To educate, inform, inspire

ES6 Fundamentals

September 7, 2016 - Web - by Mark - No Comments

Although ES6 (aka EcmaScript 2015) is not yet widely supported in browsers, I thought it might be helpful to provide some base information to help readers (particularly my students) better understand how to work with ES6 (and discuss a couple of the features). I got this idea from taking the […]

ARIA fundamentals

August 31, 2016 - Web - by Mark - No Comments

It has been a while since I focused on accessibility in these weblog posts. I thought it might be helpful to readers of this weblog to review some of the fundamentals of ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications). Many of the web pages we create employ sophisticated interfaces. Unfortunately, we often […]

JS++

August 24, 2016 - Web - by Mark - No Comments

I recently learned about JS++. Although it is presently only available for Windows and Linux systems, it looks interesting. Essentially, JS++ is a compiler which takes code and generates JavaScript. However, resulting JavaScript is much more structured than one would normally write. There is a fair amount of documentation (however, […]

Fall, 2016 semester

August 17, 2016 - ICC , Learning , Technology - by Mark - No Comments

The fall, 2016, semester started this Monday, August 15. As we start each school year, I take a moment and reflect on accomplishments (both last academic year and this summer) and think about the future. After all, the reason I teach web design and development is precisely because of the […]

Productivity tips – Google Calendar

August 10, 2016 - General , Technology , Who knew? - by Mark - No Comments

As we start another semester, I thought it might be appropriate to include another of my “productivity tips.” For reference purposes, I have already addressed the following topics: Productivity tips (general) Hygeia (and Hazel) Auto Hot Key (AHK) This is my continuing attempt to help readers “work smarter, not harder.” […]

Apps

August 3, 2016 - General , Learning , Mobile Apps - by Mark - 2 Comments

During my summer of travels, I encountered a number of apps for smartphones and tablets. Since many of these were new to me, I thought I would provide an overview of some of the ones others mentioned (during various conversations at events this summer). Here is a quick list of […]

Ricoh Theta

July 27, 2016 - Learning , Technology , Travel - by Mark - No Comments

I recently returned from the Adobe Education Leader Summit (held in New York City this year). Several colleagues were taking a number of photos using their new cameras. After further investigation, I had to get one of these puppies myself. It is the Ricoh Theta model “S.” It takes 360 […]

Koken

July 20, 2016 - General , Technology , Web - by Mark - 1 Comment

I recently became aware of the Koken Content Management System (CMS). Essentially, it is a content management system for photographs (and essays if desired). Given that I take a lot of photographs, I thought this might be worth investigating. I also discovered it integrated with Adobe Lightroom. Like most CMS, […]

Visual Studio Code

July 13, 2016 - Apple , ICC , Technology , Web , Windows - by Mark - No Comments

In preparation for our fall, 2016, CMWEB 240 class on developing web pages using the .Net environment, I have been briefly reviewing Visual Studio Code (version 1.3). This is a different product from the traditional Visual Studio and has a significantly UX/UI experience than Visual Studio. You can download a […]

National web design contest – time lapse videos

July 6, 2016 - Travel , Web , WOW - by Mark - No Comments

I used my GoPro camera throughout our recent national web design contest in Louisville, KY. For fun this week, I thought readers might enjoy watching a few of the time lapse videos I put together. I have included videos detailing the contest setup (many thanks to the SkillsUSA Courtesy Corps […]

National Web Design Contest Software

June 29, 2016 - Adobe , Apple , Web , Windows , WOW - by Mark - No Comments

We just concluded our 13th national web design contest in Louisville, KY (June 21 – 25, 2016). Although I plan to post additional information about the judge’s observations on our WebDesignContest.org site soon, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss some observations and insights I made regarding the tools […]

National Web Design Contest

June 22, 2016 - Travel , Web , WOW - by Mark - No Comments

As you are reading this, our national web design contest is happening in Louisville, KY. This will be the 13th consecutive year we have held this competition. We hold this in conjunction with the SkillsUSA national competitions. We provide a contest for secondary students and a separate contest for post-secondary […]

Kentucky caves

June 15, 2016 - Travel - by Mark - No Comments

My wife and I took our grandsons on a tour of selected caves in Kentucky (and a natural history stop near Louisville). I thought readers might be interested in some of these spots. I used my GoPro camera and created a series of time lapse videos for various aspects of […]

Working Connections 2016

June 8, 2016 - Learning , Technology - by Mark - No Comments

During the week of May 23, Working Connections was held in Springfield, Illinois. This represented the 14th year for this event (and my 13th year teaching a class at this event). I thought it might be helpful for others to learn more about Working Connections and why I think this […]

Book review: Digital Defense

June 1, 2016 - General , Security - by Mark - No Comments

Periodically, I review books for the American Library Association. I thought it might be helpful to students to include a copy of my latest book review here as well. This will be published in the June issue of Connect Magazine at the ALA site also. I do need to keep […]