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Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning
EE Version
1.6.x
Add-ons used
The fine folks at the Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning blog came to us with an existing ExpressionEngine Web site, and the need for a major overhaul of the site on front- and back-ends. We love a challenge, and the first one was to figure out how the site fit together. It was a bit of a mishmash of older ExpressionEngine coding and unused templates (or were they?).
Spotlight covers the intersection of technology and education to show how digital media is used in and out of classrooms. It was launched in 2009, and funded by the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Initiative.
It’s always interesting to look at a site built by another EE company. Of course they do things differently—which is not to say better or worse—and seeing how another brain approaches a problem you consider “solved” prompts you to think things through again. There’s also a lot of satisfaction in taking many lines of code and condensing them into a few lines of code, and revamping any site created several years ago gives you a chance to do just that, regardless of the platform.
While we were operating on the code, we also stripped out templates that were not longer in use, redirected URLs, and generally made the backend easier for the Spotlight staff to maintain themselves. Then we got to think about design.
Because the Spotlight blog is funded by a grant program, and has a specific mandate, we knew we needed to give visitors quick access to information about the mission, and that the design needed to reflect the seriousness of what Spotlight is doing while still having a modern and attractive interface. Graphics of stick figures and primary colors were out; subtle and professional were in. We frankly love the result we came up with, which relies heavily on typography and a limited color palette to generate visual interest while letting the content—especially the video stories—be in the ... well, spotlight. Throw in some editorial process control in ExpressionEngine, a Twitter rollcall, implement the new design, and it’s like a whole new site.
Spotlight staffers tells us they love the new look, and so do their readers. We’re pretty proud of this one, and we can’t stop reading the stories either!
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Leave your comments
paul blent
02/20 at 02:10 AM
I have learned a few things about the digital media field during my information technology degree last year. The point is this is a domain where new features keep updating themselves from one day to another and if you want to keep solid track and become a specialist in this area, there`s no diploma that can actually guarantee you this. It`s sort of a life-long learning environment, where you can`t become a specialist by night, but by keeping contact with all the latest news and improvements on the market. Not to mention the big secret is to be pending the public`s needs and to learn how to anticipate them by giving them exactly what they want when they least expect it.
tonight11
03/07 at 01:38 PM
Nowadays the information, education and technology are hand in hand. Even modern medicine uses them in order to cure almost every disease. I am one of those people who is studying masters of public health programs online and maybe one day I will change something in this country using these three concepts. Old ideas should make room for new ideas, because only in this way we progress.
jhonny
03/07 at 02:17 PM
I read the article and the comments. I am agree with you, but you shouldn’t forget how important is communication in this situation. I have a communication degree diploma and I can work in any department I want. I admire every progress that technology, medicine, science made but in order to be a success communication is the key.
NeilKirchoff
03/11 at 07:56 PM
While I was taking a human resource degree course I studied about digital media and communication and in my opinion it is very important. I have a professor at my university that is considered the best because all of his students get high grades and stuff like that. The truth is he wrote several books on neuro-linguistic programming and he is an expert in that. So, yes, communication is important in learning.
Paul Windsor
03/13 at 06:39 AM
Thank you for providing this interesting website!I’ve recently taken an online masters degree computer science and I learned a lot of things about digital media and its role on education and in the marketing field.It is very important to teach students about what digital media means as it is an advanced technolgy tool that many companies use in order to promote their business.
Iona
05/13 at 01:57 AM
I think that since the Virtualization become part of our lives and we tend to express everything in online or social media ,digital media becomes slowly a part of the learning process in schools.
