District's new Web site helps teachers, students communicate

SHEFFIELD - If mom gets suspicious when her children claim they have no homework, the Sheffield school district's new Web site will allow her to determine if that is truly the case.

It also will offer much more information.

When the new site goes live Monday, parents, teachers, students and the general public can find a wealth of new information about the school system with the click of a computer mouse.

Brian Craig, the school district's technology coordinator, said the most exciting feature of the new Web site is the opportunity it gives teachers to have their own tool to communicate with parents and students.

"That's a huge benefit we are not able to provide at the moment," Craig said. "The Web site is mostly used as a tool to get our message to the surrounding communities. The more content we have, the better we can do that."

The old Web site allowed four people to input information; the new site will allow as many as 200 people including teachers, counselors, principals, students and district personnel to contribute information.

Craig said the site provides general information about Sheffield schools on the district page, with links to each individual school.

School Web sites allow teachers to customize their own pages with photos of themselves and information such as homework assignments or reminders of upcoming tests.

Sheffield High School Principal Ronnie Wicks said some teachers have started building their Web pages, while others are becoming comfortable with the new technology.

"We can have better communication with the parents, keeping them informed with the calendar of events and the forms we can put on (the site)," Wicks said. "We've already put the student handbook on the site."

Amy Davis, an English teacher at Sheffield High and one of the webmasters, said creating individual teacher Web pages and updating them is relatively simple.

Teachers can cut and paste from programs such as Microsoft Word or type directly into their page's template, Craig said.

If a PowerPoint presentation is used in class, Davis said it can be uploaded to the teacher's site for future reference.

"It's all dependant on whether the teacher keeps it up or not," Craig said.

He said peer pressure will likely help ensure that teachers throughout the system take advantage of the opportunities provided with the new Web site.

As a teacher, Davis said the site will be helpful in providing information to students and teachers.

For instance, if a student is absent for an extended period, he or she can find homework assignments online and keep up with class.

"Before, we didn't have that interaction with the Web site," Davis said.

Craig said he began contemplating an improved Web presence about three years ago, but the money was not available to move forward.

He received the go ahead from the school board after convincing the district of the advantages of a better Web site.

Craig said the old site was hosted on the school district's own computers and was hampered by older software.

The new site is hosted on outside servers, which frees up space in Sheffield's computer system.

With more people having ability to upload information to the site, Craig said information can be posted much more quickly.

Craig said it normally costs $3,600 annually to have the site hosted off campus, but the school system receives the service at a discount through E-Rate, a Federal Communications Commission program that helps fund telecommunications and Internet services.

With the discount, the system pays only $650 annually for the service, Craig said.

The new site can be found at scs.k12.al.us.

Russ Corey can be reached at 740-5738 or russ.corey@TimesDaily.com.