|
School Web Sites
Curriculum | Research | Planning/Administration | Students | Schools
- Web66--Schools on the Web
One of the oldest collections of its sort, Web66 is an international directory of schools online. The easy-to-use interface features maps; click on the country or state you want to explore and an extensive alphabetical list of elementary and secondary schools appears. You can narrow your search to categories such as "gifted and talented" or "Montessori."
- Education World School Directory
"A country-by-country and state-by-state guide to K12 Schools, Universities, and Education Resources around the world," this site provides links to a wide range of schools internationally. Information is also included about districts, lesson plans, and sites of the week.
- School.Net Navigator
You can use this directory to search for schools and districts by such categories as: grade levels served, state or country, organizations the school belongs to, and the type of school (charter, public, and so on).
- National Association of Independent Schools School Search
At the NAIS site you can search for independent schools in the United States by state, type of student body, and type of program (boarding, day, or both).
Return to Top
T&L's School Sites of the Month
Find more recent School Sites of the Month.
- November 2000--Pen Argyl, PA: Pen Argyl Area High School
The site is updated daily with content such as the school newspaper, a course catalogue, directions to athletic events, and information about scholarships and volunteer opportunities from the guidance office.
- October 2000--Madison, Alabama: Discovery Middle School (no longer linked)
A vertical menu along the left side of every page makes the site easily navigable between homework assignments, PTA and faculty pages, and various student activities.
- September 2000--Wichita, Kansas: McLean Science/Technology Magnet Elementary School (link no longer available) This K-5 magnet school's homepage tells us right off that their program is "geared toward kids who have a love for science and computers."
- August 2000--Chicago, Illinois: Lane Technical High School Visit to Lane Technical High School (www.lanehs.com), a college prep technical school dating back to 1908.
- May 2000--Loita Hills, Kenya: International School of KenyaSee pictures of the studentsı trip to the Loita Hills, go on a digital safari, learn some words in Maa, and find out about Kenya.
- April 2000--Little Falls, New Jersey: Passic Valley Regional High School
A straightforward, well-designed site with good information and links back to the home page so you don't get lost.
- March 2000--Tempe, Arizona: C.I. Waggoner Elementary School The close-knit feeling of this school comes through in the numerous class pages and messages from the principal. The site, which can be viewed in English, Spanish, or French, includes an extensive list of links.
- February 2000--Waynesboro, Pennsylvania: Waynesboro Area Middle School This school for seventh and eighth graders is built around teams. Each team has a Web page and a homework hotline.
- January 2000--Cambridge, Nova Scotia, Canada: Central Kings Rural High School (link no longer available) Learn about an interesting school with a student government headed by a Prime Minister and student body members with titles such as Minister of Spirit.
- November 1999--Hartford, Wisconsin: Hartford Jt. #1 district The main page has links to the two elementary schools and middle school. The colorful lunch menu is a delight.
- October 1999--Sunnyvale, California: West Valley Elementary School This well-designed site opens with the school calendar and has links to information such as grade level curriculum and classroom pages.
- September 1999--Kanakee, Illinois: King Middle Grade School Check out the links for teachers and students, including ones on basic HTML instruction.
- May 1999--Terre Haute, Indiana: Sarah Scott Middle School The Scottie dog provides a lively background for this site which features the entire school community--with access to student projects, the student handbook, and more.
- April 1999--South Fayette, Pennsylvania: South Fayette Township School District Learn about South Fayette's elementary, middle, and high schools and their Web-casting program.
- March 1999--Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Dorseyville Middle School Homework is posted daily on this Web site, which features a slide show and information about what each grade level team is studying.
- February 1999--Woodinville, Washington: Wellington Elementary Among other things, you'll find a message from the principal, samples of student work and a list of book recommendations reviewed by students.
- January 1999--Miami, Florida: Miami Palmetto Senior High School (link no longer available) Features of this Web site include the online student newspaper, the student art gallery, and teacher home pages.
- Nov./Dec. 1998--Houston, Texas: Westfield High School (link no longer available) The calendar and course descriptions are helpful and the Cyberspace Branch of the Mustang library is a must see with its links to homework help and trivia games.
