Project 1 was the overall project of this website. I admit that at first I was pretty skeptical of the actual usefulness of these pages. About halfway through the semester, as I became increasingly familiar with how to edit and update the pages I saw how this and other sites like it could be an excellent tool in the teaching field. There seems to be a lot of potential of keeping students and parents informed as well as organizing materials that could be made available. Once I was adjusted to the user interface, I found more and more neat things that can be done to keep the site engaging and productive.
Again, initially I saw little if any value in creating and maintaining the website. As we implemented Case 1 into the site, it seemed very bland and, honestly, useless. Yes, I could see the benefit of having the lesson stored online, but the interface seemed clunky and unappealing. As we continued on through the other projects and cases, I saw more and more examples of exactly how this project lines up with the ISTE standards for teachers. As the site came together, I could almost follow the entire ISTE standard page and check off nearly all of the listed reasons and applications on the standards pages.
Obviously, more and more things are being implemented digitally with the idea to eventually have everything integrated digitally in the future eliminating the need and use of paper based projects. This site seems to definitely help move towards that goal as assignments, lesson plans and many other critical tools of a classroom can be provided stored and edited via this web site. If I could learn how to password protect certain areas, which I’m sure is available I just haven’t seen where, I could even see this tool being used to leave lesson plans for substitutes or having portals there for parents to log in and check the progress of their student(s).
Having this site shows the students a good example of how to professionally run an engaging and useful tool in the digital realm. It can be used as a constant reminder of how one has to be responsible and think about what they are putting online in all forms. Overall, I’m really glad that we did this project in the end.
Again, initially I saw little if any value in creating and maintaining the website. As we implemented Case 1 into the site, it seemed very bland and, honestly, useless. Yes, I could see the benefit of having the lesson stored online, but the interface seemed clunky and unappealing. As we continued on through the other projects and cases, I saw more and more examples of exactly how this project lines up with the ISTE standards for teachers. As the site came together, I could almost follow the entire ISTE standard page and check off nearly all of the listed reasons and applications on the standards pages.
Obviously, more and more things are being implemented digitally with the idea to eventually have everything integrated digitally in the future eliminating the need and use of paper based projects. This site seems to definitely help move towards that goal as assignments, lesson plans and many other critical tools of a classroom can be provided stored and edited via this web site. If I could learn how to password protect certain areas, which I’m sure is available I just haven’t seen where, I could even see this tool being used to leave lesson plans for substitutes or having portals there for parents to log in and check the progress of their student(s).
Having this site shows the students a good example of how to professionally run an engaging and useful tool in the digital realm. It can be used as a constant reminder of how one has to be responsible and think about what they are putting online in all forms. Overall, I’m really glad that we did this project in the end.