NO OF CREDITS: 6 QUARTER CREDITS WA CLOCK HRS: 60 [semester equivalent = 4.00 credits] OREGON PDUs: 60

Transcription

1 COURSE TITLE: BUILD YOUR WEBSITE NOW! NO OF CREDITS: 6 QUARTER CREDITS WA CLOCK HRS: 60 [semester equivalent = 4.00 credits] OREGON PDUs: 60 INSTRUCTOR Michael Boll, M.A (USA) michael@innovativepd.com (China) LEARNING ENVIRONMENT All assignments modules can be viewed by heading to our website: Please note, however, that this course requires assignment responses to be posted in a password-secured online website hosted by The Heritage Institute. COURSE DESCRIPTION Today it is easier than ever to create a dynamic and powerful website that enhances your ability to bring outstanding content to your students, parents and colleagues. This course will bring the power of WordPress, one of the best and most popular website development platforms on the planet, into your classroom. WordPress empowers you to bring in outstanding content to share with your students. A WORDPRESS WEBSITE LETS TEACHERS: Share and interact with the large and ever growing list of resources available for their classrooms. Model to students how to communicate with both a small and global audience. Open the door to meeting other teachers and classes from all around the world. Communicate classroom information and photos to parents and others. Enable multi-way classroom conversations from home and school. Post classroom assignments, videos and other instructions. Create and distribute video and audio podcasts. Collect data from students and parents for trips, classroom activities and more. Target Grade Level Appropriate for teachers of all grade levels, administrators and others. LEARNING OUTCOMES: As a result of taking this course, participants will learn: 1. The elements of design required to build a solid classroom website. 2. To show their students how to create their own websites to function as digital portfolios. 3. To understand the basics of how the Internet works and leverage it to build cutting-edge classroom lessons. 4. To increase student participation and interest in classroom materials. 5. To build stronger connections with parents and other teachers around the world. COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Participants will complete assignments and post responses online to specific questions outlined for each assignment. Completion of all specified assignments is required for issuance of hours or credit. The Heritage Institute does not award partial credit. HOURS EARNED: Completing the basic assignments (Section A. Information Acquisition) for this course automatically earns participants their choice of 60 Washington State Clock Hours or 60 Oregon PDUs. The Heritage Institute is an approved provider of Washington State Clock Hours and Oregon PDUs. Build Your Website Now! 1 Revised 8/18/2014

2 UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS FOR UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT Continuing Education Quarter credits are awarded by Antioch University Seattle (AUS). AUS requires 75% or better for credit at the 400 level (Upper Division) and 85% or better to issue credit at the 500 level (Post- Baccalaureate). These criteria refer both to the amount and quality of work submitted. 1. Completion of Information Acquisition assignments 30% 2. Completion of Learning Application assignments 40% 3. Completion of Integration Paper assignment 30% CREDIT/NO CREDIT (No Letter Grades or Numeric Equivalents on Transcripts) Antioch University Seattle (AUS) Continuing Education (CE) Quarter credit is offered on a Credit/No Credit basis; neither letter grades nor numeric equivalents are on a transcript. 400 level credit is equal to a C or better, 500 level credit is equal to a B or better. This information is on the back of the transcript. AUS CE quarter credits may or may not be accepted into degree programs. Prior to registering determine with your district personnel, department head or state education office the acceptability of these credits for your purpose ADDITIONAL COURSE INFORMATION COURSE MATERIAL and/or TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS: You will need high-speed (DSL) Internet access in order to easily view online resources. Some of the reading materials may be provided in the online course environment as PDF documents, a format readable by computers with Adobe Acrobat Reader. You may download a free copy of Acrobat Reader from our website, if it is not already on your computer. REQUIRED TEXTBOOK Required: Easy WP Guide (Free and paid) by Anthony Hortin. Check out the free and paid (just.99 cents) versions here. Optional: Stop Stealing Dreams by Seth Godin (Free) There are a variety of download options here. GETTING STARTED After registering for the course, you will be sent an with the website address, password and course key you need to access your online course, along with log in instructions. Access each assignment listed and enter your responses in the online course environment. Write your responses in a WORD document and then copy/paste them into the Responses box. When all assignments are completed, CLICK the 'ALL ASSIGNMENTS COMPLETED button. The instructor will be notified that you have completed all assignments. After the instructor reviews your work and enters his responses you will be notified by . You will be instructed to log in and view those responses. SAVE a copy of your assignments and responses. NOTES TO ALL PARTICIPANTS You are not required to be present online specific days or times. You will work at your own pace. All responses must be posted online. Large documents, files, photographs or PowerPoint presentations may be attached as part of your response by using the Share A File option. You may work collaboratively and submit similar responses on all assignments except the Integration Paper, which must be individually authored. To maintain privacy, please do not refer to students in your papers by their actual names, but rather use an alias or designation such as Student A. Build Your Website Now! 2 Revised 8/18/2014

