Significant Design and Supports Service WordPress Sites Informational Post
I have had my fair share of trying to find tech help, design help, and maintenance help for my blog and site that has changed substantially over many years. It is embarrassing to admit to some of the problems I encountered. Trying to make my blogging life easier, I managed to find people who didn’t understand teachers or education, or that I wanted to share my resources mostly for free. I have had an assortment of computers. We lived in Northern Minnesota for many years which had good ol’ dial-up for much of that time. I was trying to upload resources and a simple PDF might take 15 minutes, and then perhaps have to be added again.
One especially strange problem was my computer from (well, I can’t say, a major retailer) that had been a floor model. For a year I just couldn’t get it to work well. I finally found the store was the user. Upon taking it back to the store with all my software and everything, they said they didn’t know how I had been using it at all. Essentially, I was hacking into my own computer. The operating system had to be replaced and there went all my software.
I hired one web design company for several thousands of dollars and just had to walk away after a year and lose the money. My husband’s thought was if we could go in and meet with people at the company offices and talk to them everything would work out. Not so, they didn’t understand how an education site (or at least mine) could work. You may have noticed my site would change from time to time, and tech issues were the reasons. I kept trying, though, and finally started meeting people who understood and could help me.
Pieter Els and his family business, Surfer Kids, are the backbones of this site, and they still work on the design and the maintenance.
All I want to do is make educational PDFs and activities! Technology is not fun for me at all, but I do my part of it anyway.
First, Pieter understands teachers and education. His daughter and one of the artists is a teacher. Pieter has illustrated books for me and my family, as well. He lives in South Africa and I’ve never met him, but I connected more with him than the people I could meet in person. We have business meetings by Google Hangout so he has a record of the discussion.
Second, Pieter is willing to give me rough drafts (wireframes) and information and accepts input. I don’t know that much about technology, but he guides me so we both agree on a project. He also advises me when I am wrong, which I like to know. I want the technology support to be honest.
Third, Pieter’s art is fun and engaging. I know other teachers ask him to make custom art. It is just clean and appealing to children. It is helpful for teaching children.
Fourth, of course, it saves me so much time to be able to have a reliable person working on my site. Technology is “OK” but not my strength.
Pieter Els has 30+ years of experience in facilitating courses to junior and senior facilitators, learning aids development, course material development, and marketing and web design. At first, he has earned a Graphic Design Diploma and during his career, as well as several merit bonuses for outstanding educational services and products. Later in his career, he decided to also get his BTech Degree in Graphic Design. Some of the other qualifications he obtained were: Educational Technology (EDTECH) Facilitator, Learning Aids Developer, Learning Material Developer and Assessor. He also took several courses in Computer Based Training, E-learning Software and attended Middle and Senior Management Courses. One of his major responsibilities later in his career was the research on distance learning.
Pieter has an online resource company for education clip art, illustrations, tutorials and articles. His company goal is to offer the world of education more high-quality art and learning materials. Surfer Kids Clip Art was established on Christmas Day, December 25, 2013
He is happily married to Elizabe with a daughter Nika and son Eswan.
Pieter Els
Surfer Kids Clip Art
Jeffreys Bay
South-Africa
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Surfer-Kids-Clip-Art
