Will I be wrong to say that we have to use 21st century technology in schools? It can’t be, living in the times of most rapid technological advancements while following the ways of the 20th century. That kind of thinking and attitude will push us back, especially for the issues and supports related to the schools which are formative places for the children who will take the charge tomorrow.

School websites are the first access for parents and students or the community to collect information from schools. You do it before deciding to visit a school or make a phone call like everybody else. In this kind of situation it will be grossly unimaginable to see school websites lacking in modern updated technology. A school website design truly symbolises the kind of outlook school administration has. The community will be swayed with an impression of the kind and quality of learning children can have.  

In the modern teaching methods, children learn a lot of things from the school website, like articles,  images, a series of learning through audio, videos and other e-files capsuled as podcasts as the means of quick learning and from any place. The school website can make use of many open source materials like articles and blogs or post happenings in the classroom to benefit of the students. Many school websites are now featured with social media like Facebook, Twitter, Flicker and Google+ etc.

It is now easy to design dynamic websites to make them attractive, easy to incorporate up-to-date features and better usability above all. Many schools’ adopt the latest technological support to advance their teaching methodology. You will often find such advanced facilities incorporated in the websites. I have seen a number of good websites of the schools that welcome you get readily absorbed within the school system with much to interact.

The fact of going with time applies to all; nobody can afford to continue merely with emotional feeling towards what has been there for years. Practical viewpoint is necessary in every aspect of the life; so is the situation with school websites like any other.

Your purpose behind having a school website is to let the school have a virtual presence for access anytime. The objective is convenience of all – school authorities, students and parents. Basic considerations behind putting up the website are up-to-date information for the users, convenience of using and visual appeal. The administrative mechanism also supports having proper school websites with successive amendments to School Information Regulations 2008. Things keep changing fast; you have to adjust to the changes for your school website to meet changing requirements.

So you should not take a facelift merely as fanciful desire, but a necessity to improve the drawbacks your school website has in relation to current needs. Most of the identified reasons are technical in nature; some of it of course goes for improving the appeal of it.

Parents and students can’t have the patience or wait indefinitely for website pages to load. Nobody and you too just leave the site if it does not load within a few seconds. Long loading time indicates need of a facelift.

Your website pages may be cluttered up with images, links, buttons and text. If so, it is surely giving a hell lot of a time to the users to find information they are looking for and a good probability of missing out vital points.

Your school website needs to be consistent with proper page to page navigational links and a discrete combination of fonts, size and colour used instant differentiation and recognition.

The appeal is a big factor to make things interesting, think of a facelift of the school website design if it deserves.