Criterion E Evaluation Website

First of all I will talk about my process because I did not post anything in the meanwhile. Criterion A: For investigation, we did a lot of things. We looked at other websites and got ideas and carefully look at them. We looked at sites that other kids made and wrote about what I liked, what I didn’t like, and what I will use in my own website. It was interesting seeing that other kids even younger than me made these website. I don’t know if they made it by html or not but they were really good. Mrs. Wilson also gave us links to websites that are about websites. They give tips and they talk all about html. There were a few sites and some of them had so much to read, so I just read the outlines and got what it was about. Then, we had to pick what our websites would be about. I picked how to get you parents to say yes. It was what I was dealing with at the time so I wanted to investigate deeply into it. Mean while, to get introduced and get a glimpse of online classes, we posted these things that we wrote about the investigation on webteachertools.com. She would give us instruction on what to do. It was interesting to me because, who knows, I might take online classes. In class, Mrs. Wilson would not tell us what to do, but instead we would look at what she wrote on the site. And this is what online classes are like. Criterion B: For design, we designed how our websites would look like which is the layout. From the beginning, I had this image in my head of how my website would look like. I drew it out with different pages. It met my design specifications. However, nothing was as I expected. I knew html was going to be a little hard, but apparently I did not know how hard. It turned out that I had designed things that were too complicated for my knowledge and expertise for html. My design ended up totally different than I had planned. At first, it was frustrating, but in the end, it did not bother me that much. What mattered was the content and accessibility. My websites design was very plain, with just one picture on one page. A good thing about it is that it meat all my design specifications. It was simple, easy to understand (I hope), not too colorful (in fact it almost had no color, the pictures helped), not hard to read (the text was in black), it is easy to navigate, it has enough pictures (I think), and not too big in size. Criterion C: My plan was a good plan I tried to follow it, but the deadline was extended. The times for me to work on it was, unlike other units, in class. Coffee cup is a html editor, a website making program. We only got it installed on the school computer. We were not having enough time to finish our sites, so that is why the deadline got extended. Criterion D: The hardest part of the whole unit was the creating part. I think it was for all of my classmates too. As I said before, I didn’t think it would be that hard but it was like a nightmare. I could not figure out what to do so when I messed up, I started again from scratch. I did that about 3 times until I kind of got the hang of it. When I realized how difficult it was, I really didn’t care about how it looked anymore. I thought, “as long as the content is good.” I also dropped some of the pages that I was planning on doing. If you scroll down, u will see that I planned on having pages on different parents from different places. I had planned too many pages, so I decreased mine to 6 pages from 13. My content in my website are from interviews, my opinions, and voted top tens. I went around my classmates and asked them their opinions, tips, and experiences. My pictures are made and found from the Internet. The ones I made are done in paint. My website is not to teach kids to not listen to their parents, or go the wrong path and do bad things. It is just for kids, mostly teenagers, who feels how I feel. Imprisoned, lack of trust, overprotective-ness. My tips might not work for some parents, if it doesn’t then its ok, because I tried to help. And if their parents are still saying no, then they are asking for something that is just very wrong. Doing this website also helped me because I found out new things that I did not know. I will use them on my parents and also remember not to fall for it when I become a parent. Testing my site was the same as all my classmates. We opened our website and left them. We went around and put a scale from 1 to 10 and some comments. There are 3 things to grade: visual appeal, navigation, and content. It was really exciting and fascinating to see my classmates’ works after all of us working so hard. The one I liked the most was Ha Young’s grade 10 website. As for me, my highest mark was for navigation, then content, then visual appeal. My website was plain. If I do this unit again, or make another website on my own, there are many things I would remember to do to improve my website. First of all, I would pay close attention to the codes. I would really investigate more about the codes. I would have a better program. If it is available, I would use something like dream weaver, but it was not available in our school, and doing this project again, would not be the same with dream weaver. I would also work on it more, put more time into it. There are still a lot of things I don’t understand about html, just like many other things in the world. This is embarrassing, but before this unit, I did not even know what html was. I didn’t even care. I was just happy that there are websites and I could use them. I see now that I took it for granted. It is hard work, and it takes up a lot of time. Now that I know how people make the sites, I appreciate it more.

