Image is Everything

First of all, I appear to be trending toward bankrupt clichés for my blog post titles. So be it. Expect further post titles to inquire about missing beef and mental calculations performed beyond the bounds of a shape consisting of four even sides.

Whatever. My post title was inspired by the Valenza blog entry about school library web sites. Valenza asks how the sites are changing, but with so many Live Web/Web 2.0 applications emerging, I'm asking myself this: Just what is the purpose of a school library website these days, anyway?

Here's what I think: It's best used as a marketing tool for the school. I think nowadays, more than anything, a school library website should be beautiful. Really. Here's a link to my ideal elementary school website. It was made by a colleague (and Simmons alum!) from Marlboro Elementary School. My friend used Wordpress to make the Marlboro site. It's not on the district's server. I plan to model my Academy Library site on what the Marlboro librarian did.

Compare that site to this. I spent only about ten minutes with Google getting the URL for that random elementary school. Sure, there's current information and links and such, but the design--blech. And it's so typical of any elementary school website, with it's clunky graphics, moving images and presentation of information that isn't so much useful as it is symbolic, or representative, of the school. Valenza describes it as a "lack of purpose." So well put, really.

And I think many school library sites have never had much of a purpose, and therefore, years later, not one member of a school community -- students, staff, or parents -- have any expectations for, or make any demands on, the School's library site. How many users are really going to consult the school website to find out if there will be tater tots or tossed salad on the menu the next day? Honestly, what kind of expectations do you expect visitors to have when you offer useless information like cafeteria menu links?

So, I aim to change expectations of what kind of information a website visitor will find, and most importantly, how that information is presented. Most folks from this area of Vermont would expect Marlboro Elementary to have the website that it does. It's a tony community with highly educated citizens. Very mud and caviar. But I doubt anyone would expect Academy School to have such an elegant website. That's just not the school's reputation. Another grammar school in town has an OK site. But then again, this school is smaller than Academy and has more of what I call the Viewers Like You crowd.

But guess what? Academy’s going to get an elegant website from me. I really believe the school's image will change when I update the website. And of course, it won't just look pretty. I will have resources and links galore for students doing homework. But ultimately, it's most important to create a website that will increasingly be many people’s first impression of the school, and we all know, you only get one chance to make a first impression!

Cliché’s Rock!!

Better Living Thru Technology

I consider this just a place-holder post of sorts. Since I am re purposing a blog from last Springs Young Adult Literature class, I felt I needed to get a little LIS 460 starter post rolling.

In other words, don't consider this wheedling entry to be anything relevant to the class beyond my initial impressions of all the software installations and account set ups. Even though many of these applications were new to me, they were at least very familiar. Haven't used Twitter, but Linda gave us a peek last semester, same goes for Skype. Should have started using Google Reader looooong ago. Looking forward to not only getting exposure to the completely new, but also gaining mastery of the already familiar. I really feel like the second life event towards the end of class will test my tech prowess -- kind of a grand finale of sorts.

Finally, I truly hope to create a tech innovation proposal that I will actually use in my new job. Maybe it's too simplisitic for this class, but a first-year goal for me will be to get classroom teachers to collaborate on a wiki. I am not sure if I should create one wiki for each grade, or just one Academy School wiki. Right now the district uses a webCT-type tool called First Class. It's just a bunch of list-serves relabeled as Conferences. Haven't used it yet, so I don't want to judge, but I already know that teachers would not be able to archive classroom units and related materials on First Class.

I was reading an article a few weeks ago about how Wikispaces was giving away free acounts in order to promote teachers using wikis. I dashed on over there and managed to squeak in. (can't figure out if 100,000 is a little or a lot to give away). Anyway, I plan to set up the type of wiki I think will encourage the staff at Academy School to give wikis a try. At the very least, it's a way for me to organize materials and information.

However, I do not want to overwhelm the staff and get some kind of reputation as a person who just throws confusing new technologies at them. They'll just see me coming and run the other way. Or worse, run to the Principal's office and complain about me.

I'm wondering if I should choose between a wiki and social bookmarks? I love the idea of setting up delicious pages for each class. As I'm noodling about on the web, I tag articles and sites I think would be useful for the teacher's curriculum. But again, I'm wondering if using both would be redundant. But then again, maybe being redundant is a the norm for this institution. After all, it is called Academy School.