Each year I teach my students to write paragraphs, reports, stories and poetry. Writing is an integral component of our language arts curriculum. I have always believed that students writing should be published so they can share their thoughts with others.. This year I decided that we would use a class web page as a means of publishing our work...
(Anne Keller, http://www.havasu.k12.az.us/starline/akeller/akeller.htm)

INTRODUCTION

So writes, Mrs. Anne Keller, a third grade teachers at Starline Elementary School in Lake Havasu City, Arizona as she describes her rationale for using curriculum-based classroom web pages on the Internet. Mrs. Keller is among the first crop of teachers to make use of the World Wide Web on the Internet to enhance learning with planned, systematic computer-based activities. She views classroom pages as a way to provide her students with a forum for self expression and feedback while supporting the integration of technology and the writing process within her overall language arts curriculum. As more and more schools gain access to the Internet, classroom home pages promise to be a powerful tool for both individual student work and for collaborative group activities.

HOME SWEET HOMEPAGE

Classroom home pages are teacher sites on the Internet which are usually, but not always, networked to a school, district and/or state home page. Like other web pages on the world wide web, they are linked to other computers and serve as a communication tool to both a local and global audience. They expand on our use of isolated text because these pages make use of multimedia and hypermedia, the ability to move from one location to another. They can allow for interactivity among users via electronic mail. In addition, they can be linked to related sites, providing valuable resources to the visitor.
Mrs. Keller's home page makes use of multimedia by integrating colorful animated graphics, photographs and imported pictures. Visitors use hypermedia as they move from the home page to various locations and back. For example, visitors can access each third grader's portfolio of best work. Similarly, they can view student work by linking to classroom project sites such as the one entitled "Awesome Animals of Africa". As the visitor scrolls down the page Mrs. Keller invites visitors to respond to class work via e-mail, and to read and/or sign the guest book. At the very bottom of the page there are links to other favorite sites, such as to KidPub WWW Publishing, and NWF's Ranger Rick, and to other classrooms within their school.
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(Home pages reduced)

TEACHERS AND TECHNOLOGY

This article is the second of a series of three which builds upon our view of technology as a process. Our first article addressed teacher disposition as a critical ingredient in actualizing the goal of technology integration in the classroom. Figure 1 outlines a four part process which includes: 1) technology-related experiences, 2) conceptualizing of language and literacy learning, 3) assessing strengths and weaknesses of technological alternatives, and 4) assisting others in its use.

Figure 1 The Basic Steps of the Technology Process
We build on this framework as we consider the potential that classroom pages hold for teachers in enhancing literacy learning, and teaching in general. We consider aspects of the technology process through the eyes of educators who are at various stages in their conceptualization and development of web pages. We consider the benefits and purposes that web pages hold, as well as the technology process as teachers begin to incorporate the Internet technology into their curriculum.

CHOICES FOR TEACHERS/CHOICES FOR STUDENTS
In considering a new technological innovation it is useful to have a broad vision of its capabilities and potential purposes. Mrs. Keller's work provides insights into the range of potential benefits and purposes that classroom pages may hold for those beginning their journey.
Mrs. Keller capitalizes on the forum that classroom web pages provide for publication of student work. She organizes her home page so that her third graders publish a collection of their work on their individual web page, as well as on classroom pages highlighting focused units of study. She reports that use of the Internet, and web pages have benefited her students in ways that went beyond what she anticipated. She comments:
When students became involved in composing and editing their web pages, their self-esteem sky-rocketed. Parents and relatives were very interested in seeing the children's progress. We received e-mail messages from all of over the world about various reports and stories the students posted on their pages. They even became "experts" on the topic of dinosaurs. Because my students had done extensive research on dinosaurs using the Internet (even asking on-line questions of paleontologists ) many children from other schools around the word used the reports posted on our web pages as sources for their own research. They also realized through this experience that accuracy is important because their writing was being utilized as a factual resource.

In this account we can see a ripple effect in which success was built upon success. Mrs. Keller found that as children took ownership of their pages they read and wrote more than what she required. She also noticed that parents became very excited about seeing their children's work published on the Internet, and they sometimes helped them to research topics at home.
In a recent book entitled Teaching with the Internet: Lessons from the Classroom (1997) Donald and Deborah Leu characterize the benefits that web pages hold as a "four for". That is, they contend that there are four benefits that classroom home pages provide within this one activity. They note:

1) Home pages benefit students by providing them with a place to publish their work, as well as a place to access information through links that are provided for them.

