This is a collection of some of the notes, handouts and presentations I have made over the years. Many of them have been updated to reflect changes in both the technology and my ideas since they were written.
"Historically, PCs are more vulnerable to infection by worms and viruses than Macintosh computers. For this reasonwe recommend that all PC users should have up to date antivirus software installed on their computer. We use and strongly recommend AVG Anti-Virus. Listed below are some of the tools available to help rid your computer of any infections that have slipped through your security net. "
"MAGpie is a tool used to improve the accessibility of audio and video presentations, by adding captions to video and audio files, and audio descriptions to video files. This is done be creating additional files that are displayed in parallel with the original audio or video file. MAGpie can create the markup necessary to organise these parallel presentations in two markup languages: SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) or SAMI (Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange)"
"Website design isn't rocket science! It is actually quite easy to design a good site which contains all the key information you want to make available online, and publish it to the web in only a few hours, particularly if you have the information already available in electronic form."
Accessibility is an important part of the development of any new site. Your content should be viewable by your entire audience, and it is a mistake to think that everyone will be using the same technologies and software that you use. Conformance is mandated by the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1992. Provision of information and other material through the Web is a service covered by the DDA. Equal access for people with a disability in this area is required by the DDA where it can reasonably be provided. This requirement applies to any individual or organisation developing a World Wide Web page in Australia, or placing or maintaining a Web page on an Australian server.
This paper describes a process for using content stored on a local CD-ROM in a remote, live website. The relationship between such websites and discs is described as a Web/CD symbiosis, as it is an interdependent relationship, allowing designers to create sites using high quality content without the problems of delivery across a slow network. An online professional development project using this technique is discussed and some of the software used to create content for such a disc is detailed.
A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity where much of the information used by students will be found on the World Wide Web. The model was developed in 1995 by Bernie Dodge and Tom March, at San Diego State University. Based on the ideas of inquiry based learning and constructivism, WebQuests focus on using information rather than looking for it, and promote analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
"We have developed a Dreamweaver metadata extension to manage the inclusion and revision of metadata in webpages. This metadata editor operates as an extension to Dreamweaver (versions 3 or 4, on Macs and PCs), so it requires pages to be edited using this application. This is an editor for Dublin Core, minimal Victorian Education Metadata Standard and ht://Dig elements."
"Do you own the images you want to display? If not, don't use them
until you have obtained permission from the owner. Copyright on the WWW is
going to be a big issue over the next few years.
The best source of images you own will be photos you have taken over the last
few years. If images such as cartoons have been commissioned for your association,
for use in paper publications, it might be necessary to speak to the artist
to confirm that your rights to the artwork allow reproduction on the WWW."
"A number of associations have recently been in the unfortunate position of losing vital data as a result of inadvertently erased files or hard drive crashes. The cost involved in recreating all the important files on your computer can be quite high, as well as being quite time consuming. To ensure that you do not find yourself in the same predicament I recommend that you establish a backup procedure that makes copies of your vital files on a regular basis. "
"It is easy to infringe copyright on the web. The tools we have at our disposal, in the form of web browsers, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, and site copying programs like Web Whacker and Anawave WebSnake allow us to save pages or whole sites onto our computers with ease. Even email can be unwittingly used to breach copyright laws."
"Cascading Style Sheets are an exciting and fairly recent addition to the armamentarium of web designers. They should be used far more than is currently the case, as they give designers much more control over how a website looks to users, but have suffered from a lack of support from the major browsers. This situation is now much improved, and will continue to improve as new versions of the major browsers are released. Learning how to develop a Cascading Style Sheet isn't difficult and there are now tools available which will actually do most of the work for you."
"CU-SeeMe is desktop videoconferencing software originally developed by Tim Dorcey and Cornell University. It works on both Macs and PCs. It allows up to eight people to talk to one another, and to see each other if they have cameras attached to their computers. There is also a text chat window available for computers without sound capability. Microsoft's NetMeeting is probably the other widely used piece of software which has video capability."
"Using a computer to create and edit video is not difficult, but setting up a computer system for video editing often is. The information below will give you an idea of what is needed if you want to use your computer to edit video. This is intended purely as an introduction, and advice on the best software and hardware for your computer should be sought from an expert before you start purchasing equipment."
"The new version of the program by Macromedia is a very good all-round site management tool. While it does take a while to get used to, it is extraordinarily powerful and allows even fairly naive users to create very sophisticated web pages."
"How do you ensure that your site is easily found by your potential audience? Links to your site from other similar sites will help, but the common wisdom on the net is that Search Engines and Directories are still by far the most common way for users to find what they are looking for. Estimates vary for search engine use, from maybe 60% to in excess of 90% of users. Submitting your site to be indexed by the main search engines will help improve your visibility, but your ranking in the search engine lists depend on how you have set up your web pages."
"If you were to read the press releases from Microsoft or Netscape/AOL, or many of the articles in the popular press, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Internet is a recent invention, created chiefly by Bill Gates or Marc Andreesen. This is not the case and the Internet has actually been in existence for quite a long time. Originally used as a means of keeping communication channels open between military bases in various parts of the United States of America, it was at that stage a small network of slow modems connected to mainframe computers. The network was extended by connecting computers from universities around America and it was not long before university staff were using the system to send messages to each other. The idea was used in other countries and it was not long before countries started connecting their networks to one another and. From these beginnings in the mid-1960s the Internet has grown to include a number of methods, or protocols, for communicating via computer."
"Individuals, associations and businesses are increasingly turning to the Internet for delivery of material to friends, business associates and association members. Some are starting to experiment with conducting meetings online as well, using Net Meeting, CU-SeeMe, ICQ and others. Eventually, many will use the Internet for voice and video communication, but for many people, in the short term, text-based systems remain the best option."
"What happens when you change Internet Service Providers?
When you move to a new URL, how do you ensure that your users are still able
to find you?
These tips will help you make the transition painlessly."
"The World Wide Web has not really lived up to the promise of being a wonderful tool for educators. In part this has been because of the difficulties of getting the technology working on a home computer, but also because much of the content available has been of dubious quality. Other parts of the Internet have certainly become very useful. As an example, email is now an invaluable part of many teachers' lives."
"The World Wide Web has evolved rapidly. Ten years ago, a few people, headed by Tim Berners-Lee, were taking their first tentative steps with this new media, putting text documents on web servers. Now we can add pictures, sound, animations and video to our web pages, and websites can now even be created in 3D! With the increased richness of media has come an increasingly technical set of commands to control how content is displayed within web pages and a bewildering array of gadgetry invented to assist us in the development of that content."
"Do you know how useful your site is to the people who visit it?
Do you know how often they use your site?
How often is a particular document downloaded?
Where do viewers go when they leave your site?
Is there a way for users of your site to make comments to you and to other
users of the site?"