OVERVIEW:

JavaScript has been around for almost 20 years and it’s probably the part of web pages you like the most. JavaScript is basically that part of the source code that gives action to a page. A clock that keeps changing. A button with a pop up box. A scrolling image gallery. These are the kinds of things you like to see when you look at most web pages because they make you feel like you can interact with them.

Similar to HTML and CSS, JavaScript is another coding language (or programming language) that has a completely different set of rules. You know that to write HTML, you need angle brackets and some attributes. You know that to write CSS, you need curly brackets and some properties. But with JavaScript, there’s a lot more going on. JavaScript uses a lot more symbols and a lot more rules than those other coding languages you learned in this class.

Some will tell you that JavaScript is pretty easy, but the truth is, it’s pretty complicated. And it takes patience. Quite a bit more patience than HTML or CSS. There are students who take an entire semester learning JavaScript and can never quite master everything about it. This is just one lesson and all you’re going to do is see how it works. You’ll get to write a little bit of JavaScript code, but you won’t be expected to achieve perfection. Just pay close attention and get ready to keep up.

LEARNING GOAL #4: Applied Web Design

Students will understand how to expand and apply their modest knowledge of HTML and CSS through Web Hosting, Search Engine Optimization, and JavaScript.

PART 1: Class Discussion

Topic #1 – Introduction to JavaScript

At some point during the last few months, you probably heard something about JavaScript. You might not have known what it was, but you heard it mentioned in class. So here is a REALLY simple explanation: JavaScript is a programming language for creating more interactive web pages. And the man who created JavaScript was Brendan Eich, pictured on the right.

Throughout the semester, you have learned how to write proper HTML syntax (or grammar) with angle brackets, tags, elements, and attributes. You have also learned how to write proper CSS syntax (or grammar) with curly brackets, selectors, properties, and values. But if you were going to try and learn JavaScript, you would also have to learn an entirely new syntax because it’s another kind of coding language.

Topic #2 – A Complex Language

According to W3Schools, JavaScript is an “easy” coding language to learn. But that’s not exactly true. Let’s put it another way. In about four weeks, you managed to learn almost all of HTML. And by now, you pretty much know enough about HTML to create a few pages from scratch. In four weeks, you also learned about 60-70% of CSS. You know how to build web pages and make them look nice. But when it comes to JavaScript, there is so much to learn that you could actually spend an entire semester (about 18 weeks) and still not know it all. Today, you are only going to spend about an hour with JavaScript.

Topic #3 – Static vs Dynamic Pages

During Lesson 3.7, when we talked about animations, you learned about the difference between static and dynamic pages. But just in case you forgot, let’s review it again.

Every single web page that you have made in this class was made with HTML. Even when you took time to make those pages beautiful or aesthetically pleasing, you used a coding language called CSS. But unless you were messing around with the codes, your pages would never change on their own inside the browser. When it comes to design, a web page that doesn’t change or show any movement is called a static web page.

On the other hand, most of the really good websites that you visit are constantly changing. They might have sliding image galleries or pop up advertisements, but there is always something going on. And when it comes to design, a web page that constantly changes or shows movement is called a dynamic web page. You might even see the word DHTML as a way of describing Dynamic Hyper Text Markup Language.

PART 2: Writing JavaScript

K12 DIGITAL COURSES

WD1
Lesson 4.3
A Little JavaScript

OVERVIEW:

LEARNING GOAL #4: Applied Web Design

PART 1: Class Discussion

PART 2: Writing JavaScript

PART 3: Finishing Portfolio Sites

PART 4: Manipulating JavaScript