Friday, March 25, 2011
Unit Two Project
During this Unit Two Project I really enjoyed creating my website and doing the research to make my website informative and helpful to my audience. Of course, I ran into roadblocks such as what layout should I have, what specifically should I put on the website, and how I should organize the information I put on the website. I am very pleased with my end product and hope that someone will benefit from the information that I collected and put on it.
The first step of creating my website was decide what topic I should focus on that will fit my audience and that I wanted to research to find out more about it. I narrowed this down fairly easily by deciding that I wanted to write about the General Education Diploma rather than what some of the other people were writing about such as childcare and communication. I thought by choosing the GED I could then have enough information to create a website and a topic that I could choose a side to sort of argue on. I was wrong, way wrong. There is actually a lot of information on the GED exam and it differs from state to state. Also, I realized how difficult it was to choose a side and argue it on a website while still being respectful. As I go through each of my pages I will discuss how I emphasized my opinion on the GED rather than having a completely neutral tone about the topic.
In choosing the layout and color theme for the website was fairly easy. I wanted a layout that looked professional and was easy to move around the website from page to page. The first layout that I choose was close to the same color theme as the one I have now but the menu bar was stretched across the top but after adding all of my pages they didn’t all fit so there was a button that said “more…” and when you hovered over it, it would show you the rest of the pages. This didn’t really appeal to me so I found another layout, the one that I am currently using, because I like the fact that the menu bar is vertically on the side and while you are on any page you can easily see and choose another page at any point in time and you could also see all of the pages at the same time instead of only the first two or three pages. I also liked this layout because I was able to have a picture next to the title of the website that would be the same for every page. I chose a picture of a street sign that had the word ‘success’ on it that was angled so only the sky was in the background. The reason I really liked this picture was because I wanted people to feel like by getting a GED you can succeed and that the sky is the limit. You don’t have to graduate high school to have the option to succeed. Even those who couldn’t make it through high school can succeed due to the GED and the opportunities it gives the young adults who take it.
Of course I had to have a home page but it was fairly difficult for me to figure out what to put on the home page. I tried just having my ‘History’ page as my home page but I felt like it jumped into the topic to quickly with no introduction. It was like the example that you showed us in class, you don’t want to have a cliff were your audience feels like they are dropped into the middle of what your talking about and you don’t want your whole website to be like the introduction were it has no body and never really goes into depth about the topic. Instead, you want a skate pipe feel were you are eased into the topic and have enough momentum to keep the reader entertained and wanting to read more. Therefore, I decided to have a different home page that explained the purpose of the website and gave a quick description of what would be on each page. I choose to put a picture on this page because even though it has a picture on the top that is consistent for every page I felt like the page itself needed some sort of image to entertain the reader’s eye so they would be willing to read rather than feeling forced to read.
My next page was my ‘History’ page. The reason I did this was because I figured there are always those people out there who want to know where the GED test came from and why it was even created in the first place. Also, I think it is very interesting that the military was the group that initially wanted the test to be created so that their veterans and soldiers could get civilian jobs since their high school education was disrupted by the draft. Now, however, the military is very strict and don’t accept as many adults who have a GED as they used to. I chose a fun cartoon picture for this page because I figured it could lighten the mood a little and make all of the text look a little less daunting.
For the other three main pages I chose to add pictures and place them in various places on the page to make it a little more appealing to the eye. On my ‘Studying for the GED’ page I wanted it to be fairly simple with not too much information. I did this because I didn’t want one page to take up more of the reader’s attention than it deserved. I also talked about Job Corps briefly because I think that their goal is important and closely related to the topic of my website. In my ‘Value of the GED’ page I talked about how universities, jobs, and the military value the GED compared to a high school diploma. I though this was a fairly important page because it gave some vital information that any adult who is looking to see what they can do with a GED can see their options and chose the best path for them. On my ‘Postsecondary Education’ page I really wanted to warn young adults who are getting or have their GED the difficulties that colleges and universities have when not used to a formal schooling. Many students get caught up in the social life of college while others can’t keep up with the fast pace. I wanted to tell people of the difficulties that some GED holders go through and how they overcame their problems. On this page I also put tips on studying and organizing because everyone can improve on their organizational skills. Finally, there is my work cited page that doesn’t have any pictures because I honestly couldn’t think of what to put on the page and I think how boring the page is, why make it more exciting when really its not.
