I posed for this picture in May 2013, just after deciding to enroll in an MLIS (Masters of Library and Information Science) program. At the time, I didn’t even known that blog stood for web log. In October 2014, I created a WordPress.com blog as part of a technology tutorial I did for LIS488BL (a technology class) at Simmons' Graduate School of Library and Information Science. While currently offering minimal content, this blog illustrates how great WordPress can be for quickly starting up a website without writing even a single line of computer code.
As I proceeded with the next assignment for LIS488BL, and coded the homepage of my vocal performance website, I made a decision to hand code the rest of the website pages for the LIS488BL final project. One alternative would have been to continue using the WordPress.com blog I had already created.
While expanding the WordPress.com blog would have left me more free to focus on content, the choice to continue coding the website gave me a more valuable technology lesson. With the help of the Simmons Techology lab, I imported my homepage into Dreamweaver, creating a template with an editable content area. More coding was required to customize the individual web page (don't let anyone tell you otherwise!), but the Dreamweaver environment made it easy to replicate code and avoid errors. As demanding this approach was, and as rudimentary the results, I feel that I accomplished the coding experience I wanted without sacrificing content. Dreamweaver was a great option for a tech student at my level.