Amy Pelletier's Weblog

I thought that I put a link to my site in the last post, but I guess I didn’t, so here it is: http://ampelletier.myweb.usf.edu/index.html

Wow…what a class this has been. I didn’t think that I could create a web page, but Dreamweaver CS4 makes it so easy to create beautiful web pages. I really enjoyed the entire process. The books that I preferred for this class are The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, by Jason Beaird and Learning Web Design, by Jennifer Nierdst Robbins. I think the reason for this is that they have color graphics. The black and white format of Creating a Web Site, by Matthew MacDonald didn’t quite hold my attention.

This class has shown me the importance of being able to create a web site for my eventual work in libraries. I know that I’ve had a love/hate relationship with technology, but I am beginning to see the importance of it’s use in the field of Library Science. Wikis, and other reference web sites that are created for reference in libraries is another area that I’m new to and they are related to web design, but usually they have preformatted types of layouts and they are much easier to create.

I don’t know how Professor Simon found all the wonderful sites that he had us visit, but I really enjoyed visiting them and learning from them. The last lessons (9 through 12) had an abundance of sites to review and I was only able to explore a few of them. I’m amazed at what web designers create! The interactive sites that allow you to click and animate things were mind-boggling. Maybe one day I’ll be able to learn more about the different applications in the Creative Suite 4 that I purchased for this class. I’ve found a site that helps me with tutorials; http://www.lynda.com. For the moment, I’m on a one month free access, but I’m seriously considering buying a year’s access to it. It was so helpful!

My web site had some serious problems over the weekend which really frustrated me. I wasn’t even planning on tweaking it, but I started to on Saturday. Then when I uploaded the files, I got the infamous FORBIDDEN message. I called IT on Sunday and today, I got an email stating that they had fixed the problem. I haven’t even checked to see if it’s working or not. But I will shortly. I just wanted to get my blog updated.

I wasn’t so good at keeping up with this blog…it’s such a new thing to me, I think I didn’t plan well in using it. I could’ve done a lot better with it.

The sites that the students built were amazing! There is one in particular that I will access; Anne Larrive (alarrive.myweb.usf.edu) created a site that will help new Library Science graduate students acclimate better in the program. I really liked her graphics. They were from old library pamphlets…really retro. Kelli Joyner (kmj.myweb.usf.edu) created a very artistic site which reflects on her post grad work in Art. I was so panicked about last Wednesday’s class meeting; I wasn’t sure if I had a good site or not. I was the last one to present. After class, I received a very nice compliment from a fellow student; he told me that my site was one of the BEST! Wow! I hadn’t expected that!

Professor Simon is awesome! At first I kind of resented his ‘hands-off’ approach at teaching. He basically laid out what we were to do and he let us do it. I prefer more interaction with the teacher of the class, but in the end, I see why he does things the way he does. We’re Master level students, and we should be able to read and learn whatever we need to. I was so emotionally stressed about the HTML in this class that I shut down the first half of the semester because of it.

I’m amazed at what I learned! If I hadn’t allowed myself to become so emotional about the process, I would’ve learned that much more.

Well…we’re in the last two weeks of the semester and I MADE IT THROUGH! Hopefully the summer semester I’ll feel a bit more organized with juggling two classes. These first two semesters have been very stressful for me simply because of the habits that I’ve allowed myself to get into. I am working on changing that.

My site, which is personal in nature, will be an evolving thing. I eventually want to make it a kind of Curriculum Vitae to aid me in my job hunting. I’ll have to tone down the colors quite a bit and I may just go with a CSS preformatted type site. I haven’t decided yet. I know this, that I will be working on it in the weeks to come, tweaking and changing things.

Ahh…spring fever is here! My daughter arrives on May 8th with her husband to move to St. Petersburg. If you read anything on my site at all, we haven’t lived in the same state since she was 5-years old. She’s 21 now and almost finished with her Bachelors degree in business with an focus on human resources. She found an internship (unpaid) in Clearwater. I just realized this weekend that the weekend she arrives is Mother’s Day that Sunday! Such a gift from God to me to have her close…I’ve missed out on so much of her life, but now I can play ‘catch-up’! So excited! What a wonderful end to the Spring semester!

I really need to get a better understanding of how to put videos on a web page…I want to do this, but don’t really understand how.

As I read back over what I’ve posted since this class started, I realize that I’ve been VERY emotional over this entire process of learning how to build a web page, and I realized it’s all because I lack confidence in myself…part of it goes like this, ‘who cares about a web page that I’ll create’…I guess I feel invisible in the sea of the Internet. That video that Professor Simon showed us about the exponential increase in Internet usage is very intimidating stuff! These computers are ‘unite-ing’ the world! I have to learn how to use the Internet in a more proactive way, and this class is giving me the tools to do so. Why am I fighting it? I’m not clear on this yet…Professor Simon wrote on the DB about emotions and the learning process…I wish I were more tolerant of ambiguity…I need to dive in and go with the flow until the AHA clicks…I don’t like the uncomfortable feeling I have when I don’t understand something. I guess the individual process in all of this is getting to me too. I prefer learning this type of thing by ‘monkey see, monkey do’…with a more guided, hands-on approach.  Teaching myself isn’t easy. I need to begin to speak more positively about this process instead of filling it with ‘anxious’ words, I need to speak ‘peaceful’ and ‘capable’ words to myself about creating a web page. I need to accept it and do it…

will anybody really care what I create? ♥

This is another thing that frustrates me…I’ve been looking at the Source Code for web pages that I really like, but I can’t understand what it all means! There seems to be a lot more to code than what I understand so far…hmmm…will I ever understand this?