This road map for building your technology platform was derived from ideas from commercial technical writing, (covered in, “Manual Writing,” at Vancouver Island University) in which all components of a computer system are documented. Some of the bubbles below can be mere links to other resources, but the entire map should be understood as you run your school technology center.
It takes a while to put all of the pieces into play, but getting an Administrative Wiki (private content repository) is the start. Over time all of these consciously connected Web 2.0 tools will enable your school to become a thriving platform of teaching and learning.
Print, laminate, and post the map and follow the steps below.
Before downloading or subscribing to a tool, gather an interested group of stakeholders to work on getting the correct tools for behind and in-front of your cloud presence. The team may select commercial or open-source products – whatever works best for you, or is recommended by the district.
Behind-the-Cloud (Private) Tools
The three private tools should be available to your administration and technology team. Over time, more permissions to use the tools may be granted.
1. Administrative Wiki
To start:
- Add some key pages, such as “Staff Directory,” “Back to School Newsletter,” and “Teachers’ Software.”
- Add a page for each bubble. A “State Educator’s Network” page, would have a description and link to the state network; the “e-learning” page would describe how your school uses e-learning, including links to teachers’ websites, and the like.
- Add a page that describes the administrative wiki, (“About this Wiki”) including how to structure information and copy and paste. For example, you may add this text:
“In our administrative wiki, we plan on managing all of our school’s important written content, keeping it up to date, and making it accessible for the proper stakeholders. From now on, the Principal’s monthly newsletter will be located on the “Principal’s Newsletter” page. You may copy it, for example, to a back-to-school night flier, or teacher’s website.
If you have any information that you would like to add to our administrative wiki, please contact the technical team.
2. District Programs
- Add pages to the administrative wiki that explain how to use district programs, such as attendance and grading. Describe how your school expects teachers to build websites on another wiki page. Add relevant links if stakeholders are meant to follow directions from another source. For example, the district should provide training on how to use attendance and grading programs. Announcements training on the front page of the wiki, if that is where you store announcements.
- At first, information about the programs that teachers use on a daily basis can be copied and pasted to other locations, such as a newsletter or email blast. Eventually, these pages might be made accessible to all teachers.
3. Teachers’/Administrators’ Social Networking
- For a school technology center to succeed, your teachers need to collaborate, and it might be nice to enable administrators to chat in a private social network setting as well (rather than always simply emailing to select lists). To change your school milieu, your teachers might vote to have a Facebook, google +, ning, or yahoo group. Remind everyone to remain professional when they communicate with others in their groups – set high expectations for using technology for teaching and learning. As teachers share with one another, they can bring ideas to staff meetings, and there should never be a problem with coming up with relevant agenda items.
Products In the-Cloud
4. Teacher’s Websites
- Many schools want teachers to have websites, but do not recommend how they do so. Your parent-teacher technology group can provide good recommendations if your school or district has not done so. Two excellent possibilities are google and WordPress.
5. e-learning Platform
- Classes are going hybrid! Your state or district may already have classes available to students on an e-learning platform – California does! If you want information on setting up a large series of classes on moodle, contact Elly.
6. State and Federal Links
- Your state may provide high speed data networks, administrative groups, and other information to share on your technology center platform. Create wiki pages for them so people can readily find out the latest news about state and federal educational resources. California provides a free K12 High Speed Network for all schools in the state.
7. Content Management System
- To enable information about your school in front of the cloud, how about using a WordPress website? This would replace Word, however, Word is still invaluable for formatting larger documents. Obviously, WordPress is my favorite cms, as you can see from this very blog you are reading! You may also sign up for a schoodl WordPress site and join our network for free.
8. School Marketing/Social Media
- What attracts students, teachers, and staff to your school? Now that your content is being managed effectively, it’s time to advertise. Create a space in which people who want to know about your school can share information and ask questions. Facebook groups are great for this. Will you have to monitor it to make sure discussions remain positive and secure? Most likely. In social networking, entities need to make sure discussions remain positive. You may also find your school’s social media space to be a great place to answer students’ questions about your school.
- Recent trends in social networking show that groups self-monitor in order to promote positive experiences. For your school technology center, these considerations may be a bit further down the line, but you will eventually get to the point where your tech-savvy school is the envy of the neighborhood.
For more information, read Elly’s blogs, graciously hosted by the K12 HSN:
