Towards a Conceptual Framework of an Educational Web Portal

Technology plays an important role in everyday life of K-6 students born in the digital age. In the past several decades, educational institutions have made substantial investments in technology infrastructure with the aim of enhancing student learning, increasing student achievement, and helping students acquire digital literacy skills early on in their education. However, to fully leverage web-based technologies for student learning and communication inside and outside of school, teachers must be prepared to effectively plan, develop, and integrate technology into the curriculum-based activities of their classrooms. Educational web portals with resources for teaching, learning and communicating, can help teachers create a “connected” classroom environment that extends student learning well beyond the school’s brick-and-mortar boundaries. This article delineates a framework of an educational web portal for an elementary school classroom. Three inter-related dimensions comprise the framework: 1) web portal structure, 2) web portal impacts, and 3) web portal development strategy. This framework is of value to educators and school administrators interested in integrating web portal technologies into the educational and social infrastructure of their schools