Unit+4


 * Websites to be done and ready to present by class time on Friday, April 11 - no exceptions!**

__Purpose:__ To demonstrate understanding of visual rhetoric To demonstrate understanding of digital rhetoric To create a website for future use To learn to employ best practice with visuals in text To increase web design abilities

__Project__ You will be making a website that is to serve as a digital portfolio for yourself, both for this class and for use in the future, especially if you are going into education (you have to have one and you’ll be way ahead of the game!). A digital portfolio is meant to serve several purposes: to demonstrate your digital rhetoric prowess, to compile and save your work during your matriculation, and to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of various subject matters in one place that is easy for everyone to access. Remember: this is a public display of yourself. You will want to represent yourself well. 1. Images: choose images of yourself that represent the person you would want employers and professors to see. Make sure all images on your entire website represent the same level of professionalism 2. Homepage: (which you will eventually save as your index.html—and you’ll rename your website from Unit 3 accordingly) This will be the first thing people see: what do you want there to represent yourself? Do you want a lot of text? Do you want a bio? Do you want some simple links? It’s up to you, but think carefully about the representation here. 3. Navigation: The worst thing you can do is make navigation confusing. Keep it simple, keep it the same on every single page of your website, and make sure the links are clear. A maze of navigation will bewilder and frustrate your viewers. 4. Aesthetics: your choices of colors, font, background, etc. are more crucial than you might realize. Choose your colors wisely. Visit lots of websites to see what kind of image they project. Even looking at myspace pages can help give you an idea of how you want things to look. 5. Content: You must have at least three links away from your homepage: One to selected work from this class, one to work that represents your major (or future possible major), and one of your choice (hobbies? Links to things you find important? Personal info?—it’s up to you) 6. Be deliberate about applying the CRAP principles: they will give you a clean, professional website. 7. When you are done, again write a journal. This journal needs to serve two purposes: one, a reflection on your digital portfolio. Why did you make the choices you made? Who do you see as your audience? How did you choose your content? Be sure to discuss the CRAP principles as well. Second, a reflection on the semester as a whole. One great way to do this is to go back to the discussion board we had in the beginning of the semester (it's connected to the "handouts" page) and see what you wrote there and how your answer would now be different. Also revisit your journal from unit one and some of the things you've put on your wiki page. Even go back and look at some of the PowerPoints from the beginning of the semester and see how differently you view them now. I also want to hear about what you learned, what you loved, what you hated, what went well, what didn’t go so well, etc. Think critically and be constructive. I don’t mind complaints at all, as long as they are constructive complaints. Don’t bother complaining about the room, however; I couldn’t be more aware of the frustrations with this. Keep in mind a couple things: I have never taught this course before, and neither has anyone else at Alma. However, it is going to become a core course for the new Writing Minor, and we want to make it as beneficial as possible. Your advice and input, as the patient guinea pigs that you have been, is incredibly valuable to both myself and the department as we shape this course. Both positives (what we want to keep) and negatives (what we should chuck) are important. 8. When your journal is complete, upload it to Moodle. Somewhere in your journal, include the URL to your website so that I can visit and grade it. If you would like feedback on this last unit, please add your name to the homepage of the course wiki: I’ll have a space there for this list, and I will be sure, at some point, to send you feedback.