Weebly Websites

Websites provide internet surfers instant access to entertainment and all sorts of information all with the click of a button. Life B.G. (before Google) seems difficult to imagine...what did we do? Libraries must have been really busy places. A website is a collection of online documents pertaining to a particular topic, they can be posted by individuals, groups of people, commercial entities or government bodies. Websites are easy to access and just as easy to create. They provide learners with a great tool to transform information to develop new understandings either individually or collaboratively. Websites are controlled by the host, which means the creator of the website is responsible for all the content that is seen on it and visitors to the site are only able to view the material making it a safe online environment. However, because it's so easy to build a website and anyone can do it, Learning Managers need to teach their students information literacy and critical literacy skills so they can evaluate the information on a website and assess the credibility of a source for themselves. Queensland Education (2008) emphasises improving student's digital literacy as it is integral to participating effectively in a digital world. Students who have highly developed digital literacy skills often demonstrate the characteristics of effective digital learners which include the attributes of a lifelong learner: they are a knowledgeable person with deep understanding, a complex thinker, a creative person, an active investigator, an effective communicator, a particpant in an interdependent world and a reflective and self-directed learner.

Recently I worked collaboratively to develop a website based on authentic assessment. The website can be viewed at 4 Easy Steps to Authentic Assessment. This website was set up through Weebly and was very user friendly, it offered a variety of templates to build the website from and enough space to include text and images we also uploaded a digital video we created using moviemaker. The tool was completely free, simple to use and provided a professional finish, the only limit was our own imagination.

There are so many learning opportunities through creating a website and it is a useful tool for all ages across all KLAs. Collaborative website creation encompasses many of the principles of Engagement Theory (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1998) as it allows learners to work in teams on a project that is authentic and meaningful, as it can be viewed and used by the outside world These three components are known as; Relate-Create-Donate. Kearsley and Shneiderman (1998) suggest that by engaging students in meaningful activities that involve creating, problem-solving, reasoning, decision-making and evaluation learners will be more self directed and motivated. Similarly, the Productive Pedagogies framework supports classroom instruction that promotes higher order thinking, substantive conversation, a problem based curriculum and connectedness to the world.

In addition to assessment tasks, weebly websites can be used as a tool for students to access outside of school hours similar to a virtual classroom. As long as the site was password protected, a secure online environment could be set up that would also provide parents with information about what their children are learning and notify them of any class news or upcoming events. Furthermore, parents could use the website as a means of communication with their child's teacher.

When creating a class website it is important to remember that it will be published in a public domain and therefore is at risk of being accessed by people who are unknown to the host and could pose a threat to the childrens' safety. Consequently, Learning Managers need to be selective of what information is posted on the site and refrain from uploading any images of the students faces. Such issues create "authentic teachable moments" in the classroom where teachers can explore the risks involved with using the internet and provide students with strategies for safe practice. Cybersafe Schools have released a teacher's guide to internet safety to help educators provide safe online learning and NetSafe Kids offer resources that raise childrens' awareness of online "Stranger Danger". In addition Queensland Education (2002) provided educators with documents that will inform them how to operate legally, safely and ethically online.

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References

Education Queensland. (2002a). Risk Management: Risks associated with web publishing [eletronic resource] Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/web/schools/riskman.html.

Education Queensland (2002b) A guide to productive pedagogies: A classroom reflection manual [electronic resource] Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/public_media/reports/curriculum-framework/productive-pedagogies/pdfs/prodped.pdf.

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999) Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning [eletronic resource] Retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com~gkearsley/engage.htm.

Education Queensland. (2008). Smart classrooms bytes: eLearning for smart classroom. [electronic resource] Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/pdf/scbyte-learning.pdf.

Image courtesy of weebly.com