In Mrs. Keller's class students had the opportunity to publish their work individually as a portfolio of their best work and collectively as part of classroom units of study. Additionally, home pages afforded Mrs. Keller with the opportunity to put links related to dinosaurs on her home page to facilitate her students research on this topic.

2) Home pages benefit students beyond an individual teachers' classroom when learning resources are shared with a global educational community.

The links that Mrs. Keller placed on her web supported her own students research as well as those who visited her page who were interested in dinosaurs. Moreover, Mrs. Keller reported that children at other schools actually used her students' work as a resource in their own research. Because Mrs. Keller invited response to her page, there was a potential for the sharing of teaching ideas with other colleagues.

3) Home pages assist teachers in communicating with families.

Mrs. Keller's home pages informed parents about the kinds of units that were being studied. It also helped them to examine the quality of writing that was being developed by their own children. Even though children progress at their own rate and should not be compared, Mrs. Keller reported that when parents viewed her home pages they were able to develop a sense of their child's writing ability within the context of the wide range of ability levels represented in the classroom.

4) Home pages provide teachers with the opportunity to convey a powerful professional image to the public.

Because her home pages were out there for the world to see, Mrs. Keller found that her students began to take their work more seriously. Teachers from other schools in her district visited her home pages and sent class messages congratulating her students on their research, reports or stories. Administrators at the district level visited their classroom to see what was happening, as well. Parents commented on how impressed they were with the quality of education their children were receiving. All of this helped to boost the image of her classroom, school and district.
The Leus' (1997) framework for describing the benefits and purposes for the use of classroom web pages can be of help to teachers as they begin their journey in conceptualizing and developing classroom web page technology. For starters, it can help to identify and establish a single major purpose or emphasis. For example, initially teachers might opt to use their classroom web page primarily for enhancing communication with families rather than placing the emphasis on student publication. They can then work towards using their pages for accomplishing other purposes as they gain confidence and skill. Moreover, at any point in time teachers may choose to emphasize one purpose more than another as their pages evolve.

SITE-SEEING ON THE WEB

The sites listed below represent varying ways in which teachers use classroom pages at a given point in time.

Mrs. Brooks' First Grade Classpage
http://www.wpl-law.com/Flynn/brooks.html
Mrs. Brooks uses a space theme to introduce the community to her classroom and school. This site is visually appealing and very easy to navigate.

Doug Tebo, Starline Elementary School, Havasu, AZ, grade 4
http://www.havasu.k12.az.us/starline/dtebo/dtebo.htm
Mr. Tebo welcomes new students by sharing the upcoming schedule of field trips. He also provides samples of students' writing assignments in response to their field work.

Dr. Sue Seider, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT, professor
www.geocities.com/timessquare/alley/7438
Dr. Seider posts comments, assignments and provides opportunities for students to dialogue with her and with each other via e-mail.

ON-LIBRARIES AND DATABASES

It is important to think of technology as a process which builds on earlier technology-related experiences. As a warm up, and confidence and skill builder educators can familiarize themselves with the Internet by searching for information that might be personally useful. For example, someone planning a vacation in France could do a search and visit a website of that location. Someone interested in art, might take a virtual tour of the Louvre. Someone else might search for and find a great shish-ka-bob recipe that they would like to try. We recommend creating a list of personal favorites by using a "bookmark" which is a simply a tool for storing and accessing designated websites.
More closely related to an educational focus, one might consider finding teacher sites with plans that are curriculum related. For example, a third grade teacher whose curriculum includes the study of weather phenomena might visit Storm Science: Journey Through the Eye of a Hurricane (http://www.miamisci.org/hurricane/). Teachers who regularly do author studies might visit author/illustrator Faith Ringold's web page (www.artincontext.com/artist/ringold). Create a list of curriculum related bookmarks.
Next, educators might visit school and classroom home pages. Web66: A K12 World Wide Web Project lists an International Registry of Schools on the web (http://web66.coled.umn.edu/). It will be informative to sample the range of classroom pages and helpful to set bookmarks on favorite classroom home pages. Striking up an e-mail conversation with the teacher who manages a home page might be intriguing.
Additionally, one can search for sites that provide tutorials on creating and evaluating web pages. Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators (http://www.capecod.net/schrockguide/yp.htm) links to a wide array of tutorials and on-line web page authoring tools. Other valuable on-line authoring tools are:
How To Make a Web Page at (http://www.splusnet.com/~evilcow/tutorial/),
WebTeacher at (http://www.webteacher.org/winnet/indextc.html), and
Teachers.net at (http://www.teachers.net/tools/).
Even without Internet access in the classroom, these technology-related experiences can pave the way for future integration of technology into the curriculum.

