Orientation: Web Publishing Software

Web publishing software. Most students begin the class never having published a webpage before. If that is the case, don't worry: almost everyone is surprised to find out how easy it is to publish webpages. I am going to recommend that you start by using either Mozilla Seamonkey Composer or Google Sites to publish your webpages, and one of your tasks in this assignment is to decide which software package you want to use.

Meanwhile, however, if you already know how to publish webpages with some other kind of software (such as Dreamweaver), that is great; you are certainly not required to use Composer or Google Sites - but those are the only kinds of software for which I will provide technical support. If you are already an experienced web publisher and you want to use your own software to do the web publishing for this class, you can skip down to the STEP FIVE of this assignment.

STEP ONE: Learn about Composer and Google Sites. Please read these brief descriptions to learn about what options are available:

• Mozilla Seamonkey Composer. Mozilla is the company that also makes the Firefox web browser. Mozilla Seamonkey is a software package that contains a program called Composer, which allows you to create and publish webpages. The software is available for free for both Windows and Macintosh computers. It is desktop software, which means you download the software and run it on your own computer. Using Composer you publish the webpages to your OU webspace. Most of the Storybook projects in this class have been created using Composer, so you have lots of examples you can look at. Here are some examples from the Fall 2009 semester: Mysterious Rock Star Deaths, Fairy Tales in the City, and Heroes of the United Kingdom.
• Google Sites. Google Sites is a fairly new service offered by Google which allows you to create and publish webpages using your web browser. That means you do not have to download and install any software to create your Google Site, and it also means that you can do your work from any computer with a web browser (including computers in computer labs, Internet cafes, etc.). The webpages you create with Google Sites are published in webspace that is provided to you for free by Google. This is a new Google service, and Fall semester was the first time that students began using it for this class. Here are some examples from the Fall 2009 semester: Aphrodite: Goddess of Love, Ganges Gazette: Birth Stories, and Adventures of Talking Animals.

STEP TWO: Do you NEED to use Google Sites? There are two situations in which I would strongly recommend that you use Google Sites as your web publishing option:

• Use Google Sites if you do not have your own computer where you can download and install software. So, if you are doing all your work on computer labs, or on a computer at work, or by borrowing friends' computers, then you really need to use Google Sites for publishing your webpages.
• Use Google Sites if you know you will be out of town often or for a long period of time during the semester. Even if you have your own computer while you are traveling, you may be connecting to Internet services (such as Internet services in a hotel) where you will have trouble with firewalls or other kinds of Internet security. Just to be on the safe side, you should choose Google Sites as your publishing option so that even when you are out of town, you can keep up with your classwork using any kind of Internet computer access that is available.

So, if either of these two conditions apply to you, you really should choose Google Sites as your option. You will be publishing webpages every week of the semester in this class, and you need to make sure that your computer access will not cause you any trouble in completing those assignments. If you know you will be using Google Sites for this class, skip ahead to STEP FIVE of this assignment now.

STEP THREE: Weigh your options. You will not have to decide which software option you are going to use for your Storybook until Week 4 of the semester. The webpages you will be publishing in Week 2 and Week 3 are "practice" webpages to help you get started and to let you build your online identity as an OU student. I would recommend that you try using BOTH software options to see which one you prefer. However, you might want to choose now which option you prefer, based on this overview of the differences between the two software options:

• If you are really interested in the idea of learning how to publish webpages and create websites, you should use Composer. Although Composer is a very simple program, it is a great way to get ready to learn to use more advanced software. Also, you will probably want to choose to use Composer if you have already learned how to use this software in the past, since you already have gotten over the hurdle of getting started with Composer.
• If you are the kind of person who gets frustrated with computers easily, then you should use Google Sites. There are many aspects of web publishing which are handled for you automatically in Google Sites, making it very easy to use. If you have used Composer in the past and found it frustrating, you may really prefer Google Sites instead; don't feel like you must use Composer this semester even if you used it in a class previously. It will take you just a few minutes to get started using GoogleSites.
• If you are someone with a strong visual sense, and the colors and fonts and layout of webpages are something that you feel strongly about, then you should use Composer. The Composer program gives you much more control than GoogleSites over the look and feel of the webpages that you will be creating.
• If the phrase "web2.0" means anything to you, you will enjoy using Google Sites to create your webpages because it is so strongly integrated with all the other Google services. Google Sites is really a wiki program rather than a website, and it offers all kinds of "mash-up" possibilities, allowing you to embed widgets and external media in your site.

Those are just a few of the main differences between Mozilla Seamonkey Composer and Google Sites. If you think you are sure which software you want to use to create your webpages, that is great! You can make your choice right now, and skip to STEP FIVE of this assignment. If, however, you are not sure which one to use, please read on!

STEP FOUR: Keeping your options open. If you are not sure which software will be best for you, I would recommend that you keep your options open, and not decide until Week 4. If that is what you want to do, you will do the Week 2 webpage assignment for class using Google Sites, and then do the Week 3 webpage assignment for class using Composer, so that in Week 4 you can decide which one you prefer.

STEP FIVE: Define your strategy. As the final step in this assignment, you need to decide what your strategy will be as you do the web publishing assignments for this class. Please send me an email in which you choose one of these options:

• Choosing Google Sites now. Please let me know your main reason(s) for making this choice.
• Choosing Composer now. Please let me know your main reason(s) for making this choice.
• Choosing OTHER software. If you are going to use another option, please let me know what software you will be using and send me a link to a website you have published using that software.
• Keeping options open. If you are keeping your options open, that's all you need to let me know for now.

To finish this assignment, send me an email where you tell me your choice, and make sure you use this subject line for the email: Week 1: Software Options. Also, if you have any questions related to the web publishing assignments, please feel free to ask!

When you have sent in the email, you can do the Gradebook Declaration. Here is the text of the Gradebook Declaration you will complete: