Web Design for Teachers

I will be giving a little class in web design for about 8 of our teachers and principals in a couple of weeks. Before we meet I am giving them this Planning Sheet to help prepare them. I will blog later about Part Two.

WEB DESIGN FOR TEACHERS

Part One – Planning


THESE ARE SOME QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF AS YOU PLAN YOUR SITE -- Jot some notes on this planning sheet before we begin.


1. What is My Purpose in Making A Site . . . With Each Level of Complexity I Get More Benefits Yet More Time/Money/Learning Curves Are Involved.

a. Who Am I Trying to Reach or, Who Is My Audience?

           i. Kids, Parents, Colleagues, Content Area Team, Grade Level Team, Cluster Members?
          ii. Is it Just For Classroom News, Homework, etc.
         iii. A Professional Site To Represent Me, Share Professional Resources, etc.

      b. Classroom/Teaching/Learning Site for Kids to Pick Up Resources, Announcements, Files, Assignments, etc.?

      c. A Blog (online journal/diary with entries posted most-recent-first)? With Comments Allowed or Disallowed?

      d. Something Else? All of The Above?

2. How Much Time Do I Want To Spend Per Day or Week On Updating and Maintenance?

3. How Tech Savvy Am I About This or How Tech Savvy Do I Want to Become?

4. Do I Want It Hosted on D-11 / Mann’s Server or Somewhere Else?

5. Do I Have a Specific Color, Design, or Theme in Mind?

     a. Do I Want a Simple, Clean Look or Something Fancier?

     b. What Flavor/Mood/Impression Am I Aiming For in the Aesthetics of My Site?

6. Do I Want to Invite Participation by Students or Anyone Else? For example, others would also be writing, editing and commenting with you.

7. Will I Be Having Students Doing Any of the Updating / Maintenance?

8. Do I Want Security Features Like Logins and Passwords For Anyone Besides Myself?

9. Have I Made A Rough Site Map / Flow Chart / Outline of my Site’s Pages? Have I Decided Which Pages Should Be Linked? See below.*

10. Do I Want To Spend Any Money on My Site Name or Site Storage (Hosting)? Either way, Heather will be making a link on the Mann site that leads to your site.

11. Do I Want My Own Specific Address / My Own Domain Name? (www.Mr.Smith.com) or is a Sub-Domain Fine (www.Mr.Smith.teachersfirst.com)? What is that name? **

12. How Important Is It To Me That The Web Address Be Easy to Remember?

Notes

* SAMPLE FLOWCHARTS/PLANNING SHEETS/OUTLINES

 

  1.   

 

** DOMAIN NAMES: You Have 3 Choices:


1. You Can Register and Purchase A New Domain Name - pick your own (i.e. www.yourname.com or www.mannlancers.org, etc. You have to find out if the name is available, then pay a small fee to reserve it. I pay around $10 for mine.

2. You Can Use A Free Sub-Domain – get a custom sub-domain on someone else’s server via the service you pick (i.e. www.teachnology.yourname.com or www.mannlancers.schoolnotes.com ). This will happen automatically if you use one of the many free services on the web.

3. You Can Re-Direct A Domain Name You Already Have – Point the custom domain name you already own to a host server (i.e. I have pointed a couple of my domain names to a sub-domain on www.squarespace.com but you only have to type in www.2020nexus.org instead of www.2020nexus.squarespace.com ).

Site Maps:

  1. http://pbil.univ-lyon1.fr/RTKdb/rtkdb_SiteMap.php
  2. http://www.uvsc.edu/disted/decourses/dgm/2740/IN/steinja/lessons/02/images/site_map_sketch.jpg
  3. http://www.soe.vt.edu/oero/images/oero_site_map.gif