Level 5: Pedagogical Memory
A Level 5 website acts as a dynamic
knowledge repository for the course.
These websites are similar to Level 4
websites, but the students take an even
more active role in directing their own
learning. Students collaborate to solve
problems and answer one another’s
questions; and their additions, dele-
tions, corrections, or enhancements of
content on the site add to the body of
knowledge in the course. Such sites can
replicate and extend
classroom discus-
sions or serve as a
site for problem-
solving activities
and extended
projects. You might
also integrate lower-
order activities—
such as turning
in homework
assignments—into
the site, enabling
you to access
student work from
anywhere. Students
who are out of class
for an extended
illness or travels
with family can also
use the site to stay
up-to-date on some
of their assignments.
These sites pre-
serve prior work
that is used as a
springboard for
future work. Students make additions,
deletions, corrections, or enhancements
to the body of knowledge in the course,
and they collaborate to solve problems
requiring higher-level thinking. These
changes often strengthen the site for
future use. Although examples of
Level 5 sites exist, most are password-protected and available only to students
in those classes and their parents.
For these sites to work well, the
teacher must invest time in the site each
day, and all students will need com-
Two-way communication related to the
curriculum gives Level 4 sites their value.
puter access. Plus, the school culture
must invite student-directed learning in
which the teacher acts as a facilitator,
guiding and encouraging deeper discussions with well-placed, open-ended
questions.
Getting Started
To determine what type of site is most
appropriate, you will need to take
several factors into consideration. First
is the time required to maintain the
site. Levels 4 and 5 offer the greatest
benefits to learning, but they require
regular monitoring and updating to be
most effective. You can recoup some of
this time by replacing existing activities
with Internet-based ones; for example,
students could participate in a book discussion online instead of during class.
If you intend to require interaction
with the website, you will need to
ensure that all students have sufficient
access and online savvy to do any web-based work you require. As Internet
access becomes more ubiquitous, this
will be less of an issue; but for now, it is
important to keep this in mind.
Finally, you will need to be ready for
a paradigm shift if you are creating an
interactive Level 4 or 5 website. The
value of these websites will depend on
your ability to foster interaction with
and among students. Training and
administrative support are crucial to
encouraging teachers to develop and
effectively use such websites.
The actual construction and main-
tenance of a site is relatively simple,
thanks to the many free and easy-to-
use software platforms available today.
Many teachers use programs like
Moodle ( http://moodle.org) to create
Level 4 and 5 websites. Wikispaces
( http://www.wikispaces.com/content/
for/teachers) is a platform for creating
interactive wikis; and Blogger (www
. blogger.com) and Wordpress (www
. wordpress.com) are widely used free
platforms for creating blogs. These sites
typically provide instructions that are
clear enough for a beginner.
Preparing Students
for the Future
Using higher-level websites at the K– 12
level is a valuable way to extend
learning past the school day, but they
also support lifelong learning. Blended
learning environments are becoming
more common at the postsecondary
level, some degrees and certifications
are now available only through distance
learning, and corporations are using
online courses for professional development. The more K– 12 educators integrate online learning into class activities,
the more they will be preparing their
students for the learning they are likely
to be doing in the future. What better
way is there to serve our students? EL
1Dunn, L., & Peet, M. (2010). A taxonomy of teacher-created class websites:
Increasing the educational value of class
websites. In D. Gibson & B. Dodge (Eds.),
Proceedings of Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International
Conference 2010 (pp. 420–422). Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement
of Computing in Education.
Lemoyne S. Dunn is a program coordinator for the Texas Center for Educational Technology in Denton and an
adjunct professor at the University of
North Texas; Lemoyne.Dunn@unt.edu.
62 Educational lEadErship / FEbruary 2011
