Finals are approaching…

My first semester at the University of South Alabama is coming to an end. All my classes are keeping me pretty busy.

As for this class, Digital Writing and Production, we all have a website that we are creating. It will be due after we get back from Thanksgiving break. I plan on putting the finishing touches to my website over the break and any other adjustments I want to make.

In my first personal blog post, I talked about how I have motivation to try my best and not fall behind this semester. I’m happy to say that I have maintained the  motivation I had at the beginning, and I haven’t fallen behind. With finals approaching, I plan to stay positive and continue to do my best.

I have learned a lot about blogging thanks to class and from doing a reflection blog each week. I now feel more comfortable and confident in my ability to create and edit my own blog.

Virality

We continuously see videos, pictures, and stuff on the internet going viral, but have you ever wondered what exactly makes something go viral? According to the article A Scientific Take on Viral Marketing, there are three factors that make content go viral.

1.  It was positive, dwelling on positive issues or topics.
2. It evoked a strong emotional reaction (joy, fear, anger).
3. It was practically useful.

Being in communications has definitely  helped in my understanding of virality. I knew what it meant before, but it has really made me take a step back and see what all makes certain pieces of information on the internet go viral.

An understanding of virality is crucial for everyone in Communications. Knowing exactly what it takes to make content go viral can be helpful when trying to grab the audiences attention and making sure what you say leaves a mark on them. I believe if you follow the three factors listed above, you have a strong chance of making content that you created be successful at reaching a large audience.

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Class & Lab Reflection

This week in class and lab, we all got the chance to practice and learn how to do javascript. I really enjoyed the activity we did in class. It was very neat to learn how to make your web page interactive. In my opinion, javascript is a little easier to do than CSS. I’m looking forward to learning more techniques on how to transform your ordinary webpage to something extraordinary.

The Walking Dead

Finally, after waiting months, The Walking Dead is back on! This is one my absolute favorite shows. The first episode of season 7 premiered about a week ago, and now it is time for the second episode. As I type all of this out, it gets me even more excited for all the episodes to come.

The first episode was much anticipated because of the way season 6 left all the viewers. It ended with us wondering who the “bad guy” Negan was going to kill. Was he going to kill a main character such as Rick’s son Carl or a huge fan-favorite such as, Daryl. I do know the person he killed, or should I say people, but I won’t give it away for the sake of people who haven’t seen the first episode.

I just finished watching the second episode of the season. This episode concentrated on main characters that weren’t shown in the first episode such as, Carol and Morgan. This episode also introduced a new character. I don’t want to say too much in case there is someone reading this that doesn’t want to know. I will just end this with saying that this season has had a great start so far, and I’m both excited and nervous to see how the rest of the season plays out.

Internet Privacy

There is no question that privacy is a major issue on the internet. You are probably hearing of more and more situations with someone’s email or social media account being hacked. Whether the person who was hacked is someone close to you or celebrities, which you probably hear more often. So, how can you take steps into making sure your social media accounts are hack-proof?

According to the article Three Essential Steps to Make Yourself more Hack-Proof, list a few very important steps to take when trying to make sure you are hack-proof.

The first step being to not reuse passwords. It may seem easy to just have one password for all the sites you use because you can remember the password. Just think what happens if that password somehow gets out? All of your accounts are gone, along with anything you have stored within them that’s private. Someone now has access to it all.

The next step is to set up two-factor authentication. This means that when someone attempts to log into your account from a new location, different devices, they have to enter a code that is sent to the device you set as your trusted advice. I believe this is a very helpful tip to mention.

The last step is to use a password manager. This will help you create and manage passwords.

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All the privacy issues may affect my future career. I may be over, or at least help, with managing a website or social media accounts for a company. It will be apart of my job to make sure everything posted is meant for the public eye and none of the accounts I’m over get hacked. Using the three steps mentioned above, will certainly help with making sure anything I may be in charge of is hack-proof.

