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September 15, 2002
Plan It. Design It. Build It. Put Your Web Site To Work
By David Warlick
Is your school or classroom Web site slacking on the job? Here, we detail strategies, tips, and how-tos for shaping up your online presence.
People today are going online to shop; get their news; communicate with family, friends, professional colleagues, and online communities; submit tax returns; find jobs; select and apply to colleges; meet their "matches;" and be entertained. We expect to find information online, we expect it to be up to date, and we expect it to be interactive. And the education environment is no exception. Parents and community are looking online to learn how their schools are preparing students for the future and how well they are succeeding. School and classroom Web sites are becoming the storefront for the business of education.
Craft a Web Publishing Strategy
As is the case with most professionals, educators fill up a typical work day attending to business-in this case, the business of education. They also plan curriculum; assemble educational materials; research, assess, and plan strategies; evaluate student learning; gain new skills; collaborate with other educators and experts; and deal with paper work. There is very little time to consider new tasks, and maintaining a useful Web site is certainly a new task. It is essential, then, that your Web presence yields a return that is worth the precious time you invest in it.
The bottom line? Any and all features of your Web site must be there because they help you do your job in some way.
When deciding on the topics and issues to be addressed in your site, take a problem-solution approach. Look first at your current job conditions, and then at the barriers that prevent you from succeeding to the degree that you want. Teachers: Are too many of your students not doing their homework? Are they not gaining the desired outcomes from special projects? Do you need more materials for your classroom for daily activities? Administrators: Is your clerical staff spending too much time on the phone answering redundant questions? Is there too little collaboration among teachers in your school? These and many other problems can be addressed by a carefully crafted Web site.
Next - Task 1: Establish Goals
Task 2: What Information Is Needed?
Task 3: Getting Your Message Across
Task 4: Choosing Your Best Options
David Warlick, an educational technology consultant in Raleigh, N.C., maintains the Landmarks for Schools Web site and provides staff development and conference addresses on a variety of ed tech issues.
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