WHY THE WEBSITE
Assignment 4 of TOP course 71355 is an Expo, presenting the student's choices for the top ten technology trends in whatever manner the class thought most appropriate.
The logical choice for the Expo format seemed to be that of a website.
However, it seemed that the wiki area didn't allow multi-user access or any great extent of html formatting.
As a class we had been directed to create blogs, and nearly all of us ended up using either Wordpress or Blogger (free blogging platforms).
The blogging platform was chosen as it was the easiest for us to work together with
everyone being able to contribute and amended the work. The
format also allowed us to take the previous work in assessment 3 and use this
as the basis for the Wiki with suitable updating for styles and change of
format.
A little experimenting showed that they could both be tailored to host a proper website (as opposed to a blog). Not only that, but they were both usable as a Content Management System. Blogger supported video in it's basic form, Wordpress didn't - so Blogger got the recommendation and class approval for the Expo platform.
The formating was discussed amongst the team and a consensus agreed so that the
look and feel of the Wiki was consistent.
The class converted their MS Word-formatted material to web pages without much trouble and then modified the content into a more suitable blog format. This involved changes to the layout and wording to make the pages more readable and interactive.
In addition, links were added at the top of the 3D printing page to make scrolling easier, as well as ‘Back to top’ links throughout the page to provide smoother reading and accessibility. Later in the development of this site, the navigation bars decided to go missing. Investigation pointed towards a problem with oversized images that were too large for the template design - this was known as a blown out sidebar that occurs when a template sizing has been changed too as found here http://www.gannettnj.com/2008/11/17/help-my-sidebar-is-missing/. To enhance text, an investigative report was conducted and added to the research in the form of a case study. This was accompanied by a video. In addition to this, a video was also added to the Sixth Sense page, to accompany text also.
Cutting and pasting into the blog caused an amount of unexpected and often redundant HTML being added into the blog. This caused a few unexpected issues with formating. Most of which have been removed by editing the HTML of the blog.
The class did a wonderful job on getting the information on the website. They all did a great effort and the whole team pitched in to make the site look great. The Class learnt a lot from everybody which was great. Working as a team we have come up with a great result. It was just great having everybody pitch in when needed. Just looking at the site shows the talent and what we have all learnt in this course.