Mayamiko+Matabwa+Unit+1

Mayamiko Matabwa Unit 1 __Unit Question:__ How does our culture form our outlook towards the environment? Investigation Stage 1

In this unit we will be creating a website based on the culture of one our classmates. It will about everything, food, music, traditional dances and dress. The unit question explains itself basically when we have made the website we will explain how the different aspects of the person’s culture affects how they live their everyday life. For example in that culture they may have a specific religion that does not allow certain foods or a food not to be eaten because of their own beliefs and reasons. Or nature may be a very important part of that culture, like here in Africa, traditional healers use different plants and herbs to make their medicines so people that live in villages may prefer to go to a traditional healer than to the hospital because they may believe that traditional medicines help more than medicines made in laboratories. In the Investigation we will be researching the culture that we have chosen.. We will be finding out about everything, Food, Music, Dance, Dress, Religion, Beliefs, and Ceremonies. We will write a set of questions to ask that classmate to answer (survey/questionnaire), to help with researching and to find out from an actual person that follows those traditions perspective, finding out what that person already knows about their culture. We need to also write design specifications on what the website needs to have on it in order to be a good website and also we need to make tests on which we are going to test the final product against the design specifications. 2

Men- shorts to under the knee, socks to the knee, black leather shoes, white shirt and a cloth belt. Women-a wide, long skirt to the ankles, a small apron, stocking to the knee, leather shoes, white shirt with a wide round neckline.
 * __ 1. What is the traditional dress like for men and women? __**

These are the old traditional, now they don’t dress like that anymore.


 * __ 2. What are most popular Italian dishes and which one is your personal favorite? __**

The most popular Italian dishes are pizza and pasta, my favorite is pizza.


 * __ 3. Are there different beliefs around Italy, as in do people in the north have different beliefs than people in the south? __**

Not only the north and south, but each region is different for traditions, foods and beliefs.

__** 4. Are there any other religions in Italy apart from Roman Catholicism? **__

Since in Italy there is freedom of religions there are all of the religions in Italy, though most Italians are Catholic.


 * __ 5. What do’s and don’ts are there in the Italian culture? __**

All Italians always were shoes, but can dress as they want. When you meet someone you briefly greet them


 * __ 6. Is there traditional Italian music if there is; is there a specific name for it? __**

Yes, it is called Saltarello, old tradition in the Lazio region.


 * __ 7. At home are you strictly Italian or you do not follow everything? __**

We are strictly Italian, we don’t really follow any other culture’s.

There are the usual Christmas, Easter, the Italian Republic Celebration which is when Italy became a Republic from a monarchy, and the Italian Unification day (1861), this year they celebrated the 100th year of the Italian republic.
 * __ 8. Do you have any special celebrations in your culture? __**

In the Italian culture food is very important. Food is what brings family and friends together. You are always offered food when you are a visitor in an Italian home. It is a very social thing. For breakfast they usually eat: The breakfasts are not as heavy but the lunch was traditionally the main meal of the day it was the heaviest meal they would have and then for dinner they would take a light meal of what was left over from lunch and they normally have wine with their food. But now people have started to change it and they eat heavy meals for dinner and have a light meal at lunch. Like a snack/meal. Around the country people cook differently in the south of the country they are known for having quite heavy meals and then in the north of the country their meals are lighter than the south. Maybe that’s where the idea of having heavy dinners came from in the south. Special Occasion Foods They have a Saint Joseph Bread. During Easter they make Easter Bread which they have with hard-boiled eggs. Saint Lucy’s Feast Day they have something that is called Saint Lucy’s eyes On New Year’s Eve they have feast called “the feast of seven fishes”.
 * Food **
 * A hard bread roll with butter on it
 * Strong Coffee
 * A fruit or fruit juice

**Traditional Dress**
Italians nowadays don’t really wear traditional clothes; the traditional clothes were worn in the olden days. Back then. Now people wear what you would call simply normal clothes, modern clothing. You have the fashions weeks in Milan. You now have designers and brands that are now household names around the world Gucci, Dolce & Gabana, Versace, Armani and etc. I am sure you are familiar.