The Best Web Design Training Course

Best Web Design Training Course

In my opinion, I believe W3Schools is the best option when looking for a web design training course. It’s great for anybody who doesn’t know much about HTML, CSS, and Javascript. W3Schools gives easy step-by-step tutorials on how to use and apply all the right tools and techniques in a way that suits your website.

W3Schools has helped me out tremendously, with it’s easy and organized layout, finding exactly what you’re looking for is no problem.

CA260 Online?

I believe if this class were taught entirely online there would be pros but cons too. Personally, I think I would enjoy it more and get more out of it if it were taught online, but I know there would be downfalls as well. I think it would be great to be able to work as fast or as slow as you want. Also, doing your work at home may be easier because you’re able to sit down with less people around you, meaning less distractions, and you can solely concentrate on the assignment.

The downfall I see of it being taught completely online is not having a professor there to answer a question you may have. Whether that question be something as simple as making sure you understand the instructions on an assignment or something more important. Any questions you have you would have to email your instructor and not knowing when you would get a response is stressful especially if a deadline for an assignment is coming up.

Class & Lab Reflection

The past week we are learning how to use CSS, cascading style sheets. I’ve learned how CSS can change the appearance and layout of a document. Like previous HTML activities, it is difficult, but the more I read and the more I practice the easier it is becoming.

CMS Recommendation

I would recommend WordPress. I can only feel comfortable recommending this CMS because I have used it. WordPress makes writing, publishing, and categorizing post easy and simple. It’s easy to edit content, insert images, and embed codes. WordPress is organized, so finding what you’re looking for is easy.

In Tiwari’s article, he talks about three CMS’s, Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress. He gives a description about each and talks about a few of their features. Reading this article and using WordPress for my blog, has made it clear, in my opinion, that WordPress is the easiest to use.

In the video, Content Management System Overview Tutorial, he talks about WordPress. It is shown how easily it is to post content, edit content in visual or HTML mode, add pages, and embed videos into post.

Curious about more features of WordPress? WordPress Features, list other features you may be curious about. On this webpage, it goes into more detail about features on WordPress such as, publishing tools, user management, plugins, installation and upgrades, and more.

Overall, I find WordPress to be an excellent CMS to use. It makes creating websites easy even if you don’t know much about web design. I highly recommend WordPress.

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Class & Lab Reflection

Recently, we have discussed in class video-sharing websites. After getting into groups, picking two different video-sharing websites to compare features and layouts, we decided which website was the best. Youtube came out on top as being the best and most popular video-sharing website.

 

Food and Folley

For the third year in a row, I have attended the Food and Folley event held at Fort Whiting Armory in Mobile. I can’t explain to you how awesome this event is! It raises money for UCP, United Cerebral Palsy. All of the proceeds from Food and Folley go towards this organization. It is a wonderful event, where you can enjoy trying all types of different food and desserts from local restaurants, bid in a silent auction, and try your luck at the wine grab!

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The UCP of Mobile has grown from a small local clinic to a $4.5 million organization, offering programs to people with disabilities throughout South Alabama. How awesome is that?

“UCP of Mobile is dedicated to advancing the independence of people with disabilities. UCP offers a wide range of services for people of all ages, starting with one of our early intervention programs and continuing through adulthood with our supported employment program.” This is a statement directly from the organziation’s website, ucpmobile.org. The website tells you exactly what UCP of Mobile is, services it has to offer, upcoming events, and so much more. Want to find out more? Head on over to their website and check it out!

 

How can you go?

To purchase one or more tickets, visit their facebook page, Food and Folley. It will tell you prices and how to go about getting tickets.This years event may have already passed, but don’t miss out on it next year! 

Filtering and Writing Emails

Filtering Emails

I decided to go with the filter Digest. Students are sent daily emails of the digestlist. The digest is informative of things going on around campus and gives the latest news involving USA. It is great to see what events are coming up and what is happening around campus. Unfortunately, with all the emails about multiple things coming in, the digestlist can get mixed in with all of it and overlooked. Making this filter, ensures that I know exactly where each digestlist will be and it wont get lost among the many emails I receive daily.

