I’ve been caught in the typical blogger’s irony; we only have time to write when there is nothing to say. That clearly has NOT been the case for the past few months. My superintendent called for an IT Summit so we spent two very educational days looking at all things tech in our school. My students are at their capable, end-of-year best as they work on final projects. My teachers have outdone themselves with great tech integration, and we are looking at a new, and hopefully more effective professional development model for next year.
However, I’m not going to write about any of those topics. Instead, I want to look at our move away from mandatory teacher websites.
Currently, in the primary and intermediate schools, teachers were required to have a web page. In years gone by, this took a ridiculous amount of their time considering its minimal impact on student learning. A few teachers really excelled and it because a hub for the classroom. For most, it was a true burden; something that weighed them down.
A few year ago, the tech coordinator worked with the web manager to create a basic template. Other than needing the class photo inserted, everything that was required was on that page. Teachers never needed to touch it unless they had a desire to do so.
At the same time, we switched from Microsoft FrontPage for hosting teacher web pages, to Contribute. A further change was using JAlbum to generate web photo galleries. Teachers drop a folder of photos into the correct place on the server and Voila! In an hour or two they appeared in the online photo galleries.
Teachers loved the ease of this and the size of our photo galleries soared. At first the quality level was low and the volume was high. That has evened out a bit with time. Now those photo galleries also host student-created movies and podcasts. It has worked well and the photo galleries receive far more visitors than the teacher web pages.
Now we are going to make the next step and do away with teacher web pages. Other than grandfathering in one teacher who has an extensive website tied closely to his curriculum, the rest of the teacher websites will go away at the end of this year. There will no longer be a requirement that teachers have any web presence besides their photo gallery.
For those teachers who do want more of a web presence, I will work with them to find a platform that best meets their needs. For some it will be a blog. One of our art teachers has already made that leap and is making good use of a WordPress blog. For others it will be a wiki such as those being used so effectively down in our primary school. Still others may create a Ning. In any case, we are moving away from static web sites to more dynamic, interactive tools.
We will have one blog platform and one wiki platform that we support. Teachers are welcome to use any blogging or wiki platform, but we will only support those two to for practical reasons. In the primary they have gone with Wetpaint as their wiki platform. The COPA laws have not been a hindrance for them because students are either working as a whole group with the teacher on his/her account, or they are working at home with their parent using the parent’s account.
For our division, the decision is trickier since our students are able to work autonomously and are more likely to edit maliciously. We would prefer to use Wetpaint since our staff is familiar with it from our conference sign up wiki. We also prefer its looks and its features. However, the inability to create accounts for students under 13 years of age is a big stumbling block. It may drive us to Wikispaces with their very student-friendly accounts and good customer service.
Wisely, my principal is not mandating that teachers have any web presence. Teachers are very busy and for some, none of those tools fit their teaching style and needs. I suspect others will end up using many different web tools with a blog for communication, a wiki for student projects, and other tools, such as Voicethreads pulled in where appropriate.
I’m excited to see these changes roll out. I hope teachers are relieved to be released from web sites. I think it will lead to more thoughtful and powerful uses of online platforms. These platforms invite student and parent participation. I’m glad to see us officially joining the Read-Write web.
Where is your school in this process? Have you chosen an outside host for blogs or wikis? Which did you choose? Why?
Thanks for sharing this whole process.On occasion I had worried a little that we did not have teacher web pages but my focus has been on curriculum integration instead. But after reading your post I think at this point it might be a superfluous step. I like the individuality with which you have approached this because sometime I fall into the one size fit all trap.
In answer to your questions we use wikispaces for our junior high but we are still in early stages of integration with wikis. The same company that host our website and gradebooks hosts our moodle and our student projects. Because of our current infrastructure we did not want to host anything public directly on our server,
"My students are at their capable, end-of-year best as they work on final projects. My teachers have outdone themselves with great tech integration, and we are looking at a new, and hopefully more effective professional development model for next year."
I hope to mutter those exact words about my school someday.
Do you think that mandatory teacher websites are good idea? What are some of the requirements that teachers need to include on their pages?
Barbara and IMC Guy,
Thanks for your comments. I always hope other find these posts useful — even better if they are inspiring.
Terra,
I can imagine situations where mandating teacher websites would be a good idea, but they are not a good idea to meet our needs.
In our middle and high school, all teachers are required to have a web presence via our school's Blackboard site. If school needed to close due to an emergency, such as SARS or H1N1, then classes could continue online to some extent. Some teachers use it extensively and others only use it for contacting students.
I really liked the idea that one benefit that is relevant right now is the H1N1 virus and how classes could continue on even if schools were to shut down. I know our school in the Spring was close to closing down because of the Swine Flu and how great would it have been to be able to continue lessons through a website I created? Thanks for your thought-provoking blog.
This was a very timely post for me, Susan. After some frustration last year with trying to get teachers to create individual class web pages, I decided to create web pages for everyone with basic information on them like curriculum and a few photos.
As a way for teachers to communicate with parents, I set up blogs using b2evolution which I was able to set up on the server. I'm working on getting teachers comfortable with using those now – I have 17 weeks to do this before I retire once again.
We are also working on having students use blogs for electronic portfolios. We're just getting this going now with a few classes, but I'm waiting for my replacement to show up so that I can get him/her comfortable with the whole system.
Thanks for the information about jalbum. I'm taking a look at that right now.
As always, the idea is to come up with the most time efficient way for teachers and students to use these tools.
I am very intrigued by the post and the comments by others. Our teachers are required to have an informational page on our school website. I don't know that they truly serve any purpose what-so-ever. I love the idea of the blog and the ability to continue teaching if schools have to close. This is definitely a topic I will continue to explore and try to convince others in my district that it is a worthwhile topic. Thanks!
I enjoyed reading the original post and comments. My principal has requested that all teachers have a webpage up by October of this year, apparently we are a little behind the times. I teach in an alternative high school and am looking to incorporate blogging into my curriculum. I am very intrigued with the idea of being able to teach in the event of school closing down for a period of time. I am concerned though because I have at least 2-3 students in each of my classes that has no computer in their home. Is it a common occurance that students have significant obstacles to this technology? What are your responses when this comes up in your classroom? Thanks in advance!
I am taking a course right now and I have to set up a blog. I am not sure that I want to be mandated by the school for upkeep of a sight. How do parents and students respond to the mandate? Do they find it helpful? What content is included on the sites? Is it overwhelming to upkeep with everything s=else we are supposed to be doing as teachers?
Amy, When I was teaching in the US access to technology was a barrier for many of my elementary students. Now I teach at an international school overseas and I don't have that barrier, especially as our middle and high school move towards 1:1.
My elmentary students all seem to have computers at home. Viruses or parents not allowing them online are what tends to keep a few of my students from having access.
MD Coach,
I am not clear on your question. We do not have a mandate for teacher webbpages. In the MS Blackboard is many used as a communication tool sobyhe teacher can easily send out messages to their classes. If school dis need to close, putting assignments into Blackboard would be how they taught, not an add on.
In the HS some teachers use it as a communication tool and others have chosen to use it extensively.
I am not sure what you mean about how do parents and students feel about this.