The SAU school districts are committed to working together to achieve common standards and values that will result in graduates who are caring, productive, and contributing members of society.
You need to decide where you are going to post your website (see
Website Hosting Options below) and how
you are going to create your web pages (see
Web Page Authoring Tools below). Then you can get started.
Do I need to know HTML or how to program? NO! You can get
started with free software and keep your pages very simple. After
time you may want to get more sophisticated and learn to read/write code
(HTML is really quite simple which has made it so popular for novices)
but it's not necessary to get started.
Websites are visual by nature so hopefully you'll put some graphics
onto your site. Do you need to know how to be a graphic designer?
NO! There are lots of free graphics available on the web (see
Free Graphics on the Web below) or within
your existing software (i.e. clipart) that you can use. Again,
after time you may want to get more sophisticated or run into a
situation where you want to use a graphic and need to manipulate it to
get it to work on your website (must be in .jpg or .gif format).
Then you can get a graphics program and work with it (see
Graphics Programs below).
If you'd like more information about creating, designing and maintaining
websites, see some of the resources listed in the
Teacher Website Resources section below.
There are a few different ways SAU 16 teachers and staff can post
custom websites (in addition to Blue Wrench, RWD and Moodle options):
FirstClass Home Pages - every FirstClass user has the capacity to
host a website in their FirstClass Home Page Folder (a folder in your
FirstClass Desktop - if the Home Page Folder icon does not appear on
your desktop, do a File --> Open --> Home Page). You create the web pages
using an authoring tool and then copy them
into that folder. Then they are accessible at
http://fc.sau16.org/~emailid (usually first initial, last name).
This option makes it easy to update, for teachers who like to post
information often. Tech. Support may need to add you to a web user
group for you to see your published pages.
We can create a "subweb" for you to publish your website using MS Frontpage or any FTP program.
SAU 16 teacher web pages can not be hosted outside of these options. We
know there are many places that provide easy means of publishing web
pages but our policy is to host sites using the above options and not to
link to outside resources.
Office Applications - word processing, spreadsheets,
presentations -
all have "Save As Web Page" feature that creates web pages from your
documents. Might be better to
save them as pdfs and publish them.
Other Applications - Many software programs like PrintShop
offer the ability to save as web pages or save as .gif or .jpg
(graphic images that can then be pasted on a page). These are
not great solutions to creating a website, but if you have experience
with the software and/or have already created material in that
program, this is a good way to get information posted.
PDF Creator - a free program that will create pdfs by acting like
a printer.
Many of the above authoring tools have graphics manipulation
capabilities built in, or marry a graphics program (i.e. Dreamweaver/Fireworks).
A simple tool is often needed just to change file formats (i.e. you
have a picture in a .tiff or .bmp format but need it saved as a .gif or
.jpg to post on a website). If your needs are above their
capabilities or you need a graphics manipulation program, consider these
options:
Adobe Photoshop - The professional
image-editing standard. A "light" version is available at a
reasonable price called Photoshop Elements.
It's built around the Photoshop feature-set and interface, without the
high end features, steep learning curve, and expensive price tag.
Jasc Paint Shop Pro
- has most, if not all the features, of Photoshop, at a reasonable
price.
TechLearning's website
has a fabulous collection of
Web Building Resources from advice on creating a site that's easy
to use, good tools, copyright and fair use rules, tutorials, and lots
more. Definitely check out this resource.
There
are some excellent resources out there for any child who wants to learn
how to build a Web site. A good source for kids ages 10 and over is
“Learning HTML for Kids,” which is a detailed step-by-step 12-lesson
tutorial by Jill Jeffers Goodell. It teaches HTML coding, which is
helpful for anyone to understand, whether they use a WYSIWYG (what you
see is what you get) program or not:
(http://www.goodellgroup.com/tutorial/)
But probably the easiest site to understand—as well as the most fun—is Webmonkey for Kids.
(http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/kids/)
This site includes lessons on to how to build a website; projects to do
online, such as making a birthday invitation; creating a slide show and
doing a self-portrait; and tools to help with writing codes, creating
pictures and loading the page.
Webmonkey
is a great resource for anyone creating on the web - explore a little.
Download and install the FREE graphics program Irfanview
(available at this site
here) so you can easily manipulate any graphics files. For a
simple instruction sheet:
Quick Directions.
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Fax
(603) 775-8673
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