Do these Web sites work? Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Learn what our panel of online experts (Odvard Egil Dyrli, Charles Shields and Gary Stager) say is right, and wrong, with these district Web sites.NAVIGATION The site is very deep; there are lots of places to go and things to see--even listen to. The district has included a number of narrated slide shows about the school system that open in the middle of the home page, and close again with a click Understand that this is an enormous district, but there's no unevenness of quality between different campus Web sites. Many of the introductory school profiles on the district site had subheads about class size and "unique assets" left blank.--CS QUALITY OF THE INTERACTION WITH THE USER The site treats the user as a guest. Sites can have a tone as much as any other type of information, and the Charleston site--by organization, utility and language--is polite as a mannerly man·ner·ly adj. Having or showing good manners. See Synonyms at polite. adv. With good manners; politely. man host.--CS Redundant navigation options, consistent menus and visible search tools make it easy to quickly find specific topics of interest and contact staff members. The site is also "Bobby approved" (bobby.watchfire.com) with pages designed to provide access to users with disabilities, including the use of assistive devices assistive device Public health Any device designed or adapted to help people with physical or emotional disorders to perform actions, tasks, and activities. See Americans with Disabilities Act, Architectural barriers, Assistive technology. such as readers for the blind.--OD SCHOOL-TO-HOME INTERACTION There's no doubt the site designer and the educators involved in the creation of this site are of one mind about the themes they want to communicate to the community: this district is about learning; this district is about the kids; this district is about recognizing and rewarding good teaching; this district, gentle taxpayer, is delivering the goods. For parents who want to peel back the layers of the onion a little more, them are links to curriculum, health services health services Managed care The benefits covered under a health contract , technology and school safety. Contact information is current and the links are live. What could be more disquieting dis·qui·et tr.v. dis·qui·et·ed, dis·qui·et·ing, dis·qui·ets To deprive of peace or rest; trouble. n. Absence of peace or rest; anxiety. adj. Archaic Uneasy; restless. than to click on administrative links and have them be rotten.--CS CREATIVE USE OF ONLINE TECHNOLOGIES The site's "news crawl" feature brings key topics to the immediate attention of users. Although many of the pages include graphics, animations and photographs from district events and pop-up windows pop-up window n (Comput) → Popup-Fenster nt , most of the selections are text-based.--OD UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION The site joins hands with the community by posting information any conscientious con·sci·en·tious adj. 1. Guided by or in accordance with the dictates of conscience; principled: a conscientious decision to speak out about injustice. 2. resident would want to know: Emergency Preparedness pre·par·ed·ness n. The state of being prepared, especially military readiness for combat. Noun 1. preparedness - the state of having been made ready or prepared for use or action (especially military action); "putting them Plans; an interactive district calendar of events; deadlines for various education opportunities and so on. The timeliness of all this gives the unmistakable impression the site is dynamic, not updated once in September.--CS DESIGN The opening screen is well organized, with clearly defined content selections for educational resources, study materials, standards, instructional technology There are two types of instructional technology: those with a systems approach, and those focusing on sensory technologies. The definition of instructional technology prepared by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Definitions and Terminology and district information. But it would be helpful to divide customized content selections targeted to different groups of users--including students, teachers and administrators--into separate areas. In addition to the district-designed pages where design and content can be controlled, selections include links to numerous pages from other sources, where quality and timeliness vary significantly. NAVIGATION The home page presents choices in a handsome format: buttons on a crescent-shaped organizer yield windows listing subtopics: Study Zone opens a list of major tests. The user never strays very far: the back button or just closing the pop-up window returns you to the home page. Efficient, but frankly, not very interesting. There's no sense of exploring.--CS QUALITY OF THE INTERACTION WITH THE USER Because of the confusion over the audience--kids? parents? maybe teachers?--the interaction seems indistinct in·dis·tinct adj. 1. Not clearly or sharply delineated: an indistinct pattern; indistinct shapes in the gloom. 2. Faint; dim: indistinct stars. 3. . Interaction is not only ease of clicking and navigating: it's the feel of a site, and this one has several personas-none of them quite the same.--CS The site offers tremendous amounts of information, but while accessing individual topics is fairly intuitive, it would be helpful if the design elements were more uniform from page to page, and the home page included a "how to use this site" feature. The site also includes a variety of search tools including Google-powered search boxes for finding specific topics on the Oswego site as well as on the Web.--OD SCHOOL-TO-HOME INTERACTION If, as a parent, you can hang on and get past the organizational stuff--standards, who's in charge, tests, etc.--and find your way to your kid's virtual classroom, you'll find some charming postings. Many primary teachers have posted their students' work. Also, the Elementary Test Prep Center feature, like a number of others on the site, seems to be boilerplate A phrase or body of text used verbatim in different documents such as a signature at the end of a letter. Boilerplate is widely used in the legal profession as many paragraphs are used over and over in agreements with little modification or no modification. , provided by the state. That's not a criticism, but it adds to the differences in design and approach on this site.--CS CREATIVE USE OF ONLINE TECHNOLOGIES While interesting, the multimedia introduction "Welcome to your future" has limited value, and loading a 1.46 Mb introduction is excessive. It is also annoying that paging back from other screens to the home page launches the animation yet again. Similarly, a number of the pages offer multimedia features including speech, music and animation, but they are not integral to the content. The page formats are effective when they are consistent, but in some sections the menus and the page designs change dramatically.--OD UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION Under "News and Publications" a user con find the 1938-39 yearbook. The pictures are delightful, but one wonders: What would Lain Croft CROFT, obsolete. A little close adjoining to a dwelling-house, and enclosed for pasture or arable, or any particular use. Jacob's Law Dict. say?