jeudi 10 juin 2010
vendredi 28 mai 2010
GRADES & USB FLASH DRIVES
Hello Students, I have 3 announcements to make today:
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1) You have ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY to pick up your USB flashdrives, CDs or DVDs next week: TUESDAY, 1 June 2010 Office: 568 10h30 to 12h or 14 to 15h15
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2) I will also post your GRADES on the door of the office so that you can verify all of the marks that you got (including websites), and see what your final grade in Multimedia is. Come and see me, or send me an email immediately, if you find any differences or problems with these and what you have received back already (group projects, subject summaries, for ex).
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3) Any students that need to pass the EXAM again in June should come to the DPP on the 16th or 18th of June (the secretaries will send out an announcement as to the exact date, time and place). AND, if you need a copy of the required articles which are not online, please send me an email and I will send you the docs. Don't forget, the Make-Up exam will be like the DST or first CT Exam, so study hard.
mardi 11 mai 2010
FLASH DRIVES (USB Thumb drives):
You can come pick up your Flash drives on Monday 17th May from 10h30 to 13h in my office, bur. 568. I cannot leave them with the secretaries who already have too much work, so if you cannot come personnally, ask a friend to pick yours up for you.
Your grades will be posted on the door of my office whenever I finish grading ALL of the exams and websites (after the 17th). You can then verify that all of your grades have been counted and the final mark you receive for the class.
-------- IMPORTANT MESSAGE !!!!!!! ---------
EXAMS for students who could not be present on 4th May:
These students must come to the final exam on the 17th May, from 15h30 to 16h30! Bring the justification for your absence with you. (let me know by email immediately if you are allowed a "tiers de temps").
Check the notice boards for the room, but it will certainly not be in 382! It is a written exam.
dimanche 11 avril 2010
Class Nine: Info about Final Test, Review Questions for Topics

ATTENTION!!!
The final exam (PARTIEL) will NOT be in room 382.
CHANGE OF CLASSROOMS FOR THE FINAL CLASS!
FINAL EXAM ON 4 MAY 2010, Amphi Josserand.
13h à 14h Groupes 5 et 6
14h à 15h Groupes 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 (et personnes ayant l’autorisation d’un tiers de temps en plus).
Reminder: websites are DUE on the same day. They must be handed in on some kind of physical "material" (like a CD, DVD or USB flash drive) which is well marked with your name. You should also put your name on your website and on the folder in which you have your files for your website.
QUICK REVIEW OF TOPICS:
Don't forget that the beginning of the semester dealt with the history and sociology of the Internet.
- What / Who and When about early computers and internet… Can you write up a timeline of the development of computers and internet history?
- What is the “Hackers' ethic” according to Manuel Castells?
- Who wrote about early virtual communities? What was his definition? How will the internet change our lives?
- What were some early virtual communities? How did people exchange information?
- What are some virtual communities that exist today?
- Who is Generation Y and how were they shaped? How do they fit into today’s job market (or not)?
- Can you write about several of these topics? (Not just your own)
1) Helpful uses for Google Tools or Google Earth (in other fields other than simple geography or cartography), explain some real applications.
b) Google in China
2) Citizen journalism. Other than Youtube, what is user generated TV? Is it serious?
3) The “virtual office”: How is today’s mobile employee organized and how is (team?) work achieved?
4) Mobile phone use in Japan or India (choose ONE)
5) How did OLPC inspire a new kind of computer?
6) Anti-Plagiarism. How American universities and schools are fighting for intellectual honesty.
7) Privacy & the Internet: How much information do we or should we give out? What are the consequences?
8) The music industry: attitudes towards different legal and/or illegal solutions?
9) Internet governance. Who runs the Internet and how?
10) Old or New? How we perceive progress: sometimes the newest technologies have inspiration from the past. Choose one object and explain.
- What are some important steps to take when creating a website (before and during)?
- Can you write the CODE (programming language) for a web page in HTML that has a list, table, colors, font, images and links?
