Class Overview

This course introduced high school students to the World Wide Web as a medium. Originating from efforts to create a standardized information-retrieval system, the WWW developed into a broadcast media, a shopping mall, a communication platform, and an environment for personal expression. Although this class offered a wide range of workshops dealing with web technologies, it focused on conceptual and aesthetic aspects of designing for the web. Creative projects and exercises were developed throughout the course by utilizing the various skills acquired in class in the service of perception and communication.

Web technologies are constantly and rapidly changing. By focusing on the concepts behind those technologies, the acquired skills working with XHTML, CSS, and Javascript will be transferable to future contexts. The course wished to develop the vocabulary necessary to speak to developers, to present and discuss Web projects, and to pursue individual research. During the session, students had the opportunity to complete a series of exercises, analyze and discuss Web projects, and present a research report.

My Responsiblities

It was a two week session, and every week about 10 students attended to learn web design and programming. Theese were high school students intending to enter art and design department in universities or art school. My goal of the class was to teach the basic understanding on web media and show them how to create a portfolio website. Everyday from 9am to 5pm, I taught not only just web programming, knowledge and history, but also basic understanding on graphic design such as typography, graphic layout, and color. Most crucial was to teach how to organize the visual contents in web screen effectively. I asked students to successively modify their websites, save each different version of their design, and at last compare it to see how it got improved further. The comparison was very effective for seeing how the iteration in design process is crucial strategy for the highly detailed outcome. Also, I asked student to do Pecha kucha presentation, which presents 20 slides in 6 min 40 sec. Each student picked each different topic related to web design, and shared their ideas and information with others in a concise format and time limit. It was a fun methodology for students to practice presentation techniques, and more deep discussion was followed up afterwards based on the presentation. Their final outcome was exhibited at the last day in open house, and they shared it with parents and friends. After the class, I kept in touch with them to help with the finalizing of their websites, and luckily most of them got admissions from top school in the states

Successful students' projects