The first two ideas that I thought of while reading the case study were that Lenora may be able to create videos to share her professional development ideas with other Aboriginal educators and that Lenora may be more interested in developing a resource like a wiki which would allow other educators to contribute to over time.
I was not immediately dismissing her using a website. I would think a website is a better overall look than creating a series of videos or starting a wiki, but with the dial-up connection, (Do those still exist? Perhaps having lived in two major Asian cities in the past nine years, I had mistakenly believed that the rest of the world was now also connected by broadband.) her website would be visually sparse without the (efficient) ability to upload images and other content quickly. However, even in an image poor online environment, she could hyperlink to content hosted elsewhere. Her lack of experience creating a website does not lead me to shy away from offering it as a solution to her. Multiple websites are available that support new website creators in building what they seek. I looked at Richard Byrne’s blog Free Tech for Teachers to find out if he had compiled a list of such sites. In a 2012 blog post he had given eleven free tools for creating websites (“Free Technology for Teachers,” n.d.). Websites such as Wix, Weebly or Google Sites have a user-friendly interface and are easier than WordPress or Blogger for people creating a website for the first time.
Turning back to the two ideas that I had while reading the case study, a series of videos could be put on Youtube, and the link shared via email. But this seems insufficient for her needs. Not to mention the issue with uploading, though Lenora could take her video on an external hard drive and upload to Youtube from school. Since a wiki would take some time to learn and won’t have the visual appeal that many websites now offer, I am less fond of this suggestion after all.
I hope that Lenora would look into the available, easy website creators that are available for her to create her professional development website and collaborative community.
References
Free Technology for Teachers: 11 Free Tools for Creating Websites and Simple Webpages. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2016, from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/04/11-free-tools-for-creating-websites-and.html