Return-Path: <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g3FLKvu28664; Mon, 15 Apr 2002 17:20:57 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 17:20:57 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <F22NPMQUKEYNz6Exuq30000460e@hotmail.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Eric Appleton" <eric_appleton@hotmail.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2385] Re: Teachers and Web Publishing X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Status: O Content-Length: 5382 Lines: 95 Hello everyone. My name is Eric Appleton. I teach classes, create curriculum, supervise and train volunteers, and maintain a few web sites in the computer lab at the Fortune Society in New York City. The agency serves people who were formerly incarcerated or have had run-ins with the criminal justice system. The computer lab is part of an education unit that includes ABE, GED, ESOL and Math. I have worked on two mini-grant projects in the last few years. Our most recent project was to create a web site for the Education Unit. At the time of the mini-grant, the computer lab was located in a building four blocks away from the rest of the education classes. I shared many students with teachers in other classes and we shared the same goals in our classes (e.g. literacy, student-centered classrooms, etc.), but our curriculum was not so connected. One of the goals of building a web site was to have a place to connect other education classes with the computer lab. We hoped that students in the computer lab would be able to see what happens in education classes and become interested in joining, and that education students would see what happens in computer classes. We also wanted to publish student writing in hopes that students would be inspired by their peers to write and publish their own work. The rest of the web site would be some basic information about the program for people who were looking for classes or wanted to refer students. I was responsible for planning and implementing the project. I invited two students to help me during the process. There were two workshops associated with the mini-grant. I brought one student to the first training and another to the second. Kenny was a student in reading and computer classes. Kwame was a student in GED and computer classes. In varying degrees, both students helped me with initial planning, design and HTML coding for the site. I also asked a former student, Anthony, who had worked with me on a previous mini-grant, to create artwork for the site. We wanted most of the writing on the web site to come from all of our students, so we asked students in education classes to write on the prompt, “What would you tell someone who was interested in coming to the Fortune Society for classes?” These writings ended up in the Student Advice section of the web site. I also collected writing from each of the other programs to represent their classes. This project was very exciting to me as a teacher. Being able to travel with my students to Baltimore for the grant workshops was a great experience for all of us. Neither Kenny nor Kwame had spent much time outside NYC, so just traveling to the workshop was interesting. Kenny and I practiced HTML on paper the whole way going and coming. I taught Kwame how to play chess on my Palm Pilot on the way back. I already knew how to write HTML and post a web page, but this section of the workshop was valuable for my students and I wanted their help in building the site. The most difficult part of the project was making sure that everything got done without doing it all myself. Kwame and Kenny were both excited about working on the project, but they needed my help in planning, staying on course, and learning HTML. We created timelines and site maps together to stay organized. It was also difficult to get others involved with the project. I had also wanted to involve other teachers as much as possible. I taught a couple workshops for them in creating a web page using HTML. For a while, the writing coordinator helped me in collecting content and updating the site. Recently, the manager of the program has helped me do some updates as well, but for the most part I have had to do most of the work on the site. This has been difficult since I already maintain a web site for computer students with daily curriculum updates. We were able to complete the education web site, and it has mostly up-to-date information about our education classes, but we haven’t been able to post as much student writing as I would have liked. All of our classes are now in one building as well, which has removed part of the impetus for the site in the beginning. The greatest benefit of the mini-grant was what I learned in working with my students on the project. This isn’t really apparent in the education web site, but it has shown up in many improvements on the computer lab site and how the site has become central in what we do in computer classes. We now work on class projects and the product can now immediately go up on the web site. I was also able to post all our web sites at fortunesociety.org, where previously I had used a free commercial hosting service. ************************************************* Education site: http://www.fortunesociety.org/education Computer Lab site: http://www.fortunesociety.org/computer Virtual Visit site: http://www.fortunesociety.org/virtualvisit Media Literacy site: http://www.fortunesociety.org/media ************************************************* Sorry for such a long introduction. I look forward to the discussion. Eric Appleton Computer Lab Coordinator The Fortune Society NY, NY (212) 691-7554 x.702 _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
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