Session I - Sermonette:  Why make a web page?  

Let's make this short & simple - here are a few reasons an educator ought to learn about creating web pages.

• The web provides an opportunity for teachers to take control of their profession.   We can conduct research in our classrooms, develop good teaching ideas, and share our insights and ideas with our colleagues as never before. 
• We can enhance the learning experiences of our students.  We can access unbelievable resources from our fellow educators.  We don't have to wait for a textbook publisher to put our ideas in print and we don't have to rely on publishers for all our resources.
• We can advocate for kids, schools, and our profession.  Free speech opportunities and the chance to share knowledge have never been more accessible.  And yet we could be leaving the Internet to those whose only interests are financial or to advance some personal agenda.  We (educators) have a responsibility to see to it that the Internet contains worthwhile educational content.  We have a responsibility to see that healthy ideas and ideals are advanced through our positive influence on the web.
• Web pages are a simple tool to organize multimedia content.  If we want our students to create presentations that utilize more than text, web pages can meet the need.   Also, there are plenty of cheap ways to produce web pages - you don't have to purchase any expensive software.  And web pages can be displayed on any machine with browser software.
• Web pages provide an excellent motivational tool since students can construct knowledge to be shared with a school or district via an Intranet or with the whole world on the Internet.  Students can explore real-world topics with the most up-to-date resources and can organize, synthesize, and evaluate the content in their own pages.

Readings:

• Working the Web for Education is an article by Tom March that outlines a handful of excellent techniques to use the web as an instructional tool.
• Active Learning on the Web is an article by Bernie Dodge of San Diego State University.  The focus is on ways to make the Internet part of meaningful active learning experiences for students.
• Grazing the Net:   Raising a Generation of Free Range Students is an author by Jamie McKenzie reprinted online from Phi Delta Kappan.  It proposes the way in which students should be using the Internet as a means to tranform educational experiences.
• Why Use Activity Structures? is an article by Judi Harris that challenges us to create more effective learning experiences for our students.
• Webquests are an instructional use of the web any instructor could utilize.  The technique, created by Bernie Dodge and Tom March, is discussed in these sites:  WebQuests for Learning, WebQuests in Our Future, WebQuests:  A Strategy for Scaffolding Higher Level Learning, and Some Thoughts About WebQuests.  By the way, you can study this strategy with two students of Professors Dodge & March here in Blue Valley - Blake West and Marsha Ratzel will be teaching a course based on their experience working with the masters!  Also, check out the cover story of Learning and Leading with Technology for April 1999.
• Dimensions of Learning is a  site with some good thinking on goals for education.   Implications of this kind of thinking should be kept in mind as we design instructional materials to be based on the Internet.
• Some places with collections of good sites for browsing are listed here.   Take a look around and evaluate what looks good, what looks bad, what seems to meet the challenges of engaging students in meaningful learning activities.  Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators, Blue Web'n Learning Sites Library, Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Math & Science, Sample Curriculum-Based Educational Telecomputing Projects, Example WebQuests.

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