Please feel free to leave a comment...
School websites and information overload
Monday, December 06, 2010
This is in response to a query about how to approach school web design.
Finalsite, Silverpoint and Whipplehill seem to be the big players here. They all charge a premium, but have excellent design and back-end control panels. A word about design, all the companies do design beautifully. I've no doubt you can craft up something really nice, but these companies make world-class website design. Clean, elegant and information rich.
The issue I've had with these sites is keeping them up to date and current. Whipplehill especially, which is based on a really neat portal system, seems to have the right idea about how websites should work. But without long term "web person" in your organization, and without a clear, clean connection to your LMS, how useful will your site be?
We are using silverpoint, and we love our site, love the support, and I like the in-page editing; intuitive and easy. Also, Silverpoints design process is great - they actually bring their design team to your school - instead of design taking weeks or months, it takes a week.
But we are a moodle school, and increasingly a google-docs school. So our information is fragmented across those three major systems. We have teachers using wiki's, blogs, yadda yadda yadda - so I'm constantly looking for ways to index all the different content so people dont have to look "in 20 different places" for relevant information.
I think your question also hits a really common theme I hear in student information systems; do we roll our own, or go with an outside company? There are genuine benefits and drawbacks for each approach. As I mentioned, the support we get from silverpoint is top-notch, but the meta-issues here are how the site will stay current, and how we can make fragmented information easier to access.
Finalsite, Silverpoint and Whipplehill seem to be the big players here. They all charge a premium, but have excellent design and back-end control panels. A word about design, all the companies do design beautifully. I've no doubt you can craft up something really nice, but these companies make world-class website design. Clean, elegant and information rich.
The issue I've had with these sites is keeping them up to date and current. Whipplehill especially, which is based on a really neat portal system, seems to have the right idea about how websites should work. But without long term "web person" in your organization, and without a clear, clean connection to your LMS, how useful will your site be?
We are using silverpoint, and we love our site, love the support, and I like the in-page editing; intuitive and easy. Also, Silverpoints design process is great - they actually bring their design team to your school - instead of design taking weeks or months, it takes a week.
But we are a moodle school, and increasingly a google-docs school. So our information is fragmented across those three major systems. We have teachers using wiki's, blogs, yadda yadda yadda - so I'm constantly looking for ways to index all the different content so people dont have to look "in 20 different places" for relevant information.
I think your question also hits a really common theme I hear in student information systems; do we roll our own, or go with an outside company? There are genuine benefits and drawbacks for each approach. As I mentioned, the support we get from silverpoint is top-notch, but the meta-issues here are how the site will stay current, and how we can make fragmented information easier to access.
On 16 December 2010, charlotte web design inscribed the following thoughts about this post:
I’m constantly looking for ways to index all the different content so people dont have to look “in 20 different places” for relevant information.Good and a work of appriciation
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
Bill MacKenty, Chief Zuccini
I make a difference in the life of kids. You want to tell me what's more rewarding?
Resume
This is my full resume. It has all my work experience since I graduated from college in 1992, including certifications, professional memberships, and descriptions of my work.
Polish Resume
This is my full resume translated into Polish. My wife tells me it is a literal translation, and as such might convey a slightly different meaning to Polish speakers.