Recently we used GitHub to have a space for a plugin to be stored and edited no matter where we were for convenience.
This plugin is called “Hello Worthy” and is an adaptation of the popular plugin “Hello Dolly” featuring song lyrics displayed on the hub of WordPress.
Personally I used GitHub whilst working at home to have the ability to take a copy of the current files and have my own separate version to edit and change. The changes I made were just adjusting the words that displayed on screen to web tips.
Once I was finished with my adjustment of the content I created a “pull request” meaning I could ask to have my version merged in with the one I “forked” (copied) it from.
Recently I attended a digital champions online meeting to receive a bit of training around the topic of digital exclusion.
Digital exclusion is where a section of the population have continuing unequal access and capacity to use Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) that are essential to fully participate in society.
During the meeting I was made aware of the methods behind making sure everyone from all backgrounds and ability are able to access and use anything digital in whatever way they need to.
There’s many reasons why people may potentially be digitally excluded ranging from having no previous experience using digital devices, no person to mentor and guide them, embarrassment, fear, lack of funds to buy a digital device in the first place or maybe they don’t know where to get a device from a safe and reputable place.
The variables as to why are endless.
Digital champions are approachable individuals who can share enthusiasm and knowledge of digital with colleagues and service users in an easy to understand way.
One of the reasons why I attended the meeting with digital champions is because here at VillageWebCompany a variety of people with different levels of skill regarding digital come into the shop for advice and help. That is one of the many things we are proud to do when given the opportunity. The training helped to make sure I was giving the correct feedback to people who feel excluded and taking the correct approach to each situation.
Today I’ve been learning to set up a wiki page for the company in order to be able to efficiently store data and be easily accessed at any time from any place.
The process of doing this began with logging into our hosting company’s website and finding the control panel for the specific site that we wanted the wiki page to live on.
After that I used softaculous app installer to find a wiki plugin of choice (based on reviews and accessibility), and went on to install my choice which was “mediawiki”.
A photo of the front page of MediaWiki on our website
Within the wiki its self there is a lot of customization that can be done in order to make it easier to navigate, safer, and easier to store information within the pages on the site.
After 2 months of working at the village web company I have learned a lot of new things and re-established previous skills I had such as some graphic designing using Affinity Designer
Learning to use an isometric grid was a challenge for me at first but after a few days of learning it started to come together
Idea Award – Silver Badge
I recently achieved my Silver badge on the idea award website resulting in an online badge/award. I achieved the badge by doing little courses that help with teamwork, problem solving and creativity and eventually completing the majority of the available courses.
Management skills
My time management skills and project management is improving as time goes on and I learn to calculate realistic time scales for tasks I regularly have to perform such as maintaining plugin updates on client websites
Tags: apprentice, Declan Posted in Our Team | Comments Off on 2 Months Working At The Village Web Company.
Starting work for the VillageWebCompany has been a very positive change for me and has put me in a fantastic position to grow as a person and learn many useful skills in the near future. Some of the things I have been learning in my first week are things such as how to operate WordPress and many other computer based applications.
This has given me some independence to do things I couldn’t or wasn’t aware of previously.
It has also given me an insight into potential things things I can do in the future if I choose to such as the ability to start, operate and maintain my own websites.
Another thing during my first week I have been working towards is online badges via the website idea.org.uk. You are awarded points for covering different topics and taking a series of short tests afterwards and completing them in order to achieve a digital award.
The badges available to be achieved are currently Bronze & Silver, I am now working towards my silver award.
Tags: apprentice, Declan Posted in Our Team | Comments Off on First week at the Village Web Company CIC – Declan
