Title:
Creating a Web Page

Summary:
Students will plan and create a web page to be posted on their school server.

Unit Details
Author: Mae Thomas
Subject: Technology
Learning Level(s): Grades 5 - 8

Standards:
National Educational Technology Standards for Students (ISTE, 2000)
1b. Students are proficient in the use of technology.
2b. Students practice responsible use of technology systems, information, and software.
3b. Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology-enhanced models, prepare publications, and produce creative works.
4b. Students use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences.

Goals met --USD 417 Technology Plan Grades 6-8:
Communication:
1. Students will communicate through applications software.
2. Students will communicate visually, graphically, and artistically through multi-media and computer assisted design tools.
Information Process:
1. Students will access and retrieve electronic information
Productivity:
1. Students will use technology to enhance their understanding and development of basic skills.
2. Students will develop basic technology skills.

Situations:
5 to 7 weeks 40 minutes per day in a computer lab

Tools
Hardware:
•Scanner
•Digital Camera
Software:
•ClarisWorks Drawing (or Microsoft Word using drawing toolbar)
•Netscape Composer 4.6 (For additional help go to link.)
• Netscape/Internet Explorer
•Adobe Photoshop or PhotoDeluxe

Process:
Students will produce a web page with the following:
1. Pictures:
•Locate, download, and insert graphics (include animated ones) from internet free web art sites
•Capture one or more pictures on a digital camera, transform/resize/crop the picture using Adobe PhotoDeluxe (or a similar application)
•Scan a self-created picture or one brought from home
•Draw a picture using ClarisWorks drawing file and save it as a pict; then transform it to a jpg using Adobe PhotoDeluxe
2. Links:
•Insert links to sites on the internet with buttons preceding them
•E-mail link to teacher
3. Web art:
•Insert background from internet free web art sites
•Insert divider/bar and buttons from internet free web art sites
4. Text:
•Choose different fonts and resize and color them

TASKS:
Task 1: Teacher discusses page layout concepts with students. Students determine a theme and plan/design their web page using a ClarisWorks drawing file adding boxes for pictures, small circles for buttons, text, etc.
Task 2: Discuss legalities of downloading and using internet files. Teach a lesson on downloading web art to a folder. Students will locate and download the web art they plan to use (graphics, divider, background, buttons).
Task 3: Teach use of digital camera. Students take portrait type pictures of each other. Once the images are on the computers, the students use Photoshop to crop, resize, and lighten or darken the image. Students place transformed pictures in their folders.
Task 4: Teach use of scanner. Students scan a hand drawn picture or one that has been brought from home. Student uses Photoshop to transform picture and place it in web folder.
Task 5: Student uses ClarisWorks tools to draw a picture, save it as a pict and then use Photoshop to transform it and place it in their web folder.
Task 6: Teacher familiarizes students with Netscape Composer as they create their web pages. Students refer to a basic direction sheet.
Task 7: Students preview their posted pages and make any necessary corrections.

Prerequisite Skills:
Students will need to know how to use the tools in ClarisWorks drawing and have some familiarity with search engines and internet browsing. Students will learn use of Adobe PhotoDeluxe, Netscape Composer, scanner, and digital camera in class, along with how to download files using Communicator and/or Internet Explorer.

Assessment:
Students view their corrected/finished pages on the internet. Teacher uses rubric type checksheet (available also in pdf format) to determine project completion. Assessment takes place also on each task of using downloading skills and the various hardware and software skills learned.

Teacher Notes / Reflections: