Developing a Classroom Web Site

1. Developing a Classroom Web Site Oldenburg Academy Inservice Dec. 1, 2006

2. What is a Classroom Web Site? A Classroom Web site is created by a teacher or other educator specifically for his or her students to establish an online presence for their classrooms. • It is an extension of the learning environment • A central place to access information any time • Provides teachers with the ability to communicate and involve parents beyond the school day • To show off student work, share class news, and keep in touch with parents and other members of the community

3. Why a Classroom Web Site? • Parents and students today are going online to shop, get their news, communicate … • They expect to find information online and have it be current and interactive. • Classroom Web sites are no exception • Parents are interested in knowing the school is preparing students for the future and how well they are succeeding. “The Web is no longer an experiment; it is mainstream”

4. Purpose of your web site… Communicate… • Enhance/Promote Your Curriculum- • Build and enhance your curriculum online. • Extend the learning to anytime, anywhere • Students can access class notes, worksheets, objectives, lessons, and curricular resources • Resource for Students- • Create rich resources to assist your students in the subjects that you teach. Find sites that match what you are teaching. "Your Web site is you, Present yourself to the world as an educated, cultured individual."

5. Determine the purpose… • Informational- • Provide information for both parents and students • Examples include: calendars, nightly homework, spelling lists, test dates, field trip notices, etc. • Student Work- • Promote your students' successes. You can use the your classroom web as a billboard for sharing your student's work. • Resource for Teachers/Parents- • Create a page of links that other educators, students, and parents may find useful. "Don't create a Web site just because others have one. Have a real purpose and reason for doing it, and stick to that purpose.”

6. Do Your Homework! Check out some existing Web sites to discover what you like and don't like about them, and what you want to imitate -- and eliminate -- on your own site.: • To find out what not to do, start with a visit to The World's Worst Websitehttp://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/ • Explore some sites worth seeing. Education World's Web Wizards - http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/archives/webwizard.shtml • Check out other Indiana school web sites • http://Doe.state.in.us • Click on classroom web sites • Take notes on what you like and don’t like "Focus on the fun and rewards, and never allow yourself to see "webbing" as a chore."

7. Formulate a Plan Create a map of your site design on paper • Use an outline or a storyboard of key elements. • Write out your scavenger hunts, WebQuests, and other features. • Gather documents, files, syllabus, Web links

8. Meet the teacher Contact information Schedule Classroom expectations / rules Links to class resources Classroom News Course Outline / Syllabus Downloads Homework information Email link Date page updated Study guides Classroom Activities “Show and Tell” student work Curriculum related Hotlists Pictures of class activities Possible Pages to Include:

9. Gather some Clip Art Collect your graphics: • Download appropriate educational clip art from • Scan your own art • Take photographs "Keep graphics down to a minimum and watch the size.” “Set an example of being sensitive to copyright laws. Any photographs, Web graphics… you post on the Web should be in compliance with current copyright policies.”

10. Free Clip Art sites… • Get some clip art to add to your site • dgl.microsoft.com • Clipart.com • Barrysclipart.com • http://www.clipart4schools.com/ • http://www.teachnet.com/how-to/clipart/school/ • http://www.clipartconnection.com • http://www.freestuffcenter.com/sub/graphicstop.html • http://classroomclipart.com • Save the images in a folder on your computer

11. Copyright… it’s not your image Although, many sources of free clip art are available online, occasionally you'll also find images you'd like to use at other sites. These images are as easy to download as the free ones; you should be aware, however, that copyright laws do cover online material. You might want to keep these general guidelines in mind as you search the Web for that perfect image:

12. All material is copyrighted unless the source states explicitly that it is free for the taking. • If you're interested in a copyrighted image, contact the owner and ask for permission to use it. Be sure to specify where and how the image will be used. Most owners will grant educators permission to use their work. • Keep a copy of any written permission you receive. • Never use a copyrighted image without crediting the source. • Try to avoid using a non-copyrighted image without crediting the source. • Don't copy images directly from a source to your site. Download both copyrighted and non-copyrighted images to a disc or hard drive first.

