STAFF REPORTS
LINCOLNTON, NC – The Lincoln County Schools has launched its new website with design and layout changes that are easier to use and implement, utilizing a website platform called eChalk.
Lee O’Neal, the school system’s director of Instructional Technology and Media Services, said that two of the main reasons for changing website platforms were ease of use for teachers and better communication with parents.
“eChalk is an easy platform for our teachers to use to develop class web pages that contain announcements, upcoming events and a variety of resources for students and parents that support the classroom learning environment,” O’Neal said. “Parents can sign up to receive email alerts so that any time a teacher updates the announcements or upcoming events, the parent will automatically receive an email notifying them of the new information.”
While the basic layout of the website is similar to the previous site, information on the home page is arranged differently and navigating items such as employment and news are easy to find and use. In addition, there is the capability at the district level to push announcements and calendar events to the individual schools’ web pages. Parents can find weather or other urgent announcements on their children’s school website and the district site. Individual school websites are updated using the eChalk technology as well.
A new addition to the site’s home page is the Employee Profile, a monthly feature profile. The news area is not new, but has a different look and shows three to four current news articles with accompanying photos and archived news found under the News button.
Principals, teachers and parents provided feedback on the previous website platform and what they would like to see enhanced or improved. The school system selected the web platform provider that could fulfill as many of the needs that existed as possible. Each school has its own webmaster. As features of eChalk continue to be rolled out, new items will include a lesson planner with a template and archiving of plans for a new school year; student logins for email accounts, digital storage and access to class pages via their logins; and class blogs.
Lisa Smith, a 6th grade math and science teacher at North Lincoln Middle School, is the school’s webmaster. Smith said that the new web platform is very teacher and parent friendly, the design is more streamlined and it is easier to make changes and help teachers. She also likes the ways to include resources easily on class pages and the integrated calendar.
“The middle school’s website functions as a form of communication between teacher and parent and as a means of getting important information out to parents and the community,” Smith said.
Lincoln County Schools serves nearly 12,000 students in grades kindergarten through 12th grade at 24 schools. The school system works together with students, families, and the community to ensure a quality, innovative educational program in a safe environment where students become responsible, contributing citizens and lifelong learners.
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