Week two homework helped me reinforce the topics covered in class last week, which was great. I thought I would remember everything taught in class, but I was wrong. I went home started working on developing my code and my mind was blank. Thank goodness for Week 2 readings and for the web design course.

As far as the Basic Intro to HTML for Journalism students, I am nowhere near a journalism student, but can appreciate the work, especially with the changing world that we live in. One day you are involved in being a writer and the next day you are expected to become a developer-writer. I have always been intimated by developing, especially after working in IT. I cannot fathom how a journalism student feels. Their entire college curriculum is focused training the brain to identify a story and delivery and then all of a sudden the world changes and they are expected to code. It is a good thing that we have generous technologist out there as the developers and owners of WordPress and Web Design courses which break things down into simple form.

The following stood out from the journalism essentials: “Even if you never write a line of code, you need to be able to communicate with those who do.” Very powerful statement, not only for developing, but for everything in life. As a Public Relations student and a consultant, I find it to be extremely important to communicate in other people’s language. It leaves a huge impact. One huge challenge which is a growing trend in IT organizations today is the inability for IT and the Business to communicate and their inability to appreciate the others gifts. IT always feels that the business is not doing anything and the business seems to underestimate the complexity and challenges which constant change of development requirements brings to the table. My initial thought is that they are not able to appreciate what each brings to the table due to lack of knowledge and/or interest in the others talents. I hope this course helps me better understand what developers do, not only so that I too can join the development and blog craze, but to also work better with development teams.

Other comments: My first impression of this web design class is that it may actually be possible for me to learn how to code and/or blog. I am truly excited, not only about the idea of being able to start my own blog, but also at the idea that I may be able to teach others how to blog. I truly cannot wait to go live.

The pre-session reading materials provided a great overview into the internet, platforms, and methods which can be used to create blogs, such as WordPress. I know feel that I have a better understanding of Unix and WordPress and the creators intentions for creating the systems, I hope this deeper understanding helps me learn the WordPress program.

Timeline – It was interesting to see what people are expecting from technology. Personally, I feel that we have not seen anything yet. I have always felt that eventually our world will reach a Jetson era; I cannot wait to own a flying motorcycle and or a robotic made which does everything run errands, cleans, hair, nails, accounting, etc.

Rethinking Our Thinking presented different ways to look at programming. Who would have ever thought that selecting which line to stand in at the grocery store could be related to performance modeling, or that a decision to buy skies versus rent is a form of online Algorithm. If we could make everyday life connections to learn technology, engineering and math, it would be so much easier.  A second item that stood out in the article was the section about commenting on your code. After going over it in class, I must say it is an amazing feature. It is like adding comments to a word documents and or PowerPoint love it!

WordPress Philosophy – The WordPress philosophy appeals to me as a user, one I do not have the desire to learn complex programming, but I do have the desire to communicate nutrition related information to the world. WordPress seems to have opened the doors for non-technical users to market products and/or information online in a cost-effective manner. I look forward to learning more about it.

UNIX Philosophy – The Basis of UNIX Philosophy article was a surprise to me. Working as a consultant for IT has provided opportunities to work with extremely talented Windows and UNIX specialists. Conversations about the complications which are encountered by UNIX developers suggest that they are not applying the philosophies outlined in the article. I believe the major challenge which has led them down the path of complexity is the lack of communication within teams and between business and IT. They seem to find it easier to write complex code that is challenging to understand and costly to maintain than reach out to others to understand what was done or how to effectively write the code. The only thing that comes to mind is job security and/or they see complex rules and codes as a challenge which leads to improved skills, but to in actuality it leads to systems which hard arduous to troubleshoot  and costly to  maintain.

Codecademy is an interesting way to learn how to code. It breaks code down into simple form, which allows beginners like me to not get overwhelmed. Most programming books, at least the ones which I have purchased, are extremely overwhelming. The size and type of font used strains the eyes, and there is usually too much information provided in any one given page. I love the way Codecademy has one topic or instruction per page and makes practicing easy — the sandbox or practice area is right on the instructional page. Five stars for interactive learning.

One thing about Codecademy that brings concerns to my mind is that it seems too easy to be true. And because it is easy and fun, I now wonder if I am actually retaining the information which I am practicing and not just going through the motions. I guess for now, I will go through the lectures and practice and as the course goes on I will see if it actually works. I really do hope it works as I am hoping this course will help me obtain the skills that I need to stand up my own blog and eventually interactive website.

I really enjoyed this week’s lesson and assignments. Just like we discussed during the first week of class, this work is extremely gratifying once you see your code successfully appear as a website. I understand why this is becoming more and more common for journalists to switch over to. Coding requires a keen eye not only from a formatting side but a grammatical side as well. There were several instances where I was stuck in Codecademy and it had nothing to do with the formation of my code, but rather a grammatical error. Luckily this didn’t happen often but it is already difficult enough for me to remember what all of these tags mean and I was constantly reminded how important grammar is as well.

