Evaluation of Web Presence in K-12 Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 82
  In Roundtable Session: Reenvisioning the Role of Technology in Education

Abstract

With the majority of schools having a presence on the web, there is a growing need for policy and consistency across districts to ensure professional and ethical communication in that medium. The current literature shows that there is a need for guidelines which delineate professional content of an educational website. This study evaluated 1062 academic websites associated with 354 schools located in a region of the west coast of Canada. We found that over 175 schools (51%) contained some form of advertisement and over 50% of the websites reviewed contained very little information or a severe lack of appropriate design elements. We conclude that district policy needs to be developed which helps school administrations regulate appropriate web content.

Authors

• Valerie M. Irvine, University of Victoria

• Dallas Hermanson, University of Victoria

• Jillianne Code, University of Victoria