Assignment #4

http://tinyurl.com/missfindlay

I went into this project a bit scared. I knew I had learned a lot over the past semester, but creating a website seemed like an enormous task to me. Yet, I thought a website would be the most practical use of my time, and I would use it as a teacher.

While doing this project I learned a ton. First off, I learned the program Dreamweaver is difficult, but it is also looked upon as an extremely professional website creator program. Finding the layout was fun, but once it came to instilling text and catagories within my website, that is where it became difficult. One of the hardest tasks (which I thought was going to be the easiest), was taking a Publisher document and putting it into my website. In fact, I asked my boyfriend to help because he works at Microsoft and we ended up having to cut and paste the text into the sidebar and main text of the website. If anyone knows how to transfer a Publisher document into a website I am all ears.

The two elements that ended up being the most fun were creating the calendar for a typical Fall semester and creating the Forum. I loved learning all the facets of the calendar. It not only shows the month, but can show the week, the day, and even hour by hour. It also has a feature where I can automatically e-mail events or assignments to the students as a reminder. The Forum is great for a variety of things. Once I looked at it more, the more possibilities popped into my head. I could use it for homework help, class discussion, sharing of assignments, peer editing, and so much more!

It would be nice to have an actual class I am doing this for, but for now I learned a lot exploring all the possibilities out there. I hope to add even more to my website and learn even more, so if ANYONE HAS ANY SUGGESTIONS, I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THEM!!!!!

I used the following:
1) A Website using Dreamweaver
2) A Google Calendar
3) A Parent Letter From Publisher that I created
4) A Forum

Within all of these technologies I used multiple features...

1) The website:
I created my Website using a software called Dreamweaver. I installed free trial software and picked a free Dreamweaver template on line. The tricky part was linking the Google calendar into the heading so when the heading is pushed, the Google calendar shows up. I even had to change some html for that. Also finding a host for the website was difficult. I tried putting it on webs.com, but it would not work. I ended up just using my boyfriend's old server from his old college. If anyone knows free servers where you don't have to use their program to create the website, that would be great.

2) The Google Calendar is great, because you can split the information. For example, there is a place to put monthly work, weekly work, a day's work, and even an hour's work. I filled out all of these for a Fall semester. You have to go to September to see it. I also found a feature where you can e-mail students in your class reminder messages about homework and events.

3) A Parent Letter From Publisher: This was hard transferring like I said above, but it was fun to create on Publisher. I am glad the side bar worked onthe website. I also installed a picture, which I had to change the format of in order to transfer it into my website. I think you have to do that for practically all pictures off the internet for the Dreamweaver program.

4) The Forum: This was probably my favorite. I love how you can make it private to just a certain amount of people. I know there are advertisements currently, but hopefully the school I would work at could give me software that did not involve advertisements. But you can create categories in the Forum. For instance, I created Literature, Poetry, and Writing. Each Category can have subcategories. In other words, specific literature works or poetical works. Within easch subcategory students or the teacher can create posts for the class to see. These posts can be about class discussions, homework, peer editing... basically anything deemed acceptable for the Forum. In addition, there are multiple settings for the subcategories that the teacher can preset such as what the Forum is called, who can be involved, if certain words can be blocked out, etc.

The NETs Standards for students:
I think my blog covers
#1.a, 1.d, 2.a, 2.b, 2.d, 3.a, 3.d, 4.a, 4.b, 4.c, 4.d, 5.a, 5.b, 5.d, 6.a, 6.b

This is way more than I thought it would. Wow! Obviously, this depends on how involved the students become with the technology I provide for them, but I could see all these standards coming true. Reading over these again made me realize how much teachers can do to enhance the student's experience with technology. I am glad it meets this many standards, but how great would it be if it could meet them all. I am gonna try and look at the ones it doesn't meet and see how I can meet those standards.

As for the NETs Standards for teachers:
I think mine does or could potentially cover
#1.a, 1.b, 1.c, 2.a, 2.b, 2.c, 3.b, 3.c, 3.d, 4.a, 4.c, 5.c, 5.d

Although I meet quite a few, I feel like there is so much more I could be doing. I want to meet them all. I know I could incorporate communicating with people in the community and with people worldwide. I not only want to meet these standards because I should, but because I feel that education can be so much more enhanced by doing so. How much more would my students learn? How much more would I learn? How much more could my peers learn? You know, doing this project... at first I did not realize the extreme value this could have on my students, but I think I am beginning to recognize the possibilities now.