Oakwood Elementary School "Excellence In Action" Website Recommendation Report

1. Websolutions Presenter: Sean FoxElster Oakwood Elementary School "Excellence In Action" Website Recommendation Report

2. School Districts Technology Goals: Oakwood Elementary school is a part of the Portland Public schools system. As such they are a part of the larger vision for the Public Schools. The vision of the Public School system, as it relates to technology, is laid out in the "Technology Plan Summary." An excerpt of the Portland Technology Plan is listed below. "The Vision of Portland Public Schools, in partnership with the community, is to educate citizens who demonstrate the academic, teamwork and personal management skills needed to function effectively in a global society.”

3. To accomplish this goal we will: • Provide learners of all ages access to local and global information through ongoing availability of current technologies. • Support employee development to ensure technological competency. District Technology Belief Statements: Portland Public Schools believes that access to information resources is essential in preparing students to succeed in a global society. We believe that investment in technology is an important step towards the accessing of information, achieving learning outcomes, and providing equity to the students in our district. We want to • Improve Information Sharing between Students, Staff, and Community • Improve Technology Skills of Students and Teachers"

4. The recommendations to be found in this report are in direct line with the stated goals of Portlands technology plans for the future. The purpose of the report is to help users to improve their experiences on-line with school websites. This report focuses on Oakwood but the recommendations may be used for all of the different school sites within the district. Oakwood's Users: The most obvious users of the Oakwood website are parents. In most cases the parents are searching for specific information when visiting the website. The most common informational categories sought are the Lunch Menu, School Closings, and specific information concerning their students class.

5. Current Problems: The Oakwood website currently fails to help parents in a number of areas. The most pressing in terms of use are: • The current lunch menu is unreadable • Personal classroom information pages don't exist. • The only student page is buried in the “Teachers Resource” section of the website. • It is a boring page with only a few links represented

6. Recommendations: Short Term 1. The lunch menu: To improve on the users ability to read the menu it is recommended that Oakwood use a different format. The use of a PDF file or software designed specifically for creating calendars would be beneficial. Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker is good for setting up the calendar as a PDF file and Brown Bears calendar software offers a lot of flexibility. Example: 1. Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker: The use of the PDF for a calendar offers some flexibility for the viewer such as the ability to zoom in on specific regions of the calendar. There are various software choices out there to give a webmaster the ability to create PDF files that range in price. The Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional may run as high as $500 but cheaper versions are available. (Free versions of PDF page makers are available. Ex. http://www.pdf995.com/ )

7. A menu in PDF form from Bennett Woods Elementary School: (http://www.okemosschools.net/education/sctemp/dca9b5482d4f0e20cc4938f177825683/1196295929/Elemmenu.pdf )

8. 2. Web Calendar Software: Brown Bear Software (http://www.brownbearsw.com/ical/ ) Calendar software offers several options that a PDF maker may not. For example: Brown Bear allows the webmaster to choose how many calendars he wants. The price of the calendar software is then determined by the number of calendars that are needed. For one calendar the price is $95 and can go as high as $1,995 for unlimited calendars. The software also has a large variety of upgrades available that allow for customization of the calendar to suit individual needs of the designer. (upgrades cost extra)

9. An example Brown Bear Software from Bath Elementary School(http://ical.bath.k12.mi.us/elfood )

10. Other Examples: In researching additional school districts I found that all of the ones I came across used PDF formats for their menus. Here is a short list of sites viewed: 1. Dewitt Elementary Schools: (http://dewitt.edzone.net/%7Edps/files/Elementary.pdf ) 2. Ionia Elementary Schools: (http://www.ionia.k12.mi.us/uploaded/documents/Lunch_Menus/Elementary_Menu.pdf ) 3. East Lansings Donley Elementary: (http://school.elps.k12.mi.us/lunch_menus/k4_0711.pdf )

11. Recommendations: Short Term 2. Specific information about individual classrooms: To facilitate a better dialogue between parents, students, and teachers, it would be helpful to have individual links for each classroom. The teacher could post their newsletter, curriculum, and fundraising updates on the site. This would satisfy the districts technology goal to “to improve information sharing between Students, Staff, and Community”

12. Examples of classroom homepages:Holt Public Schools-Miss Christine's(http://www.okemosschools.net/education/staff/staff.php?sectionid=182 )

13. Examples of classroom homepages:Haslett Public Schools-Mrs. Hamilton’s(http://www.haslett.k12.mi.us/education.staff.staff.php?sectionid=232 )

14. Recommendations: Long Term 1. Creation of a kid's site with appropriate links: It is becoming increasingly common for elementary aged kids to be web savvy. In order to keep up with this growing use it would be beneficial for the elementary schools to provide safe links for students. A “kid’s page” would capture the attention of parents who were looking for ways to educate their kids using on-line resources.

15. Bath Elementary School: Link Page(http://bath.k12.mi.us/eslinks.htm )

16. 2. Updated Look and style In the future Oakwood should update the look and style of it’s website to attract more of an audience. This shift in style will help to draw more parents and student’s to the site as they increasingly look on-line for learning resources. The increase in student involvement with the web site will benefit the teachers and students in the long run. Teacher’s will be able to tailor the site in support of their curriculum. Parents will also benefit through increased communication as well as having more opportunity to work with their children on relevant learning material. In order to develop an idea of a possible future for Oakwood’s website I searched the internet for existing sites that may hold elements of interest for Oakwood’s development. I found one site that seemed to incorporate all of the improvements listed above.

17. Longacre elementary school: Farmington(http://www.farmington.k12.mi.us/lon/ )Site Start Page

18. Longacre elementary school: Farmington(http://www.farmington.k12.mi.us/lon/ )Home Page

19. Longacre elementary school: Farmington(http://www.farmington.k12.mi.us/lon/ )Classrooms Page

20. Longacre elementary school: Farmington(http://www.farmington.k12.mi.us/lon/ )Classrooms Page

21. Websolutions Conclusions: Oakwood Elementary School Oakwood’s web site needs some work in order to satisfy the future technological goals of the school district. The school district wants to prepare students to “succeed in a global society” and to “improve information sharing between students, staff, and community.” In order to do this Oakwood needs to incorporate some short and long term improvements to accomplish their goal.

22. Conclusions: Oakwood Elementary School Recommendations: Short Term • Update Lunch menu to incorporate PDF or Calendar software. • Create Class room links for each individual class and grade. • Increase teacher participation to 100% Recommendations: Long Term • Create a kids site with safe links. • Update the look and style of the web page.