CONCEPTIONS OF LANGUAGE AND LITERACY LEARNING

Whether or not educators opt to use classroom pages and how they choose to do so will depend in part on their underlying conceptual framework about teaching and learning. This includes their definition of literacy, their understandings about how children become literate, and the role that teachers play in the process. Moreover, the value educators place on classroom home pages will be in part be determined by the degree to which their definition of literacy has been impacted by technology.
We argue that classroom home pages readily lend themselves to use in a way that is consonant with a constructivist view of teaching and learning, a view which underpins an interactive model of reading and language arts as espoused by NCTE/IRA Standards in Practice (1996). That is, like other Internet technology, classroom home pages can assist teachers in organizing instruction around multifaceted concepts. They can be used as a tool to assist students in their inquiries, and in their creation and communication of knowledge for a variety of authentic purposes (Hindi, 1998). Moreover, as our view of literacy learning is impacted by technology, we contend that classroom home pages have the potential to be used to assist students in developing literacy skills and strategies in navigating, creating and interpreting electronic texts.
Leu (1997), Reinking (1995) and other scholars assert that the very nature of literacy has been impacted by technology. What it means to be literate in an informational age will involve the ability to navigate through, sort and critically evaluate information. It will also involve creating and presenting information in a nonlinear and multimedia fashion. In reflecting on our underlying conceptual framework regarding literacy learning we must ask ourselves whether we believe that technology should be integral to the literacy curriculum. We must think about the potential that web pages hold in light of our underlying conceptual framework.
Mrs. Keller's Internet technology and web page construction is so integral to her view of teaching and learning that she schedules computer time to ensure that all children have access to it. She comments:

It seemed that some children who always finished their work early were on the computer more than others. I had to organize a system in which each child could have computer time regardless of work habits, and this really went against my instincts at first. I have always been a stickler about finishing work before doing anything else. But I had to recognize that computer time was a valuable learning experience.

TECHNOLOGIES' STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Our consideration of classroom web pages bring forth a variety of issues and concerns. As the faculty at Florence E. Smith Elementary School, a magnet school of science and technology in West Hartford, Connecticut develop a vision for their school home page, their library media specialist, Luci Leone delineates some policy and practical questions. Some of the most important concerns revolve around the safe use of the Internet, copyright compliance, and management of the web site, and equity. While most of these do not pertain solely to school and classroom web pages, they definitely come into play in developing classroom home pages.
Districts must come to grips with issues of safety in publishing student work, as well as with what links will be available to students in using classroom web pages for their research. Leone holds that districts must develop a policy which addresses how much identifying information is provided about children ("whether or not you print the child's whole name, age, first initials, or provide any other identifying information").
In addition adults must be responsible for monitoring children's use of the Internet, and there must be an educational and purposeful reason for going on-line. Leone indicates that previewed links placed on web pages can help to ensure that children access appropriate sites. She explains:
This is done for both safety reasons and as a time saver. Children could spend hours on the web and find nothing. So we want them to be efficient researchers. Just like we screen for any curriculum materials, we as adult professionals do the screening and we provide the links so they are limited to where they can go.

