HTML this week at our lectures; very useful and one of the most vexing systems of code for the uninitiated - well, at least it is for me. There really should be a glossary of <tags> so you could use them like a dictionary when creating a page (But of course, some of them are now redundant ‘sigh’) 

I was very fortunate in that I fiddled around with HTML during my hiatus post Acting Degree in 2003. I used an old book from the Library, probably designed for Mid-Nineties webpage looks, and accordingly my pages were very basic and plain. I had not discovered CSS.

CSS, coupled with HTML, as demonstrated in our tutorials this week proves to be a powerful combination - particularly in producing that glossy, finished look that so eluded me when I tinkered briefly with HTML around 2007. It simply gives me more control over HOW my page can look, particularly in layout and colour and images. 

Although I’m worlds away from using CSS to guide my HTML to look anything like www.csszengarden.com, it’s still a tantalising glimpse of future efforts. Hopefully sites like www.cssbasics.com will help me on my way.

Thankfully in Tutorials the nitty-gritty of HTML and alike are actually demonstrated and explained to us. The same cannot be said for our Lectures, which, from my perspective, continue to be either bewildering or lacking in detail. This week again saw Michael Honey babbling away and not pausing nearly enough for comprehension. Yes, I imagine he has a lot to pack into these lectures but I think he takes for granted how specialised his field is and how he has come to rely on inside lingo to convey it’s workings, rather than translating it into something someone with no experience in web design can comprehend. ‘XML’ was beyond me: “You can write anything e.g. <coffee> and assign a function to it that the browser will understand what it’s supposed to do” Yes, but HOW does that work? “I’m not going to explain that now, caus’ we’ll come back to it…” Excuse me, something we can actually USE now, in our Media practise, instead of idealistic philosophising on the quote, unquote ‘power’ of the web and you’re NOT going to go into any detail?

While I understand the reasoning behind our Lecturers continuing to make us find most of this stuff out for ourselves (Ie, Web technology is constantly changing and any structured program teaching now will probably be outdated in several years time) there’s got to be some point where a nudge in the right direction wouldn’t hurt. Don’t just show me csszengarden, show me how to create a page like that in a structured manner! So I don’t learn someone else’s bad mistakes; read a ‘how-to’ designed by someone with only a cursitory knowledge or has jumped an important step or who assumes too much fore knowledge. And make sure I don’t fumble about for hours with a piece of stubborn code where a simple change or a missing character you could bring to my attention would save me the agony.

Because I honestly don’t see what that’s supposed to teach me.