TechQuest, Part B- Services I may use

So, after having researched some of the services and programs offered to create the website for the student newspaper, I have come to the conclusion that I do not want to create the website using Dreamweaver anymore. There are many services available to help educators and students publish their stories online. One of these is free, while the majority you have to pay a minimal fee for.

Here is what I found:

my.hsj.org is a free service for educators. The design is not as impressive as the services we could use for a fee, and it doesn't look like students would have as much freedom to express themselves by using this service, as all of the newspapers that use this service are formatted similarly. There is the benefit, however, that the service is free and looks fairly easy to use. Our school is on a budget freeze, so I'm not sure the school will be up for paying 400 dollars as a start-up fee for the other service I would really like to use. Perhaps I will be able to fundraise.

Although there were quite a few commercial services available to choose from, the service I found to be most appealing can be found at School Newspapers Online. There are a couple of designs that I find to be easy to navigate and have the capability of vodcasting, podcasting, and posting several stories, including the Post and the Tribune designs. The Post is the nicest, but it will cost $600 to use and the Tribune is only $400 to start up. If there is anyone reading this blog who knows of a nicely designed service that is either free or cheaper than these, please let me know! I plan to pitch the idea of the Tribune to my principal sometime this week to see if we can use it.

During this course, I will most likely not be able to implement the website in its entirety. I think I will get the students used to the site by having them post back issues of the paper when they are finished writing for the paper this year. I will also be discussing vodcasting and podcasting with them as the year progresses. This is a huge transition for both me and the students though, so they will most likely not post any vodcasts or podcasts yet. I will also probably have to start out using a free site and then switch to another site later in the semester or next year, when the commercial site is approved for use. The reason I think I should wait to start up the online account is that it costs $200 per year to continue running. This is definitely not a huge cost, but it doesn't make much sense in starting it at the end of the year, when it can be paid for next year instead. After all, our district is on a budget freeze.