Just launched today(Jan.28) - Live Support Chat!

In an effort to make our website TRULY interactive, I have installed a dynamic and interactive “Live” chat system much like on the tech support websites that you see. When I am at my desk, I simply login to the livechat system and then an icon appears on the district homepage allowing visitors to chat with me directly to answer questions about the district website. When I logoff, the icon disappears magically!

Where can this go? I think there are a few departments that might be interested in this. Student Services and Human Resources come to mind first. Answering chats is no different than answering phone calls. When someone in the office comes in, they login to livechat and then minimize the browser. When a chat is initiated, the browser is automatically maximized and an audio alert is played. The staff person then activates the chat.

This also opens the possibility to do interactive Board Meetings where viewers on the web or TV could submit questions live. There is also the possibility of live and interactive cable TV programming such as homework help, etc.

I don’t know where this will go or if it will even get off the ground. If we want the website to be a service to the community, this is a step in the right direction in providing support and information. I imagine having a few departments and myself with unique icons to initiate a chat session on the homepage. Imagine during an enrollment period being able to field questions right from the website, directing questions to Board Members from your couch, getting homework help via a live webcast show with Chat, the list could go on and on (much like my ramble here).

The point is, we now have a system and method we can explore the possibilities of TRULY interactive experiences via chat and live video from our website.

WOW. Boy is this cool. If you see the icon below this sentence, click on it to send me a hello and see how this works:

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Any Wordpress MU user will tell you that the built in html code sanitizer is very frustrating. The sanitizer effectively removes html code such as javascript, embed code, etc. This type of security was built into Wordpress MU because it is designed to run multiple blogs where you may not know who the owner of the blog is. This is not the case in our scenario because we can trust that teachers and staff are not trying to embed malicious code into their blogs. When you publish a video to D-Tube, it generates html embed code that you can use to display the video on different websites. Once your video is on D-Tube, you can copy this embed code and then paste it into your blog to display the video. I have just figured out how to override the sanitizer script and now we can post D-Tube videos in our teacher blogs from the code generated on the D-Tube video page.

This is significant because now teachers can use both systems together to not only display homework and classroom updates in their blogs, but to also post video from a variety of sources. This is a BIG step forward for our website and communication systems online!

See the video below as proof of concept:

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This past friday, I launched the latest version of our District Website.  It is interactive, easier to navigate, and has the “WOW” factor with java and ajax technology.

After several months of planning and taking suggestions, we have launched a new District website layout.  The new website has a better navigation based on three main areas/functions:  School Information, Curriculum/Programs/Services, and District Administration.  The new navigation layout is a work in progress as we better organize the information on the site.

Directly from the homepage you are one click away from the information, which is clearly displayed without hidden links buried in drop-down menus.

There are also a few “wow” features such “Menu Dock” located at the bottom of every page with links to high traffic areas on our website such as Athletics, PTSA, iLearn, Board of Ed. etc..  Roll your mouse over them to enlarge the various icons to see the text.

More improvements are to come, but the shell of the new website is now “live”.

The website is designed for the next generation of browsers with a screen resolution of 1024×768.  The browsers that we tested this on are Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer 6&7.  For IE6 I had to create several hacks and fixes since this browser doesn’t support any web standards properly.  Users should update to IE7 / Firefox for a better web experience.

Future plans include enhancements and additional information for the Curriculum and Programs areas and better organization of the links which will be ongoing.  This new design and layout will carry us through the next several years and was brought about by suggestions from parents and community as well as school administration.

I am really happy with the layout and feel we can do a lot with the new design because it is highly adaptable where I cannot see us being forced to change the layout to meet any future demands or additions to the website.

Enjoy the new site!

-Chris Kenniburg

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