Making a website in Digitalbrain

Recently a website template has been provided for all schools through their portal in Digitalbrain. As there is an expectation that all pupils will be using their personalised learning space to access and store work by 2008 it would be advantageous if the school portal template was developed.  Parents and pupils will visit the school portal frequently, so a well-presented entrance will give a much better impression of the school.  As the portal is template driven it is much easier than it used to be to develop and maintain. A big advantage of using this system is that many people can be responsible for a small part of it, thus sharing the load and time commitment. An administrator may keep the newsletter or diary up to date; any Digitalbrain user may keep the parents’ page up to date; each class teacher could develop their own page and update it as required, etc.

Digitalbrain can also offer a calendar facility, which can be made available to all viewers so that dates and time of school events are constantly available to parents and pupils.

Each calendar entry opens on a click to a new page where detail can be added This is really useful for adding start and return times, the schedule for a school trip, exam dates, emergency contact details etc.

Developing your portal with Digitalbrain

n Digitalbrain, schools are given an adaptamation as their front page. This is an editable Flash template that can be seen in the illustrations. Schools can develop this with their school logo, banner, photographs and colours. Once that is done the other pages are very easy to populate. They are already made and linked; they just need information and pictures adding. Young pupils can be taught to make their own portal pages and the technique is exactly the same – once you have permission pick up your pencil and edit the page!

To see examples of school websites already created in Digitalbrain visit:

http://fitzharrys.oxon.digitalbrain.com

http://eyensham.oxon.digitalbrain.com

With Digitalbrain it is possible for anyone given web authoring access to see something he/she wants changed and to login and do it instantly. Web authors may be made up of any designated staff members who are given access rights.  The portal is accessible to them anywhere, on any computer at any time.

Schools that have a Digitalbrain portal have complete control. They do not need other software or specialist web authoring training though they do need to learn how to edit the template for that fancy front page.  Once the site has been personalised there is no cost involved in maintenance or updating.