Essay on Schools And Web Sites

Free Schools And Web Sites papers

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Report on why a school should have a web site and why web site creation and design should be included in the school curriculum at Key Stage 3.

This report is based on discussing the reasons why a school should have a web site and for the inclusion of the teaching of web site creation and design in the school curriculum at Key Stage 3. It will point to exemplar work produced by children published on the World Wide Web.

Children are the fastest growing group using the Internet. According to MMXI Europe, in September 2000, 11m people (one-fifth of the population) were using the Internet from home, with children taking to the Internet more rapidly than adults. The statistics show a rise of 89% in unique visitors aged between 2 and 17 from January to September 2000. The research also shows that British men use the Internet more than women, but the gap in usage is decreasing. This is an abstract from the Guardian, 15th November 2000, p.31, Title: Children lead the way for surfing, Author: Snoddy, Julia.

Pupils should have Internet access at school for at least one hour a week. The Liberal Democrat Party have set this benchmark for education as part of new policy for their party. This access could be in lesson time, at lunchtime or before and after school. Extra equipment and staff support would be needed, the policy costing an estimated 940 overall. A Liberal Democrat investigation into ICT in schools is underway, with a sample of primary and secondary schools receiving a questionnaire on equipment and support levels. This is from TES (Online Supplement) 10th November 2000, Title: Pupils must have hour a week on the net, Author: Johnston, Chris.

These abstracts are a good starting point to discuss the aspects of why a school should have a web site. Web sites are information systems and if properly constructed, provide visitors with knowledge and insight. Web sites can also serve as "interfaces" providing bridges and translations to connect users to other wordly experiences. Given the sometimes poorly organized resources available on the Web, a good school Web site helps people find educationally worthwhile information with a minimum of wasted time and wandering. They can introduce visitors to the school, providing a mission statement, the character of the school and its provisions to children. They offer an opportunity for the publishing of student works to both a local and a global audience, whether those works be art, music, or writing.

Some parents have even started to "shop" for schools by visiting Web sites and comparing schools. Many schools have seen the value of introducing their offerings to existing parents as well as prospective parents, outlining the school mission and the kinds of learning available while sharing more mundane but valuable items such as calendars, schedules and lunch menus. The more advanced have introduced forms and e-mail features which allow them to gather information and feedback from pupils and parents.

Many schools seek ways to engage pupils in real world problem solving. Web sites can support such studies as they become warehouses, virtual museums or virtual libraries storing the raw data that pupils may extract as information. It used to be that many kinds of information (such as local historical records) gathered cobwebs in folders and filing cabinets. These may have proven a gold mine for pupil follow-up studies and investigations, but they rarely emerged into open view. This data can now be stored and shared on the school Web site so that each new wave of pupils can add to the collection and can begin sharing and comparing data with other pupils and schools within the same region.

A good Web site may save staff and pupils from hours of wandering about from empty site to empty site by listing only those Internet locations offering appropriate, curriculum relevant content which is full of value. Someone who knows the curriculum performs the "scouting" required to identify these good sites and then create a series of pages which are well organized and carefully broken into categories that make sense to the expected audience of the site.

Until recently, it may have been enough to launch a Web site simply to get on the Web and there were probably hundreds of sites in cyberspace floating around with no structure or valuable information and subsequently of little or no use to anybody at all. However from investigating the web sites available, it seems that schools have shed the early efforts and moved toward the more functional sites. They have strong content at a local level combined with excellent information about the school and pointers to the best educational resources on the Web.

Increasingly, schools and pupils will have their own Web sites. This facility is offered by most Internet service providers free of charge, or at very low cost, or may be provided by the school within its own network. A school will need to take steps to ensure that its own web site does not contain inappropriate material. Where the school is offering space for individual pupils to manage their own Web sites there will need to be checks on the content to ensure appropriate use. All the above structures exist within the overall concept of the Internet. Individual computer users may also allow external access to their computer via what are known as Bulletin Boards. These usually exist outside the Internet and are often run by individuals rather than organisations. They are services where the user can dial up directly, access information, post questions and read other people s comments and answers. Most are accessed via their own telephone number rather than via the telephone number of an Internet service provider. Contacting such a Bulletin Board will be charged at the price of a direct telephone call to that locality. Thus, the use of some Bulletin Boards can be very expensive. Schools which purchase access to a single Internet service provider and have their system pre-set to dial only that provider (for example, through an...