I just watched a great K12 Online Conference video by the presenter Cyndi Danner-Kuhn. It was all about the importance of teachers making class websites. Cyndi gave many benefits of a teacher class website. One plus of a teacher webs page is that it can help gain teaching time. Class websites can also be a great resource for students and their families. By having a class website the communication channel between teachers and parents is opened. If a child is out sick a class website with all the assignments posted can keep the students caught up on their school work.
Cyndi mentioned a few website creation sites you can use to create a class website. These include sites like wix.com. Google, or kompozer.net. Cyndi said that the site needs to be user friendly and everything on it needs to be easily located. She also said that a menu should be found on each page of your website.
Cyndi showed examples of various teachers class websites. Many of these teachers used the sites to post newsletters, blogs, week by week assignments and lessons, students work, students projects, class rules, grading policies, and homework. Cyndi made it very clear that all teachers can and should create class websites because they are easy, cheap, and very beneficial.
I believe strongly in class websites and that they can really help students and also keep parents in the loop as to what their child is doing in school. I want to someday use a website in my class to keep in contact with my students families and to show them the various projects and assignments that the students are partaking in.
I agree, the practice of keeping a class website has many useful functions, not limited to instructional and professional responsibilities. I believe they create a sense of greater accessibility and accountability to parents and students, and can help keep curriculum, as you pointed out, moving smoothly. your post continues the theme this week of the movement of education to cyberspace(see http://theadventuresofcassi.blogspot.com/).
ReplyDeleteI am with you 100%! In EDU533 we've seen how simple many FREE technologies there are to take advantage of. I also that you've hit it perfectly by giving students & parents another form of access/communication. If your kid is out sick or on vacation...no worries! They still have the ability to stay up to speed. I view this as a perfect example for NCLB!
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