So, I decided to create a summer camp website using www.weebly.com. which is free software. On this website I included camp counselor introductions, weekly topics, a calendar, contact information, camp rules, items campers need to bring each day, and most importantly a blog.
This was a reasonable approach because most people have access to the internet and once our Weebly page was set up it won’t be time consuming. An alternative could have been to give parents our email addresses but that’s not as interactive.
The technology I chose is weebly. It is very user-friendly which means it's more likely that parents will actually use it. It makes the content in my problem more intellectually accessible because it allows camp counselors, parents, and campers to communicate in the digital world rather than sending several notes home or printing off a weekly newsletter.
My pedagogical choice makes the content in my problem more intellectually accessible because when the children look at the website with their parents, they will begin to recall events that happened at camp and share their stories. They may even think of even more stuff to talk about other than what is posted on the website. The learning that is enhanced here is recalling and communicating.
My goal was to create a website to increase parent communication. I was surprised that there was already a domain name for summercamp.weebly.com being used. I guess I'm not the first person to have this idea! That's okay though because I used supersummercamp2012.weebly.com.
I was hoping to put some pictures from last years summer camp but I didn't think about the fact that I would need permission from each of the child's parents in order to do that. This also means that in order for me to put pictures of my campers throughout this summer, I will have to get permission to do this as well. It is doable but definitely a "bump in the road". Another thing I was hoping to do was monitor who can participate in the blog page. I would have liked for it to be password protected and give parents the password but in order to do that I would have to get the Pro version of Weebly which costs money.
Luckily, I discovered that Weebly allows you to set your blog up where anytime someone tries to post a blog, it has to be approved by me before it shows up on the blog page.
The project was implemented as planned. By the time camp started the website was up and running. The only problem was the Meet the Counselors page. I was the only counselor on there! Hopefully this will be taken care of soon.
The best evidence would be parents typing in on the blog page. There has been some verbal evidence such as parents knowing what we are doing that day ahead of time. I had some parents know that we were going to go bowling. One parent came in and asked me "What is Neukem?" (a kid-friendly version of volleyball) and we hadn't even played it yet.
Next time I do something like this I will be sure to advertise the website way more in advance. I would also put a form in the registration packet asking parents if their child can have their picture posted on our website. Also, I will be sure the Meet the Counselors page is completed ahead of time. This should have been taken care of before implementation.
A classmate of mine gave me some good insight about my overall success. She basically said that once others see how successful I was this first year with my website, they will be more likely to use it next year. I’m very satisfied with the results of my website and I’m looking forward to giving it a try in my new classroom this fall!
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