The Ups and Downs of creating the Park Hall Website

It started out as a vision. I wanted to create a website that mimicked Facebook’s ease of use and simple interactivity. I wanted to create a site that would allow viewers to contribute directly to the site. I wanted to provide residents an online community that would supplement their actual floor communities. I wanted to do a lot of things that I had no idea how to do.

Before I even got to the real problems, the first speed bump came with the creation
of my template. All I wanted to do was center the thing on the page. It sounds so easy in real life. But in the computer world, even the easiest of tasks can give you headaches that last a week. This was the first lesson I learned. I came to a solution when I figured out how to anchor the page somewhat off-center using percentages for my page margins. I didn’t like this solution but after a week of pulling your hair out you have to stop at something. A week later my brother came in to visit and he had my problem fixed in 30 minutes. I had a centered template! And my first breakthrough.

After that, it became a battle of finding features that would actually make me want to go to the site. I surveyed residents and RAs of the building, and also worked with Housing Director Cindy Miller and Park Hall Council President Brian Geiselhart to come up with a list of information and features that would be included. It became apparent very early on that whatever goals I had would far exceed their goals. Cindy showed me some past web sites, which were not good to say the least, and told me this is the kind of stuff she is looking for. Brian basically just asked for a hall council page and a place to post event information and meeting minutes.

My own curiosities lead me to finding several interactive features that could be pulled in from other locations, and that were relatively easy to use. My second breakthrough came when I found the AIM Wimzi, allowing users to instant message from a chat box embedded in the web page. This was one of the first features I shared with several of the residents of Park Hall, and I saw their eyes light up at the pranking possibilities. It might actually provide some legitimate use as well.

I also played around with several gadgets that would allow users to post messages or comments directly onto the page, kind of like a Facebook wall. I wanted a way for users to call their floor homepages their own, and this was the best solution I found. There was a lot to weed through, because many of these gadgets cost money, and many more of them were simply ad-filled garbage. I finally found one that was easy enough to use, and didn’t look like someone puked a bunch of advertisements on the screen.

One of the worst parts about building a website is making sure it works with all browsers. If it wasn;t Internet Explorer that I was cursing, then it was Firefoz, and if the page looked as it should on both of those browsers, then you can bet that it didn’t look right in Safari. It was not fun tinkering with the pages to get them to look close to how I wanted them to in all browsers.

Another downfall came a day before presenting. I compiled a bunch of video of residents talking about why they like Park Hall, what it’s like to live there, and random video of residents being goofy. I was going to edit the video into a 45 second video to use on the homepage as a way to get residents on the site in a big way. Instead, my hard drive crashed. Looking back on this, getting those video clips is probably the least of my concerns considering all the other information that is lost. But either way, I put a lot of work into something that ended up not happening for reasons out of my control.

Overall, I’m glad with how the project turned out. I wish I could have done more with it. I know I have next semester to add to it, but without my edtec class as motivation, and without any deadlines, it will be tough to keep up with. Hopefully I can pass the project along for someone else to maintain it.

Goals for the Park Hall Web Site

I. Make something that looks professional.

These days, it’s easy to spot a website that is out of date, or done by someone who doesn’t know what they are doing. It is also easy to spot something that came from a cookie cutter template. With this in mind, I wanted to create a template that would look professional, but also original.

When the redesign for Ball State came out I decided I wanted to create something that worked cohesively with that design. The other design layout I used as a resource was Facebook, the most used website ever.

II. Give the residents a reason to view the site

I looked through all of the residence hall web sites across campus before starting this project. There weren’t any that were really of any use to anyone. None of them provided the residents with a reason to go there. Stu West’s website was probably the only one worth mentioning. It had links to floor community contracts, it listed the RAs, and it had a link to submit suggestions. It was basically a bunch of static information that no one really cares about.

III. Give the residents a reason to come back
If I can get the residents to go there, I need to find a way to get them to come back. I want to try to create some interactive features on the site, and provide useful information that can only be found through the site.

IV. Target multiple audiences
The website is first and foremost geared towards the residents of Park Hall, but to have pages that relate to prospective students would be a valuable asset to the university. I want to provide a sense of what Park Hall looks like, both inside and out, and what it is like to live there.

Meandering through iTunesU

iTunesU is apparently one of many new waves of "i" technology. Being the iTunes connoisseur that I am, I was somewhat disappointed in myself that I had not yet experienced, or even heard of, this iTunes accessory.

My first iTunesU experience came Tuesday morning as I sat in Bracken Library, clicking my way through various podcasting networks that universities across the country had set up. I was looking for something journalism related, but many of the universities using iTunesU were lacking in that department.

Nonetheless, I did find some things that intrigued me. I went to Arizona State's English department and listened to part of a Q&A with a guest speaker. Sure, the sound was fuzzy, and I really didn't care about any of the questions or answers, but it wasn't hard to see that this type of podcast could be very valuable to my classroom.

As I was listening to part of the Q&A, I couldn't stop myself from thinking about the numerous Professional in Residence (P.I.R.) lectures that the journalism department here at Ball State puts on. It always ends with a Q&A session that I wouldn't mind being able to listen to online.

I continued to browse the extensive iTunesU network, still searching unsuccessfully for something journalism related to report back to class. Forty-five minutes later I still hadn't got my journalism fix, but I did stumble upon some other podcasts and videos that piqued my interest. Some of the schools utilized iTunesU mainly by posting reading material. I found chapters of books, poems, and short stories. This is great for auditory learners. Personally, I would rather listen to the painfully annoying sound of my alarm clock for a couple hours than listen to a book read to me, but I can appreciate the fact that others might like and learn effectively from these "textbooks on tape".

As a teacher, I think iTunesU has a lot of potential for the classroom, or more specifically, for work outside the classroom. With students being on their computers more and more, having access to everything they need on their computer as opposed to trying to dig through a textbook would make learning much easier.

Welcome!

Welcome to my professional blog!

I will be posting updates from my education technology class throughout the semester.

Stay tuned.