When I first started this class, I knew very little about the course and the kind of work it would entail. My knowledge on the topic is superficial. The most I knew about it were codes seen from friends of mine. There is a website where I post my artwork, and it gives you the choice of changing the layout of the page. Doing so requires pasting an entirely new HTML code for the page, and there are blogs dedicated for that. I remember seeing the code for comments and other codes that I have learned from Khan Academy. I never understood what any of it meant, but now I do -- to some extent
I would say that this course deals with HTML on a deeper level. It is understanding what kind of languages function with HTML and learning how to use those languages. This course teaches us about web design and how to create our ow webpages, but it is also about learning how to properly use techniques, so they can coincide instead of conflict. For example, users learn how to change the color and font of text, but also understand what colors go well together as well as limiting how many different fonts they use on their website.
One major lesson that I learned was the use of embedded styles. I learned how CSS can be used alongside HTML to make an .html file less cluttered. I like how the CSS takes care of the style and aesthetic of the website, while the .html is the nitty gritty text and basics. It keeps the two ideas separated so the user can create a webpage and focus on one aspect at a time. I would rather have two different files than one huge file where I must constantly scroll up and down to find what I need. I also learned about the importance of comments and everything that a visitor cannot see but is input in the code. I never realized how important comments are until I realized how much info a creator must put into a file. It is important to put comments so anyone working on the code can understand the creator's work, as well as reminding the creator what they did previously.
Learning about hos to code for those with disabilities opened my eyes and made me realized how web pages need to be accessible by everyone. Being able to use meta tags in an image code to help explain what an image looks like is helpful for those that are blind and use machines to describe how the page is set up. Even hyperlinks are designed to help those with disabilities. Colored text can show people that the text is important, but for those that are completely color blind, underlining text can emphasize that fact further and make it easy to see. Understand how both these methods are necessary when designing a webpage will help me open my mind when creating my own content. I need to ensure that what I am creating is accessible to everyone.
As the semester went on and our coding knowledge grew, there were moments where I had to go back and remember every code we have learned up until know. I would mix up different codes, such as confusing font weight with font style. The way I solve it is by returning to previous modules and Khan Academy assignments to refresh my memory, such as figuring out whether bold style goes in front weight and not font style like italics.
My main resource was Khan Academy. Reading huge walls of texts has never worked for me, and I prefer having a visual image of the subject I'm learning than just text. Although my issue cannot be remedied in coding, I can at least look at the examples in the Khan Academy lessons, which have much less text for me to look at. It has the code written right there and shows how the webpage looks right next to it. That has helped me immensely. Even some of the videos in the modules have helped me figure out what I was doing wrong. However, Khan Academy is the one that I return to the most.