By Ken Royal

Not Everyone Is a Webmaster

Many believe that it is necessary for all educators to become Webmasters. That sounds wonderful on paper and in conversation, but most times such thinking isn't realistic. Out of this way of thinking comes maybe one or two fantastically, incredible individual teacher sites, which in most cases have no connection to the local school, district, or its community; or maybe a lot of simple Web pages, with more animation than substance, and infrequently updated pages. But not everyone has to be a Webmaster in order to create a useful school Web site. Everyone can offer what he or she can toward a team effort. To do this well, the school community has to create and build the site-not by using an outside agency to do it. What's needed is at least one, or a few staff members, who know a little more technology than their colleagues, to take the 'bull by the horns' to begin to build the site. It requires a bit of extra time, which has never been an issue for educational pioneers. Seek out those individual staff members who are already sharing Web pages on the Internet. Most will jump at the chance to share more, for the joy of knowing cannot be complete without the joy of sharing.

Dedicate a School Web Server

Schools should develop their Web site using a dedicated school or district server. Outside Web servers are outside the control of the school and district. Everyone should strive to do things, technologically, together, within the school and district. No one wants to be out of control in a classroom or school, so why would anyone want it in posting a Web site. Most districts realize this and have a tech person working, either on a part-time or full-time basis. If your school doesn't have one, though, ask for a tech-knowledgeable parent volunteer, or contact some businesses for help. Invite the PTA or PTO to help, and offer them a chance to post their material as well. There's always someone willing to help.

How To Get People Involved

At Head O' Meadow, we are working together towards creating a Web site. Administrators, teachers, students, and parents supply the material for posting, while administrators, teachers, students, and parents with more technical ability prepare material for Internet posting. We look for the quickest, simplest way to gather and share information. Pages originally word-processed or typed by students, teachers, administrators, school secretaries, and volunteers (grandparents are great here) are easy to collect and post. Computers and software have made typing easy. There's even software such as MacDrive, compatible for both PCs and Macs.

Another way to get everyone involved is to create a calendar template that can be recreated easily. By printing and distributing such a calendar to all teachers, even the "technologically quiet," will join in the process of creating a Web site by at least providing necessary classroom information. Calendars are familiar and are widely accepted as a great way to plan teaching weeks or months. Also, they can be easily modified. So, you don't need a fancy FileMaker Pro database to make a showing on the Internet. Simple works too.

Make It Useful Right from the Start

Deciding whether or not to use fancy "Flash" displays, huge photos, or a lot of scanning should be taken into consideration also. A school site should be designed to be "quickly useful" for students and teachers at school, as well as everyone at home. It has to be accessible from both Mac and PC platforms, from all browsers, and on the lowest common denominator computers and Internet connections. It has to run well on school-networked machines and on home dial-up modem machines too. So, although schools could easily make a "fancy" site, it is better to make it useful. To have to wait for a "Flash" or Java applet display, a page of fancy hover links, or a scanned item to download can be annoying, and can also freeze-up older school computers.

Keep It Safe, and Stay In Control

Student work looks great on a Web page. As a more elaborate publishing of student work, Web work models the good quality everyone strives for, as well as creating a student need to edit and revise, which is very different from a teacher directive to do so. Remember to use first names only, or suggest the use of appropriate "Pen Names".

Digital photos and experimenting with some simple movies, even those created primitively on a digital photo camera, can be fun, but schools must keep in mind a district's directives on safety in such matters. Most schools would like to share more photos but prefer to be safe. One of our favorite ways of doing this at my school is to disguise our students with appropriate costumes for a particular subject. You'd be amazed at how interesting a photo of a student scientist in white lab coat and sunglasses can appear. Personal student e-mail addresses posted to a site aren't a good idea either. Educators need to maintain control and safety. There's more safety in group pictures and group e-mailings, all filtering through a teacher or staff member.

It's Not All HTML Anymore

There are some great WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) programs available that make creating Web Pages easy for anyone. Microsoft Front Page, Netscape Composer, DreamWeaver, or Homepage are a few examples. Today, most recently updated word processing software will also let you "save as" a Web page or html. You'll still have to check with your "School Pioneer" for help with transferring your Web page files to your server and site. There is software to do this, too, and after a lesson or two, it's as simple as a few clicks.

Portable Document Format Can Help

Larger documents can be put up as Portable Document Format. Pdf quickly downloads large files to older Mac or PC machines, as well as newer models. All you need is Acrobat Reader. Acrobat Reader is already on most computers, but can be downloaded for free at Acrobat Reader by Adobe. These documents keep their original format. With a little education, you could save a school or district a lot of money budgeted for paper, simply by using pdf.

"If you build it..."

The school community effort to create a Web site comes from the desire, of all those involved, to make communications between home and school better. It can be created without extra funding with a little bit of time, and for the most part, on primitive or personally-owned computers and software. Seek out the technology, teaching pioneers in your schools to help your school's carve out a digital place. And when you do, the words from the movie "A Field of Dreams" will have new meaning: "If you build it, they will come."

Email: Ken Royal