A Practical Guide to Weaving the Web into Teaching and Learning
Craig A. Cunningham
and
Marty Billingsley
This book helps teachers, curriculum developers, and teachers in training to utilize the World Wide Web as a central resource to facilitate learning.
The title of the book refers to “curriculum webs.” A curriculum web is a web page or pages designed to support a curriculum, a “plan for a sustained process of teaching and learning” (Pratt, 1994, 5). This book describes the process of building curriculum webs from the early planning stages through to design of the web pages, using the finished product in classrooms, and teaching teachers with curriculum webs.
On the companion web site, curriculumwebs.com , you will find example curriculum webs that can serve as an inspiration to you as you work toward creating your own curriculum web. When you are done reading this preface, we urge you to look at our examples and find the elements listed above in each one.
The contents of this book reflect our understanding of what preservice and inservice teachers need to learn how to create curriculum webs. This understanding arises from five years of experience training teachers in the Web Institute for Teachers, an intensive summer professional development experience hosted by the University of Chicago.
The effective use of the Web to support teaching and learning requires, we believe, ongoing attention to explicit planning. Only such planning will produce desired learning outcomes—knowledge, skills, and attitudes—in students. A successful teacher or other web-based curriculum developer understands the phases of curriculum development and considers a range of issues involved in building web sites to support the needs of learners while taking advantage of the possibilities of the Web.
Anyone who wants to increase their capacity to affect student learning will want to learn how to build curriculum webs.
This book will be helpful to teachers in schools, curriculum developers working for educational organizations such as school districts and museums, and parents who are home schooling their children. Our greatest hope is that this book will help individual teachers or groups of teachers who want to create webs to support unique or locally-significant learning activities, or educators who want to take advantage of variably-occurring “teachable moments” that crop up continuously in your local community as well as the global village. We also hope that non-school curriculum developers, who create web-based learning materials for federal, state, and local agencies, non-profit organizations, historical sites, parks, and other agencies will read this book and use its concepts and procedures to produce more effective materials.
We believe that every teacher should know how to build web pages to support their ongoing teaching as well as the unexpected learning needs and specialized interests of their particular students. A basic familiarity with computers, a willingness to put time and energy into planning and design, and this book are all that is required.
We use the words “teacher,” “developer,” and “designer” more or less interchangeably in this book. The only difference between the first and the other two is that teachers will be developing the curriculum knowing that they will actually be using it with their students, and so we expect teachers to be the most diligent, careful, and effective curriculum planners and web designers of all.
This book, as the title implies, is designed to be a practical guide to weaving the Web into teaching and learning. It includes all the information you need to plan effective learning activities on the Web and to create your own web pages and web sites to support those activities.
The best way to use this book is to read it from beginning to end, doing the activities along the way and completing the appropriate Hands-On Lesson after reading each chapter. In a series of professional development workshops or a college course the participants could read one chapter and complete one lesson per week.
If you are using the book on your own, you might want to read all of the chapters first, and then cycle back to the lessons, referring to the book again to learn more about general principles and procedures related to the lessons.
The chapters cover the following concepts:
· Chapter 1 describes curriculum webs and explains why they are helpful for teaching and learning. Page 1 .
· Chapter 2 helps you to figure out what educational purposes your curriculum web will serve. Page 17 .
· Chapter 3 helps you to choose learning activities that will lead you toward chosen educational goals. Page 59 .
· Chapter 4 covers searching procedures and strategies and discusses copyright law as related to curriculum webs. Page 85 .
· Chapter 5 discusses the steps necessary to create useful web sites. Page 120 .
· Chapter 6 provides principles and procedures of laying out effective individual web pages. Page 135 .
· Chapter 7 includes everything you need to know about including images, sound, video, and PDF files on your web site. Page 176 .
· Chapter 8 shows you how to make your curriculum web more interactive. Page 202 .
· Chapter 9 helps you to put everything together into a curriculum web that effectively supports learning and assessment. Page 226 .
· Chapter 10 provides criteria and methods for evaluating curriculum webs and keeping them up to date. Page 250 .
· Chapter 11 describes some of the issues teachers need to consider when using curriculum webs in classrooms or computer labs. This chapter may not be necessary if you have a lot of experience using computers with students. Page 263 .
· Chapter 12 will be of interest to readers who care about supporting teacher learning. Page 280 .
· Appendix A: Technology tells you everything you need to know about web servers, bandwidth, file names, and other technical aspects of using the Internet. Page 291 .
· Appendix B: HTML provides overview of HTML syntax and a chart of HTML tags and attributes. Page 301
· The Glossary contains definitions for words that appear in boldface the first time they are introduced in the book or in the lessons. Page 311 .
