Anna Newton Spring 2012 EDTC 620 URL: http://polaris.umuc.edu/~anewton/edtc/home.

html Classroom Web Design Analysis and Reflection

Introduction: Designing a website for a classroom takes a considerable amount of time, planning, consideration, and effort. Classroom websites should provide a space for students, parents, community, such as other teachers to easily find and use resources to increase student achievement and engagement in the course. Classroom websites allow students to continue their learning outside the classroom, be more responsible for their own learning and achievement, and a place to find resources to help them with assignments throughout the year. For parents, a classroom website gives them a window into the classroom. Parents get to stay up-to-date on what their child is learning, resources to help them at home, and a place for announcements to be reviewed, in case their child has forgotten to tell them. A classroom website can also improve the parent-teacher relationship and allow them to work together for the students benefit. Other teachers can use other classroom websites to gain ideas for lessons, share ideas, or work collaboratively with other teachers on multi-class projects. This is the first time I had to design my own classroom website because my school system requires all teachers to use Edline to post class announcements, homework, links, and grades for our students and parents. I enjoyed making my own website, but there were many bumps and tears along the way. Analysis: Goals and Rationale: When I was designing my classroom website, there were many factors that I considered. I first considered who my audience was and what kind of information they would need or like to see from me on the classroom website. I also considered the structure and design of the pages themselves. Each page should easily navigable and information should be easy to read for everyone, including those with disabilities that may impact their vision or hearing. Finally, I considered the specific information I would put on each page; there is such a thing as too much, as well as too little information. The audience and their needs drove many of my design decisions when I made my class website. I knew I would have three main groups that would view my website: students, parents, and teachers. Students need a class website in order to help them keep up-to-date on important announcements, assignments, and tests so they feel prepared and so they can achieve. Students also need a place where they can find quick resources that can help complete assignments when the teacher may be unavailable of if they are at home. I have met the needs of students in my website, by creating several pages that has quick and easily accessible information about class rules, procedures, projects, and homework. I set up tabs in the navigation bar that is easily read and students can find the information without going through pages that have nothing to do with the topic they are looking for. I also included information on the Help page that could allow students to practice, review, or continue their learning outside of the classroom by providing several links, with descriptions, to explore. A class website is a form of asynchronous e-learning and according to Hrastinski (2008), asynchronous communication increases a persons ability to

process information. The receiver has more time to comprehend a message because an immediate answer is not expected (p. 53). Students can take time that they may not have in the classroom to increase their achievement and take more responsibility for their own learning. Parents were also extremely important when I designed my website. Parents want to know what their child is learning and they want to have a window into the classroom. This is so they can stay up-to-date on everything their child should know and may not be sharing with their parents. This is why I included many of the same links that was on the students webpage because parents want to be involved in their childs learning. According to Bouffard (2008), students from all backgrounds benefit equally from internet-based family-school communication because it can help increase a parents involvement with their childs studies at home. If parents have access to what is going on in the classroom, as well as resources to help them, parents become more confident and engaged with their childrens achievement in school. I also included two other tabs that were not the same as the students; Edline and Volunteer & Visit. I included these because many parents are unfamiliar with what Edline is and how to use it. I included information to help them understand it and how to gain access to it. The Volunteer and Visit page gives parents information on how they can physically help in the classroom or view the classroom in real time. This will help parents be involved in their education because they are learning more about the schools academic program and how it works (American Federation of Teachers, 2007). Finally, teachers need from other class websites, a way to get ideas and links they have not used before. My Web Based Unit could be something other teachers could use or adapt to their curriculum. I also created lists of links that a teacher could look at on their own time. I organized them by subject so that way they could narrow down their search for ideas. The next major factor I considered when designing my class webpage was its physical design, specifically color, text, alternate text for pictures, the navigation, and set-up of the website. For the color of my website, I chose more muted colors instead of bright colors because it would be easier for everyone to read. I also chose a font that would be easy to read on any computer. I bolded titles to help draw viewers attention quickly to the information they were looking for. I also included alternate text for all of the pictures I put on my website so the visually impaired could still get the same effect. For example, on the parents page I have a picture of a family and I put the word family in the alternate text, as seen in this screen capture.

