Wow, I have created my first ever weebly, and I just have to say I absolutely love it. What a wonderful tool and interface to use. I will be analysing the use of a Weebly using a SWOT Analysis (by the way, this will be my first SWOT analysis, so please feel more than free to pick me up on where I get things wrong).
First of all, the link to my weebly can be found through my wiki or you can click straight through to my weebly here. You can see snapshots of my weebly below. I'm pretty proud of it :-)
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
- Easy to use drag-and-drop interface (suitable for beginners to experts)
- Content is easily customisable
- Easy to create links between pages
- Layout can be changed (e.g. a picture and a paragraph next to a YouTube video), making the information more readily accessible/easier to navigate
- Much more visually exciting than a Wiki
- Creation of forms (for parents or students to utilise)
- Blogging function
- Password protection
- Easy upload of files such as PDF's, videos, sound files
- The ability to create a picture slideshow without having to use Slide, Flickr etc
- Moderator controls the website
- No advertising
- Need to pay for membership to use many of the features, such as video, sound etc
- Need to pay for membership to password protect
- Only the moderator can control content
- Limited interaction is provided compared to a Wiki or a Blog
- Could be an excellent interface for which upper primary students could utilise for their assignments to express their creativity
- Could be a great resource/starting point for a subject supporting student learning
- Appeals to the visual/auditory learners
- Costs involved with membership
- Without password protection, information is open to the public (minimised with membership)
- Risk of bullying through the blogging pages (however this is minimised if the moderator sets prior-approval of comments)
How could Weebly be applied to your teaching context?
Weebly, I like to think of as a tool that utilises the benefits and features of both a wiki and a blog. It allows users to post comments (similar to a blog), whilst being easily customisable (by adding pages, forms etc like a wiki). It is interesting in that it provides the benefits of a Web 1.0 technology, with main features/layout only being able to be edited by the webmaster, with the benefits of a Web 2.0 technology, with visitors or users like students posting comments under the blogging page.
Here are just a few ways that weeblys can be applied to the teaching context:
- Creating class/home group websites. These can be a main domain that the class can refer to as a group.
- Creating indivdual student pages. Of course these can be password protected. The teacher can maintain these pages for the invidual student and their parents. Grades and remarks can be uploaded and students or their parents can communicate with the teacher confidentially about their grades.
Learning theories underpinned:
A weebly constructed by the educator does not necessarily encourage a constructivist or connectivism approach. It more encourages cognitivism as the information is static. Learners are encouraged to utilise the static material presented and learn. The links in a weebly may however link to sources that encourage other learning styles. The weebly can be social constructivist in the blogging format; where students blog their thoughts or reflections, adding onto one another's previous posts, building knowledge as a social group.
If the weebly is constructed by the individual or as a group it can encourage constructivism and connectivism, as information or layouts may be constructed together (social constructivism) or individually (constructivism) and from a wide array of sources (connectivism).
References:
TechCrunch. (2009, September 30). Weebly launches new managed site builder for educators and students [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://techcrunch.com/2009/09/30/weebly-launches-new-managed-product-for-educators-and-students/
Weebly, Inc. (2011). Weebly for education: Our features. Retrieved from http://education.weebly.com/ed-features.php
1 comments:
Heidi,
You have been working hard. You obviously have some terrific ICT skills and these combined with your great ideas, makes for a fun and interesting blog.
I'll be back soon for another look!!
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