[eMINTS] website

[CINDY MATZAT]

Marsha,

I am the LMS at Branson Elementary (I am also the eMINTS instructional
specialist for my district), and I use a combination of things. I still
have a traditional website that I make in Dreamweaver (I also make the
page for my school). I have a blog that I use with my students and a
blog that I use with my teachers. I do have a couple of wikis, but don't
use them much. I would encourage you to use a blog. It is easy to manage
and allows you the option of two-way communication. If you use Edublogs
as your blog source, you can create multiple pages and make it function
like a multi-page website, with one of those pages serving as a blog
with multiple posts. To use Moodle as an option, your district would
need to have it installed on a server. I think there are nice aspects
about Moodle, but I don't know that it is the right tool for your needs.
I would be glad to answer any specific questions you might have as you
try to make your decision. Here are links to my sites:

http://www.branson.k12.mo.us/elementary
http://elementarylibrarylady.edublogs.org (teacher blog)
http://matzatbookchat.edublogs.org (student blog)

Sincerely,

Cynthia Matzat
Branson Elementary Library Media Specialist
matzatc at branson.k12.mo.us

>>> Marsha Johanning <johanningm at eagles.k12.mo.us> 06/07/08 2:22 PM >>>
I think this is a wonderful topic for discussion.  I am making the move
this year from the emints classroom to the building library/Media
Center.   I need to create a new page for our library and am not sure of
the best format. Not all rooms are emints but all the students use the
Media Center to complete projects. That means this page needs to provide
a lot of direction to the students as well as assistance for the
teachers.

I considered Moodle as we work on curriculum for the Library Media
Center but for handling 650+ students and teachers that seems right now
to me overwhelming. A wiki page would be a fun way but do I have too
many areas that need a more stationary type place like I could provide
with a plain ol' ordinary web page?  Plus I need it to be flexible since
the age level using this page is from 2nd grade and possilby younger to
parents and teachers. And this age range really has a bigger technical
expertise range.

I would appreciate any input anyone wishes to offer.
Marsha Jo
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