All Italian people wear decent shoes everywhere; the shoes were black and leather.

In different regions of Italy people dressed a little differently, this because before the country was separated, until in 1861they joined together and unified as one country, so that is why you have differences in traditions in the different regions, but there was a general style.

This is the classic outfit that an Italian woman would wear. All Italian women dressed like this, the rich dressed like this the poor dressed like everyone no matter what social class you were in.



From head to toe:


 * (It is not shown in the picture above) They would were a veil/scarf or anything that covered the head (hair) like a hat, whenever they were going out.
 * A nice white blouse with a round neckline. In some photos, women were wearing red beaded necklaces.
 * A corset on the outside.A long-wide skirt that went down to the ankles
 * A white apron, small
 * Women also wore gloves, when they were going to the market, to mass, or on special occasions like Festivals or Celebrations like Christmas.
 * They also wore knee-high stockings
 * Black Leather shoes, that were worn everywhere

Dresses, Jackets, Sweaters were also worn.


 * Men**

From head to toe


 * Hats were worn but not all the time
 * White Shirt which was buttoned on the collar and on the cuffs.
 * Shorts that reached under the knee, which we now call ¾ shorts
 * A belt made of cloth on top of the shorts and shirt
 * In the picture below the man is wearing suspenders


 * Socks to the knee, so the whole leg was covered
 * Black leather shoes, which they were everywhere

An example of the socks to the knee and the black leather shoes, this is a more modern version.

Men also wore, Suits, maybe on special occasions or when they were going to mass, Jackets and Sweaters.

A man and woman dressed in Italian Traditional wear; except the man is wearing boots.

Religion
__Religion__ Italy is counted as a Roman Catholic country; 90% of its population id Roman Catholic. Italy has over 2000 years worth of places that are holy, especially to Catholics and Protestants. Inside Rome there is Vatican City, which is home to the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica. They have churches, shrines and sacred relics. They have a place where they say that Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ appeared.

They usually have religious ceremonies and celebrations going on around. These include, the pope (which is now Pope Benedict XVI the 265th Pope) making public appearances around town, the common Catholic/ Some Protestant holidays and Holy Days: Christmas, Easter, The Immaculate Conception, Pentecost, Ash Wednesday, All Saint Day, All Souls Day, Palm Friday, Good Friday, Martyrs Day and etc. They have feast days in the different regions in Italy, Masses either everyday or once a week, sanctifying new saints and Blessings of people. They have clubs for men and women. They do Rosary (like here in Malawi this October, 2012, Rosary is going on) and other Religious things. __Afterlife__ Italians believe in after life, life after death, they believe in Heaven and Hell; mainly because of their Religion. They believe that funerals must be attended. Not going to a friend’s or family member’s funeral can cause problems with relationships with the family of that person. You can be excused for not coming if you have a good reason, but if you don’t it can really hurt the family. If you were a good person then you get showered with glory and are commended but if you were a bad person then you get punished, They believe in a place called Purgatory (if you are Catholic you will know this place, other might know to) where you go and your sins can be forgiven and you get cleansed. People can talk to their dead loved ones but it has to be done in private, alone not out in the open.

Beliefs
Italians also believe in things like Magic, Charms, Spells, “the evil eye” and getting messages in dreams. They believe in Witches and Anti-Witches, like in Africa. Most of these beliefs are from back then in the olden days, but some have still stuck around………………..but in secret. There is also the belief of some people having “healing hands”, and they can heal broken bones by just touching the person or somehow manipulating it into healing. They can heal different diseases using Spells and Potions they conjured up, and made.

