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Dinu Pietraru How to Create an Educational School Web Site Content Area: ESL Advanced/Transitional The following unit is based on
the experience the author has had with creating a school web page. You can visit
this page at http://fklane.org We believe that
modern technology and the use of the Internet in schools are helpful in the
process of learning. The Internet has the unique ability to combine image,
sound, and text, and to offer unexpected connections between content topics that
become so accessible. Students find the use of different media exciting and motivational. When
properly used, the Internet can be a very effective tool in learning. The Internet is based on free enterprise and unrestricted wealth of
resources. It liberates the learner by offering limitless possibilities. We think
that students should experiment on the Internet, which
is a maze of contradictory features: tight but decentralized, abundant but
confusing, liberating but too often pernicious. Students
will naturally encounter difficulties in
reconciling contradictory pieces of information, or when they have to establish
the usefulness of certain sources. Program Outline or Overview The purpose of
this unit is to create a truly interactive and educationally sound school web
site. A tour of school web sites that are posted on the Internet can be a very
frustrating experience for the educator looking for practices to adapt. School
sites are most of the time teacher-designed and administrative-oriented,
offering not more than an Internet brochure of the school. The purpose of many
school web sites is to reach out to parents in an effort to recruit more
students to the school or to be more successful at fund raising among alumni. If the Internet is used in schools to
foster critical thinking and empower students and teachers, then the school web
site should offer a glimpse of the important process of educating children in
that environment. A. Target Student Age/Level.
Rather than targeting a specific grade or level, this unit is addressing the
school community as a whole. In fact, this project works only when the
entire school participates and is actively engaged. This unit can be used in all subject areas where the Internet can supplement and reinforce the content area skills and learning objectives. Originally developed for an English as a Second Language population of students with at least 3 years of schooling in the United States, this unit has been expanded to be easily adapted to diverse populations and learning styles. B. Major Goals
C. Timelines. The
development of this unit requires constant (daily) monitoring. D. Types of Assessments Used The assessment
tools will be both qualitative and quantitative: · Creation of an effective class website, as measured by volume (number of pages created), content (range and quality of materials presented), hits (number of visitors), and reactions (visitors' comments) ·
Creation of a web-based State Exam Clearinghouse, where students will gather
assignments to be used for the standardized state exam preparation · The
results of the participating students on the standardized
state-mandated graduation exams ·
Number and percentages of participating students going to college ·
Exit interviews with student participants E. Standards
Addressed. New York
State English Language Standards High School 9-12:
Lesson Plans Major Elements of the Project
Advance Preparation In order to
prepare this class, the instructor needs to assess the knowledge and the skill
level of the student body. Since
this project involves interaction, small groups, and project-based learning, the
teacher will carefully collect information on each of the participants: academic
skills, hobbies, extracurricular activities, and special talents. This
"inside information" is important to assess the students' preferences
in choosing an assignment. The
introduction of the web site to the students is also important. The students will
use the school's web site in a way that they do not normally use the Internet at
home. Many of my students do not have computers and Internet access at home.
This is what makes this unit even more important. The web site is:
Before the
first class starts, students are to be given a contract that spells out the
rules of using Internet (do not access hate and pornographic pages, do not send
personal information over the Internet, alert the teacher when you suspect foul
play, ask the teacher permission before downloading materials and programs from
the Internet, teachers should review all materials that are going to be posted
on the Internet by the students, parents should give permission before students
can publish anything on the Internet, etc). For an example of rules of working
and networking, go to http://fklane.org/labrules.htm Teachers should
preview the possible links that students might
hit when searching to complete the assignment. Knowledge of the Internet-based
content is necessary as much as textbooks need to be read by the teacher before
any meaningful instruction begins. Most boards of
education require that all students publishing materials on the Internet fill
out a consent form signed by the parent. One that I used can be found at: http://fklane.org/permission.htm.
