Web Design 1

Discussion

In-class discussion topics.

Sites

  • What 4 or 5 websites do you utilize the most?
    • Why do you use them?
    • How much time do you use them?
    • What aspects make them enjoyable or difficult to use?
  • What are 4 or 5 ways the internet has impacted our culture?
    • Think of a time before the internet.
    • Look at both the positive and the negative.
  • Resources

The cooking robot

Imagine you’re on a design team working on a new cooking robot. This robot will not have artificial intelligent capabilities it will only be able to run specific programs. Your task in the process is to develop a system so the robot can identify raw ingredients such as eggs and flower to use with its pre-programed recipes. Focus answering what system can be implemented so the robot can identify ingredients. You cannot use Star Trek technology only what we have now.

Think about the following issues:

  • The Robot cannot make just any food, only what it has been programmed to make.
  • The Robot cannot think, it does not eat food, it does not know what food is, it just runs programs to produce food. It will never know what cake or an egg is, it will only know it needs something identified as an egg to make something identified as cake.
  • This robot will be able to cook hundreds of recipes and will need to do this faster than a human, so think of the variety of ingredients it will need and efficient ways of organizing them.

Web 2.0

In small groups please discuss the following questions. Take notes on important points made and be prepared to report to the class your findings.

  • Some widely used Web 2.0 sites include google,wikipedia, YouTube, facebook, digg, delicious, and myspace.
    • Which ones do you use?
    • When and why do you use them?
    • How much time to you spend using them?
  • Is Web 2.0 a threat or a benefit to culture?
    • Andrew Keen (author The Cult of Amateur) states that Web 2.0
      technologies like YouTube are threats to culture because they
      circumvent the traditional creators of media: the artists, the
      academics, the studios, the publishers. As a potential creator of media how do you feel about this?
    • Some say that Web 2.0 is a benefit because it allows everyone a voice.
  • How do you think Web 2.0 has impacted our culture?
  • Resources

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