Using MacOS 9 - Reflection

Timothy Mills
http://www.inajar.net/351/reflection/repurposing.html

Now that I've finished the site, http://www.inajar.net/tutorial/, I'm rather disappointed, for more than one reason, with my choice of texts. First, as Dr. Kalmbach pointed out originally, the tutorial itself is of limited use since the introduction and push of MacOS X. I see the text as still being of use to companies and organizations that cannot afford to upgrade all of their users to MacOS X at this time, but with most new Macs booting into MacOS X and unable to boot into MacOS 9, my tutorial is quickly becoming obsolete.

In addition I'm not sure the web is the correct place for this tutorial. The text works really well as a printed text used in conjunction with live, small group training. It also works well as a reference text for someone who has been in one of those small trainings. While I think the text does a pretty good job of explaining how to use MacOS 9, there are certain parts that benefit from live training. An example of one of these cases is the explanation of Spring-Loaded Folders. I could explain this concept until I was blue in the face, but I would end up writing a very difficult piece of text to read. Even then most people wouldn't be able to figure out what a spring-loaded folder was just from my description. But if I can show how a spring-loaded folder actually behaves while people are following along with a printed copy of the tutorial then they quickly understand the functionality and use of this type of folder.

Besides a desire/need to do live training in conjunction with this tutorial there is an even more basic question: If users need a basic tutorial of MacOS 9 will they be able to go online in order to find that tutorial on the web? The answer is most likely no.

So why did I choose this text? Well I thought it would be more interesting to do an online tutorial than simply to put an old paper online. The tutorial gave me much more text to work with, plus it was already divided into clearly defined sections (I know, I could have done this with any paper, but I'm lazy). I also planned on building a resume function into the tutorial so that when users logged in it would take them back to the last section that they viewed. In the end I experienced trouble with my login function, and I scrapped that part of the site. I'm still not sure what the problem was since the same functions have worked on other sites that I've built.

In the end the project wasn't a waste. I've learned how to code standards compliant XHTML code, which was one of my initial goals for the class. I've also polished my CSS programming skills. So while the text probably doesn't really have a real home on the web I have improved some of my "basic" web design skills.