Saturday, November 10, 2007

Constructivism and Dreamweaver

First, let me address the constructivist learning environment. I really like that I specifically chose my Dreamweaver goals. There is so much I want to do, so I am glad it was not simply predetermined. This approach allowed me to take accountability for a pace I am comfortable with as I complete this assignment. I am a product of pretty traditional instruction, so this is new for me. I think that distance education lends itself to constructivism, so I have had some experiences in the last year. However, I hope that this constructivist experience provides me with the confidence and experience to provide constructivist learning experiences for my own students.

As for Dreamweaver, figuring this out has been surprisingly challenging. I generally catch on quickly when it comes to tackling new software, but this is a different beast altogether. I kind of wanted to teach myself by playing around, and that got me nowhere. I ended up turning to my Hands-On Learning Dreamweaver CS3 recommended text. I have completed the exercises through chapter 6, and that gave me enough background to get started with some basic layout elements, at least. It’s a bit tedious, but I am no longer clueless. I’ll keep doing the chapter exercises, because it is working for me. As someone who wants a dramatic layout with impressive elements, I know I have just scratched the tip of the iceberg. I didn’t start with a template, because I wanted to learn it all, and I am wondering if that is a mistake. My next step is to find the images…where are they?

1 comment:

vicvista said...

Hi Kathleen,

First let me commend you on the "look" of your blog...the apple and use of red coloring is a really nice touch!
Like you, I also like this constructivism. I'm enjoying the freedom to explore as much as I want while meeting the required goals, and Dreamweaver is well-suited for this.
I have already exceeded my level of competence a number of times with this software but so far, I'm enjoying the challenge. Right now I'm stuck trying to manipulate data sets but am looking forward to solving this soon.
I loaded a number of images into an "images" folder with the following path: "Webapps/My Local Web Files/Portfolio/Images". As I develop in Dreamweaver it provides an easy insert mechanism and keeps the pictures available for site use. Hope this helps.

Victor