ICT in Education

Producing

A photograph of a boy and a girl using a computer and digital video camera.


Contents

1. What to consider when building your website

2. Navigation

3. Design

4. Website accessibility
5. Acceptable use policy






What should you consider when building your website?

At this stage you should know what you are going to use to create your website, whether it is through your local authority or through your own choice of web creation tool.

There are various aspects you have to consider when putting your web pages together.


Navigation

Most websites will have a home page which contains a key menu that will link to other sub-menus on other pages. Make sure you can easily get back to your home page from the other pages.  

Do not make the navigation too complicated. Remember, you should be able to get to the information you want in the fewest clicks possible. 


Design

As well as being able to navigate to the information easily you must also be able to locate it on the page.   Here are some techniques to help you when designing your pages.

  • Decide what information will be text, graphics, photos or video clips. Some information will be better displayed in different formats.
  • Create a style for the website to keep it consistent, for example use school colours.
  • Avoid too much scrolling on the pages: keep text to a minimum.
  • Think about the text colour, size and style; some fonts are easier to read than others.
  • Create summaries and then have the whole text in downloadable format.
  • Limit your graphics. If you have too many images, your site will take a long time to download.
  • Keep graphic size down. If your images are too large, again the site will take too long to download. 
  • Don’t use animation unless you have to. It can take up too much memory and many animations require plug-ins to view them.  
  • Make sure the website is accessible for a wide range of users.
  • Have a heading for the page that identifies its content.
  • Do not underline a heading as underlining usually indicates a link.
  • Keep things simple.    

Have a look at some other school websites.  

Website accessibility

When designing a website it is important to think about its potential users and how accessible they will find it. Think about who will want to use your site - what experience do they have of ICT, what technology are they using to access it, are they disabled? Your website will have a diverse audience and you will need to cater for all their needs.

For further information look at Learning and Teaching Scotland's accessibility guidelines.

Becta's accessibility guidelines are also useful.

Acceptable use policy

Every school or local authority should have an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) which describes the terms and conditions for users, including the types of behaviour that are forbidden by the organisation and the sanctions that will be imposed if rules are broken. There may be different versions for children and adults.

What is an acceptable use policy?
Information on how to develop an acceptable use policy for your schools or local authority.

Kent Internet Policy - Templates and examples of school internet policies.

Word iconMS Word File: Fife Council Acceptable Use Policy - Information on safety issues for the internet.

Becta publication on internet safety and acceptable use policy - Information on safety issues for the internet.