I had the most difficulty with remembering the image source codes and exactly how they were supposed to be formatted versus the hypertext references. This was our first week using Codecademy and I’ve already grown to love it. Although it took me a while to get through all of the lessons, I’ve truly learned from it. I’ve had to learn to build sites before in college, but the software allowed me to speed through and not really retain things. Codecademy had a lot of repetition (which can get annoying, but is worth it) and I enjoyed seeing my work as I went. I know that we are nowhere near pros, but from this one week, I’ve learned and actually believe that web development is not as scary once you learn what and why things are done the way they are done. Like most of us in this class, by no means do I want to take this on full-time, but it is so fulfilling to be able to know how to speak code and I’m looking forward to the end of the summer when I finally have my own website.

I am really starting to like the Codecademy tutorials. Even though they are novice at first, and many people already have a basic understanding of code, the first lessons help reinforce the idea that repetition is the best way to learn. I think that most people see coding and programming as some ethereal skill that only geniuses possess and that the language is unlearn-able for the masses. They are wrong, but as long as the myth persists and people stay unaware of some of the simplicity, they will always need others to do even basic coding.

I wish that the tutorials would go back to the basics every now and again, however, as I learn a lot through repetition. I liked that they made us do the basic <!DOCTYPE html> on the second go around, but after that they just assumed that you will remember it. Maybe if once a month they force you to redo an early tutorial or something of that sorts would keep people up-to-date. I don’t mean people that code for a living, but more like journalist and other people delving into coding to help enhance their main career.

I think that journalists can really make coding a part of their vernacular. We are expected to be masters of our language (even if we aren’t!) and having an understanding of coding will help us stay competitive in an era in which computers are becoming more and more of a necessary tool, rather than a luxury. All of the major publications have internet heavy platforms that really make the news reporting field infinitely better. As journalists, if we can’t understand how the news is delivered from us to our audience, I think that we are losing out on a great opportunity to make our product better. We should be well-versed in HTML and CSS because it is now a part of our craft, whether we wanted it to be or not. Thankfully, I enjoy it!

I recently started working at a small granola company.  And when I say small, I mean I’m basically the only employee and we make the granola in the woman who started the company’s garage. Anyway, she wanted to know if I wanted to do more at the company than just mix, bake, and package the granola, and talked about how she wanted to send out a fancy HTML email like other professionals do. At the time I had just started learning HTML, but I’m a strong Googler and figured I could look anything up.

What I found was that there is no easy way to mock up an HTML email template that can be used over and over again (say, in Photoshop) and them import it into a mail client for use.  In every case, HTML, and consequently CSS, needed to be used. Everyone was coding. There’s no “save as” HTML function, and the slicing that some people do is complicated and not always terribly effective, leading to lots of bugs.

The email that I first drew up was easy enough to do in Photoshop, but positioning boxes and images all seemed really complicated. With the lessons I just took, however, I’m confident I could build it from scratch, (once I look up the hex colors). I can use margins, div positioning, clear functions, all to put every image, background color, or text box anywhere I want.

Then next step will be making it into a template so that anyone can edit it with and email client.  Given that all of the templates that you can download are HTML files, I’m sure there is a way to do that. I’m just going to have to learn an few more steps in order to make my skills translate into something that others who are less computer-literate can use for their business.

This was my first time using Codecademy, and so far I have found it to be a great site to learn basic programming skills. As far as look and usability, the site was very clean and easy to navigate. One aspect I appreciated the most was that there were no ads, and for a free site, this was surprising. It would have been annoying to try and complete these lessons with flash or pop-up ads!

Going through the Web Fundamentals lesson, I liked how each section had a theme and every exercise was fairly short. This step-by-step method helped me to easily understand the building blocks of HTML and CSS language. When I did perform a task wrong, it would correct me in a nice and encouraging way by saying, “Oops! Did you forget the…?” I liked how the site doesn’t spell out exactly what you need to do, but offers hints in case you get stuck. The projects at the end are also helpful to ensure that you comprehend the lesson.

Additionally, I appreciated the FAQ forum, which allows you view frequently asked questions or submit your own question. I had to go here once during the CSS Classes and IDs exercise because I could not figure something out. In a matter of seconds of going to the forum, I had my answer because a similar question had already been asked. This was really helpful!

Overall, the Web Fundamentals lesson was extremely helpful and something I can immediately use at my job. At work, I often edit HTML templates in Dreamweaver and usually getaway with swapping out new text and images. Rarely am I editing in the actual code. When I run into problems, however, I’m forced to ask our web developers/designers, but now I will feel more comfortable solving minor issues on my own, even with just the small knowledge gained from the first Codecademy lesson.