The TWAIN blog

In May, I posted about the idea that web design is about to change to become mostly search-based. Web 3.0 seems to be the start of a more personalized search experience. Web pages will be about search and building a home page that allows for personalized customization. (See post here for further info: http://techxas.edublogs.org/2009/05/26/district-web-page-design-30/)

Twitter looks like it released a new front page that is focused all on…..search.

No more explanations on what Twitter is or can do. No videos about Twitter or how to use it.

The main page of Twitter is now focused on search.

I wonder what other sites will be redesigning soon? Look for more sites to emphasize Search and less emphasis on that distracting content. Simplified web searching!

I wonder how this new design will affect mobile touchscreen devices like cell phones and Apple tablet PCs? How long until the mouse is obsolete?

Also – here’s an update on the new iPhone 4GS.

I’ve been involved with web design for a few years. When I was teaching Webmastering, I taught using the guidelines of the “three-click-rule”; where information could be found in three clicks or less. The reason for this rule was based on people leaving sites if they could not find information in three clicks or less. They get bored and move on.

Currently, web design falls into the “two-click rule”. This is quite a change for designers because we lost a click. We lost placement of navigational tools. Information is literally flooding the main page of websites. Text has taken over. Main pages are full of links to information that used to be in a menu bar that allowed for multiple clicks or “drilling down”.

These days, we are a cell phone/two-click society. We use tools like RSS, FeedReaders, Google Voice, etc. to access instant information. Miniature tools like cell phones make it hard to navigate sites because of the tiny screens. To click on a particular link takes extra time. I want information at my fingertips but I want it to be found without having to zoom in on a button to click on. That takes time!

Today, I read about Wolfram-Alpha; the new search engine that structurally changes how information from a search is presented. Current and popular search engines like Google and Yahoo, require you to enter search queries where a list of links are provided to connect you to pages of information on your query. This requires the extra steps of clicking. Wolfram-Alpha presents the answers to the query without the links.

In effect, they have removed a click.

There is the Twine post about Search 3.0 and how the new search tools will be more personalized for the individual searching instead of the generic search tools used by everybody. Information readily available for my needs in less than 2 clicks in this Search 3.0 paradigm.

I see these things develop and I question the design of district websites. More and more, our district site is moving toward instant communication. You can subscribe to calendar events delivered to email, your personal calendar, or via text messaging. We are looking into an alert system to allow customizable subscriptions to specific groups: band, choir, athletics, reading, emergency, etc.; which in turn will send via text or email. One-click subscription for no-click messages delivered as soon as they are sent.

People are already receiving information via text messaging, RSS, email updates, etc. The questions now become: Are people reading the content on our websites? Are they taking the time to download and read PDFs? Why are we driving traffic to our website if it is storing old information?

In KISD, we have software on our server that tracks not only the places people go on our sites but also how much time they spend on pages. I am constantly evaluating this information to make strategic steps to improve district communication.

But with the coming age of 1-click/no-click/instant information, the district web site design is flawed. So are business designs. So are most web designs out there.

As portals, cloud-storage, and collaborative workspaces become more prevalent, the idea of a “teacher web site” becomes worthless. What are we storing online? Why are we driving traffic to documents that are old and updated (if we are lucky) once a year??

All this to say that I wonder if Web 3.0 district web design becomes much simpler. Similar to the picture posted here, a search window with the district logo could be the new KISD website. Instant information sent to the subscribers but stored invisibly on the back-end. The search provides access to the queries. Instead of listing links, we adopt the Wolfram-Alpha or the next generation of search that posts the answers on the same page.

Search that is personalized and provides answers in 1 click.

Is this the path for web design for schools and districts soon?

Today was one of those days when a thought actually became spoken words to myself. “What am I doing here?”

I had “one of those days”. The kind of day that I wish I could do over from start to finish.

I went to San Antonio this morning for Tech Fiesta in a rainstorm. It was a 2-day event that I only was able to attend for one day…um…90 minutes. It was a small version of TCEA complete with an exhibit hall and a bag. I went to learn more about technology tools. I did get to see one of my favorite people, Miguel Guhlin, share about Moodle. I like Moodle. I want a Moodle. I am now encouraged to Moodle, thanks to Miguel.