Do not forget to include the fact that students' names will remain anonymous and
that no profit will be drawn from any Internet publishing. Materials Required What is
required of the school to provide is a computer lab with Internet connection. It
is not necessary that students meet in the computer lab every day. One or two
days a week is enough. It is also helpful if the web team has access to a
scanner and a digital camera. Activities The teacher will make sure that each worthy project is posted on the Internet for self assessment, peer review, and for creating a empowering portfolio that will reach out to diverse audiences. Portions of the school web page are declared "open" for students to work on it, modify it, and turn it into their own dimension. The students organize themselves in members of the web team, according to the subject area, personal preferences, and research needs. The teacher will organize each group, making sure students know their tasks, connect well with each other, and are aware of the deadlines. A good number for a group is 3-4 students. One of the initial questions that each group will ask is what are the attributions (tasks) of each group member. Each group will come up with a self management plan. The teacher will help the students by offering managerial models and techniques. The web site
should become part of the school life and activities, witnessing the performance
of the students and teachers in multiple directions. The teacher will invite students to work in groups work on common projects. Such projects will reflect school life. The web team is in fact the editorial board of a publication that appears online- the school web site. Every student has
something that she/he likes in school. For example, when I asked my students to
say what their favorite class is, some of them said "lunch". Then I
suggested that group of students to write a report about their favorite
activity. It worked out very well: the students interviewed the cafeteria staff
and participating students. This is a list
of proposed activities that reflect school life. The students proposed many of
these items:
The web teams will choose the subject they want and will have a limited time to come up with the draft of the first written assignment. Example: some students will interview teachers or students, others will write about their favorite club or class. Their drafts will be published on the school web page using discussion forums. There are several advantages of using this format: students can see each other's work and peer editing is encouraged; the information is stored conveniently for prompt retrieval and printing. See an example of a discussion forums at: http://teachersnetwork.org/teachnet-lab/fklane/disc11_toc.htm The discussion forum featured here was meant to be more of a writing lab than a place where you post and store final pieces of writing. I encouraged students to post their drafts of the assignment, even if these drafts were far away from what they wanted to accomplish. The discussion forum posting has a practical significance. This is a sure way to post students' work minimizing the risk of losing files. Students and teachers misplace floppy disks all the time and saving on the hard drives does not minimize the danger of losing precious work. The discussion forum posting remains an excellent format of preserving and displaying student work. The
next step is writing and "chalk and talk". Students will edit, expand, and improve
their essays, surveys, or interviews. They will use the peer review process to
complete the difficult job of finishing the task. The teacher will be on the
side, revising every draft. It is imperative that a form of the writing process
be taught to each group of students, according to their needs and goals. A paper
portfolio will nicely document the progress from the first draft to the last for
each of the students. After
the products have been completed on paper and all revisions included, the
students will prepare each document in an HTML format. In other words, they will
save the documents as a web page (HTML), an easy operation to do in Microsoft
Word. If there are several documents that need to be linked together, the
students will apply the knowledge learned in my classes about how to create a
link in a web site. The
teacher
will then allow the students to post their work on the Internet on the school
server. The web site is password protected, so the teacher will edit permissions so that
the students will be able to upload work on a certain directory. After the
documents are uploaded (published on the school server), the teacher will ask the students
and the community at large to post comments about the materials published. There
are several nice gadgets to be used to get input from visitors: guest book,
surveys, discussion forums, email messages, rating counters. What the teacher wants to do
is to create an online community of students and adults that will make the
former take pride in their work and motivate them to write even better. Whether
we like it or not, the Internet is more than text. Pictures, sounds, animated
graphics, and even short movies have become an integral part of the Internet,
and a web site without these elements is like a black and white movie on the
topic of the Impressionist painting. Teachers
and students using an interactive school web page will have to put aside some
time to introduce multimedia messages in the substance of the page. Therefore,
there should be a team of photographers that will cover school events and bring
digital pictures to every project done by the class. Other groups of students
will be trained in the use of scanners. To scan original artwork done by
students and to record sounds, songs, or short interviews of fellow students.
The third group of students will perfect their skills in the new domain of
digital video editing and streaming. They will use top-notch technology to edit
and publish short videos about student activities on the Internet.
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