Really Really Ridiculously Bad Websites

Today we learned about the many composing essentials of Web Building.

You can view a copy of Professor Debren's composing essentials right here.

It is interesting to understand how websites are made- kind of like understanding the way anything works ( a car, your body, the male psyche); it really gives you insight into how to appreciate/ manipulate it from the user-side as well.  What I'm excited and looking forward to is being able to design websites so that they look good and mostly, so they serve a purpose.  My dream is to be able to create a blog/website that is aesthetically pleasing as well as functional so that I can put a variety of mediums on the site such as literature, photos, audio, etc. and also link to the many other great websites out there.


Here is to hoping my website never looks like any of these...
(Oh, and please excuse the language on the website.)

The anti-creativity age

My mom always said that my brother probably would have been diagnosed with ADD if he had grown up with me, ten years later.  He was just a typical boy, but it has become apparent that we are over-diagnosing kids who have differences.  They have a learning disability, or a mental health problem.  In a way these things are good, but in a way it has become clear that we are stifling students' creativity because when they are different, we medicate them or send them to therapy.


There is also little time in school these days to let kids be kids and to let them really explore different mediums.  We are so focused on standardized testing, and holding teachers accountable for teaching each student as if they are exactly the same, that there is absolutely no time or room for risk to let students learn in their own way and there is no funding for the arts in schools.  Our goal for students should not be having them achieve academic and financial success, but having them become reflective and positive adults. In my opinion.

My first post

Now the proud owner of two blogs, I thought I would just get this first post out of the way.

This is actually an assignment for my "Internet for the Educator" class, but I'm glad that I have experience, and a sincere passion quite honestly, for blogging.  I hope to become much better and more dedicated as I ease into it and also as I learn more and more about the Internet and Web Design in this class.

The first class got me really excited to learn about the Internet and everything it has to offer on the other side- no longer just a simple user and consumer of the web's services, but a creator and author.  The Internet makes is so easy for anyone and everyone to own their words and get their opinions out there.  It has many consequences, but especially as a potential educator, I hope to learn technological responsibility and literacy.

In today's class, we watched a video about a young teacher who was ultimately forced to resign because she published on Facebook some, in my opinion, innocent photos of her drinking alcohol on a European vacation.  Understandably, we all must be ultra-sensitive to what we publish on the Internet, I do believe there is an over-sensitivity to the photos that people post on one end and a lack of responsibility on the other end of the spectrum of Facebook and social network users. As a writer, I hope that my words are never censored, but also always used responsibly and with thought.  While some photos I have seen are extremely inappropriate and unflattering, I believe this one particular teacher was the victim of some bored or angry person who chose to remain anonymous for a reason.  I also cannot help but ask if this same situation would have occurred if she were male?  Just a thought.