Purpose

Therefore, the purpose of the web site is to educate, inform, and communicate. The key elements listed below should be used to guide the development of each web site:

• Educate: Content provided in the web site should be usable by students and teachers to support the curriculum and Amphitheater Key Objectives.
• Inform: Content may inform the community about the school, teachers, students, or departments, including information about curriculum, events, class projects, student activities, and departmental policies.
• Communicate: Content may provide an avenue to communicate with the community.

Under no circumstances is a web site to be used for commercial purposes. A page may not be used to provide financial gains for any individual.

Pages should reflect an understanding that both internal and external audiences will be viewing the information.

School web sites must be located on Amphitheater School District servers.

Accessibility for Individuals with Disabilities
District web sites must be in compliance with the Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards. You shall ensure that the web page allows people with disabilities to have the same access to and use of information and data as individuals without disabilities have.  You can test your web page at Bobby and see if you meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and the U.S. Section 508 Guidelines and what to do if you do not meet the guidelines.

Web Site Content Guidelines

First Page of the Site

 The first page of the web site must:

• Be the index or table of contents for the site
• Include a school name
• Identify the webmaster and provide an e-mail address to contact the person responsible for the site
• Contain a link to the District web site

• Design a well organized web site. The overall plan or file structure should be a balanced hierarchical tree that provides quick access to information and helps the user understand how the information is organized. It is recommended that a storyboard be used to plan the web site.
• Design each page with your audience and goal in mind.
• Repeat basic page format, e.g. use the same background, locate navigation tools in the same place on the page, have consistent link appearance, and have consistent font size and type. Be consistent on all pages.
• Title Bar should include the school name in the <title> tag of each HTML document.
• Limit page length, keep the HTML documents as small as possible.
• The web site may include areas such as staff information, student projects, calendar, parent information, school information and mission statement, community, technology plan, and geographical information.
• "Mail to" link that provides a means of feedback on all main pages.

• Pages should be checked regularly to ensure that links are working and meet district standards. Check to make sure all internal and external links work properly.
• Remove expired date-related items.
• Maintain your files, remove unneeded files.

• All pages should be grammatically correct.
• All words should be spelled correctly

 All pages should include the following:

• "Back to" main menu. Provide a link back to the web site index.

• Keep backgrounds simple. Light colors are better. Select backgrounds that make text easy to read.
• Keep background tiles small.
• Backgrounds should be in GIF format.
• Reuse background images, pages will reload quicker and the user will be able to view your pages with ease.
• Do not use a background to convey information.

• All web site authors must follow all applicable and existing copyright laws pertaining to the use of text, images, and sounds.

• Use all lower-case letters for names of documents and graphics.
• Do NOT use any spaces or other symbols in naming HTML documents or graphics.

• Smaller is better, images should be less than 50k.
• Pictures need to be in GIF or JPEG format.
• Always use width and height tags.
• Use the "alt" tag to describe your picture for text-only browsers.
• Use GIF format for drawings and line art.
• Use JPEG format for photographic color images.
• Reuse graphics when appropriate. When graphics are reused, they remain in the computer and will load more quickly onto a web page.
• Follow all copyright laws.

 It is reasonable to expect that users will see your page using a variety of browsers including Netscape and Windows Explorer. We recommend that you:

• Check your web pages on a variety of browsers, including text-only browsers.
• Check your web site on multiple platforms.
• Use standard HTML tags. Do not use tags which are specific to one browser.
• Use HTML syntax checkers to search your site for programming mistakes.

 The following disclaimer should be used on your web site to advise the user that once they leave school district pages they may encounter inappropriate material:

You are about to leave (the school name) web site and the district server. The Amphitheater School District has no responsibility for the content beyond this point. The Internet is a highly volatile place and pages change suddenly and rapidly. Because we believe that everyone has the right to exercise personal freedoms, we make no attempt to control or even monitor another person's values or tastes. It is not unusual to find information or images that are objectionable. Proceed at your own risk.

Employee Web sites

Links to Personal Web sites

Use of Student Names, Pictures, Original Work, and Email Addresses

Students K-12

• Photographs of students may be placed on the Internet only after the Amphitheater Information Services Electronic User Agreement has been signed by the parents or guardians.
• Original work by students such as: art work, poetry, essays, performances, etc. may be placed on the web site only after the Amphitheater Information Services Electronic User Agreement has been signed by the parents or guardians.
• Last names of students should never be used.
• Student email addresses must not be revealed.

• Photos of identifiable staff may be placed on the Internet only after the Amphitheater Information Services Electronic User Agreement has been signed by that individual.
• Names of staff members may be placed on the Internet only after the Amphitheater Information Services Electronic User Agreement has been signed by that individual.
• Staff email addresses may be used only after the Amphitheater Information Services Electronic User Agreement has been signed by that individual.

Acceptable Use Guidelines

Consequences

• Put School and/or District URLs on school letter head
• Put District URLs on district letter head
• Put School and/or District URLs on business cards
• Put School and/or District URLs in Amphitheater publications such as School Views, Amphi Connection, the Amphitheater Telephone Directory, School Newspapers, School Newsletters, School Programs (for sports, music, etc.)

