A Rationale - The Future
Web pages made by teachers for their classes will change teaching and learning as much as the advent of textbooks changed education in their time. The change is that important. Teachers have several options for web page development, from free and simple to self-made and advanced. The teacher should choose the level of class web page production which will be the easiest for the teacher to quickly develop, then increase page production levels and content, if desired. Class web pages significantly increase the teacher's ability to organize class lesson plans, demonstrate the teacher's accountability to learning standards, improve course relevance for the student, and increase class accessibility for students and parents. Best of all, the student can attend class while at home.
Education Week reported in a November, 2000 article, "Administrators Say Technology Calls For Range of Skills" that the need for more teacher use of technology is essential. "Many believe that technology put to good use can improve teaching, and that failing to adapt to technological changes is nothing less than a denial of the future." Internet technology will change the traditional classroom many more times than technology changed classes in the last twenty years beginning with the Apple IIe. There is no question that the classroom of 2005 will require that teachers become "techno-ready."
Cnn.com reports in an on-line January 12, 2001 article, " Web-based education on slow, steady path "
This is not likely to be the year when online education finds a mass market. Experts say people remain attached to bricks-and-mortar schools and change will come only slowly. But the experts say online education will make a mark in 2001 within corporations, which now view it as an ideal way to provide "nuggets" of essential just-in-time information to workers. "
"Just-in-time nuggets" of relevance are an essential addition given by teacher for the students in teacher produced web pages. Teachers may use a class web page to easily extend their class to world for the students. Posted lesson plans give the students a chance to view the learning and assignments when needed from home and extend those assignments to the world.
Education is a Public Enterprise
Because nearly all schools are public, so too is much of the information about the school (but not individual students). Public school information is public information. It is paid for by taxes. Taxpayers have the right and duty to know the expenditure of their investment. Schools find it to their advantage to make as much general information about the school as public as possible.
Teachers with class web pages may post lesson plans along with the relevant course objectives. In this way teachers demonstrate that the lesson plans for the class covers the learning mandated by the state in the applicable required state standards. Many states have subject matter standards that must be taught as a requirement of law in preparation for a state graduation exams. Individual teachers are being held more accountable to demonstrate that they have taught the required standards. Web pages give the teacher this accountability, proof the standards have been taught. The teacher may post his/her standards and the lessons that teach the standard for all students, parents and the world to see.
When the teacher has made his/her lesson plans public, the teacher is more likely to stick to the plan. All teachers deviate from lesson plans, usually out of necessity, often though, with non-productive activities in a waste of time. When the plan is publicly posted on the Internet, the teacher is likely to be more careful in the development of the lesson plan in order to be sure the plan is followed. This is also important in the age of state standards as mandated teacher requirements increase. Teachers must get the job done and the standard covered. The public accountability of a class web page brings with it teacher discipline. Teachers tend to be more realistic in lesson planning when they know they have to stay on schedule.
When public schools share information about what is going on at the school, the school meets a fundamental responsibility to the taxpayer. The taxpayers can see the result of their investment. The more information (except information about individual students) the school shares with the taxpayers the more response taxpayers will give to the school and its students. Information about the teaching process, what goes on in a class, is public information, teacher-produced class web pages provide a significant format for the taxpayer to come into the classroom unobtrusively. Because education is public, the public has the right to the information about a school. The Internet is the perfect medium for the dissemination of pubic information. In the end, "going public" builds the school's integrity with the community.
One teacher has had this experience with his class web site. The community (parents) knows what is going on in-class, and how they can help. The teacher also found that the students quickly began to expect the learning convenience provided. The teacher would hear immediately if the page was down the night before.
Teachweb.org
At teachweb the teacher uses Adobe PageMill, a MAC computer and FETCH to design and post the class page. A domain name was purchased from Network Solutions for $35.00 per year. When a person types in the location www.teachweb.org, the browser is automatically forwarded to the school district's server where the page is posted at www.nusd.k12.az.us/nhs/gthomson.class
The teacher was given disk space and password access to the school district's Internet server where the teacher sends the designed page from his computer to the district's server using FETCH. The page can then be called up from any Internet connected computer in the world.
