Would the Internet be as appealing if the web pages were uniform? The world isn’t going to accept just chocolate and vanilla (ice cream) or black and white (TV) anymore. We’ve gone millions of colors beyond those days!
One of the beauties of the web is that there is something for everyone. Another is the joy of the hunt. We all know the information is out there; it's just a question of using the right search terms, in the right search engine, to find it. It's very satisfying to conduct a successful Internet search. The other cool thing about the web is that every site is different and we can learn a lot from the pages we visit as we prepare to create our WebQuests. We can see what colors go well together and what fonts look suitable for children. We can examine where the navigation tools are located and decide how to create them for the students’ ease of use. We can notice how much text leads to overload and think about the benefits of clean margins. We can notice ways to grab the students’ attention so they’ll be interested in venturing on their quests. Every site represents the personality of the person who created it. Most people just want to make a mark on the Internet. There aren’t many expert web designers; the web hasn’t been around long enough. Mostly there are people who have something to say; and now have a forum in which to say it to THE WORLD.
At one point our county wanted all the schools’ home pages to be identical. Each was to have a picture of the school and information about how to get there and who runs the place. Some schools protested and said that didn’t fit the need for the community. For now, we are given the liberty of having unique school homepages; which I believe is a valuable glimpse into each school’s culture.
While I say that I wouldn’t want every website to look alike, I am very grateful for standards and protocols so we can all communicate with one another. I understand that we need a certain amount of uniformity in order to make the system work. Most of the uniformity lies in the foundational elements that we don’t see when we surf.
Let’s hear it for uniform resource locators, Internet and file transfer protocols and originality of content and layout. They allow the Internet to work and give it personality.
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1 comment:
What an eloquent statement Barb. Nicely said. PGCPS went with exactly what you mentioned in terms of school web sites. And, it stunk. I knew what I was doing but about 150 other school web masters didn't so I got stuck trying to fit my round peg into their square hole. And all of my hard work and really cool design went out the window.
And now, with your thoughts in mind, I will turn the entire ELC upside down. As you said, it is the joy of being presented with a new layout right?
hehehehe
-SM
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