Monday, April 06, 2009

Monica Armenta sez, we need three more people at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

The minutes, link, from the last Capital Outlay Committee
meeting show that;


"Ms. Armenta stated that her
department was going to be
developing a web department
of three new members.

They also have set a goal to have more
communication and information and
provide it efficiently and timely.


The larger department would be moving to the 5th floor."

I have been wondering for some time,
if the notoriously bad APS website could be better managed
by Web Design classes at the Career Enrichment Center.

I did a quick internet search to determine whether website
design is rocket science or something more basic;
something that could be done by high schoolers in one or
more high schools with a software and hardware budget
of well over $100K annually to create and maintain
a state of the art website.

It appears that they could.

I would be willing to bet that, they could at least manage to
webcast board meetings that have sound tracks.



photo Mark Bralley

4 comments:

Natalie said...

No, it could not. High school students are transient by nature and do not have the skills required to execute planning, development, deployment, execution, maintenance while maintaining a grasp on the potential legal, privacy and community ramifications that such a project entails.
100k doesn't even scratch the surface of the costs of building and maintaining the type of website APS needs. Bringing it in-house is a good idea, considering what it costs to outsource and then have to run the project manager down every time you need to do something.

Besides, why would you want to take that away from the learning enviroment? Kids need all the education they can get and building and maintaining the APS website is not something a teenage should (the legal ramifications alone!)be experimenting and learning on.

Stick with what you know, Ched.

ched macquigg said...

Natalie,

Thanks for the input.

I have heard exactly the opposite today as well; that there are readily available templates for websites.

The students may be transient, but the teachers aren't, and they would provide institutional continuity. And I would expect them not to allow students the opportunity to "experiment" without limits.

Privacy issues are handled by not giving students privileged information in the first place.

And, far from detracting from the learning environment, it would provide one. As I suggested, it would be a web design class and would amount to vocational training for would be web designers.

The search indicated that a website that doesn't involve selling anything, is more or less a piece of cake.

I freely admit no first hand knowledge, and that's why I had to do the internet search. I don't know who's right here, but it is an interesting discussion.

Thanks again for your illumination.

Anonymous said...

1) Your boardbook links never seem to work. Could you post some info on how you navigate to them in the first place?

2) You're not even scratching the surface of this story.

ched macquigg said...

I reestablished the link. It seems to work now; thanks for the heads up.

This particular path was APS, click on the meeting calendar,(which puts you on the Board Book), click on the meeting agenda, click on the minutes document.

I have endless trouble linking to anything on their website; assuming I can find anything on it in the first place. It has been this way for years, and never seems to get any better.