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Temple University Center for Research
in Human Development and Education |
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Even if only
a small fraction of the school faculty/staff take on
authoring responsibilities, this widening of participation
makes an enormous difference in the vibrancy of a school
website's content.
The Delano
High School teaching staff’s webpage has a
website icon link next to many of the listed faculty. Curriculum sites range from
a simple yet elegant social
studies site to a very elaborate English teaching site
devoted to mythology. At the bottom of each teacher's website is the
"login" link typical of CMS sites that allows the teacher to directly
update and create content.
When
contemplating the deployment of a CMS/blogging type server
initiative in a school district, the central office
technology team should first do an extensive review of
available software options. The developmental landscape of
this technology moves at an exhausting pace, requiring a
team to carefully review the latest options available during
the month when the final decision is being made. For those
who are new to CMS technology concepts, two books are
helpful in getting started.
Content
Management Systems (Suh, Addey, Thiemecke, & Ellis, 2002) gives a
broad conceptual overview in a light, readable style. James Ellis, one of the
authors, has a brief overview
of CMS on his blog site. Bob
Boiko's Content
Management Bible (2001) provides a sampling of many CMS technologies
within a more comprehensive conceptual framework.
Some CMS
companies
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and CMS open
source initiatives offer the ability to create test accounts
on their servers. This is one of the best ways for a central
office technology team to begin discussing and narrowing the
focus of CMS qualities that they would like to have for
their server. If possible, the team should include a few
lead teachers in the decision-making process.
Weblogger provides 30-day free trial accounts by using Userland Software's Frontier CMS server software. One of
the pioneering CMS platforms with a well established reputation (first released
in 1992, now at version 9.x), Frontier runs on both Windows XP and MacOS X
servers and has been used in many universities. Frontier is a $900 commercial
application priced at $300 for the education community. PlainBlack Software, an open source
initiative, provides demo accounts on
their WebGUI CMS server, along
with a comparison grid
ranking WebGUI against a variety of other CMS products. WebGUI (first released
in 2001, now at version 5.x) runs on Unix/Linux, Windows XP, and MacOSX servers
and has begun to attract school district users (see Troy School District in Plainfield, IL).
PlainBlack, like many open source software companies, provides the software at
no cost and makes its money by selling documentation and
consulting.
Once a CMS software solution is chosen and the CMS server
deployment is complete, a near zero technology literacy
foundation is laid for the web authoring needs of the school
district.
References
IBerners-Lee, T., & Fischetti, M. (2000). Weaving the
web: The original design and ultimate destiny of the world
wide web. New York: Harper Business.
Boiko, B. (2001). Content management bible. New York:
John Wiley & Sons.
Siemens, G. (2002, December 1). The art of blogging - Part
I: Overview, definitions, uses, and Implications. Retrieved
April 2003, from
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/blogging_part_1.htm
Siemens, G. (2002, December 6). The art of blogging - Part
2: Getting started, "How To", tools, resources. Retrieved
April 2003, from
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/blogging_part_2.htm
Suh, P., Addey, D., Thiemecke, D., & Ellis, J. (2002).
Content management systems. Birmingham, UK: Glasshaus. .
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