References [] [] [|www.reference.com/motif/society/**traditional**-**italian**-**dress**] [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy#Fashion_and_design] [] [] [] [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy#Fashion_and_design] [] [] [] [] [] [] [|http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Italy.html#b]
 * CSS **

Cascading Style Sheet is something that you can make in your website that allows you to edit more than one thing at a time. Like if for your website you want all the webpage to have the same heading, that is the same color, same font etc. Instead on having to change each heading on the pages change the font, then change the color etc. You just attach the CSS style to that specific thing so you could make a CSS for the heading and just attach it the headings of the pages. You create a style in a certain category and then apply it and it gives you a code. So if you need to edit the headings of the pages and make them yellow instead of blue then you just change the code of the CSS like where it says color on the code, it says blue you just delete that and type in yellow and all the headings will be changed to yellow. We practiced and played around with CSS and we created three heading styles, Heading 1 had its own style(H1), Heading 2 had its own style (H2) and Heading 3 had its own style (H3). I tried to apply a CSS background but it did not work. I think that the background category was for text boxes


 * Templates **

It is something that allows you to have a ready made layout of a webpage. The webpage is designed and ready for use. You can edit a few things like the text and the links, but the font the size of the text is already picked out. So when you are making a website and you various pages to create, instead of having to do each page over and over you just load a template for those pages and all you need to do is edit the main things on the page e.g. the text. You don't have to use the templates that are already on the program you can create you own. You do the brief design of your webpage and save it as a template, and you will be able to use it again.

3

I am going to make a website with pages on each of the aspects of the Italian culture Food, Music, Dance, Dress, Religion, Beliefs (do’s and don’ts). Then my last page will have a conclusion stating how the Italian culture affects Italians outlook on the environment based on each of these aspects. The program that I going to use to create this website is Microsoft Expression Web 4.
 * DESIGN BRIEF **

4
 * DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS **

My must have…………….

Each page on the website has links to each of the other pages

Reference Page

Pictures- They should be small (memory) so that the page does not take too long to load.

Easy Navigation- The website shouldn’t be too complicated

Food Page, Music Page, Traditional Dress Page, Religion and Beliefs or Merged pages (two topics on a page)

Conclusion Page- How does the Italian culture affect how Italian look at the environment

The website must fit the the standards of Year 9- It is targeted at 13-14 year olds. 5


 * My Tests **

I will have Federico (the classmate I picked) review my website to tell me how well it describes the Italian culture. I want him to look at all the pages on the web site, including the conclusion page, so that he can tell me whether my conclusion to how the Italian culture affects the way Italians look at our environment. I also want him to be able to tell me whether it is also good enough for someone our age, whether it is boring or to cluttered, because one of my specifications is that people our age should want to go on my site or whether it is easy to navigate around or not.

I also want a friend to test it and tell me truthfully if it meets my specifications. Any feedback they might have on the website they should tell me so that in my evaluation I will be able to talk about what improvements I made to the website. I also want to from a friend whether the website meets the standards of people our age so I can see what two different opinions of the same age say. Also to help with improvements to help me make the most effective website I can make.

Design Stage

Design 1
 * [[image:Design 1 Homepage.JPG width="320" height="228"]] || [[image:Design 1 Other Pages.JPG width="320" height="228"]] || [[image:Design 1 Conclusion Page.JPG width="320" height="228"]] ||

The design is basically like the classic webpage design. I added the triangle to make it look a bit more interesting, because it is aimed for children 13-14 years old. Just having the basic webpage layout might be boring and the audience won’t be interested. All the links on the page are clear and spaced out and all the writing will be bold so that navigating around the page won’t be a problem. What might be a problem is the picture. I want it to be big and eye-catching, but it will make the webpage load quite slowly, and people will get impatient and leave the page. So my solution if I do pick this design is that I will try and find a picture that is clear and OKAY quality and it doesn’t take much memory.

Design 2


 * [[image:Design 3 Homepage.JPG width="320" height="228"]] || [[image:Design 3 Other Pages.JPG width="320" height="228"]] || [[image:Design 3 Conclusion and Refrence Page.JPG width="320" height="228"]] ||

The mind map design for the homepage, is a little more interesting for people 13-14 years. The fact that it is simple and the links are pretty much the only thing on the page would make someone want to click on the links and find out what is in store for them. It is fun, but at the same time people would get bored with just having a plain background and links, so that would either make them want to close the webpage or click on the links. All of the pages are linked to each other. There is a reference page, so in case they want to know where I got my info from they can easily get to those other websites. It has pictures but not many because it could look cluttered, there are no pictures on the home page to keep it simple. It is easy to navigate around all the links are spread out and clear and easy to read. All the info pages have been designed. There is a conclusion page. I think that it is fit for a 13-14 year old audience.