13. To create you Web Site… You can use the Oldenburg Academy template: • Sample - NEW!!! • http://www.oldenburgacademy.org/teachers/ggriffit/ • To update: Log into: • http://www.oldenburgacademy.org/teachers • Ex - http://www.batesville.k12.in.us/sls/default.html • Click on Staff Directory and a teacher web site OR Create your web site using Dreamweaver - software used to develop a web site • Ex - http://www.batesville.k12.in.us/bms/staff/huber/main.htm

14. Terms to know… • HTML Hyper Text Markup Language. The mark up language the browser uses to determine how to display and format a document. • GIF Graphics Interchange Format. An image format. • JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group. An image format. • URL Uniform Resource Locator. The location or address of the web page. Each of the over 320 million websites available on the world wide web has a unique location name. • Link A hypertext connection between two different documents. The user clicks on the link to bring the linked file up on the computer screen. Although we speak of "going to" various web sites, what the link actually does is transfer the web site to us.

15. Evaluating web sites • Evaluate your web site looking at: • Design, Content, Technical Elements, Updated, • Post Your Web Site for all to see and use • Template users will update automatically • Dreamweaver users will have to have someone upload for them

16. Ten Ways to Use a Classroom Web Site Students create home pages about themselves. This is the electronic version of Student of the Week bulletin boards. Everyone can be a star on their own home page. Students share writing, riddles, reports, family history or timelines on their web pages. It is an electronic book containing the students' work. Class assignments tailored to the web site. When the class reads a book together, make a section of the web site into book reviews by various students. Group projects such as reports can be compiled into classroom web sites. Whether you are studying amphibians or English sonnets, why not have a web site on the subject? Conduct surveys. Students vote or express preferences on a web page.

17. Create a web feedback board. Students can post comments of praise or congratulations. Artists, designers and doodlers can show off their art. Make announcements on the web site. Class picnic on the 14th. The information age doesn't require chalk dust or marker fumes, only bits and bytes. Create a group story zone. Let students contribute paragraphs or drawings to the stories. Chart your science experiment results. Tables are easy to make an could be used to track such things as plant growth or daily weather data.

18. Ask for Help… "Don't hesitate to ask people for help. No one knows everything about writing Web sites, and everyone remembers what it was like to be a beginner. ” “Teachers who embark on new learning experiences, such as Web page creation, reconnect with the experience of learning in new ways and ultimately relate more effectively to their students.” "Creating your own Web page is a wonderful way to remember what it's like to learn new things -- the joys and the frustrations. You may become a better teacher because you are also returning to your role as learner. Understand that you will probably have to learn a little HTML code along the way too!"

19. Be persistent… • Promote your site. Visitors won't come unless you tell them about it! • Keep looking for opportunities to share ideas with other teachers. Keep thinking about ways to integrate the Web with instruction. • Allow students to publish their work for a global audience, receive feedback from sources from all over the world, and shared their interests in the form of their own Web sites. • "If you run a K-12 Web site, remember your mission: to promote knowledge and learning through the sharing of student work. If you can stay with that goal, your Web site will become a resource for students and teachers on a global scale. Oh, and have fun!"

20. Web Design Tips Accomplished Web authors offer the following tips for creating a first Web page that looks professional, while accomplishing your goals. 1. Text - Provide clear and simple headlines and page titles. Use the same font throughout. Stick to universal fonts. “Make sure the text is readable and not overpowered by the background.” 2. Content - Keep paragraphs short and page sizes small. Minimize scrolling. Never expect users to scroll more than three screen lengths. "Pay attention to detail -- layout, spelling, grammar." 3. Images - Limit image sizes to fewer than 20k each. Limit animations. 4. Include a contact method - email, phone…

21. 5. Alignment- Alignment is a simple term referring to the how your items line up on a page. You should try to stick with one alignment. 6. Maintain the site - Update it regularly Do web checks to check links “Don't leave site maintenance for a rainy day. It can be an overwhelming task! Check links and make sure everything is up to date on a regular basis” “Don't try to do too much! Take it step by step and learn to do and handle one area very well before moving on.” "In the early years, I used to try to update every week. I drove myself wild! It was too much. Now I plan updates around my vacations and breaks, and I've gone back to my original purpose for having a Web site -- a repository for lesson ideas for teachers of grades five and six."

22. More Web Design Tips… 7. Color/Contrast-Color and contrast are important elements in your web page design. Choose colors that complement each other. Avoid overly-busy or multi-colored backgrounds. Leave lots of white space. 8. Navigation-Navigation is a key element to your web design. If your visitors can't figure out what to do and where to go they will not spend any time at your site. 9. Consistency-Consistency is also an important element in web design. Keeping some consistent elements as your visitors move from page to page makes for a nice navigation site. 10. Purpose -"Make sure your Web site has value to visitors. Keep it simple. Don't get carried away with fussy design and razzmatazz!"