Web 2.0 Conference

Classrooms 2.0 is holding a Web 2.0 Educational Technology Workshop this September 19th and 20th in Philadelphia, PA. For those that can not make it to Philadelphia several IU’s will be hosting the conference virtually. They include, IU1, IU9, IU13, NEIU19, and WestmorlandIU. The conference will focus on best practices for using Web 2.0 technology in the classroom. Current workshop topics include: Integration Strategies, Wikis in Education, Blogs in Education, Open Source Resources, Web 2.0 Resources for Effective Instructional Integrations Creating Classroom Social Networks, Creating Podcasts, Live Classroom Streaming, United Streaming/Discovery Education, Video Conference Collaborations, Classroom Webinars, RSS in the classroom, Effective Communications Teacher/Student/Parents, Effective Hardware Solutions for the limited classroom or district, Educational Technology Leadership, and Diiggo in the Classroom. Here is a link for more information on the conference.

<http://www.classroom20wiki.com/CR+20+LIVE+Philadelphia+08

Web Page editing

I am often looking for programs to create web pages for novice users. I would venture a guess that most teachers do not want to learn HTML or even think about it if they do not have to. While taking the time to learn a little HTML can really go a long way, there are plenty of programs that will allow you to create a site with zero HTML skills. Here are a few to try:

Dreamweaver – Pros: This software will allow both novice users and experts to create websites and is one of my favorites. Cons: First, price. All of the Adobe software comes with a price tag and this one is no different. Educators can get dreamweaver alone for around $110.00. Also, Dreamweaver can have a little bit of a learning curve. Because you can do so much with Dreamweaver it is a bit intimidating for the novice user.

iWeb – Pros: iWeb has some really beautiful designers that make it easy to create very professional looking sites. Cons: Again, price. iWeb is part of Apple’s iLife suite which runs $79.00. Another con is that it is only available on the Mac. This eliminates a large group of computer users. Finally iWeb is great when coupled with MobileMe (another $99 / year) to host your, but if you don’t want to pay any more you will have to do a little work to get the site working in another form.

Weebly – Pros: FREE. did I mention Free. This is a web based product where you can sign up for free and create sites (http://www.weebly.com/). Weebly also has some great templates to get you up and running in no time. Cons: The free version only lets you host one free site per user. You can export the pages and start over again, otherwise you would have to create multiple users for multiple sites.

WordPress: While this is not a web page editor, if you are looking for a blog site this is the one to go with.  It is obviously the one I use, if you are reading this you know that.  Great for this kind of a web page.

There are plenty more products out there. Let me know what you like to use in the comments.