Teacher's Net
Lesson 7: The Virtual Classroom, Part One
Focus on the Virtual Classroom
Definitions
A virtual classroom is a collection of a specific set of goals: To offer a holistic approach to students' learning, To offer Answers and Guidance to both students and parents/guardians, and To create an outlet for the sharing of classroom progress and events.
When creating your own virtual classroom, it's necessary to keep this definition in mind. You will likely want to focus on one aspect of these goals, at least in the beginning.
Critical Attributes
A set of "required elements" have never been created for any website- not to mention classroom websites. However, both for the purposes of succeeding in this course and adhering to "best practices", it's important that we lay down some ground rules for ourselves. So, Phebe's "Every Virtual Classroom Should Have..."
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An introductory paragraph or two on the Welcome Page which sets the tone of the virtual classroom, offering tips about "where to go" on the site and generally making all visitors feel welcome.
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A statement of "Who This Site Is For", to reduce any confusion.
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Clearly defined sections to the site, and of these sections there should be at least a) Week-by-Week (one week at a time) breakdowns of lessons, assignment due dates, homework, and rubric. b) Progress Report which lists not grades but assignments turned in and those which are due, by the student. c)Resource List which offers at least 3 links to sites specifically related to the week's assignments.
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Links to any web-quests or other multimedia which is being used in the classroom.
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An online contact form which parents and students can use to immediately send correspondence to you.
Planning
The process of planning your website will take a bit of thought, but not an excessive amount of time. It is absolutely necessary that you complete this planning phase now, though, before you even begin the next section of our final lesson. In our final lesson, we'll be combining all the knowledge we've gained into producing the website. The following is a breakdown of the steps you need to take in your planning phase, adapted from one found at LinkEd (see source 1):
Preparation
View and evaluate existing school websites (Which you should have already done...)
If a Group Project, Hold a Staff Meeting to ..
- brainstorm and share ideas
- organize a web-team involving staff and pupils
Decide on the purpose of the website
Who will the target audience be?
Plan website structure and content
- what will the main content areas be?
- map out the navigation structure of the website.
Setting up a folder and organization system
- establish a system for storing 'physical' web materials (E.g. photos, pupils work etc), and a system for storing material on the computer (folders and files, specifically set up to hold and organize the website contents)
Gather web material, start collecting...
- information
- photos
- graphics
- pupils work etc.
Lessons
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