About this site:

MyLearningcenter is an online search and writing web site designed to support the integration of Language Arts instruction and technology standards. Furthermore, it supports classroom technology programs by increasing student access to technology, reducing paperwork, simplifying publishing, and making your time more flexible.

To use this site you may want to follow these steps:

1. Explore the site and read this brief guide.
2. Train students in class how to use the site. Review the student guide with them.
3. Use the web site tools provided to attain the goals listed above in the first paragraph.

You have several online tools:

1. Quicklinks: use this application to bookmark your links. Book marking helps students make the best use of their time online. It also helps keep them on task. It is good practice to bookmark web site for students.

2. Technology Standards Search: use this to identify relevant technology standards to your grade level and lesson objective.

3. eWrite: This is the online writing application. Students write their compositions with this tool. You write comments to them that they can read, and you can grade their papers online as well. Use comments to motivate and adjust student progress at each step of the writing process. Encourage students to write comments to you in their work. It is easy for them to delete it later. This will foster a two way communication between you and your students. You may find that students who do not speak up in class will do so in their comments to you.

To add a picture to an eWrite project, students click on the research window link while in the editor to open a second browser window. They can use the links and search tools provided to find pictures and then simply drag and drop the picture into their story or report. This technique will work as long as the picture in on a web page. You can create your own custom art page if you know how to make web pages. If you intend to publish student work, remember to observe copyright laws. Have students use the free clip art sites provided on the research page or other web sites that offer public domain clip art.

4. Learningcenter Forums: You and students can take your discussions online. Two Forums have been created-- one for discussion web links and the other to discuss the current assignment. It is highly recommended that you form discussion norms and rules with your students before you allow them to use the forum.

The forum is an ideal place for students to share their thoughts with each other and you. If you want to use the forum as an integral part of your lessons, you should require participation in the forum at a designated level. For instance, you can require that students visit a web site in your quicklinks and comment in the forum as well as respond to one other student constructively. Using the forum with younger students can take some practice, but can be a valuable tool for you and your students. Many students will participate more online than orally in class. A written forum provides time for students to think about their answers and it is not limited by class period constraints.

5. Research Tools: Several links and a Yahooligans search box are provided.

How to use the tools:

The web tools were designed to be easy to learn for those with experience using a web browser and word processor. Quicklinks is very similar to other bookmaking applications available on the web. eWrite is more complex, but uses conventional icons and has a help button . Use the help button in the eWrite application to learn how to best use the online writing tool.

Logging and and new accounts:

Teachers have pre-made accounts; that is your usernames, passwords and e-mail are entered for you. This site is designed to be operated in a single school environment and accounts have been set up by the web site administrator for Rancho Romero School.

Students must create their own account on the new account page. To register, they must provide the registration code. This code is set by the site administrator. See the web site administrator for the registration code to give to your students. It is a good idea to assign them user names and passwords and keep a master list.

Appropriate use:

Students should read the student guide. This guide discusses rules and appropriate use of web technology.

Publishing: It is easy to publish student work so that others can see it. When evaluating student writing, simply check the "publish" checkbox and then save the page by clicking on the save icon. Only published work, released by the teacher, can be viewed by any person on the web. Student names are not shown. Before publishing student work, make sure there are no real student names in the report or story as well as not pictures of students. This protects the privacy of students.

Use the online publishing feature to motivate students. When they have an audience they will be more likely to do their best work.

Asynchronous Learning:

The activities on this site are intended to be done asynchronously. Students can work on their papers in anywhere at school or at home. You can access their work from your school computer or from home at night or on the weekend. Read student work and provide them feedback anywhere and anytime.

Take advantage of this feature to improve your time management and provide students more opportunities to access computer and Internet technologies.

Applying the Technology Standards

This site was designed to address technology standards. Quicklinks was created to help teachers and students make efficacious use of Internet technologies and electronic research sources. eWrite was designed to give students control over text formatting. With a presentation system, students can present their writing to the class.

This combination of Internet efficacy and flexibility makes Mylearningcenter easy to integrate with standards technology and Language Arts in many areas such as:

• Oral Language
• Written language
• Research methods
• Use of technology tools and multimedia
• Formatting and presenting electronic work