Many teachers create websites for their students. Typically their goals
are to enhance their students' learning and to improve communication
with
students and parents. I would like to encourage you to also consider
using your website as a place to publish (or make public) outstanding
student work--something that surprisingly few teacher or school sites
feature, interestingly enough.
Here are a couple of examples of websites created by preservice and practicing teachers.
Spend some time taking a good look at these examples below to get some
ideas of the kinds of things you might want to do with a website.
Background
- An argument that every teacher needs a website
these days. Published by Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational
Foundation that has a clearly stated vision of how to integrate
technology into classrooms. "Effective
technology integration is achieved when its use supports curricular
goals. It must support four key components of learning: active
engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback,
and connection to real-world experts." Contributed by Becky Harmon.
- A thoughtful research-based discussion of how
websites can be used to better connect families and the school.
Published in a middle school technology journal edited by graduate
students at North Carolina State Universtiy. Contributed by Tammy
Schrader.
http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/win2003/involvement/6.html
- A first person account by one middle school
English teacher who created his own website and has seen its use
steadily and dramatically increase as it becomes an important resource
for his students and student centered projects. Note that the author
structured his site into three main areas: a place for the teacher to
publish information, a place for students to publish final projects,
and a place for class discussions. Contributed by Erin Roby.
http://www.thejournal.com/articles/15805_1
- A succinct "how to" guide about building a
classroom website written for teachers by a professor at Western
Michigan University. Topics include what makes a quality teacher
website (criteria) and how do I create a classroom website
(step-by-step). This isn't a tutorial on web editing software, but
instead a careful way to think through the structure and content of
your site. Written for preservice teachers, it has content valuable to
practicing teachers as well.
http://www.wmich.edu/teachenglish/subpages/technology/classwebsite.htm - A link to download a checklist published by the
Grossmont Union High School District in La Mesa, CA for creating
quality teacher websites. Though intended for high school teachers,
preservice elementary teachers in our program have found this list
helpful as well. Contributed by Becky Harmon.
http://edtech.guhsd.net/dtabnk/tchrwebguidelines.pdf
Some Pacific
students' teacher websites
Eduscapes teacher website:
Assignment:
In class next time we will use a website editing tool or blog editor to put together
the first parts of a professional website. Come to class
knowing 3-5 major headings you'd want to use for your website. We'll
finish this first draft in class; some of you may choose to go on with
this task and make it your final project.
Webpage
authoring resources
-
Public domain open source webpage editor--N/VU
http://www.nvu.com/ - Website basics--Download a document
that gives
an overview of some of the website building skills discussed in
class.
- The best N/Vu tutorial is the User
Guide found in the Help menu in the software itself. There is also a
good (but rather detailed) tutorial at http://www.thesitewizard.com. I would recommend tutorial 2 about fonts, images, and adding text to your page.
- A template I developed for teacher websites. This is a 5 page template that you can use to create your own teacher website.
- Some sample digital portfolio templates.
I
use these with our EDUC 625 class, but you could rework them into
multiple
page websites of your own that have nothing to do with being a
portfolio.
Other webpage options
N/Vu is open source webpage editing software available to you and your
students for free. That is why I recommend it. But there are other
options to consider for making a teacher website:
- Use a blog--I am just beginning to learn about
this, but a lot of teachers are not building websites at all, but
instead are using blogs (weblogs) because they are easier to edit and
can allow student interaction. They are great if you plan to post to
your site daily. Here are a few links to get your thinking started:
- Teacher websites
- Blogging software
- Edublogs
from Australia has been recommended by Tim Lauer. There are four
tutorials videos (about 3-5 minutes each) on this page that will get
you started.
- A recent article about this approach
- The September L&L article "Online tools for sharing and collaborating" mentions the Protopage site
that provides a free personal start page. There you can access one or
more webpages tha allow you to post photos (classroom projects) and
create text and links. This one I haven't tried, but on the strength of
Julie Lindsay's recommendation in L&L you might want to try it for
your teacher page even though it was designed more for social
networking. You can control who sees the pages (rather like
myspace)...that's about what I know about it.
- http://www.protopage.com/amandacase
Amanda
used Protopage to create the beginnings of her professional website for
a language arts teacher. Do not miss the connection to Google maps
under "fun stuff." - http://www.protopage.com/mrbaker
Brad
used Protopage to create the beginnings of his professional website for
a social studies teacher. It features some good initial links for an
economics and American history class together with historical photos.
- Use proprietary web editing software like Dreamweaver or Adobe GoLive.
Many of Mark Bailey's students purchase (for under $100) GoLive and
create their site with that softwarel. It is also available on the lab
machines. With N/Vu I basically have you using a template. With GoLive
it is easier to create you own design, and many find it easier to
manage a website using this software. If a group of you are interested,
I can schedule a tutorial for a small group to "make you dangerous"
with GoLive. Also a number of Mark's students can be helpful in problem
solving this program. Dreamweaver is another option. It is available on
all Pacific University computer labs other than Carnegie. - If you have an Apple computer, consider using iWeb. iWeb is the new web editing tool in the iLife suite that makes terrific looking pages very easily. You will need to buy iLife (about $70) and do all your editing in this program.
- Example teacher websites edited in iLife
Options for hosting your final website
- Blogs are already hosted on the web. Edublogs is my favorite.
- Put it on the myweb.pacificu.edu server. This
server is FTP accessible so you can update it from anywhere. But your
files are limited in size, your space goes away once you are not a
Pacific student, and there is a disclaimer stamped on every one of your
pages
- Put it on the College of Education server by
putting it in the Webdrop folder (inside the Student folder). Then
email Mike and he'll post your work. We will host your site for at
least 3 years after you graduate and there is no size limitation. But
you have to come on campus to post your work.
- Ask if your district will host your website. If
you show them something that improves home communication and supports
student learning, they may find a way to do this.
- If you have a home account (for DSL or a cable modem, for example) they have space on a server where your work could be hosted.
- If you are an Apple computer user, consider a
.mac account (for less than $100 per year) as a way to host your work,
get access to easy to use templates (like iWeb), and host a very
professional looking site.
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