To educate, inform, inspire

Pebble Programming Fundamentals

January 21, 2015 - Wearable Tech - by Mark - No Comments

Discussions at our January WebProfessionals and Adobe User Group meeting inspired me to do some more investigation into programming my Pebble watch. Brian – thanks for the nudge. I needed to get started on this. Most of the programming is done using the C language. However, there is also the […]

Book review – guide to creating dynamic websites

January 14, 2015 - Web - by Mark - No Comments

The January 2015 issue of Choice Magazine published my review of Nixon, Robin. Learning PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, CSS & HTML5: a step-by-step guide to creating dynamic Websites. 3rd ed. O’Reilly, 2014. 700p index ISBN 9781491949467 pbk, $49.99. Given that many readers of this blog may be interested in this book […]

Issues > Concerns > Problems

January 7, 2015 - ICC , Learning , Student Examples - by Mark - 8 Comments

I have been debating whether to post this “rant” or not. Obviously, you know what I finally decided. Those who pay attention to detail should note that I first drafted this post in early 2011. Yes, 2011 – as in 4 years ago. It is now 2015 and I have […]

What is web design?

December 31, 2014 - Technology , Web - by Mark - 4 Comments

I recently watched a new course on lynda.com – Mapping the modern web design process by Morten Rand-Hendriksen. In the initial chapter of the course, he makes an interesting observation. His thesis is that the term “web design” is evolving into an all encompassing term to cover the majority of […]

Competency Based Education

December 24, 2014 - ICC , Learning - by Mark - No Comments

Students in our CMWEB program will soon be experiencing changes in the overall structure of our classes. I thought it would be worthwhile to provide an overview of why we will be making these changes and the implications. Essentially, we will be moving our curriculum into a competency based format. […]

Fall 2014 Semester Reflections

December 17, 2014 - ICC , Learning - by Mark - 1 Comment

The Fall, 2014 semester is officially over. Happy Holidays to all who are reading this post. I thought it would be appropriate to dedicate this weblog post to my reflections on the semester which just ended. It has been an intense semester. We are also going to be making some […]

PhoneGap Build

December 10, 2014 - Adobe , Mobile Apps , Web - by Mark - No Comments

I have made a number of weblog posts on PhoneGap, PhoneGap Build and Dreamweaver in the past (just use the search box on this page and look for PhoneGap to see those entries). However, there have been a number of changes to the default templates with the release of Dreamweaver […]

Pebble first look

December 3, 2014 - Mobile Apps , Wearable Tech - by Mark - 1 Comment

I recently purchased a Pebble. This is my first entry into wearable technology (excluding smartphones of course). The market for these devices seems to be maturing more each day. The price was right ($99 US). As I also mentioned at our November Web Professionals and Adobe User Group meeting, a […]

Adobe Premiere Clip

November 26, 2014 - Adobe , Mobile Apps , Technology - by Mark - No Comments

As we approach the holidays, I thought it might be appropriate to cover one of the relatively new Adobe apps – Adobe Clip (aka Adobe Premiere Clip). This was released along with a host of other apps on October 6, 2014. I previously covered these briefly in a weblog post. […]

Tornado – 1 year later

November 19, 2014 - Huh? , Learning , Who knew? , WOW - by Mark - No Comments

I find it very hard to believe it has been on year since the EF 5 tornado passed through Washington, Illinois. I put together some notes using the Luca Project. I find this a most interesting tool. The link above points to my original post on this project. I hope […]

Teaching a MOOC – results

November 12, 2014 - Adobe , Learning , Technology , Web - by Mark - No Comments

Now that the web design MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is concluded, I wanted to share some final thoughts. I also thought it would be appropriate to indicate overall success rates.

Teaching a MOOC – technologies used

November 5, 2014 - Adobe , Learning , Technology - by Mark - No Comments

In my last weblog post, I focused on an overview of the Adobe Web Design MOOC which I recently taught. In this post, I thought I would focus on the technologies employed. One insight which came through loud and clear is that one must be highly fluent with a number […]

Teaching a MOOC

October 29, 2014 - Adobe , Technology , Web - by Mark - 2 Comments

I had the opportunity (and unique honor) to teach a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on Web Design recently. [Actually, the course is still in progress as final assignments are due on Nov. 2, 2014.] I wanted to share some observations and insights about the process as well as the […]

Premiere Elements Oveview

October 22, 2014 - Adobe , Technology - by Mark - No Comments

Last week, I had the honor of participating in a session on Premiere Elements taught by fellow Adobe Education Leader Sara Martin. She inspired me to further investigate this tool. Some of the ideas in this post came from her examples. As readers of this blog may recall, I am […]

Windows 10 First Look

October 15, 2014 - Technology , Windows - by Mark - 3 Comments

I recently installed Windows 10 Technical Preview in a virtual region on one of my computers (using VirtualBox). I thought readers might be interested in my first impressions of this operating system. The abridged version is – I like it. To me, this is what Windows 8 should have been […]