WEEK 8: 07/06/12

We reached our final week, and there were some sweet moments, and also some bitter moments. First of all, on Monday, my group and I revelled in the glory of finishing our website at last (except for Jason, who was at All-Day Duty) . We still had some webpages to complete, such as the Expressions page, which was my job, and the Katakana page, which was Kerry's job. Together, we looked for some cursors which we could incorporate, and to our satisfaction, we found some really good ones! During Period 2, our website was completely finished.


But then we encountered an obstacle which we weren't able to overcome, much to everyone's disappointment and sadness. We asked the teacher for help to publish the site, but then she informed us that the school didn't publish websites created by students. First I was surprised, but then the revelation sank in, and I became disappointed. The teacher asked us to try and find free web-hosting services, but we had to pay for all of them. We even requested the technicians for assistance, but even they couldn't respond to our help. We convinced each other just to place all the website files into a folder (in the S Drive, Japanese section). This way, students would just have to enter the folder and click on the 'home.html' file, which would redirect them to our unpublished site. We even created an 'IMPORTANT READ ME' file, giving instructions as to how to access the website, and how to use it at home. 


Period 3 was the allocated time for Ms Wang to arrive and inspect our site. We fetched her and she was amazed at the quality of work we produced. Full of abundant information and vibrantly colorful, she was surprised that we had managed to done such a lot of work. She found it extremely satisfactory and would most definitely use it for her classes. 


This is the conclusion of everything - our project, the whole blog, and this specific blog post. Undoubtedly being one of the best projects I have ever undertaken, I am thankful to the teacher - Ms Crow - because she was very helpful and assisted us whenever we needed support. Slightly frustrated that we didn't get to publish the site so that everyone in the world could use it, but overall happy and pleased, I hope that whoever uses Easy Peasy Technology, enjoys it thoroughly, and uses it to its full extent, ultimately improving their Japanese skills, which was our whole purpose.

A final glance at our website - Easy Peasy Japaneasy...

By Akarsh Mukundan (8G)

WEEK 7: 31/05/12

Wow, what an amazing week! With only just the two of us - Jason and I (Daniel was absent again, and Kerry was busy with all-day duty), we got a tremendous amount of work done. We got 4 pages completed, three based on my Kanji research, and one based on Jason's Festivals research. They look very good. We even had time to add Japanese cursors to all our new pages, which we think are a great touch. 

There were quite a few changes we made to our website. Firstly, as stated in my previous blog post, we made a decision to remove the Sentence Structure section. We swapped another section for Origami and added a Houses section. Furthermore, we also added Classroom Expressions and Greetings to our Vocabulary section, which I have taken the responsibility of researching. 


I am so proud of myself because I was able to create all 4 webpages without any help at all. I incorporated all the researched information, linked all the buttons together, added the cursors with Jason's help, and even had time to edit all our webpages! 

I really believe that all of our pages look professional and organized. I just hope Daniel is not absent again on Monday, as we direly need his research to complete our project. I hope that I am also able to continue making webpages, as I had a lot of fun with it on Monday. We are also not leaving out the option of removing some of the Culture pages, if we don't have time to complete them.




Moreover, we have also booked an appointment with Ms Wang, where she will probably come into our classroom and assess our website, providing us with constructive criticism. Overall, Jason and I worked really well, finishing a great amount of work. I still sometimes think how we were able to manage it, but we did. I really enjoyed my time on Monday immensely, and wished our class would continue for the whole day. 

By Akarsh Mukundan (8G)

WEEK 6: 22/05/12

I am very glad that we have finished a few of our webpages. We are happy with  our color choices and our design. Our focus is on researching now, because when we finish that, making the webpages would be very easy. Daniel was absent, but he has done quite a lot of research on culture, and we just have to incorporate Jason's Katakana research into our website. I have decided to take on the responsibility of completing the Kanji research, along with creating webpages based upon Japanese classroom expressions and greetings.

I am satisfied with our Games page, as that took a whole 3 periods to create, even though all 3 of us (Daniel was absent) were working. In the end, there will be some final editing, but for now, we feel that it looks quite good. Here is a glimpse:

Furthermore, since the Kanji section has 3 elements, and since I'm doing all 3, it will take at least one more week to finish the research. For now, I have created the 'numbers' section and have written rules as to how to write them. I am proud of this achievement, because I worked hard on it. Here is a picture of the research that I have done until now:

Even though some might say that this has been an uneventful week, I say that it has been quite an eventful one. We have decided that Daniel will complete almost all of the 'culture' section, Jason will complete the 'festivals section' while I will complete the 'Kanji' and 'expressions' section.

We still have to have another interview session with Ms Wang, our feedback provider, as she has provided us with some resources. Also, we have made some decisions regarding the content of our website. For instance, we removed the 'sentence structure' section, as there are many types of sentences in the Japanese language, and it would be impossible to explain all of the structures. There are other changes, which I will describe in my next blog post. 

Overall, I had a very enjoyable week. Also, next Monday (28/05/12), Kerry will be busy with the 'all-day duties', so I will be creating the webpages, as I also have experience with Dreamweaver. I am relieved that I know the basics, which will be enough to finish the webpages. I'm really exicted! We are heading towards the end of this extraordinarily long, but interesting and enjoyable project. I just hope that we will be able to maintain the quality of work we have been producing. 

