Chat Room: Liberation Software

A great new software program called Contribute (the first program of its kind for educators) should put an end to many of technology directors' anxieties—and let librarians update their Web sites without worrying about destroying a page or wandering inadvertently into a restricted area or mangling the district's navigation bar. Contribute lets nontechnical specialists, like librarians and teachers, modify the areas of the Web site that are most pertinent to them. That means everybody ends up a winner. The tech guy retains control of the site's look and feel; and the librarian who wants to post a list of Web links for a sixth-grade global- warming project no longer needs to wait for the techie to input the information. Students, of course, are the ultimate winners: now they can get the information they need much sooner.

How important is it to offer students new online information on a regular basis? A recent survey presented at the National School Board Association's conference shows that 50 percent of K–12 students won't even bother visiting their school's Web site because the information on the site rarely or never changes. If you want to make sure that your media center's Web page reinforces students' skills at finding, choosing, and evaluating quality information resources, your page has to attract their attention. That means that you should change something on your library's home page—an eye-catching graphic, say, along with links to upcoming events—at least once a month.

The Contribute software doesn't provide a perfect solution. The tech guy still has control of the site's template, which means that librarians can't modify the layout of a page. And librarians and teachers can't add content, delete antiquated Web links, or correct errors on their Web sites unless the Contribute software is installed. That means if a media specialist is at home and suddenly realizes that something on her site is incorrect, she can't fix it until she's back at work again.

The software works fine on all kinds of Web sites, no matter what kind of Web-building software has been used to create and maintain them. But not surprisingly, Contribute works best on sites that use Dreamweaver software or the updated Dreamweaver MX, both of which are made by Macromedia, the company that created Contribute. Contribute and Dreamweaver software are available to educators at special discounted prices—$79 and $99, respectively.

The big question, however, is "Will a tech guy feel comfortable with letting librarians and teachers post pages themselves?" When I asked James Flynn, Web- site manager for the Darien (CT) Public Schools, whether he would approve of using Contribute, he answered in the affirmative. In fact, Flynn plans to make sure that educators in his district who need to update Web pages have Contribute installed on their computers. Tech guys don't take any pleasure in doing site updates themselves, he says, and the software takes the task of updating and correcting Web pages off the tech guy's shoulders. Contribute is "a great choice for any environment where there are many content creators and only one tech guy to publish the information," says Flynn. For more information about Contribute for educators, visit www.macromedia.com/education.

Remember, however, that even a shiny new tool like Contribute can't create the lessons, links, announcements, and news that help students learn. You still have to do that yourself.