--CS The major site pages are kept current and feature district news, calendars, events and announcements that offer timely reasons for continuing use. However, a number of selections need to be updated, especially faculty pages and pages that still present student work from classes several years earlier.--OD Charleston County (N.C.) School District www.ccsdschools.com The home page offers a useful Google search Google is owned by Google, Inc. whose mission statement is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". The largest search engine on the web, Google receives several hundred million queries each day through its various services. tool for finding specific content, and the search boxes are conveniently included on section pages.--OD DESIGN It's immediately apparent how the information at this Web site is organized: large blocks in the center are surrounded by smaller ones. There's no confusion about where to look. In particular, the message from the superintendent smack in the middle "Smack in the Middle" is a first-season episode of Batman. It first aired on ABC January 13, 1966 as the second episode of the series, and was repeated on August 25, 1966 and April 6, 1967. implies, "You are here--welcome." In general, there's an excellent sense of balance and proportion to the design: important things near the top; less important things further down. The links on the left-hand side left-hand side n → izquierda left-hand side left n → linke Seite f left-hand side n → lato or and the tab along the top form a visual frame; but if you think about it, these features draw on a tried and true method: they're like the tabs of a file drawer--pull up if you need that information.--CS [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In addition to a Virtual Parent Resource Center with pertinent information on topics such as bus routes, attendance and grading policies, the site offers searchable contact information for departments and staff members, and a feedback tool for submitting comments and suggestions--always a good addition.--OD [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Superintendent's note is a PDF--puleez! Simple information does not warrant downloading a file and launching another app.--GS [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While the major site sections are updated frequently, a number of key pages are still under construction.--OD [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This district's site--unlike those that unfortunately have the appearance of a pop-up casino ad--only uses technologies that directly enhance the information. There's a video interview with a board member; one with the Teacher of the Year; another aimed at recruiting teachers to the district. Yet the user doesn't get pulled into a dreadful "theater of no return:" one of those multimedia presentations that opens up a Pandora's box Pandora’s box contained all evils; opened up, evils escape to afflict world. [Rom. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 799] See : Evil of software, and then the user can't seem to exit back to the home page. In fact, more designers should create maps that make the home page the big front door of the entire site that's always easy to find.--CS [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Oswego City (N.Y.) School District www.oswego.org This reviewer re·view·er n. One who reviews, especially one who writes critical reviews, as for a newspaper or magazine. reviewer Noun a person who writes reviews of books, films, etc. Noun 1. hit the back button right away upon arriving at the Oswego City School District. Why? He thought he was at the wrong site: "Can't he a school--must be an engineering firm, or something." But no, the very techie A technical person. See hacker and programmer. intro that resembles a Japanese anime version of a Lara Croft adventure is indeed the gateway to this school district. A young girl goes through a series of airlock airlock Noun 1. a bubble of air blocking the flow of liquid in a pipe 2. an airtight chamber between places that do not have the same air pressure, such as in a spacecraft or submarine Noun 1. doors, running toward her future. A distressing decision was made to have the girl grow into a white teenager who has a figure like Lara Croft's. (Bulimia bulimia: see eating disorders. , anyone?) But apparently, an earlier and more critical decision was made at the outset of designing this site; which is, that it should appeal to kids. And this reviewer hasn't the foggiest why school officials, given the pressure schools are under to perform, would want to intimate to parents and the community that school is about entertaining kids.--CS [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The content titles pop up by "mousing over" each menu category before it is selected, making it easy to find specific topics without first changing screens. Users can jump directly to major topic categories without having to drill down through menus. Most of the content choices are presented in new windows, and the useful root menu remains visible. Many selections call up new screens or launch pdf files See PDF. , so the navigation design is inconsistent. Many of the selections also include a content menu at the top of the page, with hot links to major content areas, so there are multiple ways to access information.--OD [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I am unimpressed by loads of pages containing dozens of links to Web sites. Kids can use Google. It's a waste of teachers' time organizing such dubious "portals."--GS [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] By far, the most outstanding piece of technology on the site is provided by the state: a searchable database Refers to databases on the Web that are searchable by typing in a query. The term is quite redundant because all databases are searchable. In fact, that is one of their major features. of instructional resources. It can be used by parents with children enrolled in Oswego schools, homeschoolers or teachers. Users open a series of pull-down windows and search an item as specific as an elementary nonfiction non·fic·tion n. 1. Prose works other than fiction: I've read her novels but not her nonfiction. 2. The category of literature consisting of works of this kind. book on Egypt. Not only will a link to the book be listed, but any relevant lesson plans or activities. A real plus.--CS [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Web site evaluation panel: Odvard Egil Dyrli is senior editor and and emeritus e·mer·i·tus adj. Retired but retaining an honorary title corresponding to that held immediately before retirement: a professor emeritus. n. pl. professor of education at Chip Shields is a contributing editor A contributing editor is a magazine job title that varies in responsibilities. Most often, a contributing editor is a freelancer who has proven ability and readership draw. and a 20-year veteran educator. Gary Stagar is editor-at-large and an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University Pepperdine University is a private institution of higher learning affiliated with the Church of Christ in unincorporated Los Angeles County, California, United States. The university's location overlooks the Pacific Ocean and is adjacent to the city limits of Malibu. . |
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