Building Next-Gen Class Website - Looking for Feedback

Comment by Nathan Ketsdever on June 30, 2009 at 10:33am

I signed up....excited about the prospects.

I don't speak German, will that be a problem?

Comment by Georgette on June 30, 2009 at 11:19am

Hi Chris, I'm real glad I started by looking at your post and at your class-website. You already must have my feedback form by now. I don't know any German, but I've taught ESL for over 10 years and can tell you that technology really gets learners actively engaged. I'd welcome the opportunity to see what you do for Spanish, with the added advantage that I that's a language I can do!!
Cheers!

Comment by Chris Fritz on June 30, 2009 at 11:52am

@Nathan: Thanks! I'm excited too. :-) But to protect the privacy of my students, I'm only approving sign-ups from them and their teachers. I made a temporary guest account though, so people can still sign in and check it out before it's ready for prime time. I sent you an email with the sign-in information.

@Georgette: Thanks a lot for your help! I read your feedback and I've added a few things to my to-do list. :-) I've been going back and forth about making the site mandatory. From what I've seen, the students at my school seem pretty well off, so if I had to, I'd bet that all of those 135 students do have a computer and Internet at home (and very likely their own computer). I just don't want to cause a public outcry and headache for my mentor teacher if some homes don't have Internet or some parents don't want their child even using the Internet. I suppose I COULD add a checkbox to the letter to parents that they could check if they strongly oppose their child using the website. Then parents can voice their opinions anonymously before I set anything in stone. If someone objects, I can call them and try to address their concerns. But then I'd know if a whole class was OK with it and would be able to use it for assignments without worrying. How does that sound to you?

Comment by Chris Fritz on June 30, 2009 at 11:53am

@Nathan: Oh, and it definitely won't be a problem that you don't speak German! The site is almost entirely in English and certainly all the important parts are!

Comment by Georgette on June 30, 2009 at 2:59pm

Chris, I'm glad you are able to make use of my comments.
About making it mandatory,even if you can't, make it a practical solution..."You have no need to write the assignment in class if you can access it online at home" or like I suggested, give the students the opportunity to solve the problem by working in teams with a digitally enabled teammate... This also is conducive to learning since going about solving technology differences and glitches is a required 21 century competency, right? ;)

Comment by Chris Fritz on June 30, 2009 at 8:31pm

Georgette, I think you're absolutely right. Knowing how to take advantage of technology is a vital skill today. At the very least, we need to know how to use it to continue our education. I read an interesting quote by Goethe on the Langwitches blog the other day:

"Our ancestors held on to the education they received in their youth; instead we must relearn every five years, if we want to keep up with the times."

That was written in 1809. 200 years later, things are changing considerably faster! Whether it's convenient for students or not, it's my duty to help them develop these necessary skills. Thanks for reminding me of that. :-)

Comment by Merle Hall on July 8, 2009 at 10:17pm

It looks like you have things well under control. I have a similar Ning site for my classroom. I use the group feature for each class. I also let students create their own groups if they relate to school. I have to approve them. I usually keep members restricted to parents, teachers, and my students. I use their personal pages as a way to motivate them. If they aren't doing what isexpected I remove them and then they have to find an alternative method of getting the lessons and turning in homework. They would much rather work online than from a book. I did have to restrict student activities to keep the bandwidth under control. Things that need to be approved are photos. (limit 10 appropriate content) videos ( only for education purposes) group creation ( only if the group is related to school) Widget and application additions, like playlist. (only in the summer, these items hog bandwidth.)

Comment by Chris Fritz on July 9, 2009 at 8:00am

Merle, thanks for sharing your experiences! I was thinking about the group feature for classes as well, but I was afraid of cliques forming. What have you seen your students do with the groups? Do you think it really helps or is it just a cool extra feature for them? And for the class groups, is it possible to send a message to everyone in a group? That would be mighty handy.

I'll definitely heed your words of warning about bandwidth! I can certainly see students getting out of control there. I tried to post some of my own content in various areas, so students can see some examples of appropriate communication - although I'll be taking a day in a computer lab to go over the whole site with them and get them started adding content. I definitely also appreciate the fact that I can approve videos before they show up! That could save some headaches down the line.

Comment by Merle Hall on July 12, 2009 at 7:43pm

I use the groups as classrooms. I have an 8th grade class, 7th grade class, and 6th grade class. I also allow the students to form groups if they are school related. I don't let them regulate membership. If they want a group they ask and I form it so they don't have that control. I let them have a football, cheerleading, music, drama, and band group. I do have some groups for specific things all my classes do, like silent reading assignments, timed typing etc. If a student does not follow the rules I ban them for a few days. It really makes them upset since banning removes any content from their pages. I don't post lesson feedback to the groups. I post that to the students page or message it. I copy everything for documentation not just lessons. I would save the page every so often just to cover yourself. During the year if a student needs content posted that is bandwidth intensive I usually have them email it to me, or post it long enough for me to download and then remove it. Our tech dept. gets pretty touchy when we use a lot of bandwidth.

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