Week of March 25

Web Pages

I am looking for information to use in the creation of my web page. Below are two websites that might be helpful in the process of creating a web page:

1. http://www.cln.org/themes/webpages_intro.html

This is a website intended to help K-12 teachers in the creation of webpages. Below are a few of the links:

Clip Art Theme Page

This CLN theme page has links to a variety of clip art collections. Together, they contain thousands of free, uncopyrighted clip art, buttons, bars, backgrounds, bullets, animations, and icons.

Copyright and Multimedia Law for Web Builders and Multimedia Authors

This Website provides information about various Web copyright issues and cases.

Evaluating Web Resources

A site that focuses on presenting a stategy for teaching critical evaluation skills for World Wide Web resources. Checklists for five types of Web pages are provided. The authors offer links to additional sites with more Web evaluation materials.

Good Homepaging

The Quebec English Schools Network has developed a series of resources to "help schools create unique and dynamic Web sites. Our approach, though, has a particular bias. We believe that, by participating in the development of School Web pages, teachers can truly add a powerful teaching and motivational tool to their bag of pedagogical tricks. And they don't have to be "computer experts" to do so! We also believe that the true value of a school Web site or a teacher's web page comes from making it a pedagogical venture."

HTML Survival Kit - Table of Contents

A comprehensive guidebook on basic HTML. The author provides many graphic examples of the HTML tags. These examples show you what will happen on a web page when you use specific HTML tags.

Introduction to HTML

A tutorial to introduce beginners to the basics of HTML design and style. Content includes: Introduction to HTML, Heads, Titles, Paragraphs, Lists, Special Effect Tags, Anchors and Images.

Introduction to HTML Level 1

Introductory level on-line training course offered through the University of Saskatchewan. Since it is designed for students at the University, some instructions will not apply to all Internet users. Each lesson consists of short descriptive pages with links to more in-depth information.

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators:Brush up on the Internet

A series of mini lesson plans for grade four students (adaptable for other grades) which will introduce them to the Internet. There are several lessons which deal specifically with web pages.

NCSA: A Beginner's Guide to HTML

A comprehensive guide for writing HTML.

NCSA Education Group Tutorials

A basic tutorial to help teachers learn more about the Internet. A downloadable version (Microsoft Word) is also available.

School Home Page Building Blocks

Four concepts important in developing an effective school home page are discussed and usually linked to further resources. The four concepts are purpose, content, organization and design.

School Web Sites

Do you want to see what other school home pages look like? Do you want other schools to be able to link to your school web pages? The Community Learning Network has a comprehensive set of links to other BC schools whereas Web66 provides an international registry of school pages.

• B.C. School Districts and School Websites
  
• Web66: International WWW School Registry
  

The Learning Page

An HTML template of a basic home page is provided with a lesson on how to change it to be your home page with your content.

Untangling the Web: Lesson Plan

The goal of this lesson plan is to have students examine sites on the World Wide Web for relevancy and credibility.

Webmonkey for Kids

Webmonkey is intended to show children what's possible with the Web and teach them how to begin creating their own sites. There are lessons on the fundamentals of HTML and web design which can be augmented by suggested projects which give the students some hands-on experience. A "tool" section has links to web sites that have programs for writing HTML and there's a teacher's planning guide section.

2. http://pages.google.com/-/about.html

This website explains Google Page Creator, a free tool that lets you create web pages right in your browser and publish them to the web with one click.

Week of March 18

Web Pages

In the process of preparing my web page, I read some online material regarding web pages. One of the articles made some very good suggestions regarding the initial construction of the page. Below are just a few suggestions to help create a better web page.

• The visitor should be able to understand quickly what the web page is about.
• The visitor should be able to quickly locate the focal point of the page.
• The site should be reflective of a credible professional.
• The home page should load within 4 seconds.
• There should not be too much or too little white space.
• The text size should be large enough to be read easily.
• Blinking, fading, scrolling, and moving text should be avoided.
• Make sure there is enough contrast between text and the background color.
• Make sure the font faces are appropriate for the intended audience.
• Only use underlining for links.
• Links should be a different color after they have been visited.
• Links should be informative.
  

Week of March 11

Web Pages

Today, we learned how to move our web page to the internet. Although I moved exercise one and three successfully, I am confused about how to do this in a school setting. Since this was a UAH account, I don't know how to set this up on my own.

When I do set up a webpage for my classroom, I would like to use it for several different purposes. I want links to several school websites like the district homepage, lunch menu, and school calendar. I would love to be able to publish lesson plans or at least the objectives we are studying. I also want to have links to websites that offer reinforcement to the skills were are currently studying. It would be cool to add video of the class completing different activities during the year, but I am not sure of the legalities involved with putting students pictures online. If this is not to difficult to obtain permission, I would like to attempt that as well.

Week of March 4

Web Pages

I have been looking forward to learning how to create a web page for use in my classroom. Almost daily, I think of new uses for one. It will be an excellent way to communicate with parents about upcoming events and activities. Links to other school sites, educational games, and information sites will be of great value to both parents and students. It will serve as one central location that parents of my students can go for information regarding the class. Embedded podcasts might also be something that I would want to utilize in the future.

After working on web exercises 1-3, however, I am a little discouraged about my ability to actually create and edit my own webpage. I am very concerned about being able to embed podcasts, as well. Hopefully, after several classes regarding web pages and some more practice working with them, I will feel more capable!