New plan for website

Plan for website

Criterion B Website

For my website that I am going to make, I have picked the topic: “How to make your Parents say yes to everything you ask for.” I need to come up with a better name for my site. Here are some ideas
· Guide to conquer your parents
· Parents say yes, you’re not a mess
· Guide to make your parents say yes to every thing you ask for
Here is the list of everything I want to include in my website
· Experience from kids
· Tips from kids
· Top ten ways
· How to make your grandparents, brothers, sisters say yes
· Don’t overdo it and go the wrong way
· Game
· What parents say
My website is to make kids happy and parents happy. I have had a lot of experience with my parents when they would not allow me to do anything. So I want to help out the kids without making the parents angry and we all live happily ever after.

Color: 2 or 3 continuous colors throughout the whole website
· Green, purple, grey
· Orange, blue, white
Font: title/logo: “yes!” : Funky and fun
· Kirsten
Links on homepage: 13
· What other kids did
· Tips from kids
· Top ten ways
· What about grandparents and brothers and sisters?
· Not too much!
· Game
· What other parents said
· Different parents around the world
o US parents
o Mongolian parents
o Korean parents
o German parents
o Cool parents
o Strict parents
In the beginning, we evaluated the works of other people, and described how we want our website to look like, from looking at others’ websites. For mine, I think it is almost identical to what I described.

My sketch of my website and my design specification are

-simple

-easy to understand

-not too colorful

-not hard to read

-easy to navigate

-nice and enough pictures

-not too big in size

-and the text will be understandable.

Investigate Website Week 2

What designs scare you?
http://webdesign.about.com/u/ua/webdesignbasics/what-design-scares-you.htm

On this page, people commented on the question that one person put. They told the annoying, and 'scary' things about websites from their experience. Most of the people wrote very true things.

• annoying fonts that you cant read
• you cant navigate away
• shocking music that you can't turn off
• videos that make the other things on the page load longer
• flash

Accessibility
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/accessibility/

This is a page about a guide to make websites. It has tips and steps. It has many different types of topics

1. website navigation
2. content accessibility
3. logical style
4. testing your pages
5. 10 things that people hate to see in websites
6. browser support
7. 216 non-dithering colors chart
8. HTML 4 explained
9. XHTML explained
10. mobile
11. the redesign process
12. bookmarklets

"Website navigation" talks about the significance of navigating through a website for the audience. if the Wbsite is unnavigatable, then they will quickly escape the site.

"Content accessibility" is to give you information to make you aware of the different types of problems people might have that they might not be able to fully use or get information from your website. These problems could be disabilities like

• some kind of color blindness,
• reading disorder,
• or blindness.

But not only disabilities will prevent people from using your website the way you meant it to. People could have problems like

• not have speakers
• not have the current web browser
• not have a keyboard

and so on.

"Logical style" is to have people not confused while they are in your website. It talks about how you should put things in places so that it is not all over the place.

"Testing your pages" is very useful so that you know that people are actually looking at your site. If something doesn't work and you didn't test it, then people will not be looking at your site or sending a bunch of mails to you complaining.

"10 bad things" is pretty clear cut by its title. The ten things that should not be in a website are:

• Broken links
• Typos
• Under-construction
• Redesigns
• Plug-ins
• Low update rates
• Too much advertising
• No way to make contact
• Slow websites

There is one missing. I don't know why. Hypocrites.

"Browser support" talks about the different types of browsers people have and how to avoid it.

"216 non-dithering colors chart" tells you to use colors that are compatable with all computers. Not all comuters are same, so you should try to make it convenient for others.

"HTML 4 explained" talks about the new versions of HTML and ways to use it. People need to be updated so their website works becuase the codes of HTML changed from the ones in 1998.

"Mobile" says that lots of people use their phones to go on the internet so your website should be mobile compatable too.

"The redesign process" gives tips on how to make a successful redesging of your website.

Webstyle guide: 3rd edition

http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/1-process/5-list-of-reminders.html

The 3rd website was a link to a page with short and useful tips. These tips were “get to the point”, and from experienced web designers that want to help you. They were tips like “Be clear” and “Do the visuals last.”

