with a Schoolwide Intranet
The Quest for Order
We embarked on our intranet adventure three years ago,
after a colleague, Sona Loomis, and I began a quest to find
the best platform for an online student writing center.
What we found instead was SharePoint 2010, a Microsoft
product our district already had as part of its Microsoft
volume purchase. We noticed we could use SharePoint to
organize information for our various projects and teams,
and I ran with the idea. A site that started as a simple
document-sharing and storage system has since developed
into a full-blown “one-stop-shopping” online community,
and our central office is now looking to us as the model
and training base for school intranets districtwide, which
will include a “central office” area where users can access
each of the individual school sites.
While we have only scratched the surface of possibilities,
we have implemented many components to streamline processes and content management for our staff. Here are just
a few of the features and tools that we use on our intranet:
Announcements. Our admin team can use it to post news
and announcements, such as the name of the staff member
of the week or a link to an upcoming meeting agenda, for
staff on the main page of the intranet.
Blogs. We now publish in blog format a lot of school information that we used to publish in a hardcopy (and later PDF)
newsletter. The beauty of this—besides the savings in paper—
is that it is now categorized by topic and fully searchable.
Calendars. It’s much easier now to schedule meetings and
rooms, including computer labs and the library. Teachers
can even schedule their lessons, complete with attached
plans and resources.
Content pages. We use these informational webpages to
post our staff directory and house general information
about teaching strategies, policies, processes, and so on.
Discussions. Topic-based discussion boards enable staff
to communicate while avoiding complicated email chains.
For instance, we’ve used discussion boards to ask teachers
for ideas about a core curriculum we were creating, as we
wanted the teachers to see each other’s ideas and comment
on them.
Document storage. We now have organized spaces for content where staff, departments, and teams can easily share
and collaborate.
Forms and surveys. We can submit many forms—building
work orders, discipline referrals, evaluations, etc.—
electronically. We also use digital surveys to gather information from staff about how a new process is working for
them or to ask for feedback on a current initiative.
Links. This is where we corral a categorized list of popular
staff links, both curricular and personnel related.
Personal space. Some intranets have this as a replacement
for the standard “home” drive, which is improved by the
capability for all users to set up profiles and connect with
their colleagues. Users can insert a brief bio or résumé that
others can search, for example, if they want to find someone on staff with Microsoft Excel expertise. Our intranet
also allows staff to add colleague connections (like adding
“friends” on Facebook) so they can easily share resources.
Team space. These page-based workspaces give teams and
other groups a place to share documents and collaborate.
We use team spaces for our professional learning community course teams or our department chair meetings. For
each team, the space houses agendas and notes/minutes,
participants, to-do lists, shared documents, and more.
Fun factor. We post photos, accolades, inspirational videos,
comics, and anything else that might give stressed-out
teachers respite and encouragement. You want people to go
to the intranet, so give it a personality that aligns not only
with the school’s vision and needs, but also with its spirit.
Follow the Map
For us, it was a two-year process from concept to daily use by
90% of our staff, with just me working part-time to build and
maintain the site. Here are some tips and lessons we learned
that might help expedite your quest to set up an effective intranet while ensuring a smooth transition for the staff:
Talk to your school and district tech staff. Before taking
matters into your own hands, ask their ideas for platform
options and accessibility for your intranet. They may
already have a solution you can leverage.
