EDLD+5365+-+Reflection+for+Embedded+Assignment

Back to Web Design and Development Sub-Menu

=Reflection for Embedded Assignment =

This assignment was a great experience for me, because it allowed me to first reflect on the needs of my campus. It’s important to note that I’d never really looked at our web policy before. Since the expectation is not placed on the teachers to keep up with a web page, there simply is no need for referring to any policy.

As I reflected on the needs of my school, I realized that they are plentiful. I’m very concerned because our school is lagging behind many others. I've been at the same school for 7 years. When I first came on board, I was surprised to see that our website only consisted of one page with the school address, logo and contact information. After working there for a while, I understood the reason why. It all boiled down to "know how" on our campus. Many of the teachers on our campus have been teaching for over 20 years. They have very little technology experience. For many on our campus, posting an attachment to an email is challenging. Another reason is time. Having enough time to do extra things is always a barrier in an educator’s life. Fortunately, last year our school had an administrative assistant with a technology background that started working on a school website for us. I was so excited about this, because a website is a great avenue for communication and extending learning into the home environment. We were all expected to access the web to retrieve campus documents and newsletters. The goal for the year was to have teachers become accustomed to it. An additional goal was to have each teacher post a biography of themselves. Unfortunately, this never happened. The Webmaster took a job offer with the district's technology department. Even though our campus website looks better than before, it's not too much better. The problem has now become, how to update or change anything. My new principal can't update anything because her expertise is limited. Moreover, she doesn't have access into the website. She has attempted to contact the old Webmaster for help and is currently awaiting her assistance. Because my campus does not have a working web page, I’m concerned about how well we are preparing the students on our campus to compete in the 21st century workforce. Additionally, our school is missing out on the advantages a website can provide for teachers, parents, and it's stakeholders. In the book //Web 2.0 New Schools, New Tools// the authors suggest 3 factors necessary for change. Gladwell (2002) states that "...Three factors necessary for change to occur: exceptional people who drive change by their own habits, stickiness or memorable qualities of the ideas that move others to act, and the power of context, which includes the skillful use of groups and the power of communities." My campus has exceptional people that can make this happen. With my new learning and abilities, I'm certainly there to support a movement into a web-based community.

So how can I begin to help? Creating a Web policy was the first step. In doing so, I learned about the importance of having guidelines. As I prepared the policy, I realized that there are many things to consider if we are to launch a successful web page. From my lecture I learned that a successful web page requires more that one person adding and deleting information. As such a group needs to be assigned to complete certain tasks. The policy addresses what appear to be simple things, like page format and type fonts. Prior to completing this assignment, I never took this into consideration. Little things like this allow multiple group managers of a web page to add and delete information in a consistent way so as to keep a common flow and look throughout the web. In return, this makes the web page user-friendly. Although, this was not a group assignment, I understand how important the web policy would be for the group managing the web. As equally important to this group, or anyone performing tasks on the web page, would be to know what behaviors, postings, etc., are acceptable on the web page. For many of the exceptional people on my campus, becoming familiar with a web policy would eliminate much of their fears, particularly in mistakenly posting inappropriate items on the web.

With respect to my district’s AUP, I was puzzled about why I was never made aware that this policy existed. Furthermore, why are our students not aware of their AUP? A question I would pose to administrative leaders is, who is responsible for teaching our elementary students this policy since we do not have technology specialists? Also, what professional development is available for learning and teaching the AUP? Finally, who is responsible for creating a web page at the elementary campus level?

Source Cited:

Gladwell, M. (2002). //The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference.// New York: Little, Brown and Company