Instruction Manual

Overview

1. We have tried to make participating in the GCC as simple and flexible as possible so that students and teachers of all levels of technical ability can actively participate and enjoy their experience. Each classroom will be assigned a “partner classroom” in a different country with whom they will exchange information.

1a. This introduction will show you an overview of the website system using examples from a pre-built sample site. When you first sign on to your actual classroom site there will not be any content. That is ok, you will simply have to log on to your “Site Manager” and create some content (which you will learn a little later).

1b. When you first sign on to the sample site by entering your username and password you will be taken to the joint web page entitled “Welcome to GCC Site Link” which will present you with two classrooms to enter. These are just sample classrooms but when you actually start the program, one will of course be your classroom site and the other will be your partners.

2. In our sample site the classrooms are named “Tokyo Classroom” and “San Francisco Classroom.” Under the photos of the classes you will see two “Enter Site” links. Clicking on these links will take you to either your classroom pages or those of your “partner” where you can see the format of the GCC template.

3. At the top is the classroom name followed by some basic information. To the left are links to four sections of your Web site, “Classroom,” “Students,” “News,” and “Gallery.”

3a. The final link “Sitelink” will take you back to the joint page from which you can once again enter either your classroom or that of your partner.

4. Clicking on the “Students” link will take you to the template directory for all your students. As student’s names and photos are entered through the “Site manager” they will appear (with thumbnail photos) as on this sample page. Clicking on the student’s name or photo will take you to the student’s information page.

5. Once on a student’s information page clicking on the “Come Visit me at my website” will take you to the student’s own web site opening with the student’s “Log”. Each student will be able to control his or her own web page through their “Sitemanager”.

6. Each students “home Page” has links to their own personal “Gallery” and “News” pages as well as links back to the “Student” page and the joint “Sitelink” page.

7. When you are finished looking at the students page, return to the “Classroom” page by clicking the “Back” button on your browser to get to the Students information page then clicking on “Classroom,” or you can simply click on “Sitelink” and then click on “Enter Site” again.

7a. You can return to the main classroom site by either clicking the browsers back button to get to the “Students” page where you will see the class navigation buttons on the left, or by clicking on the “SiteLink” button which will take you to your joint page where you can re-enter either classroom site.

7b. You can return to the main classroom site by either clicking on the “Students” link to return to the classroom student directory or simply using the browsers “Back” button to return to the main site. You can also click on the “SiteLink” button to return to your joint page where you can re-enter either classroom site.

8. On the “Classroom” page when you click on the “News” link it will take you to a text only page where school, and classroom news and information can be posted for your partner classroom to see.

9. Clicking on the “Gallery” link will take you to the directory page for your photo galleries. Here each of the Galleries you have created will be listed with a brief description.

10. Clicking on the “Gallery” title will bring you to a page where each of the photos you have loaded will appear as thumbnails.

11. Clicking on a photo will enlarge the photo and the photo’s caption (if one has been entered).

12. Clicking on the ”Sitelink” button will take you back to the joint opening page. From the “Joint Page” you can enter your partner’s classroom site to view the content they have provided; you can open the “Forum” below the Classroom photographs and you can enter the “Site Manager” which is what you will use to load pictures and text into your web site’s pages.

How to Use The Site Manager:

13. It is incredibly simple to build your web site using the GCC Site Manager. So simple that one teacher in our pilot program had never used a computer before and was happily building her classrooms web pages after just ten minutes of instruction. If you want to practice using the Site Manager before signing up to participate, please use the “Contact” link at the top right of the Global Classroom Connection Home Page and send us an email. We will forward you a username and password to a “Practice site” where you can experiment loading text and photos until you feel comfortable.

14. Log onto the site with your supplied username and password.

15. The account you log on with will determine what pages you have control over. If you log on with the teacher’s username and password you will have control over the entire site, including all the student’s introductory information pages.

15a. The account you log on with will determine what pages you have control over. If you log on with the teacher’s username and password you will have control over the main classroom site.

15b. If you log on as a student you will only have control over your own web site. Once logged in you will be at the joint page.

16. Click on “Enter Site Manager” and you will see the following:

17. Across the top of the page you will see five links:

18. “PageWizard” which is the page you are on allowing you access to the different manager tools.

19. “ImageWizard” which allows you extra flexibility in the sizing and quality of the photos you upload (You can upload as many photos as you want without having to use the “ImageWizard” but if want a little more control see the Resource Section on the GCC home page for instructions on using the “ImageWizard”).

19a. “SiteLink” which will take you back to your joint classroom page.

20. “Home Page” which will take you back to your classroom home page, and;

21. “GCC” which will take you back to the Global Classroom Connection home page.

22. On the left side of the page you will see four links; “Classroom”, “Students”, “News”, and “Gallery” which correspond to the four main template pages. Clicking on any of these links will take you to the “WebWizard” that will allow you to upload photographs and or text on the designated pages.

22a. Below those four links you will see the “Sitelink” link which will take you back to your joint web page.

