Introduction

Contents

1. Introduction
    1.1 The rock-bottom assumptions
        1.1.1 Main design viewpoints
        1.1.2 What students can learn
        1.1.3 User requirements
    1.2 The Website@School teams
        1.2.1 Core team
        1.2.2 Translators
        1.2.3 Code contributors
        1.2.4 Graphics
        1.2.5 Donors
        1.2.6 Testers
        1.2.7 Others

2. Features
    2.1 Security features
    2.2 Civil liberties features
    2.3 Features for blind and visually impared
    2.4 Usability features

3. Available modules

4. Supported languages

5. Wish List

6. Useful Website@School sites

7. References

8. History

9. To conclude

1. Introduction

Website@School is a website content management system (CMS) specially designed to both learn and build websites of schools.

1.1 The rock-bottom assumptions

Website@School has a firm foundation, both on the visible surface as well as 'under the hood'. Its piles were forged with the help of Jürgen Habermas and Donald Knuth.

On the shoulders of these giants, a couple of dwarfs created something we hope is useful for schools and education.

1.1.1 Main design viewpoints

Our practical experiences with the work of Celestin Freinet and Paolo Freire inspired the design viewpoints for a CMS for schools: These viewpoints were shaped in the main features. Please read 2. Features.

1.1.2 What students can learn

Website@School is a CMS, not only for school websites but also to learn about websites. It has a lot to offer for students, eager to learn about content, ICT and mnaagement. A short summary:

1.1.3 User requirements

Website@School is not particularly difficult to use but it does require a willingness to read and follow the instructions. If you have a natural aversion to reading instructions, and your approach to new software is to click on every button you see until something resembling the desired effect occurs, then Website@School is probably not suitable for you. Courtesy OmegaT User Requirements.

1.2 The Website@School teams

Many people from all over the world have helped making Website@School available for students, teachers, parents and schools. Please contact us if you feel your name should be mentioned here.

1.2.1 Core team

- Karin Abma (ICT coordinator of the Public Primary School Rosa Boekdrukker in Amsterdam, the Netherhlands),
- Peter Fokker (Ingenierusbureau PSD, main developer, programmer),
- Dirk Schouten (former teacher, user manuals writer, visually impaired. Typos).

1.2.2 Translators

Website@School Program translators
Said Taki (Arabic), Jing Fang Liu, Danny Yen (CHinese), Christian Borum Loebner-Olesen (Danish), A. Darvishi (Persian), Jean Peyratout, Marjolaine Audoux (French), Claudia Göhnert, S. Stadoll, F. Kudzielka (German), Erika Swiderski, Gergely Sipos (Hungarian), Waldemar Pankiw (Polish), Rita Valente Ribeiro da Silva (Portuguese), Anastassia Blechko (Russian), Anouk Coumans, Margot Molier, Hannah Tulleken (Spanish), Ülku Gaga (Turkish), Iakovos Christoforidis (Greek), Laura Råman (Finnish), Ikkovos Christoforidis (Greek), Hansje Cozijnsen (Swedish).

Websiteatschool Manual translators
Rieks van Rooijen, Karin Abma (Dutch), Jean Peyratout, Marjolaine Audoux (French), Anouk Coumans (Spanish).

Your language here?
Yes! You can translate Website@School and help students, teachers and parents in your country. It is easy to do, if you have basic computer skills and know your own language and another. Please mail to translators at websiteatschool dot eu. You can give yourself a swift start bij reading 3. Translate Tool of the manual.

1.2.3 Code

Website@School also uses code contributions created by other software developers. We thank them for their projects and their desire to share their code. The following contributions can be found in Website@School:

- Frederico Caldeira Knabben and his FCK- and CK editor. Frederico's site can be found at http://ckeditor.com/.
- Ger Versluis for his HV Menu which is used in the Rosalina theme. We tried to get in touch with Ger to ask his kind permission to use his code, but we received no reaction. @Ger: please contact us.

