Course Description:

The goal of the Internet publishing class is to introduce students to some of the skills, tools, and elements of web design and maintenance. Konawa Public Schools web site serves as a working lab for the students of this class. Other goals for the site are to disseminate information about our school and community and to serve as a portal for computers at our school.

Developing and maintaining a web site can be a lot of work and a great responsibility. Since our site is student developed and maintained, diligence, reliability, and enthusiasm are required of the class members. Since 1997, we have been very fortunate to have such students in the Internet Publishing class. From humble beginnings, our site has grown and evolved to become fairly comprehensive. We appreciate the patience and assistance that comes from our audience. Comments, suggestions, requests, and corrections are always welcome. Send your mail to: Tom Smith . Since the first nine weeks of class are required to cover HTML, updates usually begin around Thanksgiving. Your patience with the progress of updates is greatly appreciated.

Students are first taught the basic elements of designing web pages using HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) code. Most of our pages are written in raw code. If time permits, students use a variety of HTML authoring tools for specific purposes. Some of the authoring tools we have used in the past are PageMill, HomePage, and DreamWeaver. We have used iCal for our calendar, Excel for the menu, and FileMaker Pro for the alumni database. The reason we avoid FrontPage is because it seems as though most schools use FrontPage templates at it tends to make their sites look very similar.

We spend a great deal of time learning to use PhotoShop and ImageReady, mostly because it is so versatile and fun. When time permits we create some QuickTime VR panoramas and QuickTime movies.

After students learn the basics of the markup language, they are assigned projects and tasks to enhance and update our site. Many of these projects require research, interviews, and photography. They often work in small groups where the project is divided into tasks.

Our web site is a work in continuous progress and will probably never be finished. Goals and directions are always evolving. We appreciate insight, suggestions, and requests from teachers, students, patrons, and the larger audience of the Internet. We hope that the fruits of our labors are sometimes enjoyed or found to be useful by those who view our pages.