wazmac || School Intranets - Content & Templates

School Intranets - Content QuickStarts

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Overview

An Intranet provides an environment where students and teachers can create online content, rather than simply consume content.

Below are links to some Quickstart notes, which may be of use in creating an Intranet environment in your school.

Getting Started - Creating Content on your Intranet

The Inranet examples on the previous pages might be useful in providing some ideas that you can use to "kick-start" a school Intranet.

For schools using Apple software, the K-6 iWeb example includes a template that you can download and modify for use in your school.

All Mac OS X Server networks include a full, built-in Intranet environment - Mac OS X Server software includes a "one-click" web server (Apache), and every user's Home folder can be activated to include their own personal Intranet site (Sites > index.html). Note - In 10.6 and later some further configuration is required to enable these facilities.

Many of the ideas discussed in these pages are designed to operate in this environment, but is also applicable in other Intranet environments utilising Linux and Windows platforms. Similar concepts can be applied to other environments, such as Moodle or WordPress.

The notes below provide some "how-to" info to help you get started in publishing content on your school Intranet.

See also: Creating a 'Cloud' Gateway site

OSX Server Setup Notes

To effectively operate a Mac OSX Server to support a school Intranet to publish student and teachers' web sites, an OSX Server must be setup to use networked Home Folders, with individual logins.

To enable your OSX Server Intranet:

Click to start the Web service (in Server Admin) and your Intranet will be running.
Go to http://server.IP.address/ (on a network computer) to see your default Intranet site.
Copy the Somewhere PS template files to your server so that your intranet users see the SPS site rather than the default OSX Web Site.

For more server setup details:

If you have a Mac OS X Server....
Wazza's Server Setup notes
If you don't have an OSX Server....
See Wazza's OSX Intranet Without a Server Quickstart, using Personal Web Sharing, on the Intranet Servers page.

Reading & Discussion

Empowering Learning with Web Publishing: Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll understand.

iWeb - Intranet QuickStart Notes

iWeb Intro with Project Links Page (531k - pdf): An introductory iWeb tutorial that may be useful for a staff development activity. Create a welcome page, add a photo from PhotoBooth , then create a "links" page for project-related Internet sites for your class.
Some more specific info.... Publishing an iWeb Intranet Site (1.4Mb - pdf): Use the iLife suite of tools to create Intranet web sites for students and teachers on your Mac OSX network.
Publishing an iWeb Photo Album (1.37 Mb - pdf): Use the iLife suite of tools to create students' and teachers' photo albums on your Mac OSX network.

Publishing Student e-Portfolios (1.4 Mb - pdf): Step by step introduction to including links to a range of online student projects on a school Intranet, to create student e-portfolios, using iWeb.

Moodle & WordPress

Wazza's Moodle QuickStarts: If you have a Moodle server these notes may help in getting started creating a visually apealing site.
Wordpress - Getting started: Basic info for mastering the WordPress online publishing environment.

Related Information

Site Index Utilities

Site Capture (Whacking) Software

xSUIM (OSX Server User Import Manager): Developed primarily for NSW Public Schools, but could be used with other systems. (Needs Filemaker). Imports users from OASIS into Workgroup Manager, as well as keeping your user accounts (and Intranet index pages) synchronised with your school's OASIS admin records.

SWIG
(Student Web Index Generator): A spreadsheet that exports a web index page, providing links to student web pages on an OS X web server.

Site Capture Software Links

Site-capturing software (also know as site-whacking software or site-sucking software) allows you to download entire websites to your computer.

These locally captured sites can be used for presentations where no internet connection is available, or for storing entire sites on school Intranets, guaranteeing availability when required for class activities.

This can also make web sites available to local network users without requiring authentication to the Internet.

Intranet Techno Basics >>>