So far in LS 560, I have done mostly web design. My IT fluency levels haven't changed substantially, but there is a marked difference between what I know I can do in theory, and what I can do in practice. I had a working knowledge of html years ago, but my skills have atrophied from lack of use, so the ability to put them to use again has been exhilarating and informative. I am relieved to find that html has not changed much since I designed my first webpage.
One new skill for me is the use of style sheets, which I had never done before. For me they are still in the range of theoretical rather than practical, but I'm working on changing that and becoming more familiar with how to utilize them effectively. The main challenge for me so far has been figuring out the syntactical differences between html and css, so that I can determine how to map concepts and tags from the html in the site design itself over into the style sheet.
Additionally, I'd never used any of the meta-data tags in my html coding before. I had never heard of them before when I had my original experience with web design. I don't know if that's because they weren't en vogue when I learned to build websites, or if I was simply too much of a self-taught amateur to be aware of them. I remember hearing about them as a way to manipulate google years after, and controversies that caused google to change the way it reads metadata, but I never figured out the specifics of how such tags are indexed or considered. I would still consider myself an amateur in this area, and am still trying to determine some of their precise practical applications.
Some of html has actually simplified with html 5, so my web design has actually become a bit easier than it used to be. In addition to exploring style sheets and meta tags, I am using columns and tables for my site, which I had some previous experience with, but have fleshed out my competency a bit. If I have time before the assignment comes due, I am also looking forward to exploring a little java, which I had barely gotten my feet wet in years ago doing mouse overs.
