What's a Good Site?

One team reviewed web sites already completed by other teams before they started theirs. One girl noted, "It's good, but isn't it sort of short? I can make a much better one." This prompted a discussion of criteria for a good web site. The group then designed their own site by using index cards for each page, arranging them on the wall, and then writing the name of each page on it as it was being created.

Planning a Web Site

At Cruz Management one of the groups developed a web site they called "Animals and Imitators." Each child had a specific interest: rabbits, dogs, wolves, and robots. When they were ready to build their web site, they decided to work together on the home page and then have each child develop two pages for their particular specialty. That way the kids both worked together on design, and had a chance to develop their own pages. The first step for the kids was to draft a page design on chart paper. They pulled out magic markers and paper and began to experiment with layout, text, photos, and links. Once they had a general idea of how they wanted their page to look, they went to the computer and started to design it. Each kid had a series of 'web goals,' which included internal links, external links, background design, photo, and typeface font, size, and color. The coach focused on each child building their pages on their own and learning the skills for themselves.

Putting It Together

The String Telephone team's web building process included team members taking turns at the keyboard to do the following: make a headline; adjust the font type, color, and size to their liking; insert a picture from a team activity; write a paragraph about their experiment; and make a table summarizing their experimental data. Finally, they mounted the draft site to a temporary host on a web server.