Design Basics

Before building a website that will represent who you are as a teacher, it's a good idea to spend some time thinking about what you want the website to look like and how you're going to actually make that happen. 

Step 1: Three Key Words

A good way to start the design process it to think of three or four words or concepts that, when taken together, represent the identity you want to construct for yourself, as a professional, on your website. 

For example, let's say Akesha, a first year candidate, wants to show the world that she is an innovator, that she is hard-working and that she is committed to teaching that empowers African-Canadian and other youth of colour to excel academically in her areas of specialization -- science and math. Her three key words might be: innovation, hard work and social justice. 

Step 2: Multimodal Planning 

With these words & concepts in mind, next spend some time thinking about how you will create a webspace that communicates these core ideas to the world. You will need to think about photographs and images that could communicate these ideas, the kinds of work you will share, the topics of blog posts that you will write, the types of media content you will promote, share or retweet, the colours and fonts you will use to communicate these ideas.

One strategy would be to make a table with each of your words or concepts at the top and below, list items that would specifically communicate that idea. 

For example, Akesha's table might look like this:

Step 3: Find Mentor Texts

The next step in your design process is to seek out examples of websites that other UOttawa teacher candidates and practicing teachers have designed. As you explore these mentor texts, ask yourself some critical questions:

1) How is this website organized? Is it easy to use? If so, why? If not, why not?

2) Can I guess what key values, ideas or concepts this person wants to communicate through the design of this space about who they are as a teacher? If so, what specific elements have they used to do this? Can I do something similar? 

3) What web platform have they used to create their site? 

4) How have they used the blog? What kinds of content do they write about? What could I emulate? What would I change?

5) How have they integrated social media? Does this approach allow me to see what they share, and how they participate in a professional learning network? 

Step 4: Think about the (many) purpose(s) and audience(s) for your hub

Student perceptions: In our 2017 survey, many graduating B.Ed. candidates told us that they understood their Digital Hub to be an online CV. Many candidates told us that they did the work to make a website because they hoped it would help them get a job. Some of them told us they thought the website would be useful in a job interview. 

Create something that evolves with you: In truth, we hope you see the digital hub as much, much more than an online advertisement for you as job candidate. As Faculty mentors, we believe that the process of creating your digital hub (among other experiences in your B.Ed. program) will help you to become a very strong job candidate. The website and all of the work that you curate there will offer evidence of your professional skills, of your work, and of your values as a teacher, but as with most anything we learn to do well, the journey of learning and reflection through design and creation will actually equip you to excel in an interview and even more importantly, in your career as a teacher. So please, think of your Digital Hub as an ever-evolving online identity text that you add to, change, and revise as you grow to become the teacher you want to be. You will NOT finish this in a day, in a month or in a year. Rather, we hope you see it as a living document that will change as you change, and reflect your commitment to critical, reflective practice as a professional. 

That said, we know that many hiring officials, including principals, will Google job candidates before they offer them an interview. So, in many ways, the digital hub may be very useful in getting you an interview -- but when you're in the room talking to people at an interview, you will not generally have time, or even wifi access, to be able to show examples of your work. As you build your website, think of what each piece of work you include shows about what you can do, and who you are becoming as a teacher and prepare to talk about that work. 

Think audiences: As you start to design your hub, imagine all of the people who will probably visit your site during your initial professional preparation program, and through the first couple of years of your career as a teacher. These might include, your friends, other teacher candidates, professors, associate teachers, principals, HR professionals, your parents, parents of students you are teaching as a pre-service candidate and then as an OCT, teachers who have mentored you. Consider content and tags for your blog posts that would be especially relevant to these stake holders. If you start designing for your known audiences from the beginning, you will ultimately create a flexible and useful document that will offer value to many people in your professional learning network. 

Step 5: Pick a WebPlatform

See Choosing a Platform for ideas and tips. 

Step 6: Build it and Get Feedback from your Friends and Profs

Even though it might feel nerve-racking to share your work openly as you are trying to to figure out who you are as a teacher, know that everyone is feeling the same thing and that is OKAY. In fact, part of the process of becoming a teacher is to get comfortable with the very public nature of this career. By creating a space where you openly and transparently make visible your learning process, your successes, and even your failures, you are taking important steps toward your development as a knowledge worker who serves the public.  

So, just build something. It won't be perfect the first time around, or even after you have revised it 50 times -- and that is absolutely okay. In fact, revision is the point!

Just build something. Get feedback on your design, the content, and your emerging professional presence from your friends and from your professors. Use that feedback to make it better. And, repeat.