Teaching and Learning About the Internet
Hi and Welcome to my site. At least at the beginning this is going to be more of a sandbox. I have been involved with designing content for the Internet since 1994. During that time there have been too fundamental shifts in relation to web design.
Browser Wars and Standards
The first shift was a result of the browser wars of the 1990s that resulted from the emerging technology of web browsers and no established standards for how things should behave. The result was a set of standards that were recommended by the W3C and continue to evolve today. This was the time of the web's infancy, and boy has it grown. The latest evolution of those standards are seen in HTML5, CSS3, and the other standards about how browsers are to handle content on the web.
Mobile Devices and Large Screens
The second shift is a result of to simultaneous evolutions: mobile devices and large screen. So what we have happening is that the screens that we use to view content on the Internet are getting both larger and smaller at the same time. The result is that designers can no longer tell what the average size screen their users will likely use to view their web content. The result of this is a move toward responsive design, or websites that change the way they present themselves based upon the size of the screenview that is utilized in the users browser. We are now in the time of post puberty adolescence for the web when it is not only growing it is also maturing and giving us a glimpse into what the future holds.
In this sandbox I will be utilizing HTML5, CSS3, responsive design and a number of evolving technologies related to modern web design. It is my way of staying current with web design and in the process developing materials that I will use in teaching this rapidly evolving technology.