In the beginning, everyone thought it was a great idea, but didn't have a real handle on where to start or how much to include in each area. This is where a program like Inspiration is a big help in visualizing and organizing content.

Webs created: Claymation || Comedy || Dinosaur || Disney || Light/Sound || Music || Spy || Westerns

Monster movies was added later and the students creating it knew exactly what they wanted.

Using the webs gave most groups a way of dividing the work, checking off what was done, reevaluating content, thinking through before producing. The task would have been a daunting one without the help of such an organizational tool. Some were still referring to the webs at the end when they were checking if everything they wanted to accomplish was actually done. A few never needed their web once they used it to organize their thoughts

Though it was disappointing that our partners in England were unable to work on the site, Julian students picked up the slack and did the entire thing themselves. It made the task a larger one, but once begun, it was not that daunting. It did take a bit longer to accomplish, that's all.

Some students were familiar with the web creation tools either from home or from previously being in the Virtual Classroom class. First steps were to get all students learning and teaching so that everyone would feel comfortable with the tools and could concentrate on the content.

Some picked things up in weeks, some are just now at the end of the year "getting the idea" of what the tools will really do.

Our basic tools are: Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Photoshop, AppleWorks, GifBuilder, HomePage, and iMovie. No, we don't have everything on every computer, so students need to move about. They have network space for saving, so that helps a bit.

The least favorite thing of all! Spell checking, reading through for correct grammar, sentence structure, general "sense making" is the student's least favorite job. Will there still be mistakes? Of course.

Well, perhaps it's a close second to being sure that all the files are in the correct folder, linked correctly and uploaded to the server properly! Sometimes that can take days of: "Where is the graphic?" "Did you have it there when you linked?" "What does the html code say?" (Their mean teacher never finds if for them!)