· An extensive Bibliography includes citations for all the sources consulted in preparing this book. Citations in author-date format are given through the text. Page 333 .
· An extensive Index (beginning on page 340 ) is useful if you want to use this book as hypertext.
Each chapter includes several features designed to help you learn:
· Overview: provides a summary of what will be covered in the chapter.
· Activities: solidify your understanding of key concepts or procedures along the way.
· Your next step: suggests how to use the Hands-On Lessons that accompany the book and prepares you for subsequent chapters
· Chapter summary: reviews what was covered in the chapter.
· For further learning, guides you to print and web resources.
Don’t forget to use curriculumwebs.com to find links to the topics in the book, to download the Hands-On Lessons and related resources, and to see examples.
This book covers the entire process of planning curriculum, creating web pages and using your web pages to support your teaching, so you will be able to benefit from this book even if you have never created a web page or used the Web with students.
Successful use of this book has several prerequisites. We assume that you are computer literate. It does not cover basic computer skills such as saving, copying, and deleting files, installing hardware or software, or connecting your computer to the Internet. We assume that you are already familiar with operating your computer, creating folders or directories, saving and moving files, and browsing the Internet. We assume you are comfortable and excited about learning new approaches to using the computer You do not have to know anything at all about building web pages.
We provide detail guidance in step-by-step procedures for using popular web page editors such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive, Microsoft FrontPage, and Netscape Composer. These “click-step” procedures are included in a series of Hands-On Lessons, available at curriculumwebs.com/lessons . These lessons tell you exactly what buttons to press or what menu choices to select--in all four of these software programs-- to produce the essential design elements of curriculum webs. We do not cover every function of the more advanced software packages, but the lessons cover numerous procedures and include advice for learning more.
However, even if you are a computer wiz, fully versed in web design, you can still benefit from this book. We hope web designers will use this book to help them design better learning environments.
The book itself does not include any click steps, and only a few addresses of web sites. The Web is evolving so rapidly that web site contents and addresses often change or become obsolete. We want this book to remain useful even as specific resources change or become unavailable. We have included a few web sites that have maintained their same address for at least two years and are maintained by established organizations and are thus likely to remain stable. We do provide many links to online resources at curriculumwebs.com.
Many people have made this book possible. The authors take full responsibility for any remaining errors or inadequacies.
This book arose out of the Web Institute for Teachers, a professional development program for teachers held each summer at the University of Chicago. Professor Don York, noted astronomer and director of the Chicago Public Schools/University of Chicago Internet Project (CUIP) is the single most important person in making the Web Institute for Teachers (WIT) possible. His astronomer-like attention to detail, combined with his persistence and vision, have connected numerous schools, teachers, and children to the Internet. Don’s work exemplifies he moral responsibility of universities in a democratic society.
Mitchell Marks, technical coordinator extraordinaire for CUIP, made it possible for us to have a reliable and easily configurable server for WIT and for the development and hosting of curriculumwebs.com. Mitch exemplifies the technical support that universities can provide to the public schools.
Robin Burke, now a professor at University of California at Irvine, helped plan this book initially. As a research scientist in the department of computer science at the University of Chicago in the mid-1990s, Robin thought it would be a good idea to bring teachers to the university to learn how to build web sites. Making this happen exemplifies the intellectual capital that universities owe their local communities.
Christie Thomas read the entire manuscript and made many suggestions that make it easier for our readers to understand. Caitlin Devitt helped the authors to find their way through the initial phases of organizing the book. Tamar Friedman read most of the book and offered many detailed suggestions for making the book easier to use for teachers. Janet Geovanis edited an earlier draft of the manuscript and helped write the chapter summaries. Russ Revzan, a veteran teacher in a CUIP school and exemplary WIT mentor, became an expert in FrontPage while helping to produce the Hands-On Lessons. Bill Geraci reviewed them for compatibility with Macintosh computers.
The Graham School of General Studies at the University of Chicago has hosted WIT since its inception. Graham School personnel who deserve thanks for these efforts include Jamie Stanesa, Elizabeth Chandler-O'Connor, Norah O'Donnell, Jonathan Beebe, William McMorris, Kenyon Mumford, Paul Matthews, and Dan Shannon. Additional administrative support came from Ben Lorch, Duel Richardson, Christie Thomas, Bill Geraci, Crystal Taylor-Nevils, Barbara Perkins, Rebecca Kurns, and Tom Jurcak. Financial support to CUIP and the Web Institute for Teachers has been provided by the Chicago Public Schools, the Women’s Board of the University of Chicago, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Illinois, Board of Higher Education, the Comer Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education. Richard White, Richard Dynis, Jim Sweet, Elaine Williams, Cozette Buckney, and Barbara Eason-Watkins of the Chicago Public Schools provided additional support.
