The creation of this web site by my fifth grade students met a wide range of State of Hawaii Content and Performance Standards II (HCPS II), while focusing on Language Arts, Education Technology, and Social Studies.

I'd highly recommend a web site development project such as this. It was a great experience for all of us, and one the students and I would gladly do again. We all looked forward to class where computer screens, camera lenses, tripods, and laptops took the place of textbooks and worksheets. The reading, writing, and communicating that this project produced was purposeful, and very meaningful for the students. Stressful at times, frustrating at others, the bottom line - it was lots of fun!

Following is a brief overview of our project for International Schools Cyberfair 2001 -

Our project focused on the following learning objectives for the students. Students will:

• work collaboratively in large and small groups to develop an educational web site.
• gain experience with educational technology tools such as computers, digital cameras, scanners, and software programs.
• research and respond to the events surrounding America's involvement in World War II.
• communicate effectively with members of their school and community in the development of this web site.
• share their efforts with an international audience by publishing their web site on the Internet.

These learning objectives meet the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards (HCPS II), developed by the State of Hawaii Department of Education, for the following areas: Career and Life Skills, Educational Technology, Social Studies, Language Arts, and Fine Arts.

Pease click here to access our Student Assessment Rubric, based on these standards.

1. (C) Students brainstorm for project topic. Once chosen, develop KWL and topic web with class.

2. (T) Divide students into small heterogeneous teams for each subtopic. Divide each team further, assigning a specific skill such as the digital camera or web authoring program to each student. The student will hopefully master this skill and be able to assist their team members, thereby relieving the teacher of continual cries for help.

2. (I) Students write initial reflective piece on topic, and create illustration. Some or all of this is good material for the student's author page.

3. (C) Students develop web site story board identifying specific pages to be included and how they will be linked.

4. (T) Students research team topic using Internet, CDs, videos, oral interviews, and traditional printed resources.

5. (T) Students write text for team page, design page layout, and begin collecting desired photographs/illustrations.

6. (I) Students create individual author's page using web authoring software/ graphic programs.

7. (C) Students attend field trips. conduct oral interviews or surveys, depending on topic.

8. (C) Students create scrapbook of project process.

9. (T) Students create team pages using web authoring software. Completed pages are linked to project cover pages (development of the front and directory pages can be one team's assignment).

10. (C) Students review and complete KWL charts and celebrate once the site is uploaded and online.

11. (I) Students write final reflective piece.

* Our class painted a mural for our school as an offshoot of this project, but that's a whole other project in itself, and not one I'm addressing here.

Computers with Internet access (one per student is ideal of course, but usually not realistic)

Digital camera

Scanner

Graphic Software programs such as Clarisworks Painting, Hyperstudio, Photoshop, GIF Builder (We used Quicktime VR for our panoramic pictures)

Web authoring software such as Claris Home Page

FTP program such as Fetch

• Develop KWL charts, project goals and timelines with class prior to beginning. Have students review and reflect at the end of the project.
• Be sure students have equal access to all resources they need, especially technological tools. If computer access is limited, have teams work on different aspects of their project while rotating students through set periods of computer access.
• Heterogeneous teams will aid in peer tutoring opportunities.
• Bookmark web sites for quick student access.

• Technical expertise and professional development will be needed for use of Internet, computer graphic programs, digital cameras, etc.
• A technology troubleshooter will be needed should there be any hardware breakdowns.