Did you read all the required articles in the brochure?
- ALBERGANTI Michel, « Internet, an 01 »
- Interview with CASTELLS, Manuel
- RAINDROP, B. & MEYN, S., An overview of website the creation process
- RHEINGOLD, Howard, Virtual Communities, Introduction.
- TRESSER, T., “Generation Now”, Seattle Conscious Choice, August 2007
Now, using the links I have provided in previous classes and your own web searches, keep working on your websites!
dimanche 4 avril 2010
Easter Week
Due to the Easter holiday all of the Monday classes are (of course) canceled. In addition, the Tuesday classes will be modified. In fact, there will be NO offical classes on Tuesday, but I will be in the computer room so that you can drop in and work on your websites, if you want.
"Permanences"
Mardi 10h a 12h30, puis 15h a 16h.
Remember that the final DST will be the 4th may.
AND keep working individually and independently on your websites.
dimanche 28 mars 2010
Class 8: Tables (again), Lists, Links
Starting from now you will have to be very AUTONOMOUS in your work. This means that you must work at home to develop your web page. It is nearly impossible to finish the website IN class work only.
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Tables:
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/tables/ (first look at “Basic Tables” then “Advanced Tables”, etc) You will learn to add cells, center them, put a background color or image in each cell, combine cells, etc etc.
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Lists
There are MANY kinds of lists in HTML: for example, Ordered lists (1., 2., 3., …), Unordered lists, and Defined lists. You must have at least ONE in your website.
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/text/lists.html (scroll to the bottom of the screen to find the codes)
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LINKS (Also called Hyperlinks)
Links in HTML are called ANCHORS and they can be internal (within the same page) or external (to another separate page or to another web site)
Here are three links which spell out how to create links…..
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/text/internallinks.html
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/myfirstsite/basiclinks.html
http://www.echoecho.com/htmllinks01.htm
!! IMPORTANT MESSAGE !! The most important thing to remember is WHERE your files are saved and what the EXACT ADDRESS of a website is so that the computer can find the pathway to the file.
Your website will have a minimum of three pages. Each page is a different BlocNotes file (remember to record with .htm) Then, you will link the files to each other.
Links and images are the most popular things on Web pages. They are easy to add (just two basic HTML tags) and they bring excitement to your plain text pages. Here you can learn about the a (anchor) tag and the img (image) tag.
Some things to remember:
· The closing tag is required. (slash A)
· You can link either images or text
· Make sure to check your links so that they don't go bad
Internal Links (internal)
Internal links are links to another part of the same page. There are two parts of an internal link:
· the named portion of the page (a name=”top of page”)
· the link itself (a href=”#top of page”)
External Link: This is any link to another file, so this could be to another page in your website (local) or to another website (global).
You should have all three types (internal, local and global) in your website.
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HOMEWORK:
Continue to work individually and independently on your website. All of these pages should help you find the information you need to insert the technically required elements of your website (and much more!!) Remember, sometimes it is just as easy to copy and paste some CODE then to type it all out.
http://www.developingwebs.net/html/
http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/
http://www.htmldog.com/guides/htmlbeginner/
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/html/article.php/3478131
http://www.cwru.edu/help/introHTML/toc.html
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/teachingtool/
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/lessons.html
En Français: (si vous préférez d’autres, n’hésitez pas à les consulter)
http://www.creation-du-web.com/honolulu/cours-html-javascript-page1.html (Il faut ignorer les liens publicitaires en haut de la page, l’information est plus bas sur la page.)
samedi 20 mars 2010
Class 7: HTML continued: Images, Tables, Frames
Class 7: several important reminders and information.
There is probably too much information here for your attention span, but try to forge through to find not only a summary of last week’s information, but the info you will need for this week. Read this page “diagonally” if you need to.
REMEMBER to include all of the technical requirements
Your web site MUST contain these technical details: ALL WRITTEN IN HTML in simple text (no editing software. For CSS or Java, talk to me first.) Do NOT host your site online (it’a question of copyright).
