|
 |
Students and teachers make a difference.
Technology is a catalyst for change.
|
| |
"Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed citizens to change the world. Indeed, it has never been done otherwise." - Margaret Mead
|
|
GOALS: TEACHER WEB SITES SUPPORT:
Student learning with information and activities not available in the classroom and school–current, timely, too dangerous, too large, too small, too expensive, or too far away–as in these examples:
- U.S. Geological Survey, "Real-time Information helps to ensure that the critical information needed by emergency forecasters and managers during extreme events is available when it is most needed from the locations where it is needed."
- Mount St. Helens Volcano
- At the San Francisco Exploratorium, the Microscope Imaging Station facility produces high-resolution images and time-lapse movies using research-grade microscopes. This gallery contains a range of images and movies that illustrate the diversity of what can be seen with light microscopes.
- Explore Ellis Island with the History Channel.
- Visit Dinosphere at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
Teacher Professional Development
Communication with Community
- Expectations for students
- Information about current projects
- Volunteer opportunities
- How to help your child at home
- Showcase for successes
- and more...
|
|
TO WEBQUEST or NOT TO WEBQUEST, THAT IS THE QUESTION
(well, might be one of the questions)
Your contribution to the school Web site can be valuable in many forms. Your pages might include links to external Web sites, a resource list, activities, a letter to parents, etc.
Your teacher pages may or may not be WebQuests. A WebQuest is special , "an inquiry-based, often interdisciplinary, unit of study in which students get all or most of their information from the Web. Students use the WebQuest to turn information into knowledge and demonstrate their knowledge with a product. Teachers design WebQuests to address standards, differentiate instruction, pre-select resources, and scaffold learning. Resources may include print and other classroom and library materials; however, a true WebQuest must include information that is only available on the Web." If you want to create a WebQuest, see the WebQuest Workshop.or go to the WebQuest Page at San Diego State University.
|
RULES
Question: "So why do we have to follow rules for the Web site? Is this a democracy or what?"
Answer: "The school Web site is a place to support democracy, not to practice it. Why do you drive on the right side of the road?"
|
Web Publication Guidelines
Criteria for Web Links |
|
TEMPLATES
The template for your school has a top banner (Corporation and school identifiers plus links to all other parts of the site), a left side bar (navigation within the individual school web site), and a footer (with required corporation information).
The content area is your design area.
top |
Activity: Use your word processor (MS WORD) to design your web page. This is just a draft, and you can change it later. Use a table to lay out your page. Merge and split cells to achieve your desired layout. Put each content element, such as text blocks and graphics, in its own cell in your table.
 You may wish to download this sample template.
 View a video clip on Inserting a Table into a WORD document.
|
DIRECTORY STRUCTURE of the WEB SERVER
 CorporationWebSite |
|
| |
Board |
|
| |
Corporation |
|
| |
Schools |
|
| |
MYSCHOOL |
|
| |
Documents
folder with documents for users to download |
FORMATS
.doc (to edit with WORD),
.rtf (to edit with almost any word processor), and
.pdf (to print but not edit) |
Graphics
folder for graphics |
FORMATS
.gif
.jpg
optimized using a graphics program for both screen size (in pixels) and file size (smallest acceptable quality) |
| News |
news.html |
| PTA |
pta.html |
| |
picture.gif
anotherone.jpg
mypicture.jpg |
| MyOwnTeacherFolder |
|
|
MyDocuments |
Unless you have a large number of documents, these will go into the school's Documents folder
FORMATS
.doc (to edit with WORD),
.rtf (to edit with almost any word processor), and
.pdf (to print but not edit) |
| MyGraphics |
Unless you have a large number of documents, these will go into the school's Graphics folder
FORMATS
.gif
.jpg
optimized using a graphics program for both screen size (in pixels) and file size (smallest acceptable quality) |
myfirstpage .doc
(as you submit it)
(use short file names with no spaces or special characters and ending with the .doc extension) |
firstpage.html (as it is posted to the web) |
| mysecondpage.doc |
secondpage.html |
| mythirdpage.doc |
thirdpage.html |
| myfourthpage.doc |
fourthpage.html |
| ...and thousands of other folders and files |
|
| The directory structure is the graphical representation of the paths to files. Ultimately, when pages are published to the World Wide Web, every browser in the world will use this path as the url (uniform resource locator) to locate the Web pages. For example, the path name for "myfirstpage" on the FTCSC Web site in the above illustration would be: http://www.ftcsc.k12.in.us/CorporationWebSite/Schools/MySchool/MyOwnTeacherFolder/myfirstpage.html |
|
Activity: Use a WORD document to list the assets for your Web site.This is a tentative list of pages, graphics, documents and any other items that you will want to include. Remember that you will need to send each asset to the Web Master to have your pages posted. If you had direct access to your own Web folder, you would need to transfer (using FTP or "Save As") each asset to the correct location within your folder.
|
USING MS WORD TO DRAFT A WEB SITE
Microsoft WORD has a menu option to "Save as Web Page." This option sounds too easy to be true because it is. This will produce very messy code that is difficult to edit.
DO NOT USE "SAVE AS A WEB PAGE."
It's not a bug; it's an undocumented feature. |
Use WORD to draft your Web page(s). Lay out your page(s) using tables the way you hope they will look on the Web. Add your content. Save your page(s) with good file names (short, no spaces or special characters and ending with .doc). Send your document and any other assets (pictures in .gif or .jpg format, for example) to the Web Master as attachments to email messages.
The Web Master will use Dreamweaver to replicate your page(s). Each content item will be copied and pasted into an html page to be posted to the Web. Dreamweaver is not a word processor, and the resulting page will not look exactly like your WORD document. For example, the font on the Web page will be Arial. The only way to duplicate fancy fonts would be to make each item an image–not good use of time.
|
Activity: Use a WORD document or documents to create your Web page(s). Remember to use tables to position various elements. You may want to assign colors to the cells or to the whole table. Make a brief note as a placeholder for each element (text block, graphic, etc.).
|
CONTENT
Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. |
Content, at last! Plan your content carefully. Be sure that you are relating learning goals for students to the FTCSC Curriculum Maps and/or the Indiana State Academic Standards. Take some time to plan your content and use your WORD document to make notes. Keep asking yourself if this is material that really needs to be on the Web. In fact, is it material that merits use of instructional time in your classroom?
top
|
Activity: Continue to use the WORD documents you have created to add content to your page(s).
From time to time, stop an pair up with a colleague
to critique each other's work. If you were the Web Master, what questions would you ask? If you were the director of Curriculum, what questions would you ask?
|
SUBMIT YOUR WEB SITE
So, now that you have created your Web pages, how do you get them to the Web site?
You have carefully considered your goals, i.e., student learning opportunities not available in classroom, professional development, community communication. You have designed your pages to reflect your goals and refined your design with a professional look. Your content is the best it can be, i.e., student content is clearly linked to academic standards, community communication sends a great message. You are in strict compliance with copyright law and local Web publication guidelines.
BUT, you do not have access to the Web server. What will you do?
Answer: "Make friends with the Web Master. Remember that a Web Master is a geek, a hermit who receives little positive reinforcement. Unsolicited praise is good. Try chocolate. Use your imagination. Flattery will get you everywhere."
top
|
Activity: Use your mail program to send an e-mail message to cfranklin@indy.rr.com. Tell me what your Web pages contain and any special requests. Attach to this e-mail all your WORD documents containing the information and layout for your Web pages. Attach any other assets, such as pictures in .gif or .jpg format. If you have a large number of files or files that are very large in size, send them attached to multiple e-mail messages.
|
|
|
|
