This intro video is long. Sorry. (I recommend speeding it up.)

On this page, I'm going to focus on 5 ways high school teachers communicate online:

Classroom Websites
Professional Portfolios
Personal Learning Environments
Personal Learning Communities
Individual Learning Tools

1. Classroom Website

High school teachers find that having a classroom website can be a real time saver. They post class announcements/reminders. Teachers can upload documents like reading materials for students to download. Some teachers host dynamic calendars with due dates so that changes can be made throughout the semester. They post the syllabus online for their students to reference. Some teachers even encourage homework collaboration outside of class. (Building one of these websites is what you'll be doing for your internet communications project over then next few weeks.) Your website can include calendars, class announcements, homework assignments and materials, online collaboration documents, and even grades. For more sensitive material, you can password-protect your webpages or have people sign in using id-authentication. These tools make websites invaluable time savers for you as a teacher. But which tool do should you use to build your website? Let's look a few options.

GOOGLE SITES

Google sites is a favorite tool for many teachers and students because it is completely free, and is seamlessly integrated with all the other google apps, like Calendar, Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Drive, etc. The downside is that it's not very beautiful. It kind of reminds me of Elementary School. If elegant design is more your thing, try Wix or Weebly.

Google's Official Tutorial Page for Google Sites

Here are some "How To" Videos Recorded by a former IP&T Instructor about working with Google Sites. Note: The layout and look of some Google Products has changed slightly from what you'll see in the video links below, but all the functionality and features are still there. So, again, don't be alarmed if things in the illustrative videos don't look exactly like it does on your site. I trust you to follow the troubleshooting diagram to figure out changes to things.

Creating a Google Site
Using the Create Page and Edit Page Buttons
Working with Inserted Items
Options Located in the More Actions Button
More Actions: The Manage Site Options

Here is a page that links to each teacher’s website in the entire high school. I've selected a specific IP&T student example who used Google Sites for her project:

WEEBLY

Weebly and Wix, are more intuitive for developers, but they don't let you get into the code to make customizations. If you don't code, then either of these are reasonable options. Weebly, specifically is targeting education, whereas Wix is targeting small businesses. Kara Varley used Weebly last semester to build her classroom website. Click the image to visit her site.

WIX

Wix is the tool I would use to whip out a website really fast for a small organization or family event. But more and more teachers are using it because It's extremely develop on, and very hard to mess up. Their online help is phenomenal. Below is an example of a "Health" classroom website I built using Wix last semester for one of my BYU beginning tennis classes. I didn't follow the IP&T rubric, but you'll find most of the same elements included here.

Not Specifically Related to Your Project, But Still Relevant to Internet Communication

2. PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIOS

During the hiring process, school principals are often impressed by applicants who prove that they are "tech-savvy." You can impress them by showing examples of your ability to facilitate a classroom website. For this purpose, we have asked to you include a "Portfolio" page on your website. This will supplement your resumé and will allow you to showcase your interests, projects, and badges. Here's an entire website I made using Google Sites to showcase my academic work. This example is way more elaborate than what you are asked to do for the scope of this project. But it should give you an idea of what's possible.

Danielle, a former student created this portfolio website using Wix. I think it's an ideal example of something a principle might want to see: http://daniellelmartin15.wix.com/dmartin

3. PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Websites are also useful spaces for you to store your ideas and journal your learning. I call this space a Personal Learning Environment or (PLE). Here's a PLE example I made using Weebly. I created this website to organize some of the projects I did for an independent study course on "Survey of Adobe Products" (image below). Additionally, here's a friends screencast of how he uses Blogger for a Personal Learning Environment (PLE).

4. PERSONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

Many teachers also participate in online personal learning communities. These groups of teachers are sometimes scattered all over the world. They share their ideas and resources with one another via forums and networks of blogs. One day, you may become really excited about a particular teaching method. I guarantee you that someone is blogging about it online. Join their discussion, or start your own on your own blog. Here's a list of PLCs I participate in, all on various, educational topics. I think Wikispaces is a excellent platform for this type of activity. Years ago, Wikispaces was just a glorified Google Doc, but recently, it has become really geared towards helping teachers and students communicate. I don't have an example yet. So if you're interested, try this out and you might become an example!

5. INDIVIDUAL ONLINE TOOLS

Sometimes, a website isn't necessary to share information or communicate with other teachers. Sometimes, all you need is to share a calendar on Google calendars, for example. Or if you need to find a time schedule a meeting for a bunch of teachers with crazy schedules, here's an online scheduling tool called, Doodle.com. I prefer this scheduling tool to others because it's the easiest to use, and it offers a paid feature that many other free scheduling tools don't offer—a "maybe available" option. This "Maybe" feature may be useful to you when you have a prep period that you technically could meet, but you'd prefer not to. But if you don't want to pay $20/year, here are three other options I'm looking into: http://beta.timebird.co/ and https://calendly.com/ and https://app.timebridge.com/lp/meetwithme.

Info to Help You Picking The Right (Website Development) Tool For You

Deciding which tool to use to create a website can be daunting, especially if you don't know the pros and cons of each. You are also welcome to use an unlisted tool—just talk to me first.

IC Project Pros Cons.png

Regardless of Which Website Host You Choose, Knowing How to Use Google Products is a MUST!

Most of you will use Google Docs, Forms, and Calendar as a part of your Internet Communications project. This section talks in detail about how to use Google Docs and Calendar. If you feel you already know how to use these tools, you are welcome to skip this section.

Google offers lots of products as a part of your Google Account that most people find useful. We won't cover all the products Google offers but we will look at a few. These tools will not only make it easier for you to stay organized and disseminate information to others, but they can also be used by your students to enhance their learning. The Google products we will review all have collaboration features which your students can use to collaborate on projects and other assignments.

As you watch these videos, think about how students could use these tools in your classroom.

Note: The look and layout of many Google products has changed slightly since these videos were made. However, all of the same functionality and organization is there.

How to Create a Google Account Using Gmail
Google Docs
How to Make a Doc Public
Google Calendar