Post 6 – Well designed and poorly designed websites in education.

The web is a colossus space packed with websites for anything and everything and the education sector is no different. On offer by schools, educators and businesses are examples that are effective, productive, accessible and those where the due care and attention for the audience seem to be lacking.  The generic school website for all to see conveys different things to different users and its creators, take for example my placement school from last year.  Its offers standard information to parents and children in a easy to navigate form or headings at the top, and includes text and pictures to stimulate the reader. There are school specific areas, but much of the website could be copied to another schools website in terms of general information. This is not necessarily a criticism but places the emphasis on the website being purely mandatory with some functionality. Where is the learning, where is the interaction, where is the children’s work or their blogs (I know they do blog).

On the other hand I found this primary school website.  Interactive, videos, blogs, guides for healthy pack lunches along with links to other websites which may be of use to parents and children. Guidance is given on how to help children with their spelling which seems an excellent idea to include parents more in their children’s education.  There seems so much more that this website offers, the design is often similar but content wise there seems to be a huge diversity between what schools think is adequate over what schools think is mandatory. If I was choosing a school to send my children to such websites may often reflect the school and the leadership themselves,  especially in connection with the schools ethos on ICT as a whole.

External to schools educational websites vary considerably. Those that offer free poorly designed resources to those that offer clear, defined learning opportunities, to support and guidance for learners and their adults.  Education City, loved by children and used in many schools provides a inviting and stimulating website which engages many with well thought out and structured activities and learning opportunities. The BBC, National Geographic and many others provide stimulating websites with a wealth of information to engage and motivate children to learn and these are ones that I will try and use when in class.

 

One Comment
  1. صباغ الكويت هو فنان ماهر في مجال تلوين ودهان الأسطح والجدران. يقوم صباغ الكويت بتنفيذ مهام تلوين ودهان الأماكن السكنية والتجارية والصناعية لتحسين مظهرها وحمايتها من التآكل والعوامل الجوية
    ارخص صباغ بالكويت

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *