ADOL 635 - Lesson 7: Factors that Effect Public Opinion/ Working with Newspaper, Radio, Television & the New Media – the Internet

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson students will:

1. Recognize the term “Sunshine Law” as it pertains to school board communication.
2. Identify the components of a customer service audit.
3. Interpret the essential elements of an effective letter and create a letter using the seven C’s of letter writing.
4. Evaluate an adult or community program within a school.
5. Define terminology related to press releases.
6. Identify the characteristics of broadcast media.
7. Create two press releases that distinguish between the differences in newspaper and broadcast news.
8. Compare and contrast features of a set of school Web sites.

Introduction - Factors that Effect Public Opinion

This lesson discusses four types of community involvement that influence public opinions of a school. The four types of contact are school board meeting communication; school visits; daily telephone and written communication; and adult and community programs. Each of these instances effect the public opinion of the school; thus it is important to understand each carefully and make sure the school is best represented through these forms of communication.

School board meetings

Forms of personal communication such as school board meetings influence public opinion. The board of education shapes attitudes towards the school system. Community members watch the behavior and decision-making skills of board members carefully.

School board meetings are generally open to the public, and most documents reviewed at the meetings are made available for public viewing.

In an article Clarifying Board and Superintendent Roles available at: http://www.aasa.org/publications/saarticledetail.cfm?ItemNumber=3908 Dawson and Quinn provide the following tips to improve and maintain board/superintendent relationships:

• Resolve to govern as a body, not as individuals.
• Develop a board member code of conduct.
• Ensure that individual points of view are heard.
• Encourage rigorous and honest dialogue with the public.
• Don’t ignore bad behavior.
• Consider public censure.
• Reaffirm the board’s role in relation to the staff.
• Be strategic and speak the truth.
• Recruit citizens of high ethics and integrity to serve on the board.

In an article entitled, E-Mail, 'Sunshine,' and Public Records, abstracted online at http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/topnews/index.cfm?i=32404&CFID=2928651&CFTOKEN=16880451, Chidester and Asplund (2000), discuss the legal implications of documenting public meetings. All fifty states have laws, often referred to as “Sunshine Laws”, requiring public entities to open certain meetings to the public and allowing the public access to documents and records unless a statutory exemption applies. Sunshine laws balance the public's right to be involved in government decision-making with the confidentiality rights of the governmental agency or its employees, students, or clients. While public involvement is encouraged and often required under sunshine laws, government employees are also given the opportunity, under particular circumstances, to meet behind closed doors to discuss confidential matters specified by state law. This particular article warns school administrators that e-mail “meetings” by the school board members; even informal e-mail conversation may be interpreted as a public document under a state’s public disclosure law.

Many school boards communicate their meeting times, agendas, and minutes on web sites. One example of a school board website is available at the San Antonio Independent School district site at http://www.saisd.net. On this site, school board members are featured with pictures, biographies, and contact information. Meeting times are listed for the year, the agenda is posted, and minutes of the meetings are online as soon as possible after the meeting.

Community members feel more comfortable when more information, rather than less, is available concerning the content of and the decisions made during a school board meeting. It also is important to make sure this information is distributed in some form in a timely matter, ideally before the next board meeting takes place. Ultimately, every school board should develop a plan for informing community members of what it stands for and what it does in the interest of the students.

School Visitors

All school employees should understand the importance of face-to-face contact with anyone who happens upon the school front office. The impression of a school visit is likely to be long-lasting in the memory of a visitor whether the visitor is a parent, business person or other community member.

In an article entitled, Strengthen School Culture using a Customer Service Audit , available online at http://www.aasa.org/publications/saarticledetail.cfm?ItemNumber=2576&snItemNumber=&tnItemNumber=, Clement (2002), discusses how conducting a customer service audit provides an objective review of how a school serves both internal and external publics. Some school districts use surprise site visits, client focus groups, surveys and "mystery" phone calls as methods for completing a school district customer service audit.

Communications skills of the school staff are the key to a flourishing and welcoming school culture. There are three key communication competencies: listening effectively, decoding nonverbal communication, and resolving conflicts. Effective listeners participate actively by attempting to develop a positive attitude toward the speaker’s message and consciously anticipate the importance of the message. Listeners must ask questions to evaluate, process and use incoming information.

