Project 3: School Homepage

  General Information

  Project Overview

Students participating in the project will redesign and update our school web site to give Valmont Academy a more prominent position on the expanding world wide web. Besides the providing an exciting creative educational opportunity for the students participating in designing the school homepage, the new resource will give other students a better chance to learn, research, and collaborate over the Internet. Students will be encouraged to explore the web to analyze other web page formats that could be incorporated into our web page design. They will also utilize the Internet to download graphics and web page resources that will make their work easier and more attractive. The school web site will have links to other Valmont Stellar project sites. To promote student participant, Valmont Academy homepage will also have links to web pages designed by students themselves.

The Valmont Academy web page will be the default web page for the school and we will encourage its use in the communities served by the school. As more families acquire personal computers at home, we hope to see the web site utilized as a community resource by providing information on topics unique to Valmont Academy with additional links to other web sites that are relevant to their educational and personal needs. These resources include access to our school newsletter, post secondary institutions, graduates, school timetable, school calendar, curriculum information, school board, etc. The Valmont Academy web site will have primary, elementary, and high school sections. To promote the communities served by the school, our web page will incorporate research on the local culture and history.

  Curriculum Connections

This project will integrate several intended learning outcomes for Technology Education and other curriculum areas. By the end of this project, it is expected that students will:

• explore and develop an understanding of video, audio, graphic, scanning, network and other communications systems. Publishing web documents will reinforce the value these systems and the importance of mastering the technologies.
• understand the basic communication principals of encoding/decoding, transmitting/receiving, storing/retrieving and how they are employed in a variety of communications tools and media. Students will experiment with several HTML Editors to become familiar with the variety of styles that may be incorporated into web documents.
• demonstrate understanding of new and emerging communications systems. increased access to the Internet will make students more aware of areas outside their local community and provide them with an additional research tool that will encourage resource based learning.
• explore, analyze, plan, and devise products and systems which communicate through analog and digital forms of audio, graphic, video and other means.
• evaluate their own and others communications products and systems terms of intended use and effectiveness and act on that evaluation.
• benefit from an enriched curriculum that includes extra activities for high achievers.
• demonstrate an understanding of networking. This project will involve in the installation of our network equipment which will give a greater appreciation for the technology.
• highlight the culture and history of their area by incorporating old photographs into the web site and adding links such as Up the Shore, a site with stories about growing up in King's Point by Jerry Rideout, a former resident resident who writes for the Downhomer.
• improve several language skills that include creativity, imagination, writing, and research skills.

  Resource Connections

Internet access provided by STEM~Net (through the STELLAR Schools connection) with DirecPC satellite technology is essential for completing this project. These resources will increase our allowable time online and speed up connections. HTML editors, graphic conversion programs, scanners, cameras, and audio equipment are some of the tools that will be used extensively in this project. Online resources, books and community resource people will be utilized to the fullest.

  Evaluation

This project will be evaluated using several learning outcomes related to web page presentation and content. Presentation refers to the effective use of the Internet tools, the layout and design, the appropriate use of multi-media and the ease of navigation. Content refers to the benefits of the information in the web page and how well the school and community are represented. The general impact of the project on the school and curriculum can be evaluated by noting the progress in the use of communication technologies and the degree to which the web site is used.