Description
The purpose of my lesson was to teach my mom how to create a Weebly. The lesson started with a simple discussion about her prior knowledge of creating websites. This discussion included a conversation about different website creators, websites she visits, and how she believes a website is created. I then introduced my Weebly Creation website that included videos that helped guide people with creating and maintaining a Weebly. Next, I allowed my mom to watch the videos and try creating her website. Finally, the lesson ended with a discussion about her experience and my assessment of her work so far. I originally planned on taking screen shots of creating a Weebly, but found that there were many YouTube videos already dedicated to creating a Weebly.
Implementation
I originally planned that my lesson and my mom’s website creation would take around 3 hours, but due to family emergencies it was cut short. The part that was cut short was the time my mom had to actually work on her website. She has an outline completed with the basics, but hasn’t been able to sit down and add the needed written content. I was able to introduce my Weebly Creation website and assess her understanding by asking her to add a certain feature to her website. My mom didn’t have any issues with the basic skills of creating a Weebly. She was able to change her background, delete unwanted content, add horizontal dividers, create multiple columns, add pages and subpages, add pictures, add text, publish, and continue editing. The only feature I forgot to add to my Weebly Creation website was the “adding contact form” tutorial. I taught her how to do this one-on-one by adding it to my Weebly Creation website. She hasn’t been able to try using all the features I provided on the Weebly Creation website, but I did add a lot of content.
** Edit: the instructional video is no longer available because Weebly made a lot of changes to their website
Reflection on Lesson
Question Set 1:
1. What was learned?
My mom’s learning objectives were:
- The student will create a Weebly account
- The student will use various features provided by Weebly
- The student will publish the Weebly for the public
- The student will edit the Weebly after publishing
- The student will be able to seek help on the Weebly creator
I knew my mom wanted to create a website that geared to informing other parents about the journey my family went through to educate my sister. My mom talked about doing it for so long that I finally decided to step in and use this lesson as a way to help her start creating her own website.
2. What are the affordances and constraints for how knowledge/information is being represented?
My technology was used to both teach the lesson and it is what is being learned. My mom was able to see what a website can look like by viewing the website I created. There were so many features to include in my website that I ended up overlooking the “contact form” feature. I feel that my website as an instructional tool is a good stepping stone into starting a Weebly, but for users that want to use more advanced features they would need to look elsewhere.
3. How does learning take place?
Observational learning took place when my mom used the Weebly I created to teach her how to create her own Weebly. The social constructivism will took place as me being a facilitator in my mom’s journey in making her own Weebly. I participated when I see fit and I adjusted my Weebly along the way to further assist my mom with any in depth questions she had (i.e. adding contact form).
4. How does your lesson connect to the existing curriculum?
My mom is not in grade school and thus my lesson was not part of a curriculum.
5. How are important differences among learners taken into account?
I only had one student, so the lesson was personalized to her individual needs. By creating a website as my main teaching tool it gave her the freedom to work at her own pace.
6. What do teachers and learners need to know in order for your lesson to be a success?
As the teacher, I needed basic computer skills, browsing skills, and knowledge of YouTube and Weebly. As the student, my mom needed basic computer skills.
7. How did you assess what students were doing and what they were learning from this activity?
I had a pre and post informal discussion with my mom about website creation and her own personal reflection on the process. As my formal discussion I observed my mom’s website and asked her if she was able to do certain tasks that her website didn’t include (i.e. adding a slideshow or poll). Her website is not complete, but I can surely say that she will be able to complete it to the best of her ability.
Question Set 2:
1. What role does technology play in your lesson?
The website creator, Weebly, had a double purpose in my lesson as both the instructional tool and the content being taught. My mom was able to use the instructional tool as both a way to create her own Weebly, but also as an example of what a possible website can look like using Weebly. Weebly has many features that give a variety of options on what your website can look like and it is all user friendly.
Luckily I didn’t experience any of the possible disadvantages I predicted previously. Of course, using a technology has its disadvantages in regards to any technical malfunctions. Also my technology required internet access and thus if the internet was down then my lesson wouldn’t be able to occur. Creating a website is time consuming and my mom wasn’t able to complete her website. If I was to use this in the classroom I would have to make this a long assignment that the students would have to work at home in addition to class time.
2. How did students react when using the technologies?
My mom reacted quite well to the technology. She believed it was very user friendly and that the YouTube videos I included as my instructional tool were quite useful. One of the videos I included touched on HTML formatting for changing the background of the Weebly page, but she wasn’t confident in her abilities to try it. She was able to change the background using the basic templates provided by Weebly. She will be making changes to her Weebly overtime and that is one of her favorite features. She informed me that this probably will not be the only Weebly she will create. She plans on looking into other website creators as well.
3. How would you describe how students were making sense of the content with the technology?
Visual and audio were the two main way that the content made sense using my instruction tool. By watching the YouTube tutorial videos and listening to the steps provided it made creating a Weebly very easy. The tutorials I included showed you what to click and included a highlighting tool so it catches your attention on where to look on the screen. My mom was able to observe my website, the websites in the tutorials, and during my introduction I also showed her my old classroom website and teaching portfolio for further examples. I believe that by including a drop down menu of the features it made finding the tutorial she wanted a lot easier and efficient. I originally had all the websites on one page and noticed that it would be hard to find the video in a timely manner. I took my time creating my Weebly Creation website in order for my mom to make her website. My use of tabs, drop down menus, and videos made creating a website a pleasure for my mom. I feel that my lesson was a success overall even though my mom wasn’t able to fully complete her website I know she has the skills and resources to do so.
