Personal home pages are a wonderful social invention. As faculty, we can use them to show students a side of ourselves that might not be apparent in the classroom. Or we can use them to point to resources on the web that we think our students could learn from and/or enjoy.

The range of styles with with faculty portray themselves is enormous. In this exercise, you'll examine and analyze a number of personal home pages of academics and begin to determine your own personal style. Here are the pages:

For this exercise, you'll work in pairs at first. Examine each of the pages above and then make a mark and initial each of the axes below indicating where you think each page belongs on that axis.

When you've looked at all the pages, compare notes with your partner. Did you perceive these pages in the same way?

Next, decide how you would like to portray yourself. Place a mark on each axis to indicate a style that fits you.

Finally, pick one of these pages and make it your own. We'll spend the next portion of the workshop showing how to capture one of these pages and putting your own content into it. In a matter of minutes, you'll have your own personal page started!