At the start of this blogging assignment, I decided I would do a review of Dreamweaver and what shall forever be known as “the Dreamweaver project”. Two months later and twelve days before the Dreamweaver project deadline, the best review I can come up with is that Dreamweaver and HTML/CSS coding are an apt metaphor for the difference between understanding and doing.
The background
The background is simple. We created a storyboard for a small website. Now we have to develop this website in Dreamweaver. I have never designed a website nor used Dreamweaver before. I have enough knowledge of HTML and XML to understand most of the code when I read it. I thought that knowledge, access to w3schools.com, and more online research would be sufficient. How naive!
The process
I am now on my third attempt. First, I tried to create the website from scratch. The most accurate description for this attempt is a big, sarcastic “LOL”. Anyway, my template was almost correct, but I was stalling, I did not see how to untangle the situation, and I had to expect as much trouble with every feature I created.
I proceeded simultaneously with my second attempt (building the site as a table) and third attempt (using the only vaguely similar Dreamweaver template available) to see which one would be more efficient to handle. The Dreamweaver template won. My template index.html is not perfect, but I can improve it later on. For now, it’s functional and I have to move on.
Still, I have to downgrade my ambitions for this project from my storyboard. I asked my brother for his opinion on my storyboard because he is experienced in coding and web design. He is that person who will answer your questions with an obnoxious “Oh! That’s so obvious! Just do [something that is definitely not obvious].” So, hearing him say “You couldn’t start easy, could you?” was a relief.
I have had this feeling that expectations for this project are too high. Designing the storyboard with skewed expectations of my abilities, the learning curve, and the usability of Dreamweaver set me up for a world of failure and frustration.
Understanding vs doing
Like with any language, understanding the HTML/CSS code of a website and “writing” a website are two massively different things. My usual strategies for learning to write in a language would broadly include:
- Mastering the rules (grammar, syntax, keywords, etc.)
- Reading as much as possible to increase my vocabulary and internalise a natural writing style
- Writing content using what I have mastered and increasing complexity progressively
Based on my experience so far, coding is different from most languages I learnt before. There may be several, slightly different ways to code the same feature, but I find beginners have less freedom for creativity than with other languages.
For example, when in my third year of Russian, I had to write complex text analyses with a limited vocabulary, a pocket dictionary, and no Internet. As a beginner, I had to find ways to express myself with these limited resources. I had to rephrase my thoughts in simpler terms or terms that I could access. This is one of the hardest exercises I have ever done, but also one of the most useful for communication and learning in general.
I have tried to reproduce this process with this project without success despite access to incredible resources. I improve by small increments but reviewing how I solved each issue, I find that I solved my biggest issues through pure luck instead of identifying the root causes. I am trying to improve my skills by monitoring and analysing my progress, but I cannot consider luck as progress. A crucial piece is missing and I think it is a deeper understanding of HTML, CSS and web design rules, like how each coded feature interacts with the rest of the code. I would need a lot more time and overseen practice through e-learning courses for this.
Conclusion
No doubt the Dreamweaver has provided an opportunity for deeper learning, forcing me to evaluate and adapt my strategies. Unfortunately, the main strategy I can think of is to spend more time learning about the code and Dreamweaver through e-learning courses, but time is not an option anymore.
How much time would I need? My summer development project is coming up and I am supposed to build a much more complex website with Dreamweaver and WordPress. I have to keep in mind the overall development project and my priorities – the first is content design of a learning resource for the web, the second is WordPress hosting. The tool used is a secondary consideration. There’s the lesson of the Dreamweaver project.
The Budding Techcomm Blogger 