Last week I created a post talking about EDU blogs and how to create a menu using categories and pages.
I have experience with blogs, however because I only used Blogger in the past, I was not exposed to Categories. Categories is WordPress terminology and, to be honest, it took a little bit to get my head around it. I have found in the past that those who are in the process of learning new things are the best ones to create instructions on how to use them because they don’t leave out steps that more experienced users might breeze over.
To read my category instructions blog post please visit the WEEK 2 post.
EDU BLOGS might be a great way to interact with students but I cannot demonstrate this because the free version is too limited.
EDU Features (click the image to go to the site)
I am finding the limitations of EDU BLOGS very frustrating, however I have continued to persevere with it because in an education setting I won’t be able to bring in my own tools; I will have to work within the parameters of the school I am in. This is been an excellent lesson in solution based thinking.
So to demonstrate how a website could be used in a school setting I created a WordPress website.
The site is different from other blogs that have been demonstrated in the Moodle content, because it is for Students, not for parents or caregivers.
More specifically, it is for the hypothetical students in my classes to look back on lessons as refreshers and, more importantly, for the students who have not attended school that day. There are a few children in my daughters class who suffer from depression, obesity and mental disorders that prevents them from attending school every day. This site will be a place they can access to keep up with the work from home.
Students at my daughters school also submit drafts of assessments so the teacher can help put them on the right path before the final submission. On this site there is also an area for draft submissions.
As you navigate the site, you will see the subject areas and an Upload Draft section in the header menu. Under each subject heading, the grade levels are listed. To access the grade level, each class will be provided with a password. This will stop these areas from being open to the entire world wide web. Mind you, some pages will be public, but all the daily lesson plans will be password protected.
Because this site is a WordPress site, plugins can be installed and used to help monitor and track students learning. This site will show you just some of the range available via a normal WordPress site.
When creating this website I took inspiration from CQUniversity’s Moodle and my daughters classroom.
I believe my website would be approved by any school because:
- There is no personal information on the site.
- Anyone with a device (such as a phone, tablet or PC) and internet connection can use it.
The only issue I might encounter, is other teachers who would like to have something similar for their classes, and me finding the time to build it for them 😍.
The link to the site and passwords will be provided on request.
Lecturer information – The link to the site, and all passwords can be found in the submitted Word Document in section: 1.1.1 Link to Mockup website.
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