Comments on: School Websites http://www.johnhendron.net/digest/2008/07/18/school-websites/ education technology Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:36:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: anon http://www.johnhendron.net/digest/2008/07/18/school-websites/#comment-454 anon Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:23:59 +0000 http://www.johnhendron.net/digest/?p=352#comment-454 <p><p>I agree that schools and school districts are ill-equipped to make websites. What kills me is that there are so many companies eager to sell half-hearted, poor-quality web solutions to schools.</p></p> <p><p>I think, at this point, getting an education-targeted CMS for your school/district is probably one of the worst things a school can do, web-wise. If a teacher is not tech-saavy, they need something no more complex than a very simple blog with highly-usable archives/searching. If a teacher is tech-saavy, they can build off that blog using embedded code, or they can setup their own site.</p></p> <p><p>I've suffered through using one of the education CMS's for years now and I'm disgusted both that the company sells such a low quality, un-usable product and that schools so willingly buy it. Talking to my counterparts at other schools/districts, the alternatives don't seem much better. Maybe there are some OK ones that I don't know about, but we edtechs have a responsibility to aim a lot higher than the shovelware I'm seeing.</p></p> <p>I agree that schools and school districts are ill-equipped to make websites. What kills me is that there are so many companies eager to sell half-hearted, poor-quality web solutions to schools.</p>

<p>I think, at this point, getting an education-targeted CMS for your school/district is probably one of the worst things a school can do, web-wise. If a teacher is not tech-saavy, they need something no more complex than a very simple blog with highly-usable archives/searching. If a teacher is tech-saavy, they can build off that blog using embedded code, or they can setup their own site.</p>

<p>I’ve suffered through using one of the education CMS’s for years now and I’m disgusted both that the company sells such a low quality, un-usable product and that schools so willingly buy it. Talking to my counterparts at other schools/districts, the alternatives don’t seem much better. Maybe there are some OK ones that I don’t know about, but we edtechs have a responsibility to aim a lot higher than the shovelware I’m seeing.</p>

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