Blog 8
When I initially started on the assignment I had some idea of how I wanted to create my website, I also thought I had some existing knowledge about building websites from my experience with Civil Air Patrol and High School. I was unprepared for what awaited me. I was stunned to see how different the tools were and how ineffective my previous experience was. I had seen a teacher website built on the Weebly platform in the earlier assignment but I was not prepared for how difficult it was to manipulate the templates. Signing up for the tool and selecting the class type proved to be by far the easiest part. Themes or templates were extremely difficult to manipulate and not very intuitive. After multiple attempts I finally resorted to viewing several Youtube guides, I quickly learned that while the theme was important being able to place text, links, and pictures in the appropriate place on the screen was by far one of the trickiest parts. I enjoyed looking for material and designing the concept but I was frustrated time and time again with the restrictive editability of the templates and tools. It seemed the simplest task was the most frustrating, adding pictures, calendars and links were fairly easy, positioning the text in the correct spot for the background was tricky. I was able to add popup announcements to my website, which involved editing the HTML script, which was a little worrisome but I did become comfortable with this process. To learn how to add popups I had to refer to YOUtube and used some free popup design sites.
My website => http://abarnes19.weebly.com/
I learned a great deal about creating websites and I am sure with practice I would be able to maintain the website much quicker, I can see this would be a very useful tool in the future and a great way to keep my students up to date on the class schedule.
Designing a website on Weebly was initially frustrating but I can see it being useful in all levels of teaching. Diigo on the other hand seems to be more directed to use with older students. It does have some really good networking and communication-type links but it doesn't feel as useful as the website would be. I could see myself using a Diigo-based site for communicating with other teachers, but I think the website designed using Weebly will be something I could use in the future with my students.
Teachers today have access to some very powerful tools, they can improve the education levels of all their students by making use of multiple types of technical educational sites and techniques. The only thing limiting them is their skills and level of technology acceptance. Students, in general, grew up with the technology, they accept the games and websites, many have a better understanding than the teachers of the technology. Teachers must embrace the ever-changing landscape while still ensuring they can teach the students the original intended subject.
Link to the US Department of Education Office of Educational technology, it contains in great detail , the various technologies used across America and related laws, the second lnk is directed to teachers specifically it has stories and links to other resources and publications.
https://www.ed.gov/oii-news/use-technology-teaching-and-learning
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