Most of all, we want to thank the hundreds of teachers who have been the learners in WIT during the past five years. These teachers have taught us about the nature of teaching and learning, and about how to use the Web as a teaching tool. Specifically, we would like to thank the teachers who initially developed two of the example curriculum webs that we refer to throughout this book. “Our United States” was initially developed by the GeoTeam: John Lyman, Kash Koval, Eloise Kelly, and Juliet Rempa. “Who Am I?” was created by the Women of Wisdom: Annette Deangelis, Marilyn Bean, and Cynthia Sajid. These curriculum webs have been substantially modified for this book, to the point that they are unrecognizable to these original authors; however, it was their initial ideas that gave each its creative spark.
Substantial contributions to WIT curriculum web weremade by: Frada Boxer, Ellen Dairyko, Edith Fabiyi, Bill Geraci, Stefanie Kelly, John Lyman, Sheila McGrath, Esther Pullman, Terry Jones, Russ Revzan, Nicole Zumpano, Christie Thomas, and Stuart Vanorny. Additional contributors include Clovis Bordeaux, Rene Cap, Elizabeth Cochran, Linda Dernbach, Sally Levin, Karen Hicks, Mitchell Marks, Christine McAllister, Deborah Owens, Kueku Embil, Pam Greyer, Helen Hoffenberg, Sharnell Jackson, Michael Lach, Nenette Luarca, Aryliss Lisner, Heather Meunier, Mecca Murphy, Heidi Rehner, Rowena Namoca, Deborah Wade, Michelle Warden, John Webb, Jane White, and Nancy Willis. Inspiring teachers and learners, all.
Craig Cunningham is a research associate at the Center for School Improvement (CSI) at the University of Chicago, and is founder and director of the Web Institute for Teachers. Before joining CSI, he was curriculum director for the Chicago Public Schools/University of Chicago Internet Project (CUIP). Craig has a Ph.D. in philosophy of curriculum from the University of Chicago. He has taught at Northeastern Illinois University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Chicago, and has published papers on moral education and technology integration into curriculum. He is married to Cheryl Wegner, a librarian, and they have a precocious school-age daughter and a baby son. See Craig’s home page at craigcunningham.com. (Craig Cunningham also wants to thank Arnold Aprill, Philip Jackson, Josh Schwartz, Anna Rochester, Tony Bryk, the Parent Cooperative for Early Learning, Northeastern Illinois University, Joe Jordan, Bobbie Reiss, the staff at Murray School, and Hannah and Rachel Baker.)
Marty Billingsley chairs the computer science department at the Laboratory Schools of the University of Chicago, where she has taught for seven years. She has a B.S. in computer science from Montana State University, and has worked as an engineer for Hewlett-Packard and Tektronics. In 1999 and 2000, Marty served as assistant director and webmaster of the Web Institute for Teachers. Marty is the mother of young twin girls. See Marty's home page at mbillingsley.com.
The two authors come from different backgrounds that intersect in this book. Craig's background in teaching and in the philosophy of education has prepared him to look with a critical eye at contemporary educational structures, practices, and innovations, and to be constantly on the lookout for new possibilities and potentialities for learning. As a teacher, researcher, and reformer, Craig has always seen technology as tool rather than an end in itself. Marty, however, comes from a background as a software engineer. Her primary interest has been computer science—not the application of computers for productivity, but on how computers themselves work and their application in problem solving. This is the focus of her ongoing learning and also what she is most passionate about teaching to others. When Craig's interest in educational improvement is combined with Marty's interest in how computers work, the result is a kind of stereoscopic view (some might say a cross-eyed view!) on how computers can be used to support teaching and learning. We hope you find our dual perspectives helpful.
Let us know how you like the book, and tell us about the curriculum webs you make! You can contact us at curriculumwebs.com:
Cheryl, Rowan, and Thomas -- CAC
My mother and father MB
Chapter 1 Planning curriculum for the Web.
Chapter 2 Identifying curriculum goals.
Chapter 3 Choosing learning activities.
Chapter 4 Gathering web-based resources.
Chapter 5 Designing effective web sites.
Chapter 6 Laying out effective web pages.
Chapter 7 Using multimedia.
Chapter 8 Constructing interactivity.
Chapter 9 Organizing and assessing learning.
Chapter 10 Evaluating and maintaining curriculum webs.
Chapter 11 Teaching with curriculum webs.
Chapter 12 Teaching teachers with curriculum webs.
Appendix A: Technology.
Appendix B: HTML
Glossary
Bibliography
Index