I have decided to focus on web building through Weebly or another web design site. One application that I have thought of for the use of this technology would be within the 4-H club. Each member is required to complete record books throughout the year where they report on what they have done in their projects, club or subcommittees. There have been many suggestions over the past decade regarding how this requirement could be updated from paper books or scrapbooks to a more modern version. My idea would be to have interested 4-H club members create a personal website where they would build links to various activities they have participated in over the year. Instead of submitting an over filled scrapbook with items pasted in them a member could submit a link to their website, saving on paper and providing options for young people to express themselves. Members could post slide show of various events they helped plan or participated in over the year or enter descriptions of their involvement in these events. This would require the youth development educator to create a training covering how this is done for those who don’t know how to do this. The YDE would also need to train parents and even club general leaders in order to better assist the young people as they use this technology.
A drawback to this might be that some don’t have access to this technology yet and to assume this would be exclusionary to those who don’t. For some the paper version of the record book is the only and best option, but for those interested this could be another option for them. They would need to play around with the security setting if they wanted to keep the site private or to protect themselves. My experience with 4-H and even 4-H youth development educators has shown me that there is a need for modernization of some of the traditional practices. This does not mean that this would replace them but instead move them into the age we are currently in.