3 ASSIGNMENTS REQUIRED FOR HOURS OR UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT A. INFORMATION ACQUISITION Assignment #1 What Is WordPress? WordPress is a wonderful open source blogging/website platform. It is FREE and comes in two different formats: WordPress.org and WordPress.com. Assignment #1 introduces you to what WordPress is and helps you develop a WordPress.com account and website to get you up and running. This assignment also introduces you to some early resources for helping you understand the power and scale of being a WordPress developer. Link to assignments, resources and more: Assignment #2 WordPress Dashboard Welcome to the WordPress Dashboard. This is where it starts and where your WordPress journey begins. The dashboard is your starting point for all your development. From here you will create posts and pages, insert photos and video. As the course progresses you will also install and manage plug-ins to make your site even more compelling. Link to assignments, resources and more Assignment #3 Create Your First Post It all starts with your first post! This lesson takes you through the steps required to create and upload a post loaded with content developed by you. At the conclusion of this lesson you will have a presence on the Internet for anybody to see. How exciting! At the end of this lesson you are going to have a place on the Internet where students can see your work and efforts. Link to assignments, resources and more Assignment #4 Adding Photos and Images While text is a great way to communicate, images are what make the web popular and will draw people to look at your page. The eye will nearly always go to an image before it goes to text. This is likely because back in the caveman days, the nerd that read all those stone tablets instead of looking for the lion that was sneaking up on him, was eaten. But I digress. There are many, many options for how to display an image on your WordPress page. There are also a ton of plug-ins that support image creation and display. It might be a little early to talk about plug-ins right now; you will get to know them more later. As teachers, we love to post things happening around the school, places we have been or activities in our classrooms. Link to assignments, resources and more Assignment #5 Creating a Hyperlink Hyperlinks are what make the web work and what make the web so successful. Only by easily linking to the content created by you and others, can we truly share and communicate in a dynamic and powerful way. Link to assignments, resources and more: Assignment #6 Adding Categories and Tags Using categories and tags is SO IMPORTANT. However, it is usually NEGLECTED by adults and students. By using categories and tags you can bring organization and structure to your website. This won't seem that important in the beginning when you don't have much content, but will be a big deal later when you have a ton of content and it is all over the place. Link to assignments, resources and more: Assignment # 7 Changing Your Theme One of the first things you will want to do on your WordPress site is explore and change your theme. The theme dictates how your page will look, where the images go, what color your text is, the size of your fonts, the type of fonts etc. Link to assignments, resources and more: Build Your Website Now! 3 Revised 8/18/2014

4 Assignment # 8 Adjusting Settings and Configurations Setting up your setting is not a very exciting part of WordPress, but it will answer many of your questions about how to make small changes to your site. For example, this includes the tagline at the top of your website. Link to assignments, resources and more Assignment # 9 Editing an Existing Post Once you start producing content, you are going to find yourself needing to go back and make some changes from time to time. These changes might include privacy settings, category changes, photo changes, text changes, color changes and diaper changes. Um, I am just kidding about the last one. Link to assignments, resources and more: Assignment # 10 Creating a Page Instead of a Post This course has mostly focused on creating posts and NOT pages. Posts show up only on the front page and in chronological order. Each new post pushes the old down until it falls onto the second page. I REALLY recommend that you have your students ONLY use pages and not posts. This will make more sense later on when they have a ton of content up there. As long as they categorize and tag it they can take advantage of some of the tricks they can use to organize their site. Link to assignments, resources and more This completes the assignments required for Hours. Continue to the next section for additional assignments required for University Quarter Credit. Build Your Website Now! 4 Revised 8/18/2014

5 ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS REQUIRED FOR UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT B. LEARNING APPLICATION (Required for 400 and 500 Level) In this section you will apply your learning to your professional situation. This course assumes that most participants are classroom teachers who have access to students. If you are not teaching in a classroom, please contact the instructor for course modifications. If you are a classroom teacher and start or need to complete this course during the summer, please try to apply your ideas when possible with youth from your neighborhood, at a local public library or parks department facility (these agencies will often be glad to sponsor community-based learning), or with students in another teacher s summer classroom in session. Assignment #11 Mapping Out Your Website Design In this lesson you will get a chance to look more deeply into how you would like your website to look., what features you would like to have on it now and what features you might like to have in the future. You will get to use your creative juices and shoot for the moon here. In the next lesson, you will actually have to build it though. Link to assignments, resources and more: Assignment # 12 Project Time: Build Your Website This is it! Time to take all the skills you have learned and build a website. At the end you will have a website you can be proud of, use in the classroom (or wherever) and share with the world. Are you ready? Link to assignments, resources and more: Assignment #13: You built the basics of a site in assignment #12, but lets put it to use in the classroom. Develop your site to the point where you can have parents or students actually use it. For younger students, you may want to let parents see what is going on in the classroom. Perhaps take pictures of their work and post them? Maybe run a survey (Google Docs works well) to gather information about students for you to hold onto during the year. After building up this portion of the site, write a 500 word or more reflection on the experience. Be sure to include: Details of how you developed the site. A link to the site or individual pages developed for this assignment. What your initial expectations/hopes were by building this part of the site. How it was received by your students and/or their parents. What you learned in this real world experience and how it ll inform and improve your future efforts Build Your Website Now! 5 Revised 8/18/2014