My audience for this website is people who are looking into the GED as an alternate path to high school. In my website I emphasis how the GED test is for adults and that it is an adult education program that was created so that those who can’t finish or go back to high school can get credentials that are similar to high school. I emphasized this in each of my pages and especially in my history page.
Overall, I am very pleased with my website and hope that it will benefit someone. To find my website you just have to go to www.generaleducationdiploma.weebly.com
Unit Two
While working on this website I did have some rough times. I either was struggling with finding information, thought what I had was not good enough, or I was sicks. I finally got it done and am really proud of what the end product was. I want this website to be helpful and informational to the people out there. However, I did not want it to be one of those websites that has so much information on it that when you look at it you just do not even want to read it. I kept it short and simple, straight to the point, and only put in the information I thought was important enough to read.
For me finding the right pictures for the website was pretty easy. The top picture that will be displayed on every page is a picture of a young boy sitting in the back of the car. I really like this picture because it related really well with my topic. I also added a small picture next to the text on the pages. Each page has a different picture the goes with the topic of that page. On the home page I chose a mother and her son laying on a bed because I was talking about low-income families and child care, I also mentioned Job Corps. For the next page I found a picture of a girl tutoring a boy to resemble what I do at Job Corps, this page is also the page where I briefly talk about what Job Corps offers. My third page has a picture of two little boys in the playground. I chose that picture because my third page I talk about the types of good child care that my research recommended. On the fourth page I have a picture of a women and a little girl in a grocery store saying “Let's Go Shopping”; I chose this picture because on this particular page I have some help programs up. Many of these programs help the families with food and nutrition. My final page does not have a picture because it is my works cited page and I did not know what picture to put on it.
Unit Two
Reflective Letters
The more I went to Job Corps the more I learned about how things worked there. This is where I first started to see first hand what happens when you don’t finish school or go on to the next level of school. When I first arrived there I got asked a lot about what I want to do, whats it like to go to college and all my experiences. Even thought I am the youngest person out of all 11 of them. As I talked about the program there I started to understand the real reason people go there. Sometimes it is there only option, but most of the time it is because they desire to have a better life and start over. Regardless of the reason they are all cool people and I enjoy going to help them out.
At the beginning of this unit I was sure that I wanted to include something about technology but wasn’t sure what to do on there other than that. After going to the service learning and meeting the group that I would help I felt kinda glad to be where I am right now, in school and going for a degree. I asked them about their lives and how they like there and such. I learned that they had limited computers and not everyone used them, I was even more shocked to find out that some at the facility don’t even know how to type. That was when I found what I wanted to focus on in this unit.
I,at first wanted to do the unit on how technology can help studying and improve the rate at which we learn. I wanted to do this because the usual time for Job Corps was around 2 years which in my opinion is a long time. But then I narrowed it down from technology to computers because that is the most useful for a job. Then I got from that to typing because of what I learned from service learning.
When I picked the lay out for my website I choose is because it looked professional and I really liked the colors. I am a little sad that the music I put on the web page won’t work because it would cost extra but I think it is proficient as it is. I wanted it to be as educational as to fun because I didn’t want it to come off as unprofessional and unreliable for a paper of any kind. I choose to set up may website the way I did because I didn’t want to only have one side of the argument. I think that the audience should always know what they are dealing with instead of just a biased opinion. I was sure to put in programs that are like Job Corps and incorporates what I thought the program should have. In truth there are multiple ways I could have done this website, I thought my way was the best and hopefully the audience will agree.
Here is a link to my website
Monday, March 21, 2011
Website Proposal
1) My audience for this website is really anyone interested in learning about low-income families and child care. I will be using language that high school students can understand but also keep it semi-formal.this wesite is for any gender who wants to know more on how they can help their loved ones or themselves. I will incorporate Job Corps and how they help low-income families. I am hoping that this website is abe to help those looking for help or even wantin to get in contact with Job Corps.