 The school should make parents aware of the positive aspects of the Internet and potential dangers so they can make an informed decision about allowing their child access to the Internet. This can be accomplished by doing the following:

• Parents should be invited to the school to view the Internet.
• Classroom teachers can highlight Internet activities at Open House, PTO Meetings, Site Council Meetings, or other school programs.
• Have a Parent Night - Successful Parent Nights might include the following:
• Demonstrate educational sites and activities.
• Make parents aware of inappropriate sites. Demonstrate the ease at which inappropriate sites can be viewed.
• Discuss the Amphitheater School District Acceptable Use Policy.
• Discuss student supervision and other safety measures that are being instituted.
• Find out what parents know about the Internet and combat fears and misconceptions with facts.
• Demonstrate the School or District Web pages.
• Be honest, realistic and up front when fielding questions and list strategies you are implementing to deal with problems.
• Avoid using too much Internet jargon and focus on educational outcomes.
• Have students take the parents to their favorite Internet Sites.
• Advise parents about the Amphitheater guidelines for putting student names, pictures, and student work on School and District web sites.

Amphitheater Key Results The five targeted objectives for all graduates of Amphitheater Public Schools. They are Basic Skills, Work Ethic, Citizenship, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving and Independent Learner. There are thirty-three criteria identified as descriptors for the five Key Results.

Background Gray is the default backdrop of a World-Wide-Web page. HTML code can determine a color or a tiled-image to be displayed behind the text and graphics.

Browser Client software that provides an interface to the World Wide Web, such as Netscape, Mosaic, Internet Explorer, Lynx, etc.

Email Electronic mail allows users to send and receive messages.

Graphic Images Graphics for web pages need to be in the JPEG or GIF format. JPEG supports a higher color depth (number of colors), GIFs support fewer colors. However, JPEG is a "lossy" format. In other words, some data is always lost in the compression of the image. In general, the smaller the size of the image (in pixels), the more quickly it will load. JPEGs are more appropriate for color photographic images, GIFs are better for simple drawings and line art.

GIF Format	JPEG Format
Supports 8 bit (256) colors	Supports 24 bit (16.7 million) colors
Better for drawings and line art	Better for photographic color images
Supports transparencies	Does not support transparencies
Image maps should always be in GIF format

Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) A popular format for graphic images that compresses the image and stores the color information within the file. GIFs are limited to 8 bits-256 colors and are better for line art and solid color images.

Hierarchical Tree A structure that arranges information starting at the root and moving out to branches. For example, the root of a school web site would have an index that would lead to branches like staff, principal, students, calendar, and within the staff branch there would be branches to individual teachers. The hierarchical tree provides structure and organization for the site.

Homepage Usually refers to the first screen of a web site.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) The programming language used for creating hypertext documents for the World-Wide-Web.

HTML Standards Each of the browsers has tags which are "specific" and will only work when a user views your page with that browser. It is good HTML practice to use standard HTML tags when designing a page. This allows for different audiences to view and explore your site without limitation. For example <font size=+3> is an example of a Netscape specific tag. It would be better to use <h1> to increase or change the font sizes on your page, most browsers will recognize these tags. There are two general types of HTML tags: structural and procedural. A structural tag describes what element of the document you are creating. For example, the <EM> tag means "emphasis." In general, a browser will print this text in italics. The <I> tag means "italics." For the most part, the <I> and the <EM> tags do the same thing. However, with procedural tags, the author is guaranteed that the output will appear as is intended.

Image map A picture on the World-Wide-Web that reports mouse clicks by the area of the screen that is selected and then links to appropriate information. Image maps do not work on some older browsers and text-only browsers.

Interlacing Allows a picture to appear in stages so the user can see the picture as it is coming in.

Internet The global collection of computer networks that uses TCP/IP protocols that evolved from ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) that was developed in the late 1960's and early 1970's by the United States Department of Defense as a network that could withstand a nuclear war.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) A standard for compressing and decompressing images. JPEG is a popular format for color photographs.

Link Text or images that connect to a new page of information or another location on that page. Links are usually highlighted.

Mail-To An HTML command that allows the user to select this link and a mail message will be generated to the specified user.

Modem (MOdulator, DEModulator) A device that allows computers to "talk" to one another and exchange information over telephone lines. Modems are either internal or external and come in several speeds, known as the baud rate. Typically you will hear modem speeds such as 14.4 (14,400 baud) and 28.8 (28,800 baud). The higher the baud rate, the faster the modem.

Navigation Tools Links on a page that indicate the specific path a person can take through a web site. Common navigation tools include forward, back, up, and home.

Page A screen on the World-Wide-Web.

Storyboard A pictorial representation of your web site. Each page is represented as a box, with the key elements of the page listed in the box, arrows are drawn between pages to show how they will be linked and what navigation needs to be added to the page. Storyboarding organizes your web site so that you have a plan before you start typing your HTML documents.

Text-Only Browser A client software that allows the user to only view text characters on the World-Wide-Web, Lynx is an example of a text-only browser.

Thumbnail Image A smaller, scaled-down version of the image. Since it is small, it takes less time to load the page, and the thumbnail is linked to a larger version of the picture.

Transparent GIFs Images that have an invisible background so that a background color or image shows through.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) The standardized way of giving the address for any resource on the World-Wide-Web. An example of a URL is http://www.amphi.com

Web Master The person who maintains the web site.

Web Site A collection of pages on the Internet related to one school, student, teacher, or employee.

World-Wide-Web (WWW) A browsing system that allows users of the Internet to easily navigate using the point-and-click method. It uses hypertext to link connections on the Internet, with access to graphics, sound, and text