Process
This is a project to be done within a whole semester or school year if you have about 4 classes per week. During the first semester, students focus on Step 1 and 2. Give them at least a month for their research and writing including the outline. It will take you about a month to have them cite correctly, according to MLA style. The creation of the webpage should take no longer than 2 months after this.
Step 1
Select Your Team and Topic
You should have students select their own teams and members (not more than 6 students). Have them brainstorm possible topics, subtopics, work on good research questions and do some research to answer these. It is useful to go to the library and help them find sources. At this point you could give them guidelines on how to cite properly (MLA style). Next, explain to them what an outline is, as well as the introduction, body and conclusion for the page. Have them write their own, and correct their style, grammar, and mechanics. Also help them out with in-text citations.
Choose your team members carefully, as it is important that all of your work well together and share responsibilities. Brainstorm possible research topics and define the basic subtopics. Next, write some possible research questions and do some research to answer these. Finally, define your thesis statement to get started with your research paper. Individually you will be required to write your outline, introduction, body and conclusion before getting started with the webpage design.
Step 2
Gather Information
Have students go to the computer lab and the library to do their research. Check on this step while students are working on their research questions. This should take about two weeks.
Now that you've determined what kind of webpage you want to create, visit examples of other webpages which have the same content that you will be sharing. You can find a list of example sites checking out the �Thinkquest� library page. While viewing these examples, ask yourself the following questions:
Create a bookmark of resource sites that you want to incorporate into your webpage. Find sites that offer additional activities that will engage the visitor while using your webpage. Look for quizzes, puzzles, games, slide shows, and other additional resource links that you can add to your webpage.
Step 3
Select your Audience.
Your audience will effect the design and content of your project. If your target is high school students, your presentation will be different than if you were creating a page intended for children to use.
If your audience is elementary level students, shorter pages with few activities on each page will be more "kid friendly" rather than a long list of activities on one page. The older the student or audience is, the more diversified your web activity can be on one page.
Step 4
Create a Storyboard
Give students the design of their storyboard. Something similar to their outline is appropriate where you specifically tell them which elements are needed and what you expect from them.
As you begin designing your web page, remember that the top structure should be a menu format pointing to available resources. Include folders near the top of your structure so that new resources can be added at a later date. Create a storyboard of ideas that you want to use in your activity. It's helpful to write each concept or activity on a different piece of paper, then physically arrange them until you have the structure you want. Don�t forget that you must include all aspects asked for by the �Thinkquest� competition: home, subtopics, glossary, learn more � interact, team members, acknowledgments, copyrights.
When naming your files, avoid using uppercase letters in the filename. Try to use short, but descriptive names for each file that you are creating.
Step 5
Plan Your Navigational Tools
You should be proficient in using FrontPage or DreamWeaver or any other tool for creating web pages to help out the students when creating their webpage.
Plan how people will navigate within your activity. Every page should have a link to either the main menu page of the activity or a link to a special page. If your activity contains more than one file, you need to plan how visitors will advance to the next page or return to the previous page. If you are using a graphic as a navigational button, you should include a text alternative for navigating. Not all web browsers will recognize an image as a link to another file or webpage. Some people choose not to download any graphics when they are on the Internet. If you only had graphics for your navigational links, they would have a difficult time getting around within your activity. Within the description of the graphics or image tag, you should include a text alternative so that when images are not downloaded, a text description will appear.
Step 6
We have become a very visual society. Although content is more important than a "glitzy" page layout, your visual presentation plays an important role to the appeal of your lesson. Include the following items in your webpage:
Step 7
Oral Presentation
Plan one class for each team�s presentation. Check out that you have all resources necessary, as they will be using the internet, or use the computer lab for this.
You and your team members will give a lesson on your chosen topic to your peers, using your personal webpage. You will have done enough research to be able to answer all their questions and the webpage should only serve you as a guideline during your presentation.
Step 8
Publishing
To publish a work for the Thinkquest competition, the teacher must follow their guidelines. Go to their webpage and read the instructions.
Finally, your webpage will be evaluated to see if it followed all instructions and is really appealing to others. If so, it should be published for the �Thinkquest� competition before the deadline following all your teacher�s instructions.
Give Credibility
Before creating an educational webpage, you should understand some basic copyright issues. What is fair use, the necessity of getting other people�s permission to publish their work, and crediting other people's work.