EDLD5365+Reflections

EDLD5365 Reflections: Web Design

As I approached the course on web design, I was more intimidated by it than by any other course in this program. The knowledge that I learned in this course included strategies used in website administration, how to trouble shoot web pages, and what elements are the best to choose and use when designing web lay out. My previous experience as a web user was nothing compared to being able to create a web page myself. My finished product was admittedly very basic, but it was a great feeling to be able to figure out how to create a web page from scratch. I knew from personal experience what I liked in a web site as far as visual appeal and navigation, but did not know how to create that myself.

The policy that exists in my district is well thought out and thorough, but it seems to be more focused on avoiding litigation than on finding ways to use the web to foster and promote learning. As I looked into information on web policies that exist in my district, I realized that there is not a specific web policy that exists for my campus, just an overarching policy for the district. There seems to be a need for campus-specific policies for primary versus secondary campuses, regular versus special campuses, etc. The district staff that I spoke with and received emails from as I looked into this were very helpful. There were some pieces of information that I requested for other courses where district employees were tight lipped and hesitant to share specifics. On this subject, I received plenty of help and my campus technology facilitator was great at making sure I was able to access whatever I needed. There was a little bit of surprise as to why I would care about that information or want to know about it, though.

My campus technology facilitator and I have continued to talk since this project about the reasons separate campuses need campus-specific web policies. We are working together with a district level technology coordinator to see about doing this, at least for the district's special campuses like ours. The one thing that has puzzled me about our web policy is that some of our filtering in place to protect our students actually blocks educational content. This has even been true at times with content that our district has purchased a subscription to. This can be rectified, but the filter seems to be set up in a way that it is not fulfilling the purpose for which it was created.

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