Creating Valuable Class Web Sites

Franck-Boston

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By Elizabeth (Betsy) A. Baker

18 Learning & Leading with Technology | May 2008 ven those teachers with the best your classroom. Don’t panic. Even for teachers (e.g., Scholastic.com), intentions of taking advantage if you don’t know where to begin, or and some are available to anyone (e.g., Eof the Internet to support learn- consider yourself insufficiently savvy FreeWebs.com). Often the free provid- ing may have obstacles before them. about technology to take on the task, ers include advertisements on your Creating Valuable Class Web Sites In researching the problem, I’ve heard you can do it. Creating a classroom Web site. Other providers are adver- their complaints and understand some Web site is not as difficult as you tisement-free but charge a nominal fee of the difficulties. Here are the typical might think. (e.g., TeacherWeb.com/$29 per year). laments: The methods listed here are incre- The advantage of using Web site pro- mentally more difficult. Thus, if you viders is that you can have a Web site “I know that my students would are tentative about the Internet (for in a few hours or less. The disadvan- benefit from doing more with example, if you are able to turn on tage is that you do not have as many computers—but we don’t have your computer but not much else), options for design and content as you the time.” you will want to use Method One: do with the other two methods. Fur- “We go to the school lab as often as Web Site Providers. thermore, if you decide to change to we can, but it is not often enough.” If you are a little more comfortable another method you cannot take your with technology but lack the time to site with you and will have to start all “I created a list of Web sites for learn how to use Web development over. If this is of no concern for you, my students to use, but they only software, you will want to use Method however, simply choose a site in Table have access to my list when they Two: Blogs, Groups, and Wiki Web 1, sign up, and begin creating your use computers in our classroom Sites. If you are willing to learn new Web site. or in the school building.” software, have server space, and have Method Two: Blogs, Groups, and Wikis “We have only one computer in funds for the software, you might our classroom.” want to use Method Three: Be Your Table 2 lists several options to get Own Developer. started with blogs, groups, and wikis. “I want to keep my students safe, The template approach common to so I avoid the Internet.” Method One: Web Site Providers Method Two provides a little more Sound familiar? Then follow the Several companies publish Web sites flexibility, and it allows multiple users steps below to create a Web site for for you (see Table 1). Some are created to post to the site. If you want students

Table 1: Web Site Providers

If you … Providers Online Tours, Tutorials, Tips, Where to sign up and Examples

Want to get started FreeWebs Examples: http://members1.freeWebs. http://freewebs.com/ as easily as possible com/page.jsp?page=exampleSites Need server space for your site Geocities Tour: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ http://geocities.yahoo.com by Yahoo geo/tour/index.html Are willing to have advertisements on your Examples: http://pages.yahoo.com site or pay a minimal fee Homepage Tutorial: http://teacher.scholastic.com/ http://teacher.scholastic.com/ builder by chb_tutorial/tutorial.htm homepagebuilder/index.htm Scholastic Tips: http://teacher.scholastic.com/ homepagebuilder/monthly_tips.htm

Tripod by LYCOS Tips: http://www.tripod.lycos.com/ http://www.tripod.lycos.com

about/ -Mosquito-

TeacherWeb, $29 Tour: http://www.teacherweb.com/ http://www.teacherweb.com/ USD/year (no intro.htm IdxStates.htm advertisements; free 30-day trial)

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May 2008 | Learning & Leading with Technology 19 Table 2: Blogs, Groups, and Wiki Web Sites

If you … Providers Online Tours, Tools, FAQs, Where to sign up and Examples

Want a professional Blogger Tour: http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g http://www.blogger.com/start Web site appearance Examples: http://search.blogger.com > Want to facilitate click on Next Blog interaction between students Ebn.Weblogger Tools: http://www.ebn.Weblogger.com/ http://www.ebn.Weblogger. Want to empower directory/68/bloggingTools com/member/signup students to post their Examples: http://www.ebn.Weblogger. own work com/directory/68/examplesOfBlogUse Are willing to learn how to use blogs, Livejournal FAQs: http://www.livejournal.com/ https://www.livejournal.com/ groups, or wikis support/faq.bml create.bml Do not want to spend Examples: http://www.livejournal.com/ any money schools/ Do not have server space for your site Google Groups Tour: http://groups.google.com/ http://groups.google.com googlegroups/tour/index.html Are willing to have advertisements Yahoo Groups Examples: http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/ http://groups.yahoo.com appear on your dir/Schools___Education/K-12 site (check for appropriateness) Wikispaces Tour: http://www.wikispaces.com/site/ http://www.wikispaces.com/ Want an RSS feed tour#introduction site/for/teachers100K

