|Main|Lecture|WWW-Design|SS 96 Works|

School in Internet

Contents

• Introduction
• The Schoolweb
• Must school be online ?
• WWW-structure of a fictitious school
  • Example
  • Menu-bars
  • Created and Revised
  • Startpage
  • 'About us'
  • 'Classes offer'
  • 'Internal stuff'
  • 'Contacts'
  • 'Online classes'
  • 'Dates'
  • 'Students corner'
  • 'Applications'
  • 'Help'
• German version

Introduction

During the summer semester in 1996 the University of Bielefeld offered a seminar called "World Wide Web Design". As the title shows, the main question was how to design a homepage in a useful way.
It was my task to design and illustrate a homepage for a fictitious school.

The Schoolweb

At the beginning of my work I thought that there won't be a large amount of german schools in the WWW present. But I was wrong. Very soon I found a link to the Schoolweb which is a collection of links to german schools in the Internet.
On a map you can choose a state and then select a school out of different types of schoolsystems. All types can be found, even elementary schools and alternative types of school. Some schools offer nicely designed and well structured homepages, others just tell you their address.
Most pages were created by pupils in work groups under the guide of their teachers. The administrative pages look more professional and seem not to be written by the students.
Just like usual for school, the homepages are graded with marks between 1 and 6.

Must school be online ?

Is it necessary for schools to take part in the Internet ? The question is, whether schools produce an output of working results that are worth to be published, or not. In our seminar we found out, that it is senseless for private persons to create homepages that just look like a 'wanted poster' and give you the authors name, address and hobbies. Most people are not interested in that kind of information. You probably better publish results of your research and work. So, how about schools? Some may offer interactive online classes. School has to prepare children for future technologies. Nevertheless, a schools' homepage is a source of information for pupils, teachers and parents. The schoolwebs inventors seem to think that the main emphasis is the interactive learning with the support of the WWW. Here are some topics that deal with more details (german texts):

• Frerk Meyer:
  • World-Wide-Web in der Schule

• Mike Sandbothe:
  • Interaktive Netze in Schule und Universität

• Michael Oertel:
  • Das Internet als Unterrichtsmedium
  • Vom klassischen Unterricht zum Lernen in einem Kommunikationsverbund
  • Welche konkreten Vorteile bringen Hypertext und Multimedia dem Schüler und dem Lehrer?
  • Das Medium Computer
  • Machen Daten schlau?

WWW-structure of a fictitious school

It is not easy to develop a suitable structure because there is no 'one and only' structure for all the schools. It depends on the facilities a school has to offer. Besides the individual taste of a person is important, too. So there are many ways to design a homepage and I just made one example.

Menu-bars

Each page has got two menu-bars. One at the top and the otherone at the bottom. So you can leave the page easily before or after reading it. Maybe a help button should be joined to the bars, so that you can get support from wherever you are. A button to send e-mails exists only in the bar at the end of the text because normally you'll read the whole text before you give feedback. I tried to keep the navigation as simple as possible. That is a reason why I didn't use cross references.

Created and Revised

On each page there is also a remark upon the date of creation and revision. So you can see how up-to-date the current page is and whether something has changed since the last time you have visited the page, or not. You can also say something about the stability of the pages. And often constancy is an indication for quality.

Startpage

The startpage should give information about name, place and type of the institution. Details could be found under a special link. If the institution has got a logo, then it should be presented. The startpage can contain links to versions written in other languages. So you can reach more people in the WWW.

"About us"

This item provides you with more details about the school, for example a photo of the building. Also the schooltype can be explained. Most schools are named after famous people that were benefactors for the society. These politicians, scientists or artists are good models. Offering information about their lives is an opportunity for others to learn about and from them. And that is what school has to do. It has to teach good and useful things.
The commentaries of the press serve as self-representation. They show what the school has already achieved (stage-play, etc). These articles show:

• We are good
• We are interesting
• They care about us
• We stand in public life und interest

"Classes offer"

This point shows what different classes or main subjects the school has to offer. A good offer attracts new students. So it is a kind of advertising.

"Internal stuff"

It is meant for the internal processing, such as choosing a class online. It mainly is a pool of information. You can find:

• schedules/timetables
• class announcements
• class selections
• selection results/(election returns)
• dates of exams
• student exchange

"Contacts"

Here you can find links to homepages and e-mail-addresses from students, teachers, secretary, etc. They are current sources of information, if you use them. With the list of ex-students you've got the chance to hear about their experiences with school in former days. With the partner schools you can have a cultural exchange.

"Online classes"

Here the modern multimedia learning takes place. You can make a choice out of many online classes. These classes are the main reason why schools should be part of the WWW, because here is something very useful offered. And that's the aim of schools - teaching.

"Dates"

This is a list of all important dates: events, meetings and vacation. For some it is again a kind of advertising. Though some dates are important for the internal stuff, I didn't put them under that item.

"Students corner"

There must be a special space for the pupils, because they are the largest group in the school. An online journal or newspaper made by students for other students is a forum for their opinions and needs. Via the Internet a large group of readers can be found, if the topics are not only locally orientated. To set up a structure for a WWW-student-journal is a job of its own. So I stop discussing about it. A useful thing would be a flea-market and assistance-market for homework and teaching (learning) with offers and wantings. To free the mind from school there should be also some entertaining links.

"Applications"

This link should not be hidden somewhere. It ought to be on the startpage, because if you've got interested persons on the homepage, you can 'catch' them right there. I refrained from online-applications because most would be fake, just to make a joke.

"Help"

The help-page gives explanations to the menu-bar and supports the user. Maybe a help-button should be joined to the bars, so that you can get support from where ever you are. But I think the navigation is quite easy, so actually there is no help necessary.