Nonverbal communication functions as an expression of emotions in personal encounters and conveys interpersonal attitudes. A simple “hello” takes on meaning depending on the body language of the person attached to the greeting. Nonverbal signals also present a person’s personality, character, and temperament. For example, avoiding eye contact often indicates a shy person perhaps lacking self confidence.

Conflict occurs when individuals seek to impose their will upon others in order to further their interests and concerns over and against the interests and concerns of others. Conflict resolution strategies are situational; that is, one must first understand the context in which conflict occurs and from which it is communicated. A staff member who can recognize the signs of conflict and know specific strategies to handle these situations will facilitate a positive school culture.

Community relations workshops for office staff, custodians, maintenance workers, bus drivers and cafeteria workers can help train all in communication skills. The appearance of the school also lends to public opinion. Offices, hallways, bathrooms and other public access rooms should reflect the culture of the school. A rule of thumb is to walk through your school as if looking at it for the first time. What is your first impression of what you see? Do you meet friendly, smiling staff or grumpy, impolite staff? Is the hallway well lit and covered with students’ work or dark and littered with trash? Are the bathrooms clean and fresh smelling or unkempt and messy? The more likely it is that the public feels the school is a pleasant place, the more likely they will be willing to support the school’s overall efforts within the community.

School Telephone Calls and Written Correspondence

Telephone etiquette training is an important part of a community relations plan since so much of the communication that comes in and out of the school initiates through the telephone. Phone calls do determine the type of the impressions people get of a school system. Staff should be trained on proper telephone etiquette, and courtesy tips should be posted by phones for easy access by volunteers or temporary workers. Below you will find some of the most frequent caller complaints and ways in which to overcome each. Do they sound familiar?

"The telephone rings for a long time before it is answered."

Calls should be answered by a person (versus an answering machine or voicemail) within 3 rings. Callers become irritated when they feel that their call is not important.

"They place me on hold for what feels like hours."

Rather than placing a caller on hold for a long time (more than 2 minutes), take down the caller’s information and have their call returned. A caller hates being left out in “phone space” while wondering if the other end forgot they were there or mistakenly disconnected them.

"The line is busy for hours it seems."

Having more than one incoming line can alleviate this problem. However it is best to try to keep calls short. Do not stay on the line longer than is absolutely necessary.

"They let me talk on and on only to realize that they're not the person I should be talking to."

Interrupting a caller to direct them to the write person is better than allowing the person to tell you their entire story unnecessarily.

"They don't clearly listen to my needs before they transfer me to the wrong person."

On the other hand, listening long enough to know who and where to direct the caller is also important.

"Sometimes they disconnect me while transferring my call."

Giving the direct line of the person to whom the caller will be transferred to is a good practice in case a call gets disconnected during transfer.

"They told me to call back but never gave me a name or number to ask for."

Always provide the information for the caller to be successful in reaching the requested party.

"The person says, 'Wait', and then talks to other co-workers without putting me on hold so that I can't hear their small talk."

Using the hold button is important when answering the telephone. Although your small talk may be interesting, it is most likely annoying to the busy person on the other end of the phone.

"They answer with an aggravated voice, as if I disturbed them by calling."

Always answer the phone in a friendly, engaging voice!

There are many websites that offer tips on telephone etiquette and can provide a useful resource in training staff and volunteers in this important task. Here are a few resources to review:

Written Correspondence

Just as important as verbal communication, written communication influences public opinion. Printed materials establish communications that are not possible through personal contact. School publications that are common are newsletters, annual reports, brochures and letters. No matter which type of publication you create, it is important to first decide on the purpose of the document and the audience to whom the document will be addressed. Some guidelines to follow when creating a new document:

• Aim your content at a specific audience
• Use vocabulary at a reasonable reading level for your audience
• Determine reader interest in your content
• Determine who should write the content
• Determine printing priorities – will the document be printed by your school staff, by students or at a professional printer?
• Properly distribute your publication – start distributing your document internally so that staff can be aware of the publication and knowledgeable of the content.

Examples of online school newsletters abound. Here are a few examples from which to pull new ideas to create your own newsletter. Looking at numerous newsletters will help you decide what works and what does not work. Each of these schools uses a different approach to creating newsletters.

Annual reports are becoming more popular for public school districts to distribute as school choice becomes an issue. Many districts now publish a formal document presenting student assessment reports, special achievements, and community financial contributions. Again, looking over examples of previously published annual reports will allow you to get a good idea of what is included in these documents and why they are important. The US Charter Schools website (http://www.uscharterschools.org/pub/uscs_docs/r/dc_annual_report.htm), Outline for Charter School Annual Report, offers an outline of an annual report that could be used by any school. A few examples of published annual reports are listed below:

Written correspondence in the structure of formal letters is discussed in greater detail below. First, here are a few ideas for the types of letters that might be sent by a school representative:

• Letters of commendation sent by teachers for pupil achievement can go out to parents.
• Letters of praise from the principal may be sent to a teacher for outstanding work done in the classroom.
• A letter of welcome to new families in the community may be sent from a school’s principal.
• Letters may be sent to retired teachers in recognition of time and talent given to the school.

Letter writing guidelines

As a writer, if you cannot keep your letter to one page or less, you need to stop and revise your content. Keeping your letter to one page should be your goal in all letter writing, regardless of the subject. Keep it short, factual, and to the point. Studies have shown that busy business people do not like to read beyond the first page. A typical letter page will hold 350 to 450 words. This can be done if you commit to addressing only one topic per letter.

While writing the letter, focus on the information requirements of your audience, the intended addressee. Imagine the intended recipient seated across the room from you while you are explaining the subject of the letter. What essential information does that person need to know through this communication? What will be their expectations when they open the letter? Have you addressed all of these?

Use simple and appropriate language. Do not let paragraphs exceed three or four sentences. As much as possible, use language and terminology familiar to the intended recipient. Do not use technical terms and acronyms without explaining them unless you are certain that the addressee is familiar with them.

After the first draft, carefully review and revise. Put yourself in the place of the addressee. Imagine yourself receiving the letter. How would you react to it? Would it answer all of your questions? Does it deal with all of the key issues? Are the language and tone appropriate? Sometimes reading it out loud to one’s self, can be helpful. When you actually hear the words it is easy to tell if it sounds right.

A letter is a direct reflection of the person sending it and, by extension, the organization that person works for - in this case, your school. When the final content of the letter is settled, make sure that you run it through a spelling and grammar checker. Sending a letter with obvious spelling and grammar mistakes is unprofessional. Running a spell check is easy to do in today’s word processing programs; thus there are no longer excuses for spelling errors in documents. It is also a good idea to have one other person read your letter for errors.

Finally, follow the seven C's of letter writing. Each letter should be:

1. conversational
2. clear
3. concise
4. complete
5. concrete
6. constructive
7. correct

Here are a few websites that give additional tips on written correspondence. Some offer templates which can be used to personalize letters with your school information.

Adult & Community Programs

There is a positive correlation between the amount of time a community member spends inside a school and the support the school receives from that community member. Therefore, supporting programs that promote community involvement inside the school is important to those in charge of communication. This section discusses adult and community programs within the school building.

In an article entitled, It Takes 100 Grandparents, Smith (1998) presents many examples of unique community programs for local senior citizens. Recognizing the importance of senior citizens to the community and the responsibility that all stakeholders share for the quality of their local schools, the Marion County, Florida, Public School District embarked on a mission to promote senior citizen involvement. The goal was to improve senior citizens' understanding of public education through participation in meaningful scholastic activities. The school district launched several efforts to involve senior citizens in schools, including a senior advisory council; "Back to School for Seniors," an annual senior citizens' school visitation event; and "Seniors On Line," computer-assisted instruction for older adults. Another initiative was “100 Grandparents”, a program in which senior adult volunteers lead brief read-aloud exercises for K-2 students. These are just a few examples to target an important non-parent community member!

However, many communities are going beyond including just one segment of the community and are creating “community schools.” This is a trend that is being adopted by public secondary schools across the country. In an article entitled, Full-Service Community Schools: Creating New Institutions, Dryfoos (2002) discusses full-service community schools. These types of schools take many forms and are known by such names as Beacons, Bridges to Success, Caring Communities, University-Assisted Schools , Communities in School, Schools That Never Close, or just Community Schools . No two are exactly alike, but all share many similar characteristics.

