Windsor Website Comments

I have spent some time looking through many of the pages on the school site, and I have come up with several things that I like and dislike about Windsor's site.

One of the strengths of the site is that is can be tracked using an RSS feed, which allows users of the page to receive notifications when the site is updated. However, this feature is not useful when the site isn't updated frequently, and this lack of updates is one of my main issues with the site. I have found pages for clubs such as Windsor Goes Green, but these pages are not very detailed and list dates for meetings from months ago. I like seeing pages for various school clubs, but I think that they should each be reponsible for frequently updating their pages. This may be a responsibility for the secretary in each club.

The largest part of the school site is the Academics and Courses section. This area features course outlines and other information for many of the courses offered at the school. The various departments in the school have clearly not spent much time putting their pages together, as most of the content is outlines that have been copied and pasted into the site. The school site would be far more useful if each department added more information and updated the site more frequently. One example of extra information that could be added is a list of homework for the last few classes for students who are away from school. This may be too much work for most teachers, but there is a lot that they can add without spending large amounts of time editing the site.

I like Windsor's website, but there are a number of significant changes that must be made to it before it can be useful to students and parents. I don't have a specific section of the site that I would like to work on, because I am comfortable working with any of the pages. I would like to meet with a few teachers, possibly department heads, to see what they think should go on to the site, so that I can help them make those changes.

Working with Elementary Schools

I want to start working with the elementary schools soon, because I know there are lots of classes that want help doing different technology-related projects. I have spoken with teachers at Blueridge, Seymour Heights, and Capilano, and they are interested in getting help teaching programs to their classes. A few of these teachers want help making websites on the school site as well.

If we are going to teach a program to an elementary school class, we should make a guide for the teachers. This should be a small booklet that covers everything that we are going to help them teach the class. Everyone in the class should be working on a basic project that will help them learn the program. We can teach Scratch, Photoshop, or Powerpoint to their classes. For each of these programs, we should have a project prepared that the kids can work on.

Scratch Impressions

I have not had an opportunity to use Scratch very much yet, but I have read articles about it and I am aware of its ease of use for children in elementary school. It seems like it will be a simple program to learn to use, and could be useful in teaching kids 2D animation. Another positive of the program is that it is free, and can easily be loaded onto computers at elementary schools.

As I haven't been able to use the program much, I can't provide many negatives about Scratch. However, the fact that it is much more basic than Flash could be a problem for older kids, but I don't expect that to be a concern with elementary school kids. Although Scratch is not as powerful as Flash, it is much easier for younger kids to use and this will be important if we try to teach them the program.

I found the layout of the program interesting because it simplifies the process of creating and animating 2D graphics for younger kids. Although it isn't as powerful as Flash, it has enough features to be useful for students in elementary schools. Another feature that I found interesting was the Youtube-like site that has been set up to share Scratch projects. This would make it very easy for parents to go online and look at their child's projects.

Keep Toolkit Impressions

I have had an opportunity to go through Keep Toolkit and make an account, and I have posted a few of our projects on my portfolio. The site is clean and fairly easy to navigate. It is great to have a page with links to all of our projects on it. I liked how easy it was to quickly set up a page, but it doesn't look professional enough to be used as a portfolio to show to others.

I am having a few problems with exporting a Flash movie into a movie file small enough to fit on the site, but this more of a problem with Flash than with Keep Toolkit. I think that they should accept larger files, but you are getting a decent amount of space for free. I can see how this site would be useful for a teacher in organizing multiple projects into one page, and making them accessible for both students and parents. Personally, I don't feel that I will get much use out of the website, but it may be useful for certain applications in the future.

It is great that you can load photos and videos on to your portfolio, and this feature is one of the most interesting parts of Keep Toolkit. Although the site is not very powerful, it is easy to use, making it more appropriate for teachers who are not used to making websites.

Sitecore Training Feedback

I have wanted to learn how to edit the school website for a while, and I have enjoyed getting the opportunity to do so over the past few weeks. It has been interesting to get to use the program during the last few classes, and I am finding that I already understand how to use Sitecore because it is so simple. Sitecore is similar to Microsoft Word, which makes it extremely easy to use.

I am enjoying my time spent in class learning Sitecore, but I would like to be taught at a much faster pace. I already understand how to load media files onto my page, so I don't feel like I need to be taught those parts of the program. In January, I want to learn the advanced areas of Sitecore, and get into the details of the program. I also would like to start working on actual pages on the school site, because I feel that I understand the basics well enough to start helping teachers with their pages.

One question I have is whether or not our work will have to be approved once we start working on pages of the school site. I assume that teachers don't have to have someone approve their work, and I would hope that if I was given access to various pages on the school site that I would be trusted to not post inappropriate content. I would prefer to not have to go through the approval state when we start working on actual pages on the Windsor site.

Design 44 Technology Fair

I wanted to make a post talking about the trip to Westview Elementary, and our class' booth at the Design 44 Technology Fair there. I enjoyed working on the Three Little Pigs Flash movie that we showed at the event, and I was happy with the response it got. I thought that our booth was definitely the best one there, but there were others with interesting projects as well. I have read the Digital Expressions book that we were given at the fair, and there are some interesting projects inside. Hopefully, we will be able to help put together the next book.

After meeting some teachers at the Westview event, and speaking to teachers I know from other schools, I have a much clearer idea of what they are looking for. I hope that we will get a chance to work with the students and staff at the elementary schools soon.

Bridge Studios Field Trip

I wanted to post some of my ideas about our field trip to Bridge Studios on October 15, 2007. I have gone by movie studios like Lions Gate and the Vancouver Film Studios often, but I have always wondered what the sets looked like and how things were run inside. It was definitely an interesting experience to be able to tour through the different stages and see the massive sets. I am not a fan of science fiction shows, but I was still able to appreciate the work that goes into producing a show like that.

It was cool to see the people working in the editing rooms with several computers screens using Final Cut to edit scenes from the show. I would like to get Final Cut into the school, but I assume it wouldn't be until after I graduate. I would love to get an opportunity to use Final Cut in class regardless, if there was a way for the district to get us a laptop to work with. We should get one really great computer for editing movies; maybe we can use one at the district if they can't get one for the class.

I would have liked to have seen people filming one of the shows live, just to see how the sets look while they are filming. It didn't seem like some of them looked real enough when we went through, so it would have been cool to see how everything looks as it is being filmed.

I had a great time on the field trip to Bridge Studios. Thanks so much to Ms. Kish for organizing everything for us!