Sources Cited

Kyrnin, Jennifer. "Readers Respond: What Design Scares You?" About.com: Web Design/HTML. 21 March 2010. http://webdesign.about.com/u/ua/webdesignbasics/what-design-scares-you.htm

Shannon, Ross. "Accessibility." HTML Source: HTML Tutorials. 21 March 2010. http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/accessibility/

"Sidebar: A List of Reminders." Web Style Guide 3rd Edition. 21 March 2010. http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/1-process/5-list-of-reminders.html

Investigate Website

We have started a new unit called Website. The goal of this unit is to make a website of our own. I am very excited to do this because I like doing things like this. I like creating things that other people can see and I like designing them.

The site called thinkquest.org annually organizes a competition for kids that make the best website. I checked out some of them that won places and they were really good. It was unbelievable that kids did them. They had 3 places for 1st place and 3 places for 2nd place and so on. It is because they have kids competing with a variety of ages, so they have 19 and under, 15 and under and 12 and under. Making a website is tough work so they allow kids to work in groups. Kids from all over the world enter this program. I got a lot of inspiration and ideas, so I will be sure to think back or look back to these sites when I am making my own website.
The sites that appealed to me from the design standpoint were a few. One was the leadership one from 2009. It had great pictures and colors. The layout/theme was perfect for the topic of the site. It catches people’s eyes. The best thing was the pictures. It also had many links to other information inside the website. The websites that I didn’t like were the ones that take forever to start. They have a starting off thing like picking what kind of server you have, or what language you want. The chocolate one had a very long introduction. It was just showing chocolate coming from all over the world. Even though the information and things were great I just didn’t like the beginning part.

From the ones that I saw from thinkquest.org were the chocolate, the time for tolerance, and man and woman the age-old struggle, and many more. They were interesting to me because they are just interesting topics for me. I like chocolate because I love chocolate and I wanted to know the origin and history of chocolate.

Chocolate
http://library.thinkquest.org/08aug/00696/
Leaders
http://library.thinkquest.org/08aug/02289/
Time for Tolerance
http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/00117/
Man and woman: the age old struggle
http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/01443/

Evaluation Wikiality

Design Specifications

I was supposed to use the fact on the CNN Haiti Earthquake site, but for the reason I have said earlier, I was unable to. In the beginning of this unit, I checked other sites to see if they had the same numbers as CNN, and they did. Because it the earthquake had just happened, the number of deaths were not all found. But now, recently, I checked and the numbers had increased because the more they dig and as time goes by, more people are being identified as dead. So now, other sites other than Wikipedia say around 200,000. So now, it turns out that Wikipedia is right, and we don’t even need to change the information on Wikipedia.

Design Specifications
1. Use the fact of the web site of CNN including a few other reliable sources too (BBC, FOX)2. Add the sources to the reference on Wikipedia.
3. Follow the steps of the method of finding inaccuracy in Investigation.
The first design specification was completed because we looked at other reliable sources like BBC and FOX and care.org. The second design specification was not achieved because we did not change information so we cannot add the source to the reference section on the page. The third is not very provable, but we did follow the method because we did find an inaccuracy.

Criterion A
In criterion A we got into pairs and answered a set of questions about Wikipedia by researching. I got together with Temuulen. In the first class, we researched very neatly and organized, but then in the next class, she did not come to school. So I had a hard time finding some of the information alone. But we answered them and then we had to find a method of finding an inaccuracy. I think we answered the questions not very detailed. We found a method which I think was a good one. The investigation was the hardest part of this unit because it was hard to find all the right answers to all the questions. It was also very hard because we had to find an inaccuracy on Wikipedia and there are very few wrong things. I had to search very specifically and after researching about 50 things, I found one, and it turned out to be right in the end. I researched many topics like Mongolian things, obesity things and Barbies. I tried to look mostly at things that I knew a lot about.

Criterion B
On my blog I copied and pasted the part of Wikipedia that had the inaccuracy. I highlighted the specific thing red and on the bottom in green I wrote the correction that I will do. The design criterion was very easy because it was just changing words from a text. At the bottom I sited my source.