According to Dryfoos, a community school, operating in a public school building, is open to students, families, and the community before, during, and after school, seven days a week, all year long. For example, in Florida , public agencies were urged to bring their services such as health care and counseling into school buildings. The United Way sponsors Bridges to Success (BTS) across the country. This effort established schools as lifelong learning centers and community hubs. At BTS schools, outside agencies provide health care, dental care, case management, recreational and cultural after-school activities, mental health services, community service learning, tutoring, and job-readiness training.

Almost anything can be provided in a school as long as it meets the needs of the school/community and as long as resources can be identified for support. The most popular community support programs are related to health, mental health, and social services. Educational programs for adults, such as ESL, computer use, and career preparation, are also very popular. The organization, the Coalition for Community Schools (www.Communityschools.org) offers national forums on community schools and a toolkit to help support the creation of such initiatives.

Introduction - Working with Newspaper, Radio, Television & the New Media – the Internet

This portion of lesson 7 begins with the presentation of the characteristics of “news.” The process of writing a press release is then conveyed. Next, understanding the difference in writing content for broadcast media is presented. Finally, the new media – the Internet – as a communication tool is addressed. The functions of web pages will be discussed, and many examples of school Web sites are listed for students’ review. What is news?

News coverage, or lack of it, depends on circumstances and rules. Only a very small percentage of all the news that happens on a particular day gets covered in the print or broadcast media. The most common stumbling block to a working relationship with the press is a mutually agreeable definition of the concept of news. News value is based on some of the following characteristics:

Consequence. Does the information have any importance to the general public? Is it something the audience would pay to know?

Interest. Is the information unusual or entertaining? Does it have an interesting twist or angle?

Timeliness. Is the information current? Yesterday’s news is not as interesting.

Proximity. Does the information have a local interest factor?

Prominence. Events and news about reputable individuals typically makes the news.

Writing the Press Release

The press release is still an effective way in which to pass along information about events and occurrences to the press. Some newspaper editors receive hundreds to thousands of press releases a day. Written releases leave less room for error and allow the writer to emphasize the points he or she wishes to stress. Thus it is important to make a press release that follows a proven successful style.

A news story release begins with the lead - the hook that entices a reader into your story. A quick glance at the lead should tell an editor or reporter whether or not your release can be used. Editors spend approximately 30 seconds to read a press release. A good lead will answer the key questions – who, what, when, where, why and how. In the remaining body of the press release include dates, quotations, and contact information. If the writer wants their stories to be in the newspaper or on the local news, they need to have the perfect pitch. Ask yourself this series of questions:

• Would I want to hear this story?
• Who is the audience for this story?
• Why should taxpayers care about this story?
• Are there interesting photo opportunities that accompany this story?

News releases should be word processed and double-spaced with a triple space between paragraphs. Use only one side of the page. Good side margins should be allowed, and the heading should be placed about one-third down on the first page. The date for release should be stated, and the release should be no longer than two pages.

When writing a press release for radio or television, it is important to remember to write for the ear or for the ear and the eye. A simplified press release is key. Sentences need to be shorter, speech more conversational and issues pared down to the basics. Write your message as if the audience would only hear or see it just one time.

Below is a list of a set of sample press releases used by school districts or community organizations. Students should review these examples.

Writing Content for Radio and Television Broadcast

People have become more and more dependent on broadcast media. Radio reaches more people than any other medium. The following facts provided by the NSPRA, entitled Getting the Good News Out on Radio, available online at http://www.nspra.org/main_pubnetwork.htm, reports the power of radio:

• Most people get their first news of the day from radio. Forty-nine percent of people over the age of 12 get their first news from a radio station, 29 percent from television and only 15 percent from newspapers.
• More than 99 percent of all homes have at least one radio. More than 97 percent have at least five. More than 95 percent of all cars have a radio.
• Radio reaches 92 percent of everyone who reads the newspaper (less than 60 percent of the population) and 91 percent of those who don't.

• Radio news departments are usually small. These reporters are often overworked, and many will use your news releases "as is" or take a phone interview on a subject you suggest. Make the story interesting. If you aren't sure what kinds of stories interest specific stations, call the news director and ask. Remember, what may not work on one station could be welcome on another.

Television also is popular, as noted in the statistics below provided by A.C. Nielson Company.

· The average American watches 3 hours and 46 minutes of TV each day. By age 65, the average American will have spent nearly 9 years in front of the television.

· 98 percent of U.S. homes have at least one television.

