Vertical Web Portals in Primary Education

Advances in digital technologies and proliferation of the Internet as an ubiquitous platform for communication and information open up new opportunities for teaching and learning in the 21st century. In the past decade, K-12 schools have made considerable investments in the educational technology infrastructure, as evident by the decrease in students-per-computer ratios from 10.8 to 4 in a 10-year period between 1994 and 2004 (Robelen, Cavanagh, Tonn, & Honawar, 2005). However, while the investments in computing infrastructure have been steadily increasing, teachers’ training and the integration of technologies into the elementary school classrooms have lagged far behind the infrastructure investments (Ivers & Barron, 1999). One strategy to address the technology gap between teachers and their students is to develop customized grade-level Web portals for elementary classrooms, and to train teachers to maintain and integrate Web portals into the teaching-learning processes of their schools (Preiser-Houy, Navarrete, & Russell, 2005). Today’s elementary school children are the “digital natives” that “speak” the language of computers and other digital devices (Prensky, 2001). They enjoy a full range of digital activities, including video and computer games, and that experience greatly impacts their lives outside of school (Yelland & Lloyd, 2001). Grade-level Web portals can bridge the technology gap between the “digital natives” and their teachers, many of whom were brought up and educated in a predigital era. In this article, we explicate the concept of vertical Web portals in primary education. First, we define the portal concept. Following that, we describe the essential components and the benefits of K-6 portals. Next, we present a portal development strategy comprised of planning, design, training, and integration phases. We also discuss future trends in evolving K-6 portals. Finally, we delineate areas for future research on the multidimensional impacts of portal technologies on elementary school teachers, their students, and student families. bacKground