#classroom website

[novelsandnotebooks]

I'm looking to make a website for my classes to use.  Ideally I would like to be able to have a separate page or heading for each class period and also a blog for each period.  

Any suggestions for what website I should use?

[freckles64]

What in the world is a WIX?

All that and a bag of chips ….

Are you looking to build a powerful website but have no idea how to start? Are you trying to create a page where students can go to access webquests and other projects and you want it to look nice? WIX is where you will be able to do this. The webpages that you can develop at WIX are professional looking, using the many templates that they have to offer or you can create one from scratch from a blank page. You can easily drop in your own photos or stock photos from the site and viola! You have an amazing webpage.

The Basics ....

How hard is it really?

Once you have your template chosen, there is a little bit of a learning curve for what buttons are where, but most of them are from dropdown menus. It was fairly easy to pick some of their stock photos and upload them into the template. It was also a breeze for me to upload some clipart I had downloaded to my computer. It was not difficult to change the background to my site, either. All in all, a pleasant experience.

What can you do with it?

There are many applications for a design tool this powerful. The one that comes to mind, because it is the one I am currently working on, is a webquest. It was easy to create a slide show of natural resources with links across the top for various pages I wanted to create. The look is very professional and the elements easy to move around. You can embed videos from YouTube or Vimeo. There are also social media buttons that you can add to your side and link to your social media. Say if you want to set up a class page in Facebook or have a Twitter feed, you can link all that from your WIX pages. There is a lot you can do with this. As a teacher, there are many educational applications that it can work with, more than just the webquest angle. There are presentation pages that can be created, research that can be aggregated and many other ideas that are outside the box.

Give WIX a try the next time you are looking for a great way to build an awesome, professional web-based project.

[davidleeedtech]

Create a Chrome App for Your Class/School Site

This post features all the resources I used to create my Chrome App (The app is actually only a link to my website.). You can download the app at the Chrome Web Store.

Resources I used to create my Chrome app:

1. First, I created my Chrome app image with Google Drawing.

2. Second, I converted my image to a Chrome icon with IconJ. You must have specific dimensions for your PNG icon.

3. Then I used the Chrome tutorial, "Create a Chrome app," to build, text, and pack my app.  Here is the example Google provides you with for your manifest.json .txt file.

4. Next, I used the Google Developers tutorial to publish my app.  This process included registering to Google Checkout Merchant, paying the developer signup fee, and verifying that I was the owner of the website. Since my website domain, davidleeedtech.org, is under Networks Solutions, I had to complete a specific process to verify my website. After verifying my website, I published my app at Google's Webmaster Tools. 

It is also important to note that it took about 2 hours for my app to appear in the Chrome Web Store. 

[davidleeedtech]

One Thing that Makes Google Site a Good CLASS Site

Creating a Google Site is a great way for students to demonstrate their knowledge of any academic concept. However, I don't think it is a good tool to use as a class site. Yes, Google Sites allows users to effortlessly integrate Google documents, presentations & drawings into their site, but it isn't too friendly to other types of files. Additionally, the web-based tool is not intuitive. Different settings are confusingly placed in different areas of the site, and the customization of the site is extremely difficult. 

However, there is one thing that makes Google Sites a good tool to use to create a class site: The ability to give editing permissions to students for specific pages. 

A 3rd grade teacher at my school has given her students permission to edit their own page on her site. This allows the students to add their work onto their page so that the teacher can assess their work. Additionally, parents can visit the class site and see all their children's work and progress. 

Here are the steps you would need to take to enable this feature:

1. Click on "More" and then "Share and Permissions"

2. Click on "Enable page-level permissions"

2. Turn on Page-Level Permissions

3. Click on "Use custom Permissions"

4. Add all your students and allow them to VIEW the site. 

5. Click on the specific page and allow your student to edit the page. 

[davidleeedtech]

RULES TO LIVE BY FOR YOU CLASSROOM WEBSITE IN 2013

Transparent Backgrounds

No Cliche Textures (like bricks)

No Extreme Gradients

No Intro Page

[revolutionizeed-blog]

Anybody ever use COURSE Sites by Blackboard?

Looks like a good site to build a classroom website on...going to play around with it when I get time though...anybody use it before?

[revolutionizeed-blog]

Anybody ever use Collaborize Classroom to make a class website?

I just ran acrossed it and am thinking of using it this summer because it looks amazingly easy and useful...I'm going give it a try right now!

Or...maybe I'll go use Schoology...