Technology Tools in Your District

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Remember that if you are working in a single school, this section still applies to you. Consider your individual school as a school district.

The first question is whether your district already has a presence on the Internet – does your school district have a web page? Here is why that question is important. If you have a district web page, then:

1. You have a way of hosting (that is, making available) web pages for the outside world. Either you have your own computers that store these pages or a hosting service is doing this for you.
2. You either have your own domain name - myschooldistrict.com - or a domain name you can use – hostingservice.com/myschooldistrict. The domain name works as an address on the World Wide Web. If someone has a computer attached to the Internet, they can get to your district web pages.
3. You have someone who is familiar with building and managing web sites. This may be staff, volunteers or your hosting service.

If you have a district web page, find the person who is “in charge” of the website in your district and understand how each of the three items is addressed. This information will be needed as the plan to both select and deploy the Portal unfolds.

If you do not have a district web page, you will need to determine how these items will be addressed. The first thing you can do, and can do right away, is to reserve a domain name for your district. A domain name has three parts separated by periods. The first part describes the server, in this case it will be www. The second part is the name of your site. Choose a name that the public will think of but is not too long to type! If your district is known by its acronym, such as LAUSD, CBE, PAISD, or SD50, that would be a simple choice. The third part is the extension, which describes the purpose of your site. Common extensions used by school districts are .net and .edu, but you might choose .com or your country’s extension - .au or .ca for example. Public school districts in Canada often choose to use a sub-extension that also identifies the province - .bc.ca or .on.ca. One province, British Columbia, specifies the domain name as www.sdnn.bc.ca, where nn is the school district number. The public can easily locate the website for their district using this convention.

In addition to having a website, you should also identity what other technologies are in use that might be used in the Parent Portal. You may already be using software that delivers the features your Portal may need. You should also inventory the systems that hold information you will want to share through your Portal. As you create your Portal this information will help you to link the information parents and staff want and need.