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Cautions with School Websites

  1. Time

    The first mistake that is often made is to assume that the building of a school web site is going to be like producing a 3-page word processing document. Even though your set of pages may contain as few keystrokes as three pages of text (most do), the time you will spend getting those pages to say just what you want them to say seems to expand to several hours... then days... then weeks! Once your site is completed, you will want to make adjustment to reflect new information or changes which are necessary. These changes take time. Who is going to give this time? Don't under-estimate the commitment required to build and maintain a good school web site.

  2. Money

    The second mistake that is often made is to assume that you can build and maintain a web site without spending some money. If you decide to outsource the project, you will need to project a cost to retain a webmaster. Prices for such labor vary. The Southeastern region of the US has a price range of $135 - $175 per page with a maintenance fee for adjustments. If you decide to use someone on the staff, that person may not have the experiences required to build pages. Training will need to occur and somebody pays for that training.

  3. Software/Hardware

    The third mistake that is made is to assume the existing hardware and software in the school will suffice for your web site needs. Many schools already have some equipment that will be needed to be a part of the web equipment and software. This list would include flatbed scanner, digital camera, supplementary storage, HTML editor software, image editing software, and image collections. The need to economize will compete with the need for efficiency of use. What happens to your web page when the only digital camera is on a field trip and there is a need to take a picture for the web site of a noted author visiting your school? Can you afford to 'permanently' assign equipment to the site webmaster? Can you not afford to make this assignment?

  4. People

    The final mistake that is made is to spend too little time planning the people equation in the web site project. If you outsource the project, can you find the person/company you can depend on to make changes as fast as you need them made? Will the person/company increase their rates after you have been using them for a while? If you decide to develop the web site with existing staff members, what do you do if something happens to that individual (health, transfer, retirement) which precludes their work on your site? Can you afford to invest all your efforts in a single individual or do you need to use a team-approach? How much time can this individual/team give to the project without hurting their primary job?

A final word of caution - think carefully before you engage parents or students to build or maintain your web site. There will be security issues with posting. Can you trust the individual to keep your passwords private? What will happen to your web site if the student or parent moves on as they eventually do anyway? Can you recruit a replacement quick enough to minimize any time your web site is 'static' or down?

There are many, many issues raised here without specific direction given for action. You will have to make the best decision you can based on the information at hand and the circumstances you find yourself with respect to people, funding, and time.