1) Describe and discuss the impacts your use of a class web site like the one we crated on Teacher Web might have on student learning, on student engagement, and communications with students and parents.
A class website, much like the one I created on Teacher Web, can have a huge impact on student learning, engagement, and communications with students and parents. A class website can help students learn and solidify information that they may have had trouble with in the past. By providing study quizzes, exams, and project reflections, a student can see what they are missing and what they are "getting". This can also be seen as student engagement. By posting a "Wish List", students can see what their classroom needs and volunteer to bring in those materials. Likewise, students can also suggest material that they may deem necessary for their classroom. A teacher web can also be used as a communication tool with students' families. Allowing parents/guardians a chance to see what is due for their child can help them keep their children on task, getting their homework done. Also, if they need to contact the teacher for any reason, an e-mail link is available on the teacher's website.
2) Identify and discuss what you see as the two biggest advantages of designing and using a classroom website within your teaching activities. Also, identify what you see as the biggest disadvantage of using a class website for instructional activities and why.
Two of the biggest advantages of designing and using a classroom website within my teaching activities are that I am helping students learn and use technology as well as providing a way for students to get connected with the world around them. By having a class website, I can allow students a way of getting on to a computer, and on to the Internet, and showing them some of the basic functions of computing, such as viewing and downloading files, moving from site to site, and more. Also, I am allowing students to branch out to the world around them by providing fun links for them to check out, to learn what they want to learn, to experience something new.
I believe the biggest disadvantage in using a class website for instructional activities is keeping the website up to date. Along with all of the teaching duties during the day, and the time a teacher has out of school for his/herself, family, and other school-related activities, keeping a website up-to-date can be another task that may be left on the back-burner to allow teachers to get done what they need to get done. Adding on another responsibility such as this can lead to a teacher burning out, or ditching the Teacher Web altogether.
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