Then, I received an email to my iPhone about something at work that I don’t want to get into here. It was something disturbing enough to me to get in my car and drive all the way back to work to deal with. It was one of those things that made me stop at home for the moment in my kitchen to say to myself, “what am I doing here?”.

I wish I could say that I handled myself well today and everything turned out good. But it was a day that made me wish I was back in the classroom. I often escape in my mind to think about what I could do as a classroom teacher now with the knowledge I have gained. I know I was a great teacher. I managed to be project-based, differentiated instructionally, and award-winning during my five years in the classroom.

While teaching, I also caused the other teachers in my department to turn against me and to dislike me because of what I was doing in my classroom. I shunned textbooks and would not show the movies the other teachers did. I refused to follow their calendars and lesson plans. I made learning real by involving my students with real clients (they were learning web design – they had to work with clients) and by getting them involved with real scenarios.

I never disciplined by regular standards. I informed the parents that I felt that they should discipline their kids and give me room to teach them. I kept parents informed of everything we did by mail, by email, by webpage, and by phone call. My principal informed a parent that he felt I “over-communicated” when she called to say her son didn’t know about a test date.

I never taught the same thing the same way and encouraged my students to learn more than I knew. I admitted when I didn’t know an answer. I even encouraged my students to have fun while learning. I threw paper at them (is that wrong now?) when it would get too quiet in the room because they were working too hard. I was the teacher who received the most “troubled” students but I did not have trouble with them.

I loved teaching. I still do.

And when I have a rough day, I wonder “what am I doing here?”. Is this something other administrators do? Are there moments when you think about the time you were in a classrooms? Do you go to conferences, read articles or blogs and marvel at what you would do with the tools now if you were teaching?

I have to admit…even on good days, I think about these things.

I am only certified to teach Secondary English and I have never taught it. I was hired out of college to teach technology classes and I had no idea what I was doing. I think I only knew Hyperstudio when I started teaching in a PC-only district. I had a collection of “Dummies” books under my desk! I was afraid when kids would come to me to ask questions. And they were 7th graders!!

I never taught English but can you imagine what kind of English teacher I would be? Would I last? Would my students pass the TAKS test or an AP exam?!? I can’t imagine a department chair putting up with me…..much less the campus technology person! And God help whoever the network administrator would be having to deal with mild-mannered me.

But can you imagine what my students would learn?? Can you picture what my classroom would be like? I can. And that picture brings tears to my eyes after a day like today.

Anyone else ever feel like this?

PS: Miguel – thanks for the real comment in person today about my blog. I thank you for that. I am not self-editing this one.

I had a real thorn in my side in my previous job. The campus website. It took up a lot of my time not only with all the updates; but with my need to constantly want to make it more streamlined. I wanted it to be easy to access and I was constantly working on it.

I moved to this new job with thoughts of grandeur. I wanted to break away from working HTML and CSS. I thought I might be able to give some direction to the new website and help them find a company to run it. I did that. But now….I am spending my days migrating the old website to the new one.

The district got rid of their old Webmaster and did not keep the job open. So….I am once again regulated to being the webmaster.

It isn’t such a bad job but it is a tedious job. It is a desk job – almost clerical to migrate everything over. And people who don’t have any experience in web design have no idea how much time the process takes. Copy and paste is their idea of web migration. They don’t know that it isn’t that easy. There are formats. There is code. There are steps and procedures for every piece of each site.

For future planning, I am deleting all references to web design from my resume and profiles. I won’t even mention that I taught it, either. I taught a great program to ninth graders several years ago. It was even for industry-standard certification.

I enjoyed that aspect of it. Teaching someone else to design and implement a real business model of success. Teaching students to get certified to design a website before a certification to drive in the state of Texas. Teaching design, color strategy, font concepts, etc. That was exciting web design times.

But now….it’s an albatross around my neck. I thought I would become the CTO here and put the web design business behind me.

I know all tech directors have something that they are bound to do but don’t feel the passion for it. This is probably the first in a series of such items. I really want to get out of web design though only because it removes me from providing training and instruction. It is really sit and do. I don’t like that. I want to stand, speak, share, instruct, learn, give, and receive with a group of learners. The more I sit at a desk, the more frustrated I get. I just want to be able to teach.