Mark DuBois Weblog

We just concluded the 10 annual WOW web design contest in Springfield, Illinois (and winners were announced today). Everyone who participated in this contest has demonstrated their willingness to step up to challenges and do more than just attend. You are all to be congratulated for trying. The judges had to make some decisions and arrived at the winners after reviewing all the challenges from a number of different facets (there were literally hundreds of different points which had to be evaluated for each of the challenges). Many thanks to Lynda.com for providing the prizes to the first place winners (months of access to their vast library of training materials).

Congratulations to the first place winners at the WOW Web Design contest held at SkillsUSA in Springfield, Illinois on Apr. 16, 2010.

• Secondary – Christopher and Nicholas (Maine Township High School South)
• Post-Secondary – Matt Scachette and Kevin Burke (Illinois Central College)

As an aside, students from Illinois Central College have now won first place in this contest every year for the past decade.

This contest focuses on completing various challenges related to established web standards and web accessibility. Students had 6 hours to complete various tasks. They had to demonstrate professionalism, team work, and various business skills in addition to having a solid knowledge of HTML and CSS.Everyone who participated indicated they enjoyed the experience and the challenge and had fun.

I plan to post some additional comments to provide feedback to all the participants later this weekend (have to get caught up on a mountain of email now).

The next stop for me in this contest cycle is the national contest in Kansas City in June. I am already looking  forward to it.

As we begin the fall semester, I wanted to share a few thoughts with students taking my classes in the ICC web curriculum.

First – welcome to class. I am here to help you better understand the material and apply it to real life situations. If you ever have a question about the material, contact me and I will do my best to help.

Second – you are responsible for your future. Since you are taking these classes, I make the assumption you aspire to be a web professional. You are encouraged to develop and enhance your professionalism as part of these classes. For example, do the absolute best you can on each assignment. Do not settle for second best. You may someday wish to include some of these as part of a portfolio of your work. Also, take responsibility for your actions. If you know you will miss a deadline, notify me in advance. As a general rule, I will provide you with extra time. However, if you do not notify me beforehand, you will receive a grade of “unsatisfactory” or a 0 for that assignment.

I hope you are looking forward to this semester as much as I am. For those who are in the East Peoria area, we do have an optional open lab for all CMWEB students on Wednesday and Thursday nights (from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. in TC 210 – ICC East Peoria campus). If you are able to make it – great.

The second annual Web Pro Community Challenge was announced at Adobe MAX (San Francisco) yesterday. The Web Pro Challenge is a Web design competition designed to provide the Web community with an opportunity to showcase their skills and talents, win prizes and benefit the community by designing and developing a site for a notable non-profit organization. This year’s non-profit organization links medical students with medical clinics in developing countries worldwide. The contest is open to practicing professionals and students at all levels FREE of charge.

I would like to invite you to participate as a competing team or team leader. For additional details visit the Web Pro Challenge website.

Shari and I made a presentation on the future of technology as part of the ICC Lecture Arts series. A number of excellent questions were asked by the audience. If you would like to listen to the recorded version of this presentation, please contact me and I will provide the link.

Some ICC students received a phone call this week indicating that their enrollment in the traditional version of a class had been canceled and they were being enrolled in the WWW version of the same class. We needed to combine sections for some courses. Since some students live well out of district (and would not be able to participate in the traditional class), we typically combine into the WWW version of a course. That being said, I will still be on campus the nights there would have been a traditional class (for CMWEB 150 – Wednesday night from 6 – 9:35 p.m. and CMWEB 200 – Tuesday night from 6 – 9:35 p.m.). If you are able to be on campus at that time (and enrolled in the course), stop by TC 210. It is often much easier to take a class in person than trying to do the same via the WWW. If you are in the vicinity of East Peoria but can not make it for the “traditional” class, feel free to stop by during my office hours (or at another mutually convenient time) if you have questions about the course material.

I hope everyone is looking forward to the start of classes as much as I am. If you registered for one of my CMWEB classes, note that you will likely be receiving a postcard in the mail in the next week or so. Please follow those instructions closely.

Sadly, the CMWEB 225 class (Actionscript was canceled today by administration – not enough had signed up for it). Likewise, the CMWEB 250 course was also canceled on Aug. 7. The CMWEB 200 (JavaScript) course will go. If you are planning to take CMWEB classes at ICC in the Fall semester and have not yet signed up, I encourage you to sign up for courses today. I can not stress enough the importance of not waiting until the last minute to register.