Author: ebutler4

GSR Social

 

I believe that my post would be mostly geared towards senior college students who were looking to graduate this spring. Since many of us are active on social media I chose Instagram because I felt as though it was the best way to reach a larger audience because on sites like Facebook or Twitter there are other kinds of engagement whereas on Instagram it is all about liking pictures. While there is a character limit on Instagram the goal of my post was to simply make the audience aware of the Greenspring Review publications. Since I am posting on Instagram, using a photo is best rather than simply having a blank post with just words describing what’s going on. Since most college students are on their phones during dinner time I feel like a good time to post will be between 5 and 8pm during the week.

GSR Final

College Life

 

We enter it with caution –

A double dose of fear.

No time to stop and wonder,

Just how we made it here.

 

The work is all consuming –

Some parties on the side –

The pressures always mounting,

A future to decide. 

 

Spring break is what you live for –

A time to decompress.

The struggle just to get there,

A week without the stress.

 

Professors and roommates,

Are sure to make you mad,

But then before you know it,

You are the newest grad.

 

Well that is now the old way –

Some changes are in place.

Corona’s taken over             

No longer face-to-face.

 

College was the safe place,

Secure from day to day.

This world is kind of scary,

On second thoughts at home I’ll stay.

HTML Reflection

Having done some web design classes in high school, the first couple of lessons brought back old memories of creating websites. Since I had some previous experience and I had a better understanding of how to create the codes that were given in the examples and tutorials.  Even though at times I found it a little complicated when it came to remembering and relearning the formatting part of HTML. As I got towards the end of of the tutorials I remembered how I enjoyed feeling like I created something unique when building my own webpage. In the future, I want to get back into learning how to create more features with coding.

Dos and Don’ts Poster

Creating a website for users with vision impairment

 

 

The audience for my poster is users with visual impairments. The goal of this poster was to demonstrate and highlight serval things that you should and shouldn’t do when building a website lie the Greenspring Review so that you can make it more accessible. I decided to choose users with visual impairments because it can span a large audience from young people with actual visual disabilities, too older people who simply just have a harder time seeing things.

 

In the poster, I list in two different columns things that you should do for a website as well as things you shouldn’t do for a website with users who are visually impaired. In the first column, it lists all the things you should do for your website. The first item I list under the “Do” category is to use contrast colors. Having a starkly different background color as the color of your text and material will help someone with visual impairments easily identify elements on the page. Next, it is important to use large font. This will enable the user to clearly discern what the word is instead of having to struggle with smaller fonts that may be hard to read. After this, having voiceover accessibility is important because it allows the reader to listen rather than struggle to see what is on the page. Fourth, Best that you are able to space out the material on your page. If it is all cluttered together then the user will have a hard time discern different elements. Lastly, using keyboard shortcuts for your websites ensures that the user is able to more efficiently navigate through the webpage rather than having to look for certain elements.

 

Equally as important as the list of things you should do with a website for visually impaired people, there is a list of things you should not do. Cluttering material together is a good way to confuse and complicate the understanding of your website from somebody who is visually impaired. Keeping good distance between elements will help them be able to read what is on the website. Second, do not use similar font colors as the background color. When you do this, it is hard to distinguish the difference between the background in the actual words that are on the page. Next, avoid using bubbly text fonts. When the font is more abstract, the visually impaired user will have a harder time distinguishing words as opposed to if the font was straightforward and clean. After this, avoid using small sized font. When the font is too small the impaired user is unable to read the elements on your website does reducing your websites impact. Lastly, avoid using very detailed pictures. When you do so, it makes it nearly impossible for someone with a visual impairment to understand the importance for detail of the photo.

Intentional Silence

Growing up, I always felt uncomfortable when there was a long moment of silence. I would want to say something but never knew what would help. This article goes into detail to discuss how silence does not have to have a negative impact on a verbal interaction. Many times, a person can use silence to put a greater emphasis on what they are saying in an argument or conversation. Dubbed “intentional silence”, the pause in speaking can be used to “create space, invite response, and signal interest” (Kaplan, 2019). Using this technique in business allows a person to understand the points you might be making in a presentation. On the other hand, this article illustrates examples of times where using an extended amount of silence could be detrimental to your communication

 

 

Kaplan, K. (2019). The Science of Silence: Intentional Silence as a Moderation Technique. [online] Nielsen Norman Group. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/intentional-silence-ux/?lm=aesthetic-usability-effect&pt=article [Accessed 2 Mar. 2020].

