I decided to use Google Pages to make a webpage for myself, rather than using iWeb in the Mac lab on campus. I admit, iWeb is much cooler. But, for some reason awhile back I lost all of my saved work in iWeb, and I don’t know why. I still have the domain file on my student drive, but iWeb won’t load the content. Ray and I tinkered with it and concluded that the saved work will no longer work. I was annoyed at first, but now I don’t really care because I wouldn’t have been able to update the webpage made with iWeb anyway. I don’t own a Mac, and though I want one, I probably won’t get one for a couple years since I just got my laptop last year. I’m also not going to be at Cortland too often now that I’m nearly finished with my graduate classes and will only have to come back for student teaching colloquiums.
Anyway, my webpage can be acccessed HERE. I’m not too happy with the structural limitations of the layout, but I did the best I could with it. The Google Pages layouts really just resemble narrow blog templates, and I wish that I could widen it. I actually could widen it if I had bunches of time to experiment with editing the html code, but I don’t have the time right now with papers, projects, and an exam on my plate. The upside of Google Pages is that they don’t put ad banners on your pages like Free Webs does, and they also give you 100 MB of free space, which is significantly more than Free Webs.
Making a webpage for myself doesn’t seem nearly as cool nowadays as it did a few years ago because we’re already so connected in so many other ways: Flickr, Facebook, Del.icio.us, blogs, Twitter, etc. Amateur-made free webpages seem boring to me now without the capability for friends and colleagues to comment and interact with your work. I mean, webpages are still useful as a hub for organizing our linked internet trails which are now a mile wide, but, I’m still more likely to spend time reading and commenting on someone’s blog or Facebook feeds than I would be to click around on a rigid webpage that is the antithesis of web 2.0. My Flickr and last.fm badges and my del.icio.us tags automatically update on my webpage, and I could add more widgets, but I don’t like the idea that every living, constantly updating thing on my webpage has to reside in the sidebar, resulting in an overstuffed sidebar and a boring main section. And for that reason I didn’t put much in the sidebar. Ah, I don’t know. /rant
7 responses so far ↓
sunyprof // December 6, 2007 at 1:51 pm |
Andy, I think your site is awesome. Why didn’t I know about “Ephemera?” Did I miss your sharing your personal blog or am I just overloaded and missed it myself?
It looks like you had some fun putting these pp. together.
I agree w/your assessment of the “coolness” of an amateur’s website’s waning. This assignment was mostly meant to be rhetorical…that is to give you an opportunity to repesent yourself in a professional capacity on a site you can share w/prospective employers.
At the ST colloquium last night administrators recommended including a link to one’s website/efolio in a cover letter for a position.
This is something we will talk about in the colloquium next semester.
What do you think? KES
amandayac // December 6, 2007 at 2:38 pm |
I think it looks great, Andy, especially if Google pages poses the kind of creative constraints that you mention.
Honestly, even as I used iWeb to set my site up, which was quite user-friendly, I’m not entirely happy with how things turned out, and am looking forward to finding some time over break to revise it a little bit.
See you this afternoon!
Amanda
rayhedrick // December 6, 2007 at 4:16 pm |
I’m with you, Andy. GoogePages just doesn’t do it for me. I’d rather just have my TypePad blog, which, if I wanted, I could make look very similar to what you’ve created. You did a nice job.
You know what I would like to do, though. I would like to upload my blog onto my website: WordPress lets you do this for free. I need to get a Mac first though becuase–you’re right–I can only edit my page when I’m on campus, and my hours at Cortland seem to be slowly disappearing.
Good work, though.
ajmorabito // December 6, 2007 at 6:10 pm |
Yeah, I’m hoping to do the same thing eventually, Ray–host my blog or blogs on andrewmorabito.com, which I don’t own yet and should’ve asked for as a Christmas present. Hopefully no one claims it anytime soon.
sws2910 // December 7, 2007 at 5:46 pm |
maybe i will try google pages for my webquest
sunyprof // December 8, 2007 at 4:04 pm |
How much does it cost to buy the domain name?? iWeb allows for a domain name — paid subscription of course. KES
mandygrl101 // December 12, 2007 at 4:26 am |
Andy: Your site is awesome… I think it really reveals a lot about your personality and your tremendous potential as a future English teacher. I am glad to see that you used google as your host. I am thinking of doing the same thing over vacation when I make another site. Are you happy with google as your host? I know you mentioned that some aspects of it were limiting. What in particular were you most frustrated with? Let me know and see you Thur!
-Mandy
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