Tag: york college

Assignment #1 Example Fun with Ryan

an animated gif of the woodside train station in queens nyc
 

Assignment #1 Example Fun with Ryan

I’m excited to be back and teaching again!

Here we are in the Spring semester of 2023. I have a particular love for teaching CT101 at York College!

“CT” is short for Communications Technology, and the course is called “Digital Storytelling”.. (I know, the name of the course says it all!) It has quite a bit of history and I will share more on its origins soon. CT101 makes me happy. CT101 takes place on the Internet!

I love this class because it can literally help and inspire everyone. There is something here that everyone can learn and benefit from while also helping others evolve collectively. I say and mean everyone because lets face it, “we” spend a lot of time using the Internet..

Its a relationship, really!

We can all benefit from learning new digital tools, techniques, applications of self-expression and participating in a cross CUNY community here on the commons. (Which is a piece of the Internet that makes me happy! Oh I already said that..) CT101 puts an emphasis on creating and publishing content to a class blog whilst experimenting with what the potentials of “what a blog post can be”…

This also makes me happy. WordPress makes me happy!

What is making you happy on the Internet this Week?

So here we are, officially jumping into CT101 this second week. We have a ton of great stuff to cover, learn, share, create, apply, rinse and repeat this semester!

Assignment #1 asks you to share; What is making you happy on the Internet?  We can do cool things like hyperlink text and verbiage.. We can make an image or ten, an animated GIF like the one above and below – also a “clickable thing” that redirects to another page or place on the Internet. That IDEA in and or itself makes me very happy! So in essence, the creative and practical functionality of the Internet as a whole makes me really happy.

The Internet archive makes me happy too! (did you know about this?) Jump in and go waaaaaaay down the Internet cultural rabbit hole!

Lets dig a bit deeper..

The GIF above is taken from my profile on GIPHY. (go ahead and click on the image of the hyperlinked word to find my “stock” of animated GIFS. You can use them and embed them almost anywhere on the web. Thats the beauty of GIPHY.com – its a search engine for animated GIFs and animated Stickers, like I said, its Internet culture and Internet culture makes me happy! Website’s like Giphy have a lot of utility, they give us the opportunity to share our emotions and feelings through looping visual imagery. This helps me express myself in so many ways. Giphy.com makes me happy this week!

a screen shot of the giphy.com home page at the moment

 

I love to make animated GIFS! And guess what, you are going to learn how to make them in our class! I love GIFs and I feel that they are a huge part of Internet culture. Come on now, we all love animated GIFS! I made most of the GIFs in this blog post. These are just a few of the many of thousands that I have made (did I say thousands? Yikes, its true, I cant stop!) I blame Professor Michael B. Smith for this as he got me into GIFs and making them! Be sure to check out his blog here.

OK, so those are a few things that are making me happy on the Internet as well as a few ways that I use the Internet. Let’s get started!

PS – Did you notice the formatting for this blog post? Notice how my images are the same size and how everything has been aligned to the left? This is intentional and it helps the viewer/reader easily absorb the content. You too will learn how to apply a similar format, though it may see a bit tricky to manage at first, you will easily get the hang of it!

 

 

Mid-Semester Assessments & WordPress Customizing Part 2!

(GIF by Erica Anderson)

Mid-Semester Assessments & WordPress Customizing Part 2!

And just like that, here we are at the mid-point of the semester! Time really does move fast, or does it? Either way, we are learning a lot and growing together!

**Please scroll down to screen the full recording from this week’s class with WordPress customizations Part 2!**

The Assignment for this Week:

In a new blog post that will be published to here to CT-101, I would like for you to reflect upon our current semester. Lets tell a compelling story about what we have learned thus far. What have been some of the main skills that have been discovered, learned and applied? What do you know now that you did not know before the class began? What are your strengths so far? What do you need to work on and make improvements on? To date, we have had the opportunity to publish a series of blog posts that allow us to speak creatively in our own authentic voices, how have the assignments helped you as a communicator? It would be a good idea to review and reference your existing posts and even quote to hyperlink back to a few of them. What grade do you feel you have earned so far in our class? Self assessment is important, it helps us become aware and take action from that perspective and energy. We took a big step last week by registering a new domain name, setting up a web hosting account and even began customizing our personal websites! Please include in this reflection post your domain name and “how” you plan to use your website as we go forward. Make sure to include the hyperlink to your websites URL – for example, here is mine: https://ryanseslow.com

Have Fun with This!

PART II – More WordPress customizing, tricks, tips and techniques!

Last week in class we covered an introduction to the customizing of the Twenty Seventeen WordPress theme for our new websites!

(In case you missed it, here is the first video recording from that session, it is a good idea to watch this first if you haven’t)

During the zoom sessions this week I will be continuing another series of customizing tips, tricks, and techniques for working with wordpress. We will remove all default theme content, create new pages, set up a contact me form, embed or add social media posts into your website and more!

**Here is the full recording from this week’s class with WordPress customizations Part 2!

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/DtdOCR3K2XNQksnD55FntCG_HD0VvCYuZhUBnjv-KKw1d8ZA0dozQItw9SGfelxU.uBxS2uhPxlorKCd_

Passcode: 1jD!c19P