Criterion D
I logged in with the school account on Wikipedia and tried to change it but there was no edit sign. Other sections had the edit sign but the piece of information that we wanted to change was in the introduction and it turned out we cannot change things in the introduction. So we failed to achieve our goal. To have achieved our goal, we could have gotten a piece of information that was not in the introduction.

Criterion D Create Wikiality

We had picked a very nice topic on wikipedia that was false and that we could change, but unfortunately, we were unable to change it. We realized that we are not allowed to change anything in the introduction. The piece of information that we wanted to change was in the introduction only and not in any other sections on the page. It was very misfortunate inconvenience, and i wish that i could change the piece of information.

Design criterion B: wikiality

WIKIPEDIA

The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake. Its epicentre was near the town of Léogâne, approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.[3][4] By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded.[5] As of Feb. 12, an estimated three million people were affected by the quake;[6] the Haitian Government reports that between 217,000 and 230,000 people had been identified as dead, an estimated 300,000 injured, and an estimated 1,000,000 homeless. The death toll is expected to rise.[7][8] They also estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged.[9]

Correction
it may exceed 100,000 people had been identified as dead,

CORRECT WEB'S CITATION

CNN's Ivan Watson, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Susan Candiotti, Gary Tuchman, Chris Lawrence, Anderson Cooper, Brian Byrnes, Felicity Cruikshank, Hada Messia, Richard Greene and Mike Mount , . "Haiti appeals for aid; official fears 100,000 dead after earthquake." CNN World. January 13, 2010 10:57 p.m. EST. CNN, Web. 23 Feb 2010. http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/13/haiti.earthquake/index.html


DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS

1. Use the fact of the web site of CNN includind a few other reliable sourses too (BBC, FOX)
2. Add the sourses to the reference on Wikipedia.
3. Follow the steps of the method of finding inaccuracy in Investigation.

testing method of inaccuracy

We found an inaccruacy on wikipedia about the number of deaths caused by the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. On wikipedia it says 217,000 230,000 people have died. And on the website of CNN it says 100,000. CNN is a worldwide source of news and information which will contain more accurate and depenabble facts and datas compared to wikipedia. To make sure that CNN was absolutly correct we looked at the citations. The proof on CNN was that the Government official said the number of deaths. And many CNN professional reporters worked together to write this article, which increases the accuracy. On wikipedia, it says it's an estimation, and normal unprofessionals edited it.

Investigate Answers to Questions

Enkhi and Temuulen
Wikiality- investigate

Where does Wikipedia get its information from?
-From volunteers all around the world

Who is in charge of deciding of what goes into the article and what gets removed form an article?
-They have staff and administrators in an office and they decide what gets removed from an article.

If there is some debate about whether a particular bit of information should or should not be included in an article, what is the process of deciding?
-People try to come to an agreement being neutral no page of information can be biased.

How reliable do you think Wikipedia is?
-It is reliable because there are many staffs that work for Wikipedia that have reliable sources so they check what people wrote and they can delete anything that is false. Every half an hour or so, someone checks a page of information.

How would you know whether a particular article really is accurate?
-The only way to know if a piece of information is accurate and reliable is if there is citation. But on Wikipedia there is rarely citation, so you have to use your instincts to trust that piece of information or not.

How would you go about discovering whether an article contains inaccurate information?
-If it doesn’t have citation, you may not want to trust it, but if it seems to be true, then it’s just your decision.

Method to find inaccuracies
1. Research about that topic and read info’s
2. Compare the original info’s from other sites with the one in the Wikipedia
3. Look for citation
4. Look for one piece of info from the Wikipedia and from another site that is reliable and see if that piece of info is same.

WIKIALITY

We have started a new unit called Wikiality. It is about the wikipedia put in real life so that we can understand about the things that wiki-ers go through.

To get started, we got in pairs and made wiki's of our own. I got together with Binderya. It is really easy to make a wiki. You just go on pbwiki.com and create an account. Once you have created and account, you can put new posts and stuff just like on blogger.

Then, we put on our script that we did a long time ago. Our page was changed, but better than some other people's. On our page, the words were switched around and making the meaning of our script exactly the opposite. Lots of it were very funny, to tell the truth. But if i were a serious wiki-er and put on real information that i think is important for other people, and then people go and change it just for fun, i think it would be really fustrating and i would feel unworthy because people are not making my wiki worthy to them. Only our class kids edited eachother's pages, so they put really funny stuff. It was fun to see all the funny things that they wrote.

