Lesson 3 Questions

1)How do I anticipate organizing the content of my web page?

-This is a hard question. I teach science so it is pretty easy for me to think in terms of heiarchies and taxonomy. Hell I teach these exact topics. However, I am seeing that using this for my own site is not as easy as I had once thought. besides their are a lot of things that I have to consider. Reading the Yale articles have only given me more things to consider.
-Now I will start by utilizing the some sort of basic wireframe. For instance I will divide my content into "categories" I think this will give me a way to track my blogs so that my students can navigate to the appropriate blogs. also having some sort of calendar app on my web page is also very important. let be back up
1) sort all my content into some kind of a calendar of events. this is already being done by own distirct. i might be able to link to the district site so as not to bog down my site with info that has been created and stored else where.
2) divide my content into topics or big ideas. thankfully think is somewhat already done for me by the kentucky department of education in their combined curriculum document.
3) classroom stuff. bell ringers to announcements. because everyone knows that nothing follows a timeline. and i will constantly be ahead of schedule or behind.
I have to utilize things like "categories" and "pages" for my site. these will only allow me to be more organized and the more i am the more my kids will be to navigate my site. I will more than likely spend a few hours drawing my web page on the dry erase board before i commit to anything.

2) Paradigms

-I think that I would lean more towards the navigation side of things. However, the service sites that come with my current text book can be very useful. I am very leary of the web 2.0 sites. the ability of getting viruses has really turned me away from some of them. Yet, the answer may be to purchase something. I would most certaining do this if i thought it would enhance my classroom. So i just read an article about web 2.0 and how it has many "hats". If you think that web 2.0 is bloggin and wikis then that is fine but it could also be other things as well. So to that i think that I like the bloggin component but i think having my students interact with the site other than using it as a resource opens the doors to future problems.
-what i am trying to say in order to answer this question is that I want a resource that my parents, students, and colleagues can visit for information about my class and what is going on. I want them to email if they have quesitons but i don't want them to be able to comment on my site because i don't the comments to be public to other users who may be on the site at the same time. I just think that makes it too easy for parents to avoid teachers and for people to complain about why did you or did you not allow a comment. just email or call me if you have quesitons.

3) web page structure
-wow!!!
their are so many steps to a web site. i really had no idea. i have played a little with wordpress and like the ease of use. the blogger sites uses different terms that i am not as familiar with. I am Kind of liking the web and spokes. I really don't know. I have found that the workpress is easier to use than the 000webhost software. but i think it is only because i am not hip to the verbage yet. I think as the class progresses i will feel more comfortable with the web host. Really there are so many things to think of and i am the only person on the web site building committee.

4 &5) Site design
-more than likely i will be using microsoft paint to design something. if this does not go well i will just take good old pencil and paper and draw what i think it should look like. the yale articles give a lot of information to think about in building a web site. i feel pretty good about using inspiration software. i think that all this comes down to how comfortable you feel. this web site has to easy to use but very effective. somethimes it is hard to mash the 2 together.

here is a link to my web page
http://www.rmccann.webege.com/
i think this is the basic thing for right now. i am not sure. their is so much to consider and i am not really comfortable with the 000webhost terms. I will only get better.

this has taken me 3 plus hours and i still am not sure if i like any of it. I have also been playing with a kentcukyclassroom.org site that i created with Dr. Hyndman.

Scott County 9th Grade General Science Blog

Mission

Our School's mission is to "Build a Tradition of Excellence."
As a science department we have strived to create a curriculum that encomapsses all student abilities. With the implementation of a web site I feel we will be able to create a "home" for teacher/student/parent communication, a resource for teachers to access common lessons as well as Labs and assements, and finally a place where classrooms will be able to access their curriulum.

Support

Communication:

1. Right now parents have the ability to access grades on infinite campus but they can only see things that have already happened. Many parents complain that if they "only knew ahead of time", or what is tests or quizzes are "coming up."
2. Whith the advancement in technology many students have the ability to be online. With a working web site I will be able to post assignments. Students will be able to download worksheets and missing assignments. The site will also allow teachers to adapt lessons to reach more learners. So much of the class time is spent teaching the middle of the road when their are kids that need more lesson but we have no time. They could access the site for enhancements.
3. Oganization: the web site will allow parents and teachers to see the up coming assignments and lessons so that they can plan ahead of time.

Resource:

1. The web site would be a great place for my colleagues and myself to post lessons and labs that we are doing in class so that we all have the potential to access more plans. Right now we have email which works but sometimes it can be time consuming. A web site would serve two purposes we would be posting for our students to see but also for our colleagues to see as a resource. Besides we get so many emails on a dailey basis that one for a colleague can get lost in the shuffle. Not to mention emails get deleted and our web site would have the info incase they get deleted.
2. We go to the Clark County High School web site so many times to look for open response questions. Why do we do this? becasue they have done what we have failed to do. Put all our info into one place, a web site.

Curriculum

1. We have created a curriulum map for science grades 6 through 12. However, no one has access to it. We have spent a year trying to put this together but for some reason no one has seen a final copy of it. We meet once a month on this very topic but I still have not witnessed the fruits of this labor. A a department we could get head start on the whole district by placing our information on a web site that can be accessed by other science teachers in the district.
2. Not to mention it is a goal of our district to produce something that is universal in design, with all students in mind. A web site for our science department would be a great start in the right direction for our district.

Goals

1. Universal Design

2. Easy to use

Primary Audience

My primary audience will be my parents and students. Latter I hope to gain the support of my colleagues and add their classes to the site so that our school is using the site. My last audience will be the other science teachers in our district.

Think or Do (under constuction)

Taking my my classes into consideration, I want them to be able to access the site first and post a comment to a question. As I gain more experience with the site I will ask more of my students. i.e. posting assignments, using a calendar, communicating grades and results.

I have more questions but right now I am out of answers. Stay tuned for updates on my future online classroom.....

Robert McCann

Rob McCann's First Web page

Robert J. McCann

Scott County High School

Georgetown, Ky

Email Contact

Phone Number: 502-316-3577

My Experience in web page design

I am a first timer. I have had some practice setting up an online classroom, using google docs, and basic internet stuff. However, I have no knowledge of html stuff. Personally, I am a little lost when it comes to the html formatting.

What I want from EDU 558

I would like to know more about how I will be able to incorperate this new knowledge into my classroom. For instance, how will html formatting help with implementing instruction in the classroom? Another one of my goals for this class is to walk away with a website that my colleagues and I can use as a reference for 9th grade science students and parents. So many districts already have something that students and parents can visit. However, our district doesn't really have anything.

My Family

My Wife Codye and Our 9 month old daughter Campbell

What about html?

All I can say is wow. This has opened some doors for me. I think with some practice I can get better. However, I will admit I am out of my element. I like the idea but I will most definitely need some practice. It isn't so much hard as it is remembering all the tags and steps.