Glenbard Township (Ill.) High School District 87: www.glenbard.net.GLENBARD TOWNSHIP HIGH School District There are several Township High School Districts in Illinois:
Illinois, river, 273 mi (439 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers, NE Ill., and flowing SW to the Mississippi at Grafton, Ill. It is an important commercial and recreational waterway. , encompassing 45 square miles A square mil is a unit of area, equal to the area of a square with sides of length one mil. A mil is one thousandth of an international inch. This unit of area is usually used in specifying the area of the cross section of a wire or cable. within DuPage County, a suburban area 30 miles west of Chicago Chicago, city, United States Chicago (shĭkä`gō, shĭkô`gō), city (1990 pop. 2,783,726), seat of Cook co., NE Ill., on Lake Michigan; inc. 1837. . DESIGN The home page could introduce the district more effectively by using a feature such as a welcome message from the superintendent. Instead, users are greeted with an uninviting "Subscribe to Verb 1. subscribe to - receive or obtain regularly; "We take the Times every day" subscribe, take buy, purchase - obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction; "The family purchased a new car"; "The conglomerate acquired a new company"; our Email List" tool in the prime position on the page. The home page has a simple layout and displays important links prominently. The page could have made more efficient use of space, however, as there are wide, empty margins, and the bottom third of the page is completely blank. NAVIGATION The combination of a site menu at the top of the page and links to each of the four high schools in the district makes most navigation simple and easy. Each school's home page uses this same menu and layout, so navigation is consistent and efficient. The pull-down menus Also called a "drop-down menu" or "pop-down menu," the common type of menu used with a graphical user interface (GUI). Clicking a menu title causes the menu items to appear to drop down from that position and be displayed. are effective in accessing specific topics, and content is well organized for user groups such as parents, students, staff and the school board. The search tool in the left margin uses Google's powerful search engine for finding topics, and the pages for each school use this same tool to search their respective sites. INTERACTION WITH THE USER While the consistent navigation menu is a good idea, many categories are repeated under several different headings and link to the same pages. For example, the Boundary Map link is listed under three different headings, and the Priority Directions link is listed under four. Individual school site menus are even more redundant, listing categories such as Administration as many as five times. As a result, there are many more menu options than necessary. It would be much more user-friendly to consolidate and simplify these headings. Teachers and administrators can easily access the PowerSchool school management system, the FirstClass e-mail system, and also technology support via the Web Help Desk option. The Quick Links in the left margin enable fast access to the most popular pages, including PowerSchool, Bus Route Locator LOCATOR, civil law. He who leases or lets a thing to hire to another. His duties are, 1st. To deliver to the hirer the thing hired, that he may use it. 2d. To guaranty to the hirer the free enjoyment of it. 3d. , Calendars and Employment. SCHOOL/HOME INTERACTION The About Us pull-down menu offers a wide variety of helpful resources, including driving directions, DuPage County information, and a School Report Cards page with statistics about the budget, test scores and salaries for each school. The Bus Route Locator is a convenient way for parents to search for the bus stop nearest to their street address. The School Board menu provides a great deal of information, including agendas, minutes from past meetings, news and a membership roster. While phone and e-mail contact information is available under each school's Staff Directory, the pages are long, dizzying lists of text, and hotlinked e-mail addresses See Internet address. e-mail address - electronic mail address are indicated for only a few staff members. A more effectively organized layout would make contacting individuals easier. CREATIVE USE OF ONLINE TECHNOLOGIES Pages throughout the district's site are overwhelmingly text-based. Multimedia features including audio, video, animation and other interactive technologies would help engage users in more compelling ways. Most of the photographs on both the district's home page and the individual school sites do not have captions. Some of these photos seem to depict de·pict tr.v. de·pict·ed, de·pict·ing, de·picts 1. To represent in a picture or sculpture. 2. To represent in words; describe. See Synonyms at represent. important events and awards, but without descriptions, the meanings are unclear. UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION The News features on the home page and other pages are up-to-date, but some of the press releases open in PDF (Portable Document Format) The de facto standard for document publishing from Adobe. On the Web, there are countless brochures, data sheets, white papers and technical manuals in the PDF format. format, which adds unnecessary steps. The current Academic Calendar link in the left margin opens in PDF format as well, but the single page of important dates is convenient and easy to print out. The district maintains a useful Glenbard News e-mail list for news and announcements. Kurt O. Dyrli is a freelance writer based in Connecticut Connecticut, state, United States Connecticut (kənĕt`ĭkət), southernmost of the New England states of the NE United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts (N), Rhode Island (E), Long Island Sound (S), and New York (W). . To suggest your district for a site review, contact Managing Editor Judy Hartnett at: jhartnett@edmediagroup.com. |
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