Yes
Somewhat
No
Using a templated, design-heavy webpage
tool should excite the students.
Developing their own webpages requires
students to become active learners, which is
only possible with the technology.
Students are taking what they would
traditionally write in a paper and putting it on
the web. In scenario #2, they are integrating
elements of interaction (to elicit dialogue
around the information in the website). This is
not something they could easily do using pen
and paper.
Students are polling and asking visitors to
participate in the debate. This should develop
a deeper understanding of the issue and
potentially create more evidence for both the
pro and the con sides of the issue.
With the addition of the interactive features,
the students will be required to defend their
arguments to the viewers of the website
through discussion or commenting prompts.
Students could potentially focus more on
building their webpages than on traditional
classroom distractions. Yet they could be
distracted on the web as well.
Students may choose to participate in the
discussions outside the school day.
Students who build webpages in their
everyday lives and/or participate in chat
and discussion rooms online could find
connections with their everyday life
experiences.
Because students are posting information on
a website, they are not necessarily learning via
the tool outside of the school day. However,
the conversations that could occur as part of
the comments and discussion may continue
after the assignment is completed, thus
allowing lifelong learning.
