September 21, 2009

I decided that I should try the web module first, instead of video basics. I’m more interested in learning lighting and shooting in non-typical locations/situations so I will wait for the intermediate video module. I will have to make sure I book out a camera to make sure I review where to locate the filter settings and white balance controls.
I think for my MRP it would be useful to make sure I fill in all the gaps of my knowledge in web design. Last week when I started to think about my documentary idea, I decided I needed a way to help my audience by creating a networking website for teachers. Several of us are using Google Groups, but I would like to learn how to develop a section for bookmarking websites and sharing resources, posting, etc.
Lori Beckstead was fantastic in teaching us the basics of html. She explained everything thoroughly and answered any extra questions we had as we went along. I learned that the word is now being used instead of . I also learned about the use of metatags and why it’s so important to think of key words that search engines will pick up. Because much of my knowledge about web design is self-taught, I had thought CSS style sheets were something Dreamweaver created for its program. Lori showed us how we can design these from scratch.
While playing around with adding media to my site, I had trouble fitting an .flv into the location I wanted to. It kept popping up far below the top column. I tried to add a table to see if it would give me more flexibility but it didn’t. I’ve tried using layers before, but I know layers move around within different browsers. This is something I plan to explore further next week.