LIS 390W1A - Lab 8: Writing More HTML

This lab is an exercise in writing your own HTML page from scratch. It is up to you to decide what the organization is, how the content should be structured, etc. You are required to follow good markup practice as defined above. You are required to include certain tags in order to demonstrate that you have learned how to use them properly. And you are required to answer certain questions. Aside from these requirements, how you encode the assignment is up to you. Feel free to experiment with the structure of your response, with new tags you are learning, etc. The responses do not need to be placed in a list.

The first purpose of this assignment is to ensure that you are learning how to use the HTML tags we are covering in class. Therefore, the following tags must be included somewhere in the page:

• <img> - include an image of some sort. If you don't have any images, then find one on the internet that is licensed to be used in such a class project (and follow the terms of the license). Most Creative Commons licenses grant you such permission. To find appropriate images, you might want to check out the following links:
  • Flickr Creative Commons Licensed Images
  • Google search for "free images"
  • Google search for "creative commons images"
• <pre>
• <span> - it is likely that you will use this tag in a pretty arbitrary manner; that's ok. Just make sure you use it properly (e.g.: not <span><p>Look at my spanned paragraph!</p></span>)
• <div> - use this tag to divide up your page into logical divisions of text.
• <em>
• <meta> - you must add at least one more meta tag in addition to the standard required "Content-Type" meta tag. See Ian Graham's Introduction to HTML: Meta Tag page for some examples of other uses of meta tags.
• <blockquote>

In addition, you must use attributes with at least three different elements. Good candidates include the <img> element, the <div> element (use the "class" standard attribute to specify what the meaningful divisions of text are which you are enclosing), and the <blockquote> element.

The other purpose of this assingment is to obtain feedback from you about what you have learned so far and how well the class is going, and the questions you are required to answer relate to this purpose. You may not feel comfortable answering some of these questions, or you may wish to elaborate on your answers anonymously. Feel free to refrain from answering any particular question (though please answer the first question at least). In class I will be designating one of your fellow students to collect anonymous feedback. Please send that student the feedback so that they can compile it together and send it to me as a chunk.

• Give a brief summary of the most interesting thing(s) you have learned so far. This does not have to include every last detail, but should demonstrate that you learned something.
  • This question is might be a good candidate for using the <blockquote> element if you quote from the class website or your previous work, and the <pre> element to show some HTML you coded, or some commands you typed into the command line.
• How do you think the class is going so far? Do you feel the pace is too fast, too slow?
  • If you want, illustrate your feelings with an appropriate image or two.
• Do you have any suggestions for how the class can be improved? If so, what are they?
• What is the best aspect of the class so far?
• What is the worst aspect of the class so far?
• What (if anything) would you like to spend more time on?
• What (if anything) do you believe was a waste of time?
• How do you feel about the organization of the class? What would you do differently?

To complete this assignment, you may find the following links useful:

• Tag Phrase Elements
• Standard Attributes
• Dave Raggett's Introduction to HTML: More advanced features

To submit this assignment upload the HTML file to the GSLIS I: drive and then send me a URL. Make sure you include the proper header information, and the proper validation text at the bottom of the file. If you like, you may use the Generic HTML Page and its accompanying stylesheet as a template for this lab. If you do, be sure to edit the information appropriately (i.e., replace my name and contact information with yours). You can use a variant on what I have provided, but please be sure to include a referer link to the W3C validator.

Out of 45 points total.

• Following good markup practice: 5 points
• Valid XHTML (make sure you run it through a validator): 5 points
• Including and correct use of each required tag: 3 points each (21 points total)
• Including and using correctly attributes on three tags: 2 points each (6 points total)
• Quality of writing in question answers: 8 points