This website will be for teaching “Iraqi dialect through Animation”. This site is intended for users who are seeking to learn the Iraqi dialect from the beginner’s level. There are three main reasons for this website. First, it will provide thematic Iraqi dialogues through authentic animated videos. The themes are created based on Common Core Standards and ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines for learning any language. Second, it will provide some cultural information about the Iraqi people and the way they live and interact. Third, it will give access to other useful Iraqi websites to help the learners understand the dialect and the culture of this civilization.
Use cases:
An educator can link the website to his or her Moodle/Canvas classes by adding lesson URL to the weekly assignment of his course. The assignments can include YouTube videos, practice exercises, or reading assignments. The lessons will have brief introduction to help the educator pick the right ones to match his syllabus.
A student in the above educator’s class might visit the website to learn the language and do his assignments. He will find information on the first page about what the site will offer. He will have links to watch a short dialogue video, see a sample exercise, or read a cultural note about the country, all provided on the first page. From there, he or she can click on the provided links to go to the full lessons list, and when clicking again on a desired lesson topic, he or she will be directed to a full interactive lesson.
Another student might go to the website to find open-source information about the language and culture of Iraq for his research/project paper. He can access different resources about Iraqi culture by visiting links for recipes, Iraqi TV series and movies, history, folkloric dancing and more.
Design Concept:
The audience of this website are mostly government officials, military students, and any non-native speaker, age 16 and up, who is interested in learning the Iraqi dialect. The audience has to be English speakers first since most information and instructions are all provided in English language. Some users need to know the Iraqi Alphabets and how to read in order to benefit from all the materials provided on the site. All levels of Iraqi learners can benefit from the website because of the diversity of contents that it includes. Good internet connection is required in order to watch movies and download lessons.
Questions asked to Iraqi educators:
What type of information would you find most helpful on our web site?
A page that explains how to use the information on the website.
A page that lists the theme of every lesson.
Links to Iraqi movies/TV series.
An introduction to the Iraqi Language and culture.
Links to Iraqi recipes.
Links to where they can type in Iraqi.
Authentic Iraqi images.
What type of information do you NOT want to see included on the website?
Information about the war in Iraq.
Information about terrorism.
What area of interest or specialty would you like to contribute to the web site?
Feedback.
Suggestions about links and materials provided.
Examples of lesson plans to other educators.
Questions asked to Iraqi students:
What type of information would you find most helpful on our web site?
Iraqi videos that are translated in English
Links to Iraqi dictionaries.
Cultural and political resources
How often will you use such information?
As long as learning the language takes.
If the site contains up-to-date resources.
If the site teaches all levels of Iraqi.
Five Reference Websites:
These sites are examples of good and/or bad artifacts to be considered for the final design.
For information, I would not follow the example of this website because it lists the units without giving any information or image about the contents. It is a bad example of content display.
This is a good and bad example of layout style. The bad part is that, it provides too much text and the home page is so long. I will avoid this type of layout style. However, if scrolling down to ‘New content added weekly’, the style is appealing, clean and provide a simple and easy to read information about their contents.
This is an example of good navigation. My page will have the same navigation style, especially that it is fixed and always visible when scrolled down the page
After intensive research and suggestions, I have decided to include the following content areas, hoping in the future I will be able to accommodate all my audience requests.
Home: This page will have a welcome message and what this site is all about.
Lessons: This section will include links to lessons created by me to teach Iraqi dialect.
Culture: This section will contain cultural information about Iraq.
Resources: This section will contain links to external resources about the dialect, including Iraqi movies/TV series, recipes, folkloric dancing, etc.…
Contact: This section will contain information about how to contact me for questions and suggestions.
Outlines of Website Organization
The following shows the outline of the proposed pages and content.
Home Page:
Banner logo
Navigation column with five links.
Welcome message.
Featured scenario photo.
3 main content sections with media file for each.
Contact information including name and email address link.
Last updated date.
Lessons Page:
Banner Logo.
Navigation links to other main sections, including Home page.
Numbered list of lessons and their titles.
Contact information including name and email address link.
Last updated date.
Culture Page:
Banner Logo.
Links to other main sections, including Home page.
List of some cultural topics and brief information.
Contact information including name and email address link page creator
Last updated date
Resources Page:
Banner Logo.
Links to other main sections, including Home page.
List of resource topics and links to recipes, folkloric dancing, and Iraqi movies/TV series.
Contact information including name and email address link.
Last updated date.
Contact Page:
Banner Logo
Links to other main sections, including Home page.
Information about our address and how we can be contacted.
Contact information including name and email address link.
The web site will be designed in way to make it easy to navigate and find information related to the Iraqi dialect and its culture. The design will contain:
The overall look
The same banner logo and header at the top of each page.
A heading below the banner to provide the page name.
Same vertical navigation column that will stay fixed when scrolling up and down.
Colors will be consistent with headings and paragraphs.
Contact information that is visible for each page.
Link back to the home page that is included in the navigation bar.
Copyright information at the bottom of each page.
The home page
It will be laid out in a two-column format. It will have a main picture.
It will provide links to the main sections.
It will contain a welcome statement, few images and brief descriptions of its purpose and use.
All subsequent pages
will provide fixed vertical navigation (text) that does not disappear when a user scrolls up or down the page.
The pages won’t be too long, and won’t be crowded with text.
The pages will have appropriate media files (with appropriate credits to original owners) to facilitate the navigation to the desired topics.
Media
The banner logo will be a graphic that is created by one of my colleagues. Most images and videos on the website will be my work, and occasionally, I will have photos taken from Creative Commons websites. The public photos will be credited accordingly with a text under each one of them. In the footer section, I'll include a statement stating that ‘using of these images is prohibited without permission from the owner." All images and videos will be optimized for web use.
Color Scheme and Rationale
The colors I am using are taken from the logo theme to provide harmony to the overall look. The logo is consisted of an orange cube with black texts. The background behind the cube is light green with sandy texture. I am intending to make the background of the site light green with black rectangle for the banner and footer, and orange rectangle for the navigation column. The Content section will stay white for easy reading, and will be accented by orange heading and black texts.
Below are the colors of my website: