The Bridge Blog
A dialog about our new bridge and these web pages
Overview. As a pointy-headed
university professor, my weekend project of bridge photography and
building these web pages generated many questions and introduced me
to just-in-time learning. I enjoy chasing my curiosity and
want to identify ways to encourage younger learners to also enjoy curiosity
chasing and learning.
Learning usually requires repetition while forgetting occurs when
I infrequently use information. Many young learners do not understand
the importance of repetition. Weekly visits to the bridge provided
the repetition necessary to detect changes in the bridge and
consequently generated
many questions and opportunities for learning. Over the course of the
bridge project, I had access to few experts for answering questions.
Rather than a liability, this became an asset and pushed me to improve
my search skills with Google. Soon, I found that answers
to questions encountered during my weekly photo shoots were often
only a Google-search away -
(see
Restoring the Joy in Learning). Consequently Google + Internet became
dependable extensions of my memory.
The bridge story is a work in progress and is evolving from a simple
collections of photographs to an experiment with Internet-centric
just-in-time learning.
Insights I gain from you
will find their way into the learning centers of MUSC.
Palmetto Bridge Constructors, a joint venture between
Tidewater
Skanska and
Flatiron Constructors, as well as
High Steel Structures,
Freyssinet, the
SCDOT and the
Federal Highway Commission Office
of Bridge Technology guided much of my learning.
I also learn from many of you and from Google-linked resources. More
important is the e-mail encouragement I receive from many of you.
Fri, 17 Jun 2005
June 17, 2005: Exploring Graphical Navigation
I am often frustrated with the difficulty of finding stuff on
these web pages. I think there must be a better way. Jack, my son,
suggested some sort of graphical navigation. The idea is that you
can click on a region of an image and bring up more detailed photos.
I have built a rough draft
test page to develop this idea. There are about 2500 images
and finding what even I want, well, its simply out of control.
Perhaps a graphical interface with the photos is the way to do. Google
does this with Google Maps using
Ajax (asynchronous javascript and xml), a new web technology. This is
not
Ajax - just plain ordinary javascript - but a start.
I need your input, your ideas, your code, your whatever.
posted at: 13:21 | path: | permanent link to this entry
