“CSS Floats 101” is an informative and interactive article that attempts to make the concept of marking your CSS in a more unique and customized way, easier. I enjoyed the links that were provided within the article because they allowed me to see how specific HTML or CSS markup translates into the real world of a webpage layout. I thought this article was useful overall but I still do not know how to incorporate the floating method into my own work. I understand what it does and I know a little bit about how it works, but I am a person who learns better by directly being shown by another person. Just reading an article like this won’t suddenly cause me to know what I’m doing. I find CSS very challenging, and apparently, it’s hard to teach as well because I am still lost.
I appreciate how the author tried to avoid as much jargon as possible and talk in friendly conversational terms. When I’m reading a book for class that is very technical, I immediately get turned off because I am not a computer person at all. I think the author realizes just how hard web publishing is and how not everyone is cut out to teach it. Just because one person is familiar with how, for example, CSS works, doesn’t mean that the person they’re trying to teach will pick it up in an instant. I think that different methods – more one-on-one and individual teaching methods as well as creative methods should be applied when teaching a difficult course like this – it’s like a foreign language. I think that this article is a great example of approaching this course and its information in a friendlier way compared to some other texts or teaching methods.
Teachers of this subject should be thorough in what they expect from their students and communicate their expectations in a clear manner. The author does a good job of doing this. In order to be a fair teacher and expect respect from students, a teacher must know what they are doing and take enough time to explain each task to each student. I think moving slow is key with this type of teaching and learning, and the author seems to grasp that concept and really adapt to his beginner level audience. Receiving that type of teaching is a breath of fresh air…even if it comes from an article. However, the article has limitations when it comes to showing how to do what it’s talking about. And that is where I have difficulty because I am the kind of learner who needs someone to tell me what to do while I am doing it. I’m still searching for that kind of help but hopefully I’ll find it because I am willing and ready to learn and have high expectations for myself. It’s frustrating to feel trapped inside a language and inside a world in which you have no clue how to help yourself and there are no allies in sight.
CSS makes me feel like I am swimming upstream with no paddle and no crew.