What is HTML Anyway?
The opening activity for this page is highly modified from a web course titled "Learning HTML for Kids! Links to an external site." Hopefully that dispels some of your fear!
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. Developed by scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1990, HTML is the "hidden" code that helps us communicate with others online.
When writing HTML, you add "tags" to the text in order to create structure. These tags tell the browser how to display the text or graphics in the document.
For example, the following document has a simple layout (structure). Notice there are three major parts: a heading, two paragraphs, and a bulleted list. However, it's not easy to identify those differences because there aren't any tags yet!
Why I like to go swimming in the summer.
Swimming is my most favorite activity in the summer. When the sun is shining and the air is warm, you will find me dipping into my backyard pool. It’s not an impressive pool, only three feet deep, but it’s mine.
There are three reasons I like to swim:
I get lots of exercise
I enjoy the freedom
I have an opportunity to be in the sun.
To achieve a similar layout in a web browser, you need to add tags. Here is the same document with HTML tags (red) added. Note that the 'Heading,' 'Paragraph,' and 'Bulleted List' headings are not part of the document and listed only for clarification!
Heading
<h1> Why I like to go swimming in the summer. </h1>
Paragraph
<p> Swimming is my most favorite activity in the summer. When the sun is shining and the air is warm, you will find me dipping into my backyard pool. It’s not an impressive pool, only three feet deep, but it’s mine. </p>
Paragraph
<p> There are three reasons I like to swim: </p>
Bulleted List
<ul>
<li> I get lots of exercise </li>
<li> I enjoy the freedom </li>
<li> I have an opportunity to be in the sun. </li>
</ul>
Finally, here is the resulting page in your browser Links to an external site.. Notice the tags are gone? That’s because the tags tell the browser how to display files but do not show themselves.
Ready to get started!? One last thing before we get into the nitty gritty: Lurking behind every place in Canvas where there is a Rich Content Editor (where you edit and format content) there lurks an HTML Editor, and that, my friends, is where the magic happens. Check out the Canvas Guide, How do I use the HTML view in the Rich Content Editor?, for a tutorial on how to toggle between the two! (Surprise, it's just a single button click!)
Let's go have some fun!