Artifact 1: Teaching with Tech in K12 Website

Executive Summaries

The Teaching with Tech in K12 website was created in the ETEC 5303: Teaching Technology in the K-12 Classroom course. The website was created as part of an assignment where I was asked to create a website to help teachers bring technology into their classrooms. I worked by myself to create the website, while keeping K-12 teachers in mind as my client. The project was completed during the Spring 2021 semester between the months of January and May.

To build the website, I first needed to start with the platform. I chose to use Google sites because it was easy to use for myself but also for any teacher who might end up coming to the website. Not only that, I like the fact that it's easy to add a Google document, sheet, slideshow, or form directly into the site. To help teachers with integrating technology into their K-12 classrooms, I focused on several different components of technology including explaining what a network is, how to provide instruction, what web based instruction is, practicing internet safety, explaining social networks, going over assistive technologies, laying out a spreadsheet, and going into detail about various aspects of technology integration. I believe the website is easy to navigate and explains the content in an easy to understand way.

Personal Reflections

When working on this particular website, I learned a lot about various platforms that can be used to create websites. Along with Google sites, I explored and learned about Weebly, Wix, and Wordpress as well. Along with website development skills, I learned a lot about technology integration. I was able to develop a personal technology statement, which helped me to reflect on my thoughts about technology and how students learn with it today. While creating each page of the Teaching with Tech in K12 website, I was able to learn as I went each week, since each part of the website required that I acquire new skills. I was able to grow in my podcasting skills by getting to interview a Network Administrator, which in return, helped me to learn a lot more about what the essential components of a network are.

While building out this website, I grew in my ability to create screencasts by making tutorials about various software that can be used, how to use Google classroom, what Google sheets are, and accessibility features of devices. Not only was I learning how to make better presentations, but was also learning about the technology I was teaching about as well. For internet safety and social networks, I created slide decks to show the learners the key points I was covering. While already knowing how to create slides for presentations, I learned the importance of not putting too much on each slide, making them easy to read, and about having the right amount of contrast between the color and text. Then, I was able to create webpages for the subject areas of math, language arts, foreign language, and music and provide instructional and productivity software that linked to the ISTE standards being used. I learned so much by creating these pages of what websites and technology tools are available to use for K-12 teachers.