2)My audiences background can be anyone who is struggling finding a job to support their family to someone who is simply doing research on my topic. My website is going to be there to provide them with information they need to get their G.E.D., programs to help out their families, or even to just give statistics for a project. I do believe that most of my audience will be someone who has had a rough past and just wants to make thier future better.
3)I hope my readers will like my research but they do not need to agree with what iam saying. We all have our own opinion on what we read; I just want them to know that there are other options for them, they don't need to settle for less. I obviously hope they are interested in my topic if they are looking at my website, that way they can take in the information I have given.
4)The gist they have been talking about in my articles is how many low-income families are normally single parent families. They either got pregnant at a young age or they are just having a hard time finding a job and someone to watch their kids. Which makes sense because with one income or no income it is very hard to pay bills or even pay for daycare.
5)Many websites are about the product or reading they are promoting but I want to try and make my webiste about and for the reader. I want it to be intersting and helpful. Yes I know what I am researching is not the happiest subject but that is why I want to make my website useful and eyecatching not depressing and boring.
6) I plan on encouraging people to help, and if they need it recieve the help that Job Corps is giving, that way they can provide for their children or family.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Annotated Bibs 3
Rachal, John R., and Millard J. Bingham. "THE ADOLESCENTIZING OF THE GED." Adult Basic Education 14.1 (2004): 32-44. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 20 Mar. 2011. The author of this article talks purely about how the GED was created for adults and that it should be that way. I really like this source because it has the perspective on my topic that I want. I am in no way against the GED test and I think it is beneficial in some ways but it does need to have an age limit rather than almost encouraging high school students to drop out and get their GED rather than make it through high school and get a high school diploma. I think this is going to be one of my most beneficial sources because it has the same view as what I’m going to have on my website.
Boesel, David. "The street value of the GED diploma." Phi Delta Kappan 80.1 (1998): 65. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 20 Mar. 2011. The author of this article talks about almost every aspect of the GED test. It talks about how the military, jobs, and universities accept certain GED holders depending on their scores. I think this cite is actually very helpful because it gives a lot of actual statistics about how many GED holders go on to postsecondary education, the income that GED holders have on average if they don’t go on to postsecondary school. Like I stated earlier this source is like none that I have found because it has more statistics than any other sources I have found. I think that this is really going to bump my website to the next level because I can have actual numbers back up what I keep saying about GED holders.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Annotated Bibs 2
“Do GED recipients differ from graduates and school dropouts?: Findings from an inner-city cohort.” Urban Education. January 2008. pg. 83-117. Print.
The author of this article did a study to find out the difference between dropouts who don’t get their GED and dropouts who did get their GED and also between dropouts who got their GED and high school graduates who went on to post secondary education. They looked more specifically in the difference between income, substance abuse, health, mental health, and crime; this study was taken from the Chicago Longitudinal Study. I believe this source seems very credible because it is peer reviewed and the author also lists every source he used. This way his work can be checked or I could even look more closely into a topic and do more research on that topic. I think this is one of the better sources I have found so far because it gives me information about the history of the GED test and how this experiment was done. It also talks about the details that the experiment looked into when they looked at income and substance abuse and other subtopics such as that.
"Non-Academic Challenges Faced by GED Scholars: A Report of the GED Scholars Initiative." Adult Learning 14.3 (2003): 11-13. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 19 Mar. 2011.This author of this article talks about the struggles that GED students go through when they enter postsecondary education. It goes into detail about the nonacademic challenges that GED holders have to face when they are in college. I think that this is a fairly reliable article because it has a lot of quotes from actual college students who have a GED and not much organizational, time management, or communication skills to get help from advisors and councilors on campus. I think this illuminates my essay topic because I can tell my readers about the struggles that some GED holding college students have and ways they can work around those roadblocks and be successful college students. All of the resources that the author used are cited and this makes me think that the source is pretty reliable.