Chapters 7 & 8

Audience is the most important aspect of any document. When creating an interactive program, goals and values have to be established as well as understood. As stated in the book, the Prudential Verani site set and incorporated six goals: 1. To persuade; 2. To entertain; 3. To enable transactions; 4. To create a sense of community; 5. To inform; and lastly 6. To teach. These simple goals give us an idea that a complicated document can be constructed with simple instructions. As in chapter 3, organization was key. So is using active or passive information to deliver your specific approach. When creating an interactive site, the creator really has to be organized and know their audience so that they can get the point across in a way that will help the reader/user relate it to themselves.

Chapters 7 & 8

I thought that these two chapters were useful for me when thinking about designing my own website. Knowing about the architecture of a website and different structures make designing my own a lot easier because I know what sort of structure I should be using. Chapter seven also helped me to define what my goal is.

Phillips Chapters 7 & 8

As suggested the professor suggested, i thought of how the information in chapters 7 and 8 could be applied to my own website and i found that like the previous chapters, the book enlightened me again as to how much actually goes into the planning of a good website.  The charting, programming and structure of a successful website is quite astounding.  The 6 goals listed in chapter seven helped me better understand what my website( an all websites ) should aim to do, and chapter 8's discussion on web architecture gave me a better idea of how to design my site and how i was going to approach the story line.

Chapters 7 & 8

I kept my informational website in mind as I read chapters 7 and 8. I found chapter 7 especially helpful with its emphasis on the need to know your project's business context, data, and users. I also liked how it broke the informational goals into 6 techniques--helped me keep things straight in my mind. I learned from the sections on search engines because I rely a lot on them to research and realized that tagging websites correctly helped them receive more traffic, something that can't help but make a website more successful.

Chapters 3&4

In this chapter I learned that one can move up to a project manager pretty easily, which is something that I was wondering about in the last 2 chapters because of all the interaction with the other people in the project. I like managing and to be able to use my technical skills as well. I didn't know that flowchart software exists. In chapter 4 it talks about all the people that are involved in multimedia and Web Site production and I guess I didn't realise it took that many people. Did anyone else realise that before reading this?

Chapters 1&2

I found that in chapters one and two that the Interactive Media Writer sounds like a fun job! This person interacts with lots of different people in the process of outputing the end result. That sounds like something that I may be interested in doing. With all the skills that the interactive writer has to have such as using the right text, audio and video, I would think that they would get paid a lot. The actual design of the layout of websites seems like a important task to undertake. One must make it so that it is visually appealing for the topic group of which it appeals to. Those chapters caught my attention as I thought the writer didn't do much.

Reflection

I first learned to use a computer with the old apples in elementary school playing number munchers. Later I became more interested in computers and decided to save up my own money and build my computer from scratch. My Uncle helped me do that and I was in sixth grade. It was a K6-2 300mgh computer! I used it for for a good amount of years. I also learned to use the Internet in sixth grade. I learned how to do this via school but used it more on my stepfather's computer until I built my own. The online service networks that I have used are Bebo, Myspace and Facebook. I now basically only use Facebook as there are less advertisements and more people on it that I know. I started using Bebo in high school but not really that much. I used to be against Myspace as I worked with middle school students as a substitute teacher and when not substituting, I helped out with security of the school. We had a lot of incidents that involved Myspace and so I was always hesitant to get into that. I finally got a Myspace account in 2007 and only a few months ago I created a Facebook account and have pretty much given up Myspace.
Supplementary online support can help me in this course by answering any questions that I may have that the book doesn't answer or set very clear answers to what I have in question. The advantages of online support are that it gives me another resource to go to when I need help. The disadvantages are that it may not have all the information I need and I may have to go back to the book to look for that information. To limit the disadvantages and maximize on the advantages, one must use both sources of information and combine them for maximum efficiency.

Chapters 3 & 4

I find it interesting that they focus on flowcharts as one of the main technical skills. I didn't know that the flowcharts would be one of the essentials for the interactive writer. To be a good designer, I would think that you would definitely have to be organized. It is amazing to me how many people are and get involved with design. Each person has such an intricate part that will pull the final piece together. It's like a puzzle.

Chapters 3 & 4

I felt that chapter 3 was really useful in showing flowcharting and the other techniques that we can use to organize content. Structuring multimedia seems to be very important because there are a lot of different aspects and you need to be able to have a clear picture of what you are creating. It was kind of crazy to see how many different team members there can be on a production team for a project. Obviously, that also makes it very important to have a clear outline of what you want so that everyone knows what is happening to be able to work together.

Chapters 3 & 4

I'm most fascinated by the intricacy of and the creativity required for webpage creation. It seems like an exciting process to visualize a project, flowchart your ideas, and then see the end result on the webpage. It also seems like it could become a complete mess if the different team members aren't on the same page in regards to the project. So, I appreciate the sections in these chapters dealing with the writer's relationship to different project members. I guess one huge difference between a successful and an awful project is how well the team members cooperate with each other.

Week 3 readings

Chapters 3 and 4 helped solidify in my mind the importance of planning and design in the production process. The explanations of the roles involved in the successful development of a webpage, database, game, etc., expounded my vision of the complexity of interactive media. Seeing all the different facets of the design process, including flowcharts and review web pages, aided in assuring that any interactive media that I try and create will definitely be planned out and organized. I’ve always been a “wing it” kind of guy, but I realize now that “winging it” is really not an option when it comes to products as intricate and complicated as the ones we will be making. Planning, preparing and purpose are essential.

