Writing Samples

Progressive Enhancement

As web technology and development is evolving, so is the increasing importance for progressive enhancement.  JavaScript and CSS are great tools, but do they necessarily make your site better for all users? Proper structuring using the progressive enhancement method can help ensure that.

Progressive enhancement is a commonly practiced strategy that puts its focus on a solid HTML foundation.  Secondly, it focuses on CSS. Lastly, it outlines JavaScript as a finishing touch. There have been many analogies involving mouth-watering desserts or candy to explain this process, because it is a tiered structure.  The analogy that I believe to be most effective for me to understand likens progressive enhancement to a peanut M&M. The peanut in the middle of the M&M represents the HTML. It is sturdy, solid, and makes up the bulk of the website.  It contains the content which is the protein of your site. The next layer is made up of chocolate, which represents the CSS for the site. It makes the peanut (HTML) that much more flavorful with it’s layout, positioning, and style. However, the CSS isn’t necessary to obtain the valuable information conveyed from the HTML.  The last layer, the shiny candy shell, is composed with JavaScript. It nicely finishes off a website’s client-side scripting with interactivity and smooth animation, but it is not as vital as the previous two layers. When properly combined, all three layers can be very enjoyable, but the JavaScript and CSS would be rendered useless without the core HTML.

An article I stumbled across, titled Progressive Enhancement is Non-Negotiable, explained fairly understandably why this approach was so important to physicly disabled users. WebGL (a JavaScript library API) is only effective if your user has the right machine, browser, has JavaScript, and has sight.  JavaScript is only effective if your user has a JavaScript enabled browser and sight. CSS is effective if your user has sight. Lastly, but most importantly, HTML can be effective for most everyone due to screen readers and other tools.  But we can see that if we depend on all layers equally, it significantly diminishes the effectiveness to a greater scope of users.

The same article also stressed the importance of progressive enhancement in relation to future technology.  It should be properly structured so it can easily scale, change, and employ new features as they become available to a wider range of new devices.

JavaScript and CSS can be a wondrous asset to a website, but first consider who you are trying to reach out to with their uses.  A shinier candy doesn’t necessarily mean a more delicious experience.

Organizational Culture

Most every organization in our society has a culture within their civilization.  Inevitably we find similarities that we share or differences that make us unique.  This need for belongingness is what makes up the beauty that is a culture. Even a classroom setting can have its own culture.

Rites, ceremonies, and rituals are all crucial pieces in making up a culture.  In this classroom setting, some examples of these may be taking attendance at the beginning of the class. Another may be to give feedback to a students halfway through the term.  Taking exams or giving presentations are both rituals that make up the culture of a college course. These are all universally shared elements of university courses.

A physical setting for a culture to partake their events in is another element that many cultures often have.  This is a place where a culture’s people may unite and practice their commonalities in a shared space. In this case, the classroom is the physical setting for learning.  Or more specifically, the “breakout room” for the soft skills portion of the IT 3610 course. Other examples in different cultures may be in a theatre, a church, or a campfire setting.  Any place for a group of people to meet at a prescribed placed at a prescribed time can facilitate this need.

Humor and play may also play important roles in a culture.  Being able to laugh and enjoy each other definitely is a powerful unification.  In this class we often use humor pertaining to the subject that is being talked about.  Oftentimes “nerd humor” or “memes” are shared among the department, which are always appreciated. It works as a fun way to unify a group.

Stories can become important roles in solidifying a culture.  A father may tell his son a story about when he was a boy to convey a lesson that he may have learned himself. Or a caveman may have created a cave drawing to tell the story of his ancestors.  Our instructors often tell us stories to share personal experience or have us read stories from people in the industry who have learned lessons the hard way. An example of this would be the story of the CEO we read about for the Active Listening discussion.

Values play a very important role in the unification of a culture.  Most all members of a culture share a common goal of wanting to succeed, and upholding good values helps to facilitate this.  In this classroom setting some of the values we strive to share are punctuality, attentiveness, actively discussion the subject presented.  We all try to practice these to the best of our abilities because we share a common goal of mastering the skills taught this course. Furthermore we all share the goal of receiving a degree.  Even more specifically we all want to go out into the world and land a job at which we enjoy and become successful in.

These are just a few options with which a culture is made up.  There are countless others, which can include heroes, language, metaphors, rules, fairytales, myths, and legends.  For any culture to stay intact and succeed in their development a combination of these elements must be practiced and valued.