Impressions of Russell Street School Website

I browsed around on the Russell Street School website. I think that they did a good attempt to provide their target population with a platform where they post information about the school. However, the "People" was broken. I would think this is a key page to their website that should be working asap. It would be nice to see see students' work on the site. I do like how they offer the "Shop" link where parents can pay for fees that are associated with school. 

 I'm a little familiar with Google Sites. It seems like they have tried to gather various blogs from their school to one location in their schools Google Site. The calendar is very helpful to see at the top of the page. The blog post seem like they are sporadic. It would be nice if there were more constant posts to keep the attention of their readers. 

 I also noticed that they have separate school apps that they promote for their school where there is additional communication. I have learned that the various platforms will confuse the users/readers and possibly cause them to stop reading what is available. I recently attended a workshop at a conference where a college and career program presented on tips on using social media for a program. During the workshop the presenters suggested that Facebook is a great platform for communication to the community such as parents. They use other social media to target the students such as Instagram and Snapchat. Browsing the we Bussell St School website and reflecting on reaching your audiance made me think that the school should evaluate their communication goals and determine which platforms would be best for their audiences. One platform my not reach all of their intended audiences. 

Comments

  1. Rachael WalkerJuly 27, 2018 at 8:25 AM

    As I looked through the website, the communication devices seemed a little redundant. It seems like they are moving from posting updates in the blog to this new program, School Stream. This brings up the debate on whether it is better to put announcements and updates on multiple platforms in order to reach a broader audience or to keep it concise and simple with one specific program. I know that was an issue some parents had this year with our school. We had announcements and grades on Tyler (our grading platform), announcements and grades on Google Classroom, and announcements on our school website. Parents felt they had to look at multiple places in order to get all the information they needed. I understood their point. Sometimes it is easier to have everything in one place so you know exactly where to go. What are your thoughts?

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    Replies
    1. UnknownJuly 29, 2018 at 6:14 PM

      I think the less places parents have to look for information, the better. It's also good to get them use to using a single platform early one and keep it consistent, so they know where to go if they have a questions about upcoming events or other questions. I'm from Idaho and this year I visited schools throughout the state and I never realized how much of a challenge some rural areas have with technology. So I think it's important to survey and evaluate the users and determine what is the best place to deliver messages.

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  2. UnknownJuly 27, 2018 at 2:37 PM

    I agree that it's better to have everything in one place, but even with that being said, I'm not sure it's achievable. I use Google Classroom for announcements and assignments, but I know that the parents have no access and cannot see anything that is posted there. I can use Remind to send messages, but not everyone is signed up or signed up with a current phone number. I can use my Google sites website, but students and parents both forget how to access it. I wish I had a solution for how to consistently communicate with everyone!

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    Replies
    1. Ben MarkhamJuly 27, 2018 at 9:38 PM

      Melissa - I believe you can share the Classroom assignments through Google Calendar, I remember seeing something about it a while back. There is also an option to invite guardians under the Students tab, but it involves sending e-mails to each student's parents and can be a little time consuming.

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    2. UnknownJuly 29, 2018 at 6:23 PM

      Melissa, I agree. I think that it's not that easy to always use one single platform, but we definitely need to try to limit the amount of locations. I always for get my passwords even within 24 hours of resetting it. Access to the internet can also be an issue for some. I know it is for some areas of Idaho. I travel to a really nice town called Clark Fork, Idaho and only one cell phone carrier has service in that area and not all of the students have cell phones like in other areas. Technology and cell phone service is a huge challenge for them at this specific school district. There are a few other are in Idaho that have similar challenges.


      Check out this beautiful location, that has limited cell service area. I fell in love with the city!
      http://www.clarkforkidaho.com

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    3. UnknownJuly 29, 2018 at 6:26 PM

      Thanks for that information Ben. I know I will be doing more research on Google Classroom to see if it will work for most of the coordinators we work with and try to emulate the challenges that we could face by using Google Classroom to share ideas, forms, and discussions.

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