That they arrived well before the 9:00 starting time was hard to believe. Perhaps African time is not for all Africans. Six people attended the workshop as we worked through the introduction to web design and the planning process.
1. How are websites used?
2. What are important qualities of websites?
3. What websites do you like and why?
4. What challenges do you personally face when creating a website?
These questions may seem mundane but truly the questions prompted the students to think about web design and content on a deeper level. They began transferring what they knew about websites they’ve visited to how they want their website to function and what they want it to look like.
1. What will your website be used for?
2. What do you want to name your site?
3. What categories of information do you want to include?
4. What gadgets do you want to use?
5. What layout will work best for your site?
Again, simple questions when it comes to website planning but when you’ve never done the work before you don’t know what questions to ask in beginning the project.
Of course I assigned homework. The next session will be a technology overview and practice application – building the site each student planned. The final session will be a one-on-one application to finalize and make functional the site desired by each student. The student will drive the content of this session, which is designed to simply be support as he or she builds. The overall objective is to create independent web developers (at a very basic level).