Reading

One of the most important skills we need to demonstrate is the ability to read and summarize complex information. The ability to communicate new ideas effectively to an audience can make you a valuable member of any organization. But it takes practice.

Like all of our work you need to think of the two questions: Who is my audience, and what do I need to say? For all of our summaries I ask that you write 50-100 words. Why? Because that is how we communicate now--in short messages. If you go to the front page of the New York Times or ESPN you will notice how these short blurbs are used to entice and attract readers. The ability to summarize is an essential component of web design.

Today's assignment is to choose ONE of the following articles and summarize it in your blog for your readers:

• GirlTalk: Talking has its limits.
• Athletic Scholarships: Expectations lose to Reality
• Gothic: You just can't Kill It

Be sure in your article to:

• Include a link to the original article. Find the correct link by clicking "Share" and copying the permalink.
• Keep your word count between 50-100 words.
• Title your entry effectively.
• Include your audience in your dicussion. Start a conversation so you get comments!

On a related note about "Bad things happen to ignorant people" you should all read this article before you decide what you post on your facebook account (or on someone else's!). Don't post, comment on, or upload anything unless you want it part of your public record forever. Also note that a professional image on these sites actually encouraged some people to get hired. You can use these sites to your advantage.

Tuesday

I am home sick today.

Internet Literacy:

Please complete the following:

• Lab 2-1 (2.61). I realize we haven't really gone over this yet. Please help each other and don't be afraid to read the chapter! Do your best.
• Cases and Places #7 (2.65). Use this resource to improve your Blood Drive page.

Web 2:

Please complete the following:

• Cases and Places #1 ,#2, and/or #3 (2.93 and 2.94) . Do the same two cases that you did for Project 1. Don't be afraid to take the time to read the chapter.

Web 3:

Please start the following:

• Walking animation.

Monday

You must have the following completed today:

Internet Literacy:

• iGoogle page.
• Apply1
• About Me
• Quiz: Your schedule
• Blog entries: usability, Goodrich letter, accessibility questions.

Web 2:

• iGoogle page.
• Two of the Cases and Places (Project 1)
• Ansonia High website
• Blog entries: usability, Goodrich letter, accessibility questions.

Web 3:

• iGoogle page.
• The three Flash examples
• Blog entries: usability, Goodrich letter, accessibility questions.

If you are done please use your time to clean up your blog, work on your iGoogle calendar, or helping your classmates (!!).

Friday Quizzes

Internet Literacy:

The quiz for web 1 will be due by the end of the Period on Monday. Some of you will finish early, some of you will have to work fast...

You will create a one page website about your current class schedule. This website should include:

• A title in the header.
• A clear heading on the page.
• A list of classes.
• A brief paragraph describing yourself (junior at Seymour High School, etc...)
• Background color.

Save the file to your WDrive-Classwork when done.

Web 2:

Your quiz will be to create a new website for Ansonia High School. We will use this website for all of our quizzes as we learn new techniques.

For this quiz please:

• Define a site and create a subfolder.
• Design an initial page. Save it as "index".
• Title the page.
• Decide who the audience for this website is.
• Decide what Ansonia High School is "selling".
• Set up a basic page.
• Apply the design ideas we have discussed (balance, motion, etc...) and show evidence that you have done the reading.
• Make sure the page works (links, images, etc...).

Web 3:

You will continue to work on your web tutorials. Please complete the bouncing heart, the mask, and the rotating globe for a grade.

Patriot Day

Take a moment today in class to read through parts of the 9/11 Legacy website. This is a very well designed website. Think about some of the decisions that the web designers made to increase the usability of this site.

By clicking on the links at the top of the page you can read through some of the profiles. I am sure we have classmates who were personally affected by the tragedy and lets be sure to have them in our thoughts today.

Yesterday our quiz was about analyzing the Seymour High website. Check out a few responses (Joe , Rebecca, Amber). Most of you spoke about technical things. I would like you to explore more about message. If you visit the SHS site what does it tell you about the type of students or teachers? For example, check out these high school sites (High Tech High , Laguardia Arts, Edgewater). When I visit each of those sites I get a pretty good feel for the culture of the school AND I can find information quickly.

Today: update blogs and work on bookwork and tutorials that were assigned yesterday.

Decoding Google Analytics

For many kinds of analysis, simply copying and pasting the Google Analytics tracking code into your site is more than enough. But there's a growing population of Analytics power users who want fine-grained control over their site tracking and who have a burning desire to understand and manipulate the behavior of Analytics. For those of you, we now offer Google Analytics on Google Code.

Google Code has information on everything you need to know to create a custom Analytics installation on your site. Do you want to change the longevity of your marketing campaigns? Or add a new search engine to the list of those Analytics recognizes? How about configuring tracking to use both Google Analytics and Urchin Software from Google?

If you're beta-testing Event Tracking, Google Code has an entire section to help you implement it on your site. There's an E-commerce overview and E-commerce API reference. And if you just want to learn more about how Analytics works, you can read about tracking code execution and how Analytics uses cookies.

Google Code addresses your most technical questions; it's not intended to replace the Help Center. And our Authorized Consultants are always around if you have custom tracking requirements but don't have a Google Code level of expertise in-house.


Posted by Patricia Boswell, Google Analytics Team

Quiz: Introduction

Today's quiz is a letter.

In this letter you must:

1. Include links and examples where necessary.
2. Provide evidence.
3. Be persuasive, yet friendly and helpful.
4. Your letter should be between 100-150 words.

Please evaluate the design bias, usability, and accessibility of the Seymour High School website. This letter should show evidence that you paid attention for the past few lessons.

Start your letter with "Dear Mrs. Goodrich". Save to blogmeister.

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After completing the quiz we will begin our book work. Save all work in W Drive.

Internet Literacy:
HTML Book: Apply (1.38) and Lab 3 (1.41)

Web 2:
Dreamweaver Book: Cases and Places #1, 2, 3 (choose 2 of the 3).

Web 3:
Begin Flash Tutorials.

The beginning unit matches our 6th Standard "Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations."