Learning Journal

On the downhill now. It’s been a busy two weeks. Wrapping up all my final projects and making my final website redesign for California Volunteers. I did learn something new regarding SASS and fun little trick with the navigation bar. I had not heard of SASS before so it was interesting to see how it worked and what the purpose of why developers use it.

As of January 2018, updated standards require all federal agencies and contractors to create web content accessible to all.

We are nearing the end of the school semester and I’m exhausted and ready for a break…..

I really appreciated the break we had during week 12, it was a nice pause from the rigor of academia. During Week 11, I worked with the class to build the Sacramento Writer’s Group website. It was a good practice to reinforce what I have learned about media queries.

During Spring Break, I studied Java, as it has been something on my to-do list for quite some time. For my learning material, I used Sams Teach Yourself Java in 24 Hours (ISBN 0672337940 ). I wish I could have learned it in 24 hrs, but realistically, I got to maybe chapter 15 (aka ‘hour 15’) of chapter 24. But I do feel I learned a lot, especially with my overall understanding of programming in general. I feel it will help me with my web-related work or design, and if it doesn’t, it was a nice way to satisfy my need for a challenge.

During Week 13, we finally (finally!☺) got around to learning how to use Git and GitHub. I think it’s amazing that GitHub will save your work in case you make a mistake, so that you are able to go back to it, and restore lost work.

I got to learn 2 new things this week, GitHub and designing with angles. I’ve been wondering how to design a website with angles displayed in the background. I’ve been trying to figure it out on my own but wasn’t haven’t much luck. Thankfully several other people in class wanted to know how to do it was well, so Bill graciously throw that assignment into weekly assignment. Now I know how to design with angels! =)

Another cool thing I learned this week was GitHub. I have heard of the name GitHub before but had no idea what they did. I didn’t realize that it was a repository for websites so that multiple users could work on the same website. I never gave it much thought but it totally makes sense to have that available. Now I can say that I know how to use GitHub too! Learning so much from this class! =)

Well.. that was fun.

This week has been a fun one with the homework i really felt like things we’re clicking and making sense.

The Mobile First Responsive Builds have been very enlightening projects, especially the SacWriter’s Group site.

It is not good enough to have a good layout on your website, if it is not functional in responsive design, your viewers won’t see what you want them to see…

Learning about The Studio coworking space was very engaging. If I ever get back into studio client work I would definitely consider joining a coworking space like The Studio. Their prices are competitive with other coworking spaces like the Hacker Lab but I like this setting much better. The space is more business-like and business focused rather than maker building and creating centered. The Hacker Lab is a fun and energetic space but very different with the maker building and machinery around. Whereas The Studio seemed more serious and quiet which is more my style

This was a cool week since we got to take a field trip over to Click Spring. It was great having the opportunity to get a employers point of view. I had been debating whether it was worth my time and money to get my master’s degree in digital media. It was interesting to hear that he was looking for experience more than education.

As far as my mid-term, I’m happy with the way it turned out. I was pleased with layout and the appearances. The vibrant colors in the images really helped the page pop. However, this Sacramento Writer’s page is more challenging than I thought. Struggling with it right now! Having a brain fart right now, so I’m hoping it will all come back before the deadline.

This week we looked at attempting to build the site for the Sacramento Writer’s Group. It was a bit like ‘leaving the nest,’ as beforehand we generally were guided with instructions and copy-paste snippets. It was a good challenge to really try it out ourselves.

When we came back on Thursday, we followed along to learn the ‘right’ way to do it. My attempt differed somewhat in that I used section tags instead of article tags to divide content on the lower half of the page. We also extended material learned last week. After attempting to build the site from the ground up, we were tasked with then adding media queries to make it responsive for mobile, and responsive to other screen sizes.

Having done my midterm project using a grid and struggling with getting it to work with color extending beyond the grid cells I couldn’t help wondering if Flexbox would have been, well, more flexible.