6 ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS REQUIRED FOR UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT 500 LEVEL ASSIGNMENT Assignment #14: (500 Level Only) In addition to the 400 level assignments, complete one of the following: Option A) A communications revolution has come to the entire world., even to teachers. As educational practices shift, the ability to communicate with virtually anyone on the planet will surely allow us to access a much wider group of people to help us collaborate and learn. It also influences how we relate to people and how we operate in a virtual world where we never see each other in person, but trust each other with our thoughts, ideas and even money! Check out these videos ( (or find some of your own) and write a 750 word paper where you discuss the communication revolution, both current and future. Suggested ideas: What is its impact on education? Where will the revolution lead humanity? What are the upsides and downsides of the communication revolution? What impact will our behavior today (adult and student) impact our digital reputation in the future? What, other than going off the grid and the Internet, can we/should we do about it? Any other thoughts you would like to discuss. Post your paper as a.doc,.docx, or.pages file into your online response box. OR Option B) Create a 30 minute or longer presentation to be given at a professional development workshop. It should relate to the themes discussed in this course. Drop the PowerPoint, Keynote or PDF into your online response box. OR Option C) Create another assignment of your own choice with the instructor s prior approval. C. INTEGRATION PAPER (Required for 400 and 500 Level) Assignment #15 Complete the requirements for university quarter credit by submitting a 2-3 page Integration Paper. A heading is required. Please use the following format: Your Name: Date: Course Name: Course Number: Number of Credits: Level (400 or 500): Advisor s Name: Respond online to each of the 5 questions below. (First list the question and then write your answer) 1. What did you learn vs. what you expected to learn from this course? 2. What aspects of the course were most helpful and why? 3. What further knowledge and skills in this general area do you feel you need? 4. How, when and where will you use what you have learned? 5. How and with what other school or community members might you share what you learned? Build Your Website Now! 6 Revised 8/18/2014

7 INSTRUCTOR COMMENTS ON YOUR WORK: Be sure to mark the All Assignments Completed section in the online course environment to notify the instructor that you have completed the course. Upon receiving notification of your completion of all your course assignments, your instructor will post final written comments in the HOL online environment. QUALIFICATIONS FOR TEACHING THIS COURSE Michael Boll, M.A., is an Apple Distinguished Educator, Podcaster and Technology Coach at Concordia International School Shanghai. He enjoys helping educators, parents and students harness the transformative powers of technology. Michael has taught numerous professional development courses including as an EARCOS Pre Conference Presenter, Weekend Workshop Leader and Learning 2.0 Cohort Leader. He has been teaching overseas for many years and his teaching past includes posts in Saudi Arabia, Jakarta International School and Concordia International School, Shanghai. Michael lives in Shanghai and on the weekends you might see him taking walks with his son, biking around the city or continuing to try to understand when it is ok to cross at a crosswalk. Twitter: Autismpodcast Website: michaelboll.me LinkedIn profile Build Your Website Now! 7 Revised 8/18/2014

8 BUILD YOUR WEBSITE NOW! BIBLIOGRAPHY Godin, Seth. "Stop Stealing Dreams." Squidoo. Seth Godin, n.d. Web. 24 July The economy has changed, probably forever. School hasn't. School was invented to create a constant stream of compliant factory workers to the growing businesses of the 1900s. It continues to do an excellent job at achieving this goal, but it's not a goal we need to achieve any longer. Today we are no longer clear what the goal is. In this 30,000 word manifesto, I imagine a different set of goals and start (I hope) a discussion about how we can reach them. One thing is certain: if we keep doing what we've been doing, we're going to keep getting what we've been getting. Our kids are too important to sacrifice to the status quo. Hortin, Anthony. Easy WP Guide» An Easy to Follow Guide for Updating Your WordPress Content. Easy WP Guide RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 July < My aim for the Easy WP Guide was to write something that was easy to read and that covered the basics in regards to editing & updating your site content. You ll find that some topics within the guide are only touched upon lightly. My intent wasn t to cover setting up your WordPress site or editing theme files, there s plenty of information on those topics within the WordPress Codex and on the web. Majure, Janet. Complete WordPress. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons, Print. WordPress is one of the most popular, easy-to-use blogging platforms and allows you to create a dynamic and engaging blog, even if you have no programming skills or experience. Ideal for the visual learner, Teach Yourself VISUALLY WordPress, Second Edition introduces you to the exciting possibilities of the newest version of WordPress and helps you get started, step by step, with creating and setting up a WordPress site. Author and experienced WordPress user Janet Majure shares advice, insight, and best practices for taking full advantage of all that WordPress has to offer. Scott, Adam D. WordPress for Education: Create Interactive and Engaging E-learning Websites with WordPress. Birmingham: Packt Pub., Print. WordPress for Education is full of screenshots, practical examples, step-by-step instructions, and best practices for using WordPress in an educational setting. WordPress for Education is written for educators and education personnel interested in implementing WordPress in a classroom setting. You are not required to have previous experience of WordPress or any other content management system. Build Your Website Now! 8 Revised 8/18/2014