1.2.4 Graphics

- Micky Faas ( Website@School logos).
- Greg Whitaker (some icons).
- Lamco School Buchanan in LIberia for the pupls picutre in the Guided Tour. @Lamco: please contact us.

1.2.5 Donors

- Stichting Internet Domeinnaamregistratie Nederland (SIDN) (Foundation for Internet Domain Registration in the Netherlands)
- Europees Platform voor het Onderwijs (European Platform for Education).
- Stichting KBA Nieuw West (Foundation Catholic Primary Education, Amsterdam).
- Openbare Basisschool Rosa Boekdrukker (Public Primary School Rosa Boekdrukker, Amsterdam).
- Nederlandse Vereniging voor Blinden en Slechtzienden (Dutch Association for Blind and Visually Impaired).
- Stichting Blinden-Penning Foundation for activities for blind and visually impaired.
- Stichting Mijn CO2Spoor (MyCO2Track Foundation).
- Volkshogeschool Eerbeek (Folk Hing School Eerbeek).
- Enablement.
- Lemstra Techniek.
- Harm Hofstede.
- C. van Orlé.
- Steunpunt ICT.
- EURICT.
- OMBS ZieZo.
- John F. Kennedyschool, Breda.
- M. Heeman.
- Stichting EDICT.
- RKB De Hoeksteen, Bussum.
- Many anonymous donors.

1.2.6 Testers

J.G.M. Meijer, Hans Wolters, Stefan Schurtz.

1.2.7 Others

Carla Alma, Margret Kwantes, Paul Wiebes.

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2. Features

Detailed information on the features can be found in the chapters that describe the main functions and the modules. Below a general description of the Website@School features in no specific order.

2.1 Security features

2.2 Civil Liberties features

2.3 Features for blind and visually impaired

2.4 Usability features

And much, much more, please see the chapters in the Table of Contents. Each chapter has it's own features.
[*] Websites on a Website@SChool CMS are called 'Areas'.

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3. Available modules

We are now (2013) developing the additional educational functions in 'modules', i.e. separate buidling blocks that can perform special tasks.
Website@School has the following modules: Please help us by developing more modules. For an overvieuw, please see Latest updates on modules.

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4. Supported languages

Website@School Program
  1. Arabic (ar): ready
  2. Chinese (zh): ready
  3. Danish (da): ready
  4. Dutch (nl): ready
  5. English (en): ready
  6. Finnish (su): ready
  7. French (fr): ready
  8. German (de): ready
  9. Greek (el): ready
  10. Hungarian (hu): ready
  11. Persian (fa): ready
  12. Polish (pl): ready
  13. Portuguese (pt): ready
  14. Romanian (ro): under construction, translator needed
  15. Spanish (es): ready
  16. Swedish (sv): ready
  17. Turkish (tr): under construction, translator needed

Manual Website@School

- English (complete)
- Dutch (under construction)
- Spanish (under constructionn)
- French (under construction)
Latest versions (nightly builds) can be found on http://wyxs.net/web/was/

Check our http://websiteatschool.eu site to see if new languages are available that are not yet incorporated in Website@School.

You can help schools in your country by translating Website@School. The system provides an easy Tanslate Tool for 'on the fly' translating the program. Any teacher can do it.

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5. Wishlist

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6. Useful Website@School sites

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7. References

Further reading, if you like. A lot can be found on the Internet.

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8. History

Webstie@School, born in 2006, is the successor of Site@School, born in 2002. The history can best be summarised with [1]:
[ flow chart cartoon: good code ]
intro_good_code.png

Since we had years of experience with Site@School - now no longer supported: unmanageable, unmaintainable, insecure, low code quality- there was little need to change requirements. In that way Site@School was an excellent prototype. We only had to add long needed educational features that were impossible to incorporate in old Site@School.

[1]: Courtesy Mr. Randall Munroe of xkcd.com who permits using his comics for this use. Source: http://m.xkcd.com/844/.

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9. To conclude

Nuff said, back to work.

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Author: Dirk Schouten <schoutdi (at) knoware (dot) nl>
Last updated: 2013-05-14