School Webs

School Web Sites present a wonderful opportunity to support the work of the learning community and communicate effectively with parents, business partners, teachers, students, and the rest of the world.

Is your school taking full advantage of your web site?

A school web site may be part of a strategic plan or should be dovetailed with the existing school improvement plan. In that context, find out or decide:

• Who should be involved in decision making (technology director, teachers, media specialists, administrators, community members, students, parents)?
• What is the purpose (the story to tell the community and resources for teaching and learning)?
• Who is the audience?
• What content should be included, and who will provide it?
• Who will implement (design and maintain) the site?
• What are the technical requirements (hardware and software)? Ask your technical staff for advice on:
  • Web server (internal or external, security, maintenance, access-ftp or network and by whom, data base use)
  • Development tools (web editors, graphics programs...)

All web sites are "under construction," works in progress. Web sites typically evolve based on the talents and interests of individuals. The result may not communicate a balanced and comprehensive message to the community. Is one elementary school the only school in the district? Does one department represent the whole high school?

A well designed web site will present a comprehensive and balanced view of the school district, project the message that you want the community to see, and provide resources for teaching and learning.

Illustration of two types of school web site designs

"Information Architecture Tutorial," John Shiple, Webmonkey

• Assess: Create a rubric or checklist (or use this Sample Checklist, an Excel spreadsheet to download and edit) of desired web site features and assess your school's existing site. Does your school's web site tell the story that you want your community to hear and provide resources that support teaching and learning?
  
• Set Priorities: Work with others in your learning community to determine the local priorities for your web site.
  

Establish web publishing policies to insure that your community gets the right message about your school. Think about who will be allowed to publish on your web site, who has editorial responsibility, what content will be encouraged, will you publish pictures and/or identities of children and others, copy right, and other issues.

Use these or other resources to define web publishing policies for your district. Sample Web Policy

" Keeping it Legal: Questions Arising out of Web Site Management," Jamie McKenzie, From Now On

"Building Access
The issue of accessibility to technology and information ...electronic networks enabling communication between educators and the public includes access to student data. This also provides access to students in geographically isolated areas, and to the parents and families of all students. In addition, educators may utilize these networks to provide the public with student achievement evaluation results through the use of electronic assessment methods."

"Parental Involvement
... training and accessibility for parents, so they may support the academic achievement of their children ...focuses on providing electronic access to student data for parents and families, and in turn promoting family involvement in students’ education."

from "Understanding the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Technology Integration, Quick Key 3," NCREL, <http://www.ncrel.org/tech/qkey3/improve.htm>

Indiana Accountability System for Academic Progress, Indiana Department of Education