Weebly in the Classroom Amy Archer ITEC 7445 Emerging Technology

Weebly Weebly is a free web-site builder program. Weebly utilizes a drag-and-drop program that is easy to use and is android and smartphone accessible. Users are able to include photos, videos, audio, and documents. Weebly is a great way to manage online class content and keep parents up to date on what is going on in the classroom.

Weebly for Education Slightly different from a regular Weebly account, Weebly for Education is geared for teachers, students and class websites. It allows teachers to create up to four different classes and up to forty students per class. Additional student accounts cost $1. Weebly Campus Edition is also available for districts and schools. This edition allows systems to digitize the entire system in an easy and professional manner. Weebly Campus administrators will be able to manage teacher and student accounts from one integrated. This scalable solution costs $499/year. Systems can try it free during a 30-day trial.

Weebly for Teachers Teachers will each have a site. Teachers will have access to usernames and passwords for their students, so that students will not have to provide personal information themselves. Teachers can moderate their students’ sites. Teachers can set the sites to only be viewable to other users in that class. Student accounts and associated websites are all part of a network that can be managed by the Teacher. This makes it easy to password protect everything at once.

Weebly for Students Students can have one Weebly page to keep all of their assignments, blogs and posting for all of their classes. Students are able to design and format their own website. Students will be able to submit classwork online through Weebly for different classes as well as create an electronic portfolio of all their work.

Cartersville City Schools Technology Overview By the end of the 2016-17 school year the system will implement and maintain a fully operational and effective technology program that will: a. Support a teaching and learning environment in which all participants use technology in a meaningful and effective way to support student achievement and performance b. Support the effective and efficient administrative requirements to better perform day-to-day operations of the school system. http://www.cartersville.k12.ga.us/technology

Weebly in the Schools Weebly is appropriate for Elementary, Middle and High School age students. The classrooms of Cartersville Elementary, Middle and High Schools are equipped with interactive devices that include projection systems, document cameras and interactive boards/peripherals to provide collaborative and interactive instruction and engagement in the classroom.

Weebly in the Schools (continued) With the wide range of computing devices available to students, we provide an approximate 1.67 computer to student ratio. Computing devices (workstations, laptops, or tablets) are accessible in classrooms, labs, mobile carts and media centers. Weebly hosts all of its websites, with no storage caps, bandwidth restrictions or limits on the number of pages.

Technology Support The Technology Department of Cartersville School System strives to provide the best service to our staff, teachers and students through expedited district level and school level onsite support. A help ticketing system through Destiny Asset Manager allows staff to prioritize support at each location. The Technology Department is always looking for ways to make the learning experience more efficient and enjoyable for the teachers and students.

Weebly Limitations No phone support Can not create Tables No drawing tools No on site media library Does not work well with Firefox, but we are using Google Chrome more now anyway. Teachers need to walk younger students through initial set up.

Cost of Weebly Weebly is a free web building site. There is no additional technology requirements for this tool. A 1:1 model would require each student had a device, but Weebly is accessible on computers, laptops, tablets and iPads. Weebly is all accessible on both Android and Smartphones, so no additional funding is needed to implement this technology. (During a 2015 Student Survey, 61% of Cartersville Middle and High Schools students had their own cellphones.)

Student ISTE Standards Creativity and Innovation: Using creative thinking and innovative technology the students demonstrate and develop models and simulations to explore and identify complex systems and forecast possibilities as well as they use existing knowledge to generate new ideas and creative thoughts. Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to collaborate, communicate and interact with other students, teachers and professionals. They also engage in a cultural and global awareness and contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems. Research and Information Fluency: Students apply digital tools to plan, organize and gather information, in order to be able to inquire, analyze, organize and evaluate information.

Using Weebly in the Classroom I’ve include a link to a pdf lesson plan for having the students set-up their on Weebly page. Set-up Lesson Teachers can have student: ( just to name a few) Create a website where students can blog about newspaper photos they find engaging and interesting. Creative Writing Lesson Create a website on any historical event, person or place. WWII Lesson Plan Weebly even has it’s on Weebly for teacher resources. http://weeblylesson.weebly.com/index.html http://interactivesites.weebly.com/

Weebly and Diverse Learners Weebly offers many tools for diverse learners. Lower level students will find the drag and drop method of web building to be fun and easy, while more advanced students will enjoy the advanced tools found when blogging. Weebly allows students to work at their own pace and make their Weebly page as simple or complex as the assignment requires. Weebly allows assignments to be broken into smaller more manageable parts with the different pages students can use. Weebly allows teachers to customize lessons for different learning styles and abilities.

Weebly in the Classroom (continued) Weebly makes it easy for instructors to hand out assignments and accept homework, all online. Weebly allows students to create e-portfolios to showcase their classwork or special individual and group projects. Weebly can also be used to create blogs to share ideas and reflect on course concepts. Weebly allows for various forms of assessments such as, observations, discussions, formative and summative assessments, as well as creative projects.

Weebly Communications One of features found on the main page is the blog feature. This enables users to create a page on their site that is strictly dedicated to a blog. Students can comment on each others blogs. There is no limit to the number of blogs a user can post on one site. This allows students to communicate with other students similar topics and interest.

Weebly in Research As technology evolves, so must pedagogical practices. Simply stated, educators should engage and embrace students' technological knowledge instead of allowing old avenues to constrain the medium of instructional delivery. (Mckee-Waddell, 2015) Erin Brereton from Common Sense, found “Weebly’s clear, straightforward functionality provides a solid platform for producing and sharing websites and lets kids express themselves in a fun, creative way.”

Reflection on Weebly I had not heard of Weebly until I started my Specialist degree with Kennesaw State University. I had to create one to use as an e-portfolio for my degree. I have used it several times with my class, but I’ve not had the students make their own. I was really impressed to see all the security features that the website offered. I think the security of the site makes it much more enticing to the teachers and parents. I plan on using Weebly with my students to keep track of their assignments as well as have them blog on different topics studied throughout the year. I feel Weebly is an excellent tool for enabling 21st Century students to achieve the 4C's: critical thinking, communication, creativity and collaboration.

Weebly and Professional Development Teachers will need to be trained on how to initially set up their own Weebly page and classes. Once teachers have their pages set, they will then be able to help students set up theirs’. I would suggest using the following video and website fro professional development training. If additional iPads are purchased, teachers will need to be trained on how to use them. http://weeblylesson.weebly.com/lesson-resources.html Youtube Video/ Weebly in Education Setup

References Mckee-Waddell, S. (2015). Digital Literacy: Bridging the Gap with Digital Writing Tools. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 82(1), 26-31. “Technology Overview”. Cartersville City Schools. Last modified August 2015. http://www.cartersville.k12.ga.us/Default.asp?DivisionID=14648&DepartmentID=0&SubDepartmentID=0&keyword=technology “Weebly”, Common Sense Media, Accessed April 3rd, 2016. https://www.graphite.org/website/weebly#more “Weebly for Education: Classroom Websites and Blogs”, Education Innovation Guide, November 2010. http://learn.org/articles/Weebly_for_Education_Classroom_Websites_and_Blogs.html