An example of lesson plan integration of assignments and lesson extension by way of the web can be found in a position paper assignment given by the teacher on the Eighth and Amendment and the Death Penalty. See the assignment at www.teachweb.org. To find the assignment, type death penalty in the site search box at the bottom of the front page at the site. This assignment utilizes links to various articles the student would use in completion of the assignment. The student can find the assignment at the front page of the class web site or in the lesson plans which specify the week's learning.
In this assignment the student takes a position on the death penalty while incorporating citations from related articles to support the student's position. In the production of the assignment the teacher links many related articles to the assignment's essential question. The teacher copies the assignment page and a few articles for students without Internet access. Students re not required to have Internet access and can excel at the assignment with the copies provided by the teacher. For those students (the majority) with access, the student may go to the class web page for the assignment for other related articles or they may review the assignment from home.
Weekly updated lesson plans are also an important aspect of Teachweb. The teacher finds that typing lesson plans directly into PageMill and including the relevant state standards on the page with the plans, is as fast as writing the plans by hand into a lesson plan book. The advantages are that the plan is accessible by all and the teacher is publicly connecting his/her plans to the state standards. Students who miss class or assignments can find the information about missed work themselves. Parents can view the learning taking place in the class. Parents, students and others can easily contact the teacher through the teacher's school email address posted at the page. Assignments are linked in the lesson plans as well as relevant graphics and related articles. The planning and connection possibilities of a class web page far exceed classes without relevant pages.
The teacher producing techweb.org teaches at a high school which requires a "Senior Project" as a graduation requirement (See Far West EDGE at seniorporject.net for information the senior project). The project system has a page of its own with rule deadlines and the entire student manual. Please see www.teachweb.org at the top of the page, "Senior Exhibition Link." As part of his web site the teacher/producer for teachweb is also doing a "Senior Project" to better understand the assignments given to the students and to show them its no big deal. The teacher doing the project posts all components, from the research to the project portfolio on-line at the class web page to serve as an example for the students.
An example of the power of graphics and photos included by the teacher is the photo placed on the front page of teachweb of Dr. martin Luther King. The photo of the March on Washington and the "I have a dream speech" is captioned by " MLK makes a difference. The First Amendment in use. Free speech and peaceful assembly bring meaning to the 14th Amendment, equal protection." Furthermore, on January 15, 2001, Martin Luther King Day, the teacher placed a King being arrested at a lunch counter sit-in. These subtle inclusions are also powerful learning tools.
Teacher Web Page Building - Free Services
Teachers have two options in the creation of class web pages. First the teacher may utilize one of the many free teacher web site production services. (See Appendix A) The teacher may also build his/her own page. The educator can choose the option based on his/her time available and level of knowledge. Both options offer the teacher immediate access to the construction of a class web page. Free sites offer a range or services from homework assignment or calendar posting to discussion groups and other interactive web features. Some include advertising. These pages are fast to produce and post but limit production and linking possibilities.
There are numerous sites for teachers that offer free web-page-building services. "There is no free lunch" and the price of a free class web page is often advertising included. The benefit of the advertising is that the web-page production process offered is easy and Internet web page interfaced. The ease of the process usually results in an immediate good look for the page. The teacher considering this option should shop around and try the different services with a basic intro page and see which one works best.
The initial time investment to begin a page with a free service takes less than an hour per page. Using a free service works best for the person with little Internet or web page experience. The downside of the free web-page service option is the lack of control. Lesson plans and assignments, practice tests, related articles posted take a large degree of integration. This necessary integration takes teacher control.
