Technology Integration

I’ve struggled with this for so long; so now I discover a new trick. Encouragement by students !

When I’ve had a chance to be in a teacher’s classroom, I take the opportunity to ask the students a few questions. Usually, after a particularly exciting web site or project, I ask them “How many of you are on line at home?” And even in the rural, not real wealthy area of Central Maine, I see 95% of the hands go up. “That’s great,” I say. “So when you go home and Mom asks you what you did in school today, you can say,’Let’s go to my teacher’s web page, and I can show you!’” Usually the teacher grimaces a bit at that comment, but wait…there’s more. Next, I say, “How many of you spend your weekends or time at different houses, like at Dad’s or at Mom’s?” Sadly, about 1/3 of the hands go up. “Well,” I tell them, “Then you can show Mom or Dad what you’re doing in school by just going to your teacher’s web page.” By now I’m getting some cooler looks from the teacher, as she doesn’t have a web page.

I’m not looking to embarrass the teacher, but I am looking to put pressure on him/her to create that web page. To have a parent call and say, “Where’s your web page, I couldn’t find it?”

Meanwhile, don’t think that teachers don’t have support to make one. I’m giving three after school sessions a week, an hour long each, through the middle of December for several technology related topics. Two of those sessions each week are “Creating and managing your web page.” And the sessions have all filled…..three days after the announcement went out via email. I’m amazed at that. I started this practice last year, in January, and had a fair turnout, but this year the principals excused the teachers from their Core Team daily meetings to attend. I don’t know if these participants were pulled into my sessions or pushed into them, but it doesn’t matter because they’re there, and they’re mine for the hour. Teachers get contact hours for attending, and if they make a classroom web page a goal and maintain it weekly, they’ll get one entire credit for it. It’s nice to have the administrative support for this endeavor.

I’m keeping it simple for making web pages. We use FirstClass here, and I installed Home Page Construction Kit. This add-on provides some pretty simple templates for making pages with buttons, nav bars, and all that stuff. I wouldn’t use Dreamweaver or GoLive as those are pretty complicated. It’s not about the software…it’s all about making a web page. Gone are the days of WebWeaver on OS 7.5; but there’s nothing the matter wtih Google Pages or with PortaPortal for a teacher’s web page. As long as they have one, and it’s updated, it’s the goal I’m shooting for.