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Space
With the structure for my own class, I had much more liberty than I had for either the IHETS 103 page or the IHETS 104 page. My class was taught in a fully equipped, on-campus computer lab; I knew the system that the students could access, and I scheduled time for my class to use that system. The course was an "Experimental" one in that the English Department had given me clearance to teach the course without a textbook and with on-line sources. My argument was that I could provide my class with enough in class time and with quality readings from the world wide web so that they would receive the same access and opportunity to read class work as would students in any other English course.
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My goal was to create a website that would function as a teaching aid during the class. I did not want to have it be a repository of syllabi, handouts, and resources. Instead, I wanted to design a site that would serve as my presentational device (like powerpoint), my peer editing paper exchange center, my course readings package, as well as the other uses. |
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SPace
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A second goal I had was to design a new type of site for myself and to practice Javascripting. The result was something of a "coccoon" rather than a "web"--or so I conceived of it. All of the material linked to the page appeared within smaller windows (as in "Space 4"). The class homepage is never displaced by other pages; instead, the linked material comes "onto" the page and can be handled as any "Windows" based system. |
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SPace
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The system still organized information with a straight-forward structure, as did the other two sites. However, instead of using a frame base, I used a series of drop-down menus. From each drop-down menu appeared the list of options. The best aspect of a system using a windows structure is that the windows will remain open until the user closes them. Students could examine an assignment, read a section on revising, consult an on-line grammar text, and use each of these resources to analyze a peer's essay--all at once. I feel that this course site comes the closest to being a "good" use of hypertext. |
| Because of the differences between having students in a high quality lab and having distance students using a variety of machines--home, work, library--my pedagogical strategy could differ from the teachers of the other classes because I could depend upon the technology with a much greater assurance that it would work properly.
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