Teacher Web Page Building - Designing and producing one's own page
The teacher may also choose to build his/her own class page. This option does take more time but it is not difficult to learn the computer application. Netscape Composer, which is free and allows a person to build a page; most people have it on their computer already. Please see Appendix B for instructions on how to build a web page using Composer. If a person is unfamiliar with HTML, "What You See is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) applications, the novice web-page builder will find these applications to be a lot like a word processor. The beginner is advised to play. Practice a few pages and hit all the buttons.
A self-produced page (rather than a free service) offers the teacher more flexibility. The teacher may begin production of his/her class web site with Netscape Communicator is free and offers a good web site designing and posting application. The designer may also use an inexpensive WYSIWYG application such as Adobe PageMill or Microsoft Front page.
A teacher could start with an introduction page to the teacher, class and syllabus. It is easy to transfer text, (a class syllabus for example), from the word processor to the web page. Material typed into a word processor can easily be reformatted into HTML, the web page language. Once the text is in, the teacher can play with the look. Highlight the text and hit the obvious buttons to change the look, it is a lot like using a word processor.
The best web resource for using Netscape Communicator to build pages is found at "Surfette's Web Pages for Teachers," http://www.members.home.net/surfette/ Surfette's offers a collection of instructions for using Communicator to build pages. The links include graphics, free web-page building sites, search engines and other web-page educational links. Please see Appendix B for other pages that offer easy instructions for web-page building.
Students use class web pages to obtain assignments and related material when needed, the material is always available from home. Students attend class from home as they refer to the posted lesson plan for tomorrow's assignment. Teachers no longer hear, "Can I have another copy of that handout?" the students know the teacher will say, "Print it out from the web page at lunch."
Design of one's own page means showing the teacher's work to the world. It is important to be careful in the editing process. One advantage of producing one's own page is that changes can be made quickly. Usually after an initial post, an error is discovered and needs to be fixed. It can be difficult to be sure all is perfect given time considerations. Students can receive extra credit for the discovery of typos on your page.
Content, Design and Audience
Content, design and audience should be carefully considered before posting publicly. An excellent discussion of these issues can be found at, "General Guidelines for Good Webpage Design" by Pat O'Donnell," http://myschoolonline.com.
The public nature of the Internet calls for extreme caution on the part of the educator when considering content and posting information. The public nature of class web pages gives the teacher the opportunity to bring that information to the public, what's going on in the class, making the interested audience huge. Above all other considerations must be the teacher's respect for privacy, in spite of education being a public service, extreme respect for privacy is essential.
In the design of a page, keep it simple. When the page has the basics, it is easier to manage the production and it is usually more interesting and readable. The page must have a clear purpose, keep it useful to others in your school and your community. Be sure it is appropriate information for your students. If the teacher is producing his/her own page the lesson can be updated frequently to reflect your changing classroom. (O'Donnell)
Copyrights are an important consideration. Don't steal, give credit. In the age of computer applications, it is easy to lift works, graphs, etc. Just as any person would not want his or her property stolen, a person is as violated when that person's words show-up as someone else's.
Above all, never post student personal information. Maintaining privacy of students and of the teacher is the most important consideration in class web page design.
It is important to keep the page's audience in mind. For who is the page intended? That is the basic design consideration. Class web pages are not selling goods or services, so they do not need a highly professional design. They do need correct design and to be mostly free of errors. Internet audiences are not forgiving of typos, be careful.
A variety of people will visit your web site and they will come for different reasons. The content on your web site should reflect the needs of your audience. (O'Donnell) It is easy to track who visits the site. Free services such as www.stattrack.com or www.beseen.com offer page tracking to find out exactly the page's audience. Teachweb has had almost 10,000 visitors since March of 1999 from 21 countries. Nearly all hits are from students. Posting the site to search engines (free) will dramatically expand the audience.
O'Donnell writes, "Students need project information and updates, homework prompts, enrichment activities and safe Internet sites that support your curriculum. Parents of your students need information about field trips, standardized testing, school conferences, professional development days, and more. Other community members need to know about classroom activities and how they can help. Teachers in other classrooms need to know how to link up with you to share ideas and work on collaborative projects." Taxpayers too are important to the audience, as they need to know the result of their investment.
