What is "the web"?

It is a great time to both look back on how far we have come this year, as well as look ahead to where we want to be in June.  Most of the students in our first year ELL class (which in Arlington Public Schools we call HILT-A) did not know how to keyboard when we started the school year in September.  I decided that since keyboarding is still such an essential part of the human-computer interface, we should start with that.  We spent about a month and a half on basic keyboarding.

Since then, we have worked on:

• setting up gmail accounts and using email
• using the Google Docs word processor to write English assignments
• creating an one-line illustrated dictionary
• introducing programming with Scratch
• integrating mathematics skills and enhancing programming using TurtleArt

Most students in the class have the skills they need now to begin creating and maintaining their digital portfolios.  The challenge now is to clearly communicate the following terms / concepts:

• web page
• web browser
• web address (URL)
• link
• publish to the web
• web site

Creating digital portfolios, which are in effect, web sites, and linking from the home page to all the artifacts that each student creates will give them the opportunity to learn these concepts in a hands-on way.