· The television is on an average of 7 hours and 12 minutes in the American home.

· 66 percent of Americans regularly watch television while eating dinner.

School news must be a definite part of radio and television reports and broadcasts. Unless schools provide news for the media, there might be tremendous distortions of what a school is doing and what goals are being accomplished. Small city school systems may have an advantage in obtaining the ear of broadcasted reports pertaining to the local schools' progress. The needs of all schools should be emphasized so that the lay public may consider what can be done to increase pupil achievement.

There are five methods by which those in charge of communications can reach broadcast audiences: press releases, video news releases, radio and television tapes, interviews and talk shows, and public service announcements. Press releases were discussed above, so this discussion begins with video news releases.

Video news releases (VNR) are pre-packaged publicity features meant to be aired on local, regional or national television. Local news outlets use these types of releases often since it is not always easy to fill programming time. Local news stations use VNRs to fill in 30-, 60- and 90-second holes in newscasts.

A school can hold a news conference, tape interviews from the event and send the video-taped coverage directly to the local news stations. Be aware of the format and the target media and conform to their accepted styles. The broadcast media will accept only that which meets their needs and format.

Radio and television tapes are those that give a firsthand account of a news event. They may feature someone describing the event, interviews of those participating in the event, or simply background for a voiceover.

Interviews and talk shows often encourage the presentation of local information by district spokespersons. Many teachers and administrators may be welcomed in their areas of expertise to appear on a local radio station.

There are a few guidelines for those being interviewed:

• Learn all you can about the reporter or interviewer. What is his/her style? Is the interviewer experienced or knowledgeable about your field of expertise?
• Learn all you can about the media program. What is the program's reputation? Is the show known for its cutting-edge reports? What are the demographics of the show's audience? What's the format (talk show, news, variety show, etc.) of the program? Is the program a call-in show? Is there a studio audience? Knowing what to expect will go a long way toward helping you prepare for the interview.
• Ask the producer, reporter or interviewer–whoever is setting up the interview–the following questions prior to your appearance:

What's the topic of the interview? Why was it chosen?

Will the interviewer pull relevant information from other sources during the interview? Prep yourself on what the interviewer will know. Try to "get into his or her shoes" and determine what types of questions will be asked. Understand from whom and from where they'll obtain information. Make yourself a source of information. Provide the interviewer with your biography well in advance. If possible, include any other pre-made background information. If you will be part of a panel, find out who the other panelists will be and the points they will be making.

How long will the interview last? Knowing the length of the interview will help you better prepare your answers to anticipated questions. Will you be interviewed for three minutes or 20? The shorter the interview the more critical it is that you condense your main messages into sound bites of 10 to 20 seconds.

Is the interview live? Live interviews may require more practice and preparation on your part. There won't be any "retakes" if you stutter, misspeak or fail to make your point. If the interview is not live, will the recorded interview be edited? If it is recorded but not edited, prepare as you would for a live interview.

Where will the interview be conducted? If the interviewer or reporter is coming to your location, create a visually enhancing environment to help project a positive image and emphasize your message.

Your best chance for a successful interview lies in preparation. Prepare and outline the specific points or objectives you wish to make with your message. Draft concise, to-the-point statements, or sound bites that highlight these points.

Prepare concise and effective opening and closing statements. Remember to illustrate and explain your points with examples. Practice delivering your sound bites and examples in a mock interview with a colleague or friend or even in front of a mirror. Your goal is to answer anticipated questions quickly, clearly and naturally.

Public service announcements (PSA) are aimed at providing an important message to the target audience. Usually free PSAs are reserved for non-profit organizations, but school districts can purchase or have sponsored PSAs. In this case, a PSA can take on one of three basic forms, depending on the purpose of the message. A public interest PSA provides information in the public’s interest. A public image PSA tries to show the educational institution as one that cares about its employees, the community and its students. An advocacy PSA presents a definite point of view concerning an issue facing the school.

New Media – The Internet

Results from the Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-2001 survey, available online at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/internet/index.asp, were recently released by the National Center for Education Statistics. The survey of about 1,000 schools showed that while 75 percent of public schools had a Web site in 2001, the likelihood of having a site decreased as the school’s poverty concentration increased. Eighty-three percent of schools with the lowest poverty concentration had Web sites, compared with 59 percent of schools with the highest poverty concentration. About three-quarters of those Web sites included the schedule of school events and a staff directory; 64 percent included information for parents.

