The Progressive Teacher Vol 06 Issue 01

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A SCHOOL WEBSITE: AN INTEGRAL ASPECT OF FUTURE SCHOOL CULTURES Ashwani Duggal The role of a school website has never been more important in this era where the web technologies and digital communications have been evolving at a rapid pace. It’s the communications hub for your school, so it’s critical that you have a modern website that’s compelling, effective and easy to use. It is not easy to keep pace with advancements in website technology even for the most tech-savvy and experienced school IT teams and school owners/administrators. The decision makers at a school have to wade through many issues that should go into its decision of what is a good website. These are the questions to be answered as you chart out what you want your next website to do for your school: 1. Does your school website just sit there and not ‘work’ for you? 2. Does it accurately reflect your school’s image? 3. Is it difficult to navigate? 4. Do parents complain that they are not able to find information they’re looking for? 5. Is it hard for your IT Team and teachers to manage and upload content? 6. Is it reliable? Does your web site load slowly? 7. Does it meet the demands of mobile users? 8. Does your website have teacher and class pages? Can and do teachers actually use these pages? A school website is strategic Your school website is the nerve center of your school’s communication. It should be a strategic hub for all your connections to students, parents, staff and the community. 24| www.progressiveteacher.in
It might not be common for school owner and leadership to think in terms of strategy when it comes to their website. Teaching and learning strategies, yes, but a website strategy for our school! Yes, it is extremely important. Parental involvement, student-staff engagement, community support, academic achievement – these are all areas where a strategically designed website can have a spectacular impact. Some of the important advantages of an effective school website are: • Improve internal and external communications • Improve service to all school stakeholders – parents, students, staff and community • Increase teacher, departmental and school efficiency • Enrich educational outcomes • Enhance school image • Use as a strategic tool in crisis management or emergency noti fication • As a communications pillar in parent involvement program • As an integral part of your alum ni relations and college admis sions process The list goes on as to how your website can be the most powerful strategic tool for your communications. Ultimately, a strategically planned website can have a profound impact on student achievement. Make it easy Your website should be inviting and simple enough to use. This is important so that everyone keeps visiting the site to create, find and share the information they need. On each website visit, parents should feel fulfilled rather than frustrated, and teachers and IT team should not be intimidated in managing the content. You want teachers who look forward to updating their teacher pages; IT team that appreciates trouble-free administration; and website visitors who are delighted. Parent involvement drives student achievement and successful schools. Don’t frustrate parents with a hard-to-use website. A great design A beautiful school website is much more than one that looks great. It must be truly accessible to strengthen connection between the school and all its audiences. Some design imperatives for your new school website are: • Content clarity • Appropriate and fresh content • Pleasing graphic design elements • Usability • Functionality Accessibility Responsive design is a vital element of modern website design. A responsive design means that the website can be accessed on a computer, a mobile or a tablet. It resizes and reformats pages as per the type of device to provide a seamless user experience. A responsive design website can be shared and viewed through email links or social media sites. Reliability and security You can have the best-looking, easiestnavigating, content-packed and welldesigned school website, but if your vendor’s server goes down consistently, you’ve got problems. If your data gets lost or compromised, your school can be exposed on many fronts. A dependable data storage, backup and recovery program is critical. Privacy and security issues continue to of paramount concern to all of us. When you’re dealing with personal information about your students, staff and parents, it’s critical to protect all your users from theft and breaches in privacy. Other functionalities and features There are many features that would help any school stimulate dialogue and engage your school community – discussion boards, parent portals, mobile apps, ability to conduct online polls etc. These are functions that could present challenges for the school not equipped to manage the processes involved. If you don’t have the resources to oversee the content, then maybe you shouldn’t have some of these tools. Biggest is not always best. Find the functionality that’s going to move your school forward, and get it implemented. “ Your school website is the nerve center of your school’s communication. It should be a strategic hub for all your connections to students, parents, staff and the community. “ www.icsl.org.in | 25
Page 2 and 3: Life with Values This Value Educati
Page 4 and 5: CONTENTS MARCH/APRIL 2019 06 WORLD
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Page 8: WORLD EDUCATION NEWS INDONESIA Pois
Page 11 and 12: As an educationist, my heart goes o
Page 13 and 14: Involve Parents in Building School
Page 15 and 16: units of time than the typical 35-4
Page 17 and 18: www.icsl.org.in | 17
Page 21 and 22: What are the different activities t
Page 23: The 21st Century Teacher Gunjan Nij
Page 27 and 28: PHOTO FEATURE The audience thorough
Page 31 and 32: y pre-set criteria or notions will
Page 33 and 34: material interests. Such an atmosph
Page 37 and 38: The human element, however, cannot
Page 39 and 40: • All the systems will be operate
Page 41 and 42: To the Needs of the E PEOPLE Each c
Page 43 and 44: of the school during the morning as
Page 45 and 46: “ To become mere expert in readin
Page 47 and 48: “ The schools have to be the embo
Page 49 and 50: OF CARING www.icsl.org.in | 49
Page 51 and 52: we are actually marching towards be
Page 53 and 54: Enjoyment and excitement in learnin
Page 55 and 56: Being role models Students learn by
Page 57 and 58: A TEACHER by Accident Rubina Majid
Page 59 and 60: ight. Just go back to your village
Page 61 and 62: Festivals of The World Ramadan: 20

The Progressive Teacher Vol 06 Issue 01

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