Welcome to Ted Dejony's GRCP 101 webpage
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Doug Engelbart | Alan Kay | Seven Up essay | Metropolis essay | Film Summation | Virt-Com | Virt-Com discussion | Virt-Com Links | Net Neutrality
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About me | Internet Pioneers | Virtual community research | Visual aesthetics - DVD film reviews | Internet Issues
About this website:
This website consists of my completed assignments in GRCP101 - Introduction to electronic publishing. It is the culmination of my experiences in this course as of Winter quarter 2006 here at Clark College. A great deal of time, effort and thought went into its creation. Please feel free to roam about and read for a while. If your interested in contacting me, see the bottom of this page for my contact information.
I am currently a student at Clark College in Vancouver, WA and am enrolled in the Website Design and Development (WDD) program. My interests in computers and how the web works, as well as a strong determination to do something better with my life are what brought me here.
In the past I've worked a multitude of manual labor and dead end industrial jobs, all of which were taking me nowhere in a hurry. After 15 years of working hard for next to nothing I came to a point in my life where I needed to make some decisions. Based on our financial situation and some alarming physical health issues, I realized that it was time to switch gears.
Initially what lead me to the WDD degree and Clark were my interests in obtaining a career in Web Design, as well as a strong determination to provide a decent life for my family. To give you a brief history about what exactly lead to my choice of Web Design; roughly 5 years ago I realized that I could read source code almost as easily as your reading this page. I was surprised at how quickly and easily I could understand it. I saw this as an opportunity to gain new skills that may one day help me to provide more for my family and enjoy myself while doing it.
After reading tons of source code and visiting virtual communities that catered to Web Designers, I began to understand how to make basic web pages. The fact that I could create something that anyone else on the entire planet could see was an intoxicating realization and so I delved even deeper into this new and fascinating world of html.
Eventually I obtained enough knowledge to enable me to start being creative with website design, adding java scripting and css to enhance the look and feel of it. By this time I had passed the point of just understanding the code, to feeling comfortable enough with it that I could start expressing myself creatively. At this same time I was also part of an online gaming community. With my newfound web skills I created the community's first privately owned website with a BB powered forum. The website resulted in 10 more people joining our community in just under 1 month.
The results that came of this website were more than anyone expected. People from all over the world visited it, asking if they could join our gaming clan. People commented on how well made the website was, which encouraged me to continue to learn about websites. Eventually our gaming clan grew to 126 members at its peak, members from all over the world such as Canada, Japan, Germany, Australia, Mexico, Alaska, the United Kingdom, across the United states from Washington to New England.
I found this new ability to creatively express myself so intoxicating that I became addicted to learning. But this addiction didn’t come without a price. My new found hobby began having negative effects with my immediate family because I was spending so much time learning, and so little time with them. After some intense talks with friends and family I came to the hard realization that I had been choosing this virtual life over my family, over my wife and kids. I needed to leave my cyber-life behind, where my talents were recognized and appreciated, and start making my real life more important.
I left the gaming clan that had grown to almost depend on me, but my family is much more important to me than any website or game will ever be so in that sense it was an easy decision. Still though I had an undeniable fascination with the inner workings of websites so I jumped at the opportunity to help others creating or trouble shooting their websites. Eventually I created a website for my church, PCOC-Vancouver which was a much needed tool in our ministry.
One day a good friend, Scott Lunde, asked me why I didn’t do this as a profession. I answered "I.... I don’t know... I guess because I don’t have the schooling that is required". He said "Well... GO TO SCHOOL!". I said "Well... OKAY!". It was his encouragement for me to pursue my interests in college that eventually lead to my enrollment at Clark and in the WDD degree program.
At the time, I viewed college as something unobtainable because of my financial situation. Scott told me about a place online called "FAFSA", a website for Federal financial aid. I researched it and soon began to realize that maybe college was within my grasp, that maybe I could actually do it. That, along with prayer, God's help in my life and the help and guidance of a very close personal friend of mine enabled me to come to the decision to get off the beaten path, get back on track and go to College, thanks Scott!
A summary of my experience in GRCP101:
During this course I have learned a great deal am very happy to have been a part of it. This experience has opened my eyes to all sorts of new possibilities that I would have never considered before, as you will see if you read further. I have also learned a about how computers and the internet were created as well as the founding fathers of computers and the internet.
One of the most valuable skills I developed while in this course is researching and studying information, putting that information into my own words, then converting those thoughts, ideas, opinions and data into html format to be displayed online as a web-document. As a future Web developer, I am sure these skills will come in very handy.
I came into this course with a pre-existing knowledge of html commands, website development, computer history, research, and technical writing. However, I had never been given the opportunity to hone these separate skills into one complete and highly efficient skill set. I believe this course has enabled me to do so and for that I am very grateful.
Of course, the ultimate result of the GRCP101 course is the creation and completion of this website, a true testament to what i've learned in this course. Thanks Bob!
Completed GRCP101 Assignments Section
Below are all of my completed GRCP101 assignments. Please feel free to browse and read as much and as often as you'd like.
The following two hyperlinks will take you to my tributes to Alan Kay and Douglas Engelbart, internet and computer pioneers. These people played key roles in the development of the computer, internet and related technology, systems, processes and equipment.
Because of their hard work and determination we are now able to surf the internet, use a computer, a mouse, email or
instant message our friends and family, and a host of other systems and processes that we use on a regular basis.
A Virtual Community is a social group that interacts via the internet. The below hyperlink will take you to an analysis of several such groups in which I express my personal definition of what a virtual community is and what conditions I feel need to be met in order to call ones self a member of such a group. In addition, you will also find a rather extensive discussion regarding Howard Rheingold and my opinions of his thoughts and comments in his book The virtual community.
The following hyperlinks will take you to the results of a very fun assignment, watching old black and white movies and writing essays about them. In particular we were requested to pick two movies from an extensive list. I chose the Seven Up! Series and Fritz Lang's Metropolis. These were very exciting and entertaining movies and after watching them I have a whole new outlook on black and white as well as silent movies. There are links to each of the movies I viewed, as well as a summation of my experiences with both of these films.
Internet Issues page:
This is my final page in the GRCP101 course. It deals with some very important Internet related issues which all Internet users should be aware of because they could and do effect us all in both positive and negative ways. Issues like Net Neutrality, fiber optic networks promised by the Bell companies, paid for but never delivered, and big media companies trying to eliminate all local media worldwide in favor of the big dogs wallets. These are some very controversial and scandalous subjects much worth the read.
If you have questions or comments, please click HERE to
email me.
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