Technology has a way of throwing new elements at school communicators. Common sense planning can help one navigate the new media – the Internet. First, one should consider how the Internet will enhance rather than replace current communication efforts. The Internet can enhance communication in many ways, but the most obvious and most used is a school and/or district Web site.

A good school Web site helps people find educationally worthwhile information with a minimum of wasted time and wandering. In an article entitled Why in the World Wide Web?, available online at http://www.fno.org/mar97/why.html, McKenzie (1997) states there are four primary goals for a school Web site:

1. Web sites can introduce visitors to the school - its mission, its character, its look, its offerings to students, its stance on new technologies and its overall spirit.

Parents in some regions have actually started to "shop" for schools by visiting Web sites and comparing features. The Indiana Department of Education offers a directory of all schools in the state, including charter schools and private schools, at http://ideanet.doe.state.in.us/htmls/k12.html. Thus, a parent choosing among schools could start here.

Many schools have seen the value of introducing their offerings to existing parents as well as prospective parents, outlining the school mission and the kinds of learning available while sharing more mundane but valuable items such as calendars, schedules and lunch menus. The more skillful have introduced forms and e-mail features that allow them to gather information and feedback from their parents. Web sites can point to excellent information on the larger Web - identifying the best resources the Web has to offer an educational family, those most likely to support the curriculum and the kinds of investigations likely to be undertaken by staff and students alike.

A good Web site may save staff and students from hours of wandering about from empty site to site by listing only those Internet locations offering developmentally appropriate, curriculum relevant content which is full of value. Someone who knows the curriculum performs the "scouting" required to identify these good sites and then create a series of pages which are well organized and carefully broken into categories that make sense to the primary clients of the site.

The Bellingham Public School district in Bellingham, WA, provides pages at the district site which recommend web resources directly related to the curriculum of each grade level and department. http://www.bham.wednet.edu/departments/currdept/curroff/curroff.htm.

1. Web sites offer an opportunity for the publishing of student works to both a local and a global audience, whether those works be art, music, or writing. Again, Bellingham Public School offers a student gallery online at http://www.bham.wednet.edu/studentgal/studentgal.htm that offers pictures of student-constructed artwork displayed within the district and also a portfolio of projects from each individual school in the district.
2. Web sites provide rich data locally collected on curriculum-related topics, whether these collections take the form of data warehouses, virtual museums or virtual libraries. For example, Hobart Middle School, another Indiana public school, offers a page on their Web site for teacher curriculum resources at http://www.hobart.k12.in.us/hms/resources.html.

Some school sites do all four of these, but most concentrate on providing quality for two or three of these elements. Those responsible for creating and then managing Web sites soon learn that ambitious designs require a vast investment in upkeep.

Many schools have shed early efforts of building multimedia based Web sites and have moved dramatically toward one or more of the functions described in this article. They have begun emphasizing strong content at a local level combined with excellent information about the school and pointers to the best educational resources on the Internet.

Those schools just now venturing into site design would be well advised to begin their invention process by visiting several hundred school sites, building a list of features and elements which work and those which do not. When visiting sites, notice sites that are heavy on technology, using the bells and whistles of multimedia software such as Flash to create mini-movies to introduce their sites. Compare these to sites that are text based. Which do you feel are most effective in getting the message to the audience?

A good Web site designer can balance technology with the necessary message and create a professional Web site which meets the needs of distributing information to the public. Review the following sites and compare the technology used versus information distributed. Some sites use technology well, yet provide information poorly. Others use technology to meet the basic need of distributing information well. Other sites still need help with technology and also need help learning how to distribute information.

In an article entitled Your School Wants a Web Page? Plan Carefully...! , available online at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3306/is_200303/ai_n8001008, Reilly (2003) suggests you should consider a few guiding questions before you start creating your school’s Web site:

• What is the purpose of the Web site?
• Who will host it and where?
• Is the Web site passive or interactive?
• Who will be the Webmaster; how many do you need?
• How often will the Web site be updated?
• What will the use policy be, and what kinds of content will be on the Web page?

The Educational CyberPlayground offers a national registry of school web sites at http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Schools/default.asp at which a Web site creator can scan through Web sites from across the country and gain even more ideas.

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