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With 15 Comments

Get Started

Well, I think it’s a good time to make a brief plan of the preparation work on this relaxed Saturday afternoon.

  • Get familiar with OSS. This is not hard and I am already onto it.  Now what I am not sure is the widgets and  sidebars and what magic can they do to the appearance and utility of the system. I will go figure them out.
  • Go to see more and more existed themes. Each theme has its own special features and I believe I need to observe some themes before I can come up with my little creative thought. Hopefully, as an engineering student, I won’t struggle a lot before really come up with something. T T
  • Find more about Chinese art and think about how am I gonna present it.
  • Review the programming knowledge. I’ve used those programming languages one year ago when doing my DIP but were never really skilled. Luckily nowadays plenty of websites offer training of programming and I want to be less restrained by programming skills when I come back in August for the real start.

That’s what I can think about now. To be continued…

 

BTW, the theme for this year’s Met Gala is “China: Through the Looking Glass (中国：镜花水月)” and I was SO surprised by the special interpretation of Chinese style through the dresses of some celebrities.

But I do like some dresses very much, like the one showing below. The red color, winter-sweet (腊梅) decorations and the crane (仙鹤) pattern are all Chinese elements and combine really well on the dress. I wish I can wear such a beautiful dress someday T T.

Bee Shaffer

15 comments on “Get Started”

  1. Hi Boyang, Interesting post and good start on your use of OSS!

    I would like to suggest that you do work on tutorials for theme development. There are a few excellent tutorials on Lynda.com that you can access through your NTU account for free. If you learn to first create a development site and then work through the lessons on theme creation, this will be a great start. I suggest you create a brand new WordPress installation on your computer and not worry about going live, but making sure you can create a theme from scratch locally, that would be most helpful. I have included all the relevant info below and please feel free to ask questions! Randall

    Here are some links, tutorials, and references:

    To get to Lynda.com through your NTU login:
    https://ntulearn.ntu.edu.sg/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_1
    3_1

    Then login using your id/password

    Then click on lyndaCampus Video Libraries in left column

    Here are the Tutorials (make sure you download all the special resources
    if they suggest it):

    Installing and Running WordPress: MAMP (This is how you create a local
    development server)
    http://www.lynda.com/WordPress-tutorials/Installing-Running-WordPress-MAMP/
    361682-2.html

    WordPress: Building Themes from Scratch Using Underscores (creating a new
    Wordpress theme)

    http://www.lynda.com/underscores-tutorials/WordPress-Building-Themes-from-S
    cratch-Using-Underscores/163092-2.html

    2. Hi Prof Packer I am watching the course on Lynda.com and find it VERY HELPFUL!
      Does it have any expiry date? Can I still access to it later when I want to watch it again?
      If not then I would need to take notes on it~

  2. Finally, an oriental theme! That’s something I’ve yet to see as a theme for website. Have you considered Chinese brush painting? The soft Chinese ink landscapes can be breathtaking.

      1. Did you know that the floating mountains in the movie Avatar, were inspired by Chinese landscapes?

        It’s amazing how the oriental can inspire the occidental.

  3. I spoke to an OSS user, Jin Long, who claimed that he used OSS because “we had to”, and sensed that he did not see how OSS could potentially and directly facilitate his work.

    How do we couple OSS with the artefact or creative/research process for students/tutors more strongly?

    Perhaps, if the unconverted and unwilling could share a number of emergent ideas, and get their peers to be more involved in helping them comment on what they think can be done to make the ideas work. Of course, it would be ideal to have users commenting out of genuine concern and interest, and not purely because participation helps fulfil part of the assessment criteria. The reason is that if users truly seek to collaborate and help one another refine and challenge their thinking, the OSS will continue to see updates and dialogue, long after the end of a module or course — much like how Facebook or Twitter continue to attract attention after the end of the semester.

    Similarly, to ensure greater coupling between OSS and your work processes, perhaps you could publish several options or themes or skins, for users to vote. Ask them what they like, and hate, and what they would like changed, to make the skin/theme work for them. In doing so, the alternative viewpoints and dialogue could set your work on a new developmental trajectory. It’s not so much whether the skin or idea works, but how to make it work, that we want to really get into. More brains are better than one. Let’s tap into the global brain to see how far OSS can be pushed.

    1. It’s nice to see your long reply. I understand your concerns but I also understand the claims from the student. The posts and replies contribute to final grade and need to fulfill certain requirements so students may feel a bit reluctant to use it instead of feeling excited about the new communication platform.

      But the OSS is still improving and it will be more convenient to use it. NTU courses firstly introduce the OSS to them, then it is the user experience of OSS that needs to change students from ‘have to’ use it to ‘be willing to’ use it. I think it is also part of the aim of our FYP, to make OSS more attractive to students.

      And I am also interested in your suggestion, to ask other users to vote for different theme. That will be helpful when I have some outcomes and need advice. Thank you for that!

  4. There should be a way to cancel a comment that has been sent for moderation.

    Please ignore the earlier post, and moderate the 2nd one instead. where typos have been corrected.

  5. I concur — performative pressures can certainly rob us of the joy of experimenting and learning something new.

    The pressure to succeed in a high stakes examination system like NTU’s can compel the learner to avoid alternative untested approaches, for “safer” options, as is common amongst civil servants in the public service.

    I just attended the INNOVATION IN TEACHING & LEARNING USING TECHNOLOGY ICT SEMINAR, where the Managing Director of the InfoCom Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore, shared how the government learnt a useful lesson in webpage design.

    The programmers designed the 3 following themes or skins for the National Day Rally website: (1) a pro-family theme (2) a vibrant, colourful, funky, arty-farty theme (3) Image of the Singapore flag with Prime Minister Lee’s face covering most of the page, against a plain white background.

    The government officials wanted the the pro-family them, while the programmers preferred theme 2. The aim was to get visitors to click on the the links on the website, to navigate deeper into the multi-layered site, so that they would access the deeper links or layers.

    All 3 themes were published, and visitor traffic was split equally across the 3 different versions of the website.

    Unexpected, visitors to Theme 3 was the winner.

    Lesson learnt: You don’t know, what you don’t know.

  6. I don’t know if I should direct this to you or Cynthia, but, do you think that it would be a good idea to incorporate a “viewed by _________ (name of user)” or “viewed by x (number of) people”, for comments or posts or images, just like on Facebook?

    After publishing a post, I am often left wondering, who has read it. A counter would be helpful, to ascertain the online “impact” of my post.

    1. I think it’s a good idea for posts and I don’t think it will be hard to implement it. Though cannot be sure every visitor has read through the whole post, it’s a way to briefly show how many people have seen it.

      For comments, I don’t think it’s necessary. Every visit to the post website also increments the visit to comments since they are on the same page. A “thump up” count for comments may be more useful.

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