The Other Side of the Web

Moving time...

We're moving into larger quarters over at www.mrheffner.com. Hope to cya there!

How to find teachers who are far away...

In the last post I suggested that teachers find others, who are far away, and conduct joint projects. One potential problem is...how do I find teachers who are far away? Here are some possible solutions.

1. Do you know anyone who lives far away? It doesn't matter if they are or are not teachers? Ask them if they know any teachers who might like to connect with your classroom.
2. Ask the other teachers in your school if they have friends or relatives who live far away?
3. You might post a message on an online blog or message board and seek out teachers. [I'd be very careful to make sure I'm talking to a real teacher.]
4. Check Web sites of schools.
5. Contact people who you read about. I once contacted a teacher in Nebraska who taught in a one room school house. My students (in Brooklyn, NY) corresponded with their pen pals and EVERYONE (especially me) learned a lot and enjoyed it.

Projects!!!!!!

In order to make things interesting, teachers should create projects. Projects can be of various types. Here's one example of what you can do in 3 easy steps...

1. Find another teacher...far away. The further the better.
2. Discuss possible topics that both schools would like (i.e. weather conditions, geography, poetry, etc.)
3. Create a joint Web site or wiki where both schools can enter information.

You'd be surprised how much both sides can learn.

Go over to the other side!

When Tim Berners-Lee created the Web, he was trying to provide a way to share information. Unfortunately, too many teachers are only using one side...the part where we get the information. It's time to use the other side of the Web and produce original work so that other can see what we can do. The 'we' meaning our students.

The tools are there. Sea Monkey (formerly called Netscape) has a Web authoring component called Composer. You can make a Web page in minutes, if you can type. A few minutes longer if you can't type.