- different fonts (la police du texte)
- different sizes of lettering,
- different colors
- tables,
- at least one list (ordered or numbered)
- images
- varied layout of text and images (not exactly the same thing on each page)
- internal links (anchors to places inside the same page)
- external links (to a new page AND to a new URL)
- at least 3 distinct web pages (in English with original content) linked together
- at least one other function (or productive TAG).
- navigational tools and logic
Keep your pages simple, so that everything works. Test it on several different computers before handing it in on the last day of the semester (3rd/ 4th May : NO late websites accepted).
In addition, the content is worth 50%. So, you must write at least 50-100 words per page of original content. Copying is tempting, but DON’T DO IT. Also, a list of simple words is also not considered “written text”.
As a note : behind the scenes of HTML
What do the acronyms HTML and HTTP stand for? Who created these and when? (this was from the first part of the class… the history of the internet)
Behind every website is a programming language in a code which gives instructions to the computer. You can see this with any webpage. Go to the top menu bar and open ‘Display’ (affichage), then -->’source’. This will open a window with the CODE. On some pages this is complicated, and the programmers have used special software (do you know any?) but in fact the basic HTML code is quite easy and accessible to anyone, with a little patience and rigour.
NECESSARY vocabulary to learn: What are the following? (if you don’t know already, look these words up at home!)
| Pointed brackets
Attribute | Space
Tag |
Reviewing and continuing HTML
Paragraphs: (when you want to start a new section or « aller à la ligne »)
http://www.davesite.com/webstation/html/chap03.shtml
Aligning: this function has changed recently. You can use either the new CSS style or old “Depreciated” forms or the DIV tag. http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/present/graphics.html or http://www.faqs.org/docs/htmltut/_DIV_ALIGN.html
Font Attributes: look for how to write bold, italic and underlined text as well as for “citations”.
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/text/textformattinglist.html
Inserting color:
Colors in HTML are represented by a series of numbers (or by the basic names for colors such as Red, Yellow, etc, but you have more variety with the color codes).
For some color codes, try: http://www.immigration-usa.com/html_colors.html. There are MANY sites with color codes!! Google the keywords color code HTML (or similar keywords)
Color for Text. The text is called FONT (or “basefont” to apply to the entire webpage). For simple instructions, follow this tutorial: http://www.echoecho.com/htmltext.htm. Make sure to click on the READ MORE button at the bottom of the page.
Background color is also interesting to add. This added to your code inside the TAG as what we call an “attribute”. So, write inside the BODY tag the added attribute of bgcolor (all of this is INSIDE the pointed brackets).
body bgcolor=”color code”
NEW HTML:
Inserting images in general
Images add interest and excitement to your Web pages, and they are fairly easy to add. You can do this by clicking on the right mouse and saving the image in your own folder.
There are numerous file formats for computer graphics, though the most common for websites are GIF and JPG.
- The standard format that can display within a web page is GIF or Graphics Interchange Format. The GIF compresses the picture information (reduces the file size) and translates it to binary code that can be sent over the Internet. GIF compression is most effective on graphics that have contiguous areas of solid color, and compression is even greater when the color is continuous in the horizontal direction. GIF images have the feature of defining a color to be "transparent" so images can appear to have non-rectangular boundaries. They can also be saved in the "interlaced" format so that when you see a web page, the images start to appear soon and "dissolve" to the final image.
- The other file format used on the web is JPEG (named after the Joint Photographic Expert Group that designed this format). JPEG compression is very effective for photographic images where the colors can vary spatially over short distances. JPEG offers some dramatic compression in filesize, sometimes by a factor of 10 (e.g. a 1500 kb file reduced to 150 kb), which may be at a trade-off for some image quality. JPEG images do not have the ability to have transparency.
