McDaniel+Final+Reflection





The end is finally here. It seems like it has been a very long journey. As I look back at the reflections that I submitted when the class first started and the more recent reflections I have submitted, I am amazed at the incredible changes that have occurred. Some things have completely changed and others still remain the same and something’s have been omitted all together. Looking back upon my initial expectations for the internship aspect, my apprehensions dealt with whether or not I would be able to complete this and it for it to be satisfactory to the client. My ultimate concern is simply the efforts of this experience to not be wasted. I wanted the end results to be used and valued by the client and beneficial to me in my growth in the Education Technology program. My internship experience was c reating an Interactive/informational website for my local chapter sorority. I Created the website using Dreamweaver and purchased the domain and hosting services from www.godaddy.com. The website displays information about the members and upcoming events. Information on past events, along with photos and videos will be posted as well. I created the website from scratch and will most likely be the one to maintain it. **Lessons Learned ** Well, let's just say that I have a new found respect for web designers. It is a daunting task to say the least. Coming into the internship I knew my experience with web design was very limited, but I felt as though taking on this task would challenge me in many ways and hoped it would make me better. The internship did all of that and more. Creating this website I got the opportunity to revisit some of the technology aspects I learned earlier in the Edtech degree program. Experience with the software allowed me explore new facets of the software that I didn't have familiarity with. I think I did quality work on this website and would like to challenge myself the next time I create a website to do something totally out of the box and different. I paced myself with the project doing a little here and a little there. I took 3 classes this semester so that is probably why (Definitely a lesson Learned), but I would try to get more done sooner with the next project. **Difficulties ** The difficulties I had came with the research I conducted about alignment, color, animation, and graphics. I didn't want to make the website to busy where it would take a while to load and I didn't want to have it looking funny where it was to bright or to dark. I wanted the website to be very clean and crisp. When individuals visit the page I want them to be able to go right to the information without having to go through lots of other information they didn't need. Because I was a novice with the Dreamweaver software I did have some difficulty with aligning certain things and making certain sections of the website colors I wanted. I used trail and error as well as Google and YouTube videos to overcome these obstacles. I also used the research from my annotated bibliography with help on the color, alignment and animation to make sure that I was following all website guidelines. At the very end I had some problems with the coding of the website and the flash animation not working. It is still a work in progress. I have called the support team and I am still working and looking for the problem as well. **Successes ** Working with Flash, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks and creating actual working media I consider a success. Flash and Fireworks are really cool and you can do so much with them if you know what you are doing and even if you don't. When I took EDET 603 that was my first time working with flash and I loved it. I thought it was a really neat software, and this internship experience has only reiterates that. I really begin to use fireworks in EDET 703 and I thought it was hard and was glad to stop using it. In fact I used Photoshop instead which was a little easier. I use Fireworks in my internship though and learned how to work some new features with the software and realized it's not as bad as I thought it was. In my internship I learned new features working with all of this software and ultimately how they all work together. I consider that a success because working with different types of technologies is a key component in the Education technology program **Things to do Differently ** When I create another website I think that I will use a template, just to see how much different if will be from what I did with this one. Also now that I am familiar with domains and hosting, even though I have had at least two courses in programming I think I would like to experiment a little more with code. When I uploaded the website I had some issues with the code. When I called customer service they gave me some really good tips about what you should do when naming your files to make sure that it is accepted when uploaded to the server. **How my experience relates? ** This is something that I have being asking myself the entire internship experience. As I read and looked at what other students were working on, I felt as though the website I was creating had nothing to do with instructional design. I thought that it could be the fact that I don't work in education yet and most of my peers do, so they had more exposure to what the degree actually details and different things that they could experiment with. I do work in technology and my undergrad is in technology but I have no experience with education and technology together except for my own personal experiences. As I begin to really put forth effort and work on my project I begin to see how it all related. This internship was a process. I had to meet with the client and determine what worked best for her and the organization. A lot like what takes place as an instructional designer. I had to make sure that I planned and designed according to everything she advised me. From there it just clicked. I begin to understand why Dr. Smyth signed off of the proposal. As I look over the program I can see where each course relates to the next and how they all ultimately work together and where the internship experience fits in. There are some things I need to work on as far as creativity and thinking outside of the box but I think that the classes I have taken throughout the course have already began to help me with this and I see great things in my future in Education Technology.

Overall I really enjoyed my internship and I believe it will be very beneficial to me and my future. The website is a greater starter website for the organization because it is relatively small right now. I took into consideration that many of our members are middle aged adults who do not rely as heavily on technology as some of the younger members and therefore developed a product appropriate to both age groups. The website answer any questions an interested member might have about joining.