Although I had done CSS before and was quite experienced in using it, I still found Box Clever a very useful assignment. For the first time – although I should be ashamed to admit it – I’d taken the W3C Content Guidelines seriously, and considered them carefully. I also discovered the methodology behind naming divs by the content inside them rather than referring to their position, which was another crucial point that has changed my working patterns permanently. I now feel that my website development skills are a lot more clean and standardised as a result of this assignment. For future websites I will be taking a similar more serious approach to guidelines and standardisation that goes beyond making sure the page is valid XHTML 1.0 Strict, as I think it is an extremely important skill to have.
Like I mentioned previously, the On The Job assignment has been a completely different kettle of fish entirely. As project manager I had to set up all the systems and pitch within the first week of the assignment, which really set the tone for year two. We wasn’t eased in gently like the first year; this time around we were dropped a bombshell and expected to deal with it. After the relaxed nature of the summer assignment I was very pleased to feel the pressure again and I was pleased with how our team reacted to it. Our project is still going fine, and I don’t think we could have a better team if we tried.
I’ve already learned so much as a project manager for six weeks in the On The Job assignment. It’s a completely different way of having to deal with an assignment; I don’t do any of the designing or building, but rather I tell other people when to do it. It’s a very strange experience, but one which I am finding of great value. Almost having a responsibility over the two other members of my team can seem daunting at first, but in many ways it’s driven me to be more organised and proactive for the team. This is the first (and last) team assignment we do on the course, so I want to make sure we do a good job of it the first time around.
In a general sense, the most I’ve realised in these last six weeks is that I’m now a lot more grown up with everything I do. Just by looking back at some of my early journal posts and comparing those against the ones I can easily see a massive change. Most importantly, I feel like a second year.
6 comments:
I know exactly how you feel. I also feel a lot more mature than i did last year and like you said i now feel like a second year. I think your on the right tracks and don't have too much to worry about mate.
Its interesting reading about how you have changed your habit about naming conventions for divs. For me this is the first time I've done this and so its not something I've really thought about. Thinking about it now though I do remember John raising this point in the lecture about giving a name based layout, this would definatley pose problems if you started moving things around.
I guess its a bit like making sure they get us novices trained properly and you old dogs some new tricks.
I think if you say you've learnt a lot from the Box Clever assignment then that is a huge compliment to Steve and the course on a whole.
I myself have had very little experience of CSS before the summer assignment and have being learning on the fly and I thought I had leant a lot, but for someone with a fair bit of experience to say they have learnt a lot makes you realise just how much more us beginners have learnt.
As for the On The Job assignment I've said it before, I think your doing a fantastic job as PM and I don't think we'd be in such a organized state as we are now if it weren't for you.
Mirhad: Cheers. I'm glad I'm not alone feeling like this!
Drew: Yeah, it's like anything really; there's always more that you can learn. The main thing I've learned is to take more care with my CSS and to keep it standardised.
Craig: Steve and John have taught us so much with this CSS in six weeks. Like you said, it's testament to how good this course is and ultimately their teaching.
However, this is only the start and just as I've learned, there's always something else that you can learn when it comes to CSS. I think the hardest thing to get used to is fixing errors and the dreaded IE.
Thanks for comments about the On The Job assignment. It really has been an experience.
I totally agree about fixing errors and IE being the biggest problem. My first attempt at the CSS Beauty site was jumping around in the older browsers and only rendered properly in IE7 and Firefox 2. I managed to solve this though by cleaning up the code and using a hack which helped a lot.
Can I remind you about the 'date stamping' for comments please.
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