If you want to use an image for the background, use the “background” attribute in the BODY tag. Remember to slide the pointed bracket over to make room for the attribute INSIDE the tag.
body background="filename.gif" (here, pointed brackets should be present but are not due to the blog format)
For any image, you must give the EXACT location of the file and the precise name, e.g. body background="C:\Documents and Settings\MmeBays\Bureau\ HTML page/gray_fabric.gif"
Hint: keep ALL of your images in the folder you began called YOURNAME_WEBSITE. This will allow any computer to find them easily.
Try the tutorial for backgrounds: http://www.echoecho.com/htmlbackgrounds02.htm
Use an image created for the background or if you don’t like the mosaic effect, you will need to use the NO-REPEAT function in CSS.
ADD PICTURES
Now start adding images by following the instructions given on this page:
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/myfirstsite/basicimages.html (scroll down the page!)
The TAG for images is img src=”imagefile.gif”
You can insert images that are already on the web by giving the URL of the image. Don’t forget that to read these, the computer has to be connected to the internet.
img src="http://www.echoecho.com/rainbow.gif"
To find this address, right click to find the Properties of the image and copy the Emplacement.
There are three other attributes that you can include width, height, and alt. The width and height attributes tell the browser how big the image is. This allows the Web page to render more quickly, as the browser can allocate space for the image and then move on to the rest of the page while the image downloads.
To change the size of the images
http://www.mediacollege.com/internet/html/image-tag.html
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/images/furtherattributes.html
ALT is a description that will replace the image when it is not there. You can write img alt=”horses running” scr=”horses.gif”
Remember, you must have an image ready to insert before you begin this chapter.
TABLES are a good way to put images on your page. First, insert the table, then insert the image as the content of the table. You can even make the border of the table invisible…
Here’s the beginning: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_tables.asp
More advanced tables: http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/tables/advancedtables.html (you can also check out their basic tables page).
FRAMES: many of you want to do frames in your pages. Great. Here are some references
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/frames/
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HOMEWORK: BE INDEPENDENT AND WORK ON YOUR WEBPAGE!
Look through the tutorials given (or find other ones in French if you need) and build your website.
Other relatively simple tutorials about basic HTML and many different functions:
http://werbach.com/barebones/barebones.html
http://www.htmldog.com/guides/htmlbeginner/
http://www.utoronto.ca/webdocs/HTMLdocs/NewHTML/htmlindex.html
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/
BE RIGOROUS!!! PUNCTUATION AND SPACES COULD CHANGE YOUR CODE.
DON’T FORGET TO SAVE YOUR WORK INTO YOUR FILE OR ONTO YOUR OWN “FLASH” or “THUMB” DRIVE (clef USB).
dimanche 14 mars 2010
Class 6: Assignments to Turn in & Beginning Websites
Last week’s group projects were a success! I hope you learned something and had fun.
HOMEWORK & ASSIGNMENTS TO HAND IN THIS WEEK (15/16 March 2010)
1) Read: Bonnie Raindrop and Stacy Meyn, An overview of the website creation process, Women’s Business Institute. (This text was sent to you via your UCP email address at the beginning of the semester. If you lost it, get a copy from your colleagues).
Discussion of article:
What do you need to do to prepare for designing a website BEFORE you begin the technical part?
What questions must you ask in order to define your goals?
What other things should you consider?
2) Plan your website content: BOTH ASSIGNMENTS TO WRITE ON PAPER & HAND IN TO THE INSTRUCTOR! (10% of your grade)
1) Graphic depiction of the architecture of the site, for example, layout, titles and how the pages will be linked. Use this tutorial to help you plan your website http://cat.xula.edu/tutorials/planning/. On this website, look at the sections marked “Drawing Sketches” and “Make a flow chart”.
2) Fairly well researched and thought out paragraph about your subject and the motivation you had for choosing the subject (100 -200 words IN FRENCH). Graded on seriousness of subject and preparation.
Beginning your websites. HTML basic page
Starting your WEB SITE, First Page
Follow these steps carefully and also listen verbal to the instructions by the teacher. (If you get lost, you can follow the same first steps on this website: http://www.tips-tricks.com/begin.asp )
- KEEP the Browser window OPEN. To have both windows open, click on the Tiling (mosaic) function at the top right corner of your screen. Please use Firefox Mozilla.