When someone has changed a wiki, you can change it back, but it might be hard. You have to look at recent activity and see exactly what people changed. You can look at it and change it back. Sometimes it might be difficult because someone might have changed a huge amount of things.

Wikis i think is not a very good site to put anythink on. Even if you put just a sentence saying "i love apples" anyone can go on there and put false information that some other person can see and think that you wrote it, getting a false understanding of you. It is better to have nothing than to have some fake things.

The ways that wikis could be used are:
-just for fun
-get feedback or surveys of some sort
I think the best way is to question people for their ideas and opinions. For example, you could ask people to say what they think about global warming. The people can edit it and tell you what they feel. It is still not a good way because after someone wrote something thoughtful, someone else can go on it and mess up what they wrote. I think there is a lock button on a wiki. But if there is'nt, then there definitely should be.

The people who create these wikis can be anyone. Mostly people from the wiki staff put the main information up in the beginning and others can change them. Other people can make wikis too. They dont have to only edit posted wikis.

Why use wiki? Because it is a universal and widespread source of information. It is rare that informatin is true. The people that edit them are, like i said previously, are the wiki staff and administratives.

Our task is to find a wiki and make changes on it. The create part is to edit a wiki, but only one that has false information.

Evalutaion: my podcast

The unit of “Podcasts to examine adolescence” has come to an end. I think I have learnt a lot on podcasts and adolescence. I learnt more about me by thinking about me and my friends. I realized that all friends aren’t that good friends but still you need them.

For my podcast, I think it was audible and clear. I published it on podomatic.com. In the beginning I though I was going to use podcastalley.com but it was too complicated due to the fact that I am bad at technology, not the school subject technology but technology.

My podcast was about a teenager. Me. And the last maybe I should have talked more about friends because that would have made it better.

At the beginning, we did many things for investigate and that was the most fun part. I like interviewing my friends and my dad. It felt like I was an interviewer. When me and Binderya made a test practice podcast, it was fun too because I went to her house. When I had to do the podcast, it was kind of boring for me, to tell the truth. I might have picked the wrong topic, but it was just not that exciting for me, so design was a little tricky for me, but after I had picked my topic, it was easy making the outline about what I was going to talk about. I think the making the plan was short and easy. For the create part, I just had to change the script around a bit and record it. Publishing it on a site was the hard part.

According to my design specifications, most of them were achieved: it was loud and clear, I think what I talked about made sense and it does show emotion. But the things that were not achieved were the music in the background and 10-15 minutes long. It was totally not 10 minutes long, it was 3 minutes.

My test as I said in the beginning of the unit, is to make at least 2 people read it and answer questions I wrote. The questions were:
• Do you think this podcast was true and it relates to my life from what you know about me?
• Was it over exaggerated?
• Does this relate to your life in any way? And how?
• Would you recommend this to other people? Who?
My two classmates answered very positively so I think it makes my podcast reasonable and it relates close to them. They said it does relate closely to me as well as to them. They both said it was not over exaggerated. And one of them said they would recommend it to a person looking for a close friend.

This is the end of the unit called “Podcasts to examine adolescence.” I think it was a great way to learn about all the podcast in the world that it is out there, and also about my adolescence life as well as others.

Picture of me

Plan Redo

My final podcast

Finnally, this is the link to my final podcast. It took me a while to figure out a good way to put it online, but i did it. I said i was going to use podcastalley.com but it was not working and a little more complicated than i thought, so i used podomatic.com which my friend recommended to me. It was easy to sign up and it was easy to upload the podcast. Here it is:

enkhi.podomatic.com


Hope you enjoy it!

Process: My Podcast

I have recorded my podcast and it is a little more than 3 minutes long. Some people's are like 10 minutes, but i think i fit in all the things that are important in 3 minutes. I have tried to upload it on my blog but it is not working so i will get help from Mrs. Wilson and upload it tomorrow, i think.
I have not followed my plan because of the winter break and stuff but getting it done, and getting it done in good quality is the most important thing. I have not yet written my reflection yet because i do not know if i should or not.