I posed a question to one of my kindergarten students last week. His response to me was, “I don’t know but we can Google it.” That is proof that kids, even very young kids, are using the internet to get information. For this reason, Media Center Websites are an essential part of today’s technological advances, benefiting students, teachers, parents and more. A website dedicated solely to the school’s media center not only makes resources easy to access, but also affirms the important role of the center as a part of the school, and more importantly a large part of a child’s education. The key however, is to make sure that the website is done in a manner so that is easy to use and visually appealing. A website can say a lot about what it is representing, so it is important that the website is efficient and intriguing.
An important thing to remember when creating a website for a media center is that it must be done with a specific population in mind. For example, an elementary school website should be sure to use terminology that younger students can comprehend, as opposed to higher education level jargon. I am at the Elementary level so I see an ideal site as having a splash page that will draw students inside and then having lots of useful links and games. There should also be a link for teachers to follow that would provide lots of useful information on lesson planning, curriculum development, classroom management, calendar pages, and a launch page for carefully selected web resources. In addition to those two audiences, I think the Media Web page should include information for parents. After all, parents are the biggest influence on the students and will be the ones to encourage the at-home use of the page. The parent link could include a school calendar and a place for homework and parenting tips.
On a negative note concerning Web pages, I’ve seen a lot of teachers get excited about creating a web page (or be required to establish one) and then once the page is created, get busy and never update it. It reminds me a planting a great garden and then neglecting it. The potential was great for producing good fruit but because it requires time to maintain, and time is something we seem to have less and less of, the sites are abandoned and become eye sores. I hate to follow a link only to find it is totally out of date. If you cannot dedicate the time for weekly updates then the page should consist of information that is not time sensitive. Even then, links should be checked often as they frequently become obsolete.
There are a lot of paid sites to help you build a web page but here are a few free ones that I was able to find-
http://teacher.scholastic.com/homepagebuilder/
http://www.classnotesonline.com/
http://www.educatorpages.com/Home.aspx
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I agree that students do look to the internet as a resource. This is good, and the media center website should be a destination. This means that we need to be very aware of our users and their expectations. You make a great point by recognizing the language and terminology that we use should be audience appropriate. I agree that a website meant to serve elementary students should be inviting to them and presented in simple language that they can comprehend. I think sometimes many of us get caught up with professional language and presentation and forget who we will really be serving.
ReplyDeleteOnce we gain an audience of users for our websites, we do have to maintain interest. This means not only updating calendars and events, but posting new links (as new great resources become available each year) and periodically changing the look and feel of the site. We see examples of this all of the time. People update their homes to maintain interest and beauty, and successful online destinations like hotmail and FaceBook regularly make changes to stay current with competition.
I think that the most powerful and important point you made is the fact that a good media webpage shows the role of the media center in a students education. I think an important role for us is to constantly be promoting what we do and programs that can aid students in achieving and learning more. If parents know about they can help support and direct students to use it at home.
ReplyDeleteIf you commit to a webpage you absolutely have to commit to keep it updated. I have a wiki page for my classes I teach, I literally update it everyday - getting into a routine has helped!
Good job - thanks for the information!