District Administration - October 2008 - (Page 62)

How Well Does This Web Site LEARN WHAT OUR WEB ANALYST SAYS IS RIGHT AND WRONG WITH THIS DISTRICT SITE Flagler County (Fla.) Public Schools www.ﬂaglerschools.com By Laura R. Bona SERVING MORE THAN 12,500 PRE kindergarten through grade 12 students, the Flagler County (Fla.) School District is located on Florida’s east coast, in one of the top ﬁve fastest growing counties in the United States. Design An uncluttered design that calls the eye to content of interest makes this site welcoming. e home page oﬀers useful and actionable content related to district news, as well as links of particular interest (including a district calendar and district policies, and school board members and policy). ere is a featured information area at top center (at the time of this review, it was a story on the district’s recent “straight A report card”). It would be very helpful, however, if the sections on the home page were clearly labeled for what they are, such as “District News,” “Feature Story,” “Links of Interest,” and so on. Each of the district’s school sites uses a similar overall design framework, and the content selections are alike (though they vary in depth and breadth and presentation from school to school), allowing for a generally consistent experience. ere is a clearly labeled “Home” (to the left on most site pages in the top navigation bar) and “District Home” (at bottom right of most pages). However, the district logo, which also appears at the top left throughout, is not linked back to the home page. Navigation e top and are consistent clude links to as “Schools,” There is a featured information area at top center (at the time of this review, it was a story on the district’s recent “straight A report card”). It would be very helpful, however, if the sections on the home page were clearly labeled for what they are: “District News,” “Feature Story,” “Links of Interest,” and so on. bottom navigation bars across the site, and inin-demand sections such “Community,” “Parents/ Students” and “Staﬀ.” In the bottom bar, the individual links for “Parents” and “Students” were not operational; apparently there were once separate content sections, but these have since been combined. Many of the site sections have a left-hand navigation box with section-speciﬁc links called out. Some of the link labels could be made clearer by expanding them. For example, the link to the “Exceptional Student Education” department is tersely listed as “ESE.” Unfortunately, there is no search functionality oﬀered on the site, other than the very simple and limited “Staﬀ E-mail Search,” which was not operating properly at the time of this review. Also, there is no site map; making one available would aid in overall site browsing, in addition to ﬁnding particular content. Usability Although there is no “About Our District” page oﬀered, the street address and phone number for the main district oﬃce are readily available atop all of the main site’s pages. Each individual school site and section oﬀers this same contact information, as well as school-speciﬁc athletic programs content. Other very useful information about the district and its programs is scattered throughout the main site and could beneﬁt from being directly accessible via a more prominently placed gathering of such links, bypassing the need to hunt through drop-down navigation menus. is district site is not optimized for access by disabled users. District Administration 62 October 2008 http://www.flaglerschools.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - October 2008

District Administration - October 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology
Facilities & Construction
Inside the Law
District Profile: Englewood (N.J.) School District
Choose to Stay
A Cure for Monolingualism
Virtual Worlds for Educators
DA Web Seminar Leadership Series
School Libraries Renewed
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Curriculum Books
Professional Opinion
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - October 2008