During this semester, we have learned the benefits of blogging, leaving an intellectual trail, and developing PLNs. I definitely will have a class blog and use blogging with my students. Another thing, I wanted to create for my class is a website. It would be another tool for parents, teachers, and students so they could stay current on upcoming events, class schedules, assignments, etc. By using this with my class blog, parents, students, and teachers would be able to comment on these things as well. I think having a class website is also a great way of communicating with parents, students, and other teachers. It gives parents opportunities to access daily, weekly, and even monthly assignments without having to keep up with papers. If they have a question about homework assignments, test, or a field trip date; it is accessible to them on the class website. It also provides opportunities for the teacher to continuously change and update resource information for both parents and students. Not only are you creating a PLN for yourself and your students, you are giving parents an opportunity to join in on the PLN action as well. Just like blogging, used effectively, everyone can benefit from a classroom website, and they do not have to be complicated.
A. For this blog assignment, you are going to create a class website that links to your current EDM310 blog. You are the teacher and you are getting ready for your first year of teaching. You want to set up a class website to provide information to your students, parents, and teachers about your classroom. Explore different teacher class websites to get ideas and to map out main pages and secondary pages before you begin. There are several free web-hosting sites available to teachers that will allow you to build your own class website. You can start with Google Sites or search the internet for one. You can also check out RichardByrne’s blog for some additional sites. Some may want to experiment with html code and try using Kompozer. It is a free html editing software I found that allows you to create and build your own web pages. I wanted to do this so I could learn some html code but I ended up getting so involved in the process I knew I would not have the website completed by the end of the week. So, I experimented with Google Sites but ended up using Weebly and had my site created and on the web in no time at all. Both were super easy to use.
Before I started creating my “class” website, I searched for some tips. You can review the tips I found or search for some on your own.
Teaching with Technology This site also includes some sample websites for elementary and secondary classrooms, along with some excellent resources.
Your class website should include (not in any particular order)
1. A Home page
2. A Classroom page
3. A Student/Parent page
4. A contact page
5. Your EDM310 Blog
6. About the teacher page
After you have created and published your class website on the web post a link to your "class" website in your blog post assignment #12. I know most if not all of you do not have actually classroom yet, so have a little fun and play school. Remember you are the teacher!
B. Write a quality blog post on blogs vs. websites. What are the pro's and con's of both? Which one would you use in with your class and why?
Check out my site. Mrs. Skidmore's Class
Blog vs. Website
One might ask why I wanted to create the website in the first place; it seems blogs allow you to have the same information as the website, and blogs allow for comments. I just really wanted to experiment to see if I could do it. It was just a personal preference. I like experimenting and seeing how creative I can be using technology I have never used before. I seen several of the C4Ts and C4Ks had class websites so I thought it would be pretty cool to have a class website and a class blog. I may have a different opinion later but right now I do not think one is better than the other. I think they both serve the same purpose and depending on how much html code you know, you can pretty much add anything you want to either one.
I really enjoyed this blog post assignment. It was very helpful for learning to start your own class website. I know I was completely lost as to where to start making one. I found the links a great place to start with that. Thank You for sharing what you have found.
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