by Michael Austin
Shepherd College
About these Pages
This is not a guide for people who know anything at all about
designing web pages. If you are an experienced designer looking
for new tips, you will be very bored with my site. If you are a
person who has ever used the words "HTML Tag,"
"CGI Extension," or "FTP" in a conversation,
then click here
for some advanced help. This is a page for people like me:
college or high school instructors who recognize the value of
moving students onto the "Information Superhighway,"
but are intimidated and frustrated at the thought of designing a
web site for classroom use.
Who Am I and Why Am I on the Web
I am not technological by nature. I am an English teacher
specializing in Eighteenth Century British Literature. I don't
like computers, I don't trust computers, and, if it were up to
me, all writing would still be done on yellow legal pads with #2
pencils. However, I began my Web Odyssey in October of 1996, when
I came to the conclusion that I could not, in good conscience,
ignore what looked like the most useful pedagogical tool
developed in my lifetime: the World Wide Web. Since then, I have
designed two web sites for my college (The English
Department Home Page and an extensive Course Syllabus for my English
330 Class) and have enhanced the already-developed Shepherd College
Writing Center Web Page. Take a look at these pages to see
functioning examples of the kinds of things that academics can do
with the Internet.
My Theory of Web Design
My theory of web design is simple: I am a teacher, not a computer
programmer, and I want to get functional web pages up for my
students quickly without having to learn anything more about
computers than I absolutely have to. I don't care about bells and
whistles. I am not interested in flashing lights or twirling
images, or race cars that run up and down a screen. I want to
upload information for my students to use and provide them a
forum for out-of-class interaction. If you think this might be
your theory of web design too, read on.
How to Use this Site
The Table of Contents at the top of this page contains links to
all of my pages relating to web design. Each page will contain a
brief description of a principal of web design, along with links
to other sites where you can download or connect to tools that
can help you construct your own pages. A non-graphical replica of
this table of contents appears at the bottom of every page. If
you have any questions or comments about these pages, please feel
free to e-mail me at maustin@shepherd.wvnet.edu.
Click here
for an indexed page containing all of the links used in this
site. I usually set this as the start page for my browser when I
am doing web work so that I can have all of my favorite tools in
one place.
Links
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