Saturday, March 17, 2007

Reflection on Lecture Two

I increasingly realize that this subject is challenging to me – a student without any background knowledge about HTML, CSS and Java script.
Frankly speaking after the class of this week, I was not sure what I have leant but quite sure that I didn’t understand some concepts and technologies introduced by Tim. I even didn’t know clearly what HTML is used for , and how is related to a website. Two hours lecture covers too much content to me , it’s hard to digest the all the knowledge Tim mentioned in last class. What is especially difficult to me to understand is the abstract of the concept. I know it’s impossible to explain every concept with a concrete example in a short lecture , and moreover lots of my classmates who have been well equipped with the knowledge in this area expect to learn something sophisticated, so I realize that I have to do extra work to catch up and fully understand the knowledge covered in every class.

I searched for some suitable online tutorials designed for HTML and CSS , Java script beginners , then I found a quite ideal online resource. The tutorials are divided into three levels (Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced ) . http://www.htmldog.com/guides/


The beginners’ HTML tutorial covers some easy steps of using html ( from page titles to forms) , and for each step teaches me how to achieve a specific task in detail. For example , it teaches how to use text editor (Notepad) to type some codes ,and then I can see how it affects the appearance of the website. Through doing this exercise I started to understand the function of html and how it’s applied in a website.

CSS beginners’ tutorial is also easy to be understood through simple , clear explanation and practical exercises . Through reading this tutorial I have a basic idea about how to change the colour , font and style of the text.

If you are a beginner in this area as me , try to read these online tutorials, you will find it is quite helpful.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Reflection on Lecture One

In the second class I got a basic understanding about some important concepts: Network, Protocol, Server, Client and the Internet. Although some of the terms are used frequently in our daily life, I didn’t know what they exactly stand for before the class. Some of the terms are even strange to me , such as Protocol. Tim’s description about the way we order a dish in a restaurant and the relationship between the waiters and the customers explains the meaning of the every concept and their particular function creatively and successively. Now I have understood the basic meaning of every concept and the relationship between them. What makes me a little uneasy is that some of the terms are still quite strange to me , such as TCP ,IP, HTTP. I hope this won’t become an obstacle to my further study.