website builder for grade 5s

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Permalink Reply by Liam O'Donnell on February 25, 2008 at 6:39pm

Thanks for those links indigo. I doubt the school has hosting. Must check with admins.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Staton on February 25, 2008 at 8:11pm

try www.weebly.com

that might do it.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on February 26, 2008 at 3:07am

I've used Weebly and although the domain name will include Weebly in it, the program itself is pretty slick and easy to use.
Kevin

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Permalink Reply by Gary Miller on February 25, 2008 at 8:51pm

How about a wiki? We use wikispaces.com, easy to use and free. Let them know it is for education, and they take the advertisements off.

Gary

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Permalink Reply by Ben Grundy on February 26, 2008 at 2:20am

there are heaps of free website creators/hosts out there that are free and ad-free. This is one example http://www.webnode.com/en/ which i found on a great Web2.0 directory service - http://go2web20.net

Hope this helps

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Permalink Reply by Liam O'Donnell on February 26, 2008 at 3:58am

Thanks for these links everybody. This is exactly what I'm looking for. I think between them, my student will get her page online. Thanks again for the resources.

Liam

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Permalink Reply by Kathy Epps on February 26, 2008 at 12:51pm

It depends a lot on what your students wants the site for - to display photos? lots of text? embed videos? Is it more than one page? Who's the audience? Why is a web page better than any other medium?

I would suggest that she plan the site thoroughly with a graphic organizer like Inspiration, to understand the possibilities of hyper links within the site and out to other web pages.

For a 5th grader, I would suggest using Google's Page Creator, which is free, fairly simple in format, easy to use, and has a decent storage limit for photos, etc. For that age group, and for a one-off project, it is just right - she won't need much help on the techy side of things. (and it's probably not blocked by the district).

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Pass on February 26, 2008 at 1:54pm

Kathy,

I really like your question, "Why is a web page better than any other medium?"

While there are times when web pages can be very useful, I personally think that too many people use web pages for projects that would be better hosted on other kinds of tools.

Then again, I'm not sure if it's important for school children to think about the difference in these tools as long as they can use them to promote critical thinking about important ideas.

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Permalink Reply by Kathy Epps on February 26, 2008 at 8:53pm

I think that understanding the difference among tools is an essential part of using them - particularly for the kids who will have many more tools in the their kit than we do. A visual artist doesn't just "do" a picture - a large part of the work is deciding whether it's oils, pastels, an engraving, an installation, watercolor, etc. Which medium suits the thoughts behind the desire to create, and in which does the artist feel most capable?

Same with "creations" in the classroom: what's the purpose (beynnd making the teacher happy)? (With luck, the assignment will have already considered this). Will it hang on the wall in the classroom? Is it a subject that lends itself to graphics? How many ways can the student tell the required "story"? Which is the one worth the effort?
Just because web media are part of our students' lives, and because it's so easy to produce a web page, or a blog, a set on Flickr, or a start page, they need to know how to create them, the responsibility issues involved, and (within the possibilities given), which will be the most effective?

Part of "the critical thinking about important issues" is actually that: "Learning is important. What I think has value. What I have to say is important. It may only be 'school work' now, but in 10 years time it will be how I vote, how I manage my life. What do I have to say, and how shall I say it?" For these kids digital media will be one of the very easy choices.

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Permalink Reply by Liam O'Donnell on March 2, 2008 at 10:46am

@ Kathy and Andrew - I totally agree that getting kids to think critically is a key part of education. The website my student wants to build ties into a social studies unit on the rights of the child and looking the way media sells to kids. Thanks to the advice in this thread, I've not got a web platform that she can use to explore these issues. Should be fun.

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Permalink Reply by Shaun Fletcher on March 2, 2008 at 7:00pm

This site site from PBS might be helpful on the topic. http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/advertisingtricks/createyourownad_flas...

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Permalink Reply by Liam O'Donnell on March 2, 2008 at 7:34pm

Thanks for the website Shaun - it's a good one. I like the design your own ad campaign game and the fake banner ads - definitely shows kids how advertisers work. Another good resource I use is Media Madness, by Dominic Ali (http://www.kidscanpress.com/kidscanpress/KidsCanPress_3/KCP/f_home.htm) and Made You Look by Shari Graydon (http://206.186.83.77/catalog/catalog.aspx?Title=Made+You+Look) Both books come with lesson plans on their publishers' website and are worth checking out.

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