecta of also, not having enough hands-on experience to adequately perform the duties of a web developer.

So where are students getting it? And what is the actual valuation of their degrees?

As an instructor of web-development in a non-traditional school, I am fortunate to be surrounded by students that are looking to gain skills that will make them employable. I feel this incredible sense of responsibility as their instructor, and am compelled to give them the tools they will need to compete in today’s economy.

I’m so proud of my students using twitter to take notes...

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:00:00 -0500

I’m so proud of my students using twitter to take notes and capture speaking points in class. Digital Natives 3 v Digital Immigrants 0

Digital Natives 2 vs. Digital Immigrants 0 After decorating...

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:47:24 -0400

Digital Natives 2 vs. Digital Immigrants 0

After decorating my office door with more flare, I realized that the 10 year anniversary of the term Digital Native is now. With the inner visions of the innovative educational thought leader Marc Prensky, we have been able to re-shape the way education is delivered through consumerized technology and devices.

The idea that the entire popular culture of westernized-societies have shifted and will continue to shift is not without its challenges. Many think of the term as another parametrization based on age or generation, when in fact the term has evolved to include all users that embrace the use technology in such a way that they are digitally dependent or stimulated.

The numbers are growing so quickly, that resistance to the new paradigm shift is self-defeating and in vain. Educators, now more than ever, are losing leverage as knowledge gate-keepers in their classrooms, and are being forced to continue the education process iteratively to stay relevant.

But is that a bad thing? Is it so horrible to expect our knowledge administrators or educators or teachers to continue to learn?

As an adjunct faculty member, I find it most rewarding when a student challenges the relevancy of information or data they find, and I enjoy the discovery process of disseminating the truth from credible sources. I don’t just consider myself just an educator, but a researcher and coach.

Maybe, someone reading this right now, will be inspired to think differently about the way they view the teaching and learning process. Perhaps, I’ll change the world with this single post, or even better, I’ll keep the conservation going; until enough voices are engaged and interested in making a difference.

Or it will swirl around the digital wasteland of cyberspace….

Another satisfied student. The power of social media in...

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:14:00 -0400

Another satisfied student.

The power of social media in education at work here!

Digital Natives 1 vs. Digital Immigrants 0

I shared this infographic about the use of twitter to get them...

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 01:27:23 -0400

I shared this infographic about the use of twitter to get them started quickly in my courses.

Javascript Demystified?

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:16:00 -0400

The instructor before me suggested this book as one of our required textbooks….I can think of a few others that would have been good. But stuck with this until next go around.

I’m open to suggestions.

Open publication - Free publishing - More ajax

The latest webinar at the University of Maryland was structured...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:30:00 -0400

The latest webinar at the University of Maryland was structured like a talk show. This is the first ever Learning Technologies Tech Talk . This segment (in hopefully a series) was about Twitter in the Classroom.

One of the our Urban Planning professors who is a avid learning technology user decided to try something new in his course. He was interested increasing student engagement and cognitive learning. By using Twitter, he was able to develop some unique learning activities, but not without cost.

Team Teachers: Today is the First Tumblr Teachers Check-In

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 14:17:42 -0400

Team Teachers: Today is the First Tumblr Teachers Check-In:

gjmueller:

How it works:

In a brand new post, share one thing that went well this week (at work or in your personal life).

Share one thing that has you stressed, concerned, etc.

Let us know if there is anything the Tumblr Teachers Community can do to help you with your teaching (resources needed, ideas, classroom pen pals, donors choose projects, etc.).

Reblog this post so that people know that it is check-in time (if you see this late, you are welcome to check-in late). Use the tag TTCI (Tumblr Teacher Check-In).

Help any fellow teachers that you can.

via teamteachers

Today was teacher orientation for noobs like me. I’m...

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:18:00 -0400

Today was teacher orientation for noobs like me. I’m looking forward to embarking this new journey and flexing my learning technology skills in my web and database classes. First class of the quarter coming up soon, Oct 6th. I’m not nervous just excited to express myself in a new format. Sharing knowledge with fellow creative types should be most rewarding.

To Skype or Not To Skype. This webinar presentation at the...

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:30:00 -0400

To Skype or Not To Skype.

This webinar presentation at the University of Maryland was an intro into skype and using it on campus in our capture enabled classrooms. I had the pleasure of working with a faculty member set up a bonafide skype session as a learning technology for the duration of his Israeli Studies course and that prompted the webinar topic.

Playing with technology to help faculty solve problems is fun. Especially, when you use them in unconventional ways.

Technology du jour :

- Panopto (camera for skype)

- Skype for Mac

- Bootcamp

I recorded this live Skyping in a Israeli Studies course Fall...

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:00:00 -0400

I recorded this live Skyping in a Israeli Studies course Fall 2011 at University of Maryland via my iPhone 4. Not bad right?

10 Ways to Use Mobile Barcodes

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:30:00 -0400

10 Ways to Use Mobile Barcodes :

Another Prezi production. Presented via webinar Spring 2011 University of Maryland

This was a weekly webinar held at the University of Maryland...

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:30:00 -0500

This was a weekly webinar held at the University of Maryland that compared the different blogging and wiki options officially supported on campus. Currently, the campus provides support for MediaWiki and Wordpress. We also use Learning Objects Campus Pack tools, however we use them as a Blackboard extension only.

MediaWiki and Wordpress provide a robust alternative for faculty and staff who want a solution that lives outside of an LMS.