(The arrow is pointing to the alternate text.) Finally, for the set-up and the navigation of the website I made sure that every page had the same navigation bar at the top with the same header. This creates predictability in my website and allows viewers to navigate my website easily, as described by Lynch and Hortons Web Style Guide. I then added a secondary navigation bar that led to the pages with specific information that a student, parent, or teacher may want to know. After I created my template and considered the needs of my audience, I planned out specifically what information needed to be on the website. I had to scale back quite a bit because if a webpage is too long, viewers may become frustrated trying to find the information they want. So I tried to give enough details without giving every detail. If I included every detail of every link, assignment, announcement, and so on the viewer would experience information overload. I gave enough information in order help or answer questions any viewer may have. For example, I gave the parents the CCPS Edline Pamphlet link, instead of retyping it in a smaller space. Analysis: Advancement of Student Learning: My website helps improve student learning in high school social studies in many ways. First, the website is simple and to the point. High school students do not need a load of graphics and the ones I picked were age appropriate. High school students want to be treated like adults and so I made my website for audiences that are more mature. Secondly, I included a lot of resources for students, parents, and fellow teachers. For example, the resources for parents and students allow for students to take practice history quizzes, join history study blogs, and hone their research skills, and so on. The parents have the same access to these resources which allows them to help their children with assignments with the confidence that they are really helping them correctly. The resources I provided for teachers also increase student achievement in social studies because I have helped to spread good resources to other teachers no matter what district they are in.

My Web Based Unit also helps to improve students learning in World History because it uses both hypertext and the Probe Method in order to have students construct their own knowledge and interest in globalization and human rights issues. My unit plan calls for the class to create public service announcements to try and help stop the violence caused by the Lords Resistance Army (LRA). This follows the Probe Method because it is a real-world problem that the students are trying to solve by constructing their own knowledge while cooperating with others and using higher order thinking skills in order to solve this complex issue. According to Shepherd (2010), the Probe method helps increase learning because it is where students can take ownership of a problem and engage in meaningful learning. The hypertext allows students to improve their learning as well because according to Heise (1997), users can follow a variety of itineraries in their gradual exploration and acquisition of knowledge rather than a single, linearly designed path. Here students can learn at their own pace and take more time on topics that interest them in order to achieve a goal. Reflection: Learning: In developing my own class webpage, I learned many things. First of all careful planning is key for a successful webpage. If you do not plan it out ahead of time, your website will not reach the goals you intend to meet and/or the website will be confusing and useless to your intended audience. I also learned how the mind works when learning new things. This is the first time I had to design my own classroom website because my school system requires all teachers to use Edline to post class announcements, homework, links, and grades for our students and parents. I had several problems when creating my webpage. Fortunately, many of my classmates were able to help me figure out ways to fix it or change the design to achieve the same goal. I did find that when I could not solve a problem I got extremely frustrated and I wanted to give up. According to Caine (2004), complex learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat associated with helplessness. I did feel helpless at times because despite all that I have learned about Dreamweaver through all of the tutorials and time spent on my own, I still do not know enough to make a webpage that I am completely happy with. I have improved from the very beginning of the year when I made a simple one page website with my name, a title and a large picture to a multi-page and multi-audience website. Reflection: Looking to the Future: Even though I am not completely happy with my webpage, I am proud of the work I have done with my skill level with Dreamweaver. I really liked the Class of 2014 webpage and my Biography page because it showed off my personality and it made the website more welcoming. I also liked that I could show off the great work that the Class of 2014 is doing and has already accomplished. I think the Class of 2014 would also feel proud that their work is being showed off as well. I intend to keep working with Dreamweaver on my own time to try and figure out how to make a more polished and professional looking webpage. I particularly would like to learn how to make a drop down menu. I tried to do it myself on this website, but I was unsuccessful. I do not think I will develop my own class webpage to use with my classes because my county requires all teachers to use Edline, which does the same thing as a class webpage. However, I think I may develop one for the Class of 2014 because they do not have a way to get out information about events and fundraisers in one central location. Right now we have a Facebook page where we post these announcements, but not all of our students have Facebook accounts.

References: American Federation of Teachers. (2007). Building parent-teacher relationships. Reading Rockets. Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/ Bouffard, S. (2008). Tapping into technology: The role of the internet in family-school Communication. Harvard Family Research Project. Retrieved from www.hfrp.org Caine, R. N. (2004). 12 Brain/mind learning principles in action. New Horizons: The Johns Hopkins School of Education. Retrieved from http://education.jhu.edu/newhorizons/ Heise, U. K. (1997). Hypertext and the limits of interactivity. 21st Century, 3(2). Retrieved from http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-3.2/heise.html Hrastinki, S. (2008). Asynchronous & synchronous e-learning: A study of asynchronous and synchronous e-learning methods discovered that each supports different purposes. Educause Quarterly, (4), 51-55. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/eq Lynch, P. J. & Horton, S. (2008-2011). Web style guide 3rd edition. Retrieved from http://www.webstyleguide.com/index.html Shepherd, G. (2010). The probe method: A constructivist instructional strategy. Meridian: A Middle School Computer Technologies Journal, 13(1). Retrieved from http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/