Districts must also concern themselves with copyright compliance in the developing of web pages, as well. Leone believes that educators have a fairly expansive license to copy material for educational use within the context of schools, however, once this material is placed on the world wide web the audience goes far beyond the children at school and in the classroom. She argues that schools must be careful to comply with copyright regulations. She suggests making use of on-line resources in exploring these issues.
Other practical concerns revolve around the of management of the web site. Schools must make decisions about who will be the webmaster or webmasters. Will one person take this on as part of their job description or will it be a team effort? How often will the web page be updated? How do schools ensure that what goes out on the web page presents a professional image of the school?
Leone likens the webmaster to that of an "editor of a newspaper", or as an "executive producer", someone who has the big picture in mind. Because it is unlikely that resources are available for funding of this role, she suggests that it may simply become another area within a teacher's scope. She envisions taking a team approach to managing the web site in which responsibilities rotate yearly as part of a committee assignment.
She comments that because of the time demands placed on teachers, it becomes especially important to use time efficiently by integrating the web page in a way which builds on the existing curriculum and with what is already going on. For example, if students at a school are using the Internet along with other resources to study natural disasters, such as earthquakes, and are writing reports anyway, then it might not be that difficult to publish their work on the web via a classroom web page.
A broader issue that Leone addresses concerns equitable access to technology. She talks about this within classrooms, within schools, among schools within a district and across communities. Equity within classrooms has to do with the distribution of access to technology. Is technology only for the children who are the high achievers or is it of educational value to all? Is such access seen as a "reward" or is it important for its own sake?
There are equity issues to be addressed within schools as well. She points out that in some schools there may only be a few teachers who are interested in technology and so only the children in those teachers' classrooms have opportunities to use technology while others do not. Equitable access of technology across schools within a district is another key concern. Leone explains that in West Hartford, Smith School received many of the resources first because of its status as a science and technology magnet. West Hartford is now moving toward bringing all schools on board in this endeavor.
Finally, Leone addresses issues of equity across communities. She holds that ultimately this is an issue that must be addressed at the legislative level. She comments:
All public schools should have a level playing field. Technology shouldn't be another place where those who have, have more and those who don't, have less. And that is where you have to get legislation and legislatures out there going to bat for us. It becomes especially important for those of us who do have access to use it in the best ways so that we can convince legislatures that this is a good investment for our kids for the future.

HELPING OTHERS TO USE TECHNOLOGY

As with any technology, in order for teachers to make use of classroom web pages, they must not only have access to the Internet at the classroom level, but they must have training, technical support and time to integrate what has been taught.
Teachers should not feel that as they develop their classroom pages that they have to "go it alone". While Mrs. Keller was a self starter, someone who took the initiative and sought out training early on, and who spent many hours of her own time learning about web pages, she recommends asking help from an experienced colleague:
I was developing my web page the same time as two other teachers that I work with and respect. Whenever I had questions I went to them and vice versa. It is comforting to know that someone else is experiencing the same growing pains as you are in trying something new.

Likewise, teachers need not feel that everything should be accomplished at once. We recommend that teachers take small steps in their efforts to use classroom pages to enhance their teaching and learning. Fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Mary Jane Carrano at Essex Elementary School in Centerbrook, Connecticut expressed it aptly when she commented on the process she engaged in while learning how to develop web pages:

There is so much that can be done with technology and you can't do it all at once. You have to do it in little pieces, one small step at a time. This spring we were able to get a newsletter on-line. Now that we know that that is a doable matter, next fall we will start to put some of our student work on-line.

Educators developing and implementing classroom home pages have the opportunity to enhance their students' reading and writing, broaden their students' knowledge of subject areas. Perhaps as important, they are also introducing them to technology that will be critical as they approach the frontiers of the next millennium.
REFERENCES
El Hindi, A.E. (1998). Beyond classroom boundaries: Constructivist teaching with the Internet. The Reading Teacher, 51, 694-700.

Leu, D. (1997). Caity's questions: Literacy as deixis on the Internet. The Reading Teacher, 51, 62-67.

Leu, D.J. & Leu, D.D. (1997). Teaching with the Internet: Lessons from the classroom. MA: Christopher Gordon Publishers, Inc.

Reinking, D. (1995). Reading and writing with computers: Literacy research in a post- typographic world. In K.A. Hinchman, D.J. Leu, & C. Kinzer (Eds.) Perspectives on literacy research and practice (pp.17-33). Chicago: National Reading Conference.

Standards for the English Language Arts (1996). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English/International Reading Association.

such as Creating an Acceptable Use Policy for Schools Online (http://www.asset.asu.edu/accepuse.htm).
GETTING STARTED ON THE INTERNET WITH HOMEROOM HOMEPAGES