Chapters 1 & 2

I had no idea that creating a website would be so complicated and at the same time very fascinating. I haven't taken a class that went into detail about websites, but this book seems to define terms that make it easier for those who aren't familiar with the technical jargon to understand it. I will admit that I was a bit baffled by the amount of information in just two chapters.

Reflection

I learned to use the computer at school in the third grade or fourth grade. We would play the "Oregon Trail" and "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?". The internet however didn't happen until I was in high school. My freshman year, there was a lot of hype about chat rooms and such. Of course I had to try it out and met some interesting people though I was too afraid to meet them in person. (before police identified there were online predators luring little girls to their death.) I didn't get a MySpace page until 04' or 05'.

I think that if you are taking online courses that online support/information is crucial but if you are taking face to face lecture type classes online support isn't as necessary though it is becoming more of a regular thing. I have had a couple of online classes but the online support/information was not helpful nor useful.

I think if people actually knew that it was there to use they would use it more often.

Chapters 1&2 Readings

I think that these two chapters were a good introduction into what writing for interactive media is. Most of the terms and such seem like things that I've learned before or the words just explain what they are themselves. But, it is probably good to learn the actual definitions instead of just blundering through it. Even though we had already talked about it in class, it made clearer for me the differences between multimedia and interactive media. It was also nice to see different examples of writing for text, audio, and video to see what the differences are.

Week 2 Reading

So i'm not sure exactly what i'm supposed to be writing here...this is my first blog post. I read the chapters and found that most of the things the chapters dealt with, i'd already learned in the past from personal study and other college classes. Most of the terms are pretty straight forward anyway. The title "interactive media architect" congers a pretty accurate image of what the job entails. But, as the idiom says, "repitition is the mother of learning", and i suppose it was good to acquaint myself with the terms again.

Chapters 1 & 2

One of the most interesting sections for me dealt with direct/indirect linking. I'm fascinated by the amount of detail that has to go into creating a website. Not only does the creator have to know basic information about her/his focus group, but she/he also has to anticipate how the audience will navigate through the website. I thought that Garrand's examples of direct and indirect linking (T. Rowe Price investment company and The Pandora Directive respectively) helped me visualize the different components that creating interactive media would entail.

Reflection Questions

I first learned how to use the computer when my uncle gave us an old Macintosh, he was always riding the technilogical wave we were drowning in and would periodically reach down and help us distance ourselves from that torrentually techy sea. A few years later he gave us an imac for christmas. It was an amazing gift, and the whole family was really excited to try it out. The internet was just stating to become affordable/usable at that time, and about a week after christmas, when we got the imac, we got internet and that was the first time i'd ever used it. Years later i tried myspace.....and for the most part, i hated it, but used it because i wanted to feel connected to friends. Three years later i started using facebook and I don't love it, but it's the best way i know to keep in touch with everyone....so, i'm kinda stuck. Supplementary online support, well, I can see it as a nice way to have all the material you need as long as you're next to a computer with the internet. But the disidvantage I see is that you obviously can't take a computer with you everywhere and have one on you in every situation so sometimes it will be necessary to have hard text.

I first learned to use the computer when I was in second or third grade. In school I learned how to type, and at home I learned the basics of playing computer games. All of my knowledge about computers was gained so gradually from there that I cannot pinpoint exactly when I learned anything else. I do know that I was using the internet by the time I was in fifth grade after seeing my sisters use "Web Crawler". Although information found on the internet my not always be reliable, the amount of information that can be found can be helpful.

Reflection Questions

I first learned how to use a computer in a computer class in elementary school. I don't remember when, but I know we had a computer in our house in 2nd grade, so it must have been around then. I used it every day to play Where in Time is Carmen San Diego? My mom taught a computer science class when I was in 6th grade, and I took her class and learned to type properly.
I didn't start using the internet until 4th grade. That's when I got my first email address since we moved to Taiwan and I wanted to stay in touch with my friends. Unfortunately, none of them had computers or used the internet, so that didn't work out too well. So, I just used it for "homework" since I was homeschooled. All I did was read and play on the computer every day.
I started using Myspace sometime in early high school, and then facebook my first year of college. I don't know why since none of my best friends ever did. They still don't. But, my whole family does (even my grandma), so it's nice in that way. My friends in Taiwan all use Hi5, so I also have an account there, but I don't use it as much.
Supplementary online support for classes is good and bad. It's nice to be able to interact with classmates and teachers outside of class. It's also nice to be able to do assignments in bed with your laptop on your lap. However, a lot of times I forget that there are assignments on blackboard and then miss out on important things I should have done, when if there was just a paper in my notebook about it I would remember. I think the only disadvantage really is that students aren't used to it, but I think that as students get used to it, it will be a great advantage in classrooms.

Questions

1) I first learned to use a computer about 15 years ago when the summer program I attended had the Oregon trail software and we were able to use it.

2) My knowledge of the internet came about when I first attended Dixie in 1999 and had to research for my classes.

3) I have lots of friends who are either on facebook or MySpace, so I check out their sites.

4) Pros: online support helps because it's easy access; Cons: Technical difficulties, like the webpage is down.

A space where interconnectivity is valued

Greetings, one and all!

The educational movement towards participatory/collaborative learning via numerous Web 2.0 tools has come to fruition. Indeed, "the old has passed away, behold all things are becoming new!"

As we continue to trek down the academic landscape of the 21st century, we hope this journey will take us deeper into the world of interconnectivity and digital communication.

Use this space to 'rant and rave' about our various readings on writing for interactive media, its theories and applications, and watch yourself grow in your understanding of the rhetoric of the computer, multimedia, and interactivity!

Have a great semester!!!