Three Ways to Use Blogger in the Web Design Classroom

Testing the Waters

When I arrived at school today, I talked with each of my first three classes about their thoughts concerning class blogs. My students seemed very receptive to the notion of having a classroom blog for Web Design. A handful of students were already familiar with Blogger, as they have teachers that post homework and discussion questions on a class blog.

Three topics came to mind that would be both timely and relevant to our work this year.

Topic One: Dreamweaver Versus Google Sites

Dreamweaver has been our web design platform since September, and students have gotten over the steep part of the learning curve at this point in the year. I assigned a project in Google Sites in order to get a sense of how my students would react to a different web design tool. Most students were negative about Google Sites at first, but an increasing number are starting to see the advantages of using a simpler tool that allows them to publish immediately without having to pay for web hosting or dealing with any kind of FTP (File Transfer Protocol) issues. I think a blog discussion on the topic would be lively.

Topic Two: Time Management Issues in Web Design

At this point in the year, I have students that are dying to move on to the next project, students who are three projects behind, and everything in between. We have had some informal discussions about time management, but I think it's a particularly good topic to explore as we move towards Spring. As a veteran teacher, I've noticed that occasionally, students lose their focus as the good weather comes in, and "getting it all done" can be challenging for some students.

Topic Three: How do you know when you're done creating a website? 

This can be a tough question. The simple answer is "Never", given that every website is a work in progress, and the only constant in web design is change. It's a complicated issue. I have been wanting to address this topic for quite sometime, and I feel it's a good time for students to consider some of the timing, scope, and sequence issues surrounding their work. I want students to think in terms of rolling out the best possible site at the onset, but knowing when to postpone ambitious plans for a later version in order to get the site up and running on the web.