Students can plan the layout and organization of their group website.
Students can identify different skill sets and interests of individuals on their team and assign web page responsibilities accordingly.
General Description
In this section, students will plan the overall design of their website, identifying all of the pages that will comprise the site, and the organization of those pages (site map). Students will need to divide the workload for the website among teammates, which should be based on student skills and interest. Roles and responsibilities will be documented in a team contract. Students should assign roles of "Server administrator", "Project manager", "Quality assurance", and "Layout designer." Multiple students can be assigned to QA and Layout for teams larger than 4; server admin and project manager can be combined for teams of 3. As students start working in group, some Group Dynamics might become particularly salient.
In activity 2 students are tasked with envisioning themselves as contributors on a team of professional web developers. This is an exercise in positive visualization and planning for the future and it might involve some Cultural and Identity Considerations that can be done as a part of the end of unit reflections when students define the coding skills they have learned.
Activity 1 (Budget 45 minutes)
Students specify the title of each web page and organize the pages.
1. Students review the Required Web Pages document, which specifies all the pages that must be included in a good website for this class.
2. The teacher provides specific instructions on what to include in the About and Contact pages of the site, in accordance with the school's privacy policy. About and Contact pages are good places to have students use tables and lists. The teacher can revisit this in the next section when students create content for the web pages.
3. The teacher should review the following list of webpage requirements:
Home page (1 page)
Problem description (2 or more pages)
Context description (2 or more pages)
Importance to people (2 or more pages)
Existing or previous attempts to solve the problem (2 or more pages)
Potential new solutions (1 or more pages)
About (1)
Contact (1)
Related or Testimonial video (1 or more pages)
4. The students map their PowerPoint slides into appropriate web pages. For each slide, students determine if they require one or more web pages to represent that content. For example, if two slides are used to describe the problem in the presentation, students would map those to two (or more) problem description pages.
5. Students create a site map. If pages are represented as post-it notes, they should be grouped by similar categories (problem, context, solution, etc.) in a site-map structure, as in this Sitemap Example. The sitemap should include the standard all required pages including home, about, contact, and testimonial. Post-it notes should be included for all pages and arranged in the site-map.
Activity 2 (Budget 25 minutes)
Students review and select roles involved in website development .
1. Teacher explains that in this class, everybody is a coder. Each student will be responsible for creating, developing and coding a few pages in the team web site that they will "own." In addition to being a coder, because website development requires many different skills and talents, everyone on the team will get to try out a few additional roles as part of a website development team. The teacher will want to walk the students through each role, and the duties that each will have to perform. A full description of each of the the four roles is provided in the document linked to the role. The four roles are:
"Server Administrator" - the server administrator will ensure the team has access to the website and they can all make changes. The Server administrator must also resolve and manage conflicts when different people want to work on the same page. They must be organized and technical.
"Project Manager" - the project manager will ensure the team is covering all of the required content on the website and will sign off on all planning documents. They will resolve any conflicts that arise between the work plan and the actual results. They must be good at planning and have excellent communication skills.
"Quality Assurance" - quality assurance will ensure that each page functions, that the information is correct, all links and menus function, and the page layout works for mobile and PC configurations. They will sign off on all individual pages and report any quality issues to the person responsible. They must be very detail oriented.
"Layout Designer" - the layout designer will lead the design of the overall webpage, including color choices, logos, and general layout. They must be good at identifying design alternatives and leading a group to gain consensus.
2. Students review roles and identify the role that they want in a web design team. Roles will rotate two times, so students will each get to try 3 out of 4 of them.
Activity 3 (Budget 25 minutes)
Students claim web pages and write team contract.
1. Each students claims responsibility for the design, layout and population of 2 or more related pages. All pages must be claimed. Students can use small pages - about, contact, testimonial - as a way to balance workload if needed. It is up to the student team to assign pages.
2. Students annotated their site-map with student names assigned to each page that serves as their initial team contract. Each student agrees to do their assigned web pages by the due dates specified by the client (teacher).
Activity 4 (Budget 30 minutes, Optional)
Students conduct a personal skills inventory (optional).
To get a feeling for how they develop as part of this website team, each student should perform a personal skills inventory (note: the teacher will be responsible for finding a suitable skills inventory activity). Students will come to identify or acquire additional skills by playing different roles. Some time should be set aside for students to reflect on new found skills at the end of unit 2.