Content+Management+System+PD


 * Content **** Management System School **** Web Sites: **

__Introduction__: You are a member of a team comprised of various individuals who are tasked with evaluating a school’s web site. Your mission is to discuss with your team the criteria for a school’s web site that can be used to determine how your current site meets/doesn’t meet the criteria. Based on this discussion, you will create an assessment rubric to use when evaluating school web sites.

__Process__: Working in a small team of 2 or 3 members, you will each assume one of the designated roles and conduct research on the listed sites based on the perspective of that role. Next you will compare and contrast your current site with the sites in your research. After the designated time allotted you will bring your findings to your team and discuss the criteria you have determined appropriate and will develop the criteria for an exemplary school web site.

__Task__:
 * 1) Assemble in designated teams.
 * 2) Briefly discuss with your teammates the role that was assigned to you. How will your criteria differ from your teammates?
 * 3) Use the allotted time to visit the following web sites that were all developed using Content Management Systems.
 * 4) Determine what you believe to be important criteria in evaluating a school web site.
 * 5) Bring your findings to your team and create a consolidated rubric/score sheet.

__Resources__:

[|Sample WebSite Rubric]

PowerIT: [] [] []

eChalk: [] [] []

SchoolWorld [] [] []

__Roles__:


 * [[image:image002.jpg width="81" height="95"]] || Administrator **for a nearby school district, conducting research to determine an exemplary teacher web site to use as an example for her teachers**  ||
 * [[image:image004.jpg]] || **Sixth grade male student**, home on a medical absence and wishing to keep up with classmates. ||
 * [[image:image006.jpg]] || **New teacher**, looking for outstanding role-model school web sites so that she can create her own teacher page for a career portfolio ||
 * [[image:image008.jpg]] || **Mother of a 4th grade student** who is homebound and cannot attend meetings or special events at the school but would like to remain connected ||
 * [[image:image010.jpg]] || **Father of a new Kindergarten student**. Father does not speak English (Portuguese is the father’s native language). He wants to learn what he can about the school. ||
 * [[image:image012.jpg]] || Current district **5th grade teacher**, feeling a bit overwhelmed with increasing class size, frequent data collection, nightly parent meetings, and other administrative needs of the position. Was given a deadline to complete a web site for publishing on the district’s content management page and doesn’t know where to begin. ||
 * [[image:image014.jpg]] || **Technology coordinator** of the district, tasked with overseeing the districts’ multiple web sites and insuring that each site administrator is knowledgeable in technique and policies. ||
 * [[image:image016.jpg]] || **Para-educator**, working in classroom along side of teacher, fairly computer savvy and asked to help teacher develop class pages. ||

Evaluation: Successful completion of this quest will be evidenced by a comprehensive and specific rubric that can be used to assess the districts’/schools’ websites.

__Conclusion__: Websites must convey information that is appropriate for various users. School websites should be mindful of the criteria used by different individuals when viewing websites.

In developing criteria for school websites, think about the following: Relevance of content to various audiences Use of photos, graphics, animation, and video Fair use guidelines Internal and external navigation Layout and text elements Contact information, copyright and update information Speed in downloading pages Writing mechanics Design – consistency, clarity,