Will hosting our school's website on an external server be a bad idea? - Classroom 2.02024-03-28T19:38:50Zhttps://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/649749:Topic:85513?commentId=649749%3AComment%3A85627&feed=yes&xn_auth=noMy school district we do a va…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-13:649749:Comment:883762007-12-13T15:08:18.671ZYancy Gunhammerhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/yancyg
My school district we do a variety of things with the web. We do host our own website but moved external servers for blackboard, blogging, wiki and other things. I like to convience of having some of the web features on an external server so if our connection goes down we still have some of our services up. Although with the new apple leopard server, we will be opening up our district to wiki, blogging and ical (web calendar) that is built into the system. I you want to have things like blogs,…
My school district we do a variety of things with the web. We do host our own website but moved external servers for blackboard, blogging, wiki and other things. I like to convience of having some of the web features on an external server so if our connection goes down we still have some of our services up. Although with the new apple leopard server, we will be opening up our district to wiki, blogging and ical (web calendar) that is built into the system. I you want to have things like blogs, wiki's and cms's you will need a few volunteer to help filter content. You may want to give some of the staff editorial, and administrative right to delete and edit contect as well as delete and add users who violate your internet policy.<br />
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Alot of tech coordinators, have power and control issues that have nothing to do with erate skewing the type of system they use and the type of web editor. (Very old school thinking) I would look at the erate information and see what is required, I have not messed with the erate info. for about two years. I am sure that it does not specifically limit the usage of the server to front page or who posts to it via.<br />
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But we do need to take precautions for the safety of our students - information, and well being. Our district also uses School…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-12:649749:Comment:881462007-12-12T22:42:21.686ZChristopher Nelsonhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/ChristopherNelson
Our district also uses SchoolWorld - an excellent product for the following reasons:<br />
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a. outsourcing freed bandwidth. Usage reports showed that most web visits occurred during the day. This meant the same time students and staff were going out to the Internet, web visitor were trying to get into our network to access the homepage.<br />
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b. diversified ownership. All teachers have accounts and use a webportal to post content and manage the site. This means teachers can access their pages from any…
Our district also uses SchoolWorld - an excellent product for the following reasons:<br />
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a. outsourcing freed bandwidth. Usage reports showed that most web visits occurred during the day. This meant the same time students and staff were going out to the Internet, web visitor were trying to get into our network to access the homepage.<br />
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b. diversified ownership. All teachers have accounts and use a webportal to post content and manage the site. This means teachers can access their pages from any Internet connection. We found most staff work at home - this was a big selling point.<br />
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c. precreated tools. Why recreate the wheel? Products like SchoolWorld provide all the tools needed to build a quility site!<br />
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d. free tech staff to do what they do best. There are enough projects for IT staff to work on. Outsourcing the website allows more quality time to other technologies.<br />
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Just my two cents ... it is working for our district. That's a good idea. I need to…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-12:649749:Comment:881342007-12-12T21:53:24.087ZScott Walkerhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/ScottWalker
That's a good idea. I need to check out where these restrictions are coming from.<br />
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Question... Do restrictive powers in any school system come from policy or position. Here's what I mean. I want to do a student blog through edublogs. It would be set up so that only what I approve can be posted. If there are no policies against it, can my district technology coordinator really stand in the way?<br />
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Again, I'm not an IT basher... I totally respect the position.
That's a good idea. I need to check out where these restrictions are coming from.<br />
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Question... Do restrictive powers in any school system come from policy or position. Here's what I mean. I want to do a student blog through edublogs. It would be set up so that only what I approve can be posted. If there are no policies against it, can my district technology coordinator really stand in the way?<br />
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Again, I'm not an IT basher... I totally respect the position. Thanks for the tips, I'll che…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-12:649749:Comment:881292007-12-12T21:45:07.693ZScott Walkerhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/ScottWalker
Thanks for the tips, I'll check them out. On a side note I should add that I am probably coming off as an IT basher. I promise that's not the case!
