Pick a Peck of Portals on the Web

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Pick a Peck of Portals on the Web

• SouthEast Initiatives RTEC
• Margaret Bingham, SERVE
• Jennifer Burke, SREB

2
Portal? What is a Portal?

• A website or service that offers a broad array of
  resources and services, such as e-mail, forums,
  search engines, and online shopping malls. The
  first Web portals were online services that
  provided access to the Web.
  --Webopedia

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Portal? What is a Portal?

• Three types
• Horizontal Portals
• Vertical Portals
• Enterprise Information Portals

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Horizontal Portals

• Horizontal Portals are sometimes called Consumer
  Portals. They are aimed at consumer audiences
  and typically offer free e-mail, personal home
  pages, sports scores, stock tickers, instant
  messengers, auctions, chat, games and more.
  Examples Yahoo, MSN, AOL.
• 
  --Traffick.com

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Vertical Portals

• Vertical Portals differ from horizontal portals
  in that they target a specific audience, such as
  a particular industry, and offer many of the
  consumer portal features, but only for the target
  audience. Many times the user must be a member
  of a group to access the vertical portal.
• 
  --Traffick.com

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Enterprise Information Portals

• Enterprise Portals are also similar to consumer
  portals, but these portals are offered only to
  corporations or similar organizations.
• 
  --Traffick.com

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What is an Educational Web Portal?

• A Web portal is a website that provides access to
  many resources and services, such as
  instructional materials, lessons plans, news
  about current events, instant messaging and
  email, and the ability to conduct controlled
  searches.
• --SREB

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Who Uses Educational Web Portals? Why?

• Who?
• State Departments and Districts
• Schools (K-20)
• Teachers
• Why?
• To communicate with and provide resources to
  students, teachers, administrators, and parents.

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How To Pick a Portal?

• Decide to develop or purchase
• For purchases of a commercial Web portal,
• assess the school/districts needs
• assess the value and content of the commercial
  Web portal
• Checklist Web Portals Guidelines for Selection
  (SREB)

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Web Portals Guidelines for Selection

• Content what materials are available
• Supports curriculum
• Error-free, current timely
• Bias-free images text
• Relevant outside links
• Frequently updated

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Web Portals Guidelines for Selection

• Content what materials are available
• Adequately covers topic
• Logical progression among links
• Appropriate for student abilities
• Experienced, reputable researchers provide content

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Web Portals Guidelines for Selection

• Technical Information How does it work?
• Technical requirements clearly defined
• Compatible with networks, filters
• Easily recognizable icons menus for navigation
• Mix of text, graphics, sound, motion

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Web Portals Guidelines for Selection

• Technical Information How does it work?
• No software conflicts
• Standard multimedia formats
• Advertising does not conflict with schools
  policy
• Adaptable for special needs students

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Web Portals Guidelines for Selection

• Administrative questions
• How much does it cost? (start-up and ongoing)
  Expected increases?
• How is the cost assessed? (or how funded, if
  free?)
• Who provides training?
• Privacy policies to protect students?

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Web Portals Guidelines for Selection

• Administrative questions
• Technical assistance 24/7?
• Can students teachers access resources from
  home?
• Is there a less expensive alternative?
• Explain free.

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But, at my district, we want.

• a site for which we can control the content
• multiple tiers or levels with the district able
  to override information on the other levels
• regular updates and maintenance done (a reason
  why we did not make our own portal)
• a site that loads quickly

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But, at my school, we want.

• a site with sections for students, school staff,
  and parents
• announcement and message broadcasting features
• ease of use in posting materials
• training available for our staff

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But, as a teacher, I want.

• a site that is easy to navigate
• a structure that allows me to post and to change
  my lesson assignments and projects easily
• lots of resources only a click away
• a way to communicate and collaborate with
  colleagues

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Picking from the Portal Field
www.edgate.com
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Example edgate
www.johnston.edgate.com
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Picking from the Portal Field
www-1.ibm.com/industries/education/solution/SOLUTI
ONS_19443.html
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Example IBM Learning Village
www.wfl.dpsnc.net
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Picking from the Portal Field
http//marcopolo.worldcom.com
http//marcopolo.mde.k12.ms.us/
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Picking from the Portal Field
www.bigchalk.com
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Picking from the Portal Field
http//school.aol.com
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Picking from the Portal Field
www.ed.gov/index.jsp
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Picking from the Portal Field
www.learnnc.org
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Picking from the Portal Field
www.eduplace.com
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Picking from the Portal Field
http//school.discovery.com
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Picking from the Portal Field
http//teacher.net
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Picking from the Portal Field
http//edhelper.com
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Picking from the Portal Field
http//teachers.teach-nology.com
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Picking from the Portal Field
http//educationplanet.com
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Picking from the Portal Field
http//pbs.org/teachersource
35
Picking from the Portal Field
Picking from the Portal Field
http//earthsciencesportal.gsfc.nasa.gov/Cool/
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The Portal Peck You Pick Should.

• have quality resources that your audiences will
  use
• always have up-to-date local information
• be accessible easily by all users
• promote communication and collaboration
• be affordable money, time, resources

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Conclusion

• Contact info
• Margaret Bingham
• mbingham_at_serve.org
• Jennifer Burke
• jburke_at_sreb.org
• www.seirtec.org/present.html
• www.sreb.org/programs/EdTech/pubs/
• PDF/WebPortals.asp