Teacher Web Project Critiques

1. Describe and discuss the impacts your use of a class web site like the one we created on TeacherWeb might have on student learning, on student engagement, and communications with students and parents.

A class website, like my TeacherWeb, could really help the students in my future classes learn to take charge of their own learning, be actively engaged learners, and could also foster a more readily accessible means of communicating, both with parents and students and between students and parents. Allowing students to access a site that allows them to choose their own learning journey can help them feel independent and in control of their own education, which could lead to a higher self efficacy. Some students, for various reasons, may have a more difficult time engaging with the class on a one-on-one basis, and web-based communication may help them feel more involved within the classroom. Also, the TeacherWeb can function as a communication tool in many ways. It provides a teacher with the means to contact students and their parents, it provides parents and students access to the teacher and a way to contact the teacher. It also provides a nice way for students to communicate with their parents. A class website that provides a clear picture of the daily activity of a classroom could be a wonderful tool for children to share with their parents, and could help those parents that don't have the time or ability to visit the classroom feel more connected with their student and their student's learning.


2. Identify and discuss what you see as the two biggest advantages of designing and using a classroom web site whithin your teaching activities. Also, identify what you see as the biggest disadvantages of using a class website for instructional activities and why.

A classroom website has a lot of potential advantages. The potential for communication and knowledge-sharing on the internet is amazing, and could allow students to collaborate and become engaged in the classroom in ways they never had before. The largest advantage I can think of is that potential: Students have the ability to access their own classroom and select their own way to learn. If students are involved in their own learners, they will be learning not just content material, but the joy of knowledge, and the importance of lifelong learning. The second most important advantage would be that students who are absent, parents who don't live with their students, parents who don't have time to visit the student's classroom, and even extended family and friends could have an inroad to their student's education. Parents who do not live with or see their students on a daily basis can still be an active part of their student's learning.

With these wonderful advantages come some serious drawbacks. The most severe disadvantage is, as with anything posted on the Internet, the idea that a classroom website could in some way compromise student's safety and wellbeing. A classroom website brings up many questions of ethics: Should pictures be on the website? Should students and parents be able to post? All of these questions do not have clear answers, and depending on the lines that teachers draw, students could be put in danger. The second, and somewhat less dramatic, disadvantage is that students may become reliant on computers for accessing knowledge. While the Internet is an amazing tool that can be used in amazing ways, understanding how to use reference tools like encyclopedias and dictionaries is important for students.