Monthly Archives: April 2016

Tweety Bird Couldn’t Have Done It Better

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What happens when a class assignment meets Twitter.

 

This is a mini Twitter rant of my think piece. While full of emojis and personality, this rendition of my think piece summarizes my topic in 140 characters or less.

 

https://twitter.com/AaliyahDee/status/722493112057204736

https://twitter.com/AaliyahDee/status/722495071027900416

140 Characters or Less By George Gordon

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This is an archive of the series of Tweets based on the original think piece essay we did for project 1.

 

Due to Twitter having a 140 character constraint, the think piece had to be reworked in order to be sent. While we could use the language of Twitter in order to make our think piece fit more easily into a Tweet, I worked around that as I prefer not writing in that format. It made adapting the think piece a tad more difficult but that was how I wanted this to be done. Because certain parts of the think piece continued ideas that were not present in the Tweets, I had to reword them in order to still get the same message across.

Twitter allows us to hashtags that can be used to connect your Tweets to other people Tweeting about the same thing and due to the issue I was covering already having a specific hashtag associated with it, I used it in every Tweet. This would link to others expressing similar issues or ones who are being directly affected by the Content ID issue. However, the goal was still to reach an audience who had no idea about this issue.

Due to the project constraint of being limited to no more than 20 tweets, the whole think piece would not be covered. The actual think piece could not even cover the whole topic so I decided to add a link to my podcast and a video from Nostalgia Critic that would be able to give much more detail into the issue.

 

There were various responses to the Tweets from the class relating to the topic I had covered and some links to similar issues going on currently. However, I just made this Twitter account for this project and it would make sense for these Tweets to reach a huge audience.

  • Your Tweets earned 1.5K impressions over this 13 day period.
  • Tweet 17 and 18 had the most impressions.
  • 14 Likes, 13 Replies, 1 Retweet, and 3 Link Clicks.
  • Engagement rate was 0.2%

 

Tweeting about le Robots from Think Piece

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A twitter rant as a continuation of the Think Piece project

This blog post is an archive of the series of tweets that were made and interacted with in class of my Original Think Piece Essay. The list below will contain the tweets in chronological order, from earliest to latest.

 

Due to the nature of my topic for the think piece, my audience included people who were not yet familiar with intermediate uses of computers, such as using Microsoft Word, Gmail, and some search databases. Although, being a Twitter user viewing my tweets, there are  some assumptions I can already make of my audience’s computer-using skills. But the effective usage of Microsoft Word and Gmail for professional purposes often escapes many.

I wanted to still connect to my audience by emphasizing the importance of computer skills in EVERY field today. Whether they think of their grandmother, mother, aunt, or even want to sharpen up their own skills in order to become career-ready is up to their own decision when reading my tweets.

My tweets seemed to be effective in the sense that they received feedback relating to what people connected to with this general idea of being digitally impaired. Most of the feedback I received were side notes to be kept in mind as users were reading the tweets. Because my topic was not an intensely passionate/controversial topic, I did not expect anything different.

At the end of the day, this is a topic which I can connect with on a personal level along with many others because I happen to love and live with digitally impaired people in life. I know many others do too. It may not be an issue of immediate importance like immigration or tax cuts, but it is very much an issue nonetheless.

I have never used Twitter frequently before this project was conducted. Because of that reason, the low amount of impressions and the ease with which I was able to retrieve the information pertaining to my impressions makes complete sense.

  • 1.5k impressions over the past 28 days
  • 1,444 organic impressions on the day of the project
  • 1st, 12th, and 19th were the top 3 impressions
  • 2 Retweets, 15 Likes, 12 Replies, and 2 Link Clicks

Beginning of Class Writing: Jones and Hafner, Understanding Digital Literacies, Chapter 10

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For today’s class, you read Chapter 10, Social Networking in Jones and Hafner’s Understanding Digital Literacies. Spend the first ten minutes of class writing a summary of the reading in memo format, save your work, and copy-and-paste it into a comment made to this blog entry. We will have our Twitter project exercise and then discuss the chapter with any remaining time in class.

Learning how to be “Dangerous” with HTML by Christopher Navarrete

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Website

The purpose of this project is to not only learn the basics of HTML, but to understand its affordances and constraints, especially when compared to markdown or CSS. The finished product is then used as a place to host our think piece projects.

The two online tools that I used for this project are Notepad++ and Daring Fireball’s text-to-HTML conversion tool known as Dingus. Notepad++ allows users to go in depth with HTML and create complex and specific elements for a website. Dingus on the other hand, simply converts markdown to HTML with average results. Compared to HTML, markdown has less options, which enables less creativity. For example, I couldn’t add images or videos to my website in markdown, while in HTML I could.They both, however, achieve the same goal, albeit with different results.

After learning the basics of HTML, I used most of the codes we learned in class for my website. This includes how the text looks on screen (justifed, tables, headings, titles, bolding, linking to other websites), and colors (on the body and heading separately). I then decided to implement the visuals (images and video) that I created from previous projects to help users understand and see what I am discussing throughout the website. Instead of copying and pasting these visuals on the folder associated with my HTML project, I used the share button on Flickr and Youtube to receive a code that display these works online.

