DAY 6: How To

Phew! We've accomplished a lot! We reviewed the theory behing online learning and its advantages and limitations, explored possible instructional strategies, and planned and brainstormed some instructional tools we'd like to use in our own classroom websites. Today we'll begin creating our very own clasroom websites!

Creating a classroom website is easy. Some great sites for hosting clasroom websites are Blogger, Google, Homepage Builder by Scholastic, and Yola.  These are just three of many free sites that provide the tools you need to build your website.

The tools are only part of the picture, however. You also need a plan. To get you started use these Tips for Building a Classroom or School Website:

• Be clear about your goals. Decide how you want to use the site and whom you want to reach.
• Get help. Involve students, parents, and community members in the planning.
• Refer to your school or district's Web policy Most schools now have one, but if yours doesn't, you can find ideas on the web. Search your district's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). 
• Be quality conscious. Keep your site simple, attractive, quick to download, and easy to navigate.
• Keep it timely. Maintain your site regularly, replacing outdated information and dead links.
• Get students involved. Invite students to help determine content and help them learn how to build pages.
• Use your personality. Your site should reflect your personality as well as the personality of your community, your school, and your class. 

THE ASSIGNMENT

We'll use yola.com to build our classroom websites.  Be sure you have a plan before you start, then creating an account is easy and building your site is easy. Refer to the following tutorials to help you gain specific skills for building your site.

You should view the following yolasite tutorials and know where to find them on the yola website in case you need to refer to them again as you begin building your site on Day 7.

Yolasite Tutorials