Your Students Can Be Webmasters!
Updated: April 11, 2004
How to integrate Web site creation into your curriculum
By Robin G. Morgan
Each year, my beginning students create a Web site of a children's picture book. They write the text -- a fictional story, how-to, or rhyme for a three to five-year old. They create graphics out of geometric shapes. They choose just the right typestyle for a younger child, pick sound words that are fun to say and hear, and think long and hard about appropriate activities and procedures for children. On each of the 16 pages they create, including the cover and title page, they place a "character" button to click on to "turn the page." When their picture book Web site is complete, I burn it to a CD-ROM to give to our Early Childhood teacher as well as to send to local elementary schools.
If you are looking for a multidisciplinary, multi-featured project to fulfill your curricular goals in a way that's especially motivating and beneficial for students, consider having them create a Web site. Even if you are not a computer whiz yourself, you can guide creation of a Web site with these seven engaging steps.
Step One: Gather Basic Materials
To create Web pages, your students will need access to word processing software, such as Microsoft Word, desktop publishing software, such as Microsoft Publisher, and Web authoring software like Microsoft FrontPageŽ (For very simple Web pages, you can get away with just Word and its "Save as Web Page" feature.) If you don't have a graphics program or image editing software, you can easily scan original artwork and photos or download free images and Web graphics from the Internet. Conserve hard drive space by storing graphics on a Zip cartridge or burning them to a CD-RW (rewritable) for all to use within the classroom.
Step Two: Brainstorm Ideas
To kick off the Web process with students, create slips of paper with 10 or 12 choices of categories based on your curriculum. Categories that have worked well for my students include theories, agriculture, the visual artist, forms of government, and the written word. As you begin your large-group discussion, ask several students to reach into a container to draw out four category slips. Write each category on a section of board or chart paper. Spend the rest of the class period brainstorming specific topics. Vote on one category and topic to use for the class's first Web site.
Step Three: Create a Web Design "Company"
Your next step is to turn your class into a Web design "company." You are the CEO, and you'll need to "hire" students to fulfill the following leadership roles: project manager, art editor, multimedia editor, and text editor. Less glamorous, but equally important, are the roles of secretary and office manager.
To make all these job responsibilities very concrete, you might create a Career Expectations Notebook to provide complete job descriptions and job responsibilities from the list above. Add information about the specific hourly pay rate for each job (I've had good luck finding this info at www.about.com ). Ask students to keep a log of their hours of work on the Web site and calculate the monetary value according to billable hours per job.
I find that students approach their Web design company jobs with a very high level of responsibility and commitment. As the CEO, it is my role to mentor and encourage, while keeping the peace--not a hard task when everyone is so enthusiastically involved in creativity and problem solving.
As the staff's first task, ask students to submit possible names for the company. Make a ballot and let the class vote on the name. Ask the traditional artist and graphic designer to design a company logo that can be posted on the completed Web site. The logo may be rendered by hand, colored, and scanned for use or the students may create the logo using a graphics, illustration, or digital imaging program.
Step Four: Define the Site (What is Included)
Now it's time to turn to the Web site itself. This phase of Web design involves the gathering of information through research and brainstorming. Your entire Web team should meet to determine:
| • | What they want the site to accomplish |
| • | To whom the site should appeal |
| • | Content |
| • | Timeline for web site construction |
The next stage cannot begin until a plan is complete that includes all of the above.
Step Five: Refine the Concept (Why It's Important)
This is the phase that provides the framework on which the project's look and feel will be built. The student project manager and team leaders are in charge of creating a site map (a visualization of the site as a whole) of all pertinent information submitted for inclusion in the site. The site map resembles a family tree.
Each page, except the home page, has a parent (the page directly above it), and it can have siblings (which share the same parent) and children. The site map is much more than a simple display of the site structure; it is an environment for building, reorganizing, and tracking the progress of your site. To help keep track of the site as they think it through, students should create a notebook with dividers to follow the site structure (site map). Label each divider with the name of a link page. Information pertaining to each link should be placed in proper order according to the site map.
Step Six: Design the Pages (Look and Feel)
This is where the project takes on form. The audio and visual elements are developed. The creativity of students gives the project its personality and begins to bring the project from a two-dimensional plan to a four-dimensional experience. This phase maximizes the results of creative time by following the information structures defined in the concept phase. The following list should help the design process:
| • | Select the colors for the site (use browser-safe colors; download palette from www.lynda.com) |
| • | Scan photos and illustrations |
| • | Create/Download graphics, photos, animations, and web buttons |
| • | Determine the names of the major sections (link pages) |
| • | Sketch the layout of graphics and text for key pages |
| • | Proceed with research |
| • | Type/edit text for key pages |
In designing the look and feel of a site do not overlook the style of the text, and the choice of titles for sections of the site.
Step Seven: Implement the Site!
In this phase, the project becomes real as the Web design company begins the actual process of assembling each web page for the site. Your students will load their graphics, photos, and text into the Web authoring software, and add sounds and animations. Then they will go through a testing phase, which must include: testing of all links and button functions and proofreading of all copy. This is also the moment for the Web team to take a step back and ask itself: Does the look and feel of the site succeed? Is the right impression created? They should then modify and revise the site before arranging for it to be posted on the Internet or on your school's intranet, or burned onto a CD for distribution.
Whatever your curriculum focus, your students will truly benefit from the process of Web site design: to look at what is available and to provide access to it; to make it understandable so that someone else will be enlightened or inspired by the experience. So sharpen your tools, expand your role, and embrace the rewards that publishing for the Web offers!