Design 3
 * [[image:Design 2 Homepage.JPG width="320" height="228"]][[image:bmisclass2009/Design 2 Other Pages.JPG width="320" height="228"]] || [[image:Design 2 Conclusion Page.JPG width="320" height="228"]] ||  ||

This design is the most fun out of all. The scattered links are a really cool and ** different ** design. Although all the links on the homepage are scattered navigation is still easy, and they are also clear because they are spaced out.This design meets all the specifications. Each page has links to all of the other pages on the website. This is important because for example someone might want to get from the home page to the food page and then from the food to the music. They shouldn't have to go back to the home page to get somewhere else on the site. Pictures have been included. Pictures keep it interesting, especially because this site is for 13-14 year olds. I have made a general design for each of the information pages. The conclusion and reference page have also been designed.


 * I have chosen design Design 3 for my website, because design 1 is too boring and having the huge picture on the side is going to make the webpage load slowly,it it will load slowly because if it made big then the picture will require more pixels so that it is clear so when I am adding the photo into the webpage I will be forced to make the picture bigger, in terms of pixels, which does not agree with 3 design specification (pictures that do not take much memory). Also if I compressed the photo it would not make it small enough because at the same time as the picture is big it still has to be clear. Design 2 is okay but the idea of a mind map might be childish and its not as fun it is a little more on the serious side, its quite a formal theme, a mind map it just breaks down into smaller and smaller bits. Design 3 will be easier to make and it will take less time. Design 1 will take quite long because I have to overlap things and the programs that we will be using may not have that option, and I may not be able to do it correctly according to the design, I have to do it as close to the design as possible which may be actually quite different to the design. Also one thing is that if overlapping is not able to be done with Design 3 I can easily modify the Design so that the different boxes don't have to overlap and the Design won't look too different whereas with Design 1 I would have to resize the triangle in the corner and make it smaller so that it is above the links row and then stretch the links row to the left so that it fills the gap next to it and then the whole of the links row will stretch across the whole page. Which in the end ruins the whole concept of having a triangle in the corner overlapping the picture and part of that first link. Making the design look different, so it would somewhat be a new design. Design 3 is simple and very straight forward and can be easily modified, without greatly affecting the design. It is also my favourite out of all the designs. So I will go for Design 3 **

Plan Stage Program which I am going to use is Microsoft Expression Web 4 To save time instead of creating all the shapes in Microsoft Expression Web 4, so the shapes will be made in paint the white backgrounds (that appear when you save the picture you made in paint) cropped away in Microsoft Picture Manager. So in Expression Web 4 a table needs to be created with all the spaces for the shapes, flag, and the box that has the title in it (text boxes will be used for the text). Also to save time because we only have 1 week to create the website. 1 row x 3 columns. (the flags should fill the whole cell) ||  TITLE  || FLAG ||
 * FLAG

And then all the links boxes (w. text) will be inserted in web 4 as pictures, then links will be added to them. Or even through copy and paste but inserting is much better and easier. Title: Font should be Castellar or Arial Black or Aharoni, size 36 and bold, should be the biggest text on any of the pages to show that it is the title of website. Will be in CSS form so that if any editing needs to done it can be done without any hassle.

Flags: Width must be= 4 centimeters Length must be = 5 centimeters They need to be edited before they get put onto the webpage. Editing (done in Microsoft Office Picture Manager) Links: (Made in paint) The scattered links will all be different colors. I have decided to change this about the design just to add a little bit more color to the page, to fit the audience. Also is the color if the links were all the same what would be logical is to make CSS for them so that it does not take time to create each of them. Having a CSS would make it hard to link them to their pages. Individually colored links save time. None of them should be black or white; they should be the colors of the rainbow, excluding indigo (to close to black). The text will be bold for clarity. Width= 5cm and the Length= 2cm Reference Page: Each link on this page should be 5cm by 5cm (squares). All the text will be done in text boxes. Information pages Will be done through textboxes including the title CSS. Everything will be done the same the links the text on the page will be done in textboxes and will be font size 15. Arial, Calibri or Gill sans mt. I have made changes to this design to make it a little easier to make and also because I don’t have the skills in Expression Web 4 to do what I wanted. The overlapping on the info pages will be changed to just the boxes next to each other and the length of the box with the title will be shortened.
 * The brightness should be lowered to -20
 * Then the contrast raised to 10. To balance it out because the brightness was lowered
 * They should be compressed to fit WebPages.