PBWiki Tour: http://pbwiki.com/content/tour https://secure.pbwiki.com/ signup.wiki to be able to add their work to your that notifies you of changes made to ments. Research the advertisements Web site or want them to engage in your site. With RSS, you do not have to make sure they are appropriate for online discussions, then you will want to go to your Web site to see if anyone your classroom before you select this to use Method Two. Your students has made a posting; the RSS feed will method. You can give permission to may already know how to create and e-mail you a notification. In addition, any of your group members to change maintain blogs, groups, and wikis. the feed will track revision authors the site. That can facilitate student use This in itself is a valuable literacy ac- and the time the revisions were made of the Web site as they post their own tivity, giving them the opportunity to to the Web site. publications and have online discus- develop important literacy skills for You will be amazed how simple blogs sions. In addition, you can make the the workplace. Research indicates em- are to create and update. Table 2 lists Web site password-protected so only ployers soon will expect workers to be some blog sites that allow you to create those to whom you assign permission able to create, maintain, and use Web a blog for your classroom at no cost. can see the site. Doing so allows par- sites. If you choose Method Two, and Yahoo and Google are just a few of ents (not the general public) to view then decide at some point to switch the many providers offering free group student work, for example. to Method Three, all you have to do is spaces (see Groups.Yahoo.com and Wikis, by definition, are Web sites add a link to your site. Finally, Method Groups.Google.com). As with Method allowing users to add, remove, edit, Two lets you sign up for RSS, a system One, free group sites post advertise- and change the content. The most famous wiki is Wikipedia—an online encyclopedia with an informal, world- Research indicates employers soon will expect workers to wide editorial team. Anyone can edit be able to create, maintain, and use Web sites. its content. To start your own wiki, try Wikispaces.com or PBWiki.com.

20 Learning & Leading with Technology | May 2008 Table 3: Be Your Own Developer

If you … Providers Online Tutorials, FAQs, Download and Examples

Are willing to have a Nvu.com Tutorial: http://nvu.com/Websitehelp. http://nvu.com/download.php simplistic Web site (Free) php appearance FAQs: http://nvu.com/faq.php Are willing to learn Examples: http://nvu.com/demo.php how to use a new software package Netscape Tutorial: http://wp.netscape.com/ http://wp.netscape.com/ja/ Have no budget to Communicator browsers/using/newusers/composer/ download/download_comm.html purchase software (Free) pagecreate.html Have server space FAQs: http://www.netscape.com/FAQ/ to upload and store your site

Want a professional Dreamweaver by Tutorial: http://www.adobe.com/ http://www.macromedia. Web site appearance Macromedia, support/dreamweaver/tutorial_index. com/cfusion/tdrc/index. $100 USD html cfm?product=dreamweaver Are willing to learn (Education how to use a new Version) Tutorial: http://studentWebs. software package coloradocollege.edu/~j_kuczmarski/ pages/tutorials/ed1.html Have a budget of $100 USD for software FrontPage by Tutorial: http://www.siec.k12.in.us/ http://www.runaware.com/ Microsoft, $100 ~west/online/Website microsoft/frontpage2003/ Have server space USD (Education to upload and store Version) Tutorial: http://outreach.missouri.edu/ your site Webteam/fp2k/

iWeb by Apple, Tutorial: http://www.apple.com/ilife/ http://store.apple.com/ $79 USD tutorials/#iweb 1-800-MY-APPLE/ (packaged with WebObjects/AppleStore. Macintosh or woa/wa/RSLID?mco=66BF06 available as part 2D&fnode=home/shop_mac/ of iLife) software&nplm=MB015Z/A

Method Three: Be Your Own Developer In addition, your school district or lo- Resources cal college may provide classes to help Table 3 provides a variety of software you learn how to use commercial Web Blog-Connection.com—contains information options for the more sophisticated development software. about what blogs offer to educators. type of Web site development. Free Developing your own Web site re- Educational.blogs.com—maintains an index of educator’s blogs. software (e.g., Netscape Composer, quires you not only to learn the soft- For a list of resources for teachers regarding Nvu) is fairly simplistic to learn but ware but also to upload your site to a wikis, see http://www.emints.org/ethemes/ also generates a site with a simplistic server. In other words, you will need resources/S00001969.shtml. appearance. Purchased software (e.g., to determine whether your school can Dreamweaver, FrontPage, iWeb) will provide you with server space. If so, Elizabeth (Betsy) A. Baker, require an investment of time to learn, the technology coordinator at your PhD, is a professor of literacy but that investment will be apparent in school will need to tell you how to studies at the University of Missouri–Columbia. Her re- the more complex Web site fashioned upload your site to the server. If your search interests include the using it. If the hard drive on your com- school is unable to provide server nature of literacy in techno- puter already has Microsoft products space or unable to tell you how to logical environments, new (e.g., Word, PowerPoint), you may upload to the server, you may want literacies, literacy and the Internet, and multi- already own FrontPage. If you own a to choose Method One or Two, as de- media, case-based instruction. Macintosh you may already have iWeb. scribed above.

May 2008 | Learning & Leading with Technology 21