Websites


I have created websites for university assignments and have found websites to be a creative and innovative means of presenting information and ideas. I used Yola to create websites and found this provider relatively easy to use with flexible design and layout options.
I created this website to promote a university event. While creating the website was time consuming, the final product was very effective.


The screenshots below are images of a website I created for an individual assignment. I used the website to document my learning journey through the course. The website became a space for critical reflection and was almost a ‘portfolio’ of my learning experiences. Again, creating the website was extremley time consuming. Because I could go back and edit my website at any time, I found myself constantly editing my assignment. Most of this editing was unnecessary and the urge to ‘tweak’ everything on the website almost became an obsession. I must confess, I turned into a ‘web geek.

However, the website was a highly effective means of presenting my learning journey through the course and enabled me to reach deeper understandings and communicate my thoughts and ideas in an innovative way. The website provided a space in which I could upload images and diagrams, attach documents and express my understandings. There are many applications that you can upload to a website and the option of inserting html codes makes websites extremely flexible learning spaces.


WEBSITES VS. WIKIs

This article seems to suggest that wikis are the future of ICT education. Many educational blogs also suggest that wikis are transformational teaching tools. Wikis seem to be the latest ‘hit’ for integrating ICTs in education. Perhaps wikis are popular in education because they are very ‘user friendly’ and quick to create. While creating a wiki seems easy and fast, wikis often lack the design flexibility and options of websites.

I have found that websites have many design options. Users can insert ‘cutting- edge’ applications, html codes and customize the page to meet their needs. While websites can only be edited by the developer, wikis are fully editable for any user. Wikis may enable effective collaboration to occur in learning environments. The collaborative nature of wikis aligns with the active learning framework which suggests that effective learning occurs in group contexts.

Websites can be used to facilitate highly engaging learning experiences in which children are required to investigate and solve problems. Websites support the ICT learning design framework as they provide opportunities for learners to engage in authentic learning activities (Oliver, 1999).

Wikis and websites need to be carefully designed and linked to meaningful learning experiences to enhance learning.

2 comments:

Kiara said...

Hey Chloe,

I really like your website, it is really bright, vibrant and extemely easy access. I agree that Wikis and websites must be carefully designed and linked to meaningful learnign experiences; they are tools in which students/teachers can become proactively involved.However as you said earlier they can be time consuming, I guess what we need to ask ourselves is 'if we are going to ask students to create a wiki or website is if we have the time and resources??'

Kiara

Chloe's Learning Journey said...

Thanks Kiara, you raise a very important point. Educators need to consider the time and resources carefully before creating wikis and websites.

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