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Reflections EDLD 5388/5365 Web Mastering

As a pre-k teacher I have to make sure that what my kids are working with in the internet is safe. As a mother, I want my kids to be safe too. So, I see Safety as the most pressing legal and ethical issues for Web site in K-12 schools today. Even though websites are filtered, we as teachers need to supervise our students' website access. Making sure that at least while under our supervision they are not exchanging images, personal information, or other personal with people they don't know that might put them in danger. Due the age of my students I haven't faced a situation like the one Matthew went thru, but one day I was looking for pictures to label some materials in my classroom, I typed in the name of the material and clicked on images (google), I showed to my coworker the result and among pictures of materials there was a pornographic picture. Hopefully by using different filtering systems (for online and off-site users) the technology teams in our districts will keep our students and teachers away from accessing inappropriate web destinations from school and being target of spam, viruses, spyware, malware, as well as inappropriate content (web 2.0: new tools, new schools, solomon and schrum, pg. 152).
 * Week 1**
 * Discussion topics**
 * 1. You've been appointed Webmaster. Now what? What do you hope to accomplish in your first 90 days?**
 * 2. How is Web governance handled at your school today?**
 * 3. What are the job roles on the Web site team at your school?**
 * 4. What are the most important best practices for project management you have learned about for the success of your Web site team?**
 * 5. Based on your readings and the lecture, what do you see as the most pressing legal and ethical issues for Web site in K-12 schools today?**

While I was reading about W3C standards, one of the comments of a webmaster made feel really mad. This lady was saying that her target audience didn't include people with disabilities, so that she didn't have to follow the accesibility standard. I think, as we learn in past classes, when thinking in the design of our website, we have to consider not just our target audience, but also design the website to widen our audience. Usually, a website is created to satisfy the need of a particular group of people, but there are some other users that for any given reason they might end up visiting our website and that kind of circumstance give us the opportunity to design according to the standards and gather more users than the ones we plan our website for. I was surprise to read that in countries such as USA and Australia, there are laws that protect people with disabilities and make web designers to create all-users friendly internet sites. * W3C Standards, online, retrieved on June, 5, 2010 from http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/* W3C standards, online, retrieved on June, 5,2010 from http://www.webstandards.org/learn/faq/#p3 * My website is standard, and yours?, online, retrieved on June, 5, 2010 from http://www.w3.org/QA/2002/04/Web-Quality
 * Week 2**
 * Discussion Topics**
 * 1. Does your school currently work with a Web hosting partner?**
 * 2. What are the most important practices for information architecture that you have learned about this week?**
 * 3. What are the most important best practices for usability in Web design that you have learned about this week?**
 * 4. Does the code on your school's current site comply with the standards for coding at The W3C Consortium?**
 * 5. Based on your readings and the lecture, what do you see as the most pressing legal and ethical issues for Web sites in K-12 schools today?**

I choose to talk about the relevance of the open source movement in education, specifically in k-12 grades. It seems that the use of open source applications has become, on the economic side, of great help to our districts since they don't have to worry a lot about licenses. Students can also access to them and do homework projects (that include blogs, multimedia, podcasts) and retrieve information from several virtual libraries or websites (such as wikipedia). I believe that this educational movement is vital and necessary, and that all open source/access tools should be heralded. However, the use of open technologies in education is now commonplace throughout the world with one notable exception, the United States.(How can open technologies benefit k-12 schools, online, retrieved on june 9,2010, http://www.k12opentech.org/)
 * Week 3**
 * Discussion Topics**
 * 1. Do you have a programming background? How long do you think it would take you to master HTML, XML, and CSS for standards-based page development?**
 * 2.** **Do you have a database background? How long do you think it would take you to master PHP and MySQL to enable a dynamic, database-driven Web site?**
 * 3.** **What is the relevance of the Open Source Movement in K-12?**
 * 4.** **Discuss the benefits of the Drupal Content Management System?**
 * 5.** **Does your school's Web site use a content management system today? If so, what system do you use?**

This week, I have learned that working in a collaborative authoring environment is best for our students. Once you provide instruction using these tools, your students writing, analytical, and collaboration skills develop by sharing ideas, brainstorming, writing essays, team work, self regulation (time, organization), and providing feedback(among group members, one-to one, teacher), to mention some. Tools such as wikis, blogs, podcasting, flickr, have become powerful tools for education, especially in higher grades (middle and high school), where students become creators and producers of their own projects. I really like the fact that we are not teaching just a subject anymore. We are developing and incorporating to our teaching multiple intelligences through the use of text, audio, video, and image files. And we are not leaving behind any of our students regardless of their race, sex, abilities, language, or culture. (Web 2.0 new tools, new schools, Solomon G, Schrum L, pg. 95)
 * Week 4**
 * Discussion Topics****1.** **What have you learned this week about working in a collaborative authoring environment?**
 * 2.** **Do you currently use blogging as a communication platform in your school? If not, why not? If you do, what has your experience been?**
 * 3.** **Do you currently use podcasting as a communication platform in your school? If not, why not? If you do, what has your experience been?**
 * 4.** **If you school uses a Content Management System (CMS) for its Web site, are there procedures in place and do they work? Why or why not?**

my district has no website committee per se, but it has a technology committee formed by several members from the IT department, elementary, middle and high school staff/teachers, and some administrators. However, Our campus pages are the responsibility of an IT administrator assigned on each campus. he/she will help us if we have problems, but is also assigned to other campuses, and sometimes it takes more than 24 hours to have an issue solved. I think that my district still has to develop other way to have hands-on technology staff development that are planned according to grade level rather than tools available or resources.I like the options that web 2.0 new tools new schools in chapter 5 pg 11 mentions( Solomon, Schrum), but I still think that education and integration of technology has a long way to walk to become a part of our daily teaching-learning experience. Click on the following link: [|Carver ECC Website Policy] Click on the following link: [|Carver ECC Website Inventory]
 * Week 5**
 * Discussion Topics****1.** **How would you use Google's Site Search and Web Analytics tools for your school's Web site?****2.** **Is Survey Monkey a good tool for assessing customer satisfaction with a school Web site? Why or why not?****3.** **Is there a functioning Web Oversight Committee at your school? How would you go about establishing one?**
 * 4.** **What mechanisms exist for influencing your district to adopt a more savvy approach to the use of Web 2.0 tools?**
 * Assignments/Google Docs**

Click on the following link: [|Carver ECC Website Schedule]

Click on the following link: [|Website Launch Plan]