I began this Instructional Technology and Digital Media Literacy program with no real professional online presence. I had a website provided through my school and some personal social media outlets, but I was lacking in the area of a defined and well developed online representation of myself as a professional. Throughout my coursework this summer, I designed and maintained my first blog using wordpress.com. I like the freedom that wordpress allows and although I anticipate a continued learning curve using this platform, I would like to begin to design and develop my Digital Learning Hub using wordpress to create a website. I hope this will help me to align my blog and website into a seamless, one-stop-shopping type of resource.
While planning for my Digital Learning Hub, I need to consider the elements I want to include (including digital text and tools), the purpose of my website, and the intended audience.
In Researching New Literacies: Web 2.0 Practices and Insider Perspectives, Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel write, “Almost anything available online becomes a resource for diverse kinds of meaning making.” I intend to design my Digital Learning Hub for the audience of my current students and parents. I hope to provide my students and their parents with the opportunity to create meaning and purpose from a variety of helpful resources available on my website. I envision different pages on my website for students and and parents. My goal is to create a Digital Learning Hub that is easy to navigate for my young students, so a clear and easy to find area for students is essential.
In the student section I plan to include elements to practice and extend classroom learning (Math and Language Arts IXL, Math Magician, Spelling City, Math Playground, Sheppard Software-USA Games), as well as classroom information including homework assignments, resources and due dates for ongoing projects, upcoming field trips, and celebrations of student success. As I add resources to my website, it will be critical to spend a few minutes in class to share the resource with my students and teach them how to access and use each online tool or text. This class time will allow me to help clarify the connection to school and build excitement for the website and online resources. I am also considering including multi-modal tutorials for how to use each resource in the student section so students can access the directions at home.
created on piZap.com
In the parent section I plan to include a brief explanation of each online resource/game in the student section. I think it is critical to explicitly state the purpose for online games so parents are supportive and aware of the academic purpose. I would also have some content overlap from the student section and include resources and due dates for ongoing projects, upcoming field trips, and celebrations of student success for parents. I think it will be important to provide parents with easy access to important district and school information such as the district and school calendar, reminders of upcoming events, lunch menus, and important policies and procedures.
Once my website is ready for student and parent view, I would like to change the settings to private so only people with the link to the site can view the content. I feel this is important to protect the privacy of our school and students. I am eager to begin work on my website to help my students and their parents easily access resources and tools, and to further establish a school to home connection.
Mrs. Ryan's Class 
I really like the idea of a separate parent sections, especially for elementary families. I also like that you’ve put a lot of thought into the audience for each section. The multimodal tutorials will be a great addition and useful resource for your students. Using WordPress is another great idea. There are so many resources out there for WordPress; it may be a steep learning curve in the beginning, but I think you’ll have a lot more options in the end. Have you considered wordpress.org? I believe it can integrate with your blog and allows you to host your own site, among other benefits. (Ian knows much more about this, so I can contact him if you want to know more.)
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