**Timeline**
= Create Stage =
 * [[image:pic.jpg]] ||

These are the info pages Food Page

Religion Page

= Evaluation Stage =

In the Investigation stage we were basically investigating and researching the problem, which was to create a website on a classmate’s culture, then answer the init question which was How does my classmate’s culture affect the environment? How each aspect of one’s culture affect the way they live and perceive different things. For the first task of the investigation we were asked to explain the situation. I think that that was the best part of this whole project. I think that I explained the situation really well and I understood what was going on what we had to do exactly. I had already had I ideas in my head about what I was going to do, how I could answer the unit question what I could include in my answer and website. I made a questionnaire that I gave to my classmate. The questionnaire was really effective when I was typing up the text for my website. In my Design brief, I stated what I was going to do then, I made the mistake of going on and then I started to Design my website. I also included in my work explanations of Cascading Style Sheets and Dynamic Web Templates. In the description I explained what the two things were but I think that I should have included how you make CSSs, and how you attach them. How you make a DWT, how you add in editable regions etc. It would have helped a lot in the Creation Stage and Plan so that if I wasn’t sure how to do them then I would just look back at the descriptions, also in future I would be able to look back at my work and do it. It would be in my own words so I would be able to easily understand and go “right that’s how we do it” without any ease. For the design specifications like I said before I had ideas already, but when it actually came listing Design Specifications it became quite hard because you had to think of the different things about a website that are important (pictures, font size, positioning, audience, etc.), which became difficult cause I had all these thoughts but I didn’t know how to put in my words so that it applied to the type websites we would be making and how you could incorporate those specifications in your designs (which was more of the design stage). I think in future I need to try and think about what I am doing like is it really part of the Investigation or is it more Design Stage, I need to categorize things before I vomit out paragraphs of whatever. Asking myself, “is this really part of what I am being asked to do?” It was quite hard thinking of tests to test my website with. The tests that I had put down were basically the same thing, and were basically what the peer assessment was asking. I don’t think that they are very effective in telling me whether or not my website meets all of the specifications. An easy test would have been a simple checklist where I check whether or not this specification has been included in its “designated area”. Then on the checklist justify **HOW** the website has included that specification, saying like “if you look at this this this you can see that the picture has been compressed to a smaller size”. It could be called a “supporting reason”.
 * Investigation Stage:**

**Design Stage:** This stage was my favorite out of all, especially when designing. I wanted all the designs to really represent Italy; the colors of Italy the flag, the royal color. Annotating the designs was quite easy because I already knew the colors that I was going to use but then picking what was going to go where and also thinking about how the audience it is targeted to would respond to it. Also in general the way it looked, imagining it on a computer as an actual site, laying it out, making sure it was not too formal and grown up which would bore the targeted audience and not too childish. Thinking about the amount of text I was going to add onto each page. Number pictures per page. What really helped a lot was learning how to make templates, because I needed to design the template.

I think that the annotation should have been better and more detailed, for example for the homepages for the different design I should have pointed out and said that each of these boxes links to this page. Rather than leave it all random and just right “link”. Also when I was designing I should have thought more about if I am actually able to do this, to make this design. Is it really something that I can do or am I getting carried-away? Like in my justification of why Design 3 was chosen. I said that Design 1 might be an issue because it is something that I may not be able to do, I may not have the skill to do that, or in the programs that I will use to make the website might not have that option.

