Week 13: Creating a Professional Web Presence

This week we learned about what it means to have a web presence by learning how to create our own professional website through Google. A web presence refers to a collection of web files on a specific subject that includes a home page. For example, many companies, organizations or individuals have a single web site address; this is the home page from which you can get to other pages on the site. In addition to web presence, we also learned about distance education and virtual schooling. Distance education, also referred to as distance learning, is a field of education that focuses on the instruction, teaching styles and instructional systems design that aims to deliver education to those who are not physically present. Different types of distance education courses include correspondence through regular mail, internet, broadcast through radio or TV, CD-ROM that can be transferred to a computer, and student access through mobile devices.

A professional web presence and distance learning are both relevant to my future career as an educator. Especially for when I graduate from the University of Florida, it is useful and practical to have a web presence. Through my own personal web presence site, I can allow employers to look at my website and learn more about me. Employers can see my personal information including skills and hobbies, my resume and academics, and skills that I have gained that can help me in the classroom. A professional web presence is a great marketing tool, especially or a college graduate searching for teaching positions, as I will be. Distance education is also an important aspect of the field of education to consider. I know especially in Florida, Florida Virtual School is becoming increasingly popular every year. It is possible that I may one day be a teacher for Florida Virtual School or I will have students who are taking additional classes through this system. Therefore, it is vital for me to understand the impact and teaching strategies for classes that do not require students to be present physically.

I chose to embed this YouTube video from Florida Virtual School because it is relevant to the topic of distance education from class. The video is biased toward the advantages of Florida Virtual School; things that I definitely need to consider in my future career. Some advantages presented in this short clip include students receiving more personalized attention, teachers being available more often, online study groups with other students, and the fact that a student can work whenever it is convenient for him or her. For parents, they have more access to the students work and can contact their child’s teachers with greater ease. While there may be disadvantages to the idea of virtual school, I found it interesting to note some of the advantages discussed in this video.