- October 1998--Old Lyme, Connecticut: Center School The opening page for this well-organized, frequently-updated site features links to information on the school and community events including summer camps and little league.
- Sept. 1998--Queensland, Australia: Herberton Secondary School
- May 1998--Yakumo, Japan: Yakumo Elementary School (link no longer available) You can get a real feel for what a Japanese elementary school is like through pictures and stories that are included in the page. The wooden brown bear section is particularly interesting.
- April 1998--New York, New York: Ralph Bunche School Each of the sixth graders in this grade 3-6 school--one of the first in the country to have a Web site--has a unique Web page featuring a technology portfolio. Visitors to the site are invited to participate in the Great Penny Toss project.
- March 1998--Winnipeg, Manitoba: École Assiniboine (link no longer available)
French language-immersion students in grades K-5 show a lot of classroom work as well as newsletters to parents, a message from the principal, and a description of how immersion works.
- January 1998--London, England: Emanuel School
Emanuel's site is searchable and describes the philosophy of the school, the curriculum, and the students. There are many student pages along with a fancy Boat Club page.
- Nov./Dec. 1997--Bangkok, Thailand: Samsen Wittayalai High School This colorful page includes information about Thailand, a Thai phrase book, and clips of Thai music to entertain you.
- October 1997--Le Sueur, Minnesota: Minnesota New Country School MNCS is a charter secondary school with interesting student-run projects such as The Frog Project and Dreamer Designs (an embroidery business).
- September 1997--Whitestone, New York: Francis Lewis Elementary School (PS 79)
- August 1997--Helena, Montana: Capital High School (link no longer available) Check out the online school newspaper, Paw Print, which has lively articles, digital pictures, movie reviews, opinion columns, and sports.
Return to Top
- Offline Browsing
An offline browsing utility lets you do copy an entire Web site to your computer's hard drive. In this way, you can view the Web site without being online, and the pages will load instantly.
- Ad Filtering
Ad filters block commercial banners and other annoying features found on Web pages.
- Filtergate, Adscience; 44-1491-413413 [U.K.]. Prevents both advertising banners and pop-up windows from being downloaded to your computer. Free daily updates from the Web site keep your proxy informed of the latest advertising codes.
- WebWasher, webwasher.com, 732-409-5009. Uses analytical methods and user-specified lists to recognize unwanted Web page elements that include banners, pop-up windows, animated images, JavaScripts, and Java applets. It can be custom configured for user preferences, and installed on individual PCs or on your school's network server.
- General Utilities
- Internet Watchdog, Charles River Media, 800-382-8505. Monitors computer use without blocking or filtering any content. It captures screenshots at random intervals, logs the start and stop times of every application used, and keeps a record of all downloaded graphics.
- Power Browsing Tools for Netscape, Netscape, adds new functions to Netscape Navigator version 4.x and above.
- SchoolSuite NewDeal, 800-985-4263. This complete Internet tool package provides a practical solution for schools that are limited by reliance on older computer systems. Designed for use with 286 to Pentium PCs, it includes a Web browser, e-mail client, HTML editor, and Internet Relay Chat feature, as well as a suite of office applications.
- Webzinger, ImaginOn, 650-596-9300. Java-based application that makes searches on the Web more efficient than using commercial search engines.
Return to Top
These school sites appeared in the What Works department of Technology & Learning magazine.
- Back Roads to Everywhere (March 2000)
They may be far from the city, and miles from the nearest airport, but rural students today are benefiting from technology's ability to connect them with the world at large. These rural school districts have countered poverty, isolation and other challenges with help from computers, the Internet and good ideas.
- When Students Lead the Way (December 1999)
It may be one of the most dramatic results of technology's rapid deployment in education. In districts across the country, teachers and school administrators are turning for support to the technology experts they trust most--their students!
- Generation www.Y offers an 18-week course for students in which each one develops a particular area of expertise and then mentors an individual teacher interested in integrating the technology into the curriculum.
- Narragansett Elementary School, Rhode Island, school site that the SWAT Web Weavers work on.
- Bringing History Home (September 1999)
From the prairies of Manitoba to a small town in central Florida, students are discovering that history involves learning about and from other people--including some very close to home.