Posting the Page for the World to See
Once the page is complete it must find a home where it can be called up. Please see Appendix C for instructions on posting the page. The free services all come with posting services included. Not having complete control over posting limits the teacher who chooses to produce his/her own page.
The page builder has two options for posting a self-made page. If possible, the teacher should have access to the school district's server so that he/she may post whatever, whenever. Many people have dialup Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Most ISPs offer subscribers server disk space in which they use the subscriber's personal access passwords to post using a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) computer application.
To transfer the files from your computer requires an FTP application. Netscape Composer has a transfer application or a person may use Fetch for MAC or WS-ftp for windows; all are free. Appendix C contains instructions for posting a page. Freedom in posting offers great flexibility. Rarely is the page correct the first time. Often several repostings are necessary until the page looks and works correctly.
Equity of access
Student access to your page is an important consideration. Most students have Internet access in their homes, but many do not. In many schools more than half the students have access from home or another convenient location. The teacher can expect, but not require class web page accesses.
Nearly all schools have Internet connected computers and printers that the student may use to access the page during school hours. The teacher should also use the page as a resource not a requirement. Every assignment is copied on paper and distributed to the students, the students should be able to do the assignment without Internet access. The teacher may also tell the students to "find it." That is, with the availability of Internet connected computers in a community, it should not be difficult for the student to be expected to gain access. Student access to your class and teaching expands dramatically with a teacher-produced page.
The increase in learning which results from the greatly expanded
access to a class via the Internet improves a student's focus
on the assignment, increases teacher accountability and gives
the taxpayers a look to the investment of their school-tax dollars.
The effect of a well-used and up-to-date page is dramatic for
the students. The students quickly come to expect the access to
the class, on their own schedule when convenient for the student.
Teachers are more accountable to state standards and to lesson
plans in general. The students are ready for web access to each
of their classes; it's time for teachers to catch up.
With Netscape Communicator
In HTML
The teacher may post at the district's server or at their personal ISP account. To post the page builder must have a use name, password and know in which folder in which to post. If a teacher is using a free web-page service, the FTP is not necessary.
These instructions are taken from, "How to Transfer Your Pages to Your Server" http://www.members.home.net/surfette/transfer.htm at "Surfette's Web Pages for Teachers."
To use Composer to transfer your home page to the a server:
1.Open a Web page to transfer in Composer.
2.Click Publish in the Composer toolbar.
3.If you have not named the file or given it a title provide the Page Title and HTML Filename.
4.In the "HTTP or FTP Location to Publish To" field, type the destination directory in the format
ftp://members.home.net/username/
Replace username with your user name.
5.Type your user name and password in the appropriate fields.
6.In the "Other Files to Include" area, select whether you want to include all associated files (such as graphics files) or all files in the directory. If you included a counter in your Web page, the counter appears in the "Other Files to Include" section. (Composer treats the counter as a graphic file associated with your Web page.) Deselect the counter entry before you publish your page.
7.Click OK.
Composer contacts the server and transfers the file. When the transfer is complete, a dialog box appears and indicates a successful transfer.
To use an FTP application to transfer your home page to the server:
Use WS-ftp [for windows], which is freeware and can be downloaded from Tucows (http://www.tucows.com/). It's very easy. Or Fetch for Mac.
1.Start your FTP application.
Because every FTP application is different, the steps that follow are generalized. For more detailed information, see your FTP program's online help.
2.Type ftp://members.home.net for the host name of the server.
3.Type your user name and password.
The user name and password you use for FTP are the same as those you use for your email account.
4.Connect to the host.
Most FTP applications have a Connect button. Once you've connected, FTP provides you with a list of the files in your Web directory.
5.Select Binary Transfer mode.
6.Transfer your files.
7.Disconnect from the server.