Working Title Balboa Elementary
Name Lisa Hess
E-mail Address lnguyen@sandi.net
Date February 22, 2010
Course and Section Edtech 541 Section 1

Problem, Need, or Opportunity

Balboa Elementary currently has no place where parents, students and community members can go to find information about the school. Often times when parents have questions about the events or happenings around the school, our office staff gets bombarded with questions and phone calls. With an enrollment of 700, there is a definite need for our parents to be able to find information at their fingertips. The school sends home flyers often, however these get lost or trashed quite easily. Parents and community members should be able to have a place where they can go to connect with the school their child attends.

Audience

There are many people that would benefit from this website. The intended audience however is simply Balboa staff, students, parents and community. Whoever may be accessing the Balboa website will be looking for information about the school, and /or events around the school and community. In addition, donors and other community members may be interested in the site’s content. Balboa has been extremely lucky in the fact that we have had many community members donate services to Balboa. These donors may be interested in finding out more about the school.

User's Needs

I talked to parents, teachers and Balboa’s principal to find out what information should be included on our school website.

1. Monthly Calendar- Both teachers and parents said that they would benefit from a calendar of events page on the school website. Mainly, the monthly Calendar will be uploaded and updated so that both parents and staff can get up to date information about events and important dates at Balboa Elementary.

2. Parents and guardians also said that they are often interested in seeing what the students are up to while they are at work. Pictures of staff and students working, video of the “Bulldog News”, Videos of assemblies and performances and examples of student work will be helpful for families to see what their child is up to at school. With these things included on the website, families can feel like they are part of the everyday “action” that happens at Balboa.

3. All parties interviewed are interested in seeing a brief history and biography of teachers, their philosophies as educators and class schedules.

4. Useful school information for example: important bell times, school behavior and attendance policies, school motto, Emergency procedures for parents and community members and information regarding Parent and Community classes will be helpful for both staff and Parents.

5. Teachers and Administration also thought it would be helpful for parents to have a quick link to CA grade level standards and District events.

These needs and interests will be met through various sections of the website. Teachers, Community and Parents will have a navigation table of contents as well as a Monthly Calendar readily available.

Environment

The user will be accessing this website at their personal home or business computer. This site will be linked to the SDUSD website and CA Education Department Website. This site will have limited video and audio, only when a video is downloaded voluntarily when watching the school news or children performances. Since there will be many student images and teacher information that needs to be downloaded a high-speed modem or cable connection is crucial for shortened download time. Of course if parents wish to download the monthly calendar or students’ work or images a printer would be needed.

Resources and Limitations

Many of the resources that will be used to create this website is already in paper form from the school office. For example, our office staff sends home a Calendar of Events every month. It is simply a matter of scanning and uploading the calendar monthly. Other items that are already established are school bell times, emergency procedures, district policies, etc. As for the information about teachers and classrooms, each teacher will be responsible for providing a quick welcome biography and schedule. The webpage can be updated on the school campus on a monthly basis as needed. The site will be designed and maintained to meet the district’s Web site security policy. For example, student work will be displayed without last names, to protect student privacy and safety. Parental permission will be obtained before photographs of a student’s face is shown.

General Solution

Balboa’s website will be a great source of information for parents, community members, staff and students. Often parents want to be more involved in their child’s school but cannot fit activities into their daily lives. This website will allow parents to see what is happening at their child’s school and be able to have great dinner conversations with their child. Parents also can look for important dates on the monthly calendar. In short, this website will serve as a great reference tool for parents, teachers, students and community members and answer many of their questions. This site will also show the wonderful work being done and the spectacular learning community we have at Balboa.