I think that my Justification, said exactly why I chose that design. But I think for next time I shouldn’t include at the end, “I chose this design because it was my favorite”, I don’t think that it’s a proper explanation of why the others are not good enough or what is wrong with them. **Plan Stage:** The plan stage was the worst part of this project for me. I had done what I thought was the instruction but it wasn’t. The reason why I just did what I thought was the instruction was because I had just left it to last minute, not realizing how much work needed to be done for this stage. I took it for granted so when it came to doing the work (the day before it was due) I ended up rushing it, and doing the best that I could do. My plan was not really a plan, and the plan was ment to be step by step instructions on how to create the design., how to actually produce the product, so that a person would be able to create the product without looking at the design. Now by looking back at what I have done it doesn’t really showcase step by step instructions on how to create. My plan is basically just a more detailed annotation of my design. It just states how different things on the website will be like. The title will be this font and size, it will be a CSS. That’s what it basically is. As I said before, there was not much effort put in because it was last-minute and rushed. I could have used the flow chart. A simple one just showing the different pages that will be on the website. My plan has not got a single flow chart on it except for the timeline. I misunderstood what the timeline was supposed to showcase. I made a timeline of all the stages, the deadlines and brief explanations of each stage. It was supposed to show each lesson of the create stage. In this lesson I will be doing the headings, I will do the headings for x amount of minutes then next I will add in all the photos, I will do this for this this amount of time. And if I don’t finish doing this job then I will make time at the end to finish off and add in finishing touches. That is what the timeline was supposed to be about. Next time management should be one of the things on the top of my list so that I have enough time to complete my work. And I do it with the correct amount of effort. So that I don’t end up rushing things in the end. **Create Stage:** The create stage also didn’t go as well as I had hoped it would. But I still enjoyed it. Creating something that is on paper and literally putting it on the computer and making it digital was fun. It didn’t go that well because I had missed the deadline. I wanted to be working on my website at home but when trying to download Web Expression 4 it kept failing. So I spent so much time trying to download it but it wouldn’t work so I everything else was on hold because I was trying to download it. So everything else got set back. The only time I could work on m website was during class and we only have class twice a week. Only 3 periods a week. So the time I had to work on it was very limited. Also because my plan wasn’t really a plan it made it difficult to create the website because I had no step by step instructions as to how to actually start the website and finish it. I had to start it from a random point, and I didn’t no what to do next but I still managed to do it. Also because I spent so much time on trying to get Web Expression 4 download it really took up time so I missed the deadline and I was under a lot of pressure trying to get the website finished. Making a website is not that easy, especially when you don’t have instructions. It was difficult because this is really are first time actually making a full website. Before we just made brief ones, they were just about practicing the skills of making web pages. You have to think about the audience, when typing the text you have to think is it too long for my audience, the vocabulary. In our case we have specifications so you have to think about adding each specification. Even though you have done that in the design you still need to think okay now I have made this bit of the website does it still include the specification.

**Overall:** **Over all I think that my keeping of deadlines really needs to improve because I got behind during the end of the unit. Also when doing my timeline in the plan stage I should have really taken time and though okay I have this this so far, so tomorrow I need to do this and the next day that. I should for future not do things at last minute.** **Reading instructions I need to improve also, for example in the Plan Stage I didn’t do it properly one because it was last minute and it was rushed therefore 2 I didn’t read the instructions I just rushed through everything.**

**Also as I work I need to start looking at the assessment criteria, and maybe on the side, literally explain to myself how to get a top mark, by writing down in my own words. So that in my head it sticks I and I know exactly what do to, also looking at the examples. The instructions + the assessment criteria.** **What could help is when we start the unit I should look at the time frame we are doing this unit in, like how many weeks. Then using the deadlines for each stage make a timeline of what I am going to do each lesson and at home (I.C.T. homework days) up until the last lesson of the unit. So that I am well organized and I do everything on time. I also need to minimize my chatting in class so I can get stuff done.** **At the start of every unit, if we already know which programs we are going to be using, then I should try and at least download them at home so that I can work at home, especially during the creation stage.** Peer Assessment
 * NAME: ||
 * CRITERIA || LEVEL || REASON FOR LEVEL ||
 * A ||  ||   ||
 * B ||  ||   ||
 * C ||  ||   ||
 * D ||  ||   ||
 * E ||  ||   ||