Getting Started with the Internet Communications Unit

This unit focuses on how to improve the way we communicate with parents and students. One of the best ways to do this is by creating a class website. However, if creating a website is easy for you and you have done it before, then please email me about an alternate assignment, such as using a different kind of tool. For example, if you think it would be more beneficial to learn how to do video conferencing, or how to use a class management tool like Edmodo, that would be fine.

But as I said, most of you will want to create a website. In our day and age, every teacher should have a website, as students are increasingly looking to access course content online. In this unit you will create your own website that will

serve as a place to "turn in" assignments throughout our course
become a professional portfolio when you seek employment
give you the beginnings of a future website you can use as a teacher. You will learn the skills so you can edit your website at that point with the correct content for the courses you teach.

Project Options (choose one) and Tutorials

There are many different options for creating a website; it's incredible how many tools we have these days! Each tool has to make a decision about functionality vs. ease. If you want to have the most functionality and flexibility (the ability to make the website do exactly what you want), your best option is to create the website using the actual html/css language that is the code language for the web. You can use a tool like Dreamweaver and many others to help with creating and editing html and css code.

Of course, that's also a lot more difficult!

So most of you will want to just use a WYSIWYG tool. This stands for What You See Is What You Get. This is a tool that will let you just type in a text window; add pictures, colors, and lines; and what you see on the screen will be how your website will look. These tools are much easier to use, but you may sometimes not be able to get your website to be exactly how you would want it to be because the tool is making tradeoffs to make things easier.

On the Badges Website (http://iptedtec.org), we have rubrics for the following tools. You can use any of these to make your website:

http://iptedtec.org/blogger_1/ - This tool is great if you mostly want a website to serve as a regular journal or information source. The benefit of a blog is that it pushes old information to the bottom and puts top information at the top, and it's easy to subscribe to.
http://iptedtec.org/googlesites_1/ - This tool is great for making a basic website that has good functionality. It integrates REALLY well with other useful Google tools, like Google Docs, Presentations, and Calendar. This means you can use your one Google account for everything, and then have everything you want show up on your website. For example, if you make a presentation, you can embed it in a page on your website. If you maintain a calendar for homework, students can subscribe to it with their google accounts. Another benefit is that many school districts are using Google Apps to replace Microsoft Office, so they ask all their teachers to use Google Products. In that situation, having a Google Site would work really well.
http://iptedtec.org/wikispaces_1/ - This is a do-it-yourself wiki. A wiki (like Wikipedia) allows anyone to edit the pages. You can decide which pages are wikis and which are just regular webpages that only you edit. The advantage of wiki pages is that it allows for some collaborative work and knowledge creation.
http://iptedtec.org/wix_1/ - Wix makes the best-looking websites of the bunch, so if you want a nice, professional website, this is your tool. However, the tradeoff is that you'll lose much of the functionality of other tools. This is the one I use - http://kristianspring.wix.com/kristianspring
http://iptedtec.org/wordpress_1/ - Wordpress may be the best of all these tools at doing everything, but it's also more difficult to learn. That being said, it isn't really that difficult. Wordpress is used for many professional company websites (see examples here: https://wordpress.org/showcase/ - although you usually need to know html/css to get them looking like this). One of our professors uses it for his own personal website without having to do any actual html/css coding (using a template he purchased) -- http://www.byuipt.net/rickwest/.

We also have many tutorials we have created for you that you can access on the Badges website. We have the most tutorials for Google Sites, because that's been the option most students have used. While we don't have as many tutorials for the other tools, you can usually find them online. If you do need help, let us know!

Recommendation - You can use any of these tools, or anything else you want. I would recommend either Google Sites or Wix, for our class, as probably the best tools for most of you.

Material to Embed

Part of the rubric that you will see on the http://iptedtec.org website asks that you embed various items into your website. Embedding is different from attaching. When you embed something, you can see the item without having to launch a new page or download anything. For example, we embed most of our videos here in Canvas so you don't have to go to Youtube to watch them. For your assignment you need to embed various Google-owned stuff (like documents, videos, forms, etc.), and you also have to embed at least one thing from a non-Google source. There are SO MANY options to choose from! Almost anything on the Internet that allows you to create something will have a link to "embed" that item in your website. Just look for it!

On the iptedtec.org website, there is a whole list of tutorials on embedding in Google Sites to help you: http://iptedtec.org/googlesites_1/google-sites-tutorials/

Here is a list of websites that have interesting stuff that past students have found useful for embedding in their websites:

There are many others. Have fun!

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I use the "Class Website" template in Google sites? A: You can if you really, really want to, but take our advice and don't! When you select this template, it populates the site with a bunch of filler text that you have to delete, and students ALWAYS forget to delete some of it and lose points.

Is there a specific theme I should use in my site? A: Whatever theme you want, just make sure it looks professional.

Is there a certain order I should list my pages in the navigation bar? A: I don't specify any particular order to any of your navigation, just make it logical so people can find what they are looking for. If someone is looking for some specific information (like when I'm grading your website and checking to make sure all the requirements have been included) and they're not sure where to begin looking, you might want to re-think your navigation.

Should I use the HTML Box (under "insert") to embed code and gadgets? A: NO! It's easier to just click the <html> button when you are editing the page (it's up with the other formatting buttons), and then paste your code right in! The HTML box doesn't work, even though some tutorials on the web (such as at Quizlet.com) tell you to use the html box, but it doesn't work as well

How do I make an announcements page in Google Sites? A: See this video for a tutorial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pM8WfFSwds&