 

Disability and eLearning

For many years, students with disabilities and mental illnesses have had very few options when it came to getting educations. Most of the time the only choice they had was to attend traditional style classes that did not accommodate the difficulties they had in the classroom. Thanks to the recent eLearning platform, students with disabilities have been able to get better help and accommodations when learning new material. Additionally, the ability to learn online in a comfortable environment is a beneficial aspect because many of the students voiced how they feel very uncomfortable sitting in a classroom with lots of other students. An added bonus with eLearning is also the ability for students to directly receive help from the teacher while they work at their own pace. Even though eLearning is still relatively new, it offer a look into how new technologies are increasingly benefiting students with disabilities.

 

 

 

Kent, Mike. “Disability, Mental Illness, and ELearning: Invisible Behind the Screen?” The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, 17 Dec. 2015, jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/disability-mental-illness-and-elearning-invisible-behind-the-screen/.

 

 

Tin House

https://youtu.be/9ENsyzSOIw0

 

This website seems to be geared towards more everyday people. When I look through the poems they are about everyday struggles that the writer encounters

 

 

Visual analysis

Aural

From what I can tell, this website does not have any aural features

Visual

Upon opening the website, I notice the clean and simple visual design of the page.

 

As you can see, the top of the site features the logo as well as links beneath it to access magazines books and their workshop.

 

One thing to notice throughout the page is that the material seems to all be centered on the page

 

The only noticeable parts that are not centered is a small shopping cart symbol in the top right-hand corner and a menu bar in the top left that opens to reveal ten additional links.

 

As you move down the page you come across posts that are similar to ones you see in blogs

 

Rather than being articles, it looks like each post is a piece of poetry or a story.

 

Overall I think the visuals are clean yet simple and easy to read

 

 

 

Spatial

Looking at the page, the spatial features are well placed

 

I can clearly see the menu bar in the top left since it is in a contrast color to the page and it is off by itself so it stands out

 

I like the spacing in between each of the posts because it allows the page to feel more spread out instead of cluttered

 

All the work is centered which made things easier to read in my opinion

 

 

Gestural

Since the website is mostly dedicated to posts and reading likes, the homepage does not show any people or gestural qualities

 

 

Linguistic

 

As you can see, there are very few words outside of the work that is featured on the main page

 

The language used in the works you see on the page is more relaxed and expressive

 

Stevenson Villager

The Stevenson Villager is a newsletter that is run by students and professors at Stevenson University. All the articles that are featured in the publication come from Stevenson students or faculty. The purpose of this publication is to allow students to develop their writing skills by producing original material.

 

 

Visual

Visually, the webpage’s design gives in a more professional look. In large green letter in the top left, it says “The Villager: Stevenson University” with the rest of the lettering on the page in plain black text. The background of the page is white and does not offer the reader any other things to look at and engage with outside of the page links and videos. The page layout consists of and horizontal top link bar with and additional options on the right-hand side vertically.

 

Aural

There are no aural elements to the villager’s website. Even though there are links to videos present on the main page, it does not have any actual aural elements.

 

Linguistic

Since it is a webpage that is dedicated to writing publications. The language used is professional and well written. The choice of words used in the brief captions is basic enough for the reader to understand and get an introduction into what the article is about.

 

Gestural

As far as gestural elements go, the reader is only able to see the body language of the individuals who are pictured in the articles. The facial expressions of the subjects vary do to the type of photograph that was taken. In some cases the photos are candid and in others they are portrait photos.

 

Spatial

The spatial elements of the webpage are relatively neat and organized. There are multiple sections that have links to direct the reader to other material available on the page. There is uniform spacing in between each of the photographs featuring articles.

 

 

 

 

Relatable meme

Having taken a gap year to work and figure out what I wanted to do, I was not looking forward to going back to school. I enjoyed working full-time at a car dealership in sales and wanted to continue. when I first started classes again I had forgotten how cliche some of the introduction classes were. Having made my way up into a good sales position, I felt like i had taken several steps backwards by going to school. I now realize that it was a good decision because by having a degree will differentiate me from other prospective job candidates when applying for jobs.

 

30 Funny College Memes 8

 

30 Funny College Memes. (2020). Retrieved 29 January 2020, from https://hashtag3r.com/30-funny-college-memes/