IT 111 Podcast #5 for Spring 2007

This podcast has some general course information, an introduction to the next assignment (Discussion 2) and some advice on studying for the first test. This week you'll be reading Chapter 7, Web Site Design, and yes, we are skipping around a bit in the book. I've also recommended a book titled, "Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability" by Steve Krug. If you are interested in the topic of usability, you should definitely check out this book.

I've also included a short audio excerpt from the screen reader simulator that I posted to the course web site last week. It helps us experience what blind people do when they surf the web. If you didn't have time to follow the link last week, have a quick listen to the podcast. The image shown here is a screen snapshot of the simulator.

Listen to the week 5 podcast. (4:59 minutes)
Or, read the transcript if you prefer. PDF format

IT 111 Podcast #4 for Spring 2007

This week's podcast discusses some of the important topics from Chapter 4, provides an overview of Assignment 4 and introduces the Final Web Site project.

This is a screen snapshot of the Web Worker Daily, a blog I recently discovered. One of the postings caught my eye. It highlighted the importance of allowing one's unconscious mind to work on problems during sleep. There is convincing research that shows the more complex a problem or situation is, the better off we are to sleep on it. This made sense to me as I've often found I needed time to figure something out. Click on the link if you'd like to read more about the research.

Listen to Podcast #4 (5:47 minutes long)
Or, read the transcript if you prefer.

Please feel free to leave a comment!

IT 111 Podcast #3 for Spring 2007

In this podcast I'll explain my communication style, share some of the great suggestions from the first discussion, point out a couple new resources I've added to the course web page, and talk a little about my grading strategy. I'll also include a few tips on Assignment 3 which you'll working on this week.

The screen snapshot above is the main Gizmo Project page. This weekend, I sent invitations to everyone in the class to become a Gimzo member and a few students have already joined. Thanks! Gizmo has a free conference calling feature and I bet it would be an easy way to create a study group. I might even try using it for office hours if enough students are interested.

Listen to Podcast #3 (11 minutes in length)
Or, you can read the transcript if you prefer.

Feel free to leave a comment!

IT 111 Podcast #2 for Spring 2007

This is a screen snapshot of "Pageflakes" a start page tool that I discuss in this podcast and I've also added it to the IT 111 Playground page.

Listen to Podcast #2 (5:53 minutes).
Read the podcast transcript.

IT 111 Podcast #1 for Spring 2007

This is a short sample podcast to welcome students to IT 111 - Internet and Web Authoring Using XHTML. I've included some information about the textbook and announced the things that are due this week.

Here is the podcast (2:31 minutes long)
Here is the transcript if you prefer reading rather than listening.

I always welcome comments!