Chapter 13 gave me a few web designing tips that I'm working on. I've never sliced a JEPG or GIF into separate pieces. It makes sense that it would cut down the downloading time. Right now I'm just trying to figure out how to put these pieces back together to fit perfectly in Dreamweaver.

As for the article on how 12 year-olds see webpages in comparison to 16 year-olds, they both view and navigate webpages in different ways. When making a webpage or having students view one, you must think of who the target audience would be and gear it towards their needs. I like the flashy and cool graphics pages and what caught my attention from this article is that flashy and cool does not mean better. These pages can attract attention especially for children. But with all the attention it can lead to distraction for the children’s task.

The reading this week taught me a lot about of Photoshop. I have had the program
for several years, but have never really used it. There were a lot of tips that I think could be easily used. One of the tips I like best was the idea of loading a 1x1 pixel image on one page, so the image can be stored in the cache and viewed quickly on the correct page.

It was interesting how there was only one small area on Flash, which I think is becoming much more common in web design. However, my experience with Flash was not one of ease and I'm not excited about ever using the program again!

The article regarding children and site Navigation utilizing Disney and Edmund's helps me to think about how I am designing my webquest. My webpage was designed with adults in mind, so with the webquest I need to pay better attention to placement of the navigation aides. I will also want to be sure that nothing looks like an advertisement or is placed in a way that would suggest advertisement. I watch my three year old and the way she navigates sites, and I'm always so surprised at how she can find things I didn't see. Clearly we "see" with different eyes than children.

The readings on teenagers on the internet highlighted things that made a lot of sense about how teenagers view websites. The study highlighted how students prefer to use the internet to search for things that interest them, but that they also need guidance to successfully use the internet. The study highlighted what we have been discussing about actually teaching students to use the internet, not just letting them loose with it.

The other piece that really made sense to me was that teenagers prefer sites that allow them to do something not just read. As well, teenagers prefer images that convey a message. It was also not surprising to find that teenagers have less patience than adults and insufficient reading skills to really look into sites with a lot of readable information.

In terms of my students I think most about the information that young kids prefer graphics and animation. My young students love Starfall and respond to the animations and sounds. When designing or finding sites for these students the sites neeed to be fun, colorful with sounds and animations.

Ok, so I'm not at all sure what direction to go for my 594 project.
Suddenly my area of interest feels stifling! I love reading and tech, but
have I gone down the wrong path!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Being a reading teacher and in ed tech concentration I am always wanting
to hear how teachers are using tech to assist in the teaching of reading and it's processes.
Have you discovered a site you love or do you use stand alone programs?
Do you use tech to help give your poor performing students extra time in areas such
as decoding?
Let me know!