22b. Below that you will see the “Add Blank Page” link which allows you to add a blank HTML page for those interested in moving beyond the templates and experimenting with building web pages using HTML code (see the Resource section on the Global Classroom Connection web site for basic instructions on how to use HTML on any blank pages you create).

23. If you are the teacher, you can add or delete content from any page but your primary responsibility is for the Classroom page, the News page and the Class Gallery page. Click on the “Classroom” link on the left hand side of the page. You will be taken to the Classroom GCC WebWizard.

23b. As the teacher your primary responsibility will be the main “Classroom” page, the “News” page and the classes “Gallery” page. Click on the “Classroom” link on the left hand side of the page and you will be taken to the “Classroom GCC WebWizard”.

24. On this page you can enter text information in the boxes provided either by typing it in or cutting and pasting from a word processing program. There are boxes for you to provide the classroom name, City, state, province or prefecture, country, postal code, age of the students and number of students in the class. You can leave boxes blank if they do not apply.

25. You place a picture on your page by clicking on the “Browse” button next to the box labeled “Update Image” and then finding the jpeg photo you want to insert on your hard drive, CD or floppy disk. You can change this photo anytime you want and replace it with a more current photo.

26. When you are finished inputting your information and selecting your photo simply click on the “Update Classroom” button at the top right of the page and your classroom page will appear on your web site. To check, simply click on the “Home Page” link at the top of the page. All the information and the photo you selected should now appear on your web site.

27. Return to the Site Manager by clicking on the “Enter Site Manger” link on the joint “SiteLink” page. Select the “News” page by clicking on the “News” Link in blue on the left hand side of the page. On this page you can enter news stories about your class, school events, homework assignments, upcoming field trips festivals etc. Simply type in or paste a headline, author and the news story you want to post and then clicking on the “Add New Article” button under the text box.

27a. Your new article will appear toward the bottom of the News Wizard screen. Each of your added articles will appear with an “edit” link next to them which you can click to make changes at a later time.

28. Now click on the “Gallery” link in blue on the left side of the page to create, edit or delete photo galleries. Type or paste a “Gallery Title” in the box provided and then type or paste a description of what the photo gallery is about in the “Gallery Description” box then click on the “Add New Gallery“ button.

29. The new Gallery will appear in the list labeled “Current Galleries”.

30. To upload your photos click on the underlined “edit” link to the far right of the galley name. Select the jpeg photo you want to add from your hard drive, CD or floppy drive by clicking on the “Browse” button under “Add A New Image” then type in a good description of the photo in the “Image Title”: box and then click on the “Upload Image” button to the right.

31. Be patient since depending on the size of your photo and the speed of your computer this might take a few seconds. You will know it has uploaded successfully when the boxes become empty again and a thumbnail of the photo you just uploaded appears directly under the empty boxes. You can upload as many pictures as you want to the galleries.

31a. If you choose to edit the “Gallery Title” or the “Gallery Description” you will have to click on the “Update Gallery” button but this is not necessary if you are only adding photos. And remember, photos are a very good and easy way to share your experiences with your partner classroom! (If you have problems uploading photos see the ‘Uploading Photos” link in “Resources at the GCC website0.

32. You can change the order your galleries appear on your website by clicking on the blue underlined “up/down” links next to the gallery names.

33. When students log on and click on the “Enter Site Manager” link, they are taken to a different version of the “WebWizard” which allows them control over their own web site.

34. On the left hand side of their page they have a link to their own news page called “My Log” where they can enter diary information, talk about their sports, interests and hobbies or post anything else they want to.

35. The “My Log” page is set up very much like the “News” page with boxes for a Title, an author and a text box that they can type of paste and text into.

36. The student “My Gallery” page works exactly the same as the main classroom gallery page (see above for instructions). Students can upload photos of their house, their family, food they love, favorite television programs hobbies, vacations anything they think will be interesting to their partner classroom’s students.

37. Also on the student’s main Site Manager page is a link called “Add Blank Page”. This link will create a blank HTML web page so that students who are interested in experimenting with HTML code and using more flexible page layout designs may do so if they want to. Any one interested in this feature should review the information on “Using HTML” in the GCC Resource section of our website.

The Forum:

38. All students and teachers are encouraged to make frequent use of the Forum that appears on the joint “SiteLink” page. This is where you can communicate directly with your fellow students in another country; comment on their web sites, ask them questions, and raise issues you want to talk about. Clicking on the “Click Here” link in the Forum box will open a new window with the GCC Forum.

39. To start a new topic, simply click on the “Start a New Topic” Folder on the top far right hand side of the blue box. That will open a new window with a place for you to enter your Subject title, type or paste any message you want and add any of the faces, links or other features available. When you are finished simply click on the “Post” button at the bottom of the page and your new topic will appear as a folder on the opening page of the Forum.

40. To enter, read and or participate in any of the forum topics already posted, simply click on the folder for the subject you are interested in. to add your own comments to the ongoing forum, simply click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of the page and a new window will open with a box for your comments. Type or paste your comments in the box and then click on the “Post” button at the bottom of the page.