With the help of 7 Gmail Filters to Make Email Less of a Chore and Gmail Filter Help, it made the process of creating a filter fairly easy. Now that I know how to create a filter, I will create filters for each of my classes.

 

Professional Email Example

Dr. Hussain,

I’m Stephanie Feagin from your TR CA260: Digital Writing and Produciton class. Due to an upcoming doctor’s appointment, I will have to leave lab early this Thursday. I read on the syllabus that your office hours are MW 8:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. I would like to meet with you Monday at 8:15 a.m., if you are available, regarding any assignments I missed. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Feagin

 

Class & Lab Reflection

This week we continued to learn how to do HTML coding. It is difficult because the smallest thing can cause the code to not work properly. It is challenging, but the more I practice and activities I do, it has become easier.

 

Website Accessibility

“It is essential that the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with diverse abilities.” I couldn’t agree more with this statement found in the article, Accessibility.

It is so important to make your website accessible for all people with different disabilities. After watching the video and reading the assigned articles, it has made me realize just how important it is to make your website accessible. I would now like to elaborate on a few things I’ve learned from the articles: Accessibility, Introduction to Web Accessibility, Epilepsy Action: Web Design and the video, Tips to make your website accessible.

Ensure that all the parts of your website can be accessed using the keyboard!

Some people only have access to a keyboard or can’t properly use a mouse, therefore, your website needs to be accessible and easily navigated with a keyboard alone. People that can only use their keyboard to navigate a website may become frustrated that your website doesn’t allow easy and proper navigation using the keys on the keyboard.

Include captions and subtitles for videos!

People with hearing problems may not be able to properly hear the video even on it’s loudest setting. Captions should be provided and include, details of the speaker, what they’re saying and significant audio, all of which are important in understanding contexts and subtle cues. Providing subtitles in your video, ensures that hearing impaired viewers can watch your video without having to worry about hearing the audio.

Provide equivalent alternative text in the markup/code of images!

This is important for people with serious vision problems, most importantly, people who are blind. Providing the equivalent alt. text, allows people with vision problems and people who have their images turned off to hear what the image is.

Use suitable language!

There are some people who have learning disabilities. You want to make your content understandable for them because you don’t want them to become frustrated. Using simple language ensures that viewers will not become overwhelmed, completely understand what you’re trying to get across, and they’ll feel more comfortable reading content on your website. Overall, it makes for a more fun and enjoyable experience!

Be careful when including flashy images or videos on your website!

Some people have photosensitive epilepsy. This mean that they can have seizures caused by displays that flicker, flash, or blink. Be mindful when putting something on your website that could possibly cause a seizure. If you absolutely have to put something that you know flickers, flashes, or blinks put a clear warning messaging letting viewers know. If it’s possibly, try to avoid putting anything on your website that could possibly cause someone to have a seizure.

The video and articles do an awesome job at covering all the different ways to make your website accessible. It is truly important to make your website accessible!

Go Jags!

It has been an exciting past two weeks here at the University of South Alabama! Our football team may have fallen short against Georgia Southern Saturday, but we did win last Saturday! Everyone is still celebrating the football teams’ win against Mississippi State. Of course, I can’t forget to mention the girls’ soccer teams big win over Florida State University, who was ranked number 1 in the nation! How awesome is that? So, this past week has been filled with a lot excitement!

Aside from all the celebrating and excitement over the big wins, class must continue. Classes are still going well, and I’m trying my best to keep up with all the homework and studying. It’s definitely becoming a little tougher the farther along I get in all my classes, but that’s expected. I’m just trying to stay positive and not fall behind!

In this class, CA260, we are all being taught how to create our own website with Weebly.com. Along with learning how to create our own website, we learned how to embed a code. I am still trying to grasp the basics of how to embed a code. It’s a little challenging, but the more we go over it and practice it, it will become easier. It has been a blast learning how to create my own website, and beginning to learn things like embedding codes! It can get a little tricky sometimes, but it is very exciting to learn!

It has been a great past couple of weeks at USA! I’m looking forward to what the future holds here at the University of South Alabama. Go Jags!