If you are working on your own, from home, then you can also try out these two tutorials to learn how to write your first webpage.
Beginning website tutorial: http://www.pageresource.com/html/index2.htm
Web creation tutorials: http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/
Step One: Starting a page.
- Open BlocNotes or WordPad (whichever is on the computer you have). To find this, go to the list of programs, open Accessories and then chose BlocNotes or WordPad.
- At the top of the page, write a < followed by the letters HTML (in capital or lower case lettering), then follow that with a >. These “pointed brackets” tell the computer that this is a technical command, part of your CODE.
- Go to the next line. Inside pointed brackets, write the word HEAD.
- Go to the next line. Again inside pointed brackets, write the word TITLE.
- Then without pointed brackets write Your Name_The subject of your Website.
- Go to the next line. Inside pointed brackets, write /TITLE. The slash tells the computer that it should stop applying the command that you started earlier.
- Go to the next line. Inside pointed brackets, write /HEAD.
- Go to the next line. Inside pointed brackets, write /HTML.
It’s time to save your document. But, let’s be organized first.
Go to SAVE AS (enregistrer sous) and type in the name of the drive your USB flash drive is plugged into, e.g. E://
Open a FOLDER (Dossier) in your USB flash drive called FirstName_LastName_Gr1 (or Gr2, etc), e.g. Mary_Smith_Gr6.
Next, save the file as YourName_FirstWebpage.htm. Do NOT forget the dot HTM
Save this as simple text (txt) if the computer asks you.
Double check. Do you have the file saved in YOUR folder on YOUR flash drive? Now let’s go to the next step. (if you forgot your Flash drive, you will have to bring one next week and begin again).
Step Two: Verifying the code and headline.
- Open a second Browser window or tab, so that you have TWO internet windows open.
- In One you will keep this blog, or an internet page with instruction. With the other you will verify your site. How do you do this? You will see …
- In the second Browser window, go to the top menu bar and choose “File” (Fichier), then choose “Open a File” (Ouvrir un fichier).
- Choose the file you just created and saved called YourName_FirstWebpage.htm (to find it, remember to write in E://). OPEN it.
- You should have a white screen. But, if you look at the very top of the screen, you should see your name in the Headline. Do you?
Step Three: Writing your first words in the Body.
- Go back to the Bloc-notes document. Create some space between the /HEAD and /HTML. This is where you will place the body, or the main section of your web page. /HTML should ALWAYS be the last line of code, the last thing you see on the page, the last line of your CODE.
- In this space you will first write, inside pointed brackets as usual, the word BODY.
- Go to the next line. Inside pointed brackets write the word H1. Then, with NO brackets, write some kind of greeting, like Hello, or Salut. After that, inside pointed brackets, write /H1.
- Go to the next line. Inside pointed brackets, write /BODY. (This is all for right now)
- Save (not Save As = pas enregistrer sous)
- Go back to the Website Verification Internet Browser window. Click on Refresh the page. What do you see?
Website REQUIREMENTS: (read the syllabus brochure handout for more detail)
You MUST have 3 distinct web pages (in English) linked together into a website. It must contain (technically): different fonts, different sizes of lettering, varied layout of text and images, different colors, at least one table, at least one list, images, internal links (anchors), external links, navigational tools and at least 50-100 words of ORIGINAL CONTENT in English per page. If your page is only images, you must add another page with some text.
HOMEWORK
Practice writing Code and using TAGS (the commands).
http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp
http://www.ibdhost.com/help/html/
http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/document/
http://www.devx.com/projectcool/Article/19816
Find out what a “color code” is.
Find out how to write bold, underlined, italic or colored text.
Find out how to center your writing, or to align the text on the right hand side of the page.
Here are some websites to help you. Use these or find your own.