- Author! Author! (April 1999)
Computer-supported projects are some of the best ways to get everyone at your school enthusiastic about reading, writing and technology.
- Making Dreams Come True (March 1999)
Programs combining great teaching, meaningful projects and computer-based tools to help "at-risk" students succeed and thrive.
- Mixed-Media Productions (Jan. 1999)
- California Student Media and Multimedia Festival A celebration of outstanding videos and multimedia produced by students in K-12 classrooms.
- Kramer Elementary School (link no longer available) The students produced the Web site of this school in Dallas, Texas.
- It Takes an Entire Village (Nov./Dec. 1998)
- Technology Education (Oct. 1998)
- The Arts Connection (Sept. 1998)
Return to Top
Web Builder's Directory
- Companies That Offer a Variety of Web Graphics Tools
- Adobe Systems (Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, ImageStyler, ImageReady) San Jose, CA; (408) 536-6000
- Bare Bones Software (BBEdit) Bedford, MA; (781) 687 0784
- BoxTop Software (PhotoGIF, ColorSafe, ProJPEG, Gifmation) Starkville, MS; (601) 263-5410
- Equilibrium (DeBabelizer) Sausalito, CA; (415) 332-4343
- Fractal.com (Painter 5.5, KPT) Carpinteria, CA; (805) 566-6200
- Macromedia (Dreamweaver 2, Fireworks) San Francisco, CA; (415) 252-2000
- NEC Systems (Leonardo's Multimedia Toolbox) San Jose, CA; (408) 433-1454
- SPG (Web Tools Pro, ColorWorks) Miami, FL; (305) 362-6602
- Spinwave (ColorGIF, ProJPEG, HVS Toolkit, GIF Cruncher) Evanston, IL; (847) 328-0880
- Sunburst Technology (Web Workshop) Pleasantville, NY; (800) 321-7511
- Totally Hip (Web Painter 3) Vancouver, BC, Canada; (604) 685-6525
- Ulead (Web Razor Pro, SmartSaver Pro, Gif Animator 3) Torrance, CA; (800) 85-ULEAD
- Other Graphics Utilities
The following utilities and tools, many of them free or available at a minimal cost, are worth checking out.
- Color Picker Pro This $5 shareware tool finds the closest browser-safe color to one you have just sampled from your Mac desktop in a way similar to the new Dreamweaver 2.
- Emblaze WebCharger (Mac or Windows) Reduces the file size of Web graphics for faster loading.
- GIF Wizard For a small subscription fee, GIF Wizard will compress graphics files and check your Web pages on a monthly basis.
- HTML Colors Designed to assist Mac users to work out Web-safe color schemes for their pages, this tool is free for personal and nonprofit use.
- HVS JPEG 2.0 and HVS ColorGIF 2.0 Plug-ins that work with most major paint programs to process graphic images for the Web.
- ImageMapper ImageMapper 3.0, downloadable from the Web for a $10 fee, supports easy design and maintenance of simple image maps as well as conversion of many common file formats.
- Kids Animation Maker and VSE Animation Maker These two tools from VSE are useful for beginners interested in learning how to create simple GIF animations.
- Lake Clear Software's Animato A Windows animation tool, Animato can be downloaded for a 30-day trial.
- A Smaller GIF 1.08 This site uses various compression techniques to store animations and will suggest the best format for storing your images.
- Web Painter 2.0 Lets you create graphics and animations either from scratch or by manipulating imported files.
- WebRazor for Photoshop (Windows 95/NT) Plug-in designed for Web imaging and animation.
- Online Clip Art
The resources below all connect you with free images and/or low-cost subscriptions for noncommercial use. Be sure to read the copyright notices and guidelines at each site carefully to see what permission is being granted for the images that interest you.
- Art Today A subscription-based service promising access to over 750,00 images, Art Today also offers up to 40,000 icons, buttons, animated GIFs and other samples to visitors who register for the free section of the site.
- Barry's Clip Art Server These collections of images and animations were donated by a number of different artists--including students and teachers.
- Bellsnwhistles This site offers animations and numerous other free graphics plus Web building tips and links to a number of other sites.