Thanks for the tips, I'll check them out. On a side note I should add that I am probably coming off as an IT basher. I promise that's not the case! I think you need sort out the…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-12:649749:Comment:881252007-12-12T21:43:46.265ZSteve O'Connorhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/SteveOConnor
I think you need sort out the restrictions due to school policy from those imposed by the Technology Coordinator. Then you need to separate legitimate technical reasons from those of discomfort.<br />
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While we are a very small district and do not have a tech coordinator, we have technology committee including an IT person (and others) who has often been reluctant to embrace web 2.0 technologies initially, but has generally come around with examples and education.<br />
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Be prepared to demonstrate…
I think you need sort out the restrictions due to school policy from those imposed by the Technology Coordinator. Then you need to separate legitimate technical reasons from those of discomfort.<br />
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While we are a very small district and do not have a tech coordinator, we have technology committee including an IT person (and others) who has often been reluctant to embrace web 2.0 technologies initially, but has generally come around with examples and education.<br />
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Be prepared to demonstrate work-flows and security precautions that comply with school policies and needs in terms of student safety. Check and triple check these precautions.<br />
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In our case, it has actually helped that we used third party hosting as it takes the responsibility of any server issues that may occur as a result of our embrace of Web 2.0 technologies off her shoulders.<br />
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Steve :) Good timing with the "stri…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-12:649749:Comment:881072007-12-12T20:44:39.525ZScott Walkerhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/ScottWalker
:) Good timing with the "strict with stuff" comment. I just received an email from my IT person stating that my class and I may redesign the web page as we see fit.(sounds good, so far) Except I must use FrontPage 2003, No links to any site that is not on the district page(so much for useful links to resources), and they still must approve anything before it is posted to the server. Maybe you could help me appreciate that. A week ago I would have been frustrated... now I am starting to laugh…
:) Good timing with the "strict with stuff" comment. I just received an email from my IT person stating that my class and I may redesign the web page as we see fit.(sounds good, so far) Except I must use FrontPage 2003, No links to any site that is not on the district page(so much for useful links to resources), and they still must approve anything before it is posted to the server. Maybe you could help me appreciate that. A week ago I would have been frustrated... now I am starting to laugh about it all. We do this with our school we…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-11:649749:Comment:875032007-12-11T15:04:01.340ZSteve O'Connorhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/SteveOConnor
We do this with our school website <a href="http://wellscsd.com">wellscsd.com</a>. We are extremely happy with this arrangement. We can install whatever software we like. Most is free and open source. On top of that, with the control panel provided by our web host (Hostgator), they can be installed in seconds with no real technical know-how. If someone wants a blog, we put it up. Basically, we are free to do whatever we please as long as the tech committee approves (no big deal)<br />
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Our web…
We do this with our school website <a href="http://wellscsd.com">wellscsd.com</a>. We are extremely happy with this arrangement. We can install whatever software we like. Most is free and open source. On top of that, with the control panel provided by our web host (Hostgator), they can be installed in seconds with no real technical know-how. If someone wants a blog, we put it up. Basically, we are free to do whatever we please as long as the tech committee approves (no big deal)<br />
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Our web hosting account comes with plenty of space, so we can upload plenty of multimedia: audio, video, pictures, whatever. We don't have to use YouTube or any other external solutions that come with their own problems. We can load as many software scripts as we like. We have put up Joomla, Moodle, a gallery, as well as blogs. We will also be putting up Elgg, an open source social networking platform.<br />
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Students and faculty are given accounts in Joomla and are allowed to submit content. It is then reviewed by one of our admins and published if appropriate.<br />
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It has had no impact on our erate. Additionally, it is incredibly inexpensive--under $150/year including domain registration. It can be done for even less.<br />
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The main risk is taking care of problems as they arise. You need to contact the host if it is a server issue, or go to the open source community if it is software related. The trick is deciding where you need to get your help. It certainly pays to investigate the quality of the technical support at your web host. You also need to keep your software up to date by checking for new versions and applying patches (often the upgrade can be done simply in the control panel. You should also maintain backups--again, very simple with the control panel.<br />
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Our school and community loves it and we will never go back! Feel free to contact me. I also have a rudimentary website that discusses some of the issues: <a href="http://openedweb.com">openedweb.com</a>. Hi Scott,
My first response…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-11:649749:Comment:874302007-12-11T07:26:01.057ZDaniel Craighttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/danielcraig
Hi Scott,<br />
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My first response is to talk nice to the coordinator and try to come to an agreement that would make it possible to work together on a shared solution. He/she probably has valid concerns and they should be discussed. Find out what the concerns are, what the limitations are in the current system, and what "can" (in his/her opinion) be done.<br />
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If talking nice doesn't work......<br />
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How about going to the administration and explaining to them that the tech coordinator's approach to managing…
Hi Scott,<br />
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My first response is to talk nice to the coordinator and try to come to an agreement that would make it possible to work together on a shared solution. He/she probably has valid concerns and they should be discussed. Find out what the concerns are, what the limitations are in the current system, and what "can" (in his/her opinion) be done.<br />
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If talking nice doesn't work......<br />
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How about going to the administration and explaining to them that the tech coordinator's approach to managing his/her area is going to cost the organization more money? I can understand looking outside if it will result in a cost savings or if it is something that cannot be done with your current system, but doing it because of a bad coordinator is ridiculous and wasteful.<br />
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While I can see both security and data integrity problems arising from poorly instituted policies/installations, if the technology coordinator is at all qualified to have this position, he/she should have no problem setting up limited shared access to networked folders based on network permissions. With this, then there is no reason to access it with FrontPage (I'm not sure how he/she forces this anyway).<br />
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I know that it is sometimes easier (less hassle) to go around the problem than it is to confront it head-on (I've certainly done this myself), However, you will continue to have problems in the future if you don't look for a solution. Either work together or go over their head.<br />
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Dan Thanks for the tips.. Im goin…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-08:649749:Comment:862512007-12-08T03:04:46.244ZScott Walkerhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/ScottWalker
Thanks for the tips.. Im going to check out the lunarpages.
Thanks for the tips.. Im going to check out the lunarpages. I would definitely suggest us…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-08:649749:Comment:862412007-12-08T03:01:47.052ZGeneralChaoshttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/GeneralChaos
I would definitely suggest using an external server. Lunarpages in what our school switched to, but most providers are worthwhile. It took a year and a half for the head of the tech department to finally get the webpage up and running. Discouraged by the lack of progress, I signed up for my own site with a different provider. It was the best $4 a month I've ever spent. 99.9% uptime alone without any of the headaches is well worth the money.
I would definitely suggest using an external server. Lunarpages in what our school switched to, but most providers are worthwhile. It took a year and a half for the head of the tech department to finally get the webpage up and running. Discouraged by the lack of progress, I signed up for my own site with a different provider. It was the best $4 a month I've ever spent. 99.9% uptime alone without any of the headaches is well worth the money.