About Homework Assignments

The assignments that are listed on this page are to be completed before class starts the day they are due. The latest assignment will be placed at the top to reduce scrolling.

for Tuesday, September 14

Read in WordPress for Dummies (WPD): Intro, Chapters 1, 2, 6, SAMS: Intro, Chapters 1 – 4; and Rettberg, J.W.’s essay “What is a Blog?” (available on the readings page).

Much of the text in WPD will be abstract because we have yet to get started with our blog. In class on Tuesday, we will be going through much of the processes discussed in chapter 6, and we’ll be using the book as a resource. So, if you feel a bit confused at this point, don’t worry; as we start blogging things will become much clearer.

When reading the chapters in SAMS, you will see places where you are prompted to create some HTML or CSS code. Please do these exercises as you feel they are needed and save them to your computer. To view them in the browser, in Firefox go to File | Open File and select the proper HTML file. You will see it appear in the browser window. Once we have learned how to connect to the server and upload files, you can begin to put them online to see how they look. You may also find completing the quizzes quite useful, though they are not required. I will not be checking any of this work, but if you are having trouble completing one of the assignments or with a quiz answer, I am more than have to take a look at what is happening.

Please download and install the following free software applications and browser plugins (or add-ons) on your home/primary computer. We will be using them throughout the semester:

• Mozilla Firefox Browser: this is a more streamlined and user-friendly web browser
• Web Developer Toolbar Firefox Plugin: this plugin allows for dynamic interaction with web sites when in the process of developing them
• FireFTP Firefox Plugin: this is an excellent browser-based File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client
• Screengrab Firefox Plugin: an excellent screen shot plugin
• HTML-Kit (pc only): an outstanding and robust HTML and CSS editor for the PC
• Smultron (Mac only): an excellent and robust HTML and CSS editor for the PC

In class each of us should have selected professional URLs, and many of you might have made decisions about if you want to pay for your own hosting account or use my hosting account for now. If you have decided to pay for your own account, go to Bluehost and register your domain and create an account. Be sure to have the confirmation email that you receive with you in class on Tuesday, as well as the username that was created for you, your password, and your domain name.

Please also start browsing through the links under the “all about web design” heading in the right sidebar to get an idea about the kinds of things the web design community is discussing and what is available for your use. We’ll become more familiar with the community as the semester develops, especially through the social bookmarking assignment. The most invested you are in the community (in terms of reading and commenting on blogs, for example) and web design practices, the more you will get out of this class.

If you have any questions, please let me know.