Web Design

This course was a plethora of new information for me and I spent a great deal of time very overwhelmed! Knowing as little as I did about creating websites and coding really made me nervous going into this. I essentially came into this course a "blank slate" and everything was new to me. I had a very brief experience in creating a web page for my college sorority that went disastrously bad, and since then I have not tried again. Throughout the course, I was surprised by how much went into creating and maintaining a website, and the policies needed in the district to keep the site running efficiently. "Web 2.0 signals a transition from isolation to interconnectedness - not just for programmers but, more important, for end users" (Solomon and Schrum, 2007, p. 13). After completing the course, I have not desires to go out and create the next great website, but I do have an appreciation for all those that do create the websites we use in our schools and the time and energy they invest in keeping them current.
I came into this class with a fairly open mind to the experience. Each of the assignments exposed me to a new way of thinking about the work that goes on in a district "behind the scenes" before a site may be launched for public viewing. In an educational setting, privacy is extremely important, so looking at a site's "privacy policy needs to explain clearly how the web site handles sensitive data, cookies, and related information" (Kaiser, S., 2006, p. 36) is a priority. I relied on the assistance of my campus Webmaster and my district technology facilitator to help with my understanding of policies related to how my district uses its websites for the district and each individual campus. The power a website has as an educational and informational tool for parents, students and district stakeholders is a driving force behind all of the research and hard work that goes into creating and maintaining a site.
With the information I gained from this course, I went into a new school year with an understanding of the need to help maintain our website's integrity and have spent this year as a liaison to the Webmaster, providing informational updates to keep the campus site current. As of this time, I really still have no desire to learn any further components of web design, but I want to continue to support and serve as best as I can to make sure that our website stays an informative site for all and meets the criteria set to make it a first class web site.

Resources:

Kaiser, S. (2006). Deliver First Class Web Sites. VIC Australia: Sitepoint.

Solomon, J. and Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools. Washington, D.C.: ISTE.