Web Page Design with Web 2.0 Tools
Forget FrontPage! Forget Dreamweaver! These technical solutions for developing web pages are being rapidly replaced with a plethora of creative Web 2.0 tools available right on the internet. Wikis, blogs, and sites are some of the new tools that not only help you develop web pages, they encourage collaboration and avoid the need to have highly technical knowledge. With these tools you and your students can easily embed audio and video resources to make your web site a learning tool as well as a resource. Examples and resources on our wiki pages: Wikis Wikis And Blogs Blogs Google Sites
Words of the Day
URL
Link
Text Editor
Source Code
Wiki
Blog
Site
Sidebar |
Simultaneos multiple user access
Locks
Widget/Gadget
Tables
Embed
Upload
Download |
Professional tools have a very steep learning curve and may be best suited to individuals who enjoy graphic design and posess technical knowledge. Such tools are versatile and full featured as well as costly.
Having some other person create your web site is often the best alternative for individuals who need a web site but have little time or inclination to create and maintain one. This can be a very costly alternative since you will likely pay for every update and special request. When your webmaster leaves sites may be difficult to keep up to date.
Simple tools like Wikis, Blogs, and Sites offer convenient, low cost, and easy to use tools for creating and maintaining web pages, yet may not have the versatility or depth that professional tools offer. Wikis and Sites can have the added advantage that many people can come together to collaborate on the creation and maintenance of a single web site or page. Blogs can be a good alternative for the teacher who wishes to keep current content at the top of the page.
The last category, Controlled sites, offer the least flexibility for the creator, but focus the most on content. Course creation tools like Moodle and Blackboard create a predesigned web site that just needs content to make it work. SharePoint provides a framework around content with preset themes and required page elements. School districts use content management systems to 'brand' their web sites.
Compare and Contrast Web Sites, Wikis, Blogs, and Google Sites
Features
|
Web Site
|
Wikis |
Blogs |
Google Sites |
Versatile - can use many web technologies. |
Highly |
No |
No |
Somewhat |
Feature rich |
Highly |
No |
No |
Somewhat |
Ease of Use - a caveman can do it. |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes... |
WSIWYG Editor |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Source Code Editor |
Yes |
sort of |
soft of |
sort of |
Content can exist on both computer and internet |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
Easily open to collaboration |
No |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Can embed editable documents |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Can embed forms to collect data |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
Chronological listing of postings |
No |
No |
Yes |
Possibly |
Can easily contain calendar items |
No |
No |
No |
Yes
|
Automatically creates a history and allows backtracking |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Additional features |
Free |
$ |
$ |
N/A |
RSS feed to notify users of changes |
Maybe |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Backups |
Possible |
$ |
$ |
No |
Widgets/Gadgets |
Maybe |
Yes |
No |
Yes! |
Sample Google Sites
Sample School Wikis
Sample School Blogs
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