- Caboodles Caboodles features free clip art, animated GIFs, and links.
- Clipart.com Visit Clipart.com for an extensive collection of links to Internet clip art services.
- Club Unlimited This is a subscription-based Web site with thousands of images for members.
- Grsites.com This site offers 10,000 bullets, buttons, icons and clip art images plus nearly 3,000 background tiles, all billed as entirely free (a disclaimer explains that the graphics are not created by the Webmaster but are gathered from many places on the Web where they were labeled as "freely distributable").
- Infinite Fish Excellent background graphics plus assorted other images are available for free at this site.
- Scream Design Web designer Andy Evans offers numerous free images--including some excellent 3-D animations--along with design tips and a subscription service that provides access to many buttons and graphics not in the free images area.
- Advice
The sites listed here all offer advice on creating sites that are easy to navigate and understand.
- Graphics and Site Planning Advice
- Apple K-12 Education Web Site Advisor's Guide Apple's guide focuses on the important issues to consider before creating your Web site. Chapters include: Why a Web Site Is Important for Your School, What Should Be on Your Web Site, How to Make a Great Web Site, How to Get Your Web Site Used, and How to Update Your Web Site.
- Bright Sites This site gives guidelines, suggestions, and examples for use in designing a school home page. Gives examples of sites with cool graphics, great content, teacher resources, student publishing, and more. Once your site is up and running, nominate it so that others can benefit from your bright ideas.
- CyberGuides Read two sets of guidelines, developed by a high school library media specialist, for evaluating curriculum content and graphic design of Web sites. They offer helpful resources to engage students in an interesting review of your own site.
- Design a Web Page Resources put together by Tammy Payton, first grade teacher and Web editor for Loogootee Elementary West in Indiana.
- Grafx Design Tutorials This site offers focused lessons in the use of Photoshop, CorelDraw, animated GIFs and more.
- Internet 101 Teaches Boolean logic.
- Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators: Critical Evaluation Surveys Check out the evaluation surveys to help students at various grade levels evaluate the quality of Web sites they find to support their project work. These evaluations can be applied to local Web development plans.
- Lynda.com While not as awe-inspiring as her books, Lynda Weinman's own site does have some superb and reliable links.
- Web Page Design for Designers Created by Web designer Joe Gillespie for Web builders with some experience, this thorough site offers tips on everything from designing for Mac vs. Windows to typography to effective navigation design.
- Yale Web Style Guide If you're looking for a thorough, if someone academic, discussion of storyboarding and information flow design for Web sites, this article is for you.
- Learning and Practicing HTML
Even if you plan to use a commercial Web editor, sometimes it's helpful and interesting to understand a little HTML--the programming language of Web pages. These sites will get you started.
- D.J. Quad's Ultimate HTML Site Billing itself as a "one-stop HTML authoring and design site," D.J. Quad's provides HTML tutorials, style guides, tips and suggestions, and links to other resources.
- Dr. HTML This utility searches your Web site for about a dozen different variables including links, document structure, table structure, images, form structure, and spelling--and warns you if there are mistakes or files that will take too long to load. You receive five free page reports before choosing whether to join this fee-based service.
- The Traveling Tutor: Web Workshop Learn the basics of page creation, incorporating images, and practicing HTML. To get started, see Kelly's Experiments with HTML with step-by-step examples of some basic HTML code, then practice at www.ash.udel.edu/ash/tutor/html/testbed.html.
- Webmonkey Hotwired's How-to Guide for Web Junkies. Site-building topics such as Web design, HTML, Dynamic HTML, style sheets, multimedia, and JavaScript are covered in detail. You can also find news about the latest Web publishing developments.
- Design-Related Newsgroups
Are buttons "in" or "out"? What about the latest research on color combinations? Font usage? The following sites help keep you up to date on what is stylistically strong at any time, thus lending credibility to your site. If you have a question about Web graphics, you can be almost sure that someone in one of these groups will have an answer.
