North Bergen High School's webpage was overall acceptable, not stellar. The website is comprised of tabs at the top, where one is able to access all of the schools k-12 in the North Bergen district, and then you can be re-directed to the page of the school in interest by choosing the appropriate tab. Once I reached the North Bergen High School page i began to look through it. At first, i was impressed by the colors and pictures shown of different parts of the school, especially of the athletics.
On the right side of the website there are some shortcuts for faculty, students, and parents. Each tab should be able to help them reach some information in real time. For example, the parents tab allows them to log in, in real time, to access their child's attendance and grades. This feature is very helpful for some parents, and can keep them informed, i know this would have been a very helpful tool for some of my classmate's parents when we were in high school.
The website does provide some insight into the courses offered, and into the curriculum. It also seems to have a large focus on athletics. It provides contact information for each school, and shows the names and some information on each teacher. Although, most teachers did not have webpage, some did but only provided minimal information, i did find one biology teacher who did have a good webpage. Her webpage was up to date, it was geared toward her lesson plans, and even encourages her students to contribute information they would like to add to the site.
The best part of the NBHS website was their media center. Any student would be able to access the library catalog online through Bccls, get help making a bibliography, read newspapers etc.
The website is not stellar is because many parts seem to either be under construction, or have not been updated in a long time. For example, the dates provided under counseling for taking the SAT have passed long time ago. As per Dr. Mckenzie's Reasons for Websites, there also wasn't any extra information about outside sources, and no published works of any students which could be used to show the kind of curriculum used at the school. Also, there was no information under announcements, or in the calendars. Most importantly, I hope that the pages to the students and parents in real time show more information that is not available to just anyone who visits the page, because they have to insert username and password. Some parts were good and others not so much, i think that if the page was updated regularly it could go from acceptable to stellar.
Hi Veronica, North Bergen High School has a nice page for students, faculty, and parents. It is very easy to follow. The tabs on the top bar and side bar make it easy to search through the school's website. The school colors and slideshow pictures on the main page make it aesthetically pleasing to all who enter the site. It is great to have a section for parents to sign into so they can check on their child's progress (without having to ask the child directly how they are doing).
ReplyDeleteIt is good that some of the teachers have their own personal websites. However, I think the school should require all teachers to create their own website. They can include past, present, and future assignments so students can check if they forget or if they are sick for a day. Teachers also can put up resources used in the classroom and tools for extra help in a topic.
Many libraries are going online so it is great North Bergen has done that. Overall, it was a very good website for students, parents, and faculty.
I agree that if this page was updated regularly, it would be a fantastic site! The upcoming dates are probably one of the most important thing that a parent and student would look for. I also agree with Casey that each teacher should be required to create their own page. Those two points are what takes an okay school page and make it an excellent resource. I really liked how this school had the discipline code link right on the homepage. This way, there's no question when disciplinary action occurs. It allows students, parents, and faculty to be on the same page with important information and rules that the school has.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to agree with your critiques about this website. It does look like a lot of the North Bergen School District’s website is “under construction”. The incomplete teacher profiles and other areas on the site with missing information is a bit of a deterrent in my opinion. Also, you mentioned their big focus on athletics around the site. If I were a parent looking to send my child to the high school for instance, I would be more interested to see a website with a great deal of focus on academia, rather than extracurricular activities. I think this website definitely has some room for improvement, and there are certainly some excellent school district websites they could use as examples!
ReplyDeleteHi Veronica, I agree that the North Bergen site has some substantial room for improvement. In particular, the first short cut link is to a private log in for teacher email. I think a school's main focus in designing a website should be to communicate to parents and students, not for teacher log in. That kind of thing can be placed at the bottom or out of the way some where. As a visitor to the site looking for information, I was slightly put off by that. But by far it seems the most glaring problem is the empty calendar. I don't know how anyone could overlook something like that, but it certainly doesn't give visitors a good impression of the site.
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