Desgin Journal #7 - Boost of Inspiration

So, last week I was in a rut. I was frozen on ideas of my scrapbook pages and I still did not like the look of my front webpage. With time slowly slipping, I pulled myself up by the britches and told my self to get back to the basics. What is that you ask? During one of the initial studio classes (9/11/08 to be exact) we were discussing css templates. I was researching some things and I came across a beautiful template that was for sale. Of course, I was not going to pay for the item, but I loved the colors and functionality of the design. I had wrote down the link on some notes that I took that day and stuffed it into my notebook. During my rut of last week, I was just looking through my notebook and I came across the link to that design. I typed in the URL and as soon as I hit enter and saw the design, my spirits were renewed. I started to draw some sketches on a piece of paper, and by the end of my day, I can designed my version of the webpage that will hold my scrapbook pages. I was so excited that, yet again, I was able to move past a block and turn out a pretty product. I am looking forward to actually being able to say that I "completed" a project that I had set out to do. That is a big milestone for me.
For this upcoming showcase, I will not have my whole project complete. I am about 65% done. I still have to do at least 7 scrapbook pages to complete the "year" timeline. I also want to add some more functionality to the initial homepage with the use of some rollover images. There is still work to be done, but I am actually seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

For my literature review, I read Weigert's chapter on Academic Service Learning: Its Meaning and Relevence. The article was written in 1998 and it discusses the importance of incorporating service learning into higher education. She discusses that "Institutions of higher learning have multiple purposes which focus on teaching, research and service." I am aware that UGA and the college that I work for (College of Agriculture) really stress the importance of these three components. What I was struck by was the comments by Boyer in 1990 as the direction of the "New American College - a vision of a new entitity as an institution that celelbrates teaching and selelectively supports reserch, while also taking special pride in its capacity to connect throught to action, theorey to practice". I think that we can parrallel that idea with the studio class and coin it as the "The New Classroom". In the Studio, teaching is celebrated by the instruction of new technologies and softwre. Research is selectively supported by choosing a authoring and multimedia program, but allowing the student to research their own program, topics and focus. The last idea of service is being obtained by reaching out to the community and connecting theorey to practice as we service others. Eighteen years ago Boyer had a vision and now the Studio has risen to the occasion.

WAY TO GO STUDIO!

Next Steps:

• Complete months 7-12 of the scrapbook pages
• Add rollover effects to the front page of the website

Resources:
Weigert, K.M (1998). Academic service learning: Its meaning and relevance. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 1998 (73), 3-10.

Design Journal #6 - Running out of time

This week has been a rough week. I was sick with a horrible sinus infection that had me out of commission. When I finally got back to work, it was my turn in the queue to have my office remolded. I couldn't escape the smell of the paint and the new carpet which irritated my sinus headache even more. I could barely open my eyes, let alone stare at a computer screen. Unfortunately, this sickness has set me back in my project.
Currently I have created 7 scrapbook pages (bath, first-year, food, arrival, onemonth, twomonth, threemonth). My intent is to create one for each month of her first year. Right now, I would honestly be happy with a snapshot of her first 6 months. I plan to have that complete by the dress rehearsal of the showcase on Thursday. I have yet to complete my Dreamweaver site. I am starting to get in a bit of a panic mode because, as I spoke in a previous journal entry, I always think big and struggle to finish at the end. Right now I am in a bit of a mental block in regards to the layout of these scrapbook pages. I am trying to be creative with the pictures and the journal writing, but I feel as if there is only but so many looks you can create. I did some "inspirational" research and looked at a website named www.scrapwow.com which had about 30 different layouts. I have used this site to jumpstart my creativity. This weekend I plan to work on overload to try to complete this project, as well as my 6170 final project.
That is another gripe --- whenever it is crunch time, it just seems to be crunch time in every class!

Now that I am done venting, I can talk about the interesting article that I read, Girl's preferences in software design: Insights from a focus group by Miller, Chaika and Groope (MCG for short). The article was discussing the gender gap in "computer interest and skills begins in the early grades, persists in the home environment, and continues into adulthood." I can agree with this comment. My initial interferes into technology was through a computer applications course which I was only introduced to in high school. Then the article states that "boys conceptualize computers differently than girl; they like to play games and program. Girls tend to view the computer as a tool, a means to accomplish a task." I then majored in computer information systems in college and I really didn't enjoy it. I hated to program, and was searching for the more creative means to use technology. I fell into website design and I really am enjoying working with programs like Dreamweaver and Flash which are more the artistic tools. I was also interested in the part of the article that spoke on the different ways computer games are programmed. For girls, most of the "themes are oriented towards teaching, collecting pieces of the map, moving around in a spider web or landing on an airport. Many of the boys' game themes were adventure hunts, and exploration." Boys games were also more violent and involved death or the idea of powering "over the physical universe". I had made the conscious decision during college when I saw many of my male colleagues spend hours on end playing games like Bond, and Grand Theft Auto that I was going to ban video games in my house. My 14 year old step-son doesn't agree with the ban, but I feel as if there is enough violence just on tv, that we don't need to voluntarily sign up for it playing video games. I think, after this article, I am still going to keep my up my end of the ban!


Reference:
Miller, L., Chaika, M., & Groppe, L. (1996). Girl's preferences in software design: Insights from a focus group. Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An electronic Journal for the 21st century, 4(2), 27-36.