On my way out of the building today at lunch, I stopped by the DMS (web access on the intranet) to pick up a book for Visual Quickstart Guide: Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, by Tom Negrino and Dori Smith. It’s nice to remember that we have this resource (DMS) close at hand, and they have quite a good selection of books relating to 21st century learning, web 2.0, technology, etc.
I managed to check out my books appendix and looked at a few online sites that were recommended, but most required that you purchase their particular information or product. So, next I looked for open source templates and css code and did find quite a bit of availability, but haven’t attempted to download a template yet to see how flexible it may be to use.
If anyone has a good school website they’ve seen and would like to pass it on, please also tell me what you like about it. I would love to hear from all you techie people about what the new LHS website should appear and what information it should include. Of course I took a look at the Skyline High School website and Myra’s wonderful SHS library website for inspiration.
Sorry – no haiku today; perhaps tomorrow.
Joanne
6 responses so far ↓
1
myrag
// Jun 3, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Thanks for the mention, Joanne!
Dreamweaver is one of those applications where the learning curve is somewhat steep at the beginning. I purchased books, subscribed to online tutorials, and spent many hours learning the program. I had little success with the tutorials or the books. Admittedly, I am stubborn and have to figure things out (no reading the manual for me, thank you) — the best way to learn (for me) was to just experiment. (what does this do??? try it…what does it look like in a browser???)
My next project (someday) is to add some interactive features to the website. It is still just a place for a one-directional flow of information.
2
Richard
// Jun 3, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Joanne,
This is, in my mind, the best book written on developing websites:
http://www.headfirstlabs.com/books/hfhtml/
The problem with Dreamweaver is that it is not open source and therefore quite expensive. It also tries to make easy something that it inherently complex: designing websites to work on all the various browsers, including IE6, IE7, Firefox, Opera and Safari. Please consider NVU:
http://www.nvu.com/
NVU runs on Macs, Linux or Windows and is similar in purpose to Dreamweaver and Coldfusion. It’s open source, though, and becoming more popular all the time. One of our custodians at Skyline is actually using it to set up his own personal business website.
Also: talk to Myra about the Library portion of our Skyline website, as it was developed separately from the main Skyline site, and you can tell, as it’s much more up to date and interactive. I sponsor a computer programming club at Skyline and we are working on redesigning the SHS site, but it looks like we’ll have to host it off-site, meaning, off-district. Most of the SVVSD websites suffer from the same problems: they are out of date and seldom updated.
Keep up the learning!
Richard Guenther
3
Joanne
// Jun 3, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Thank you for the book recommendation Richard!
I agree with you that Dreamweaver has it’s limitations. I do want the LHS website to be more interactive and fresh looking. I understood that our district didn’t want us to use off-site hosts? I’ll ask Myra for specifics.
I don’t mind using Dreamweaver as long as I can incorporate interactive elements and as far as out of date sites – I’d have little trouble updating if only the powers that be and hold the docs/pdfs and information would send that information in a timely manner.
Thanks for your input. NVU looks interesting and worth further invetigation.
4
Joanne
// Jun 3, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Myra,
I checked out the Dreamweaver book with the hope that I could pick up new ideas. I’ve used Dreamweaver since about 2002 and agree with you that the best learning comes from hours in front of the monitor. My goal is to create a site that is more interactive and looks similar to a blog or what you created for the SHS library website. Can I do that with Dreamweaver
What did you use and how did you get approval from our district?
Thanks for your help!
Joanne
5
myrag
// Jun 3, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I did start the website, initially, off-site — and, yes, I got my hands spanked.
The library site is created in Dreamweaver and is on-site. There are a few rules for the district sites — we can touch base on those. I do still have some issues trying to upload my updates on a timely basis (why we went off-site in the first place), but that is a building issue, not district.
6
adellwardt
// Jun 4, 2008 at 6:24 am
I have designed and maintained my school website (http://fres.stvrain.k12.co.us) using Dreamweaver exclusively from the start. (It was the required web design software for my master’s program.) I find it amazing and since the district already owns it, there is no expense for you.
I have some tutorials I will try to find and bring with me today and I have lots of experience with it, so feel free to shoot out questions. I also know that if you have specific questions that you can’t find answers for you can email Curtis Byrns. He is our district webmaster and I find that he is very helpful.
As far as the “fresh, new” approach, you may want to look at the book I borrowed. They show an example of how a website can use blogs. Very Interesting. The book is called “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts.” By Will Richardson. I will bring this with me today too.
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