Guest posting to voced-coord email list.
Item 11 of 15:

Date:Mon, 3 Aug 1998 13:43:55 +1000
To: voced-coord@owl.qut.edu.au
From: Tom March
Subject: VocEd: Some Web Design Ideas

G'Day (glad you can't hear my accent!),

As Janine said in her nice introduction I've recently moved to Australia with my wife and two boys (my wife's an Aussie). You can read a bit about the migration in the Ozline Story part of my Website:

http://www.ozline.com

I compliment Lenny and Stevo on their work. As a classroom teacher for 10 years I know what it was like to teach full time, do all the technology bits that needed attention, help staff, be there for students, grade the essays, hook up with internship partners, etc. I say I know what it was like, but I still marvel that people can do all that. So applause to all of you wearing three or four different hats and still maintaining a sane brain under each of them.

So onto Web sites and Web design...

I think the main things I'd like to contribute have little to do with the technical aspects of Web design, but everything to do with creating a Web presence. I echo some of the comments I read about the need to plan, consult with key stateholders, have a vision for the Web site's use, etc. These are the things that create the "buy-in" that will keep your sites alive. This is not to say it's wrong for one or a couple of people to get together and hammer out a Web site just to get something up. This does help create the vision among your communities to see what a Web site is and the foundations of how it can be used. You just want to avoid a "closed system" around your Web site. Since the Web is about inclusion and sharing, for a Web site to live and prosper, it should be the nexus for the organisation's business (be this education, training, publicity, community relations, celebrations, etc.).

So a key tip that comes up again and again when I work with clients is "what do you want your site to do?" This involves choosing the main sudience you want to address and what their needs are. Also think about how the site can work for you. Even if your worksite partners aren't online, the growth I saw in California makes me confident that it's silly to wait around for everyone to get online. It seems we need some more initiatives to help get higher speed lines throughout Australia, but if the pressure doesn't come from within (through organisations like our own), then it will come from outside as other countries increase their influence through powerful uses of telecommunications. One way to do this is empowering students. You might want to take a look at a project we created where students create Websites for nonprofit agencies. This gave students confidence, experience, and life skills while providing a service learning contribution to the community. (see http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/prophets -- the site is about three years old, but still has some merit).

In closing for this (too) long message, I'd like to say that I've worked with technology all my professional life, but it wasn't until the Web and videoconferencing that I really believed it could alter the way we teach and the way students learn. The real design of a Web site is the design of a community meeting place where the focus is on learning, sharing, challenging, and mostly evolving.

I welcome your comments and thank you for the work you're doing. If you'd like to talk brass tacks Web design I'd be happy to do that also.

Tom --

P.S. - no surf in Mittagong today, but we're always watching for snow.

__________________________________________
Tom March,
http://www.ozline.com
online content design & web strategies
from Australia's Southern Highlands

"There is nothing more important than the right rearing and education of children"

--Michel de Montaigne