Web publishing Working with Moodle

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Web publishingWorking with Moodle

• Computers in Education

August 2008
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What is the World Wide Web?

• "The power of the Web is in its universality.
  Access by everyone regardless of disability is an
  essential aspect." -- Tim Berners-Lee, W3C
  Director and inventor of the World Wide Web
• A distributed collection of information,
  multimedia, functionality and
• A universal publishing medium
• A host environment for communications technologies

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WWW-World Wide Web

• wacky, weird, wonderful
• -a window on the unfamiliar
• wonky, waffly, wishy washy
• -questionable quality of materials
• where, what, why
• -a guide to searching
• waddle, wander, walk
• -the experience of surfing
• wax, wane, waver
• Your preferences for sites
• wicked, wowsy, wanton
• -adult experiences
• wit, wisdom, worth
• -educational value

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How Does the Technology Work?

• Web servers hold web pages and deliver them to
  distant computers upon requests.
• Web browsers show the web pages and requests,
  receives and assemble the elements
• Each web page is based on a recipe for
  formatting and content written in hypertext
  markup language or html( A subset of the
  generalised markup language SGML)
• Web servers can deal with many requests at once.

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Web Addressing

• Each web address has two parts http//www.edna.edu
  .au/edna/go/resources
• Domain address eg. www.edna.edu.au
• File address eg. /edna/go/resources

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Design principles

• Page design principles can also be applied to
  screen design
• Text should be large enough to read but not too
  large
• Background font colours should contrast
• Select fonts that are easy on the eye

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Page Layout


Gutenberg Diagram
POA - Primary Optical Area TA - Terminal
Anchor - Dead Areas
POA
(Wheildon, 1986)
0

TA
The eye travels down from left to right obeying
reading gravity.
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Web Design before commencing

• Know your audience
• Know the purpose/goals
• Educational
• Entertainment
• personal
• Know the technology level of audience
• Design for your user
• Plan your site
• Consistency of style

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Page design 1

• Page design is about layout and content
• critical information in first third of screen
• contrast is essential
• pattern backgrounds may interfere with reading
  create distractions
• limit font colours style
• have a consistent style if creating a lot of
  pages around similar theme

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Page Design 2

• mix text graphics for interest particularly if
  creating sites for young children
• ensure page dimensions are in line with computer
  screen not with printed page
• limit the length of web pages to avoid excessive
  scrolling
• make the page appealing yet keep it simple so
  that the message is not lost
• use tables to help organise the material

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Web Design 1

• Web site design is about navigation, orientation
  and consistency
• limit the size of files to avoid lengthy delays
  in downloading
• ensure good navigation for ease of movement with
  in web pages
• consider orientation as users can get lost with
  multiple links - ensure they can find their way
  back (home button or site maps may be useful)
• links should be clearly indicated and work

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Web Design 2

• graphical links are better remembered by young
  children than textual links
• address cross platform issues with appropriate
  fonts etc
• avoid clutter useless features
• ensure quality of content
• good 'look feel' to the site

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Web Conventions

• Keep size of files to a minimum
• Use a home page as your front door
• Adopt understandable folders file names
• Ensure all links are working
• Minimise download time
• Avoid styles graphics that detract from purpose

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Suggestions for unit of work

• Keep your pages relatively simple if this is your
  first attempt
• Use graphics/images and colour to enhance
  appearance but dont overdo
• Keep navigation simple
• Content should be quality
• Instructions/information should be clear
• Text should be readable

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References-supporting teacher web design

• Penn State(2006) Teaching and Learning with
  Technology Penn State Available at
  http//tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/research/index.
  shtml Accessed July 2006.
• http//www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/
• http//www.capecod.net/schrockguide/index.htm
• http//www.k12science.org/k12partner98/webpublish.
  html
• http//teachers.net/lessons/