This page contains some general guidelines for creating school home pages as well as a list of content ideas to help you select appropriate material for your own school's home page. It's best to pick and chose from the list below to select the items that make the most sense for the type of school, the number of people available to create and maintain the home page, and the interests of the web page creators. For examples of web content created by other schools, refer to the tutorial notes for Introduction to the Internet for Teachers.

Once you have decided on the content for your web site, you can use a set of specially designed school web page templates to help you get started. These templates include design ideas for home pages as well as a variety of layouts for subsidiary pages. In addition, graphic artists in the community have donated school-related illustrations that you can use to liven up your pages.

Before embarking on a design of your own, it is helpful to critically examine other school web sites. An organization called Web66 provides a comprehensive registry of school web sites around the world. When you review these sites, think about what you like and don't like about them so that your site can be as good as possible.

Follow to find:

• School Web Page Templates
  
• Web66: International School Web Site Registry
• Introduction to the Internet for Teachers
  
• Credits

General Guidelines

Content

Provide content that has value to others in your school and in your community.

Try to get as many people in the school community involved in creating content so that there is a sense of community ownership of the web site.

Make every page count. Consider the high cost of following each and every link and make sure each page has "meat" on it.

For safey's sake, be careful about including too much information about students (many sites don't include last names, for example).

Scope

Start small. It is better to publish a few excellent pages than a large quantity of partially complete pages.

Add material to your site gradually. It is great to have a plan for future expansion, but remember that every page you publish will need to be maintained.

Audience

Define one or more specific audiences for your site. For example:

Students in your school or world-wide

Teachers and administrators in your school or world-wide

Parents in your school or world-wide

Interested educators

A specific, special-interest group

Create material targetted specifically at the selected audience.

Links

Do not create a page that only has links.

Be sure to annotate links so that visitors have a clear idea about what's at the other end.

Structure the material so that visitors do not have to follow too many links to get to the "meat."

Include navigational links on every page. At the very least, there should be a link to the home page on every other page.

Graphic Design

Be sure that all the pages that make up your site have coherence. Do this by repeating design elements and using a common background and a common set of page layouts. See the School Web Page Templates for an example of a coherent set of pages.

Do not use busy backgrounds. Even if the text shows up clearly on the background, it can be difficult for people to read if there is too much "noise." Plain white is always a safe choice.

Keep in mind the time it takes to transfer images, and use them judiciously.

Use "thumbnails" (miniature versions of images) if you have a need for many images on a single page. Visitors can click on these images to see the full-sized versions.

Use student artwork to illlustrate your pages.

Updates

Try to design your site with expansion in mind. Create a naming scheme for pages and an organization for your pages that will be easy to scale up.

Do not publish pages before they are ready. Wait until a page has enough content to be of value to a visitor before adding it to your site.

Do not say a page is under construction. The general assumption is that all sites are under construction

.

Testing

Thoroughly test all the links!

Try out your pages in different font sizes.

Try out your pages using different browsers (e.g., Netscape and Internet Explorer).

Content Ideas

These content ideas were derived from an extensive examination of school web sites in Massachusetts and other states. The list is by no means exhaustive. Be creative and come up with your own ideas. These are intended to help you get started in planning your web site.

Information about the School

General description, including location, grade levels, number of students & teachers

Message from the principal

School philosophy, mission, and goals

Description of unique features or programs or courses

School bus schedules

Photographs

Student Activities

Description (e.g, sports, clubs, music groups)

Meeting times

Requirements

Try-out information

Schedule of events (e.g., sports schedules, school plays)

Name of advisor

Classroom Projects

Lesson plans

Description of use of Internet in a particular class

Student art work (drawing, painting, photography)

Student writing (poetry, essays, short stories)

Annotated list of links in a subject area

Publications

School newspaper

Literary magazine

Course catalog

List of college enrollments

Summer reading list

List of students on honor role

Student home pages

Unique Information Collection

History of town or special place near school

Collection of memorabilia (from local museum or historical society)

Information about a special natural area or habitat

In-depth information on any unique topic (search web to be sure the topic is novel)

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| Web Page Guide | Templates | Introduction to the Internet for Teachers | Web66 | Credits |

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