Annualschools
web site awards
cool school2001cool school
Back to the home page
About the competition
Information for teachers
Competition rules
Hints for designing web pages
Competition prizes
Register for the competition
Contact the coordinator



about the competition

The 2001 annual schools web design awards encourage teachers and students to actively engage with the Internet, to become familiar with web design tools and to immerse themselves in the new order of communications.

Entering the competition is an excellent way of involving your school in these technologies.

Theme

The theme for this year's competition is [cool school]. Schools are to design a web site that tells the world what's really cool about your school.

In NSW there are 2 200 public schools, each a unique place of learning. The [cool school] competition is your chance, using the web, to tell the world why.

Why enter the competition?

The competition is a fantastic way of promoting your school. It provides the perfect vehicle for highlighting programs that are unique to your school such as anti-violence, sporting, technology, cultural, music, multicultural or community. You could also highlight environmental areas, community participation or the physical aspects that make your school special.

From an educational standpoint, the process of publishing on the Internet is a pathway to information and technological literacy. Specifically, it provides students with the opportunity to:

  • use information and communication technologies to locate, access, evaluate, manipulate, create, store and retrieve information
  • develop an awareness of a range of computer-based technologies
  • express ideas and communicate with others, using computer-based technologies
  • discriminate in the choice and use of computer-based technologies for a given purpose
  • develop the confidence to explore, adapt and shape the technological understandings and skills in response to challenges now and in the future.

What is involved?

Each team is to create a web site to highlight activities that show what is "cool" in your school. This is not meant to be a whole school web site but rather to show what is unique and special about your school.

Teams need to:

  • identify their audience
  • identify the unique aspects of their school
  • gather information
  • analyse and organise this information
  • develop design concepts for the web site
  • construct a draft web site
  • test and evaluate the web site then make suitable changes
  • get approval from the Principal to upload the completed web site
  • publish the web site to the competition area AND the school web site.

An 'About the project' page must be included, with information on:

  • the intended audience
  • roles and responsibilities of team members and the community member is to be detailed.
  • how the site was developed and published e.g. software used, evaluation procedures, training of teams etc.

Not sure where to start?

Why not look at last year's winning entries or try the tips and hints page. In this section are some helpful suggestions on the use of graphics, how to use templates, which fonts to use, developing simple navigation structures, restricting page size and testing the web site in the various browsers.

Teams entering the competition should also be aware of the competition conditions of entry, uploading requirements and judging criteria.

Register now and spread the word about your cool school!