After we played around with dreamweaver the first day I started looking for what I felt was the best free website hosting service. This week in class Charlie shared with us www.envy.nu. If you have your pages already designed using a program such as Dreamweaver this seems to be a very nice service to use. If you are not looking for complete control and like using templates then you might want to consider the service I have found.
It is Microsoft Office Live. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/default.aspx
It was free a week ago, but I see they are now doing a promo where you get $50 advertising credit when you sign up and there is a new account fee of $5. This is still very cheap and here is why. You get your own domain name free of charge. My website is www.thunderstruckkennel.com and I did not pay a dime! You also get custom email free! and you can create more than one email as well. So my email is clara@thunderstruckkennel.com.
Now there are a few limitations. I do not think you can upload your own pages. I do believe you have to use their builder. but they have a great variety of templates and color choices, etc, etc, etc. And they offer some additional services with an upgraded account.
If you are just creating a website for the sake of this class and your portfolio then the $5 may not be worth it to you, but if you want to create a website for school, personal, home business, etc then you should check it out. However for those of us who do not have daily access to dreamweaver or even want the hassle of the more complicated programs, but still want a professional looking result it does the job.
Oh and I forgot to mention: NO ADS!!!! (or pop-ups). The only add is a small logo for Microsoft office on the very bottom of the pages. check my site and and see what you think. But pardon the mess I barely had time to get it started and have many incomplete pages.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
My Blog My Vision 2/20/07
At times I am a complete airhead. I didn't even read the guidelines for this week's blog. Crazy me. Well better late than never.
1. Since my goal is to teach Biology on the college level, I am not going to be able to apply the things I learn as quickly as some of my fellow students who are teaching at this moment. However I see great possibilities for many of the concepts these chapters discuss in the classes I could potentially be teaching. Many college students live far from home and their families have almost no idea what is going on in their classes. Having a website and discussion forum would be a great way for the parents to learn along with the students. I know my mother was constantly asking me questions because she was as interested if not more than I was. Video conferencing with other schools that have similar classes or with experts in the field we are studying is another possibility. Although most of the text this week was directed at K-12 education, most of the ideas are readily adaptable to the college level.
2. Since I am not teaching yet I don’t really have a current plan for technology. I took this course to help develop a plan. I think I have learned that more than ever its not just about having the technology but knowing how to use and integrate it into the classroom in a meaningful manner. In my personal experience many time the school and classroom had sufficient technology to do more than we did, but the teacher did not know how to use it or what to do about applying it. So before adding any new type of technology I will make sure I understand how to use it and apply it instead of just “winging” it.
3. The main message I received from both of these chapters is that it is about quality and not quantity. I covered this a little bit already. For example: It doesn’t matter how many tractors show up to the tractor pull if none of them can move the weight sled (FYI truck/tractor pulls are a blast. Lol). Back on track. It doesn’t matter how much technology we can cram into a classroom if it isn't applied properly the students are not going to gain anything extra out of the experience. They may even get frustrated and gain less from the whole experience.
1. Since my goal is to teach Biology on the college level, I am not going to be able to apply the things I learn as quickly as some of my fellow students who are teaching at this moment. However I see great possibilities for many of the concepts these chapters discuss in the classes I could potentially be teaching. Many college students live far from home and their families have almost no idea what is going on in their classes. Having a website and discussion forum would be a great way for the parents to learn along with the students. I know my mother was constantly asking me questions because she was as interested if not more than I was. Video conferencing with other schools that have similar classes or with experts in the field we are studying is another possibility. Although most of the text this week was directed at K-12 education, most of the ideas are readily adaptable to the college level.
2. Since I am not teaching yet I don’t really have a current plan for technology. I took this course to help develop a plan. I think I have learned that more than ever its not just about having the technology but knowing how to use and integrate it into the classroom in a meaningful manner. In my personal experience many time the school and classroom had sufficient technology to do more than we did, but the teacher did not know how to use it or what to do about applying it. So before adding any new type of technology I will make sure I understand how to use it and apply it instead of just “winging” it.
3. The main message I received from both of these chapters is that it is about quality and not quantity. I covered this a little bit already. For example: It doesn’t matter how many tractors show up to the tractor pull if none of them can move the weight sled (FYI truck/tractor pulls are a blast. Lol). Back on track. It doesn’t matter how much technology we can cram into a classroom if it isn't applied properly the students are not going to gain anything extra out of the experience. They may even get frustrated and gain less from the whole experience.
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