Useful HTML tags:
http://cat.xula.edu/tutorials/
(COLORS) http://www.computerhope.com/htmcolor.htm
(FONTS – police) http://www.echoecho.com/htmltext02.htm
(FONTS) http://www.tizag.com/htmlT/font.php
dimanche 21 février 2010
Class 4: Generation Y, Web 2.0: Social Networking, User Generated Content
MM2 Class 4: Generation Y, Social Networks, User Generated Content
There are many Optional exercises in this chapter. You can do them in class if you would like, but it might be better to consecrate your class time to the required work and do the optional work at home.
Discussion of Tesser article and chart: (15 minutes)
- When were people from Gen Y born? What different terms describe these people?
- Who were their parents? What characterizes these people?
- What generation comes between these two?
- What events shaped these different generations?
- What are some characteristics about Generation Y:
How can these be helpful for a job? How can they hinder a job (or work environment)?
- What kind of media do they consume and how often?
From what you have read, do YOU feel like you are part of Generation Y?
Optional information: find out some information about World Values: http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/
The Typical Gen Yer or Millennial: Look at the first picture in this blog: http://www.masternewmedia.org/media/media-analysis/DeLoitte-US-media-survey-2007-usage-and-preferences-20070928.htm
- How many young people “Multi-task” while watching TV? Does this number seem low or high to you?
- Is the picture an exaggeration or not? Explain briefly.
(Optional: this website has other interesting information about user-generated content as well as information about cell phones as entertainment.)
(Optional: In Exalead Images, or other site, find a picture on the internet that typifies a Millennial for you)
The Eurosocialist Blog (an informal, first person reflection on politics) speaks about Generation Y from her own perspective. http://www.eurosocialist.eu/category/generation-y/
- In the July 1st 2009 post, read the second paragraph about her childhood. Is this like yours? How is it the same or different?
(Optional: In the Eurosocialist Blog, find the qualities that define members of Generation Y – in the blue boxes of the 10 July 2009 post. Do they correspond to what you learned in the Tesser article?)
Millennials in the workforce. There are more and more people from Generation Y joining the workforce these days, so the workplace has to adapt.
- What are the names given to categories of the Workforce Millennials Field Guide by BNET? http://www.bnet.com/2403-13059_23-202118.html?tag=content;col1 (click on “View Guide” and go through the 5 different profiles).
(Optional question: What category are YOU in?)
- What are some hard issues facing Generation Y in the future?
http://blogs.bnet.co.uk/sterling-performance/2009/07/30/poor-generation-y-me/
(Optional: http://blogs.bnet.com/entry-level/?p=1684 )
How have millennials been involved in Politics?
“Youth Turnout…”
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/youth-turnout-up-by-2-million-from-2004/
- How many youths voted in the 2008 presidential election?
- How much of an increase was this from 2004?
- Can you find the overall percentage for the youth vote from 2004 and 2008?
- Near the end of the article, find out how many people were “friend” (or “fans”) of Obama on Facebook.
Social Networking:
- Look at the statistics presented in this survey by IFOP. What three social networks are most popular in
- Where is the social networking site Orkut most popular? What company owns this social network?
- What is the name of Google’s new social network? Will it be a serious challenger to Facebook? Why? Why not?
- What are two very popular professional social networks (one from the
How many members do each have?
(Optional: What tips can you find about Non-Virtual Face-to-face Networking on this website? http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/07/24/face-to-face-networking/ What other tips would you give?)
What is user generated content?
- Why might user-generated content be associated with Millennials?
For the answer, go to this website: http://demicooper.com/blog/2008/12/26/millenials-14-25-year-olds-watch-less-tv-more-streaming-video-but-respond-to-physical-media/
Find out the general trend here. The exact statistics and numbers are not important.
(HELP: to find a specific word in a document, type Control+F and enter the word)
Now investigate further about User-Generated Content.
- What is Current TV? http://current.com/
- What is Digg and how does it work? (briefly) www.digg.com . Check out the latest “top stories” in the technology section.
HOMEWORK:
Work on your Group Projects which are due during the class period just after the holidays. Have a good week.
