On Monday, June 20th Aaron Manfull shared his 10-step process for getting a school newspaper online. His breakdown of the different steps was clear and concise. Some of his best advise was how to navigate the technical landscape. "Choose a platform, as you get to different levels, you are going to get different options, " he said.
On overcoming the intimidation factor, "Start small, building slowly...just start it because it will evolve over time."
The web is the perfect publishing format for establishing "beats." The recent economic trend of reduction of news staff size won't be necessary for building a website. Beats allow advisers to keep each student engaged; a specific focus, a specific project. All together it equals a wide variety of content on a school's news website.
Kerri Wosek
West Senior High
Traverse City, MI
I think the most helpful part was the "start small, build slowly," advice. Websites seem overwhelming and it was nice to hear you don't have to tackle it all. I want to add stories, news and sports updates along with multimedia. After this session I think I am going to start slow with a weekly goal for updating the website. Overall, this session was very helpful and left me feeling inspired to really launch the website.
ReplyDeleteKat Gurganus
Keller High School
Keller, Texas
I took the same lesson about starting small and building slowly away from this session too. We've been talking about going online all year and it has completely intimidated me. I didn't know where or how to start, I was overwhelmed by the process. We signed on with the free program through hsj.org but we only updated it twice throughout the year. My kids are itching to get our own URL and really get online so that's our plan for September but I was still apprehensive. After listening to Aaron this morning I am gung-ho. I am excited and ready to get out there. I even started looking for available URLs but I want my kids' input. We will definitely go online this fall and we'll start small. Maybe a picture gallery from Homecoming, maybe a video from a pep rally. We'll take it step by step and we'll get there.
ReplyDeleteEmily Miller
Arlington High School
Arlington, Texas
I think the tendency with going online is to do too much too fast. Aaron's advice reminds me that although I want to make some changes, I don't have to do them all at once.
ReplyDeleteJen Chandler
North Harford High School
Pylesville
I truly never gave my website much thought.Before today, I saw it as a place to house the PDFs of the current editions for parents to see and journalists to chronicle their work. I never regarded it as living, breathing entity that needs to be fed and loved. My poor neglected website!
ReplyDeleteLucinda Hogentogler
Central York High School
York, Pa.