Expressing+Ourselves,+Sharing+Ideas,+Building+Community-PBL+Essential+Learning+Functions

Karen and Kara The web and digital media has opened the doorway for new communication to help connect your class to one another uniquely, as well as connect with a larger online community.
 * Websites and Blogs and Hybrids**
 * Using regular websites in education -
 * Benefits** -Providing basic information about the school, ie, start times, days off, special events, phone numbers, email contacts. Programs like TeacherWeb and Infinite Campus allow for teacher input and parent/community accessibility.

*Limitations: blocking policies and limiting web content does benefit elementary students. There are times when finding a website takes teacher time but it protects elementary students from being shocked by adult and/or inappropriate content.
 * Limitations** - Doesn't provide for two way communication. It is static. In our case, the school website is not open to updates and page formatting by individual teachers. Often, district blocking policies hinder exploring and using web content.


 * Resources to create websites:** Dreamweaver (St. Vrain), [|Google Page Creator], [|Doteasy]
 * Examples** - [|Fall River Elementary School], [|Longmont High School](soon to be under construction to become more dynamic!~) [|Mead Middle School]

**Limitations for elementary students**
 * Blogs for Expression & Recording -
 * Benefits -** Two way communication and sharing of ideas. Allows people to comment and post, interacting with others. Immediate feedback from peers, parents, teachers, etc. prompts reflection by authors.
 * *Limitations - ** Monitoring and educating for appropriate content.
 * Concerns: elementary students would need adult supervision for blogging beyond the classroom
 * Resources** - Edublog, eblogger, Blogspot, blogmeister
 * Examples** - [|Skyline High School Library](more interactive), [|social bookmarking]and [|tags]

The book recommends[|Feedburner]as an [|RSS] source for creating syndication with your blogs. A dynamic website (a website on a blog or a blog as part of a website) is an example of a hybrid.
 * Blogs for Building Community -**
 * Benefits** - bountiful source of information, building community relations, connecting with other trustworthy authors. Professional collaboration across all subject areas and levels.
 * Limitations** - contribution can become a time issue. Keeping up and contributing can take you away from other responsibilities.
 * Resources** - Edublog because it's part of the education community. People share a common kinship.
 * Examples** - Nings ([|Teacher Librarian Ning]), [|My Space], [|Facebook], [|Second Life] [|Classroom 2.0] [|K-12Online Conference Ning]**Questions:**
 * Is My Space and/or Facebook appropriate for elementary students?
 * What are the benefits of these sites to high school students?
 * Note(s):**