For this project, we could not even agree to be team members initially. However, somehow we wound up being making it work somehow. So we met and decided to do a project based on our individual interests. It boiled down to all three of us liking cars and music. So we went home, content on how easy it had been to pick an idea to work on. While home, we developed another idea to create another website that would only house clips from popular tv shows like Family Guy, Futurama, Simpsons and the like. This idea was loved by all because it was something everyone could relate to and we also felt that it was bound to catch the interest of our fellow classmates. So while being giddy with excitement, we sought more guidance on how to make our project more relevant to the class. This did not quite go as we had hoped. We were encouraged to make it something that would actually be beneficial for people, not just another source of entertainment. Ouch. Makes perfect sense, but ouch nonetheless.
So crestfallen, we returned back to the drawing board and decided to actually take the advice given and go with the alternative suggestions that were presented as well. So with renewed enthusiasm, we decided to create a website that served as a survival guide for those for those who are new in college and do not know their right hand from their left hand, figuratively speaking. It would also serve as a guide to high school students who cannot decide on a high school or college to attend, or what major to pursue.
To go about creating a website, we went to google sites. Google sites proved to be just what we were looking for if not a little more. We found the template we needed for our particular website. Everything seemed to blend particularly well. By everything I meant there was a logo given, which we had to modify, the color scheme was appropriate in that it had college-esque feel to it. Having learned from our lesson, that if something seems too good to be true, then it probably isn’t. With that in mind, we decided to clarify if we can make our own website, yet host if on WordPress. Turns out we couldn’t. So we had to scrap the whole Google Site, website, we created. It was painful, but thankfully we hadn’t grown too attached to her just yet
WordPress was pretty easy to use once we had agreed on a template. We had some difficulty in trying to create overhead tabs but we figured it out in no time. Although it did not give us that much room for creativity as Google sites did. It also did not have that many templates to choose from, we went with what we deemed to be the coolest. It was quite eye-opening to see that what we used to primarily blog, can do so much more than that.
For the presentation we decided to go with a Powerpoint Presentation. I would have preferred Google Presentations because it’s Google and it gives me access to cloud storage. However, my team members were more familiar with powerpoint so we went with it. It is pretty easy to use and a lot of people are already familiar with it because that is what our professor uses in class for our lecture slides. Power point also made it easy to include pictures, graphs and videos into our power point presentation.
For the future I would advise anyone undertaking such a project to know their technological boundaries and be willing to learn new methods of doing things. Rather than sticking with the familiar, explore new ways. Growth comes from taking the road less travelled. I would also urge anyone undertaking this project in the future to read the outline carefully. Do not assume you know what is written there. There might be a lot more work than meets the eye.
I believe this website would be beneficial for anyone that is starting college or still in high school. For future studies, anyone interested can pick one of the subheadings that we listed here and gather in depth information on any one of them. I felt we just touched on the surface of each.
