A new tool has become vital for many schools: school websites. They have the capacity to help internally with content management and attendance and externally to inform potential students and interested donors.
Making the jump to this kind of technology can be hard, but it is becoming more and more necessary as communication and content move online. (See a previous post with Shafeen Charania’s views on turning technological change into advantage.)
If you have a development resource, meaning someone who is competent in web coding, there is open source software available that includes coding for the basic website which can be customized for your needs. If this is not an option, there are also design and development teams available to build the best site to suit your school’s needs. Here are some choices:
Open Source
Website@School – a website content management system (CMS), specially designed to build, manage and maintain the websites of schools, small and big.
Project Fedena – an internal school management system which can be customized for students, teachers, and administrators.
Education Website and Service Providers
schoolyard – using open source software, schoolyard’s team will build a website and then provide support at an additional cost. See STC’s Harlem Academy website as an example.
Final Site – a full service agency for the educational community providing design and building of an interactive website, support, and social media help. Request a quote on their website.
School World – a full service agency that designs and builds a custom website, with a focus on internal classroom web engagement, provides full service support if needed.
STC Schools: there are some great school websites in our network – what services did you use and what are your recommendations?
(Disclaimer: STC has not used the above services.)