I think the thing that I had the most fun doing this quarter was making our websites. I have always wanted to design and post a personal website, but have never taken the time to learn how to do it. This class, while only at a basic level, has given me the stimulus to do so. I realize that our use of dreamweaver is very rudimentary compared to what some website designers are doing, but I still feel empowered by being to sit at my computer and design something that the entire world can see. I have enjoyed publishing some of my writing especially my creative writing. While that writing is very personal to me I think it speaks to what I think about society and in some ways life. My website has given me a spot to show this.
If I were to continue working on my site I think that I would continue to use it to make social commentaries. As much as I would like to become a doctor I think that something that I enjoy doing far more are writing and discussing social issues and dilemmas. It is more than that even. I think what I enjoy about it is being able to make very abstract connections between social issues or being able to analyze the social constructs that have come to being through society. This is why I enjoyed my creative writing so much and why, if I were to continue to work on my website, I would continue to analyze various social issues. My current project, the civic-engagement project, is going to be about the right to health care. I realize that this is an enormous topic and that the United States is in the midst of analyzing for ourselves what we want to do about it, but I would like to make my contribution to the discussion. I first came upon the idea for the topic in my Ethics in the Health Professions class here at Santa Clara. After discussing it for a bit and learning so many things about our health care system that I didn't know, I realized that I wanted to help educate people a little bit about our system and a little bit about the ethics behind why I believe we do and should have in the United States a right to health care.
If I were to continue working in the website context and to develop another site I think that I would create a how-to site. I actually have already started work on this site, although nothing is actually online. I think that the new site would probably be a bit more professional looking. In a sense, I think that it would be a bit more basic and less heavy on colors. My first projects are actually underway and I think that I may consider producing them during the summer. The first project and a favorite of mine, was my designing and developing of my laptop. I searched around and created a plan for a new laptop for myself. I then proceeded to buy the parts and have them shipped to the school. Then I built the computer from all the various parts and documented it using pictures. I think that I would like to post this online, perhaps half as a how-to and half as a blog on my experience. I say this because I realize that every laptop is different and my experience will not explain in perfect detail what everyone would do, but I think that it would help lots of people that are interested, yet unsure where to begin. Also, I think I would like to start another how-to section on using things like Dreamweaver and Photoshop. There are so many things I don't know about either program, however, as I have gone along I have learned lots of things that I think I would like to share with other people. For instance, I learned how to create cool text images to use as the titles for my pages. Thus, my splash pages had much nicer looking titles that spruced up the page over standard text. In essence, my new site would be a conglomeration of things that I have learned and my experiences doing those things. It would serve as a jumping off point for other people so that they can get started with what they may want to do and have the fog lifted for them by someone else.