LearnShifting

 I have had two schools contact me wanting to add submenu links under the default top left menu item that appears on our sharepoint sites. You can't add sub menu items to this menu item by default... but we can hide it and create duplicate menu heading under which we can add submenu items.

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This entry was posted on March 26, 2012 at 8:24 PM and has received 798 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I use a blog tool created by Ray Camden. I love it and use an online editor to create my blog posts. One small annoyance is that I have to upload graphics into my blog and then point to them from the article so that it appears embedded... like this picture of a storm taken from my office window.

It would be better if I, and other folks building school websites using SharePoint 2010 could use Microsoft Word 2010 to creating an article, copying and pasting pictures into the word document as they saw fit and then with a button click or two have the whole article, complete with pictures transported up to the website with the layout they had created in the word document.

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This entry was posted on November 16, 2011 at 6:27 AM and has received 301 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I think anyone who has worked in a school has realised that although a website maybe important for a school, whose job is it to create and maintain? I was surprised to find that although I expected teachers with computer skills to be involved, or an enthusiastic parent or possibly even be outsourced to a local company - it was the school Principal who in many cases took a leading role in the look, feel and content of the website.

I hear many of you thinking "We knew that!". But, to add to this revelation is the fact that some principals actually build the website in among the myriad of other tasks involved in running a school.

Here is a typical scenario played out in small schools across Australia (and even further I suspect). An energetic teacher and principal supported by the school council have a website built. Someone is trained to upload content. There are easy parts of the website to maintain (like uploading the weekly newsletter) and there are hard bits like changing the picture of the Principal when they move on or retire.

Many schools close an eye to the out of date content on the website because the newsletter part is still working and that carries the news of the day.

Then one day, the person in the front office retires or moves to France to tend a vineyard. The password to get into the system that is etched in the departing person's mind is forgotten and when the new person turns up 6 weeks later and the first newsletter is due to go out, the website can't be accessed at all.

If that is not your reality in school then you are fortunate.

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This entry was posted on October 12, 2011 at 7:00 AM and has received 527 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.