- alt.binaries.comp.graphics
- alt.design.graphics
- alt.graphics
- alt.graphics.photoshop
- comp.graphics.apps.photoshop
- comp.graphics.misc
- Page Design & Site Management Tools
- BBEdit (Mac only) from Bare Bones Software
- Blackboard.com is a good place to locate your Web pages if your goal is to have students working collaboratively online. Your pages can include chat and collaborative whiteboards or CourseSite, which helps you manage classroom activities.
- Electric SchoolHouse, in addition to general templates for creating a school or class Web site, also offers a worksheet and quiz maker. Even more unusual is the ExploraTours tool for building your own interactive learning modules.
- Family Education Network offers Class WebCreate. You can create simple pages easily or follow step-by-step instructions so you can learn how to do more complex tasks using HTML. Options let you publish an online newsletter of classroom activities, showcase your students' best work, organize the pages within folders, and edit images and add them to your image library.
- FileMaker Pro 4.0 (Mac or Windows) now offers Web publishing tools that allow databases to be easily published online. It includes a built-in HTTP server and CGI capabilities for connecting your databases to interactive forms.
- GoLive CyberStudio version 2 (Macintosh) lets you maintain sites on multiple Web servers, and includes sitewide spellchecking, and WYSIWYG frames preview.
- HighWired.com, known for providing templates for school newspapers, now provides classroom pages for high school teachers to post information and display student work. You can assign, manage and showcase student projects on the Web. And students can submit homework directly to your online site, so "dog ate my homework" excuses won't work. There are templates for school coaches, guidance counselors, and club advisors, too.
- HotDog (Windows only) from Sausage Software
- HoTMetaL Pro (for Windows and Mac) from SoftQuad
- Macromedia Dreamweaver (Mac or Windows 95/NT) includes on-demand validation of HTML code, management of repeating content, support for Dynamic HTML, and a library of JavaScript effects.
- Microsoft FrontPage 98 (Windows 95/NT) now has automatic generation of navigation bars, built-in HTML code editing, and complete site management.
- NetObjects Fusion version 2.0 (Mac or Windows) lets you import other sites, create consistent style borders around each page, and automatic generation of frames.
- Schoolcity.com not only offers tools for building school pages, but also allows teachers to create test questions (multiple choice, sentence completion and true/false) for students to answer online. The online calculator can then be used to analyze individual student and class results and compare them to previous results. Students and parents can access their own test scores.
- Symantec Visual Page (Mac or Windows 95/NT) lets users preview pages without launching a separate browser.
- Tripod, from Lycos, includes in its home page-building templates the option to place a message board (where visitors can post questions and announcements) or chat room ("real-time" discussion area) on your page. Your students can use these discussion areas to develop reports or work on group projects. Warning: If you don't update your site every month, it will be removed by Tripod.
- Web Weaver (Mac only) from Miracle Software
- Graphics/Multimedia Tools
- AltaVista This site lets you search for pictures as it offers an in-depth multimedia search capability with AV Photo Finder, delivering powerful navigation of more than 10 million Internet pictures.
- Fuji Online photo service that allows users of digital cameras or scanners to e-mail individual photos or create a digital photo album.
- Interactive Pictures Corporation Technology that lets students "walk" inside 3-D photographs with the click of a mouse.
- TerraServer Unlimited access to a large collection of satellite pictures of the Earth.
- Emblaze WebCharger (Mac or Windows) reduces the file size of Web graphics for faster loading.
- HVS JPEG 2.0 and HVS ColorGIF 2.0 are plug-ins that work with most major paint programs to process graphic images for the Web.
- Web Painter 2.0 lets you create graphics and animations either from scratch or by manipulating imported files.
- WebRazor for Photoshop (Windows 95/NT) is a plug-in designed for Web imaging and animation.
- WebSpice 1,000,000 (Mac, Unix, and Windows) is a collection of more than one million graphic images on four CD-ROMs to drag and drop into Web pages.
- Copyright and Fair Use
- Resources for Publishing CD Yearbooks and Online Newspapers
- Highwired.Net is a free online service that gives schools the tools to publish on the Internet as part of a national network of student newspapers.
- Online Resources for Learning More
Return to Top
Please report BROKEN LINKS here (please copy and paste the URL of this page and tell us which link did not work).
|
| |
|
