Cyber Classrooms

Introduction 

Fewer than 2% of the nation's teachers have a web presence at this time, but the number is growing.  Why?  There are so many reasons to explain why:  posting grades, posting assignments, classroom news and photos, student work featured, downloadable worksheets and graphic organizers, lists of websites that are recommended by the teacher, online activities for students, discussion boards.  Students benefit from all of these reasons.  Teachers can easily direct students from the class web page to rich, interactive and authentic web sites that take direct aim at the standards and curriculum of the classroom.  In the process, students become comfortable with the online environment, the newest technologies and the global neighborhood,  which better prepare them for their futures in an ever more technologically based world.

The Task

By the end of this lesson, you and your group will answer these questions:

1. What are the most important factors when designing a class web page?
2. What features are best in helping kids learn?
3. What works to keep parents as partners, to ensure all students are learning?
4. What features are most valuable in linking the classroom to the outside world?

Resources

The Process

The Student:  You are a kid!  Sometimes you forget to write things down, sometimes what your neighbor is saying is lots more fun to listen to than even your teacher.  You like to see your stuff on the web, and feel like you are an active part of your classroom.  You like to see what your friends are doing.   Though you don't usually like to work in books, you like to DO things.  You like to do "cool stuff", and  you think technology is "cool stuff".  You hate BORING STUFF!

The Parent:  You are working hard to keep track of how your kids are doing in school, as you try to keep up in your own work.  You want the very best for your children, and worry that they won't be able to compete in a more and more complex world.  You need information to help you be the best parent that you can be.  (You would also like to brag to the other parents about what great things your kids are doing in school at the next soccer game instead of having nothing to say, because you don't know what's going on in their classes.)

The Administrator:  Test scores and standards are very important to you.  You are accountable for student achievement at your site, and are also concerned with the public (parent) perception of what goes on at your site.  Parents must feel welcomed at your site, and confident that their students are getting a good education.  You also want the teachers at your site to have job satisfaction, and your school to have a reputation as being innovative, even cutting edge.

The Greater Community:  You are the teacher next door, or the teacher across the country, the realtor in the neighborhood or the parents moving in from out of state and choosing a new home, the adopter company in partnership to the school.  You are the member of the grant reading committee or the state evaluator.  What does this teacher's web page tell you about this class, school, and district?

1. Individually, you'll examine each of the sites on the list of resources from the perspective of your role.  Jot down some notes of your opinions of each . Remember, in your group you will need to decide what is most important in designing a teacher web page.  You'll need to examine each site fairly quickly. Don't spend more than 5 minutes on any one site.

    

2. When everyone in the group has seen all the sites, it's time to get together to answer the questions. One way to proceed would be to go around and poll each team member for most and least important features,  from their perspective. Pay attention to each of the other perspectives, even if at first you think you might disagree with them.

   
    

3. There will probably not be unanimous agreement, so the next step is to talk together to hammer out a compromise consensus about your team's nominations for "must have" features. 

   
    

4. When debriefing time is called, each group will report their results to the whole class. Do you think the other groups will agree with your conclusions?