Today we chose one of three CMS platforms with which to play, adapting to the new environments and it quirks. I chose Scalar because I wanted to have multimedia content on my site, and it seemed this CMS was the best option. While it took me longer to adjust to the platform than I expected, once I “figured out” how to use it I was impressed and amazed out what I could do. I even audibly gasped once or twice. Not only did Scalar allow me to incorporate text and video in interesting ways, but I could annotate them as well. I became somewhat frustrated at how to annotate, finding the Help Guide not all that useful for this particular component. However, Celeste guided me in the right direction, and soon enough I was making my own. This is what I wanted to learn! Long have I annotated images in Photoshop or even Apple software, using permanent arrows and text. My previous system was a necessary evil, and it bothered me that I couldn’t make these annotations invisible. Even though Scalar’s annotation tools require me to look at the image online, I can click on a permalink and–presto! A lovely annotated image or video is projected on a screen. Time passed quickly once I became immersed in the details of Scalar. While there were certainly many quirks, some of which were odd and unnecessary, I look forward to plumbing the depths of Scalar more. I think it might be a useful platform for my project and certainly for teaching. Now I need to learn Omeka and Drupal Gardens, which I imagine will offer valuable ways to see data.
A final note: it seems useful to learn CSS and HTML for Scalar. There are few design options, none of which I really liked, but if I knew CSS and HTML I could make modifications at will. I am now determined to learn both.