In EDLD 5365, we had to start out like we were just hired as the Webmaster of our school district. I didn't know much about our district's web design, so I had to go talk directly to the Technology Director. Our district had recently changed their web development model. Previously, there was a single webmaster who did all the work. Personally, I believe you could tell this because everything was so outdated and there was not much information to give website visitors. "This causes a website to lack interactivity with the user" (Dobe, 2010). Currently, there is now a more diversified modular design that allows fewer controls by one person and puts the website information responsiblities in the hands of the local entitiy. Each department or principal can add information to the site. The Technology Director just ensures its functionality and keeps collaboration in tact between all parties. With this information, I was to make a web policy. In creating this web policy, it was interesting to see what my school district did not have updated and did not have aligned with their goals. Building the web policy also made my dive further into my district's Acceptable Use Policy which in turn made me discover some items that I had not seen prior to this assignment.
In week 2, as a the webmaster, we were to create a website plan with objectives as well as a timeline of completion. To do this, I had to evaluate what was the function to a website. I believed it was usability. "A user-friendly web site encourages visitors to return is one that allows those visitors to find information and complete tasks swiftly and simply. Truely user-friendly web sites provide visitors with multiple ways to find the information and functionality they need" (Kaiser, 2006, p. 61). I compared our district's web site to others in our area that had similar school population. This method also helped me detect the negatives and positives within our website. In turn, this made me reflect on my own classroom website. Since its debut last year, I had been adding and changing it around but I felt no one even used it. I would like to look into getting a counter to see how many visitors come to the site as well as get some personal feedback on it.
Content management was the focus of week 3. I had an analyze all the files to be included on the website, including the author and when it was last updated. When working with this, it was apparent to me that many files had not been updated or they could not be found on my district's current site. I notified my Technology Director of this issue and was able to get things organized as they should have been. I was to also create memo thoroughly describing what services and I needed. When creating this list of services, I learned how much the teacher web sites at the time did now allow. Since then, however, we have changed teacher web site companies and most of the features asked for at the time is now possible.
Adding interactivity to our school site was topic of week 4. One way to do this was to have a classroom blog. This was a new topic to me. I had seen blogging in other areas, but not for the classroom. "A blog can let outsiders see what what school or the classrom is all about. It can let others see things that are occuring in the school" (Soloman and Schrum, 2007, p. 124). At the Texas Computer Educators Association Conference earlier this year, blogging for the classroom was a hot topic. Teachers and students alike are getting into being bloggers. Lastly, I was to create procedures for content management that outlined how to enter text and upload image files, post to blog, and create a podcast. I do these type of procedures quite often since I teach technology to both educators and students. One thing in making procedures like this, you must assume the reader knows nothing or you might accidently leave out a step.
During the last week of EDLD 5365 we were to make provisions for the website pre-launch and post-launch. Using "Deliver First CLass Web Sites: 101 Essential Checklists" by Shirley Kaiser was key. This book provided quite a bit of information throughout the course not previously known to me. From this book, I will be able to assess websites and what functions of the site are positive and negative. This is something I can also pass along to my students when we look at business websites and how they market their product/service.
Dobe, Michael (2010). EDLD 5365 Web Mastering: Week 1: Web Policy, Governance, and the Web 2.0 World.[PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from Lamar University Epic Player site: https://lamar.epiclms.net/resource/1459/web/welcome.htm?LoginPrefix=lamar&ReturnUrl=%2fLearn%2fHome.aspx
Kaiser, S. (2006). Deliver first class web sites: 101 essential checklists. Collingwood, VIC, Austrailia: Sitepoint.
Soloman, G. and Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.
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