I have made websites
before. I think teaching students the structure of HTML is a useful learning
tool in itself. Websites are made up of headings, lists, tables, paragraphs,
and links. I feel that by writing their own HTML, young learners would develop
a sound idea of how information is structured.
Be that as it may, I
also understand that some of the presentation (CSS) and interactive (e.g.
JavaScript) components of websites are simply too difficult to teach to primary
school students. This is where a platform like Weebly comes in handy. With its
drag and drop interface, students can build a sophisticated website in a matter
of minutes. I was most impressed with the interactive features that can be
easily added to a web page (e.g. polls, forums, slideshows, image galleries).
I think of websites
as being a modern day alternative to the projects presented on big pieces of
cardboard that were so popular back when I was in primary school. It would also
be a good tool for report writing, where the order and structure of information
can be enhanced by hyperlinks.
Here is a PMI list
of the role a website could play within a learning context:
|
PLUS
|
MINUS
|
IMPLICATIONS
|
|
Structured content
Link to other
pages and websites
Ability to embed
multimedia (video, slideshows, music)
Ability to add
social media / email.
Student authored
|
One way form of
communication.
Broken/ dead
links.
Technical
difficulties (losing info).
|
Students present
information in a multimodal form
Central storage
space. I.e. list links to blogs, wikis, email and the remainder of online
presence.
Effective
presentation tool. Something to show to parents.
Potential for
teacher to upload material (as outlined in flipped learning video)
|
I had a little play
with Weebly to create something that might be suitable for a primary school
student to make. The result can be found here.
To sum up, here is a
list of some possible ways websites could be used by students:
- Reports (science, history, news)
- Art gallery (can be enhanced with the slideshow feature)
- An assignment portfolio. Each page could be a different KLA. This would be a nice way to present student work to parents.
- Data gathering tool (using polls and forums). Create charts and graphs based on the results.
Can you think of
anything to add to the list?
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