In looking through each of my classmate’s blog posts related to week five’s topic of Markup, the most common themes among their writing was the confusion of HTML, the simplicity of Markdown, and the acceptance that both languages are useful. The blog posts also showcased a variety of ways to display a navigation bar on the GitHub blogs and I enjoyed seeing the different features each individual used to express themselves on their About Me page.
Most students remarked on the length of the chapter and the difficulties they faced when attempting to apply the material. HTML’s reliance on complex details and unique vocabulary, such as the endless levels of tags needed to organize lists and indicate headings, makes it difficult to not only understand but to manipulate. Kailey, Kamryn, and Sarah all utilized outside resources to help them either understand the material or adjust the look of their blog. Kailey specifically emphasized an article called “3 Reasons Why Everyone Needs to Learn Markdown” that gave her a clear definition of the relationship between text, HTML, plain text, and Markdown. Rebecca also described her struggle with her material, saying “I will be honest, I have read through the entire chapter twice and have looked back at different sections throughout this past week and am still struggling to fully know everything,” which expresses the sentiments of some of the other classmates on the challenges of HTML. Markdown seemed to be the preferred method of editing code because of the complicated details HTML requires. However, it does seem as though students got the hang of it eventually. Selin was able to write a condensed version of HTML information in her Week 5 Reflection that provided a much less complex overview, while Sarah emphasized the importance of tags in HTML and how they can help you understand the make-up of a document.
Most of my classmates, however, expressed an overwhelming preference for Markdown, due to its visual simplicity and user-friendly functions. Given the purpose of Markdown’s creation as a tool for writers rather than coders, I am not surprised that this is the outcome. In my attempts to use both HTML and Markdown, I also concluded that the latter provided a much better experience for the writing portion of blog posts. Kamryn even enjoyed using Wikipedia’s coding language “Wikicode” over HTML when working on her assignment in ENGL 320. As someone who has gone through that class, I can say that the Wikipedia project is frustrating at best, so I couldn’t imagine trying to utilize HTML. Markdown’s usefulness to a writer shines through when implementing headlines, lists, blockquotes, or emphasized text. As these span elements provide visual guidance for a user, Markdown’s ability to display the code in a way that allows you to see the final outcome more clearly is incredibly beneficial.
Despite this strong preference, there was an understanding for some that both have their benefits- it just depends on what aspect of an online form you want to focus on. I believe Rebecca framed it best by explaining, “I think that is the point though. I am not sure that I will ever have all of those things memorized and be able to perform those actions perfectly every time. This is a new language for me after all.” The idea that HTML is an entirely new way of thinking is important for students to keep in mind as they move forward and struggle with some of the intricacies of the language.
With the opportunity of creativity, my classmate’s similarities diverged. Many of them used their “About You” category to house photos and videos of their traveling experiences or interests. Some also implemented span elements into their pages to provide more organization. Brooke’s artifact for the hands-on activity served as the perfect example of both a well thought out navigation bar and effective forms of span elements. She analyzed one of her favorites blogs called Mrs. Dow Jones’ Blog. Haley Sacks, the woman who runs the blog, shares advice on finances through multiple social media outlets and collects all her information into this online space. Brooke highlights Sacks’ reliance on bolded titles and italicized sentences to emphasize important information. Brooke also noted that Sacks’ navigation bar contained categories so that users could view different posts, shop, or contact her. By moving these sections to the navigation bar, Sacks’ is inviting her followers to discover more content while also providing ease of access to important information. My classmate’s navigations are obviously much less complicated since we lack the amount of content that Sacks has, but that didn’t stop them from putting their own spin on it. I was surprised to see how many people have changed their blog themes. I have fervently avoided it thus far because I am hesitant to attempt to create posts and use features with the added stress of a complex theme. Although I did face the issue of repeated titles on my blog even with my use of the primer theme, and I recognized that Rebecca’s blog has a similar issue. Kamryn’s Cayman theme was beautiful, but she commented that the navigation bar caused her posts to appear in the primer format. Beyond that, some students utilized the block of code given to us to create the navigation bar but didn’t link a webpage to the title which resulted in 404 errors. All this is to say, the navigation bars were useful to my classmate in organizing their information, but it seems there was a struggle, one that I also dealt with, to properly implement this HTML aspect of it. There was a lot of information to digest in the chapter reading and hands-on activity of Week 5, and my classmates’ blogs reflected that. I think that with a little more time and practice, we will be able to use HTML and design a webpage with ease. I may even try to change my theme one day, but I make no promises.