After I finished creating my website in HTML for Google Chrome, I realized there were several issues and differences when viewing it on other web browsers. In Firefox, the body was completely invisible and the spacing on all headings was different. While in Internet Explorer, although the text was visible and in the correct color, the headings contained different spacing as well. The spacing issue frustrated me the most because I wanted to know the code that changed it.

Overall, HTML (or at least my knowledge of it) seemed limited. I would have liked to completely change the design of my website, have background images, and better color. Instead of having the visuals in the same page as the think piece, I would have liked to link them in tabs placed in the header.

Tinkering with HTML Coding and Markdown

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The purpose of this project was to provide a basic understanding of the work that goes into text-based web design. The primary tools used where Notepad++ to create the HTML coding and Markdown, a free software that simplifies the coding process. Though both programs do similar jobs, there were key differences when using both. Notepad++, while the harder program to use, allowed more control over the formatting and web layout of the text. Markdown allowed a simplicity that was hindered by the limited choices in changing the text layout.

Using HTML coding felt very similar to formatting and perfecting a document with a basic word processor. There is a constant need for revisions and corrections and a simple error can impact the entire document. This was the process I endured with Notepad++. Understanding the basics of coding was not an issue because the steps to properly enabling the HTML text to run through a web browser was fairly simple.

When looking at the text through different web browsers, I noticed that there are no noticeable differences between Google Chrome and Firefox. Internet Explorer and Safari showed my preferred formatting in a stretched manner and did not display my think piece well. Also with Markdown, I was less thrilled with the limitations the program presented when trying to change the spacing and layout of my piece. While it simplified the work required, Markdown required users to sacrifice their formatting creativity.

To sum things up, I enjoyed working with code and learning how to maneuver between Notepad++ and Markdown. This is a good skill to have on my resume and will be an asset in the professional world.

A Peck with HTML and Markdown Coding

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A Peck with HTML and Markdown Coding for Project 5
Think Piece as a Website- HTML Generation Vs. Markdown

The purpose of this project was to realize the affordances and constraints present behind-the-scenes of the most widely-used media around the world currently. That would be the usage of the World Wide Web and the different web sites/pages that exist within it.
The two technologies used for the purpose(s) of this project were direct HTML Generation using Notepad++Portable and Markdown using the help of an Online markdown tool called Dingus on Daring Fireball.

Markdown essentially comes back to code the information present in it to the form of HTML. The person inputting the information uses an interface that is easier to use because the language used to display the information is not as specific and varied as direct HTML Generation requires. In the end, both require information to be present as text and run on a World Wide Web browser.

My process of composition on this project involved taking the whole of my think piece essay and inputting that text into an HTML Generator, NotePad++Portable in particular. Thereafter, I evaluated the many different affordances that HTML allows for me to take advantage of in relation to the different codes I can use to enhance my website. I feel that visuals can make a real positive difference in a person’s Online experience. The fact that I was easily able to insert a background image into the HTML Generator makes me feel successful to some degree. Overall, HTML was easy to understand and get the hang of once some basics were learned.

Markdown on the other hand made me feel as though there were many constraints I am saddled with. It’s almost like having a go-between person in a real-life situation, where direct communication is not permitted. I am going to give Markdown the benefit of the doubt considering I was already more excited about HTML and may have approached using Markdown with some preset biases. Other than that, it really helps to be able to see what my Markdown coding, the HTML coding corresponding to that, and the Browser’s view of the code so easily.

Utilizing different web browsers did not affect the viewing of my website differently. Markdown, however, did not work properly in any web browser. I tried adding <html> and </html> on my own to the coding as well, but that was not a success.

Markup and Markdown by George Gordon

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Knowing the basics of HTML is something beneficial to us, either to put on a resume or because it will be something we will work with in our future careers. For this project we worked with markup and markdown, both work with HTML but provide different ways of tackling them. With markup, we need to know how to structure HTML and learn its terminology in order for it work. Markdown does the markup for us, we just need to input the commands and we can get it converted.

Markup would be more beneficial if we were designing a website ourselves. Once you know the language, you can create whatever you would want and place your content in whatever format you deem would be the best to get your message across, however, with more control comes a more time consuming process. Markdown simply takes your text and commands and converts your content to fit a design that is already created. This would work well if you were creating content for a website that is already created and you simply need to add it in. It is a much faster process but it comes with limitations of having significant less control over the design.

With HTML, you have to consider a visual design to go along with what you have written. You have to create a layout, think about color schemes, and work with the limitations of HTML. You also have decide on whether you will include images, video, sources, links, or any other type of media along with your piece. Having a plain page with only text may not be the best way of getting your message across.

However, HTML alone does not provide the most control over a website either. Without the use of CSS, much of the design elements must be left out. HTML provides the structure of a website but CSS allows for the visual elements to be incorporated. Since the project limited our use to only HTML, the page I created could only be manipulated to a certain extent. I noticed that across Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome I had no complications based on what browser was being used to display the website.

Snapchat Snapshot of Cultural Appropriation

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Here is a snapshot of my views and analysis on cultural appropriation.

When I was planning this video, my original ideas required more time than was allowed for this assignment. When looking at many popular vloggers and the ways there videos were designed, I noticed that many used the Snapchat app and combined all of the videos to create content that was visible on two platforms.

Although I am not satisfied with the overall video, I know where my changes will be. I will be adding images and a more connected approach in my portfolio.  Because I have very little video editing experience with free software. I will be spend time reworking my approach for the final portfolio.