Reflection
On my teaching practice I spent so much of my free time speaking to my students about a topic, Business Documents, that they were struggling with outside the classroom. I even went as far as to create lunch time classes for the students who were struggling to help address this issue. I then came to the conclusion that if they were prepared to attend these classes and really put in the effort to master a new topic, perhaps the problem was not with the students but the education system they are a part of. Having read the various textbooks on the topic I really felt that the books were out of touch with modern students. There was too much theory and very little visual and practical explanations of how to approach this very practical topic. I therefore decided to create a website that was easy to navigate, very visual learner friendly and also one that attempted to take a practical approach to the business documents.
The first aspect I felt was important to the site having viewed and analysed a number of sites over the last few weeks was the colour and theme of my website. I wanted the website to look bright and friendly as I wanted it to appeal to post primary students so I needed the colours to be bright without being gaudy and sore on the eyes. I therefore decided to have a strong purple and green colour theme running throughout my website as I believe these two colours are very visually appealing and studies have shown both colours can be linked to memory retention.
My website can be broken into three distinctive parts: the homepage, which outlines the basis for the site and its purpose, the main pages which dedicates a single page to each of the main business documents, which provide a visual aid, a template for each document and the theory to accompany each document, I also included a subpage for one of these pages to present a sample question and answer, as an example of how I would expand this site in the future. The final part of the site is contact information as I feel it is important for people to be able to look for help and offer feedback on the site. I really believe feedback is vital going forward if the site is to improve.
One other key point I wanted to address for my site was navigation. To convey an idea of simplicity I created a menu where each page is clearly marked on a side bar menu and also linked with thumbnails images on the homepage. I also ensured the user could get back to the homepage with only a click.
I am very pleased with not only what I have achieved but also what I have learned during this project. I have learned a new skill which I believe will truly help me in my future career. I have also learned that I need to hone and refine this skill as I found some tasks and utilities I would have liked to put on my website to be too difficult for me to achieve: some of the difficulties were a fault of the website creator while others were my own inadequacies. In terms of future projects in ICT I believe this tentative first step will stand me in good stead.
The first aspect I felt was important to the site having viewed and analysed a number of sites over the last few weeks was the colour and theme of my website. I wanted the website to look bright and friendly as I wanted it to appeal to post primary students so I needed the colours to be bright without being gaudy and sore on the eyes. I therefore decided to have a strong purple and green colour theme running throughout my website as I believe these two colours are very visually appealing and studies have shown both colours can be linked to memory retention.
My website can be broken into three distinctive parts: the homepage, which outlines the basis for the site and its purpose, the main pages which dedicates a single page to each of the main business documents, which provide a visual aid, a template for each document and the theory to accompany each document, I also included a subpage for one of these pages to present a sample question and answer, as an example of how I would expand this site in the future. The final part of the site is contact information as I feel it is important for people to be able to look for help and offer feedback on the site. I really believe feedback is vital going forward if the site is to improve.
One other key point I wanted to address for my site was navigation. To convey an idea of simplicity I created a menu where each page is clearly marked on a side bar menu and also linked with thumbnails images on the homepage. I also ensured the user could get back to the homepage with only a click.
I am very pleased with not only what I have achieved but also what I have learned during this project. I have learned a new skill which I believe will truly help me in my future career. I have also learned that I need to hone and refine this skill as I found some tasks and utilities I would have liked to put on my website to be too difficult for me to achieve: some of the difficulties were a fault of the website creator while others were my own inadequacies. In terms of future projects in ICT I believe this tentative first step will stand me in good stead.