After thrashing around for a bit to actually FIND the SandBox, I found it rather fun. For those of you who, like me, felt fear grip your gut when the MSLA sandbox didn't have a link, go to the CSLA page where the link is alive and well. (Thank you Purple Glasses)
It was neat to see the comments made by my colleagues in this class. I did try the chat, but was unable to do anything without a microphone. Hmmm ... shall I start a search for it? The sandbox tools are so similar to the tools on Blogger that it was quite easy to edit the page and insert a photo.
I can see that wikis would be a very easy tool for my students to use. Not only would it get their creativity going, but I think it would force them to think critically about what should be posted as well. Used as a collaborative tool in class, it may even make them work as a team. Knowing that their work would have a presence on the Web would be a very powerful motivator - the students would become the producers of information for consumption by other students. And what student wouldn't rather learn from a peer vs. an adult? We see it all the time in reader's advisory. If I like the book, there's a bit of hesitation to take it out. When student A agrees with me, it's a foot race to the checkout desk.
On a tangent to this topic, I have been thinking a lot about the wiki vs. the Teacher Web tool I used. Teacher Web provides a place to design a page that can only be edited by the owner. It is a really simple tool to use - I was able to design an attractive page with multiple links in a very short amount of time and no web page design experience. There is a cost for using the service; but if you want your page to be your own, it is an avenue to that end.
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Next year I'll be a school coordinator for Virtual High School and I'm thinking about creating a web page to assist students taking online courses, but I wasn't sure which of these new technologies to use. I had been leaning toward using a wiki for its collaborative feature, but then I read about TeacherWeb from this posting. I wish I had heard abut this sooner, because our network administrator just created his own school website (from scratch) that has a similar feel, but without all the interfaces that TeacherWeb has incorporated. For instance he has yet to write any pages for my library, so I'm using Googlepages. I could just as easily use TeacherWeb instead. Then, the VHS students could link to my help pages from there.
Are you still using TeacherWeb or have you been forced to use your school's web site format?
Hi Paula (aka hornetlady)
I made up my pages on Teacher Web for a course and then lost it all when the funding to keep it up never came through. So now, I have a "library page" on each of my four school's sites which link to my sadly non-existent page. I was thinking about re-doing the whole thing using a wiki ... in my spare time. None of the tech folks are interested in working with me. I think they don't want to get as deeply into developing pages as I would need after using Teacher Web. I don;t blame them; training is not a forte in my district.
I did love TeacherWeb. It was fun and easy and it made me want to keep adding things. I was so proud of my work! I hope you enjoy using it as much as I did.
:o) Donna
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