Reflecting on websites

This reflection is about creating a website and how they could be utilised in the classroom.  For my analysis of this online tool, I'm going to be using PMI.

Plus

• very simple to create and edit
• students are familiar with websites so understand the format and design of this tool
• students can express their creativity with very few boundaries
• it's a really fun, user friendly tool which students would enjoy using, which would result in greater enthusiasm for a project utilising this technology, and greater productive output

Minuses

• students must have internet access
• not a collaborative forum. Readers can not have any input into the website or even make comments 
• it costs money to password protect pages on the website

Implications

•  students could create a whole project presented on a website, rather than the traditional way of presenting it on a large piece of cardboard. Pages could be created to categorise the information.
• students would need to be tutored about online etiquette and understand that normal rules of behaviour and conduct apply when producing work online

My reflection

Of the three types of online tools I have created in this week's topic, I enjoyed creating the website most of all.  I believe this is primarily due to the fact that I found it relatively straight forward to create a website, compared to creating a blog or wiki.  This is probably because I am very familiar with websites and have a basic understanding of how they operate, whereas I had absolutely no idea about blogs or wiki's prior to creating them.

I could see websites being a very useful tool in the classroom, particularly with the middle to late primary schoolers.  They could be useful if the teacher created a website of the class' learning journey or school camp etc, but they would be even more useful if the website was created by students themselves.  The first thing that springs to mind for me regarding websites, is how they could easily be used by older students when creating research projects.  The website could be separated into a number of pages according to the type of information the student is presenting.  Images could be inserted as well as links to other sites.  This is really exciting stuff!  I imagine kids would go wild for this.  Students would be far more motivated to work on their projects if they had a tool to use that would not limit their creative capabilities.  

The fact that websites are not an interactive tool does limit their usefulness, as they are only going to be able to be used, when the required learning calls for a one way discussion about the topic.  As previously stated, research projects could be an ideal use.