By Akarsh Mukundan (8G)

WEEK 5: 17/05/12

We made a lot of progress this week. We created two more pages, bringing our total webpages up to 3 (homepage, particles, and hirgana). Jason researched about Katakana, Daniel researched about Japanese culture, and I researched about Japanese particles. I also began researching about Kanji (Chinese characters used in the Japanese language) and finished the 'number' section (numbers from 1 - 100 and how to write them). Based upon our research, Kerry created the webpages.

 I am so relieved that we have actually begun to move forward, as only a few weeks ago, we were stuck on planning. Our website is going very as we have made quite a lot of pages. The only thing I feel we need to focus on is researching, as I believe that making the web pages will be relatively easy. I am extremely excited to see what our website will look like in the end. Researching is very enjoyable as I am having fun in preparing the content which we will include in our website.


 Aditionally, Daniel had an idea to add cursors onto our webpages, so when someone would go to, for example, the particles page, there would be a cursor. This is the same for all the web pages created until now. We only decided to insert Japanese-related cursors, like sushi, and soy sauce ones. I think that the cursors are a nice touch and will make our website seem more 'Japaneasy'.

We are gaining experience with Dreamweaver, which I believe will help us with future projects. I hope that we continue to work like this until the end of our project. We also didn't come across any difficulties and everyone cooperated well, listening to everyone's inputs. I am thankful for that. If we keep working like this, our website should be finished in no time at all.

By Akarsh Mukundan (8G)

WEEK 4: 10/05/12

This week was a week where we finally commenced making our website. Using the help of tutorials, we used Adobe Dreamweaver to create it. We got a little bit of work done, but not as much as we hoped. The teacher (Ms Crow) instructed us to watch the tutorials, and she also gave us assistance when we needed it.

We created all the buttons for the homepage, along with the logo (also the home button) which Jason and I designed using 'FlamingText'. We also began adding the drop-downs for our main links, which would redirect users to other pages. It took quite a while to get the hang of  Dreamweaver. We also experimented with the color choices for our front page, but I'm not sure if it matches our main logo - Easy Peasy Japaneasy. 

One of the few things I had fun with this week was experimenting with the color choices for the front page, as stated above. We found the codes for different colors on the internet, and entered the HTML codes in Dreamweaver. Finally, we decided on a golden color, similar to the images above. 

There were a few obstacles that hindered us from creating our website. The buttons wouldn't move to the center, and sometimes when we previewed our website, the buttons would not display. We are still trying to move the links to the center, and we may need to ask the teacher for help.

I feel that my group and I worked very well this week. We cooperated and also enjoyed making our website. I am slightly worried that we might not be able to finish it in time, so we must work hard and make sure the quality of the finished product is extremely high.

By Akarsh Mukundan (8G)

WEEK 3: 03/05/12

The third week (this week) was quite uneventful, due to the fact that we had to undertake a test that took about 2 periods. Only in the first period we got work done, but very little. We finished designing the 'Hiragana Table' (complete with combination sounds and stroke orders). I convinced Kerry to find a stroke order chart on the internet, as making them on the computer would slow us down because we have time constraints - we have many things to add, so we must work efficiently. I have convinced Kerry that we will save his work and will use them in the future if we need to. I am anxious as we still haven't learned how to create a website, and if we don't by next week, I fear that we will not be able to finish our project. We will be asking our teacher (Ms Crow) for instructions, and hopefully, she will be able to assist us. This is an extremely short blog post, because we didn't get a lot of work done, but hopefully, next week will be a week where we commence making our website.  

By Akarsh Mukundan (8G)

WEEK 2: 26/04/12

This week was as eventful as the last, if not even more. Monday was an important day for my group, as we would be interviewing a Japanese teacher, Ms Wang. Daniel Ah Mew was absent and only three of us were present. 

The first period on Monday morning was used up by having a talk with the Japanese teacher, which was of absolute importance. Feedback is necessary for our project - we need to get feedback at the start of our project, in the middle, and at the end, to make sure we are heading in the right direction with our website. We created an interview sheet to guide us through the questioning.To our surprise, Ms Wang gave us an incredible amount of assistance, feedback and especially, resources, which would help us greatly in making our educational website. She was happy with our choices in what to put in the website, and also gave us some additional advice, for example, adding greetings, classroom expressions, worksheets, and many more. We asked her if she approved of our decisions and if she would find it useful for future needs, and to our relief, she replied with a definite yes. 

Happy with our interview session, we returned to the classroom, and prioritized the things we would first add onto our website. We then finished making our rough plans and drafts on paper, and then created on the computer, what we would like our front page to look like.

The only thing we were disappointed in this week was our I.T. teacher (Ms Crow) was absent and couldn't teach and instruct us, on how to design a website. That is of vital importance, and if we aren't able to do it, our whole project will be incomplete. 

My group worked well and cohesively, and we got quite a bit of work done. We received feedback and finished planning (roughly). I am extremely excited for we will possibly learn how to create web pages, and I am anticipating what our finished website will look like.

By Akarsh Mukundan (8G)