week 1
Initial Assesment: www.Socrative.com
Introduction to unit
Discuss how the website they will complete will be used in their digital portfolio (Unit 3: A Digital Portfolio), and how they should document the process of developing their website for inclusion in their portfolio.
Typical uses of websites
As you probably know there are millions and millions of websites on the internet today, each different from each other, offering services, business tools, personal and entertainment. Some of the most common purposes of websites are covered below.
Presenting information
Websites are used by businesses and by people for the purposes of both for presenting information, such as news, and in business situations products and or services and advertising these online. Nowadays almost all companies have their own website. Some of the best known news websites are used today are BBC News (www.bbc.co.uk).
Storing information
Websites can provide services that enable you to save information and data to them this is commonly referred to as the 'cloud', this is a relatively recent development in information and data storage. This service uses the internet and the webservers to store information rather than using local storage such as your computer's C:/ disk drive or other memory sticks.
Browsing and searching for information
Search engines and the use of a specific engine has change most of our lives. The internet search engine Google has become the worlds leading search engine leading to the verb.‘to Google’ to be included in to the Oxford English Dictionary. Most people that you come across nowadays will suggest that you ‘Google it’ if you do not know the answer.
The internet has become the basis of many of our links to gathering information and in a number of instances this can be real-time information. Examples of such places on the internet would be the use of the BBC site for the latest news, Stock exchanges to see the price of shares and bonds, the airport to see when a flight is due to land.
Improving productivity
The web has enabled an alternative way of communication, Email. The use of Email has completely changed the way that people and business communicate, it has enabled people and companies to share information and data, send electronic documents to each other almost instantly. The use of video conferencing has allowed people and companies to have meetings and to see things irrelevant of location and time. This has helped companies and people to save money in not requiring them to spend time in travelling.
Making decisions
Over the past 10 years there have been more sites that enable us to make better decisions on products and services as they provide us with information from a number of different places in one place. Example of these sorts of sites are Go compare, moneysaving expert and compare the market, all these sites offer people all the information that can be found to allow them to make a decision on which product or service suits their needs and for the best price.
Make a list of all the websites you visit in a week and classify each of them using the list above. What type has the most number of websites from your list? Which individual sites do you visit most often? What are the features of your favourite sites that attract you to them?
Communication with people
You will probably be one of the meny millions that use social networking sites that are available today, these include Facebook, Myspace, Mebo, Bebo and the list grows longer. People use these sites as ways to communicate with their friends but to also get an look in to what they are doing, going to do, or have done. These sites now offer the ability for users to chat with friends though an instant messenger type interface. There are lots of other instant messenger services that are available to users, such as Yahoo Chat and MSN, these are popular and some include video chatting as well as text chat such as Skype.
Media sharing
An area of the internet has evolved is the ability to listen to music or live radio, and how we watch films. Companies like Apple offer services like iTunes that enable users to purchase and download music through the web, whilst other sites like YouTube allow people to view and share videos on the internet covering a wide range of areas. Radio stations are now broadcasting in digital as well as conventional analogue, so you can now listen to your favourite stations and DJ’s over the internet, there are some radio stations that only broadcast digitally like BBC, Radio 6 Music.
E-commerce
The use of the internet to all us to do our shopping has dramatically increase over a number of years. Companies like John Lewis and PC world have all embraced this way of doing some of its business. As well as these large company’s there are others that are online-only the like Amazon and Ebuyer. A large amount of business is now done online.
Education
The internet holds huge amount of resources and information on pretty much every subject That you can think of. If you wanted to, you could find information about the number of people that have walked on the moon by using a simple search on the internet. Some sites are specialist and offer detailed information to its users and some are general and give the basic facts, however all this information is available to you, and in the most part it is FREE. An example of such sites is www.tomshardware.co.uk, which provides information about PC hardware, it also provides details on training courses and contains video instructions on how to do all sorts of practical things.
Downloading information
On the internet today there are a number of websites enable you to download digital content for you use as you wish. A well-known example is iTunes where you can buy and download music, videos and now ringtones. There are other sites that allow you to download their software products directly from their website. A example of this is Microsoft, where you are able to download the latest version of a web browser. You must be careful when downloading any files from any sites and some sites are out there that are bad, these are sites that use Phishing to get your information, and others that allow you to download viruses that can attack your computer and the files on it, and can even send your private information to bad people from your computer.
The information covered in this page covers the knowledge and understanding linked to the criterion in the table below.
Learners to identify website features that appeal to different types of audiences based on categories provided by the teacher.
Concluding discussion: Why businesses/individuals want websites created for them, how to attract people to a website and why it is important to.
Website Production
Welcome to unit 13, this unit is all about the wonderful world of web design. This unit will take you through the key stages to create a website and the required planning and testing that is required to enable the creation of a sucsessful web project.
How many websites are there now on the internet?
What is 'cloud' concept?
What is needed to set up a 'virtual' meeting?
What types of websites are there?
(5 min's)
Last Updated
2018-04-16 13:27:00
Links to Learning Outcomes |
Links to Assessment criteria |
|
|---|---|---|
|
LOA Understand the uses and features of websites |
1A.1 Identify the intended use and features of two websites. 2A.P1 Explain the intended uses and features of two different websites 2A.M1 Review how the features in two websites improve presentation, usability, accessibility and performance 2A.D1 Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the websites |
English
Search for information, using different sources, and multiple search criteria in at least one case.
Review and Analysis of information and features.
Maths
Analysis of information: Interpreting Results, Drawing conclusions from data, Comparing data
Using Numbers: Counting, Place value, adding and subtracting, multiplying and dividing.
Case Study:
Junior web developer I wanted to work in web development, as I think it is one of the fastest developing and most exciting areas in IT. I learned about the basics of web development when I studied for my BTEC First course and then I went on to study it in more detail at college and university. After I left university I applied for a lot of jobs with no luck. After about three months, I found work at a local company which makes fashion wear. They were looking for a junior web developer to update their website and I got the job. Their website changes all the time, with new ranges of clothing coming out and old ones needing to be removed. So far, I am happy with the job. Some parts of it are quite tedious, like uploading the new files, but I am learning new things all the time, and as I learn how to do more, I can get involved in the more interesting and exciting projects. We are currently looking at creating a version of our website for mobile users, which I am looking forward to working on.
Questions
- What sort of companies might want to employ a web developer?
- If you wanted to become a junior web developer, what type of qualifications would be useful?
- Why do you think Alex's employer wants to create a version of their website for mobile users?
- If you got a job as a junior web developer, how might your career progress (i.e. if you got promoted, how would your job change)?
How 2's Coverage
Clarifying Learning Objectives - Using coloured discs and/or peer explanation, check to ensure that learners have understood the learning objectives.
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